Posted on 06/27/2022 9:35:19 AM PDT by MarvinStinson
Analyzing Trump's presidency, a fascism expert argues he tried to use the office to make money. The historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat described Trump to Insider as a "dedicated" and talented "grifter."
When looking back on President Donald Trump's time in office, Ruth Ben-Ghiat sees someone who pursued a unique goal among his predecessors, one requiring extreme discipline and dedication from the unlikely leader.
"Trump's aims as president were totally different from any other president, Republican or Democrat," Ben-Ghiat, a historian at New York University who is an expert on fascism, told Insider. "His aims were autocratic in that he wanted to turn public office into a vessel of making money for himself — to have private profit off of public office."
With the House committee hearings over the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot prompting renewed scrutiny over Trump's final days in office, Ben-Ghiat spoke with Insider's Charles R. Davis about the insurrection, its ongoing aftermath, and the divisive former president at the center of it all.
This week, in the congressional committee's second televised hearing, lawmakers focused on Trump's massive fundraising efforts following the 2020 US presidential election, in which his campaign sent emails to millions of supporters claiming "the left wing mob" was threatening the integrity of the election and encouraging people to "step up" and "fight back" by donating.
Investigators say Trump's lies about voter fraud ultimately resulted in $250 million in donations from Trump supporters following Joe Biden's victory. Ben-Ghiat said, "He was extremely disciplined in grifting and in trying to use the presidency to make money."
"Autocrats despise their followers and they use them. And that's where him grifting off of his followers — because he is not grifting off of Democrats, he's bilking his own followers."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
WOW. That proves a lot. LOL
BI=BS, moving on.
Hunter Biden could not be reached for his opinion.
i’ll take a wiiiild guess and say this guy is a registered democrat.
BI=BS, moving on.
This must explain why he declined to take his salary.
So uhm, Trump used politics to get rich...and uhm, the actual politicians that only became rich after being politicians didn’t. In other news water us the least wet thing ever...
WOW. That proves a lot. LOL
Yeah, tell them to try again.....these people are lunatics!
And did he? My guess is that his net worth after being president probably went down yet all of his predecessors and government officials got richer in office...
They’re just makin’ stuff up ... it’s not even close to reality.
“Business Insider” is a Socialist rag, like so many other “business” mags, like the Economist, Forbes, MarketWatch, etc.
Most of these don’t have a high opinion of capitalism.
Expert on fascism? And he points to Trump? If I were in an elevator with that guy I’d break wind.
Trump spent most of his time fighting Democrat spies and saboteurs
sounds to me that Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a gifted and dedicated liar. Didn’t Trump’s overall net worth decline by about $2 BILLION during his term and he donated his presidential paycheck to various government agencies.
Wow! Has this guy done any follow-up on Obama? That guy left office FAR more wealthy than when he arrived.
PT never took a paycheck. He was already a millionaire.
Business Insider is a partner with Yahoo.
And that’s all one needs to know about them.
Well, it certainly illustrates why so many people on Free Republic get pissed when pap from “Business Insider” is posted as anything other than a leftist blog page.
I never read that site myself, for just that reason.
Don’t post this trash on a conservative site.
Pelosi was to busy doing insider trading to
send in her comment.
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