Why are you voting for Donald Trump?
“Because he’s one of the greatest businessmen in history and the country needs to be run like one of his billions of successful businesses!”
False. Donald Trump basically got started with his business career through inheriting $413 million from his father, after his passing, which he had made via fraud and tax evasion.
What did he do with this money? Well, he bankrupted 6 companies (thus far). As reported by John Cassidy of the New Yorker:
“Based on Internal Revenue Service transcripts of Trump’s tax returns from 1985 to 1994, the Times report said that Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of more than a billion dollars in a ten-year period. During 1990 and 1991, the story said, Trump’s losses were so large that they ‘were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.’”
He added:
“They show that, between 1985 and 1989, a period when the economy was forging ahead and Trump was busy portraying himself as a billionaire with the Midas touch, his core businesses – apartment buildings, hotels, and casinos – somehow managed to lose $359.1 million. That was only the beginning. As the economy weakened, in 1990 and 1991, Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of $517.5 million. And, between 1992 and 1994, as the economy recovered, they lost another $286.9 million.”
Cassidy also wrote:
“These are significant sums, certainly. But, as the Times article points out, depreciation charges aren’t nearly large enough to create the massive losses that Trump’s businesses incurred. ‘Some fraction of Donald Trump’s losses can be attributed to depreciation,’ Susanne Craig, one of the authors of the Times piece, wrote in a tweet, responding to Trump. ‘We found most of it was just bad business.’”
Donald Trump has been at the center of 4,095 lawsuits – mostly business-related. He has a history of stiffing workers. If that’s not enough to convince you, he was fined nearly half a billion dollars for fraud earlier this year and $25 million for the scam which was Trump University.
Donald Trump isn’t a genius businessman. If he ran this country like one of his businesses, we’d go bankrupt in 1 month, 2 months tops.
https://apnews.com/article/0452d29cd2564eaf97605ab90acc3a67
https://thoughtco.com/donald-trump-business-bankruptcies-4152019
https://newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-business-failures-were-very-real
https://usatoday.com/pages/interactives/trump-lawsuits/
https://nytimes.com/2024/02/16/nyregion/trump-civil-fraud-trial-ruling.html
https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-finalizes-25-million-settlement-victims-donald-trumps/story?id=54347237
"Because his economy was the best ever!"
False. Donald Trump became the first president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with fewer jobs than he had when he entered it. Just how long ago was that? 1933. It was because of COVID? Fine, fine, I'll play along. In Trump's first 3 years - you know, before COVID, 6.4 million jobs were added. How many were added in Obama's final 3 years? 8.1 million. Not only that, Trump's China-tariffs have cost American taxpayers $230 billion, as of March of this year. Oh, and his tax bill? Guess who that benefited? Nope, it wasn't you. It wasn't me. It was those at the very top of the economic ladder. Lastly, he increased the debt by approximately 40%. Donald Trump's economy wasn't the best. At best, it was a joke, and not a very funny one.
https://abcnews.go.com/Business/trumps-economic-legacy/story?id=74760051
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/ces0000000001?output_view=net_1mth
https://cnn.com/2024/03/18/politics/donald-trump-tariffs-trade-war/index.html
https://cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver
https://propublica.org/article/national-debt-trump
“Because there were no wars! He actually did the impossible and brought about world peace!”
False. During his time in the Oval Office, the following wars were taking place:
- Russo-Ukrainian War
- Sectarian Conflict in the Central African Republic
- Syrian Civil War
- Somalia Civil War
- Etc.
In the four aforementioned wars, there have been a combined 443,900 fatalities. This isn’t to say Donald Trump started these wars, but to claim there was world peace when he was in office is fricking ridiculous. Also, let’s not forget, he waged war against: history, science, facts/fact-checkers, the Constitution, and the English language.
https://war-memorial.net/wars_all.asp
"Because he brought down violent crime, bigly!"
False. Violent crimes and homicides increased 26% from 2019 to 2020. They've since been on the decline. For MAGAs reading at home, that means 'like going down and stuff.'
https://wral.com/story/fact-check-biden-says-crime-fell-under-obama-rose-under-trump/19279807/
https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/06/20/magazine/us-murder-rates-2024/
"Because he fought human-trafficking like no other!"
False. The fight against human-trafficking actually slowed under Trump. This is not to be translated as "human-trafficking slowed." No, the fight against it slowed. Like, due to anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers, the fight against COVID slowed.
https://time.com/5905437/human-trafficking-trump-administration/
"Because he kept illegals out with his big, beautiful wall!"
False. Newly installed wall panels of it in California were blown over by 37 mph wind gusts. My son can fart 37 mph. Oh, and there's this, as reported by The Washington Post:
"Mexican smuggling gangs have sawed through new segments of border wall 3,272 times over the past three years, according to unpublished U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintenance records obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act."
Oh, but Mexico paid for it. Just kidding. We did - $15 billion.
https://msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/evidence-shows-trumps-border-wall-was-embarrassing-failure-rcna18537
https://nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/fact-check-mexico-never-paid-it-what-about-trump-s-n1253983
“Because he’s a man of his word! Every promise he made, he kept, bigly!”
False. This isn’t anywhere close to being true. Fact-checker Politifact has noted 55 promises which Donald Trump broke. Yes, I’m going to list them all.
- Place lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying for foreign government
- Approve the Keystone XL project and reap the profits
- Close parts of the Internet where ISIS is
- Open up libel laws
- Place lifetime ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections
- Create a health savings account
- Invest $550 billion in infrastructure and create an infrastructure fund
- Bring back manufacturing
- Make no cuts to Medicaid
- Grow the economy by 4 percent a year
- Guarantee 6-week paid leave
- Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton
- Get Congress to allow health insurance across state lines
- Repeal Obamacare
- Renegotiate the Iran deal
- Rebuild the Marine Corps to 36 battalions
- Add additional federal investment of $20 billion toward School Choice
- Change the vaccination schedule for children
- Adopt the penny plan
- Expand national right to carry to all 50 states
- Cancel all funding of sanctuary cities
- Dramatically scale back the U.S. Education Department
- Eliminate Common Core
- Remove all undocumented immigrants
- Eliminate gun-free zones at schools and military bases
- Stop the AT&T Time Warner Merger
- Triple ICE enforcement
- Eliminate wasteful spending in every department
- Build a wall, and make Mexico pay for it
- Reverse China’s entry into the World Trade Organization
- End birthright citizenship
- Enact 5-year ban on White House and congressional officials from lobbying
- Impose a hiring freeze on federal employees
- Have mandatory minimum sentences for criminals caught trying to re-enter the United States illegally
- Impose death penalty for cop killers
- Establish a commission on radical Islam
- Replace J-1 Visa with Inner City Resume Bank
- Increase the size of the U.S. Army to 540,000 active duty soldiers
- Increase visa fees
- Build a safe zone for Syrian refugees
- Eliminate the federal debt in 8 years
- Administer Medicaid through block grants
- Allow individuals to deduct health care insurance premiums from taxes
- Bring back waterboarding
- Enact term limits
- Change the name of Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley
- Balance the federal budget ‘fairly quickly’
- Remove existing Syrian refugees
- Establish a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
- Create targeted child care tax credits
- Eliminate the carried interest loophole
- Repeal the alternative minimum tax
- Cut the number of tax brackets
- Release his tax returns after audit is completed
- Sue his accusers of sexual misconduct
I’m sure there are others. As the saying goes, “55 is the new 1,776.”
https://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/?ruling=true
“Because he tells it like it is!”
False. No, he tells it like it isn’t. In his 4 years in office, Donald Trump was documented to having lied not once, not twice, not 13,000, but 30,573 times. That’s 7,643 lies per year; 637 lies per month; 147 lies per week; 21 lies per day; close to a lie per hour.
Not only does the guy lie incessantly, he rarely ever tells the truth. Here’s his current Politifact scorecard:
Grades: 1,069
True: 36 (3.4%)
Mostly True: 86 (8.0%)
Half True/Half False: 125 (11.7%)
Mostly False: 205 (19.2%)
False: 413 (38.6%)
Pants on Fire: 204 (19.1%)
So, of 1,069 graded comments, just 122 of them were deemed ‘true’ or ‘mostly true,’ or 11.4%, whereas 822 of them were ruled as ‘mostly false,’ ‘false,’ or ‘pants on fire,’ which comes to 76.9%. That’s a ratio of 6.7 lies to every truth told.
In other words, Donald Trump doesn’t tell it like it is. He tells it like some people want to believe, in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. He’s about as honest as Jeffrey Dahmer was a vegan.
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/
https://politifact.com/personalities/donald-trump/
"Because he's all about freedom of speech an sh*t!"
False. In his 4 years in office, Trump and his administration did the following:
- Gagged social-media use
- Kellyanne Conway spoke of "alternative facts"
- Issued multiple gag orders
- Halted nuclear-whistleblower protection
- Ordered for an EPA page, concerning climate-change, to be removed
- Called the press "the opposition party"
- Attacked CNN
- Attacked the New York Times and Washington Post
- Denounced journalists
- Urged supporters to "fight back" against the media
- Suggested withdrawing UC-Berkeley funding
- Bullied a journalist
- Ordered internal investigation to find leakers
- Removed a journalist from a meeting
- Giuliani said "truth isn't truth"
Need I continue? Please say no...
https://pen.org/trump-timeline/
"Because he is a gun-rights absolutist!"
False. Psst, bump-stock ban. Some people are also saying he possesses a mini-gun in his pants, which only shoots blanks. I can't confirm nor deny this. I'll just take adult-film star Stormy Daniels at her word that it was like a "mini-mushroom."
https://bradyunited.org/about-us/press/more-than-one-year-after-las-vegas-massacre-trump-administration-bans-bump-stocks
https://thedailybeast.com/stormy-daniels-picks-trumps-tiny-mushroom-penis-from-a-lineup-on-kimmelhttps://www.thedailybeast.com/stormy-daniels-picks-trumps-tiny-mushroom-penis-from-a-lineup-on-kimmel
"Because he literally stands by the Constitution!"
False. After he lost the 2020 election, he posted this on Lie Social:
“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
I may be crazy, but to me calling for the termination of the Constitution is not standing by the Constitution. It's standing by while watching the Constitution literally burn into oblivion.
https://cnn.com/2022/12/03/politics/trump-constitution-truth-social/index.html
“Because he’s done more for his African-Americans over there than any President in history – maybe even that Lincoln fella!”
False. As is typical, Donald Trump takes credit for what others have done before him.
In 2018, Trump signed The First Step Act, which allowed for the release of thousands of prisoners and reduced sentences for thousands more. Having said that, this bill was just a scaled-down version of the 2015 Sentencing and Reform Corrections Act, which was introduced in Congress, under then President Barack Obama.
Trump tried to take credit for what he claimed was a sudden decline in violent crime. This decline has been in effect since 2000, over a decade and a half before he entered office.
He also repeatedly tooted his own horn about black unemployment being at its lowest since the Bureau of Labor began tracking it in 1972, as it decreased to 5.9% in May of 2018. Said decrease began under President Obama.
Trump also claimed HBCUs weren’t being funded. This is, once again, false. Under President Obama, over $4 billion were invested in historically Black colleges and universities. As for Trump’s talking point that he was responsible for bringing back funding for HBCUs, here’s what Rutgers professor and leading HBCU authority Marybeth Gasman told the Washington Post:
“Congress does all this work and presents it to him in the budget, and he can choose to sign it. This year, he held off on signing some significant STEM funding, making HBCUs beg for it. Trump has promised all kinds of things to HBCUs and has followed through on little. Under Trump, the White House Initiative for HBCUs was moved to the White House and is quite quiet compared to the work under President Obama.”
In addition to all this, Trump regularly cited the Black Lives Matter movement as a hate group; long ignored COVID, which disproportionately impacted Black Americans; tried to suppress Black votes on election day; and often times appeared to stereotype Black Americans as lazy, unpatriotic, and unlawful. The most involvement Donald Trump had with the Black community was when he pointed to one at a rally of his and said, “Look at my African-American over there!”
https://vox.com/21524499/what-trump-has-done-for-black-people
"Because he backs the police!"
False. Tell that to the officers who were attacked, injured, and even killed due to Trump inciting supporters to rampage the U.S. Capitol, in an effort to overturn a presidential election. There's a stark difference between backing the blue figuratively and doing it literally with a flagpole.
https://factcheck.org/2021/11/how-many-died-as-a-result-of-capitol-riot/
https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2024/04/01/donald-trump-jan-6-police-capitol-attack-biden
"Because he's a patriot, who supports our troops!"
False. There may not be a single person who has disparaged our men and women in uniform more than Donald Trump. He's: dodged the draft; mocked POWs; attacked Gold Star families; called soldiers "losers" and "suckers;" etc. The guy is so cowardly, he'll probably retreat to a bunker due to 37 mph wind gusts. That's what his wall did.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/08/trump-mocked-us-military-troops-losers-whole-life/
https://cardinalpine.com/2024/06/25/times-trump-insulted-veterans/
https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2023/10/03/john-kelly-trump-insults-veterans
"Because he's a good, god-fearing Christian!"
False. Oh, don't make me laugh. I'm not religious, but read the Bible sometime. The teachings of Jesus are antithetical to those of Donald Trump. In other words, if Jesus is Christ, Donald Trump is antichrist.
#VoteHarrisWalz2024 #TrumpIsUnfitForOffice
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