Brunswick Beacon, 11.24.22
When Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump paid no federal income tax, Trump said: “That makes me smart.” Trump has a history of being “smart” with other people’s money.
When Trump University students sued him for fraud and racketeering, Trump settled for $25 million. When prosecutors discovered his supposed “charity” was “little more than a checkbook to serve Trump’s business and political interests,” Trump coughed up millions more and disbanded the Trump Foundation.
When Trump took $250 million from donors for a non-existent “election defense fund” he instead funneled the money to his businesses and political action committee. “The big lie was also a big rip-off,” said Jan. 6 Committee member Zoe Lofgren.
In September, New York sued Trump for a years-long financial fraud that “falsely inflated his net worth by billions” on financial statements to get better loan and insurance deals and avoid taxes. Trump’s business is on trial now for a different 15-year tax fraud scheme.
Last week we learned that six foreign governments spent more than $3.75 million at Trump’s hotel, including $750,000 while conducting sensitive discussions with Trump. Two days after their 2018 stay, Trump approved $1.3 billion in arms sales to the Saudis. Afterwards, Saudi’s Crown Prince invested $2 Billion with Trump’s son-in-law’s newly formed investment firm.
During this election, contributors gave Trump money believing they were helping elect MAGA-Republicans. Trump kept $94 million intended for candidates he picked who crashed and burned nationwide. Facing a December runoff, Herschel Walker asked Trump to stop keeping 90% of the money he’s raising under the pretense of helping Walker.
Ignoring pleas to wait, Trump just announced another presidential run. He told associates he needs the presidency to shut down the many criminal investigations against him. His long-time fixer Michael Cohen calls his campaign a “grift” because Trump treats contributions like a “slush fund.”
Maybe “MAGA” means “Make America Grift Again.”
Joanne Levitan
Leland