Should I vote for Trump because at the very least he won’t be corrupt?
23 Answers
Writing Now: 
Ike Davis
Brendan Donegan
1) You think he has strong morals? He has absolutely no morals. He’s a bully. He’s a racist. He’s a xenophobe. He makes personal attacks on people. He publicly laughed at someone with physical disabilities. He swears on national TV. HE SUGGESTS KILLING INNOCENT CIVILIANS! (A war crime no less).
2) You think he is honest? He is absolutely a liar and has been proven to be such on many occasions. Don’t take my word for it, check out Politifact’s Donald Trump’s file
3) You doubt he could be corrupt? Trump has been tied to organized crime, drug dealers, and more. How Close Was Donald Trump To The Mob? He has been sued numerous times: We Investigated, Donald Trump is Named in at Least 169 Federal Lawsuits. He’s in REAL ESTATE! Of course he’s corrupt.
——
Suffice to say, I don’t really care about your politics or leanings, but I can guarantee you that Trump is not running for President to “Make America Great Again”. He is a narcissist and a bully. He is running entirely to feed his ego and for personal gain and he is using innocent people like you to do it.
If he ever does get into power the following will happen:
1) The United States will be the laughing stock of the world. (Seriously, Trump makes Toronto’s Rob Ford look like an angel.)
2) While we have very little actual details on any of his policies, just bragging and outlandish statements, but if he actually does any of the things he says he will: Build a wall with Mexico, deport all Muslims and Illegal Immigrants, get rid of the Environmental Protection Agency, put in surveillance on Muslims living in the United States, eliminate NASA, put MORE money into the U.S. Military… (and so on)
If he does those things the U.S. Economy will be toast. That is to say, the U.S. will be as broke as Trump was each time he declared bankruptcy. And in a way that would make the recession of 2008 and the depression of 1930s look like the day before payday.
So you can vote for Trump if you like, but you will be responsible for feeding this megalomaniac’s ego and severely harming the United States.
A decade ago I worked on a show with Mr. Trump. From my experience, I would argue that he views himself as a “sharp,” and the people that invest or vote for him he views as “flats.”
Sharps take from flats.
You know how he keeps repeating that he’ll put the “best people” on things?
I would submit to you that Donald Trump doesn’t have access to the best people. The best people are generally motivated by something other than acquiring lucre. They’re often motivated by pride in their work, fulfillment in discovery or creating something, altruism, or interest in being on the cutting edge. The people that Mr. Trump works with I would describe as opportunistic. Sharps. They work for him, because they are motivated by making money. His organizations look like that because those are the types of people that Donald Trump understands, so those are the people that are promoted in his organizations.
Have you ever looked at the government pay scale? It’s low against management in the private sector. Much lower than someone can make working for an organization that fleeces flats.
When you put opportunistic people in a low-paying position, where they have immense political power, you typically end up with high levels of corruption.
I would expect tremendous cronyism and corruption to exist under a Trump Presidency. Far beyond what I would expect of any of the career politicians in the race. The kind of corruption that’s so bad it ends up in history books a hundred years later. Teapot Dome-level stuff. A Trump Presidency would be the complete opposite of Plato’s ideal philosopher ruler.
If you’re voting for Trump because he won’t be corrupt, you’ve badly misjudged the situation. In short, you’re a flat.
It depends on whether decency matters to you.
Rod Young gives salient details (Thanks!). Trump is already corrupt. He lies. He flip flops. He energizes racists and xenophobes and misogynists.
Trump has uncanny political dexterity. To support Trump, one must already have some amount of racist or phobic feelings. And then everything he says “makes sense.” His supporters probably rationalize that decency does not matter, because they are trying to achieve a higher good (like building a wall or some such thing). Trump knows this about his supporters; he’s said at this point he can go and shoot someone on the street and his supporters would still support him.
Trump thinks his supporters are assholes–he’s counting on it.
So ask yourself if decency matters to you.
I assume that this question is honest and sincere.
NO! and here are the reasons why:
Strong morals? The way Trump attacks people including a handicapped reporter does not suggest strong morals. He failed to distance himself when two supporters invoked his name while attacking a homeless man. In fact he tried make a rather lame excuse. That doesn’t speak of strong morals
I’m not a fan of Fox news but the way he went after Megan Kelly was shameful. The question was a legitimate question that he tried to weasel out of by saying he was being misquoted. Remember this is the man who is supposed to be “telling it like it is”! Then he personally attacked her in a sexist manner.
He is a serial liar. He has lied about why he can’t release his tax returns.
He lied about muslims in New Jersey City just across from the Twin Towers cheering as they feel.
There are serious questions about shady dealings with his foundation.
There are serious questions about how he has conducted business including close connections to the Mob in New York and Atlantic City.
Donald Trump has a reputation for being thin skinned and not be able to take public criticism or being challenged. Hence his recent promise to alter libel laws. That with statements that protestors at his rallies should be roughed up should give any voter a pause for concern.
In my judgement he does not have the temperament to be president.
Addendum: As for Red Sanders, look at his issues. Which are unamerican?
Not corrupt? The guy’s mobbed up! I wouldn’t be surprised if the first person he pardoned was John Gotti.
Here’s just a few short biographical examples, easy to verify and by no means exhaustive, sufficient to illustrate that the man should be voted “Most Likely to be Involved in a Corruption Scandal”:
- He built casinos in New York City and Atlantic City in the 1980s. He entered Atlantic City by buying land from a Philadelphia mafia made man at twice the market value. He then hired a construction firm owned by the same mafia to build the casio, and they then controlled the bartenders union. Not to put to fine a point on it, but in the course of developing and operating that one casino, Donald Trump was on a first-name basis with multiple mafia dons.
- Several of Trump’s buildings in New York were built by the Genovese crime family. He shared an attorney with the head of that crime family and had at least one face-to-face meeting with the two of them.
- Trump Tower in New York was built by a mix of mafia laborers and illegal immigrants, and his company was later convicted of conspiring to avoid paying pension and welfare fund contributions.
I haven’t even gotten into the mid-1990s yet. That doesn’t include Trump University, the pyramid scheme tourist developments, or any of the on-going litigation.
I would take 50/50 odds that he gets indicted before the election, and 90:1 odds on obstruction of justice charges within his first 90 days.
Really? Not corrupt?
Look I am with you with regards to being excited about a candidate who isn’t part of the broken campaign finance system. It’s a big deal and maybe it will open the floodgates.
But that said, he is a climate change denier, says that the FBI Apple case is about one phone, calls his opponents shameful for using rhetoric towards him a fraction as disrespectful and insulting as he uses?
He is either corrupt to himself or others, a hypocrite, dishonest, someone willing to say anything, or someone who utterly has no command of facts or reason. None of these things are attributes I want in a president.
The benefit of having someone who isn’t corrupt is that they can discuss and address problems that the powers at be don’t want discussed or addressed. But so far, on the most important issues, he is either lock step or more extreme than than his conservative peers. He hasn’t shown a better adherence to truth than his peers.
So in Trump’s case, I don’t see the benefit of him self funding as making him a better candidate. Just my two bits.
Red Sanders! Hahahaha that’s a funny one, I hadn’t heard that one before. Seriously though, although there’s plenty of room for conservatives to dislike Bernie’s policy proposals, he has a lifelong record of crusading for the same cause and standing by the same allies. He is by nearly all accounts the most honest person in the race.
Trump is promising to protect you from people who don’t pose a meaningful threat to you, give money to people who are already a thousand times richer than you, and raise the prices on the goods you buy every day. Meanwhile he wants to take away healthcare from your neighbor down the street and deport the parents of the kid who mows your lawn. I really don’t understand why anyone would find that attractive.
Myself, I haven’t decided who to vote for yet (not wild about any of my choices, to be honest), but whoever I pick, it won’t be him.
No. Lack of corruption does not make you qualified to be president. Otherwise, the vast majority of Americans would be qualified. My next door neighbor is a mechanic for the post office. Totally not corrupt. Would not make a great president. I agree that honesty and independence from special interests are very desirable in a candidate. But so are foreign policy acumen, economic policy positions, and a strong commitment to the inclusiveness and dedication to human rights that has made this country stand apart. Trump fails on all counts, especially the last. Also, I would point out that Sanders is equally well known for his honesty, lack of corporate ties, and ‘speaking his mind.’ I’m guessing you’re not a fan of democratic socialism, but if it’s honesty you’re looking for, you can get it from Sanders without the sexism, racism, xenophobia, bullying and megalomania.
There is a fine line between honesty and the truth.
People may be very honest about what they believe, that doesn’t mean their beliefs and opinions aren’t utterly shambolic.
Furthermore, he is not corrupt in the sense that he takes bribes. Oh, no, he brazenly statedhe bribed politicians.
To describe someone as speaking out of their mind is not usually considered a good thing.
What exactly do you not like about Sanders that you refer to him as “red”? You do realize he has allies in the Republican Party because he is able to be pragmatic without compromising the content of his work? Or is it because, unlike Hillary, he doesn’t take payment from Wall Street to do after dinner speeches?
I am not really following the American presidential elections, I only saw him once on TV throwing some hostile racial bombs and I thought to myself why would he do that, why would he as a candidate be so open about something like this.
I came up with two possible explanations for this (though they might not be true but they’re the only explanations that made sense to me).
So the first thing is that there is a chance that he is actually honest and speaks his mind without placing a filter between his brain and tongue, he’s too honest to be stupid and not realise that such speech is more likely to harm his odds as a candidate than benefit it (assuming his political and economical agenda is strong enough to interest the masses), this could also be a good thing in some ways (not all) if he became the president of the United States, yet I doubt the advantages of his honesty wouldn’t be enough to outweigh the disadvantages (politics is a dirty game sometimes so you can’t be that honest) let alone being openly racist so the US might forget about equality and start a new era of discrimination).
The second possible explanation I came up with is that he is a demagogue (whether or not he’s actually a racist and he meant what he said) who’s taking advantage of those filled with racial prejudices, dancing to the rhythm of their emotions to take advantage of their hostility towards some minorities , I am not sure if his political opinions and agendas are better or worse than other candidates, but assuming he’s falling at the bottom of the league; in that case his demagoguery is very smart, he knows he’s not that good politically so he decided to drift the racist folks attention to him since if we as humans were given two options of either destroying what we hate or building what we love, most of us would choose choose destroying what we hate because sometimes we don’t make sense like that)
The fact that you are asking others what you should do makes me feel as though you shouldn’t allowed to have a say in who gets elected. Since you are gonna vote, my opinion is that you need to choose the less evil, because in my opinion they all suck. I will however leave this for you, despite being longer than I usually like in a video, it actually contradicts everything you said.
Rod Young has given a great answer. I’d just like to add to the corruption discussion regarding Mr. Trump by referring you to work by investigative reporter Wayne Barrett.
Mr. Barrett’s familiarity with Mr. Trump and Donald’s father Fred Trump goes back to the 1970s. He put his knowledge into a book, Trump: The Deals and the Downfall. Within the pages of the book, we learn that Trump’s lawyer was Roy Cohn, an attorney who was connected every which way – he cultivated relationships and business with prominent politicians, both Democrat and Republican, and to some of the most figures in the mafia at the highest level. Despite his connections – or perhaps because of them – Cohn was eventually disbarred for being unethical and dishonest.
In 1980, Cohn was interviewed by The New York Times and is quoted as saying, “Donald wishes he didn’t have to give money to politicians, but he knows it’s part of the game.” That was in response to accusations that Trump was using political connections to get sweetheart deals. Cohn is credited with giving Trump training in politics early in his career. Cohn was deeply involved in Pres. Reagan’s election. Trump’s campaign theme, “Make America Great Again!” – well that was Reagan’s slogan in 1980.
When Trump was building Trump Tower, Cohn hosted a meeting as his own apartment between Trump; the head of the Gambino crime family, Paul Castellano and the boss of the Genovese crime family, Tony Salerno. Castellano and Salerno were running S&A Concrete. S&A worked with Trump on lots of projects.
In Trump’s hotel and condominium projects, his most frequent partner has been the Bayrock Group, a New York developer with ties to the Cosa Nostra, but also to other organized crime operations. By 2002, Bayrock had become largely controlled by Felix Sater, who reputedly has links to Russian mobsters. Beginning in that year, Sater worked with Trump on the Trump SoHo hotel-condominium project. In 2010, Trump and the promoters of the project were the subject of a lawsuit alleging that sales figures were cooked to misrepresent the project’s financial health to induce them to buy condo units. Between 2002 and 2011 Sater received two felony convictions that also resulted in the conviction of six mobsters in the Russian mob and the Gambino crime family. Sater and Trump maintained business dealings during that time. After his felony convictions, Sater claimed to hold a position as senior advisor in 2010 and 2011 to Trump personally and to the Trump organisation.
This is all I have time for at the moment, but it’s enough to satisfy me that Trump is intimately familiar with the process of corruption. His election would only serve to increase the access that organized crime has with our government.
(By the way, not related to the question, I came across this from Fortune Magazine’s 1999 article, America’s Most Admired Companies. The Trump Plaza Casino in Atlantic City made the list. Dead last, the very worst managed of 496 companies that were rated.)
If you dig further, your own research will likely find stuff to add to my posting. By any metric, Mr. Trump has no business running the business of the United States.
Trump is ALREADY corrupt. The difference between his corruption and that of other candidates is that his puppet masters are more hidden, then theirs. Indeed, he uses “his own” money to fund his election. But how did he make that money? What existing network of relationships will influence the decisions he makes when in office? We really don’t know.
By contrast, the major funding for the other candidates is well known; even published. And while we shouldn’t be surprised to note “Big Oil” might find more favor with John Kasich than with Bernie Sanders, at least we know how the deck is stacked. Well, sorta.
Very trite, but perhaps “better the devil you know.” Corruption and politics go together; there is always something from a back room, some kind of payoffs. The best that can be done is to “legitimize” the process as much as possible so that it is at least not unexpected. If Hillary wins, some girl friends are going to get nice government jobs. We all know that: patronage.
Corruption is one thing, sleaze is another. With Trump, there appears to be a great deal of that.
Anonymous
109 Views
My opinion the best president in the 21h century is Obama. I like him a lot because they way he speaks. I don’t agree with him everything he says, but kind of good guy.
Donald Trump insults everbody, Handicapped, women, republications and his wife. If he wins, we will have a lot of entrainment in the white house. He is really a good joker. I don’t know what will happen to the US. I am positively sure, he will create more enemies. The US president’ jobs is one of the best job in the world. He won’t give damn about people. He keep saying that he wants to America great again. He does not have any single plan about the country but keep saying the same thing. I feel he writes his own speech. Pretty sure, US is not going down another 100 years. If we keep electing, dumb people, country will headed in the wrong direction. We all are good at one thing, everyone knows that. Business people and Politicians are two different coins. Business people money minded and they cannot run a country like a business. Maybe Donald Trump makes him a good president if he thinks before speaks. I don’t think even he thinks before he speaks.
Trump has strong morals in your opinion? I would not care to know where you get your morality (though this statement, “red Sanders”, gives me a good idea).
Trump lies *constantly*. He is caught lying in almost every public appearances. The problem is that his racist, xenophobic, low-information base doesn’t care that he lies.
Yes Sure. We did it with Narendra Modi for the same reasons and he is our Prime Minister now.
I must say people don’t regret the decision as the ‘same reasons’ stills exist. Nothing about corruption, straighforward personality and you must have seen him addressing people. He was treated like a rock star in your country 🙂
And I want you to vote for Donald Trump if he really posses the said qualities.
I DON’T WANT TO BREAK YOUR BUBBLE BUT NO PRESIDENT CAN’T MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE INSIDE AMERICA – What do I mean? Well a country like America is in a predicament which is caused by hundreds of years of governance good or bad. The predicament forces the President to act in a certain way. You could say that his hands are tied and he has a very narrow band that he can make changes. Look at how Barack Obama has been curtailed. He would have loved to do so much more with his Presidency.
THEY CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE OUTSIDE AMERICA – Look what happened when George Bush went after a war for oil in Iraq which turned into a disaster. In my opinion Donald Trump will be worse than Bush and could tip America over an edge. Donald Trump will be good for the top 1% in the country the rest will suffer terribly.
What you need is a middle of the road President who will keep things stable. There are a lot of economic headwinds like the Baby Boomers retiring and stopping mass consumption. There are loads of factors not least getting over the debt expansion over the last 70 years.
If corruption refers to personal gain then I’d say that Trump will be the most corrupted President if he is elected…he has too much interests in his personal wealth to either protect or enhance it that his signatures will be very corrupted…and anyone who thinks Trump will put the country over his personal interests is delusional…
From what I remember of trump in the past he was a lot more libral around the iraq wat he did disagree with it but he has become more conservative because he Is trying to be a republican but he still say he thought it was a bad ideas, unlike the commen republican opinion that it was a bad idea but the risk was to great to not, but trump still hold his opinion which they probably don’t like him having. I know this doesn’t answer your question really but when I saw it I thought of this as an example of him being corrupted but as not really.