After a hail storm of comments from both Democrats and Republicans, both Donnie Trump and his campaign chairman Paul Manafort claimed he was being sarcastic when Trump wanted the Russians to find those missing 30,000 emails from Hillary Clinton’s former mail server. Other big Republicans gave further excuses without saying that Trump said the comments sarcastically. They even couldn’t agree on what to say as Trump campaign communications adviser, Jason Miller, said that Trump never urged or invited Russia to hack Clinton’s emails but Trump was “clearly saying” that if Russia or anyone else already had Clinton’s deleted emails they should share them with the FBI. Trump never mentioned or implied the FBI in his comments. Trump directly mentioned Russia. The defense of what Trump said only started after the uproar almost a day later. Seems all the Republicans were asked to defend his actions.
The Muslim parents of a US soldier scolded Trump for not doing the right thing as their son paid the ultimate sacrifice. Trump responded on ABC by saying he has done the “sacrifice” by creating thousands of jobs and then said the mother wasn’t given the chance to say something because of her religion. The couple responded that giving one’s life is not the same as creating jobs and she said she was caught up in the moment and preferred to have her husband talk.
Trump “senior” advisor to Trump, Jeff Sessions, was acting like a politician on CNN by ignoring the questions asked in an interview. When asked about what Trump said about the Muslim soldier who died, he changed gears and whined about immigration policies. When asked about Trump’s possible investments by Russians in his organization and how friendly Trump is, Sessions talked in general about leaders of the world with questionable leadership.
Donald Trump Jr. claims Barack Obama “plagiarized” seven words from his speech at the Republican National Convention, during the president’s address to Democrats when Obama used his line, “That is not the America I know.” Problem is that former President George W. Bush used the same words in a 2002 speech on the Iraq war, and Obama used the words in a 2010 speech in Cleveland. Nice try, Junior.
According to the networks, Trump’s RNC speech drew 2 million more viewers than Hillary Clinton’s DNC speech. Wonder if most came to see what further controversies he would start.
“I didn’t produce the show – I just showed up for the final speech on Thursday,” Trump told The New York Times when asked about the differences between the two parties’ conventions. This after ratings said the Democrats had higher ratings. Oh I’m sure Trump had his grubby hands in the preparation of the convention.
Trump has said “Nobody knows the system better than me” in his convention speech. I wonder if that include tax loopholes.
Trump told The Washington Post in April that he wanted to add “showbiz” touches to the typically drab event. But it was fairly drabby. Many music and Hollywood celebrities showed up for the Democrats. Not as much for the Republicans.
In 2014, Trump sold off the rights to the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants. If you remember there was a major goof in the following Universe pageant where the winner was not crowned but instead the runner up was. Trump tweeted “Very sad what happened last night at the Miss Universe Pageant. I sold it 6 months ago for a record price. This would never have happened!” Wondering how you can stop announcing the wrong winner by mistake – and he sold the pageants 3 months prior – not 6.
NBC [who broadcast the pageants] broke off its ties with Trump in June amid widespread criticism of the candidate’s comments about Mexican immigrants [calling them “rapists”]. The network decided not to televise the Miss USA pageant in July 2014. Trump indicated that he would take legal action [as usual] against the network, but the dispute was resolved in September when he purchased NBC’s half of the pageant organization. Then he promptly sold it to the giant talent agency WME/IMG.
Trump and other Republicans have complained about Obama [in his last months in office] nominating a replacement for the Supreme Court and the Republicans objecting says it could tip the balance for decades. A bit odd since there are up to 3 Supreme Court justices who could retire within the next Presidential term. Not all are Democrats or Republicans but a mixture.
Trump’s net worth is now $3 billion, according to Bloomberg’s latest Billionaire Index, which was updated on Tuesday. That’s little changed from Bloomberg’s $2.9 billion estimate a year ago. Meanwhile, Trump’s debt level nearly doubled over the past year to $630 million. Trump had $350 million in debt last year. Much of Trump’s increased debt was due to an additional $170 million he borrowed to renovate an old post office building in Washington, converting it into a luxury hotel.
Trump insists his net worth is more than $10 billion. But much of that discrepancy is due to Trump’s own estimates for the value of his brand. Bloomberg says Trump’s ability to license his name is worth $35 million. Trump says it’s worth $3.3 billion. Other estimates put Trump’s net worth much closer to Bloomberg’s reading. Forbes says his net worth is $4.5 billion, while Fortune puts his net worth at $3.9 billion
Wright State University is pulling out of its presidential debate scheduled for September 26, saying that the university decided to pull out of the debate due to rising security concerns and costs. He said insufficient fundraising forced the university to pull out of the debate, which could have cost the university as much as $8 million.
In addition to blaming the IRS audit, Trump has said in interviews that it might not make political sense for him to put out his returns. IRS says there’s no legal reason Trump can’t make the tax returns public even as they are under review. Some claim he doesn’t want to give details because it will show that he would of paid an effective very tax rate and/or reveal ties with foreign investors – something he denies. [Bill and Hillary Clinton paid an overall federal tax rate of 31.6 per cent between 2007 and 2014, her returns showed. In 2014, they donated almost 11 per cent of their income to charity. In 2012 Mitt Romney had paid an effective tax rate of 14.1 per cent, far lower than the average person.] Both a Republican and a Democrat donor offered rewards [to be given to charity] if Trump released his taxes.
Trump adviser Stephen Miller says in a statement the Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state “should know how many lives she put at risk.” There’s no evidence Clinton’s actions put any lives at risk. They also accused the Clinton campaign of fear tactics – as if the Republicans didn’t do any last week.
CNN investigated Trump’s hiring practices at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in South Florida. The U.S. Department of Labor confirmed that between 2013 and the fall of 2015, the resort posted 250 seasonal job openings and filled just four of those jobs with American workers. The club requested the rest of the staff be temporarily imported through the federal government’s H-2B visa process. “It’s almost impossible to get help,” Trump claimed. Mar-a-Lago did not place advertisements in the area’s largest newspaper. Instead, ads were placed in a local paper with a small circulation and the ads were routinely posted for just two days, the minimum required by law.
A December report from the non-partisan Tax Policy Center found that Trump’s tax plan would reduce federal revenue by $24.5 trillion over 20 years. The center noted that any increase in economic growth would not be enough to counter the revenue loss. Instead, unprecedented spending cuts would be needed.
“Our taxes are too high. Our wages are too high. We have to compete with other countries.” Trump said in November and after that criticism he since has said that Americans should “get more” in wages.
In March, Newsweek reported that a video focusing on the “Brussels Attacks” was released by the pro-ISIS al-Battar Media Foundation. The nine-minute video shows images of Trump and uses an audio clip of Trump saying, “Brussels was one of the great, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, 20 years ago. It was amazing, actually, and safe. Now, it’s an absolute horror show.”
Ed's Blogue 