Trump twice tweeted a doctored video of Biden playing N.W.A.’s anti-police protest song “F*ck tha Police.” The account that originally posted the video that Trump retweeted was suspended.
Since 1978, first-term presidents held ceremonies in the East Room to unveil the portraits of their immediate predecessors. Trump, who long accused the Obama administration of illegally spying, broke the four-decade-long tradition and refused to unveil Obama’s presidential portrait. Reports said that the Obama family also had little interest in attending any such event.
2012 unveiling ceremony of Bush’s portrait. Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson
In an August 26, 2020 interview with The Washington Examiner, Trump claimed without evidence that his Democrat opponent for the 2020 election was taking performance-enhancing drugs.
He repeated the claim in a September 11, 2020 interview on Fox News.
He has also called for Biden to be tested for drugs on Twitter.
I will be strongly demanding a Drug Test of Sleepy Joe Biden prior to, or after, the Debate on Tuesday night. Naturally, I will agree to take one also. His Debate performances have been record setting UNEVEN, to put it mildly. Only drugs could have caused this discrepancy???
Sleepy Joe Biden has spent 47 years in politics being terrible to Hispanics. Now he is relying on Castro lover Bernie Sanders to help him out. That won’t work! Remember, Miami Cubans gave me the highly honored Bay of Pigs Award for all I have done for our great Cuban Population!
The award in question was a hand-painted of the Brigade 2506 shield, which Trump received in 2016 during a visit to Miami’s Bay of Pigs museum. Brigade 2506 was the CIA-sponsored group of Cuban exiles formed to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government.
Trump receiving a plaque of the Brigade 2506 shield in 2016. @TrumpWarRoom
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, alleged that Trump made a variety of racist remarks. While driving through a struggling Chicago neighborhood, Trump commented that “only the blacks could live this way.” Trump went on to say that they wouldn’t vote for him to be President because of their stupidity.
An Atlantic report from September, 2020 revealed that, while in France, Trump refused to visit a cemetery of American soldiers from World War I. It was raining, and Trump reportedly didn’t want to get his hair, wet, something he has voiced concern about elsewhere. During the trip, Trump remarked, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation he referred to them as “suckers.” Publicly, Trump claimed that he couldn’t visit the cemetery because of extremely poor weather, though other major political figures like the President of France were able to attend.
The Atlantic report also noted that Trump refused to lend any support to late US Senator John McCain’s funeral, and was angered that flags were flown at half-staff, saying, “What the f-ck are we doing that for? Guy was a f-cking loser.” Trump famously said he didn’t consider McCain a war hero because he was captured, and attacked him repeatedly for his vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Senior Defense officials also confirmed the accuracy of the Atlantic article to the Associated Press. They also noted that during a 2017 visit to the Arlington Cemetery Trump asked his then-Chief of Staff, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”
Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin also confirmed some details of the Atlantic story, but could not confirm the specific point on “suckers” and “losers.” Still, Trump called for her to be fired for her reporting on claims made.
In August of 2020, tapes of Maryanne Trump Barry discussing her brother, Donald, were leaked. Mary Trump, Donald’s niece, recorded 15 hours of her talks with Barry in 2018 and 2019 for her book, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man, published in July.
Throughout the released tapes, Maryanne is only critical of her younger brother, Donald:
…his goddamned Tweet and the lying. Oh my God. I’m talking too freely, but you know. And the change of stories, the lack of preparation, the lying, the holy sh*t.
Maryanne went on to call Trump a “brat,” and discuss how he paid someone to take his entrance exams for college:
In another tape, Marryane stated that Donald “has no principles,” and disparaged his border policy:
Trump’s response was, “Every day it’s something else, who cares. I miss my brother, and I’ll continue to work hard for the American people. Not everyone agrees, but the results are obvious. Our country will soon be stronger than ever before!”
Maryanne Trump Barry. American Legal News
Maryanne was a federal judge until 2019. She was appointed by Reagan to the District Court of New Jersey and by Clinton to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. She resigned amid a probe into whether she and her siblings engaged in in fraud to limit the tax liability of their inheritance. Because the investigation in her instance only sought to determine whether she’d violated judicial conduct rules, it concluded with her resignation.
In an August 11, 2020 interview with Fox Sports personality and OutKick founder Clay Travis, Trump suggested that men were insulted at Biden’s decision to choose a female candidate to run as Vice President.
TRUMP: Well, I think that I would be inclined to go a different route than what he’s done, doing it the way he, first of all, he roped himself into a certain group of people, which is fine.
TRAVIS: He said he had to pick a woman.
TRUMP: He said that. Some people would say that men are insulted by that. Some people would say it’s fine. I don’t know.
When asked how he viewed US Representative for Georgia and civil rights figure John Lewis’ legacy after his death, Trump remarked:
He didn’t come to my inauguration; he didn’t come to my State of the Union speeches—and that’s okay, that’s his right. Again, nobody has done more for Black Americans than I have.
John Lewis, a major figure in the US Civil Rights Movement, was among the main organizers of the March on Washington in which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Lewis died on July 17, 2020 of pancreatic cancer.
John Lewis (left) and Martin Luther King Jr. (right) march from Memphis to Jackson, Mississippi. (Harry Benson / Contour / Getty)
In the same interview with Axios, Trump again dismissed ongoing concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic and record deaths in the United States.
In June 2020, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis wrote an op-ed titled “In Union there is Strength” in which he attacked Trump’s handling of ongoing protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police.
Mattis specifically referenced Trump and what he considered to be a failure of leadership:
Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. …We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s “better angels,” and listen to them, as we work to unite.
Mattis also commented on Trump’s handling of ongoing protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police:
At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict—a false conflict—between the military and civilian society.
Trump responded via tweet, calling Mattis “the world’s most overrated general.”
…His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life, things to do, and battles to win, but he seldom “brought home the bacon”. I didn’t like his “leadership” style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!
