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Greg Sargent Profile picture
@GregTSargent
Sep 29, 2020 • 5 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
1) The second installment of the NYT investigation into Trump's taxes is a tour de force, a narrative masterpiece.

It shows how Trump created a "fictional alter ego" as a business success, and milked it for years.

That's exactly what he did in 2016.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
2) Trump's creation of a fictional self on "the Apprentice," followed by years of squandering his gains through incompetence and narcissism, parallel his election in 2016 on a fraudulent platform and his disastrous first term with eerie precision:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
3) The NYT offers this killer summary:

"Trump’s genius, it turned out, wasn’t running a company. It was making himself famous — Trump-scale famous — and monetizing that fame."

But then he used this image to fleece desperate people w/scams like Trump U.

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
4) In 2016 Steve Bannon performed the same role that Mark Burnett did in producing "The Apprentice." Both created a fictional Trump that he milked for years while the managerial disasters piled up.

This time we are the losers. But his bill is coming due:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…
5) Bringing the scam full circle, two producers of "The Apprentice" helped stage Trump's convention, which also peddled massive illusions -- that Trump crushed coronavirus and that the real threat to the rule of law is leftist terrorism.

Full case here:

washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

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More from @GregTSargent

Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jul 3
For 50 years GOP has used 3 big scams:

*deficits pose dire threat only when Dem is in WH
*tax cuts for rich pay for themselves
*safety net cuts needed to purge welfare cheats

w/this bill, Trump's "working class GOP" is supercharging all three

New piece:
newrepublic.com/article/197600…
You've heard of the GOP's "Three-Legged Stool."

Well I'm introducing the "Three-Legged Scam" to describe the three-part swindle the GOP has used to push plutocratic priorities for a half century.

Populist Trump has maximized all three of them.

newrepublic.com/article/197600…Image
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To see what a betrayal this is, recall that Trumpism was supposed to break with Reaganomics. It was supposedly a challenge to elites rigging the economy in their favor w/o it ever "trickling down" to working class. This bill is elite rigging maximized.

newrepublic.com/article/197600…Image
Read 7 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jun 18
We keep hearing credulous pundits say MAGA is "antiwar." So how many MAGA Republicans will support the new resolution requiring Trump to get congressional authorization for war with Iran?

This resolution is important. Pay attention to it. 1/

(new piece)
newrepublic.com/article/196919…
In 2024, Trump slammed Kamala for campaigning with Liz Cheney, claiming she wants “war with every Muslim country known to mankind.” This was always a scam, and now it looks like Trump is rushing into war with Iran. This has deeply split MAGA. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/196919…Image
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"Antiwar" MAGA Republicans have the option of backing this new resolution from Thomas Massie (R) and Ro Khanna (D) requiring congressional authorization for war with Iran.

“It’s a test of whether the MAGA movement is really antiwar,” Khanna tells me. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/196919…Image
Read 6 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jun 13
Remarkable: Vulnerable House Republicans are quietly urging Trump to refocus deportations away from noncriminal migrants and only target criminals.

With Trump admitted deportations hurt farmers, Rs know this is becoming a big problem for them. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/196817…
Six House Rs, many from vulnerable districts, sent a letter to ICE explicitly saying deporting non-criminals makes us less safe.

Strikingly, it undercuts Trump's rationale for mass deportations and reveals deep political vulnerability on the issue. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/196817…Image
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House Rs are urging a focus only on criminals AT THE EXACT MOMENT that Stephen Miller is ordering ICE to scour Home Depot parking lots for noncriminals to pad the numbers. Miller is *choosing* to divert resources away from dangerous criminals. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/196817…Image
Read 6 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jun 11
Awful: News orgs are credulously amplifying the idea that sending troops into LA is good politics for Trump. This gives his lawless abuses of power the aura of conventional politics, obscuring how extraordinarily dangerous this moment truly is. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/196674…
Over the last few days, Trump has goaded servicemembers into booing a sitting Dem governor, called for his arrest, needlessly sent troops into an American city, and spewed wildly absurd lies about that city. This shows political weakness, not strength. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/196674…Image
We just learned that two-bit fascist Stephen Miller told ICE officials to raid Home Depot parking lots for more people to deport. To boost removal numbers, Trump and Miller are diverting resources away from serious crimes like child exploitation. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/196674…Image
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Read 9 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
Jun 5
Stephen Miller is in a rage over deportation numbers he deems too low. So he's shifting huge amounts of law enforcement resources away from fighting serious crimes and into his immigration crackdown.

If voters knew about this, they'd recoil. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/196154…
Miller recently erupted at ICE officials, demanding 3,000 deportations a day. He's now redeploying thousands of agents from other agencies like Homeland Security Investigations, FBI, and DEA.

This is already hampering other crime-fighting, per NBC. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/196154…Image
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“Shifting that number of law enforcement agents from those types of agencies inevitably will mean fewer resources fighting transnational criminal organizations, drug smuggling, counter-terrorism, and child exploitation,” a former ICE official tells me. 3/

newrepublic.com/article/196154…Image
Read 8 tweets
Greg Sargent Profile picture
May 23
Unreal: To sustain his "genocide" of "white farmers" lie while meeting with the South African president, Trump used a photo of war deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I looked into this a bit more. It's worse than it first appeared. 1/

(link)
newrepublic.com/article/195699…
First, note that the printout Trump used to humiliate Ramaphosa came from a conservative blog post, which used an image from a Reuters video about DRC. Perhaps an aide Googled "white farmers" and "South Africa," found this, and gave it to Trump. 2/

newrepublic.com/article/195699…Image
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But there's something darker here. Even as Trump used this image of the dead from the DRC war to push a fake "genocide," Trump has suspended foreign aid and refugee resettlement in ways that are hurting countless humanitarian victims of that REAL war! 3/

newrepublic.com/article/195699…Image
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Read 6 tweets

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