Martin Dyckman: With ‘colossal liar’ Donald Trump, nightmares could become reality
Donald Trump has audacious proposals to wall off Mexico and bar Muslim immigrants, but he hasn’t said how he would stop people from sneaking around the barriers or overstaying visas. How might he manage that? Let’s surmise one way. He could be planning to implant every lawful resident with an identification chip like those the veterinarian offers to your dog or cat. The process is relatively painless and doesn’t cost much. Newborns and legitimate visitors would be first. Others would have their turn in order to renew their drivers’ licenses, receive a tax refund, or show up to vote. Strategically placed surveillance devices would detect people without chips to be held for questioning. “We have no choice,” he would say. Stop. Roll back. This is fiction. I have absolutely no evidence that anything of the sort has occurred even to Trump. Identity chips have been the fantasy only of some folks on the far right who enjoy suspecting that their own government is out to get them. They’re probably huge Trump fans. They’re susceptible to believing anything bad about their country’s leadership, and that’s what he trades on. They’d better be careful, though. With Trump, one of their nightmares could become reality. As Trump himself would say, who knows? Stop. Roll back. I say again, this is fiction. But it’s no more false, fanciful or outrageous than the paranoid fables that Trump persistently passes off as casually as you or I might say, “How’s it going today?” After the slaughter at Orlando, Trump had the gall to imply that President Obama was somehow responsible. Proof? “There’s something going on,” Trump said. That’s not proof. He prepared for his campaign by flogging the birther nonsense even after all but a few certifiable lunatics had accepted the redundant evidence of Barack Obama’s native-born citizenship. He has been digging into his party’s dry-as-dust Benghazi well by charging that Hillary Clinton was asleep rather than answering the phone when the American consulate was under attack. That’s a takeoff on her campaign question, “Who do you want in the White House when the phone rings at 3 a.m.?” The trouble with Trump’s attempt to exploit Benghazi in that regard is that while the assault took place at nighttime in Libya, it was full daylight in the United States. The secretary of state was not napping. After verifying that she was in her Washington office, PolitiFact rated Trump’s claim “false.” Pressed repeatedly on the insinuation, Trump finally admitted on NBC News that it might not be true. “It happened all during the day and was going on for a long period of time — it was going on for a long period of time and she was asleep at the wheel, whether she was sleeping or not, who knows if she was sleeping?” he said. Who knows? If such speculative claptrap is legitimate politicking, here are a few other possibilities: Is Trump insane? Who knows? Does he maintain a secret harem somewhere? Who knows? Does he have a fortune stashed in Russian banks, and is that why he’s refusing to divulge his income tax returns? Who knows? Trump continues to remind us that the Republican Party is about to nominate, for the most important office in the world, someone who doesn’t care even in the slightest whether there’s any truth to what he says. He is a deliberate liar who’s as eager to deceive everyone in the same way he took advantage of people expecting to learn something useful from the so-called Trump University. The lesson that most learned was to not be swindled again. And when Trump accuses Clinton of being the most corrupt presidential candidate ever, she must know what it’s like to be called ugly by a frog. Trump should look in the mirror. He is as corrupt, if not more so, than any individual who has ever run for any office in the United States. To tell lies and willfully repeat them after they have been exposed is a profound form of corruption. To lure hard-working Americans into seminars on the premise that they will learn to be rich and then stiff them for ever-costlier upgrades they can’t afford is a profound form of corruption. To habitually take corporations into bankruptcy, enriching oneself while leaving creditors and investors with little or nothing, is corruption. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, once can be the failure of good intentions. But at the old saying goes, “Fool me once, your fault. Fool me twice, my fault.” The presidency of the United States — the leadership of the free world — is not on the order of a gambling casino or a golf course. We don’t dare be fooled even once. Especially not by so colossal a liar as Donald Trump. ___ Martin Dyckman is a retired associate editor of the newspaper now known as the Tampa Bay Times. He lives in suburban Asheville, North Carolina.
Business promotion and politics par for Donald Trump’s golf tour
Donald Trump moved from hole to hole on his wind-swept Scotland golf course Saturday, not a club in hand but promotion on his mind, extolling North Sea views that are among “the great sights of the world.” He squeezed in commentary about the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union and Hillary Clinton‘s tax policies. And when the abbreviated tour of Trump International Golf Links ended at the clubhouse, Trump ditched the pack of reporters trampling on his fairways, hopped into the driver’s seat of a golf cart and gave media mogul Rupert Murdoch and wife Jerry Hall a ride around the property. Business, with a wedge of politics, was par for the day. A Trump scorecard by hole: —On the 10th fairway, he said Texas wouldn’t take a cue from the U.K. and try to secede. “Texas will never do that because Texas loves me.” —On the 13th green, he said fixing the United States would be like repairing a golf course. “It’s not so different, it’s just bigger.” —On the 14th green, he boasted about overcoming some local opposition to building the course. “I am good at getting things zoned.” —On the 18th tee, he warned scrambling reporters: “Don’t fall! I don’t want to be sued.” Trump’s appearance at the course outside Aberdeen was the final event of his two-day tour of his golf resorts in Scotland. While the timing of the trip was not linked to Thursday’s referendum, the U.K.’s surprising vote dominated the questioning of the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president. Trump has cheered the outcome and tried to play down American fears about it. The U.S. stock market and global markets plunged Friday after the “leave” side won. “Americans are very much different. This shouldn’t even affect them. I mean frankly, if it’s done properly, if we had proper leadership,” Trump said moments after emerging from his helicopter on the 10th fairway. When pressed about the stock market drop that has caused Americans to fret about retirement plans and savings, Trump suggested that Wall Street was actually worried about President Barack Obama‘s economic policies and the U.S. debt. Trump has linked the nationalist fervor behind the “leave” vote to the forces driving his own campaign. He shrugged off the criticism he received for saying that if the value of the British pound falls, more people would spend money at his courses. “I don’t want to have a plummeting pound,” Trump said. “But if it does plummet, I do well. And if it does well, I do well. I do well in any case.” Trump also muddied the waters about his call for a temporary ban on foreign Muslims from entering the United States. Trump, in a speech this month, added a new element, saying he favors suspending immigration from parts of the world where there is proven history of terrorism against the U.S. and its allies. On Saturday, he said it “wouldn’t bother me” if a Muslim from Scotland tried to enter the U.S. Then, he suggested to reporters that “strong vetting,” and not a ban, would be an essential part of his immigration policy. Spokeswoman Hope Hicks later clarified that Trump’s position has not changed since the speech. The scene outside Aberdeen, a day after Trump reopened a course on Scotland’s opposite coast, again highlighted the unprecedented co-mingling between the candidate’s business and campaign, as well as his ability to create a made-for-TV spectacle. Aides originally said Trump would not talk to reporters. Then they said he would only discuss the golf course. Trump had other ideas. He ended up holding court at four separate holes. Reporters piled into golf carts and ran along fairways to keep up. The roving news conferences doubled as an advertisement for the course, which despite its stark beauty, has failed to live up to Trump’s lofty promises. Trump has claimed to Scottish authorities that he lost money on the course, and it has yet to host a major tournament. He has fought local authorities over a proposed wind farm and the preservation of the dunes that line the course. Though Trump boasted he won his zoning battles with the town, the owners of two houses that line the course remain unbowed. As a protest of Trump’s immigration proposals, which include building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, each flew a Mexican flag that could be easily spotted from the course’s clubhouse. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
