Beyond mere bragging
A judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.
Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.
Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York, and said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee the Trump Organization’s operations.
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Beyond mere bragging about his riches, Trump, his company and key executives repeatedly lied about them on his annual financial statements, reaping rewards such as favorable loan terms and lower insurance costs, Engoron found.
Those tactics crossed a line and violated the law, the judge said, rejecting Trump’s contention that a disclaimer on the financial statements absolved him of any wrongdoing.
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Engoron found that Trump consistently overvalued Mar-a-Lago on his financial statements between 2014 and 2021, inflating its value on one statement by 2,300%, and rebuked him for lying about the size of his Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan. Trump claimed the three-story penthouse was nearly three times its actual size, valuing the property at $327 million.
Thoughts about dick measurements inevitably intrude.
He also overestimates his intelligence by at least 2,300%.
He’s a liar through and through. He lies about anything and everything. He occasionally makes a true statement, but he couldn’t stop lying if his life depended on it, which at present it pretty much does. He has no morals, no compunctions, no conscience, nothing. I will never understand how so many people can’t see that.
Ok, but are you aware that Joe Biden is OLD?!!!!
I am no lawyer, but my understanding is the the US Consitution allows the President to issue a declaration of war, and to take the country to war as Roosevelt did following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941.
So…. What is to stop Trump if he wins office again from using that power to declare was on the Constitution itself in the name of MAGA,? On the way through, he could declare himself President for Life, as ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier did in Haiti.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Papa Doc also saw fit to pass the word around that he was a real-life zombie. That could easily and convincingly work for Trump as well. IMHO.
Trump Tower is really just three storeys high and capped with a mushroom-shaped dome.
Omar,
You are technically incorrect. Article I, Section 8 gives Congress the power to declare war.
But your concern is still entirely valid. These days, formal declarations of war are rare. Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, were all done pursuant to some vague Congressional authorization that was not an actual declaration of war. The President has enormous power to order all sorts of military strikes and other action without any Congressional authorization. The exact legal line of what the President’s Commander-in-Chief authority allows him to do, and under what circumstances, is murky, but the practical power is not.
Screechy Monkey, you saved me the trouble, and since you are a lawyer, your word means more than mine.
I have discovered that most people seem to think the Constitution gives the president almost unlimited power, when it really established a rather weak chief executive…which hasn’t, of course, stopped presidents from seizing more and more power, and Congress hasn’t bothered to stop them.
Trump seems to believe the president is more of an emperor or king, and that he had absolute power. He ignored the people who said no you don’t, and did what he wanted anyway. Impeached twice, but acquitted by a Senate controlled by Republicans, and even those like Susan Collins who were not Trumpistas weren’t willing to jump ship and vote honestly.
If he gets to be president again, he’ll do exactly what he wants, whether he can or not. He’s demonstrated amply that he doesn’t really care about the rule of law, at least not to apply to rich white males. I worry the only thing that could stop him is a military coup, and I hate the idea of living under a military government almost as much as I hate the idea of living under Trump’s rule.
As to the specific question of FDR and Japan, FDR’s speech about Pearl Harbor (“a day which will live in infamy”) specifically says “I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese Empire.”
Congress promptly obliged with a near-unanimous declaration of war on Japan. That led to Japan’s allies declaring war on the U.S. as well, which in turn brought a subsequent declaration by the U.S. of war on Germany and Italy.