Donald John Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States of America on June 16, 1915, riding down a golden escalator at the Trump tower, as if a God descending from Heaven to take command of his people. He soon attracted an intensely loyal following of Christian Nationalists and White Supremacists, who believed whatever he said, and did not deviate from their support of their Christian national leader, regardless of what charges were brought against him. This dedicated segment of the voting population, about 30%, has not varied their support since that time, beginning with his candidacy, and continuing through two impeachments, and now multiple indictments from the Justice Department and State Attorneys General. Having a loyal cache of Christian nationalists on his side was not enough, however. He had a formidable opponent, Hillary Clinton, whose campaign to establish her as the first female president was gathering momentum. He would need to throw dirt on her to win the election – so that was exactly what he did, and he didn’t do it on his own. He enlisted the surreptitious help of the Russians to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton. Russia, dreading a Clinton presidency, was more than willing to help. Here’s how they did it.
Donald Trump used a flamboyant, militarily aggressive, deceitful, forced to retire, Lieutenant General, Michael Flynn, as his intermediary with the Russians. Michael Flynn was also a leader in the Christian Nationalist movement, and had already had extensive dealing with the Russians in military and business matters. He was the first military person to be allowed to visit, under the supervision of the Russian government, their military headquarters in Moscow, the GRU, in 2013. He received $65,000 from Russian businesses in 2013, for obscure reasons. In December of 2015, he was invited to a ten year banquet celebration in Moscow for the government supported national television network. He sat next to Vladimir Putin at that banquet, and was given $45,000 for giving a speech on world military matters. No doubt he and Putin discussed Trump’s candidacy at that time, and Trump’s needs for the coming campaign. Meanwhile, Trump, on the campaign trail, had not been able to get much traction from his complaints that there had been a Clinton cover-up on the 2012 Benghazi embassy attack. So he turned to emails, a cache of which was on a private internet server used by Clinton for personal business. Trump charged that those emails contained records of cover-ups and underhanded business. Trump appealed publically to Russia to help him uncover those emails. On October 28, 2016, 11 days before the election, James Comey, Director of the FBI, announced that the FBI had received a cache of Clinton emails that they would be investigating. That announcement was probably enough to change some voter’s minds about Hillary Clinton’s honesty, and swing the electoral college vote to Donald Trump. Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election because he cheated, colluding with Russia to cast false aspersions on his opponent.
There was immediate suspicion that there had been Russian interference with the 2016 election. Phone records indicated that Michael Flynn was on the phone with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak at that time, multiple times. He also met with Kislyak and Jared Kushner at the Trump tower on November 30, 2016. What transpired during that meeting remains unknown, but we can guess they discussed ways they could deal with the charges they knew were coming against Russia for interfering with the 2016 election. When Barak Obama announced sanctions against Russia in December, 2016, Russia did not retaliate. The Obama administration, surprised at this lack of anger from the Russians, did not realize that Flynn and Krislyak had already made a deal to throw the election to Trump, and had discussed how to handle these expected sanctions in relationship to the eminent Trump presidency; the Russians were not angry; they were happy to have taken the United States presidency away from Hillary Clinton. They knew they had a friend in Donald Trump.
Once in office, every move that Donald Trump made was designed to make him and his wealthy friends richer, and take opportunities away from the middle class and working poor, robbing them of the opportunity to seek their own fulfillment and happiness in life. He did so many evil self-serving acts while in office that there is not enough space in these pages to list them all, but here are the most egregious.
Donald Trump tried to end the Affordable Care Act, but found public resistance too great.
He tried to defund Medicare/Medicaid, but was able only to weaken a few aspects of those programs.
He partially repealed the Dodd-Frank Act, which regulated the banking industry. As a result, we have now had multiple bank failures requiring expensive bail-outs, when those banks overextended their spending.
He signed heavy tax cuts into law, a boon to the wealthy, but a greater burden on the middle class and working poor. As a result, the federal deficit has ballooned under Trump, placing greater tax burdens on our children.
He implemented a policy to separate immigrant children from their parents. This cruel practice has resulted in several thousand children being lost in the system, unable to ever see their parents again.
He withdrew from the Paris agreement on climate change, in spite of the clear evidence that problem is accelerating. We are now faced with monumental floods, fires, drought, heat waves and tornadoes, never before seen to this extent.
He withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, allowing China to wield greater influence in the Pacific theater.
He reversed environmental protective regulations, allowing pipeline to be run through native Indian reservation land, and more drilling for natural gas and oil, draining of wetlands for economic development.
He implemented a major arms sale to Saudi Arabia, in spite of evidence that the Saudi’s had facilitated the 9/11 airplane attack on the World Trade Centers and had an abysmal civil rights record.
He tried to prevent immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries from reaching our shores, showing his true religious bigotry and racism.
He withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement, allowing Iran to, without scheduled inspections, surreptitiously advance its stock of enriched uranium.
He ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani by drone strike at the Baghdad airport, while Soleimani was on his way to meet the Iraqi Prime Minister. The Iranian anger at this assassination has been intense and unrelenting.
He pressured Ukraine to begin an investigation in the affairs of Hunter Biden, Joe’s son, and threatened withdrawal of United States military support if Zelensky did not do so.
He disavowed the urgency and severity of the COVID epidemic, allowing that disease to spread rapidly, and cause several thousand deaths that could have been prevented.
He appointed lobbyists as members of his cabinet, in essence, putting the foxes in charge of the hen houses.
He reversed a Commercial Financial Protection rule that had made it easier for citizens to sue banks, giving banks greater protection from damage after committing illegal financial acts.
He praised rough treatment by police in at 1917 speech to police officers, and by doing so, encouraged police brutality.
When James Comey, as director of the FBI, began investigating the dealings of Michael Flynn with the Russians during the 2016 election, Trump asked him to back off. When Comey did not fully do so, he fired James Comey.
When Michael Flynn was caught lying to the FBI about his dealings with the Russians, and reluctantly agreed to a plea deal, Trump persuaded Flynn to fire his attorneys, and instead use his attorney, Sidney Powell. Flynn then dropped his guilty plea with the Mueller investigation. Powell filed a request for all charges to be dropped against Flynn. When that request was denied, Trump pardoned Flynn before Flynn would have to testify in court about his dealings with the Russians. He did not want it known that he had colluded with the Russians to steal the election from Hillary Clinton.
When Trump’s long-time friend, Roger Stone, was found guilty of lying to congress about his dealings with the Russians, and sentenced to prison, Trump pardoned him a few weeks before that prison sentence began. Stone was thereby rewarded for lying to the United States congress, and keeping secret how the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton.
The conclusion of the Mueller investigation, from 2017 to 2019, was that Russia did interfere with the 2016 election, but that there was no available evidence to link that nefarious scheme to Donald Trump. Trump had blocked being identified as the instigator of that crime by using the presidential pardon.
The evidence is overwhelming, regardless of what happens with subsequent multiple indictments and trials. Donald John Trump was the worst president the United States of America has ever had. He tried, and is still trying to destroy that most precious possession we in the United States of America have – our democracy. He stole the 2016 presidential election, lies constantly, falsely accuses his opponents of criminal acts he has already committed against them, is a white supremacist, a gender supremacist, a Christian bigot, and an elitist. He is an evil man, a sociopath.