# Trump's Republican primary campaign **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 3, 2015, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828 "2015-09-03T18:00:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 61
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1203 "2015-12-19T18:21:36Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > He’s taking the wrong message from the poem you quoted, even so: The point of the poem isn’t that we should self-apply every label, it’s that we shouldn’t need people to be wearing any label at all in order to empathize with them. If both approaches reach the desired goal of greater empathy, I wouldn’t say he’s taking the WRONG message from it, exactly. He gets a B- instead of an A on the question. ---
**Author:** ![Reyemile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@Reyemile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reyemile)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1204 "2015-12-19T18:29:57Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > [How To Beat Donald Trump At Making Money](http://www.forbes.com/sites/financialfinesse/2015/08/06/how-to-beat-donald-trump-at-making-money/) Thanks for digging this up for me! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1205 "2015-12-19T19:21:45Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Nothing strange about that except that Putin is even more ruthless than I had thought. If, hypothetically, the US were to elect as its president a completely incompetent blowhard, who benefits? If the US were to elect as its president a comical orange-maned marmoset who it made it the laughingstock of the world, who benefits? > > I can just imagine the scene in the Kremlin. “I told them Trump was obviously brilliant and talented,” says Putin, almost falling out of his chair with laughter. > > “But then you said, only the wise American voters can make the final decision about this most excellent man,” one of his aides reminds him, at which point Putin actually does fall out of his chair, rolling on the floor with laughter and kicking his little legs. Love this - made my day! ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1206 "2015-12-19T22:05:23Z")
> [@Reyemile](#): > > Thanks for digging this up for me! You wouldn’t be thanking her if you knew how specious all that was. For one thing, the $500 million Trump had 1982 was the result of his growing a one million dollar loan from his father into that amount in only a little over a decade. For another, it utterly discounts the fact that he not only went broke in the early nineties but found himself in debt to the tune of almost a billion dollars and fought his way back from that - essentially earning two multi-billion fortunes over his lifetime. And for another, it utterly ignores consumption. That hypothetical $500 million stashed away in a money fund would have had to stay there the whole time in order to achieve the growth necessary to equal Trump’s net worth now, yet Trump has been spending lavishly on his homes with their necessary upkeep, maintenance and staffing, plus the amounts he’s spent on travel, lifestyle, divorce and childrens’ educations. He has spent many hundreds of millions over the last few decades just living, and again that money isn’t accounted for either. So yeah, Trump is good at making money. He’s also good at dealing and negotiating with the countless number of highly educated bankers and hedge fund managers, architects, engineers and so forth who finance and plan his projects, as well as the contractors, suppliers and staffers who build, stock and run them. There are few if any on this board who would be capable even of riding herd over his business interests on a day-to-day basis, much less growing them like he does. You might not like his politics, but there’s no real world basis for denying his intelligence, accomplishments and abilities. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1207 "2015-12-20T00:27:57Z")
I’m sure many of us are embarrassed and ashamed that we didn’t take into account the dreadful burden of a grossly lavish life. So, he’s trickling down, then? What a guy! ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1208 "2015-12-20T00:45:34Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > I’m sure many of us are embarrassed and ashamed that we didn’t take into account the dreadful burden of a grossly lavish life. So, he’s trickling down, then? What a guy! I’ve got to admit that the idea of my living a grossly lavish life that left me in debt to the tune of almost a billion dollars is interesting. I’ll give it a shot. You want to be my sidekick? ---
**Author:** ![Reyemile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@Reyemile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reyemile)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1209 "2015-12-20T01:22:51Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > For one thing, the $500 million Trump had 1982 was the result of his growing a one million dollar loan from his father into that amount in only a little over a decade. cite? Also, I like how you presented Trump going bankrupt with a billion in debt as proof in **favor of his** business sense. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1210 "2015-12-20T01:49:00Z")
Lots of fatcats have figured out ways to scam the BK system. You scrape off the debts and keep the assets. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1211 "2015-12-20T02:50:23Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I’ve got to admit that the idea of my living a grossly lavish life that left me in debt to the tune of almost a billion dollars is interesting. I’ll give it a shot. You want to be my sidekick? He didn’t go almost a billion dollars in debt because of lavish spending. Rather, he was thrown into debt because of a downturn in the real estate and casino business and because of admittedly (by him) poor business decisions. His personal spending, lavish though it may be to most of us, was not out of line for his income prior to his businesses going south. > [@Reyemille](#): > > Also, I like how you presented Trump going bankrupt with a billion in debt as proof in favor of his business sense. 1. Trump has never gone bankrupt. 2. There is a difference between declaring personal bankruptcy vs. taking a business entity or corporation bankrupt. What Trump did was take a few of his many business enterprises bankrupt, an arrangement which allowed him to stop throwing good money after bad into failing businesses while continuing to operate his more healthy business at the same time. This allowed him the benefit of being able to continue to provide a livelihood for the thousands of employees in his other businesses, earn the money necessary to pay off the many many millions in debt that remained after the bankruptcies, and to begin rebuilding his second multi-billion empire…proving therefore that the first multi-billion empire was not due primarily to having received a (relatively small) loan from his father to launch his business with. And of course it allowed him to rebuild that second multi-billion empire itself - an extraordinary accomplishment when achieved just once, let alone twice. So yeah, I think all of this speaks very well to Trump’s good business sense. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1212 "2015-12-20T03:39:31Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > You wouldn’t be thanking her if you knew how specious all that was. > > For one thing, the $500 million Trump had 1982 was the result of his growing a one million dollar loan from his father into that amount in only a little over a decade. > > For another, it utterly discounts the fact that he not only went broke in the early nineties but found himself in debt to the tune of almost a billion dollars and fought his way back from that - essentially earning two multi-billion fortunes over his lifetime. > > And for another, it utterly ignores consumption. I was thinking about consumption too. And I agree that we have to start with “Go”, whenever he first got handed money from his dad. Not at some arbitrary later date. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2015, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1213 "2015-12-20T03:59:56Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > If both approaches reach the desired goal of greater empathy, I wouldn’t say he’s taking the WRONG message from it, exactly. He gets a B- instead of an A on the question. My interpretation is meaningfully better because it repudiates the melting pot: It allows labels to stay meaningful, as they’re not being used by people whose only interest in them is opposing bigotry, and encourages people to tolerate differences by not caring about them. Looking beyond labels is the first step to looking beyond all differences which are irrelevant to a given context, and that’s tolerance. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1214 "2015-12-22T04:05:02Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > …What Trump did was take a few of his many business enterprises bankrupt… Four: [Donald Trump - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump#Corporate_bankruptcies) Would you hire someone to manage your business affairs who had sought four bankruptcies? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1215 "2015-12-22T14:31:10Z")
[Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton ‘got schlonged’ in 2008](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/21/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-disgusting/index.html) Stay classy, Donald. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1216 "2015-12-22T15:39:33Z")
Considering that white working-class men are flocking to Trump’s banner despite his opposition to raising the minimum wage – he has even said, in debate, that American wages are too **high** – is it possible that his appeal has less to do with class economic anxiety than with racism? See [here](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/12/is_donald_trump_s_racism_and_bigotry_making_him_the_republican_front_runner.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top#lf_comment=432666090), [here](http://www.salon.com/2015/12/22/donald_trump_will_make_america_white_again_white_working_class_anxiety_is_a_dog_whistle_for_racism/) and [here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/12/21/how-donald-trump-is-breathing-life-into-americas-dying-white-supremacist-movement/). ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1217 "2015-12-22T15:43:59Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Four: [Donald Trump - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump#Corporate_bankruptcies) > > Would you hire someone to manage your business affairs who had sought four bankruptcies? Of course I would. It’s important to know when to cut your losses and move on, rather than to keep throwing good money after bad into an effort to prop up a failing enterprise. In short, I’d gladly take Trump’s few failures as long as I’d also get equal participation in his many, many successes. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1218 "2015-12-22T15:51:46Z")
See, the thing with being POTUS is that there aren’t a bunch of creditors you can leave holding the bag when you mismanage the country. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1219 "2015-12-22T15:55:56Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > [Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton ‘got schlonged’ in 2008](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/21/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-disgusting/index.html) > > Stay classy, Donald. He also threw out this gem: > [@Durr Furor](#): > > In a strange segue in which he defended Russian President Vladimir Putin from widely reported allegations that he has ordered the killing of journalists, Trump went on to consider whether he himself would consider killing reporters, whom he then blasted as “lying disgusting people.” > > “I would never kill them. I would never do that,” Trump said at first, before reconsidering. > > “Uh, let’s see, uh?” Trump said inflecting his voice. “No, I would never do that.” Trump previously had approved of the rough treatment a protestor got at one of his rallies, and he seems at best indifferent to violence committed by his supporters. How long before he starts openly calling for violence against his critics or minority groups? I know it’s satire, but this is still awesome: [Donald Trump’s new campaign logo](http://www.snopes.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Screenshot-2015-11-30-at-10.28.42-AM.png). ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1220 "2015-12-22T16:32:02Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > [Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton ‘got schlonged’ in 2008](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/21/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-disgusting/index.html) > > Stay classy, Donald. Thanks for posting that. I just saw the expletive deleted version and couldn’t figure out what the word was. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1221 "2015-12-22T16:42:58Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > [Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton ‘got schlonged’ in 2008](http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/21/politics/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-disgusting/index.html) > > Stay classy, Donald. The best part about this link is his statement regarding Hillary Clinton taking a restroom break " I know where she went. It’s disgusting. I don’t want to talk about it, it’s disgusting". In an homage to North Korea… Im expecting Trump’s “doctor” to issue a statement this week announcing that his energies are in such perfect balance that he doesn’t urinate or defecate" “He doesn’t have a butthole, he has no need for one”. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828/1222 "2015-12-22T16:48:34Z")
Donald Trump is a _boychik_? Oy! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=60) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-republican-primary-campaign/729828.md?page=62)