Let's Hear It For The Donald!

[Khandro]

He not only hates drug and alcohol abuse - and the reason with the former why he wants the wall to prevent drugs entering the US, but he is prepared to put his own money to help in this and other matters;
'During the 2016 presidential election, then-candidate Trump vowed to donate his annual salary of $400,000 if he were elected.
In 2017, the president donated his quarterly salaries to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, Department of Transportation, and the Education Department.'
Now it is going to help alcoholic abuse.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/01/26/donald-trump-donates-third-quarter-salary-to-alcoholism-research/

Has any other leader been so magnanimous ?

[MallyJ]

Perhaps it will go towards supporting some of the people who cannot afford to feed their children or pay their rent because of his temper tantrum over not getting his way re the wall.....the damage to so many people with few resources to fall back on whilst getting no pay is appalling.......the man and his cohort have little idea how people live.

[Khandro]

Mallyj; //......the damage to so many people with few resources to fall back on whilst getting no pay is appalling.......the man and his cohort have little idea how people live.//

Curious how some people wish to castigate the man for trying to do exactly what he said he wanted to do in his election promises in a manifesto on which he was democratically voted into office.
Why not blame the those who wish not release the money for purely political reasons?

[naomi24]

//Curious how some people wish to castigate the man for trying to do exactly what he said he wanted to do in his election promises //

It's Mr Trump so what's new? Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't - as always.

[MallyJ]

I am not having a go about the wall...although the whole idea seems a bit daft to me .... I am wondering how he can force people into such horrible situations by shutting down work places and thus stopping people pay checks getting to them.

[jim360]

There's little point in asking a yes/no question, especially one that's so blatantly leading, unless you admit the "yes" answer as a possibility. Still, if you're now in agreement that the gesture, while generous, is hardly unique even amongst recent US presidents, then we can move on.

As to the Wall: discussed elsewhere; the Democrats have quite a significant mandate to block funding for said Wall even as Trump has a mandate to try and build it. The "political reasons", then, are that the Democrats in Congress recently won big in an election.

[New Judge]

"I am wondering how he can force people into such horrible situations by shutting down work places and thus stopping people pay checks getting to them."

He can because the ridiculous system in the USA means that State employees have their pay withheld when politicians disagree. It's a stupid system which does the USA no credit whatsoever.

[andy-hughes]

Donating his salary, planning pointless border walls - Donald Trump is the definition of gesture politics.

[Theland]

Andy - "Pointless border walls?"
It worked in Israel.
USA suffers crazy illegal immigration. Crime.
What to do?
All these illegals will eventually vote Democrat. Welfare prizes.

[andy-hughes]

Theland - Whether or not the wall concept has 'worked' in Israel depends - but it can be argued that the motivation, and effect are both different from either the motivation or proposed effect in the US -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_barrier

It is, and remains, gesture politics, an overly simplistic solution offered by a man who only ever thinks in simplistic terms, and cannot grasp anything approaching complexity, which continues to make him utterly unsuited for the office he currently holds

[naomi24]

^As arguably the most powerful man on earth his career doesn't seem to be going too badly.

[-Talbot-]

It is, and remains, gesture politics, an overly simplistic solution offered by a man who only ever thinks in simplistic terms, and cannot grasp anything approaching complexity, which continues to make him utterly unsuited for the office he currently holds




And yet it was fine whem Obama was knocking up a fence...odd that.

[Kromovaracun]

'The Donald' did, in fairness, explicitly say he would take responsibility for the shutdown at the beginning when speaking to Congressional leaders:

"I am proud to shut down the government for border security ... I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not going to blame you for it ... I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down."

[Peter Pedant]

// As arguably the most powerful man on earth his career doesn't seem to be going too badly.//

how many of his underlings are serving sentences ?

oh you mean Putins offer that he would make trump the richest man on earth so long as he allowed Putin to march into ( and 'liberate' pr even reliberate ) Poland and Ukraine....
yeah OK

[all the Poles in the UK have stopped brexiting back to Poland]

[Peter Pedant]

the fact he can do something doesnt mean he should do it

it is like a frame from Fat Freddie and the fabulous furry ( somethings)
where Fat Freddie sees a button ( nuclear of course ) with finger poised about it and a thought bubble - - "I wonder what this does"

[JF85]

Breitbart is hardly a news source free of dishonesty. The Snopes website has done the relevant fact checking and shows that Trump and his team actually claim to have donated the same income to several causes, but the accounts of those organisations do not seem to support the claims.

The federal employees who are losing out through the shutdown have done nothing wrong. Trump has said that it was his decision and that he stands by it, so hardly something to pin on political opposition.

If border walls work, why do Israeli troops still shoot Palestinian children, why do cartels dig tunnels under the existing wall rather than simply go round it, and how did so many escape East Berlin? If Trump is fulfilling a campaign promise, why is Mexico not paying? Imagine: "£350 million to the NHS every week, and the EU will pay it" being replaced post-referendum by "We will put some extra cash into the NHS, but it will come from our existing budgets. The EU will lose tariff-free access to UK goods to cover it. Sort of"?

For all that Trump would want people to think he is a generous donor, he is doubtless claiming the costs against tax (but we cannot know because he will not publish his returns) and the total amount is less than the sums he has defrauded from the US people through his corrupt trading and serial bankruptcies.

[Khandro]

^^ so shall we take it that you aren't too enamoured with Mr Trump?

[JF85]

:) He is the elected leader of a western democratic nation. It is not for me to judge, and I am sure he could find plenty of faults with me, but he is living proof that a lie is halfway round the world before the truth gets out of bed.

[Khandro]

jf85; //For all that Trump would want people to think he is a generous donor, he is doubtless claiming the costs against tax//

Nothing wrong with that is there?

//(but we cannot know because he will not publish his returns)//

Publish where? do you publish yours?

//and the total amount is less than the sums he has defrauded from the US people through his corrupt trading and serial bankruptcies.//

//"It is not for me to judge,"//

Well, you could have fooled me!

Also, I wondered how long it would take for Breitbart to receive some obloquy - it's a sort of 'Godwin's law' that it does; still 37 posts isn't bad. Could you tell us from which source you can recommend for completely reliable and unbiased information please?

[JF85]

In stating that Donald Trump has been bankrupt more than once, and that creditors have lost out, I am simply stating widely available facts. That is not judgment. My tax returns are available through Companies House but are remarkably boring. I did not stand for election to the most powerful position in the world, so was not invited to share them with the citizens of the United States, a recent tradition for others in that position. It is not compulsory, but it seems disingenuous for Trump to accuse rivals and predecessors of corruption while hiding his own affairs, particularly in the land of free speech taken to extremes.

If you wish to take your news from Breitbart, that is your choice and I did not criticise it. I simply pointed out that there are fact checking sources who are able to put their stories into perspective. The Washington Post offers regular updates on Trump's misinformation campaign, the New York Times has reported on his 'lies' (their word), and the partisanship of Fox News is beyond dispute. I would not recommend a single source for "completely reliable and unbiased information" but would suggest using a number of sources, ideally with conflicting views, and weighing up the supporting evidence each provides.

[Khandro]

jf85; Thanks, but I don't "take my news from Breitbart, like you I use many sources, but nowhere have I read that Trump has claimed his salary while he has been in office ( I believe he takes $1 p.a.) or that he hasn't given this latest tranche to charities helping people with alcohol problems - which is what this OP is (was) about.