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The failure of Donald J Trump to post a bond for the $466 million fraud fine judgement against him has confirmed what many have suspected for some time. Trump is a fake billionaire. He does not have access to this kind of money because his properties are already mortgaged to the hilt. The more concerning matter is the fact that the pretty useless American rules of standing for the highest office in the land have no provision for candidates in massive debt. How stupid is this! Apparently, you can become President of the United States owing huge amounts of money to all and sundry. You can owe hundreds of millions to foreign powers – no problem. The American system is a joke!
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Trump As Massive Debtor Free To Run For President
There are so many holes in the way things operate for the most eminent and powerful it is a travesty. Laws of the land are only for poor and powerless people, it seems. Who went to jail over the January 6th insurrection? Oh yeah, the ordinary schmucks. Who didn’t? Donald Trump and the politicians. Election interference? Nobody important has been prosecuted yet. Now, that the elected Republicans are largely made up of totally disreputable individuals the justice system is mute and impotent because the political side of things overrides everything else. Liars in Congress fill the benches everywhere you look. Margorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, and Nancy Mace are indicative of the rot that has set in on the GOP side of things.
“Now consider the Republican brand for the 2024 presidential cycle. Voters’ perceptions of what the party stands for are based on coverage or exposure to Republican officials who generate the most media attention. By that metric, the Grand Old Party’s modern brand is toxic to at least half the electorate.”
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Fake Billionaire Fermenting Further Trouble For America
Politics has long been a circus in the US but it has reached the level of a freak show in 2024. The system no longer functions the way it was designed to do so. Donald Trump is making damn sure of that. Dysfunction breeds the fertile ground for fascism and totalitarian regimes. This is part of the GOP plan for America – the country has been betrayed by its right wing party. A fake billionaire is pulling the strings of the party of big business. Americans vote traditionally for the party and the leader who will make them more money. They buy into the stories told them of the dangers of socialism and helping those less fortunate. Many Americans embrace an iconic narrative around hard-nosed individualism. This is despite the leg-up they get from family and their privileged positions in society.
Voting For A Crook
Voting for a crook appears not to phase many on the Right. Laws do not apply to our guy! This is the motto of the new toxic Republican party. The justice system is fine and good when it is prosecuting our enemies – those lefty liberals. Trump remember, began his time in office in 2016, attacking any media criticism of himself as fake news. He established the muddy swamp of disinformation – a climate where folk do not know what to believe. Putin has done the same in Russia for many years. Muddy the waters and sew confusion is the name of the game. Social media serves this purpose mightily. The fake billionaire sits atop his pile of highly leveraged assets and shouts loudly to the world about his wealth and power.
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The Trump Appeal
The appeal of Trump seems to be in the mould of Archie Bunker from the TV sitcom All In The Family. A loud mouthed old white guy spouting off non-stop with entertaining BS. Obviously, a great affection exists for this American archetype in the collective consciousness of the nation. Trump adds some fake billionaire pizazz to the mix – old fat white guy with trophy wife on arm. There is nothing too subtle about his appeal to the American public – he gets their attention and makes them laugh a little by saying outrageous things. Trump mines the politics of grievance by blaming convenient touchstones of ‘the other’ for all their problems. White supremacy get served up again as everyone non-white gets the blame for the evils in the world. Illegal refugees flooding the country cried Trump and the GOP. Gay people and trans folk cop it, of course, for being different. Uppity women are an age old target too. Throw in Jews for good measure. Poisoning the blood of the nation! Everything woke is bad but nobody listening actually knows what the word means – it has become a catch-all pejorative for anything liberal and left leaning.
Trump is a fake billionaire and now owes a further $93 million to Swiss company Chubb. America will not allow someone born outside of America to run for President but it’s fine to be incumbent to a foreign power for lots of money. Where is the independence and agency in that situation? America needs to wake up fast. Trump is destroying the democratic system upon which the republic is based. He has exposed the many holes in the setup. There are already far too many unanswered questions about Trump’s relationship to Vladimir Putin and Russia. America matters to the world and watching it slide into dysfunction and autocracy is abhorrent.
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of America Matters: Pre-apocalyptic Posts & Essays in the Shadow of Trump.
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