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From the desk of Craig B Hulet?
How Close Was Donald Trump To The Mob? //Rolling Snake Eyes: Trump's First Casino Partners
Had Alleged Mob Ties / Trump Says Mob in Indian Casinos His Charge Disrupted a Congressional
Hearing. Indians Disputed The Allegation. / Book Alleges Trump Did Business with Mob /
Trump’s Mobbed Up, McCarthyite Mentor Roy Cohn
TRUMP SUPPORTS CASINO CRIME SUSPECT Danny Leung, a former Taj vice president who still
runs junkets for the casino. Leung was identified by the U. S. Senate permanent subcommittee on
investigations in 1991 as a member of the 14K Triad, a Hong Kong group linked to murders, extortions
and heroin smuggling. Donald Trump Stirs Controversy with Grandiose Structures / Questions For
Donald Trump / Simone Tapes Tell Of The Mob's Wars And Its Key Figures / Donald Trump a
fine one to accuse others of lying / A little hyperbole never hurts - Donald Trump,
DONALD TRUMP Mostly False (18%) False (39%) Pants on Fire (20%)
Are Neocons Getting Ready to Ally With Hillary Clinton? / Pelosi: Hillary’s Votes Don’t Matter.
What’s Important Is She’s A Woman / The New York Times Accurately Portrays Hillary Clinton as
an Unrepentant Warmonger Who will call her on it? / Inside Morocco’s Campaign To Influence
Hillary Clinton and Other U.S. Leaders / Hillary Clinton’s War on Women / Democrats Should Be
Very Nervous About Their Terrible Turnout Numbers / Low turnout equals President Trump. /
Ralph Nader: Hillary Clinton Sugarcoating Her Disastrous Record / Hillary Clinton Is Now Tied
To At Least Four Investigations By Federal Agencies
How Close Was Donald Trump To The Mob?
If Donald Trump wants to be a serious candidate for president, we deserve to know more about
his business with mass murderers whose plunder of public and private funds added up to billions.
By David Marcus The Federalist Papers July 28, 2015
Donald Trump is running for president. Many believed or hoped that the Donald’s latest foray
into national politics was nothing more than a public-relations move, not a serious attempt to
reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
But now that Trump holds the lead in national polls, as well as polls in Iowa and New
Hampshire, it’s time to take his campaign seriously. Media outlets like Huffington Post and the
Wall Street Journal, which are covering Trump’s run as an entertainment story, not a news story,
are making a mistake. If Trump wants to be a serious candidate for president, and has the
numbers to back it up, he must be vetted like a serious candidate for president. A good place to
start is to take a hard look at Trump’s ties to Philadelphia and New York organized-crime
families.
Donald Trump’s Connections to Organized Crime
Trump was building his eponymous empire of hotels, casinos, and high rises in the early 1980s
in New York City and Atlantic City. In both places, the construction industry was firmly under
the thumb of the mafia. And in both places there are literally concrete connections between La
Cosa Nostra and Trump’s lavish projects. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston,
who has covered Trump for decades, has written a very useful list of questions for Trump. Many
focus on his ties to the mob. In addition in his 1992 book, “Trump, The Deals and the Downfall,”
author Wayne Barrett lays out a slew of suspicious dealings and associations.
The Atlantic City story starts with Trump’s purchase of a bar, at twice its market value, from
Salvatore Testa, a made man in the Philadelphia mafia and son of Philip “Chicken Man” Testa,
who was briefly head of the Philly mob after Angelo Bruno’s 1980 killing. Harrah’s casino, half
owned by Trump, would be built on that land, and Trump would quickly buy out his partner,
Harrah’s Entertainment, and rename the casino Trump Plaza.
Author Wayne Barrett lays out a slew of suspicious dealings and associations.
Trump Plaza’s connection to the mob didn’t end with the land purchase from Testa. Nicademo
“Little Nicky” Scarfo (who became boss after the elder Testa was blown up) and his nephew
Phillip “crazy Phil” Leonetti controlled two of the major construction and concrete companies in
Atlantic City. Both companies, Scarf, Inc. and Nat Nat, did work on the construction of Harrah’s,
according the State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation’s 1986 report on organized
crime. In addition, Scarfo, whose reign as head of the Philly mob was one of the bloodiest in
history, controlled the bartenders union, which represented Trump’s workers in Atlantic City,
according to George Anastasia’s book, “Blood and Honor.”
One more link to organized crime lurks in Trump’s past Atlantic City dealings. He had a close
association with Kenny Shapiro, an investment banker for Scarfo. According to secret recordings
of then Scarfo attorney Robert F. Simone, Shapiro was intimately involved with bribing Atlantic
City Mayor Michael J. Matthews, whose term would end in 1984 with a conviction on extortion
charges. On the tapes, in 1983, Simone, talking about Leonetti, states: “He’s a nice-looking
boy…Nicky’s nephew, he can sit with the…mayor. Ah, and Kenny’s (Shapiro) got the mayor
through this kid Phillip.”
The Connections Don’t End in Atlantic City
Trump’s association and business dealings with known mafia figures was not limited to his
Atlantic City projects. In New York City, several of his buildings were built by S&A Concrete
Co., a concern partly owned by Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, the boss of the Genovese crime
family. In addition to this business relationship, Trump and Salerno were both represented by
high-power attorney Roy Cohn. In his book, Barrett cites an anonymous source who confirms
that on at least one occasion Trump and Salerno had a sit-down in Cohn’s apartment. Trump has
denied this claim in the past.
How can the candidate who promises to secure the border and bring good jobs back to America
explain having farmed out good-paying jobs to a bunch of illegal immigrants?
Is it reasonable to assume that Trump had no idea that S&A was run by Salerno’s Genovese
borgata when Trump’s own attorney was so closely linked to that organization? After all, if
Trump (who likes to point out that he has “one of the highest IQs”) is as smart as he would have
everyone believe, how could he have been so naive?
Another issue that needs to be addressed in Trump’s New York operations is the use of
undocumented Polish workers to demolish the Bonwit Teller building, which made way for the
Trump Tower. Only a handful of union workers from Housewreckers Local 95 were employed
on the site, the vast majority were illegal Polish alien workers, toiling under inhumane
conditions, and wildly underpaid. Trump and his associates were found guilty in 1991 of
conspiring to avoid paying pension and welfare fund contributions.
Two questions arise from this. First, how did Trump get away with using such obvious scab
labor without raising the ire of local 95? More importantly, how can the candidate who promises
to secure the border and bring good jobs back to America explain having farmed out goodpaying jobs, legally entitled to American workers, instead to a bunch of illegal immigrants?
When the rubber hit the road Donald Trump didn’t walk the walk, he lined his pockets and sold
out American workers.
Is it possible that Trump was simply involved in an industry which in the early 1980s was so
infiltrated by the mafia that he couldn’t help but have tangential ties? Could this myriad of
associations, points of contact, and shared affiliations with known mobsters just be the price of
doing business in that business at that time? Sure. And if Trump were just a private citizen,
businessman, and reality TV star, he would be under no obligation to explain any of this. But he
isn’t. He is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
Donald Trump Has Explaining to Do
As one of a handful of people within reach of the most powerful office in the world Donald
Trump must explain why so much of his early career is peppered with appearances by powerful
underworld figures. Had Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, or Scott Walker bought so much as a used car
from a known mafioso, it would be front-page news. Trump bought a piece of land for $1 million
from the son of Philadelphia’s former mafia Don, and used it to launch a gambling empire.
The major investigative news outlets in this country with the resources and wherewithal to
seriously scrutinize Trump’s ties to the mob need to start doing so.
It isn’t only Trump who has a responsibility here. The news media, which is enjoying his playful
romp through electoral politics, needs to wake up on this story. Trump isn’t just fooling around
this time. He wants to play in the big leagues, and in the big leagues they play hardball. The
major investigative news outlets in this country with the resources and wherewithal to seriously
scrutinize Trump’s ties to the mob need to start doing so, sooner rather than later.
Former mafia members need to be interviewed. Transcripts of wiretaps and interviews with the
major players in Atlantic City and New York crime syndicates need to be reviewed. The work of
Barrett and Johnson, among others over the past decades that show Trump’s underworld
connections, need to be re-examined. Gary Hart and John Edwards learned that a serious run for
president exposes all the dirty laundry, Trump needs to know that truth applies to him, too.
It’s time to stop treating Trump as a sideshow. He is being treated with kid gloves because
nobody thinks he can win. Everybody is simply waiting for him to implode under the pressure of
his own enormous ego and unfiltered motor mouth. But rather than plunging his run into chaos,
his racist ramblings about immigrants and undignified digs at John McCain’s military service
have excited some supporters. They think he speaks truth to power. They think he is the only
honest man in politics. And no degree of exasperation from level headed news people and party
officials seems to tamp his populist surge.
Being a loudmouth bigot, the Archie Bunker of 2016 who says what people are too afraid to say,
is working well for Donald Trump. But it’s time to hold his feet to the fire. This is a man who
did a significant amount of business with mass murderers whose plunder of public and private
funds added up to billions. What did he know about them? Maybe more importantly, what do
they know about him?
We need to welcome Donald Trump to his new place in serious national politics with a cold,
hard look at the crooks, conspirators, and criminals who peopled his early career. Either the
Donald will attempt to weather such scrutiny, or he will disappear from the race under it. Either
way, that scrutiny needs to start now.
Photo Albert H. Teich / Shutterstock.com
David Marcus is a senior contributor to the Federalist and the Artistic Director of Blue Box
World, a Brooklyn based theater project.
Rolling Snake Eyes: Trump's First Casino Partners Had Alleged Mob Ties
04/28/2011 08:42 am ET | Updated Jun 28, 2011
Marcus BaramSenior Editor, Huffington Post
NEW YORK -- For years, Donald Trump has boasted that his casinos are free of the taint of
organized crime, using this claim to distinguish his gambling ventures from competitors. But
Trump's casinos turn out not to be so squeaky clean.
One of his prime Atlantic City developments, the Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino, relied on a
partnership with two investors reputedly linked to the mob, prompting New Jersey regulators to
force Trump to buy them out. And he employed a known Asian organized crime figure as a vice
president at his Taj Mahal casino for five years, defending the executive against regulators’
attempts to take away his license, according to law enforcement officials.
As the famously brash developer now considers a run for the presidency, this history could
complicate his efforts to project an image of a trusted power in the business world. It exposes a
seamy underside to Trump's rise to fortune -- one that involved intimate links to unsavory
characters.
As voters learn more about such links between Trump and reputed organized crime figures, "it
will get more difficult for him," says John Geer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt
University. "Under that withering examination, his past associations and troubles will all emerge
and could make it tough in a Republican primary."
In his 2000 book, “The America That We Deserve,” released to coincide with an earlier
prospective presidential campaign, Trump boasted:
“One thing you can say about Trump, as the holder of a casino gaming license, is that I’m 100
percent clean -- something you can’t say with certainty about our current group of presidential
candidates.”
Trump has sought to lean on such claims while sometimes intimating that industry competitors
are themselves tainted by mob associations -- in order to saddle them with restrictions on their
casino licenses.
On Oct. 5, 1993, Trump told a Congressional panel examining the rise of Indian casinos -- then,
a rapidly emerging threat to Atlantic City -- that the proprietors were vulnerable to organized
crime.
It is “obvious that organized crime is rampant,” Trump told the panel, according to a transcript,
drawing a direct contrast to his own operations. “At the Taj Mahal I spent more money on
security and security systems than most Indians building their entire casino, and I will tell you
that there is no way the Indians are going to protect themselves from the mob.”
That broadside garnered Trump a reprimand from then-House Interior Committee Chairman
George Miller, a California Democrat, who complained that he had never heard more
irresponsible testimony. But Trump continued, predicting that Indian casinos would spawn “the
biggest crime problem in the nation’s history.”
Trump’s neglected to mention that his initial partners on his first deal in Atlantic City reputedly
had their own organized crime connections: Kenneth Shapiro was identified by state and federal
prosecutors as the investment banker for late Philadelphia mob boss Nicky Scarfo according to
reports issued by New Jersey state commissions examining the influence of organized crime, and
Danny Sullivan, a former Teamsters Union official, is described in an FBI file as having mob
acquaintances. Both controlled a company that leased parcels of land to Trump for the 39-story
hotel-casino.
Trump teamed up with the duo in 1980 soon after arriving in Atlantic City, according to
numerous news reports and his real estate broker on the deal, Paul Longo. The developer seized
on a prime piece of property and partnered with Shapiro and Sullivan, but the state’s gambling
regulators were concerned enough about Shapiro and Sullivan’s mob links that they required
Trump to end the partnership and buy out their shares, according to several Trump biographies.
Trump's office did not respond to requests for comment. Both Sullivan and Shapiro died in the
early 1990s.
Trump later confided to a biographer that the twosome were “tough guys,” relaying a rumor that
Sullivan, a 6-foot, 5-inch bear of a man, killed Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamsters boss who
disappeared in July 1975.
“Because I heard that rumor, I kept my guard up. I said, ‘Hey, I don’t want to be friends with this
guy.’ I’ll bet you that if I didn’t hear that rumor, maybe I wouldn’t be here right now,” Trump
told Timothy L. O’Brien, the author of “TrumpNation” and current national editor of The
Huffington Post.
Trump told a different story to casino regulators who were deciding whether to grant him the
lucrative gambling license.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with these people,” he said about Shapiro and Sullivan
during licensing hearings in 1982, according to "TrumpNation." “Many of them have been in
Atlantic City for many, many years and I think they are well thought of.”
Sullivan's unsavory reputation did not stop Trump from later arranging for him to be hired as a
labor negotiator for the Grand Hyatt, a hotel project on Manhattan’s East Side, according to
People magazine and the Los Angeles Times. Trump also introduced Sullivan to his own banker
at Chase, though he declined to guarantee a loan to Sullivan, reported the L.A. Times.
Longo, the real estate broker Trump used in Atlantic City on the Trump Plaza deal, says he
wasn’t aware of Shapiro or Sullivan having any mob ties, and insisted Trump didn’t have any
problems at all obtaining his gaming license. “In AC, you always had to be careful who you were
dealing with, but Donald did things on the level,” Longo told The Huffington Post.
But Wayne Barrett’s biography, “Donald Trump: The Deals and the Downfall,” alleges Trump
considered using Shapiro as a go-between to deliver campaign contributions to Atlantic City
mayor Michael Matthews, in violation of state law.
Casino executives are prohibited from contributing to Atlantic City political campaigns in New
Jersey. Sullivan later claimed that he was present when Trump proposed funneling contributions
through Shapiro. Trump denied the allegation in an interview with O’Brien. Matthews, who was
later forced out of office and served time in prison for extortion, did not return calls from
HuffPost.
Barrett also reported that Trump once met Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno, front boss of the
Genovese crime family, at the Manhattan townhouse of their mutual lawyer -- infamous J. Edgar
Hoover sidekick Roy Cohn. The author explained that Salerno’s company supplied all the
concrete used in the Trump Towers in New York.
At the time of its publication, Trump slammed Barrett's book as “boring, nonfactual and highly
inaccurate.”
Barrett's book prompted New Jersey casino regulators to investigate some of its allegations, but
the state never brought any charges.
"If there had been a provable charge, they would have brought it,” said former casino
commission chairman Steven P. Perskie.
While Trump was making his bold statements about the integrity of the Taj Mahal at the 1993
congressional hearing on Indian gaming, a reputed organized crime figure was running junkets
for the hotel, bringing in well-heeled gamblers from Canada. Danny Leung, the hotel’s former
vice president for foreign marketing, was identified by a 1991 Senate subcommittee on
investigations as a member of the 14K Triad, a Hong Kong group linked to murder, extortion and
heroin smuggling, according to the New York Daily News.
Canadian police testified at a 1995 hearing before New Jersey’s casino commission that they
observed Leung working in illegal gambling dens in Toronto alongside Asian gang leaders.
Leung, who denied any affiliation with organized crime, had his license renewed by the
commission over the objection of the Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Back in the early 1980s, just as Trump was dipping his toes into Atlantic City real estate, the
developer did express concern to the FBI that his casino ventures might expose him to the mob
and “tarnish his family’s name.” He even offered to place undercover FBI agents in his casinos,
according to an FBI memo uncovered by TheSmokingGun.com. When Trump asked one of the
agents his “personal opinion” on whether he should build in Atlantic City, the agent replied that
there were “easier ways that Trump could invest his money.”
That proved prescient: In early 2009, Trump’s casino company in Atlantic City filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy, just days after Trump resigned from the board.
Trump Says Mob In Indian Casinos His Charge Disrupted A Congressional Hearing.
Indians Disputed The Allegation.
By Tracey A. Reeves, INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU
POSTED: OCTOBER 06, 1993
WASHINGTON — A congressional hearing on American Indian gambling establishments
erupted into a nasty yelling match yesterday when casino king Donald Trump charged that
Indian gaming is rife with organized crime and represents the "biggest scandal since Al Capone."
"Organized crime is rampant on Indian reservations," Trump shouted to a House subcommittee.
"People know it; people talk about it. It's going to blow. It's just a matter of time. And when it
blows, you're going to have some very embarrassed faces sitting right where you are now."
Trump also contended that American Indians would not be able to protect their casinos from
organized crime, even if they wanted to. The New York business tycoon said there are too many
Indian casinos and not enough people to regulate them.
Trump's remarks drew gasps and puzzled looks of disbelief from lawmakers and onlookers,
many of them Indian, who packed the small hearing room to get a glimpse of the tanned celebrity
and hear in person what he has been saying through his lawyers for months.
"In the 19 years I have been on this committee, I have never seen such irresponsible remarks,"
Rep. George Miller (D., Calif.) shouted back to Trump. "You have cast on the Indians in this
country a blanket indictment that organized crime is rampant. You don't know this; you suspect
this."
Jim Moody, section chief of the organized crime/drug operation division of the FBI, testified that
his office had found no evidence of skimming, money laundering, theft or any other criminal
activity in Indian gaming.
"The gaming industry is a relatively closed industry," Moody said. "The vast majority are run as
legitimate legal businesses." He said tribal controls make it difficult for organized crime to
infiltrate Indian gaming.
Trump, whose organization operates the Taj Mahal and two other casinos in Atlantic City, said
he wanted to protect regulated casinos like his from the scandal that he predicted would surely
wrack the largely nonregulated Indian gaming industry.
But Indian leaders said Trump is afraid of losing money to Indians who stand to make millions
as more tribes discover the lucrative world of bingo, slot machines and other games.
More than 100 Indian-run casinos in 26 states have sprung up since Congress passed the Indian
Gaming Act of 1988, which gave American Indians the right to create gambling establishments
on their land.
After Trump's testimony before the House Natural Resources subcommittee on Native American
affairs, Indian leaders lashed out at him, saying his statements constituted "economic racism."
"Congress must not allow itself to be used to implement the racist agenda of a few greedy
commercial gaming tycoons," said Tim Wapato, executive director of the National Indian
Gaming Association.
Wapato said Indian gaming, while not subject to extensive federal and state regulations, is
regulated by tribal councils and "subject to more stringent regulation and security controls than
any other type of gaming in the United States."
Subcommittee members, including Chairman Bill Richardson (D., N.M.), said that although the
Indian Gaming Act may need updating, it has given many Indians the means to rebound from
years of oppression.
"Indian gaming is a desperate remedy for a desperate situation," said Richardson. Few things, he
said, have proved as successful at stimulating the economy among Indians.
Trump also angered some onlookers by suggesting there should be a method of ensuring that
people are really Indians before they can open a casino on Indian lands. He drew even more
gasps by attacking the notion of Indian sovereignty - the system that allows tribes to govern
themselves.
"It's only sovereignty in that they don't have to pay taxes," said Trump, adding that he makes
millions from his casinos and pays millions in taxes. ''It's not a fair situation. Nobody is more for
Indians than Donald Trump. But I like to compete on an equal foot."
Book Alleges Trump Did Business With Mob
By David Johnston, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: JANUARY 07, 1992
ATLANTIC CITY — An unauthorized biography asserts that throughout his adult life, Donald
Trump has done business with major organized-crime figures and performed favors for their
associates.
If the charges are true, it would challenge the integrity of casino regulation in New Jersey.
Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, by Wayne Barrett, asserts that the New Jersey Division of
Gaming Enforcement has failed to examine how Trump's life ''intertwines with the underworld."
It also alleges that the Casino Control Commission has denied licenses to others for conduct far
less serious than what the book alleges Trump has done.
Key among these assertions is that in 1983, after Trump had obtained a casino license, he met
with Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family, at the Manhattan
townhouse of Roy Cohn, a lawyer who represented both men. The book cites an unnamed
eyewitness as its source.
Other casino executives have had their licenses revoked or were denied a license just for being
photographed in the company of major organized-crime figures, including Salerno.
At the time of the purported meeting, Trump was using a concrete company called S&A to build
his Trump Plaza condos in Manhattan, according to federal court records cited in the book. S&A
was controlled by Salerno and Paul Castellano, then head of New York's Gambino crime family,
according to those same records.
The book alleges numerous other dealings that Trump had with officials of mob-controlled
concrete firms and with mob-influenced unions, and often cites government documents and
interviews with named individuals.
Trump aide Norma Foederer said yesterday that Trump had not read the book.
Another spokesman, Steve Mangione, issued a statement from Trump saying that Barrett is "a
second-rate writer who has had numerous literary failures, who has been writing negative stories
about me for the past 15 years. The book is another example of Mr. Barrett's personal prejudice
and animosity towards me. The book is boring, non-factual and highly inaccurate."
Barrett, 46, is the politics reporter for the Village Voice, where for the last 14 years he has
focused on allegations of corruption, particularly ties between leading New York politicians and
mobsters. He co-authored City for Sale, a 1988 account of corruption in the administration of
former New York Mayor Ed Koch.
Any one of at least 11 incidents cited in the book, if true, could justify revocation of Trump's
casino licenses based on decisions that the Casino Control Commission made in other cases.
Barrett said the book was extensively reviewed by lawyers for his publisher, HarperCollins. It
began appearing Sunday in bookstores.
"I believe," Barrett said in an interview, "that if the Division of Gaming Enforcement and the
Casino Control Commission were to conduct their own investigations they would determine that
Donald Trump does not meet the character and integrity standards of the Casino Control Act."
The book's most serious allegation that could affect Trump's casino licenses is that he failed to
reveal to regulators that he was the target of a 1979 bribery investigation and was questioned in a
1981 racketeering investigation. Neither federal probe led to any criminal charges against
Trump.
Tom Auriemma, the deputy attorney general for the state Division of Gaming Enforcement
assigned to Trump's casinos, said yesterday that he had not read the book but planned to read it
thoroughly.
The Casino Control Commission has treated failure to disclose less significant matters as
grounds for refusing to issue or renew a license. Under
commission Chairman Steven P. Perskie, individuals have lost licenses for failing to list minor,
decades-old arrests or bad debts on their Personal History Disclosure forms.
Barrett said that he had interviewed all five commissioners who voted on Trump's license
application and that none knew of the two alleged investigations involving him.
The book also asserts that Trump:
* Became virtually a son to Roy Cohn, whom Barrett calls Trump's "bridge to the mob." The
book points out that in 1985, Hilton Hotels Corp. was denied a New Jersey casino license in part
because of Hilton's comparatively minor dealings with Sidney Korshak, a lawyer with reputed
mob ties. Yet the gaming division never wrote a report that raised "the possibility that Cohn's
mob liaisons . . . might have been used to facilitate Trump construction projects."
* Sought labor peace on the construction of Trump Tower by providing a condo to a female
friend of John Cody, boss of the concrete workers' union doing work on the tower and an alleged
Gambino crime-family associate. After Cody was imprisoned and lost power over the project,
Trump sued the woman for nonpayment of rent and fees.
* Quickly settled the suit against Cody's female friend, paying her $500,000 when she filed court
papers accusing Trump of taking kickbacks from an architect working on her apartment.
* Maintained a decade-long relationship with Kenny Shapiro, whom the book characterizes as an
investment banker for former Philadelphia mob boss Nicky Scarfo.
* Paid nearly double the market price for a piece of Atlantic City property owned by Salvatore
Testa, an alleged capo in the Scarfo crime family.
* Arranged in 1982 to funnel campaign contributions to Mike Mathews, then a candidate for
Atlantic City mayor. State law bars casino owners from making political contributions. The
contributions were allegedly channeled through Shapiro and Dan Sullivan, a labor consultant
once employed by Trump and later barred from the casino industry for mob ties.
* Invited to his 1990 birthday party Manny Ciminello, a big Trump-casino gambler who was a
partner with Salerno and Castellano in a concrete company.
* Made false and misleading statements on applications for some of the $1.9 billion in bank
loans on which he defaulted; all the loans were subject to approval by casino regulators.
* Wrote a 1986 letter seeking lenient sentencing treatment for Joseph Weichselbaum, a convicted
marijuana and cocaine trafficker whose firms supplied Trump casinos with helicopters even after
Weichselbaum's arrest and conviction.
* Felt so close to Weichselbaum that Trump proposed that his mistress, Marla Maples, hide out
from the press in Weichselbaum's Trump Tower condo.
* Attended the settlement of a Trump Tower condo purchased by alleged Lucchese crime family
associate Robert Hopkins. Hopkins ran the biggest illegal numbers operation in New York out of
his Trump Tower condo, according to court records cited in the book.
Executives at competing casinos, in not-for-attribution interviews, have long complained that
Trump gets preferential treatment from casino regulators.
Last summer, two casino commissioners, who have since resigned, accused the enforcement
division of favoritism to Trump. The division has denied any bias toward Trump.
Trump’s Mobbed Up, McCarthyite Mentor Roy Cohn
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
Olivia Nuzzi THE MASTER 07.23.15 2:07 AM ET
Donald Trump’s brash and bullying style was learned at the heel of Roy Cohn, one of
America’s most infamous lawyers.
They met at Le Club, a private disco on the Upper East Side frequented by Jackie Kennedy, Al
Pacino, and Diana Ross, according to Trump: The Saga of America’s Most Powerful Real Estate
Baron. Donald Trump, the young developer, quickly amassing a fortune in New York real estate
and Roy Cohn, America’s most loathed yet socially successful defense attorney who had vaulted
to infamy in the 1950s while serving as legal counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy.
The friendship they forged would provide the foundation for Trump’s eventual presidential
campaign. And in hindsight, it serves as a tool for understanding Donald Trump the Candidate,
whose bumper sticker-averse declarations—undocumented Mexican immigrants are “criminals”
and “rapists”; Senator John McCain is “not a war hero”—have both led him to the top of the
Republican primary polls and mistakenly convinced many that he is a puzzle unworthy of
solving. It may appear that way, but Trump isn’t just spouting off insults like a malfunctioning
sprinkler system—he’s mimicking what he learned some 40 years ago.
A longtime friend of Trump’s who was introduced to the candidate by Cohn told me it’s a shame
that Cohn’s not alive to see the chaos his protégé has wrought.
“He would have just loved what’s going on right now,” the friend said. “Roy liked upsetting the
establishment.”
Roy Marcus Cohn, born in the Bronx in 1927, was the son of Albert Cohn, a judge and
prominent Democrat. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1947, and the day he was
admitted to the bar, according to a New York Times obituary, he got a job in the office of the
Manhattan United States Attorney thanks to his father’s connections.
He became known for his arrogant courtroom style, notably in the case of Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg, American citizens convicted of conspiring to give information about the atomic
bomb to the Soviet Union. They were executed, and Cohn was promoted to assistant U.S.
Attorney.
He moved to Washington, where his first assignment was to prepare the indictment of Owen
Lattimore, an expert on China and professor at Johns Hopkins University who had been accused
of being “the top Russian espionage agent in the United States” by Senator Joe McCarthy.
The charges were ultimately dismissed, but Cohn’s aggressive performance left a lasting impact
on McCarthy, who named him chief counsel to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on
Investigations. (Robert F. Kennedy was assistant counsel.)
McCarthy and Cohn, who was gay and would later die of AIDS, claimed that foreign
communists had blackmailed closeted homosexual U.S. government employees into giving them
secrets. The charge resulted in President Eisenhower’s Executive Order 10450, which allowed
the government to deny homosexuals employment.
Cohn helped McCarthy wage similar witch-hunts on the State Department, Voice of America,
and the Army.
When McCarthy was finally censured, in 1954, Cohn was thought to be finished, too.
He moved back to New York City and joined the law firm Saxe, Bacon & Bolan. But instead of
fading into obscurity, Cohn became a socialite with a roster of high-powered, famous, pious, and
allegedly murderous clients.
He represented Andy Warhol, Studio 54, Roman Catholic Cardinals Francis Spellman and
Terence Cooke, and mafia leaders Carmine “Cigar” Galante and Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno.
Cohn’s tactics were thought to be so unethical and dishonest by the legal establishment (he was
eventually disbarred) that Esquire dubbed him “a legal executioner.”
The reputation didn’t hurt his dance card, however.
Cohn was known for his parties, thrown at his Greenwich estate and attended by politicians,
designers, artists, and celebrities. He liked to pretend that Barbara Walters, a friend, was his
girlfriend. “He was a very complicated man,” she told SFGate in 2008. “He was very smart and
funny. And, at the time, seemed to know everyone in New York. He was very friendly with the
cardinal, he was very friendly with the most famous columnist in New York, Walter Winchell.
He had a lot of extremely powerful friends.”
According to The New York Times’ obituary for Cohn, those friends included “dozens of
politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, at every level, from Cabinet members to county
judges,” including President Reagan.
Although, Trump’s friend told me, Cohn saw in Trump “front page stuff, and Roy was always
attracted to celebrity,” he clearly wasn’t lacking for celebrity in his life. For Cohn, more
important than Trump’s status was his attitude.
“I think he saw in Trump a kindred spirit,” the friend said. “He saw a certain toughness that he
also saw in himself.”
After graduating from the Wharton School and successfully avoiding deployment to Vietnam,
Trump, whose campaign ignored an interview request, joined the family real-estate business and
in 1971, moved to a studio apartment on the Upper East Side.
He wasted no time beginning his social ascent.
“One of the first things I did was join Le Club,” he wrote in his 1987 book The Art of the Deal,
“which at the time was the hottest club in the city and perhaps the most exclusive—like Studio
54 at its height. Its membership included some of the most successful men and most beautiful
women in the world.”
Le Club, Trump wrote, “turned out to be a great move for me, socially and professionally.”
Cohn became Trump’s lawyer. And Trump thought highly of his controversial tactics.
“If you need someone to get vicious toward an opponent, you get Roy,” he was quoted as saying
by the Associated Press. “People will drop a suit just by getting a letter with Roy’s name at the
bottom.”
In 1973, at Cohn’s urging, Trump sued the federal government for $100 million in damages,
after the government sued the Trump Management Corp. for allegedly discriminating against
blacks in its leasing of 16,000 apartment units throughout New York.
Trump accused the government of making “irresponsible and baseless” charges. “I have never,
nor has anyone in our organization ever, to the best of my knowledge, discriminated or shown
bias in renting our apartments,” Trump said at a press conference, held at the New York Hilton
Hotel, according to a December 13, 1973 New York Times report. Trump said, in true Trump
fashion, that the government had singled out his business because it was big. Cohn, for his part,
criticized the government for not providing specifics about the people Trump allegedly
discriminated against.
The judge dismissed Trump and Cohn’s suit, saying they were “wasting time and paper.”
And when Trump was accused of using his political connections to manufacture unfair deals for
himself, Cohn jumped to his defense. “Donald wishes he didn’t have to give money to
politicians, but he knows it’s part of the game,” he told the Times in 1980. “He doesn’t try to get
anything for it; he’s just doing what a lot of people in the real estate business try to do.”
But the depth of their relationship didn’t end with Cohn’s attack-dog defenses of his client.
Cohn, in his own words to the Times, was “not only Donald’s lawyer, but also one of his close
friends.”
When Cohn first got ahold of him, according to his friend, “Donald was a bit of a political
neophyte.”
It was Cohn who helped transform him. “His early political training came from Roy,” the friend
told me.
Cohn, a registered Democrat, was a Reaganphile. On the grand piano in his law office rested a
framed photo of the former president and a letter of thanks he sent to Cohn. He and his law
partner, Thomas Bolan, who could not be reached for comment, fundraised tirelessly for his
1980 campaign.
According to Trump’s friend, Cohn acted to “recruit Donald and Donald’s father for Reagan’s
finance committee.” In an 1983 Times report, Trump was characterized as a Reagan supporter
and was said to have visited the White House “several times.” There’s a picture of the two
together, shaking hands. Trump, his hair darker and fuller, in a pinstripe suit and shiny, light pink
tie; and Reagan, looking duller by comparison.
Today, Trump’s campaign slogan is “Make America Great Again!” Which was Reagan’s slogan
in 1980. Trump has claimed he invented the slogan and trademarked it in order to prevent other
candidates from using it in speeches. “I mean, I get tremendous raves for that line,” Trump told
The Daily Mail. “You would think they would come up with their own. That is my whole
theme.”
In 1983, according to Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, Trump met with Cohn client Anthony
“Fat Tony” Salerno, the boss of the Genovese crime family, in Cohn’s New York apartment.
Trump had employed S&A Concrete, owned by Salerno and Paul “Big Paul” Castellano, head of
the Gambino crime family, to build Trump Tower. (In response to the allegations made in the
book, in 1993, Trump said its author, Wayne Barnett, was “a second-rate writer who has had
numerous literary failures, who has been writing negative stories about me for the past 15 years.
The book is another example of Mr. Barrett’s personal prejudice and animosity towards me. The
book is boring, non-factual, and highly inaccurate.”)
A year after the alleged meeting, Trump was doing an interview with The Washington Post. He
told the reporter, Lois Romano, that he knew how the United States should negotiate nuclear
policy with the Soviets, and Cohn, Trump told her, advised him that it was a good idea to use the
interview as an opportunity to talk about the issue.
“Some people have an ability to negotiate,” Trump said. “It’s an art you’re basically born with.
You either have it or you don’t.”
I wonder where he learned that.
TRUMP SUPPORTS CASINO SUSPECT
BY MOLLY GORDY NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Monday, September 25, 1995
Donald Trump has employed a known Asian organized crime figure at his Taj Mahal casino for
five years and is defending him against attempts to yank his license, law enforcement officials
say. The New Jersey Casino Control Commission begins three days of hearings in Atlantic City
today on the background and character of Danny Leung, a former Taj vice president who still
runs junkets for the casino. Leung was identified by the U. S. Senate permanent subcommittee on
investigations in 1991 as a member of the 14K Triad, a Hong Kong group linked to murders,
extortions and heroin smuggling. The commission granted Leung the key license reserved for
executives in 1989, five years after Canadian police said he was a major player in Toronto
organized crime. His license was routinely renewed every year until May 1994, when the
Atlantic City Press published the Senate findings. Leung has continued to operate without the
license while awaiting hearings. Trump is not himself scheduled to testify on Leung's behalf at
the hearing, but he is sending Taj President Dennis Gomes to do that. Neither would comment to
the Daily News. Leung's lawyer, Guy Michael, said last week that the criminal allegations are
"absolutely untrue.
“But Canadian police are today set to testify that they watched Leung work in illegal gambling
dens in Toronto during the early 1980s with Eddie Louie, the brother of New York City's
infamous Ghost Shadow gang leader Nicky Louie. And they've provided the commission with a
1985 surveillance photo of Leung posing at the opening of his Toronto travel agency with two
notorious guests from New York, Clifford Wong and Herbert Liu.
Wong was convicted of racketeering and murder last year in Brooklyn Federal Court as leader of
the bloodthirsty Tung On gang. The FBI has identified Liu in congressional hearings as an
organized crime leader in Manhattan's Chinatown. Leung was a vice president for foreign
marketing at the Taj Mahal from April 1990 through April 1993 and had a separate contract with
the casino to fly gamblers in from Toronto.
According to evidence filed by the commission's Division of Gaming Enforcement, he flew in 16
Italian organized 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.
Towering Presence in New York: Donald Trump Stirs Controversy with Grandiose
Structures
April 07, 1985|MICHAEL A. HILTZIK | Times Staff Writer
NEW YORK — It was an uneasy crowd that gathered one January evening in an uptown
Manhattan YMCA to meet Donald Trump, the developer of grandiose apartment towers who had
become their new neighbor by purchasing a huge parcel of prime land overlooking the Hudson
River.
Trump has a reputation for getting his own way, overcoming skepticism and opposition to erect
50- and 60-story condominium buildings that make a distinctive statement largely by
overwhelming their surroundings.
To these neighbors, concerned about the impact of 15,000 people swarming from a new Trump
complex onto their overused subway platforms and calling for help from their single police
precinct house, the proper disposition of Trump's 100-acre acquisition would be parkland, not
60-story luxury condominium towers.
Trump started graciously, extracting applause with the remark, "One of the reasons I am here
tonight is not to tell you what I want to build, but to ask you people what you want." But he left
scarce doubt about whose decision would be final, and on what terms. "I know what in my
opinion the community needs," he said. And the final design for the parcel would be based on
"economics."
If the neighbors had any notions that they might dissuade him from erecting a complex that
might turn their neighborhood from one of quiet brownstone streets into a busy adjunct to a
Trump project, they were melting away.
"I don't see you as building villages, Mr. Trump," one woman said. "You build signature
buildings. Geoffrey Beene, Gucci, Donald Trump."
Indeed, over the last five years, Donald Trump's signature has appeared over New York like the
label on a pair of designer jeans. The prices of units in his best-known buildings are pitched so
high that their buyers are often corporations rather than individuals, the epitome of a real-estate
market that promotes increasing economic disparity in the central city, where the very poor and
the very wealthy coexist, the middle class having been elbowed off a Manhattan that increasingly
resembles an island boutique geographically centered at the bronze-glazed, 50-story Trump
Tower on 5th Avenue, next door to Tiffany & Co.
Since 1980, Trump has built three major Manhattan buildings--the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Trump
Plaza and Trump Tower--and an Atlantic City casino. In August, 1983, the New York Times
photographed him sitting on a bronze T in the marbled foyer of Trump Tower and ordained him
a "brash Adonis." New York magazine categorized his exploits, business and social, as
"Trumping the Town." And he has gained renown outside of New York with his ownership of
the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, for whom he signed Doug Flutie,
the exciting Boston College quarterback, promptly upon Flutie's graduation.
As New York's most visible developer, Trump commands the allegiance of its most influential
financial institutions. His partner in building Trump Tower, Equitable Life Assurance Society of
the United States, recognized his uniquely personal contribution to the project with a policy on
Trump's life, payable to the partnership, for $20 million. Prudential Life Insurance Co., eager to
develop a Madison Avenue site for condominiums, gave Trump a 49% interest in the project
with no requirement that he put up any money.
Unusual Credit Line
By 1981, when only the Grand Hyatt was open and the other buildings were in early stages,
Trump had a personal credit line from Chase Manhattan Bank, unsecured, subject to no written
agreement and payable at the prime rate, of $35 million--a "flexible sum," Chase bankers told the
New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. In July, 1981, when New Jersey authorities
checked, Trump's "regular" cash checking account at Chase had an average monthly balance of
$384,000.
The "relatively unusual" credit line still exists, a Chase source says. "He's good for it; he has a lot
of relationships with the bank."
And on August 31, 1982, according to New Jersey records, Trump--whose wife, Ivana, is a
former model and former member of the Czech Olympic ski team and oversees the interior
design of Trump projects--had a personal net worth of $321 million. It had not changed
"significantly" by April, 1984, a Trump lieutenant testified later.
Trump's penchant for grandiose promotion is exemplified by Trump Tower, a John Hancock
among signature buildings, marketed with unrestrained appeal to self-indulgence. As the narrator
says on a film strip produced to promote the place (Frank Sinatra crooning "New York, New
York" in the background), in Manhattan "any wish, no matter how opulent or unusual, can be
satisfied."
Trump intended Trump Tower to have the same impact for Manhattan that he envisaged his
casino having for Atlantic City. Applying for a casino license in Atlantic City in 1982, Trump
told the New Jersey Casino Control Commission that his building would be "a big step for
Atlantic City" because the burgeoning gambling island "needs some pizazz."
Need Is for Shelter
But New York is not exactly crying out for pizazz, particularly at the corner of 5th and Tiffany's.
While New York's need is for shelter for the millions of workers who flow into and out of
Manhattan each day, not for million-dollar pied-a-terres, Trump Tower was erected with the aid
of a $70-million city tax abatement obtained through a program designed to redevelop
"underused" real estate.
Going to court to wrest the abatement from a reluctant city administration, Trump argued that his
half-block on one of the richest retail shopping strips in the land was underused with its
occupation by a Bonwit Teller department store. He now contends that the city promised him the
abatement for erecting housing on the unlikely site of the world's most famous shopping district
but withdrew it after a public uproar. "They were lying bastards," he says of the city
administration. One result of the melee: the city cancelled the abatement program.
Trump's reputation for inattention to the more basic civic needs wasn't dispelled when his crews
jackhammered a pair of stone bas-reliefs on the Bonwit facade to smithereens after he had agreed
to donate them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
"It was easier for me 10 years ago," Trump reflected during a recent interview in his Trump
Tower office. "Nobody knew who I was and nobody cared. Then, I wasn't the guy everyone was
trying to stop."
Uncomfortable With Image
He says his image as the panderer of overpriced living space for the plutocracy makes him
uncomfortable. "I've built some beautiful subsidized housing for the elderly in East Orange, N.J.
I mention that and nobody cares. They want to write about Trump Tower."
He is dismayed by the clamorousness of many articles written about him. "They're too loud," he
said. "I hope that's not my attitude, because I hate it." Last spring he gave a writer from
Gentleman's Quarterly a lift in his limousine, only to discover that his casual remarks about its
wet bar and radio were quoted sarcastically. "I don't even know where the radio is, for Christ's
sake," he says. (He liked the cover, however, a photograph that highlighted his blond hair and
blue eyes next to the legend, "Success/How Sweet It Is/Men Who Take Risks and Make
Millions.")
Trump's claim for Trump Tower as an unparalleled success inevitably draws challenges. Of the
condo tower's 263 units, according to a survey of city records by the Corcoran Group, a real
estate brokerage, about 48 had been bought by Trump himself as of the end of last year. Whether
Trump intends to profit from any further appreciation or to preserve the illusion that Tower sales
are hot is "a matter of speculation," says Barbara Corcoran, the head of the brokerage.
Trump says he intends to hold 5% of the units off the market while they appreciate. "Manhattan
real estate has just gone through the roof," he says. One Tower apartment is renting, unfurnished,
for $25,000 a month. "It's ridiculous. I've never seen anything in terms of this fever."
Furnishings Derided
While a distinctive structure, the Tower's apartment furnishings have been widely derided. Of
expensive condominium buildings, Trump Tower has "the worst furnishings in Manhattan," one
broker says. "Hollow doors, cheap cabinets. They say they expect buyers to redecorate, but of
course many don't."
The Tower's distinctive indoor retail "atrium," a six-story, salmon-marbled mall that resembles a
swath of Rodeo Drive upended, its shops stacked vertically, has also drawn criticism from retail
professionals as better theater than selling space, particularly for the rarefied merchants of
jewelry and European clothing who occupy it. The Atrium functions poorly as dual tourist
attraction and high-priced shopping mall, the brokers say.
"If I'm buying a $2,500 suede outfit I don't want to be surrounded by 25% of the adult population
of Boise, Idaho," one broker says. Trump, for his part, says the atrium has "worked out better
than I anticipated."
Still, the project is New York's most attention-grabbing building. "Before he had produced
anything to sell, we were getting inquiries about Trump Tower," Corcoran says. Tower
condominiums have been selling for an average of about $800 a square foot--the highest price by
a nearly $200 margin of any new condo building in New York and one that places the average
price of a unit at $1.1 million. An unusually high percentage of buyers--74%, according to the
Corcoran survey--are corporate purchasers and non-resident investors. That is well beyond the
43.5% average for top-priced Manhattan condo buildings, and suggests that Trump Tower is an
"oddball" market unto itself, Corcoran says.
Blanched at Cost
That might explain why Prudential blanched at the projected cost of Trump Castle, the glassturreted and moated condominium tower that it was planning with Trump for a year before it
gave up in 1984 and sold off its site.
"We didn't want to do a deal that depended on selling apartments for $1.5 million each to break
even," says one executive close to the project.
Trump Castle, a model of which still occupies a windowsill in Trump's office, is not the only
post-Tower project that has run into problems generated by Trump's expectations and renown.
Take the waterfall of adverse publicity over his plans to redevelop an old hotel and adjoining
apartment building that he bought in 1981 on Central Park South, one of the city's most desirable
streets. Trump embarked on a campaign to clear the apartment house of its more than 100
tenants, many of whom had below-market rents protected by the city's strict rent-control laws.
City and state officials and the tenants allege that this campaign has involved his filing nuisance
lawsuits as well as eliminating heat and hot water and reducing security to the point that the
number of burglaries after 18 months of Trump ownership surpassed the accumulated total of the
previous 41 years.
But Trump steadfastly maintains that the building is occupied by "millionaires who send their
limousines to pick up their lawyers." (In fact, many of the tenants testified during state
proceedings that they are elderly and others said they are members of middle-class families who
have passed the units down, like heirlooms, for a couple of generations.) Their intention, he
complains, is to hector him into buying out their leases at six-figure prices. Responds David
Rozenholc , the tenants' attorney: "I don't believe there's a number he could name that would get
the tenants out now."
Could Be Blocked
If the state finds after hearings now under way that he harassed residents, Trump can be
prevented from ever converting the building for his own planned use. His current plan is to
redevelop the hotel alone. "I don't need them," he said of the tenants.
And there is wide conjecture over his plans for Lincoln West, the huge parcel that was the
subject of that uptown community meeting. Trump faces a community uproar if he tries to outdo
the previous owners' proposal, which called for four 60-story towers on the river. Trump
envisions the tract, which he bought for $95 million, as the site of a $3.5-billion luxury
development.
How well will it fit in with the adjoining neighborhood of brownstones and 15-story apartment
houses? Trump's final design isn't public, but he provided a clue when he recently ridiculed the
previous owners' design for having "no sense of the monumental." And he has told community
leaders that he contemplates not 4,300 units but 6,300, arranged in eight towers--a plan so vast
that it may become a political issue in this mayoral election year.
Donald Trump's name may not have glittered with today's incandescence when he started out in
the mid-1970s, but that is not to say that he emerged from nowhere.
His father, Fred C. Trump, had been a successful developer in Brooklyn and Queens, and when
Donald graduated from the Wharton School of Finance in 1968 he went into the family business.
His first deal, he says, involved property in Forest Hills, later to become known as the home
neighborhood of Geraldine Ferraro.
Promoted Rail Yard
The public first took notice in 1974, when he optioned an old rail yard from the bankrupt Penn
Central Railroad and promoted it aggressively as a suitable site for the city's planned new
Convention Center--although the city was already working on another site uptown.
Ultimately, the city saw it his way. "He was right," says City Parks Commissioner Henry Stern,
then a city councilman. Says Trump: "The convention center was a victory against the
Establishment that nobody thought I was going to win."
But he really made his name with the next deal, the renovation of the decrepit Commodore
Hotel, another Penn Central property located next to fabled Grand Central Terminal. Even
Trump detractors agree that buying the hotel was a risky proposition, for the entire neighborhood
was a virtual slum. The neighboring Chrysler building, a landmark, was in receivership and the
rest of the area seemed to have few prospects.
In 1978, Trump paid $10 million for the Commodore. Before rebuilding, he insisted on and got a
40-year city tax abatement worth nearly $60 million. The entire deal was enveloped in the aura
of political influence, generated chiefly by the family's connections to the Brooklyn political
machine that had produced then-Gov. Hugh L. Carey, one of whose trusted fund-raisers was on
Trump's payroll as a lobbyist.
Sheathed in green glass and renamed the Grand Hyatt, the Commodore reopened two years later,
the centerpiece of a resurgent neighborhood. "In a way, Donald Trump's best ally has been the
business cycle," Stern observed. "He came into his own as an operator just at a time when the
market was at bottom, and he built into a period of prosperity." Others believe that the
revitalization of the neighborhood was awaiting the risky renovation of the hotel. "A lot of
people were sitting there with billions to invest, waiting to see what would happen with the
Commodore," says Richard Kahan, a prominent New York developer and former president of the
state Urban Development Corp.
In 1978, with the Hyatt under way, Trump began moving in on Atlantic City, lured by the
tremendous profits of the first few casinos. He applied for and received a casino license before
starting his building, an unusual step ensuring that construction would be unencumbered by the
costly last-minute interference by New Jersey casino authorities. The Trump Plaza casino-hotel
would be completed for between $200 million and $220 million, virtually on the mark of its
budgeted cost. By comparison, the nearby Tropicana came in at $340 million, about $250 million
over budget.
Trump began construction without a financial partner; ultimately he would put slightly less than
$50 million in capital into the project, much of which he got back in 1982 when Holiday Inns
Inc. bought a 50% equity interest in the project for its Harrah's subsidiary. In other words,
Harrah's covered virtually all Trump's costs, leaving him with a 50% interest.
"So Harrah's put up all the cash," observed Daniel Lee, a gambling industry analyst for Drexel
Burnham Lambert Inc. "He got it because he had the guts to start the casino without a partner."
Of course, the Trump capital was not necessarily Trump cash. According to state records,
between May, 1980, and June, 1981, Trump drew $8.9 million from his Chase Manhattan
personal credit line for the casino project. Some of that was repaid with the proceeds from a
$7.5-million loan that Trump got from his father.
Leased the Land
And not all the decisions that Trump made on the Atlantic City project were right. The decision
to lease much of the land beneath the building, rather than buy it, had an impeccable financial
rationale: Buying the land would require a huge cash investment that would have to be financed
at high interest rates.
"If I was to spend $25 million to purchase the (land) as opposed to paying $1.8 million or $1.9
million a year in rent, which is the equivalent of going to a bank at 7% or 8% interest, the cost of
the job would have just become prohibitive," he told the Casino Control Commission. "I would
spend the money on brick and mortar, on architects, on furnishings, on the right-looking
facilities, rather than spending $25 million to unnecessarily purchase the land."
That created problems when it emerged that one of the lessors was Daniel J. Sullivan, a
Teamsters Union functionary who had met occasionally with Jimmy Hoffa and who had a string
of convictions on weapons charges and other misdemeanors. It was unlikely Sullivan would pass
the commission's scrutiny.
Trump overcame that obstacle by buying the Sullivan partnership's parcel for $8 million,
according to records of casino regulators. Later, Trump arranged for Sullivan to be hired as a
labor negotiator at the Grand Hyatt project, which had been having bargaining problems with the
hotel and restaurant workers union.
Trump also introduced Sullivan to his own banker at Chase, although he declined to guarantee a
Chase loan to Sullivan.
Questions For Donald Trump
July 10, 2015
I have covered Donald Trump off and on for 27 years — including breaking the story that in
1990, when he claimed to be worth $3 billion but could not pay interest on loans coming due, his
bankers put his net worth at minus $295 million. And so I have closely watched what Trump
does and what government documents reveal about his conduct.
Reporters, competing Republican candidates, and voters would learn a lot about Trump if they
asked for complete answers to these 21 questions.
So, Mr. Trump…
1. You call yourself an “ardent philanthropist,” but have not donated a dollar to The Donald J.
Trump Foundation since 2006. You’re not even the biggest donor to the foundation, having
given about $3.7 million in the previous two decades while businesses associated with Vince
McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment gave the Trump Foundation $5 million. All the
money since 2006 has come from those doing business with you.
How does giving away other people’s money, in what could be seen as a kickback scheme, make
you a philanthropist?
2. New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman successfully sued you, alleging your
Trump University was an “illegal educational institution” that charged up to $35,000 for “Trump
Elite” mentorships promising personal advice from you, but you never showed up and your
“special” list of lenders was photocopied from Scotsman Guide, a magazine found at any
bookstore.
Why did you not show up?
3. You claimed The Learning Annex paid you a $1 million speaking fee, but on Larry King Live,
you acknowledged the fee was $400,000 and the rest was the promotional value.
Since you have testified under oath that your public statements inflate the value of your assets,
can voters use this as a guide, so whenever you say $1, in reality it is only 40 cents?
4. The one-page financial statement handed out at Trump Tower when you announced your
candidacy says you’ve given away $102 million worth of land.
Will you supply a list of each of these gifts, with the values you assigned to them?
5. The biggest gift you have talked about appears to be an easement at the Palos Verdes,
California, golf course bearing your name on land you wanted to build houses on, but that land is
subject to landslides and is now the golf course driving range.
Did you or one of your businesses take a tax deduction for this land that you could not build on
and do you think anyone should get a $25 million tax deduction for a similar self-serving gift?
6. Trump Tower is not a steel girder high rise, but 58 stories of concrete.
Why did you use concrete instead of traditional steel girders?
7. Trump Tower was built by S&A Concrete, whose owners were “Fat” Tony Salerno, head of
the Genovese crime family, and Paul “Big Paul” Castellano, head of the Gambinos, another wellknown crime family.
If you did not know of their ownership, what does that tell voters about your management skills?
8. You later used S&A Concrete on other Manhattan buildings bearing your name.
Why?
9. In demolishing the Bonwit Teller building to make way for Trump Tower, you had no labor
troubles, even though only about 15 unionists worked at the site alongside 150 Polish men, most
of whom entered the country illegally, lacked hard hats, and slept on the site.
How did you manage to avoid labor troubles, like picketing and strikes, and job safety
inspections while using mostly non-union labor at a union worksite — without hard hats for the
Polish workers?
10. A federal judge later found you conspired to cheat both the Polish workers, who were paid
less than $5 an hour cash with no benefits, and the union health and welfare fund. You testified
that you did not notice the Polish workers, whom the judge noted were easy to spot because they
were the only ones on the work site without hard hats.
What should voters make of your failure or inability to notice 150 men demolishing a multi-story
building without hard hats?
11. You sent your top lieutenant, lawyer Harvey I. Freeman, to negotiate with Ken Shapiro, the
“investment banker” for Nicky Scarfo, the especially vicious killer who was Atlantic City’s mob
boss, according to federal prosecutors and the New Jersey State Commission on Investigation.
Since you emphasize your negotiating skills, why didn’t you negotiate yourself?
12. You later paid a Scarfo associate twice the value of a lot, officials determined.
Since you boast that you always negotiate the best prices, why did you pay double the value of
this real estate?
13. You were the first person recommended for a casino license by the New Jersey Attorney
General’s Division of Gaming Enforcement, which opposed all other applicants or was neutral.
Later it came out in official proceedings that you had persuaded the state to limit its investigation
of your background.
Why did you ask that the investigation into your background be limited?
14. You were the target of a 1979 bribery investigation. No charges were filed, but New Jersey
law mandates denial of a license to anyone omitting any salient fact from their casino
application.
Why did you omit the 1979 bribery investigation?
15. The prevailing legal case on license denials involved a woman, seeking a blackjack dealer
license, who failed to disclose that as a retail store clerk she had given unauthorized discounts to
friends.
In light of the standard set for low-level license holders like blackjack dealers, how did you
manage to keep your casino license?
16. In 1986 you wrote a letter seeking lenient sentencing for Joseph Weichselbaum, a convicted
marijuana and cocaine trafficker who lived in Trump Tower and in a case that came before your
older sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry of U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, who
recused herself because Weichselbaum was the Trump casinos and Trump family helicopter
consultant and pilot.
Why did you do business with Weichselbaum, both before and after his conviction?
17. Your first major deal was converting the decrepit Commodore Hotel next to Grand Central
Station into a Grand Hyatt. Mayor Abe Beame, a close ally of your father Fred, gave you the
first-ever property tax abatement on a New York City hotel, worth at least $400 million over 40
years.
Since you boast that you are a self-made billionaire, how do you rationalize soliciting and
accepting $400 million of welfare from the taxpayers?
18. You say that your experience as a manager will allow you to run the federal government
much better than President Obama or Hillary Clinton. On Fortune Magazine’s 1999 list of the
496 most admired companies, your casino company ranked at the bottom – worst or almost worst
in management, use of assets, employee talent, long-term investment value, and social
responsibility. Your casino company later went bankrupt.
Why should voters believe your claims that you are a competent manager?
19. Your Trump Plaza casino was fined $200,000 for discriminating against women and minority
blackjack dealers to curry favor with gambler Robert Libutti, who lost $12 million, and who
insisted he never asked that blacks and women be replaced.
Why should we believe you “love” what you call “the blacks” and the enterprise you seek to lead
would not discriminate again in the future if doing so appeared to be lucrative?
20. Public records (cited in my book Temples of Chance) show that as your career took off, you
legally reported a negative income and paid no income taxes as summarized below:
1975
Income: $76,210
Tax Paid: $18,714
1976
Income: $24,594
Tax Paid: $10,832
1977
Income: $118,530
Tax Paid: $42,386
1978
Income: ($406,379)
Tax Paid: $0
1979
Income: ($3,443,560)
Tax Paid: $0
Will you release your tax returns? And if not, why not?
21. In your first bestselling book, The Art of the Deal, you told how you had not gotten much
work done on your first casino, so you had crews dig and fill holes to create a show. You said
one director of your partner, Holiday Inns, asked what was going on. “This was difficult for me
to answer, but fortunately this board member was more curious than he was skeptical,” you
wrote.
Given your admission that you used deception to hide your failure to accomplish the work, why
should we believe you now?
Simone Tapes Tell Of The Mob's Wars And Its Key Figures
By Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: APRIL 13, 1986
When Philadelphia lawyer Robert F. Simone recounts the history of the Philadelphia-Atlantic
City organized-crime family, he speaks with the intimate knowledge of an insider, federal
prosecutors say.
But Simone says that it did not take much in the early 1980s to become an expert on the mob: All
anyone had to do was read the newspapers, where bloody gangland slayings made headlines
month after month.
Simone, who is representing himself, is on trial in federal court in Camden, where he is charged
with lying under oath about his knowledge of the mob and its business.
Ultimately, it will be up to a Camden jury to decide how close Simone was to the organizedcrime family reputedly headed by Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo. And the jurors will base their
decision on their interpretation of the testimony and tapes from secretly recorded conversations
such as this one, recorded Aug. 8, 1981, in which Simone discusses the March 21, 1981, death of
former Philadelphia mob chief Angelo Bruno:
"(Scarfo) was with Testa (Philip "Chicken Man"), this Little Guy, OK. Then there was a split in
the family here . . . and they tried to put the blame on Testa and Nicky for killing Ange, which
they didn't do. Some other people did it. They tried to make it look like Phil and Nicky did it.
Yeah, but they didn't. Those guys have since been killed up in New York. . . .
"They were from North Jersey and middle Jersey, but they knew that there were feuds going on
here. . . . So somebody got out of the can and took it upon themselves to kill Ange, and of course
it looked like to the world that Phil and Nicky did it, but they didn't. I know that in fact New
York called down and said, 'Nicky, forget about it. We all know you weren't involved.' "
Since March 26, jurors have spent their days listening to Simone's conversations in 1981, 1982
and 1983 that were secretly recorded by David Kurzband, an undercover government witness
whose testimony ended last week.
The prosecution will continue its case this week.
If the jury believes that Simone was an insider whose knowledge went beyond that of an attorney
in his role as legal advocate, they might convict Simone of lying in October 1984 when he told a
federal judge in Newark, N.J., that he never represented Scarfo in the mob's crooked business
deals.
Federal prosecutors had called Simone to the stand on Oct. 16, 1984, as part of their effort to
have him disqualified from representing Scarfo's nephew, reputed mobster Philip Leonetti, in a
bribery case involving former Atlantic City Mayor Michael J. Matthews.
"He lied to protect himself, to protect his professional reputation," Assistant U.S. Attorney Stuart
Peim said in opening statements March 24. "And he lied to cover up for his business associates.
He lied to cover up that he was involved in the business activities of organized crime."
Simone is arguing that he gained his knowledge about the mob by reading the newspapers and
through legal proceedings he attended while representing his organized-crime clients. In one
proceeding, a long pre-sentence hearing for Scarfo, federal law-enforcement officials detailed the
structure of the Scarfo family. That proceeding ended July 7, 1981 - less than a month before
Kurzband recorded his first conversation with Simone, on Aug. 4.
Beyond his courtroom and newspaper knowledge of the mob, Simone acknowledged in a
hallway interview that he was guilty of a little puffery, a little exaggeration and trying to act like
a know-it-all in front of Kurzband, who threw around the names of wealthy Arab sheiks and
Hong Kong business tycoons as if they were confetti as he played the role of a casino- junket
operator with access to high-rolling gamblers.
"You know that part in the tape where I said, 'Guys were using names, I'm with this guy, I'm with
that guy. They're all full of s-'?" he said. "Well, I was, too."
Here is what Simone had to say about the mob and its members in his conversations with
Kurzband, according to the tapes.
*
About mob war deaths that followed Bruno's - Philip "Chicken Man" Testa, 56, who died March
15, 1981, when a bomb exploded on his porch; Roofers Union boss John McCullough, 60, who
was shot to death in his home on Dec. 16, 1980, and Frank Sindone, 52, part of Bruno's loansharking operation, who was killed Sept. 19, 1980, in Staten Island:
"Angelo Bruno got killed. John McCullough got killed. Phil Testa got killed. Frank Sindone got
killed . . . and there's only a couple of guys that's left. . . . Phil was not one of the guys that was
supposed to be killed. That hasn't been solved yet. But the wind-up is that it (the mob) is a much
tighter-knit thing."
A few minutes later, Kurzband remarked, "Bobby I've never been in a place like this. I guess you
really got to walk on glass here." Then he offered Simone some words of advice:
"You made a great remark down there, if I can quote you," Kurzband said, referring to a chance
meeting he and Simone had in the lobby of Philadelphia's Warwick Hotel a few days earlier.
"You said to me, 'The guys that got knocked off were my clients and the guys that do the
knocking off are my clients.' For that, you know, you really gotta, you got to watch your Ps and
Qs. Everybody's fighting with everybody."
- Aug. 5, 1981, in the Warwick
About the power and influence of Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, alleged mob chief, also
known as "the Little Guy":
"While you're talking to me, you're talking to him.
" . . . He's got Philly and Atlantic City. Is that good enough for you?"
About Scarfo, casinos and gambling:
"Nicky's in jail. They're going to blackball him, he doesn't give a s-. He doesn't want to go near
the . . . casinos anyway. He doesn't have to be on the scene. He leaves it up to me and you. . . .
Nick controls the union."
Kurzband said that "mob guys" made the best gamblers. "He's as good as an Arab or a
Chinaman, 'cause he's got cash, he's got dough."
Simone replied: "Nicky will do that, he'll have guys from all over the . . . country. So when they
come in . . . you put them up in a . . . hotel and they all play. . . . They say, 'We don't gamble.'
You know what it is. The . . . guy's a closet gambler."
- Sept. 2, 1983, in Simone's Center City law office
About alleged organized-crime underboss Salvatore "Chuckie" Merlino, who was convicted in
January 1984 of trying to bribe a Margate, N.J., police lieutenant to drop drunken-driving
charges:
"I'll have Chuckie talk to him," Simone said, referring to reputed mob associate Leonard Parker,
now dead, who was going to help set up a casino- junket deal with Kurzband. "He's Nicky's
number-one man."
Kurzband remarked that he had noticed a lot of New York City crime-family members doing
business in Atlantic City, Scarfo's turf.
Simone replied: "Because Nicky's in jail and his number-one guy is not, ah, is not, ah, smart. . . .
I'm his lawyer, too."
"He's got a . . . case down at the shore. Bribery, trumped-up. . . . But I don't think it's true. This
guy wouldn't offer no cop five hundred. He'd . . . hit a cop before he would. He's a little bit of a
hot-head, nice fellow."
- Sept. 2, 1983, in Simone's law office.
About Philip Leonetti, Scarfo's nephew, who is awaiting trial on bribery charges in a case
involving former Atlantic City Mayor Matthews:
"He's a nice looking boy. . . . Nicky's nephew, he can sit with the . . . mayor. Ah, and Kenny's
(Shapiro, a Scarfo associate) got the mayor through this kid Philip."
- Sept. 2, 1983, in Simone's law office
About law-enforcement efforts to police organized crime:
Kurzband remarked about the organized-crime warfare, "Somebody's gotta have control or do
something. I mean . . . quiet it down. . . . Guy sits in Washington and reads it, 'Hey, let's send 22
guys down to Philadelphia to investigate this.' "
Simone replied: "They're saying it, but they're full of s-. Recently, a couple, about a month or
two months ago, a guy, another client of mine, he was under surveillance, and he got whacked
(killed). What kind of surveillance is it if these guys are getting whacked now?"
- June 30, 1983, in Simone's law office
Donald Trump a fine one to accuse others of lying
Donald Trump at last week's debate in Greenville, S.C. (JOHN BAZEMORE / AP)
GALLERY: Donald Trump at last week's debate in Greenville,… (JOHN BAZEMORE…)
POSTED: FEBRUARY 20, 2016
A little hyperbole never hurts - Donald Trump,
The Art of the Deal
To hear a man whose embellishments rate comparisons to P.T. Barnum complain that others
aren't telling the truth is enough to make your head spin. But Donald Trump calling Ted Cruz a
liar is characteristic of the barroom brawl being conducted to choose a Republican nominee for
president.
Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that mutual respect has often been missing in action from the
GOP presidential debates. After all, the trajectory of the worst rudeness on display traces back to
2009, when a South Carolina congressman screamed, "You lie!" at President Obama as he
addressed a joint session of Congress.
Time magazine reported that Trump applied the words lie,lying, and liar to Cruz six times in 90
seconds during an appearance Monday. "He's a lying guy - a really lying guy," Trump said of the
Texas senator. "Some people misrepresent. This guy is just a plain-out liar."
Noting that Marco Rubio had accused Cruz of spreading falsehoods about the Florida senator's
positions on same-sex marriage, Planned Parenthood, and immigration, Trump said he felt freer
to call out Cruz, whom he described as "the single biggest liar I've ever seen."
Trump brought up the caucuses in Iowa, where the Cruz campaign suggested that Ben Carson
had quit the race when he had only gone home to Florida for a break. "They should disqualify
him from winning Iowa," Trump said of Cruz. "I really mean it, because what he did was a
fraud."
Trump's scorched-earth approach to politics leaves little room for his opponents to climb aboard
the bandwagon should he actually win the nomination. Who is going to let bygones be bygones
after an adversary has tried to destroy his credibility?
But Trump hasn't reserved the liar label for Cruz alone. In attacking Jeb Bush during Saturday's
debate, he accused former President George W. Bush of lying about weapons of mass destruction
to drum up support for the Iraq invasion. That led radio host Rush Limbaugh to speculate that
Trump might be trying to attract votes from independents and Democrats in South Carolina's
open primary.
Trump apparently assumes that his own truthfulness isn't an issue. But the fact-checking site
PolitiFact found that he has told more than one fib worthy of its Lie of the Year award. Seventysix percent of the Trump statements PolitiFact checked last year were rated "mostly false,"
"false," or "pants on fire" (its grade for the most outrageously false statements).
Magicians use sleight of hand to make audiences miss what should be clear. Some politicians
accomplish the same feat.
About PolitiFact.com
A PROJECT OF
Donald Trump's file
Donald Trump has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show,
"The Apprentice." He is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Trump's
statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015 Lie of the Year.
Trump's statements by ruling
Click on the ruling to see all of Trump's statements for that ruling.

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True1 ( 1%)(1)
Mostly True6 ( 6%)(6)
Half True15 ( 15%)(15)
Mostly False18 ( 18%)(18)
False39 ( 39%)(39)
Pants on Fire20 ( 20%)(20)
Donald Trump's website
Our Donald Trump feeds
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Recent statements involving Donald Trump
DONALD TRUMP
When Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate, "that was the end" of
Romney’s chances to win.
— PolitiFact Wisconsin
MARCO RUBIO
Says Donald Trump hired illegal workers "from Poland and he had to pay a million dollars or so
in a judgment."
DONALD TRUMP
Says Ted Cruz "said I was in favor in Libya. I never discussed that subject."
DONALD TRUMP
"If it weren’t for me … (illegal immigration) wouldn’t even be a big subject."
DONALD TRUMP
Says that in the Philippines more than a century ago, Gen. John Pershing "took 50 bullets, and he
dipped them in pigs’ blood," and shot 49 Muslim rebels. "The 50th person, he said, ‘You go back
to your people, and you tell them what happened.’ And for 25 years, there wasn’t a problem."
TED CRUZ
Says Donald Trump "wants to keep big government in charge" of federally-owned land.
— PolitiFact Nevada
DONALD TRUMP
With Obamacare, "You have no options .. you can't get competitive bidding."
— PolitiFact National
TED CRUZ
"About 70 percent of Republicans nationwide ... don't think Donald Trump is the right guy" to
take on Hillary Clinton in November.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"In New Hampshire, I spent $3 million. Jeb Bush spent $44 million. He came in five, and I came
in number one."
— PolitiFact New Hampshire
DONALD TRUMP
Says Jeb Bush "said he would take his pants off and moon everybody ... Nobody reports that."
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
On the Iraq war, "I said it loud and clear, 'You'll destabilize the Middle East.' "
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Don't believe those phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment. The
number's probably 28, 29, as high as 35. In fact, I even heard recently 42 percent."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"I'm self-funding my own campaign."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"We’re spending tremendous amounts of money to educate our kids. In the world, we're No. 1
per pupil by a factor of four."
— PolitiFact Iowa
DONALD TRUMP
"Right now we’re the highest taxed country in the world."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Regarding the Iraq War, "I was the one that said, ‘Don’t go, don’t do it, you’re going to
destabilize the Middle East.’ "
— PolitiFact National
TED CRUZ
"Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have the identical position on health
care, which is they want to put the government in charge of you and your doctor."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"I never once asked that (Megyn Kelly) be removed" as a debate moderator.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says Mexico can afford to build a wall because the country's trade deficit with America is
billions of dollars.
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
Says a Ted Cruz ad has "got me bull-dozing down a house. I never bulldozed it down. It's false
advertising."
— PolitiFact National
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BERNIE SANDERS
Says Donald Trump "thinks that climate change is a hoax, invented by the Chinese."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
China has "total control, just about, of North Korea."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Among Syrian refugees and migrants coming into Europe, "there look like very few women.
Very few children."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"We get practically nothing compared to the cost of" keeping U.S. military forces in South
Korea.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
The five Guantanamo detainees swapped for Bowe Bergdahl are "back on the battlefield."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Canadian-born Ted Cruz "has had a double passport."
— PolitiFact Texas
DONALD TRUMP
A Trump television ad shows Mexicans swarming over "our southern border."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says American polling shows Russian President Vladimir Putin has "an 80 percent approval
rating."
— PolitiFact National
HILLARY CLINTON
ISIS is "going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order
to recruit more radical jihadists."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
The 9/11 terrorists' friends, family, girlfriends in the United States "were sent back for the most
part to Saudi Arabia. They knew what was going on. They went home, and they wanted to watch
their boyfriends on television."
— PolitiFact National
RAND PAUL
"If you are going to kill the families of terrorists, realize that there's something called the Geneva
Convention we're going to have to pull out of."
— PolitiFact National
JEB BUSH
"Two months ago, Donald Trump said that ISIS was not our fight."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"We're practically not allowed to use coal any more. What do we do with our coal? We ship it to
China and they spew it in the air."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
In 2000, "I wrote about Osama bin Laden, ‘We’ve got to take him out.’"
— PolitiFact Virginia
DONALD TRUMP
Says 25 percent of U.S. Muslims "agreed that violence against Americans here in the United
States is justified as a part of the global jihad."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
President Barack Obama "wants to take in 250,000 (people) from Syria."
— PolitiFact Texas
DONALD TRUMP
Says crime statistics show blacks kill 81 percent of white homicide victims.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering" as the
World Trade Center collapsed.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
The New York Police Department used to have "surveillance going on in and around mosques in
New York City. ... Our mayor totally cut that out."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
The federal government is sending refugees to states with governors who are "Republicans, not
to the Democrats."
— PolitiFact National
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DONALD TRUMP
The Trans-Pacific Partnership "was designed for China to come in, as they always do, through
the back door and totally take advantage of everyone."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says President Dwight Eisenhower "moved 1.5 million illegal immigrants out of this country."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"We’re losing now over $500 billion a year in terms of imbalance with China."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
On the VA: "Over 300,000 veterans have died waiting for care."
— PolitiFact Virginia
DONALD TRUMP
Says that in polls about 2016 candidate leadership skills, he comes out "two and three and four
times higher than anybody else."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says his plan would cut taxes without increasing the deficit.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
The CNBC debate was supposed to be three hours, and he "renegotiated it down to two hours."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says Ohio Gov. John Kasich "got lucky with a thing called fracking," which "is why Ohio is
doing well."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"I never said that" Marco Rubio was Mark Zuckerberg’s personal senator.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Sixty-one percent of our bridges are in trouble."
— PolitiFact Virginia
DONALD TRUMP
Because of Obamacare "people’s premiums ... are going up 35, 45, 55 percent."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says CIA Director George Tenet told the Bush administration that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attack "was coming. So they did have advanced notice."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says Bernie Sanders is going to "tax you people at 90 percent."
— PolitiFact Virginia
DONALD TRUMP
"We have the highest tax rate anywhere in the world."
— PolitiFact Virginia
DONALD TRUMP
"I don’t think anybody makes television sets in the United States anymore."
— PolitiFact National
CLUB FOR GROWTH
Says Donald Trump "supports eminent domain" and the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Among Syrian refugees, "there aren't that many women, there aren't that many children."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
The unemployment rate may be as high as "42 percent."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"The birther movement was started by Hillary Clinton in 2008. She was all in!"
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
When Carly Fiorina says Hewlett-Packard "revenues went up, that's because she bought
Compaq. It was a terrible deal."
— PolitiFact National
Page 3 of 6
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DONALD TRUMP
Says Marco Rubio has "the worst voting record there is today."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says Mexico doesn't have birthright citizenship, and Americans are the "only ones" to have it.
— PolitiFact National
JEB BUSH
"When he (Donald Trump) asked Florida to have casino gambling, we said no."
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
Says Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker turned a $1 billion surplus into a $2.2 billion budget deficit.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Jeb's policies in Florida helped lead to its almost total collapse."
— PolitiFact Florida
CLUB FOR GROWTH
Says Donald Trump supports the Wall Street bailout.
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
"The top man at Yale Law School came out ... with just a raging report" about former HP CEO
Carly Fiorina, saying she is "one of the worst executives in his memory in history running the
company."
— PolitiFact National
REID RIBBLE
Says Donald Trump "wants to replace" Obamacare "with a single-payer system."
— PolitiFact Wisconsin
DONALD TRUMP
Under the Iran deal: "If Israel attacks Iran … we’re supposed to be on Iran’s side."
— PolitiFact Virginia
JEB BUSH
"Trump proposed enacting the largest tax increase in American history."
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
"We have 93 million people out of work. They look for jobs, they give up, and all of a sudden,
statistically, they're considered employed."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"We’re the most highly taxed nation in the world."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Our companies are moving into Mexico more than almost any other place right now."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Many of the great scholars say that anchor babies are not covered" by the 14th Amendment.
— PolitiFact National
JEB BUSH
Says Donald Trump "was a Democrat longer in the last decade than he was a Republican."
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
"The annual cost of free tax credits alone paid to illegal immigrants quadrupled to $4.2 billion in
2011."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says "if the (Iran nuclear) deal gets rejected, they still get" $150 billion.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Every poll said I won the debate."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Some of the things that (Megyn Kelly) said, I didn’t say."
— PolitiFact National
MARCO RUBIO
Says that Donald Trump "supported Charlie Crist."
— PolitiFact Florida
Page 4 of 6
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DONALD TRUMP
Illegal immigration "wasn’t a subject that was on anybody’s mind until I brought it up at my
announcement."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"The Mexican government ... they send the bad ones over."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Under President Barack Obama, income levels and unemployment numbers "are worse now than
just about ever" for African-Americans.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
The number of illegal immigrants in the United States is "30 million, it could be 34 million."
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
Under Gov. Scott Walker, Wisconsin "projected a $1 billion (budget) surplus and it turns out to
be a deficit of $2.2 billion."
— PolitiFact Wisconsin
DONALD TRUMP
The five Guantanamo detainees swapped for Bowe Bergdahl "are right now back on the
battlefield."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says John McCain "has done nothing to help the vets."
— PolitiFact National
CARLOS CURBELO
Says Bill and Hillary Clinton attended Donald Trump's last wedding.
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
"If you're from Syria and you're a Christian, you cannot come into this country" as a refugee.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Four times, I said, he (John McCain) is a hero, but you know ... people choose selective pieces."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says Florida had five sanctuary cities while Jeb Bush was governor.
— PolitiFact Florida
DONALD TRUMP
"The $5 billion website for Obamacare … never worked. Still doesn't work."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"The Mexican government forces many bad people into our country."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Hundreds of thousands of (illegal immigrants are) going to state and federal penitentiaries."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says his book, The Art of the Deal, is "the No. 1 selling business book of all time."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Public support for abortion "is actually going down a little bit," polls show.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Even our nuclear arsenal doesn't work. It came out recently they have equipment that is 30 years
old. They don't know if it worked."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"When was the last time you saw a Chevrolet in Japan? It doesn’t exist, folks."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Our real unemployment is anywhere from 18 to 20 percent. Don't believe the 5.6. Don't believe
it."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"The last quarter, it was just announced, our gross domestic product … was below zero. Who
ever heard of this? It's never below zero."
— PolitiFact National
Page 5 of 6
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DONALD TRUMP
The Islamic State "just built a hotel in Syria."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"You can be an NFL player with murder charges and not be suspended."
— PunditFact
DONALD TRUMP
Says President Barack Obama’s recent New York fundraising trip "cost between $25 million and
$50 million."
— PunditFact
DONALD TRUMP
"Much more than 50 percent of parents out there are spankers."
— PunditFact
DONALD TRUMP
"ObamaCare enrollment lie: Obama counts an enrollee as a web user putting a plan in ‘their
online shopping carts.’"
— PunditFact
LIBERALS ARE COOL
"Q: What do these ‘Patriotic' Americans have in common? A: They are all Draft Dodgers."
— PolitiFact New Jersey
BARACK OBAMA
"Under Gov. Romney's definition ... Donald Trump is a small business."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"We don't have bridges being built" in the United States.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
After the U.S.-led military alliance ejected Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait in 1991, the
Kuwaitis "never paid us."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"CNN did a poll recently where Obama and I are statistically tied."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Iraq has the second-largest oilfields in the world (behind) Saudi Arabia."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
President Obama has spent over $2 million in legal fees defending lawsuits about his birth
certificate.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"Libya supplies the oil for China. We get no oil from Libya."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"I have the No. 1 show on NBC."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
Says President Obama's "grandmother in Kenya said he was born in Kenya and she was there
and witnessed the birth."
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
South Korea doesn't pay the United States for U.S. troops that protect their country.
— PolitiFact National
DONALD TRUMP
"The people that went to school with (Barack Obama), they never saw him, they don't know who
he is."
— PolitiFact National
Page 6 of 6
Is Trump sitting on secret support?
Donald Trump: Hard to tell where he's getting all his support, but he's the front-runner.
CHARLIE NEIBERGALL / ASSOCIATED PRESS (CHARLIE NEIBERGALL / ASSOCIATED
PRESS)
GALLERY: Sen. Ted Cruz is Trump's closest rival, according…
(JOE MITCHELL…)
POSTED: DECEMBER 17, 2015
A CURRENT THEORY regarding Donald Trump suggests he actually has more support than is
reflected in polls that show him leading the Republican race for president.
The theory says that some - maybe many - voters won't tell pollsters they'd vote for a candidate
often labeled liar, bigot or fascist and compared to Mussolini and Hitler.
But, for whatever reason - disgust with traditional pols, anti-immigrant anger, growing fear of
homeland terrorism, belief that, "Hey, we tried everything else" - maybe many are indeed willing
to vote for the Donald.
Could be anecdotal, could be nonsense. But something's benefiting Trump.
A Monmouth University poll this week has him leading the GOP field with 41 percent of
Republican voters. His closest rival is Ted Cruz, at 14 percent.
Six months ago, in the same poll, Trump was at 2 percent, "undecided" led with 20 percent, Scott
Walker was at 10 percent and Jeb Bush was at 9 percent.
Now "undecided" is just 6 percent, Walker's gone and Bush is at 3 percent.
Yeah, national polls need to be viewed in the context of time and the fact that there are no
national primaries. But they still offer a sense of the moment.
And there's no denying that the moment is Trump's.
Even if Trump's slipping in Iowa while Cruz gains there, just remember that Iowa is an electoral
nonentity, pimped and pumped up by too many in media.
Know how many Republicans won contested Iowa caucuses over the last 40 years and then went
on to win the White House?
One. In 10 election cycles. George W. Bush, 2000.
But back to the question: Are some Trump supporters hiding out?
I ran it by Neil Newhouse, co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, a prominent national GOP
polling firm that worked for Mitt Romney in 2012.
"Ha," he says, "I'm not sure that fits with the folks supporting Trump . . . seems like most wear
their support with pride!"
No argument, but could something else going on?
Newhouse concedes there might be an "under-represented" Trump vote due to conventional
polling schemes.
Most good pollsters use patterns and voters in past GOP primaries to build their samples. But,
says Newhouse, "I think it's entirely possible" Trump is attracting voters who never participated
in primaries.
I ask Tim Malloy, a director of Quinnipiac University polling, about Trump's stealth voters. He
tells me: "You may be right. You may be crazy."
He actually thinks Trump could have less support than polling shows.
A Q-poll earlier this month, which also had Trump well ahead, asked the question: "Is your mind
made up?" Trump's support softened: 46 percent of his backers said their minds are made up, but
53 percent said they "might change."
So there's that.
A piece in the Atlantic last week said Trump is on track to do much better than his detractors
think.
A main reason: His lead in "live" (telephone or face-to-face) polls is often in single digits, while
his lead in Internet/automated polls is in double digits.
In other words, as one political consultant put it, "People don't lie to machines."
If so, Trump might benefit from a reverse "Wilder effect."
Doug Wilder, you may recall, was running for governor of Virginia in 1989 with a double-digit
lead; on Election Day, a Mason-Dixon poll had him up 10 points.
But Wilder, who is black, won by less than 1 percentage point, the discrepancy largely attributed
to voters being reluctant to tell pollsters they wouldn't vote for an African-American.
(Originally this was the "Bradley effect." L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, also black, led in polls in the
1982 race for California governor, but lost.)
So are some voters not telling pollsters that they would vote for Trump?
In an election cycle like nobody's seen, all things seem plausible.
Are Neocons Getting Ready to Ally With Hillary Clinton?
By JACOB HEILBRUNNJULY 5, 2014
Neocons like the historian Robert Kagan may be connecting with Hillary Clinton to try to regain
influence in foreign policy. Credit Left, Stephanie Sinclair/VII via Corbis; right, Colin
McPherson/Corbis
WASHINGTON — AFTER nearly a decade in the political wilderness, the neoconservative
movement is back, using the turmoil in Iraq and Ukraine to claim that it is President Obama, not
the movement’s interventionist foreign policy that dominated early George W. Bush-era
Washington that bears responsibility for the current round of global crises.
Even as they castigate Mr. Obama, the neocons may be preparing a more brazen feat: aligning
themselves with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her nascent presidential campaign, in a bid to
return to the driver’s seat of American foreign policy.
To be sure, the careers and reputations of the older generation of neocons — Paul D. Wolfowitz,
L. Paul Bremer III, Douglas J. Feith, Richard N. Perle — are permanently buried in the sands of
Iraq. And not all of them are eager to switch parties: In April, William Kristol, the editor of The
Weekly Standard, said that as president Mrs. Clinton would “be a dutiful chaperone of further
American decline.”
But others appear to envisage a different direction — one that might allow them to restore the
neocon brand, at a time when their erstwhile home in the Republican Party is turning away from
its traditional interventionist foreign policy.
It’s not as outlandish as it may sound. Consider the historian Robert Kagan, the author of a
recent, roundly praised article in The New Republic that amounted to a neo-neocon manifesto.
He has not only avoided the vitriolic tone that has afflicted some of his intellectual brethren but
also co-founded an influential bipartisan advisory group during Mrs. Clinton’s time at the State
Department.
Mr. Kagan has also been careful to avoid landing at standard-issue neocon think tanks like the
American Enterprise Institute; instead, he’s a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, that
citadel of liberalism headed by Strobe Talbott, who was deputy secretary of state under President
Bill Clinton and is considered a strong candidate to become secretary of state in a new
Democratic administration. (Mr. Talbott called the Kagan article “magisterial,” in what amounts
to a public baptism into the liberal establishment.)
Perhaps most significantly, Mr. Kagan and others have insisted on maintaining the link between
modern neoconservatism and its roots in muscular Cold War liberalism. Among other things, he
has frequently praised Harry S. Truman’s secretary of state, Dean Acheson, drawing a line from
him straight to the neocons’ favorite president: “It was not Eisenhower or Kennedy or Nixon but
Reagan whose policies most resembled those of Acheson and Truman.”
Other neocons have followed Mr. Kagan’s careful centrism and respect for Mrs. Clinton. Max
Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, noted in The New Republic this year
that “it is clear that in administration councils she was a principled voice for a strong stand on
controversial issues, whether supporting the Afghan surge or the intervention in Libya.”
And the thing is, these neocons have a point. Mrs. Clinton voted for the Iraq war; supported
sending arms to Syrian rebels; likened Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, to Adolf Hitler;
wholeheartedly backs Israel; and stresses the importance of promoting democracy.
It’s easy to imagine Mrs. Clinton’s making room for the neocons in her administration. No one
could charge her with being weak on national security with the likes of Robert Kagan on board.
Of course, the neocons’ latest change in tack is not just about intellectual affinity. Their longtime
home, the Republican Party, where presidents and candidates from Reagan to Senator John
McCain of Arizona supported large militaries and aggressive foreign policies, may well
nominate for president Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has been beating an ever louder
drum against American involvement abroad.
In response, Mark Salter, a former chief of staff to Senator McCain and a neocon fellow traveler,
said that in the event of a Paul nomination, “Republican voters seriously concerned with national
security would have no responsible recourse” but to support Mrs. Clinton for the presidency.
Still, Democratic liberal hawks, let alone the left, would have to swallow hard to accept any
neocon conversion. Mrs. Clinton herself is already under fire for her foreign-policy views — the
journalist Glenn Greenwald, among others, has condemned her as “like a neocon, practically.”
And humanitarian interventionists like Samantha Power, the ambassador to the United Nations,
who opposed the second Iraq war, recoil at the militaristic unilateralism of the neocons and their
inveterate hostility to international institutions like the World Court.
But others in Mrs. Clinton’s orbit, like Michael A. McFaul, the former ambassador to Russia and
now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, a neocon haven at Stanford, are much more in line
with thinkers like Mr. Kagan and Mr. Boot, especially when it comes to issues like promoting
democracy and opposing Iran.
Far from ending, then, the neocon odyssey is about to continue. In 1972, Robert L. Bartley, the
editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal and a man who championed the early neocon
stalwarts, shrewdly diagnosed the movement as representing “something of a swing group
between the two major parties.” Despite the partisan battles of the early 2000s, it is remarkable
how very little has changed.
Inside the Republican Party’s Desperate Mission to Stop Donald Trump
By ALEXANDER BURNS, MAGGIE HABERMAN and JONATHAN MARTINFEB. 27, 2016
Donald J. Trump speaking in Milford, N.H., a week before the state’s primary this month. Some
establishment Republicans have been scrambling for a way to prevent him from becoming the
party’s presidential nominee. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times
The scenario Karl Rove outlined was bleak.
Addressing a luncheon of Republican governors and donors in Washington on Feb. 19, he
warned that Donald J. Trump’s increasingly likely nomination would be catastrophic, dooming
the party in November. But Mr. Rove, the master strategist of George W. Bush’s campaigns,
insisted it was not too late for them to stop Mr. Trump, according to three people present.
At a meeting of Republican governors the next morning, Paul R. LePage of Maine called for
action. Seated at a long boardroom table at the Willard Hotel, he erupted in frustration over the
state of the 2016 race, saying Mr. Trump’s nomination would deeply wound the Republican
Party. Mr. LePage urged the governors to draft an open letter “to the people,” disavowing Mr.
Trump and his divisive brand of politics.
The suggestion was not taken up. Since then, Mr. Trump has only gotten stronger, winning two
more state contests and collecting the endorsement of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has laid out a plan that would have lawmakers
break with Mr. Trump in a general election. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times
In public, there were calls for the party to unite behind a single candidate. In dozens of
interviews, elected officials, political strategists and donors described a frantic, last-ditch
campaign to block Mr. Trump — and the agonizing reasons that many of them have become
convinced it will fail. Behind the scenes, a desperate mission to save the party sputtered and
stalled at every turn.
Efforts to unite warring candidates behind one failed spectacularly: An overture from Senator
Marco Rubio to Mr. Christie angered and insulted the governor. An unsubtle appeal from Mitt
Romney to John Kasich, about the party’s need to consolidate behind one rival to Mr. Trump,
fell on deaf ears.
At least two campaigns have drafted plans to overtake Mr. Trump in a brokered convention, and
the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has laid out a plan that would have
lawmakers break with Mr. Trump explicitly in a general election.
Despite all the forces arrayed against Mr. Trump, the interviews show, the party has been
gripped by a nearly incapacitating leadership vacuum and a paralytic sense of indecision and
despair, as he has won smashing victories in South Carolina and Nevada. Donors have dreaded
the consequences of clashing with Mr. Trump directly. Elected officials have balked at attacking
him out of concern that they might unintentionally fuel his populist revolt. And Republicans
have lacked someone from outside the presidential race who could help set the terms of debate
from afar.
The endorsement by Mr. Christie, a not unblemished but still highly regarded figure within the
party’s elite — he is a former chairman of the Republican Governors Association — landed
Friday with crippling force. It was by far the most important defection to Mr. Trump’s
insurgency: Mr. Christie may give cover to other Republicans tempted to join Mr. Trump rather
than trying to beat him. Not just the Stop Trump forces seemed in peril, but also the traditional
party establishment itself.
Should Mr. Trump clinch the presidential nomination, it would represent a rout of historic
proportions for the institutional Republican Party, and could set off an internal rift unseen in
either party for a half-century, since white Southerners abandoned the Democratic Party en
masse during the civil rights movement.
Former Gov. Michael O. Leavitt of Utah, a top adviser to Mr. Romney’s 2012 presidential
campaign, said the party was unable to come up with a united front to quash Mr. Trump’s
campaign.
“There is no mechanism,” Mr. Leavitt said. “There is no smoke-filled room. If there is, I’ve
never seen it, nor do I know anyone who has. This is going to play out in the way that it will.”
Resistance Runs Deep
His path to the Republican presidential nomination appears wider than ever, but here's how he
could still stumble.
Republicans have ruefully acknowledged that they came to this dire pass in no small part
because of their own passivity. There were ample opportunities to battle Mr. Trump earlier; more
than one plan was drawn up only to be rejected. Rivals who attacked him early, like Rick Perry
and Bobby Jindal, the former governors of Texas and Louisiana, received little backup and
quickly faded.
Late last fall, the strategists Alex Castellanos and Gail Gitcho, both presidential campaign
veterans, reached out to dozens of the party’s leading donors, including the casino magnate
Sheldon Adelson and the hedge-fund manager Paul Singer, with a plan to create a “super PAC”
that would take down Mr. Trump. In a confidential memo, the strategists laid out the mission of a
group they called “ProtectUS.”
“We want voters to imagine Donald Trump in the Big Chair in the Oval Office, with
responsibilities for worldwide confrontation at his fingertips,” they wrote in the previously
unreported memo. Mr. Castellanos even produced ads portraying Mr. Trump as unfit for the
presidency, according to people who saw them and who, along with many of those interviewed,
insisted on anonymity to discuss private conversations.
The two strategists, who declined to comment, proposed to attack Mr. Trump in New Hampshire
over his business failures and past liberal positions, and emphasized the extreme urgency of their
project. A Trump nomination would not only cause Republicans to lose the presidency, they
wrote, “but we also lose the Senate, competitive gubernatorial elections and moderate House
Republicans.”
No major donors committed to the project, and it was abandoned. No other sustained Stop
Trump effort sprang up in its place.
Resistance to Mr. Trump still runs deep. The party’s biggest benefactors remain totally opposed
to him. At a recent presentation hosted by the billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch, the
country’s most prolific conservative donors, their political advisers characterized Mr. Trump’s
record as utterly unacceptable, and highlighted his support for government-funded business
subsidies and government-backed health care, according to people who attended.
But the Kochs, like Mr. Adelson, have shown no appetite to intervene directly in the primary
with decisive force.
The American Future Fund, a conservative group that does not disclose its donors, announced
plans on Friday to run ads blasting Mr. Trump for his role in an educational company that is
alleged to have defrauded students. But there is only limited time for the commercials to sink in
before some of the country’s biggest states award their delegates in early March.
Instead, Mr. Trump’s challengers are staking their hopes on a set of guerrilla tactics and longshot possibilities, racing to line up mainstream voters and interest groups against his increasingly
formidable campaign. Donors and elected leaders have begun to rouse themselves for the fight,
but perhaps too late.
Photo
Mitt Romney at an event in Mississippi last year. He has tried various ways to slow the progress
of Mr. Trump, without success. Credit Rogelio V. Solis/Associated Press
Two of Mr. Trump’s opponents have openly acknowledged that they may have to wrest the
Republican nomination from him in a deadlocked convention.
Speaking to political donors in Manhattan on Wednesday evening, Mr. Rubio’s campaign
manager, Terry Sullivan, noted that most delegates are bound to a candidate only on the first
ballot. Many of them, moreover, are likely to be party regulars who may not support Mr. Trump
over multiple rounds of balloting, he added, according to a person present for Mr. Sullivan’s
presentation, which was first reported by CNN.
Advisers to Mr. Kasich, the Ohio governor, have told potential supporters that his strategy boils
down to a convention battle. Judd Gregg, a former New Hampshire senator who had endorsed
Jeb Bush, said Mr. Kasich’s emissaries had sketched an outcome in which Mr. Kasich “probably
ends up with the second-highest delegate count going into the convention” and digs in there to
compete with Mr. Trump.
Several senior Republicans, including Mr. Romney, have made direct appeals to Mr. Kasich to
gauge his willingness to stand down and allow the party to unify behind another candidate. But
Mr. Kasich has told at least one person that his plan is to win the Ohio primary on March 15 and
gather the party behind his campaign if Mr. Rubio loses in Florida, his home state, on the same
day.
In Washington, Mr. Kasich’s persistence in the race has become a source of frustration. At
Senate luncheons on Wednesday and Thursday, Republican lawmakers vented about Mr.
Kasich’s intransigence, calling it selfishness.
One senior Republican senator, noting that Mr. Kasich has truly contested only one of the first
four states, complained: “He’s just flailing his arms around and having a wonderful time going
around the country, and it just drives me up the wall.”
Mr. McConnell was especially vocal, describing Mr. Kasich’s persistence as irrational because
he has no plausible path to the nomination, several senators said.
While still hopeful that Mr. Rubio might prevail, Mr. McConnell has begun preparing senators
for the prospect of a Trump nomination, assuring them that, if it threatened to harm them in the
general election, they could run negative ads about Mr. Trump to create space between him and
Republican senators seeking re-election. Mr. McConnell has raised the possibility of treating Mr.
Trump’s loss as a given and describing a Republican Senate to voters as a necessary check on a
President Hillary Clinton, according to senators at the lunches.
He has reminded colleagues of his own 1996 re-election campaign, when he won comfortably
amid President Bill Clinton’s easy re-election. Of Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnell has said, “We’ll
drop him like a hot rock,” according to his colleagues.
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who dropped out of the presidential race earlier this month,
endorsed Donald J. Trump for president on Friday.
The Rubio Hope
There is still hope that Mr. Rubio might be able to unite much of the party and slow Mr. Trump’s
advance in a series of big-state primaries in March, and a host of top elected officials endorsed
him over the last week. But Mr. Rubio has struggled to sideline Mr. Kasich and Senator Ted
Cruz of Texas, who is running a dogged campaign on the right. He has also been unable to win
over several of his former rivals who might help consolidate the Republican establishment more
squarely behind him.
Mr. Rubio showed a lack of finesse in dealing with his fallen rivals’ injured egos.
Mr. Christie had attacked Mr. Rubio contemptuously in New Hampshire, calling him shallow
and scripted, and humiliating him in a debate. Nevertheless, Mr. Rubio made a tentative overture
to Mr. Christie after his withdrawal from the presidential race. He left the governor a voice mail
message, seeking Mr. Christie’s support and assuring him that he had a bright future in public
service, according to people who have heard Mr. Christie’s characterization of the message.
Mr. Christie, 53, took the message as deeply disrespectful and patronizing, questioning why “a
44-year-old” was telling him about his future, said people who described his reaction on the
condition of anonymity. Further efforts to connect the two never yielded a direct conversation.
Mr. Trump, by contrast, made frequent calls to Mr. Christie once he dropped out, a person close
to the governor said. After the two met at Trump Tower on Thursday with their wives, Mr.
Christie flew to Texas and emerged on Friday to back Mr. Trump and mock Mr. Rubio as a
desperate candidate near the end of a losing campaign.
‘Verging on Panic’
Efforts to reconcile Mr. Rubio and Mr. Bush, a former governor of Florida, have been scarcely
more successful, dating to before the South Carolina primary, when Mr. Rove reached out to
their aides to broker a cease-fire, according to Republicans briefed on the conversations. It did
not last.
Mr. Bush has been nearly silent since quitting the race Feb. 20, playing golf with his son Jeb Jr.
in Miami and turning to the task of thank-you notes. In a Wednesday conference call with
supporters, he did not express a preference among the remaining contenders. When Mr. Rubio
called him on Monday, their conversation did not last long, two people briefed on it said, and
Mr. Rubio did not ask for his endorsement.
OPEN Graphic
Graphic: 2016 Primary Results and Calendar
“There’s this desire, verging on panic, to consolidate the field,” said Senator Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina, a former supporter of Mr. Bush. “But I don’t see any movement at all.”
Mr. Rubio’s advisers were also thwarted in their efforts to secure an endorsement from Mr.
Romney, whom they lobbied strenuously after the Feb. 20 South Carolina primary.
Mr. Romney had been eager to tilt the race, and even called Mr. Christie after he ended his
campaign to vent about Mr. Trump and say he must be stopped. On the night of the primary, Mr.
Romney was close to endorsing Mr. Rubio himself, people familiar with his deliberations said.
Yet Mr. Romney pulled back, instead telling advisers that he would take on Mr. Trump directly.
After a Tuesday night dinner with former campaign aides, during which he expressed a sense of
horror at the Republican race, Mr. Romney made a blunt demand Wednesday on Fox News: Mr.
Trump must release his tax returns to prove he was not concealing a “bombshell” political
vulnerability.
Mr. Trump responded only with casual derision, dismissing Mr. Romney on Twitter as “one of
the dumbest and worst candidates in the history of Republican politics.”
Mr. Romney is expected to withhold his support before the voting this week on the so-called
Super Tuesday, but some of his allies have urged him to endorse Mr. Rubio before Michigan and
Idaho vote March 8. Mr. Romney grew up in Michigan, and many Idahoans are fellow
Mormons.
But already, a handful of senior party leaders have struck a conciliatory tone toward Mr. Trump.
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, said on television that
he believed he could work with him as president. Many in the party acknowledged a growing
mood of resignation.
Fred Malek, the finance chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said the party’s
mainstream had simply run up against the limits of its influence.
“There’s no single leader and no single institution that can bring a diverse group called the
Republican Party together, behind a single candidate,” Mr. Malek said. “It just doesn’t exist.”
On Friday, a few hours after Mr. Christie endorsed him, Mr. Trump collected support from a
second governor, who in a radio interview said Mr. Trump could be “one of the greatest
presidents.”
That governor was Paul LePage.
Street artist Pegasus is behind the work in North Street Donald Trump compared to Hitler
in new Bristol street art mural
By Lewis Pennock
Street artist Pegasus is behind the work in North Street
Despite huge efforts to ban Donald Trump from Britain, the controversial US presidential
candidate has appeared in Bristol.
But the city need not worry, it's not as it sounds.
The Republican, who proposes to ban Muslims entering America if he replaces Obama, has been
painted onto a pub in North Street – in the likeness of Adolf Hitler.
Internationally renowned street artist Pegasus is behind the piece, which he said serves as a
warning against Trump's extreme ideas.
"The man is an idiot in position of power," said Pegasus, who lists Bristol-born Banksy among
his influences.
"I have been wanting to drop a piece in Bristol for a long time but never managed to get around
to it. When the opportunity came about l jumped at it and decided my first piece there needed to
make a statement."
And so Trump has found a permanent home on the side of the Hen & Chicken pub, which
regularly serves as a canvas for street artist.
"I think street art is there to provoke and I think it's fantastic," said owner Julian Sarsby.
"Politicians are there for ridicule, and all of these things are good."
More than half-a-million people signed a petition in January to ban Trump from the entering the
UK.
Pegasus, perhaps best known for his 'Fallen Angel' mural of Amy Winehouse in Camden, will
replicate the Trump piece onto canvas to showcase on his world tour this summer.
He hopes to return to Bristol in the near future for Upfest, the city's annual street art and graffiti
festival in July.
"Sadly I only spent one day in Bristol and it was my first time but what I did manage to see I fell
in love with instantly," added Pegasus, who keeps his real name secret
"I can't wait to return and bring more of my pieces to the streets of Bristol."
Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ is now a best-seller in Germany
By Rick Noack February 23
Reprinting Hitler's autobiography "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle) was long prohibited in Germany
— a country that considered the book too dangerous to be read.
Now, it's a German best-seller.
An annotated version currently ranks second in nonfiction on the German weekly Der Spiegel's
bestseller list, which is considered an authority in German literature circles.
It's almost certainly not because of anything German bookstores are doing: In fact, most had
virtually hidden the book from customers, according to a BBC report in January. Some had
refrained from advertising it, while others ordered only a single copy. But online sales picked up,
and in-store sales soon followed.
One of two rare copies of "Mein Kampf" signed by the young Nazi leader Adolf Hitler
and due for auction, photographed in Los Angeles on Feb. 25, 2014. (FREDERIC J.
BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
The German copyright for "Mein Kampf" was held by the state of Bavaria, which upheld a ban
on reprinting the book for 70 years. Bookstores as well as federal regulators and historians were
worried that Hitler's autobiography could be used for right-wing propaganda.
“This book is too dangerous for the general public,” library historian Florian Sepp told The
Washington Post last year.
German authorities kept official copies of the book like a state secret. Access was granted only to
professionals who formally requested it. Critics had claimed that banning the book from being
reprinted added to the mystery surrounding it and did more harm than good.
The secrecy ended when the copyright expired in December.
However, the book that is currently topping the German bestseller lists is far different from
Hitler's original version. The new 2,000-page edition is heavily annotated with remarks by
experts to help put Hitler's comments into context.
The publishers think that this solution exposes Hitler's destructive and violent ideology.
Today's right-wing movements, which include the Alternative für Deutschland party, whose
leadership recently advocated for shooting refugees at the German border to stop them from
entering the country, have so far refrained from using Hitler's brutal ideology to justify their
contemporary goals.
Most of today's right-wing politicians acknowledge that "Mein Kampf" laid out a violent
vision that would lead to the Holocaust and World War II.
The German right recently has made gains as it condemns an influx of refugees that has led to
frustration in some parts of eastern Germany in particular. In the city of Bautzen, locals cheered
as an asylum home that was under construction burned down last weekend. Only dozens of
miles away in Clausnitz, angry protesters surrounded a bus of refugees arriving in the village
Thursday. Chanting "We are the people," the crowd made children cry — a situation that ended
in a chaos that the German government later described as "shameful."
All right, let’s talk about Hitler’s penis
Why you should care about how Hitler decorated his homes
Netanyahu says a Palestinian gave Hitler the idea for the Holocaust
Donald Trump refuses to condemn the KKK and David Duke because he does not know
enough about them
A number of white supremacist groups have declared their support for Mr. Trump's nomination
Andrew Buncombe Charleston
Donald Trump sparked fresh controversy on Sunday when he declined to condemn a white
supremacist and former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who has urged people to vote for the
billionaire.
Earlier this week, David Duke, a white nationalist and former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard, told
listeners to his radio show that voting against Mr. Trump would be “treason to your heritage”.
“Voting for these people, voting against Donald Trump at this point is really treason to your
heritage,” Mr. Duke said, referring to Mr. Trump’s rivals.
“I’m not saying I endorse everything about Trump, in fact I haven’t formally endorsed him. But I
do support his candidacy, and I support voting for him as a strategic action. I hope he does
everything we hope he will do.”
The declaration by Mr. Duke, 65, first reported by BuzzFeed, triggered The Anti-Defamation
League, an international Jewish civil rights group headquartered in New York, to call on Mr.
Trump to distance himself from the endorsement and condemn him.
“Mr. Trump may have distanced himself from white supremacists, but he must do so
unequivocally,” the ADL said in a statement.
“It is time for him to come out firmly against these bigoted views and the people that espouse
them.”
Reports have revealed how a number of white nationalist organizations, many of which are
described as “hate groups” by activists, have supported Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Last week, it
was revealed that two KKK members appeared at the recent Nevada caucus to declare their
support for him.
Mr. Trump was questioned about the endorsement earlier this week and said he did not know Mr
Duke had announced his support. On Sunday morning, Mr Trump was again asked about Mr
Duke’s comments when he appeared on CNN.
Former Ku Klux Klan official David Duke urged supporters to vote for Mr Trump
“I don’t know anything about David Duke. I don’t know anything about what you’re even
talking about with white supremacy or white supremacists,” he said. “You’re asking me about
something I know nothing about.”
He added: “I have to look at the group, I don’t know what group you're talking about. You
wouldn’t want me to condemn a group that I know nothing about.”
The journalist then stressed to Mr Trump that he was talking about Mr Duke and the KKK.

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Donald Trump tells Chris Christie: 'Get in the plane and go home'
Donald Trump accused of exploiting people 'just like Hitler did'
Mr Trump responded: “I don’t know David Duke, I don’t think I’ve ever met him. I don’t know
anything about him.”
Later, amid a flurry of controversy, Mr Trump tweeted a remark he had made earlier in the week
when asked about Mr Duke and he said: "I disavow."
Mr Trump was also asked on Sunday why he had retweeted a quote from the Italian fascist
leader Benito Mussolini. The tweet, initially posted by another user, read: “It is better to live one
day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.”
Asked about whether he had known the quote belonged to Mussolini and whether he wanted to
be associated with fascism, Mr Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press: “Mussolini was Mussolini.
It’s a very good quote, it’s a very interesting quote. I know who said it, but what difference does
it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else?”
He was then asked if he wanted to be associated with a notorious fascist. Mr Trump responded:
“No, I want to be associated with interesting quotes.”
Pelosi: Hillary’s Votes Don’t Matter. What’s Important Is She’s A Woman
Alex Griswold 04/16/2015
When asked during her weekly press conference about whether then-New York Senator Hillary
Clinton’s vote for the Iraq War should be “disqualifying,” Democratic House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi said what was actually “important” was to elect a woman president.
QUESTION: [Former Rhode Island Governor] Lincoln Chaffee said earlier this week that any
Democrat who voted for the Iraq war should be disqualified as being your party’s nominee. You
called the Iraq war among other things ‘a grotesque mistake.’ He was obviously implying that
Hillary Clinton should not be the nominee. If you don’t agree with Lincoln Chaffee, why not?
PELOSI: If we are relitigating the Iraq War, let me say that in the House of Representatives, we
saw things differently in a majority of the House Democrats voting against the Iraq War… I was
top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee at the time. As such, I was required to receive all of
the intelligence… all the information the White House had on going into Iraq. And I said at the
time, the intelligence does not support the threat. I had better access than most people, I couldn’t
really say what I saw.
But I don’t think a vote on a war 13 years ago, 14 years ago; the vote was ’02, so that many years
ago… I mean this was wrong all around. Having said it, that was then, this is now. We go
forward. And I do not think that Hillary Clinton took on that, nor did I think the vote John Kerry
took on it disqualifies him for being president.
Again, Hillary Clinton has been a strong — she comes to this, yes, as a woman. It happens to be
that she’s a woman. She’s so qualified. She has had great national security experience as a
member of the Armed Services Committee and as Secretary of State. And for these and so many
reasons she’ll be one of the strongest, best prepared people to enter the Oval Office in a long
time. There are some others, but she will be among the best prepared to serve as president.
A war vote is a vote that everybody makes on the basis of what think know, what they believe,
who they trust. There’s large number of people in both who supported the war, unfortunately
because the consequences have been terrible in terms of what it meant to our veterans and the
rest of that, but no, the answer is no. I don’t think it should disqualify her.
What’s important is what it would mean to elect a woman president of the United States. It’s a
very major consideration. A very qualified woman to be president of the United States, not just
that she is a woman, but a very qualified one. When I became even Whip, certainly Leader, and
for sure Speaker, the response was so overwhelming from people saying how encouraged they
were that we had broken not the glass ceiling, that’s nothing. We’re talk about the marble
ceiling…
Most people don’t even know there is a Speaker; that’s not, shall we say, a common awareness.
So imagine if that was the response, then what it mean to have a woman president, not only to
the American people and women in our country and families, but to the world to see that other
countries have had women…
Elections are about the future. They’re not about what happened 13 years ago. They’re about the
future, and that’s really what people want to hear.
Inside Morocco’s Campaign To Influence Hillary Clinton and Other U.S. Leaders
Lee Fang Apr. 22 2015
Morocco’s team of American lobbyists regularly communicated with State Department officials
during Hillary Rodham Clinton’s four-year tenure and several are supporting her candidacy for
the 2016 presidential election, according to disclosures filed with the Justice Department.
Meanwhile, a controversial cache of what appear to be Moroccan diplomatic documents show
how the Moroccan government courted Clinton, built a cooperative relationship with the
Secretary of State, and orchestrated the use of consultants, think tanks and other “third-party
validators” to advance the North African nation’s goals within elite U.S. political circles.
The DOJ filings and Moroccan leaks help flesh out the story of how a strategically
important Arab nation — one that’s been widely denounced for holding one of the last remaining
colonial territories in the world — has sought to influence U.S. politics in general and Clinton in
particular. Clinton, who has called Morocco “a leader and a model,” saw her and her family’s
relationship with the nation burst into the national consciousness earlier this month when
Politico reported that the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation would accept more than
$1 million in funding from a company controlled by Moroccan King Mohammed VI to host
a foundation event in Marrakech on May 5-7. Other foreign contributions to the foundation have
also generated controversy, but none as intensely as the Morocco gift.
Documents suggest that the Moroccan government has long sought to influence the Clinton
family over U.S.-Morocco relations. Mandatory disclosures filed by Morocco’s many American
lobbyists provide one window into these efforts. Another side of the story can be seen through
the cache of apparent Moroccan diplomatic documents believed to have been hacked by critics of
the government. The diplomatic cables began to appear online seven months ago but are
receiving fresh scrutiny given news of the donation to the foundation.
Paid by Morocco — and pushing hard for Hillary 2016
U.S.-based lobbyists for Morocco communicated frequently with State Department officials
during Clinton’s tenure, according to disclosures filed with the Justice Department. The filings
also show Morocco’s lobbyists are positioned to support Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the
2016 presidential election. In February of last year, Morocco retained Justin Gray, a board
member to Priorities USA Action, the pro-Clinton Super PAC, as a lobbyist on retainer for
$25,000 per month, an amount that now represents about a third of his firm’s revenue.
Toby Moffett, a longtime lobbyist for the Moroccan government, penned an op-ed last month
decrying the “left-right tag team” of pundits in the media criticizing Clinton’s bid for the
presidency. Records show that on December 24, 2014, Moffett held a conference call with
Dwight Bush, the U.S. ambassador to Morocco, concerning the Clinton Global Initiative event in
Marrakech next month.
Gray and two other lobbyists employed by his firm Gray Global Advisors on retainer for the
Kingdom of Morocco, Ed Towns and Ralph Nurmberger, gave donations totaling $16,500 to the
Super PAC Ready for Hillary, which rebranded recently as Ready PAC.
Gray Global Advisors declined to comment. Asked about the Clinton Foundation event, Moffett
emailed to say he knows “absolutely zero about it.”
“Marocleaks” show a friendly Clinton-Moroccan relationship
Though the Foreign Agents Registration Act requires representatives of foreign governments to
disclose certain lobbying contacts, Morocco’s reliance on lobbyists for influence over American
foreign policy is spelled out in greater detail in more than 700 documents that began appearing
on the web late last year. The cache of diplomatic documents detail efforts to court Hillary
Clinton during her tenure at the State Department, the Kingdom’s preference for Clinton over
Secretary of State John Kerry, as well attempts to use American think tanks and other supportive
U.S. entities to advance Morocco’s goals.
The diplomatic cables, known as the “Marocleaks” in French and North African news outlets,
began appearing online on October 3 of last year through various social media accounts. The
cables are reportedly the result of a hacking campaign and although many of the accounts
leaking the documents were shut down, new leaks of Moroccan government cables appeared as
recently as March of this year. The source of the stolen documents is unknown, though social
media postings make clear that those involved are critical of the Moroccan government.
Moroccan government officials have not denied the authenticity of the documents, but some
have dismissed them as part of a campaign by “pro-Polisario elements,” referring to the armed
insurgent group that has battled government forces in Western Sahara, a territory occupied by
Morocco. Speaking at a press conference last December, a Moroccan official denounced what he
called “a rabid campaign” against his country.
I contacted an American filmmaker mentioned in the diplomatic cables and was able to confirm
the authenticity of some of the files. The names and identifying information about American
lobbyists on retainer for the Kingdom of Morocco are accurately reflected in the documents. And
events described in the documents correspond with contemporaneous public information about
those events. The Moroccan Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to
multiple requests for comment.
Still, questions persist about the origin and other aspects of the cache. One journalist in
France raised questions about the leaks, suggesting one of the media accounts disseminating the
cables blended “authentic and manipulated documents.” Brian Whitaker, the former Middle East
editor of the Guardian, has reported on a small batch of the documents, believing them to be
authentic, but noted that the cache has “mostly gone unnoticed outside Morocco, perhaps
because the leaks have so far revealed little that was not already known, or at least suspected.”
The documents collectively portray the relationship between former Secretary Clinton and the
Moroccan government as cooperative. Minutes of meetings conducted by then-Foreign Minister
Saad-Eddine El Othmani on March 15 and 16 of 2012 describe a meeting with Clinton in which
she requests support from Morocco on the Syrian civil war, asking them to ask the Arab League
to prevent Arabic satellite networks from rebroadcasting Syrian state television, “to put a stop
to false images and propaganda.” She also wanted the Arab League to require inspections of
Iranian aircraft flying to Syria to prevent the transit of weapons via Iraqi airspace.
The foreign minister added that according to President Obama’s adviser Dennis McDonough in a
recent meeting with the president, “Clinton had highlighted the many democratic reforms
initiated by His Majesty King Mohammed VI,” and called the country a model for the region.
The upbeat mood was echoed in similar memos circulated throughout 2012, Clinton’s last year
in office. “In recent years,” declared a December 2012 memo from the Moroccan Embassy in
Washington, D.C., there had been “significant progress in defending the ultimate interests of
Morocco.” The relationship between the U.S. and Morocco, the memo stated, was “marked by
friendship and mutual respect,” and the country enjoyed support from U.S. policymakers
including those in the State Department.
The tone shifts in early 2013 as Clinton left office and was replaced by John Kerry. A dossier
prepared by embassy officials features career highlights from Kerry while lamenting the loss of
Clinton. “It is clear that with the departure of Ms. Clinton, Morocco loses an ally who will be
difficult to replace.” Kerry, the dossier noted, once signed a letter reaffirming the United
Nations-backed call for a referendum allowing the people of Western Sahara a vote on
independence.
Other memos written by Moroccan government sources express similar regret at the
retirement of Clinton. One memo states, “changes in the American administration, notably the
departure of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an important ally of the Kingdom in
the Obama administration, and the appointment of John Kerry, who has never visited Morocco
and on occasion held positions not always favorable to our country, has had some impact on the
development of bilateral relations.”
Leaked: Moroccan strategy for pulling U.S. strings
Morocco’s attempts to sway policymakers relate to a host of contentious issues. Since 1975,
Morocco has occupied Western Sahara, one of the last remaining colonies in the world, a conflict
that has provoked fighting with the Polisario Front, a guerrilla army of indigenous Sahrawi
people that draws support from the Algerian government. Morocco has also used its lobbying
roster to mitigate stories that portray it as an authoritarian state that violently crushes dissent,
suppresses the media and engages in child labor.
The United Nations since 1991 has called for a referendum in Western Sahara to allow local
residents to choose between independence and integration with Morocco. The referendum option
is bitterly opposed by the Moroccan government. King Mohammed VI has only supported an
autonomy plan that would maintain Moroccan control over the region. He recently said,
“Morocco will remain in its Sahara, and the Sahara will remain part of Morocco, until the end of
time.”
In June 2009, President Obama wrote to King Mohammed VI and expressed support for the
U.N.-led negotiations for a settlement to the dispute. Some observers interpreted the letter as a
reversal of the Bush administration’s position supporting the Moroccan government’s plan.
Later that year, however, Secretary Clinton stood firmly behind Morocco, saying there had been
“no change” in policy on Western Sahara. The Clinton campaign did not respond to a request for
comment. In 2011, Clinton appeared with the Moroccan Foreign Minister and referenced
Morocco’s plan as “serious, realistic, and credible — a potential approach to satisfy the
aspirations of the people in the Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity.”
In joint statements released by the State Department and the White House in October 2012,
November 2013, and April 2014, the phrase “serious, realistic, and credible” was used to
describe Morocco’s plan.
“There was somewhat of a reversal” by Clinton of the administration’s position, says Stephen
Zunes, professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, who
noted that Clinton appeared to walk back the Obama administration’s brief support of a
referendum. “It was certainly a disappointment to those who had hoped President Obama would
join the majority of the international community in supporting self-determination.”
The donation to the Clinton Foundation will be made by Office Chérifien des Phosphates, a
company known as OCP, controlled by King Mohammed VI. OCP, the world’s leading
phosphate producer, relates directly to Morocco’s continued quest for control over Western
Sahara. Brou Craa mine in the occupied Western Sahara territory is managed by OCP and is
“today Morocco’s biggest source of income in Western Sahara,” according to Western Sahara
Resource Watch, an NGO based in Brussels. Phosphorus from the mine is exported to fertilizer
companies throughout the world.
Last month, the African Union Peace and Security Council voted to recommend a “global
boycott of products of companies involved in the illegal exploitation of the natural resources of
Western Sahara.” Critics have said OCP’s activities in the Western Sahara are illegal because
they arise from an unlawful occupation, because they do not sufficiently benefit the local
population, and because insufficient efforts have been made to obtain permission from the local
population for the extraction of natural resources.
As Morocco attempted to lobby Clinton and other U.S. government officials, the diplomatic
cables show a regime continually fine-turning their influence strategy.
The use of think tanks, business associations, other “third party validators … with
unquestionable credibility,” one cable said, relates to the “peculiarity of the American political
system.” Think tanks, the cable continued, “have considerable influence” on
government officials, especially because so many former officials move in and out of think tank
work. Mentioning the State Department as one agency that could be swayed through think tank
advocacy, the memo goes on to state, “our work focuses on the most influential think tanks …
across the political spectrum.” The memo lists several think tanks such as the Atlantic Council,
the Heritage Foundation and the Hudson Institute.
One undated cable describes the relative advantages of the various lobbying firms on retainer for
the Moroccan government. In the section on the Moffett Group, a company founded by Toby
Moffett, a former Democratic congressman, the cable touts a “professional and personal
relationship” between Moffett’s daughter and Tony Blinken, deputy secretary of state and former
deputy national security advisor to President Obama. (The Moffet Group ended its relationship
with Morocco last year, though Moffett is still retained individually through the law firm Mayer
Brown, where he works as a senior advisor.)
The cable suggests other lobbyists were hired to help broaden Morocco’s appeal. For Ralph
Nurnberger, another consultant mentioned in the lobbyist profile cable, his experience as a
“former lobbyist for AIPAC, the largest Jewish lobby in the U.S.,” is mentioned as an
asset. Joseph Grieboski, a social justice activist and founder of the Institute on Religion and
Public Policy, was hired briefly on a $120,000 a year plus expenses contract for Morocco.
Grieboski’s “credibility and authority” on human rights and religious freedom “could make the
difference among US policymakers,” the cable observed.
In an email to The Intercept, Grieboski said, “We worked as an advisor to the Embassy of
Morocco on human rights issues. I believe we were hired because of the firm’s reputation for
human rights expertise and our long understanding of issues in North Africa and the Islamic
World.”
In one of the cables describing Morocco’s lobbying strategy, the country’s success in achieving
its foreign policy goals stems from its efforts to take the “offensive to counter the enemies of our
national cause.” Isolating supporters of Western Sahara and the Polisario Front through
Morocco’s congressional allies appears to be a critical element of this approach. Lobbyists for
the Kingdom have previously been tied to efforts to cast the Polisario Front as supporters of
terrorism. The cable makes clear that one of the goals of outreach should be to “Drain US
investment in the provinces of South, particularly in terms of oil and gas exploration.”
In late November 2012, the Kingdom of Morocco’s Ministry of the Interior partnered with the
Wilson Center to host an event for the Women in Public Service Project, an initiative founded by
Hillary Clinton in 2011, which “empowers the next generation of women around the world and
mobilizes them on issues of critical importance in public service.” The following year, Rachad
Bouhlal, the Moroccan ambassador, sent a cable to remind his government of the project’s
association with Clinton and to encourage continued support. Bouhlal attached a brochure for
the project to the cable.
Old friend Bill Clinton tells Morocco, “We love this country … Democracy is a lot of a
trouble.”
Support for Clinton family nonprofits by Morocco date back over a decade. In 2004, the New
York Sun reported that King Mohammed VI of Morocco gave between $100,000 and $500,000 to
Bill Clinton’s presidential library in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 2007, the New York Times
reported that Mohammed VI was among several world leaders who “made contributions of
unknown amounts to the Clinton Foundation.”
Both Clintons have praised the Kingdom.
“My family and I, my wife, her late mother, our daughter, we love this country,” Bill Clinton
said during a 2013 event in Casablanca sponsored by Laureate International Universities, a forprofit college company that employs the former president as its Honorary Chancellor. “I like the
idea that the country is becoming more democratic and more empowering.” He continued with a
chuckle, “Democracy is a lot of trouble by the way, we’ve been at it a long time and we still have
a lot of trouble with it.”
“In many ways, the United States looks to Morocco to be a leader and a model,” said Secretary
Clinton during an appearance with Morocco’s foreign minister in 2012.
But watchdog groups say little has changed in the Kingdom, even though democratic reforms
were promised during the Arab Spring, and that Morocco’s image as a modernizing state is
shaped more by lobbying than by the facts on the ground.
“Overall, progress has stagnated,” says Eric Goldstein, deputy director for the Middle East and
North Africa at the international advocacy group Human Rights Watch. Goldstein explained that
while Morocco has implemented some positive reforms, in many ways the country’s human
rights situation has deteriorated amid crackdowns on reporters and activists.
Goldstein said he reviewed many of the hacked diplomatic cables, noting that they appear to
correspond closely with what is publicly known about Morocco’s lobbying efforts.
“Reading the documents, one gets a sense that this country, Morocco, which does not have a
large economy, spends huge amounts of energy and resources on influence, particularly to assert
its claim to Western Sahara.”
Hillary Clinton’s War on Women
by Kelly Vee, February 25, 2016
“Women have always been the primary victims of war. Women lose their husbands, their fathers,
their sons in combat. Women often have to flee from the only homes they have ever known.
Women are often the refugees from conflict and sometimes, and more frequently in today’s
warfare, victims. Women are often left with the responsibility, alone, of raising the children.” ~
Hillary Clinton
Hillary Clinton leads race for the Democratic Party nomination in 2016. Liberal feminists such
as Gloria Steinem, Madeleine Albright, and Lena Dunham continue to tout Clinton as the
candidate for women. Planned Parenthood has officially endorsed the former First Lady, Senator,
and Secretary of State, calling her a champion for women’s rights. Clinton may have the best
shot at being the first woman POTUS, but she is no feminist hero.
In Clinton’s own words, women have always been the primary victims of war, but Clinton is the
most pro-war candidate in the 2016 presidential race, Democrat or Republican. Furthermore, she
has the record to back it up.
In November, Clinton gave a speech describing her vision for the United States’ role in the
Middle East:
“No other country can rally the world to defeat ISIS and win the generational struggle against
radical jihadism. Only the United States can mobilize common action on a global scale, and
that’s exactly what we need. The entire world must be part of this fight, but we must lead it.”
Hawkish rhetoric is nothing new for Clinton. Take, for example, her 2002 statements on the
American invasion of Iraq:
"…If left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capability to wage biological
and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons."
As a Senator, Hillary Clinton voted for the Iraq War, and in 2008, defended her vote, saying, “I
believe in coercive diplomacy.” She also voted against the Levin Amendment in 2002, an
amendment that would have given the UN veto power over United States military action. In
2004, she voted in favor of allocating $86 billion of the U.S. budget to military operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan. She voted against withdrawing troops from Iraq in 2007.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s record is horrific. Clinton aggressively pursued regime
changes in Libya and Syria, leading to the creation of ISIS, war in Mali, and the strengthening of
terrorist group Boko Haram. Regime change has historically been terrible for national security,
leading to blowback and the creation of newer, bigger, more oppressive threats to both citizens
of the United States and citizens of the Middle East.
In a recent Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton bragged that she sought the support and counsel
of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kissinger himself has described Clinton’s run at
the State Department “the most effective…[he’s] ever seen.”
Hillary Clinton was right about one thing: women are disproportionately affected by war. In
2003, the UN released a statement saying that women suffer disproportionately during and after
war. War magnifies gender inequality and breaks down the social networks that women need to
survive. ISIS has filled the vacuum Hillary created in Syria, executing, raping, and trafficking the
region’s women along the way.
Gender inequality during and after conflict is not limited to sexual and gender-based violence; it
touches every aspect of women’s lives. Clinton’s Syrian disaster led to the Syrian refugee crisis,
and while men bear the bulk of mortality during war, women make up the majority of refugees.
War also puts widows at a higher risk of poverty, especially in countries where social norms
dictate that men make up the workforce and women stay at home. The notion that the United
States as an external force can somehow change these cultural norms is part of the same
democracy-spreading farce George W. Bush touted during his hawkish presidency.
Violence and imperialism do not liberate women. External force and rampant destruction do not
liberate women. Hillary Clinton’s incessant war mongering and disregard for the basic human
rights of non-Americans do not liberate women. Women liberate themselves when they take
control over their lives and their futures against all odds. Kurdish women defending their
families from ISIS and US airstrikes are feminist heroes. Hillary Clinton is a violent oppressor.
Know the difference.
Kelly Vee is graduating from Tulane University this spring with a Masters Degree in Accounting
and Bachelors Degree in Finance. She is an advisor and contributor at the Center for a Stateless
Society and shares a studio apartment with too many pets.
The New York Times Accurately Portrays Hillary Clinton as an Unrepentant Warmonger
Who will call her on it?
Jacob Sullum|Feb. 28, 2016 10:34 am
House Select Committee on BenghaziHillary Clinton took credit for the U.S. intervention in
Libya, but she will never take the blame. As a detailed, damning new account in The New York
Times shows, the former secretary of state was indeed instrumental in pushing President Obama
to pick sides in Libya's civil war by bombing longtime dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi's forces
and arming his opponents. But as the Times also shows, her warmongering is nothing to be proud
of, although she bragged about it in 2011 and continues to portray its results as a paradigmatic
example of "smart power."
Robert M. Gates, the secretary of defense at the time, describes Obama's decision to intervene as
a "51-49" proposition, adding, "I've always thought that Hillary’s support for the broader mission
in Libya put the president on the 51 side of the line for a more aggressive approach." Given the
huge practical and moral risks of getting involved in a civil war 5,000 miles away, you'd think
the standard of proof would be a little bit stronger than a preponderance of the evidence,
especially since Qaddafi clearly posed no threat to the United States. "He was not a threat to us
anywhere," Gates says. "He was a threat to his own people, and that was about it." That really
should have been the end of the analysis, unless you think the Defense Department's role extends
beyond defense.
Clinton clearly does. "She's very careful and reflective," claims Anne-Marie Slaughter, Clinton's
director of policy planning at the State Department. "But when the choice is between action and
inaction, and you've got risks in either direction, which you often do, she'd rather be caught
trying." This bias in favor of action, regardless of whether the "risks" have anything to do with
U.S. national security, is anything but careful. It is the very definition of recklessness. At any
given moment, there are myriad situations around the world in which the U.S. government might
intervene militarily to prevent injustice, oppression, or the slaughter of civilians (the official
justification for fighting Qaddafi). If that is the U.S. government's job, as Clinton seems to
assume, and if there is no distinction between making bad things happen and letting them
happen, which she also seems to believe, a preference for intervention is a recipe for neverending mischief.
Here is how the Times sums up the consequences of Clinton's desire to be "caught trying" in
Libya:
The consequences would be more far-reaching than anyone imagined, leaving Libya a failed
state and a terrorist haven…
Libya, with a population smaller than that of Tennessee, poses an outsize security threat to the
region and beyond, calling into question whether the intervention prevented a humanitarian
catastrophe or merely helped create one of a different kind.
The looting of Colonel Qaddafi's vast weapons arsenals during the intervention has fed the
Syrian civil war, empowered terrorist and criminal groups from Nigeria to Sinai, and destabilized
Mali, where Islamist militants stormed a Radisson hotel in November and killed 20 people.
A growing trade in humans has sent a quarter-million refugees north across the Mediterranean,
with hundreds drowning en route. A civil war in Libya has left the country with two rival
governments, cities in ruins and more than 4,000 dead.
Amid that fighting, the Islamic State has built its most important outpost on the Libyan shore, a
redoubt to fall back upon as it is bombed in Syria and Iraq. With the Pentagon saying the Islamic
State's fast-growing force now numbers between 5,000 and 6,500 fighters, some of Mr. Obama's
top national security aides are pressing for a second American military intervention in Libya.
These were the risks of acting, none of which Clinton foresaw. "We came, we saw, he died!" she
gloated after Qaddafi was captured and killed. "Two days before," the Times notes, "Mrs. Clinton
had taken a triumphal tour of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and for weeks top aides had been
circulating a 'ticktock' that described her starring role in the events that had led to this moment. It
was a brag sheet for a cabinet member eyeing a presidential race, and the Clinton team's
eagerness to claim credit for her prompted eye-rolling at the White House and the Pentagon.
Some joked that to hear her aides tell it, she had practically called in the airstrikes herself."
Testifying before Congress last October, after the disastrous fallout from the intervention had
become impossible to ignore, Clinton was more generous. "At the end of the day, this was the
president's decision," she said. But she continued to insist that toppling Qaddafi exemplified
"smart power at its best," while reserving judgment on the long-term consequences.
In short, Clinton, who did not publicly regret her vote for the Iraq war until 2014, will not admit
that intervening in Libya was a mistake, making it impossible for her to learn from it. The
Times puts it a little more gently:
This is the story of how a woman whose Senate vote for the Iraq war may have doomed her first
presidential campaign nonetheless doubled down and pushed for military action in another
Middle Eastern country. As she once again seeks the White House, campaigning in part on her
experience as the nation’s chief diplomat, an examination of the intervention she championed
shows her at what was arguably her moment of greatest influence as secretary of state. It is a
working portrait rich with evidence of what kind of president she might be, and especially of her
expansive approach to the signal foreign-policy conundrum of today: whether, when and how the
United States should wield its military power in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.
Clinton's reckless interventionism should hurt her with voters but probably won't. Of the three
Republicans most likely to face her in November, Donald Trump seems most inclined to use the
issue against her, but who knows what his views will be this fall? Ted Cruz has criticized the
intervention in Libya but sounds decidedly less cautious about Syria, while Marco Rubio is at
least as "expansive" as Clinton when it comes to finding excuses for war.
Why 2016 race will get even more chaotic after Super Tuesday
By Post Editorial Board February 28, 2016 | 8:00pm Modal Trigger And so the nation heads to
Super Tuesday, where Hillary Clinton expects to take the last wind out of Bernie Sanders’ sails
while the various anti-Trump forces aim to at least dent the GOP front-runner’s march to the
nomination.
Clinton is desperate to crush the Sanders revolution so she can turn back to the center after
having moved so far left to undercut Bernie’s appeal — and start fund-raising from the fat cats
for the unprecedented deluge of attack ads so central to her strategy.
Trump likewise hopes to cement his own “inevitability” so he can start uniting the party behind
him. His foes’ best hope, at this point, is a brokered convention — which would leave whoever
winds up as the nominee in weak shape to face the Clinton onslaught.
If Ted Cruz can’t win in evangelical-heavy Southern states beyond his native Texas, then his
strategy will have failed. Marco Rubio needs several strong-second finishes to leave him with
much hope of winning once the race moves on to more moderate states.
The GOP race has turned brutal, with Rubio and Cruz hitting as hard as Trump has from the
start, while The Donald now has a new, plus-sized Mini-Me — Chris Christie — slugging away
on his behalf.
It’s gotten so mean that anti-Trump conventional Republicans are muttering about launching a
third party — a move that could guarantee Clinton’s victory and liberal domination of the
Supreme Court for a generation.
Still out there is the wild card of the FBI probe of then-Secretary of State Clinton’s illicit,
national-security-endangering use of a private e-mail server.
President Obama has publicly signaled that he won’t let the Justice Department indict Clinton —
but a resignation on principle by FBI chief Jim Comey over such political interference in law
enforcement seems a real possibility.
Bottom line: Tuesday’s voting will bring some clarity to the wildest political year in decades, but
bigger turmoil is still ahead.
Building a North American Community
Chairs: John P. Manley, Pedro Aspe, and William F. Weld
Vice Chairs: Thomas P. D'Aquino, Andres Rozental, President, Mexican Council on Foreign
Relations, and Robert A. Pastor, Professor and Founding Director of the Center for North
American Studies, American University
Publisher Council on Foreign Relations Press Release Date May 2005 Price $15.00 paper 175
pages ISBN 0876093489 Task Force Report No. 53
Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in association with the Canadian Council of
Chief Executives and the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales.
North America is vulnerable on several fronts: the region faces terrorist and criminal security
threats, increased economic competition from abroad, and uneven economic development at
home. In response to these challenges, a trinational, Independent Task Force on the Future of
North America has developed a roadmap to promote North American security and advance the
well-being of citizens of all three countries.
When the leaders of Canada, Mexico, and the United States met in Texas recently they
underscored the deep ties and shared principles of the three countries. The Council-sponsored
Task Force applauds the announced “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,” but
proposes a more ambitious vision of a new community by 2010 and specific recommendations
on how to achieve it.
HEIDI S. CRUZ is an energy investment banker with Merrill Lynch in Houston, Texas. She
served in the Bush White House under Dr. Condoleezza Rice as the Economic Director for the
Western Hemisphere at the National Security Council, as the Director of the Latin America
Office at the U.S. Treasury Department, and as Special Assistant to Ambassador Robert B.
Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative. Prior to government service, Ms. Cruz was an investment
banker with J.P. Morgan in New York City.
The Donald Doesn’t Have a Lock—Yet
25 Feb 2016
The Donald Doesn’t Have a Lock—
Yet Photo: Agence France-Presse/Getty Image
Donald Trump scored a very impressive win in Nevada, taking 45.9% and 14 of the state’s 30
delegates to the GOP convention. But the Republican nomination is far from settled. After four
contests, only 133 of the convention’s 2,472 delegates have been selected.
It’s important to put Nevada in context. Caucuses draw a smaller turnout than primaries and
75,216—17.8% of the state’s 423,308 Republicans—turned out. While the number of voters was
higher than in previous Silver State caucuses, it would have required 128,685 Nevada
Republicans voting to match Iowa’s turnout.
After carrying 24.3% in Iowa, 35.3% in New Hampshire and 32.5% in South Carolina, Mr.
Trump hit a new high Tuesday. Is he consolidating Republicans? Perhaps, but a single caucus
victory does not necessarily a consolidation make.
None of the 12 Republican hopefuls who have dropped out of the race has endorsed Mr. Trump.
The Donald’s trademark insults, more pungent and personal than run-of-the-mill campaign
attacks, make it difficult for those whom he ridiculed, and their supporters, to rally to him.
The choices made by late-deciding voters would be a sign of consolidation, but in South Carolina
Mr. Trump drew only 17% of those who made up their mind in the final week of the campaign.
Among the 30% in Nevada who decided in the final week, Sen. Marco Rubio carried 42%, far
more than any candidate.
In the eight February polls of the states that vote between March 1 and March 8, Mr. Trump
takes an average of 32.3%. Sen. Ted Cruz and Mr. Rubio take 21% and 19.9% respectively, with
the remaining 26.8% split among other candidates and undecideds. Mr. Trump is supported by
better than three of every 10 Republicans, but some 65% aren’t in his camp.
The 963 delegates—39% of the convention’s total—to be selected in 24 contests between March
1 and March 12 will all be awarded proportionally. This means he could win the headlines but
capture a minority of the delegates—unless he unites the GOP.
To clarify: Assume Messrs. Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Kasich and Carson receive the same percentage
of voters in the early March contests that they did in South Carolina, and Mr. Rubio inherits Jeb
Bush’s voters.
In that case, Mr. Trump would emerge with 489 (or 44%) of the delegates. Mr. Rubio would
have 330 and Mr. Cruz 197, with 24 delegates scattered elsewhere going into the winner-take-all
primaries on the Ides of March. And that assumes Mr. Trump wins everywhere.
Of course, not every candidate will get the same percentage as in South Carolina, and Mr. Trump
is unlikely to win every state. Ben Carson and John Kasich are likely to become even less
consequential, Dr. Carson because of flagging resources and Gov. Kasich because he is focusing
on Michigan’s March 8 contest and Ohio’s March 15 primary, making himself a non-factor
elsewhere.
Still, as long as three or more candidates are splitting delegates in early March’s proportional
contests, the race could remain uncertain until March 15, albeit with Mr. Trump in the lead.
That’s why it was odd that Trump strategists told Fox’s Carl Cameron on the night of the Nevada
caucus that they intend to knock out Mr. Cruz. I would think they’d want Mr. Cruz to remain in
the race, to keep non-Trump voters from coalescing around a single alternative. After all, even a
weak Trump plurality on March 15 would give him Florida’s 99 delegates and Ohio’s 66
delegates.
Additionally, if a majority of Republicans oppose Mr. Trump that day but are divided among
several candidates, he could also take the lion’s share of Illinois’s 69 and Missouri’s 52
delegates. These states award some delegates at the statewide level by winner-take-all. Illinois
voters also select three delegates from each congressional district from a list of people pledged to
different candidates. Missouri awards its congressional district delegates proportionally.
If Mr. Trump has a substantial delegate majority at day’s end, it would take an extraordinary
effort to defeat him, even with 40% of the delegates (most in proportional contests) remaining to
be selected after March 15. Put another way: Donald Trump could well have a lock on the
nomination after March 15 if a fragmented opposition gives him an absolute majority of
delegates on that day. There is still time for the non-Trump GOP majority to coalesce around a
single candidate, but not much. Things can remain somewhat divided on March 1 as long as the
majority is largely unified on March 8 and fully behind a single candidate on the Ides of March.
If not, the hopes of the party’s non-Trump majority will suffer the same fate as Caesar.
Mr. Rove helped organize the political-action committee American Crossroads and is the author
of “The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the 1896 Election Still Matters” (Simon & Schuster,
2015).
Democrats Should Be Very Nervous About Their Terrible Turnout Numbers / Low turnout equals
President Trump.
02/28/2016 Zach Carter Senior Political Economy Reporter, The Huffington Post
Democratic Party elites shouldn't be high-fiving each other over Hillary Clinton's South Carolina
victory.
WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton had a great night on Saturday. The Democratic Party had a
terrible one.
Clinton trounced Sen. Bernie Sanders by nearly 3-to-1 in the South Carolina primary, winning
every single county in the state. The thumping followed a convincing Clinton victory in the
Nevada caucuses less than a week earlier, and sets the stage for a strong showing for Clinton on
Super Tuesday, when 11 states are in play.
For the Democratic Party establishment, these wins are being interpreted as a sign that the
universe is back in order, after a 74-year-old democratic socialist from Vermont had seemingly
knocked everything out of orbit. Party leaders long ago picked Clinton as their standard-bearer
for 2016 and worked to clear the field of potential primary challengers. When Sanders began
closing on Clinton in national polls and clobbered her in New Hampshire, the establishment bet
was starting to look shaky. Had they lost touch with the core concerns of the party's base? After
South Carolina, Sanders' chances to secure an upset nomination are dwindling.
Exit polling showed that Clinton won every demographic tracked except voters under 30. Even
here, she was far more competitive with Sanders than in prior contests, losing just 54 percent to
46 percent. She even won a higher share of the black vote than Barack Obama did in 2008.
But Democratic Party elites shouldn't be high-fiving each other. They should be very, very
worried.
In primary after primary this cycle, Democratic voters just aren't showing up. Only 367,491
people cast a ballot for either Clinton or Sanders on Saturday. That's down 16 percent from the
436,219 people who came out in 2008 for Clinton and Obama. Factor in the 93,522 people who
voted for John Edwards back in the day, and you can see the scope of the problem. Democrats in
2016 are only getting about two-thirds of the primary votes that they received eight years ago.
Republican turnout in the South Carolina primary, by contrast, was up more than 70 percent
from 2008.
South Carolina's turnout numbers are not an anomaly. They're consistent with other primaries to
date. Republicans are psyched. Democrats are demoralized. Presidential elections increasingly
hinge on each party's ability to turn out the faithful. There simply are not many truly independent
voters who cast their ballots for different parties in different cycles. A big chunk of voters who
identify as independents do so not because they cherish a moderate middle ground between two
parties, but because they see their own party as insufficiently committed to its ideological
principles. In this era, lousy primary turnout spells big trouble for the general election.
The poor Democratic turnout figures are not an indictment of Clinton alone. Maybe the DNC's
decision to bury the party's debates on weekends and holidays helped Republicans generate more
early enthusiasm with primetime coverage. And part of Sanders' pitch, of course, is his insistence
that progressive energy will bring out high numbers of enthusiastic voters that an old party
insider just can't compete with. It's a good pitch. But so far, it isn't happening.
It's always hard to motivate voters for four more years of the same old thing after getting eight
years of it -- especially when many of those years were mired in an awful recession, followed by
a weak economic recovery. Opposition parties typically have a better hand after eight years.
That's why 12-year runs in the presidency by a single party don't happen very often.
If Republicans nominate Donald Trump for president -- and barring a cataclysm or a coup, they
will -- there will be plenty of energized Democrats who turn out in the general election for no
other reason than to cast a ballot against a billionaire who has predicated his campaign on raw
bigotry.
That will help even the energy some. But the flip side of the coin is that lots of angry white
people will show up to vote for Trump. We know because they're already doing so in the
primaries. And a lot of Republican partisans who prefer other candidates still care more about
turning the page on the Obama era than they do about Trump's flirtations with fascism (and even,
at times, liberal critiques of GOP orthodoxy). Trump's overtly racist campaign makes it hard to
see how he wins Western swing states like Nevada or New Mexico that have high numbers of
Latino voters. But his economic pitch to the white working class holds obvious appeal in
traditional Democratic strongholds in the upper Midwest -- communities that have been ravaged
by the past three decades of U.S. economic policy. Even if Trump lost every other swing state in
the country, turning the Rust Belt red would be enough for him to win the Electoral College.
That's a difficult maneuver. But it's time to start worrying about President Trump.
Ralph Nader: Hillary Clinton Sugarcoating Her Disastrous Record
February 13, 2016
Bernie Sanders is far too easy on Hillary Clinton in their debates. Clinton flaunts her record and
experience in ways that Sanders could use to expose her serious vulnerabilities and
disqualifications for becoming president. Sanders responds to Clinton’s points, but without the
precision that could demolish her arrogance.
For example, she repeatedly says that Sanders has not levelled with people about the cost of full
Medicare for all, or single-payer. Really? In other countries, single-payer is far simpler and more
efficient than our present profiteering, wasteful, corporatized healthcare industry. Canada covers
all of its citizens, with free choice of doctors and hospitals, for about $4,500 per capita,
compared to the over $9,000 per capita cost in the U.S. system that still leaves tens of millions of
people uninsured or underinsured.
Detailed studies in the New England Journal of Medicine show big savings from a single-payer
system in our country.
It is Hillary Clinton who is not levelling with the people about the costs of maintaining the
spiraling U.S. costs of drugs, hospital stays and insurance premiums that are the highest in the
world. The costs include: 1) the waste of well over $1 trillion a year; 2) daily denials of coverage
by the Aetnas of the corporate world; 3) about forty thousand Americans dying each year,
according to a peer-reviewed Harvard Medical School study, because they cannot afford health
insurance to get diagnosed and treated in time; and 4) daily agonizing negotiations over
insurance company denials, exclusions and bureaucratic paperwork that drive physicians up the
wall.
Clinton hasn’t explained why she was once for single-payer until she defined her “being
practical” as refusing to take on big pharma, commercial hospital chains and the giant insurance
companies. She is very “practical” about taking political contributions and speaking fees from
Wall Street and the health care industry.
As one 18 year-old student told the New York Times recently about Clinton, “sometimes you get
this feeling that all of her sentences are owned by someone.”
This protector of the status quo and the gross imbalance of power between the few and the many
expresses perfectly why Wall Street financiers like her so much and prove it with their large
continuing monetary contributions.
Hillary Clinton is not “levelling with the American people,” when she keeps the transcripts
(which she requested at the time) of her secret speeches (at $5,000 a minute!) before large Wall
Street and trade association conventions. Her speaking contracts mandated secrecy. Clinton still
hasn’t told voters what she was telling big bankers and many other industries from automotive to
drugs to real estate developers behind closed doors.
She has the gall to accuse Bernie Sanders of not being transparent. Sanders is a presidential
candidate who doesn’t take big-fee speeches or big donations from fat cat influence-peddlers,
and his record is as clean as the Clintons’ political entanglements are sordid. (See Clinton Cash
by Peter Schweizer.)
But it is in the area of foreign and military affairs that “Hillary the hawk” is most vulnerable. As
Secretary of State her aggressiveness and poor judgement led her to the White House where,
sweeping aside the strong objections of Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, she persuaded
President Obama to bomb Libya and topple its dictatorial regime.
Gates had warned about the aftermath. He was right. Libya has descended into a ghastly state of
chaotic violence that has spilled into neighboring African nations, such as Mali, and that opened
the way for ISIS to establish an expanding base in central Libya. Her fellow hawks in
Washington are now calling for U.S. Special Forces to go to Libya.
Whether as Senator on the Armed Services Committee or as Secretary of State, Mrs. Clinton has
never met a war or raid she didn’t like, or a redundant, wasteful weapons system she was willing
to aggressively challenge. As president, Hillary Clinton would mean more wars, more raids,
more blowbacks, more military spending and more profits for the military-industrial complex
that President Eisenhower so prophetically warned about in his farewell address.
So when Bernie Sanders properly chided her for having as an advisor, Henry Kissinger,
Secretary of State under Richard Nixon, she bridled and tried to escape by asking Sanders to
name his foreign policy advisors.
In fact, Kissinger and Clinton do have much in common about projecting the American Empire
to brutal levels. Kissinger was the “butcher of Cambodia,” launching an illegal assault that
destabilized that peaceful country into the Pol Pot slaughter of millions of innocents. She was the
illegal “butcher of Libya,” an ongoing, unfolding tragedy whose blowbacks of “unintended
consequences” are building by the week.
In a devastating recounting of Hillary Clinton’s disastrous war-making, Professor of Sustainable
Economies at Columbia University, Jeffrey D. Sachs concludes that Clinton “is the candidate of
the War Machine.” In a widely noted article on Huffington Post Professor Sachs, an advisor the
United Nations on millennium development goals, called her record a “disaster,” adding that
“Perhaps more than any other person, Hillary can lay claim to having stoked the violence that
stretches from West Africa to Central Asia and that threatens U.S. security.”
The transformation of Hillary Clinton from a progressive young lawyer to a committed
corporatist and militarist brings shame on the recent endorsement of her candidacy by the
Congressional Black Caucus PAC.
But then, considering all the years of Clintonite double talk and corporate contributions going to
the Black Caucus PAC (according to FEC reports January through December, 2015), and the
Black Caucus conventions, why should anybody be surprised that Black Lives Matter and a
growing surge of young African Americans are looking for someone in the White House who is
not known for the Clintons’ sweet-talking betrayals?
See Michelle Alexander’s recent article in The Nation, “Hillary Clinton Does Not Deserve Black
People’s Votes” for more information on this subject.
Hillary Clinton Is Now Tied To At Least Four Investigations By Federal Agencies
Chuck Ross 02/11/2016
The State Department’s inspector general last year subpoenaed the Clinton Foundation for
documents related to work that required approval from the Hillary Clinton State Department,
making it now at least four investigations involving the Democratic presidential candidate being
conducted by federal agencies.
According to The Washington Post, the State Department inspector general’s subpoena, which
was filed in the fall, also sought records related to longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin’s
concurrent employment in 2012 with the State Department, the Clinton Foundation, and Teneo
Holdings, a Clinton-connected consulting firm.
Clinton’s critics have asserted that the overlap between the State Department, her family’s
foundation, and Teneo during her tenure created potential conflicts of interest. The book
“Clinton Cash,” which was released last year, laid out numerous examples of the Clinton
Foundation’s wealthy donors gaining special access to Clinton’s State Department. Other
examples have emerged from the release of Clinton’s State Department emails.
The newly revealed IG probe is in addition to the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s private email
server. That probe began last summer after the Intelligence Community’s inspector general
discovered “top secret” emails among Clinton’s records. It also comes on top of the State
Department’s investigation of Clinton’s emails. And as Fox News reported last month, the FBI
also opened an investigation last year into whether the State Department provided special access
and agency contracts to Clinton Foundation donors. (RELATED: Report: FBI Now
Investigating Hillary’s State Department For Corruption)
Several congressional committees are also conducting investigations on matters related to
Clinton’s email arrangement. The Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs Committee are conducting investigations of their own. The House
Science, Space and Technology Committee has also opened an investigation into the companies
that provided technology services to maintain Clinton’s email server.
According to The Post, IG investigators subpoenaed the Clinton Foundation last fall for
“documents about the charity’s projects that may have required approval from the federal
government during Hillary Clinton’s term as secretary of state.”
The subpoena also sought records related to Abedin, who held the title of “special government
employee” at the State Department for the last half of 2012. State’s IG previously investigated
Abedin and determined last year that she was overpaid $10,000 on sick leave and maternity leave
claims.
It is unclear whether the Clinton Foundation or anyone else associated with Clinton was
subpoenaed in that matter. Though the Clinton Foundation downplayed the IG’s investigation in
a comment to The Post, Clinton’s Republican opponents jumped on the news of the report.
“After living at the intersection of money and politics for the last quarter century, the chickens
are coming home to roost for the Clintons. It’s this constant blurring of ethical lines that has so
badly damaged Secretary Clinton on the issues of honesty and trust,” said Jeff Bechdel,
communications director for America Rising PAC.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/02/11/hillary-clinton-is-now-tied-to-at-least-fourinvestigations-by-federal-agencies/#ixzz41bKGbHqv
The Donald Doesn’t Have a Lock—Yet
There is still time for a non-Trump majority to coalesce around a single candidate.
By Karl Rove Feb. 24, 2016. Donald Trump scored a very impressive win in Nevada, taking 45.9%
and 14 of the state’s 30 delegates to the GOP convention. But the Republican nomination is far
from settled. After four contests, only 133 of the convention’s 2,472 delegates have been selected.
Craig B Hulet was both speech writer and Special Assistant for Special Projects to Congressman Jack
Metcalf (Retired); he has been a consultant to federal law enforcement DEA, ATF&E of
Justice/Homeland Security for over 25 years; he has written four books on international relations
and philosophy, his latest is The Hydra of Carnage: Bush’s Imperial War-making and the Rule of Law
- An Analysis of the Objectives and Delusions of Empire. He has appeared on over 12,000 hours of TV
and Radio: The History Channel “De-Coded”; He is a regular on Coast to Coast AM w/ George Noory;
“Coffee Talk” Doug McDowell, KBKW; Mills Crenshaw KTALK SLC; The Carl Nelson Show live in
DC and Trending with Carl Nelson syndicated live: Hulet has appeared on The History Channel, CNN,
C-Span ; European Television "American Dream", Press TV, Entertainment News and The Arsenio
Hall Show; he has written for Soldier of Fortune Magazine, International Combat Arms, Financial
Security Digest, etc.; Hulet served in Vietnam 1969-70, 101st Airborne, C Troop 2/17th Air Cav and
graduated 3rd in his class at Aberdeen Proving Grounds Ordnance School MOS 45J20 Weapons. He
remains a paid analyst and consultant in various areas of geopolitical, business and security issues:
terrorism and military affairs. Hulet lives in the ancient old growth Quinault Rain Forest.
Old friend Bill Clinton tells Morocco, “We love this country … Democracy is a lot of a trouble.
”Bill Clinton at a news conference in Casablanca in 2013. (Reuters/Landov)