boasted about genes and invoked “racehorse theory”?

Throughout his life, and into his presidency, Trump voiced his belief that genes allowed for inherent superiority of some over others. He has invoked “racehorse theory” in relation to these beliefs, referencing the selective breeding of horses.

He reiterated these beliefs at a Minnesota rally on September 18, 2020:

This state was pioneered by men and women who braved the wilderness and the winters to build a better life for themselves and for their families. They were tough, and they were strong. You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it’s about the genes isn’t it, don’t you believe? The racehorse theory you think was so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.

The application of “racehorse theory” to people is known as eugenics, which has been the motivation behind a wide swath of crimes against humanity, from forced sterilizations to genocide.

While Trump frequently claimed that his genes were largely responsible for his skills and success, over $400 million was inherited by Trump using various tax evasion schemes, and one of his former professors referred to him as “the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.”

Time – Donald Trump Loves to Talk About His ‘Good Genes’
Business Insider – Trump told a crowd of nearly all white supporters that they have ‘good genes’
The Daily Beast – Trump Rambles About ‘Good Genes’ and ‘Racehorse Theory’ at Minnesota Campaign Rally

was called a liar and a brat with no principles by his sister?

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, former Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
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.

The Washington Post – In secretly recorded audio, President Trump’s sister says he has ‘no principles’ and ‘you can’t trust him’
USA Today – ‘He has no principles. None’: Maryanne Trump Barry tears into her brother in secretly taped audio
Axios – Trump’s sister says “you can’t trust him” in audio leaked to WashPost
Newsweek – Trump Says ‘Every Day It’s Something Else, Who Cares’ to Sister’s Secret Audio Recording
American Legal News – Maryanne Trump Barry Resigns in Face of Ethics Investigation
Wikipedia – Maryanne Trump Barry

used pseudonyms to discuss himself with the press?

In 2016, audio resurfaced of a phone call to the media by John Miller, who claimed to be Trump’s publicists. It was noted, however, that his voice and speech patterns closely resembled those of Trump himself.

In the call, Miller said Trump was doing “tremendously well financially,” and despite there being several famous women who wanted to date him, including Carla Bruni and Madonna, “he treated his wife well and…he will treat Marla well.” Marla Maples was Trump’s second wife before their divorce and his marriage with Melania.

Trump has also accused of using another pseudonym, John Barron, to speak about himself to the media. Calling himself “vice-president of the Trump organization,” the name John Barron is first noted in the defense of Trump’s decision to destroy sculptures on the facade of a Manhattan building that was demolished for the construction of Trump Tower. Michael D’Antonio, the biographer to whom Trump said his temperament remained unchained since the first grade, noted that “John Barron was a way for Trump to talk himself up.” Trump later named his fifth child with third wife Melania “Barron.”

Trump vehemently denied the claims, saying in a Today interview. “It doesn’t sound like me on the phone, I will tell you that. And it was not me on the phone.” However, in a 1990 court case Trump testified, “I believe on occasion I used that name.”

Trump also appeared to pen a letter bragging of his relationship with women under another pseudonym, Carolin Gallego.

The Washington Post – Donald Trump masqueraded as publicist to brag about himself
The Washington Post – The amazing story of Donald Trump’s old spokesman, John Barron — who was actually Donald Trump himself
The New Yorker – Donald Trump and the “John Miller” Tape: A Question of Character
Vice – Remembering John Barron, Donald Trump’s ‘Spokesman’ Alter Ego
Today – Donald Trump denies posing as spokesman in recordings Washington Post uncovered
Wikipedia – Pseudonyms of Donald Trump

used a fake name to boast about his relationship with women in a NY Mag article?

In a 1992 issue of New York Magazine, a letter was published in defense of Donald Trump and his relationship with women.

Based on the fact that I work for Donald Trump as his secretary—and therefore know him well—I think he treats women with great respect, contrary to what Julie Baumgold implied in her article … I do not believe any man in America gets more calls from women wanting to see him, meet him, or go out with him. The most beautiful women, the most successful women—all women love Donald Trump.

Carolin Gallego December 7, 1992

No record of a Carolin Gallego in the employ of Trump has been found, and longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen said he’d never heard of her. The similarity between the letter and Trump’s own speech pattern has been noted by journalists and commentators.

Trump also used the pseudonyms John Miller and John Barron when speaking with the press.

Washingtonian – Carolin Gallego Wrote a 1992 Letter Saying Women Love Donald Trump. We’re Having Trouble Finding Her
Wikipedia – Pseudonyms of Donald Trump

attacked late night hosts and comedy shows?

Before and after taking office, Trump has attacked a variety of comedians and late night hosts, including Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, and Bill Maher.

Many late night hosts were happy to address the comments on their shows.

He also has attacked Saturday Night Live multiple times, though claiming that he doesn’t watch it. He referred to their anti-Republican bias as “the real Collusion” and was voiced his frustration that they would spend so much time attacking his administration “without retribution.” He suggested that the Federal Election Commission and Federal Communications Commission investigate.

Unsurprisingly, this also drew more attention from SNL and late night hosts.

Trump has also taken specific aim at Alec Baldwin for his impression of Trump on Saturday Night Live:

Michelle Wolfe was also mentioned several times for her comments during the 2018 White House Correspondent’s Dinner, which were derided as being too vulgar and inappropriate. Trump has refused to attend any Correspondent’s Dinner since becoming President, and was famously roasted by Obama and Seth Meyers at the 2015 Correspondent’s Dinner.

Newsweek – Trump Wants ‘Retribution’ Against SNL and Critical News, Calling Media ‘Enemy of the People’
USA Today – Trump sounds off on ‘no talent’ late-night hosts; Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert fire back

was named as a co-conspirator in campaign finance felonies by Michael Cohen?

Michael Cohen was Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer for over a decade. Cohen pleaded guilty to eight counts of campaign finance violations and tax evasion regarding a payment of $130,000 in hush money to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, with whom Trump had an affair.

Michael Cohen headshot.jpg
Michael Cohen / Wikipedia

Expenditures in defense of a candidate’s political outcome can be considered campaign contributions, subject to laws that bar corporate donations and establish donation limits. After acting as an intermediary for the payment to Stormy Daniels, Cohen filed fake invoices to Trump’s company.

As part of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, Cohen’s home and office were raided in April 2018 by the FBI. In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to 8 counts of tax evasion, bank fraud, and campaign finance violations. He later pleaded guilty to an additional count of lying to a Senate and House Intelligence Committees regarding the proposed Trump Hotel Moscow.

In February 2019, Cohen asserted that all he had done was at Trump’s direction. While his testimony was colored by his previous lie to Congress, Cohen claimed that he then only sought to tell the truth as he was no longer working to defend the President.

Last fall I pled guilty in federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with Individual Number 1. And for the record, Individual Number 1 is President Donald J. Trump.

Cohen’s attorney, Lanny J. Davis, noted that Cohen had committed his felonies at the request of Trump to influence the election: “He stood up and testified under oath that Donald Trump directed him to commit a crime by making payments to two women for the principal purpose of influencing an election. If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?”

Trump said he never directed Cohen to do anything illegal.

Rudy Giuliani, who was added to Trump’s legal team, admitted in a Fox News interview that Trump repaid the money to Cohen. However, he defended it by saying it wasn’t campaign money, and so there was no campaign finance law violation on Trump’s behalf. He also indicated that Trump was aware of the payment from the beginning, though Trump had repeatedly denied any knowledge of Stormy Daniels or the $130,000 in hush money.

It’s not campaign money. No campaign finance violations…[it was] funneled through a law firm, and the President repaid it.

…everybody was nervous about this from the very beginning. I wasn’t. I knew how much money Donald Trump put into that campaign. I said $130,000? You’re gonna do a couple checks for $130,000. When I heard Cohen’s retainer of $35,000, when he was doing no work for the President, I said that’s how he’s repaying, that’s how, how he’s repaying it. With a little profit and a little margin for paying taxes for Michael.

[Trump] didn’t know about the specifics of it.

For pleading guilty to the following counts, Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison, along with fines, asset forfeiture, and disbarment:

  • 5 counts of tax evasion
  • 1 count of making false statements to a financial institution
  • 1 count of willfully causing an unlawful corporate contribution
  • 1 count of making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate or campaign
  • 1 count of making false statements to a congressional committee

AP News – Cohen pleads guilty, implicates Trump in hush-money scheme
The New York Times – Prosecutors Say Trump Directed Illegal Payments During Campaign
The New York Times – Michael Cohen Says He Arranged Payments to Women at Trump’s Direction
The New York Times – Trump Improvises New Defense in Hush Money Payments

Wikipedia – Michael Cohen (lawyer)

said “I always felt I was in the military”?

Trump told his biographer that he “always felt that I was in the military” because of his time at New York Military Academy, a boarding school he had been sent to in his youth. He explained that he’d received “more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”

While Trump received five draft deferments for Vietnam, he still explained that, “I felt that I was in the military in the true sense because I dealt with those people.” He has also told the same biographer that his temperament had not much changed since he was in the first grade.

The New York Times – Donald Trump Likens His Schooling to Military Service in Book
Business Insider – Donald Trump: ‘I always felt that I was in the military’ by attending a military school
Snopes – Donald Trump Compared Prep School to Military Service?

recounted how he was too disgusted at the sight of a man bleeding to death to help?

During an interview with Howard Stern in 2008, Trump explained his aversion to blood with a story about when he saw an elderly man fall during a charity ball at Mar-a-Lago.

I was at Mar-a-Lago and we had this incredible ball, the Red Cross Ball, in Palm Beach, Florida. And we had the Marines. And the Marines were there, and it was terrible because all these rich people, they’re there to support the Marines, but they’re really there to get their picture in the Palm Beach Post

 

So you have all these really rich people, and a man, about 80 years old—very wealthy man, a lot of people didn’t like him—he fell off the stage. So what happens is, this guy falls off right on his face, hits his head, and I thought he died. And you know what I did? I said, ‘Oh my God, that’s disgusting,’ and I turned away. I couldn’t, you know, he was right in front of me and I turned away. I didn’t want to touch him… he’s bleeding all over the place, I felt terrible. You know, beautiful marble floor, didn’t look like it. It changed color. Became very red. And you have this poor guy, 80 years old, laying on the floor unconscious, and all the rich people are turning away. ‘Oh my God! This is terrible! This is disgusting!’ and you know, they’re turning away. Nobody wants to help the guy. His wife is screaming—she’s sitting right next to him, and she’s screaming.

 

What happens is, these 10 Marines from the back of the room… they come running forward, they grab him, they put the blood all over the place—it’s all over their uniforms—they’re taking it, they’re swiping [it], they ran him out, they created a stretcher. They call it a human stretcher, where they put their arms out with, like, five guys on each side. I was saying, ‘Get that blood cleaned up! It’s disgusting!’ The next day, I forgot to call [the man] to say he’s OK. It’s just not my thing.”

The Daily Beast – The Time Donald Trump Turned Away in Disgust While a Man Was Bleeding to Death in Front of Him
Metro – Trump once turned away in disgust when he saw a man bleeding to death on the floor

claimed that he had opposed the Iraq War “from the beginning”?

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.”

Esquire – Donald Trump: How I’d Run the Country (Better)
CNN – Fact check: Trump falsely claims, again, to have opposed the invasion of Iraq
Snopes – Was Trump Against the Iraq War from the Beginning?
Politifact – Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton and authorizing the war in Iraq 

discussed his germophobia?

A former campaign official recalled, “If you’re the perpetrator of a cough or of a sneeze or any kind of thing that makes you look sick, you get that look. “You get the scowl.” When acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney started coughing during an interview, Trump said, “I don’t like that, you know. I don’t like that. If you’re going to cough, please, leave the room.”

Across multiple interviews with Howard Stern, he said he likes to wash his hands “as many times as possible,”

Trump has also said he likes fast food for it’s “cleanliness,” always uses a straw for his drink to avoid “contamination,” prefers steak well-done with ketchup, and uses utensils to eat fried chicken.

Politico – The Purell presidency: Trump aides learn the president’s real red line
Newsweek – Trump says he is scared of germs and needs to drink from a straw to avoid contamination
The Independent – Donald Trump admits ‘I have germ phobia’ in Howard Stern interview
CNN – Donald Trump really likes fast food

 

More assuredly to come soon

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