OCTOBER 4, 2016
Photo: AP
Sorry folks, but it’s Donald Trump again. The meltdown of these last eight days will likely be taught in political science classes for years to come.
Where did we leave off? Oh yes, the late-night tweetstorm on Friday. Let’s just say that the media reaction to Trump’s nocturnal meltdown did, to put it mildly, question the state of Trump’s mental health. To Trump’s credit, he shut up on Friday after the 5-day assault on Miss Universe 1996, but then events came crashing through over which he had little control that only accelerated the damage to his campaign that this week had caused.
Where do we start?
First, on Friday and Saturday, the initial scientific post-debate polls in the battleground states indicated that Hillary Clinton got a significant bounce from her performance in the debate, particularly in the battleground states which Trump needs and where he was leading in several state polls. After Trump’s pathetic debate performance, that lead is gone.
On Saturday night, the meat was supposed to come from “SNL’s” Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton and the debut of Alec Baldwin’s self-absorbed Donald Trump (which I thought was brilliant). Great as it was, even upstaging “SNL” was an investigation by The New York Times that revealed Donald Trump’s tax returns from 1995 indicating that the great businessman was underwater to the tune of $916 million dollars that year and, as a result, thanks to the tax code, Trump has likely paid no taxes for the last 18 years.
On the Sunday shows, pundits were fixated on the fact that Trump paid no taxes, despite the fact that on the campaign trail, Trump castigated those Americans as losers who are “cheating” the system by paying no Federal income taxes, just the way he did. Hypocrisy.
But those pundits who are obsessed with the “paid no taxes” story are missing the big picture. In 1995, Trump lost $916 million in one year. $916 million dollars! What businessman who calls himself successful loses that much in a single year? And he was in the casino business! For any of you who have gambled in a casino (I raise my hand), you know that the house stacks the deck. You’ve got a stacked deck and you still lose $916 million? Trump has claimed that he plans to run the United States the way he ran his businesses. If that’s an example of his financial acumen, thank you but no.
On the Sunday morning shows, Trump sent out his 350 lb. lapdog Chris Christie to say that Trump’s avoidance of paying the same taxes that we all do was “genius.” He was backed up on other shows by “America’s Mayor!” Rudy (“noun, verb, 9/11”) Giuliani, who echoed the same talking point. “Genius!” On what planet do the Trump people think that hard-working Americans who scrimp and save to pay their tax bill celebrate someone who gloats in the fact that the federal benefits that we all enjoy are not paid for by him but by us.
Then on Monday came “The Apprentice” cast and crew, who finally uncrouched themselves from their fetal positions from working on the show to describe the sexual remarks and leers from Trump that set the tone of life backstage, which, from their descriptions, made the experience for the women on the show, let’s say, difficult.
The cherry on top came from the Attorney General of the state of New York who ruled on Monday that the Trump Foundation (Trump’s charitable wing) cease and desist from soliciting charitable donations. According to The New York Times, the foundation did not register to do so under state law, so they have to stop taking contributions, which reportedly had gone to financing Trump buying a 6 ft.-tall portrait of himself. You can’t make this stuff up.
Trump has a chance to have his ticket redeemed on Tuesday night when VP candidate Mike Pence squares off with the Democrats’ Tim Kaine for the one and only Vice-Presidential debate. If Trump’s behavior continues like this, Pence is going to have a lot of ‘splaining to do, which he has done very well on the stump. But Trump has got to clean up his act. Fast.
