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Author Topic: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2  (Read 290582 times)

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4216 on: September 21, 2021, 01:59:07 AM »
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Everywhere you look these Republican criminals are conspiring or are involved with the Russians.

Two longtime Republican operatives indicted -- and there's a Russia connection




Reuters legal reporter Jan Wolfe revealed Monday evening that two Republican Party operatives have been indicted after helping Russians donate to political campaigns in 2016.

The Justice Department revealed in a statement that Kentucky's Jesse Benton and Florida's Roy Douglas "Doug" Wead were "charged with one count of conspiracy to solicit and cause an illegal campaign contribution by a foreign national, effect a conduit contribution, and cause false records to be filed with the FEC, one count of contribution by a foreign national, one count of contribution in the name of another and three counts of making false entries in an official record."

Benton was just pardoned by former President Donald Trump for a bribery scandal while working for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) in Iowa in 2012. In that scheme, Benton and colleague John Tate bribed state officials to change their endorsements to Paul for the Iowa Caucus.

After being pardoned for that, Benton is now being indicted again along with Wead for arranging for a Russian National who wanted to donate to a 2016 presidential campaign to be able to meet with the candidate.

Jan Wolfe: Developing: Two longtime GOP operatives have been indicted. They allegedly helped a Russian make a campaign contribution to Trump in 2016.

One of the defendants, Jesse Benton, managed campaigns for Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell. He got a Trump pardon (for an unrelated scheme).





"Benton reached out to individuals at Political Committee B, the national party committee for Political Candidate 1's political party," the indictment explains. "He then arranged for Foreign National 1 to attend a political fundraising event and get a photograph with Political Candidate 1, in exchange for a political contribution to Political Committee C, a joint fundraising committee comprised of the campaign committee for Political Candidate 1, Political Committee B, and related state committees. Foreign National 1 ultimately wired $100,000 to Company A, a political consulting firm owned by Benton."

He then tried to disguise the wire transfer by labeling it "consulting services" and crafted a "cover story."

Wead went to the fundraiser with the foreign national Sept. 22, 2016 with a translator (Foreign National 2). They all three had their photos taken with the candidate.

"Following the event, Benton repeatedly represented to a consultant working for Political Committee B and Political Committee C that he had already sent the promised contribution for the event, but in actuality he delayed sending the contribution," said the DOJ. "Benton ultimately filled out a contributor form, indicated that he was the contributor, and used a personal credit card to make a $25,000 contribution. Benton retained the remaining $75,000 of Foreign National 1's money. Because Benton falsely claimed to have given the contribution himself, three different political committees unwittingly filed reports with the FEC that inaccurately reported Benton, rather than Foreign National 1, as the source of the funds."

Read the full report at the DOJ.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/political-operatives-indicted-alleged-scheme-involving-illegal-campaign-contribution-2016

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4216 on: September 21, 2021, 01:59:07 AM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4217 on: September 21, 2021, 10:50:08 PM »
The only people "hyping" this event were the leftist media.  They were hysterically promoting another fake news story.  It was a fraud.  They looked like fools with ten reporters for every peaceful protestor.  The highest percentage of unvaccinated people are minorities and young people.  Very few of whom are Trump supporters.  The surge in cases has been compounded by distributing hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated illegal immigrants throughout the south.  But keep entertaining your fantasy and relishing in the death of "Trump" supporters.  It takes a very sick person to celebrate the deaths of people based on their political opinions.  In the past, you have even posted pictures of average citizens who died from the virus and mocked them.  Sick and disgusting.

There is no "leftist media".

Nice false narrative. This "event" was hyped by the maga cult and they are the ones who looked like fools. There are no illegals "distributed through the South" that's your Faux Propaganda fantasy you watch.

Right wing Trump supporters are the ones who refuse to get vaccinated and are the ones dying. I already posted the CDC chart in the COVID thread.

Also, stop with the false personal attacks.

America’s Republicans Are Killing Their Voters
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/vaccination-reduced-mortality-evidence-republicans-by-jeffrey-frankel-2021-07     

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4218 on: September 21, 2021, 10:52:53 PM »
Eric Trump's lawyer drops him as client in Trump Org fraud suit

On Tuesday, Forbes reported that Eric Trump's attorney representing him in New York State's civil fraud suit against the Trump family business has resigned.

"Marc Mukasey of Mukasey Frenchman LLP informed a New York state Supreme Court judge in Manhattan that he was withdrawing from the case on Sept. 14," reported Zach Everson. "The move comes one day after a judge's order to seal a stipulation between the parties was filed. Before that agreement, the docket shows no activity in this case since January. It's not clear if there's any connection between the agreement and Mukasey's departure."

"Mukasey declined to comment on the record for this story," said the report. "He has represented Eric Trump in the case since it was filed in August 2020. Eric and representatives from the Trump Organization have not replied to inquiries."

According to the report, Mukasey has also represented a number of clients in other high-profile cases, including Eddie Gallagher, an accused war criminal pardoned by former President Donald Trump.

Eric Trump has denied all wrongdoing in the case, which alleges the Trump Organization improperly inflated the value of assets to get more favorable loans. He has accused New York Attorney General Letitia James of "prosecutorial misconduct."

In addition to the civil suit, the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg face criminal fraud charges for allegedly paying out non-monetary benefits to top officials, including car leases and rent-free housing in Trump properties, without paying taxes on the value of those benefits.

https://www.rawstory.com/eric-trump-tax-fraud/

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4218 on: September 21, 2021, 10:52:53 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4219 on: September 21, 2021, 11:06:01 PM »
Trump campaign knew voter fraud claims were baseless soon after election loss, says report

Newly released court documents show that Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign knew within weeks of the election that accusations against Dominion Voting Systems were false.

The New York Times reports:

Two weeks after the 2020 election, a team of lawyers closely allied with Donald J. Trump held a widely watched news conference at the Republican Party’s headquarters in Washington. At the event, they laid out a bizarre conspiracy theory claiming that a voting machine company had worked with an election software firm, the financier George Soros and Venezuela to steal the presidential contest from Mr. Trump.

But there was a problem for the Trump team, according to court documents released on Monday evening.

By the time the news conference occurred on Nov. 19, Mr. Trump’s campaign had already prepared an internal memo on many of the outlandish claims about the company, Dominion Voting Systems, and the separate software company, Smartmatic. The memo had determined that those allegations were untrue.

Trump has continued to pedal lies about fraud in the 2020 election up until now, almost a year after ballots were cast.

The former president has also extended those baseless claims to more recent elections, claiming they were also tainted by widespread fraud. Trump has, of course, presented absolutely no evidence to support those outlandish allegations.


Memo shows Trump lawyer's six-step plan for Pence to overturn the election

Washington (CNN)A conservative lawyer working with then-President Donald Trump's legal team tried to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence that he could overturn the election results on January 6 when Congress counted the Electoral College votes by throwing out electors from seven states, according to the new book "Peril" from Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The scheme put forward by controversial lawyer John Eastman was outlined in a two-page memo obtained by the authors for "Peril," and which was subsequently obtained by CNN. The memo, which has not previously been made public, provides new detail showing how Trump and his team tried to persuade Pence to subvert the Constitution and throw out the election results on January 6.

The effort to sway Pence was just one of several behind-the-scenes attempts that Trump's team undertook ahead of January 6 in a desperate bid to overturn the 2020 election loss, after dozens of lawsuits were thrown out of the courts. "Peril," which will be released Tuesday, details how Eastman's memo was sent to GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and how Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani tried to convince fellow Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina of election fraud. But both Lee and Graham scoffed at the arguments and found they had no merit.

"You might as well make your case to Queen Elizabeth II. Congress can't do this. You're wasting your time," Lee said to Trump's lawyers trying to overturn the results in Georgia, according to the book.

The Eastman memo laid out a six-step plan for Pence to overturn the election for Trump, which included throwing out the results in seven states because they allegedly had competing electors. In fact, no state had actually put forward an alternate slate of electors -- there were merely Trump allies claiming without any authority to be electors.

Under Eastman's scheme, Pence would have declared Trump the winner with more Electoral College votes after the seven states were thrown out, at 232 votes to 222. Anticipating "howls" from Democrats protesting the overturning of the election, the memo proposes, Pence would instead say that no candidate had reached 270 votes in the Electoral College. That would throw the election to the House of Representatives, where each state would get one vote. Since Republicans controlled 26 state delegations, a majority could vote for Trump to win the election.

The plan was first proposed to Pence when Eastman was with Trump in the Oval Office on January 4, during one of Trump's attempts to convince Pence that he had the authority to stop the certification of the election.

"You really need to listen to John. He's a respected constitutional scholar. Hear him out," Trump said to Pence at that meeting, Woodward and Costa write in "Peril."

In the memo, Eastman went so far as to suggest Pence should take action without warning.

"The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission -- either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court," Eastman wrote. "The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter. We should take all of our actions with that in mind."

In the end, Pence didn't go along with Eastman's scheme, concluding that the Constitution did not give him any power beyond counting the Electoral College votes. He did his own consultations before January 6, according to the book, reaching out to former Vice President Dan Quayle and the Senate parliamentarian, who were both clear in telling him he had no authority beyond counting the votes.

When Pence refused to intervene, Trump turned on his vice president, attacking him on Twitter even as the insurrection at the Capitol was unfolding on January 6.

The memo could be of interest to the House select committee now investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol, which recently requested documents from the National Archives that specifically included communications involving Eastman.

"It shows intent, a sophisticated plan, a blueprint to illegally and unconstitutionally overturn and steal the election" by Trump and his team based on false and misleading information and legal arguments, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

'Lee's head was spinning'

Eastman spoke at the January 6 rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. He retired from his position as a professor at Chapman University a week after January 6, which occurred amid protests from faculty at the Southern California university over his participation in Trump's efforts to overturn the election.

Eastman told the Washington Post that his memo merely "explored all options that had been proposed." CNN has contacted Eastman for comment through the Claremont Institute, where he is a senior fellow.

As part of the efforts of Trump's team to convince Congress not to certify the election, the Eastman memo was given to Lee, one of the Senate's top Republican constitutional authorities. At the same time, Giuliani sent multiple memos to Graham trying to convince him that the claims of election fraud coming from Trump's team were legitimate.

The memos show how even some of Trump's closest allies balked at the measures Trump's team was taking behind the scenes to try to overturn his loss to Biden. But while Lee and Graham heard out the cases from Trump's lawyers, they soundly rejected their claims, Woodard and Costa write.

Lee was shocked by the claims the memo was making, since no state had considered, let alone put forward, any alternate slates of electors. "Lee's head was spinning," the authors write.

"No such procedure existed in the Constitution, any law or past practice. Eastman had apparently drawn it out of thin air."

Lee also dismissed the Trump team's arguments that it had a case to overturn the election results in Georgia, saying they had to be made in court.

'Third grade'

Woodward and Costa also obtained several memos Giuliani sent to Graham to try to convince him of election fraud in Georgia and other states. CNN has also obtained those memos.

The authors write that on January 2, Giuliani briefed Graham at the White House. Giuliani presented a statistical analysis arguing Biden's win was impossible, but Graham dismissed Giuliani's evidence as too abstract. "Give me some names. You need to put it in writing. You need to show me the evidence," Graham said, according to the book.

Giuliani then sent Graham several memos and affidavits claiming fraud. But when Graham's chief Judiciary Committee counsel Lee Holmes went over the claims, he found they were sloppy, overbearing and "added up to nothing," Woodward and Costa write. "Holmes reported to Graham that the data in the memos were a concoction, with a bullying tone and eighth grade writing."

"Third grade," Graham responded, according to the book. "I can get an affidavit tomorrow saying the world is flat."

Giuliani did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump has continued to push baseless claims that the election was stolen from him. Last week, he sent a new letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger claiming he should start the process of decertifying the 2020 election.

Criminal investigators in the state have been investigating Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results, including an infamous call Trump made to Raffensperger in which Trump urged the secretary of state to "find" more than 11,000 votes that Trump needed to win.

Graham also made a phone call to Raffensperger, which is part of the Fulton County district attorney's probe. Graham has said his call was to understand the process of verifying signatures on mail-in ballots.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/20/politics/trump-pence-election-memo/index.html

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4220 on: September 21, 2021, 11:57:07 PM »
'This was a national security emergency': Woodward says Trump's post-election meltdown nearly led to 'catastrophe'

Legendary reporter Bob Woodward told CNN's Jake Tapper on Tuesday that America was in grave peril while suffering through former President Donald Trump's meltdown over losing the 2020 presidential election.

Woodward, who has just published a new book called Peril with fellow Washington Post reporter Robert Costa, relayed the extraordinary lengths that national security officials went to keep Trump from potentially dragging the United States into a war in a desperate bid to keep power.

"Here we have the Speaker of the House and the senior military leader, General Milley, concluding that they believe he's crazy," said Woodward. "The issue... is not some abstract problem. It's do we have control of nuclear weapons? And if there's a catastrophe that could befall the United States or the world, it would be the use of nuclear weapons."

He then broke down how Milley worked to ensure Trump could not unilaterally launch a nuclear war against China as part of a last-ditch effort to remain president.

"This was a national security emergency, not just about control of nuclear weapons, but about whether there might be a war with China," said Woodward, who said Trump's unstable emotional state could have resulted in "another catastrophe."

Watch the video below:




'It’s all in writing': Nicole Wallace breaks down damning new Trump campaign memo

MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday broke down the breaking news on "what the Trump campaign knew and when they knew it" about the truth of the results of the 2020 presidential election.

"Breaking news this afternoon from The New York Times that could represent a serious threat to Donald Trump's 2020 campaign and potentially even to the former president himself. Their claims about election fraud were a lie — and Trump's campaign reportedly new it," Wallace reported.

Trump's campaign reportedly knew that Dominion did not use Smartmatic, and also knew that Dominion did not have ties to Venezuela or George Soros.

"That's about as clear and unequivocal as it can get," Wallace said. "That members of the Trump campaign knew there was no evidence to support the conspiracy theories Trump and his allies were very publicly spouting — and it's all in writing."

Wallace interviewed Michael Steel, a spokesperson for Dominion, who said the report showed that "these claims that the president's supporters were making were not knowingly false, they were easily knowingly false."

Steel added that Trump's allies could have debunked their own claims using a "simple Google search" because "it was easy and obvious what they were trying to portray as reality is simply not true."

Watch:


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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4220 on: September 21, 2021, 11:57:07 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4221 on: September 22, 2021, 11:49:32 PM »
The shocking new evidence of the GOP conspiracy against the U.S.

By now, you've read about John Eastman's secret memo outlining six points by which he believed the vice president could overturn the results of the 2020 election on January 6. I defer to legal scholars to explain the memo's legal absurdities. I defer to political scientists to explain why the memo represents forces threatening our republic.

What I want to suggest is so plain I'm surprised that no one else has asked: isn't this evidence of a conspiracy to commit a high crime?

News of Eastman's memo put the debate over democracy reform into overdrive. The hope has been that the Democrats in the United States Congress, especially Senate moderates, will see the light. They must kill off, or seriously change, the filibuster in order to pass election laws that would not only reach or surpass the 1965 Voting Rights Act but also prevent a political party from pulling off a coup in broad daylight.

While the Eastman memo should, for obvious reasons, put that debate into overdrive, I'm wondering if we're misplacing our hopes. It's not that I think the filibuster is good. It needs to go. It's not that I think new election laws would be bad. We need more, in a hurry. It's that laws require enforcement, and enforcement of the law is pretty much the only thing that's going to stop people who have no respect for democracy, principle, the Constitution, tradition or anything else. Without equal treatment under law, in the form of prosecution, I don't see why new laws would stop people who hold themselves above it.

We really need to acknowledge the elephant in the room before we pin our hopes for democracy on changing a Senate rule. We really need to acknowledge the reason it's possible, in a rule-of-law country, for powerful and power-hungry people to hold themselves above the law. The reason is so obvious as to be invisible, and because it's invisible few people are talking about it right now. It's because powerful and power-hungry people are in fact above the law. "No one is above the law"? Pish. Anyone with senses, and sense, can see that's not true.

News of the Eastman memo only adds to what we already know. According to CNN, the plan was for Vice President Mike Pence to throw out "the results in seven states because they allegedly had competing electors. In fact, no state had actually put forward an alternate slate of electors — there were merely Trump allies claiming without any authority to be electors." That didn't matter, though:

Pence would have declared Trump the winner with more Electoral College votes after the seven states were thrown out, at 232 votes to 222. Anticipating "howls" from Democrats protesting the overturning of the election, the memo proposes, Pence would instead say that no candidate had reached 270 votes in the Electoral College. That would throw the election to the House of Representatives, where each state would get one vote. Since Republicans controlled 26 state delegations, a majority could vote for Trump to win the election.

Two important points. One is about recognizing competing slates of electors when there were none. New laws in Georgia, Texas and other states now fill in what was missing in Eastman's memo. They allow for GOP-controlled legislatures to overrule election officials. They make room for assigning competing slate of electors when outcomes are undesirable. A future vice president might do what Mike Pence didn't.

My other point is about the impression made by CNN's reporting, and by the new book all this news comes from by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa — that Donald Trump's GOP allies believed the US Constitution forbade a vice president from recognizing competing slates of electors. The impression is of a founding document that sets the rules. "You might as well make your case to Queen Elizabeth II," Mike Lee reportedly said. "Congress can't do this. You're wasting your time." That's a dangerous impression to have in a rule-of-law country in which powerful and power-hungry people are in fact above it.

The Constitution is many things, but a set of unbreakable rules isn't one of them. It is whatever powerful and power-hungry people want it to be, when they want it to be and why. I don't know why Lee, Lindsay Graham and other high-profile Republicans were not all-in on the Eastman memo, but I do know the Constitution didn't stop them. I am confident, and you should be confident, that if they had reason to believe they could get away with it, they'd have found a way to make a coup by a political party in broad daylight seem "constitutional."

The Eastman memo is putting debate over democracy reform into overdrive. Fine and dandy. But the memo is also why we shouldn't pin our hopes on democracy reform. The incentives to cheat, steal, lie and otherwise commit treason in the pursuit of raw political power will be with us long after we've made all our dreams come true with the death of the filibuster. New laws won't take away corrupt incentives. The only way to do that is prosecuting the laws we already have. The only way to do that is prosecuting the principle of equal treatment under law so that powerful and power-hungry people are not in fact above it.

The Eastman memo is evidence of a conspiracy — a GOP conspiracy — to commit a high crime. And yet no one is being held accountable. No one will be held accountable as long as the Department of Justice is soft on high crime. Amid such lawlessness, why not give treason another go? By then, perhaps Lee, Graham and others will have found what they need to make a coup in broad daylight seem "constitutional."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-attempted-coup/

Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4222 on: September 24, 2021, 11:45:17 PM »
Judge orders Trump Org to turn over docs as New York AG accuses company of ‘hiding behind excuses’

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is investigating the Trump Organization for allegedly manipulating the value of its assets, says the former president's company has been "hiding behind procedural delays and excuses" and failing to comply with her office's subpoenas for more than a year.

Now, in response to complaints from James' office, a New York state judge has ruled that if the Trump Organization doesn't comply with the subpoenas by next week, the company will have to hire an outside expert to search its documents.

"The Trump Organization has until Sept. 30 to file a report on its efforts to preserve, collect and produce all documents responsive to subpoenas issued by James as part of a civil probe into whether the company manipulated the value of its assets for loans and tax breaks, state court Justice Arthur Engoron said in a Sept. 2 order unsealed on Friday," according to a report from Bloomberg.

In a statement responding to the judge's order, James' office said: "For more than a year now, the Trump Organization has failed to adequately respond to our subpoenas, hiding behind procedural delays and excuses. Once again, the court has ordered that the Trump Organization must turn over the information and documents we are seeking, otherwise face an independent third-party that will ensure that takes place. Our work will continue undeterred because no one is above the law."

The civil case is separate from a criminal investigation into alleged tax-fraud by the Trump Organization that's being conducted by James in conjunction with the Manhattan district attorney.

"The New York attorney general opened the investigation in March 2019 after the president's former attorney, Michael Cohen, testified to Congress that President Trump had altered the value of his assets in financial statements in order to get loans, better insurance rates and tax breaks," the Hill reports. "In the civil case, court records show that James' office is investigating the valuation of several Trump properties including the Seven Springs resort in Westchester County, N.Y.; an office building on Wall Street in New York City; the Trump International Hotel in Chicago; and the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-organization-documents/

JFK Assassination Forum

Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4222 on: September 24, 2021, 11:45:17 PM »


Offline Rick Plant

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Re: Trump supporters and conspiracy theory - Part 2
« Reply #4223 on: September 28, 2021, 09:12:08 AM »
Trump has made it clear: He thinks his own supporters are discardable losers

In May of this year, Donald Trump began telling associates that he plans to run for president in 2024 if he is healthy enough. In July, he told dinner pals that he is running. Just this month, he reiterated that he is likely to run again. The twice-impeached ex-president is increasing his media appearances and planning campaign-style rallies in Georgia and Iowa.

Trump's humiliating defeat to Joe Biden — which he refuses to acknowledge even occurred — has fomented a yearning for redemption. Whether he actually runs again remains uncertain, but he wants his supporters to be ready, willing and primed.

As Trump keeps his millions of supporters in suspense, they must answer one difficult question: Do they really want to continue to support a man who despises them and hurts them?

Donald Trump has always abhorred his supporters. He does not feel an ounce of empathy or affection for those who profess their devotion to him. He sees his supporters as weak, stupid and inferior. They are losers to him. He hates his supporters as much as he wants to destroy his detractors.

Actions speak louder than words. Just look at Trump's actions toward his supporters.

The best example is his detached, irresponsible and inept handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of Americans died on his watch. He relied on conspiracy theories, magical thinking, blatant lies and distractions to fool the American public. Trump followers in red states have died in huge numbers because they erroneously and foolishly believed he was the benevolent master of their fate. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was, in fact, an accessory to murder. His supporters' lives meant nothing to him.

Another example is Trump's incitement of the insurrection of the Capitol on Jan. 6. He was willing to overthrow democracy in order to remain in power. So he fabricated the Big Lie, knowing full well that his cult followers would carry out his anti-democratic mission. Was he on the front line with his supporters? Of course not — because he is a coward. He watched it all unfold on television as he cheered them on from the protected and comfortable surroundings of the White House. Trump wanted the election undermined and demanded that followers accomplish that goal. The result was failure, destruction, deaths, arrests and widespread condemnation. Trump has left his followers dangling in defeat. He has taken no responsibility for his incitement and has demonstrated no concern or remorse for his loyalists who face damaging legal consequences. He has thrown them under the bus because he detests them.

Millions of aggrieved Americans have tethered themselves to Trump's fake persona of superiority and strength. They think he is the answer to their prayers. They think he cares about their lot in life. They think he will remedy their grievances. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Trump is a shameless opportunist. He manipulates people to achieve his personal goals, then discards them. He does not care if his supporters are racists, felons, crooks or murderers. He does not care if they are xenophobes or misogynists. He will accept the support of anyone who will blindly follow his lead and put him on a pedestal — after all, exalted status is what he longs for. He desperately wants to be a dictator so that his grifting and corrupt impulses can run wild. And, remember, dictators only care about themselves and loathe people who expect anything from them.

Trump scorns those who are weak or foolish enough to need him. He does not want to be needed — he wants others to serve and satiate his needs. He thrives on their praise, adulation and unconditional loyalty. The whole concept of public service is foreign to him because he perceives every interaction is a transactional game that must be won. And winning, for him, inevitably means defeat and humiliation of the other person. In Trump's psyche, even his supporters need to be humiliated and defeated.

It is puzzling that Trump supporters have not realized that he does not give a damn about their grievances or station in life. His Republican Party literally has no platform or set of guiding principles — all that was abandoned during the 2020 campaign. Nor does the Republican Party have a single substantive policy initiative on the table. Other than conservative judicial appointments, Trump did absolutely nothing for his supporters during his miserable presidential term. Except, of course, to let them be killed by a virus and incite them to a failed overthrow of democracy.

Until Trump is gone and the Republican Party reinvents itself, Trump supporters are all alone to fend for themselves. Their cult leader is an illusion. He is a pied piper leading them only to destruction. He has brought them only pain and suffering and sold them a bill of goods consisting of lies and conspiracy theories.

All because he despises his supporters. That's the best reason why they should dump him now, before he harms them even more.

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-s-planning-to-run-again-in-2024-will-his-supporters-ever-realize-he-hates-them/