The Trump administration seems to be wasting no time getting its financials in order. Just a few weeks into Donald Trump’s term, Trump tweeted that the debt had been lowered by $60 billion. Reports are also circulating that Trump’s first budget will oversee the largest reduction of the federal workforce since WWII.
So we know how Trump plans to save money. But how will he make it?
He certainly doesn’t seem to be willing to raise taxes very much. While he has suggested that he might be okay with a small tax increase on the rich, most of the government’s extra income seems contingent on a growing economy, not higher tax rates.
But that’s not their only plan.
The Trump Administration also seems to be eyeing unpaid debts held by foreign governments — some going back half a century.
Read about how the U.S. is demanding repayment for Cambodian bombings on the next page:
Who gives a$#%&!@*better than we had the last 8yrs
About time we stop being the worlds bank
Go President Trump and make them pay
He’s obviously successful quit being a sore loser
When your in business sometimes you need to file bankruptcy to stop payments… He’s not even paying taxes he seems smarter than most who just want to rob Our money…he’s not even taking the money to be president… He’s given it to charity
Much ink has been spilled over the last six months documenting Trump’s tin ear when it comes to all matters ethical: His refusal to put his business into a blind trust, as every one of his predecessors in recent memory has done. His refusal to reveal his tax returns, like his predecessors. The never-ending stream of lies that he continues to spew even after they’re proven to be lies (three to five million fraudulent votes, Obama spied on me, f**e news, and so on).
None of this is “very standard” for a president. It’s the opposite of standard.
I think we’ve been missing the boat by characterizing these as ethical breaches. Ethics assumes some sort of agreed-upon standard against which an ethical breach can be defined and measured.
But Donald Trump doesn’t live in a world that has any standards at all, and he never has. His entire approach to life, to business, and now to the presidency has nothing whatever to do with standards. It’s about winning, at all costs. Whatever it takes.
Winning at all costs is the only thing that’s “very standard” in Trumpworld.
When he was in business and couldn’t repay his creditors, he declared bankruptcy. Again and again. And when his bankers finally wised up and refused to lend him any more money, he found foreign bankers who would oblige.
When he chose not to pay his contractors, or others who worked for him, he didn’t. He stiffed them.
When women complained about sexual harassment, he paid them off.
Trump has spent most of his life in business being sued or sueing – as if our judicial system was just another standard tool for winning.
To make a name for himself in politics, he suggested Barack Obama wasn’t born in America. Hey, whatever it took.
To win the presidency he told lies about undocumented immigrants and crime, about Arabs cheering as the World Trade Center went down, about his business smarts. He promised his followers he’d jail Hillary Clinton, drain the Washington swamp, build a wall along the Mexican border, create vast numbers of jobs, repeal the North American Free Trade Act.
He’d lie about anything. He’d promise anything. All was just a means to becoming president. There are no standards. Whatever it took.
“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” he said.
Did he collude with Russia to become president? That wouldn’t be standard practice in politics, but it would be consistent with Trump’s standard.
“I said [to Putin] ‘Did you do it?’” Trump reported back on his meeting with Vladimir. “And he said, ‘No, I did not. Absolutely not.’ I then asked him a second time in a totally different way. He said absolutely not.”
And that’s supposed to be the end of it?
The U.S. intelligence community has told Trump that Russia interfered on his behalf in the presidential election of 2016, at Putin’s direction. So why does Trump ask Putin if he did it?
He should be telling Putin what the United States is planning to do in response to what Putin did.
We may never know the exact answer to whether Trump himself colluded with Putin to win the presidency. Or, more likely, his core supporters may never know, because Trump will tell them not to believe whatever Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the intelligence agencies come up with, and to blame the press for reporting f**e news. Politics isnt’ the nicest business in the world, he might say, but whatever he did was very standard.
A president’s major responsibilities are to protect the United States and the Constitution, and to see that the laws are faithfully executed.
But Trump’s major goal now is to remain in power and to accumulate even more money. Whatever it takes.
Our man Trump!!!
One bankruptcy yes and maybe two …yea I can dig it . But 4 times shows a lack of business sense. Trump inherited 100 million. Gee Trumps business suave is remarkable…….sarcasm for the slow people. And an EXTREMELY IMPORTANT POINT ! His 400,00 salary , which Trump has graciously donated to the Parks department is 1/10,000 of what he cut from the Parks Department. Trump just has sooo much fodder, it makes it easy to counterpoint.
I LOVE these frickin’ kitty emoges
At what cost?