Okay, I was actually not going to post this article. But since my parents found Trump presidential campaign ad on one of my articles, I feel that I have no choice but to do this. During the 2016 campaign season, the media tends to cast Donald Trump as the crazy/racist one while portraying Hillary Clinton as the politically corrupt one. However, while I don’t contest that Hillary hasn’t been a saint for the last few decades, but to say that she’s more corrupt, untrustworthy, and dishonest than Trump, well, that’s just completely wrong. I’m well aware that the news media tends to cover Hillary’s political and personal baggage on the airwaves down to the last detail while sending legions of journalists in their midst whenever she’s implicated in a government investigation. But all of what’s turned out of those findings about Hillary is just that she happens to be a flawed but normal politician. The only thing that’s abnormal about her is that she’s a former First Lady. That’s it. Yes, she has baggage but a lot of her and Bill’s cases involve suspicion and shadowy links. But all that just adds fuel for the conspiracy theorists at Fox News. Still, though I don’t have any objections to the press covering Hillary this way, especially in a presidential election year, they don’t seem to do the same to Trump. Because when Trump is implicated in anything, the media just glosses it over briefly and moves on. This is not how candidate scandals should be covered, especially if we’re talking about the scandals surrounding Trump which I think are well worth revisiting and discussing. Compared to Hillary, Trump has a long and documented history of corruption since the 1970s and his flamboyant corruption run to the very core of his identity and prospective governing choices. Hell, many of his scandals have been recorded in court cases and legal proceedings. Sure he may have a complete lack of public office experience, but his resume is far from clean unlike most novice candidates. A lot of the stuff he’s done is downright appalling as well as shown that he’s willing to risk ruining people’s lives in order to get what he wants with no second thought. So if you’re a person who disdains corruption, then your rationale for voting for Trump to elect him is nothing short of idiotic. Yes, the Clintons may be corrupt practitioners of Washington’s cash-for-access culture as well as careless and susceptible to greed. But their corruption only pertains to normal, political things. Sure that doesn’t excuse their behavior, but their deeds aren’t unprecedented. Trump on the other hand, is corrupt on a historic scale and the fact people are willing to trust him over Hillary to run the country is insane. Here I have a rough cheat sheet of Trump scandals you might want to see for yourself. Consider this a highlight reel except that the highlights tend to show Trump as awful person he is. These are not in chronological order. It’s also a long post and viewer discretion is advised.

Business Failures:

1980s: Used junk bonds to build Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City (despite claiming he wouldn’t) and was unable to keep up with interest payments once the casino was built. So Trump declared bankruptcy in 1991 which led him to sell his yacht, his airline, and half of his ownership in the casino.

1983-1985: Bought the USFL New Jersey Generals for $9 million but the league lost $30 million for obvious reasons regardless of how the team was doing. Lobbied to move the USFL games to the fall to compete with the NFL which commanded the TV networks. So Trump’s lawyers and the league filed a $1.69 billion antitrust and monopoly lawsuit against the NFL. Jury awarded the USFL $3 million in damages and the league later folded.

1989-1993: Acquired 17 Boeings Eastern Air Shuttle and 17 Boeing 727 that formed Trump Airlines which he aimed to make it more Trumpy luxurious for $380 million on 22 small bank loans. Customers used to Eastern Air Shuttle’s no frills service could no longer afford it and it never turned a profit. It didn’t help that Trump was more interested in revamping this airline to suit his image instead of focusing on his customers’ real needs. Not to mention, the high price of jet fuel due to the Gulf War in 1991. As Time explains, “The high debt forced Trump to default on his loans, and ownership of the company was turned over to creditors. The Trump Shuttle ceased to exist in 1992 when it was merged into a new corporation, Shuttle Inc. No word on whether the gold-plated faucets survived the merger.”

1989: Launched Trump: The Game which was a Monopoly themed board game with a lot of illegal stuff in it that failed within a year. A 2005 attempt at reviving the game via The Apprentice also failed.

1992: Declared bankruptcy when Trump Plaza went bust after losing more than $550 million.  Though he gave up his stake, Trump insulated himself from personal losses and managed to keep his CEO title. However, he surrendered any salary or role in day-to-day operations. By the time all was said and done, he was $900 million in personal debt.

1995-2004: Declared bankruptcy when Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts was $1.8 billion in debt before later emerging as Trump Entertainment Resorts. Though Trump was chairman of the new company, he no longer had a controlling stake in it. Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts had lost money every year while Trump ran it as CEO which later lost its shareholders and 90% of their money. And at the start, the company already had a $494 million in long term debt but its borrowings ballooned to $1.7 billion by the end of the next year. In the Trump Hotels and Casinos transaction to buy Trump Taj Mahal for $898 million, the company would take $817 million in junk bonds at 11.25% interest. Trump Taj Mahal was already losing money from the start because its big interest burden due to Trump financing its construction with junk bonds in the 1980s. In 1996, Trump Hotels would by Trump’s Castle for $520 million with the announced price at a staggering 18 times cash flow. It’s not even clear whether the Castle was worth its over $350 million debt load. By 2002, Trump Hotels’ debt was $2.1 billion and its leverage ratio expanded to 27, approaching levels that sank Lehman Brothers during the 2008 financial crisis. Meanwhile Trump paid himself $32 million. It was the worst performing publicly trading gaming company at the time, especially from 1995-2000 when the sector itself was going gangbusters.

1995: Lost $916 million according to his tax returns from that year.

2004: Licensed his name to Trump Signature Collection clothing line which is manufactured in China and Mexico. After accusing Mexico of sending its rapists in to the US, Macy’s dropped the line. Now the company Phillips-Van Heusen which manufactures his line said after losing its main retail outlet at Macy’s, plans to dump Trump in 2018. Not to mention, Trump has ironically threatened Apple, Carrier, and Ford to strongarm them into bringing their outsourced workers back to the US. Hell, in 2005, he even expressed support for outsourcing.

2006: Launched Trump Vodka which aspired to make “Trump and Tonic” the most ordered drink in America. Folded in 2011.

2006: Launched Trump Mortgage just when the housing bubble was reaching its bursting point and dismissed talk about it on CNBC by saying, “Who knows more about financing than me?” Apparently anyone who thinks starting a mortgage company at the time was a very bad idea. Company folded 18 months later to nobody’s surprise.

2006: Launched travel site Go.Trump which focused on luxury hotels. Failed within a year.

2007: Launched Trump Magazine which targeted affluent readers and covered luxury living. Failed within 2 years.

2007: Launched Trump Steaks which bought meat from the Sysco-owned Buckhead Beef which used the name and sold them through a New York City technology store called The Sharper Image. Company folded within a year for obvious reasons. Seriously, who the hell sells steaks at a technology store?

2009: Declared bankruptcy when Trump Entertainment Resorts fell again which led him to resign from the board though the company retained its name. In 2014, he successfully sued to take his name off the company and its casinos, one of which had already closed and the other being near closing. The Trump Plaza Casino and Hotel has closed permanently. Over the 15 years Trump served as chairman of both Trump Hotels and Resorts and Trump Entertainment Resorts, both companies posted net losses with profits being decimated by gigantic interest costs at $1.7 billion, excluding extraordinary items.

Screwing Workers:

1970s-present: As of 2016, he and his companies have been sued 20 times for mistreating female employees. These include a woman in Miami fired for getting pregnant, two women fired for complaining about co-worker sexual harassment, a female supervisor who Trump pulled aside to complain about hiring, another supervisor being threatened with punishment for not firing a female employee for being fat, a married waitress Trump subjected to unwanted flirtations, and a number of women testifying Trump repeatedly instructing managers to hire younger and prettier workers at his LA golf club.

1980: Demolished the Bonwit Teller store and its architecturally beloved Art Deco edifice (though he promised not to) in order to build Trump Tower. In order to accomplish this, the managers hired 200 undocumented Polish workers to tear it down, paying $5 an hour for backbreaking work when they were paid at all. Workers didn’t wear hard hats and often slept on site. Workers who complained about back pay were threatened with deportation. Trump claimed he was unaware that undocumented immigrants were working at the site (while testimony under oath shown by Massimo Calabresi proves that Trump was aware of undocumented workers being employed there). In 1991, a federal judge found Trump and the defendants guilty of conspiring to avoid paying Local 95 construction workers’ union pension and welfare contributions. The decision was appealed, with partial victories on both sides, and settled in 1999. Marco Rubio used this story in a debate to accuse Trump of hypocrisy in his illegal immigration stance and rightfully so.

1980s-present: Has been subject to various complaints and lawsuits by contractors, waiters, dishwashers, and plumbers who have worked on his projects and claimed that his company has stiffed them for work as well as refused to pay for their services. USA Today did a lengthy review of this, finding that some of these contracts were for hundreds and thousands of dollars, many owed to small businesses that failed or struggled to continue because of unpaid bills. Not to mention that Trump was found to have improperly withheld compensation for undocumented Polish immigrant workers. In regards to these wage theft allegations, Trump has offered various excuses like shoddy workmanship. However the scale of the problem that includes hundreds of allegations makes it hard to credit. In some cases, even lawyers Trump has hired to defend him have sued him for failing to pay their fees. One Trump employee admitted in court that a painter was stiffed on account that managers had determined they had “already paid enough.” These cases are particularly damaging since they show Trump not driving a hard bargain with other businesses as well as harming ordinary, hard-working Americans. Not only that, but he’s now being sued by little girls who performed during his campaign. And it’s because he’s running for president and is subject to such scrutiny that I decided to do a blog post on wage theft. Trump’s record on stiffing workers out of their hard earned money should get long-term media attention because it shows us the kind of sociopath he is.

1980s-present: Despite his immigration stance, has hired foreign guest workers at his resorts which involves a claim that he can’t find Americans to do the work. This even when Americans applied for the same positions. Guess foreign guest workers are easier to exploit and are less likely to complain about wage theft.

1999-?: Has been subject to claims by former models at Trump Model Management that they and others worked for the agency in the US despite not having proper permits. Some worked on tourist visas, either never getting the correct permits or getting them only after working in the US illegally for months. Some models also received H-1B visas which a special type of permit for workers in specialized industries, a program Trump has criticized. In true Trump fashion, the models were kept under squalid conditions while earning almost nothing for the work they did. It’s even embarrassing that Trump has argued for much more enforced immigration laws as well as building a wall and making Mexico pay for it. There’s even scrutiny over his current wife Melania’s immigration status at the time as well.

2000s: Spent half a million dollars to a law firm in order to keep service employees from his Las Vegas hotels and resorts from unionizing. According to a 2015 lawsuit by the Culinary Workers Union, Trump Hotel Las Vegas “violated the federally protected rights of workers to participate in union activities” and engaged in “incidents of alleged physical assault, verbal abuse, intimidation, and threats by management.” That October, the owners sued the Culinary Workers Union and another, alleging they had knowingly distributed flyers falsely stating that Trump had stayed at a rival unionized hotel instead of his non-unionized establishment. Today, it’s said that the average worker at Trump’s Las Vegas hotels earns $3.33 an hour, well below the minimum wage.

2012: According to the Daily Beast, forced production employees from The Apprentice to work in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy despite New York City being effectively shut down and in a state of dire emergency. Employees had to brave dangerous commuting conditions to get to Trump Tower. One ex-employee remembered, “We were in his building, and we fought with [a] manager, who said, ‘It’s not from me, it’s from [Donald Trump] himself.’ Ivanka [Trump] did very nicely [come down] and thank us for coming in. She really was very nice but we were all [thinking], ‘Well, it was easy for you Trumps to simply come downstairs, why are we here?’” Trump would go on to use the hurricane as a PR coup and promote birtherism.

Unfair Business Practices: 

1980s-2000s: Has been repeatedly fined for breaking rules related to his operation of his casinos. In 1990, his father Fred strolled in the already troubled Taj Mahal and bought 700 chips worth $3.5 million. Though this purchase helped the casino pay its debt due at the time, Fred Trump had no plans to gamble which led to New Jersey’s gaming commission ruling it a loan violating operating rules and fined Trump $30,000. Of course, Taj Mahal went bankrupt the following year. As noted above, New Jersey also fined Trump $200,000 for arranging to keeping black employees away from Mafioso Robert LiButti’s gambling table. And in 1991, the Casino Control Commission fined Trump’s company $450,000 for buying LiButti 9 luxury cars. In 2000, Trump was fined $250,000 for violating New York state law in lobbying to prevent an Indian casino from opening in the Catskills, fearing that it would compete against his Atlantic City casinos. Trump would admit no wrongdoing in the New York case but he’s now out of the casino business.

1986: With aims to expand his casino empire in Atlantic City, mounted a hostile takeover of Holiday and Bally by buying up stock in the companies in order to gain control. But Bally found what he was doing and sued Trump for anti-trust violations arguing, “Trump hopes to wrest control of Bally from its public shareholders without paying them the control premium they otherwise could command had they been adequately informed of Trump’s intentions.” Trump gave up in 1987 but was fined $750,000 by the Federal Trade Commission for failing to disclose his purchases of stock in the two companies, which exceeded minimum disclosure levels.

1990s: Along with his demolition contractor, was sued by Vera Coking for damage to her home during the construction of Trump Plaza and Casino. In 1997, she dropped the suit against Trump and settled with the contractor for $90,000. She refused to sell her home to Trump and won a 1998 Supreme Court decision that prevented Atlantic City from using eminent domain to condemn her property.

1990s-2000s: Had a campaign denigrating Native Americans and their casinos which led to a testimony before Congress. “If [Indian gaming] continues as a threat, it is my opinion that it will blow. It will blow sky high. It will be the biggest scandal ever or one of the biggest scandals since Al Capone. That an Indian chief is going to tell [mobster] Joey Killer to please get off his reservation is almost unbelievable to me.” His words were so incendiary that lawmakers challenged him to release information to the FBI. One said it was the most irresponsible testimony he’d ever heard. At the same time, he pursued deals with Indian casinos and even struck an arrangement with one of them. As Newsweek reported, “And in his purposeless, false and inflammatory statements before Congress, Trump alienated politicians from around the country, including some who had the power to influence construction contracts—problems that could have been avoided if he had simply read his prepared speech rather than ad-libbing.”

1994: Tried to cash in through dumping 24 million gallons of raw sewage in the Hudson River.

1994-2000s: Escaped a crippling debt load by selling the Riverside South development to a group from Hong Kong who let him keep a 30% stake in the partnership. Trump would later oversee construction of several Trump branded apartment towers and had plans for his logo to be spread over a big stretch of western Manhattan. However, in 2005, his Hong Kong partners who had a controlling stake decided to sell and use the proceeds to buy two skyscrapers without the Trump name: 1290 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan and 555 California Street in San Francisco. Trump hated the deal and sued his partners to block it, arguing that the development bearing the Trump name was worth about $1 billion more than the price his partners had agreed on. Yet he ended up massively profiting from the transaction when Vornado Trust bought out his partners at a price valuing the two buildings at $2.6 billion. Trump remained in the partnership and saw his stake soar.

1993-1996: Opened his 290-foot Trump Princess Indiana riverboat casino in Gary, Indiana with the promise to donate 7.5% of its proceeds to charity before dumping his local minority investors. The jilted investors sued for breach of contract but he settled with 6 of them a year later for a total of more than $2.2 million. But no foundation was ever created and two investors refused to settle. Though the jury didn’t find Trump guilty of fraud (though his company liable), they awarded the remaining two investors $1.33 million. This led Trump to avoid making a charitable contribution that would’ve been worth $4.5 million to $30 million. He also cut a deal with the mayor before dumping the investors for a different foundation which Trump would run himself and wouldn’t receive any benefit from the riverboat. Trump would later win this suit against the two remaining investors on appeal. In 2005, Trump sold the Indiana riverboat for a quarter of a billion to Barden.

2004-2015: Hosted The Apprentice and later Celebrity Apprentice on NBC which made him a star. But not without controversy. There were instances Trump systematically demeaning women and discussing which ones he’d like to have sex with as well as getting input from the men. There was also a time when he made them work after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. However, while winners have been named “executive vice presidents” as well as given an “owner’s representative” title, they were actually employed as publicity spokespeople for the Trump Organization. Second season winner Kelly Perdew claimed on his first day working for Trump, he was introduced to Florida developers working on a Trump-based condo, the Trump Tower, in Tampa. He was later told he’d appear at promotional events to help encourage sales.

2005: Received $17 million in insurance for hurricane damage to his Mar-a-Lago club. The Associated Press found little evidence of such large scale damage which wasn’t backed up by club members and even Trump supporters in the Palm Beach area. One of them even talked about how Trump threw a wedding at Mar-a-Lago for his son Donald Jr. two weeks after Hurricane Wilma, which had 370 guests. And claimed that while the celebration had to be moved from the front lawn due to storm damage, the rest of the place was fine. Palm Beach County building department shows no records for construction on that scale during the storms save a $3,000 permit for repairs to storm-damaged outdoor lighting and the vacuuming of sand from the property’s beachfront pool. Trump later transferred some of the $17 million into his personal accounts. It’s likely that this is a classic case of insurance fraud.

Screwing Clients, Customers, and Tenants:

1981-1986: Bought a building in Central Park South with aspirations to build luxury condos despite that the current tenants at the time were understandably unwilling to let go of their rent-controlled apartments. Trump used every trick in the book to get them out, even trying to reverse exceptions that the previous landlord had given him such as knocking down walls and threatening eviction. Tenants complaints range from cutting off heat and hot water as well as having building management refuse to make repairs or take action on any pest infestations (leading to two swearing in court that mushrooms grew on their carpet from a leak). Trump would later place newspaper ads offering to house homeless New Yorkers in empty units since he didn’t intend to fill the units with permanent residents anyway. City officials turned him down over the idea seeming inappropriate. Trump also sued tenants for $150 million when they complained. However, Trump gave in, settling the tenants and agreeing to monitoring. The building still stands today with his son Eric owning a unit on the top floor.

2013: Is sued by members of the Trump National Golf Club of Jupiter, Florida for breach of contract. In this class action lawsuit, the members allege that after Trump bought the resort from Marriot, he unilaterally changed membership terms in ways that converted their refundable deposits ranging from $55,000-$221,000 into nonrefundable deposits. Trump and his team deny any wrongdoing and the trial was set a week before the RNC.

Discrimination:

1973-1975: The Department of Justice filed suit against him and his father for housing discrimination at 39 sites around New York on grounds that Trump Management had refused to rent or negotiate rentals to racial minorities. The DOJ also charged them requiring different rental terms and conditions due to race as well as lied to blacks that apartments were unavailable. Trump called such accusations, “absolutely ridiculous.” He even denied the charges and insisted that the government was trying to force his company to rent to welfare recipients. The Trumps would later hire former Joe McCarthy defender Roy Cohn and sue the DOJ for $100 million. In the end, they settled with the government, promised not to discriminate, and submitted to regular review by the New York Urban League. But neither would admit their guilt.

1978: The Department of Justice brings him and his father back to court on contempt of consent decree pertaining to their promise not to discriminate. According to Wayne Barrett from Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, “Cohn picked up his argument where he’d left off, branding the new case a ‘rehash’ without ‘the slightest merit,’ attributable to ‘planted malcontents .’ It all remained irrelevant to Donald. The bottom line was that two government discrimination lawsuits had had no effect on the company’s ability to make development deals, usually with the government’s help. The charges were just not a part of the world in which he operated.”

1992: Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino fined $200,000 over managers removing black card dealers at the request of a certain big-spending gambler. Trump has had a long record disparaging his black casino employees as “lazy” in vividly bigoted terms. A former employee at Trump’s Castle claimed, “When Donald and Ivana came to the casino, the bosses would order all the black people off the floor. It was the eighties, I was a teen-ager, but I remember it: they put us all in the back.” A 1991 book about Trump by former Trump Plaza and Casino John O’Donnell has Trump saying, “And isn’t it funny. I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day.” O’Donnell also reported Trump saying of a black employee, “I think the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”

1996: Sued by 20 African Americans in Indiana for failing to hire mostly minority workers for a riverboat casino at Lake Michigan.

Shady Ties:

1970s-?: Has been linked to the mafia many times over the years with varying degrees of closeness. Many seem to be the sorts of interactions with mobsters that were inevitable for someone in the construction and casino business at the time. Though Trump has portrayed himself as an unwilling participant, not everyone agrees since strings of other allegations persist. For instance, Trump’s lawyer Roy Cohn also represented Genovese crime family boss Tony Salerno. Cohn would later be disbarred for fraud and other serious wrongdoing in 1986. And according to investigative journalist Wayne Barrett, Trump paid twice the market rate to a mob figure for the land under Trump Plaza in Atlantic City. Michael Isikoff reported that Trump was close to John Gotti associate Robert LiButti whom he invited on his yacht and helicopter as well as bought him 9 luxury cars in one case. Though Trump has been questioned in court over the ties, he’s never been convicted of anything. Though Trump Plaza was fined $200,000 for keeping black employees away from LiButti’s table at his behest and $450,000 for giving him the cars. Say what you want about Ted Cruz, but his suggestion that Trump’s ties with the mafia which could be more extensive than reported might be a reason why he won’t release his tax returns seems to make a lot of sense. Because Cruz had evidence to back up this claim.

1982: Dealt personally with mob-linked figures while opening his first Atlantic City Casino.  They were widely known “agent” of the Philadelphia mob’s Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, Kenneth Shapiro and Teamster and known mobster associate Daniel Sullivan who co-owned a site Trump needed for his casino. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump negotiated with them directly to lease the land and told a New Jersey regulatory agency that “They are not bad people from what I see.” In 1984, Shapiro testified in front of a grand jury to funneling thousands of dollars in contributions from Trump to Atlantic City mayor Michael J. Matthews who Trump was barred from contributing on his own due to his casino ownership. Trump denied the charge telling the Wall Street Journal, “I’m not interested in giving cash, OK?” Shapiro’s brother Barry claimed that Trump never reimbursed Kenneth for his illegal contributions on the former’s behalf. Now Trump refusing to pay Shapiro is believable. But Trump not being interested in giving to political candidates, no way.

1990s: Is brought to the site of the 45 story Trump Tower Philadelphia by business partner Raoul Goldberg. In 2000, Goldberg was sentenced to 46 months in prison for trying to ship tens of thousands of ecstasy pills to the US.

1992: Senate subcommittee named then Trump Taj Mahal foreign marketing vice president Danny Leung as an associate of the Hong Kong-based organized crime group 14K Triad. Leung was also said to give complimentary tickets for hotel rooms and Asian shows to numerous Asian organized crime associates and members. The report also identified 3 other triad-connected business associates or former Trump casino empire employees. Also, according to the New York Daily News in 1995, Leung “flew in 16 Italian crime figures from Canada who stole more than $1 million from the casino in a credit scam. The incident was never reported because Trump never filed charges.” Leung has denied his organized crime affiliation while his casino and junket licenses were renewed.

1998: Despite being against normalizing relations with Cuba as far back as 1999, has done business with the country during the US Embargo, which is a violation of federal law. Yes, it’s a stupid policy but the law is the law. Then again, the Castro brothers aren’t the worst business partners he’s had.

1998-2003: Rented New York office space to the Iranian Bank Melli, one of the largest state-owned banks in the world. US authorities have linked Bank Melli to terror groups and Iran’s nuclear program.

2000s-present: Went into business with Azerbaijani billionaire playboy Anar Mammadov whose father is the country’s transportation minister. The project in question was to build a Trump Tower in Baku. Mammadov’s wealth has resulted in part from his father’s political connections as well as rich oil resource boom and has mounted mounted a PR campaign to rehabilitate Azerbaijan’s kleptocratic image in the West by courting some of Washington’s most powerful politicians. Azerbaijan is considered to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world due to its intolerance of dissent and the high wealth concentration among the politically powerful and their families. The Mammadovs have been called “The Corleones of the Caspian” and US diplomats have described them as notoriously corrupt even by Azerbaijani standards. They’re also deeply in business with an Iranian-owned firm called Azarpassillo which seems like a front organization for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. We’re not sure how much Trump, his family, or his organization knows about the Iranian Mammadov partnership. Yet, while this instance sounds like fake news, it’s not since you’ll find similar articles in mainstream press like The New Yorker. But if he has any part in it, it won’t be the first time he was involved with a money laundering scheme.

2003-?: Worked with Felix Sater who had a 1998 racketeering conviction for a $40 million Mafia-linked stock fraud scheme and who had then become an informant against the mafia. Trump’s attorney claimed that Sater worked with Trump scouting real estate opportunities but was never formally employed.

2009: Allegedly tried to raise money from the regime of Muammar el-Qaddafi as well as set up a meeting to discuss business ventures. This despite the Libyan dictator’s notorious sponsorship of terrorism that has killed scores of Americans. Trump even had Qaddafi rent his opulent Westchester estate to erect a huge traditional tent during his stay and sacrifice a live lamb while in New York for a United Nations Assembly. Qaddafi agreed to stay at Trump’s property mostly because the despised tyrant had been obviously turned down by many other venues. The town of Bedford would yank permission for the tent after a storm of publicity stoked outrage which scuttled the Libyans’ plans and forced their leader to stay in Manhattan indoors. So Qaddafi never got the chance to sleep there.

2014: In New York Magazine, said of billionaire Jeffery Epstein, “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” Epstein has been named in multiple lawsuits over the last several years for statutory rape, served 13 months in jail, and is a registered sex offender for life at Level 3 (the most dangerous kind. He has settled a few of them but still faces more than a dozen from women who claim he sexually assaulted them as minors.

2016: Despite claims to get tough with China, his Trump Bay Street real estate project in Jersey City is courting investments from Chinese backers through a program called EB-5, which lets foreign investors receive visas in exchange for $500,000 in a project promising to create jobs. Department of Homeland Security says the program lacks adequate background reviews. Since applicants are sometimes cleared in less than a month, critics say that the government is essentially selling visas foreigners with no proven skills, possibly paving way for money laundering and compromising national security. Of course, despite warning about the dangers of immigrant screening, Trump doesn’t seem to use background checks. Trump Bay Street is being built by Trump’s son-in-law’s company. And it doesn’t help that Jared Kushner’s father Charles was a former rainmaker in New Jersey Democratic politics who pleaded guilty to a federal campaign finance violation and filing false tax returns as attempts to silence a witness. The elder Kushner was sentenced to jail for two years on plea deal arranged by then US Attorney Chris Christie but he remains active in the company.

Sexual Misconduct Allegations (some of these may not be proven):

1980s: Allegedly shamelessly and repeatedly tried to seduce Robert LiButti’s then 30-something daughter Edith while still married to his first wife Ivana and even gave her a Mercedes Benz for her birthday but was threatened by the New Jersey mobster with castration. This according to David Clay Johnston.

Early 1980s: Allegedly sexually assaulted Jessica Leeds during a flight. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Trump raised the armrest, moved toward her and began to grope her. Ms. Leeds said she recoiled. She quickly left the first-class cabin and returned to coach, she said.”

1989: According to a book by Harry Hurt, Trump allegedly raped his then wife Ivana after getting angry at her over a painful scalp reduction surgery. Ivana would later claim that her husband had raped her and that she “felt violated” during their divorce proceedings. Yet Ivanna would later release a statement saying: “During a deposition given by me in connection with my matrimonial case, I stated that my husband had raped me. [O]n one occasion during 1989, Mr. Trump and I had marital relations in which he behaved very differently toward me than he had during our marriage. As a woman, I felt violated, as the love and tenderness, which he normally exhibited towards me, was absent. I referred to this as a ‘rape,’ but I do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense.” Yet, keep in mind that Trump was having a five-year affair with future second wife Marla Maples and sought not only to publicly humiliate Ivana but also to profit from her humiliation. When The Daily Beast reported the incident, Trump’s right-hand man Michael Cohen threatened reporters and claimed-incorrectly-that a man can’t legally rape his wife. In 1992, Trump would sue Ivana for not honoring a gag clause in their divorce agreement by disclosing facts about him in her best-selling book and won. It’s one of several cases where Trump has been accused of misogyny including his comments of Megyn Kelly or his fury toward a lawyer who asked for a break to pump breast milk during a deposition in which Trump said, “You’re disgusting” and walked out.

Early 1990s: Allegedly groped aspiring model Kristen Anderson beneath the skirt in a Manhattan nightclub. Anderson related the experience to friends but hasn’t come forward until recently. She believes the incident took place at the China Club where Trump was known to pick up women.

1992: Embarked on an ill-fated effort to in running the American Dream pageant which resulted in him getting sued by George Houraney and Jill Harth. In it, they alleged that Trump kept black women out of the pageant as well as breach of contract. Harth would file another suit against Trump for alleging sexual misbehavior. According to her, Trump groped her at a party, made passes, and forced her into bedrooms. He was even said to join another model in bed, uninvited, late at night as well as calling all women bimbos and most gold diggers. “Basically he name-dropped throughout that dinner, when he wasn’t groping me under the table,” she later said in a 1996 deposition. “Let me just say, this was a very traumatic thing working for him.” This would eventually escalate in what she calls “attempted rape.” She claimed, “He pushed me up against the wall, and had his hands all over me and tried to get up my dress again … and I had to physically say: ‘What are you doing? Stop it.’” Harth would drop her suit while she and Houraney settled with Trump for an unannounced sum. Trump has denied all allegations. Later beauty pageants scandals include winning a $5 million lawsuit against a former Miss Universe contestant who claimed that the pageant was rigged and a debacle with NBC and Univision over his comments about Mexicans. In the latter, Trump bought out NBC’s share and sold the company as well as sued Univision but settled in February.

Late-1990s: Was sued by a woman in Florida for $125 million on grounds that he had sexually harassed her and pulled out of a deal when she didn’t respond to his advances in 1993. Trump has denied the claims and the case appeared to be later withdrawn.

1996-2015: Owned the Miss Universe Organization.During this time he’s been alleged to walk in to contestants’ dressing rooms while they were changing (even the teens), kissing contestants against their wishes, pitting women against each other, groping, and acts of humiliation to contestants who wouldn’t tow the line. Trump described walking in unannounced on nude or partially dressed beauty pageant contestants to Howard Stern, “You know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it… Is everyone OK? You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that … I’ll go backstage before a show, and everyone’s getting dressed and ready and everything else.”

1997: Allegedly sexually assaulted then Miss Utah Temple Taggart. According to her New York Times testimony, “‘He kissed me directly on the lips. I thought, ‘Oh my God, gross.’ He was married to Marla Maples at the time. I think there were a few other girls that he kissed on the mouth. I was like ‘Wow, that’s inappropriate.’”

1997: Allegedly sexually assaulted Cathy Heller at his Mar-A-Lago resort during a Mother’s Day brunch. According to the Guardian, she said that Trump, “took my hand, and grabbed me, and went for the lips” in front of her husband, children, and in-laws. She leaned back to avoid him and almost lost her balance. She claimed Trump angrily barked, “Oh, come on,” before he grabbed her again, went for the lips, and planted a kiss near her mouth after turning her head away. Heller was “angry and shaken” and didn’t know how to react. But said that Trump was “pissed” because he “couldn’t believe a woman would pass up the opportunity.”

1998: Allegedly sexually assaulted life coach and yoga instructor Karena Virginia. According to her, Trump approached her with a small group of men while commenting on her legs, grabbed her by the arm while she waited for a ride after the US Open in Queens, New York. She continued, “Then his hand touched the right side of my breast. I was in shock. I flinched. ‘Don’t you know who I am? Don’t you know who I am?’ – that’s what he said to me. I felt intimidated and I felt powerless.”

2003: Allegedly sexually assaulted Mindy McGillvray. According to the Palm Beach Post, “McGillivray, 36, said she was groped by Trump at Mar-a-Lago 13 years ago. She said she never reported it to authorities. But her companion that day, photographer Ken Davidoff, vividly remembers that McGillivray pulled him aside moments after the alleged incident and told him, ‘Donald just grabbed my ass!’”

2005: Talked to Billy Bush in a bus on Access Hollywood about aggressively kissing women, and how he, as a celebrity, can “grab them by the pussy.” He also discussed his pursuit of an unnamed married woman later revealed as the show’s former host, Nancy O’Dell. “I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married,” he told Bush. “And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, ‘I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.’ I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.” Trump claimed it was locker room talk but this is worthy of attention. By the way, he later tried to get O’Dell fired while she was pregnant.

2005: Allegedly sexually assaulted People Magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff when she interviewed him and his wife Melania. According to Stoynoff, while Melania changed, Trump took her into another room. “Within seconds, he was pushing me against the wall, and forcing his tongue down my throat,” she claimed. Later, he told her, “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?” She told a colleague about it after the trip and thought about reporting it. But she wrote, “I was ashamed and blamed myself for his transgression. I minimized it (‘It’s not like he raped me…’); I doubted my recollection and my reaction. I was afraid that a famous, powerful, wealthy man could and would discredit and destroy me, especially if I got his coveted PEOPLE feature killed.”

2005: Allegedly sexually assaulted then Trump Tower-based real estate receptionist Rachel Crooks during an elevator ride with him. According to the New York Times, “Aware that her company did business with Mr. Trump, she turned and introduced herself. They shook hands, but Mr. Trump would not let go, she said. Instead, he began kissing her cheeks. Then, she said, he ‘kissed me directly on the mouth.’” Trump later asked for her phone number and that he wanted to give it to his modeling agency. Crooks told her then-boyfriend and sister as soon as it happened.

2006: Allegedly sexually assaulted adult film star Jessica Drake and her friends at his hotel suite at Lake Tahoe and offered her $10,000 for sex when she declined. Drake declined again.

2006: Allegedly sexually assaulted Miss Finland Ninni Laaskonen by grabbing her by the butt before the two were set to appear on David Letterman. She described,”He really grabbed my butt. I don’t think anybody saw it but I flinched and thought: “What is happening?” Someone later told her that Trump liked her because she looked like his wife Melania when she was younger.

2007: Shared a story in his book Think BIG and Kick Ass where he’s giving a speech in front of 20,000 people and is asked by an attractive woman if she could audition for The Apprentice. Trump called her up and asked if she’s ever cheated on her husband. She says she had but she’s never told him. Trump then advised her to hire a lawyer and sign a pre-nup as a divorce would likely ensue. This was featured in a chapter centering around the importance of pre-nups which Trump has some expertise in like two failed marriages and excessive adultery.

2007: Allegedly kissed, groped and thrusted against Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos. She also alleged Trump made 2 unwanted sexual advances toward her, once at a bungalow where he kissed her open mouthed, grabbed her breast, and started thrusting his genitals. Trump denies this.

2010: According to CNN anchor Erin Burnett, she claims that Trump kissed one of her female friends in a Trump Tower boardroom that year. She said, “Trump took Tic Tacs, suggested I take them also. He then leaned in, catching me off guard, and kissed me almost on lips. I was really freaked out.” Trump later invited her friend to his office where he made further advances, gave her his cell phone number, told her she was special, and asked her to call him. The woman said she, “ran the hell out of there.”

2011: Grabbed and kissed former Miss Universe Australian Jennifer Hawkins onstage in front of thousands of people. Trump was allegedly angry with Hawkins thinking she slighted him by supposedly declining to appear with him at an event in Sydney. Afterwards, he told the audience,  “Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard. I really believe that.” This was caught on tape and there is a video of it you can watch.

2013: Allegedly sexually assaulted then Miss Washington USA Cassandra Searles. In June 2016, Searles reportedly posted a photo of herself and Trump on her Facebook page saying,  “Do y’all remember that one time we had to do our onstage introductions, but this one guy treated us like cattle and made us do it again because we didn’t look him in the eyes? Do you also remember when he then proceeded to have us lined up so he could get a closer look at his property? … Oh I forgot to mention that guy will be in the running to become the next President of the United States.” She later commented, “He probably doesn’t want me telling the story about that time he continually grabbed my ass and invited me to his hotel room.”

2016: Allegedly charged in with child rape of a 13 year old girl for which there is an eyewitness and credible information to support the claim. The woman filing suit claims in 1994 she was enticed to attend parties with the promise of money and modeling jobs at the home of Jeffrey Epstein, after the man was convicted of misconduct with another underage girl. Anyway, she alleges that Trump initiated sexual contact with her on 4 separate occasions, with the 4^th being “savage sexual attack” in which he had her tied to a bed and forcibly raped her while she pleaded him to stop. He threatened that she and her family would be “physically harmed if not killed” if she ever told anyone. Epstein’s party planner was an eyewitness who wrote, “I am coming forward to swear to the truthfulness of the physical and sexual abuse that I personally witnessed of minor females at the hands of Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein . . . I swear to these facts under the penalty for perjury even though I fully understand that the life of myself and my family is now in grave danger.”

Government Money Shenanigans:

1970s-present: As of 2016, has received $885 million in New York tax breaks, subsidies, and grants for his apartment, hotel, and office developments in New York City. According to New York Magazine, Trump seems to have worked to extract as many incentives and exemptions as he could out of the New York government for his real estate projects through his and his father’s political connections. de Blasio and Giuliani administration veteran Alicia Glen characterized Trump as “probably worse than any other developer in his relentless pursuit of every single dime of taxpayer subsidies he can get his paws on.” For his first big development, the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Trump got a city record 40-year tax break for the $120 million project which has now cost the city $339 million in forgiven and uncollected taxes.

1970s-present: Structured his companies to allow him to have lucrative personal tax advantages while limiting his personal liability should the business go bad. According to the New York Times, Trump formed a partnership between himself and a corporation he wholly owned and created for this specific purpose. While many real estate had a similar structure, Trump played on a vastly different scale than most as his leverage was the stuff of legend. Once these partnerships were in place, Trump looked for financing. For instance, to purchase and finish construction on his Taj Mahal, Trump sold half a billion dollars in bonds (IOUs with interest) to individuals, companies, and banks. Yet, within its first year, Trump already started missing interest payments (as is the case since he used junk bonds). Yet, it wasn’t the only one of Trump’s businesses that hemorrhaged money. By the late 1980s, several of Trump’s casinos and properties suffered significant losses, the majority of which ended up on Trump’s tax returns. Trump turned these losses into personal gain through a Net Operating Loss or NOL in order to offset personal income losses for almost two decades. Yet, by then, his creditors stated forgiving his debt since they wanted to salvage what’s left of their investments. His forgiven debt which included the renegotiated bonds used to finance the Trump Taj Mahal which could be deducted from Trump’s personal NOL. So in order to avoid taxes on the forgiven debt and protect his NOL, Trump used a partnership equity for a debt swap that was actually closed by Congress. This was a move that even Trump’s lawyers said was legally dubious as well as made illegal in 2004.

1978, 1979, 1984, and 1995: Paid no federal income taxes. Though this doesn’t mean he paid federal income taxes in other years or has since 1995. These are the years we know he didn’t.

1980s: Cheated New York City out of nearly $2.9 million for his projects.

1980s-2000s: Sued mayoral administrations of Ed Koch, Rudy Giuliani, and Michael Bloomberg for tax breaks totaling almost $173 million. $157 million were ultimately granted to Trump Tower and Trump World Tower with condominiums among the most expensive in the city.

1995-present: Has received special tax breaks and loopholes over his business failures in order to avoid paying federal taxes possibly for 18 years.

2000s: Took $150,000 from the Empire State Development Corporation which was designed to help small businesses after 9/11 when many of them were destroyed or went under. At the time, Trump’s 40 Wall Street building had suffered economically and employed fewer than 500 people. But the last condition was controversial, according to the New York Daily News who found that the program had “ignored the federal definition of a small business and adopted a much looser standard. The ESDC used employee counts…to determine whether applicants were small businesses. Federal law requires that the size category of the types of businesses most common in lower Manhattan—finance, insurance, real estate, and law firms—be determined based on annual revenue.” Local politicians were furious that they issued an open letter demanding that Trump return the money.

2013: Received a New York tax rebate available only to those who earned less than $500,000 annually, undercutting claims that he makes hundreds of millions in income. Trump later called the rebate an error.

Charity Scams:

1980s-present: Has made numerous claims on promising to give to charity in his promotions despite that media organizations have been unable to verify his claims.

1987-present: Though often promising to give to charity, his Trump Foundation has proven rather skimpy on the gifts over the years and when it has given, the money has often come from other pockets than Trump’s, including outside donors and even NBC. Most Trump Foundation donors made only one contribution between 2001-2014 and most don’t talk about it. Most of the donors were either working with Trump or received something from him around the same time he donated. It has also collected more than $600,000 from other charities. Its case involving a $25,000 donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has been under special scrutiny since she later dropped investigations over Trump University and Trump Institute shortly afterwards. Both Trump and Bondi said there was no quid-pro-quo but the donation was illegal and the foundation was fined. A Washington liberal watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics charges that other laws might’ve been broken as well. Basically, it can be well established that Trump has used is charity as a personal slush fund since reporters have found no abiding cause like disease and disorder research or a particular college. The Washington Post has also found that the Trump Foundation never had any legal authorization to raise funds as a charity.

1987-2008: Has only contributed $5.4 million of his own money to the Trump Foundation. Has not given since then. It’s a known fact that most of the Trump Foundation money comes from others though Trump tends to take personal credit for the organization’s gift giving. This isn’t normally seen when it comes to a rich person’s private charity. He’s also been known to attend charity events without leaving a check.

1988: Promised to donate $2 million made from advising Mike Tyson to charity through his foundation. But the Trump Foundation never received the donation. That same year, Trump promised to donate $50,000 he made from a Pepsi commercial to charity. Once again, his foundation posts no record of that donation.

1989-present: May have deliberately directed personal income owed to him toward the Trump Foundation in possible violation of tax rules. A September 2016 report from the Washington Post reported that Trump had previously directed others to divert $2.3 million owed to his organization as income to his foundation as donations, possibly to evade personal income taxes. And old Associated Press coverage suggests he may have done this as early as 1989. IRS rules prohibit individuals from diverting taxable income toward charities if they benefit directly from them. That is, unless the individual declares the income on personal tax returns which Trump still hasn’t released. This includes $1.9 million from Richard Ebbers who had bought goods and services from him, $5,000,000 from Vince and Linda McMahon from 2007-2009 after Trump had appeared in 2 WWE events, $400,000 from Comedy Central for appearing on a celebrity roast, $150,000 from People Magazine in return for exclusive photos of his son Barron Trump, $500,000 from NBC Universal in 2012 for hosting The Apprentice, and $100,000 from Donna Clancy whose family law office rented space in the Trump Organization Wall Street building.

1995-1999: Made a $50,000 each year through Trump Foundation funds to the National Museum of Catholic Art and Library. A 2001 Village Voice report claimed that after visiting the East Harlem museum, found that the facility contained, “next to no art,” and no official connection to the Catholic Church. This despite having a 10-year track record of soliciting large-scale donations for its collection. With the Washington Post, the Voice determined that Trump may have directed the grants to the museum to curry favor with its chairman Eddie Malloy who was also head of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York. The organization worked on behalf of one of the workers’ unions who worked with Trump on construction projects.

2000s: Through Trump Foundation money, contributed at least $385,000 of grants to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute since 2006. In response the, cancer institute has honored Trump variously as “Grand Benefactor” and “Grand Honorary Chair” at its annual fundraisers held at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. He may have also earned more money on the event fees it received from the institute than the Trump Foundation paid in grants since hosting high profile charity events there can cost as much as $300,000.

2001: Made a $10,000 pledge to the Twin Towers Fund on the Howard Stern Show, which was founded by then New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and later administered as part of the New York City Public and Private Initiative, “to benefit the families of firefighters and police officers who died in the attacks.” During the 2016 RNC, Giuliani claimed that Trump made “anonymous” donations after the September 11th attacks. Yet, such donations have never been identified. Giuliani also said in support of Trump’s candidacy, “Every time New York City suffered a tragedy Donald Trump was there to help,…. He’s not going to like my telling you this but he did it anonymously.” Maybe, but the New York City Comptroller’s office told the New York Daily News that it had manually reviewed “approximately 1,500 pages of donor records of the Twin Towers Fund and the related entity NYC Public/Private Initiatives Inc., containing the names of more than 110,000 individuals and entities that were collected as part of the audits” all through August 2012. According to the News, then Comptroller Scott Stringer “found that Trump and [the Trump Foundation] hadn’t donated a dime in the months after 9/11.” Yet, because the review period only covered one year after the attacks, the Comptroller’s office was “unable to conclude definitively” that Trump never gave to the fund after August 2002. Additionally, according to IRS Form 990 tax filings, the Trump Foundation made no grants to the Twin Towers Fund or to NYC Public/Private Initiative from 2002-2014. Though Trump may have personally made a donation after August 2002 which wouldn’t have shown up in the foundation’s records. He’s also made similar claims about contributing to the American Red Cross which have been unsubstantiated.

2004-2015: Despite being highly visibly praised for his generosity and frequent offers to donate to his contestants’ charities on The Apprentice and Celebrity Apprentice, he ultimately either directed the Trump Foundation to make a grant or had NBC Universal make the donation instead.

2005: Trump Foundation received $100,000 for work by Melania Trump on a Norwegian Cruise Line segment that was later included on The Apprentice.

2005-2014: Through Trump Foundation money, made various grants to other foundations without fulfilling IRS “expenditure responsibility” rules. By law, the Trump Foundation is responsible for ensuring that any grant it makes with another private foundation is strictly used for charitable purposes as well as required to attach full and detailed reports describing the grant money’s use to its IRS Form 990 tax return for each year a grant to a private foundation is made. Trump Foundation tax returns show that it failed to do this for all 20 grants it made to private foundations during this time which total to at least $488,500 and could be subject to significant fines and penalties.

2006: Contributed $1000 to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Fund, which is a controversial Scientology program co-founded by Tom Cruise. This charity provided a “purification rundown” for firemen and others who inhaled toxins while working near the smoldering remains of the World Trade Center.

2007: Promised to make a $250,000 donation to Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces but didn’t.

2007: Wife Melania bid $20,000 on a 6 foot portrait of him created by a “speed painter” at a breast cancer fundraiser which as at Mar-a-Lago, using Trump Foundation money. Trump kept the painting which now reportedly hangs at one of his golf courses. If so, then according to tax experts, it could violate IRS rules against self-dealing. The Trump Foundation also paid $12,000 for a football helmet and jersey signed by Tim Tebow in 2012.

2007: Trump Foundation reported a $5,000 grant to the Chicago Police Memorial Foundation before later claiming that it took the check back. The Chicago charity, however, claimed it never received the check from the Trump Foundation at all.

2007: Appeared at a Celebrity Fight Night Foundation fundraiser to benefit the Muhammad Ali Parkinson’s Center in Phoenix, Arizona. According to the Organization’s spokesperson, Trump stipulated in return for his offering a New York-based dinner for himself and his appearance, that a share of the Parkinson’s charity share the total proceeds with the Trump Foundation. The Trump Foundation’s share amounted to $150,000 of auction proceeds that would’ve otherwise have gone to the center benefiting Parkinson’s Disease research. I’m sure the Trump Foundation money went to pay off some Trump lawsuit settlement at the time.

2007-2015: Eric Trump Foundation raised over $16.3 million through his charity golf tournaments, outings, and marathons with the proceeds meant to go to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. According to two people directly involved with these events, in 2011, Trump “specifically commanded that the for-profit Trump Organization start billing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the nonprofit Eric Trump Foundation.” As CNN reports, “According to IRS tax filings, the costs for the golf invitational from 2007 to 2010 were approximately $50,000 per year. In 2011, that jumped to about $142,000. The 2012 golf invitational cost the foundation $59,000. Costs in 2013 again jumped to $230,000, and $242,000 in 2014, and $322,000 in 2015, its final year. It’s unclear why the costs went up and how much of that money went to the Trump Organization.” The Trump Organization took at least $1.2 million with part of it having no documented recipients while $500,000 of the money was donated to other charities, many of which were connected to Trump family members. It’s very clear that the Eric Trump Foundation was just another way for Trump to make money. Eric suspended operations of his foundation in 2016, by the way.

2008: Bought a $120,000 luxury trip with Trump Foundation money during a charity auction. It’s said that the Washington Post has confirmed that Trump has only donated $10,000 to charity within the last 7 years.

2010: Through Trump Foundation money, contributed $150,000 to the Palm Beach Police Foundation which led to Trump receiving the “Palm Beach Award.” Yet, money came from the New Jersey based Charles Evans Foundation and when those donations stopped, so did the Trump contributions to the police charity as well. Adding insult to injury, the Palm Beach Police Foundation has even held its “Police Ball and Auction” at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach which paid $276,463 in rental fees in 2014. The 2014 tax form also lists $44,332 in unattributed “direct expenses” paid by the police foundation for the same event as well as $36,608 in “direct expenses” for its annual “Golf Classic,” which the police foundation also holds at the Trump-owned Mar-a-Lago golf course each year. In fact, each year from 2010-2014, the police foundation’s public tax records show significant “direct expenses” incurred for bot the Police Ball and Auction  and the golf tournament, though expense categories weren’t listed in filings.

2010: Through Trump Foundation money, contributed heavily to anti-vaxxer non-profit Generation Rescue which headed by actress, former Playboy model and fucking ignoramus bitch Jenny McCarthy (I really hate this woman). The anti-vaxxer cause is a dangerous one since it has encouraged parents not to vaccinate their kids which has led to outbreaks of measles and other diseases as well as put other children at risk. It’s also based on junk science of the vaccine-autism link that doesn’t exist. Furthermore, the anti-vaxxer movement also brands those on the autism spectrum as damaged individuals like it’s something parents should fear more than measles. In reality, having a child with autism is not nearly as bad as having a child with measles. At least autism isn’t contagious and doesn’t kill children. Besides, by the time autistic children are vaccinated, it’s most likely that they already have autism from the time they were born.

2010s: Through Trump Foundation funds, paid $158,000 to the Martin Greenberg Foundation as a settlement from a lawsuit brought by Greenberg against the Trump National Golf Club Westchester at Briarcliff Manor, New York. In it, Greenberg claimed he rightfully won a $1 million prize for scoring a hole-in-one in a 2010 charity golf tournament at the club. But the club denied the award on technical grounds, arguing the hole was shorter than 150 yards. To raise the money for the settlement, the Trump Foundation auctioned a prize of lifetime membership at Trump-owned golf courses with the winning bid bringing a $157,000 donation to the foundation. It’s likely the bid was above the actual membership value and the winner might’ve believed he was donating to the foundation for charitable causes instead of a lawsuit settlement to offset a payment at another foundation. In September 2016, the Washington Post reported that the Trump Foundation’s grant to the Greenberg Foundation was directly linked to the legal settlement, likely violating IRS self-dealing rules by using charitable funds to pay Trump’s personal and business obligations.

2012-2014: Through Trump Foundation, made grants totaling at $20,000 to a high school band and choir in return for performances at his resorts. The Palm Beach Post suggests that Trump may have benefited personally from this.

2013: Made a $5,000 grant with Trump Foundation money to the non-profit DC Preservation League. According to the Washington Post, the nonprofit’s support “was helpful” to the Trump Organization in obtaining the rights to convert the old Washington D.C.’s historic Post Office Pavilion into the Trump International Hotel, which has recently opened. The Trump Foundation’s ads in the event programs promoted Trump’s hotels, in violation of IRS self-dealing rules.

2013: Through Trump Foundation, donated $10,000 to the V Foundation, a cancer fighting group founded by former basketball coach Jim Valvano in return for the V Foundation fundraiser at his Trump Winery in Virginia.

2014: Purchased a 4-feet tall painting of himself from the 1990s at a charity auction with $10,000 of Trump Foundation money. A photo of this portrait was found on a Trip Advisor review of Trump National Doral Miami and later by a reporter from Univision who went to the club and asked various staff about the painting. The reporter eventually discovered it hanging on a wall at the golf resort’s Champions Bar & Grill restaurant.

2016: Held a fundraiser in Iowa for veterans’ groups which was launched as a protest event after he refused to attend the Fox News debate and raised less than the $6 billion he initially claimed. It is unlikely that Trump contributed $1 million of his own money which the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation hasn’t confirmed. Some groups have complained that they haven’t received their money yet. It’s likely that he’s committed fraud. Though he claims to be an “ardent philanthropist,” he’s actually only donated $3.7 million to his own foundation between 1990 and 2009 while WWE’s Vince and Linda McMahon have contributed $5 million to his foundation. Overall he’s said to only contribute a paltry $6.7 over the last 20 years. He ranks among the least charitable billionaires in the world.

2016: Directed $100,000 of Trump Foundation funds to the National September 11 Memorial Museum days before the 2016 New York primary where he was on the ballot, mischaracterizing foundation grant as a personal donation. May not be fraud, but it’s highly suspicious.

Lawsuits:

1970s-present: As of 2016, has been subject to numerous lawsuits including 79 branding and trademark cases, 6 campaign cases, 1,863 casino cases, 206 contract dispute cases, 130 employment cases, 61 golf club cases, 191 government and taxes cases, 13 media and defamation cases, 191 other cases, 695 personal injury cases, and 621 real estate cases. This makes 4,056 in all. USA Today has a whole article on it with graphs to show. You got that right.

1970s-present: As of 2016, has been named in 169 federal lawsuits.

1974: While being pursued by federal prosecutors for illegal housing discrimination against African Americans, admitted his company, “had been destroying their corporate records for the previous six months and had no document-retention program,” according to Newsweek.

1980s: Sued Julius and Edmond Trump who were trying to buy a chain of drug stores with their business being called, “The Trump Group.” This was mostly because they happened to be businessmen who had the same last name he did. Trump alleged that the two brothers were nothing but a pair of late arriving immigrants trying to piggyback on his good name. According to him, “Plaintiffs have used the Trump family name for 40 to 50 years in the New York area. More recently, the Trump Organization has come to stand for respectability and success across the United States. The defendants are South Africans whose recent entrance in the New York area utilizing the name ‘the Trump Group’ can only be viewed as a poorly veiled attempt at trading on the goodwill, reputation and financial credibility of the plaintiff.” This took 5 decades to resolve, it was thrown out.

1984: Sued a Chicago Tribune architecture critic for $500 billion for criticizing his plans to build a skyscraper in Lower Manhattan when he hadn’t even hired an architect yet.The case was dismissed.

1990: Named defendant in 21 lawsuits filed by different businesses and individuals, several on grounds of securities fraud and breach of contract. Most complaints stemmed from Trump’s corporation filing for bankruptcy from creditors following construction of the Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City. According to The New York Times, the resort was $3 billion in debt.

1990s-2000s: Has sued Palm Beach 3 different times. In 1992, he sued membership club Mar-a-Lago for $100 million. The council gave in and allowed him to make some of his property into a private club. Has sued the Palm Beach Airport for noise violations and tried to prevent them from expanding near his private club. This legal fight cost Palm Beach taxpayers at least $600,000. The latest one was in the late 2000s which was featured on the Colbert Report. In this one, Trump sued Palm Beach for $25 million on grounds that the town cited him for displaying an American flag on his property on a pole that didn’t meet its standards (it was too tall). Trump told Politico, “The town council of Palm Beach should be ashamed of itself. They’re fining me for putting up the American flag. This is probably a first in United States history.” God, I really feel bad for this community.

1993: Sued wealthy financier and Jay Pritzker for civil racketeering over his family’s management of the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City where they were equal partners.

1995: Trump Organization was sued by a building superintendent for false imprisonment, alleging Trump security guards assaulted his wife and child. He said he had information about financial improprieties at Trump buildings and sent his wife and 12-year-old son to pick up some relevant documents. But the lawsuit claimed the office they were in was broken into by a screwdriver: “Four men prevented Hatixbe Bajrushi and her son from leaving. Matthew Calamari, the hulking head of security, shoved the boy. Trump’s brother-in-law, James Grau, barked questions, demanding to know why they were there. Michael Nicoll, another guard, pushed them back when they tried to leave. Grau snatched her purse and passed it to Calamari, Nicoll, and Domenic Pezzo to rifle through.[…] Calamari threatened to harm the family if they spoke to police about what happened, according to the lawsuit. After 90 minutes, the police arrived and the Bajrushis were freed.” None of the security guards named in the lawsuit were charged. But FBI agents told Buzzfeed News that 2 of them were questioned as “persons of interest.”

1995-2003: Was sued by ex-wife Marla Maples’ personal assistant which was eventually dismissed. But not without accusations of nude pictures being sent to the tabloids and panty stealing.

2005-2009: Sued New York Times reporter Tim O’Brien for $5 billion over libel. This over O’Brien publishing a 2005 book Trump Nation in which he estimated Trump’s net worth at $150-$250 contrary to the billions he claimed earning ire from his subject. The suit was tossed but not without Trump saying that he estimates his wealth based on his mood on any given day, not his financial statements. Yet, O’Brien has mocked Trump’s current net worth claims while Trump has said on the campaign trail and in an interview with the Washington Post that he wants to make it easier to sue for libel. The Post combed through Trump’s deposition in the case and found 30 instances where he admitted to having lied. As of this year during the presidential campaign, Trump still hasn’t released his tax returns mostly because the public doesn’t care, according to him.

2005: Sued a casino by claiming his former co-worker had conspired against him. The defendants asked Trump’s team to turn over records if they could prove he knew about the deal before 2001, his case had no standing. Yet, despite extensive discovery requests, all that Trump’s team eventually turned over was just a small box of documents with no relevance to the lawsuit. A follow-up review found everything on any Trump company servers before 2001 had been deleted, according to Newsweek.

2006: According to USA Today, was court ordered to hand over several years’ worth of e-mails but claimed that the Trump Organization routinely erased e-mails and had no records from 1996-2001. The defendants said this amounted to destruction of evidence which was never resolved. A Trump IT director testified that Trump Tower executives relied on personal e-mail accounts through dial-up connection. Trump casino unit General Counsel Bob Pickus verified that claim saying, “Every year everything was just wiped out and deleted from pretty much everybody’s computers.” This despite that Trump launched a high-speed Internet provider in 1998 as well as announced that he’d wire his whole building with it. Another said Trump had no routine process of preserving e-mails before 2005. Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld told USA Today, “I was a bit incredulous that an organization of that significance doesn’t do email. I had heard a number of things in 24 years on the bench, but that stuck in my mind.”

2007: Sued law firm Morrison Cohen who represented him for several years over treating him as a cash cow because of fees it sought from him after it won a case where Trump claimed he’d been overcharged by a contractor for work on a golf course. Remember this is from a guy who has been reported to never pay his contractors or lawyers. The firm countersued Trump seeking an extra $470,000 in unpaid legal bills. He settled with an undisclosed sum.

2008: Sued Deutsche Bank and Fortress Investment Group, along with a long list of smaller lenders who were financing his 92-story Chicago hotel and condominium project. Earlier, Trump had personally guaranteed $40 million of Deutsche Bank’s $640 million construction loan but when the money was due, he asked for an extension citing the recession. They refused. In court documents, he condemned Deutsche Bank’s “predatory lending prices,” and partially blamed the global institution for causing the financial crisis, asking for $3 billion in damages. The bank countersued Trump for the $40 million that was promised. They reached an agreement in 2010 with the loan extended to 5 years.

2008: Sued Rancho Palos Verdes, California where he developed a golf course for $100 million in damages for allegedly violating his civil rights and defrauding him. The town’s annual budget is $20 million. The suit charges that the town had been delaying plans for adding 20 luxury grounds of Trump’s National Golf Course, while requiring stringent environmental and safety studies since the area is known to have landslides. But Trump insisted that the town has forced him to spend “millions of dollars on unnecessary, repetitive, unreasonable and unlawful geologic surveys.” He was also pissed that locals balked at renaming a highway Trump National Drive. The judge ruled against part of his claims by denying him permission to build the luxury homes, noting that such plans were never submitted to the city. But it has approved plans for another 36 homes.

2013: Sued comedian Bill Maher who offered on The Tonight Show to give Trump $5 million if he could prove that his father wasn’t an orangutan (as a spoof of Trump’s offer to give $5 million to charity if President Obama would release his records and applications for colleges and passports). Trump sent a copy of his birth certificate to Maher but the latter didn’t pay up. Trump would say, “He has not responded, and the reason he hasn’t responded is his lawyers probably tell him, ‘You’ve got yourself a problem.’” Maher would reply on his show, “Donald Trump must learn two things–what a joke is, and what a contract is.”

2013: Countersued New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for $100 million for malicious prosecution over bringing suit against Trump Institute and Trump University seeking $40 million in restitution for fraud and other violations. The counterclaim was dismissed 3 months later with permission to refile if Trump successfully defends himself against Schneiderman’s underlying pending suit.

Scams:

Mid-2000s: Involved in condo hotels, a pre real-estate crash fixation in which people would buy units they’d use for vacation but would be rented out as hotel rooms for the rest of the year with the developer and owner sharing a profit. For a variety of reasons, this turned out to be a terrible idea resulting in condo buyers suing over claims they were bilked. Trump’s role in the project is uncertain since he’s often sold his name rights to developers where he gets payoff and the aura of luxury the name imparts. But in some condo hotel suits, buyers complain that they bought these properties as investments because of his name only to realize he was barely involved. Trump has also been subject to complaints about his involvements in a multi-level marketing scheme. In Manhattan’s Trump SoHo, it turns out that Trump’s partners had a lengthy criminal past. Bayrock Group’s Tevfik Arif had been detained in Turkey on suspicion of running a high priced prostitution ring. This consisted of him setting up trysts between wealthy businessmen and Eastern European models, some underage aboard a $60 million yacht once used by the nation’s founder Ataturk. The police raid kind of plays like a scene from the first Taken movie. Felix Sater was a convicted stock swindler who had an associate show up in a court-ordered ankle monitor and escaped prison only by helping to convict 19 others, including 6 members of New York City’s crime families. Two associates served prison time for cocaine. Trump claimed he didn’t know this but settled the lawsuit with buyers and that the project was financed by questionable sources in Russia and Kazakhstan (though he didn’t admit to any wrongdoing). In Fort Lauderdale, Trump International Tower and Hotel went into foreclosure and Trump has sued the complex’s developer. In 2013, he settled a suit with prospective buyers who lost millions when a Baja Mexico development went under. Again, Trump blamed the developers, saying he only licensed his name.

2005-2010: Started Trump University, an online “university” to teach his real estate development secrets. Students spent up as much as $35,000, some after being suckered in by slick free “seminars” to learn how to get rich. One ad promised that they would “learn from Donald Trump’s handpicked instructors, and that participants would have access to Trump’s real estate ‘secrets.’” In reality, Trump had little to do with the curriculum or instructors while many “students” have since complained that Trump U. was a scam. Well, at one time it had some prestigious instructors but over time “the faculty” became a motley bunch of misfits. Also, it wasn’t really a “university” by any definition and would later change its name to the “Trump Entrepreneur Initiative” because the school just happened to violate New York law by operating without an educational license. The school shut down in 2010 but the litigation continues. Trump is now being sued by New York for bilking students out of $40 million and is subject to 2 class-action lawsuits in California. In the meantime, Trump has appeared to trying to intimidate plaintiffs, including countersuing one for $1 million (a favorite litigation tactic of his) and refusing to let her withdraw from the suit. While his lawyers have cited positive reviews, former students say they were pressured to give those. A set of damning internal documents were released under court order in May. And Trump decided to attack the judge, claiming that his Mexican ethnicity made him biased. Republicans would later repudiate him across the board while some have openly called him racist. There are lots of articles on this.

2005-?: While operating Trump University, franchised his name to Mike and Irene Milin who ran Trump Institute as well as were known serial operators of get-rich-quick schemes. Trump didn’t own company but instead, licensed his name, appeared in an infomercial, and promised that he would hand-pick instructors (like with Trump U). According to Jonathan Martin, Trump Institute’s course materials contained textbooks found to be plagiarized. The Milins were forced to declare bankruptcy in 2008 because of law enforcement investigations and lawsuits against their company. But Trump Institute continued on a few years afterwards. One of Trump’s aides said he was unaware of the plagiarism but claimed he stood by the curriculum.

2006-2015: Was spokesman for an investment telecommunications company called ACN where investors had to hand over a $500 sign-up fee and then build a consumer base of new investors in a pyramid scheme fashion. Obviously, the entire thing toppled over and investors lost hundreds of thousands of dollars while Trump walked away with millions. A 2011 episode of The Apprentice was devoted to hawking an ACN videophone which has since flopped. Today, ACN is regularly accused of operating a pyramid scheme by its disaffected sales associates.

2009: Franchised his name to the Trump Network which was already accused of being a multi-level marketing scheme pertaining to multivitamins while under Ideal Health. This involved customers mailing in a urine sample which would be analyzed for them in a specially formulated multivitamin package. The company fell on hard times within a few years, leaving some salespeople in tough financial straits. One single mother ended up losing her house and had her car repossessed in the middle of the night.

Suppression and Intimidation:

1990: Threatened to sue Philadelphia brokerage house Janney Montgomery Scott unless they fired gaming securities analyst Marvin Roffman over issuing a negative forecast for Trump Taj Mahal. The firm complied and fired him for “insubordination” but Roffman’s forecast was accurate. Roffman later founded a financial advisory firm the next year that ran more than $500 million by 2007 and now lives in a 40 room and 15,000 square foot mansion in Delaware. Yet, he later said, “But that doesn’t excuse the hell he subjected me to in 1990, sliming my reputation so much that I got fired and couldn’t find another job as an analyst. He acted viciously towards me because, I guess, he felt that I had personally attacked his brand. His image is all-important to him.” According to Barron’s, his life immediately after being canned was a living hell, especially when he sued his former employer for wrongful discharge and Trump for defamation and interference with his contractual relationship with his employment by threatening legal action if Roffman didn’t apologize for his Wall Street Journal remarks. He sought $2 million in punitive damages. Both cases would be settled after dragging on for months. Nevertheless, compared to a lot of Trump’s victims, Roffman was lucky.

1991: Suppressed an 80 – minute documentary called Trump: What’s the Deal? with threats of litigation to broadcasters and distributors. This is because the film painted a powerful and disturbing portrait of Trump as a financial Dorian Gray whose public image bears little resemblance to his conduct away from the cameras, including hiring actors for $50 each to applaud at his campaign announcement. While Trump presents himself as a businessman so skilled in deals as an art form, the film takes down this façade by showing him manipulating politicians and the criminal justice system, pocketing millions in taxpayer welfare, not paying people he hired, doing some of his biggest deals with mobsters, keeping a cocaine dealer as his helicopter pilot, and evidently benefitting from having his sister work in the Justice Department before being appointed as a federal judge. It even featured former advisors and employees describing furious tirades that no one, not even his family, could escape as well as how he lacks any real friends. Though Trump succeeded with suppressing the documentary, it’s now available online for those interested in watching it.

2009: An attorney named Kristopher Hansen called the FBI and reported receiving a threatening phone call from a man believed to be Trump’s bodyguard. At the time, Hansen represented a group of investors in Trump’s casino company, which was going bankrupt (potentially costing them $1.25 billion in defaulted debt). He told the local police that the caller threatened his wife and children: “My name is Carmine. I don’t know why you’re fucking with Mr. Trump but if you keep fucking with Mr. Trump, we know where you live and we’re going to your house for your wife and kids.” According to Buzzfeed’s Jason Leopold, the FBI found Hansen’s account credible enough that they gave him a portable recording device and asked him to record any other calls they got. Meanwhile, they traced the number showing up on Hansen’s BlackBerry to a Manhattan phone booth across the street from the theater that hosted The Late Show with David Letterman, where Trump taped an appearance a few hours after the call was made.

2011: Sent New York Times writer Gail Collins a copy of her column on his potential presidential run with “The Face of a Dog” written all over it.

2011: Threatened to sue rapper Mac Miller for his “Donald Trump” song with a music video that became a Youtube sensation. Between obscene lyrics, Miller vowed to “take over the world when I’m on my Donald Trump shit.” Trump wasn’t amused when the rapper sent him a wooden plaque honoring the song’s success. He tweeted to Miller “I’m now going to teach you a big boy lesson about lawsuits and finance. You ungrateful dog!” The rapper replied, “i’m not trying to put any negative energy into the world. @realDonaldTrump let’s be friends.” No suit has been filed.

2011: Threatened to sue MSNBC host Laurence O’Donnell who accused him of being worth less than $1 billion. Trump tweeted, “I heard, because his show is unwatchable, that @Lawrence has made many false statements last night about me. Maybe I should sue him?” He then went on to say he was substantially worth more than $7 billion with very low debt, great assets. O’Donnell replied that the threat was “awfully soft” for Trump and insisted, “I know his big secret, his biggest secret, and he knows that I know it: Donald Trump cannot afford to sue me.=”#45055857″>”

2011: An unnamed man approached porn star Stormy Daniels in a parking lot while she was with her infant daughter and implied she’d face bodily harm if she spoke about Donald Trump and their affair ever again: “a guy walked up on me and said to me, ‘Leave Trump alone. Forget the story.” And then he leaned around and looked at my daughter and said, ‘That’s a beautiful little girl. It’d be a shame if something happened to her mom.’ And then he was gone.”

2013: Threatened to sue Angelo Carusone, organizer of a campaign to get Macy’s to drop Trump as a celebrity spokesperson and remove Trump-branded products from its shelves. The petition claimed that Trump had “long engaged in sexist behavior” and “used his public platform to deny the reality of climate change.” In a letter, Trump’s lawyer accused Carusone of using “mob-like bullying and coercion” and informed him that if he failed to cease and desist, Trump would sue him for no less than $25 million in damages. However, he’d soon back out. But Carusone would get his wish in 2015 after Trump called Mexicans rapists and criminals.

Political Misdeeds:

1980s: According to a New York State report, Trump circumvented corporate and personal donation limits by contributing money to candidates from 18 different subsidiaries, rather than giving in his own name. Trump told investigators he did this on the advice from lawyers which wasn’t illegal. He also said the contributions were not to curry favor with business friendly candidates but to simply satisfy requests from friends. However, it’s apparent he was trying to curry favor with business friendly candidates since that’s why most business people contribute to political campaigns in the first place.

1990s: Promised an amusement park in Bridgeport, Connecticut that fell through after a bitter struggle with rival Steve Wynn, which resulted in him owing $300,000 in back taxes. This was forgiven by the mayor at the time if Trump would sell the land for $1. That mayor would later spend 7 years in prison on corruption charges.

1991: Was part of a determined and successful lobbying campaign to change several tax rules, including one that would let him use his NOL to offset all personal income. This cleared the way for Trump to avoid paying federal income taxes on ventures including The Apprentice for which Trump claims he was paid over $200 million.

2010: Donated campaign money to then Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott who was also looking in to investigating Trump University. And like Bondi, Abbott decided not to pursue it mostly due to “political reasons” according to a former Texas official.

2010: Trump Foundation made a $10,000 donation to the American Spectator Foundation which is a nonprofit group that publishes the arch-conservative magazine of the same name as well as $5,000 to the Liberty Foundation which is an advocacy group run by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife.

2011: Through the Trump Foundation, made a $10,000 donation to the Palmetto Family Council, a group which opposes divorce, same-sex marriage, and abortion in South Carolina.

2012: Through the Trump Foundation coffers, made a $100,000 donation to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and $35,000 to Samaritan’s Purse. Both are Christian nonprofits run by Franklin Graham with the former being an advocacy group. When Trump proposed banning Muslims from entering the US late in 2015, Franklin Graham took to Facebook to defend him. Other conservative and religious groups have also been Trump Foundation grantees around the same time including the American Conservative Union, the anti-abortion group Justice for All, and the Texas-based evangelical ministry the Family Leader Foundation.

2013: Donated money to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s reelection campaign while her office was deciding whether or not to pursue a fraud case against Trump Institute and Trump University. Bondi dropped the investigation 4 days after the Trump Foundation contributed $25,000 to And Justice For All, which was backing her reelection. The Trump Foundation later recorded the incorrect recipient as the gift and later had to pay a $2,500 penalty to the IRS but even then didn’t recoup the money as required. I believe the correct term describing this transaction is a bribe. After that, a liberal watchdog group filed a complaint to the IRS accusing the Trump Foundation of using the charity to benefit a group’s leader. At the same time, Trump’s family gave more to her while Trump himself hosted a fundraiser at his Mar-A-Lago in Florida, charging less than market rate and less than he charged his own campaign to host events there. When this came to light in 2016, Trump moved $25,000 from his personal account to compensate his foundation and paid a $2,500 IRS fine. Trump Foundation representatives have said the contribution was made in error (yeah right).

2013: Trump Foundation donated at least $40,000 to the Drumthwacket Foundation a charity dedicated to preserving the New Jersey governor’s mansion and whose other donors have close ties to Chris Christie.

2013: Through the Trump Foundation, granted $10,000 to the Iowa-based The Family Leader which is a conservative Christian organization whose stated mission is to, “strengthen families, by inspiring Christ-like leadership in the home, the church, and the government.” Following the grant, its leader Vader Plaats invited Trump to speak at a leadership summit. These grants may have been illegal since The Family Leader is a 501(c)(4) corporation established to “develop, advocate and support legislative agenda at the state level” and not a charity. Thus, the Trump Foundation legally can’t donate money for non-charitable purposes. Though Trump may have intended to donate to The Family Leader Foundation which is listed as a 501(c)(3).

2013: Contributed $50,000 of Trump Foundation money to the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference or CPAC, to which he was invited to speak. In that same year, he was also invited to speak to the Economic Club in Washington DC after the Trump Foundation made a grant there.

2014: Trump Foundation made donation to the Moran Eye Center, a Utah hospital sponsoring Kentucky US Senator Rand Paul’s annual medical trips to Central America to perform eye surgery in poor and rural communities. Trump even sponsored one such trip to Guatemala.

2014: Made a $100,000 through the Trump Foundation to Citizens United, the infamous conservative group best known for a lawsuit that resulted in the US Supreme Court striking down many limits of the kinds of campaign donations Trump has criticized during his candidacy. This 2009 case permitted corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money backing political candidates. Even better, Citizens United was engaged in a lawsuit with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who was also pursuing a civil lawsuit against Trump University. Schneiderman’s office called this donation part of a vendetta by Trump while Citizens United has rejected claims between the donation and its own lawsuit against the New York attorney general. Schneiderman is currently investigating the Trump Foundation as we speak.

2015: Made a $100,000 donation through the Trump Foundation to Project Veritas, which is a charity run by conservative filmmaker James O’Keefe, infamous for his notorious character assassination of ACORN. In October 2016, O’Keefe released a video that purportedly reveals how Democrats incited violence at Trump rallies. During the third presidential debate, Trump claimed that the new videos O’Keefe produced and released that week proved that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama “hired people” and “paid them $1,500,” to “be violent, cause fights, [and] do bad things” at Trump rallies. Since we’re talking about James O’Keefe who’s been under fire by people claiming he smeared them, we shouldn’t take his claims seriously.

Presidential Campaign:

2015-2016: Has used his entire presidential campaign as an outgrowth to build and promote his personal brand. Has devoted speeches to attacking a judge in the fraud suit against his “university,” encouraging surrogates to do the same, and promising to relaunch the enterprise if elected. Celebrated Brexit which drove down the pound’s value and proved helpful for driving his visitors to his Scottish golf course. When asked if he would put his holdings in a blind trust, Trump replied he would but defined “blind trust” to mean that his children would run his business for him, which is not what a blind trust is.

2015-2016: May have directed money from the Trump Foundation to finance his presidential campaign.

2015-2016: Has spent millions of dollars in campaign funds for his businesses which accounts for 7% of the money going to various Trump venues, an aviation company he owns, Trump Tower for office space, his corporate staff, and various other vendors. Meanwhile, he’s been paid $1.6 million by the US Secret Service to travel on a plane owned by one of Trump’s companies.

2015: Campaign launches Make America Great Again PAC, a pro-Trump Super-PAC created by Stephanie Stephanie Cegielski which is financed in part by Ivanka Trump’s mother-in-law Seryl Kushner whose husband was a convicted Democratic financier Charles who was sentence to 2 years in prison on 18 federal charges. Cegieleski now believes Trump is mentally unfit for office and the Super-PAC is now defunct after 4 months in operation (though the group’s website is said to still be in operation as of March so the Super-PAC may still be active). Though the official excuse is Trump’s disavowal of Super-PACs, it was also facing scrutiny over suspect collaboration with Trump’s campaign office.

2015: Trump Organization’s general counsel sent a cease-and-desist letter to Right to Rise PAC which was a PAC for the Jeb Bush campaign. In it they preemptively warned that aired any misleading or defamatory ads against Trump, they’d be sued. RTR said it was a leadership PAC not a Super PAC and didn’t produce TV ads. RTR also filed a complaint against Trump with the Federal Elections Commission for allegedly violating election laws by using his corporate in-house counsel for campaign purposes. Trump has denied wrongdoing. The FEC confirms the complaint but declines to comment.

2015: Is sued by 5 men who demonstrated outside a Trump presidential campaign event at Trump Tower citing that his security staff punched them. They also allege that city police advised the security guards that the men were permitted to protest there. Several people videotaped the incident.

2016: Hired Corey Lewandowski as his campaign manager despite his relatively short resume. For a time, it seemed to work well until a Brietbart reporter tried to ask Trump a question after a press conference. Lewandowski reached out and wrenched her out of the way. Though the two insisted that the incident never happened and that Fields was “delusional,” witnesses and surveillance footage acquired by Jupiter Police from Trump National clearly show otherwise. Lewandowski was arrested for battery but the prosecutor didn’t press charges. Trump has said that he could’ve been in danger, since Fields’ pen could’ve been a bomb (for the love of God, this is just bullshit).

2016: Might’ve illegally offered Ben Carson a job after he dropped out of the presidential race.

2016: Found in FEC filings by the Daily Beast that his presidential campaign had spent more than $55,000 buying his own book, Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again. Meaning that Trump used campaign donations to buy a book, sending cash back to himself. Copies were also given to delegates at the Republican National Convention. According to campaign expert Paul S. Ryan, this maneuver goes against FEC rules as he told the Beast: “It’s fine for a candidate’s book to be purchased by his committee, but it’s impermissible to receive royalties from the publisher… There’s a well established precedent from the FEC that funds from the campaign account can’t end up in your own pocket.” The Huffington Post later discovered that Trump jacked up rent for campaign offices when he stopped funding his own campaign.

2016: According to the Huffington Post, there’s not yet publicly disseminated evidence that Trump misused New York City police officers to retaliate against his perceived enemies as well as to harass and threaten his opponents’ personal safety.

2016: Hired Paul Manafort as his campaign manager who has been known to offer his services to pro-Russian Ukranian President Viktor Yanukovych and Philippines leader Ferdinand Marcos, both who were driven from power by popular revolution (with one infamously married to an avid shoe collector). Ukranian ledgers reveal that the Yanukovych regime paid Manafort $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments. Manfort has also lobbied for Saudi Arabia, a Bahamian president suspected of narcotics trafficking, and a former Angolan rebel leader accused of torture. And he has been well compensated with his firm said to accept clients who’d pay $250,000 a year as a retainer.

2016: Recruited Roger Ailes as a campaign adviser after he was forced to resign as CEO of Fox News over sexual harassment allegations from dozens of women. According to these women, Ailes’s behavior was positively monstrous. But what you might not know is that Ailes’s abusive and predatory actions toward women were so well-known and so loathsome that the folks in the Nixon administration refused to allow him work there in 1969. This is despite playing a key role in getting Nixon elected. The Nixon administration was responsible for Watergate.

2016: Quintupled rent charged to his campaign for using Trump Tower between March and July, despite it having fewer paid staff in the latter month. It’s obvious that Trump has raised the rent once his campaign has been financed primarily by outside contributions rather than the candidate himself. The Wall Street Journal has reported that 17% of Trump’s campaign spending has gone to companies linked to himself, his children, or to reimburse their travel expenses.

2016: Is endorsed by US Representative Chris Collins who becomes his first congressional backer. Yet, a new report suggests that he only did so because state party and bigwig Trump ally, Carl Paladino blackmailed him by threatening to deploy his vast political resources against him. He also aggressively pushed and threatened Republicans on New York’s delegation to Congress and its state legislature to support Trump. Basically he did this by writing in an open letter, “This is our last request that you join ‘Trump for President’ and try to preserve what’s left of your pathetic careers in government.” In addition, he threatened Republican delegates to the 2016 RNC if they didn’t vote for Trump as pledged, “I don’t trust our entire delegation (…) I’d certainly whack them if they went off the reservation.”

2016: Received first campaign donation from Aon Corp. Newman Team CEO, Pamela Newman who has also gave money to Trump’s Super-PAC and hosted a fundraiser dinner for him. Trump’s campaign in turn paid Aon $300,000 for insurance.

2016: Ran an Op-Ed in a Northern Marianas newspaper ahead of the territory’s primary which was virtually identical to a piece Ben Carson wrote a few days prior.

2016: Threatened to sue Ted Cruz to reverse the Iowa Caucus results due to him allegedly making misstatements about Ben Carson leaving the race. He then repeatedly sued to have Cruz declared constitutionally ineligible for the presidency because he’s not a “natural born citizen.” To be fair, Cruz was born in Canada but since his mother was born in the US, he certainly qualifies.

Miscellaneous:

1989: Faked a near death experience to get front page headlines after a tragic helicopter accident kills 5 including 3 Trump executives. He claimed that he was supposed to be on that helicopter but changed his mind at the last minute.

1996: Already struggling Trump Hotels and Casinos is offered a boost from the Hard Rock chain owner the Rank Group by proposing an investment in Trump’s Castle that would’ve helped reverse declining fortunes for the company. This consisted of Rank proposing purchasing a 50% interest in as much as $350 million and valuing the property at $180 million more than what Trump paid for it. All Rank wanted was to rebrand the property simply as Hard Rock. Any sane business person in Trump’s position would take this deal. But not Trump who backed out at the last minute because he wanted his name to stay on the property and that it be renamed Hard Rock at Trump’s Marina. Rank walked and the Trump Hotel stock price continued to dive. Trump later told Fortune magazine that he remembers nothing about negotiations with Rank.

2000s: Though he did give an eloquent defense of New York’s response during 9/11, has ignored pleas to help 9/11 first responders pass the James Zadroga Act reauthorization which set up a healthcare fund for police, firefighter, and other rescue workers. Several other candidates had but Trump remained silent despite receiving multiple letters and calls from the Citizens for Extension of the James Zadroga Act, according to ABC. One of the group’s board members told the network, “I’m mortified that he can stand in front of the nation and wrap himself in a flag.”

2000: Starred in a Playboy soft-core porn. Though not illegal, it’s not something that puts him in a decent light.

2003-?: According to Newsweek, Trump Hotels wiped, “the data from everyone’s computers every year,” according to Newsweek. Lawsuits show that Trump and his companies regularly delete e-mails and other records since the very beginning.

2006: Bought an estate at Balmedie, Aberdeenshire in Scotland and built a golf course, against the wishes of locals. Trump promised the town his golf course project would create 6,000 jobs but later admitted, it only produced 200.

2007: Advised investors to buy “Subprime Mortgages At A Discount, And Repossessed Houses At Low Prices.” According to NBC, “The subprime mortgage crisis alone caused millions of Americans to lose their homes, but that same Globe and Mail piece reports Trump was ‘advising investors that there are now great deals in buying subprime mortgages at a discount, and repossessed houses at low prices.’”

2012: Despite his claims on sheltering thousands of people at Trump Tower after Hurricane Sandy, he was required by law to do so with the Trump Tower lobby having a 350 person capacity. No one has backed up his claims.

2015: Claimed in a financial statement that he’s given away $102 million worth in land but never supplied any information as to what this land is. My guess it’s probably some real estate on Middle Earth.

2015: In a financial statement, claimed an income of $362 million which was later determined as gross revenue and his actual income is likely one third of that.

2015: Claimed that he saw people jumping from the World Trade Center from his apartment even though Trump Tower is located more than 4 miles from the site. So it’s dubious at best.

2016: Though regularly boasts being worth $10 billion, a Fortune analysis estimated it’s likely between 1/3 and ½ that amount.

For more:

http://thejoshuablogs.blogspot.com/2016/08/heres-proof-of-donald-trumps-failures.html– this features a list of links from various sources such as The Washington Post, USA Today, PBS, Rolling Stone, Associated Press, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and other reputable sources. You’ll find plenty of information backing up my claims right here. Feel free to look.

http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/trump-lawsuits/– Lists everything you want to know about Trump’s lawsuits.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-scandals/474726/– A rough cheat sheet from The Atlantic on Trump’s scandals. It’s one of my main sources. And yes, they have links an sources to prove it.

http://www.vox.com/2016/10/12/13265206/trump-accusations-sexual-assault – Lists all of Trump’s sexual assault allegations so I don’t have to.

I know that I’ve been trying to avoid this subject for some time since it pertains to politics within an election year. But since Donald Trump is now the presumptive GOP nominee for president, I can no longer keep my mouth shut, not only as a Catholic social justice liberal but as an American citizen. I know people won’t like what I have to say about this, especially among my friends and family. Yet, I think my opinion on this situation is what Americans need to hear. Like many people, when Donald Trump announced his candidacy, I laughed it off thinking he probably won’t last very long since I found the idea simply preposterous. However, once people started taking him seriously and voting, his candidacy stopped being funny very quickly for me. In fact, he’s what John Oliver would call him as “America’s black mole,” because, “It may have seemed harmless a year ago, but now that it’s become frighteningly bigger, it’s no longer wise to ignore it.” The idea that people would vote for this clown despite being such an embarrassment and national disgrace to this country with all the nasty stuff he’s said just scares the living shit out of me. I can’t imagine anyone in their right mind ever voting for this guy and I thought the American people knew better than to vote for a guy I clearly see as nothing but a complete fraud whose support is based on spectacle and telling what people want to hear even if it means resorting to outright bigotry and denigrating the ideals this country stands for. Despite the slogan, Trump isn’t the candidate who’d make American great again. He’s a guy who’d make America anything but great and possibly have liberals like me view the George W. Bush administration with nostalgia. And that presidency was a disaster with 9/11, two wars in the Middle East, Enron, the Plame Affair, Hurricane Katrina, tax cuts for the rich, the 2008 crash, No Child Left Behind, and more. To me, Donald Trump is an electoral fungus with cotton candy hair whose campaign represents the US at its worst. He is a spoiled and selfish brat and an unapologetic bully who I have absolutely no respect for not only as a candidate for president, but also as a human being. He is a man I cannot trust. Nor is he a man I think sets a good example for our country. And it’s because of these reasons and more I don’t believe that Trump should ever be president.

Donald Trump’s rallies have attracted a considerable turnout during primary season no matter how outlandish, ridiculous, and offensive he gets. Sure he’s a celebrity and a reality show host. But even before he ran for president I thought him as a complete turd. And I don’t understand why anyone could even support a candidate who has proven time and time again to be nothing but.

As you might’ve heard, the bulk of Trump supporters include working class whites who show up to his rallies in record numbers. Many of them tend to feel ignored by the politicians in Washington as well as feel that they’re in desperate situations with downward spiraling lives. I admit that working class whites haven’t had it very good since the 1980s with outsourcing and deindustrialization causing the loss of good jobs that were replaced by new ones that barely paid the rent as well as blighted cities. Not to mention, many of the jobs that replaced the ones that went are poverty level and non-union. Yes, I feel for these people and I’m very aware that they’ve been screwed by big corporations and Wall Street. I also understand why many working class whites tend to blame the poor and minority groups, which Donald Trump greatly exploits. However, what working class whites are actually doing is shooting themselves in the foot by embracing Trump and all he stands for.

Whenever I see signs like these on people’s properties, I tend to wonder why on earth would anyone want to support this guy. I know many of Donald Trump’s supporters are working class whites, but still I keep asking myself that question. I can find nothing about this guy that suggests he’s presidential material or even a decent human being. And yet, no matter how many contemptible things he’s said, he’s somehow popular that people vote for him. This makes me sick.

Yes, I know working class whites are hurting and I feel for them. But so are minorities who are in the same situation with racism and discrimination to boot. Many of them work the degrading jobs for the same wages are just as equally unhappy with their situation as their white counterparts. Many undocumented immigrants have it just as bad, if not worse. While many people tend to criticize poor blacks for going on welfare, we should accept that there are plenty of working class whites on public assistance as well. And a lot welfare recipients white and minority alike have jobs, sometimes more than one. While there’s said to be a lot of crime and drug use in the inner cities, you can also say the same in rural Appalachia. Working class whites might see similar disadvantaged groups as “the other” as different from them and see anything that aims to support their interests as something to oppose. However, what working class whites need to realize is that these people of color aren’t much different from them, especially in their economic situations. As someone descended from working class whites, I see the poor and racial minorities as my brothers and sisters as well as support movements like Black Lives Matter and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, not just because it’s right and a way to stay true to my faith. But also that a lot of policies benefiting racial minorities also help poor and working class whites. And American history is full of examples to support this. Reconstruction not only expanded suffrage to African Americans but also to Southern whites who weren’t able to vote before the Civil War. It was also a time when both blacks and whites in the South first had access to public schools as well. You have the West Virginia mine wars during the early 1900s where black and white miners alike fought for the right to unionize as well as better wages and working conditions and an end to unfair company practices. Then there’s union organizer Walter Reuther’s support for the Civil Rights Movement and his marching with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. since both saw the causes of civil rights and economic justice as intertwined. And the fact that these two ideas are intertwined with one another should be a reason why working class whites should support Black Lives Matter and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Here we have the super rich superdick at a rally in Mobile, Alabama among cheering crowds which make me cringe. Seriously, I thought the American people were better than to support a guy like Donald Trump. The guy is a complete prick and a sleaze on top of that. Why the hell could anyone seriously support this guy as president? I can’t understand this.

It’s a shame that many working class whites are willing to accept the economic status quo that’s screwing them, support men like Donald Trump, and blame their downward spiraling lives on the poor and people of color. I know it may not be something working class whites might not want to hear but even though I sympathize with their plight, the bigotry, xenophobia, and racism that many embrace has got to go. All what embracing Trump’s racist rhetoric does for working class whites is make them look like a bunch of ignorant rednecks supporting a candidate against their own best interests as well as makes the powers that be not take their concerns seriously. Yes, I know that many of these voters are unsettled by cultural and demographic change, but the US has been through this before and it’s nothing to be worried about. I know many of these people are unsettled over Obama’s ongoing transformation of the US as something no longer recognizably American. But previous generations have faced the same thing under other presidents and responded to backlash against changes the exact same way. What these people see as “recognizably American” either never really existed or was much shittier than you remember. I’m sorry but I don’t want to live through another Bush administration. Even though Obamacare isn’t Universal Healthcare and flawed, at least it’s better than what we had before and I do not want to go back to the old system. The fact that the Democratic Party supports rights for women, LGBT people, and racial minorities is not their problem. Their main problem is their tendency to compromise and downplay their sacred principles in favor of much needed campaign contributions from wealthy donors and corporations, especially thanks to Citizens United. This is especially true when it pertains to Democratic principles pertaining to labor rights, corporate regulation, health and safety, taxing the rich, and environmental protection. But I have to admit that Barack Obama has been a good president for this country and I’d hate to see him go. At least Democrats support policies like free pre-K, affordable childcare, equal pay for women, and paid leave. Not to mention, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are both viable candidates in their own right and I can see why anyone reasonable would support either of them.

Many people support Trump because they think he “tells it like it is.” If so, then how come Politifact has no true statements on his file? Not only that, but they made him Liar of the Year for 2015. Kind of shows what a phony he is.

I’ve often heard that many Donald Trump supporters believe that he’s not afraid to tell it like it is or be honest. I find that hard to believe since I’ve long known him to be a spoiled rich brat who’s a shameless opportunist and self-promoter. If there is any candidate in this election who has the guts to tell it like it is, my money is on Vermont US Senator Bernie Sanders and I can understand why so many people love him for it. Sanders might be a self-described democratic socialist but he mostly believes what he says and has a pretty good idea on what he wants to do if he’s elected president with plenty of detailed policies to back it up. If I saw a herd of working class whites fill a stadium at a Bernie Sanders rally, I wouldn’t question their judgement since Sanders seems like a guy who supports policies that benefit the little guy. Of course, he’s not perfect, his policies may not be realistic, and doesn’t have a chance in hell to win the Democratic nomination, but at least his appeal to many Democrats makes a lot of sense.

This painting of Donald Trump is by someone from San Francisco. It depicts the wretched presidential candidate holding money in one hand, making a Nazi salute with the other, and having a pile of shit coming out of his mouth plopped onto the US. I think it shows the idea I’ve long suspected in that Trump is full of shit.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, is mostly speaking to people’s frustrations and anxieties by telling them what they want to hear. Telling people that the way to “make America great again” is to deport 11 million people with ease isn’t “telling them like it is.” It’s lying on multiple levels. He also talks about how his standing as a “businessman” makes him an “outsider.” So unlike traditional politicians in Washington who are bought and paid for, he “can’t be bought.” However, we have to acknowledge that Trump has been a member of the 1% his entire life who wouldn’t be the man he is today if he wasn’t born into one of the wealthiest families in the country. Sure big money in politics is a major problem and the notion of politicians being bought and paid for by wealthy donors is part of how Washington conducts business as usual. Yet, understand that Trump is a massive hypocrite who’s bought and paid for politicians himself. Despite what he claims, he’s not funding his campaign all by himself for he probably has his share of wealthy backers. So he’s very much part of the political establishment. But even if most lawmakers were controlled by their contributors, the idea Trump could somehow move our system through sheer force of un-bought will is utter crap. It constitutes much of his candidacy’s Big Lie: never mind the policy details, never mind the separation of powers, and never mind the profound disagreements between the parties. Everything will be easy and terrific. Except in politics, accomplishing anything in politics is everything but easy and terrific. He’s not telling you like it is. He’s telling you like it isn’t. When he’s telling it like it is, he’s really conning people into voting for him by telling them what they want to hear or what will entertain them. He’s playing for an audience by appealing to voters’ frustrations, insensitivities, and other unsavory emotions. He is not like you. He cares nothing about you for all Donald Trump cares about is Donald Trump. You are his potential pawn to be used to get what he wants. His candidacy is only a reality show based on the public image he’s created and cultivated for decades that’s all spectacle that satiates a bloodlust and structured insanity. But behind that façade, there’s very little substance. While most presidential candidates typically draft detailed policies that they intend to pursue if elected, Trump has released very few. All the things he said he’d do just sound like simplistic bullshit by a guy who seems completely unconcerned about the implications in order to accomplish them. All delivered with the kind of maniacal overconfidence that’s seen as almost delusional. He not only lies his ass off but doubles downs on those lies. He denies long established facts most people accept even by experts in their field such as that New Jersey Muslims weren’t cheering on 9/11, vaccines don’t cause autism, Obama was born in the US, and global warming isn’t a hoax perpetuated by China to close US factories. Furthermore, it’s widely said that Trump doesn’t understand how government operates, advisers or no advisers. His foreign policy team has been described as “a collection of charlatans.” In debates, it’s been revealed that he didn’t know what a nuclear triad was (it’s a doomsday force of land based missiles, long range bombers, and submarine-launched missiles that the President can order if the US is attacked). Nor did he know that China wasn’t a party to the Trans-Pacific Partnership which is intended to counter the country’s economic influence. Not to mention, Trump has been known to change his political views like one would change their socks. This is not what you’d want in a presidential candidate.

Here’s a Twitter chat between Donald Trump and Coach Clint Swan about the Boston Marathon bombers and the Central Park 5 (black and Hispanic teenage boys who were falsely accused and falsely convicted of raping and attacking a jogger along with a few others in 1989. It was a gross miscarriage of justice that was mired in racial discrimination, emotional distress, and malicious prosecution). This shows that Trump is a very insensitive jerk and his racism is nothing new. What an asshole.

As for his public image, Donald Trump has built it around a bully persona pertaining to bombast, bluntness, and offending people. Unfortunately, it turns out that a lot of primary voters are attracted to jerks as long as their vitriol is directed toward the right people, even if it means inciting violence against protestors at his rallies. His supporters cheer when he insults immigrants, Mexicans, Muslims, women, other politicos, POWs and even the occasional Fox News host (but not in a good way at all). His supporters will tell you that he doesn’t bow to political correctness. Maybe, but perhaps he should. They’d also tell you that Trump says what people wish they could say. If by “people,” you mean “racists,” since Trump isn’t afraid to call Mexicans criminals and racists, promises to kick every Muslim out of America, ridiculed a reporter for being disabled, called POWs losers for getting captured, and said of a black protestor, “Maybe he should have been roughed up because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.” But only those from the white supremacy and white nationalists groups who back him are willing to admit that he’s the voice they always wanted since he’s mainstreaming such bigotry throughout the race, especially when many of his supporters believe in the notion of “white racism” which doesn’t even exist. And it doesn’t help that Trump hesitated to disavow David Duke and the Klu Klux Klan. But the closet racists of the country know what they believe in is ignorant bullshit who don’t want to risk becoming pariahs for exposing their bullshit. His bully persona has also made him exceedingly popular with people who believe he represents American ideals, especially the American promise of success being represented by great wealth (I’ll get to this later), which is troubling. The fact that millions of people are seriously willing to vote for this fuckwad as president disturbs me even more. Now I don’t expect my politicians to necessarily be saints. But I do wish that they’d have some capacity for basic human decency in public appearances.

However, we have to acknowledge that Donald Trump is an exceptionally shitty human being whose capacity for basic human decency is practically non-existent. He’s a trust fund baby with an aggressive competitive drive, an ego the size of Texas, and an inability to take criticism or a joke despite that he’s a walking and talking cartoon character. He’s a bully who takes any attacks against him and jokes at his expense personally and with a vicious streak. One woman was kicked off of Last Comic Standing because she made fun of Trump’s hair. He even threw a hissy fit over some magazine talking about his tiny hands. Really? Throughout his life he has continually asserted his sense of spoiled rich kid superiority with only the barest hint of doubt. He’s a thriced-married serial philanderer who treats the women in his life as objects, is well-known to make women uncomfortable around him, and openly admitted on national TV that he wants to bang his daughter. Yes, he said this. He’s a draft dodger who called John McCain a loser for being a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 5 years. His name is synonymous with success defined by wealth and luxury that wouldn’t have been possible if he wasn’t a trust fund baby who received an Ivy League education on his family name. Though he claims to be a successful businessman, he is anything but (I’ll get to this later). He has no class and wants to beat and grind adversaries to the ground. And no matter how much offensive, divisive, and destructive his rhetoric can be, he’s never ashamed, he’s never humble, he’s never gracious, and never apologizes. As for friends, well, he’s openly praised Vladimir Putin calling him “a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond” despite that Putin is highly feared and known to leave a trail of invaded countries and dead journalists. And it doesn’t help that his penchant for being an unrepentant asshole with a goofy toupee that it’s no wonder he’s been referred by Jon Stewart as “Fuckface Von Clownstick” as well as such a complete joke of a man that comedians find him so irresistible to mock. The fact Trump’s voracious hunger for fame, wealth, and power combined with his hideous muppet hair and morally bankrupt personality just gives the comics more ammunition to mock him. In short, he’s not a guy you’d want your child to look up to since he sets a very poor example to children since he makes Richard Nixon look like a boy scout. Fuckface Von Clownstick, indeed.

While Donald Trump often says he’s a great businessman, he’s had a string of business failures seen here. While Trump often tries to brad his name as high class, it has repeatedly come to mean shoddy work, half-baked schemes, and sketchy characters. This is from a conservative website by the way.

Another thing that you hear from Donald Trump supporters is notion that Trump would make a good president because he’s a good businessman. However, not all great businessmen make great politicians and vice versa. Besides, while the goals for business are to make money, the goals of government are far more complex so being CEO of a major corporation is nothing like being President of the United States. And contrary to his claims, Trump is not a great businessman. Yes, he wrote The Art of the Deal that doesn’t mean he’s a great businessman. After all, some people from write relationship advice despite being shitty in relationships. But deal making and promotion are only part of being a successful businessman. And I’m sure these two aspects Trump masters beautifully. But he’s not a great operator and most business usually consists of overseeing day-to-day details that require the attention. Trump usually leads the running and operating on locations to managers he hires. Day-to-day details don’t interest him. His Atlantic City casino ventures went bankrupt 4 times and was forced to sell his other businesses like Trump Airways all of which employed thousands of people (Rolling Stone lists 13 of his business failures in all). In his offices, there are 2 or 3 floors at Trump Tower that might have 40 or 50 people in them. Sure he’s wealthy now. But that’s because he inherited a lucrative family business. And he only achieved real success when he turned from real estate development to franchising his name for other developers’ projects. That and his ethically questionable business practices. His for-profit Trump University is now being investigated for fraud. His earnings may be smaller than he says they are. His name on offerings like furniture, neckties, steaks, magazines, alcohol and other beverages, air travel, board games, fragrances, telecommunications, mortgages, and more which is said to stand for high class, high quality, and high cost. But a lot of these ventures failed and Trump is partially responsible for that. Thus, in practice the Trump brand has often repeatedly stood for half-baked schemes, shoddy work, and sketchy characters. Now thanks to him calling all Mexicans rapists and criminals, Macy’s has discontinued his line of menswear that it carried for 11 years and whose ties I’ve sorted during the 2014 Christmas season for a measly $8 an hour. Despite that Trump likes to brag about his success as a businessman, he is not a self-made man nor a man you’d trust to run your business venture. If Trump has refused to release his tax returns, chances are that he’s probably not as rich and successful as he makes himself out to be. And if he’s not interested in the day-to-day details of running his business, he’s probably not going to be interested in the day-to-day details of running the US Government. At the end of the day, he’s not the successful businessman but a trust fund baby who got really lucky.

Here’s a diagram from the Onion on Donald Trump’s latest casino bankruptcies listing the reasons for their failure. And yes, it acknowledges that Trump inherited most of his money.

Finally, the main reason why Donald Trump should be president has to do with the fact that most Americans who know him don’t like him even within the Republican Party and his hometown of New York City. As a celebrity, he’s more of a guy most people love to hate and make fun of as a joke. That is until he ran for president and people started taking him seriously as a candidate. As a blogger and a liberal Democrat, I am free to say what I want about Trump and not get the short end of the stick. The Donald doesn’t know who I am. And if he gets angry on what I say about him, it’s just going to make him look like an idiot since I’m just a small-time blogger with a small following. But others don’t have the same luxury. If you pay attention, you might be aware that the Bush family and Mitt Romney don’t like him at all. The Koch brothers don’t care for him either and decided not to back him for now. The National Review did a piece on why Republicans shouldn’t vote for him. Noted pundit Glenn Beck has steadfastly opposed Trump saying, “I don’t want my children to look at that man and say, ‘Yeah, he’s my President.’ I won’t have that. I will not endorse it, I will not tolerate it.” This is coming a guy who had his own show on Fox News that made him notorious for crazy antics that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert mercilessly mocked until he was fired from the network. Nebraska freshman Senator Bob Sasse has even written a long Facebook post explaining he’s not backing Trump as well. Radio host Erick Erickson decided not to endorse Trump, because he’d rather, “put my country before my party and decline to help the voters in this country commit national suicide.” Leon Wolf from Redstate even went further saying that while he thinks Hillary would make a terrible president, he genuinely believes that she’d be way better than Trump.

This is a poll from Suffolk University and USA Today on what words best describes Donald Trump. Despite his own delusional self-grandeur, most people think the man is a jerk. This isn’t what you want in a presidential candidate.

Politicians who’ve had decided the back Trump, have only been willing to do so for the “good of the party” since he’s the presumptive nominee. Or back in the primaries, he’s the frontrunner and probably want Trump to do something for them, don’t want to be seen supporting Hillary Clinton, or feel their jobs depend on it. Take Chris Christie for instance whom Stephen Colbert likened to “a best man at a wedding he doesn’t believe in” when he endorsed the guy. John McCain has also endorsed him despite how Trump said that he’s not a war hero because he got captured in Vietnam. McCain would go on to say that Trump owed former POWs and their families an apology because these guys have dealt with a lot of shit. But McCain’s endorsement is understandable because he’s in a tight reelection battle in Arizona. But a private recording reveals he’s not happy about it and thinks backing him will hurt his chances. New Hampshire US Senator Kelly Ayotte says she’ll support him but not endorse him since she’s also in a tight reelection battle. I’m sure this means, “I’m playing it safe because I don’t want to alienate my GOP supporters in the primary but I don’t think endorsing the guy is going to help me in November.” Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval is another guy who’s backing him but only for the good of the party. Yet, he’s clearly not a fan and doesn’t plan to attend the convention. Finally, we have South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham who said the day when Trump won Indiana, “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it.” This guy hates Trump so much that he even endorsed Ted Cruz despite previously likening the choice between the two as one between being poisoned and being shot. Recently, CNN has reported Graham has privately urged donors to unify around him though he hasn’t really endorsed him publicly yet. Guess it’s for the good of the party.

Here is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie behind Donald Trump after he endorsed the guy for president. Notice the look on his face. Is that a look of an enthusiastic supporter? No.

Then there are those who are undecided like Speaker Paul Ryan who I liken as a hypocrite and whose Ayn Rand inspired ideas libertarian economics are appalling, insensitive, impractical, and insane. But in this election, it’s hard not to feel sorry for him. Though he has intended to support whoever’s the GOP nominee in the past, he has admitted that he’s not prepared to back Trump-yet. “To be perfectly candid with you, I’m just not ready to that at this point. I’m not there. I hope to, and I want to,” he said on CNN. It should be apparent that Ryan is lying his ass off as if he’s a kid when his mom asks him whether he’ll support her decision to marry Mr. Douchebag. In reality, Ryan hates Trump’s guts and really doesn’t want to endorse him for president. He’s said that his party needs “a standard-bearer that bears our standards.” And it’s clear that the House Speaker doesn’t think Trump is the guy he has in mind. Otherwise, Ryan would’ve kept true to his promise once Trump clinched the nomination. But he can’t speak his mind and tell Trump to stick it because he simply can’t afford to since he’s in a tight primary congressional race with an opponent who’s already endorsed him. It doesn’t help that he’s House Speaker (a job he didn’t even want) and is the highest ranked elected GOP leader in the country. If Ryan decides to back Trump, it will be because he doesn’t want to lose his job. And he will back the man only when he absolutely has to, most likely at the Republican National Convention. Nevertheless, I can easily imagine Ryan having an effigy of Donald Trump in his office that he periodically uses as a punching bag and constantly swears at. As of now, Trump’s nomination has put him in a no-win situation where he’s stuck with either endorsing a nominee he thinks makes his party a joke at the cost of his personal integrity or possibly alienating his Republican constituents in his Wisconsin district who can vote him out of office and end his political career.

Here’s House Speaker Paul Ryan from Wisconsin after meeting with Donald Trump. Ryan said the meeting went well but he’s still not ready to endorse him. In reality, Ryan despises Trump and really doesn’t want to endorse him. In the end he may not have other choice if he wants to save his career since his primary opponent is a known Trump supporter.

Look, I know that many of you may not like Hillary Clinton for various reasons. I know she’s not a likeable person. I know she has a lot of baggage as a politician and public figure. And I know that many people in this country fundamentally don’t like her. However, we have to accept the fact that despite her many faults, there’s no doubt that Clinton is qualified for the job, has realistic and coherent policy ideas, and has proven herself reasonably competent in every political position she’s had. And when it comes to listing all the US presidents on the wall at your kids’ school, you’d probably be okay with her being on it, eventually. You may not think much of her or even agree with her ideas. Even at her worst, she still looks like the better choice for president than Donald Trump. In fact, you could probably say that a spilled can of antifreeze or a steaming pile of dog shit are better choices than Donald Trump. Many might say that Clinton is corrupt, untrustworthy, inconsistent and hypocritical. But she has proven herself to be a serious presidential candidate not once, but twice. If she’s elected, chances are you won’t need to explain to your kids why most Americans voted for her even if you didn’t. Hillary may not make the best president, but I can guarantee you that if Trump’s in the White House, expect him to be an epic disaster.

Here’s a cartoon of Donald Trump if he was at a job interview for the presidency. Note that his resume doesn’t make him seem like he’s presidential material. Doesn’t look good.

You can’t say any of that about Donald Trump. But one thing is clear, the man is a complete fraud and a conman as well as a wretched human being most people hate. He has risen to become the GOP nominee in the 2016 presidential race through soundbites filled with racism, sexism, xenophobia, turning his campaign into an empty spectacle, and inciting violence. But at the same time he has failed to show that he’s qualified or even serious about the job and what it entails. Elections aren’t reality shows. They are political events where we choose leaders and representatives to make laws and policy decisions that affect our lives. Presidential elections are serious business that our country can’t afford to elect a clown like him to the White House. If there’s any good reason why even the most conservative Republican should vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, it’s that she takes this election seriously and is more likely to exercise the presidency with the kind of decorum, respect, and dignity Americans deserve from a leader 0f the free world. And if you take this election and the politics seriously, then she is the candidate you should support regardless of what you think of her or your political ideology. I know it’s a bitter pill to swallow. But if you’re an American who loves your country and cares retaining at least a shred of dignity on the presidency after Obama leaves the White House in January, you’d have to be a complete idiot to support Donald Trump. Sure he may be entertaining and might say things you’d want to hear, but he’s not the kind of man who should be leading the country.

This is a mural by a guy in New York City. It’s of Donald Trump as a steaming pile of shit. I think it’s a realistic portrait, well, from a certain point of view.