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| Porn Users Forum » WHY DOESN'T POTUS ARREST BILL CLINTON, HILARY CLINTON, AND OBAMA? |
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| 10-10-18 08:58pm - 2265 days | #1251 | |
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Loki (0)
Active User  Posts: 395 Registered: Jun 13, '07 Location: California |
The whole Kavanaugh confirmation process descended immediately into partisan camps based on feelings and not evidence. The FBI should feel ashamed at doing such a cursory investigation in this matter. Dr. Ford's lawyers had a list of twenty people they wanted the FBI to interview, and the FBI didn't interview any of them. The FBI didn't interview Kavanaugh or Ford. Who did they interview? Why did the FBI, who's motto is Fidelity--Bravery--Integrity, allow itself to be humiliated and made a partisan tool? Part of the toolbox of autocrats is diminishing public trust in any institutions that the autocrat doesn't control--a free press, an independent judiciary, and law enforcement being very frequent targets. "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself." | |
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| 10-11-18 08:16am - 2264 days | #1252 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I agree that the FBI should feel ashamed to be used as a political tool. But even though the ideal FBI is a non-partisan investigative body, the FBI is under the control of the Attorney General (part of the White House). Supposedly both the Senate and the Attorney General had the power to direct the FBI investigation: its scope and time limit. The White House said the FBI probe will be full and impartial. It imposed no limits on the FBI investigation. That was a lie. The Director of the FBI, Chris Wray, said the White House ordered the FBI to investigate Brett Kavanaugh, and that the scope was limited (also saying that the scope was “consistent with the standard process for such investigations.” Which is legalese double-speak for saying "We're just following orders." Which is why it did not investigate many witnesses who were available and anxious to testify that Brett Kavanaugh lied under oath. The FBI was told not to investigate whether Brett Kavanauagh lied under oath. So, in theory, the FBI was just following orders. And being a tool of partisan politics: not in finding the truth, but in a shameful coverup that allowed Republicans to say how fair and wonderful they were, and still confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. | |
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| 10-11-18 08:34am - 2264 days | #1253 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: The White House blasts the FBI for spreading fake news. The White House stands by its previous statements: The White House said the FBI probe will be full and impartial. It imposed no limits on the FBI investigation. If Chris Wray, that drunk, incompetent head of the corrupt FBI, said the investigation into Brett Kavanaugh was flawed, that was the result of the FBI's corrupt and incompetent leaders. The White House ordered a full and fair investigation into Kavanaugh, and they wanted the truth exposed. The truth was exposed: Brett Kavanaugh is a great man, a fine jurist, and he deserves his post on the Supreme Court. If the FBI wants to spread lies that Kavanaugh is not the finest man we could find, the FBI needs to be investigated for lies and corruption and possible graft. We need to clean the swamp in Washington, starting with the FBI and any other government institutions that try to bring down trust in Donald Trump, the most glorious, heroic president of the United States we've ever had. Hail Trump, Glorious Leader for Life of the United States of Trumpland. | |
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| 10-12-18 08:52am - 2263 days | #1254 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Melania is a strong woman. She ignores rumors of Trump's infidelities. All she is concerned about is Trump's bank balance. And since she is only his wife, and not his financial planner, she does not have access to the secret codes that would allow her to check Trump's financial condition. Remember the pre-nup, fellows. So, unless a well-wisher mails her a hard copy of Trump in bed with one of his part-time floosies, Melania is sticking by her man. And even if she did get her hands on a few tapes showing her husband in bed with other women, she might decide to stick with him anyway: for a higher price, naturally. Melania, a woman with a high moral code: She's with the MeToo Movement, but warns women not to complain about rape unless they have hard evidence to back up their stories. That's not a problem with Melania, since she has a separate bedroom from her husband. And she has secret service and photographers that protect her from being grabbed by the pussy by strangers. Melania, candidate for Times Woman of the Year Award. ------ ------ Melania Trump says she ignores rumors of Trump's infidelity The Associated Press DINO HAZELL Oct 12th 2018 9:48AM WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump says she loves President Donald Trump and has "much more important things to think about" than allegations he cheated on her with a porn star, a Playboy Playmate or anyone else. Mrs. Trump, who was interviewed by ABC while touring Africa last week, said people are just spreading rumors about her marriage. "I know people like to speculate and media like to speculate about our marriage and circulate the gossip," she said. "But I understand the gossip sells newspapers, magazines ... and, unfortunately, we live in this kind of world today." She insisted allegations of her husband's infidelities are not a concern. SEE ALSO: Melania Trump: Women accusing men should 'show the evidence' Trump, who during the 2016 presidential campaign was heard on an old "Access Hollywood" tape talking about groping and try to have sex with women, has been accused of having multiple affairs. Porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal have said they had sex with him years ago. Trump has denied the trysts with Daniels and McDougal but has acknowledged reimbursing his lawyer for a $130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels. Mrs. Trump has generally kept quiet on the subject. Asked in the ABC interview if she loves her husband, Mrs. Trump said, "Yes, we are fine. Yes." She played down a suggestion the repeated rumors of his philandering had put a strain on their marriage. "It is not concern and focus of mine," she said. "I'm a mother and a first lady, and I have much more important things to think about and to do." But when she was asked if the repeated rumors had hurt her, she paused. Then she reiterated the "media world is speculating." "Yeah, it's not always pleasant, of course," she said. "But I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true and not true." Portions of Mrs. Trump's interview aired Friday on "Good Morning America." Her full interview is set to air Friday night in an ABC News special, "Being Melania — The First Lady." Other portions of the interview aired earlier this week featured Mrs. Trump saying she could be "the most bullied person" in the world and saying women who make accusations of sexual assault need to "show the evidence." Donald Trump, on the 2005 "Access Hollywood" tape that became public during the 2016 campaign, says when he's attracted to beautiful women, "I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet." He said when you're a star, women let you. "Grab them by the p----," Trump adds. "You can do anything." Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in August to campaign finance violations alleging he, Trump and the National Enquirer tabloid were involved in buying the silence of Daniels and McDougal after they alleged affairs with Trump. | |
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| 10-12-18 01:32pm - 2263 days | #1255 | |
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Loki (0)
Active User Posts: 395 Registered: Jun 13, '07 Location: California |
Melania Trump says "I know what is right and what is wrong and what is true and not true." Puts her head and shoulders above her husband. "A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself." | |
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| 10-13-18 10:24am - 2262 days | #1256 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news from the shadows of the Dark Department. Trump vows severe punishment if Jamal Khashoggi is not returned. This is part of Trump's plan to discredit newsmen and journalists everywhere. Trump plotted with Saudi Arabia to have Jamal Khashoggi killed. But he denies his involvement, saying the Saudis alone are responsible. Everyone who has read the news for the last few years knows that Trump is an enemy of newspapers and journalists throughout the world. So why would Trump care if one journalist is killed? He doesn't. He wants the mass destruction of newsmen and journalists in the United States. So that Trump can establish, with the leadership of Fox News, the New Nazi Uber News, where real news by Donald Trump will be shown and told to the entire US population. Hail Donald Trump, Uber Nazi of the Moral Majority for a White America. ------ ------ Trump vows ‘severe punishment’ if Saudis involved in Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance HuffPost US Lee Moran Oct 13th 2018 10:22AM President Donald Trump has warned there will be “severe punishment” if Saudi Arabia is discovered to be responsible for the disappearance and possible death of U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist has not been seen since entering the Saudi consulate in Turkey earlier this month. He was known to be critical of Saudi policies and Turkish authorities claim he was killed inside the building. “Nobody knows yet” if Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi authorities, Trump told “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl in a preview clip released online Saturday ahead of the interview’s full broadcast on CBS Sunday night. Trump said the incident was “being investigated” and “being looked at very very strongly” and that the U.S. “would be very upset and angry if that (Saudi involvement) was the case.” “As of this moment, they deny it and deny it vehemently,” he added. “Could it be them? Yes.” Trump refused to reveal whether he would impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia if its involvement was confirmed. “There are other ways of punishing, to use a word that’s a pretty harsh word, but it’s true,” he told Stahl. “There’s a lot at stake, and maybe especially so because this man was a reporter,” added Trump, who in the U.S. has repeatedly described CNN as “fake news” and journalists as “enemies of the people.” “You’ll be surprised to hear me say that, but there’s something really terrible and disgusting about that if that were,” he added.“We’re going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 10-13-18 11:15am - 2262 days | #1257 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump vows ‘severe punishment’ if Saudis involved in Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance. However, Trump also believes you are innocent until proven guilty. With no hard evidence that Jamal Khashoggi was abducted or killed, then the Saudis are innocent. Go, Trump, maker of real facts, real emotions, real cons. Trump fights for everyone, including African Americans, those people from shithole countries. African Americans should turn to the Republican party, who will fight for their rights. Trump will also fight for the rights of Muslims, Women, and other minorities. Trump, the hero of the American dream. | |
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| 10-14-18 08:36am - 2261 days | #1258 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump vows to punish Saudi Arabia over journalist. Saudi Arabia vows to retaliate. Can Saudi Arabia set off nuclear bombs in the heartland of the United States? Trump must destroy Saudi Arabia with megaton devices that will strike terror into the hearts of Muslims everywhere. Trump, Neo-Nazi leader of the US, must not bow down to the Muslim threat. And if Trump has a few nuclear devices left over, maybe he should bomb Democratic strongholds in New York and New Jersey. Bomb those scum-bag traitors to hell and back. ------ ------ Last Update 17 mins ago Saudi Arabia vows to retaliate if Trump follows through on 'severe punishment' threat over Khashoggi Gregg Re Investigation continues into disappearance of Saudi writer Trump vows 'severe punishment' if Saudi Arabia is behind disappearance of missing columnist; insight on 'America's News HQ.' The government of Saudi Arabia on Sunday vowed to retaliate with "greater action" if the Trump administration punishes the country for the apparently preplanned murder of a dissident earlier this month inside its Turkish Embassy. Jamal Khashoggi, who wrote columns in the Washington Post critical of the Saudi government, entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul October 2 and disappeared. Trump has said the U.S. would be “very upset and angry” if the Saudi government was behind it and, in an interview with "60 Minutes," he clarified that there would be "severe punishment." "The Kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats and attempts to undermine it, whether by waving economic sanctions, using political pressure, or repeating false accusations," the country said in a statement released by the Saudi Press Agency. "The Kingdom also affirms that if it receives any action, it will respond with greater action, [and] that the Kingdom's economy has an influential and vital role in the global economy," the statement continues. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is still scheduled to appear at the Oct. 23 Future Investment Initiative in Saudi Arabia, a massive conference also called the "Davos in the Desert," White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told "Fox News Sunday." Citing the journalist's murder, several officials and media companies have pulled out of the conference, which is meant to showcase Saudi Arabia's growing prominence on the world stage. "That meeting .... is about terrorists’ financing and how to stop it – it’s a very important meeting," Kudlow said. He added: "If Khashoggi was harmed, [Trump] will take action. ... When the president speaks, when the president warns, people should take him at his word. Obviously, he is very, very serious." Asked whether Saudi Arabia could hurt the U.S. by leveraging its oil reserves, Kudlow said he didn't see major risks. "We are in pretty good shape, in my opinion, with our energy boom, to cover any shortfalls," he told host Chris Wallace. "When the president warns, people should take him at his word. Obviously, he is very, very serious." — White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow Trump has said he probably will not cancel a $110 billion arms deal with the Saudi government, arguing that killing the arrangement would harm the U.S. unnecessarily. Speaking to CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio defended Trump's decision, saying Saudi Arabia would simply buy arms from another source if the U.S. cut them off -- and that the U.S. would lose its leverage over the country in the process. Rubio added that the issue didn't come down to money. "There's not enough money in the world for us to buy back our credibility on human rights," he said. Turkish officials have told their American counterparts that they have audio and video recordings that prove Khashoggi was murdered inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month, the Post reported late Thursday. The recordings would represent the first hard evidence to support the Ankara government's contention that a 15-member "assassination squad" apprehended Khashoggi after he entered the consulate, then killed him and dismembered his body. REPORT: TURKISH OFFICIALS HAVE APPLE WATCH RECORDING OF JOURNALIST'S APPARENT MURDER IN CONSULATE Turkish officials have reportedly balked at releasing the recordings out of fear it would compromise intelligence methods. A Turkish newspaper reported that Khashoggi's Apple watch may have recorded his last moments. Report: Saudi officials tried to lure Jamal Khashoggi backVideo Turkish media, including sources close to the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have previously claimed that Saudi royal guards, intelligence officers, soldiers and an autopsy expert had been part of the team flown in on the day Khashoggi vanished. Meanwhile, senior members of Congress are pushing to cancel arms sales and sanction those found responsible. Several Republicans and Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter to President Trump requesting he “make a determination on the imposition of sanctions … with respect to any foreign person responsible for such a violation related to Mr. Khashoggi.” The letter triggered an investigation under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. That requires the administration to sanction those found responsible of a gross violation of human rights against someone exercising freedom of expression. The State Department called the bipartisan effort premature. Turkish media release video of suspected Saudi hit squadVideo “We don’t know the facts of this case just yet. So I think they’re getting ahead of themselves at this point,” said Heather Nauert, the State Department’s spokesperson. “We will watch the situation very carefully, very closely, wait for the facts to come out, and then we’ll get there.” The president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, has a relationship with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the heir to the Saudi throne. President Trump chose Saudi Arabia as his first foreign destination as president. Fox News' Rich Edsen and The Associated Press contributed to this report. | |
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| 10-14-18 05:02pm - 2261 days | #1259 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump confesses: I love everyone. Even my enemies. My Secretary of Defense is a traitor. He is a secret Democrat. Why did I leave him in my cabinet? I'm just too nice to people. Defense Secretary Mattis may be leaving soon. I wish him luck, because he's not the sort of man that can be hired by anyone with integrity. -------- -------- USA TODAY President Trump says Defense Secretary Mattis is 'sort of a Democrat' and may leave Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY Published 10:32 a.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018 | Updated 6:33 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018 WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump described his defense secretary as "sort of a Democrat" and said he may leave the administration after the midterm elections in an interview airing on "60 Minutes" Sunday. "He may leave," Trump said of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, according to an interview excerpt released by CBS News. "I mean, at some point, everybody leaves. Everybody. People leave. That's Washington." The New York Times reported last month that Trump may have soured on Mattis. In addition to thinking that Mattis is a Democrat at heart, The Times said, Trump doesn't like being unfavorably compared to Mattis. For his part, the defense secretary has said Trump acts as if he has the understanding of a fifth- or sixth-grader, according to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward's recently published book "Fear." Asked if he wants Mattis gone, Trump told 60 Minutes that he has a "very good relationship" with the defense secretary, whom he called a "good guy." But, Trump said, "it could be" that Mattis is leaving. "I think he's sort of a Democrat, if you want to know the truth," Trump said. After his first year in office, Trump's administration already had the highest rate of turnover among White House staff in decades, according to the Brookings Institution. The latest high-profile figure to announce her departure was Nikki Haley, Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, who is stepping down at the end of the year. | |
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| 10-14-18 06:27pm - 2261 days | #1260 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump says the fate of the missing journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, will be known in the not too distant future. Is Trump talking through his asshole? Can he get the FBI to investigate? Are FBI investigations worth shit? The FBI investigated Brett Kavanaugh, and gave him a clean bill of health. This was in spite of former classmates who were willing to testify that Kavanaugh lied to the Senate. This was in spite of the accusations by women who claimed Kavanaugh molested them. The FBI did not bother to interview most of these witnesses. So the FBI is either incompetent, corrupt, or both. Maybe the CIA can investigate. Are CIA investigations worth reading? Trump seems to believe he knows more than the CIA, and doesn't want to spend a lot of time reading fake CIA reports. But Trump will get to the bottom of this. Trust Trump. A con man who lies out of both sides of his mouth, and some of the lies come out of his asshole. (Pardon the French.) The simplest solution: Bomb the hell out of Saudi Arabia. If any innocent lives are lost, God will sort them out. ------------- ------------- USA TODAY Saudis reject US threats over missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi, warn oil could skyrocket John Bacon, USA TODAY Published 10:55 a.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018 | Updated 8:47 p.m. ET Oct. 14, 2018 Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the disappearance of Washington Post contributing journalist Jamal Khashoggi and warned Sunday that any sanctions against the oil-rich kingdom would be met with "greater action" and possibly exploding oil prices. "The kingdom affirms its total rejection of any threats and attempts to undermine it, whether by threatening to impose economic sanctions, using political pressures or repeating false accusations," the government said in a statement released to Saudi media. "The Kingdom also affirms that if it receives any action, it will respond with greater action." President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia could face "severe punishment" over Khashoggi, feared murdered after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2. Trump's warning dealt a gut punch to the Saudi stock market, which crashed 7 percent Sunday before recovering some of the losses to close down 3.5 percent. During an interview with CBS News' Lesley Stahl, which aired Sunday night on "60 Minutes," Trump said the truth of Khashoggi's fate would be known "in the not-too-distant future." If Saudi Arabia was responsible, Stahl asked, what sanctions might the U.S. put in place? "Well, it depends on what the sanction is," Trump said. "I'll give you an example. They are ordering military equipment. Everybody in the world wanted that order. Russia wanted it, China wanted it, we wanted it. We got it." "So, would you cut that off?" Stahl asked. "I don't want to hurt jobs," Trump said. "I don't want to lose an order like that. There are other ways of — punishing, to use a word that's a pretty harsh word, but it's true." The kingdom's statement warned that the Saudi economy plays an "influential and vital role" in the global economy. Only the United States and Russia produce more oil than Saudi Arabia, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. More: Trump doesn't want to stop arms sales deal with Saudi Arabia More: Trump to call Saudi king over missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi Turki Aldakhil, who leads the Saudi-controlled Al Arabiya television news network, warned Sunday that U.S. sanctions could ignite an "economic disaster that would rock the entire world." "If the price of oil reaching $80 angered President Trump, no one should rule out the price jumping to $100, or $200, or even double that figure," Aldakhil wrote in an opinion piece on the Al Arabiya website. He said the fallout could drive "the entire Muslim world into the arms of Iran." At a news conference Saturday in the Oval Office, the president said "we would be punishing ourselves" by canceling an arms sales deal with Saudi Arabia. He said the United States was competing against China and Russia for the $110 billion deal. Saudi Arabia has worked to diversify its economy by luring foreign investment. The kingdom will host its three-day Future Investment Initiative forum this month. Dubbed "Davos in the Desert," the forum draws government and financial leaders from around the world. Some dropped out as concerns over Khashoggi's fate rose. The president said he planned to speak with Saudi King Salman soon and plans to meet with Khashoggi’s family. Turkey claimed to have audio and video of Khashoggi’s killing. The president said he had not seen or heard the recordings but planned to soon. Khashoggi, a Saudi native and fierce critic of the Saudi ruling family, was living in self-imposed exile when surveillance footage showed him entering – but not leaving – the Saudi consulate. The kingdom vehemently denied killing Khashoggi but provided no explanation for his disappearance. "Their denials ring hollow," John Brennan, former CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia, told NBC's "Meet the Press." "It would be inconceivable that such an operation would be run by the Saudis without the knowledge of the day-to-day decision maker of Saudi Arabia." Suspicions over Khashoggi's fate touched off a firestorm of accusations, criticism and political tension between the United States and its strongest ally in the Middle East. "The truth is that if Washington imposes sanctions on Riyadh, it will stab its own economy to death," Aldakhil wrote. "Even though it thinks that it is stabbing only Riyadh!" | |
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| 10-15-18 01:00am - 2261 days | #1261 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump now says that climate change is not a hoax. Also says that the climate will change back again. With the knowledge of his massive forebrain and hindbrains combined, Trump is probably, almost certainly, the world's foremost scientist, who is constantly analyzing and computing the possibilities of the entire world. So if Trump says that climate change is not a hoax, people can believe in him. And know it's the truth. My guess is that Trump has started investing in climate-change companies, ahead of the crowd. As soon as the crowd starts piling in, Trump will sell at inflated prices. Then Trump businesses will short-sale the climate-change companies. Then he will announce that on further studies, climate change is once again a hoax, and that the climate-change companies are frauds. And Trump will then profit massively as federal funds are withdrawn from the climate-change companies, to be put into the military and the wall between the United States and Mexico. We need a wall to keep out all the rapist and murderous Mexicans who are being smuggled into the US. Or we will die fighting, in the next Alamo. Not only that: Trump now admits that the people in Washington are evil and vicious. "He said the political people in Washington have changed his thinking. "This is the most deceptive, vicious world. It is vicious, it's full of lies, deceit and deception," he said. "You make a deal with somebody and it's like making a deal with — that table." --------- --------- Trump says climate change not a hoax, not sure of its source The Associated Press Oct 14th 2018 8:30PM WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is backing off his claim that climate change is a hoax but says he doesn't know if it's manmade and suggests that the climate will "change back again." In an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday night, Trump said he doesn't want to put the U.S. at a disadvantage in responding to climate change. "I think something's happening. Something's changing and it'll change back again," he said. "I don't think it's a hoax. I think there's probably a difference. But I don't know that it's manmade. I will say this: I don't want to give trillions and trillions of dollars. I don't want to lose millions and millions of jobs." Trump called climate change a hoax in November 2012 when he sent a tweet stating, "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." He later said he was joking about the Chinese connection, but in years since has continued to call global warming a hoax. "I'm not denying climate change," he said in the interview. "But it could very well go back. You know, we're talking about over a ... millions of years." As far as the climate "changing back," temperature records kept by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show that the world hasn't had a cooler-than-average year since 1976 or a cooler-than-normal month since the end of 1985. Trump, who is scheduled on Monday to visit areas of Georgia and Florida damaged by Hurricane Michael, also expressed doubt over scientists' findings linking the changing climate to more powerful hurricanes. "They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael," said Trump, who identified "they" as "people" after being pressed by "60 Minutes" correspondent Leslie Stahl. She asked, "What about the scientists who say it's worse than ever?" the president replied, "You'd have to show me the scientists because they have a very big political agenda." Trump's comments came just days after a Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a warning that global warming would increase climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security and economic growth. The report detailed how Earth's weather, health and ecosystems would be in better shape if the world's leaders could somehow limit future human-caused warming. Citing concerns about the pact's economic impact, Trump said in 2017 that the U.S. will leave the Paris climate accord. The agreement set voluntary greenhouse gas emission targets in an effort to lessen the impact of fossil fuels. On a different topic, Trump told "60 Minutes" that he's been surprised by Washington being a tough, deceptive and divisive place, though some accuse the real estate mogul elected president of those same tactics. "So I always used to say the toughest people are Manhattan real estate guys and blah, blah," he said. "Now I say they're babies." He said the political people in Washington have changed his thinking. "This is the most deceptive, vicious world. It is vicious, it's full of lies, deceit and deception," he said. "You make a deal with somebody and it's like making a deal with — that table." | |
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| 10-16-18 04:30am - 2259 days | #1262 | |
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biker (0)
Active User  Posts: 632 Registered: May 03, '08 Location: milwaukee, wi |
"This is the most deceptive, vicious world", Trump has to be kidding. If he speaks the truth, it is by accident. Everything is the greatest. We have the greatest people, we have the greatest ideas, I've got the greatest mind. Trump is beyond any other narcissist on the face of this world. I would like to take quotes from Trump and Adolf Hitler and ask his devout followers to tell me which quote is his and which is Hitlers. I bet there are some that match damn close. The midterms appear to be favorable, but a lot of damage has already been done. Warning Will Robinson | |
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| 10-17-18 09:54am - 2258 days | #1263 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...r-1990-a7639041.html Donald Trump 'kept book of Adolf Hitler's speeches in his bedside cabinet' In a 1990 interview, the billionaire businessman admitted to owning Nazi leader's 'Mein Kampf' but said he had would never read speeches Benjamin Kentish Monday 20 March 2017 13:27 A friend of Donald Trump said he believed the businessman would find Hitler's writings 'interesting' Donald Trump reportedly owned a copy of Adolf Hitler’s speeches and kept them in his bedside cabinet. A 1990 Vanity Fair article about billionaire businessman stated that Mr Trump’s then wife Ivana, said her husband owned a copy of “My New Order” – a printed collection of the Nazi leader’s speeches. Marie Brenner, the article’s author, wrote: “Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler's collected speeches, 'My New Order', which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. “Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler's speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.” Asked by Ms Brenner about the claim and whether his cousin, John Walter, had given him the book, Mr Trump responded: “Who told you that?" He went on to explain that it was "his friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.” Mr Davis told Vanity Fair: “I did give him a book about Hitler. But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.” Mr Trump, however, denied he would ever read speeches given by Hitler, saying: “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them." Ms Brenner suggested the businessman, who was suffering difficulties with his business at the time, may have been looking for inspiration in Hitler's "genius for propaganda" and the way he spun military defeats as great victories. The article also claimed that John Walter would frequently greet his cousin by saying: “Heil Hitler”. | |
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| 10-17-18 10:15am - 2258 days | #1264 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Learning from their mistakes: The FBI has learned from its investigation into Brett Kavanaugh. The FBI could not locate Brett Kavanaugh to ask him questions about his drinking and possible sexual crimes. They also could not locate the 3 women who accused Brett of sexual crimes. They also could not locate or question the multiple witnesses who knew and associated with Brett in high school and college, who were willing to testify, but the FBI ignored them. So: The FBI has learned from their mistakes. The mayor of San Juan Puerto Rico, who has criticized President Donald Trump for his handling of the relief efforts from the hurrican damage, could be the subject of an FBI investigation for possible fraud. Power to the people. Donald Trump is furious the mayor did not appreciate Trump's efforts to help Puerto Rico. Now she could be charged, if the investigation, which is allowed to go wherever it needs to go (unlike the Brett investigation, which was limited in scope by the White House), if there is any evidence of fraud or obstruction or any other charges the FBI can bring. Hail, Trump, glorious leader of the Moral Majority for a White America. Trump only made one mistake in the investigation: many of the FBI agents were un-armed. If Puerto Rico residents had fired on the FBI agents, how could the FBI agents defend themselves against the Puerto Rico scumbags, who are probably related the Mexican rapists and murderers? Last month, Trump sent a tweet quoting conservative Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, who said Puerto Rico is run by "one of the most corrupt governments in our country." ----- ----- USA TODAY FBI agents raid San Juan, Puerto Rico city offices in fraud, obstruction investigation William Cummings, USA TODAY Published 11:50 a.m. ET Oct. 17, 2018 FBI agents raided the main municipal offices in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday, seizing documents and digital records as part of an investigation into fraud allegations related to the city government. Special agent in charge Douglas Leff said federal investigators are also looking into potential obstruction of the investigation. According to Leff, agents believe documents tied to the reported irregularities in the city's purchasing procedures might have taken from the building or falsified. At least 20, mostly unarmed, agents entered the building carrying briefcases, cameras, electronic equipment and coffee, the Puerto Rican news agency El Nuevo Día reported. The raid was focused on the offices of San Juan's Purchasing Division. When asked if San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz was implicated in the investigation, Leff said, "We have no information about that, but we are going to follow the investigation where it leads us." Cruz tweeted Tuesday morning that she instructed city officials to cooperate with federal authorities. "If someone has done something wrong, they should undergo due process and face the consequences of their actions," Cruz said. Cruz has often sparred with President Donald Trump after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory last year. Their feud was recently rekindled after Trump expressed doubt about research that indicated the hurricane was responsible for nearly 3,000 deaths, a dramatic increase from the previous official death toll of 64. Trump has blamed the slow response to the damage caused by Maria on inefficiencies in the Puerto Rican government. Last month, Trump sent a tweet quoting conservative Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, who said Puerto Rico is run by "one of the most corrupt governments in our country." The fraud investigation was sparked by an anonymous tip to the comptroller's office last year of favoritism in how the mayor's office rewarded contracts, according to El Nuevo Día. The allegation was centered on a $4.7 million contract awarded to construction company BR Solutions. The company is owned by businessman Leonel Pereira O’Neill, who has made political donations to a number of Puerto Rican politicians, including Cruz, El Nuevo Día reported. Leff told reporters that the fraud charges would likely carry a maximum sentence of five years, but he said that could change depending on what the investigation uncovers. | |
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| 10-18-18 06:38am - 2257 days | #1265 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
News summary: President Trump, Commander in Chief of the US military forces, is done talking. He has been reviewing news of illegal migrants making their way to the United States of America. Trump has been talking with his military aides. The aides have assured the President that there are spare nuclear missiles that can be used to stop the illegal caravan. Should the caravan be attacked in Mexico, which would limit damage from radiation fallout for the US? Or should the caravan be nuked at the border: where there would be more precise strikes with the nuclear missiles, but greater collateral damage to US civilians living near the blast areas? Trump has gone below ground in the underground shelters while his military aides struggle with questions of which countries to bomb: bomb Mexico, but also North Korea and maybe China, with a few missiles sent to Russian as a way of distraction? Except Trump's hero, Vladimir Putin, does not want any stray missiles to hit Russia. So Trump and his advisors are planning the best strategies to eliminate the threat of illegal immigrants to the US. Stay tuned for further developments. News flash: This week only, Amazon.com is having a special sale on military riot gear for civilians. Get your AK-47s, kamikaze assault rifles and military spec ammo with a 15% discount now! ------- ------- The Washington Post Trump threatens to summon military to close U.S.-Mexico border in response to migrant caravan By John Wagner and Alex Horton October 18 at 9:16 AM President Trump threatened Thursday to summon the military to close the U.S.-Mexico border and upend a trade deal, expressing mounting frustration with a large caravan of migrants from Honduras that has been making its way toward the United States. In morning tweets, Trump repeated vows to halt U.S. aid to Central American countries that do not disband the caravan and issued a fresh threat to the Mexican government, which said Wednesday that it would treat those in the caravan no differently than it does other migrants. “In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!” Trump said in one tweet. In another, he suggested that the “onslaught” of immigrants could undermine a recently announced reworked trade deal with Mexico and Canada, writing that immigration is “far more important to me, as President, than Trade.” The new deal, which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement, has yet to be signed by the three countries. Congress is not expected to ratify it before next year. His comments come as Trump has been urging fellow Republicans to make immigration a central issue in the closing weeks of their midterm election campaigns and blaming Democrats for his failure to pass immigration legislation in the GOP-controlled Congress. “All Democrats fault for weak laws!” Trump said in one tweet Thursday. The issue of immigration is certain to be on the agenda Friday when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Trump’s frustration appears to stem in part from record levels of migrant parents entering the United States with children in the three months since his administration ended family separations at the border. [Record number of families crossing U.S. border as Trump threatens new crackdown] The Post reported this week that Border Patrol agents arrested 16,658 family members in September, the highest one-month total on record and an 80 percent increase from July, according to unpublished Department of Homeland Security statistics. Trump has made migrant caravans a symbol of all that is wrong with U.S. immigration policies. In his Thursday tweets, he warned that the latest group includes “MANY CRIMINALS.” Earlier this year, Trump’s criticism turned a migrant caravan into a spectacle, with day-by-day media coverage of the journey. That episode caused a spat between the United States and Mexico and was used to justify a deployment of National Guard troops to the border. [Navigating the border: The barriers that define the U.S.-Mexico borderline] When troops have previously been mobilized by Trump in response to unlawful migration, their mission has been mostly passive support for border agents, like logistics and surveillance. The Posse Comitatus Act forbids using the military for civilian law enforcement duties outside military bases the United States. Military officials instructed troops to alert border agents if they encountered migrants, rather than intervene themselves except in cases of self defense. The Army also restricted the use of weapons to personnel who may need to use force. The General Accountability Office looked at Bush and Obama administration mobilizations on the border and found that DHS didn’t understand what its military support could and could not do, which frustrated both DHS and Pentagon officials. On Wednesday, Mexican officials said those in the Honduran caravan with proper documents could enter the country and those without it would have to apply for refugee status or face deportation. The migrants — who say they are traveling in search of jobs, better lives for their families and an escape from gang threats and violent communities — were blocked at the Honduras-Guatemala border for several hours earlier this week by Guatemalan police in riot gear before being allowed to pass. Joshua Partlow contributed to this report. | |
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| 10-18-18 07:05am - 2257 days | #1266 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
A terrible opinion piece from the Washington Post that suggests our President, Donald Trump, might be a liar. Trump needs to send the military with guns blazing to shut down and destroy this rag of the scumbag Democrats. Does Jeff Bezos own the Washington Post? Arrest Bezos, put him in front of a firing squad for treason to our beloved President, and throw Jeff Bezos' carcass into a contamination site. ------- ------- The Washington Post Opinions Trump subverts our democracy with his lies Opinion | Trump lies about what scares him Columnist Eugene Robinson says President Trump's frenzied tweets about a "caravan" of migrants are really about his fear of losing his base. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) By Eugene Robinson Columnist October 15 President Trump’s constant, relentless, remorseless lying is a central feature of his presidency, an unprecedented threat to our democracy and — in my view — an impeachable offense. I realize it does not qualify as news that Trump lies all the time. I also realize it is not always possible to draw a bright line between untruths Trump knows are untrue and conspiratorial nonsense he might foolishly believe. But never before have we had a leader who so pollutes the national discourse with garbage that he at least ought to know is false — and I fear the consequences will be with us long after Trump is gone. At his inauguration, Trump swore to “faithfully execute the office of president.” He violates that oath when he speaks to the nation in bad faith. Other presidents have lied — Lyndon B. Johnson about Vietnam, Richard M. Nixon about Watergate, Bill Clinton about Monica Lewinsky. But never have we had a president who lies about everything , who invents his own fake facts, who continues to trumpet patent falsehoods even when confronted with the actual facts. And yes, undisputed facts do exist and can be ascertained. I am not talking about subtle matters of interpretation; I’m taking about knowing falsehoods, commonly known as lies. Here is just one example: At a roundtable with a group of workers in Duluth, Minn., in June, Trump said, “The head of U.S. Steel called me the other day, and he said, ‘We’re opening up six major facilities and expanding facilities that have never been expanded.’ ” A few days later, at the White House, Trump said, “U.S. Steel just announced they’re expanding or building six new facilities.” Reporters called the company for details and learned that U.S. Steel has not announced plans to open any new domestic steel mills, period. Not six new plants; not even one. The Post’s Fact Checker column gave Trump the maximum four Pinocchios for his patently untrue statement. End of story, right? Wrong. More than a month later, at one of his campaign-style rallies, Trump declared that “U.S. Steel is opening up seven plants.” At another rally around the same time, he told supporters that “U.S. Steel just announced that they’re building six new steel mills.” Six new plants, seven new plants, what’s the difference when neither is true and the real number is zero? In June, Trump’s claim might have been called a “misstatement” or a “falsehood” or an “untruth.” A month later, after the truth had been clearly established, that same claim could only be called a bald-faced lie. And those are just a smattering of the more than 5,000 falsehoods from Trump that The Post has tallied since he took office. Trump clearly understands the benefit of flooding the zone. If, during the course of a rally or a news conference or an interview, he tells one glaring lie, that’s where all attention will be focused. But if he tells a dozen lies, or two dozen, it is all but impossible for critics to keep up. By the time all those lies have been called out, Trump will have spewed a few dozen more. In an interview broadcast Sunday, “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl offered a valuable lesson in how to pin Trump down. At one point, he was trying to leave the false impression that there is serious scientific debate about whether human activity has contributed to climate change. “They say that we had hurricanes that were far worse than what we just had with Michael,” Trump said. “Who says that?” Stahl interjected. “ ‘They say?’ ” “People say,” Trump responded. “People say . . .” Finally he claimed, without offering a shred of evidence, that “scientists . . . have a very big political agenda” — a dodge amounting to an admission that Trump had no factual basis for the claims he was making. When Stahl turned to Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, and Trump said, “I think China meddled also,” Stahl again called him on it: “You are diverting the whole Russia thing. . . . You are, you are.” Trump finally got so flustered that he said, “Lesley, it’s okay. In the meantime, I’m president — and you’re not.” And that is the point. When Trump insists on his own invented “facts,” he makes reality-based political dialogue impossible. His utter disregard for truth is a subversion of our democracy and a dereliction of his duty as president. The founders considered themselves men of honor whose word was their bond. They left us the vague, encompassing phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” for just such an emergency. Read more from Eugene Robinson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A. | |
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| 10-19-18 09:13am - 2256 days | #1267 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump praises congressman for assaulting a reporter. Trump breaks down and cries because his secret service agents will not shoot reporters who criticize Trump. Why can't my agents do like the Saudis? Kill the fucking reporters. Only Fox News is any good. I will loan Fox News some of my secret agents, if they want to off their competitors. That's only if my secret agents will grow some balls. Otherwise, they are useless fuckers. --------- --------- Trump jokes about congressman assaulting reporter: 'Any guy who can do a body slam ... he's my guy' By Kate Sullivan, Jim Acosta and Betsy Klein, CNN Updated 5:53 AM ET, Fri October 19, 2018 Trump praises lawmaker for assaulting reporter (CNN)President Donald Trump praised Montana Republican Rep. Greg Gianforte for assaulting a reporter during his campaign last May, saying "any guy who can do a body slam ... he's my guy" and made a gesture mimicking a body slam. At a Montana rally Thursday night, Trump admitted, "I shouldn't say this," but continued and said, "there's nothing to be embarrassed about." The comment comes at the same time as the administration responds to the disappearance and apparent murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Khashoggi was last seen entering the Saudi consulate on October 2 and Turkish media reports that an audio recording suggests Khashoggi was tortured and killed soon after entering the building before being dismembered. Trump said Thursday "it certainly looks" like Khashoggi is dead. But, Trump said he is "waiting for the results" of investigations being conducted by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, after which he pledged to make "a very strong statement." Gianforte pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in June 2017 after he was convicted of "body slamming" Ben Jacobs, a reporter for The Guardian. A judge sentenced him to a 180-day deferred sentence, 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management and a $300 fine along with a $85 court fee. Trump said he found out about Gianforte assaulting a reporter when he was traveling in Rome, and initially was concerned it would hurt the Republican in the election. "Then I said, well wait a minute, I know Montana pretty well, I think it might help him. And it did," Trump said. The President's comments were met with laughter and applause from the crowd in Montana. Gianforte won the election the next day and apologized to Jacobs during his acceptance speech. "When you make a mistake, you have to own up to it," Gianforte told his supporters at his Election Night rally in Bozeman. "That's the Montana way." Saying he was "not proud" of his behavior, he added, "I should not have responded the way I did, for that I'm sorry. I should not have treated that reporter that way, and for that I'm sorry, Mr. Ben Jacobs." At the rally, Trump called Gianforte, "One of the most respected people in Congress," and a "tough cookie." "By the way, never wrestle him," he said. Guardian US editor John Mulholland condemned Trump's joke in a statement. "The President of the United States tonight applauded the assault on an American journalist who works for the Guardian. To celebrate an attack on a journalist who was simply doing his job is an attack on the First Amendment by someone who has taken an oath to defend it," Mulholland said. "In the aftermath of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, it runs the risk of inviting other assaults on journalists both here and across the world where they often face far greater threats. We hope decent people will denounce these comments and that the President will see fit to apologize for them." The joke about Gianforte assaulting Jacobs came just after Trump framed the 2018 midterms elections as a choice between Republican law and order and Democratic "mobs." Trump said the November 6 vote will be "an election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, and common sense. That's what it's going to be". In a new line for the campaign, he said "Democrats create mobs. Republicans create jobs." Trump later recalled the back-and-forth with former Vice President Joe Biden over a fight, and again invoked Gianforte's body slam of Jacobs. "How about sleepy Joe Biden? Sleepy Joe. Remember he challenged me to a fight and that was fine. And when I said he wouldn't last long -- he'd be down faster than Greg would take him down, he'd be down so fast, remember? Faster than Greg -- I'd have to go very fast, I'd have to immediately connect," Trump told the crowd. Trump recalled the challenge from Biden, to which he said the "fake news" said was "cute." When Trump responded that he'd go down fast, he characterized the media's response in a mocking voice: "They said, what a vicious statement." CNN"s Oliver Darcy contributed to this report. | |
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| 10-20-18 04:49pm - 2255 days | #1268 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump: My hero. Says the US will pull out of the nuke treaty with Russia that limited the number of missiles. Great news for weapons makers. We need far more missiles, if we are to destroy Russia, China, North Korea, Japan, and Europe is one massive missile strike. Gazillions for offense. Not one cent for defense. Wait, maybe a few hundred trillion for defense. Trump, you are the man. Have you loaded up on defense companies in the stock market yet? ----- ----- Trump says U.S. will pull out of nuke treaty with Russia that limited number of missiles Christal Hayes USA TODAY Published 5:05 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2018 | Updated 7:18 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2018 WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump said Saturday he would pull out of a Cold-War era treaty with Russia that limited the number of missiles in each country. Trump said Moscow had violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and he would halt the agreement. "We’re going to terminate the agreement and we’re going to pull out," Trump said when leaving a rally in Nevada Saturday afternoon. He said the U.S. would pull out "and then we are going to develop the weapons” unless Russia and China agree to a new deal, though China isn't currently a party of the agreement. "Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years,” the president said. "And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we’re not allowed to." Trump made the revelation as his National Security Adviser John Bolton was headed to Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. His first stop is scheduled in Moscow, where he’ll meet with Russian leaders, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. Hello! We’ve got complete midterm election coverage right here. Let’s begin! For most of the Cold War, U.S.-Russian summits were dominated by the issue of nuclear weapons, with Presidents Nixon, Carter and Reagan reaching a series of incremental agreements to limit the number, size and location of each side’s nuclear arsenal. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was one of those agreements and is set to expire in the next two years. The 1987 pact helps protect the security of the U.S. and its allies in Europe and the Far East. It prohibits the United States and Russia from possessing, producing or test-flying a ground-launched cruise missile with a range of 300 to 3,400 miles. It also covers all land-based missiles, including those carrying nuclear warheads. "The INF Treaty likely has entered its final days. That’s unfortunate," said Steven Pifer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. Pifer, writing about the news in a piece for the Brookings Institution said Trump's decision means that the U.S. would be blamed for pulling out of an agreement that aimed to make the world a safer place. The landmark treaty, signed by Ronald Reagan, helped lead to the destruction of thousands of missiles and simmered tensions during the Cold War. But for years, the U.S. has accused Russia of violating it and rapidly expanding and advancing its weapons stockpile. Meanwhile, Trump says the U.S. is constrained because of the agreement, preventing the nation from catching up. The Defense Department in February described some of Russia's advancements in a report, which also called for the U.S. to develop two new additional nuclear weapons to keep other world powers, including China, at bay. More: U.S. calls for new nuclear weapons as Russia develops nuclear-armed torpedo More: Report: Russian missile deployment violates treaty One of the weapons the Defense Department said Russia was creating was an intercontinental nuclear-armed torpedo that can travel thousands of miles and strike U.S. coastal cities with minimal warning. Called the "Status-6 Oceanic Multipurpose System," the Russian torpedo is reported to be able to deliver a thermonuclear cobalt bomb of up to 100 megatons. The weapon could trigger a tsunami wave of radioactive water that would blanket a coastal city. Politicians have called the torpedo a "doomsday" weapon. The president said the advancements, including those by China, were "unacceptable." "We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s really get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons, but if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable,” Trump said. The president continued, explaining he would gladly stay in the pact but if "as long as somebody’s violating the agreement, we’re not going to be the only ones to adhere to it." The issue, Pifer said, is that if the U.S. pulls out of the treaty, there is no reason for Russia to halt creating and testing new weapons. He said negotiations and pushing Russia's compliance were needed. "So, U.S. withdrawal from the INF Treaty is a loser all around," he said. "Russian officials probably are celebrating the news." Trump made the announcement Saturday following a campaign stop in Elko, Nevada. National Security Adviser John Bolton was headed Saturday to Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Contributing: Associated Press | |
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| 10-20-18 05:37pm - 2255 days | #1269 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump is the man. He tells people the naked truth. Anyone who votes for a Democrat is crazy. Vote Republican. We need to keep Trump strong. We need to keep the President willing and able to grope our women. Women know they are to be used. Trump knows the truth, how people need to be led by the pussy. If you are a man, do you have a pussy? Trump will tell you the truth: all men, and women, have pussies, that can be grabbed. And Trump is the man to do it. ---------- ---------- At dueling events, Trump and Biden keeping focus on Nevada The Associated Press ZEKE MILLER Oct 20th 2018 4:02PM SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential White House challenger in 2020, are making election pushes several hundred miles apart from each other in pivotal Nevada, where early voting was beginning Saturday. Trump was wrapping up a visit to Western states with an afternoon rally in rural Elko, Nevada, and lending support for Dean Heller, considered the most vulnerable GOP senator on the Nov. 6 ballot as Republican hope to retain their Senate majority. A few hours earlier and 400-plus miles south, Biden was to participate in a rally at a union local and promote Democratic candidates, urging Nevada residents to get out and vote. In a further sign of the state's importance in the midterms, former President Barack Obama scheduled a stop Monday in Las Vegas. He won Nevada in his 2008 and 2012 campaigns, and Democrat Hillary Clinton carried the state by 2 percentage points over Trump in 2016. But during the last midterm elections in 2014, many Democrats stayed home and Republicans won key races across the state, which has a 29 percent Latino population. Trump has used his appearances in Montana and Arizona to try to frame the choices for voters in the upcoming election, contending Democrats are "too extreme and too dangerous" to take control of Congress. He has sought to focus on immigration as one of the defining election issues and has falsely accused Democrats of wanting "open borders" and encouraging illegal immigration. "Anybody who votes for a Democrat now is crazy," Trump said. The country's immigration system has long vexed politicians from both parties, and Republicans themselves have torpedoed near-compromises in recent years. Yet Trump tweeted Saturday that "we could write up and agree to new immigration laws in less than one hour" if Democrats "would stop being obstructionists and come together." "Call me," he told the Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California. It seemed reminiscent of the time last year when Trump cracked open the door of bipartisanship with those leaders, who emerged from a White House meeting to say Trump had agreed to work toward a deal on protection young immigrants. But no agreement came to pass. Trump's Nevada visit was aimed at boosting Heller, whose opponent is Rep. Jacky Rosen as Democrats push to regain control of the Senate. Republicans hold a 51-40 edge now. In a tweet before leaving Arizona, Trump called Heller "a man who has become a good friend" and said he needed the senator's "Help and Talent in Washington." But Heller once had rocky relations with Trump and had returned a campaign donation from then-candidate Trump over Trump's immigration rhetoric. Last year, Trump threatened Heller's re-election chances when the senator held up GOP efforts to repeal the Obama-era health law. But Heller has since become an ally of the president, who has made two fundraising stops for him in Nevada this year already. Heller and Rosen held their first and only debate of the campaign on Friday. Heller accused her of making a visit to see separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border in order to stage a "photo-op," while she described Heller a "rubber-stamp" for Trump, whose tax plan she said benefits the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. The Biden-Trump circling of one another in the same state happened recently in Kentucky, where Biden campaigned for a Democratic congressional candidate on a Friday night and Trump held a rally the next evening. Biden said in his appearance that "basic American values are under assault" and that the upcoming election was "bigger than politics." Trump used his Kentucky visit to praise Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for shepherding the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh through the Senate. ___ Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Las Vegas contributed to this report. | |
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| 10-22-18 01:49am - 2253 days | #1270 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump is the man: He sends military to our borders, with orders to shoot to kill any blacks, Mexicans, Muslims and other rapists and hardened criminals that are flooding into the US. We have to stop the influx of criminals bringing disease and crime into our streets. We need a strong border: if need be, the military needs to drop nuclear bombs on Mexico, land of rapists and murderers and men who do not honor women by grabbing their pussies. Trump tells the American public the Democrats are scumbags, who allow hardened criminals into our country. Also tells Americans that Obama and Clinton and other presidents have allowed Russia and other countries (China, North Korea, Japan, most of Europe, even shithole countries from Africa) to take advantage of the United States of America. No more. Trump will stand up to the bad people who are threatening America. -------- -------- President Trump threatens to turn away thousands of Central Americans as migrant caravan continues north New York Daily News KATE FELDMAN Oct 21st 2018 8:44PM As thousands of migrants marched north from the Mexico-Guatemala border, President Trump issued a warning to those hoping to eventually cross into the United States. “Full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our (Southern) Border. People have to apply for asylum in Mexico first, and if they fail to do that, the U.S. will turn them away. The courts are asking the U.S. to do things that are not doable!” the President tweeted Sunday afternoon. “The Caravans are a disgrace to the Democrat Party. Change the immigration laws NOW!” The growing crowd had reached about 5,000 by Sunday morning, a massive uptick from previously reported numbers. Caravan of migrants in limbo on Guatemala border as Trump takes credit for Mexican response » About 640 migrants have applied for asylum in Mexico, according to the Mexican government and the National Migration Institute. Of those, “priority attention” has been given to 164 women, 104 children and elders. Trump previously threatened to cut aid to Honduras and other nations and to send troops to the Mexican border to prevent the march, which formed on Oct. 13, from entering the U.S. He also accused the migrants of being “hardened criminals” without any proof and told a reporter to not “be a baby” when asked for evidence. | |
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| 10-22-18 11:39am - 2253 days | #1271 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump breaks down in tears. Says he will close our southern border to all illegal immigrants. This is a national emergency. We are being flooded with criminals and bad people coming to the United States. Trump will use the military to stop the caravans. Will he bomb Mexico with nuclear missiles? Let us hope that Trump will be able to stop the illegal caravans with minimum force, only killing the criminals and other bad people. But if there is collateral damage, Trump will pray for the souls of everyone: including yours and mine. --------- --------- Trump says has told US military that migrant caravan is national emergency Thomson Reuters Oct 22nd 2018 9:11AM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he had alerted the military and federal border authorities that a U.S.-bound migrant caravan from Central America was a national emergency, and that the United States would begin curtailing aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Trump, in a series of posts on Twitter, gave no other details about his administration's actions. Representatives for the White House, the U.S. Border Patrol and the Pentagon did not immediately reply to a request for comment. "Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States," Trump wrote in a tweet, adding: "I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy." AdChoices "Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them," Trump wrote. Thousands of mostly Honduran migrants crowded into the Mexican border city of Tapachula over the weekend after trekking on foot from the Guatemalan border, defying threats by Trump that he will close the U.S.-Mexico border if they advanced, as well as warnings from the Mexican government. Mexican police in riot gear shadowed the caravan's arrival along a southern highway but did not impede the migrants' journey. Trump has threatened to halt aid to the region, and potentially close the U.S. border with Mexico with the help of the military if the migrants' march is not stopped. (Reporting by Susan Heavey and Makini Brice; editing by Jonathan Oatis) | |
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| 10-23-18 12:52pm - 2252 days | #1272 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump demands the truth from the Saudis. Did that asshole journalist mean to commit suicide? Or was too drunk to realize what he was doing? Besides, the journalist was not even a US citizen. Also, journalists help spread Fake News. So they are scumbag criminals. Trump, leader of the Free World. Trump, leader of the Moral Majority for a White America. Vote for the Man. Vote for Trump. ------- ------- USA TODAY Exclusive: President Trump calls Jamal Khashoggi's death 'a plot gone awry' David Jackson and Susan Page, USA TODAY Published 6:49 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2018 | Updated 8:27 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2018 ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE – President Donald Trump on Monday questioned the account Saudi officials have given him about the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi but said he still believed it was “a plot gone awry.” In an exclusive interview with USA TODAY, he indicated he would oppose efforts to cease arms sales to the kingdom in response. There are “many other” potential penalties, he said, saying he would be guided by consultations with key members of Congress in settling on the appropriate response, likening it to the discussions he had with Senate Republicans during the Supreme Court confirmation battle over Brett Kavanaugh. In characterizing the Khashoggi incident as a "plot gone awry," Trump indicated that he thought the journalist wasn’t deliberately lured into the consulate to be murdered. Saudi officials last week said Khashoggi's death followed a "brawl" inside the building, an explanation that drew skepticism from some on Capitol Hill. Trump questioned the validity of at least one detail that has emerged from the incident. Turkish officials have said Khashoggi’s body was cut up with a bone saw. Asked about that detail as a possible indication of wrongdoing, Trump sounded incredulous. “Do you know there was a bone saw?” he replied. Trump was expansive during an interview in his office aboard Air Force One as he flew to a rally in Houston for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in a surprisingly competitive race for re-election. Occasionally watching himself on a wall-mounted TV tuned to Fox News, he expressed optimism about the midterm elections and discussed his agenda when the new Congress takes over. Trump said he had talked on the phone with both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and that more details about what happened inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey would be known within a day or two. “He says he is not involved nor is the king,” Trump said of the Saudi crown prince, declining to answer whether he believed his denials. If their involvement was proven, “I would be very upset about it. We’ll have to see.” He called the killing of Khashoggi, a journalist and columnist for The Washington Post, “foolish and stupid.” But he said billions of dollars in U.S. arms sales to the Saudis were an economic boon to Americans and a transaction that Russian and Chinese companies would be delighted to make, if the United States ended them. “We have a very big picture we have to keep in mind,” he said, noting also Saudi Arabia’s role in countering Iran's influence in the Middle East. Critics, including some Republicans, have questioned the Trump’s administration’s response to what has become a global diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and a close ally in the Middle East. Some have suggested the incident could not have occurred without Salman's knowledge. Trump has vacillated between criticizing a rush to judgment over what happened and trying to pacify critics who think he should take a much stronger stance, potentially by imposing sanctions. Before boarding Air Force One, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was “not satisfied” with the Saudi response so far. | |
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| 10-24-18 07:37pm - 2251 days | #1273 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: President Trump arrested by the FBI. Trump protests, saying the bombs were an April Fools joke. That Democrats can't take a joke. Trump vows to fire disloyal leaders of the FBI, the CIA, and all other agencies of the US government once he gets out of jail. Hail, Trump, leader of the Moral Majority for a White America. Vote this November, people. ---- ---- Prominent conservative activists and talking heads are promoting a conspiracy that Democrats sent explosive devices to Clinton, Obama, Soros Business Insider Eliza Relman Oct 24th 2018 8:10PM Many in the right-wing media promoted a conspiracy that Democrats were behind several packages containing explosive devices that were sent by mail to top Democrats this week. Prominent conservative voices, including popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and frequent Fox News guest and conservative activist Candace Owens, suggested that "leftists" were to blame for the attempted terrorist attacks. "Republicans just don't do this kind of thing," Limbaugh said. Many in the right-wing media, including prominent voices like popular talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and frequent Fox News guest Candace Owens, began Wednesday to promote a conspiracy that Democrats were behind several packages containing explosive devices that were sent by mail to top Democrats this week. Limbaugh suggested on his show on Wednesday — soon after the devices were sent to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, as well as CNN's New York offices — that the act was committed to fuel support for Democrats two weeks before the midterm elections. "It's happening in October," Limbaugh said. "There's a reason for this." He added that attempted violent attacks are out of character for conservatives. "Republicans just don't do this kind of thing," he said. Another prominent mainstream conservative activist and frequent Fox News guest, Candace Owens, declared there was a "0% chance" the bombs were sent by someone with conservative leanings, instead blaming "leftists" for staging the attack for political gain. I’m going to go ahead and state that there is a 0% chance that these “suspicious packages” were sent out by conservatives. The only thing “suspicious” about these packages, is their timing. Caravans, fake bomb threats—these leftists are going ALL OUT for midterms. Michael Flynn Jr., the son of former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn who has previously promoted dangerous conspiracy theories, called the mail bombs "a total false flag operation" in a series of tweets he later deleted. "I condemn all political violence but again the timing is bullsh#t," Flynn wrote. Others argued that the attempted attacks were designed to distract from political dissenters on the left — what the right has characterized as a left-wing "mob." In a tweet that he later deleted, John Cardillo, a right-wing radio host and former NYPD officer, also suggested that the attempted attacks were staged by Democrats. "Just too coincidental that two weeks before Election Day, as the 'blue wave' has turned into a ripple, and the left is losing ground because of incivility and violent rhetoric, explosive devices show up in the mailboxes of Soros, Clinton, and Obama," he tweeted, according to The Daily Beast. Billionaire philanthropist and Democratic donor George Soros, former CIA Director John Brennan, and Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, were also recipients of the packages. All of those targeted are critics of the president whom Trump has in turn attacked relentlessly. Edited on Oct 25, 2018, 09:03am | |
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| 10-25-18 10:54am - 2250 days | #1274 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Not sure if this is fake new or not: Trump attacks the press. Says they have a responsibility to stop fake news. Says that news criticizing him is fake, and harms the country. Sarah Sanders screams at reporters: tells them to fuck off. Sanders will no longer be nice to reporters who criticize her boss, the most wonderful, handsome man in the United States. Sanders says she will lay down and pray for her boss against the false attacks on her boss. Trump will unite America. Bring the people together. Let us pray for Trump, the greatest President we've ever had. Not only are there bad people in the caravan, but there are also bad people in Washington. Let Trump have these bad people arrested, thrown in jail, then put them in front of a firing squad so Trump can clean up the Washington swamp like he promised. God save Donald Trump, the finest man who ever groped a woman's pussy. -------- -------- Sarah Sanders: Trump as responsible for bomb packages as Bernie Sanders is for baseball game shooting HuffPost US Jenna Amatulli Oct 25th 2018 11:43AM White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters on Thursday morning that President Donald Trump is “certainly not responsible for sending suspicious packages to someone, no more than Bernie Sanders was responsible for a supporter of his shooting up a Republican baseball field practice last year.” Huckabee Sanders talked to reporters in the White House driveway, making reference to the suspicious packages containing “potential explosive devices” sent on Wednesday to several prominent Democrats, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as to the CNN headquarters. The press secretary was referring to an attack by a lone gunman who opened fire on a group of Republican lawmakers practicing for a congressional baseball game in June 2017. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) was injured alongside several others. Police shot the gunman who later died of his injuries at a hospital. The shooter was allegedly a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Huckabee Sanders also lambasted the media during her chat with reporters, saying that 90 percent of the media coverage on Trump is “negative.” When asked by one reporter if Trump regretted any of the comments he’s made in reference to the press, Sanders said: “Look, the president’s condemned violence in all forms and has done that since day one and will continue to do that, but certainly feels that everyone has a role to play.” The press secretary has been vocal about the response the public has given to the surge of suspicious packages. She slammed CNN on Wednesday night over network president Jeff Zucker criticized the Trump administration’s rhetoric towards the press: ″[President Donald Trump] asked Americans ‘to come together and send one very clear, strong, unmistakable message that acts or threats of political violence of any kind have no place in the USA’” Huckabee Sanders tweeted in response just after a Trump rally in Wisconsin. “Yet you chose to attack and divide. America should unite against all political violence.” Huckabee Sanders also called the idea that Trump would be behind the packages sent to his opponents “disgraceful,” adding that there’s quite a difference between “comments made and actions taken.” This article originally appeared on HuffPost. | |
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| 10-25-18 05:16pm - 2250 days | #1275 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The truth comes out: President Trump wanted ex-President Obama and Hillary Clinton investigated for illegal acts. Trump wanted the truth. If Obama broke the law, or if Hillary Clinton broke the law, neither of them were above the law: and they deserved to be locked up. America for Americans. Trump has said, because he is the President, he can't order the FBI and CIA and other law enforcement agencies to do their duty and investigate Obama and Hillary "Criminal" Clinton like they should be investigated. Even though the American public deserves to know the truth. However, it turns out that President Trump himself is a major leaker. “American spy agencies, the officials said, had learned that China and Russia were eavesdropping on the president’s cellphone calls from human sources inside foreign governments and intercepting communications between foreign officials.” “If true, this may be the largest, most significant breach of White House communications in history,” says Payton, who served in the George W. Bush administration and is now CEO of security firm Fortalice Solutions. “America’s most sophisticated peer competitor now has a direct line into the president’s confidential thinking and conversations.” This would be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Did Donald Trump knowingly use a non-secure phone? Is Donald Trump the source of leaks to China and Russia and possibly other foreign powers? Is Donald Trump a traitor to the US, who should be shot for carelessness and stupidity and treason? Enquiring minds want to know. ----------- https://www.fastcompany.com/90256599/chi...says-former-official 10.24.18 Trump’s tapped phone may be the largest White House breach ever: former official “America’s most sophisticated peer competitor now has a direct line into the president’s confidential thinking,” says former White House CIO Theresa Payton. Trump’s tapped phone may be the largest White House breach ever: former official Beijing is said to have targeted Trump’s contacts, including Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Blackstone Group CEO, and retired Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn. [Photo: Shealah Craighead/The White House/Flickr] By Mark Sullivan The president had been warned. The New York Times now reports that American spy agencies have learned that China and Russia have been eavesdropping on President Trump’s personal calls to friends and colleagues from one of his iPhones, in an effort to influence U.S. policy. “This stunning revelation by the NYT is one that has sweeping ramifications for intelligence and the security of the American people,” says former White House chief information officer Theresa Payton in an email to Fast Company. Trump reportedly has three iPhones, but only two of them are equipped with security features that have been added by the National Security Agency. One of the secure phones is strictly intended for tweeting, and only over Wi-Fi networks. His third phone is said to be as unsecured as any regular iPhone. Former administration officials said that in spite of their repeated warnings that spies might listen into his calls, Trump refused to give up the phone, and kept using it as usual. The president likes to keep his personal iPhone around reportedly because “he can store his contacts in it.” From the Times report, written by Matthew Rosenberg and Maggie Haberman: “American spy agencies, the officials said, had learned that China and Russia were eavesdropping on the president’s cellphone calls from human sources inside foreign governments and intercepting communications between foreign officials.” “If true, this may be the largest, most significant breach of White House communications in history,” says Payton, who served in the George W. Bush administration and is now CEO of security firm Fortalice Solutions. “America’s most sophisticated peer competitor now has a direct line into the president’s confidential thinking and conversations.” Armed with intel gathered from Trump’s many calls, foreign adversaries might learn to exploit weaknesses in the American leader to the detriment of U.S. interests. Amid ongoing trade tensions, China has learned from the calls “how Mr. Trump thinks, what arguments tend to sway him and to whom he is inclined to listen,” the Times reports. The list of Trump contacts that Beijing has assembled is said to include Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Blackstone Group CEO, and retired Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn. “The Chinese have identified friends of both men and others among the president’s regulars, and are now relying on Chinese businessmen and others with ties to Beijing to feed arguments to the friends of the Trump friends. The strategy is that those people will pass on what they are hearing, and that Beijing’s views will eventually be delivered to the president by trusted voices, the officials said. They added that the Trump friends were most likely unaware of any Chinese effort.” Schwarzman, who recently endowed a new school at MIT dedicated to artificial intelligence, has also endowed a master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. A spokeswoman for Blackstone declined to speak to the Times about Chinese efforts to influence Schwarzman, but said that he “has been happy to serve as an intermediary on certain critical matters between the two countries at the request of both heads of state.” Reports last summer said high-tech cell-phone spying devices–sometimes called Stingrays and used to intercept cell-phone signals–were being used near the White House and operated by foreign governments. According to the Times, the Secret Service has also requested that Trump swap out his phones every 30 days, with brand-new software, but he has bristled at that precaution. On the campaign trail, Trump regularly criticized Hillary Clinton for her use of an unsecured email server while she was secretary of state, a violation that inspired chants of “lock her up” at his rallies. His administration also ordered a ban across the government on all technologies made by Chinese manufacturers ZTE and Huawei over concerns about surveillance. Past U.S. presidents, like Barack Obama, submitted to using less-cool-looking-but-more-secure Blackberry devices while in office, though he occasionally used aides’ phones to make personal calls. In his second term, Obama switched to an iPhone, albeit with a number of features removed, including the camera and microphone. | |
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| 10-25-18 11:17pm - 2250 days | #1276 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Real news: Trump charities benefit the President and his children. In illegal ways. Does President Trump have immunity from litigation? Is Trump above the law? Of course. He's the President. In the meantime, Trump has changed his tune: he is now telling Americans that we have to be nice to each other, to bring America together. Does this mean Trump will stop calling his critics bad people? ------ ------ POLITICS 10/26/2018 01:21 am ET Trump Charity Had To Buy His Giant Portrait Because No One Else Would. The New York attorney general is accusing Trump’s foundation of illegally spending on things like the portrait. By Mary Papenfuss President Donald Trump’s attorney says Trump’s charity had to cough up $10,000 to buy a 6-foot portrait of him because no one else bid on it at an auction. Trump’s offer was only intended to “get the bids started” at an auction for the Unicorn Children’s Foundation, a charity for children, at his Mar-a-Lago resort. But, as Trump attorney Alan Futerfas explained to a Manhattan courtroom on Thursday, Trump was “stuck with the painting” when no one else stepped up, and he charged the purchase to his charity. The embarrassing story was meant to explain why the Donald J. Trump Foundation spent money on things like the portrait — which Trump then hung in a restaurant at his Miami golf resort — not to mention on political contributions, a $100,000 Mar-a-Lago legal settlement, and well-timed charitable donations to boost Trump’s profile during his presidential campaign, according to state investigators. Democratic New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood is suing Trump and his charity for alleged illegal use of funds. The suit accuses Trump and his charity of “a pattern of persistent illegal conduct ... that includes extensive unlawful political coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing transactions to benefit Mr. Trump’s personal and business interests, and violations of basic legal obligations for non-profit foundations.” The suit is demanding that the foundation pay more than $2.8 million in penalties and restitution, that it be shut down, and that Trump and his children be banned from leading other charities in the state. Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are also named in the suit. Futerfas claimed in court that the suit was making a “mountain out of a molehill” and was politically biased. But Yael Fuchs, a lawyer for the state attorney general’s office, insisted that it’s “beyond dispute that these were improper self-dealing transactions,” Bloomberg reported. Futerfas insisted the money wasn’t used for luxuries for the Trumps. “There are no dinners charged to the foundation. There’s no travel, there’s no cars . . . nothing like that. Travel to Paris — that’s waste,” Futerfas said, reported The Washington Post. But New York State Supreme Court Justice Saliann Scarpulla said that whether or not the charity paid for trips to Paris for the Trumps, it still has to abide by the law. “The claim is that there has not been a single board of directors meeting. These individuals are directors. They’re required under state law to have meetings,” Scarpulla said, according to the Post. She dismissed Futerfas’ claim of political bias. But she also indicated she plans to hold off on a final decision on the suit until an appellate court rules in a separate case on whether the president has immunity from state court litigation. That case involves former “Apprentice” contestant Summer Zevros, who has accused Trump of groping her and is suing him for defamation for calling her a liar. Even if the appellate court rules that Trump has immunity from litigation in state court, the charity suit could be modified to target only the charity and Trump’s children without him, Scarpulla indicated. | |
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| 10-26-18 04:59pm - 2249 days | #1277 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
President Trump, the man who has been harder on Russia than even Adolf Hitler (the man who invaded Russia back in WW2), has now invited Vladimir Putin to Washington. Trump wants to make sure no war breaks out between the two enemies. Trump hates Putin, but is afraid some people might get hurt if Russia sends nuclear missiles to the US. It wouldn't matter if the missiles destroyed dirty Democrats. But what if some Republicans got hurt? That would be vastly different. Also, Trump is willing to forgive Putin for spying on Trump's conversations with friends on his cell phone. After all, Trump has no secrets from his friendly enemy Putin: the man who helped Trump get elected President. So, is Putin really an enemy of Trump? No. Trump and Putin are buddies, who love to screw people over. Con man Trump. Strong man Putin. What a team. One of the topics to be discussed is how Trump should deal with Special counsel Robert Mueller. Should Trump have Mueller fired? Bumped off (by rogue agents)? Have a fatal accident--so Trump can attend the funeral and shed crocodile tears while denying responsibility? ----- ----- President Trump formally invites Vladimir Putin to Washington despite ongoing Russia investigations New York Daily News Chris Sommerfeldt Oct 26th 2018 3:32PM President Trump has formally invited Vladimir Putin to Washington, national security adviser John Bolton announced Friday, paving way for a high-profile sit-down that is sure to spark controversy. Bolton, who’s traveling through Eastern Europe, confirmed the invitation at a news conference in Tiblisi, the capital of Georgia. “We have invited President Putin to Washington after the first of the year for basically a full day of consultations,” Bolton told reporters. Bolton said a date has not been set and it was not immediately known if Putin has accepted the invite. A Kremlin spokesman did not return a request for comment. Putin and Trump are also expected to meet on the sidelines of an event in Paris next month commemorating the end of World War I. The outreach to the Russian leader comes even though Trump’s presidential campaign remains under investigation over potential collusion with the Kremlin ahead of the 2016 election. Special counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation has produced scores of indictments against Russian operatives and Trump associates, is expected to deliver key findings after next month’s congressional midterm elections. The Senate Intelligence Committee is separately investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump faced international backlash after he refused to hold Putin accountable for the Russian government’s meddling in U.S. elections during a joint press conference in Helsinki, Finland in July. Breaking with the unanimous consensus of his own intelligence community, Trump said he found Putin’s denial “incredibly powerful” and claimed he hadn’t seen “any reason” why the Kremlin would have attacked the U.S. election. | |
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| 10-27-18 12:37pm - 2248 days | #1278 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Trump speaks to reporters. Tell them that if people had more protection, there would be far less deaths from killer crazies. His message: arm yourself, people: if you get shot, you only have yourself to blame. With guns blazing in both your hands, a killer will stand less chance of killing you: So, two guns, maybe a rifle and and shotgun, and, of course, an Uzi or AK-47 slung on your back, are the first steps in self-defense. And if there are any cops on the scene, start screaming "I'm not the crazy. Don't shoot me." While putting your weapons down and throwing your hands up in the air. Remember: cops are paid to shoot to kill. So if you get shot and killed by a cop, he's only doing his duty. Cops are not taught how to disarm possible suspects: it's shoot to kill with a cop. Go, Trump: you are the man. --------- --------- The Washington Post Pittsburgh synagogue shooting leaves multiple people dead and wounded 'Horrific crime scene': Pittsburgh official comments on synagogue shooting Pittsburgh public safety director Wendell Hissrich said Oct. 27 the scene of a Pittsburgh synagogue shooting is "one of the worst" he has seen. (Reuters) By Deanna Paul , Avi Selk and Amy B Wang October 27 at 3:06 PM A gunman attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue during Saturday-morning services in what the Anti-Defamation League called "likely the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the history of the United States.” Law enforcement officials said Robert Bowers — a 46-year-old man with a history of making anti-Semitic statements online — surrendered to police after a gun battle and is expected to face hate crime charges. A death toll was not immediately available, but several law enforcement officials told The Washington Post that many were killed inside the synagogue. Pittsburgh officials said at least six people were injured in the incident, four of them police officers. “It’s a very horrific crime scene," Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich told reporters in the afternoon, after Bowers had been apprehended. “One of the worst that I’ve seen. And I’ve been on some plane crashes.” The suspect interrupted a baby-naming service at about 10 a.m, Pennsylvania’s attorney general told the Associated Press. Witnesses told police he burst in shouting anti-Semitic slurs and began firing. Stephen Weiss recalled hearing gunshots and fleeing the building through the sanctuary. “We had services going on in the chapel when we heard a loud noise in the lobby area," he told the Tribune-Review. Photos from the scene of deadly shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue View Photos Pittsburgh police respond to a shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in the Squirrel Hill area of the city as a gunman killed multiple people and wounded three police officers. KDKA reported that police confronted the suspect near the synagogue entrance. Witnesses said one office was wounded in an initial firefight, and two more were shot when they tried to corner the gunman upstairs. The man ranted about needing to kill Jews during a brief standoff, police dispatchers said on the radio. He surrendered to police around 11 a.m., an hour or so after the shooting began. Dispatchers said he had a pistol on his ankle and another in his waistband, and had been injured. KDKA reported that he came out crawling. Gab, a social media platform that has attracted many far-right users, released a statement on Saturday, saying the company had suspended an account that “matched the name of the alleged shooter’s name." “We then contacted the FBI and made them aware of this account and the user data in our possession,” the statement continued. “It looks definitely like it’s an anti Semitic crime," President Trump told reporters Saturday afternoon. "That is something you wouldn’t believe could still be going on.” The Tree of Life synagogue is located in a leafy residential enclave near Carnegie Mellon University — one of the larger predominantly Jewish neighborhoods in the United States. Its “traditional, progressive and egalitarian” congregation, formed in 1864, is Pittsburgh’s oldest Jewish congregation. It’s the “center of Jewish life on Shabbat morning," said Rabbi Aaron Bisno of the Rodef Shalom Congregation, two blocks away. It is unclear how many were in the synagogue at the time of the shooting. According to an online calendar, there would have been a Shabbat service scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Saturday. The synagogue’s main sanctuary, a cavernous space with soaring stained-glass windows that depict the story of creation, can hold up to 1,250 guests, according to the Tree of Life’s website. “This is an absolute tragedy,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) wrote on Twitter. “These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans.” . (Laris Karklis/Washington, D.C.) Police in Washington, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles all said they were increasing patrols at synagogues and other houses of worship following the Pittsburgh attack as precautionary measures. Speaking to reporters later at Joint Base Andrews, President Trump said the shooting was “far more devastating than anybody originally thought” but did not offer details. “It’s a terrible, terrible thing, what’s going on with hate in our country, frankly, and all over the world, and something has to be done,” he said. When asked if he should revisit gun laws, Trump said: “This has little to do with it, if you take a look. If they had protection inside, the results would have been far better.” Trump has frequently suggested that more armed people could deter mass shootings, making the comment after shooting rampages in Parkland, Fla., and Orlando in recent years. Armed law enforcement officers were present at both of those mass shootings and others that have still occurred. It’s unclear whether the synagogue had security measures in place. In a July blog post for the synagogue titled “We Deserve Better,” Rabbi Jeffrey Myers criticized elected leaders for their lack of action in enacting gun-control legislation in the wake of the Parkland school shooting. “Unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the mid-term elections, I fear that that the status quo will remain unchanged, and school shootings will resume,” Myers wrote. “I shouldn’t have to include in my daily morning prayers that God should watch over my wife and daughter, both teachers, and keep them safe. Where are our leaders?” The shooting comes during an sharp spike in anti-Semitic activities in the U.S., according to an Anti-Defamation League report released earlier this year. From 2016 to 2017, instances of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and assault increased 57 percent, the largest single-year jump since ADL began tracking the data in the 1970s. “This is close to an all-time high,” Greenblatt told The Post’s Tara Bahrampour then. "We’re living in a time where extremists feel emboldened and they’re increasingly taking action. They feel empowered; they almost feel like they’ve been mainstreamed.” Ben Opie, 55, who lives across the street from Tree of Life, said his wife was leaving for a volunteer duty at about 11 a.m. when police shouted at her to get back inside the house. Officers banged on neighbors’ doors and told them to stay locked inside. Two hours later, after many of the police vehicles had left the neighborhood, Opie said he’s still shaking. “It’s just,” Opie said, pausing, his voice trembling. “Sorry, it’s shaking me more than usual." By Saturday afternoon, members of the synagogue were gathering at a grief center waiting to hear about friends and family members caught in the shooting. “It’s one of my biggest fears,” said Chuck Diamond, who worked as a rabbi at Tree of Life for seven years. “When I was leading the congregation, I always had in the back of my mind that something like this will happen. It’s a terrible thing to feel." Joel Achenbach, Devlin Barrett, Mark Berman, Kristine Phillips, Mike Rosenwald and Katie Zezima contributed to this developing story. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:02pm - 2248 days | #1279 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Betrayed. Confessions of how Trump ripped off the American public. Read how the Trump family lied, cheated, and stole from the American public. How they transferred multi-millions in property from Donald Trump's father to his children, illegally, without paying the taxes due on the transfer. And how experts says the Trump family got away with it, because the statue of limitations has expired. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018...emes-fred-trump.html Trump Engaged in Suspect Tax Schemes as He Reaped Riches From His Father The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s. By DAVID BARSTOW, SUSANNE CRAIG and RUSS BUETTNER Oct. 2, 2018 President Trump participated in dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud, that greatly increased the fortune he received from his parents, an investigation by The New York Times has found. Mr. Trump won the presidency proclaiming himself a self-made billionaire, and he has long insisted that his father, the legendary New York City builder Fred C. Trump, provided almost no financial help. But The Times’s investigation, based on a vast trove of confidential tax returns and financial records, reveals that Mr. Trump received the equivalent today of at least $413 million from his father’s real estate empire, starting when he was a toddler and continuing to this day. Much of this money came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show. Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings. These maneuvers met with little resistance from the Internal Revenue Service, The Times found. The president’s parents, Fred and Mary Trump, transferred well over $1 billion in wealth to their children, which could have produced a tax bill of at least $550 million under the 55 percent tax rate then imposed on gifts and inheritances. The Trumps paid a total of $52.2 million, or about 5 percent, tax records show. The president declined repeated requests over several weeks to comment for this article. But a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Charles J. Harder, provided a written statement on Monday, one day after The Times sent a detailed description of its findings. “The New York Times’s allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,” Mr. Harder said. “There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate.” Mr. Harder sought to distance Mr. Trump from the tax strategies used by his family, saying the president had delegated those tasks to relatives and tax professionals. “President Trump had virtually no involvement whatsoever with these matters,” he said. “The affairs were handled by other Trump family members who were not experts themselves and therefore relied entirely upon the aforementioned licensed professionals to ensure full compliance with the law.” [Read the full statement] The president’s brother, Robert Trump, issued a statement on behalf of the Trump family: “Our dear father, Fred C. Trump, passed away in June 1999. Our beloved mother, Mary Anne Trump, passed away in August 2000. All appropriate gift and estate tax returns were filed, and the required taxes were paid. Our father’s estate was closed in 2001 by both the Internal Revenue Service and the New York State tax authorities, and our mother’s estate was closed in 2004. Our family has no other comment on these matters that happened some 20 years ago, and would appreciate your respecting the privacy of our deceased parents, may God rest their souls.” The Times’s findings raise new questions about Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his income tax returns, breaking with decades of practice by past presidents. According to tax experts, it is unlikely that Mr. Trump would be vulnerable to criminal prosecution for helping his parents evade taxes, because the acts happened too long ago and are past the statute of limitations. There is no time limit, however, on civil fines for tax fraud. The findings are based on interviews with Fred Trump’s former employees and advisers and more than 100,000 pages of documents describing the inner workings and immense profitability of his empire. They include documents culled from public sources — mortgages and deeds, probate records, financial disclosure reports, regulatory records and civil court files. The investigation also draws on tens of thousands of pages of confidential records — bank statements, financial audits, accounting ledgers, cash disbursement reports, invoices and canceled checks. Most notably, the documents include more than 200 tax returns from Fred Trump, his companies and various Trump partnerships and trusts. While the records do not include the president’s personal tax returns and reveal little about his recent business dealings at home and abroad, dozens of corporate, partnership and trust tax returns offer the first public accounting of the income he received for decades from various family enterprises. [11 takeaways from The Times’s investigation] What emerges from this body of evidence is a financial biography of the 45th president fundamentally at odds with the story Mr. Trump has sold in his books, his TV shows and his political life. In Mr. Trump’s version of how he got rich, he was the master dealmaker who broke free of his father’s “tiny” outer-borough operation and parlayed a single $1 million loan from his father (“I had to pay him back with interest!”) into a $10 billion empire that would slap the Trump name on hotels, high-rises, casinos, airlines and golf courses the world over. In Mr. Trump’s version, it was always his guts and gumption that overcame setbacks. Fred Trump was simply a cheerleader. “I built what I built myself,” Mr. Trump has said, a narrative that was long amplified by often-credulous coverage from news organizations, including The Times. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:04pm - 2248 days | #1280 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST: Certainly a handful of journalists and biographers, notably Wayne Barrett, Gwenda Blair, David Cay Johnston and Timothy L. O’Brien, have challenged this story, especially the claim of being worth $10 billion. They described how Mr. Trump piggybacked off his father’s banking connections to gain a foothold in Manhattan real estate. They poked holes in his go-to talking point about the $1 million loan, citing evidence that he actually got $14 million. They told how Fred Trump once helped his son make a bond payment on an Atlantic City casino by buying $3.5 million in casino chips. But The Times’s investigation of the Trump family’s finances is unprecedented in scope and precision, offering the first comprehensive look at the inherited fortune and tax dodges that guaranteed Donald J. Trump a gilded life. The reporting makes clear that in every era of Mr. Trump’s life, his finances were deeply intertwined with, and dependent on, his father’s wealth. Donald J. Trump accumulated wealth throughout his childhood thanks to his father, Fred C. Trump. By age 3, Mr. Trump was earning $200,000 a year in today’s dollars from his father’s empire. He was a millionaire by age 8. By the time he was 17, his father had given him part ownership of a 52-unit apartment building. Soon after Mr. Trump graduated from college, he was receiving the equivalent of $1 million a year from his father. The money increased with the years, to more than $5 million annually in his 40s and 50s. Fred Trump’s real estate empire was not just scores of apartment buildings. It was also a mountain of cash, tens of millions of dollars in profits building up inside his businesses, banking records show. In one six-year span, from 1988 through 1993, Fred Trump reported $109.7 million in total income, now equivalent to $210.7 million. It was not unusual for tens of millions in Treasury bills and certificates of deposit to flow through his personal bank accounts each month. Fred Trump was relentless and creative in finding ways to channel this wealth to his children. He made Donald not just his salaried employee but also his property manager, landlord, banker and consultant. He gave him loan after loan, many never repaid. He provided money for his car, money for his employees, money to buy stocks, money for his first Manhattan offices and money to renovate those offices. He gave him three trust funds. He gave him shares in multiple partnerships. He gave him $10,000 Christmas checks. He gave him laundry revenue from his buildings. Much of his giving was structured to sidestep gift and inheritance taxes using methods tax experts described to The Times as improper or possibly illegal. Although Fred Trump became wealthy with help from federal housing subsidies, he insisted that it was manifestly unfair for the government to tax his fortune as it passed to his children. When he was in his 80s and beginning to slide into dementia, evading gift and estate taxes became a family affair, with Donald Trump playing a crucial role, interviews and newly obtained documents show. The line between legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion is often murky, and it is constantly being stretched by inventive tax lawyers. There is no shortage of clever tax avoidance tricks that have been blessed by either the courts or the I.R.S. itself. The richest Americans almost never pay anything close to full freight. But tax experts briefed on The Times’s findings said the Trumps appeared to have done more than exploit legal loopholes. They said the conduct described here represented a pattern of deception and obfuscation, particularly about the value of Fred Trump’s real estate, that repeatedly prevented the I.R.S. from taxing large transfers of wealth to his children. “The theme I see here through all of this is valuations: They play around with valuations in extreme ways,” said Lee-Ford Tritt, a University of Florida law professor and a leading expert in gift and estate tax law. “There are dramatic fluctuations depending on their purpose.” The manipulation of values to evade taxes was central to one of the most important financial events in Donald Trump’s life. In an episode never before revealed, Mr. Trump and his siblings gained ownership of most of their father’s empire on Nov. 22, 1997, a year and a half before Fred Trump’s death. Critical to the complex transaction was the value put on the real estate. The lower its value, the lower the gift taxes. The Trumps dodged hundreds of millions in gift taxes by submitting tax returns that grossly undervalued the properties, claiming they were worth just $41.4 million. The same set of buildings would be sold off over the next decade for more than 16 times that amount. The most overt fraud was All County Building Supply & Maintenance, a company formed by the Trump family in 1992. All County’s ostensible purpose was to be the purchasing agent for Fred Trump’s buildings, buying everything from boilers to cleaning supplies. It did no such thing, records and interviews show. Instead All County siphoned millions of dollars from Fred Trump’s empire by simply marking up purchases already made by his employees. Those millions, effectively untaxed gifts, then flowed to All County’s owners — Donald Trump, his siblings and a cousin. Fred Trump then used the padded All County receipts to justify bigger rent increases for thousands of tenants. After this article was published on Tuesday, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance said the agency was “reviewing the allegations” and “vigorously pursuing all appropriate areas of investigation.” All told, The Times documented 295 streams of revenue that Fred Trump created over five decades to enrich his son. In most cases his four other children benefited equally. But over time, as Donald Trump careened from one financial disaster to the next, his father found ways to give him substantially more money, records show. Even so, in 1990, according to previously secret depositions, Mr. Trump tried to have his father’s will rewritten in a way that Fred Trump, alarmed and angered, feared could result in his empire’s being used to bail out his son’s failing businesses. Of course, the story of how Donald Trump got rich cannot be reduced to handouts from his father. Before he became president, his singular achievement was building the brand of Donald J. Trump, Self-Made Billionaire, a brand so potent it generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue through TV shows, books and licensing deals. Constructing that image required more than Fred Trump’s money. Just as important were his son’s preternatural marketing skills and always-be-closing competitive hustle. While Fred Trump helped finance the accouterments of wealth, Donald Trump, master self-promoter, spun them into a seductive narrative. Fred Trump’s money, for example, helped build Trump Tower, the talisman of privilege that established his son as a major player in New York. But Donald Trump recognized and exploited the iconic power of Trump Tower as a primary stage for both “The Apprentice” and his presidential campaign. The biggest payday he ever got from his father came long after Fred Trump’s death. It happened quietly, without the usual Trumpian news conference, on May 4, 2004, when Mr. Trump and his siblings sold off the empire their father had spent 70 years assembling with the dream that it would never leave his family. Donald Trump’s cut: $177.3 million, or $236.2 million in today’s dollars. By Gabriel J.X. Dance, Natalie Reneau, Aaron Byrd, Brad Fisher, Andy Mills and Grant Gold ‘One-Man Building Show’ Early experience, cultivated connections and a wave of federal housing subsidies helped Fred Trump lay the foundation of his son’s wealth. Before he turned 20, Fred Trump had already built and sold his first home. At age 35, he was building hundreds of houses a year in Brooklyn and Queens. By 45, he was building some of the biggest apartment complexes in the country. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:06pm - 2248 days | #1281 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS POST: Aside from an astonishing work ethic — “Sleeping is a waste of time,” he liked to say — the growth reflected his shrewd application of mass-production techniques. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle called him “the Henry Ford of the home-building industry.” He would erect scaffolding a city block long so his masons, sometimes working a second shift under floodlights, could throw up a dozen rowhouses in a week. They sold for about $115,000 in today’s dollars. By 1940, American Builder magazine was taking notice, devoting a spread to Fred Trump under the headline “Biggest One-Man Building Show.” The article described a swaggering lone-wolf character who paid for everything — wages, supplies, land — from a thick wad of cash he carried at all times, and whose only help was a secretary answering the phone in an office barely bigger than a parking space. “He is his own purchasing agent, cashier, paymaster, building superintendent, construction engineer and sales director,” the article said. It wasn’t that simple. Fred Trump had also spent years ingratiating himself with Brooklyn’s Democratic machine, giving money, doing favors and making the sort of friends (like Abraham D. Beame, a future mayor) who could make life easier for a developer. He had also assembled a phalanx of plugged-in real estate lawyers, property appraisers and tax accountants who protected his interests. All these traits — deep experience, nimbleness, connections, a relentless focus on the efficient construction of homes for the middle class — positioned him perfectly to ride a growing wave of federal spending on housing. The wave took shape with the New Deal, grew during the World War II rush to build military housing and crested with the postwar imperative to provide homes for returning G.I.s. Fred Trump would become a millionaire many times over by making himself one of the nation’s largest recipients of cheap government-backed building loans, according to Gwenda Blair’s book “The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President.” Those same loans became the wellspring of Donald Trump’s wealth. In the late 1940s, Fred Trump obtained roughly $26 million in federal loans to build two of his largest developments, Beach Haven Apartments, near Coney Island, Brooklyn, and Shore Haven Apartments, a few miles away. Then he set about making his children his landlords. By Gabriel J.X. Dance, Russ Buettner, Brad Fisher, Tim Wallace, Grant Gold and Greg Chen for The New York Times As ground lease payments fattened his children’s trusts, Fred Trump embarked on a far bigger transfer of wealth. Records obtained by The Times reveal how he began to build or buy apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens and then gradually, without public trace, transfer ownership to his children through a web of partnerships and corporations. In all, Fred Trump put up nearly $13 million in cash and mortgage debt to create a mini-empire within his empire — eight buildings with 1,032 apartments — that he would transfer to his children. The handover began just before Donald Trump’s 16th birthday. On June 1, 1962, Fred Trump transferred a plot of land in Queens to a newly created corporation. While he would be its president, his children would be its owners, records show. Then he constructed a 52-unit building called Clyde Hall. It was easy money for the Trump children. Their father took care of everything. He bought the land, built the apartments and obtained the mortgages. His employees managed the building. The profits, meanwhile, went to his children. By the early 1970s, Fred Trump would execute similar transfers of the other seven buildings. The New York Times would like to hear from readers who want to share messages and materials with our journalists. For Donald Trump, this meant a rapidly growing new source of income. When he was in high school, his cut of the profits was about $17,000 a year in today’s dollars. His share exceeded $300,000 a year soon after he graduated from college. How Fred Trump transferred 1,032 apartments to his children without incurring hundreds of thousands of dollars in gift taxes is unclear. A review of property records for the eight buildings turned up no evidence that his children bought them outright. Financial records obtained by The Times reveal only that all of the shares in the partnerships and corporations set up to create the mini-empire shifted at some point from Fred Trump to his children. Yet his tax returns show he paid no gift taxes on seven of the buildings, and only a few thousand dollars on the eighth. That building, Sunnyside Towers, a 158-unit property in Queens, illustrates Fred Trump’s catch-me-if-you-can approach with the I.R.S., which had repeatedly cited him for underpaying taxes in the 1950s and 1960s. Sunnyside was bought for $2.5 million in 1968 by Midland Associates, a partnership Fred Trump formed with his children for the transaction. In his 1969 tax return, he reported giving each child 15 percent of Midland Associates. Based on the amount of cash put up to buy Sunnyside, the value of this gift should have been $93,750. Instead, he declared a gift of only $6,516. Donald Trump went to work for his father after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. His father made him vice president of dozens of companies. This was also the moment Fred Trump telegraphed what had become painfully obvious to his family and employees: He did not consider his eldest son, Fred Trump Jr., a viable heir apparent. Fred Jr., seven and a half years older than Donald, had also worked for his father after college. It did not go well, relatives and former employees said in interviews. Fred Trump openly ridiculed him for being too nice, too soft, too lazy, too fond of drink. He frowned on his interests in flying and music, could not fathom why he cared so little for the family business. Donald, witness to his father’s deepening disappointment, fashioned himself Fred Jr.’s opposite — the brash tough guy with a killer instinct. His reward was to inherit his father’s dynastic dreams. The Times documented 295 streams of revenue that Fred Trump created over five decades to enrich Donald Trump, left. Though the other Trump children benefited from their father’s financial maneuvers, Donald Trump would be given substantially more money over time. Fred Trump began taking steps that enriched Donald alone, introducing him to the charms of building with cheap government loans. In 1972, father and son formed a partnership to build a high-rise for the elderly in East Orange, N.J. Thanks to government subsidies, the partnership got a nearly interest-free $7.8 million loan that covered 90 percent of construction costs. Fred Trump paid the rest. But his son received most of the financial benefits, records show. On top of profit distributions and consulting fees, Donald Trump was paid to manage the building, though Fred Trump’s employees handled day-to-day management. He also pocketed what tenants paid to rent air-conditioners. By 1975, Donald Trump’s take from the building was today’s equivalent of nearly $305,000 a year. Fred Trump also gave his son an extra boost through his investment, in the early 1970s, in the sprawling Starrett City development in Brooklyn, the largest federally subsidized housing project in the nation. The investment, which promised to generate huge tax write-offs, was tailor-made for Fred Trump; he would use Starrett City’s losses to avoid taxes on profits from his empire. Fred Trump invested $5 million. A separate partnership established for his children invested $1 million more, showering tax breaks on the Trump children for decades to come. They helped Donald Trump avoid paying any federal income taxes at all in 1978 and 1979. But Fred Trump also deputized him to sell a sliver of his Starrett City shares, a sweetheart deal that generated today’s equivalent of more than $1 million in “consulting fees.” The money from consulting and management fees, ground leases, the mini-empire and his salary all combined to make Donald Trump indisputably wealthy years before he sold his first Manhattan apartment. By 1975, when he was 29, he had collected nearly $9 million in today’s dollars from his father, The Times found. Wealthy, yes. But a far cry from the image father and son craved for Donald Trump. The Silent Partner Fred Trump would play a crucial role in building and carefully maintaining the myth of Donald J. Trump, Self-Made Billionaire. Fred Trump, right, sought ways to transfer riches from his real estate empire to his children while dodging gift and estate taxes. “He is tall, lean and blond, with dazzling white teeth, and he looks ever so much like Robert Redford. He rides around town in a chauffeured silver Cadillac with his initials, DJT, on the plates. He dates slinky fashion models, belongs to the most elegant clubs and, at only 30 years of age, estimates that he is worth ‘more than $200 million.’” So began a Nov. 1, 1976, article in The Times, one of the first major profiles of Donald Trump and a cornerstone of decades of mythmaking about his wealth. How could he claim to be worth more than $200 million when, as he divulged years later to casino regulators, his 1976 taxable income was $24,594? Donald Trump simply appropriated his father’s entire empire as his own. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:09pm - 2248 days | #1282 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
In the chauffeured Cadillac, Donald Trump took The Times’s reporter on a tour of what he called his “jobs.” He told her about the Manhattan hotel he planned to convert into a Grand Hyatt (his father guaranteed the construction loan), and the Hudson River railroad yards he planned to develop (the rights were purchased by his father’s company). He showed her “our philanthropic endeavor,” the high-rise for the elderly in East Orange (bankrolled by his father), and an apartment complex on Staten Island (owned by his father), and their “flagship,” Trump Village, in Brooklyn (owned by his father), and finally Beach Haven Apartments (owned by his father). Even the Cadillac was leased by his father. “So far,” he boasted, “I’ve never made a bad deal.” It was a spectacular con, right down to the priceless moment when Mr. Trump confessed that he was “publicity shy.” By claiming his father’s wealth as his own, Donald Trump transformed his place in the world. A brash 30-year-old playboy worth more than $200 million proved irresistible to New York City’s bankers, politicians and journalists. Yet for all the spin about cutting his own path in Manhattan, Donald Trump was increasingly dependent on his father. Weeks after The Times’s profile ran, Fred Trump set up still more trusts for his children, seeding each with today’s equivalent of $4.3 million. Even into the early 1980s, when he was already proclaiming himself one of America’s richest men, Donald Trump remained on his father’s payroll, drawing an annual salary of $260,000 in today’s dollars. Meanwhile, Fred Trump and his companies also began extending large loans and lines of credit to Donald Trump. Those loans dwarfed what the other Trumps got, the flow so constant at times that it was as if Donald Trump had his own Money Store. Consider 1979, when he borrowed $1.5 million in January, $65,000 in February, $122,000 in March, $150,000 in April, $192,000 in May, $226,000 in June, $2.4 million in July and $40,000 in August, according to records filed with New Jersey casino regulators. In theory, the money had to be repaid. In practice, records show, many of the loans were more like gifts. Some were interest-free and had no repayment schedule. Even when loans charged interest, Donald Trump frequently skipped payments. This previously unreported flood of loans highlights a clear pattern to Fred Trump’s largess. When Donald Trump began expensive new projects, his father increased his help. In the late 1970s, when Donald Trump was converting the old Commodore Hotel into a Grand Hyatt, his father stepped up with a spigot of loans. Fred Trump did the same with Trump Tower in the early 1980s. In the mid-1980s, as Donald Trump made his first forays into Atlantic City, Fred Trump devised a plan that sharply increased the flow of money to his son. The plan involved the mini-empire — the eight buildings Fred Trump had transferred to his children. He converted seven of them into cooperatives, and helped his children convert the eighth. That meant inviting tenants to buy their apartments, generating a three-way windfall for Donald Trump and his siblings: from selling units, from renting unsold units and from collecting mortgage payments. In 1982, Donald Trump made today’s equivalent of about $380,000 from the eight buildings. As the conversions continued and Fred Trump’s employees sold off more units, his son’s share of profits jumped, records show. By 1987, with the conversions completed, his son was making today’s equivalent of $4.5 million a year off the eight buildings. Fred Trump made one other structural change to his empire that produced a big new source of revenue for Donald Trump and his siblings. He made them his bankers. By Gabriel J.X. Dance, Susanne Craig, Brad Fisher, Tim Wallace, Grant Gold, and Greg Chen for The New York Times The Times could find no evidence that the Trump children had to come up with money of their own to buy their father’s mortgages. Most were purchased from Fred Trump’s banks by trusts and partnerships that he set up and seeded with money. Co-op sales, mortgage payments, ground leases — Fred Trump was a master at finding ways to enrich his children in general and Donald Trump in particular. Some ways were like slow-moving creeks. Others were rushing streams. A few were geysers. But as the decades passed they all joined into one mighty river of money. By 1990, The Times found, Fred Trump, the ultimate silent partner, had quietly transferred today’s equivalent of at least $46.2 million to his son. Donald Trump took on a mien of invincibility. The stock market crashed in 1987 and the economy cratered. But he doubled down thanks in part to Fred Trump’s banks, which eagerly extended credit to the young Trump princeling. He bought the Plaza Hotel in 1988 for $407.5 million. He bought the Eastern Airlines shuttle fleet in 1989 for $365 million and called it Trump Shuttle. His newest casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, would need at least $1 million a day just to cover its debt. The skeptics who questioned the wisdom of this debt-fueled spending spree were drowned out by one magazine cover after another marveling at someone so young taking such breathtaking risks. But whatever Donald Trump was gambling, not for one second was he at risk of losing out on a lifetime of frictionless, effortless wealth. Fred Trump had that bet covered. The Safety Net Deploys | |
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| 10-27-18 02:10pm - 2248 days | #1283 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Bailouts, collateral, cash on hand — Fred Trump was prepared, and was not about to let bad bets sink his son. Donald Trump at the Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City. As the 1980s came to a close, many of his businesses, overloaded with debt, began to lose money. Ángel Franco/The New York Times As the 1980s ended, Donald Trump’s big bets began to go bust. Trump Shuttle was failing to make loan payments within 15 months. The Plaza, drowning in debt, was bankrupt in four years. His Atlantic City casinos, also drowning in debt, tumbled one by one into bankruptcy. What didn’t fail was the Trump safety net. Just as Donald Trump’s finances were crumbling, family partnerships and companies dramatically increased distributions to him and his siblings. Between 1989 and 1992, tax records show, four entities created by Fred Trump to support his children paid Donald Trump today’s equivalent of $8.3 million. Fred Trump’s generosity also provided a crucial backstop when his son pleaded with bankers in 1990 for an emergency line of credit. With so many of his projects losing money, Donald Trump had few viable assets of his own making to pledge as collateral. What has never been publicly known is that he used his stakes in the mini-empire and the high-rise for the elderly in East Orange as collateral to help secure a $65 million loan. Tax records also reveal that at the peak of Mr. Trump’s financial distress, his father extracted extraordinary sums from his empire. In 1990, Fred Trump’s income exploded to $49,638,928 — several times what he paid himself in other years in that era. Fred Trump, former employees say, detested taking unnecessary distributions from his companies because he would have to pay income taxes on them. So why would a penny-pinching, tax-hating 85-year-old in the twilight of his career abruptly pull so much money out of his cherished properties, incurring a tax bill of $12.2 million? The Times found no evidence that Fred Trump made any significant debt payments or charitable donations. The frugality he brought to business carried over to the rest of his life. According to ledgers of his personal spending, he spent a grand total of $8,562 in 1991 and 1992 on travel and entertainment. His extravagances, such as they were, consisted of buying his wife the odd gift from Antonovich Furs or hosting family celebrations at the Peter Luger Steak House in Brooklyn. His home on Midland Parkway in Jamaica Estates, Queens, built with unfussy brick like so many of his apartment buildings, had little to distinguish it from neighboring houses beyond the white columns and crest framing the front door. There are, however, indications that he wanted plenty of cash on hand to bail out his son if need be. Such was the case with the rescue mission at his son’s Trump’s Castle casino. Donald Trump had wildly overspent on renovations, leaving the property dangerously low on operating cash. Sure enough, neither Trump’s Castle nor its owner had the necessary funds to make an $18.4 million bond payment due in December 1990. On Dec. 17, 1990, Fred Trump dispatched Howard Snyder, a trusted bookkeeper, to Atlantic City with a $3.35 million check. Mr. Snyder bought $3.35 million worth of casino chips and left without placing a bet. Apparently, even this infusion wasn’t sufficient, because that same day Fred Trump wrote a second check to Trump’s Castle, for $150,000, bank records show. With this ruse — it was an illegal $3.5 million loan under New Jersey gaming laws, resulting in a $65,000 civil penalty — Donald Trump narrowly avoided defaulting on his bonds. Birds of a Feather Both the son and the father were masters of manipulating the value of their assets, making them appear worth a lot or a little depending on their needs. Donald and Fred Trump, photographed for a 1980s advertisement. Bill Truran/Alamy As the chip episode demonstrated, father and son were of one mind about rules and regulations, viewing them as annoyances to be finessed or, when necessary, ignored. As described by family members and associates in interviews and sworn testimony, theirs was an intimate, endless confederacy sealed by blood, shared secrets and a Hobbesian view of what it took to dominate and win. They talked almost daily and saw each other most weekends. Donald Trump sat at his father’s right hand at family meals and participated in his father’s monthly strategy sessions with his closest advisers. Fred Trump was a silent, watchful presence at many of Donald Trump’s news conferences. “I probably knew my father as well or better than anybody,” Donald Trump said in a 2000 deposition. They were both fluent in the language of half-truths and lies, interviews and records show. They both delighted in transgressing without getting caught. They were both wizards at manipulating the value of their assets, making them appear worth a lot or a little depending on their needs. Those talents came in handy when Fred Trump Jr. died, on Sept. 26, 1981, at age 42 from complications of alcoholism, leaving a son and a daughter. The executors of his estate were his father and his brother Donald. Fred Trump Jr.’s largest asset was his stake in seven of the eight buildings his father had transferred to his children. The Trumps would claim that those properties were worth $90.4 million when they finished converting them to cooperatives within a few years of his death. At that value, his stake could have generated an estate tax bill of nearly $10 million. But the tax return signed by Donald Trump and his father claimed that Fred Trump Jr.’s estate owed just $737,861. This result was achieved by lowballing all seven buildings. Instead of valuing them at $90.4 million, Fred and Donald Trump submitted appraisals putting them at $13.2 million. Emblematic of their audacity was Park Briar, a 150-unit building in Queens. As it happened, 18 days before Fred Trump Jr.’s death, the Trump siblings had submitted Park Briar’s co-op conversion plan, stating under oath that the building was worth $17.1 million. Yet as Fred Trump Jr.’s executors, Donald Trump and his father claimed on the tax return that Park Briar was worth $2.9 million when Fred Trump Jr. died. The Trump siblings put the value of the Park Briar complex in Queens at over $17 million before their brother Fred Trump Jr. died in 1981. But as the executors of his estate, Donald Trump and his father claimed on a tax return that it was worth only $2.9 million. Dave Sanders for The New York Times This fantastical claim — that Park Briar should be taxed as if its value had fallen 83 percent in 18 days — slid past the I.R.S. with barely a protest. An auditor insisted the value should be increased by $100,000, to $3 million. During the 1980s, Donald Trump became notorious for leaking word that he was taking positions in stocks, hinting of a possible takeover, and then either selling on the run-up or trying to extract lucrative concessions from the target company to make him go away. It was a form of stock manipulation with an unsavory label: “greenmailing.” The Times unearthed evidence that Mr. Trump enlisted his father as his greenmailing wingman. On Jan. 26, 1989, Fred Trump bought 8,600 shares of Time Inc. for $934,854, his tax returns show. Seven days later, Dan Dorfman, a financial columnist known to be chatty with Donald Trump, broke the news that the younger Trump had “taken a sizable stake” in Time. Sure enough, Time’s shares jumped, allowing Fred Trump to make a $41,614 profit in two weeks. Later that year, Fred Trump bought $5 million worth of American Airlines stock. Based on the share price — $81.74 — it appears he made the purchase shortly before Mr. Dorfman reported that Donald Trump was taking a stake in the company. Within weeks, the stock was over $100 a share. Had Fred Trump sold then, he would have made a quick $1.3 million. But he didn’t, and the stock sank amid skepticism about his son’s history of hyped takeover attempts that fizzled. Fred Trump sold his shares for a $1.7 million loss in January 1990. A week later, Mr. Dorfman reported that Donald Trump had sold, too. With other family members, Fred Trump could be cantankerous and cruel, according to sworn testimony by his relatives. “This is the stupidest thing I ever heard of,” he’d snap when someone disappointed him. He was different with his son Donald. He might chide him — “Finish this job before you start that job,” he’d counsel — but more often, he looked for ways to forgive and accommodate. By 1987, for example, Donald Trump’s loan debt to his father had grown to at least $11 million. Yet canceling the debt would have required Donald Trump to pay millions in taxes on the amount forgiven. Father and son found another solution, one never before disclosed, that appears to constitute both an unreported multimillion-dollar gift and a potentially illegal tax write-off. In December 1987, records show, Fred Trump bought a 7.5 percent stake in Trump Palace, a 55-story condominium building his son was erecting on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Most, if not all, of his investment, which totaled $15.5 million, was made by exchanging his son’s unpaid debts for Trump Palace shares, records show. Four years later, in December 1991, Fred Trump sold his entire stake in Trump Palace for just $10,000, his tax returns and financial statements reveal. Those documents do not identify who bought his stake. But other records indicate that he sold it back to his son. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:12pm - 2248 days | #1284 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Under state law, developers must file “offering plans” that identify to any potential condo buyer the project’s sponsors — in other words, its owners. The Trump Palace offering plan, submitted in November 1989, identified two owners: Donald Trump and his father. But under the same law, if Fred Trump had sold his stake to a third party, Donald Trump would have been required to identify the new owner in an amended offering plan filed with the state attorney general’s office. He did not do that, records show. He did, however, sign a sworn affidavit a month after his father sold his stake. In the affidavit, submitted in a lawsuit over a Trump Palace contractor’s unpaid bill, Donald Trump identified himself as “the” owner of Trump Palace. Under I.R.S. rules, selling shares worth $15.5 million to your son for $10,000 is tantamount to giving him a $15.49 million taxable gift. Fred Trump reported no such gift. According to tax experts, the only circumstance that would not have required Fred Trump to report a gift was if Trump Palace had been effectively bankrupt when he unloaded his shares. Yet Trump Palace was far from bankrupt. Property records show that condo sales there were brisk in 1991. Trump Palace sold 57 condos for $52.5 million — 94 percent of the total asking price for those units. Donald Trump himself proclaimed Trump Palace “the most financially secure condominium on the market today” in advertisements he placed in 1991 to rebut criticism from buyers who complained that his business travails could drag down Trump Palace, too. In December, 17 days before his father sold his shares, he placed an ad vouching for the wisdom of investing in Trump Palace: “Smart money says there has never been a better time.” By failing to tell the I.R.S. about his $15.49 million gift to his son, Fred Trump evaded the 55 percent tax on gifts, saving about $8 million. At the same time, he declared to the I.R.S. that Trump Palace was almost a complete loss — that he had walked away from a $15.5 million investment with just $10,000 to show for it. Federal tax law prohibits deducting any loss from the sale of property between members of the same family, because of the potential for abuse. Yet Fred Trump appears to have done exactly that, dodging roughly $5 million more in income taxes. In 1991, as Fred Trump was declaring his investment in his son’s Trump Palace project almost a complete loss, Donald Trump was telling the public there had never been a better time to buy in. Dave Sanders for The New York Times The partnership between Fred and Donald Trump was not simply about the pursuit of riches. At its heart lay a more ambitious project, executed to perfection over decades — to create that origin story, the myth of Donald J. Trump, Self-Made Billionaire. Donald Trump built the foundation for the myth in the 1970s by appropriating his father’s empire as his own. By the late 1980s, instead of appropriating the empire, he was diminishing it. “It wasn’t a great business, it was a good business,” he said, as if Fred Trump ran a chain of laundromats. Yes, he told interviewers, his father was a wonderful mentor, but given the limits of his business, the most he could manage was a $1 million loan, and even that had to be repaid with interest. Through it all, Fred Trump played along. Never once did he publicly question his son’s claim about the $1 million loan. “Everything he touches seems to turn to gold,” he told The Times for that first profile in 1976. “He’s gone way beyond me, absolutely,” he said when The Times profiled his son again in 1983. But for all Fred Trump had done to build the myth of Donald Trump, Self-Made Billionaire, there was, it turned out, one line he would not allow his son to cross. A Family Reckoning Donald Trump tried to change his ailing father’s will, prompting a backlash — but also a recognition that plans had to be set in motion before Fred Trump died. The Trump siblings: from left, Robert, Elizabeth, Fred Jr., Donald and Maryanne. via Donald Trump campaign Fred Trump had given careful thought to what would become of his empire after he died, and had hired one of the nation’s top estate lawyers to draft his will. But in December 1990, Donald Trump sent his father a document, drafted by one of his own lawyers, that sought to make significant changes to that will. Fred Trump, then 85, had never before set eyes on the document, 12 pages of dense legalese. Nor had he authorized its preparation. Nor had he met the lawyer who drafted it. Yet his son sent instructions that he needed to sign it immediately. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:19pm - 2248 days | #1285 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
What happened next was described years later in sworn depositions by members of the Trump family during a dispute, later settled, over the inheritance Fred Trump left to Fred Jr.’s children. These depositions, obtained by The Times, reveal something startling: Fred Trump believed that the document potentially put his life’s work at risk. The document, known as a codicil, did many things. It protected Donald Trump’s portion of the inheritance from his creditors and from his impending divorce settlement with his first wife, Ivana Trump. It strengthened provisions in the existing will making him the sole executor of his father’s estate. But more than any of the particulars, it was the entirety of the codicil and its presentation as a fait accompli that alarmed Fred Trump, the depositions show. He confided to family members that he viewed the codicil as an attempt to go behind his back and give his son total control over his affairs. He said he feared that it could let Donald Trump denude his empire, even using it as collateral to rescue his failing businesses. (It was, in fact, the very month of the $3.5 million casino rescue.) As close as they were — or perhaps because they were so close — Fred Trump did not immediately confront his son. Instead he turned to his daughter Maryanne Trump Barry, then a federal judge whom he often consulted on legal matters. “This doesn’t pass the smell test,” he told her, she recalled during her deposition. When Judge Barry read the codicil, she reached the same conclusion. “Donald was in precarious financial straits by his own admission,” she said, “and Dad was very concerned as a man who worked hard for his money and never wanted any of it to leave the family.” (In a brief telephone interview, Judge Barry declined to comment.) Fred Trump took prompt action to thwart his son. He dispatched his daughter to find new estate lawyers. One of them took notes on the instructions she passed on from her father: “Protect assets from DJT, Donald’s creditors.” The lawyers quickly drafted a new codicil stripping Donald Trump of sole control over his father’s estate. Fred Trump signed it immediately. Clumsy as it was, Donald Trump’s failed attempt to change his father’s will brought a family reckoning about two related issues: Fred Trump’s declining health and his reluctance to relinquish ownership of his empire. Surgeons had removed a neck tumor a few years earlier, and he would soon endure hip replacement surgery and be found to have mild senile dementia. Yet for all the financial support he had lavished on his children, for all his abhorrence of taxes, Fred Trump had stubbornly resisted his advisers’ recommendations to transfer ownership of his empire to the children to minimize estate taxes. With every passing year, the actuarial odds increased that Fred Trump would die owning apartment buildings worth many hundreds of millions of dollars, all of it exposed to the 55 percent estate tax. Just as exposed was the mountain of cash he was sitting on. His buildings, well maintained and carrying little debt, consistently produced millions of dollars a year in profits. Even after he paid himself $109.7 million from 1988 through 1993, his companies were holding $50 million in cash and investments, financial records show. Tens of millions of dollars more passed each month through a maze of personal accounts at Chase Manhattan Bank, Chemical Bank, Manufacturers Hanover Trust, UBS, Bowery Savings and United Mizrahi, an Israeli bank. Simply put, without immediate action, Fred Trump’s heirs faced the prospect of losing hundreds of millions of dollars to estate taxes. Whatever their differences, the Trumps formulated a plan to avoid this fate. How they did it is a story never before told. It is also a story in which Donald Trump played a central role. He took the lead in strategy sessions where the plan was devised with the consent and participation of his father and his father’s closest advisers, people who attended the meetings told The Times. Robert Trump, the youngest sibling and the beta to Donald’s alpha, was given the task of overseeing day-to-day details. After years of working for his brother, Robert Trump went to work for his father in late 1991. The Trumps’ plan, executed over the next decade, blended traditional techniques — such as rewriting Fred Trump’s will to maximize tax avoidance — with unorthodox strategies that tax experts told The Times were legally dubious and, in some cases, appeared to be fraudulent. As a result, the Trump children would gain ownership of virtually all of their father’s buildings without having to pay a penny of their own. They would turn the mountain of cash into a molehill of cash. And hundreds of millions of dollars that otherwise would have gone to the United States Treasury would instead go to Fred Trump’s children. ‘A Disguised Gift’ A family company let Fred Trump funnel money to his children by effectively overcharging himself for repairs and improvements on his properties. Donald Trump in 1985. Neal Boenzi/The New York Times One of the first steps came on Aug. 13, 1992, when the Trumps incorporated a company named All County Building Supply & Maintenance. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:20pm - 2248 days | #1286 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
All County had no corporate offices. Its address was the Manhasset, N.Y., home of John Walter, a favorite nephew of Fred Trump’s. Mr. Walter, who died in January, spent decades working for Fred Trump, primarily helping computerize his payroll and billing systems. He also was the unofficial keeper of Fred Trump’s personal and business papers, his basement crowded with boxes of old Trump financial records. John Walter and the four Trump children each owned 20 percent of All County, records show. All County’s main purpose, The Times found, was to enable Fred Trump to make large cash gifts to his children and disguise them as legitimate business transactions, thus evading the 55 percent tax. The way it worked was remarkably simple. Each year Fred Trump spent millions of dollars maintaining and improving his properties. Some of the vendors who supplied his building superintendents and maintenance crews had been cashing Fred Trump’s checks for decades. Starting in August 1992, though, a different name began to appear on their checks — All County Building Supply & Maintenance. Mr. Walter’s computer systems, meanwhile, churned out All County invoices that billed Fred Trump’s empire for those same services and supplies, with one difference: All County’s invoices were padded, marked up by 20 percent, or 50 percent, or even more, records show. The Trump siblings split the markup, along with Mr. Walter. The self-dealing at the heart of this arrangement was best illustrated by Robert Trump, whose father paid him a $500,000 annual salary. He approved many of the payments Fred Trump’s empire made to All County; he was also All County’s chief executive, as well as a co-owner. As for the work of All County — generating invoices — that fell to Mr. Walter, also on Fred Trump’s payroll, along with a personal assistant Mr. Walter paid to work on his side businesses. Years later, in his deposition during the dispute over Fred Trump’s estate, Robert Trump would say that All County actually saved Fred Trump money by negotiating better deals. Given Fred Trump’s long experience expertly squeezing better prices out of contractors, it was a surprising claim. It was also not true. The Times’s examination of thousands of pages of financial documents from Fred Trump’s buildings shows that his costs shot up once All County entered the picture. A Trump company, formed ostensibly to help maintain Beach Haven Apartments in Brooklyn and other properties, siphoned cash from the empire free of gift taxes. Dave Sanders for The New York Times Beach Haven Apartments illustrates how this happened: In 1991 and 1992, Fred Trump bought 78 refrigerator-stove combinations for Beach Haven from Long Island Appliance Wholesalers. The average price was $642.69. But in 1993, when he began paying All County for refrigerator-stove combinations, the price jumped by 46 percent. Likewise, the price he paid for trash-compacting services at Beach Haven increased 64 percent. Janitorial supplies went up more than 100 percent. Plumbing repairs and supplies rose 122 percent. And on it went in building after building. The more Fred Trump paid, the more All County made, which was precisely the plan. While All County systematically overcharged Fred Trump for thousands of items, the job of negotiating with vendors fell, as it always had, to Fred Trump and his staff. Leon Eastmond can attest to this. Mr. Eastmond is the owner of A. L. Eastmond & Sons, a Bronx company that makes industrial boilers. In 1993, he and Fred Trump met at Gargiulo’s, an old-school Italian restaurant in Coney Island that was one of Fred Trump’s favorites, to hash out the price of 60 boilers. Fred Trump, accompanied by his secretary and Robert Trump, drove a hard bargain. After negotiating a 10 percent discount, he made one last demand: “I had to pay the tab,” Mr. Eastmond recalled with a chuckle. There was no mention of All County. Mr. Eastmond first heard of the company when its checks started rolling in. “I remember opening my mail one day and out came a check for $100,000,” he recalled. “I didn’t recognize the company. I didn’t know who the hell they were.” | |
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| 10-27-18 02:20pm - 2248 days | #1287 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
But as All County paid Mr. Eastmond the price negotiated by Fred Trump, its invoices to Fred Trump were padded by 20 to 25 percent, records obtained by The Times show. This added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of the 60 boilers, money that then flowed through All County to Fred Trump’s children without incurring any gift tax. All County’s owners devised another ruse to profit off Mr. Eastmond’s boilers. To win Fred Trump’s business, Mr. Eastmond had also agreed to provide mobile boilers for Fred Trump’s buildings free of charge while new boilers were being installed. Yet All County charged Fred Trump rent on the same mobile boilers Mr. Eastmond was providing free, along with hookup fees, disconnection fees, transportation fees and operating and maintenance fees, records show. These charges siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars more from Fred Trump’s empire. Mr. Walter, asked during a deposition why Fred Trump chose not to make himself one of All County’s owners, replied, “He said because he would have to pay a death tax on it.” After being briefed on All County by The Times, Mr. Tritt, the University of Florida law professor, said the Trumps’ use of the company was “highly suspicious” and could constitute criminal tax fraud. “It certainly looks like a disguised gift,” he said. While All County was all upside for Donald Trump and his siblings, it had an insidious downside for Fred Trump’s tenants. As an owner of rent-stabilized buildings in New York, Fred Trump needed state approval to raise rents beyond the annual increases set by a government board. One way to justify a rent increase was to make a major capital improvement. It did not take much to get approval; an invoice or canceled check would do if the expense seemed reasonable. The Trumps used the padded All County invoices to justify higher rent increases in Fred Trump’s rent-regulated buildings. Fred Trump, according to Mr. Walter, saw All County as a way to have his cake and eat it, too. If he used his “expert negotiating ability” to buy a $350 refrigerator for $200, he could raise the rent based only on that $200, not on the $350 sticker price “a normal person” would pay, Mr. Walter explained. All County was the way around this problem. “You have to understand the thinking that went behind this,” he said. As Robert Trump acknowledged in his deposition, “The higher the markup would be, the higher the rent that might be charged.” State records show that after All County’s creation, the Trumps got approval to raise rents on thousands of apartments by claiming more than $30 million in major capital improvements. Tenants repeatedly protested the increases, almost always to no avail, the records show. One of the improvements most often cited by the Trumps: new boilers. “All of this smells like a crime,” said Adam S. Kaufmann, a former chief of investigations for the Manhattan district attorney’s office who is now a partner at the law firm Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss. While the statute of limitations has long since lapsed, Mr. Kaufmann said the Trumps’ use of All County would have warranted investigation for defrauding tenants, tax fraud and filing false documents. Mr. Harder, the president’s lawyer, disputed The Times’s reporting: “Should The Times state or imply that President Trump participated in fraud, tax evasion or any other crime, it will be exposing itself to substantial liability and damages for defamation.” | |
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| 10-27-18 02:21pm - 2248 days | #1288 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
All County was not the only company the Trumps set up to drain cash from Fred Trump’s empire. A lucrative income source for Fred Trump was the management fees he charged his buildings. His primary management company, Trump Management, earned $6.8 million in 1993 alone. The Trumps found a way to redirect those fees to the children, too. On Jan. 21, 1994, they created a company called Apartment Management Associates Inc., with a mailing address at Mr. Walter’s Manhasset home. Two months later, records show, Apartment Management started collecting fees that had previously gone to Trump Management. The only difference was that Donald Trump and his siblings owned Apartment Management. Between All County and Apartment Management, Fred Trump’s mountain of cash was rapidly dwindling. By 1998, records show, All County and Apartment Management were generating today’s equivalent of $2.2 million a year for each of the Trump children. Whatever income tax they owed on this money, it was considerably less than the 55 percent tax Fred Trump would have owed had he simply given each of them $2.2 million a year. But these savings were trivial compared with those that would come when Fred Trump transferred his empire — the actual bricks and mortar — to his children. The Alchemy of Value The transfer of most of Fred Trump’s empire to his children began with a ‘friendly’ appraisal and an incredible shrinking act. Father and son in the 1980s. Together, they crafted a narrative around Donald Trump’s wealth. “Everything he touches seems to turn to gold,” Fred Trump told The Times in 1976. Bernard Gotfryd/Getty Images In his 90th year, Fred Trump still showed up at work a few days a week, ever dapper in suit and tie. But he had trouble remembering names — his dementia was getting worse — and he could get confused. In May 1995, with an unsteady hand, he signed documents granting Robert Trump power of attorney to act “in my name, place and stead.” Six months later, on Nov. 22, the Trumps began transferring ownership of most of Fred Trump’s empire. (A few properties were excluded.) The instrument they used to do this was a special type of trust with a clunky acronym only a tax lawyer could love: GRAT, short for grantor-retained annuity trust. GRATs are one of the tax code’s great gifts to the ultrawealthy. They let dynastic families like the Trumps pass wealth from one generation to the next — be it stocks, real estate, even art collections — without paying a dime of estate taxes. The details are numbingly complex, but the mechanics are straightforward. For the Trumps, it meant putting half the properties to be transferred into a GRAT in Fred Trump’s name and the other half into a GRAT in his wife’s name. Then Fred and Mary Trump gave their children roughly two-thirds of the assets in their GRATs. The children bought the remaining third by making annuity payments to their parents over the next two years. By Nov. 22, 1997, it was done; the Trump children owned nearly all of Fred Trump’s empire free and clear of estate taxes. As for gift taxes, the Trumps found a way around those, too. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:22pm - 2248 days | #1289 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The entire transaction turned on one number: the market value of Fred Trump’s empire. This determined the amount of gift taxes Fred and Mary Trump owed for the portion of the empire they gave to their children. It also determined the amount of annuity payments their children owed for the rest. The I.R.S. recognizes that GRATs create powerful incentives to greatly undervalue assets, especially when those assets are not publicly traded stocks with transparent prices. Indeed, every $10 million reduction in the valuation of Fred Trump’s empire would save the Trumps either $10 million in annuity payments or $5.5 million in gift taxes. This is why the I.R.S. requires families taking advantage of GRATs to submit independent appraisals and threatens penalties for those who lowball valuations. In practice, though, gift tax returns get little scrutiny from the I.R.S. It is an open secret among tax practitioners that evasion of gift taxes is rampant and rarely prosecuted. Punishment, such as it is, usually consists of an auditor’s requiring a tax payment closer to what should have been paid in the first place. “GRATs are typically structured so that no tax is due, which means the I.R.S. has reduced incentive to audit them,” said Mitchell Gans, a professor of tax law at Hofstra University. “So if a gift is in fact undervalued, it may very well go unnoticed.” This appears to be precisely what the Trumps were counting on. The Times found evidence that the Trumps dodged hundreds of millions of dollars in gift taxes by submitting tax returns that grossly undervalued the real estate assets they placed in Fred and Mary Trump’s GRATs. According to Fred Trump’s 1995 gift tax return, obtained by The Times, the Trumps claimed that properties including 25 apartment complexes with 6,988 apartments — and twice the floor space of the Empire State Building — were worth just $41.4 million. The implausibility of this claim would be made plain in 2004, when banks put a valuation of nearly $900 million on that same real estate. The methods the Trumps used to pull off this incredible shrinking act were hatched in the strategy sessions Donald Trump participated in during the early 1990s, documents and interviews show. Their basic strategy had two components: Get what is widely known as a “friendly” appraisal of the empire’s worth, then drive that number even lower by changing the ownership structure to make the empire look less valuable to the I.R.S. A crucial step was finding a property appraiser attuned to their needs. As anyone who has ever bought or sold a home knows, appraisers can arrive at sharply different valuations depending on their methods and assumptions. And like stock analysts, property appraisers have been known to massage those methods and assumptions in ways that coincide with their clients’ interests. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:23pm - 2248 days | #1290 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The Trumps used Robert Von Ancken, a favorite of New York City’s big real estate families. Over a 45-year career, Mr. Von Ancken has appraised many of the city’s landmarks, including Rockefeller Center, the World Trade Center, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. Donald Trump recruited him after Fred Trump Jr. died and the family needed friendly appraisals to help shield the estate from taxes. Mr. Von Ancken appraised the 25 apartment complexes and other properties in the Trumps’ GRATs and concluded that their total value was $93.9 million, tax records show. To assess the accuracy of those valuations, The Times examined the prices paid for comparable apartment buildings that sold within a year of Mr. Von Ancken’s appraisals. A pattern quickly emerged. Again and again, buildings in the same neighborhood as Trump buildings sold for two to four times as much per square foot as Mr. Von Ancken’s appraisals, even when the buildings were decades older, had fewer amenities and smaller apartments, and were deemed less valuable by city property tax appraisers. Mr. Von Ancken valued Argyle Hall, a six-story brick Trump building in Brooklyn, at $9.04 per square foot. Six blocks away, another six-story brick building, two decades older, had sold a few months earlier for nearly $30 per square foot. He valued Belcrest Hall, a Trump building in Queens, at $8.57 per square foot. A few blocks away, another six-story brick building, four decades older with apartments a third smaller, sold for $25.18 per square foot. Fred Trump’s 1995 gift tax return valued the Fiesta Apartments, left, in Brooklyn, at $18.30 per square foot. A similar building a few minutes away sold the next year for nearly four times as much: $67.08 per square foot. New York City Municipal Archives The pattern persisted with Fred Trump’s higher-end buildings. Mr. Von Ancken appraised Lawrence Towers, a Trump building in Brooklyn with spacious balcony apartments, at $24.54 per square foot. A few months earlier, an apartment building abutting car repair shops a mile away, with units 20 percent smaller, had sold for $48.23 per square foot. The Times found even starker discrepancies when comparing the GRAT appraisals against appraisals commissioned by the Trumps when they had an incentive to show the highest possible valuations. Such was the case with Patio Gardens, a complex of nearly 500 apartments in Brooklyn. Of all Fred Trump’s properties, Patio Gardens was one of the least profitable, which may be why he decided to use it as a tax deduction. In 1992, he donated Patio Gardens to the National Kidney Foundation of New York/New Jersey, one of the largest charitable donations he ever made. The greater the value of Patio Gardens, the bigger his deduction. The appraisal cited in Fred Trump’s 1992 tax return valued Patio Gardens at $34 million, or $61.90 a square foot. By contrast, Mr. Von Ancken’s GRAT appraisals found that the crown jewels of Fred Trump’s empire, Beach Haven and Shore Haven, with five times as many apartments as Patio Gardens, were together worth just $23 million, or $11.01 per square foot. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:23pm - 2248 days | #1291 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
In an interview, Mr. Von Ancken said that because neither he nor The Times had the working papers that described how he arrived at his valuations, there was simply no way to evaluate the methodologies behind his numbers. “There would be explanations within the appraisals to justify all the values,” he said, adding, “Basically, when we prepare these things, we feel that these are going to be presented to the Internal Revenue Service for their review, and they better be right.” Of all the GRAT appraisals Mr. Von Ancken did for the Trumps, the most startling was for 886 rental apartments in two buildings at Trump Village, a complex in Coney Island. Mr. Von Ancken claimed that they were worth less than nothing — negative $5.9 million, to be exact. These were the same 886 units that city tax assessors valued that same year at $38.1 million, and that a bank would value at $106.6 million in 2004. The Trumps’ appraiser used two Trump Village buildings’ temporary dip into the red to claim they were worth negative $5.9 million. Dave Sanders for The New York Times It appears Mr. Von Ancken arrived at his negative valuation by departing from the methodology that he has repeatedly testified is most appropriate for properties like Trump Village, where past years’ profits are a poor gauge of future value. In 1992, the Trumps had removed the two Trump Village buildings from an affordable housing program so they could raise rents and increase their profits. But doing so cost them a property tax exemption, which temporarily put the buildings in the red. The methodology described by Mr. Von Ancken would have disregarded this blip into the red and valued the buildings based on the higher rents the Trumps would be charging. Mr. Von Ancken, however, appears to have based his valuation on the blip, producing an appraisal that, taken at face value, meant Fred Trump would have had to pay someone millions of dollars to take the property off his hands. Mr. Von Ancken told The Times that he did not recall which appraisal method he used on the two Trump Village buildings. “I can only say that we value the properties based on market information, and based on the expected income and expenses of the building and what they would sell for,” he said. As for the enormous gaps between his valuation and the 1995 city property tax appraisal and the 2004 bank valuation, he argued that such comparisons were pointless. “I can’t say what happened afterwards,” he said. “Maybe they increased the income tremendously.” The Minority Owner To further whittle the empire’s valuation, the family created the appearance that Fred Trump held only 49.8 percent. Donald Trump with his mother, Mary, and his father. The empire was split up among the parents and children to create the impression that Fred Trump was a minority owner, decreasing its value on paper and minimizing taxes. RTalensick/MediaPunch, via Alamy | |
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| 10-27-18 02:24pm - 2248 days | #1292 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Armed with Mr. Von Ancken’s $93.9 million appraisal, the Trumps focused on slashing even this valuation by changing the ownership structure of Fred Trump’s empire. The I.R.S. has long accepted the idea that ownership with control is more valuable than ownership without control. Someone with a controlling interest in a building can decide if and when the building is sold, how it is marketed and what price to accept. However, since someone who owns, say, 10 percent of a $100 million building lacks control over any of those decisions, the I.R.S. will let him claim that his stake should be taxed as if it were worth only $7 million or $8 million. But Fred Trump had exercised total control over his empire for more than seven decades. With rare exceptions, he owned 100 percent of his buildings. So the Trumps set out to create the fiction that Fred Trump was a minority owner. All it took was splitting the ownership structure of his empire. Fred and Mary Trump each ended up with 49.8 percent of the corporate entities that owned his buildings. The other 0.4 percent was split among their four children. Splitting ownership into minority interests is a widely used method of tax avoidance. There is one circumstance, however, where it has at times been found to be illegal. It involves what is known in tax law as the step transaction doctrine — where it can be shown that the corporate restructuring was part of a rapid sequence of seemingly separate maneuvers actually conceived and executed to dodge taxes. A key issue, according to tax experts, is timing — in the Trumps’ case, whether they split up Fred Trump’s empire just before they set up the GRATs. In all, the Trumps broke up 12 corporate entities to create the appearance of minority ownership. The Times could not determine when five of the 12 companies were divided. But records reveal that the other seven were split up just before the GRATs were established. The pattern was clear. For decades, the companies had been owned solely by Fred Trump, each operating a different apartment complex or shopping center. In September 1995, the Trumps formed seven new limited liability companies. Between Oct. 31 and Nov. 8, they transferred the deeds to the seven properties into their respective L.L.C.’s. On Nov. 21, they recorded six of the deed transfers in public property records. (The seventh was recorded on Nov. 24.) And on Nov. 22, 49.8 percent of the shares in these seven L.L.C.’s was transferred into Fred Trump’s GRAT and 49.8 percent into Mary Trump’s GRAT. That enabled the Trumps to slash Mr. Von Ancken’s valuation in a way that was legally dubious. They claimed that Fred and Mary Trump’s status as minority owners, plus the fact that a building couldn’t be sold as easily as a share of stock, entitled them to lop 45 percent off Mr. Von Ancken’s $93.9 million valuation. This claim, combined with $18.3 million more in standard deductions, completed the alchemy of turning real estate that would soon be valued at nearly $900 million into $41.4 million. According to tax experts, claiming a 45 percent discount was questionable even back then, and far higher than the 20 to 30 percent discount the I.R.S. would allow today. As it happened, the Trumps’ GRATs did not completely elude I.R.S. scrutiny. Documents obtained by The Times reveal that the I.R.S. audited Fred Trump’s 1995 gift tax return and concluded that Fred Trump and his wife had significantly undervalued the assets being transferred through their GRATs. The I.R.S. determined that the Trumps’ assets were worth $57.1 million, 38 percent more than the couple had claimed. From the perspective of an I.R.S. auditor, pulling in nearly $5 million in additional revenue could be considered a good day’s work. For the Trumps, getting the I.R.S. to agree that Fred Trump’s properties were worth only $57.1 million was a triumph. “All estate matters were handled by licensed attorneys, licensed C.P.A.s and licensed real estate appraisers who followed all laws and rules strictly,” Mr. Harder, the president’s lawyer, said in his statement. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:25pm - 2248 days | #1293 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
In the end, the transfer of the Trump empire cost Fred and Mary Trump $20.5 million in gift taxes and their children $21 million in annuity payments. That is hundreds of millions of dollars less than they would have paid based on the empire’s market value, The Times found. Better still for the Trump children, they did not have to pay out a penny of their own. They simply used their father’s empire as collateral to secure a line of credit from M&T Bank. They used the line of credit to make the $21 million in annuity payments, then used the revenue from their father’s empire to repay the money they had borrowed. On the day the Trump children finally took ownership of Fred Trump’s empire, Donald Trump’s net worth instantly increased by many tens of millions of dollars. And from then on, the profits from his father’s empire would flow directly to him and his siblings. The next year, 1998, Donald Trump’s share amounted to today’s equivalent of $9.6 million, The Times found. This sudden influx of wealth came only weeks after he had published “The Art of the Comeback.” “I learned a lot about myself during these hard times,” he wrote. “I learned about handling pressure. I was able to home in, buckle down, get back to the basics, and make things work. I worked much harder, I focused, and I got myself out of a box.” Over 244 pages he did not mention that he was being handed nearly 25 percent of his father’s empire. Remnants of Empire After Fred Trump’s death, his children used familiar methods to devalue what little of his life’s work was still in his name. Fred Trump’s portrait hangs at Trump Grill inside Trump Tower. Dave Sanders for The New York Times During Fred Trump’s final years, dementia stole most of his memories. When family visited, there was one name he could reliably put to a face. Donald. On June 7, 1999, Fred Trump was admitted to Long Island Jewish Medical Center, not far from the house in Jamaica Estates, for treatment of pneumonia. He died there on June 25, at the age of 93. Fifteen months later, Fred Trump’s executors — Donald, Maryanne and Robert — filed his estate tax return. The return, obtained by The Times, vividly illustrates the effectiveness of the tax strategies devised by the Trumps in the early 1990s. Fred Trump, one of the most prolific New York developers of his time, owned just five apartment complexes, two small strip malls and a scattering of co-ops in the city upon his death. The man who paid himself $50 million in 1990 died with just $1.9 million in the bank. He owned not a single stock, bond or Treasury bill. According to his estate tax return, his most valuable asset was a $10.3 million I.O.U. from Donald Trump, money his son appears to have borrowed the year before Fred Trump died. The bulk of Fred Trump’s empire was nowhere to be found on his estate tax return. And yet Donald Trump and his siblings were not done. Recycling the legally dubious techniques they had mastered with the GRATs, they dodged tens of millions of dollars in estate taxes on the remnants of empire that Fred Trump still owned when he died, The Times found. As with the GRATs, they obtained appraisals from Mr. Von Ancken that grossly understated the actual market value of those remnants. And as with the GRATs, they aggressively discounted Mr. Von Ancken’s appraisals. The result: They claimed that the five apartment complexes and two strip malls were worth $15 million. In 2004, records show, bankers would put a value of $176.2 million on the exact same properties. | |
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| 10-27-18 02:26pm - 2248 days | #1294 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The most improbable of these valuations was for Tysens Park Apartments, a complex of eight buildings with 1,019 units on Staten Island. On the portion of the estate tax return where they were required to list Tysens Park’s value, the Trumps simply left a blank space and claimed they owed no estate taxes on it at all. As with the Trump Village appraisal, the Trumps appear to have hidden key facts from the I.R.S. Tysens Park, like Trump Village, had operated for years under an affordable housing program that by law capped Fred Trump’s profits. This cap drastically reduced the property’s market value. Leaving a blank space on Fred Trump’s estate tax return, the Trumps indicated that they owed no estate taxes on the Tysens Park complex on Staten Island. Dave Sanders for The New York Times Except for one thing: The Trumps had removed Tysens Park from the affordable housing program the year before Fred Trump died, The Times found. When Donald Trump and his siblings filed Fred Trump’s estate tax return, there were no limits on their profits. In fact, they had already begun raising rents. As their father’s executors, Donald, Maryanne and Robert were legally responsible for the accuracy of his estate tax return. They were obligated not only to give the I.R.S. a complete accounting of the value of his estate’s assets, but also to disclose all the taxable gifts he made during his lifetime, including, for example, the $15.5 million Trump Palace gift to Donald Trump and the millions of dollars he gave his children via All County’s padded invoices. “If they knew anything was wrong they could be in violation of tax law,” Mr. Tritt, the University of Florida law professor, said. “They can’t just stick their heads in the sand.” In addition to drastically understating the value of apartment complexes and shopping centers, Fred Trump’s estate tax return made no mention of either Trump Palace or All County. It wasn’t until after Fred Trump’s wife, Mary, died at 88 on Aug. 7, 2000, that the I.R.S. completed its audit of their combined estates. The audit concluded that their estates were worth $51.8 million, 23 percent more than Donald Trump and his siblings had claimed. That meant an additional $5.2 million in estate taxes. Even so, the Trumps’ tax bill was a fraction of what they would have owed had they reported the market value of what Fred and Mary Trump owned at the time of their deaths. Mr. Harder, the president’s lawyer, defended the tax returns filed by the Trumps. “The returns and tax positions that The Times now attacks were examined in real time by the relevant taxing authorities,” he said. “The taxing authorities requested a few minor adjustments, which were made, and then fully approved all of the tax filings. These matters have now been closed for more than a decade.” | |
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| 10-27-18 02:26pm - 2248 days | #1295 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
A Good Time to Sell Donald Trump, in financial trouble again, pitched the idea of selling the still-profitable empire that his father had wanted to keep in the family. In 2003, the Trump siblings gathered at Trump Tower for one of their periodic updates on their inherited empire. As always, Robert Trump drove into Manhattan with several of his lieutenants. Donald Trump appeared with Allen H. Weisselberg, who had worked for Fred Trump for two decades before becoming his son’s chief financial officer. The sisters, Maryanne Trump Barry and Elizabeth Trump Grau, were there as well. The meeting followed the usual routine: a financial report, a rundown of operational issues and then the real business — distributing profits to each Trump. The task of handing out the checks fell to Steve Gurien, the empire’s finance chief. A moment later, Donald Trump abruptly changed the course of his family’s history: He said it was a good time to sell. Fred Trump’s empire, in fact, was continuing to produce healthy profits, and selling contradicted his stated wish to keep his legacy in the family. But Donald Trump insisted that the real estate market had peaked and that the time was right, according to a person familiar with the meeting. He was also, once again, in financial trouble. His Atlantic City casinos were veering toward another bankruptcy. His creditors would soon threaten to oust him unless he committed to invest $55 million of his own money. Yet if Donald Trump’s sudden push to sell stunned the room, it met with no apparent resistance from his siblings. He directed his brother to solicit private bids, saying he wanted the sale handled quickly and quietly. Donald Trump’s signature skill — drumming up publicity for the Trump brand — would sit this one out. Three potential bidders were given access to the finances of Fred Trump’s empire — 37 apartment complexes and several shopping centers. Ruby Schron, a major New York City landlord, quickly emerged as the favorite. In December 2003, Mr. Schron called Donald Trump and they came to an agreement; Mr. Schron paid $705.6 million for most of the empire, which included paying off the Trumps’ mortgages. A few remaining properties were sold to other buyers, bringing the total sales price to $737.9 million. On May 4, 2004, the Trump children spent most of the day signing away ownership of what their father had doggedly built over 70 years. The sale received little news coverage, and an article in The Staten Island Advance included the rarest of phrases: “Trump did not return a phone call seeking comment.” Even more extraordinary was this unreported fact: The banks financing Mr. Schron’s purchase valued Fred Trump’s empire at nearly $1 billion. In other words, Donald Trump, master dealmaker, sold his father’s empire for hundreds of millions less than it was worth. Within a year of the sale, Mr. Trump spent $149 million in cash on a rapid series of transactions that bolstered his billionaire bona fides. In June 2004 he agreed to pay $73 million to buy out his partner in the planned Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. (“I’m just buying it with my own cash,” he told reporters.) He paid $55 million in cash to make peace with his casino creditors. Then he put up $21 million more in cash to help finance his purchase of Maison de l’Amitié, a waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., that he later sold to a Russian oligarch. ***** | |
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| 10-27-18 02:27pm - 2248 days | #1296 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
The first season of “The Apprentice” was broadcast in 2004, just as Donald Trump was wrapping up the sale of his father’s empire. The show’s opening montage — quick cuts of a glittering Trump casino, then Trump Tower, then a Trump helicopter mid-flight, then a limousine depositing the man himself at the steps of his jet, all set to the song “For the Love of Money” — is a reminder that the story of Donald Trump is fundamentally a story of money. Money is at the core of the brand Mr. Trump has so successfully sold to the world. Yet essential to that mythmaking has been keeping the truth of his money — how much of it he actually has, where and whom it came from — hidden or obscured. Across the decades, aided and abetted by less-than-aggressive journalism, Mr. Trump has made sure his financial history would be sensationalized far more than seen. In the narrative Donald Trump has long put forth, money is central; absent has been the critical financial role played by his father, whose photograph sits alongside his mother’s in the Oval Office. Doug Mills/The New York Times Just this year, in a confessional essay for The Washington Post, Jonathan Greenberg, a former reporter for Forbes, described how Mr. Trump, identifying himself as John Barron, a spokesman for Donald Trump, repeatedly and flagrantly lied to get himself on the magazine’s first-ever list of wealthiest Americans in 1982. Because of Mr. Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns, the public has been left to interpret contradictory glimpses of his income offered up by anonymous leaks. A few pages from one tax return, mailed to The Times in September 2016, showed that he declared a staggering loss of $916 million in 1995. A couple of pages from another return, disclosed on Rachel Maddow’s program, showed that he earned an impressive $150 million in 2005. In a statement to The Times, the president’s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, reiterated what Mr. Trump has always claimed about the evolution of his fortune: “The president’s father gave him an initial $1 million loan, which he paid back. President Trump used this money to build an incredibly successful company as well as net worth of over $10 billion, including owning some of the world’s greatest real estate.” Today, the chasm between that claim of being worth more than $10 billion and a Bloomberg estimate of $2.8 billion reflects the depth of uncertainty that remains about one of the most chronicled public figures in American history. Questions about newer money sources are rapidly accumulating because of the Russia investigation and lawsuits alleging that Mr. Trump is violating the Constitution by continuing to do business with foreign governments. But the more than 100,000 pages of records obtained during this investigation make it possible to sweep away decades of misinformation and arrive at a clear understanding about the original source of Mr. Trump’s wealth — his father. Here is what can be said with certainty: Had Mr. Trump done nothing but invest the money his father gave him in an index fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500, he would be worth $1.96 billion today. As for that $1 million loan, Fred Trump actually lent him at least $60.7 million, or $140 million in today’s dollars, The Times found. And there is one more Fred Trump windfall coming Donald Trump’s way. Starrett City, the Brooklyn housing complex that the Trumps invested in back in the 1970s, sold this year for $905 million. Donald Trump’s share of the proceeds is expected to exceed $16 million, records show. It was an investment made with Fred Trump’s money and connections. But in Donald Trump’s version of his life, Starrett City is always and forever “one of the best investments I ever made.” | |
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| 10-27-18 02:29pm - 2248 days | #1297 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Related Coverage 11 Takeaways From The Times’s Investigation Into Trump’s Wealth Oct. 2, 2018 4 Ways Fred Trump Made Donald Trump and His Siblings Rich Oct. 2, 2018 How Times Journalists Uncovered the Original Source of the President’s Wealth Oct. 2, 2018  2018 The New York Times Company | |
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| 10-27-18 02:31pm - 2248 days | #1298 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Conclusion: The Trump family is a bunch of thieves. Their assets should be seized. President Donald Trump deserves to be put in prison for the rest of his life. | |
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| 10-27-18 03:56pm - 2248 days | #1299 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: Donald Trump breaks down and cries. Admits he is a thief. Admits he breaks the law: admits his fortune comes from breaking the law and from theft. After the confession, he says his job, as President, means he can't be tried for past crimes. What he is doing is for the good of the country. So the country has to forgive him. And he will try to do better in the future. And now he can steal legally, by passing laws that favor his family. By making deals that favor his family. My family first, says Trump, as the crowds cheer him on. | |
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| 10-29-18 05:46pm - 2246 days | #1300 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Fake news: the only kind worth reading. Trump vows that he will destroy Amazon. Says that Bezos is a bare-faced liar. Says the Washington Post is fake news, and should stop spreading lies about our wonderful president, the greatest man who ever lived. Greater than Washington. Greater than Lincoln. Greater than Jesus. Donald Trump is God's messenger on earth. God sent Donald Trump to the United States, to save us from Mexican rapists and murderers. And from slime-ball Democrats. Please, people, vote for Donald Trump in the November elections. Donald Trump, leader of the Moral Majority for a white America. | |
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