As a person who fell for Trump's con in 2016 ...

[ItsjustMe]

Link to tweet

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin'

[Hugin]

2. There was plenty of evidence everything Trump was a con well before 2016.

Yet, he fell for it.

[Wounded Bear]

4. I believe it dates back to the 80's at least...

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Sounds Right

Last edited Fri Sep 9, 2022, 05:37 PM - Edit history (1)

Maybe his daddy's tax scam, of which TFG was a part in the 70s was the first clue they were all 3 card monte dealers.
Went like this: For 8 years, took top line revenue and lent it to TFG. At the time, revenues converted to assets were not taxed until the loan was paid. Except little Donnie's "loans" had no payment terms & open ended timelines..
Nobody pays taxes on borrowed money, so nobody ever pays the taxes. Fast forward to when TFG takes over the company and the loans are forgiven. The future company takes a loss and pays lower taxes on higher future revenues.
They ran this scam for 8 years, totaling $54 million, NOT adjusted for inflation. By the time TFG took over the firm, the first $3 million, professionally managed, would have been worth $18 million plus the $12 million the last year. Around $120 million, no taxes ever paid.
By 2016, that would be over a billion dollars.
TFG would have been an ACTUAL billionaire by doing nothing!
Yeah, he wasted that, but that doesn't change that the whole thing started as a tax con.

[dameatball]

12. In a nutshell for my simple mind. Thank you.

[grantcart]

15. Mad Magazine nailed him in1992

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ei9bku3WAAMK7rn?format=jpg

[ificandream]

25. Doonesbury started going after him in 1987.

Gary Trudeau's book, "Yuge," opens with a cartoon from 1987.

[grantcart]

36. Yesterday I had a client who is a 73 year old Mexican widowed recently from a 93 year old Trumper

She was elegant and he was fairly well off (his first wife and son inherited 1 million)

Her home was well appointed but had a lot of African art; figurines, paintings even a faux tiger skin chair.

I asked her if she had spent some time in Africa she said no but while she disliked all politicians, US and Mexican, she loved Obama so while she wouldn't talk to her husband about politics, every couple of months she would order another African art piece. Eventually her living room was filled with African art pieces.

It was a subversive way to irritate her husband about his racism without saying a word.

She said that he was a kind man and a good husband in every way but he just lost his mind about politics and she couldn't understand how any intelligent person could like Trump, she instantly hated him when he had a show where "the only point was to fire someone, nobody really won anything, it was just about firing people". She said that his only son only came by three times in 20 years and when he died all he said on the phone was "Oh thanks, talk to you later". She said that he never even sent flowers. I told her "you know why?" "No" "He's a Republican". She laughed in agreement.

I exchanged some more stories and she said that she still had her husband's ashes but didn't know where to put them I told her that until she decided she should store them in an African Urn. She laughed until tears came out.

"Oh I couldn't do that to him".

But as I left I could see a little twinkle in her eyes and as I got to my car I couldn't help but wonder if someone was googling "African Urns".

[calimary]

42. That reminds me of the set when limbaugh briefly had a TV show.

The set was wall-to-wall books. His books. Stacks of them across the entire stage. Literally a wall of books, floor-to-ceiling.

Make me wonder if he had his sponsors buy all those books to push him into bestseller status.

[pazzyanne]

21. ''Maybe his daddy's tax scam, of which TFG was a part in the 70s was the first clue...''

Spot on! This is when I first became aware of trump's illegal dealings. Also the time I became aware of the trump's mob connections.

[Mr.Bill]

19. I think Trump was

cheating at board games when he was six. If you think about it, there was probably a kid in your neighborhood who was like that. And that kid is the answer to the question "Who would vote for a con man like Trump?" That kid admires Trump and wishes he was like him.

[CaptainTruth]

18. Yep, look at his condo cons in Tampa & Baja CA.

Put together impressive presentations about the beautiful Trump condos he was going to build, took buyer's money, & never built a damn thing.

Buyers had to sue him to get any money back & he forced settlements with an NDA so his victims couldn't talk about what they got in the settlement.

Sound familiar?

That was easy to find on Google in 2015-2016, including interviews with some of the victims, yet people still voted for him when he was a proven con man.

Un-freaking-believable.

[allegorical oracle]

35. Yeah, wondered when I read your header, "umm what Tampa condo?" Then I read your

text. I worked in Tampa and believe me, there wasn't enough room for the egos of both George Steinbrenner AND Donald Trump.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. How could anyone have fallen for it?

[jimfields33]

6. Saddest part is he got even more votes in 2020.

That’s astonishing to me.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Agreed!

After witnessing 4 years, day by day, people didn't run away by the millions.
How could that be?
Also, he had a 38% approval but got nearly 48% of the PV.
That's quite the disconnect, too.

[Meadowoak]

23. I think there was a bit of cheating on the Trump side.

[ProfessorGAC]

24. Probably So

But, I would have expected the vote to be barely above approval, not 27% (relative) above it.
Yeah, i think they cheated. The biggest driver of TFG's tantrum is that they thought THEY had it rigged.
The turnout surprised them, completely.
I don't think they had it rigged enough for that many added votes. A half-million? A million? But, not that many.

[Meadowoak]

26. They underestimated the Biden vote. And didn't cheat enough..

They probably estimated Biden would get 60-65 million votes.

[ProfessorGAC]

28. I Buy That

And, they weren't worried about the PV, because they didn't get it the 1st time.
Everything was based on continuing the non-plurailty win tactic.
Just squeak by in enough states to steal another EC win.
They didn't anticipate 23 million votes than in '16.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_United_States_presidential_elections

[questionseverything]

29. That's why we have to vote in huge numbers

To overcome the rig

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Total Agreement

[pazzyanne]

22. Sad! nt

[D_Master81]

43. A lot of conservatives coming home

I know several people personally that voted 3rd party in 2016 thinking he wasn’t a “true conservative” that voted Trump in 2020 once they trusted him. They also say they’ll vote for him again but are leaning towards wanting DeSantis to run instead.

[czarjak]

5. Thank, David. (Will reserve the the to say I told you so though) Because!

[lindysalsagal]

7. Best. Ad. Ever.

[iluvtennis]

10. KnR. n/t

[Demobrat]

11. Most of his supporters will just double down.

As good as it feels and as true as it is, calling them suckers probably won’t change too many minds.

[bullimiami]

13. you can fool some of the people all of the time...

[Emile]

14. You would really have to be a sucker to

follow this con man!

[LoisB]

16. Come into the light.

[Glaisne]

17. Good on you David!

For not being suckered the second time. As they say, fool me once, shame on you, fool me a second time, shame on me.

[Wednesdays]

27. "Fool me once...

...shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
-- Dumbya

[kacekwl]

20. Well David its IMO harder to admit

you fell for it and after all that we've seen, heard and learned you failed to believe your lying eyes and ears and continued to fall for it. Glad you came to your senses, welcome back to reality and hopefully sanity.

[CatWoman]

30. It was Sarah Silverman who brought this guy around

Link to tweet

[Hermit-The-Prog]

32. The 1st Edition of SPY Magazine in 1986

[Cha]

33. Boom!

TY!

[orleans]

34. from that twitter thread

[DoUListenWhenUHear]

39. LOVE THIS!

Absolutely LOVE this! It is soooo true. The man was compromised from the very start and did nothing to really hide that from anyone. The Russians had started funding all of his projects for years before he finally decided to run. Trump couldn't help but gush over his master Putin for being such a great person to see how incredible Trump was. Did anyone think in 2016 when the only input in what should be added/changed to the GOP's platform that Trump offered was to completely change the GOP's position from backing Ukrainians against Russian invasion forces to basically us ignoring anything Russia did was actually Trump's idea? That he came up with that strategy himself? I believe I read that 17 different intelligence agencies from countries around the world warned us that they were hearing the Russians talking a lot about Trump around 2015. He was the most compromised candidate to ever run for President... and was the most compromised President to ever be elected.

[calimary]

41. This graphic boils it all down to basics.

Of the worst kind.

[brewens]

37. I was not conned and voted for Clinton, but had one crazy idea about TFG.

I had this idea that he might throw other billionaires under the bus for his own benefit. I thought he might raise taxes on them and do everything he could to help working people while cashing in himself in every possible way. Hell, I might have even not been so unhappy with him if he had just done that.

The guy could have had his wall and everything else if he had a clue.

[hamsterjill]

38. I can't believe anyone could have ever been stupid enough

To fall for Trump’s con game. I’m glad some are waking up, but anyone who couldn’t see what Trump was LONG before 2016 is just a dumbass as far as I’m concerned.

The evidence of the fact that Trump is and always has been a grifter and a con man has been overwhelming for decades.

[mackdaddy]

40. Back in the 80s I would leave on Fluff shows like ET after the evening news. (before cable)

And Trump was big and boisterous and would end up on a lot of these shows being run from NYC.

But trump was and obvious carnival barker shit stain even back then.

I never truly understood how many people love being lied to if it is something they are convinced they want to hear. I would never have imagined this many people would fall for Trump's daily lie turds and greedily swallow them whole.

So I was a never trumper since the mid 80s at least.

[murielm99]

44. Good for you!

[NullTuples]

45. Love the vocal tone shift at 0:20

It provokes an almost subconscious reaction. Well done!