The Donald- Part 5 and End

Trump is an enigma. One part of him shows pure patriotism and concern for America. Another part of him is pure showmanship and braggadocio. And yet another part of him is a shrewd calculating businessman out to make a buck. The question on everyone’s mind is “Is he serious about running for president?”

Only Trump knows and he won’t say for a while yet. I believe his psyche is a combination of all three and he really has no intention of running for president. He has put together a brilliant marketing plan of, and for himself. But is it really? Has Trump recognized what we all suspect that there is no clear cut leader ready to defeat Obama and someone must break from the pack before it is too late.

Breaking from the pack means winning Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada; the first four primaries. One person has to emerge from those primaries and lead the Republican party. Trump is showing them how to do it and the candidate who has the guts to take off the gloves and engage Obama in a bare knuckles, old fashioned political brawl will be the winner. Trump is writing the script as I write this. He is attacking Obama at every turn, saying the unsaid, asking the questions the media wouldn’t dare, calling out the president every chance he gets. Why?

Two reasons. First, to let Obama know that he is in for the fight of his life, but more importantly, and second, show the way for the yet to be named standard bearer for conservatism. We all know Trump is far from being a conservative but that doesn’t mean he can’t act like one and set the stage. That’s what Trump is all about. Celebrity.

Whether it be Pawlenty, Gingrich, Bachmann, Romney or someone else, they will see what Trump has done and said and how the public and Obama have reacted and will have  the game plan already scripted. McCain lost before he began for one reason, he didn’t take the gloves off and Palin was mistake number two. The GOP candidate for 2012 will make neither mistake. The GOP will take the fight to Obama and beat him at his own game.

How can they do that? One very simple reason. Obama has no record to stand on. Sixty seven percent of the voters hate Obamacare, the economy is in shambles, still, gas will be $5 a gallon soon and the stock market will crash, again. Add to that a dizzying inflationary spiral and you have a GOP win.

The Donald-3 Good, Bad and Ugly

You have heard all about the bright side of Trump in my previous writings but no one is perfect and Trump certainly has his warts. The key difference between Trump’s past transgressions and that of Obama or any other politician, is they are much more publicized and frequently result in legal proceedings. For a sitting congressman or president be subject to a level of scrutiny even close to what is already known about Trump, would be unthinkable. But, maybe that’s a good thing. If the voting public sees him as a viable candidate with all his warts exposed, then so be it. After all, we elected Carter and Obama didn’t we?

Trump was the fourth child of real estate developer Frederick Trump. He was born into money. He joined his father’s company after he graduated from the Wharton School of Economics. Trump’s first major foray into high financial real estate was when the Pennsylvania Railroad entered bankruptcy and he optioned the railroad yards on the west side of Manhattan. He wanted to build high end apartments but that proved economically disastrous. He then convinced the city to build a convention center which became known as the Jacob Javits Center much to his chagrin.

He then optioned the old Commodore Hotel and turned it into the Grand Hyatt using a complex 40 year tax deal with NYC. It was a success and his name became prominent. In 1982 he completed the famous Trump Tower project and received national attention. When gambling went legal in Atlantic City Trump jumped in with both feet and at one time owned or had a controlling interest in four casinos.

But the economy turned sour and bankruptcy began to be a key topic in the Trump boardrooms. Trump’s companies filed twice for bankruptcy but he was never touched. How can that be?

First, Trump doesn’t get personally involved. He knows how to protect his personal finances. In both instances, where Trump’s corporations have filed for bankruptcy; Trump personally has not. Hence, when his casino fell into about a billion dollars in debt, the corporation filed for Chapter 11. Trump only made the decision to do so once he had spoken to his banks and bondholders. But, by filing, he gave his business the opportunity to regroup and reduce his business debt. It didn’t hurt however that it would also reduce his personal debt, as Trump is likely the one every creditor would look to if the Taj Mahal couldn’t pay up. So, in fact, Trump avoided potential lawsuits from creditors and he may have also avoided personal bankruptcy by keeping his own bank account insulated.

Trump, it appeared, had triumphed. His company had dire financial problems but seemed to rise just as quickly from those bankruptcy ashes. Just three years later, he combined the hotels into the publicly held Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts.

So, in the beginnings of his rise to prominence there have been some major bumps in the road. And there will be more.

The Donald- Part 2

Love him or hate him, it makes no difference. You have to admire him. He has an ego bigger than Trump Towers, he’s a fast talking real estate magnate, he’s wealthy beyond most of our imaginations, he can be arrogant, he loves publicity and he is a conservative, but, admittedly, one with a big heart. What he is not is a graduate of Harvard or Yale, not a Fulbright Scholar, not a socialist, did not hang around with wannabe terrorists or preachers that condemn America, not a politician and most importantly, not a LAWYER!

He is a graduate of the Wharton school at the University of Pennsylvania and that’s where he developed his business skills. He had problems in high school (undefined) and transferred to the New York Military Academy (not West Point)  where he graduated. He then attended Fordham University and eventually transferred to the Wharton School at Penn U.  He made his money the old fashioned American way, through smarts, business acumen and just plain ingenuity.

You could call him a “birther” and you would probably be correct. In the beginning I was a birther but as time went on I discarded that opinion as no one could prove it. But Trump has revealed that there are facts about Obama’s birth that the press have totally ignored. (and you are surprised?). He relates to a press conference in Kenya where Obama’s grandmother was interviewed and she stated categorically that he was born in Kenya and she was there to witness the birth. His name was Barry Soetero (sic?) but when did it become Barack Hussein Obama? No one knows and there are no legal documents ever produced attesting to that name change. In that same press interview she was asked again and you could hear in the background of the tapes, “Hawaii, Hawaii”.

There is a real question in my mind at this point if he is in violation of Article II of the constitution.

Trump calls into question frequently, Obama’s love affair with the press. I’ll skip Chris Matthews at this time as I am sick of leg tingling. But Obama association with Tony Rezko has been totally overlooked by the press. It is time someone exposed this relationship and Trump has done it.

The one thing Trump is most proud of is his ability to close a deal. You can read all about it in his book, “The Art of The Deal”. Trump trumpets (sorry) the fact that Obama has only done one deal in his entire life and that was an under the table real estate transaction with Chicago mobster Tony Rezko. Even Hillary Clinton had a low opinion of Rezko, she called him, in public, “a slum landlord”.

Rezko is an Illinoisan political fundraiser who was convicted for fraud and bribery in 2008. He was accused of using his political position to extort money from businesses seeking contracts from the Illinois Teachers System Board and the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board.

Back in the 1990s (before Rezko’s offenses took place), two companies owned by Rezko gave the first ever contributions to Obama’s Illinois Senate campaign. In the 2000s, he served on Obama’s U.S. Senate campaign finance committee. In 2005, Rezko’s wife bought a lot adjacent to a house Obama purchased for $625,000 and subsequently sold a part of it to Obama. Records show that the small portion of land was sold way below market  and rendered the lot that Rezko owned  not large enough to build upon. Now why would Rezko do that?

It is interesting to note that on the same day Obama bought his peoperty for $300,000 under the asking price, Rezko’s wife purchased the adjacent property for full asking price. She then proceded to sell a strip of her property to Obama rendering her parcel useless.

OK, the plot is really thickeneing here and I am afraid I will bore you with too much so I will close this piece. Keep in mind though, that Trump is a bulldog and once he sets his teeth, he never lets go.

“The Donald” (Part 1)

I have to go back a few years (too many to admit) to recall when I first heard of Donald Trump. He was in the middle of a divorce to his first wife, Ivana, and my sister-in-law met him in an elevator in New York City. She was so excited that she called us to tell us about it and we just yawned and pooh-pooh’ed it. Why we said to ourselves, would anyone care about Donald Trump.

I didn’t care then, but I do now.

Donald Trump is a billionaire and is afraid of no one. Barack Obama is a fraud and is afraid of everyone. In particular he is most sensitive to criticism, of which lately, there has more than he can handle.

Case in point. His speech at GWU on April 13, 2011. He made a point a to invite Rep. Paul Ryan the author of the fiscal plan  to save America called “Path To Prosperity”. Both republicans and democrats thought this might have been a psuedo olive branch and an attempt to bring “civility” to the political process as Obama has said he wants. But noooooooooo (sorry John Belushie), Obama put Ryan in the front row and used this occasion to savagely attack Ryan and the GOP with a form of demagoguery that has never been seen before. His comments on the Ryan plan were so off base and ill-informed that even the liberal news media were shocked and said so. Perhaps if you are old enough you may remember Spiro Agnew who was the first vice president under Richard Nixon. Old Spiro had a way with words and was never one to shut up. But he did not last and had to resign but that’s another tale.

Obama drew a line in the sand, which was obvious. This was his first 2012 campaign speech and nothing more. He spoke in goals and platitudes and offered not one iota of concrete plan or even attempt to get where he was sending this nation. Right down the socialist rat hole.

Obama is looking over his shoulder as I write. He fears nothing about the lackluster professional politicians who will attempt to challenge his re-election. Unfortunately the GOP is disorganized as ever and fractured within. They will expend millions of dollars and probably try to nominate a lack luster, mumbling, incoherent candidate to take on Obama and the Obama machine will crush him, or her.

Obama fears only one person, the one man who can stand up to him and is not afraid to call him a liar and a fraud. The one man who really believes he is not constitutionally qualified to be president. The one man who can out spend George Soros, the one man who will stand up to the world, defend Israel, and get Iraq to pay us back the $1.5 trillion we spent defending them (in oil), that man is Donald Trump. [END OF PART 1]