Con artist unfit for presidency
The more I see Donald Trump, the less I like him.
His rambling “victory speech” after winning primary elections in Mississippi and Michigan last Tuesday proved he is not only unfit for the presidency, but a self-important snake oil salesman.
While, for most presidential candidates, wins in two key elections in disparate parts of the country would be perfect times to exhibit some form a grace, not for Donald Trump.
He spent 41 minutes and seven seconds discussing his favorite topic – Donald J. Trump.
You’d expect him to thank the hundreds, perhaps, thousands of campaign workers who spent their time helping him topple his opponents.
He didn’t.
Instead Heir Trump talked about his debt-free buildings, hotels, resorts and golf clubs.
He’s an entrepreneur, you know.
Then, in a surreal display of nothingness, he heralded his wares, as if the unwashed, and politically unsatisfied masses could benefit from: Trump Bottled Water; Trump Winery; Trump Steaks; Trump Magazine; his now defunct airline and Trump University.
This guy’s got a nerve.
Oh, he stopped long enough in his salute to himself, to cast aspersions at Sen. Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney and his fellow Republican presidential contenders Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Then it was off to some of his tiresome talking points about building walls, and beating Hillary Clinton.
“We’re going to beat Hillary Clinton. We’re going to beat her badly,” he said, as if he was saying it for the first time.
For good measure, he always adds, “Numerous polls have me winning against Hillary Clinton.”
“Numerous polls?”
I’ve counted 40 national polls that’ve been released since last August.
Clinton beats Trump in all but five of them. The current national average of all of the presidential polls has her up by 6.3 percent.
By comparison, in popular vote, President Obama whipped Mitt Romney by 4 percent – and that was considered something of a landslide.
Bernie Sanders leads Trump by even more in national polling.
But Trump’s unfettered ego tells him, so he can tell you, that he’s leading Clinton in “numerous polls.”
Some people might call Trump charismatic.
There’s an argument, though, that could be made that he’s merely hypnotic in ways many megalomaniacs are.
Why else would CNN, MSNBC and Fox News allow Trump to engage in hour long performance art, while they ignored Hillary Clinton’s post-election speech?
Trump appeared the following morning (by telephone) on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Legendary journalist Bob Woodward pressed Trump repeatedly about how he’s going to have Mexico pay for his now-famous wall.
If anything, Trump is the master of giving non-answers to specific questions.
He launched into his usual non-answer about how “Mexico owes us billions of dollars.”
Getting another country to build a $10 billion structure in this country is simple, according to Trump.
Except he never explains that could happen.
It was just another opportunity for him to go into a tirade about the trade deficit, and how the United States is bleeding jobs to countries where they pay slave wages.
That’s curious for a man who has a line of neckties, shirts and suits that are mainly made in China and Bangladesh.
He may decry the trade deficit, but he’s adding to it.
In fact, Harvard Trade and Investment Professor Robert Lawrence just discovered that Trump isn’t the only person in the family who engages in widespread outsourcing.
Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, has a big line of women’s clothes and accessories, that’s made outside of the United States.
“Of the 838 Ivanka products advertised through the (company’s) web site, none appear to be made exclusively in the U.S; 628 are said to be imported and 354 made specifically in China,” Lawrence wrote.
Just about every speech Trump makes, he complains about Ford Motors, Nabisco and Carrier Air Conditioning building their plants outside of the United States.
He’s even claimed he’ll no longer eat Nabisco’s favorite product – Oreo cookies, because they’ve moved their plant to Mexico.
Since Trump’s brand is largely boosted by goods he makes overseas, maybe the voting public should boycott his snake oil too.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net