Trump Flip-Flops Position on Muslim Ban to Only ‘Terrorist States’

Donald Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States has been a central issue of his campaign — but he has described the ban differently in the weeks since the mass shooting in Orlando.

While gaggling with reporters as he toured his golf club here, Trump suggested in an offhand comment that his ban wouldn’t apply to Muslims from countries not typically associated with terrorism.

“It wouldn’t bother me, it wouldn’t bother me,” Trump said when asked whether he would allow a Scottish Muslim into the U.S. under his policy.

His spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, told CNN Saturday that Trump supports barring only Muslims from “terror states,” not all Muslims.

Trump even indicated that the ban is not ironclad, telling CNN in a brief interview on Saturday he would consider allowing Muslims from states with heavy terrorist activity to enter the U.S., as long as they are “vetted strongly.”

He also told the Daily Mail that individuals from “terror countries” would be “even more severely vetted” but could ultimately be allowed entry into the country.

“People coming from the terror states — and you know who I’m talking about when I talk about the terror states — we are going to be so vigilant you wouldn’t believe it and frankly a lot will be banned,” Trump told CNN after touring his golf course here.

Trump also focused on the need to ban individuals from “terrorist countries” in an interview later Saturday with Bloomberg Politics.

“I want terrorists out. I want people that have bad thoughts out. I would limit specific terrorist countries and we know who those terrorist countries are,” Trump said, again not specifying which countries would be included.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

With the many other flip-flops since becoming the Republican party’s nominee, Trump rejected almost every stance that his supporters loved which separated him from the other Republican primary candidates.

On December 7th, 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump released a statement calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can “figure out what is going on.” The reasons Trump cited for the Muslim ban included studies that did not exist and unsubstantiated claims that there was a “great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population” and the that “it is obvious to anybody the hatred is beyond comprehension.”

It was a statement that, by far, was one of the most bigoted statements Trump, or any other politician, has made in our lifetime.

Trump tweets that Scotland loves Brexit (though Scotland voted against)

Twitter

Donald Trump praised the Scottish this morning for “[taking] their country back” in the UK’s vote to leave the European Union. This is despite the fact that Scotland voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, with 62 percent of the population backing the Remain campaign. However, this wasn’t enough to change the total outcome of the UK vote, which backed the decision to leave 52 percent to 48 percent.

Reality

Scotland isn’t the reason the Brexit vote succeeded. Far from it: 62 percent of Scots voted to remain in the EU.

In-fact, there is serious talk in Scotland to leave the UK in order to stay in the EU.

Trump Struggles to Explain Clinton Server Hack Evidence

Donald Trump insisted Thursday that the private email server Hillary Clinton used as secretary of state was hacked, but the presumptive Republican nominee couldn’t say where he learned that information.

“But is there any evidence that it was hacked other than — routine phishing –” “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt asked Trump in a sit-down interview that will air Thursday on “NBC Nightly News.”

“I think I read that,” Trump said. “And I heard it, and somebody–”

“Where?” Holt pressed him.

“—that also gave me that information. I will report back to you. I’ll give it to you,” Trump said.

U.S. officials have told NBC News that there is no evidence that hackers penetrated the server, although there is evidence of phishing attempts. Clinton’s campaign says that there is no evidence that her private server was ever hacked.

Trump’s remark comes a day after he argued that Clinton’s private server left her vulnerable to blackmail if she were president.

“Her server was easily hacked by foreign governments — perhaps even by her financial backers in Communist China — putting all of America in danger,” Trump said Wednesday in a speech that slammed Clinton. “Then there are the 33,000 emails she deleted. While we may not know what is in those deleted emails, our enemies probably do. So they probably now have a blackmail file over someone who wants to be president of the United States. This fact alone disqualifies her from the presidency.”

NBC News fact-checked some of Trump’s claims in the speech.

Trump’s campaign offered alleged examples of attempted hacks from China and other countries in a published version of his Wednesday address, but none of the cited reports say that Clinton’s server was ever successfully penetrated as the candidate argued.

(h/t NBC News)

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWliCw3PKBg

Trump’s ‘Great’ Memory Draws Fire in Trump University Deposition

Trump University logo

During sworn testimony in the Trump University lawsuit, Donald Trump repeatedly said he couldn’t recall specific claims, documents or events related to the case, prompting a lawyer for the plaintiffs to ask if the real estate mogul considered himself to have “one of the best memories in the world.”

In response, Trump said he thinks he has a “good” or a “great” memory, but doesn’t recall claiming it’s one of the world’s best, according to hours of previously unreleased testimony in which Trump was questioned by the plaintiffs’ lawyer Jason Forge.

“So you don’t remember saying that you have one of the best memories in the world?” Forge asked.

“I remember you telling me, but I don’t know that I said it,” Trump replied.

Three weeks earlier, during a conversation about 9/11 with NBC News reporter Katy Tur, Trump had said he had “the world’s best memory,” Tur reported.

The transcript of the testimony was filed in court Wednesday night, as lawyers and media organizations continue their battle over how much of the lawsuit should be available to the public.

The documents provide the fullest picture yet of Trump’s lengthy depositions: Heated, drawn-out sessions tackling Trump’s business practices, the time he called the plaintiff’s lawyers “scam artists” and the questions about Trump’s memory. For his part, Trump repeatedly defended Trump University, saying it was an opportunity to pass on his business expertise to people who need it but said he had little to do with day-to-day operations.

A coalition of news organizations is meanwhile pushing for Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over the case, to order the release of videos of the depositions on the grounds that the Trump University lawsuit is a key issue in the presidential campaign and is illuminating about Trump himself. Two of them took place while Trump was on the campaign trail: One deposition was in December 2015 in New York, and another happened in January 2016, hours before holding a rally in Las Vegas.

The lawyers addressed sprawling questions about Trump’s business practices and his involvement with Trump University, the real estate seminars that plantiffs in the California class-action lawsuit claim charged up to $35,000 but didn’t teach them useful business practices. At one point in 2012, Trump threatened to counter with a lawsuit against the plaintiffs and the lawyer questioning him. He also asked if one of the lawyers could please “not lick [her] finger” before handing him documents to look at.

“Would that be OK? It’s disgusting,” Trump said.

Later, Forge, the plaintiff’s lawyers, asked Trump directly about Trump telling Time magazine in 2015 that they are “known scam artists.” Trump said he was talking about Mel Weiss, a class-action lawyer who went to prison for taking illegal kickbacks, and his business partner, who helped start the firm now representing plaintiffs in the Trump University case.

“I knew Mel Weiss. I considered him to be a scam artist,” Trump told Forge. “I don’t know you.”

Trump also defended a Trump University employee who cursed during his presentations.

While it’s not the behavior he would want from his Trump U instructors, “I’ve used foul language,” Trump said. “Sometimes you do it for emphasis. I’ve used some very bad words.”

Forge questioned Trump about claims made by a Trump University instructor who told students that he had met and had dinner with Trump when he hadn’t. Trump said it was an innocent exaggeration.

“A lot of people say they met with me and they were with me and all of that stuff. It happens all the time. I think it’s hyperbole,” Trump said. Students liked Trump University courses, and the main issue is how well the instructors taught, Trump said.

“It would be false for me to say that you and I had breakfast together this morning; right?” Forge asked.

“Yes, it’s sort of false. It would depend on how you meant it, how you said it,” Trump replied. “We sort of had lunch together.”

(h/t Politico)

Donald Trump Questions Hillary Clinton’s Religion

Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump on Tuesday hit Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on the topic of faith, telling a group of evangelical leaders who represent a crucial Republican constituency that “there’s nothing out there” regarding the former secretary of state’s religion.

Clinton is, in fact, a practicing Methodist who knows her Bible well and speaks often about the important role faith plays in her life. In her books, and occasionally on the campaign trail, Clinton has talked openly of how she turned to faith in times of hardship, including during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and the death of her best friend, Diane Blair, in 2000.

Trump, on the other hand, identifies as a Presbyterian but has struggled to demonstrate basic Biblical literacy this election cycle. Last year, Trump’s Manhattan church, Marble Collegiate, released a statement saying the twice-divorced real estate developer was not an “active member.” Earlier this year Trump mispronounced a book of the Bible and cursed — twice — during an address at Liberty University, the world’s largest Christian college.

Still, attacking other people’s faith appears to be a favorite move in Trump’s playbook.

The pattern looks to have begun with President Obama. In questioning Clinton’s religious convictions Tuesday, Trump added an attack of the president, saying “it’s going to be an extension of Obama, but it’s going to be worse.” But even before Trump launched his White House bid a year ago, he was known to regularly cast doubt on Obama’s Christianity.

“He doesn’t have a birth certificate. He may have one, but there’s something on that, maybe religion, maybe it says he is a Muslim,” Trump told Fox News in 2011. “I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t want that.”

Five years later, the questions haven’t stopped. As recently as February, Trump tweeted that Obama might have attended Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral “if it were held in a Mosque.” When pressed for clarification, however, Trump insisted he wasn’t implying anything.

Since running for president, Trump has also raised similar faith-based concerns about his fellow Republicans.

In October, retired neurosurgeon and devout Seventh-day Adventist Ben Carson was the target: “I’m Presbyterian. Boy, that’s down the middle of the road, folks, in all fairness,” Trump told voters in Florida. “I mean, Seventh-day Adventist, I don’t know about. I just don’t know about.”

In January, lifelong Southern Baptist and son of a pastor Ted Cruz was in the crosshairs: “Just remember this,” Trump said, “in all fairness, to the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba, okay?”

Even people who aren’t running for president appear to be fair game for Trump’s tests of piety. Speaking at a rally in March, Trump delivered a signature takedown of one of his most vocal critics, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, calling him a “choke artist” for failing to defeat Obama in 2012. Trump then turned to Romney’s faith.

“Are you sure he’s a Mormon?” Trump asked the crowd in Salt Lake City, home to both Romney and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ headquarters. “Are we sure?”

(h/t NBC News)

Reality

Donald Trump says there is nothing out there about Hillary Clinton’s religion. Except if you Google “hillary clinton religion” you will indeed get things out there about Hillary Clinton’s religion.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSetT1AdNs0

20% of Donald Trump’s Campaign Spending Goes to Himself

Donald Trump’s campaign is almost broke, and is paying an unusual amount of money to Trump-owned businesses. That’s according to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s FEC filing, details of which were released Monday night.

The report provided a number of rather shocking facts, including that his campaign raised just $3.1 million in May compared to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s $27 million.

In comparison, Mitt Romney’s campaign raised $86.5 million in May during the 2012 presidential race. And on Monday night alone, Clinton raised about $1.6 million at a celebrity-studded fundraiser in New York City.

Another eyebrow-raising tidbit: Of the $6.7 million the Trump campaign spent in May, nearly 20% went to Trump-owned businesses or family members.

Furthermore, the filing suggests that Trump himself is drawing a salary from the campaign, which would be highly unusual.

The campaign also spent $208,000 on hats.

If Trump’s fund-raisers want to feel even worse, their haul was far less than a 2013 Kickstarter campaign to fund a “Veronica Mars” movie, as well as a recent Kickstarter campaign to fund “Reading Rainbow.”

And in a way, Buzzfeed’s widely publicized refusal earlier this month to accept Trump ads may have benefited the candidate: The original ad buy was for $1.3 million, exactly the amount the Trump campaign has left in the bank, according to the FEC report.

(h/t Market Watch)

Reality

According to The New York Times the spending raised eyebrows among campaign finance experts and some of Mr. Trump’s critics who have questioned whether the presumptive Republican nominee, who points to his business acumen as a case for his candidacy, is trying to do what he has suggested he would in 2000 when he mulled making an independent run: “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.”

“He could end up turning a profit if he repaid himself for the campaign loans,” said Paul S. Ryan, a campaign finance expert with the Campaign Legal Center. “He could get all his money back plus the profit margin for what his campaign has paid himself for goods and services.”

“We don’t have clear answers,” Mr. Ryan said. “Historically, candidates would separate themselves from their business interests when running for office. Trump has done the opposite by promoting his businesses while running for office.”

 

 

Trump’s Charity Claims Could Violate Fraud Laws

Trump golfing in the rain

If Donald Trump’s claims that certain of his commercial ventures benefit charity are untrue, he could be held liable under Section 349 of New York’s General Business Law, which forbids deceptive business acts and practices, as well as under charitable solicitation laws, according to legal experts.

In promoting products as varied as Trump University, Trump Vodka, a Trump board game and his latest book, “Crippled America,” the businessman has declared that the proceeds would go to charity. None of Trump’s proceeds from Trump University have gone to charity, and only a few hundred dollars of charitable giving related to Trump Vodka has been accounted for. News organizations have been unable to verify his other claims, and his representatives have been unwilling to provide more information about them or even to confirm them.

While lawyers say Trump could be liable in a number of states for false claims, the official most likely to take up the matter would be Attorney General Eric Schneiderman of New York, where Trump resides and is already the defendant in a consumer fraud case brought by the state over Trump University.

Referring to Trump’s claims about his “Crippled America” book profits, a spokesman for Schneiderman’s office said that the law against deceptive business practices was a more likely avenue of pursuit than the charitable solicitation law. But he added that lawyers at the attorney general’s office had not yet decided whether to look into the matter.

In recent weeks, Trump has come under fire for exaggerating the amount of money he raised for veterans at a campaign event in January and for donating much of that money only after reporters began asking questions about it. A state AG investigation of Trump’s other claims of charitable giving would keep the issue alive and burden the presumptive Republican nominee — already embroiled in a number of lawsuits — with another legal headache.

At least one congressman from New York says Schneiderman should investigate Trump’s claims about “Crippled America.”

“To the extent jurisdiction exists, it seems appropriate that the attorney general should examine whether Trump’s fraudulent schemes extend to his book-promotion activity,” Democratic Rep. Hakeem Jeffries told POLITICO.

Neither Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks, nor Alan Garten, general counsel of the Trump Organization, responded to multiple requests for comment.

At an October campaign stop in Iowa, Trump plugged the upcoming release of the book, saying, “With everything else I’m writing books. This was the last thing. But it was a lot of money that’s going to go to charity, and frankly, I think the title is amazing.”

That same day, Trump’s director of social media, Dan Scavino, tweeted:

Scavino did not respond to a request for comment.

At a press conference tied to the book’s release at Trump Tower in New York last November, Trump said, “The profits of my book? I’m giving them away to a lot of different people, including the vets.”

So far, Trump has made somewhere from $1 million to $5 million in royalties on the book, according to a personal financial disclosure filed last month with the FEC, but Hicks did not respond to repeated questions about whether any of the proceeds went to charity and no donation has been publicized.

If Trump fails to follow through on the statements made by him and his employee, he could be running afoul of the law, according to James Fishman, an emeritus professor of law at Pace University with expertise in non-profit organizations. “In terms of promising to give money to charities, that can be looked at as fraud if he has gotten people to contribute on that basis,” Fishman said.

The charity claims made their way into numerous news reports, social media posts and online reader reviews of the book. “Thank You For Donating Proceeds To Vet Charities!!!” reads the subject line of one review on Amazon. “Proceeds to charity GREAT BOOK!” proclaims another.

A Facebook page set up to promote the book includes a post that reads, “’I just started reading this and it is a great book already and I’m glad you are donating the proceeds to charity!’ – Joe (Unsolicited Amazon Testimonial).”

A Trump fan Facebook group promoted a link for pre-ordering the book this way: “Trump has just went live with the ‘pre-orders’ of his brand new book, ‘Crippled America’!! Trumps campaign manager also confirmed that the proceeds for the book go directly to CHARITY! Support the cause, get educated, and help us MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Secure your copy by pre-ordering today.”

“In general you can’t promote a book by saying the benefits will go to charity when that’s false, and that’s where general consumer protection laws would come in,” said Dan Kurtz, a former assistant attorney general of New York in charge of the state’s Charities Bureau.

Kurtz added that Trump might also be subject to New York’s charitable solicitation laws. Those regulations generally apply to instances where a business markets its goods as benefiting a particular charitable organization, but Kurtz said Trump’s vaguer marketing claims arguably also fall under that law as well.

Kurtz said that the book’s publisher, Simon & Schuster, might be “on the hook” as well for claims Trump made. A spokesman for the publisher declined to comment on the record.

“Crippled America” is not the only money-making venture that Trump has publicized as benefiting charity. He has also claimed that proceeds or profits from Trump University, Trump Vodka, “The Art of the Deal” and a Trump board game would benefit charity.

Promoting Trump Vodka in 2006, Trump told Larry King, “I’m giving the money to charity.” But the only apparent donation related to Trump Vodka is a “few hundred dollars” given to a group supporting Walter Reed Hospital in connection with a specific promotion, as reported by CNN last month.

Trump marketed Trump University as a charitable venture and said he would give any money he made off of it to charity, but he has not given money from it to charity, as Time reported in November. Trump’s lawyer told Time that the New York billionaire transferred the $5 million he made from Trump University, which is embroiled in multiple fraud lawsuits, back to the business when it landed in legal trouble.

Kurtz said that while older marketing claims of charitable giving, if false, might be too stale to pursue on their own, they would be relevant to more recent cases, like that of “Crippled America.”

“If somebody could demonstrate there’s a pattern, even if the claims themselves aren’t actionable, it shows the propensity to do it,” he said. “It reinforces the case.”

(h/t Politico)

Reality

Early in his candidacy, Trump boasted about giving $102 million to charity in just the last five years. But when the Washington Post examined the candidate’s 96-page list of contributions, they couldn’t find a single cash gift delivered from Trump’s own pocket.

When Trump held his fundraiser for veterans in order to hide from tough questions from Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, he didn’t physically hand over money to veterans charities until journalists had to figure out that Trump never distributed funds, including his own personal donation.

Trump: U.S. Must “Start Thinking About” Racial Profiling

Donald Trump said Sunday that in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, it’s time for the United States to start looking at racial profiling as a preventative tactic.

The presumptive GOP nominee said in a phone interview with CBS’ Face the Nation:

Well I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country. Other countries do it, you look at Israel and you look at others, they do it and they do it successfully. And I hate the concept of profiling but we have to start using common sense and we have to use our heads.

“It’s not the worst thing to do,” he added.

Trump’s comments come one week after 49 people were shot and killed in a gay nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Following the massacre, Trump renewed his calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., saying it would have prevented the attack despite the fact that shooter Omar Mateen was born in the U.S.

On Sunday, the GOP politician also said attacks like Orlando would stop if those in the Muslim community would “report” suspicious things.

“When you look at, when you look at people within the Muslim community and where people are living and they don’t report, and a good example of that would be San Bernardino,” he said. “I mean, they had bombs all over their apartment floor and people saw it and nobody reported them, and 14 people were killed, many injured.”

Mateen, Trump added, had definite “red flags” before the attack. “You look at his past, I mean? I’ve never seen a past quite like that,” he said of Mateen. “You look at his record in school, you look at a lot of other things. There were a lot of red flags, this was not a very good young man.”

Trump said he’s working with the National Rifle Association on the details of a policy that would ban people on the no-fly list from purchasing guns.

“We understand there are problems with that because some people are on the terror watch list that shouldn’t be on,” he said. “So I’m working with the NRA, we’re discussing it and again the NRA has the best interests of our country, it just has the absolute best interests of our country.”

Asked about GOP leaders’ criticism of him in recent days, especially over his renewed focus on the Muslim ban, Trump said those Republicans should stop “talking so much” and just “do their job.” The issue is compounded, he added, when the media focuses more on his detractors in the GOP than his supporters.

“I think that honestly they should go about their business and they should do a wonderful job and work on budgets and get the budgets down and get the military the kind of money they need and lots of other things, and they shouldn’t be talking so much,” he said. “They should go out and do their job, let me do my job.”

(h/t CBS News)

Reality

However according to Trump’s suggestion, we should be racially profiling white Christian males because you are more than 7 times as likely to be killed by a right-wing extremist than by Muslim terrorists.

UNC Professor Charles Kurzman and Duke Professor David Schanzer explained last June in the New York Times, Islam-inspired terror attacks “accounted for 50 fatalities over the past 13 and a half years.” Meanwhile, “right-wing extremists averaged 337 attacks per year in the decade after 9/11, causing a total of 254 fatalities.”

Media

Trump Campaign: We’re Facing an Emergency Goal of $100,000

The Donald Trump campaign on Saturday released its first “emergency” fund-raising email, in response to an ad blitz from the Hillary Clinton campaign.

“Right now we’re facing an emergency goal of $100,000 to help get our ads on the air. We need your contribution by 11:59 P.M. Tonight,” the email from Team Trump said.

“Crooked Hillary is about to invade your TV with ads attacking Mr. Trump. But we’re preparing to fight back,” it reads.

The email promises to release ads attacking Clinton on her role in Benghazi, the integrity of her donors and reported FBI probing of her private email server while secretary of state.

The urgent fundraising email is routine for most presidential campaigns. But it’s particularly notable since Trump insisted repeatedly during the GOP primary season that he was self-funding his campaign, only to start asking for donations later on.
Republican officials and activists are increasingly concerned that Trump is underestimating the fundraising challenge ahead as he faces off against Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

As the general election heats up, the Clinton campaign on Thursday aired its first general election television ad, targeting Trump for comments about violence at his events and what critics have said was mocking of a disabled New York Times reporter.

Despite the Trump campaign’s urgent appeal for campaign donations on Saturday afternoon he raised the prospect of paying for his general election bid himself. At a Las Vegas rally, he argued that if GOP establishment types didn’t fully support his campaign he could self-fund, rather than relying on the party apparatus to help bring in donations.

“Life is like two way street, right?” Trump said. “Otherwise I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. I’ll just keep funding my own campaign. I’m ok with that. That’s the easy way. I mean for me, that’s the easy way. But, hopefully I can continue to go the way we’re going, and this weekend we raised a lot of money. We’ve raised a lot of money for the Republican Party. We’ll keep doing it, because we do have tremendous support within the party that I can tell you.”

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Trump went back on his promise to self-fund his campaign in May 2016.

With the many other flip-flops since becoming the Republican party’s nominee, he’s rejected almost every stance that his supporters loved which separated him from the other candidates.

Trump Campaign: GOP Must Get Behind Trump or ‘Shut the Hell Up’

Donald Trump’s campaign co-chairman says Republicans should either unite behind their party’s presumptive presidential nominee or shut up.

Sam Clovis, speaking on CNN’s New Day said:

The leadership of the Republican Party needs to figure out what they want.

 

Either they want to get behind the presumptive nominee who will be the nominee of this party and make sure that we do everything we can to win in November, or we’re just asking them, if they can’t do that, then just shut the hell up.

(h/t The Hill)

Reality

The quote from the Trump aide is in-line with Donald Trump himself. Earlier in the week Trump told a rally in Atlanta, Georgia that his Republican critics should
be quiet and don’t talk or he’ll go it alone.

Media

 

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