The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump abandoned Puerto RIco after the hurricane and blamed Democrats. He denied that 3,000 people had died.

Trump repeatedly lashed out at Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan, referring to her as “crazed and incompetent.”

Three years later and about 45 days before the 2020 election, Trump issued $13 billion in aid to Puerto Rico, one of the largest amounts ever for a disaster incident.

He also said that Puerto Rico better vote for him in 2020, not realizing that its residents aren't permitted to vote in a presidential election because it isn't a state with representation in the U.S. Congress.

Trump made a number of statements that gave the impression that Puerto Rico was a country and unfairly taking away resources from the U.S. and hurting American farmers.


Trump Administration Announces Nearly $13 Billion In Aid For Puerto Rico

excerpt:

"Today's grant announcements represent some of the largest awards in FEMA's history for any single disaster recovery event and demonstrate the Federal Government's continuing commitment to help rebuild the territory and support the citizens of Puerto Rico and their recovery goals," the White House statement said.

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm in September 2017, killing at least 3,000 residents and essentially destroying an electrical system that was already unreliable. Parts of the island remained without power for almost a year.

When asked why he had announced the plans 46 days before an election, and not in the aftermath of the devastating storm three years ago, President Trump blamed Democrats and said, "We've been working on it for a long time.""

 

Trump's has a craft for complaining about a group of people while stepping around the facts about the group that gives his followers a mistaken impression of them.

An journalist at the Washington Post refers to as 'built-in plausible deniability'.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...ingly-deliberate-effort-otherize-puerto-rico/

excerpt:

"Often, though, if you look closely, you’ll see some design. Behind the invective and often-incorrect claims will be a controversial suggestion with built-in plausible deniability. He will be saying something without actually saying it. He’ll send the desired message to his supporters — a dog whistle — but when the media asks him and his aides, they’ll say he wasn’t really saying that. In the process, he’ll foment culture war and controversy.

Such appears to be the case with his tweets about Puerto Rico on Tuesday morning, along with an aide’s explanation of them.

In two Trump tweets about Puerto Rico and a cable news appearance from a top White House spokesman later that morning, both Trump and the spokesman talked about Puerto Rico as if it weren’t part of the United States. And they did so in a way that couldn’t help but make you think this might be deliberate.

In his tweets, Trump said the hurricane-ravaged island’s politicians “only take from USA” and said Puerto Rico will “continue to hurt our Farmers and States with these massive payments.”

Of course, as Philip Bump notes, Puerto Rico is indeed part of the United States. Like any state, it both contributes to and accepts help from the federal government. That may be in a way that people like Trump view as unbalanced, but it’s difficult to picture Trump talking about a state as “only tak[ing] from the USA.”"

 

A year and a half later and 45 days before the 2020 election when polls showed him on course to lose the election, Trump issued $18 billion to Puerto Rico and blamed Democrats for supposedly not allowing him to send the money earlier.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...ingly-deliberate-effort-otherize-puerto-rico/

excerpt:

"Of course, as Philip Bump notes, Puerto Rico is indeed part of the United States. Like any state, it both contributes to and accepts help from the federal government. That may be in a way that people like Trump view as unbalanced, but it’s difficult to picture Trump talking about a state as “only tak[ing] from the USA.”

Puerto Rico also employs farmers, who are “our farmers,” but they don’t seem to factor in to Trump’s concept of “our Farmers.” Trump’s claim that Puerto Rico is taking resources from “our … States” is also a curious formulation.

The combination of those three things at the very least seems to betray Trump’s attitude that Puerto Rico is a lesser part of the United States.

Later, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley appeared on MSNBC. In an interview with Hallie Jackson, Gidley twice referred to Puerto Rico as a “country,” which it is not. It’s important to note that this came after he correctly labeled it a “territory” twice. Gidley was also asked about the “country” comments at the end of the interview, at which point he apologized and said it was a mistake. He said it was a “slip of the tongue.”"

 

........

 

He’s truly “Number 1” - LMAO!

 

Clarence Thomas’s wife sent that? Wtf??!….

 

RNC Is Said to Agree to Pay Up to $1.6 Million of Trump's Personal Legal Bills
Shane Goldmacher, Jonah E. Bromwich and Michael Levenson
Fri, December 17, 2021, 2:52 PM·

excerpt:

"The Republican National Committee has agreed to cover up to $1.6 million of Donald Trump’s personal legal bills, according to a person familiar with the matter, in an unusual arrangement under which the party is paying to defend the former president from ongoing investigations that focus on his private business practices.

The first payments, for $121,670, were made in October to the firm of Trump’s lawyer Ronald P. Fischetti, and were publicly reported last month to the Federal Election Commission.

The decision by the Republican Party to cover up to $1.6 million in legal fees was first reported Thursday by The Washington Post and was confirmed by the person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations.

Emma Vaughn, an RNC spokesperson, said in a statement that the party’s executive committee had approved “paying for certain legal expenses” related to Trump.

“As a leader of our party, defending President Trump and his record of achievement is critical to the GOP,” she said. “It is entirely appropriate for the RNC to continue assisting in fighting back against the Democrats’ never-ending witch hunt and attacks on him.”"

 

Yeah, she's an activist on the extreme-right, with emphasis on the word extreme.

 

Could have been worse. Could have been Clarence Thomas himself.

 

Makes sense because he's supposedly a billionaire and his political pact has accumulated over $100 million dollars that he can spend on his legal bills or anything else.

But then again they know he doesn't like spending his own money, so why should a billionaire spend his own money when the GOP can pick up the tab.

 

Trump doesn't seem to have said anything again about Puerto Rico supposedly unfairly taking money from the U.S. and hurting the farmers while announcing that he was giving Puerto Rico $18 billion like he did about years earlier when whining about them and not thinking about the 2020 election.

Trump wanted the votes of the significant segment of Puerto Ricans living in Florida.

About 1.2 million Puerto Ricans live in Florida, about 5% of the state population.


Puerto Rican Population in the States - Puerto Rico Report

excerpt:

"Florida overtook New York as the State with the largest Puerto Rican population after Hurricane Maria devastated the Island in 2017. With 1,190,891 Puerto Rico residents, Florida has seen some real changes in its population. For example, Puerto Ricans now make up 21% of the Hispanic population of Florida, preparing to outnumber the Cuban population, which has historically been the largest group within Florida’s Hispanic population."

 

A Florida man was sentenced to more than five years behind bars Friday for storming the US Capitol on Jan. 6 — the harshest penalty dished out yet over the insurrection.

Robert Palmer, 54, was handed a 63-month sentence after he pleaded guilty in October to attacking police officers during the riot.

“Your honor. I’m really really ashamed of what I did,” he told US District Judge Tanya Chutkan through sobs on Friday.

Federal prosecutors said Palmer, of Largo Florida, was on the “front lines” of the mob attempting to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
Palmer threw a wooden plank at cops before spraying a fire extinguisher that he then also hurled.

He was halted briefly when he was pepper-sprayed by law-enforcement — but then attacked again with a pole,

 

Jewish groups chastise Trump for remarks he made while being upset that Netanyahu congratulated Biden on his 2020 election win plus comments he made recently to Axios..


https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.pr...-saying-u-s-jews-don-t-like-israel-1.10476100

 

Palmer isn't the rioter who struck three police officers with a fire extinguisher.

Robert Sanford from PA struck three police officers with a fire extinguisher in one throw. It struck the helmet of the first officer, deflected, and hit two more police officers in the head who weren't wearing helmets.

Sanford was placed under house arrest after spending time in jail awaiting trial.

 

Robert Scott Palmer, admitted to assaulting's officers with a wooden plank and spraying "the contents of a fire extinguisher at the officers until it was empty" before throwing the extinguisher in their direction"

It was part of the written 'Statement of Offense' that he signed.

 

Well, I think that Clarence Thomas shares the same feelings as his wife. It’s a good possibility.

 

Oh he does, as a matter of fact he's much worse

 

Article about mass radicalization that was published about three weeks before Trump's insurrection at the Capitol.

Some in the GOP would have dismissed the article as nothing more than 'Trump derangement syndrome'.


Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn
Hannah Allam
December 15, 202012:17 PM ET

Right-Wing Embrace Of Conspiracy Is 'Mass Radicalization,' Experts Warn