Donald Trump Loses Libel Lawsuit Over Being Called a ‘Millionaire’

Trump Nation by Timothy O'Brien

A New Jersey appeals court has affirmed a lower court’s ruling to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against a book author who claimed the real estate magnate/reality TV star isn’t really a billionaire.

In a ruling, the appeals court affirms that Trump hasn’t demonstrated that author Timothy O’Brien committed “actual malice” by citing three unnamed sources who estimated the net worth of The Apprentice star to be between $150 million and $250 million.

Trump filed the $5 billion lawsuit in 2009 over O’Brien’s book, TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald. The lawsuit was rejected in 2009 by a New Jersey superior judge. Trump then appealed the judgment on the theory that relying on anonymous sources could rise to the actual malice standard needed for public figures to prevail in a libel suit.

But a New Jersey appeals court doesn’t see the logic here. According to the decision:

“There were no significant internal inconsistencies in the information provided by the confidential sources, nor was there ‘reliable’ information that contradicted their reports, so as to provide evidence of actual malice. Nothing suggests that O’Brien was subjectively aware of the falsity of his source’s figures or that he had actual doubts as to the information’s accuracy.”

The latest decision will likely give Trump another reason to gripe about the nation’s libel laws. In past public comments, Trump has said these laws “have never been fair.”

As for Trump’s own estimation of his net worth, Trump’s lawyer says it has been “proven conclusively” to exceed $7 billion.

Then again, during a deposition, Trump admitted that his sense of financial worth depends on his feelings day-to-day. Asked whether it was really true that his “net worth goes up and down based upon [his] own feelings,” here’s Trump’s funny response:

“Yes, even my own feelings, as to where the world is, where the world is going, and that can change rapidly from day to day. Then you have a September 11th, and you don’t feel so good about yourself and you don’t feel so good about the world and you don’t feel so good about New York City. Then you have a year later, and the city is as hot as a pistol. Even months after that it was a different feeling. So yeah, even my own feelings affect my value to myself.”

Links

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/donald-trump-loses-libel-lawsuit-232923

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2016/03/14/trump-biographer-timothy-obrien.cnnmoney

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-07-21/dear-mr-trump-i-m-worth-10-billion-too-

Trump Slams McCain As a War Hero Because He Was Captured

Trump calls McCain not a war hero

Presidential candidate Donald Trump sparked yet another backlash among his fellow Republican candidates Saturday when he said that Sen. John McCain was only considered a war hero because he was captured – and seemed to mock him for that fact.

At the Iowa Family Leadership Summit when moderator Frank Luntz brought up McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Donald Trump said:

He’s not a war hero.

After an audience response that was less than impressed at his comment, Trump tried to walk back his comment.

He’s a war hero ’cause he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured, OK? Perhaps he’s a war hero, but right now he’s said some very bad things about a lot of people.

Trump caught flack from every direction but refused to change his stance on McCain. When asked by ABC News whether he owes McCain an apology, Trump said:

No, not at all.

Then continued:

People that were not captured that went in and fought, nobody talks about them. Those are heroes also.

Later when confronted with his comments about McCain by a veteran and supporter at a rally, Trump flatly lied that he never made those comments.

VETERAN: I come here because you made a comment to John McCain that you don’t think that captured soldiers are heroes

TRUMP: (interjecting) Oh no no no I was, I never did that.

 

 

VETERAN: What I want you to do, is just clarify that for me because I think it’s important for all these people here, and for a lot of veterans in Ohio—especially Ohio—and I know what you were doing.

 

 

TRUMP: (again interjecting) You know exactly when I was doing. But they are heroes, just so you understand, they are real heroes. Thank you.

Media

Links

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-john-mccain-war-hero-captured/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/donald-trump-john-mccain-war-hero/

http://www.weeklystandard.com/trump-falsely-claims-he-never-said-mccain-wasnt-a-hero/article/2001538

Trump Claiming the Support of a Group of New Hampshire Veterans But Didn’t

Trump speaking in Ames Iowa

Trump in July formed the “Veterans for Trump” group following inflammatory remarks suggesting that Arizona Sen. McCain was not a war hero because he was taken prisoner in Vietnam. “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said at a July 18 event in Ames, Iowa.

“These veterans have pledged their support to Mr Trump in the primary, and they will be advocating for him,” a press release on Trump’s website stated a few days later.

But according to a report from the Guardian later that month, several veterans listed as members said they had no idea they were on it.

“I haven’t told anyone I want to get in on that,” Ernie Fusi, one of the World War II veterans listed, told the paper. “I’m not going to do any campaigning.”

Trump’s operation pushed back against those assertions, writing that the campaign “has written confirmation of support from each of the individuals listed as part of the New Hampshire Veterans Coalition, including those quoted in this story. We are extremely proud to have their support.”

Links

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/trump-attacks-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured-120317

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/25/donald-trump-veterans-john-mccain

Trump Still a Birther

Trump birther tweet

Years after President Obama produced his birth certificate, Donald Trump reiterated his belief that Obama was not born a natural citizen to CNN.

Do you know that Hillary Clinton was a birther? She wanted those records and fought like hell. People forgot. Did you know John McCain was a birther? Wanted those records? They couldn’t get the records. Hillary failed. John McCain failed. Trump was able to get (Obama)] to give something — I don’t know what the hell it was — but it doesn’t matter.

Media

Links

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/donald-trump-birther-obama-119945

 

Donald Trump Candidacy Announcement

Donal Trump announces campagin

Donald J. Trump descended “Stair Force One” to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the President of the United States of America and his first overtly racist comment by implying that the country of Mexico is intentionally sending immigrants who are criminals and rapists.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. 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.”

Reality

Donald Trump described people from Mexico as having “lots of problems”, drug users, rapists, and criminals. By painting a large swath of people with a single brush as “dangerous” he is using baseless stereotyping in an attempt to prove that Hispanics are different in their social behavior.

You might try to make the case that immigrants are still committing crimes, even if they are at a lower rate of natural-born citizens, however that does not explain away the fact that Trump is singling out an individual ethnic group as the cause of the problems in America. That is why is statement is racist.

Immigrants generally have a stronger incentive than native-born Americans to stay out of legal trouble — especially undocumented immigrants, who risk deportation. And those who legally are in the United States (or are pursuing legal status) are required to pass a criminal background check.

“Immigrants in general — unauthorized immigrants in particular — are a self-selected group who generally come to the U.S. to work. And once they’re here, most of them want to keep their nose down and do their business, and they’re sensitive to the fact that they’re vulnerable,” said Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank.

And the data backs up this theory.

Crime Rates

FALSE – According to the Congressional Research Service, incarcerated non-citizens represented 7.2% of the total incarcerated population of 2.4 million, a proportion similar to the noncitizen proportion of the foreign-born population. If illegal immigrants were bringing high crime then their should be a larger number of incarcerated illegal immigrants compared to the national population.

Mexicans Are Rapists

FALSE – Of all of the convictions of illegal immigrants in 2013 (the majority of whom were from Mexico) only 1.6% was sex offenses. Immigration offenses account for the largest portion of federal convictions of immigrants, followed by drugs, then traffic violations.

Crime Category 2013
Immigration 31.3%
Dangerous Drugs 15.4%
Traffic Violations 15.0%
Assault 10.2%
Burglary 2.8%
Weapon Offenses 2.7%
Larceny 2.7%
Fraud 2.6%
Sexual Assault 1.6%
Forgery 1.5%
Other 14.2%

Compare the 1.6% number to the national average of 12.2% of convicted prisoners who committed sexual offenses. So an illegal immigrant is 7.5x less likely to commit a sexual offense.

Mexicans Are Drug Smugglers

FALSE – In 2013, the Center for Investigative Reporting found that four out of five arrests for drug smuggling involved U.S. citizens.

Media

Links

Here’s Donald Trump’s Presidential Announcement Speech

Trump Fails Knowledge of NAFTA in Campaign Announcement

Donal Trump announces campagin

Describing how he would negotiate with the CEO of an American car company that wanted to relocate to or build a manufacturing plant in Mexico, Trump had an imagined conversation during his June 16 announcement.

“I would call up the head of Ford, who I know,” Trump said, going on to say that he would say, “Congratulations. That’s the good news. Let me give you the bad news. Every car and every truck and every part manufactured in this plant that comes across the border, we’re going to charge you a 35-percent tax, and that tax is going to be paid simultaneously with the transaction, and that’s it.”

Reality

That would, as The Washington Post‘s initial fact check stated, seem to violate the North America Free Trade Agreement (a treaty that Trump has openly disdained). It also does not take into account the fact that only Congress could establish separate tax rates under the Constitution.

Links

http://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trumps-11-worst-foreign-policy-gaffes-us-election-syria-mexico-iraq/

 

Trump Slanders Bergdahl in Campaign Announcement

Donal Trump announces campagin

During his campaign announcement, Trump declared that the five Guantanamo Bay prisoners exchanged with the Taliban for Army Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl “are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us.”

“We get Bergdahl. We get a traitor. We get a no-good traitor, and they get the five people that they wanted for years, and those people are now back on the battlefield trying to kill us. That’s the negotiator we have,” Trump remarked.

Reality

In fact, U.S. officials had announced two weeks prior that Qatar, the country to which the Taliban leaders were sent, had agreed to maintain a year-long travel ban while officials in both countries continued to negotiate the details.

As far as the traitor remark, Bergdahl’s attorney warned Trump in August to cease spreading his “outrageous comments.” Bergdahl is accused of desertion, not of being a “traitor.”

Media

Links

http://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trumps-11-worst-foreign-policy-gaffes-us-election-syria-mexico-iraq/

Let’s Make America Great Again

Trump, Make America Great Again

Donal Trump made the claim he invented the slogan “Make America Great Again”.

“The line of ‘Make America great again,’ the phrase, that was mine, I came up with it about a year ago, and I kept using it, and everybody’s now using it, they are all loving it.”

“I don’t know, I guess I should copyright it.”

“Maybe I have copyrighted it.”

Reality

As many news agencies have pointed out:

Reagan “Let’s make America great again” Poster

Donald Trump has indeed trademarked the phrase, but apparently the filing overlooked clothing, such as t-shirts and hats.

Links

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/donald-trump-is-americas-stupidest-person-has-never-heard-of-google-20150325

http://blog.jipel.law.nyu.edu/2016/03/make-america-great-again-but-only-for-trump/

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