Apparently, Trumpf Fans Don't Mind Bombast

In October, Herr Trumpf's serpent-like, slimy son Eric was on Fox and Friends doing a pitch-perfect impersonation of his ridiculous father. At first I thought it might be a joke, but, no, Eric is a real chip off the old block-- he'd fit right in as some Iranian bazaari trying to sell you a mass-produced, chemically-dyed fake Persian rug for a hundred times the price. "The one thing about my father-- and I see this every day in our business-- he picks incredible people. I think he would have the greatest cabinet in the history of cabinets. He would get people from the private sector; he'd get the best of every respective industry... He picks unbelievable people. His whole cabinet would be the best; they'd be the brightest. They would be the doers. They'd be practical people. He picks amazing people and they really run very hard for him."

The reality, though, is very different. Any place you go that has seen a Trumpf project, you will always find his victims confirming that he hires the shoddiest and most untrustworthy people-- not "the greatest people" he's always claiming. Just ask the people who were suckered by the Trump name into buying in the luxury condominium complex, Trump Hollywood Tower at 2711 So. Ocean Drive in Hollywood, Florida and at the Villa Largo complex in Boynton Beach. As usual, law suits have been raging for years, many caused by Trumpf hiring Patrick Murphy's shady company, Coastal Construction of South Florida, which installed the cheapest and most dangerous drywall from China. When Trumpf repeats, ad nauseum, how he'll hire the greatest and most competent people, there is a record to go back and look at-- not just the serial bankruptcies, but also the hundreds of law suits he's been involved in for hiring incompetent and dishonest contractors in every company he's ever run, from the farce that was called Trump University to the luxury towers he's built in Florida and Panama. NPR's report about Trump's "great people" (by which he must mean "vicious predators") in his Panama City boondoggle:

The directors of the Trump Ocean Club met July 28 on urgent business. They needed to fire Donald Trump.

The building’s residents and condo owners had invested in the namesake, a 70-story waterfront tower along Panama Bay, on the strength of Trump’s reputation. But during the four years that Trump Panama Condominium Management LLC had managed the property, Central America’s largest building, a team installed by the Trump family was accused of running up more than $2 million in unauthorized debts, paying its executives undisclosed bonuses and withholding basic financial information from owners, according to an Associated Press examination.

The Trumps [yep, slimy little Eric was the point person down in Panama] had done all of this through fine-print chicanery, the board said. A clause in many residents’ purchase agreements prevented them from voting against the Trump company’s wishes. That allowed the Trumps to install their top employee as chairman and the residents’ representative on the board-- even though the Trumps’ actual stake in the building’s residential area was merely a storage closet on the 15th floor. ...Whether wheeling and dealing with Wall Street bankers, debating political rivals or running a condo association, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has advanced his interests by leveraging his outsized reputation, canniness and aggression. The Trump Organization’s adventures in Panama provide a window into how these traits have filtered into his business empire-- and the style of management that could be expected in a Trump White House. Transparency and close attention to expenses are not strengths. Squeezing the most from contractual language is.

Since the whole nation has virtually been forced by a infotainment media shamelessly driven by lowest common denominator ratings to observe for months that Herr Trumpf is utterly full of shit and hot air, it is appropriate that his primary care physician is a gastroenterologist-- someone who treats diseases of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon and rectum, pancreas, gallbladder, bile ducts and liver. Neither RateMDs.com nor New York magazine's effort to rate the best gastroenterologists in New York included Trumpf's Dr. Bornstein. His very first review on Yelp was ominous: "Seeing Dr. Bornstein has been, by far, the worst experience I have ever had with a doctor in my 28 years.  He ran all sorts of unnecessary tests on me, then slapped me with a huge bill which his office has no interest in getting to the correct insurance provider.  Patient beware!" Although someone else mentioned he had a good sense of humor. His letter, which sounds like it was dictated by Donald or Eric Trumpf is pretty hilarious. I mean, he can "state unequivocally" that Herr Trumpf (age 69) "will be the healthiest individual ever elected to tech presidency?" Would a serious physician even say something that patently absurd. Or maybe he minored in American History and actually does know the state of health of every American President on his election, including 8 who were in their 40s on inauguration day-- Teddy Roosevelt (42), JFK (43), Clinton (46), Ulysses S. Grant (46), Obama (47), Cleveland (47), Franklin Pierce (48), James Garfield (49)? Trumpf will be heading towards 71 at his inauguration, the only president to be inaugurated past the age of 70.

In February, Men's Health took a look at who the healthiest American presidents actually were and made cases for George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Jerry Ford, the two Bushes, President Obama and... Ronald Reagan, a former athlete but 69 by the time he was inaugurated and already suffering from a breakdown in his mental health, a problem that Fox's own in-house historian, Bill O'Reilly, wrote a new book about. I doubt there are many Americans who wouldn't be interested in having a healthcare professional take a look at the state of Herr Trumpf's mental health. More than a few Americans presume he's stark raving mad or, perhaps just suffering from a dangerously undiagnosed-- as far as we know-- late stage case of narcissistic personality disorder.

In his own statement, Herr Trumpf seems unaware that his long time physician, Jacob Bornstein, who he, all too predictably asserted is "highly respected," died 5 years ago and that he's now seeing the son Jacob left the practice to, Harry. Not that his fans would care anyway. According to the new poll from Monmouth that was released yesterday, "Trump is building a commanding national lead in the race for the Republican nomination... When Republicans and Republican-leaning voters are asked who they would support for the GOP nomination for president, Donald Trump leads the pack at 41%. Ted Cruz (14%), Marco Rubio (10%), and Ben Carson (9%) are far behind." The poll's director, Patrick Murray, noted that "It has become abundantly clear that Trump is giving his supporters exactly what they want, even if what he says causes the GOP leadership and many Republican voters to cringe." The quote below is from an OpEd Trumpf wrote in 1999 when he was toying with a presidential run. is he just incredibly un-self-aware of has he really changed so drastically?

Trump’s support comes from a wide variety of GOP voter groups, although it is skewed toward those who have never been to college. Trump commands the support of a majority (54%) of Republican voters with a high school education-- 13 points higher than his overall support levels. He also does somewhat better among men (44%) than women (37%), but draws very similar levels of support from very conservative (41%), somewhat conservative (45%), and moderate (40%) voters.

Things change a little when you exit the Republican/Fox News cocoon. For example, the Washington Post found that although Republicans endorse Trumpf’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country by a 59-38%, normal Americans have a very different view. Only 36% of the general population-- so Republicans and normal people-- agree and 60% disagree. Only 17% of Democrats and only 38% of independents say they agree with him.