Donald Trump’s Presidential Campaign

On June 16th Donald J. Trump gave a speech announcing that he was running to become the 2016 Republican candidate for President. TIME has a full transcript of  it. You can watch the whole speech here on Cspan. I tried to, but it was so poorly done that I gave up in disgust. It looks like the ‘before’ reel that a speech coach would use as an example of how he helped a client to improve. 

Comedian Jon Stewart deftly summed up the speech: 

"what followed was over half an hour of the most beautifully ridiculous jibber-jabber ever to pour forth from the mouth of a batsh-- billionaire."

For example, at the 7-minute mark Donald claimed:   

“Last quarter, it was just announced, our gross domestic product - a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Who ever heard of this? It’s never below zero.”

What was below zero really was the rate of growth for GDP rather than GDP, as was discussed by Politifact. 

He’s an arrogant jerk, who seems to believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity. But Trump also made disparaging comments about Mexicans,which led to other businesses refusing to work with him. On July 2nd Forbes even began a Forbes Tracker: Who’s Dumped Trump Today? 

Near the end of his speech Trump noted:

“Somebody said to me the other day, a reporter, a very nice reporter, ‘But, Mr. Trump, you’re not a nice person.’ 

That’s true. But actually I am. I think I am a nice person. People that know me, like me. Does my family like me? I think so, right. Look at my family. I’m proud of my family.”

Saying Trump isn’t nice is putting things way too mildly. Even this year he has continued with ‘birther’ claims that President Obama’s birth certificate is questionable. Based on that idiocy, comedian Bill Maher has parodied Trump’s position by joking that there are now also ‘apers‘ who question whether Trump’s father was an orangutan (since that’s clearly the only other place in nature where his fluorescent orange hair color appears). Trump even sued Maher. Donald still hasn’t produced his long form birth certificate, although in late June The Guardian has begun asking for it too.   

Back in 2013 Trump’s birther statements led Jon Stewart to proclaim that Donald’s birth name was F*ckface von Clownstick. When Trump recently announced his 2016 campaign, all Steward needed to say was:

“Let’s dance, Clownstick.” 

I suspect it will take less than a year before Trump realizes he can’t win and drops his campaign. 

The image was adapted from a Mexican hunchback figure.

UPDATE

Mr. Trump has released a statement which attempts to explain comments about Mexican immigrants in his announcement speech.