Posted on 04/14/2011 9:17:13 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Listening to and watching Donald Trump talk with Fox News’s Sean Hannity about how rich he is and how smart he is was truly a vomit-inducing moment. The notion that this extremely successful egomaniac would ever be President of the United States is surreal. It’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on steroids.
Now we learn that he is going to announce whether he is going to run on the season finale of “The Apprentice.” The show is scheduled to air on May 15. Reportedly he will hold a press conference to announce the decision about being a candidate in the Trump Tower in New York “a few days after” the finale.
This is such a naked sham for the purpose of getting lots of viewers for his show that it should be embarrassing to everyone who has, even momentarily, taken his phony “campaign” to gain the Republican Party’s nomination seriously. Hannity was snookered or, more likely, he was using Trump to hype his show’s ratings and vice versa. In a similar fashion, Fox’s Greta Van Susteren has of late used Trump appearances for her show.
Just as I and others cautioned voters in 2008 that Barack Obama was a completely unknown quantity with a totally fabricated life story, it behooves me to warn voters to GET SERIOUS about Trump.
Running the nation requires credentials that go well beyond being a successful businessman. America has coast-to-coast successful businessmen and women, but if a company’s CEO makes bad decisions, the Board of Directors can fire them. You can’t say “You’re fired!” to the President of the United States until the next election.
Let me get the formalities out of the way. I am not jealous of Donald Trump because he’s rich. Much of the population is richer than me and I could not care less. I understand that Trump has exhibited considerable business acumen, but that is not the same as political acumen, nor does it suggest that it prepares him to deal with heads of state and the nasty events that occur; frequently unexpectedly.
Nor has everything Trump has put his name to been a great success. He gambled on gambling in Atlantic City and that was a bad bet. Fortunately he owed the banks so much money he could write his own ticket. In fairness, all the casinos took a bath. Instead of gambling, the few people visiting Atlantic City these days are there to buy its famous salt water taffy.
Trump is a strident self-promoter. He is bombast. He lacks subtlety which, for his line of work may be a good thing, but for someone to whom we would have to trust the future of the nation, what he lacks most is the experience that a professional politician acquires over time. I hate to admit this, but it is true. The lack of this experience and judgment is blindingly apparent in the current White House resident.
Trump wants to win—all the time. Politicians want to survive with their principles reasonably intact and a fat government pension. It is a whole different mindset. The ones the voters reject tend to become lobbyists.
We have a history of presidents who just stunk up the job because they came to it as engineers like Hoover and Carter or Ivory Tower scholars like Wilson. For a long time, Americans elected a succession of generals because the president’s job was mostly about expanding the size of the nation, generally by shooting our way to the West Coast, or fending off Barbary Pirates, yet another of Thomas Jefferson’s many achievements.
Presidents become celebrities AFTER they’ve been in the office. Few are celebrities going in unless, like Obama, their celebrity is totally manufactured by skilled public relations professionals. After two years in the job, the only things we know for sure about Obama is that he’s a moron, probably a Muslim, and definitely a Marxist.
If you want business acumen, Mitt Romney has it to spare. True, he’s a bit of a RINO, but it’s hard to find a Republican these days who isn’t. Gov. Pawlenty is a politician and that is not a bad thing. Gov. Huckabee was a politician, but is now a successful anchor of his own show on Fox News. He is going to stay put. Rep. Bachman is the political equivalent of your ex-wife, smart and, like Trump, impossible to shut up. There’s a reason we haven’t heard from Sarah Palin lately and that’s because she’s smart enough to not want the job.
I guarantee you that, within one month of his inaugural, you would be kicking yourself for voting for Trump. His incessant need to demonstrate he knows best and is the greatest president ever would be the mirror image of Barack Obama’s crazed ideology.
Right now Trump is a novelty, a distraction, a false hope. There’s plenty of time for the campaign process to sort out who will be the Republican choice. My bet is that Trump will announce he’s not running. If I am wrong, the happiest man in America will be Barack Obama.
LOL!!! This is why the Republicans are going to lose come election time. They get all worked up in a hizzy and go shooting all their ammo off in the wrong directions before the fighting has even started.
I watched it and he scored points. He most certainly understood getting out front on a message then getting hammered for it.
Better Trump than any politically correct politician with absolutely no soul.
I like Trump, so far.
Who’s the moral liberal???Liberals have no morals.
Right... and as the article says.. Trump wants to win all the time... they say that as if it is a bad thing.. that is kinda something i would like to see in a president..
Better arsenic than cyanide? When we could've had a v8? Just sayin'
I’m more concerned about Boehner. He may be costing us seats in November.
Alan Caruba, one of my favorite pundits.
RIGHT! Lets all throw away our conservative principles, in some cases a lifetime in support of conservatism, and work to elect a liberal who is closer to the ideology of current occupant of the WH then he will ever be to Reagan.
Lets all join the Trump crusade.
LOL You guys are plain nuts!
Donald Trump is one of those the Obama contends has made too much money. I believe that Trump will prove Obama wrong, but I don't see Trump as the GOP choice.
DONALD TRUMP ON THE ISSUES:
The Real Donald Trump
Iraq, currently occupied by US forces, has $15 trillion in oil reserves, second behind only Saudi Arabia, said Trump.
If the US were to get its hands on some of that oil, it could make money and pay back its allies like the UK for their involvement in the Iraqi invasion and occupation, he said.
Trump mentioned that the US financial cost of invading and occupying Iraq totals $1.5 trillion.
To justify taking Iraqi oil, Trump said if the US were to simply leave Iraq, Iran will invade and take over the country. Letting the oil fall to Iran would be a bad idea, according to Trump.
If the US takes control of Iraqi oil, Trump said he would give some of the oil revenues to Iraq and some of it to the US and its allies.
On Libya, Trump said the US has already spent billions of dollars on the civil war there. However, the US isn’t likely to see a drop of oil from the efforts.
Below are other positions of Trump, stated in previous interviews:
Foreign Policy
- China: Threaten them with a 25 percent import tariff if they refuse to appreciate the yuan faster. The mere threat of a tariff would induce the China to revalue the yuan.
- OPEC: The US economy can’t handle oil prices at $100 per barrel. Make OPEC lower their prices. When pressed for specifics, he didn’t give any details except that if the message is delivered the right way (by him), OPEC would listen. He also said the US protects Saudi Arabia with their soldiers, but the latter doesn’t pay anything for that protection.
- Pakistan: They know where Osama Bin Laden is. Cut off all financial aid to Pakistan until they hand him over.
Wall Street
-No additional regulations. Otherwise, Wall Street wouldn’t be able to compete with London, Zurich, and Hong Kong.
Defense Spending
-Trump implied he’ll increase defense spending, build better weapons, and have better intelligence so that the US military can achieve its goals with fewer human casualties.
Immigration
- The US border with Mexico is a joke. It should be militarized so that no illegal immigrants can come in. Moreover, doing so would stop the burgeoning US-Mexico trade in illegal drugs.
- For illegal aliens already in the US, decide on a case-by-case basis who can stay and who should be deported or jailed. It’s a lengthy process, but Trumps believes this is the best option.
Social Issues
- Pro-life and anti-gay marriage. However, America has bigger problems than these two issues, which shouldn’t be the focus of presidential elections.
Taxes
-Simplify the tax code and make it fairer. When pressed for specifics, Trump didn’t give any details.
Trump may be a democrat Trojan Horse.
I watched the 1st part of the interview and LMAO! The way he talks about Obama is priceless. The worst the President ever!!! Loved it...and my fave....”David, “whatever”, who knows how to pronounce his name”. He talks about them like they are losers and they are!!! Face to Face The Donald would make David “Whatever” mess his pants, LOL!
He may also have a full head of hair.
HELLO...We have a congress that is spending our tax dollars like they are on steriods! And this guy thinks we need a spineless RINO mitten to take back the economy after his policies have ruined MA economy? GIVE ME A BREAK!
Trump gets results.
I for one am sick to death of poltically correct blathering and calculated postering of career politicians.
I really wish people could get past programmed expectations that politicians are supposed to make you cozy and comfy with longwinded fairytales that map identically to your own rigid reality map.
Trump is the unvarnished real deal—he makes things happen.
You cannot argue with results.
This is what we need.
OK, ya’ll - send those thrills right back down your legs! Did you even listen to the actual words he was saying or were you so dazzled by his bravado that you forgot to actually listen?
First, he said he’s not going to touch Medicare.
Then he said this:
“We go to Iraq. We spend $1.5 trillion. Our senior citizens are dying all over the place. They don’t have any money.”
Straight out of the DNC play book. I think this reveals a whole lot about his his political philosophy.
When asked what it meant to be a conservative, he basically said he’s very, very, very conservative and changed the subject. When asked about his political contributions to liberals, he said it was because he lives in Demo-land - What? Is he supposed to give money to some Republican who’s going to get 1% of the vote? He went on to say that Chuck Schumer is is good friend, demonstrating that he can work with and negotiate with anyone.
As Mark Levin said tonight, “I don’t have time for this crap shoot.”
Yes, but Myth Romney almost assuredly is.
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