General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDonald Trump's Greatest Successes
1) Trump's greatest success was that he convinced 70 million people that he is a "success" -- a self-made man --and that he is not an undeniably abject failure. Facts and reality don't support his myth:
He squandered his father's (not his own) fortune. Nothing about him is self-made (like, for example, Ross Perot)
He has lost more money than he has ever made.
Every dollar in his pocket came from a bank loan, Russian oligarchs, or from a grift he played on the gullible public.
He has filed for bankruptcy six times (FACT)
He had a casino in Atlantic City that LOST money and brought down the city in the process.
His Trump University was a fraud and a failure.
His business ventures, like Trump water and Trump steaks, and all the rest of his BS went belly-up.
He is most assuredly guilty of tax fraud.
He parlayed an insipid reality TV show into *winning* a Presidential election.
He is the quintessential "poser". . . an empty-suited, used-car salesman, con-artist stereotype.
The irony is that everything he touches turns to shit and dies.
2) His second success was draining "the swamp" of Washington DC . . . and making it a cesspool.
He turned the office of POTUS into his own slush fund and business front, and a hog trough for other corrupt scumbags.
He filled the White House with every slimy reptile in America. (Stephen Miller, Paul Manafort, his family, et al)
He turned politics into gang warfare based on divisive, tribal hatred.
He made racism fashionable again !
He destroyed the reputation and moral authority of an entire nation. (if we had any to begin with)
Everything he touches turns to shit and dies.
3) His third success was the implementation of the policy of dysfunction for all government institutions and agencies.
He promised to vandalize our government, and he succeeded.
He politicized institutions that should never be politicized, and he found ways to make a fast buck wherever possible:
DOJ, FBI, CIA, DOD, IRS, USPS, CDC, FDA, HHS, ICE, DOS, SCOTUS, and he has turned the GOP into a ménage of
the worst elements in American society. This was all done to favor himself, foremost, as well as the Republican party.
Everything he touches turns to shit and dies.
4) His fourth success was creating a self-promoting, political advantage out of a national health crisis.
He scoffed at and minimized the severity of COVID, the need to address it, and smugly defied using a face mask
in order to make himself appear like a tough guy. And it worked like a charm. Unfortunately, by following his
perverted instincts of pursuing his own interests at the expense of others, over 540,000 Americans have died --
more than had to succumb, because of the disregard of a megalomaniac. Congratulations, jack-hole.
Everything he touches turns to shit and dies.
5) His fifth success (almost) was his ability to incite a rabid mob of paranoid, white nationalists to attempt a coup
on his behalf and to overthrow a valid, democratic election by storming the Capitol Building -- something never done
before in our history. People were killed in the process.
6) Lastly, he succeeded in making reality, truth, logic, facts, and accountability all totally irrelevant. He has
convinced millions of people that the election was stolen from him, which is an incredible lie . . . and dangerous.
Cha
(295,926 posts)you mean
TY for listing some of them!
wnylib
(21,146 posts)for future students to study in courses about the danger of demagogues and populists in a democracy.
SergeStorms
(18,903 posts)his egomaniacal, sociopathic "personality" that is most certainly destined to be included in future Psychology texts.
lamp_shade
(14,796 posts)I will print this out for safe-keeping and future reference.
Thank you.
samplegirl
(11,415 posts)post ever written in D.U. Because its all true and thats why we have have this group because others know better!
Kicked!
abqtommy
(14,118 posts)is that they motivated 80 million people to vote his/their ass out of office! Of course they
wouldn't think of that as a success but I and my fellow 80 million voters do!
I do appreciate the original op but always feel a need to provide balance and perspective.
raccoon
(31,091 posts)Aussie105
(5,215 posts)But ask yourself this:
Did anyone seriously expect a geriatric businessman, with his business 'success' based mostly on hype, deceit and lies, and no interest or experience at all in politics, to do well as the POTUS?
And why millions of Americans were duped so easily into voting for him?
There's a lesson in there somewhere, and it needs to be examined in great detail, if only to stop it from happening again.
NJCher
(35,432 posts)I heard a radio interview in which a scholar who works on internet disinformation issues said that to defeat this problem, we will have to restructure the internet. It will take 50 years.