American Politics: Quotes From the Republican Who Wants to Be Your Next President-Donald Trump

FIRST, LET ME CREDIT (AND ATTRIBUTION) WHERE IT IS DUE. Even though the text of the article I used are quotes from Donald Trump, and therefore in the public sphere, need to give proper attribution to the site called Inside Gov that took the time to research and assemble a bunch of Trump quotes, and then published them as 23 Ridiculously Offensive Donald Trump Quotes. Inside Gov added short commentaries with each quote, which I don't repeat but I do add my own. Further, there a multitude of sources for each of these quotes, but Inside Gov is the one who put this compendium together.

I'll also group the quotes by theme because it reinforces a pattern of thinking and belief. As the talking heads keep telling us about Trump is a what you see/hear is what you get (a political WYSIWYG) kind of guy; nuance is not in his vocabulary. Many people find this refreshing and what the country needs. (I was going to say "on the far-Right", but then thought better of it since the same is true of Bernie Sanders, isn't it?) The problem isn't being forthright, it is what is being said. And what Trump says raises the hackles on the back of my neck.

When tweeting about Clinton's lawyers wisely using a software tool to protect deleted computer files from hacking, Trump says this:

"The polls are close so Crooked Hillary is getting out of bed and will campaign tomorrow.Why did she hammer 13 devices and acid-wash e-mails?"— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2016

As has been reported many times, the tool is called "BleachBit" and not "Acid-Wash"

#DumbTrump reveals he doesn't know the intricacies of the U.S. classification system either when he tweeted:

"Lyin' Hillary Clinton told the FBI that she did not know the "C" markings on documents stood for CLASSIFIED. How can this be happening?" — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2016

You see, (C) means Confidential, the lowest classification level and not "Classified". By the way, Secret is (S) and Top Secret is (TS). When the cover page is not marked or is marked "Unclassified", then the assumption is that the interior material in not classified. If the cover sheet says what the classification is, then each stand-alone sentence, paragraph, bullet point, etc needs to show the classification level or if it is unclassified (U). In Clinton's email, there was no classification on the front page and in the body, apparently there were a few paragraphs where the previous classification of (C) was not removed before hand.

IF YOU MEASURE TRUMP'S OPINION OF WOMEN BASED on these quotes, then you might coming away thinking he is a misogynist of the worst kind.

“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.” [by your side, I presume]

And:

“All the women on The Apprentice flirted with me — consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.” [In his dreams!]

And thus begins The Donald's campaign to denigrate women as a group. He doesn't just take on the gender, he happily attacks individual women as in:

"If I were running 'The View,' I'd fire Rosie [O'Donnell]. I mean, I'd look her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I'd say, 'Rosie, you're fired.'"

Followed by:

“Rosie O’Donnell’s disgusting both inside and out. You take a look at her, she’s a slob. She talks like a truck driver, she doesn’t have her facts, she’ll say anything that comes to her mind.” [I find this one rather autobiographical, don't you?]

Then there is:

"Look at that face [Carly Fiorina] ! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next President?" - September 9, 2015

What about this comment made the day after the first Republican debate in referring to Megyn Kelly's questions:

“She [Megyn Kelly] gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions, You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.” - August 7, 2015

To be followed the next day by:

"Megyn Kelly ought to apologize to me"

Then there is this tweet about Arianna Huffington's looks:

".@ariannahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man- he made a good decision." [A 10:54 AM - 28 Aug 2012 Trump tweet posted by INSIDE GOV in their article]

Exaggeration, hyperbole, ad hominem attacks, and lying are Trump's hallmark method of campaigning. In this last sample, we see examples of each method in this attack on Hillary Clinton:

“Hillary Clinton was the worst Secretary of State in the history of the United States. There's never been a Secretary of State so bad as Hillary. The world blew up around us. We lost everything, including all relationships. There wasn't one good thing that came out of that administration or her being Secretary of State.”

Speaking of Hillary Clinton's loss to Barack Obama:

"... she got schlonged (Yiddish for penis), she lost, I mean she lost!" - December 21, 2015

SUCCESS IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, BE IT TRADE OR OTHER NEGOTIATIONS, such as the recently completed Iran nuclear deal, require much patience, a willingness to compromise, and an ability to read who you are negotiating with. Does the follow make you think Donald Trump fits the bill?

"I saw a report yesterday. There’s so much oil, all over the world, they don’t know where to dump it. And Saudi Arabia says, ‘Oh, there’s too much oil.’ Do you think they’re our friends? They’re not our friends." [I am a bit puzzled with Trump's logic, but it is clearly a shot across Saudi Arabia's bow]

Our new negotiating technique:

”On exporting goods to China [Inside Gov comment]: "Listen you m-----f------, we're going to tax you 25 percent!"

Or something a bit more delusional:

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

It's all about beating the other guy rather getting to a win-win. Unfortunately, the Trump negotiating method has been all to common in our history.

“When was the last time anybody saw us beating, let's say, China in a trade deal? They kill us. I beat China all the time. All the time.”

Here, in the space of nine words, Trump contradicts himself, is he for or against free trade or just hates Obama's negotiating team.

“Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people” [Presumably he is talking about American negotiators being stupid]

Maybe this negotiating technique can win friends (of which I imagine Trump as very few real ones) and influence nations and people.

“The wall will go up and Mexico will start behaving.”

AND:

"I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me —and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”

On foreign leaders:

"(Putin) is a strong leader. He is making mincemeat out of our President" - December 20, 2015 after saying earlier that he could "get along very well with." [Putin], then Putin described Trump as a "bright and talented person."

WELL THIS IS WHAT TRUMP THINKS ABOUT OUR CURRENT immigration policy

"The U.S. will invite El Chapo, the Mexican drug lord who just escaped prison, to become a U.S. citizen because our "leaders" can't say no!" [A 12:05 AM - 13 Jul 2015 Trump tweet posted by Inside Gov in their article]

Or, after the San Bernardio home-grown terrorist shooting:

"Donald J. Trump [speaking in the third person] is calling for the total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering this country ... until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on" - December 7, 2015 (Trump did not rule out identification cards for Muslims to help identify them ... think Star of David on German Jews)

Here is why Trump thinks America needs an impenetrable wall.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending the best. They're not sending you, they're sending people that have lots of problems and they're bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. ... And some, I assume, are good people." -- June 16, 2015

And when speaking, July 30, 2016, about a small criticism from Mr. Khizr Khan, father of a fallen Muslim-American soldier; one of the Gold Star families who suggested Trump should read the Constitution (referring to Trump's desire to ban all Muslims from coming to America for awhile) The Donald had this to say:

“While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things ...". - has Trump ever heard of the 1st Amendment? and

"Who wrote that [speaking Khan's remarks at the Democratic convention]? Did Hilary's scriptwriters write it?"

and regarding Khan's wife who stood at his side as he made his remarks:

"I saw him. He was very emotional, and probably looked like a nice guy to me. His wife, if you look at his wife she was standing there, she had nothing to say. Probably, maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say, you tell me, but plenty of people have written that. She was extremely quiet and it looked like she had nothing to say, a lot of people have said that, and personally I watched him, I wish him the best of luck."

Donald Trump is a serial Global Warming denier and has backed that up with many statements which display is ignorance and contempt.

In May, 2013 Trump tweeted:

"It's 46° (really cold) and snowing in New York on Memorial Day - tell the so-called "scientists" that we want global warming right now!"

August 4, 2016 - In trying to make hay with a pre-negotiated settlement between the U.S. and Iran which took place when they released sailors captured after having strayed into Iranian waters, Donald Trump said the payment was "ransom" for their return. In fact Trump claimed "he saw footage of money airlifted from the U.S. to Iran". He was seeing things and had to walk it back and actually admit he was wrong.