Trump — a Guide to His Con Game

Trump and his supporters brag about how presidential he will be: “If I want to be, I can be more presidential than anybody.” People boast to cover up their weakness. But who cares if he’s not presidential; he’ll make America great and that’s huge.

So what if he mocked a NY Times reporter’s disability and mimicked Hillary’s stumble when she had pneumonia? There’s no need to look presidential or even respectable, since he’s going to make America so great. As he’s told us: 

• I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created.
• Nobody but Donald Trump will save Israel. I have studied this issue in great detail — I would say actually greater by far than anybody else.
• I have proven to be far more correct about terrorism than anybody. It’s not even close.
• I know more about ISIS than the generals do. Believe me.
• I know Russia well. I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago, Miss Universe contest, which was a big, big, incredible event.

But there’s one concern: those two words, “Believe me.” Trump used them ten times more than all other Republican and Democratic candidates put together — 30 versus 3 times. It’s the line used-car salesman use when there’s no way to tell if they’re lying.

Trump’s faithful have revolted against the Republican politicians who have played them for fools. Could Trump possibly be selling them the Brooklyn Bridge when he promises 6% job growth, a secret plan to “bring ISIS to the bargaining table,” and to build “big beautiful safe zones” in Syria to solve Europe’s refugee problem, and ours too? Does he really think ISIS does “bargaining tables”?

Why should we believe in these miracles? Trump has no experience in any of this, so here’s how he explains his political super powers:

“My father gave me a very small loan in 1975, and I built it into a company that’s worth many, many billions of dollars, … I say that only because that’s the kind of thinking that our country needs. — it’s called OPM. I do that all the time in business. It’s called other people’s money.

OPM always worked for him. His Dad loaned him a million in 1975. In today’s money that’s more than half the people in this country make in lifetime. Then in 1985 his daddy loaned him $14 million. In 1991, his casino was about to go bankrupt so his Dad bought $3.5 million in chips. Then his Dad died in 2003 and left him $150 million.

“The king of debt” stiffed his creditor with bankruptcies. And there are endless stories of him refusing to pay people who worked for him (“so sue me” he says, backed by his army of lawyers).

But can America play this game? Any Mexican president stupid enough to agree to pay for the wall would be booted from office. No, Mexico won’t pay. And when he met with the president of Mexico, he choked.

“We’re going to get the Gulf states to pay for safe zones [in Syria].” Oh, right. Saudi Arabia? Iran? Iraq? They will pay us to build “big beautiful safe zones” for the 85% of Syria. Does he think they’re like his Dad?

But he could get the Saudis to pay for their own nukes. Tearing up the no-nuke treaty with Iran will do that for sure. Then Iran will start building nukes, Israel will bomb Iran and Iran will attack everyone it can. A great way to save money.

Finally consider Trump’s support of Putin: “I will tell you, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an A.” Yes, that’s Russia’s ex-KGB (secret police) agent and president-for-life since 1999. He’s the top “oligarch” a country run by gangster capitalists. He’s notorious for clamping down on the press. This brings us to RT (Russian Times) and Sputnik, the two main international propaganda outlets.

Trump sent his national-security advisor Michael Flynn to the 10th Anniversary Gala of RT news in Moscow and he sat at the head table with Putin. Flynn has frequently appeared on RT, despite public warnings by American intelligence that the news agency is used for Russian propaganda. Trump himself engaged in a bit of Russian disinformation during the first and third debates.

Clinton said: We have 17 intelligence agencies, civilian and military, who have all concluded that these espionage attacks, these cyberattacks, come from the highest levels of the Kremlin and they are designed to influence our election. Do you doubt 17 military and civilian agencies? Trump replied “Yeah, I doubt it. I doubt it. And our country has no idea. ”

So Trump is backing Putin’s story that Russia was not behind hacking the US. Clearly Trump has no understanding of hacking, so siding with Putin and Russia against the U.S. and all of its intelligence agencies, is based only on his negative and extremely unpatriotic view of the US and his bias toward Russia with its strongman president-for-life.

Russia has recently been committing atrocities in Aleppo, has invaded the Ukraine, interfered in German elections, and in Britain to favor of Brexit. Russia is bent on damaging NATO as much as possible. And Trump has disparaged our NATO allies.

Trump says he can be “more presidential than anyone when he wants to be,” — even more presidential than his grade-A hero, Vladimir Putin. As a candidate he has bullied his own party into submission. If he were president they would do his bidding, and he would command the military, CIA and FBI. There would be no stopping him.

The unifying characteristic of Trump’s supporters is their feeling that they are losing out. We know what Trump thinks of losers. He says of John McCain, “He’s not a war hero. I like people who weren’t captured.” McCain chose to leave a desk job in Saigon to fly missions over North Vietnam. Trump claimed he had heel spurs, dodged the draft, and went skiing. He was a winner.

Should his supporter count on Trump to rescue them? He doesn’t do rescues. Trump only likes beating his opponent. His followers buy his claim that “Nobody knows the system better than me … I alone can fix it.” They believe he’ll be “the greatest jobs president God ever created.” His supporters are so loyal that Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Ave and they’d stand by him. But they forget that this makes them perfect marks.

Trump is a brilliant con artist and he knows his marks. Unfortunately the marks never find out till it’s too late. And if he wins, America loses.