Oct 8, 2018 4 min read

President Trump is a self-made billionaire — if you believe him. I don’t.

There’s that extensive New York Times report that provides some proof that Trump is no more a self-made billionaire than I am. For the record, I’m not one.

That 14,000-word report not only demystifies Donald Trump the self-professed real estate genius, but it claims that Trump and his family most likely engaged in fraud and tax evasion schemes for decades.

It started when Trump was 3 years old, and his father, Fred, created sham corporations in his name.

According to the report, young Trump was earning $200,000 at age 3, and he became a millionaire by the time he reached 8 years old.

So much for Trump’s oft-repeated line about getting a “small,” $1 million loan from his father, and then repaying it — with interest — as seed money for his future prosperity.

He and his siblings benefited from their father’s desire to shield himself from tax burdens while making them the beneficiaries of his clever plans.

On the day that Times report was published, Trump was heading to Mississippi to give one of his campaign speeches.

He knew that a lengthy, well-documented report that upends his self-proclaimed money-making wizardry would become everybody’s lead story.

So, he hatched a plan.

He’d get the media to cast their gaze in another direction.

He may have spoken about other things on that Mississippi stage that night, but he decided he’d mock Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who testified that she’d been nearly raped by U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

“I had one beer,” Trump said, as he launched into an impersonation of Ford. “How did you get home? I don’t remember. How’d you get there? I don’t remember. Where’s the place? I don’t remember,” was Trump’s false take on Ford’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

It was false because Ford had testified with great clarity about that day in 1982 in which she claimed she had to fight off Kavanaugh and one of his friends.

Trump had done what he had set out to do.

He threw the spotlight away from his questionable past, and onto a woman (Ford), whom he’d even said a few days before, was a “nice lady,” and that her testimony had been “credible.”

That was a big win for Trump.

He managed to get just about every news organization to write about and show his smirking, derision of a woman who’d shown more guts than he ever had.

But what’s even more disturbing could be found while watching Trump perform his verbal sleight-of-hand.

You could clearly see about a dozen women standing behind him in the crowd.

They all laughed and cheered as Trump mocked Ford.

Consider the fact that the National Sexual Violence Resource Center estimates that one in five women will be raped at some point in their lives. Or, that one in three women will experience “some form of contact sexual violence.”

There’s no way of knowing for sure, but one of those women who was cheering while Trump was getting laughs at the expense of an alleged sexual assault victim, may have been a sexual assault victim herself.

That’s truly distressing.

But it certainly wasn’t distressing to Trump’s White House mouthpieces.

When asked about his attack on Dr. Ford, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed, the president was “stating facts that were given during Dr. Ford’s testimony.”

No, he wasn’t.

He was telling a joke.

None of what he was saying was a “fact.”

Look, we can expect Mr. Trump to deal in off-handed cheap shots.

That’s what got him elected.

His disgusting claim that John McCain wasn’t a “hero” or his impression of a handicapped reporter during a campaign speech will all be an integral part of his legacy.

Those people who give him cover will also be included in that legacy.

They would otherwise find a person making fun of a sexual assault victim would be appalling.

Since it’s Donald Trump they’re all for it.

What’s wrong with people?

Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.