There were regular anti-Trump protests in the Bay Area from the 2016 election until about May 2017, and I posted my pictures from some of them under Trump is a dangerously stupid, racist, sexist, fascist liar: part 1.
Live protests died down after that, but you could still work online. Leading up to the 2020 election, I consolidated four years of Facebook posts into a week of posts, which I now present as "Trump is a dangerously stupid, racist, sexist, fascist liar: part 2."
Donald Trump is corrupt.
The week after Trump was inaugurated, he raised the cost of memberships at his Mar-a-Lago resort from $100,000 to $200,000, to profit from and sell access to the presidency. He also takes payments from foreign governments, via his hotel.
Trump promised to "absolutely" release his tax returns like every previous president, but that was a straight-up lie, and almost four years into his presidency he is still refusing to release them. The New York Times uncovered many of his returns this year, which showed that he's an incompetent businessman who loses so much money that he pays no taxes most years.
Trump has also sued to prevent the release of his information from his biggest creditor, Deutsche Bank. Trump personally owes Deutsche Bank more than $360 million, and it's a dangerous conflict of interest for the president to owe a foreign organization millions of dollars. But in addition, Deutsche Bank admits to laundering billions in Russian money, and "anti-money laundering specialists in the bank detected what appeared to be suspicious transactions involving entities controlled by Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner" including "money moving from Kushner Companies to Russian individuals."
Going the other way, buying politicians instead of being bought himself, Trump has publicly bragged about buying politicians. For instance, at a televised 2015 Republican primary debate, he said he'd bought most of the other candidates on the stage. Only Marco Rubio and John Kasich denied it - amazingly, complaining that Trump hadn't given them money.
Trump's personal circle is also corrupt. His former lawyer Michael Cohen and his former advisor and friend Roger Stone are convicted felons. Another extraordinary example is former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was impeached in 2009 for trying to sell the Senate seat that Barack Obama vacated, and was sent to prison. Trump commuted his sentence earlier this year, saying that Blagojevic had been on Trump's Celebrity Apprentice and "seemed like a very nice person."
The Trump administration is also corrupt. For instance, Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former national security advisor Michael Flynn are convicted felons, and Trump's campaign CEO Steve Bannon was arrested in August for "conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering."
Trump has moved to cover up corruption in his administration. Trump fired U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara for investigating his Health Secretary Tom Price, for pushing legislation that benefited companies that he traded in. Trump fired four investigators general, whose job is to seek out fraud and criminal activity in government. These included State Department inspector general Steve Linick, who was investigating illegal arms sales to Saudi Arabia by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Trump is going to "drain the swamp"? Grow up.
Donald Trump is a draft dodger - his doctor faked a "bone spurs" diagnosis so he could evade the draft during the Vietnam war.
More recently, Trump 'cancelled a visit to pay respects at an American military cemetery outside Paris in 2018 because he thought the dead soldiers were "losers" and "suckers" and did not want the rain to mess up his hair.'
Did Trump really call American war dead "losers"? Absolutely - he made similar comments about Vietnam war hero John McCain in 2015: "He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." Later in 2018, he said he wouldn't support McCain's funeral because McCain was a "fucking loser."
It's sad and telling that Republicans overwhelmingly support Donald Trump (85% Republican support), a draft dodger who called American war dead losers, but turned on John McCain (41% Republican support), an actual American war hero.
Trump sexually assaulted 19 women, including E. Jean Carroll, who he raped in a department store in the mid-1990s, and many other women who described forced kissing and fondling.
Did Trump do it? Yes, he openly bragged about assaulting women in the infamous Access Hollywood tape, saying "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything….Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."
Trump bragged about hitting on a married woman in the same tape, saying "I moved on her, and I failed. I'll admit it. I did try and fuck her, she was married….I moved on her like a bitch. I couldn't get there and she was married."
Trump was also out screwing porn stars while his wife Melania was home with their newborn baby Barron. Trump married Melania in 2005 and their boy Barron was born in 2006. That same year, 2006, Trump had affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playmate Karen McDougal, who was with Trump "many dozens of times."
For Stormy Daniels, "Trump's spokespersons have denied the affair and accused Daniels of lying" but in 2016 "Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in hush money to deny that she had an affair with Trump a decade earlier in 2006." For Karen McDougal, American Media Inc. (AMI), owner of the National Enquirer, bought the rights to her story for $150,000, but then buried it in a "catch and kill" attempt to keep it secret. Trump and Cohen discussed repaying AMI the money in a recording that surfaced later. Cohen is now in prison on charges stemming from the hush money payments, including violating campaign finance laws at Trump's direction.
Are Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal lying? No - judge for yourself by watching their interviews, linked below. Is Trump lying? Yes - he's a deer in the headlights as he lies about the Stormy Daniels payment, in the video linked below.
Trump was also friends with and supported pedophiles. He was the "wingman" of Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire who was arrested for sex trafficking underage girls and committed suicide in prison. Trump said: "I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life." Trump explicitly supported pedophile Roy Moore for Senator from Alabama, even as the wider Republican party abandoned Moore in droves.
Generally Trump is a misogynist. He called Rosie O'Donnell and other women "fat pigs." After Fox News' Megyn Kelly asked him about the comments at a presidential debate, he attacked Kelly by referring to her menstruation saying, "There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever." He talked about his own daughter Ivanka in "crude and demeaning ways," including calling her a "piece of ass." He 'publicly shamed a former beauty queen...for her "disgusting" sexual past and then — in one of presidential history's more bizarre moments — encouraged Americans to watch a "sex tape" he said would support his case.' He said his Republican primary opponent Carly Fiorina was too ugly to vote for.
After all this, evangelical Christians and other Republicans distanced themselves from Trump, right? No, as I write this, Trump's job approval among Republicans is 95%.
Donald Trump is a racist.
As a racist, Trump is probably best known for calling Mexicans rapists at his campaign kickoff in 2015, and for calling white supremacists "very fine people" after the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017. Similarly at the first 2020 presidential debate, Trump refused to tell the white supremacist group Proud Boys to "stand down," and instead told them to "stand by." Holy shit.
But don't forget Trump's birther lie that the first African-American president, Barack Obama, wasn't born in the United States - a racist dog whistle. Before that, in 1989, Trump took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the execution of the Central Park Five, African-Americans who were falsely accused of killing a white woman. In the ad, Trump said that "I want to hate these muggers and murderers." Before that, in 1973 and again in 1978, the US Department of Justice sued Trump for "discrimination against African Americans in their renting practices." During that time, 'Elyse Goldweber, the Justice Department lawyer tasked with taking Trump's deposition, has stated that during a coffee break Trump said to her directly, "You know, you don't want to live with them either."'
Even some Republicans have called out Trump's racism. In response to Trump's Unite the Right comments, former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush issued a joint statement saying "America must always reject racial bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred in all forms." Paul Ryan said that a comment Trump made about "an Indiana-born judge with Mexican heritage" was "the textbook definition of a racist comment." Colin Powell called out Trump as a racist and liar, among many other things, on State of the Union with Jake Tapper.
Even some in Trump's own administration say Trump is a racist. Trump's current White House Press Secretary, Kayleigh McEnany called him out as a "hateful" "racist" after he called Mexicans rapists. Elizabeth Neumann, a former official in Trump's DHS, said "The fact that he continues to not be able to just point-blank say, 'I condemn White supremacy.' It boggles the mind."
Trump surrounds himself with other racists. Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, refused to simply say "black lives matter" in a television interview. Trump's first Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, was called out as a racist by Coretta Scott King. Trump supporter Roseanne Barr was forced off her own show after repeatedly calling black Obama officials "apes."
The wider Republican party is also racist. Conservative David Brooks said: "...Donald Trump is playing for the white identity party...can we side with a guy who's constantly dragging us into racial identity politics over and over again in a way that becomes offensive. I've been a conservative for over thirty years, going to all these magazines. I never used to hear racial stuff at conservative gatherings. But now it's suddenly become very hard to be a Republican and not be somehow associated with something racially reprehensible."
A simple look at the Republican party is also damning. If you look at the House Democrats' face page, it's representative of the country, whereas the House Republicans' page looks like an apartheid party. As I write this, William Hurd is the only black Republican in the House, and he isn't running for re-election on Tuesday. Similarly, Trump's White House interns also look like an apartheid party.
Donald Trump is dangerously stupid.
Trump's own people have said it. Trump's former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called him a "moron," while Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, former chief of staff Reince Priebus, and former Chief of Staff John Kelly all called Trump "an idiot." 'Former economic adviser Gary Cohn said Trump was "dumb as shit."' Trump's former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis 'said Trump had the understanding of "a fifth- or sixth-grader" while his former campaign CEO Steve Bannon said he was "like an 11-year-old child."
More specifically though, Trump has dangerously stupid opinions on COVID, global warming, and nuclear proliferation, among other things.
On the virus, Trump ridicules masks and social distancing. As a result, Stanford researchers say that Trump's own campaign rallies, where people don't wear masks or socially distance, have caused 30,000 cases of coronavirus and 800 deaths.
Trump said the virus would "miraculously" go away, but he soon became sick himself, and many around him also tested positive, including his wife Melania, Chris Christie, Hope Hicks, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, and Kellyanne Conway.
Incredibly, Trump suggested treating coronavirus by injecting disinfectant, a poison, which led to a spike in calls to emergency hotlines and poison control centers in Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee, Illinois, and New York City. Health experts said that would be "dangerous and lethal" and Lysol had to issue "a warning against use of its products internally."
Trump also attacks his own experts at the NIH and CDC because medical fact doesn't align with his campaign lies. Trump called Anthony Fauchi, the head of his own Coronavirus Task Force, an "idiot" and a "disaster." But in fact, Fauchi is "one of the world's leading experts on infectious diseases" and "one of the most trusted medical figures in the United States," and AIDS activist Larry Kramer called Fauchi the "the only true and great hero" of the AIDS crisis. This contrasts strongly with a moron (again, Rex Tillerson's word) who tells people to inject disinfectant.
Trump also stopped funding the World Health Organization during the crisis. Bill Gates, whose foundation works to shape global health policy, said Trump's decision was "as dangerous as it sounds" and tweeted that WHO's "work is slowing the spread of Covid-19 and if that work is stopped no other organization can replace them. The world needs @WHO now more than ever."
On climate change, scientists at NASA, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Medical Association are unanimous that climate change is dangerous and man-made. But Trump stupidly tweeted "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."
Trump also started the United States withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change mitigation. Scientists condemned the move, including Stephen Hawking, who said Trump's decision "will cause avoidable environmental damage to our beautiful planet, endangering the natural world, for us and our children." Others were less diplomatic, with Bill McKibben (who wrote the first book on climate change) calling the move "a stupid and reckless decision—our nation's dumbest act since launching the war in Iraq."'
On nuclear proliferation, Trump stupidly encouraged nuclear proliferation, saying "let it be an arms race" with Russia and saying that Japan (history's only victim of a nuclear attack) should develop nuclear weapons. Incredibly, Trump refused to rule out a nuclear attack on Europe, nearly all of which are NATO allies we're sworn to defend.
Trump is also a conspiracy theorist. He believes that Ted Cruz's father helped assassinate JFK based on a story from the National Enquirer, the most ridiculed grocery store tabloid in America. Trump said: "This was a magazine that, in many respects, should be well respected....I mean if that was The New York Times, they would have gotten Pulitzer Prizes for their reporting."
The people around Trump are also dangerously stupid. He appointed idiot Rick Perry to head the Department of Energy, when Perry was already infamous for not knowing what the Department of Energy did or even remembering its name. Trump appointed his HUD secretary, Ben Carson, just a few days after Carson himself argued he was unqualified to run a major organization. Even Trump's wife Melania was caught obviously plagiarizing swaths of her Republican convention speech from Michelle Obama's Democratic convention speech eight years before.
Bragging about his Ivy League education, Trump infamously said, "I know words, I have the best words."
Donald Trump is a pathological liar.
First, Trump's own people say he lies. Trump's sister Maryanne said, "His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God....The lies. Holy shit." Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly said that "The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life."
Trump also surrounds himself with liars and they lie as an Orwellian political strategy. Trump's former counselor Kellyanne Conway told Chuck Todd on Meet the Press that she was giving "alternative facts" when she was caught describing a massacre that never happened. Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph Giulini said (again to Chuck Todd) that "truth isn't truth," which is literally Orwellian. Trump's campaign CEO Steve Bannon said "The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit."
And then, some specific lies. Right now Trump has dangerous lies about COVID and the election on the front burner.
On COVID, Trump has regularly lied for the last two months saying the country is "rounding the corner" on the pandemic, when in fact cases have been sharply rising. He lied yesterday saying that COVID deaths are exaggerated because "doctors get more money if someone dies from COVID."
On the election, Trump has lied warning of a "rigged" election and attacking mail-in voting as fraudulent, creating a story to fight the election result when he loses. In the days after the election, he'll lie saying mail-in votes being counted after election day aren't valid. In 2017, he said that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote because millions of illegal immigrants voted, which is a lie.
And then other ongoing lies:
Donald Trump is a fascist.
Donald Trump said at the 2016 presidential debates that he would imprison his political rival Hillary Clinton if he won. In October 2020, he called on his Attorney General Bill Barr to imprison his rivals Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton for "treason." Threatening to imprison your political opponents is textbook fascism, and strikes at the country more directly than anything else Trump has done. Similarly, Trump attacking the election, refusing to surrender power peacefully, and calling the press the "enemy of the people" are textbook fascism. Trump supporters: you're supporting a straight-up fascist.