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A recent letter to the editor in The News-Gazette implored
that Donald Trump be given a chance.
I believe everyone should be given a chance.
But when does that chance begin? Does it have an expiration date? And how many chances does one get to prove his or her character?
In 1973, the Justice Department accused Trump and his father of violating the Fair Housing Act with their properties, alleging that Trump’s corporation quoted different rental terms and conditions and made false “no vacancy” statements to African Americans for apartments it managed in New York. The issue was resolved when father and son signed a consent decree.
Trump has never apologized or even commented on the complaint.
In the 1980s Trump became interested in owning casinos in Atlantic City. A t one time he owned three. They never equaled the profits of the casinos in Las Vegas and eventually folded.
Personally, Trump always managed to make money, but he did so stiffing his contractors by withholding full payment for their work and milking the casinos for his salary and personal expenses. T he investors and bankers foolishly hung on trying to forestall a total loss of their money by accepting multiple bankruptcies.
Documentation of his casino failures and lack of legitimate business acumen is offered by numerous sources online.
On April 9, 1989, dozens of innercity teenagers took to Central Park and violently attacked people. One woman was brutally raped, severely beaten and left comatose.
Trump made his first foray into fanning the outrage of people with a letter he paid four New York newspapers to run where he called for the death penalty.
Five young men were convicted of the rape but exonerated in 2002 when newly developed DNA evidence proved they were not involved and the lone assailant, then in prison, confessed to the crime.
The case became a prominent example of racial profiling, discrimination, and inequality in the legal system and the media. Lawsuits awarded $41 million to the five men. Trump never apologized for stoking the fires of vengeance.
“The Apprentice” became another Trump ego booster. Trump’s catchphrase “You’re fired!” delivered with cruel and demeaning delight was all I needed to see the sadistic pleasures that Trump got lording power over people.
Along the way he had to make restitution to the people he bilked with “Trump University.”
In 2019 a New York judge ordered then President Trump “to pay $2 million to an array of charities as a fine for misusing his own charitable foundation to further his own political and business interest.” He also had to accept “restrictions on his involvement in other charitable organizations.”
Since entering politics, there has been a flood of questionable utterances and behaviors.
There was the “Hollywood Access tape” from 2005 where Trump describes his attempt to seduce a married woman and brags about his entitlement to grope women.
While running for the Republican nomination, Trump told supporters at rallies to punch out protestors, saying he’d pay for their lawyers. At a New Hampshire rally he told supporters to throw one man out “but keep his coat because it’s cold outside.”
As the 45th president Trump insulted POWs (his heroes don’t get caught) and service personnel who died fighting for the country (suckers).
During the COVID-19 epidemic 1 to 1.3 million Americans died, while Trump downplayed the danger and theorized that injecting bleach might be a cure!
Jan. 6, 2021, he sent a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol to thwart the process of validating the electoral vote for Joe Biden. Police officers were brutally beaten.
As the 47th president Trump pardoned every one of those rioters (so much for “Defend the Police”!) and is now going after anyone remotely connected to all the past investigations into his misconduct.
He’s even going after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who refused to give Trump dirt on Joe Biden. Trump tried to extort such bogus information with the implicit threat of curtailing U.S. aid.
Trump lies and says Zelenskyy started the war!
There’s so much more, but… How many chances should Trump get to assail our common sense and our Constitution?
Even today he is wreaking revenge on anyone in government who was connected to investigations of his actions.
Geopolitically, Trump is taking the side of Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. He’s dismantling the Federal government and placing his lackeys in positions of power.
He is striving to extinguish the light of “the shining city upon a hill” that Ronald Reagan saw as the American mission in the world.
Donald Trump doesn’t deserve any more chances. He’s now playing with house money: the power of our government. I t is the f uture of our country, and the free world, that he is willing to fritter away.
To his supporters: Don’t try to make Donald Trump’s case. That’s for him to do, just as it is mine and everyone else’s when we wrong somebody. He’s already insulted you when he declared he could shoot someone on the streets of New York and not lose your s upport! H e b elieves any lie told with bravado and frequency is easily believed by his supporters.
The case to be made is how one can reconcile that support with Trump’s behavior. We all see and hear the same things. How can we differ so on their meaning?
Trump was not the victim of his birth, his religion, his ethnicity, or a low spot on the economic ladder. He was born white and rich. To give him a clean slate is to give him, undeservedly, the level playing field of diversity, equality, and inclusion he strives to end for those who do deserve it.
