Posted on 07/08/2015 3:45:57 PM PDT by Kaslin
Poor Donald Trump.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. For years, wherever The Donald went, he met people who told him he should run for president. His retinue of sycophants surely saw little to gain from explaining that "birthers," celebrity worshippers and devotees of "The Apprentice" are not a statistically meaningful sample of the electorate.
Nor did it dawn on him that some people say "you should run for president" the way you tell your long-winded uncle "you should write a book." History is full of failed men who mistook flattery for insight.
In the past, Trump always pulled back from the brink. Why risk his beloved TV show? Why endure the embarrassment of revealing he's not as rich as he pretends? Better to play a Cincinnatus who won't relinquish his plow -- or in this case, his line of cologne. Flirt but don't commit was the rule.
But something changed. One too many Twitter followers said, "Do it!" One too many valets whispered, "America needs you" -- probably just before asking for a raise. And Trump took the leap -- though he hasn't provided the required financial disclosures yet, which inclines me to think that he will either suddenly find an excuse to retreat or that he has a team of accountants trying to figure out how he can simultaneously save face and avoid perjury.
In his announcement speech -- the brevity and discipline of which were impressive only by the standards of Fidel Castro or Joe Biden -- Trump shouted his certainty that Mexico is sending rapists and other criminals to America, but he could only "assume" (sotto voce) that "some" of those Mexicans are good people.
Many of my colleagues on the right have taken pains to logic-chop Trump's remarks. And it is true that some number of rapists and drug dealers are illegally crossing the border. Others have defended Trump by noting that what people like about this Lonesome Rhodes in a $10,000 suit is his fearlessness, bluntly tackling issues that other politicians fear to touch. That is a fine point in an indictment of the professional political class, but it is not a defense of Trump.
His goal was to wave the rhetorical bloody shirt. It worked only too well, damaging a party he expresses contempt for daily.
Indeed, Trump's commitment to the GOP has often been situational. Sure, he has put his money where his mouth is, but he's as promiscuous with his mouth as he is with the Trump brand. He's given money to Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, Andrew Cuomo, Eliot Spitzer and the Clinton Foundation.
Asked to explain why, he said, "You're gonna need things from everybody." (One does wonder what Trump hoped to get from the Clinton Foundation.)
This attitude helps explain why Trump is such a fan of eminent domain. The man seeking the tea party's support loves to use the government to seize private land he can't -- or doesn't want to -- buy fairly.
Given the fetid swamp of sanctioned corruption that passes for commerce in New York, it's no wonder he sees nothing wrong with greasing the skids by funding liberal politicians. But one might expect a person who claims to be a conservative to at least pay some rhetorical tribute to virtue while admitting his vice. Alas, it is axiomatic that the shameless are incapable of exhibiting shame.
The great irony is that the man who made his fortune playing the game of influence-peddling and celebrity-mongering forgot that the other players get a turn. Trump has lost his TV show. Macy's will no longer carry his menswear. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who governs like a banana republic demagogue, has declared that he is reviewing Trump's contracts with the city.
Meanwhile, too many of Trump's GOP primary competitors, afraid of angering his fans, stand mute or mumbling. Republicans are fielding the best candidates in a generation, but Trump is poised to make them chumps by association. He has no chance of becoming president, but he has the huge potential to deny his alleged party a White House victory in 2016. And when that happens, he will of course stay a celebrity, but he will have traded his fame for infamy, even among those now cheering him on.
Jonah has been called upon by the GOPe, I see.
Jonah....focus....we’re trying to defeat the DEMs/Libs.
Eight RINOs in a row and you want another RINO?
Oh Jonah just admit it. You had to attack a man who is standing up for what your best friend Andrew Breitbart would have championed. You messed up Jonah and piled on. Trump took umbrage and fired back. Suck it up lick your wounds and move on. I have now lost respect for you.
Well, that is a another, and interesting, way of looking at it.
That’s your standard for which is the better choice for president?
Self made? Trump? Ha!
Trump is telling “the poor” and everybody else that the Illegal Invader problem is directly affecting their personal Economic Situation because their Government is selling them out.
That’s when the Illegal Invaders aren’t here killing them that is.
WASHINGTONIANS RAUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oho Trump has a benefactor?
You don’t know any Wharton grads, I guess.
I’ve never been a fan of Trump. But with so many of the right people hating on Trump right now, one has to wonder.
Oh, yes. I heard this line on Bill (yes yes) Bennett this morning.
Steve Winn (sp?) was on groaning about Trump and Bernie Sanders going after people by selling them on their victimhood.
Buuhlechh!!
If you don’t think immigration, this out of control immigration, affects us, our sovereignty, our consciousness, our culture, future, don’t talk to me. You don’t pay any attention.
The flash of agreement, the sustained and growing support that Trump gets will get to you at one point.
Something out there frightens the pols. There’ll be Hell Toupee
Well, he inherited a large sum of money. He’s obviously made much more himself, but to call someone who inherited somewhere between $60 and 200 million “self made” is....a bit of a stretch.
Fred Trump, Donald’s Father, did very well in life but he never left or gave Donald anywhere near that kind of money.
I’m angry as hell about being forced to submit to PC and to genuflect to the cultural Marxists and their ceaseless propaganda campaign against America of “racist”, “sexist” and “homophobic”, so hell yeah I’m supporting Trump.
Democrats would piss their panties if Trump with his money ended up as the V.P. candidate.
He inherited his family’s business. He grew it from a two hundred million dollar business to a 9 billion dollar business.
If those figures are off, even if he’s exaggerating the 9 B twice, $200,000,000 is a percentage, a small percentage of 5,000,000,000.
Trump went to Wharton. He learned about making deals and investing money. If you don’t know anyone who is talented at that, fine, but it is a talent.
There is a faction of people, I’ve known some, not been friends with them, who hate people with money but in a bigoted way of hatred. It clouds their thinking. It comes from formation they were taught that having money necessarily goes along with fault of character.
Those people have an obsession with money much stronger than the people I have known who have money, a lot of money, or old money, or who work for it.
The most benevolent people come from both camps and there are stingy jealous greedy people with no money.
But Trump turned 200 mil into many billions. He did it, and not like michelle Obama did it, taking double digit million vacays twice a year on her husband’s 400 K salary, taking it from me.
Oh, I respect what Trump has done in business. I have absolutely zero interest in seeing him anywhere near the Oval Office, but I respect what he has done as a businessman. Great dealmaker, sure.
I just have a hard time calling someone with his background “self made.”
Goldberg’s article says nothing about Trump’s positions. He just repeated the empty utterances of other critics.
Also, I was disappointed in Firona’s comments about Trump, as she also said nothing about his positions.
That’s good.
As for the article by Jonah Goldberg, I expect no less from him. Bill Buckley left a really good magazine. It has since become nothing but a sniveling mouthpiece for the gop wing of the Uniparty.
I think someone who can get into the ring and change the entire national presidential election conversation and sustain it, and bring it forward on the merits of power level money, street smarts and tactics is rare.
Name anyone.
I see it as something he achieved. He took his father’s inheritance and grew it exponentially.
You put a price on that. If it’s $100 form a Cuban refugee to a son who makes it big in Law and State government or $200 mil to a son who makes it huge in real estate ventures the percentages are not even equal. Trump made more money.
Who made him, if he’s not self made?
But the real question is, why, on a conservative website forum such as this, does anyone come out and harass me for what I am thinking. I think he’s self made. You don’t.
what totalitarian idea gives you the right to bug the crap out of me for just saying he’s self made?
He is.
You don’t think he is.
Why do you have to try to back me down from my idea?
Come up with your own.
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