President Donald – Campaign promises

[spudea]

But that's where your analogy fails. Trump made stupid promises any fool could tell he could never keep. And sure enough, he broke them.

That's not at all like Ron Paul supporting a policy and never making baseless promises that he could implement it.

No, the original post contains many false statements of promises that were never made.

 

[Zippyjuan]

How is that $ trillion infrastructure rebuilding plan going?

 

[Firestarter]

Some talk about the Trump Derangement Syndrome, but unfortunately the “doublethink” problem is much bigger than that...

In our “mediacracy” it’s really the media that decide who get elected. The same elite that control the media are the ones that can reward (the family of) corrupt politicians for their “work”.
As a result policiticians simply have no reason to handle in our best interests or keep their promises.

Donald Trump was certainly not the first to run for US president on a campaign that stressed being an outsider...
The main (or only) difference between Donald and other politricksters, is that others usually are more careful in how they word their lies and break their promises, while Donald has even more contempt for the voters. Donald has even made promises that are so preposterous that only the most brainwashed idiots could believe them.

Before Trump enter politics, he was already know to be a pathological liar.


In 2016, the Trump campaign claimed to have made $102 million in charitable donations over the past 5 years.
The list provided by Trump included contributions like free rounds of golf at Trump's courses offered at charity auctions and land-conservation agreements or money originating from the Trump Foundation.
The Trump Foundation's second-biggest listed donation went to the charity of a man who had settled a lawsuit with one of Trump's golf courses after being denied a hole-in-one prize.

The Post's Fahrenthold looked for but found only one gift, of less than $10,000, between 2008 and May 2016 – in total - coming from Trump (instead of $102 million).
In May 2016, months after making a pledge, Trump donated $1 million to a veterans' charity and also in 2016 donated $100,000 to a charity for relief efforts after the floods in Louisiana.

In 2013, the Trump Foundation made an illegal $25,000 political contribution to the "And Justice for All" campaign for Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
When this illegal contribution was published in the media in 2016, Trump moved $25,000 from his personal account to his foundation and paid a $2,500 IRS fine.

Trump has repeatedly claimed making donations to charities, when in reality he merely redirects money that comes from outside donors.
In this way he’s taking credit for simply passing charitable donations along.

The Trump Foundation has bought stuff at charity auctions. This includes $20,000 for a painting of Trump in 2007 and $12,000 for a football helmet signed by NFL quarterback Tim Tebow in 2012. The whereabouts of those 2 items are unknown.
You can’t call it “charity” if Trump uses his foundation to buy things he wants for himself...

Many of the contributions to the Trump foundation appear to be disguised payments to Trump himself.
People Magazine donated $150,000 after it received rights to publish photos of Trump's son, Barron. Comedy Central donated $400,000 after Trump appeared on one of its celebrity roasts.
Trump often gave foundation donations to groups that repaid by holding and paying for events at his properties.

After the Trump Foundation received $150,000 from the Charles Evans Foundation, Trump donated to the Palm Beach Police Foundation.
Donald Trump made a nice profit from the annual charity dinner of the Police Foundation at the Mar-a-Lago club. In 2014, for example, the charity paid $276,463 in rental fees to Trump.

In 2009 the Trump foundation donated $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation.
In 2014, the Trump Foundation donated to several dozen “charitable” groups, including the drug-trafficking censorship crooks of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL): https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37369515

 

[Firestarter]

Chinagate

11. Trump's government didn’t declare China to be a currency manipulator.

I'm surprised that Trump fans haven't made a big deal of Trump keeping another promise...

Just an hour after China devalued the yuan, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government ordered its state-owned enterprises "to suspend imports of U.S. agricultural products after President Donald Trump ratcheted up trade tensions with the Asian nation last week".
China’s state-run firms have now stopped buying American farm goods.

China's offshore yuan collapsed below 7/USD - after the PBOC fixed the onshore yuan below 6.90 for the first time in 2019 - to its weakest on record against the dollar.
The Trump administration has declared China to be a "currency manipulator": https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019...ins-chinese-yuan-crashes-past-7usd-record-low


Isn’t it strange that with all of the media hysteria on the “trade war” with China, earlier this year the Frontier Services Group of the brother of Donald’s Secretary of education Betsy DeVos, Erik Prince (of Blackwater fame), signed a deal to build a training centre in Xinjiang in China?!?
According to the United Nations, in Xinjiang up to a million Uighur Muslims are held in extrajudicial mass incarceration camps.

Frontier is doing lots of business in China, and also works for Chinese companies in Africa: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...nce-to-build-training-camp-in-chinas-xinjiang


Here’s another interesting tale that involves the inner circle of Donald Trump and China.
Earlier this year, Donald Trump’s good friend, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft was arrested in Florida for having sex with a prostitute at the Orchids of Asia “massage parlour”.

Around 2013, Hua Zhang had bought the “massage parlour” from Cindy Li Yang.
Zhang was charged with running a house of prostitution and has pleaded not guilty.

Cindy Li Yang is the interesting one, who used her money to get close to the Trump cabinet.
Cindy Li Yang and her relatives have donated more than $42,000 to Trump Victory and more than $16,000 to president Donald’s campaign committee since 2017.

In 2017, Cindy Li Yang and husband Zubin Gong founded the GY US Investments LLC consulting firm that on its website (in Chinese) sold access to President Donald Trump and his family at the Mar-a-Lago. GY US suggest it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner” and boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President”.
The GY US Investments website listed upcoming events at Mar-a-Lago at which Yang’s clients can mingle with the Trump family. This included the International Leaders Elite Forum, where Trump’s sister, Elizabeth Trump Grau, would speak.
According to the site, attendees include “Chinese elites from various countries, including the US states, as well as elite leaders from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, Europe and other countries and regions”.

To argue that GY US really can provide access to Donald and the Trump family, Cindy Li Yang ´s Facebook page contains photos of her with Donald Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Jnr, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Florida Governor Rick DeSantis, Senator Rick Scott, Sarah Palin, and White House aide Kellyanne Conway.
See Cindy Li Yang with US President Donald Trump in a photo signed byTrump.

GY US Investments LLC´s website claims that “GY Company arranged a number of guests to attend the 2019 New Year’s Eve dinner” and the guests took photos with ”members of Trump’s family”. This page showed photos of Chinese executives and a Chinese movie star with Eric and Donald Trump Jr. and Elizabeth Trump Grau.
Huachu Tang, the owner of an electric car company, was one of the Chinese executives at the New Year’s event. Huachu Tang said that he travelled to Florida in the hope of meeting Trump at the party to build up his company’s name before taking it public on the New York Stock Exchange. Huachu Tang received admission to the New Year’s party through a public relations agency (it hasn’t been confirmed that this is GY US).
Trump wasn’t at this event, but Huachu Tang and his wife were pictured with Donald Jr., Eric Trump, and Trump Grau. See Huachu Tang with Don Jr.

https://www.motherjones.com/politic...-chinese-execs-access-to-trump-at-mar-a-lago/
(archived here: http://archive.is/hMVUO)

 

[Firestarter]

At least 230 corporate lobbyists have joined the Trump administration.
Trump has also opened a luxury hotel 4 blocks from the White House, so lobbyists wanting to get favours can pay the Trump Organization the overpriced rates.

In June, at a rally launching his reelection campaign, President Donald once again promised to "drain the swamp", assuring the crowd of Trump retards "that's exactly what we're doing right now".
Trump continued with this beauty: "We stared down the unholy alliance of lobbyists and donors and special interests"...
Are we really so gullible that we can’t even see that Trump has filled his administration with “the swamp”?!?

There are now already 281 lobbyists installed by the Trump administration...

The President's swamp draining is not getting enough recognition. The Obama administration appointed so many swamp dwellers to various offices that it left room to only appoint about 65 lobbyists to any positions in the administration in 5 years. Trump has appointed 281 lobbyists in half as much time. That's 281 posts filled by lobbyists instead of lizard people.

https://www.propublica.org/article/...ists-whove-worked-in-the-trump-administration

 

[Firestarter]

Donald Trump promised that as president he would make the trade deficit disappear.

In the first 9 months of 2019, the trade deficit for goods and services jumped to $481 billion, up 5.4% compared to 2018.
US exports fell by $7 billion, while imports grew by $17.8 billion from the previous year.

The trade deficit fell in September, but economists have warned that you can’t make sound conclusions based on only one month.

According to CFR member Brad Setser (please don’t ask me to explain this economic double talk…):

In a very narrow sense, higher tariffs on China are working: They clearly have reduced trade and thus the trade deficit with China.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...ink-the-trade-gap-it-keeps-growing/ar-AAJTqg9

 

[Swordsmyth]

Donald Trump promised that as president he would make the trade deficit disappear.

In the first 9 months of 2019, the trade deficit for goods and services jumped to $481 billion, up 5.4% compared to 2018.
US exports fell by $7 billion, while imports grew by $17.8 billion from the previous year.

The trade deficit fell in September, but economists have warned that you can’t make sound conclusions based on only one month.

According to CFR member Brad Setser (please don’t ask me to explain this economic double talk…): https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/mar...ink-the-trade-gap-it-keeps-growing/ar-AAJTqg9

The US trade balance (deficit) shrank in September (from -$55.0bn to -$52.5bn), improving by 6.5% YoY - the biggest shrinkage in the deficit since Sept 2016...

Click here to view the original image of 976x507px.

Overall exports decreased 0.9% to $206 billion while imports slid 1.7% to $258.4 billion.
Trade with China has tumbled since the tariff war began in earnest in 2018. In the first nine months of 2019, merchandise imports from China are down 13.5% and exports to the country have dropped 14.6%, according to Commerce Department data.
The trade balance with China improved sequentially for the second month in a row, and has improved YoY for nine months in a row...

Click here to view the original image of 976x481px.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/...-trade-tumbles

 

[Firestarter]

The US trade balance (deficit) shrank in September (from -$55.0bn to -$52.5bn), improving by 6.5% YoY - the biggest shrinkage in the deficit since Sept 2016...

Do you believe that is very, very important information, or do you just post whatever you can in support of president Donald?!?

[FONT=&quot]In September, the overall trade deficit in goods and services narrowed slightly from August to $52.5 billion, continuing several months of decline as imports fell more than exports. But economists typically caution against reading too much into figures from a single month, which can be volatile.[/FONT]

 

[Firestarter]

The following was posted in another thread, and I think it fits in here…

When asked about Clinton prosecution promise, Trump says he doesn't want to hurt them, they're good people:



In response to a crowd chanting ‘lock her up’ Trump said “Naw, stop that. No, forget it. That played great, before the election. Now we don’t care right?”



Trump also admits “drain the swamp” was just a campaign trick

Donald Trump (like some of his associates) has denied over and over again that he knows Lev Parnas or Igor Fruman. The problem is that he has been pictured over and over and over again with Parnas (there’s even a video of the 2 of them together.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Parnas-saying-just-took-photos-together.html

See Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas (second and third from left) pictured with Vice President Mike Pence (who has likewise denied knowing them), President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

See Parnas with Ivanka and Jared Kushner.

 

[Firestarter]

In 2016, Donald Trump promised that he could rid the US national debt of $19 trillion debt in 2 terms as president "over a period of eight years".
Trump warned that the US is "sitting on a bubble right now that's going to explode": https://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/02/politics/donald-trump-national-debt/index.html


The new budget plan looks more like a ballooning deficit, that will likely swell debts and deficits.
According to Goldman Sachs, the budget bill will increase the US deficit by $1.1 trillion next year.
At more than $20 trillion, greater than the annual GDP, the United States' debt is already at its highest level since World War II.

During Trump’s first 2 years in office, US federal government deficits have already driven the national debt up by $3 trillion – from $19.5 trillion to $22.5 trillion. That´s even faster than his predecessors, George Bush and Barack Obama.

Even though the U.S. economy is expected to grow at an impressive rate of 2.2%, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicts that the federal budget deficit will hit $1.02 trillion this year. CBO estimates that federal expenses will be $4.6 trillion, while revenues will hit $3.6 trillion in 2020.
Since 2012, this deficit wasn’t over $1 trillion and fell to $585 billion by the end of Barack Obama’s Presidency in 2016.

Federal deficits are expected to average $1.3 trillion annually between 2021 and 2030. By the end of 2030 this will push overall US federal debt owed by American citizens to $31.4 trillion, or 98% of gross domestic product.
That’s the highest rate since just after World War II, and “more than double what it has averaged over the past 50 years”.

CBO estimates that US federal spending will continue to grow more than revenues until 2050: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...dget-deficits-to-top-1-trillion-idUSKBN1ZR2IC

 

[Firestarter]

3. Mexico won’t pay for a border wall.

I always thought that Donald Trump’s campaign promise to build a border wall to protect the USA from all of those Latino Muslims was a complete charade.

Experts estimated that a border wall along 1,300 miles (2,100 km) would cost as much as $20 million per mile ($12.5 million/km), with a total cost of $45 billion, with the cost of private land acquisitions and fence maintenance making it even more expensive.
Maintenance of the wall could cost up to $750 million a year (not paid for by Mexico of course): http://archive.is/91bgj


I was surprised that President Donald actually abused his powers with the partial government shutdown for 35 days followed by declaring a “national emergency” about a year ago to get the wall funded.
Even though this violates the US Constitution for some reason this hasn’t been made into a valid reason for impeachment of president Trump: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...wall-house-panel-launches-probe-idUSKCN1Q420N


Donald’s beautiful “impenetrable” border wall has already cost the US taxpayer $11 billion.
It can be knocked over with a brisk wind, cut through with a cheap saw and climbed over with a basic ladder: https://americasvoice.org/press_rel...ugglers-and-migrants-for-months-every-summer/
(http://archive.is/IxIov)


On 14 February 2020, Donald extended his US-Mexico border “national emergency” for another year.
I was also surprised that the billions of dollars in funds are diverted from the Department of Defense to fund border wall construction: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/14/trump-450-miles-border-wall-115339


Now with the accounting practices of the Department of Defense being nothing but a sick joke it suddenly makes sense. This gives Trump and his cronies ample opportunity to launder the money and transfer it to offshore accounts: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showth...now-Where-6-5-Trillion-Dollars-Has-Gone/page2


This could also explain that Trump associates Jeffrey Epstein, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen and Roger Stone were locked up, as with these crooks out of the way Donald can take a bigger slice of the billions.
This could possibly also explain the huge amount of dismissed officials from Trump’s team: http://archive.is/bKeHV

 

[Firestarter]

In February 2019, the following list of companies to profit from Trump’s border wall was published.

SLSCO, founded by brothers Todd, Billy and Johnny Sullivan, scored $310 million in contracts for border-security.

Montana-based Barnard Construction Co., founded by Tim Barnard, won a $172 million contract to build 32 miles of wall in Arizona.

Companies focused on high-tech border security that could benefit include.
Israel’s Elbit Systems (of America?);
Israel-based Magal Security Systems: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/h...-profit-from-the-trump-border-wall-2019-02-22


According to the following, the buddy of Ivanka and Jared Kushner, British-based “Russian” oligarch Roman Abramovich, will profit from the US-Mexico border wall.
Abramovich through Russia's second-largest steel company Evraz controls 3 American steel companies (in Pueblo Colorado, in Portland Oregon and in Chicago): http://archive.is/78Hcl


Canadian steel billionaire Barry Zekelman has lobbied Trump for steel tariffs and his Wheatland Tube contributed $1.75 million to a pro-Trump super PAC. Atlas Tube is the Chicago-based division of Zekelman Industries supplies a huge amount of steel for the border wall in Arizona, where Trump intervened to help a bidder that was originally rejected.
Foreigners aren’t allowed to directly influence US policy, but hey, this is the land of the free!
On 30 April 2018, Barry Zekelman met Donald and Don Jr Trump to talk about steel tariffs in the presence of none other than Lev Parnas. After the 25% import tariff on steel, sales at Zekelman’s U.S. plants surged.

An $891 million contract for 43 miles of wall on the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge was awarded to Southwest Valley Constructors, the New Mexico-based affiliate of Kiewit Corporation.

The rest of the wall on Cabeza Prieta will be built by Fisher Sand and Gravel, whose owner Tommy Fisher, led a “whirlwind media campaign” and paid lobbyists more than $100,000 to get wall contracts. This included the efforts of Senator Kevin Cramer.
Reportedly Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner personally urged the head of the Army Corps to award a $268 million contract to Fisher, even after his bid was rejected. The value of the contract could rise to nearly $400 million: http://archive.is/Pbt1J

 

[dannno]

 

[Firestarter]

It would seem "logical" that Roman Abramovich is somehow involved in supplying the steel for the border wall, but I haven't been able to confirm this...


On 24 January 2017, one of President Donald Trump’s first actions in office was to sign an executive order to approve the Keystone XL (owned by TransCanada).

40 percent of the steel for the Keystone XL pipeline, by 2015 550 miles of steel pipe was manufactured in Canada by a subsidiary of Evraz; for 31% owned by Russian Lubavitcher Roman Abramovich, who’s close to both Putin and Trump.
Evraz owns 3 steel mills in the US, but the pipes for Keystone XL project were produced in its Regina mill in Saskatchewan, Canada: https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/13/abramovitch-putin-keystone-xl-steel


Roman Abramovich’s Evraz Group SA also produces 75% of the pipes for the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline in Canada. Most of it is also produced in Evraz’s Regina mill.
Abramovich once gave a $25-million yacht to his long-time ally Vladimir Putin: https://theenergymix.com/2018/05/18/exclusive-justin-trudeaus-devil-of-a-pipeline-deal/

 

[Firestarter]

Donald's 2016 campaign slogan was "Make America Great Again" (maga - witch in Latin) but his most important promise was "Drain the swamp".
Donald apparently saved the best swamp draining for last!

Steve Bannon was pardoned after he had taken a cut from the $25 million that hundreds of thousands of gullible Trump supporters donated to build a private part of the US-Mexico border wall (what will happen to the great wall with Biden president?).

Elliott Broidy got much publicity for paying off a Playboy playmate to keep quiet, and after that boasted that he had an affair with her that got her pregnant!
Donald pardoned Steve Mnuchin's long-time friend Broidy after he pleaded guilty over a scheme to lobby the Trump administration to drop an investigation into the looting of a Malaysian wealth fund.
But it looks like his dirty business in the UAE is more interesting.

Ken Kurson, a friend of Ivanka Trump's husband Jared Kushner was charged with cyberstalking his ex-wife.
Donald pardoned another friend of the family.

Salomon Melgen was convicted of healthcare fraud and perjury. Donald commuted his sentence.

Kwame Kilpatrick, former Mayor of Detroit, was in prison for almost 7 years for a racketeering and bribery scheme while.
He was forced to resigned as mayor in 2008, and was sentenced to 28 year.

Rick Renzi, former Arizona Representative, was convicted of extortion, bribery, insurance fraud, money laundering, and racketeering in 2013 and sentenced to 2 years in prison.
Donald granted him a full pardon.

Duke Cunningham, ex-California representative, was convicted of taking $2.4 million in bribes from arms companies: Aleph-and-Dershowitz-lobby-for-Trump-pardons

 

[enhanced_deficit]

Another broken promise:

Donald Trump: Putin would return 'total traitor' Snowden if I'm president



Related

Donald Trump on Edward Snowden: Kill the ‘traitor’

 

[Firestarter]

Corbett report on Precedent Trump promises to... lock up Hillary, end the wars, vaccines...
With the conclusion that politics is as real as a 3 dollar bill, and we need to... stop voting.

 

[Firestarter]

I always thought that lying Donald promised to decrease the amount corruption with his "Drain the swamp" slogan.
Already in February 2017, US President Donald Trump repealed the Cardin-Lugar rule, under the Dodd-Frank Act, that forced oil companies to disclose payments to foreign governments to secure oil or mining deals (a.k.a. bribes, kickbacks, or commissions).

Trump and the oil companies claimed that it would be unfair competition if the oil companies in other countries could get their hand on lucrative deals, while America's oil couldn't bribe them just the same (if I understand correctly?).
And that this would create oil jobs in the US.

So now corruption is needed to create jobs? I thought that corruption enriches the lucky few and especially politicians in high places...
Repealing this disclosure rule wouldn't only apply to US companies, but also to foreign oil companies, so this couldn't make US companies more "competitive": https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/14/tru...on-rule-for-no-good-reason-advocates-say.html

 

[Firestarter]

Donald Trump (like some of his associates) has denied over and over again that he knows Lev Parnas or Igor Fruman. The problem is that he has been pictured over and over and over again with Parnas (there’s even a video of the 2 of them together.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...-Parnas-saying-just-took-photos-together.html

See Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas (second and third from left) pictured with Vice President Mike Pence (who has likewise denied knowing them), President Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

See Parnas with Ivanka and Jared Kushner.

A jury found Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas guilty of breaking campaign finance laws.
Parnas and his associate Igor Fruman illegally funneled at least $156,000 in political donations from Russian businessman Andrey Muraviev.
Parnas also illegally made a $325,000 contribution to a pro-Trump super PAC through a shell company from another source.
Parnas and Fruman also concealed that they were the true source of a donation in support of then-President Donald.

Igor Fruman already pleaded guilty in September. He is scheduled to be sentenced next 21 January.
Another associate of Giuliani and Parnas, David Correia, plead guilty to defrauding investors in a fraud where Giuliani was paid a $500,000 consulting fee. Correia has already been sentenced to a year in prison.

Co-defendant Andrey Kukushkin was found guilty, together with Parnas, for facilitating the campaign donations paid for with his Russian boss's money (Muraviev).
Parnas can be sentenced to a maximum 45 years in prison and Kukushkin 15 years.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also received part of the $1 million that Parnas and Fruman received from Muraviev in campaign donations.
See (from left), Parnas, Trump lawyers Pam Bondi and Giuliani and DeSantis.

https://www.dw.com/en/giuliani-associate-lev-parnas-convicted-on-campaign-finance-charges/a-59602295
(https://archive.md/fn1SK)

 

[TheCount]

Remember when the forum was full of slobbering, drooling Trumpkin sycophants? Good thing that ended.