Netflix has two documentaries about Trump which I forced myself to watch

[lunatica]

Last edited Mon May 28, 2018, 09:41 PM - Edit history (1)

There are more but I need a rest and a chance to digest what my intellectual response is. I come from the school of thought that in order to succeed against an enemy you should know him well. So I forced myself to watch.

The first one is about his grandfather and his father and him. It’s titled “Meet the Trumps, From Immigrant to President”. The second one is a three part series about him titled “Trump, An American Dream”. It shows the ‘m’ in the word Dream falling off.

My subsequent comments are a somewhat jumbled compilation of random thoughts and impressions I have after watching the documentaries:

If nothing else you get a sense of the chronology of his life. There’s plenty of footage of him because he made sure to be photographed all the time. He even had videos taken of himself working in his office. He obviously has the desire to leave a video history of his life and legacy. He certainly has a plethora of film and photographs to add to the footage, which explains why he remains so ‘composed’ when he’s on camera. In the back of his head there must be a camera recording at all times. He is acting the part he has chosen to play. All is carefully deliberate, which explains the Mussolini chin jut and the lip spread which is meant to bely his anus rosebud of a mouth. I can’t swear to it but that particular lip thing may have been started when Rosie O’Donnell mentioned his mouth looked like an anus during their famous fight. The lip thing wasn’t there in previous footage.

He used to be the pretty boy with the Midas touch going on talk shows and making cameo appearances on TV shows. On talk shows he would wink seductively to young women in the audience, no doubt completely convinced the world adored him. He was so convinced that he exuded arrogance in every look and stance.

Sometime during or just after his life’s first major losses happened when he could no longer talk banks and cities into lending him money and/or giving him insane tax abatement for his construction work, I perceived what I think is the emergence of the Trump we see today. For those, like me who don’t know what this means, tax abatement in NYC is allowing properties and property owners to not pay taxes on their constructions. Trump managed to get a 40 year tax abatement on his Grand Hyatt first solo project as a real estate developer. The amount he didn’t have to pay in taxes was $885 million.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/nyregion/donald-trump-tax-breaks-real-estate.html

One reason he ran into financial trouble with the Taj Mahal was because he couldn’t get a tax abatement, thereby being millions of dollars in debt, and the banks also stopped lending to him. His ‘business practices’ had caught up to him. He did get investors to give him money. He walked away and left those investors, the suppliers, businesses, his debtors in Wall Street, and the construction crews who built the the more than 2,000 room hotel without paying a cent.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/nyregion/donald-trump-atlantic-city.html

Today he claims it was perfect timing on his part to leave because he claims Atlantic City itself was to blame for the financial slump it experienced.

After this major failure on his part the Trump, who actually looks very different from his younger self emerged. It was during this same time that all the media explosion of his failed marriage and daily tabloid events were on full display. He was no longer the darling King Midas of everything he touched. The media now followed him for other reasons than it had before. Salacious gossip and to cover his downfall and self inflicted popularity suicide. Trump started to look mean, like we recognize now. His facial features and body thickened and his signature hairstyle emerged. I think he changed inside. Since he could no longer use his charm he chose to use his baser instincts of revenge and counter punching, ruthlessness and retribution on his perceived enemies.

He gave up being a real estate developer per se and started selling his brand to others to adorn their products. That is what he does now. That is what all his children and his wife do. That is why they make money off his Presidency. He doesn’t build any hotels. He charges to have his name on them. Being President enables his family to make much more money than they could otherwise so the Trump machine is working overtime. They’re all getting richer now. Yvanka’s ‘products’ are getting special treatment in China - she’s raking in the money. Why would we expect any Trump to do otherwise? The Trump brand is at it’s apex of productivity and the Trumps will continue to squeeze every cent out of it as long as it lasts. That’s why Jared meets with foreign dignitaries in the guise of Diplomacy. He’s just doing business while he has the opportunity. He won’t be the Minister of Everything forever.

Anyway, these are some of my thoughts backed up by a couple of links for substantiation. There is more, but the thoughts are still rattling around in my brain trying to find a cohesive home. I would love to hear what others here think about him, other than the pure hatred and disgust we all share. Or not.

[Miles Archer]

1. Thank you for the report, because I couldn't stomach to watch them.

I can take about 30 to 60 seconds of video / audio Trump, then I'm out.

Thanks for filling in the details.

[BigmanPigman]

2. That is more than I can tolerate.

15 seconds max!

Thank goodness we have DUers with strong systems and can report back to the rest of us (like watching a Fux Ruse segment).

That was a great summary of the shows. That goes along with everything I have observed and seen too. He ran for POTUS to get richer and more fame and free "brand" time in the media. He never wanted to win. It is always about fame and money and himself. Emoluments Clause is what his cabinet laughs at as they get more rich through their corrupt practices from their positions. He is lazy, doesn't give a shit about this country and sold it to our enemy all for his own pocketbook. He deserves nothing but misery until he rots in jail without a penny to his or his family's name.

[lunatica]

9. The difference with the documentaries though

is that his enemies are also quoted in them. That’s why I watched them in the first place.

I wouldn’t have lasted much longer than you if it were fluff pieces!

[lunatica]

3. I did it to get a solid sense of his life's chronological order

We’re always hearing anecdotal references, and I thought it might be instructional to see the order of his history.

I didn’t even touch on his reasons for doggedly pursuing the ‘Obama as Kenyan’ thing which actually started when enough of his followers urged him to run for office. I figured this post was probably too long as it is.

[Miles Archer]

6. What you posted makes a lot of sense, in terms of chronology

He started out with a million dollars from dad, and his Rolodex.

Then there was the time Fred sent one of his lackeys to the casino with $3 million in poker chips to get him out of debt.

What I took away from your post, which seems to be spot-on, is that when the easy money and special favors stopped flowing freely, that's when we got the current version of Trump.

As far as what I think of him goes, I don't have much to say other than the reasons you laid out. I don't "hate" him in general terms. He repels me due to the sum tootal of who and what he is. I'm more convinced that he believed he could sucker and manipulate the Republicans than I believe he "IS" a Republican. I think "Republican" and I think Ryan or McConnell, and that's a whole other kind of disgusting. In terms of his personal life, particularly when it comes to women, I see him as foul, odious, and lacking any character.

[lunatica]

8. Yes! His father bailed him out with casino chips taken from the Taj Mahal itself

It wasn’t his father’s money. That’s exactly how the Mob does business in Atlantic City. It’s one of the ways because they use the money they skim off the top to enrich themselves directly with cash.

Thanks for bringing that up!

[onlyadream]

4. Very interesting.

I still can’t believe Trump is president.

[lunatica]

10. Yeah. Sometimes it feels surreal

[awesomerwb1]

5. From what I've seen (think I watched "Dirty Money" and something else I can't remember)

and of course the obvious, you wrote a pretty good assessment. Love the "ministry of everything" bit.

[lunatica]

7. When I recover I will watch Dirty Money and

Get Me Roger Stone. I want to know who these people are. Just railing against them is not enough if we want to know how to defeat them.

[TreasonousBastard]

11. None of this is new to New Yorkers, who were stuck with this guy when the rest of...

the country barely knew who he was. Most of the country knew nothing about him until he played that part on TV.

We remember the braggart who was going to save the Alexander's department store, but who watched it sink. Then we watched him destroy everything from the Eastern Shuttle to the Plaza Hotel. And brag about every failure, spinning it as a success.

We remember the pathetic little rich boy who could never get the approval of the truly rich and powerful of NY. He would barge his way into places like Studio 54 to get his picture taken and prove he was part of the gang. Every day he wasn't on Page 6 of the NY Post he whined and doubled down on the phony publicity phone calls.Thank God for Paris Hilton, who knocked him off the gossip pages on the slow news days.

We watched Merv Griffin kick his ass 6 times sideways over Resorts. Griffin ended up with the profitable parts while Trump got the junk with the bills. Bills he never paid. We also remember his grand plans for the Penn Central rail yards where he got punked by NBC, the City of NY, and a bird food company.

But worst of all, we remember the Central Park Five. Maybe I should have kept that full page ad in the Times, but I turned the page in shock and disgust when I saw him drooling over the death penalty for 5 kids. Five kids who were exonerated years after their trial, and for which he never apologized, or even simply admitted he was wrong.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/opinion/why-trump-doubled-down-on-the-central-park-five.html

BTW, every time "that" book is mentioned, why isn't there a parenthetical note that he didn't write it. Probably didn't bother to read it, either. Taking credit for the work of others is a Trump specialty.

[smirkymonkey]

13. +1000

We all hated him even before he became a "Republican". He has never been anything more than a self-aggrandizing blowhard.

[lunatica]

14. Thanks! This is exactly what we all need to know

Before you posted the link I had heard about the boys accused of rape but not in any cohesive way. Just as anecdotal references.

The documentaries I watched are really quite sparse, even in the one that was done in three parts. Nothing of what you talk about here was in them. In reality what you talk about explains him far better.

It’s important for us to understand him thoroughly. We all need to know him because otherwise we won’t understand just how dangerous he really is.

[Demovictory9]

12. I remember his "the Donald", Ivana days.. the public took Ivana's side during the divorce

That's when the national media really took note of him.

[lunatica]

15. That was around the time he had more troubles

Everything was falling apart for him.

It was after that when he started his Trump brand and started selling his name rather than doing something himself.

[Demovictory9]

16. the sales job worked. he invented the image of a brilliant biz man, and now he's president

Later people saw behind the curtain

[Hassin Bin Sober]

17. If you really want to be disgusted, watch You've Been Trumped. Amazon Prime has it streaming.

It’s from 2011.

It covers the bullshit he got away with building those golf courses on environmentally sensitive coastline in Scotland.

He treated working class farmers like dirt. Called them pigs. Then threw a tantrum and built a large berm to block their views when he didn’t get his way.

Bald faced lies about how “all the environmentalists think my project is the best”

[lunatica]

18. Thanks for recommending it

We all need to watch these things and pass them on to the rest. We need to know what he is, beyond just having a visceral reaction.

I’ll watch it.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

19. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I saw it after the election.

What I don’t understand is why this didn’t make it in to the stream during the general election.

He called working farmers pigs. He had his goons tear down his neighbor’s property. He had reporters arrested just for showing up and asking questions in a sales office. Then there was the spite-berm.

God the man is an asshole.

[lunatica]

20. It was on the news but the only ones talking about it

We’re DUers right here. This place is not just good for keeping us sane. It’s invaluable for keeping us informed.

[lunatica]

21. .