On September 26, 2016, in the first of three debates with Hillary Clinton, Trump retorted to a claim that he paid no taxes by replying, “that makes me smart.”
Even after the election, Trump claimed he was withholding his tax returns from the public because he was under audit. However, in 2019, he sued to keep them being being obtained.
In September 2020, it was revealed that he paid a total of $750 in taxes for that year.
Roger Stone is a longtime Republican strategist who has served as campaign adviser for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Donald Trump. He pushed several conspiracy theories during the campaign, including birtherism and the murder of Seth Rich by Democratic operatives. He was arrested during the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which Trump referred to as an “attempted coup.”
Stone was investigated for his connections to Wikileaks, which disseminated emails from Hillary Clinton that had been hacked by Russian intelligence. Trump famously called on Russia to hack Clinton’s emails.
On November 15, 2019, Stone was convicted of one count of obstruction, one count of witness tampering, and five counts of false statements regarding his testimony to Congress. On February 20, 2020, he was sentenced to 40 months in prison.
During the trial, Stone’s threats to Wikileaks intermediary Randy Credico were unearthed: “you are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends…I am so ready. Let’s get it on. Prepare to die.” Stone’s rocky trial also included a a gag order from the court, which he violated by posting a photo of the judge with a crosshairs in the corner on his Instagram. He later claimed he thought that the crosshairs were a Celtic symbol.
Stone is known for his unorthodox style of dress and back tattoo of Richard Nixon’s face, as well as his self-avowedly dirty political strategies. He paid an operative to infiltrate Democrat George McGovern’s presidential campaign, which was revealed during the Watergate hearings. No stranger to the dissemination of conspiracy theories, he penned a 2013 book in which he suggested that LBJ was responsible for John F. Kennedy’s assassination. He is also the subject of the 2017 Netflix documentary, Get me Roger Stone.
Roger Stone at Trump’s inauguration. stoneonstyle/TwitterRoger Stone’s back tattoo alongside Alex Jones. ellefs0n/Twitter
Over the course of Stone’s trial, Trump took to Twitter in Stone’s defense multiple times, including upon his conviction and his sentencing.
“I will never testify against Trump.” This statement was recently made by Roger Stone, essentially stating that he will not be forced by a rogue and out of control prosecutor to make up lies and stories about “President Trump.” Nice to know that some people still have “guts!”
So they now convict Roger Stone of lying and want to jail him for many years to come. Well, what about Crooked Hillary, Comey, Strzok, Page, McCabe, Brennan, Clapper, Shifty Schiff, Ohr & Nellie, Steele & all of the others, including even Mueller himself? Didn’t they lie?….
This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice! https://t.co/rHPfYX6Vbv
Even though prosecutors recommended nine years of prison time, the Justice Department intervened with their own recommendation of a drastically shorter sentencing. Four federal prosecutors withdrew from the case in protest. Stone was ultimately sentenced to 40 months in prison.
On the day of the sentencing, Trump spoke at length in Stone’s defense, attacking his detractors as liars and leakers.
Trump voiced criticism of the war before many other public officials of the time, however his frequently repeated claim that he opposed the war “from the beginning” is false.
Trump voiced support multiple times, even preceding the invasion, such as in his 2000 book “The America We Deserve” and a 2002 interview with Howard Stern in which he said, “Yeah, I guess so. I wish the first time it was done correctly.”
Trump first criticized the war in 2004, about a year after it began.
During that 2004 interview with Esquire, Trump remarked,
My life is seeing everything in terms of “How would I handle that?” Look at the war in Iraq and the mess that we’re in. I would never have handled it that way. Does anybody really believe that Iraq is going to be a wonderful democracy where people are going to run down to the voting box and gently put in their ballot and the winner is happily going to step up to lead the county? C’mon. Two minutes after we leave, there’s going to be a revolution, and the meanest, toughest, smartest, most vicious guy will take over. And he’ll have weapons of mass destruction, which Saddam didn’t have.
Trump also argued the point throughout the primary and Presidential debates.
His opponent, Hillary Clinton, expressed regret for her Senate vote for the Iraq War in a 2006 interview, saying, “Obviously, if we knew then what we know now, there wouldn’t have been a vote, and I certainly wouldn’t have voted for it.”
During a news conference, Trump invited a foreign power to intervene in the election while referring to the emails missing from the private server Hillary Clinton had used as Secretary of State. He said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”
The remark was immediately met with condemnation. When later challenged on his remark, he replied, “I’m not going to tell Putin what to do. Why should I tell Putin what to do?”
The Mueller Report later revealed attempts by Russian hackers to breach associated email accounts on the same day. However, the report did not find proof of conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
I think I have the best temperament or certainly one of the best temperaments of anybody that’s ever run for the office of president. Ever. Because I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.
He made similar claims at other campaign rallies and during the debates with Hillary Clinton.
Despite multiple assertions about illegal activities by Hillary Clinton, and his repeated calls to investigate and imprison her, Trump quickly dropped the campaign promise after becoming President-elect.
Trump repeatedly claimed that the 2016 election was rigged, and cast doubt on whether he would accept the results as legitimate. He reiterated this during a debate with Hillary Clinton when asked if he maintained his view on the election.
I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now; I will look at it at the time. What I’ve seen – what I’ve seen is so bad. First of all, the media is so dishonest and so corrupt, and the pile-on is so amazing. The New York Times actually wrote an article about it, but they don’t even care. It’s so dishonest, and they’ve poisoned the minds of the voters. But unfortunately for them, I think the voters are seeing through it.
…
What I’m saying now is that I will tell you at the time. I will keep you in suspense, OK?
Trump later blamed his loss of the popular vote on mass fraud.
Trump long perpetuated the debunked conspiracy, which held that Obama was born in Kenya and ineligible to be President, despite a lack of any evidence. He claimed that he had sent investigators to Hawaii who “cannot believe what they’re finding,” though nothing ever came of it.
In 2011, President Obama released his long-form birth certificate and made fun of Trump’s claims when he attended the 2011 Correspondent’s Dinner.
Obama’s long-form birth certificate
Even after Trump announced his candidacy in 2016, he defended his role in spreading the conspiracy theory against Obama, saying it “resonated with a lot of people,” and that he “doesn’t know, nobody knows” if the long-form birth certificate released was real.
When Trump finally acknowledged that Obama was born in the United States during his 2016 Presidential campaign, he blamed the conspiracy on opponent Hillary Clinton.
As Trump accepted the support of the NRA during the 2016 campaign, he claimed that Clinton was seeking to let violent criminals out of prison and take away the guns of law-abiding citizens.
“Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the second amendment, remember that. We’re not talking about change it, she wants to abolish the second amendment,” Trump alleged. He also claimed that she would “release the violent criminals from jail.”
Although Clinton called for tightening restrictions on guns, she never suggested overturning the Second Amendment or letting violent criminals out of prison.
