From Contributor Conrad Tucker.
Mineral Pyrite, aka Fool’s Gold, is a chemical found in Iron and known for its brilliant luster. It was frequently mistaken for gold by miners during the California Gold Rush ((1848 – 1855). Fast forward to 2016, when a bombastic and charismatic New York real estate developer declared his candidacy for President of the United States to replace the then 44th President, Barack Obama. By now, you must know that the candidate was no other than Donald Trump. By then end of this piece, you will understand why I prefaced this article about Mineral Pyrite and correlates it to one of the biggest conmen in American history.
Racism
The day Trump announced that he was running for office, nobody took him seriously or gave him a remote chance of becoming the 45th President of the greatest country on earth. To begin his campaign, he attacked Mexicans and branded them as criminals and rapists, and accused Mexico of not sending their best, but rather the worst among them. Trump continued his racist tirades against America’s southern neighbor and promised to build a wall that Mexico would pay for to keep its nationals from getting into the country illegally. He then called for a ban on all Muslims from entering the USA.
The Justice Department charged Trump in the 1980s for not renting his property to black people, a case he subsequently settled. He also took out a full-page ad in a local New York newspaper accusing the innocent five black men of the rape and murder of a female in Central Park, the media dubbed the case the Central Park Five. Since becoming President, Trump made many racists remarks, especially against minority women, some of whom are in congress. Yesterday, he called Sen. Kamala Harris, the Vice Presidential Candidate on the Democratic ticket, a monster. During last week’s debate against Joe Biden, he refused to condemn white supremacy and told The Proud Boys — one of his rightwing groups, prone to violence to “stand by and stand back.” In 2017, he called white supremacists “very fine people,” after one of them use a car to mow down and killed a young woman who was protesting against them in Virginia. Yet, he took the oath of office to protect the people of America, but only to fan the flames of racism and division with his racist rhetoric.
Who remembers the birther scandal he perpetrated to diminish and disrespect the legitimate President of the United States because he is black.
Wealth
Trump promoted himself as a self-made billionaire and parlayed that into a successful TV reality show, which ran for many years. Many people admired him as the flashy and wealthy real estate developer with an affinity for blonde hair Eastern European women. However, many did not pay attention to the many bankruptcies filed by his companies. Most notable among his bankruptcy filings are a casino, airlines, and the disgraced Trump University. Who bankrupts a casino; isn’t a casino supposed to be a cash cow?
The New York Times (NYT) recently ran a piece exposing Trump’s dirty secret regarding tax evasion and tax avoidance. Many Americans were furious to found out that Trump only paid $750.00 in Federal Income Tax for 2016 and 2017. Meanwhile, people who make less than six-figure in earnings paid more than ten times the amount the President paid. The Times story also found out that the conman is in a mountain of debt, up to the tune of 421 million dollars. The lender of this enormous sum of money is unanimous, which has become a cause for concern to Americans that the President is compromised. It is an open secret that Trump is not a billionaire as he portrayed himself to be. The story in the NYT stated that he has borrowed against his real estate assets and rumored that he owed another one hundred million dollars on Trump Tower, which could foreclose as early next year. And the paper also reported that all of his businesses, especially his golf courses, are losing money.
By all accounts, Trump, the opportunist, ran for the presidency, not because he wants to help the American people but to raise his profile, which will enable him to make money to pay off the mountain of debt he is owning. Trump doesn’t care about the American people; he only cares about himself, and more importantly, his image. In essence, he sees it as another way to build wealth that he will inevitably lose, based on his history. To simply put, Trump is as broke as a church mouse. That is the main reason why he is hell-bent on not releasing his tax returns.
Empty Promises
What is astounding is the fact that so many people believe this inept, incompetent buffoon, who is nothing but an abject failure. He riled up his Obama haters with inflammatory rhetoric and then fed it like raw meat them, and they devoured every ounce of it. Remember how he promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, aka Obama Care, with 26 days left in his presidency, he has not delivered on his empty promise. I earlier alluded to the “wall,” the big, powerful wall that he was going to build, and Mexico would pay for it. Where is it? Another empty promise fed to his acolytes.
Handling of Covid-19
Trump continues to lie to the American people about his handling of the deadly virus. His failure to act when told about it has cost tens of thousands of Americans their lives, with millions more infected and the unemployment rate hovering around 14% earlier this year. Remember, during the height of the first wave of the virus, how he promoted Hydroxychloroquine as a therapeutic to treat the virus? He did this against the advice of the doctors that comprised his task force and other prominent epidemiologists. And, as you know, he is infected with the virus, and none of the medicines he got was Hydroxychloroquine. What does that tell you about this man? That he is truthful to Americans? That he cares about them? That he has their best interest at heart? The answers are no. Trump cares only about Trump, and the fools who support him are oblivious to his dishonesty and deceit. I pity them.
He is Fake
But those are the characteristic of an egomaniac conman, who has a vast following of like-minded racists, who believe and preach the same doctrine as the President. Trump likes to label the media as fake, but he is perhaps the biggest fake that country has seen. Sensible Americans know who this con artist is, and the polls are showing that he will be washed away by a tsunami of Democratic voters.
Now, the empire has no clothes, and like Mineral Pyrite, he too is no gold.