Donald Trump
ABC’s Good Morning America reports that Donald Trump is getting serious about a possible run for President. Is he a birther? In an exclusive interview with GMA, Trump said:
Everybody that even gives any hint of being a birther…even a little bit of a hint like, “Gee, you know, maybe, just maybe, this much of a ‘just'” they label them as an idiot. Let me tell you, I’m a really smart guy. I was a really good student at the best school in the country. The reason I have a little doubt, just a little, is because he grew up and nobody knew ’em. When you interview people, if I got the nomination [for President], if I ever decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten; they’ll remember me. Nobody ever comes forward, nobody knows who he is until later in his life–very strange. The whole thing is very strange.
Transcript by Dr. Conspiracy from video.
If Trump were such a smart guy, why would he say such stupid stuff. Here’s an interview with Barack Obama’s kindergarten teachers:
Barry Obama and the rest of his class were an impressive bunch of children who made us want to teach. They’re a lot of the reason we decided to continue and be teachers.
People remember attention whores.
Why is that such a hard concept?
Just idle speculation, but if Mr. Trump was the Republican nominee (or an independent candidate) and said something like that, it would seem to be easily refuted by getting together a bunch of people to reminisce about knowing the President way back when… If Mr. Trump wants to be seriously considered, he would do well, in my opinion, to avoid such rookie mistakes…
That explosion you just heard was any chance for Trump to be a serious contender for the presidency blowing up.
I wouldn’t worry about the Republicans nominating Trump. He is disqualified by being from New York City, which is not part of the US as far as most Republican primary voters are concerned.
By the way, his mother was from Scotland and I have no idea if she was naturalized when he was born. Even if she was, unless she formally renounced her UK citizenship (very unlikely) then Donald could be eligible for UK citizenship.
Well, he got Orly Taitz’s endorsement. I remember reading her blog and her analysis of the various potential Republican contenders.
Trump wont be the nominee. Trump may have “tons of people” who remember him but he also has tons of people he’s screwed and would air his laundry. I’m sure Ivana would have a lot to say
He was also born in NYC with their troubling computer generated birth certifications.
Funny that he should say nobody knew him. What….to Trump’s satisfaction? The school in Indonesia remembers him when he was six. There’s even a woman that remembers when he was born in the form of a funny anecdote. Trump I guess wants to meet these people who grew up with him and interview them separately.
I don’t think that Trump is saying that these people don’t count; I think he just doesn’t know of them.
Well, he’s right….we can label him an idiot now.
politico.com published a poll today showing that Charlie Sheen beats Sarah Palin among independent voters!
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51484.html
That’s ridiculous. Sheen only beats hookers.
On second thought….
LMAO
Kind of an interesting accusation. “Nobody knows you.”
If nobody knows you, the what does that imply? Suddenly you have to justify that you exist? What does Donald think, Obama has been living a lie? If he was living a lie, what’s the lie? Is it up to Obama to prove people knew him? Or is it a case of Donald and his ilk walking around with blinders on claiming “I don’t know….I don’t know.”
Who knows Donald way back when? I’ve never heard of any of them being interviewed. Since I’ve never heard his kindergarden teacher talk about what he was like back then, I can only assume he’s been living a lie all these years under an assumed name.
I challenged this guy who repeated that “400 former Columbia students don’t remember Obama” crap and here was his response:
http://johntreed.com/headline/2010/11/10/obama-is-probably-an-atheist/comment-page-1/#comment-9486
According to this guy, I’m an airhead.
” I’m a really smart guy. I was a really good student at the best school in the country. The reason I have a little doubt, just a little, is because he grew up and nobody knew em”
So smart that he said this without taking 30 seconds to look up interviews with his classmates, missed Governor Abercrombie talking about knowing him.
What a joke.
Seriously- it is like the Republicans are compiling the worst team of potential candidates they can:
Newt
Palin
Trump
Huckabee
Maybe this is their secret plan to overcome evangelicals resistance to voting for a Mormon?
Well, Donny, let me tell you. As a child, you were probably just as much of an obnoxious ass**** as you are now. That sticks in people’s memories. President Obama was a more subtle, thoughtful person, less likely to be a pimple on somebody’s memory of 4th grade than you.
So its between the serial adulterers and the crazy religionists
The point that I’ve heard is not so much a birther thing but rather the idea that if somebody kept a low profile during their school years, they might not be Presidential material.
I disagree. A lot can change between 22 and 40 or so.
I take that as an indication of your credibility (after looking at some of the stuff Mr. Reed said in the thread…).
“I challenged this guy who repeated that “400 former Columbia students don’t remember Obama” crap and here was his response:”
Yeah I regularly encounter one guy who insists that since only 3 people remember Obama from Columbia that he never went there. He absolutely insists that it is a statistical impossibility that more out of a student body of 28,000 don’t come forward.
I also went to a school of about 28,000- and the odds that I would know any Presidential candidate who went there is infintisimal. The odds that I would put myself in the media circus if I did is even smaller. The odds that I would risk Orly’s insanity by being identified is nil.
Try arguing with someone who tried to claim affirmative action got him into Harvard because he didn’t graduate Magna Cum Laude from Columbia. This was after I referred them to Columbia’s regulations on With Latin Honors needing to have at least 6 straight semesters with a GPA of around 3.7. Obama wouldn’t have qualified because he only attended 2 years as a transfer student.
Trump implies Obama needs an alibi.
“In an interview with ABC, Trump said he finds it strange “nobody knew” Obama as a young child in Hawaii.”
However, Katherine Nakamoto, Obama’s kindergarten teacher described him as, “a cute, likable, heavy build-child. I could visualize Barry smiling, dressed in his long-sleeved, white shirt tucked into his brown Bermuda shorts, and wearing laced shoes.”
And in college….
Anne Howells, a retired English professor, said she wrote Obama a recommendation for his Columbia transfer … “He was the kind of student that comes along and you say, Oh, I wish I had written that or thought of that,’”
Lisa Jack, psychologist: For the record, there wasn’t a nicer, more sincere guy in college. … “He was very charismatic even then.” … “It’s exciting to see someone I went to college with become President of the United States of America, especially someone who was so genuinely nice and sincere.”
Ken Sulzer, lawyer: Obama “did not impose his personality but certainly was well-respected among his peers and always had that great voice, even when he was 17, 18.” … In Boesche’s European politics class, Sulzer said he was impressed at how few notes Obama took. “Where I had five pages, Barry had probably a paragraph of the pithiest, tightest prose you’d ever see.” … “He wanted to help people who were less well off than he. There was no question about that.”
I guess Trump didn’t do much research before opening his big mough….or Trump has decided to pander to the ignorant crazy birther wing of the voting public….So he has locked up about 1% of the voting population of the US….
It always amazes me when they say “People didn’t know him.” I can name all of four people (besides teachers) that I knew from back when I was in K-3rd grade, only two of which I ever saw again after that. If anyone in those years was a bigshot now, unless it was one of those two I really remember, I’d have no idea I was even in school with them.
I taught electrical engineering classes for years at a major university. I saw hundreds of students and while many I never saw outside the classroom there were some mainstays at office hours and the like that I really knew well at the time. Couldn’t name even one now. Well not true – I can name one, because he was the son of another professor. That’s it. I could say what a handful looked like, usually because I thought they were cute. That’s it. I’d say this is common for most people.
I get the impression birthers think that when someone is born that might run for president in 50 years, a mystic, soothsaying, future-knowing bell starts ringing saying “Remember this person!”, and said bell follows the person everywhere they go.
It’s the only explanation I can think of for birthers that claim that the doctor would OF COURSE remember giving birth to a future president (rather than 1 of 1000 babies they delivered that year) and since no doctor does (ignoring that they might be deceased) he can’t have been born someplace, and that teachers and random neighbors and such should all have picture perfect memories of every interaction with him from birth until yesterday.
Well – what of Ronald Reagan’s BC on display at his Presidential library?
It was signed 31 years after his DOB, and allegedly by the doctor who delivered him. At first I thought that perhaps it wouldn’t be legal for a passport without secondary documentation, but apparently a delayed filing is legal for passport purposes if the attendant signs it. I’m not sure that the doctor would remember such an event, although I guess anything is possible in a small town with a population under 1000. Still – if he were the object of birthers, I’m pretty sure that a delayed filing of 31 years would set off alarm bells.
The recollections of Obama’s high school classmates in Honolulu:
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=3082803&page=1
And weren’t the Nordyke twins in the same elementary school class as Obama?
Trump is a buffoon. A wealth buffoon, but a buffoon nonetheless.
Well of course Trump’s kindergarten pals remember him. You don’t see a five-year-old with a combover every day.
During the primaries , the Clinton campaign made a huge deal over the recollections Obama’s kindergarten teacher claiming that he had written an essay saying he wanted to grow up to be kindergarten — http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7009344920 — (a claim that is itself somewhat dubious, but the point is that there was a teacher interviewed by the press who claimed to remember him from childhood…. and, more important, there was very widespread publicity of that claim)
Even if Trump doesn’t remember that stuff, it’s idiotic to make claims publicly like “no one knew X” … because obviously that is something that invariably will be refuted. Sometimes being smart is knowing when to keep your mouth shut when you don’t have a clue what you are talking about.
Memories of Obama’s childhood friends and teachers from Indonesia with photo & video via CBS News:
http://www.digtriad.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=150232
I thought people here would like Gawker’s take:
http://gawker.com/#!5783000/donald-trump-is-pretending-to-be-a-birther-now
This is what the GOP’s strategy is going to look like.
We haven’t heard from
WillardMitt yet. I am waiting with bated breath.Speaking of Willards:
http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2009/06/famous-willards.html
True story: Eisenhower’s Ag sec was Ezra Benson, a Mormon elder. When asked why the Mormon church refused black members, he replied “darkies are good people and they have their place.” Google it.
It’s a guaranteed loser of a strategy. There are only 2 Republicans that the Obama people are worried about, Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie. Both are far too smart to play the birther card, since Independents don’t want to hear it. If Daniels is really smart, if asked a question, he will flat out say the birthers are nuts and tell everyone he beat them in court (Ankeny v. Daniels).
“I’m a really smart person.”
“I’m not drunk.”
Self-defeating statements. Nothing you can add after these statements can make up for the fact that you had to say it in the first place.
“I’m not drunk! I can still recite the quadratic equation!”
A big deal at that age, indicating advanced motor skills and cognitive ability!
I’ve put a challenge out there before, in reference to the whole “missing records” premise, to identify one person who matriculated with Obama (at any institution) and produce the corresponding records for that person. I would even accept the person in question producing his or her own records, whatever they claim is being suppressed for Obama but should be available.
In the same context, unless you can identify the individual who *should* remember Obama, it is meaningless to point out that they *don’t*.
Beef square eekel 4 screwt. Toldya I doot.
Well, I think you give too much inside-the-beltway watercooler chatter credit in that post.
I seriously doubt that either of those two candidates are much of a concern either. I guess one could fairly view as more sane than the competition, but that’s a backhanded compliment at best and not quite enough to rise to the level of a serious threat.
Both have serious “image” flaws that, although I don’t personally feel they should be a basis for voting, most certainly are a factor amongst many in the general populace.
Mitt has always been portrayed as a “front runner” not just because of his placement in the 2008 primaries, but because to many he simply “looks” like what they imagine a president should.
Mitch Daniels on the other hand – short, ugly, bad smile and hairline and a less dynamic speaker than Tim Pawlenty, if that’s even possible. He may be a governor, but he’s got very, very little name recognition amongst the public. When people see him on TV, it barely registers or sticks…except that some people think for a minute that they saw Vladamir Putin. Not necessarily a positive look-alike association to help catapult one to POTUS. They only seem to realize that he’s not Putin because Mitch comes across so meek. Again…not a plus.
Chris Christie – well, really his biggest plus is also his biggest minus – he’s a hard-edged abrasive loudmouth. There is a certain appeal to that, but also a segment of the population that is rubbed the wrong way by it…even when he has valid points. What might play well in NY or NJ for how someone talks and acts in a position of power doesn’t quite seem to have that same effect in a lot of the “heartland”. Heck, even here in Ohio it comes across as too rude and obnoxious for our tastes.
Take a walk back in history, to the early days after 9/11, when Giulianni was viewed in his most positive national light. He had a lot of strong admiration around these parts and his name would often come up in discussions of who should run for president…but even amongst quite a few of those supporters, when the conversations went further, there was quite a difference from thinking he could/should run and that he could/should win. It generally came down to the view that his style “might play well or work on the coasts and in NYC”, but it wasn’t a good fit for the nation as a whole, and definitely too abrasive for our “midwestern” tastes and not a very “presidential” way to act.
“Mitt – The Young and the Restless called. They need you on the set.”
But what about Jan Brewer?
Discussion of Jan Brewer needs to take place under the Zombie thread… 😉
Funny, many people didn’t think Obama could win states outside the Northeast and the West Coast. I suspect neither Daniels nor Christie will run in the end, preferring to wait until 2016. I’m still not conviinced the evangelical Republican base will accept Romney, because of his religion, having lived in Massachusetts and having backed a health care plan (no matter how hard he tries to run away from it). If I had to bet, I’d say Huckabee for the Rep nomination, with Pawlenty a possible contender. Assuming the economy stays on the current overall positive course Obama is the clear favorite.
Huckabee definitely has a strong appeal within major factors of the GOP base, so he’d definitely be a perceived front-runner for several reasons. He does have some past issues that haunt him, even amongst that base however. The biggest issue is does he really have the desire to give up his comfy FOX salary and position to go through another arduous and very costly campaign….
I see Pawlenty as very eager and desperate to win, but a very weak and boring flim-flam candidate overall. His path to victory would be due to other candidates self-destructing or splitting the base vote so much that he limps through to victory. I have no doubt that he’ll eventually “officially” enter the race. As will Mitt. I’d be shocked if either of those two pass on “eventually” declaring their candidacy.
I actually think both Newt and Barbour will also eventually throw their hats “officially” in as well. Daniels…I see him chickening out. Not convinced Huntsman is really serious about 2012, but more about setting himself up for 2016 consideration. Bolton & Santorum – neither of them stand a chance…I’d be surprised if either of them actually officially jump in…but then again, with all the crazy people and delusional egos involved in the GOP field, anything is possible. I too view Trump’s actions as nothing but a ratings and attention grabbing stunt. If he actually declares and tries to run in June…I’ll be shocked.
Will the delusional ego’s & tea-party fans of Palin & Bachmann lead to their entry? That I think will remain the biggest mystery until it happens. Those are two that could always hold off and then “go rogue” and then be convinced to pop back in play later as a “3rd party” Tea Party type candidate.
Then again we’re in a weird situation where it is already the latter half of March 2011 and the only officially declared “real” GOP candidate is Herman Cain (kook entries like Andy Martin and one state entry candidates don’t really count). Cain is about as likely as Mike Gravel was in 2008, so I don’t see him having a serious path to the GOP nomination at this stage.
The whole field being discussed on the GOP side at this stage is full of kooks and damaged goods or folks that don’t fit the mold of what the 2012 GOP “base” is likely to demand. It is extremely hard to take any of their chances seriously as a contender at this point. I also don’t see how the actions that will be needed to “win over” the base, at this extreme stage in our politics, won’t end up hurting their chances further in the general election.
Such trepidation at officially entering the GOP race from all the major egos of their major contentders at this stage of things seems fairly telling. They don’t want to admit it publically, but all of them are afraid of what it will cost and take to not only win the GOP primary battle, but more importantly to take on Obama.
If Huck runs, the Dems will pay him back with interest for Willie Horton. Huck runs, everyone in the world will know about Maurice Clemmons.
Jews are terrified about this gem: “I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards”
http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2010/11/few-words-from-mike-huckabee.html
I say it’s going to be Romney/Jindal, and Obama will be re-elected. I also say Booker will be elected in ’16.
Donald, you’re fired.
Trump said he was going to bankroll his own campaign.
After seeing Meg Whitman piss away hundreds of millions of dollars, it might be enough to scare the remaining candidates from even entering until 2016.
Trump isn’t talking issues. or plans, he’s discussing Obama’s birthplace.
That’s what the topic is right now because the GOP knows how difficult it is to oppose Obama on any other grounds.
They can’t argue with him, so they distract.
I’ve yet to see any candidate with real plans or a dynamic “presidential” style capture the hearts and minds of all rightwingers.
Most of the present GOP candidates are hugely divisive.
There are conservatives that won’t touch Trump because he’s basically God-less and has had several divorces and bankruptcies.
Palin offends many, as does Bachmann.
None can get the full vote.
With all these extreme personalities, a single candidate will never capture the lionshare of GOP money and votes needed.
Most are scared to even try debating Obama.
Trump is stupid enough to try tho.
So I foresee few candidates wanting to go up against such odds and Obama winning virtually unchallenged.
It’s just cheaper and less of a challenge to wait 4 more years.
Comedy of the century? Obama vs Palin
Tragedy of the century? Palin winning
Likelihood? Obama gets another 4 years.
Same for Nixon. As a baby, he had a 5 o’clock shadow.
as for the Columbia myth:
http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/jan_feb09/alumni_corner
The University remembers as does is room mate.
Nothing penetrates a birther myth, they are made of super hard weapons-grade-stupid.
That, plus he ran quiet possibly the worst presidential campaign that anyone had seen in decades, given how much hype the media gave him before the primaries.
From Alex Pareene’s put-down of Trump’s birtherism & pseudo-candidacy in Salon:
Funny story! In 1990, Spy Magazine actually took a trip to Trump’s boyhood home in Queens. And while Trump wrote of being “something of a leader” in his old neighborhood, the owner of the local candy store said: “I’ve been running this store for 28 years, and I don’t remember him.” Strange, very strange.
Trump went on to say that you should take him seriously as a candidate because he’s very rich and would be able to give himself $600 million if for some reason his fake campaign needed $600 million.
That actually gets at the heart of why Trump would never run for anything: He’s spent his entire career in the public eye scrupulously hiding how much money he actually has, in real life. He’s sued people for saying his net worth is less than he says it is. But lots of people have their doubts about whether or not he’d actually be able to give himself $600 million at the drop of a hat. And if he ran for real, as Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman say, “at some point he’d actually be required to disclose his assets.”
Which is obviously not going to happen, because it would ruin the whole joke.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/03/17/trump_fool/
Yeah, that whole ignore all the earlier primaries and hunker down in FL and pin all his hopes on that and the ability to attach “9/11” to nearly every sentence he uttered…
…It will probably go down in history as one of the WORST strategies by a former front-runner presidential candidate EVER.
Completely meets the definition of EPIC FAIL.
…but then again, PUMAs, Birthers and their ilk seem to live for EPIC FAIL. So maybe they and similarly delusional RWNJ view his candidacy as their “model”…LOL!
Rudy Giuliani disagrees with Trump.
“He’s born in the United States, I don’t see any real question about that,” Giuliani said. “And even if some people have some doubts in the back of their minds it’s really too late and futile. … We have so many more important things to talk about.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51575.html
I see NUTJOB and other crazy birthers are already in a frenzy over there about the article and spewing the same tired old nonsense as usual.
Trump reiterated his birther sentiments in a video from The View program hosted by Barbara Walters. Skip to 5:27 in the video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVPuJpJYjfQ
“Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” “I want him to show hid birth certificate.” [applause from the audience]
Trump believes that there is one, so he says, but that there must be something Obama doesn’t want to show.
But according to the birthers, 400 people from Columbia don’t remember him, so until we can find 401 who did, he didn’t attend Columbia.
The Donald doubles down:
He continued: “Now, this guy either has a birth certificate or he doesn’t. And I didn’t think this was such a big deal, but I will tell you, it’s turning out to be a very big deal because people now are calling me from all over saying, please don’t give up on this issue. If you weren’t born in this country, you can not be president.”
When asked if he thought Obama was born in this country, Trump replied: “I am really concerned.” He also suggested that since the birth announcement was placed in the paper “days after [Obama] was born],” he “could have come into the country and [placed the ad] for social reasons.”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/donald-trump-i-am-really-concerned-obama-was-not-born-in-this-country.php?ref=fpb
I love it when numbskulls like The Donald say these silly things. We should give him all the rope he wants and needs to hang himself.
The Donald has already provided the president with the ability to kill The Donald’s presidential campaign at will (not that I think he is really serious about running… just about the publicity of an attempted run for the presidency) – at this point Trump is just bait to lure more whackjobs onto the birther bandwagon (making their comeuppance all the more effective politically).
Ohhhh lookie, the Trumper has handed his BC to “NewsMax”..
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/donaldtrump-birthcertificate-newsmax/2011/03/28/id/390930
Problem is….
a. It doesn’t have all the lovely Borfoon requirements on its, so is obviously a fraud
b. It looks suspciously to me like the HOSPITALS’ souvenir BC, not a real one that you can get…I don’t know…. a passport with…….
I am SHOCKED. Shocked That is has no mother name, no witnesses or a doctors signature. Its an obvious forgery. I fully expect birthers to come in demanding to know doesn’t he release his real long form birth certificate and asking what has he to hide.
Any time.
It does look like the Souviner Birth Certificate (It doesn’t look like it’s issued by any governmental entity).
It also doesn’t have the location of birth.
It doesn’t have Time of Birth.
It doesn’t have mother’s maiden name.
This all is on Obama’s birth certificate…
Funny thing: Obama likely could get a passport with his birth certificate. Trump could not.
This is further proof that Donald wasn’t born, he was hatched from a tribble
> “If you weren’t born in this country, you can not be president.”
Actually, at least half the birthers don’t like Trump either because he doesn’t go full tilt de Vattel.
Trump endorsed McCain in 2008
http://www.youdecidepolitics.com/2008/09/18/donald-trump-makes-an-unexpected-endorsement/
I can just imagine Robert Downey Junior from his role in Tropic Thunder telling us “You never go full Vattel”