This phone call is ridiculous

[Aseahawkfan]

I think it's more about the people that follow him than any redeeming quality. To me he's not a bit charismatic.Every time I see his fat face I want to smash it. He's a dense ass who talks like a 5th grader, looks ridiculous with his fake tan and combover. He lies remorselessly. Hopelessly corrupt. I'm not sure how a white 58 year old eastern washington Rush listening Fox watching lifelong R , no college degree didn't get sucked in but I'm so proud i didn't. The guy is so bad its flabbergasting that he's got any support, especially now.Its a trance, a fever.Its a cult and most every reputable presidential historian has flatly said it at this point. You refernce ID Hawkman, a green beret, a patriotic american. I wonder how he really feels seeing this right now.

As for Trump's legal issues we will see exactly how much legal help he has, what kind of a deal he can get. I think his financial position is greatly overstated.He reportedly doesn't pay his lawyers and anyone else he can swindle. I think he's been relying on laundered Russian money for years but that just me.Most of his golf properties bleed green bigly but he operates in mostly cash for transactions

I think the actions of this man since this election have fractured his defenders in the republican party at the local and state level so we will see.

If anything protects him it is being a former POTUS . Otherwise I think he's cooked and he knows it which is why at a minimum he's raising money off it and fighting like hell to keep the office and its protections. I hope he winds up in a cell with a big friendly dude named Ramone

I know. You view Trump as some bungling idiot who lucked his way into all his success.

I just don't know the reality of Trump doesn't sink in. He's 74 years old. If his goose were going to be cooked, it would have been ages ago. Trump is a guy that has survived in America's grinder of an economy for 50 plus years. I know so many on here want to dismiss with "reasons" his success, but you don't do what Trump has done for as long as he has done it as some incompetent, dumb, lazy guy. It just doesn't happen no matter how many people want to believe it. Trump does things the Trump way. He's selfish as all get up. He's a narcissist. But he also understands sales, marketing, speaking, and has used his money to surround himself with smart, capable people for much of his career. He knows what he's doing and how to fight in these power circles. He's been doing it for ages when he was taking out full page adds in the New York Papers to attack politicians. He is what he is.

Just be glad when he's finally out of the White House. As far as the rest, chasing Trump legally is like a dog trying to catch its own tail. He's been doing these games for ages. I feel like hoping a 74 year old will finally get his comeuppance after 50 plus years of doing what he does is wishful thinking.

[Aseahawkfan]

Trump is speaking at the "Save America" rally. Now he is selling that helping him stay in office is saving America from the evil Democrats. This is so whacky.

[I-5]

IYou view Trump as some bungling idiot who lucked his way into all his success.

I don't think of Trump as a bungling idiot. He's a narcissistic psychopathic toddler who is also a master communicator and salesman to those who love him. He's also a terrible businessman who will cheat to take advantage of others, partners, investors, clients, everyone and anyone.

[Hawktawk]

I don't think of Trump as a bungling idiot. He's a narcissistic psychopathic toddler who is also a master communicator and salesman to those who love him. He's also a terrible businessman who will cheat to take advantage of others, partners, investors, clients, everyone and anyone.

Trump is a bungling idiot but when daddy gives you the equivalent of half a billion in today's money and then pays off your debts with millions of dollars in poker chips left in casinos its a bit easier to appear to be a "great businessman" .
6 bankruptcies later the evidence is in. He's a terrible businessman, suspected of money laundering with Russia, operating on cash like a drug dealer or mobster.

His primary properties are in golf which I can verify is a big loser right now, especially extremely high end expensive boutique destination luxury resorts .But he just threw a 160 million dollar remodel on Doral By the time you add up the costs to maintain something like that there is no way the property can possible make a profit.How does he keep watering the lawn and mowing it losing money? Its a classic opportunity to launder money, that's how.

He was busted having used northern triangle illegals build his courses such as Trump National for 8 bucks an hour at a time when NY dozer operator scale was 50 dollars an hour. As recently as 2 years ago he had a crew of Honduran illegals traveling around building rock features and water features at his properties. Their nickname is the flintstones.

That's not a good businessman. Its a scumbag. That he wanted to build a wall to keep out the desperate brown skin people from the SAME COUNTRIES he took advantage of to the tune of millions of dollars makes him despicable.

As you say I5 he swindles everyone, doesn't pay his bills, would rather sue than pay. Read the accounts of the subcontractors, dozens of them ruined, buried in debt with his never ending change orders and subsequent bankruptcy at the Trump Taj Mahal. They didn't have Fred Trump to bail them out. No russian money. He was kept afloat by Deutsche Bank, the art of the deal and The Apprentice.

He's had so many unusual and downright suspicious transactions like the russian oligarch who bought a palm beach property Trump had just bought for 50 million for 100 million and never taking residency. Saudis buying blocks of rooms in his hotels and not staying in the rooms. Nearly twice the inaugural fund as anyone before and much suspected to have been donated by foreigners.Much of that has been misappropriated and funneled to Trump and his cronies.Totally illegal.
The NYT published a report of a 2 year investigation basically nailing Fred and Donald Trump with massive tax and real estate fraud over decades with was part of the lynchpin for these investigations now reported to be "well along".

Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen has said in congressional testimony that Trump would inflate and deflate assets in an effort to swindle the IRS and lending institutions as well as many other crimes. One of the main things that got Cohen in hot water was covering up the existence of Trump tower Moscow being negotiated basically till election eve. Remember now, Mueller was not allowed to dig into Trump's financial dealings with Russia, only criminal acts involving the election so nobody really knows what that was other than Putin and Trump.What's up with his financial entanglements in the eastern bloc?

The guy is dirty.Grimy, filthy.
Great businessmen are successful without being criminals. Cohen said months ago "if he loses he won't leave. He knows he's going straight to jail."
That is the #1 reason for these hysterical convulsions by trump IMO. Fear of losing his freedom.

[RiverDog]

IYou view Trump as some bungling idiot who lucked his way into all his success.

I don't think of Trump as a bungling idiot. He's a narcissistic psychopathic toddler who is also a master communicator and salesman to those who love him. He's also a terrible businessman who will cheat to take advantage of others, partners, investors, clients, everyone and anyone.

He also was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and never had to work a day in his life. In my opinion, he was denied the life experiences that we take for granted and that helped develop our character. Trump never had to earn a thing by working for it and is used to being able to get anything he wants simply by using money or some other external influence. He's a spoiled rich kid that never had to take no for an answer. Doesn't want to get drafted? Great, just work the system and get a deferment. Have a tough exam to take? Pay someone else to take it for you. Need a little nookie? Just open up your wallet and buy a $1000/night hooker or flash your wallet to attract some gold digging Barbie doll. No need to go to all that trouble of treating women with kindness and compassion and talking them into bed in order to satisfy sexual needs.

That doesn't mean that all kids born into wealth will turn out to be spoiled. John Kennedy never had to work a day in his life, didn't even know that there was a thing called the Great Depression until he was in college. But his personality was shaped by his wartime experience. He used to jump into the water and help his men scrape barnacles off the hull of their PT boat, got a chance to bond with common men his own age that had a much greater range of life experiences.

That's what's different about Trump and why we are unlikely to see another person like him in our lifetimes.

[Hawktawk]

There won't be another guy exactly like him.
There could be worse with all the Trumpanzee loons and their poisoned brains looking for a new messiah. A guy who shares his ideology but has an actual brain and an actual charismatic personality. This has been a scary time that has demonstrated how very near we are to a banana republic.

[I-5]

That's what's different about Trump and why we are unlikely to see another person like him in our lifetimes.

Agreed, but who's to say we won't get someone smarter, more cunning, and more evil? Trump opened the door to that as well.

[Hawktawk]

He also was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and never had to work a day in his life. In my opinion, he was denied the life experiences that we take for granted and that helped develop our character. Trump never had to earn a thing by working for it and is used to being able to get anything he wants simply by using money or some other external influence. He's a spoiled rich kid that never had to take no for an answer. Doesn't want to get drafted? Great, just work the system and get a deferment. Have a tough exam to take? Pay someone else to take it for you. Need a little nookie? Just open up your wallet and buy a $1000/night hooker or flash your wallet to attract some gold digging Barbie doll. No need to go to all that trouble of treating women with kindness and compassion and talking them into bed in order to satisfy sexual needs.

That doesn't mean that all kids born into wealth will turn out to be spoiled. John Kennedy never had to work a day in his life, didn't even know that there was a thing called the Great Depression until he was in college. But his personality was shaped by his wartime experience. He used to jump into the water and help his men scrape barnacles off the hull of their PT boat, got a chance to bond with common men his own age that had a much greater range of life experiences.

That's what's different about Trump and why we are unlikely to see another person like him in our lifetimes.

John McCain was a son of an admiral who could have avoided combat easily but strapped into a jet and flew air support, spent 4 years in the hanoi hilton and refused to leave as a propaganda ploy until all the men he was the senior captive of went home with him. Till his death he could not hold his hands above his head due to the injuries suffered at the hands of the captors in the Hanoi Hilton.
Trump said he wasn't a hero because he got captured and his trumpanzees said Yeah! McCain isnt a hero, hes a RINO and Trump got 60 million votes because socialism bad.

Bob Mueller was also a son of privilege who volunteered to go to Vietnam in honor of a high school classmate and teammate who had died there.He was originally declared 4F due to a knee injury so he rehabbed it for a year to be able to qualify to go to a hot war. He was injured, shot in the thigh in an intense firefight but refused evacuation until being sure all his men were accounted for and safe. H served the nation ever since.Trump called him disgusting, criminal. witch hunt, an angry democrat and 70 million people said "yeah fake news duhhh".

Perhaps the most despicable man I've ever been aware of in public life.

[Aseahawkfan]

He also was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and never had to work a day in his life. In my opinion, he was denied the life experiences that we take for granted and that helped develop our character. Trump never had to earn a thing by working for it and is used to being able to get anything he wants simply by using money or some other external influence. He's a spoiled rich kid that never had to take no for an answer. Doesn't want to get drafted? Great, just work the system and get a deferment. Have a tough exam to take? Pay someone else to take it for you. Need a little nookie? Just open up your wallet and buy a $1000/night hooker or flash your wallet to attract some gold digging Barbie doll. No need to go to all that trouble of treating women with kindness and compassion and talking them into bed in order to satisfy sexual needs.

That doesn't mean that all kids born into wealth will turn out to be spoiled. John Kennedy never had to work a day in his life, didn't even know that there was a thing called the Great Depression until he was in college. But his personality was shaped by his wartime experience. He used to jump into the water and help his men scrape barnacles off the hull of their PT boat, got a chance to bond with common men his own age that had a much greater range of life experiences.

That's what's different about Trump and why we are unlikely to see another person like him in our lifetimes.

That doesn't much explain Trump, but whatever excuse you want to make that justifies him in your mind. I've heard it all, but what you describe could be said of a lot of children of wealthy people. They didn't build their names into household brands while building a public image over 50 years in one of the most competitive and expensive real estate markets in the world in New York and an extremely competitive reality TV landscape. You keep telling yourself he's just some dumb, spoiled rich kid. Plenty of those exist and I haven't see any of them as successful as Trump has been at building his name into what it is.

Trump is a hyper-charismatic, powerful salesman who has built his name into a household, worldwide known name. You painting this picture of a spoiled rich kid may be great in your mind, but it certainly doesn't explain the Trump phenomenon at all. Bloomberg has more money than Trump by far, yet he couldn't do what Trump did. Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos both have many times the money Trump has, yet they couldn't pull off what he did either.

Just because you hate a guy doesn't mean you don't see the obvious. This guy has the power to move people beyond what even a common high quality politicians has. That is what makes him so dangerous.

If he was just what you stated above, we wouldn't even know his name or anything about him or even care.

[RiverDog]

He also was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and never had to work a day in his life. In my opinion, he was denied the life experiences that we take for granted and that helped develop our character. Trump never had to earn a thing by working for it and is used to being able to get anything he wants simply by using money or some other external influence. He's a spoiled rich kid that never had to take no for an answer. Doesn't want to get drafted? Great, just work the system and get a deferment. Have a tough exam to take? Pay someone else to take it for you. Need a little nookie? Just open up your wallet and buy a $1000/night hooker or flash your wallet to attract some gold digging Barbie doll. No need to go to all that trouble of treating women with kindness and compassion and talking them into bed in order to satisfy sexual needs.

That doesn't mean that all kids born into wealth will turn out to be spoiled. John Kennedy never had to work a day in his life, didn't even know that there was a thing called the Great Depression until he was in college. But his personality was shaped by his wartime experience. He used to jump into the water and help his men scrape barnacles off the hull of their PT boat, got a chance to bond with common men his own age that had a much greater range of life experiences.

That's what's different about Trump and why we are unlikely to see another person like him in our lifetimes.

That doesn't much explain Trump, but whatever excuse you want to make that justifies him in your mind. I've heard it all, but what you describe could be said of a lot of children of wealthy people. They didn't build their names into household brands while building a public image over 50 years in one of the most competitive and expensive real estate markets in the world in New York and an extremely competitive reality TV landscape. You keep telling yourself he's just some dumb, spoiled rich kid. Plenty of those exist and I haven't see any of them as successful as Trump has been at building his name into what it is.

Oh, I agree that it doesn't completely explain Trump, and like you, I've met plenty of rich people that are very down to Earth folks, which is why I mentioned JFK. But it is a contributing factor that not very many people have and is one of the things which makes Trump very rare and not likely to be duplicated.