Thomas
Friedman seems to believe the Donald has almost sewed up a majority of the
Republican Primary delegates and will be a formidable foe for Hillary, assuming
she is the Democrat’s candidate. But
chances are his past will catch up with him as voters begin to think with their
head rather than gut instinct that Friedman seems to believe motivates many
voters.
“Donald Trump is a walking
political science course,” said Friedman in a NYTimes Op-ed. “His meteoric rise
is lesson No. 1 on leadership: Most voters do not listen through their ears.
They listen through their stomachs. If a leader can connect with them on a gut
level, their response is: “Don’t bother me with the details. I trust your
instincts.” If a leader can’t connect on a gut level, he or she can’t show them
enough particulars. They’ll just keep asking, “Can you show me the details one
more time?”
That may be so for many Republican
primary voters, but Trump’s suspect past hasn’t yet been investigated. Thinking Repubs have given him a blank check to date,
believing that he will flame out of his own accord.
Even Mitt Romney calling him a con
artist last week didn’t seem to hurt Trump in Michigan, though Ohio Governor
John Kasich was creeping closer in the final tally of delegate votes, in a
defacto tie for second place with Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Trump’s sordid business dealings
are known to very few. One of his 4 Chapter
11 (business) bankruptcies was for Trump Casinos and Hotels. “For 10 years
between 1995 and 2005, Donald Trump ran Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts — and
he did it so badly and incompetently that it collapsed into Chapter 11
bankruptcy,” said Marketwatch’s Brett Arends, who has been tracking his
business failures for years. “His stockholders were almost entirely wiped out,
losing a staggering 89 percent of their money. The company actually lost money
every single year. In total it racked up more
than $600 million in net losses over that period,” something no other major casino chain did over that term.
In total, Donald Trump pocketed $32
million in nine years of running Trump Casinos and Hotels, while his public
stockholders lost more than $100 million.
But much more damaging are the various class action lawsuits filed again
Trump and Trump University, which was a university in name only.
Instead of receiving a quality
degree, “as good as any from a university”, said Trump, students received a
printed certificate and no degree after spending as much as $36,000 on a weekend
course that solicited more money, and were given commonly known real estate
websites, such as Zillow, and several worthless property referrals.
These are the words of several
plaintiffs suing Trump that a San Diego court has elevated to gangster
status. Trump is accused of not only
fraud, but racketeering, as if he were running a criminal enterprise.
One of the two San Diego cases has
been allowed by the judge to be brought under the Racketeer Influenced and
Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, said Time Magazine’s Steven
Brill. “This means that, fairly or unfairly, opponents will be able to say
that a large group of everyman voters, many of them elderly, have accused a
leading contender for the Oval Office of being a racketeer.”
The records indicate, for example,
that Trump University collected approximately $40 million from its students–who
included veterans, retired police officers and teachers–and that Trump
personally received approximately $5 million of it, despite his claim, repeated
in our interview, that he started Trump University as a charitable venture.
Trump’s own followers may be able
to disbelieve the evidence that is being unearthed of his many business
failures in a hyper fervid primary season full of hyperbole. But the facts are only now now coming to
light. And the picture is revealing.
The evidence is in plain
sight. The Donald always comes first,
and very few others have profited thereby.
Harlan Green © 2016
Follow Harlan
Green on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HarlanGreen
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