Saturday, May 21, 2016

Trump Bilks Veterans

by JASmius



Remember a couple of months ago when the now-presumptive "GOP" nominee ducked any more primary debates after Florida Senator Marco Rubio dropped out of the race because he didn't dare try to go one-on-one with the greatest debater in the country today, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and get publicly humiliated?  Do you recall what he claimed to be doing instead on that day in Iowa?  Hosting a rally and fundraiser for veterans groups.  He never specified which veterans groups, but he braggadiously claimed to have raised over six million dollars for them.  Because "Trump loves American veterans".

And now the latest "other shoe" has dropped: Five of that six million bucks were "pledges" that were never honored:

Following the rally in Des Moines, Iowa, the Trump campaign said the event raised $5 million and Trump personally contributed an additional $1 million. But campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told CNN Friday the amount raised was actually less than $6 million.

Lewandowski said he did not “know the exact number” off the top of his head and would confirm the number in coming days. He explained the discrepancy by saying at the time of the rally, Trump believed he had raised $6 million but more money had been pledged than was actually donated.

The Washington Post reported Friday that Lewandowski said the fundraiser actually netted about $4.5 million. Lewandowski told CNN that number is incorrect.

If you want to be charitable to The Donald, you can point out that yes, he did personally donate a million smackers, and you can excuse the failed materialization of the other five million that he falsely claimed as an "error".  Which doesn't speak well of his managerial abilities, attention to detail, or inspire confidence in his perhaps future fiscal policy-making.

But see, here's the thing: What happened to that other five million bucks?  Was it never collected, which does not speak well of Trumplicans themselves for aping their cult leader in making big, bold, brash promises and then reneging on them, or was it collected and diverted....someplace else other than to the coffers of any veterans organization?

It gets right back to the trust factor, ladies and gentlemen.  Whether from incompetence, dishonesty, corruption, and most likely some combination of all of the above, Americans plainly and simply cannot trust anything Donald Trump says, because he is a, well, bumbling, crooked, inveterate liar.

Which is why this.....



....does not and never will cut it, and should not for ANY American voter.



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