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David Frum Profile picture
@davidfrum
Oct 14, 2024 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
Below is a fascinating example of Trump supporters' fantasy world. They tell a story of Trump charity to Nelson Mandela that somehow has gone untold until now.

What actually happened was that Trump creditors seized his "Trump Shuttle" airline during Trump's first bankruptcy in summer 1990. The creditors leased Trump-branded planes to anyone who would pay a commercial rate, including Nelson Mandela's eight-city US tour that year.
No Trump did not have a trusted secret black woman senior executive at his side in his early years. pbs.org/newshour/polit…
No Trump did not single-handedly stop a mugging in NYC in 1991. The only source for that story was Trump himself. Other persons in the scene contradict Trump's version. businessinsider.com/trump-claims-h…
No Trump was not in the habit of secretly buying houses and donating the houses to veterans. In fact, Trump looted his own charitable foundation for his own benefit. npr.org/2019/11/07/777…
Trump doesn't give to charity; Trump steals from charity. Trump doesn't conceal genuine acts of heroism; Trump invents imaginary acts of heroism. Imagine the world's least generous, least compassionate, least truthful person - and you've imagined the reality.
Also, no Trump did not in any way help 9/11 victims. He did pocket $150,000 in federal grant money for lower Manhattan economic recovery.
nydailynews.com/2016/09/10/exc…
Almost everything Trump says about what he said and did on 9/11 is a provable lie. forbes.com/sites/lisettev…
Trump's claim that he assisted at the 9/11 Ground Zero site is an especially audacious lie.
x.com/GoAngelo/statu… No responder saw Trump at the site. "He was a private citizen at the time. I don’t know what kind of role he could have possibly played.” nytimes.com/2019/07/29/us/…

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More from @davidfrum

David Frum Profile picture
May 28
President Trump and his family are extorting billions of dollars from US companies and foreign nations. In new piece for @TheAtlantic I examine past US corruption - and conclude Trump can't be compared to anything American, only Russia or Africa. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
Today's @TheAtlantic piece linked above is supplement to monologue on the David Frum Show today. Trump's analogues are not Nixon, Harding, or Grant. They are Putin, Mobutu Sese Soko, and the Duvaliers in Haiti.
@TheAtlantic I once owned a dog who avidly chased squirrels, but looked away when he met a deer. My wife explained: "Some things are too big to see." I recall that saying when journalists get excited over "Biden was addled" and ignore "Trump is a Putin- or Mobutu-scale crook."
Read 4 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
Apr 26
Donald Trump's approval rating in his first term moved in a narrow band: never above 50%, but also seldom below 40%, and then not much below. 1/x
Even during COVID, Trump's supporters stayed true. Unhappy as they were during COVID, Trump supporters agreed to shift blame for their unhappiness to somebody else: blue-state governors, Dr Fauci, etc. 2/x
But what if the US is struck by a disaster that is undeniably Trump's doing? Financial markets *predict* the disaster, but are not themselves the disaster. Few Americans have yet lost jobs, prices are only beginning to rise, shops are still full of goods to buy. 3/x
Read 6 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
Apr 17
First-term Trump was also an economic idiot. He imposed escalating tariffs in first half of 2018, not only on China but on EU and Canada too. Trump bad policy triggered a big stock slump in second half 2018. 1/x Image
Trump worried that the bad stock market of 2018 might dim his re-election chances. He spent much of 2019 desperately pleading with the Chinese for an exit from the trade war he started the year before. 2/x Image
Trump's eagerness for a China deal to save his re-election was a reason that he dismissed the gathering warnings of a new pandemic in China. He failed to protect the country because he was trying to protect himself. Here's Trump in January 2020: 3/x Image
Read 10 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
Apr 10
There are 2 economic ideas behind the Trump tariffs. One is obviously very stupid. The other is also very stupid, but less obviously so.

(thread)
The obviously stupid idea is that America should return to the industrial self-sufficiency of 1913 without regard to cost or value. Americans should manufacture their own athletic shoes and door hinges and plastic tubs, and if that requires a 125% protective tariff ... so be it!
The less obviously stupid idea posits that the true justification for tariffs is not the trade balance, but the capital account. Foreigners are placing too much capital in the US. That flow raises the value of the dollar. US imports become too cheap; US exports too costly.
Read 9 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
Mar 23
The Trump administration appears to be actively contemplating an act of Putin-like aggression and annexation against a NATO ally
US treaties are part of the supreme law of the land.

I question whether a presidential directive to the US military to invade and annex the territory of a NATO ally would be a "lawful order."
PS I was thinking of VP Vance's threats against the Danish territory of Greenland, which sounded like a warning of imminent US invasion. But I should have been more specific, since the Trump administration has been threatening US aggression against Canada too.
Read 4 tweets
David Frum Profile picture
Mar 19
America's allies are deciding that the F-35 fighter cannot be trusted under a Putin-governed US administration. "[B]y severing maintenance support, shipments of spare parts, and cutting foreign F-35s off from U.S. computer networks, the aircraft would quickly be hobbled. …"
“Without these software updates, F-35s could fly, but would be much more likely to be shot down by enemy air defenses. Also without U.S. maintainers and spare parts, it would be difficult to keep the aircraft flying for long ...." breakingdefense.com/2025/03/no-the…
I've personally heard similar concerns from allied governments about the reliability of US-made naval vessels as well. French / Swedish / South Korean equipment may not be as advanced as American, but potentially more trustworthy than weapons from a Russian-aligned USA.
Read 4 tweets

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