[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 140 (Thursday, September 15, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5733-S5736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DONALD TRUMP
Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am very concerned about the integrity and
the security of our democracy in America.
The United States is a nation that has always been and must always be
governed by its people.
Later on today, I am going to see Ambassador Baucus. He is someone
who has always talked about how we have to make sure the people
determine what we do. America must never be subject to undue influence
from foreign powers. Potential conflicts of interest involving our
Nation's elected officials deserve our highest scrutiny. That is why I
found yesterday's article by Kurt Eichenwald in Newsweek really
frightening. I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From Newsweek, Sept. 14, 2016]
How The Trump Organization's Foreign Business Ties Could Upend U.S.
National Security
(By Kurt Eichenwald)
If Donald Trump is elected president, will he and his
family permanently sever all connections to the Trump
Organization, a sprawling business empire that has spread a
secretive financial web across the world? Or will Trump
instead choose to be the most conflicted president in
American history, one whose business interests will
constantly jeopardize the security of the United States?
Throughout this campaign, the Trump Organization, which
pumps potentially hundreds of millions of dollars into the
Trump family's bank accounts each year, has been largely
ignored. As a private enterprise, its businesses, partners
and investors are hidden from public view, even though they
are the very people who could be enriched by--or will further
enrich--Trump and his family if he wins the presidency.
A close examination by Newsweek of the Trump Organization,
including confidential interviews with business executives
and some of its international partners, reveals an enterprise
with deep ties to global financiers, foreign politicians and
even criminals, although there is no evidence the Trump
Organization has engaged in any illegal activities. It also
reveals a web of contractual entanglements that could not be
just canceled. If Trump moves into the White House and his
family continues to receive any benefit from the company,
during or even after his presidency, almost every foreign
policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of
interest and ethical quagmires.
The Mumbai Shuffle
The Trump Organization is not like the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the charitable enterprise that
has been the subject of intense scrutiny about possible
conflicts for the Democratic presidential nominee. There are
allegations that Hillary Clinton bestowed benefits on
contributors to the foundation in some sort of ``pay to
play'' scandal when she was secretary of state, but that
makes no sense because there was no ``pay.'' Money
contributed to the foundation was publicly disclosed and went
to charitable efforts, such as fighting neglected tropical
diseases that infect as many as a billion people. The
financials audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global
independent accounting company, and the foundation's tax
filings show that about 90 percent of the money it raised
went to its charitable programs. (Trump surrogates have
falsely claimed that it was only 10 percent and that the rest
was used as a Clinton ``slush fund.'') No member of the
Clinton family received any cash from the foundation, nor did
it finance any political campaigns. In fact, like the
Clintons, almost the entire board of directors works for
free.
On the other hand, the Trump family rakes in untold
millions of dollars from the Trump Organization every year.
Much of that comes from deals with international financiers
and developers, many of whom have been tied to controversial
and even illegal activities. None of Trump's overseas
contractual business relationships examined by Newsweek were
revealed in his campaign's financial filings with the Federal
Election Commission, nor was the amount paid to him by his
foreign partners. (The Trump campaign did not respond to a
request for the names of all foreign entities in partnership
or contractually tied to the Trump Organization.) Trump's
financial filings also indicate he is a shareholder or
beneficiary of several overseas entities, including Excel
Venture LLC in the French West Indies and Caribusiness
Investments SRL, based in the Dominican Republic, one of the
world's tax havens.
Trump's business conflicts with America's national security
interests cannot be resolved so long as he or any member of
his family maintains a financial interest in the Trump
Organization during a Trump administration, or even if they
leave open the possibility of returning to the company later.
The Trump Organization cannot be placed into a blind trust,
an arrangement used by many politicians to prevent them from
knowing their financial interests; the Trump family is
already aware of who their overseas partners are and could
easily learn about any new ones.
Many foreign governments retain close ties to and even
control of companies in their county, including several that
already are partnered with the Trump Organization. Any
government wanting to seek future influence with President
Trump could do so by arranging for a partnership with the
Trump Organization, feeding money directly to the family or
simply stashing it away inside the company for their use once
Trump is out of the White House. This is why, without a
permanent departure of the entire Trump family from their
company, the prospect of legal bribery by overseas powers
seeking to influence American foreign policy, either through
existing or future partnerships, will remain a reality
throughout a Trump presidency.
Moreover, the identity of every partner cannot be
discovered if Trump reverses course and decided to release
his taxes. The partnerships are struck with some of the more
than 500 entities disclosed in Trump's financial disclosure
forms; each of those entities has its own records that would
have to be revealed for a full accounting of all of Trump's
foreign entanglements to be made public.
The problem of overseas conflicts emerges from the nature
of Trump's business in recent years. Much of the public
believes Trump is a hugely successful developer, a television
personality and a failed casino operator. But his primary
business deals for almost a decade have been a quite
different endeavor. The GOP nominee is essentially a licensor
who leverages his celebrity into streams of cash from
partners from all over the world. The business model for
Trump's company started to change around 2007, after he
became the star of NBC's The Apprentice, which boosted his
national and international fame. Rather than constructing
Trump's own hotels, office towers and other buildings, much
of his business involved striking deals with overseas
developers who pay his company for the right to slap his name
on their buildings. (The last building constructed by Trump
with his name on it is the Trump-SoHo hotel and condominium
project, completed in 2007.) In public statements, Trump and
his son Donald Trump Jr. have celebrated their company's
international branding business and announced their
intentions to expand it. ``The opportunities for growth are
endless, and I look forward to building upon the tremendous
success we have enjoyed,'' Donald Trump Jr. said in 2013.
Trump Jr. has cited prospects in Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam,
Thailand, Argentina and other countries.
The idea of selling the Trump brand name to overseas
developers emerged as a small piece of the company's business
in the late 1990s. At that time, two executives from Daewoo
Engineering and Construction met with Trump at his Manhattan
offices to propose paying him for the right to use his name
on a new complex under development, according to former
executives from the South Korean company. Daewoo had already
worked with the Trump Organization to build the Trump World
Tower, which is close to the Manhattan headquarters of the
United Nations. The former Daewoo executives said Trump was
at first skeptical, but in 1999 construction began on the
South Korean version of Trump World, six condominium
properties in Seoul and two neighboring cities. According to
the two former executives, the Trump Organization received an
annual fee of approximately $8 million a year.
Shortly after the deal was signed, the parent company of
Daewoo Engineering and Construction, the Daewoo Group,
collapsed into bankruptcy amid allegations of what proved to
be a $43 billion accounting fraud. The chairman of the Daewoo
Group, Kim Woo Choong, fled to North Korea; he returned in
2005, was arrested and convicted of embezzlement and
sentenced to 10 years in prison. According to the two former
Daewoo executives, a reorganization of Daewoo after its
bankruptcy required revisions in the Trump contract, but the
Trump Organization still remains allied with Daewoo
Engineering and Construction.
This relationship puts Trump's foreign policies in conflict
with his financial interests. Earlier this year, he said
South Korea should plan to shoulder its own military defense
rather than relying on the United States, including the
development of nuclear weapons. (He later denied making that
statement, which was video-recorded.) One of the
[[Page S5734]]
primary South Korean companies involved in nuclear energy, a
key component in weapons development, is Trump's partner--
Daewoo Engineering and Construction. It would potentially get
an economic windfall if the United States adopted policies
advocated by Trump.
In India, the conflicts between the interests of the Trump
Organization and American foreign policy are starker. Trump
signed an agreement in 2011 with an Indian property developer
called Rohan Lifescapes that wanted to construct a 65-story
building with his name on it. Leading the talks for Rohan was
Kalpesh Mehta, a director of the company who would later
become the exclusive representative of Trump's businesses in
India. However, government regulatory hurdles soon impeded
the project. According to a former Trump official who spoke
on condition of anonymity, Donald Trump Jr. flew to India to
plead with Prithviraj Chavan, chief minister of Maharashtra,
a state in Western India, asking that he remove the hurdles,
but the powerful politician refused to make an exception for
the Trump Organization. It would be extremely difficult for a
foreign politician to make that call if he were speaking to
the son of the president of the United States.
The Mumbai deal with Rohan fell apart in 2013, but a new
branding deal (Trump Tower Mumbai) was struck with the Lodha
Group, a major Indian developer. By that time, Trump had an
Indian project underway in the city of Pune with a large
developer called Panchshil Realty that agreed to pay millions
for use of the Trump brand on two 22-floor towers. His new
partner, Atul Chordia of Panchshil, appeared awed in public
statements about his association with the famous Trump name
and feted Trump with a special dinner attended by actors,
industrialists, socialites and even a former Miss Universe.
Last month, scandal erupted over the development, called
Trump Towers Pune, after the state government and local
police started looking into discrepancies in the land records
suggesting that the land on which the building was
constructed may not have been legally obtained by
Panchshil. The Indian company says no rules or laws were
broken, but if government officials conclude otherwise,
the project's future will be in jeopardy--and create a
problem that Indian politicians eager to please an
American president might have to resolve.
Through the Pune deal, the Trump Organization has developed
close ties to India's Nationalist Congress Party--a centrist
political organization that stands for democratic secularism
and is led by Sharad Pawar, an ally of the Chordia family
that owns Panchshil--but that would be of little help in this
investigation. Political power in India rests largely with
the Indian National Congress, a nationalist party that has
controlled the central government for almost 50 years.
(However, Trump is very popular with the Hindu Sena, a far-
right radical nationalist group that sees his anti-Muslim
stance as a sign he would take an aggressive stand against
Pakistan. When Trump turned 70 in June, members of that
organization threw a birthday party for the man they called
``the savior of humanity.'')
Even as Trump was on the campaign trail, the Trump
Organization struck another deal in India that drew the
Republican nominee closer to another political group there.
In April, the company inked an agreement with Ireo, a private
real estate equity business based in the Indian city of
Gurgaon. The company, which has more than 500 investors in
the fund that will be paying the Trump Organization, is
headed by Madhukar Tulsi, a prominent real estate executive
in India. In 2010, Tulsi's home and the offices of Ireo were
raided as part of a sweeping corruption inquiry related to
the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi. According to
one Indian business executive, government investigators
believed that Ireo had close ties with a prominent Indian
politician--Sudhanashu Mittal, then the leader of the
Bharatiya Janata Party, India's second largest political
party--who was suspected in playing a role in rerouting money
earned from Commonwealth Games contracts through tax havens
into Ireo's real estate projects. A senior official with
Ireo, Tulsi is a relative of Mittal's. No charges were ever
brought in the case, but the investigation did reveal the
close political ties between a prominent Indian political
party and a company that is now a Trump partner
No doubt, few Indian political groups hoping to establish
close ties to a possible future American president could have
missed the recent statements from the Trump family that its
company wanted to do more deals in their country. As the
Republican National Convention was about to get underway in
July, the Trump Organization declared it was planning a
massive expansion in the South Asian country. ``We are very
bullish on India and plan to build a pan-India development
footprint for Trump-branded residential and office
projects,'' Donald Trump Jr. told the Hindustan Times. ``We
have a very aggressive pipeline in the north and east, and
look forward to the announcement of several exciting new
projects in the months ahead.''
That is a chilling example of the many looming conflicts of
interest in a Trump presidency. If he plays tough with India,
will the government assume it has to clear the way for
projects in that ``aggressive pipeline'' and kill the
investigations involving Trump's Pune partners? And if Trump
takes a hard line with Pakistan, will it be for America's
strategic interests or to appease Indian government officials
who might jeopardize his profits from Trump Towers Pune?
Branding Wars in the Middle EastTrump already has financial
conflicts in much of the Islamic world, a problem made worse
by his anti-Muslim rhetoric and his impulsive decisions
during this campaign. One of his most troubling entanglements
is in Turkey. In 2008, the Trump Organization struck a
branding deal with the Dogan Group, named for its owners, one
of the most politically influential families in Turkey. Trump
and Dogan first agreed that the Turkish company would pay a
fee to put the Trump name on two towers in Istanbul.
When the complex opened in 2012, Trump attended the ribbon-
cutting and declared his interest in more collaborations with
Turkish businesses and in making significant investments
there. In a sign of the political clout of the Dogan family,
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Trump and
even presided over the opening ceremonies for the Trump-
branded property.
However, the Dogans have fallen out of favor, and once
again, a Trump partner is caught up in allegations of
criminal and unethical activity. In March, an Istanbul court
indicted Aydin Dogan, owner and head of the Dogan Group, on
charges he engaged in a fuel-smuggling scheme. Dogan has
proclaimed his innocence; prosecutors are seeking a prison
sentence of more than 24 years. According to an Arab
financier with strong ties to Turkish political leaders,
government connections with the Dogan family grew even more
strained in May, when a consortium of news reporters released
what are known as the Panama Papers, which exposed
corporations, politicians and other individuals worldwide who
evaded taxes through offshore accounts. One of the names
revealed was that of Vuslat Dogan Sabanci, a member of Dogan
Holding's board.
With the Dogans now politically radioactive, Erdogan struck
at the family's business partner, Trump, for his anti-Muslim
rhetoric. In June, Erdogan called for the Trump name to be
removed from the complex in Istanbul and said presiding over
its dedication had been a mistake.
This is no minor skirmish: American-Turkish relations are
one of the most important national security issues for the
United States. Turkey is among the few Muslim countries
allied with America in the fight against the Islamic State
militant group; it carries even greater importance because it
is a Sunni-majority nation aiding the U.S. military against
the Sunni extremists. Turkey has allowed the U.S. Air Force
to use a base as a major staging area for bombing and
surveillance missions against ISIS. A Trump presidency,
according to the Arab financier in direct contact with senior
Turkish officials, would place that cooperation at risk,
particularly since Erdogan, who is said to despise Trump, has
grasped more power following a thwarted coup d'etat in July.
In other words, Trump would be in direct financial and
political conflict with Turkey from the moment he was sworn
into office. Once again, all his dealings with Turkey would
be suspect: Would Trump act in the interests of the United
States or his wallet? When faced with the prospect of losing
the millions of dollars that flow into the Trump Organization
each year from that Istanbul property, what position would
President Trump take on the important issues involving
Turkish-American relations, including that country's role in
the fight against ISIS?
Another conundrum: Turkey is at war with the Kurds,
America's allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria. Kurdish
insurgent groups are in armed conflict with Turkey, demanding
an independent Kurdistan. If Turkey cuts off the Trump
Organization's cash flow from Istanbul, will Trump, who has
shown many times how petty and impulsive he can be, allow
that to influence how the U.S. juggles the interests of these
two critical allies?
Similar disturbing problems exist with the United Arab
Emirates (UAE), another Muslim nation that is an important
American ally. Trump has pursued business opportunities in
the oil-rich nation for years, with mixed success. His first
venture was in 2005, when the Trump Organization struck a
branding deal with a top Emirates developer called Nakheel
LLC, backed by Dubai's royal family, that planned to build a
tulip-shaped hotel on a man-made island designed to look like
a palm tree.In 2008, a bribery and corruption probe was
launched involving the company's multibillion-dollar Dubai
Waterfront project. Two Nakheel executives were charged with
fraud and cleared, but Nakheel's financial condition
deteriorated amid a collapse in real estate prices; the Trump
project was delayed and then canceled. So, in 2013, the Trump
Organization struck another branding deal, this time with
Nakheel's archrival, Damac Properties, a division of the
Damac Group, that wanted the Trump name on a planned 18-hole
PGA Championship golf course. The deal was negotiated by
Hussain Ali Sajwani, chairman of Damac, who had engaged in
controversial land deals with senior government officials in
the UAE. He met personally with Trump about the project, and
their relationship grew, ultimately leading to Damac working
with the Trump Organization on two branded golf courses and a
collection of villas in Dubai. According to the former
executive with the Trump Organization, Trump has said he
personally invested in some of the Dubai projects.
[[Page S5735]]
In this case, even the possibility of a Trump presidency
has created chaos for the Trump Organization. On December 7,
when Trump called for a ``total and complete shutdown'' of
Muslims being allowed into the United States, the reaction in
the UAE was instantaneous: There were calls to boycott the
Damac-Trump properties. Damac put out a statement essentially
saying its deal with the Trump Organization had nothing to do
with Donald Trump personally, a claim that fooled no one. On
December 10, Damac removed Trump's image and name from its
properties. Two days later, the name went back up, setting
off an even louder outcry. Damac's share price dropped 15
percent amid the controversy, and it was forced to guarantee
rental returns for some of its luxury properties bearing the
Trump name.
Other UAE businesses with connections to Trump are also
shunning the brand. The Dubai-based Landmark Group, one of
the Middle East's largest retail companies, said it was
pulling products with Trump's name off of its shelves.
With Middle Eastern business partners and American allies
turning on him, Trump lashed out. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal--
the billionaire who aided Trump during his corporate
bankruptcies in the 1990s by purchasing his yacht, which
provided him with desperately needed cash--sent out a tweet
amid the outcry in Dubai, calling the Republican candidate a
``disgrace.'' (Alwaleed is a prodigious tweeter and Twitter's
second largest shareholder.) Trump responded with an attack
on the prince--a member of the ruling Saudi royal family--
with a childish tweet, saying, ``Dopey Prince @Alwaleed--
Talal wants to control our U.S. politicians with daddy's
money. Can't do it when I get elected. #Trump2016.'' Once
again, Trump's personal and financial interests are in
conflict with critical national security issues for the
United States. During the Bush administration, Abu Dhabi, the
UAE's capital, and Washington reached a bilateral agreement
to improve international standards for nuclear
nonproliferation. Cooperation is particularly important for
the United States because Iran--whose potential development
of nuclear weapons has been a significant security issue,
leading to an international agreement designed to place
controls on its nuclear energy efforts--is one of the
UAE's largest trading partners, and Dubai has been a
transit point for sensitive technology bound for Iran.
Given Trump's name-calling when faced with a critical tweet
from a member of the royal family in Saudi Arabia, an
important ally, how would he react as president if his
company's business in the UAE collapsed? Would his decisions
in the White House be based on what is best for America or on
what would keep the cash from Dubai flowing to him and his
family?
A Strongman's Best Friend
Some of the most disturbing international dealings by the
Trump Organization involved Trump's attempts to woo Libyan
dictator Muammar el-Qaddafi. The United States had labeled
Qaddafi as a sponsor of terrorism for decades; President
Ronald Reagan even launched a military attack on him in 1986
after the National Security Agency intercepted a
communications that showed Qaddafi was behind the bombing of
a German discotheque that killed two Americans. He was also
linked to the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded
over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 259 people, in 1988. But
for the Trump Organization, Qaddafi was not a murdering
terrorist; he was a prospect who might bring the company
financing and the opportunity to build a resort on the
Mediterranean coast of Libya. According to an Arab financier
and a former businessman from the North African country,
Trump made entreaties to Qaddafi and other members of his
government, beginning in 2008, in which he sought deals that
would bring cash to the Trump Organization from a sovereign
wealth fund called the Libyan Investment Authority. The
following year, Trump offered to lease his estate in
Westchester County, New York, to Qaddafi; he took Qaddaff's
money but, after local protests, forbade him from staying at
his property. (Trump kept the cash.) ``I made a lot of money
with Qaddafi,'' Trump said recently about the Westchester
escapade. ``He paid me a fortune.''
Another business relationship that could raise concerns
about conflicts involves Azerbaijan, a country the State
Department said in an official report was infused with
``corruption and predatory behavior by politically connected
elites.'' According to Trump's financial filings, the
Republican nominee is the president of two entities called OT
Marks Baku LLC and DT Marks Baku Manaaina Member Corp. Those
were established as part of deals the Trump Organization made
last year for a real estate project in the country's capital.
The partner in the deal is Garant Holding, which is
controlled by Anar Mammadov, the son of the country's
transportation minister, Ziya Mammadov. According to American
diplomatic cables made public in 2010, the United States
possessed information that led diplomats to believe Ziya
Mammadov laundered money for the Iranian military. No formal
charges have been brought against either Mammadov.
Once again, however, this exposes potential conflicts
between Trump's business connections and national security.
While the development is currently on hold, it has not been
canceled, meaning that Anar Mammadov could soon be paying
millions of dollars to Trump. If American intelligence
concludes, or has already concluded, that his business
partner's father has been aiding Iran by laundering money for
the military, will Trump's foreign policy decisions on Iran
and Azerbaijan be based on the national security of the
United States or the financial security of Donald Trump?
An Oligarch in D.C.
The Trump Organization also has dealings in Russia and
Ukraine, and officials with the company have repeatedly
stated they want to develop projects there. The company is
connected to a controversial Russian figure, Vladimir
Potanin, a billionaire with interests in mining, metals,
banking and real estate. He was a host of the Russian version
of The Apprentice (called Candidate), and Trump, through the
Trump Organization, served as the show's executive producer.
Potanin is deeply tied to the Russian government and obtained
much of his wealth in the 1990s through what was called the
loans-for-shares program, part of an effort by Moscow to
privatize state properties through auction. Those sales were
rigged: Insiders with political connections were the biggest
beneficiaries.
Hoping to start its branding business in Russia, the Trump
Organization registered the Trump name in 2008 as a trademark
for projects in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi. It also
launched negotiations with a development company called the
Mos City Group, but no deal was reached. The former Trump
executive said that talks fell apart over the fees the Trump
Organization wanted to charge: 25 percent of the planned
project's cost. However, the executive said, the Trump
Organization has maintained close relations with Pavel Fuks,
head of the Mos City Group. Fuks is one of the most
politically prominent oligarchs in Russia, with significant
interests in real estate and the country's financial
industry, including the Pushkin bank and Sovcombank.
The Trump Organization has also shown interest in Ukraine.
In 2006, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump met with Viktor
Tkachuk, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, and Andriy
Zaika, head of the Ukrainian Construction Consortium. The
potential financial conflicts here for a President Trump are
enormous. Moreover, Trump's primary partner for his lucrative
business in Canada, a well-respected Russo-Canadian
billionaire named Alex Shnaider, is also a major investor in
Russia and Ukraine, meaning American policies benefiting
those countries could enrich an important business connection
for the Trump Organization.
Meanwhile, Trump has raised concerns in the United States
among national security experts for his consistent and
effusive praise for Vladimir Putin, the Russian ruler who
also now controls much of Ukraine. With its founder in the
White House, the Trump Organization would have an
extraordinary entree into those countries. If the company
sold its brand in Russia while Trump was in the White House,
the world could be faced with the astonishing site of hotels
and office complexes going up in downtown Moscow with the
name of the American president emblazoned in gold atop the
buildings.
The dealings of the Trump Organization reach into so many
countries that it is impossible to detail all the conflicts
they present in a single issue of this magazine, but a
Newsweek examination of the company has also found deep
connections in China, Brazil, Bulgaria, Argentina, Canada,
France, Germany and other countries.
Never before has an American candidate for president had so
many financial ties with American allies and enemies, and
never before has a business posed such a threat to the United
States. If Donald Trump wins this election and his company is
not immediately shut down or forever severed from the Trump
family, the foreign policy of the United States of America
could well be for sale.
Mr. REID. Mr. President, the piece is very, very thorough. So I am
only going to quote a few things because of the time of the Senate. No.
1, the article says that, if elected, Donald Trump would be ``the most
conflicted president in American history,'' and ``almost every foreign
policy decision he makes will raise serious conflicts of interest and
ethical quagmires.''
The article details how Donald Trump, his family, and his businesses
have multiple questionable partnerships with foreign governments,
political parties, and even criminals.
The Newsweek article ends with this sound declaration: ``Never before
has an American candidate for president had so many financial ties with
American allies and enemies, and never before has a business posed such
a threat to the United States.''
We face this from Donald Trump, a candidate and a notorious con
artist. Donald Trump is only trying to help one person--Donald Trump. I
don't care if he wants to be President or city commissioner. Donald
Trump is in it to benefit Donald Trump.
If given the opportunity, Donald Trump will turn America into a big
scam, just like Trump University. I can't make up this stuff. Here is
what
[[Page S5736]]
one of its managers said at Trump University--head of sales: ``a
fraudulent scheme and that it preyed upon the elderly and uneducated to
separate them from their money.''
That is one of the managers of Trump University. That is a direct
quote.
But Trump University is only one example. Trump has been ripping off
people for a long, long time--long before Trump University.
The list of people cheated by Donald Trump is a mile long, at least.
A glass company in New Jersey, a children's singing group, real estate
brokers, plumbers, painters, dishwashers, and many, many more all got
fleeced by this so-called billionaire--Trump. When Trump gets sued for
not paying, here is what he does: He hires lawyers--lots of lawyers,
most of the time--to defend him for having cheated lots of people.
Then, guess what. Many times he doesn't bother paying those lawyers so
they have to sue him.
He rips off people only to reap profit for himself.
A lot of his business I don't understand very well, but I understand
Atlantic City. I was chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission for 4
very tumultuous years. I was there when we allowed Nevada operations to
go to Atlantic City. So I understand what took place in Atlantic City.
He will do anything to make a buck for himself. He applied for a
license a number of years ago in Nevada. He got one. It was just
perfunctory. If he applied for a license today after what he did in
Atlantic City and what he has done since, he couldn't get a gaming
license in Nevada.
Let's be clear about Donald Trump. He is a spoiled brat raised in
plenty, who inherited a fortune, and used his money to make more money,
and he did a lot of it by swindling working men and women.
Why would he change as President? The answer is simple. Trump won't
change. He is asking us to let him get rich scamming America.
I know these are harsh words, but look at this man. He goes to Flint,
MI, where people are desperate for help--desperate for help. He goes to
an African-American church. What does he do? He just starts ranting
about how horrible Hillary Clinton is. It was so bad that the woman who
runs the church had to come up and say: Stop; you are not here to do
this. And he stopped. This morning he said that, obviously, there was
something wrong with her mentally.
Trump is a human leech who will bleed the country and sit in his golf
resort, laughing at the money he has made, even though working people,
many of them, will be hurt. Trump doesn't understand the middle class.
How could he? How could he understand working people?
This report from Newsweek proves Trump's plan to take his rigged game
straight to the White House. The integrity and security of our
democracy is really at stake. We can't chance the sovereignty of this
Nation on a con man like Trump. Where are Senator McConnell and Speaker
Ryan when America needs our help from this person running for
President?
Mr. President, will the Chair announce the business of the day.
____________________