Don't set Donald Trump loose on this country again

My memory hasn’t been at its best in recent months. It could be from my two bouts with COVID-19, or maybe it’s just the natural course of events in a seventy-six-year-old. But I do remember a few things, and recent events have reminded me of a series of columns I wrote during the summer and fall of 2016, when my mind was sharper and clearer and when I first began researching Donald Trump. I’m amazed at people who think his recent indictment for finance fraud is itself fraudulent, the result of a “witch hunt” designed to discredit and humiliate him. How could his followers not know that he finally just got caught doing what he’s always done?

I’ve come across several articles lately (e.g., Marc Fisher, Washington Post 03/30/23 and Marcela Garcia, Boston Globe, 03/31/23) that summarize what everyone should have known about Trump before he rode down that golden escalator to announce his candidacy for president. This finance fraud thing is only the first investigation to bear fruit. There are many more to come, and they are much more serious. Maybe, just maybe, Donald Trump finally overstepped his bounds by trying to carry on during his presidency as he did throughout his entire life – lying, cheating, extorting, intimidating, and litigating his way out of trouble, never admitting mistakes, and remaining completely unaware that he was far too ignorant for the job he found himself in.

That summer of 2016 I studied dozens of well-documented accounts of Trump’s business dealings and lifestyle as well as actual interview transcripts in which his own words revealed his inner character and thought processes. It all started in 1963, when Trump and his father Fred blatantly discriminated against Blacks by refusing to rent them apartments owned by the Trumps’ company. In 1973 Fred and Donald were sued for racial discrimination and fined, although only for a pittance (Jonathan Mahler and Steve Eder, New York Times, 08/27/16). But we mustn’t forget that this was just a harbinger of things to come.

I’m revisiting some passages from my October 2016 column to remind us that this man remains as he started out – dishonest, unscrupulous, unethical, immoral, and completely unfit to govern. In this column I directly addressed Trump supporters:

“The American Nazi Party, David Duke, the KKK … have endorsed Trump because he ‘shares their values,’ placing you [Trump supporters] squarely in their camps.

“You admire the business acumen of a man who walked away from six bankruptcies, bragging that it was the banks’ money lost, not his own, and expressing no regret for the employees, contractors, and small businesses that went under too.

“[He claims] he’ll protect workers but has hired undocumenteds at low wages or none at all, then threatened them with deportation if they complained. He was fined for that and for keeping black employees away from a high roller’s table in Atlantic City. He regularly backed out of paying employees and contractors, putting many out of business.

“He was fined for nondisclosure violations for his three Atlantic City casinos, which actually ended up competing against each other. His father once illegally floated him a $3 million loan by buying gambling chips from one of them. He financed another with junk bonds (after promising not to) but couldn’t pay interest when rates skyrocketed. Ultimately all went bankrupt. Atlantic City banks finally bailed him out of his $3 billion debt because – wait for it – he was TOO BIG TO FAIL.

“Trump brags about making money from market crashes and using lawsuits as a major business tool.

“Trump ‘University’ bilked students out of $40 million, promising to reveal secrets of negotiation and success, and Trump is ordered to stand trial shortly after the November election. Typically, Trump declared himself the victim, the judge unqualified because of his Mexican heritage, and the victims, whom he tried to intimidate, to blame for the whole thing.

“In the 2000s he finally settled for just selling his name to other people’s projects, luring investors into believing he was behind them, then just walking away when they failed and investors lost millions.”

The evidence is clear. I’m asking the same questions I did seven years ago. We know what he’s like and we can see the damage it’s already done. Let him pay the consequences, not us.

Leigh Washburn is a member of the Iron County Democrats.

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Your Turn: Don't set Donald Trump loose on this country again