Donald Trump's Enemies Attack His Net Worth
Maybe that flush is from his signature orange glow…
Maybe those beads of sweat are from that dubious hair piece…
Donald Trump seems to be feeling the heat from his haters lately.
In a relatively short span of time, Trump has been compared to Hitler, ignited countless Twitter feuds, and has managed to rack up more enemies than the number of his alleged net worth.
Read on for the full rundown of Trump’s enemies…
Trump Enemy #1: “Latinos”
While quite broad, I think it’s fair to say Mr. Trump has made an enemy out of Latinos and Latin America at large.
Trump burst onto the political scene like a bat out of hell, causing quite the controversy when he announced his run for presidency and claimed that one of the first orders of business would be building a great wall on the U.S./Mexico border to stop illegal immigration. Trump said:
“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Trump assured everyone this was just another instance of the media twisting his words and taking his comments out of context:
“I am personally offended by the mainstream media’s attempt to distort my comments regarding Mexico and its great people. I have many successful business relationships with Mexican companies and employ, and am close friends with, many Mexican people … I do great with Latino voters. I employee so many Latinos, I have so many people working for me. The Latinos love Trump, and I Iove them.”
Some polls beg to differ…
According to a gallup poll from July 8-August 23, Trump is far and away the least favorable GOP candidate for president. Here’s the proof:
Droves of famous Latinos spoke out against Trump, many of them going as far as to sever business ties with any organization related to the real estate mogul.
Colombian artist J Balvin cancelled his Miss USA performance after the remarks:
It was going to be my first performance on national television. But we’re talking about our roots, our culture, our values. This isn’t about being punitive, but about showing leadership through social responsibility. His comments weren’t just about Mexicans, but about all Latins in general.
Similarly, Puerto Rican actress Roselyn Sanchez, who was set to co-host the event, backed out as well, writing in a Facebook post in her native Spanish that she was tired of influential people being racist and calling Donald rude.
Ricky Martin tweeted to Trump:
This roughly translates to “There’s much hatred and ignorance in your heart @realDonaldTrump”. The Latino crooner followed up with a scathing op-ed slamming the xenophobic Trump.
Eva Longoria even went so far as to compare the power of Trump’s words to Adolf Hitler.
And, ultimately, the entire country of Mexico officially pulled out of Trump’s Miss Universe competition.
Trump Enemy #2: Megyn Kelly
Fox News host Megyn Kelly was one of the first casualties of Trump’s campaign.
It all started earlier this month after Trump criticised her as debate moderator. She wouldn’t back down when questioning him about his comments to women over the years. CNN reports:
Inone of the first questions of the debate, Kelly asked Trump about comments in which he “called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals,’” “made disparaging comments about women’s looks” and told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice that “it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees.”
Then, in a call-in interview on CNN the following day, Trump said Kelly was “off base” when questioning him about derogatory and sexist comments he has made about women in the past, among other topics. CNN goes on:
Trump responded by arguing that he was kidding and that he didn’t have time for “total political correctness.” After the debate, heblasted that and other questions as “nasty” and “unfair.”
The doozy came when Trump discussed the tiff with CNN host Don Lemon:
“She gets out and she starts asking me all sorts of ridiculous questions,” he told CNN host Don Lemon. “You know, you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. In my opinion, she was off base.”
Who knows what possesses Trump to say some of the things he does, but perhaps he was peeved that Fox News slammed his net worth predictions…
Trump Enemy #3: Jorge Ramos
After Donald Trump’s well-publicized immigration comments during his presidential bid speech, it was he who was on the receiving end of that iconic tagline, “You’re fired!”
Univision, the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the U.S., announced the end of its partnership with the Miss Universe Organization, which, as many may know, is partly owned by Donald Trump. Here is the network’s statement:
Today, the entertainment division of Univision Communications Inc. announced that it is ending the Company’s business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, which is part-owned by Donald J. Trump, based on his recent, insulting remarks about Mexican immigrants.
At Univision, we see first-hand the work ethic, love for family, strong religious values and the important role Mexican immigrants and Mexican-Americans have had and will continue to have in building the future of our country. We will not be airing the Miss USA pageant on July 12th or working on any other projects tied to the Trump Organization.
After several musical acts and celebrity personalities also dropped out of the Miss USA pageant, it was clear Univision wanted nothing to do with Trump.
And Trump? He threatened to sue the network for hundreds of millions for breaking a 5-year contract to air the program.
And then, earlier this week at a press conference in Dubuque, Iowa, the republican front-runner went so far as to remove a Univision journalist from the event. MSNBC reports:
“Sit down, you weren’t called. Go back to Univision,” Trump said as Ramos tried to ask a question that the candidate saw as being out of turn. Trump continued to shut down the Mexican-American journalist, leading Ramos to be escorted out of the room by security. Ramos returned later to ask two questions.
You can watch the exchange go down here:
Trump posted a handwritten letter from Ramos to his Instagram account. Ramos’ personal cell phone number was included in the letter:
And for good measure, Trump sent a letter to Univision’s CEO Randy Falco, banning all employees from setting foot on Trump’s properties in Miami:
Onwards…
Trump Enemy #4: Neil Young
When announcing himself as a Republican presidential candidate for 2016 (in what will be his fifth shot at being president), Trump played Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World. No big deal, right?
Wrong.
Unfortunately Donald didn’t have permission to use the song (not that that usually stops him!) and liberal rock legend Neil Young was none too pleased – particularly considering the 1989 hit was originally written as a criticism of George H. W. Bush’s administration.
Neil Young’s rep released a statement, saying:
Donald Trump was not authorized to use ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ in his presidential candidacy announcement. Neil Young, a Canadian citizen, is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President of the United States of America.
Neil’s rep wasn’t the only person chiming in on the matter. Young’s former bandmate David Crosby (of Crosyb, Still, Nash & Young) shot off a tweet of his own:
Trump responded in kind:
Next up — Enemy number five, from the great state of Kentucky…
Trump Enemy #5: Rand Paul
It took all of oh… 30 seconds for Rand Paul to call out Donald Trump during the first GOP debate:
A few weeks ago, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) made a move to intensify his feud with The Donald.
After announcing a conference call with reporters specifically dedicated to discussing Trump, Paul went on to bash the business tycoon for his substance-less campaign and out-of-line comments.
Business Insider has more:
“The truth telling is bluster, the truth-telling is non-sequitur, self-aggrandizement, but is there really anything substantive coming out of saying that people are fat, people are stupid?” Paul said of Trump.
Calling Trump a “fake conservative,” Paul listed off the issues where Trump has agreed with Democrats in the past, including supporting the 2008 bank bailouts, supporting some stricter measures on gun ownership, and saying that a single-payer healthcare system “could have worked.”
In typical Trump fashion, a biting tweet was released:
Heh…
Trump Enemy #6: Jeb Bush
This time Trump decided to make things a little more personal, by tweeting – then deleting – a jab at Jeb Bush’s wife.
On July 4, The Donald not so subtly retweeted a quote from a supporter:
Jeb’s wife, Columba Bush, is Mexican. The two met as teens in Leon, Mexico while Bush was on a high school exchange program.
While Trump ultimately deleted the tweet a day later, who’s to say that wasn’t a slap on the wrist by his cringing political handlers?
Instead, Trump replaced it with this:
In response, Bush told theNew York Times:
To make these extraordinarily ugly kind of comments is not reflective of the Republican Party. He’s doing this—he’s not a stupid guy, so I don’t assume he thinks that every Mexican crossing the border is a rapist.
He’s doing this to inflame and incite and to draw attention, which seems to be the organizing principle of his campaign.
So far, it hasn’t stuck. Onto the next one…
Trump Enemy #7: Rick Perry
Trump isn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with his fellow Republicans. His first brawl was with presidential contender Rick Perry.
On July 22, Perry went to Washington and gave a 3,000-word-long speech bashing Trump.
You know how the story goes, Trump bashed back. Perry’s border security work and time as governor of Texas were all on the chopping block.
Perry punched back:
What Mr. Trump is offering is not conservatism, it is Trump-ism — a toxic mix of demagoguery and nonsense. Donald Trump continues to demonstrate his fundamental misunderstanding of border security.
Trump wasn’t going to take that lying down, and fired back a series of tweets insulting Perry’s IQ, his standing in his graduating class at Annapolis, and his glasses — saying he only wears them to look smart. Burn…
Trump Enemy #8: John McCain
Okay, John McCain looks like everybody’s enemy in that picture. But let’s stick with this Trump theme…
At a Family Leadership Summit in Iowa back in July, Trump took a swipe at the Arizona Senator.
After days of back and forth between the two, Trump said:
He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.
McCain spent five and a half years being tortured in an infamous North Vietnamese prison. But apparently Trump thinks McCain doesn’t care much about veterans:
I think John McCain’s done very little for the veterans. I’m very disappointed in John McCain.
Even in follow up statements to the press, Trump refused to apologize, and instead took more jabs at McCain:
[He’s] yet another all talk, no action politician who spends too much time on television and not enough time doing his job.
As sufferers of The Donald’s wrath themselves, Rick Perry and Jeb Bush were quick to come to McCain’s defense, among others.
I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before Trump opens his mouth, offends someone, and racks up another enemy. Have another we missed?
Add it in the comments section!
Until then…
À tout à l’heure,
Genevieve LeFranc
for The Daily Reckoning
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