CANDIDATE: Donald J. Trump
PARTY AFFILIATION: Republican
DOB: June 14, 1946
OCCUPATION: Billionaire businessman, Reality TV Star
POLITICAL HISTORY: None
In politics, records count for more than campaign promises. Donald Trump, like all candidates, is working to shape a favorable public image of himself. It is essential that the voters look beyond the bumper sticker slogans and take a look at where the candidate has actually stood on serious issues affecting liberty.
ON VIOLATING PROPERTY RIGHTS
Among the most egregious Supreme Court decisions of this generation was Kelo v. City of New London, a case in which the court decided that it was “constitutional” for the government to confiscate private property using eminent domain power and then hand it over to well-connected private entities for private use. The practice constitutes nothing more than outright theft. Mr. Trump voiced approval, saying, “I happen to agree with it 100 percent” in an interview with Neil Cavuto [Fox News, 19 July 2005]. The billionaire later went to be the beneficiary of the government using that power against property owners. Most egregiously, Trump tried to evict an elderly widow to expand an Atlantic City casino [Source: Club For Growth].
ON CRUSHING THE FREE MARKET
Trump’s record on economics has been alarmingly statist. He has expressed eagerness to use the government to prop up corporations and crush individual economic rights. In 2008, he advocated bailouts for the too-big-to-fail corporations. Regarding the “Big Three” auto companies, Trump promoted a federal bailout, saying to Neil Kavuto, “I think the government should stand behind them 100 percent… You cannot lose the auto companies” [Source: Fox News, 17 Dec. 2008]. Similarly, he gave support to the TARP bailout, saying to CNN’s Kiran Chetry, “I think it would be better if it passed” [Source: CNN, 30 Sep. 2008]. He also clamored for a government takeover of healthcare in the 1990s, describing himself as “very liberal when it comes to health care,” and writing “We must have universal health care” [Source: The America We Deserve]. All of these positions represent a rejection of the free market and a propensity for confiscating wealth and placing it in the hands of corporate elites and government bureaucrats.
ON GUN PROHIBITION
Recently, Mr. Trump has been buttering up constituents by telling them he supports gun ownership and gun rights. But his record tells another story. Trump has spent decades funding anti-gun politicians (see below) and has been vocal about his own eagerness for government restrictions and gun prohibition. In his book, Trump wrote, “I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun” [Source: The America We Deserve, p. 102]. When confronted about these comments, Trump eluded and never actually admitted that he had changed his mind since the book was written [Source: AmmoLand].
ON SUPPORTING THE ESTABLISHMENT
Mr. Trump has a long history of donating to big-government candidates and helping the worst of the Washington establishment stay in power. It would be enough of a red flag if his support were limited to his own party (Republican), but Trump has also spent a fortune — over $500,000 — propping up establishment Democrats.
Trump’s beneficiaries over the past twenty years has included a number of high-powered, liberty-stomping U.S. Senators, including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD), Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Congressional recipients included House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY). Trump also backed former Pennsylvania governor Edward G. Rendell (D), Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D), generously backed Karl Rove’s SuperPAC American Crossroads, and provided over $100,000 to the Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation. [Sources: CNN, The Hill, WaPo]
Trump has recently been busy spouting rhetoric to distance himself from Democrats — and especially his opponent, Hillary Clinton — but words only count for so much. His decades-long support of big-government politics tells a more accurate story than his campaign speeches ever could.
ON EXECUTING WHISTLEBLOWERS
When it comes to dealing with Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who risked his freedom to expose the agency’s elaborate domestic spying program, Mr. Trump espoused the harshest words yet. “I think Snowden is a terrible threat, I think he’s a terrible traitor, and you know what we used to do in the good old days when we were a strong country — you know what we used to do to traitors, right?” Trump said to Eric Bolling on “Fox & Friends.” Bolling provided the answer: “Well, you killed them, Donald” [Source: Politico].
