Tag: Donald Trump

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Newsweek: Donald Trump Violated U.S. Embargo Of Cuba

The big story today in politics is the Newsweek cover story reporting that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump apparently engaged in illegal business dealings with Cuba despite the strict embargo that had been in place for decades that banned any such business

From Newsweek:

A company controlled by Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, secretly conducted business in Communist Cuba during Fidel Castro’s presidency despite strict American trade bans that made such undertakings illegal, according to interviews with former Trump executives, internal company records and court filings.

Documents show that the Trump company spent a minimum of $68,000 for its 1998 foray into Cuba at a time when the corporate expenditure of even a penny in the Caribbean country was prohibited without U.S. government approval. But the company did not spend the money directly. Instead, with Trump’s knowledge, executives funneled the cash for the Cuba trip through an American consulting firm called Seven Arrows Investment and Development Corp. Once the business consultants traveled to the island and incurred the expenses for the venture, Seven Arrows instructed senior officers with Trump’s company—then called Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts—how to make it appear legal by linking it after the fact to a charitable effort.

The payment by Trump Hotels came just before the New York business mogul launched his first bid for the White House, seeking the nomination of the Reform Party. On his first day of the campaign, he traveled to Miami, where he spoke to a group of Cuban-Americans, a critical voting bloc in the swing state. Trump vowed to maintain the embargo and never spend his or his companies’ money in Cuba until Fidel Castro was removed from power.

He did not disclose that, seven months earlier, Trump Hotels already had reimbursed its consultants for the money they spent on their secret business trip to Havana.

My questions are:

• Will this affect or be of interest to undecided voters?

• Could this possibly move the needle with Cuban-American voters in the vital swing state of Florida?

From last night’s Rachel Maddow Show:

UPDATE – The Hillary Clinton campaign released this statement on the latest Trump scandal:

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Behind The Scenes Of Donald Trump’s Debate Prep

Interesting look inside the Donald Trump campaign before and after the first presidential debate this past Monday night.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Trump’s debate preparation was unconventional. Aides have introduced a lectern and encouraged him to participate in mock debates, but he has not embraced them, focusing mostly on conversations and discussions with advisers.

During the primaries, the group briefing him for debates was small and closely held. By the weekend before the debate on Monday at Hofstra University, there were nearly a dozen people preparing Mr. Trump, including the retired Army generals Michael Flynn and Keith Kellogg, neither of whom has experience in presidential debates.

There were early efforts to run a more standard form of general election debate-prep camp, led by Roger Ailes, the ousted Fox News chief, at Mr. Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J. But Mr. Trump found it hard to focus during those meetings, according to multiple people briefed on the process who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That left Mr. Ailes, who at the time was deeply distracted by his removal from Fox and the news media reports surrounding it, discussing his own problems as well as recounting political war stories, according to two people present for the sessions.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and a friend of Mr. Trump’s who has been traveling with him extensively, took over much of the preparation efforts by the end. But with Mr. Trump receiving so much conflicting advice in those sessions, he absorbed little of it.

The team had primed Mr. Trump to look for roughly a dozen key phrases and expressions Mrs. Clinton uses when she is uncertain or uncomfortable, but he did not seem to pay attention during the practice sessions, one aide said, and failed to home in on her vulnerabilities during the debate.

“It clearly looked like he ran out of gas after 30 minutes, and that came through loud and clear,” said Scott Reed, the senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who has not supported Mr. Trump.

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Campaign Spot Depicts ISIS/Russia Celebration In Aftermath Of Possible Trump Win

With Millennials and college students in mind, The Democratic Coalition Against Trump drops this dramatic new campaign spot.

Via press release:

The video uses Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the USA” to attack Trump for the support he has received from America’s enemies and is designed to engage with Millennials and college students. With almost 40% of them declaring their support for 3rd party candidates and only 31% currently supporting Secretary Clinton – a far cry from the 60% who voted for Obama in 2012.

“The fact that Trump has received support from Vladimir Putin, neo-Nazi leaders and North Korea is incredibly telling. These are not individuals who want to make America great again,” said Nate Lerner, Executive Director to the Democratic Coalition Against Trump and a millennial. “Further, ISIS continues to use Trump in their recruiting videos, which means a Trump victory will be good for them as well. Clearly they don’t fear Trump as much as he thinks.”

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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The Story Behind The Miss Universe Donald Trump Called “Miss Piggy”

Near the end of last night’s presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the issue of how Trump sees and treats women came up, along with a story I hadn’t yet heard.

Apparently, the Miss Universe of 1996 (Trump owns the beauty contest) was called “Miss Piggy” and “Miss Housekeeping” by Trump when he noted after winning the crown she had gained some weight.

In addition to names, Trump blind-sided her by inviting reporters to “watch her work out.”

Machado is now an American citizen, and she plans to vote this November. Guess who she’s casting a vote for?

Just another entry in the long list of ways Donald Trump lacks the proper temperament to serve as the president of the United States.

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L.A. Times Goes After Trump For “Routinely” Lying

Donald Trump

The newspapers of America are suddenly interested in Republican Donald Trump’s lack of interest in the truth and his constant stream of false statements.

Earlier today it was the New York Times, and now, the L.A. Times steps up to bat:

Never in modern presidential politics has a major candidate made false statements as routinely as Trump has. Over and over, independent researchers have examined what the Republican nominee says and concluded it was not the truth — but “pants on fire” (PolitiFact) or “four Pinocchios” (Washington Post Fact Checker).

Trump’s candidacy was premised on upending a dishonest establishment that has rigged American political and economic life, so many of his loyalists are willing to overlook his lies, as long as he rankles the powerful, said Republican strategist Rob Stutzman.

“It gives him not only license, but incentive to spin fantasy, because no one expects him to tell the truth,” said Stutzman, who worked against Trump during the primaries. “They believe they’re getting lied to constantly, so if their hero tells lies in order to strike back, they don’t care.”

PolitiFact, a Tampa Bay Times site that won a Pulitzer for its coverage of the 2008 election, has rated 70% of the Trump statements it has checked as mostly false, false or “pants on fire,” its lowest score. By contrast, 28% of Clinton’s statements earned those ratings.

“As we noted when we awarded Trump our 2015 Lie of the Year award for his portfolio of misstatements, no other politician has as many statements rated so far down the dial,” PolitiFact writer Lauren Carroll reported in June. “It’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen.”

Additionally, news site Politico published a piece titled, “Donald Trump’s Week of Misrepresentations, Exaggerations and Half-Truths,” which chronicled nearly five hours of remarks by Trump over five days on the campaign trail.

The results bore out that Trump said something untrue every 3 minutes and 15 seconds. That adds up to 87 false statements in five days.

But do any of his supporters, or more importantly, any independent voters care?

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Commercial: Tecate Beer Trolls Donald Trump With #TecateBeerWall

Riffing on Donald Trump’s infamous “wall,” Tecate Beer trolls Trump with their own idea for a wall.

A three foot high wall where folks can get together and have beers.

Note this “Trumpian” statement from Saatchi & Saatchi New York’s Chris Moreira:

“This is a tremendous idea for Tecate. It really is the best idea. We worked with the best clients and hired the best people to work on it. Only the best. It’s terrific.”

(h/t JoeMyGod)

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Omarosa Says Donald Trump Wants The Presidency For Revenge

A new PBS Frontline documentary airing next week revisits the night that President Obama humiliated Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner after the Donald attempted to discredit the president as an American.

Featured in the segment is Omarosa Manigault, former Apprentice contestant, who tells us the true reason why Donald Trump is running for president:

“Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, who ever disagreed, who ever challenged him. It is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.”

Longtime advisor Roger Stone says that night in 2011 was “the night that [Trump] resolved to run for president.”

The documentary airs Tuesday night on PBS.

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Trump Takes The Bait – Again

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/opinion/sunday/hillary-clinton-for-president.html?_r=1

Donald Trump just can’t help himself. All you have to do to get a rise out of him is lay the bait and wait.

As I reported yesterday, billionaire Mark Cuban tweeted the news that he will have a front row seat at Monday’s first presidential debate at the invite of the Clinton campaign.

Cuban, as many know, has been an outspoken critic of the Donald and his presidential campaign for months now.

In what is surely the most predictable response, Trump today tweeted in retaliation.

Of course, along the way he initially misspelled Flowers first name, so he deleted and retweeted.

But what’s most infantile is bringing up a woman from Bill Clinton’s past as some kind of touché.

It does make you wonder if the Trumpster is planning on bringing up Bill’s moral lapses of the 80s or 90s as some kind of failure on Hillary’s part.

I think that’s definitely a losing proposition for Trump, and will hand Hillary the advantage.

Having been with my husband for 22 years – legally married as long as the law would allow, 13 years now – I have respect for those who work their way through marital difficulties.

A whole lot more than someone who cuts and runs on his first two wives.

UPDATE: Ms. Flowers herself took to Twitter to say that she WILL in fact be attending the debate Monday night.