Thanks go to Jim for this find….
Donald Trump Would ‘Fire’ Bush Over Iraq Invasion
07-14-2004
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Billionaire Donald Trump, America’s toughest employer, would like to fire the Bush Administration for its decision to invade Iraq, according to an interview in the August edition “Esquire,” due to be released on Friday. “Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we’re in. I would never have handled it that way. Does anybody really believe that Iraq is going to be a wonderful democracy where people are going to run down to the voting box and gently put in their ballot and the winner is happily going to step up to lead the country?,” said the host of NBC’s “The Apprentice,” whose hallmark line is “You’re fired.”
“C’mon. Two minutes after we leave, there’s going to be a revolution, and the meanest, toughest, smartest, most vicious guy will take over. And he’ll have weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam didn’t have,” Trump said in excerpts of the interview released in advance to Reuters.
“The Apprentice” was one of NBC’s biggest hits last season, making the real estate mogul a well-known entity to TV viewing audiences. “What was the purpose of the whole thing? Hundreds and hundreds of young people killed. And what about the people coming back with no arms and no legs? Not to mention the other side. All those Iraqi kids who’ve been blown to pieces. And it turns out that all of the reasons for the war were blatantly wrong. All this for nothing!,” Trump said. Trump also proclaims he would be “tougher” on terrorism. “Bin Laden would have been caught long ago. Tell me, how is it possible that we can’t find a guy who’s six-foot-six and supposedly needs a dialysis machine? Can you explain that one to me? We have all our energies focused on one place, where they shouldn’t be focused,” he said.
Proof that even a broken clock with a bad hairpiece is right twice a day. đ
Holy crap, Donald Trump just gave out Lindsey Graham’s private phone number to the entire world because Graham called him a “jackass:”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-lindsey-grahams-cell-phone-number/story?id=32595139
This man is insane.
Conservative blogger Jack at Ethics Alarms, with whom I frequently disagree, had a pretty good takedown of Trump’s buffoonery and the support he gets from some in the right-wing media:
“I almost wrote a post yesterday about how some right-wing pundits apparently have no concept of right and wrong, crippling them in matters like the Donald Trump campaign. I listened in amazementâI actually had to pull off the road, so as not to crashâas Sean Hannity and another right-wing fool (I didnât catch his name) went on and on about how if only Trump could avoid âmistakesâ and âself-inflicted woundsâ what a great candidate he would be, and how impugning the courage of a war hero like John McCain was such bad strategy, because it distracted from his message. These people really understand nothing, not ethics, not common sense, not character, and certainly not signature significance, even though Donald Trump is the living embodiment of the term…
…As for ethics, Trumpâs list of signature significance moments are legion, but the next-to-most recent one will suffice: the slur on John McCain. Trump avoided the draft, he lived the high life while McCain was being tortured in a Vietnam prison camp, and he responds to McCainâs criticism of his inflammatory and needlessly ugly comments on illegal immigration with an ad hominem attack against McCainâs war record? How could any decent, ethical, fairâŚyes, intelligentâŚperson think such a comment was anything but despicable? No decent, ethical, fair, intelligent person could, even on the worst day of their life. Trump said it because he isnât decent, ethical, fair, and intelligent: it is signature significance.
So Hannity and his dim guest bemoaned the fact that Trump would make such a âgaffe,â and expressed hope that he âlearnsâ from it. This manâHannityâ has a national TV and radio audience of millions, and he can only make them collectively more ignorant than they already are. Unethical, dumb people donât learn to be intelligent and ethical! Hannity thinks Trump can improve because Hannity doesnât understand character and is himself too intellectually limited to recognize how unethical Trump has already proven himself to be.
The very next day, Donald Trump publicly announces a Senatorâs cell phone to get back at him, as revenge. This would be the conduct of a certifiable creep if the guy was in the 7th Grade, and Trump wants to be President of the United States. He is so unethical that he doesnât see anything wrong with this. Only an asshole would do it to anyone: for a Presidential candidate to do it to a member of his own party and the U.S. Senate is the mark of an arrested adolescent sociopath running amuck.
By the way: telling a pollster that you support Trump for President is also signature significance.
http://ethicsalarms.com/2015/07/21/hail-trump-king-of-signature-significance/#more-27933
Mr. Trump is sort of a jerk but I think I would like to have a jerk in Washington that say whats on his mind then some no good liar like Obama that say whatever he think other people want tyo hear. we always vote for these politians may be is better we vote for some body who dont owe no body any favors like Trump cause he is a self made billionaire? I say vote for Trump cause tells it like it is and he is no fool.
I dont think he has any thing against Mexican peoples he just dont like the ones who dont have papers who come here trying to take my job. I dont like them either and my grand parents came here from Michiocan the legal way.
Jose, Trump is not a “self-made billionaire.” He likes to say he is, but in reality he inherited millions of dollars from his real estate tycoon father.
Trump’s lie that he is a “self-made man,” which he has repeated many times, is proof that he does not “tell it like it is;” instead, he lies to further his own ego.
Jose thank you for commenting on Post Scripts. I agree with you that it’s time for honesty in Washington.
I don’t think Trump has anything against the Mexican people either. The media always fails to distinguish between people who come here illegally and those who abide by our immigration rules. It’s a political game used to turn minorities against Republicans.
I hope you will comment again Jose.
The American people have had a good relationship with the Mexican people who migrate, especially in border states and in California. Why wouldn’t we, we share many of the same values. But our open border is bringing crime to our streets and leaves us open to terrorists.
If true McCain wasn’t exactly a hero when it came to his first wife. McCain also referred to his colleagues and Tea Party folks as Wacko Birds and has been know to use disparaging language quite often.
I respect the man’s service but let’s not make him a victim. his record after his service is mixed, including his ethics.
“Conservative” blogger Jack might take a page from his ethical message and apply it to himself:
His tone is petty and condescending for starters. And referring to Sean Hannity’s audience as “collectively ignorant” and his guest as “dim” isn’t any different than what Trump did it’s just covertly couched in somewhat softer language.
Maybe the morals and ethics hall monitors are just like the rest of us…but apparently they haven’t realized it.
Tina, Jack at Ethics Alarms has used similar language to go after Hilary Clinton and her supporters. He’s a conservative on just about everything except for gay marriage, but I appreciate him calling Hannity what he is; he advances ignorance, and I’m glad some conservatives recognize that. Hannity is unethical, and it’s valid for EA’s Jack to point that out.
Chris at #5 if a man takes his million dollar inheritance and turns it into a billion dollar empire I’d say he has the right to say he’s a “self-made-billionaire.”
“You didn’t build that” is a lie. The idea that any American who worked hard and improve his holdings or nest egg was just lucky is grossly untruthful and divisive.
Tina, it’s actually estimated that Trump inherited somewhere between $40 million and $200 million.
http://m.sodahead.com/living/donald-trump-inherited-upon-his-fathers-death-200-million-in-cash-and-over-15000-nyc-apartments-wh/question-4351959/
It’s actually really easy, because of the way the investment system works, to turn that kind of money into a billion dollars within a decade without really doing much of anything. I could do it and I know very little about money management. You could do it easier than I could. That Trump managed to do so is not all that impressive a feat, especially given his multiple bankruptcies.
“You didn’t build that” originally referred to the infrastructure that makes business possible, not to people’s businesses themselves. And government investments helped Trump’s father make his fortune, according to the link above:
“It is critical to note, however, that his fatherâs success, which granted Donald Trump such a great advantage, was enabled and buffered by governmental financing programs.
In 1934, while struggling during the Great Depression, financing from
the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) allowed Fred Trump to revive
his business and begin building a multitude of homes in Brooklyn,
selling at $6,000 apiece. Furthermore, throughout World War II, Fred
Trump constructed FHA-backed housing for US naval personnel near major
shipyards along the East Coast.”
Tina:
I once supported McCain as a fellow soldier, and he was a hero for holding out against the Communists in North Vietnam for four years. But after he got home and was elected, only held out against the Communists (Democrats)in Congress for about 6 months. Then he changed. First he surrendered, then he became a compromiser, then a collaborator, and finally an all-out villain. He is very unpopular in his home state of Arizona, but people have been afraid to criticize a “war hero.” Good for Trump not to be politically correct.
Soaps your comments hold a lot of weight. The progression perfectly describes his transition. Thank you.
I say good for Trump also in the context you describe…PC has to be defeated.
My best friend, going all of the way back to the 1970s, son married into the McCain clan. Based on my first and second hand experiences the article you linked to Tina is accurate.
I’m not a Trump fan, but I understand why people are jumping on his bandwagon. After being lied to by politicians like McCain, Obama and Hillary they’re looking for someone who will at least be honest and truthful with them for a change. And for someone with enough money of his own he can finance his own campaign and he won’t sell his soul to the highest bidder when he’s in the oval office.
Chris Trump didn’t just sit back and play it safe in the market, he took risks. He’s a commercial real estate developer. If you know anything about the red tape developers have to go through to get something done, especially in big cities like New York or foreign countries, you wouldn’t be so quick to say it was easy. The bankruptcies are an indicator of a very tough business.
It’s easy for people that have no money, or very little, to assume that having money makes life free of problems and barriers. Granted, having money to start with helps give you a boost but frankly it’s all relative:
As you can see the cost to build commercial far exceeds what Trump inherited. He would have to raise money (take a risk) to get it done.
Money is not the panacea that it seems from the outside. Understanding how it works makes you realize that not everyone will be wealthy and most probably wouldn’t want to…too much responsibility!
“referred to the infrastructure that makes business possible, not to peopleâs businesses themselves.”
It doesn’t matter. The business person contributes in several ways to build that infrastructure. They pay in personal and/or corporate taxes, gas taxes, local taxes…and they create jobs for others who then contribute in tax monies. To claim that business people “didn’t build that” is to deny from where wealth, and government revenue, comes. Of course they “built that!”
The words are divisive. They were meant, politically, to pit the non-wealthy against the wealthy. The sentiment is underhanded, sleazy, and totally false.
From the article linked:
Fred Trump obviously did his part for the war effort as many people who were left at home did, My dad left his dream job at Coors to become a machinist.
The Depression was longer than it needed to be as a result of poor decisions made by our leaders…just like today. Government financing is not superior to private financing and investment because instead of those who can afford it taking the risk the taxpayer is asked to bear the burden.
I have never faulted people for taking advantage of government programs. As long as it’s the law people will use the system. It just doesn’t work well for many reasons. Government has a limited part to play through reasonable regulation.
And by the way, Chris, FHA facilitates loans with lower rates and better terms. The benefit there was to those who purchased the homes. The benefit to Trump was his chances of selling the homes had increased. He still had to take a risk.
Chris,
Now that you know Lindsey’s phone number I think you should give him a call. I think the two of you could have a nice chat.
Chris’s opinion of Sean Hannity is totally wrong…just in case someones interested in another opinion.
In no particular order—
John McCain
John Kerry
Jimmy Carter
Randy (Duke) Cunningham
Lyndon Johnson
Maybe there’s something in the salt water?
Trump is campaigning on more jobs. Bet these kid’s parents would appreciate a good high paying job.
Census Bureau: 7 million more kids on food stamps than in 2007:
“More children received food stamps in 2014 than before the start of the Great Recession.
The number of kids who receive food stamps in 2014 passed the 16 million mark for the first time since the U.S. Census Bureau started publishing the statistic in 2007, the government agency said Wednesday.
Prior to the economic recession that began in 2007, just one in eight â or roughly nine million â children were receiving food stamp assistance, compared to the one in five now on the program.
The number of children receiving food stamps living with a single mother has also nearly doubled from 2007 to 2014, from 5.5 million to 8.1 million, the data shows.
In each category of children receiving food stamps by living arrangement â be it living with mother only, father only, married parents, two unmarried parents or no parent present â the number has increased from 2007 to 2014.”
Continued..
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/census-bureau-7-million-more-kids-on-food-stamps-than-in-2007/article/2559427
Tina, I think it would have been better if Obama had said “You didn’t build that alone. That seemed to be what he was getting at in the majority of his speech:
“There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with meâbecause they want to give something back. They know they didn’tâlook, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own… If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a businessâyou didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”
I disagree that the intent was to “put the wealthy against the non-wealthy.” In fact in the first sentence above he says there are a lot of wealthy people trying to help, and I think the full context shows that he’s asking people to work together, as that’s what breeds success. He erred in the last two sentences, which of course are what his critics siezed on. I can’t necessarily blame you for this; taken literally the comments do sound bad, and we have very different opinions on Obama’s motives and ideas, so we’ll have to agree to disagree here.
I love Donald Trump. Super intelligent, fearless against his opponents, honest, open and conservative.
I HOPE HE WINS!
Dura… lets just hope Trump to overload his mouth. Its great to be blunt and speak your mind, but it ought to be tempered with dignity and wit.
Dura, just one more thought, if Trump wins you know the democrats are going after him just like Goldwater. They scared voters saying Goldwater was going to get us into a nuclear war, well, I betcha we’re going to see that replayed if Trump gets the nomination.
Chris I appreciate your perception but I don’t believe it’s correct because I don’t believe Obama favors independent business. He prefers big government and he wants the people to believe that government is responsible for whatever job or prosperity individuals may have. He also may have been trying to clean up the remarks made by Elizabeth Warren.
Also, if I remember correctly, these remarks followed on the heels of the 99% movement against the wealthy and corporations. There is a definite theme pitting one group against another to drive people to the party that favors big government.
“…the first sentence above he says there are a lot of wealthy people trying to help…”
Not exactly. He said there are a lot of wealthy people “who agree with me”…”because they want to give something back.
What does that mean? It means he is right that taxes should remain high and regulations punishing to support big government solutions, as if the only way to “give back” is through the government and as if business doesn’t already do a lot to “give back” already.
“… heâs asking people to work together, as thatâs what breeds success”
What success? What does that mean to him? I say his record reflects a man who believes only when people work through government are they “working together,” as if the people working for individual companies don’t work together and have success.
It has to be pointed out here that there has been little success in terms of opportunity and prosperity for people under his ideas and the policies that flow from it.
Government under Obama crushes investment and growth in the private sector…where is his administration’s willingness to “work together” with job creators?
We can agree to disagree but I don’t think you can back your opinion up in terms of the result and conditions that reflect his ideas.
“Also, if I remember correctly, these remarks followed on the heels of the 99% movement against the wealthy and corporations. There is a definite theme pitting one group against another to drive people to the party that favors big government.” Tina
Amen! -Jack
Thanks Duramax. It’s going to be an interesting year as we watch the large Republican field duke it out for the nomination. Trump definitely challenges the rest of the field to speak plainly about the problems we face and to be bold in terms of solutions.
I hope you’ll join us at Post scripts as we debate the issues and the candidates.
Tina, the results under Obama have been far from perfect but it is important to note that 2014 was the best year for jobs growth since 1999:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/09/news/economy/december-jobs-report-unemployment/
Things are picking up and while I don’t credit Obama for all of that, I think the negative impressions about his jobs record are exaggerated.
Jack, I agree with your comments about Trump’s lack of “dignity and wit,” and for all Goldwater’s faults those were two things he had in spades.
Trump is never, ever going to win–he’s a joke to nearly everyone, including most conservatives now.
Chris: “…but it is important to note that 2014 was the best year for jobs growth since 1999”
A nice sound bite but not reflective of actual conditions. Job growth has not been sufficient to keep up with population growth. Also, the number of people that have given up looking for work is very high:
More people now depend on government assistance like food stamps just to get by.
“Things are picking up”
No Chris they are not. A fairly flat 2% growth is the average over 7 years and I’m being generous.
Obama is a bigger joke but you lefties will never get it, or say it, no matter how many statistics we show you.
Why is it that when a right winger makes an indelicate or insensitive statement he’s a “joke” but when a lefty does he’s understood and forgiven? Example:
Vice President Joe Biden explained – “Sure, Biden’s off the cuff remarks are sometimes controversial, but you gotta love the way he adds some humor to the world of politics.”
Joe Bidens “gaffs”:
More here:
The President chose him as his VP. The party faithful cheered and voted…twice! The media overlooked his indelicate insulting remarks!
Tina I certainly can’t defend those Biden quotes. The most I can say for him is that he doesn’t seem to seek the spotlight, so his stupid and inappropriate comments just fly under the radar. Trump is very in-your-face about his stupidity, whereas Biden tends to stay in the background. Of course some of that’s due to the media choosing what to focus on, but a large part is their respective personalities.