Former Texas official says he was told to drop Trump University probe

Trump University logo

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to muzzle a former state regulator who says he was ordered in 2010 to drop a fraud investigation into Trump University for political reasons.

Paxton’s office issued a cease and desist letter to former Deputy Chief of Consumer Protection John Owens after he made public copies of a 14-page internal summary of the state’s case against Donald Trump for scamming millions from students of his now-defunct real estate seminar.

Owens, now retired, said his team had built a solid case against the now-presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but was told to drop it after Trump’s company agreed to cease operations in Texas.

The former state regulator told The Associated Press on Friday that decision was highly unusual and left the bilked students on their own to attempt to recover their tuition money from the celebrity businessman.

Trump University is the target of two lawsuits in San Diego and one in New York that accuse the business of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate.

A federal judge overseeing one of the class action suits unsealed documents in the case earlier this week, then ordered some of those records to be withdrawn from public view, saying they had “mistakenly” been released.

Trump has personally attacked U.S. District Judge Gonzalo P. Curiel as “a hater of Donald Trump,” claiming he is biased against Trump because of his Hispanic heritage.

“We’re in front of a very hostile judge,” Trump told a crowd in San Diego on May 27. “The judge was appointed by Barack Obama, federal judge. Frankly, he should recuse himself because he’s given us ruling after ruling after ruling, negative, negative, negative.”

“What happens is the judge, who happens to be — we believe — Mexican. Which is great. I think that’s fine,” he said. “You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs, OK?”

Curiel was born in East Chicago, Indiana. Curiel’s parents, however, are Mexican, according to a 2002 New York Times report of the judge’s work in the Southern District of California’s narcotics enforcement division.

Despite the lawsuits, the presumptive GOP nominee said Thursday he plans to reopen Trump University once the legal cases are resolved.

As CBS News reported in September, Trump University closed not because of litigation, but because students were not signing up for its Gold elite mentoring program that cost $35,000. The university, as a result, could no longer afford to fulfill its commitments to the students who had already paid.

A June 2010 memo from Trump University said the program was facing “significant operations risk” and it closed a month later. A former employee told CBS News that the program was “run into the ground.”

According to the documents provided by Owens, his team sought to sue Trump, his company and several business associates to help recover more than $2.6 million students spent on seminars and materials, plus another $2.8 million in penalties and fees.

Owens said he was so surprised at the order to stand down he made a copy of the case file and took it home.

“It had to be political in my mind because Donald Trump was treated differently than any other similarly situated scam artist in the 16 years I was at the consumer protection office,” said Owens, who lives in Houston.

Owens’ boss at the time was then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is now the state’s GOP governor.

The Associated Press first reported Thursday that Trump gave donations totaling $35,000 to Abbott’s gubernatorial campaign three years after his office closed the Trump U case. Several Texas media outlets then reported Owens’ accusation that the probe was dropped for political reasons.

Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch said Friday that the governor had played no role in ending the case against Trump, a decision he said was made farther down the chain of command.

“The Texas Attorney General’s office investigated Trump U, and its demands were met – Trump U was forced out of Texas and consumers were protected,” Hirsch said. “It’s absurd to suggest any connection between a case that has been closed and a donation to Governor Abbott three years later.”

Paxton issued a media release about the cease and desist later Friday, saying Owens had divulged “confidential and privileged information.”

Owens first learned about the state’s action against him on Friday afternoon when contacted by the AP for response.

“I have done nothing illegal or unethical,” said Owens, a lawyer. “I think the information I provided to the press was important and needed to be shared with the public.”

Paxton faces his own legal trouble. He was indicted last year on three felony fraud charges alleging that he persuaded people to invest in a North Texas tech startup while failing to disclose that he hadn’t invested himself but was being paid by the company in stock. Paxton has remained in office while appealing the charges.

Texas was not the only GOP-led state to shy away from suing Trump.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi briefly considered joining a multi-state suit against Trump U. Three days after Bondi’s spokeswoman was quoted in local media reports as saying her office was investigating, Trump’s family foundation made a $25,000 contribution to a political fundraising committee supporting Bondi’s re-election campaign.

Bondi, a Republican, soon dropped her investigation, citing insufficient grounds to proceed.

In New York, meanwhile, Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Trump over what he called a “straight-up fraud.” That case, along with several class-action lawsuits filed by former Trump students, is still ongoing.

(h/t CBS News)

Reality

At the first Republican debate, Donald Trump admitted to buying politicians for favors at the very first Republican primary debate in August 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4tHW9_bb08

Trump’s Hypocrisy Over Twitter Tribute to Muhammad Ali

Twitter

There’s been no shortage of reflection and celebration when it comes to the remarkable life of Muhammad Ali. That’s essentially the deal when you’re one of the most beloved figures in American sport and American culture in general. He was the champ, he stood for his beliefs and ranks as a true one-off.

Among the tributes pouring in as the public remembers The Greatest is one from presidential candidate and “it’s 2016 and everything seems to come back to this guy” press magnet Donald Trump. The current GOP hope for the White House marked Ali’s passing with a tweet very much in the voice of The Donald.

Naturally, the internet went “wait, isn’t that the dude that’s been making incredibly controversial remarks about Muslims?” To which a healthy stockpile of receipts replied, “YUP!” It was pretty much instantaneous that a certain infamous tweet was placed in the spotlight to dispute Trump having a pro-Ali stance.

(h/t Yahoo News)

Reality

Donald Trump has said many inflammatory statements towards the Muslim religion.

While Trump has called Ali a personal friend in the past, the boxing great has spoken out against the Presidential candidate’s ban on Muslim immigrants.

 

Trump Calls Out “My African-American Over Here”

Donald Trump called out “my African-American over here” during a rally in Redding, California, pointing to a supporter in the crowd.

Trump was responding to the intense rioting between protestors and his supporters that took place in San Jose last night. In the middle of his nearly endless spiel, Trump began talking enthusiastically about an incident that happened in Tucson in March, in which protestors wearing white KKK hoods were beaten by a black member of the crowd.

While reciting this anecdote, Trump further breaks off to wonder about how that man is doing. In the process of that tangent, he (presumably) points out a different black person in this particular crowd, which produces yet another jaw-dropping moment in the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump:

We had a case where we had an African-American guy who was a fan of mine. Great guy, in fact I want to find out what’s going on with him. You know what I’m — Oh look at my African American over here.

“Look at him,” Trump added, directing the crowd’s attention. “You know what I’m talking about, OK? So we have an African American guy at one of the rallies a month ago. And he’s sitting there behaving. And we had protesters sitting inside the arena.”

“Everybody thought the African American was against me, and it was the opposite,” Trump insisted. “He was like this great guy military guy. We have tremendous African American support. The reason is I’m going to bring jobs back to our country. We’re going to bring jobs back.”

Trump’s spokesperson Hope Hicks told CNN that he didn’t mean anything by it. “He’s just referring to a supporter in the crowd; there’s no ill will intended, obviously,” Hicks stated.

(h/t CNN, Gawker)

Reality

What is something a slave owner says for $300 Alex?

Gregory Cheadle, a Republican California congressional candidate, confirmed to CNN he was the supporter to whom Trump pointed. He told the Record Searchlight, a local newspaper, he was happy to be cited by Trump.

While Mr. Cheadle may not have been personally offended by the remark, that does not absolve Donald Trump for his comment. For those who this may require an explanation, saying things like, “Oh look at my African American over here” sounds like Trump is interacting with black people for the first time. And this isn’t a isolated incident but just the latest in a long line of racially-charged comments from the billionaire.

Donald Trump actually started off his rambling anecdote speaking about how gentle and respectful he treats protesters at his rallies, which he claims is not very often. This is not true. Virtually every single rally is interrupted with protests. Donald Trump just the day prior screamed “Get him outta here!” at a protester at the rally in San Jose. This is also the same Donald Trump who promised to pay legal fees for supporters who attacked protesters who interrupt his rallies.

Finally, when Trump was telling the story about the violent incident at his Tucson rally involving an African-American and a KKK member, he was visibly passionate. While we completely disagree with the stance of the KKK, we also disagree with Trump’s constant approval of violence at his rallies. Violence has no place in our political process.

Media

Trump Defends Criticism of Judge with Mexican Heritage

There’s persistent … and then there’s Jake Tapper.

The CNN anchor posed the following question to Donald Trump on Friday:

Let me ask you about comments you made about the judge in the Trump University case. You said that you thought it was a conflict of interest that he was the judge because he is of Mexican heritage, even though he is from Indiana. Hillary Clinton said that that is a racist attack on a federal judge.

Trump deflected to talk about his border wall and Clinton’s emails, among other things. So Tapper tried to steer the conversation back to whether Trump’s complaint about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was racist. Trump deflected again. Tapper tried again. And again. In all, Tapper made an astounding 23 follow-up attempts.

Tapper’s relentlessness ultimately paid off. He finally got a straight answer out of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

TAPPER: If you are saying he cannot do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?

 

TRUMP: No, I don’t think so at all.

Tapper refused to drop the subject until Trump offered a yes-or-no answer. It was clearly an exhausting effort. But it showed that even Donald J. Trump can be worn down by a journalist who never gives up.

(h/t Washington Post)

Reality

As House Speaker Paul Ryan explained, Donald Trump’s recent remarks saying a judge presiding over a lawsuit involving his business was biased solely because of his Mexican heritage is “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”

Trump: Mexican American Judge Has an ‘Absolute Conflict’

Trump University logo

Was Donald Trump’s racist suggestion last week that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an American of Mexican descent, could not fairly preside over a lawsuit about so-called Trump University simply an off-the-cuff remark? If so, Trump seems to have decided to go with it. The Wall Street Journal reports:

In an interview, Mr. Trump said U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel had “an absolute conflict” in presiding over the litigation given that he was “of Mexican heritage” and a member of a Latino lawyers’ association. Mr. Trump said the background of the judge, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, was relevant because of his campaign stance against illegal immigration and his pledge to seal the southern U.S. border. “I’m building a wall. It’s an inherent conflict of interest,” Mr. Trump said.

Perhaps one reason Trump lashed out at Curiel once more was the release of documents from the case on Tuesday, which painted Trump University in an unflattering light.

(h/t The Atlantic)

Reality

Donald Trump’s claim that a person can not perform their job for the singular reason because their heritage is a textbook example of a racist quote.

The Republican candidate’s insistence that Gonzalo Curiel cannot preside impartially simply because of his ethnic heritage flies in the face of established precedent. Trump’s claim is irrelevant, as ethnicity plays no apparent role in the Trump University case. His argument also sits in uncomfortable contradiction to his prior claims that “the Latinos love me.”

Trump’s statement is troubling for a variety of reasons. Curiel was born in Indiana to parents who had immigrated from Mexico, and Trump has referred to Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and criminals. But the case at hand involves an allegedly fraudulent series of real-estate seminars Trump set up—in other words, it has nothing to do with ethnicity whatsoever. He has discovered that by grossly insulting a group to which a judge (sort of) belongs, he can then argue that the judge is tainted. As Peter Beinart of The Atlantic, among other observers, has pointed out, Trump’s demand that an unblemished judge step down from the case amounts to an attack on the independence of the American judiciary.

(Editor’s Note: Today is a short day so the ‘reality’ section is from our cited source and not our own.)

Trump Says Clinton Made Up Quotes About Him

Hillary Clinton gave a speech on foreign policy that was a direct attack on Donald Trump, whose own foreign policy knowledge is lacking in such a way that CNN has now chosen to fact-check in real time so that viewers can see when he reneges on something he’s said, like his belief that Japan should have nukes.

Trump hasn’t taken well to her speech. He has attacked those who lauded it and gone after Clinton, too. Just as he did yesterday when he tried to claim that he never spoke out in favor of Japan getting its own nuclear arsenal, he tried to insist that everything Clinton said about him in her speech was a lie.

She responded with a link to her site, The Briefing. That link leads to a quote-by-quote breakdown of her speech. Each assertion made about Trump’s beliefs is backed up with a link to the interview or press conference during which he said it.

From saying he has no issue with abandoning our allies in NATO to the direct quote in which he insisted he knows more about ISIS than America’s own military generals do, the takedown is thorough and scathing.

(h/t Mediaite)

Reality

Donald’s twitter response to Clinton’s evisceration of his foreign policy was largely seen as massive disappointment. Many pundits waited eagerly to see how he would respond, how he would defend his positions, and were left with a few poorly-spelled tweets attacking her for using a “telepromter.” Ironically, a few days later Donald Trump himself turned to a teleprompter for his primary victory.

So we wanted to take the time and fact-check both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

1. “This is a man who said that more countries should have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia.”

TRUE. During a CNN town hall interview on March 29, 2016, Donald Trump did advocate for more countries to have nuclear weapons, including Saudi Arabia.

ANDERSON COOPER:  Saudi Arabia, nuclear weapons?

 

TRUMP:  Saudi Arabia, absolutely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEsBoRVlWXU&feature=youtu.be

2. “This is someone who has threatened to abandon our allies in NATO, the countries that work with us to root out terrorists abroad before they strike us at home.”

TRUE. In a March 30 town hall on MSNBC, Trump repeatedly suggested he will threaten NATO countries to bear a bigger burden, ultimately saying “If we have to walk, we have to walk.”

CHRIS MATTHEWS:  We don’t need NATO?

 

TRUMP:  Do you think — no, we don’t really need NATO in its current form. NATO is obsolete, and we’re spending disproportionately…

 

MATTHEWS:  How do you walk from NATO, The Middle East, North Asia, China, all these relationships?  Just drop them all?

 

TRUMP:  Look, NATO is…

 

MATTHEWS:  We have old deals we have to stick with.

TRUMP:  … is 68 years old.

 

MATTHEWS:  Yes.

 

TRUMP:  OK, you have countries that are getting a free ride.  You have countries that benefit from NATO much more than we do.  We don’t benefit that much from NATO….Why aren’t they reimbursing us?  Why aren’t they paying a good portion of the costs?

 

MATTHEWS:  Well, that’s fine.  It’s a good argument if you can get it.  But if the alternative is we walk…

TRUMP:  And we’ll get it, I’ll get it, I’ll get it.  I’m the messenger.

 

MATTHEWS:  If the alternative is we walk…

 

TRUMP:  If we have to walk, we have to walk.

Comments start around the 6:30 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUClmJN4HhI

3. “He believes we can treat the U.S. economy like one of his casinos and default on our debts to the rest of the world, which would cause an economic catastrophe far worse than anything we experienced in 2008.”

TRUE. In an interview on CNBC, Donald Trump broke with tired clichés about the evils of federal debt accumulation. “I am the king of debt,” he said. “I love debt. I love playing with it.”

I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal,” Trump said. “And if the economy was good, it was good. So therefore, you can’t lose.

This idea would indeed cause a global financial crisis. By suggesting an unorthodox approach towards cutting the national debt… not paying it then renegotiate terms. Such a renegotiation risks creating financial turmoil because U.S. Treasuries are considered the safest assets on the planet and a major benchmark for valuing other securities. Calling into question their safety could cause borrowing rates to rise and create confusion in the markets.

Trump later said the media misunderstood his comments. However while Trump did not say the word ‘default’ he explained the exact definition of the word default in his proposal. And his new answer to print money can lead to higher inflation and was almost just as bad of an idea.

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000515269

4. “He has said that he would order our military to carry out torture.”

TRUE. During a campaign event at the Sun City retirement community on February 17, 2016, Donald Trump said that he supports waterboarding and similar interrogation techniques because “torture works” in the questioning of terrorists.

“Don’t tell me it doesn’t work — torture works,” Trump said. “Okay, folks? Torture — you know, half these guys [say]: ‘Torture doesn’t work.’ Believe me, it works. Okay?”

5. “He says he doesn’t have to listen to our generals or our admirals, our ambassadors, and other high officials, because he has quote, ‘a very good brain.’”

TRUE. Asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” who he talks with consistently about foreign policy, Trump responded:

“I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things.”

“I know what I’m doing and I listen to a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people and at the appropriate time I’ll tell you who the people are,” Trump said. “But my primary consultant is myself and I have a good instinct for this stuff.”

 

Then as evidence, Trump claimed he had predicted the rise of Osama bin Laden, a statement for which was a total and absolute lie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2lBz0532wU

6. “He says climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese.”

TRUE. And complete and total nonsense.

7. “He has the gall to say that prisoners of war like John McCain aren’t heroes.”

TRUE. At the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in July 2015, when moderator Frank Luntz brought up Senator John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Donald Trump said:

He’s not a war hero.

Then went on to say.

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.

8. “He praises dictators like Vladimir Putin…” and picks fights with our friends, including the British prime minister, the mayor of London, the German chancellor, the president of Mexico, and the Pope.”

TRUE. In an interview on October 1st, 2015, Trump compared President Obama unfavorably to the Russian president.

“I will tell you, in terms of leadership, he’s getting an ‘A,’ and our president is not doing so well. They did not look good together.”

9. “and picks fights with our friends – including the British prime minister…”

TRUE. On Good Morning Britain in May 2016, Trump was asked about comments by British Prime Minister David Cameron, leader of the U.K.’s Conservative Party, who said that Trump’s suggestion Muslims should be barred from the United States was “divisive, stupid and wrong.”

“It looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship,” if he were to win the presidential election in November.

https://youtu.be/I6-e5hNIBOk

10. the mayor of London…

TRUE. On Good Morning Britain in May 2016, Trump said Khan was “very rude” and made a veiled threat.

“I think they’re very rude statements and frankly, tell him, I will remember those statements. They’re very nasty statements.”

11. the German chancellor…

TRUE. Donald Trump told Breitbart executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon that he was highly critical of Germany’s Angela Merkel saying she is “a catastrophic leader” and that “she’ll be out if they don’t have a revolution.”

Everyone thought she was a really great leader and now she’s turned out to be this catastrophic leader. And she’ll be out if they don’t have a revolution.

12. the president of Mexico…

TRUE. Donald Trump sparked outrage among Mexicans and Latinos over comments he made when he kicked off his Presidential bid when he claimed Mexico sending its “rapists” and criminals to the U.S. and calling for a human-proof wall on the U.S.-Mexico border to keep them out.

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.

Mexican President Pena Nieto attacked the “populism” of the Trump campaign, which he said sought to put forward “very easy, simple solutions to problems that are obviously not that easy to solve,” and then compared Trump to Hitler:

“And there have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity. That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in, they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis. And I think what (they) put forward ended up at what we know today from history, in global conflagration. We don’t want that happening anywhere in the world”

13. and the Pope.

TRUE. Trump faulted Pope Francis for planning to visit the Mexican border to pray with migrants:

I don’t think he understands the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico. I think Mexico got him to do it because they want to keep the border just the way it is. They’re making a fortune, and we’re losing.

Pope Francis then made the observation that that Mr. Trump “is not Christian” in proposing deportations and a wall with Mexico.

Donald Trump responded saying Francis’ criticisms were “disgraceful” and “unbelievable,” said the pontiff will “wish and pray” that the real estate mogul were President “if and when the Vatican is attacked, and he contended that the Mexican government had hoodwinked the pope into criticizing him.

14. “He says he has foreign policy experience because he ran the Miss Universe pageant in Russia.”

TRUE. In a March 2016 interview with Fox News, Donald Trump said:

I know Russia well. I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago, Miss Universe contest, which was a big, big, incredible event. An incredible success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJjQWJBP2N8

 

 

 

Protesters Attack Trump Supporters After San Jose Speech

Protests outside a Donald Trump rally in San Jose, California, descended into violence on Thursday night, with supporters clashing with anti-Trump demonstrators in running-battles around the convention center where the candidate spoke.

Hundreds of protesters, many of them Latino students and a large contingent of union members, had gathered peacefully outside in the late afternoon, at times jeering at his supporters as they passed by.

But after the rally finished, the protests turned violent as anti-Trump demonstrators chased – and in some cases punched and attacked – departing Trump supporters, some of whom appeared intent on provoking and fighting as well, while other protesters tried to prevent the attacks. Eventually riot police were deployed to control the crowd.

Inside the rally, the presumptive Republican nominee for president struck out at his main rival, Hillary Clinton, after her fiery attacks on him earlier in the day. In a blistering speech in San Diego on national security, the Democratic frontrunner lambasted him as “ temperamentally unfit” to be president and castigated his “thin skin”.

Trump, his voice brash, responded, saying he had thick skin instead of thin, but attacked her over her email controversy, even hinting that if he was elected he would send the former secretary of state to jail. He also said Clinton “wants to abolish the second amendment” and called her speech “pathetic”.

Sgt Enrique Garcia of the San Jose police department said police made “a few” arrests but could not provide details on numbers or charges. “There has been no significant property damage reported. One officer was assaulted,” he said.

The Clinton camp was quick to denounce the violence, with campaign chairman John Podesta tweeting: “Violence against supporters of any candidate has no place in this election.”

But the mayor of San Jose, Sam Liccardo, laid the blame squarely at Trump’s door. “We don’t appreciate [anyone] utilizing campaign tactics of demagoguery, and pitting members of our community against one another to propel their own political ambitions,” he told the Guardian.

The protests had started peacefully in the afternoon. Pooja Bachan, 18, attended with a group of her classmates who arrived from their high school graduation ceremony wearing baby-blue caps and gowns. “Donald Trump is misogynistic, xenophobic and racist,” she said. “I don’t support that for this country.”

“I have family members who are illegal immigrants and they’re scared,” said Monse Lozano, 18, of San Jose. “I’m a citizen and I can’t do much for them.”

Other demonstrators waved Mexican flags and chanted in Spanish and English. One man yelled at Trump supporters entering the arena: “Somos mas Americanos que todos ellos.”

Trump spoke to an audience of around 5,000 supporters, who barely filled a third of the cavernous space attached to the San Jose convention center. After his speech, as Trump supporters began trickling out of the venue, the tenor of the crowd outside shifted.

Bands of mostly young male protesters began chasing, and in some instances attacking, Trump supporters. As more fights broke out between pro- and anti-Trump people, the situation grew chaotic. After being spat on and punched by a protester, one Trump supporter turned to hit back and appeared to accidentally hit a pregnant woman standing next to his attacker, which further angered the crowd surrounding him.

The crowd moved into the street and began blocking traffic, while police maintained their distance. Some Trump supporters waded into the crowd, seeming intent on provoking scuffles.

Several protesters snatched red “Make America Great Again” hats from supporters, setting them on fire. Some burned small American flags and ripped up Trump signs.

At one point, a group of protesters entered the convention center parking lot, where Trump supporters were attempting to leave. Some banged on cars, yelling at the occupants, and one SUV’s tail light was broken. As protesters attempted to surround a Corvette, the driver gunned the engine, almost hitting several people and sending the protesters running.

“Now that I’ve turned 18, I want to be out there and stand up for what I believe,” said Martha Garcia, a student from San Jose, early in the afternoon. “The blood that runs through my veins is Mexican.”

As night fell, and riot cops began to move in on the protesters, Garcia expressed disappointment in the violence. “It’s sad to see San Jose representing like this. Trump is the one igniting the hate. You can’t fight fire with fire,” she said.

Carlos Ceballos, an iron worker from Salinas who travelled to San Jose to protest Trump, was more understanding of the violent outbursts. “I guess it happens to the best of us,” he said as the final protesters retreated from riot cops. Ceballos said he does not like Trump supporters, but as for Trump himself, “I hate him.”

(h/t The Guardian)

Reality

Violence has no place in our political process and should be condemned from all sides.

Donald Trump says a lot of divisive and hateful statements, escalation of tensions may only seem natural. However as a protester, engaging in violence only plays into the hands of Donald Trump and his supporters. It gives them justification for their false sense of being victimized and allows them to paint the opposition as “thugs” and side-step our real and valid arguments.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-1aSn_Pnhk

Trump: I Never Said Japan Should Have Nukes (He Did)

Donald Trump at rally in Sacramento, California.

Donald Trump on Wednesday night charged Hillary Clinton was misrepresenting his position by saying he wants nuclear arms for Japan — but the presumptive Republican nominee previously has said exactly that.

At a rally in Sacramento, California, Trump said:

[Hillary Clinton] lies. She lies. She made a speech, she’s making another one tomorrow, and they sent me a copy of the speech. And it was such lies about my foreign policy, that they said I want Japan to get nuclear weapons. Give me a break.

 

See they don’t say it: I want Japan and Germany and Saudi Arabia and South Korea and many of the NATO states, nations, they owe us tremendously, we’re taking care of all those people and what I want them to do is pay up.

The questions over Trump’s position comes as Clinton prepares to hit him on that and other comments in a foreign policy speech later Thursday.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not immediately respond to questions about his position.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Donald Trump must not realize when he makes these comments that we live in the age of Google.

New York Times Interview – 3/26/16

Here is the New York Times interview transcript where Donald Trump first mentions his foreign policy plan to allow Japan to have nuclear weapons.

Well I think maybe it’s not so bad to have Japan — if Japan had that nuclear threat, I’m not sure that would be a bad thing for us.

Anderson Cooper Interview – 3/29/16

Here is Trump telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper during a town hall, responding to questions about the New York Times article, and suggested that it was time to reconsider the United States’ decades-old policy of not allowing Japan to arm itself with nuclear weapons.

Can I be honest with you? It’s going to happen anyway. It’s going to happen anyway. It’s only a question of time. They’re going to start having them or we have to get rid of them entirely.

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

Fox News Interview – 4/3/16

Here is Trump in an interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace where Trump clearly states Japan should have nukes. Trump said:

“It’s not like, gee whiz, nobody has them. So, North Korea has nukes. Japan has a problem with that. I mean, they have a big problem with that. Maybe they would in fact be better off if they defend themselves from North Korea.”

 

Wallace asked, “With nukes?”

 

“Including with nukes, yes, including with nukes,” Trump responded.

Trump’s comment occurs at the 10:23 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LPEF5S78_Q

Donald Trump Rally – 6/2/16

Here is the Sacramento, California event. Trump’s lie occurs at the 12:48 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdVAiXkgnE4

Trump Tweets 9 Deceptive Graphs “Proving” That Obama Failed.

Twitter

Washington Post – We have generally learned that there’s not much utility in fact-checking every tweet that springs to life from the imagination of Donald Trump or which receives his blessing via retweet. Tweets containing factual errors are not as plentiful as those containing exclamation points or disparagement, but they aren’t exactly rare.

But on Thursday evening, Trump retweeted this one, and we — well, I — couldn’t let it stand.

There are nine little graphs embedded in there, with hard-to-read axes and unclear provenance for the numbers, all of which are meant to bolster one argument: Barack Obama’s presidency has been bad.

Look, for example, at the graph at upper left, “Student Loans.” It’s almost impossible to make out the labels on the horizontal axis, but it’s clear that there simply aren’t any until the graph starts to rise. Which is … a bit deceptive. So what I figured I’d do is try my best to recreate these charts with verifiable numbers, to see how this argument stacks up.

Student loans

The vertical axis on this one tells us what we’re looking at. It passed “1.000” at some point recently; the third labeled section of the graph appears to demarcate 2010-2014. (The others, I think: 2000-2004 and 2005-2009.) If it passed 1 recently, then we’re talking about student loan debt, in dollars.

The Federal Reserve has data going back to the first quarter of 2006, allowing us to create a slightly more legible version of the graph.

(We’ve highlighted 2009 on our charts to emphasize the point at which Obama took over.)

On an old page from 2012, we find the trend extending back a bit more.

The trend, then, isn’t a big spike. It’s a steady increase since about 2006 — before Obama was president.

Food stamps

Here, the horizontal axis extends a bit further back, still in those odd five-year chunks. What’s being tallied here is not “food stamps,” which makes no sense, but average participation over the course of each year, in millions. In other words, the average of how many people used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) each month of the year.

That data is available from the USDA.

There was an uptick — one that began in 2008, which we’ll get to. But notice that the person who made this chart cut it off before the number started to (slowly) drop back down.

There’s a theme you’ll see present itself here: That Obama took office right after the recession began. As a result, he appears to perform poorly on some metrics, like this one. But that’s a natural result of the financial crisis that predated him: more people relied on supplemental assistance.

Federal debt

…And the government took on more debt.

Notice that on the debt chart in the original, the horizontal axis has changed. No longer does it start in the 1980s — instead, it goes back to 1950. Yes, debt increased under Obama by a large amount. But, again, that increase began under his predecessor, George W. Bush, as an effort to address the financial crisis.

What’s more, comparing 1950 to 2000 makes little sense, since the value of the dollar wasn’t equivalent at that point. But compared to the other problems here, that’s relatively minor.

Money printing

This one is probably my favorite. I’m not going to get into the politics of the printing of money and why certain quarters object to the practice. Instead, I’m going to try to figure out what the 4 million figures on the vertical axis indicate — and what the numbers along the bottom are.

The Federal Reserve (naturally) has lots of data on money in circulation, including this chart of print orders by year since 1995. It doesn’t match the graph Trump tweeted.

Data.gov (a great resource, by the way) has the number of notes produced each year from 1980 to 2012 in various denominations. Combined, those numbers don’t result in 4-million-plus of anything — they add up to far more. The Department of the Treasury indicates that it produced 24.8 million notes a day in 2014.

So what is this graph? No idea. If you have an idea, let me know.

Update: We have an answer. Dan Ludwinski of the Cornell University Department of Economics explains what the Trump graph shows.

“The ‘money printing’ graph is assets held by the Federal Reserve,” he wrote in an email. “The majority of these assets are excess reserve balances — money deposited by commercial banks and held by the Federal Reserve. Calling this “money printing” is laughably inaccurate. This is money that is taken out of circulation and held by the Fed. Anyone who has taken econ 101 knows that this is a decrease in the money supply.”

Health-care costs

You’ve probably noticed by now that the pink boxes in the Trump tweet generally approximate the period during which Obama was president. It varies a bit, but that’s generally the case.

So you’ll notice on this one that the creator of the charts cheats, making most of the graph a period during which Obama was president. It starts in 2007 and goes through 2015.

“Healthcare costs” is vague. The Kaiser Family Foundation has a tool that allows you to see expenditures under a number of scenarios since 1960 — but none of its charts appear to sync with the one Trump tweeted.

The Federal Reserve, as always, has some data. In this case, it’s health expenditures per capita. They’ve gone up steadily, at least through 2012. The Kaiser data shows about the same thing.

What’s Trump’s chart? I’m not sure. Notice that the vertical axis on it begins at 105, not zero, making the amount of change seem exaggerated. It’s possible that the figures are percentages, indicating how much costs were relative to the prior year. But while 2011 costs were 103.8 percent of 2010 costs in the Fed’s data, 2012’s was only 104.2 percent of 2011’s. So who knows.

Labor force participation

On this one, the creator of the graphs cheats again, showing a section of the vertical axis. But, for once, it’s clear what’s being talked about.

To calculate unemployment, the government looks at how many people in the labor force have jobs. People not in the labor force don’t come into play in that calculation, and so if people drop out of the labor force — stop looking for work or retire, for example — the unemployment rate can fall faster, because the number of unemployed people in the labor force will have fallen. (That’s precisely why the unemployment rate fell in May.) 

This has been used as a counterpoint to Obama’s trumpeting of the plunging jobless rate.

And it’s accurate. Labor force participation has fallen since Obama took office.

Of course, one could also show how many new jobs were added, or the state of the unemployment rate. But given that this is, at last, accurate and comprehensible, we’ll let it slide.

Black inequality

This is an interesting one. The creator of these graphs uses calculations of what’s known as the “Gini coefficient” for black Americans, data that is again available from the Federal Reserve. What we’re talking about here isn’t inequality in the sense of racial justice; it’s income inequality.

The Gini coefficient estimates how far from a perfectly equitable distribution of income a group happens to be. The formulas for this are complex, so it’s nice that the Fed has already taken care of it.

Here are the coefficients for both whites and blacks since 2002, when the Fed data begins.

Notice that the variation is much more subtle in this chart. That’s because the vertical axis shows a wider range. Yes, income inequality increased, but not that dramatically.

Median family income

This one is refreshingly straightforward. Here’s what the Fed has to say.

This doesn’t match the Trump chart, mind you, and it’s not clear why. Oh well. Here’s the Fed’s data, if you want to look for yourself.

Home ownership

Another straightforward one! This is the percentage of houses that are owner-occupied.

Again, the rate has declined under Obama — a decline that began under Bush.

Why? In part because it was home ownership problems that precipitated the recession. Bad home loans and the rapid expansion of home ownership played key roles in creating the conditions that led to the economic collapse. As a result, home ownership rates dropped.

But this graph, at least, is fairly accurate, if a bit deceptive in where it places the blame. That’s not true for many of the others.

So why did Trump tweet it? Because, as has often been the case, the details are less important than the political point. If a bunch of graphs claim to show how Obama has been bad for the economy, boom. Retweet. If some jerk goes through each one and notes why it’s wrong or skewed, that doesn’t detract from the main point, which is that Obama is bad. If challenged, Trump can simply blame the originator of what he retweeted, which he has often proven willing to do.

And that, in a nutshell, is why fact-checking things like this is so often thankless.

Links

The Washington Post article.

 

 

Trump Campaign Releases a Video Defending Trump University… That is Itself a Scam

Former students put forward by Donald Trump’s campaign to help deflect criticism of his defunct real estate seminars have business ties to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

The campaign posted a web video Wednesday defending Trump University after a federal judge unsealed documents in a long-running lawsuit filed by ex-students who claim they were fleeced. The seminars ended in 2011 amid a flurry of complaints and state fraud investigations.

“The students on this video are representative of the many students who were overwhelmingly satisfied with Trump University,” the campaign said. “Rather than listen to the media spin, listen to the hard-working students who can attest first-hand to the truth about Trump University.”

https://youtu.be/2GHBBUrWpf4

(h/t Fortune, Red State)

Reality

As we detailed before, Trump University was a massive scam.

This video features three people – none of whom have ever bought or sold real estate for a living. One of them appears to be a professional testimonial-giver for seminars, one appears to give these kinds of seminars for himself, and one of them has an ongoing business and personal relationship with the Trump family, who have allowed him to sell his protein water on a number of their properties.

These are the three people they found, out of the 40,000 people who (allegedly) came through Trump University who could talk about their great experiences.

Notably, not one of these people is currently in the business of buying or selling real estate, or can offer any proof that Trump University made them successful in this endeavor, which is what it was designed to do.

Contrast this with the thousands involved in class-action lawsuits against the now-defunct university.

Michelle Gunn

The first woman featured in the video, one Michelle Gunn, appears to be a professional testimonial giver for these self-help workshop scams:

Not mentioned by the campaign is that the celebrity billionaire previously endorsed a self-help book authored by Gunn’s teenage son, titled “Schooled for Success: How I Plan to Graduate from High School a Millionaire.” A website promoting the book also features a photo of a smiling Houston Gunn posing with Trump in what appears to be the then reality TV star’s Trump Tower office.

Casey Hoban

Casey Hoban, a Connecticut bottled-water entrepreneur who said he earned “incalculable” profits on real estate deals after attending one of Trump’s two-day courses about a decade ago.

Not disclosed by the campaign is that Hoban is also a Trump family acquaintance whose protein-infused water is stocked at some of Trump’s golf courses, restaurants and resorts.

Hoban told The Associated Press that his business relationship with the Trump organization bloomed after he attended a charity event held last year held by a Trump family foundation. Trump’s son Eric Trump later tweeted Hoban a personal thank you for his $25,000 donation.

That largesse led to an invitation for Hoban and his family to visit Trump Tower last year for a personal tour of campaign headquarters, where they posed smiling for a photo holding Trump for President placards.

Hoban told the AP that he had only met the Trumps a couple of times and that his budding business relationship with the Trump empire had nothing to do with his offer to the campaign to issue a public endorsement of Trump U.

“Absolutely not, from the bottom of my heart,” Hoban said. “I offered to support Trump University because I did some amazing investments after going to that class. I thought it was a way to tell the world that after going to that class at Trump University I prospered.”

Kent Moyer

Kent Moyer is not in real estate at all, as his rather detailed website attests. Rather, he seems himself to be involved primarily in selling the kind of “coaching” and “seminars” that are pretty similar on their face to Trump University. Kent Moyer, per his bio, appears to have gone to Wharton.

However upon questioning by AP, Moyer clarified that he had attended two-week executive seminars offered by Wharton and had never been academically enrolled as a student at the university. He does not have a bachelor’s degree.

Even if people find real value in the consulting services that Mr. Moyer provides, he by his own admission has never actually made money selling real estate, which is what Trump University is supposed to teach you how to do.

He is a former Playboy Mansion bodyguard who founded a Beverly Hills, California-based company that specializes in providing security to the wealthy and famous.

Moyer told the AP that he does not recall ever personally meeting Trump, but said he has long admired the flashy businessman. He said he reached out to Trump’s lawyers after reading about class-action lawsuits alleging the program was a scam posing as a real academic institution.

“I had nothing but a great experience with Trump University,” Moyer said. “Everyone knew it wasn’t a real university. … What the video doesn’t talk about is that because of Trump University I ultimately enrolled in 2007 in the Wharton Business School.”

Moyer has often described himself in media appearances and in written materials as an alumnus of the prestigious business school at the University of Pennsylvania, of which Trump and some of his children are graduates.

(Editor’s Note: It’s a short day today so this ‘reality’ section was pieced together from the cited articles and is not our own.)

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