@ecksmc I, too, never thought he'd get the nomination. As an NYC native I knew what a criminal he was. I truly thought it was just another grift, a way to pocket campaign funds from bigots. Which it was... but it didn't stop there.

I know so many people he ripped off who worked on his buildings. Lives ruined. And yet he won, & the scale of his grift went global.

We will never undo the damage. May he rot in prison & beyond.

@Sheree the only real reason he ran at that time was his debt

his massive debts were about to he called in mainly from Deutsche Bank he thought running would ease that pressure while grifting on the side to help him ease that pressure even more

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-22/deutsche-bank-s-reworking-a-big-trump-loan-as-inauguration-nears

yup that was my main findings how he bullied small businesses who had done work for him and never paid they would sue he would counter sue ending their business or them dropping the claim

@Sheree oh and then we have this

an estimated $45 million of outstanding Deutsche Bank debt, which comes due in 2024

i bet there are a lot people with squeaky bums in banks around the world

the bank could theoretically go after trumps properties—as well as other Trump assets—to get its money back

@ecksmc It's horrifying. He'll manage to screw people who never knowingly did business with him.

Note too that this brilliant businessman inherited a fortune from his equally sketchy father & squandered it. He'd still be ridiculously wealthy if he had just invested it & lived off the proceeds.

@ecksmc I never understood how he got away with it over all those years & all those ventures. The Mango Mafia.

I also never watched his TV show, assumed it must be a parody. I mean, EVERYONE knew he was a gangster & not a successful businessman, right?

My thinking was too influenced by the NYC bubble. I've sure expanded my horizons since then.

@Sheree some did, most didn't

inho i blame the media

they did report some of his failures but ultimately they did help him cover up and made him a celebrity figure even though they knew his past - they let him control the narrative - they helped him wash away the dodgy part of him from the public eye

the media didn't do its job when he announced he was running instead of reporting the facts about his past and connections to real dodgy criminals they focused on his tweets, mainly

@ecksmc @Sheree
You're right, E. The media -- and the damn Russians -- repainted him as some kind of success who cared about people, and that could not be farther from the truth.

@ecksmc Agree. After he announced I spent a lot of time yelling at Joe & Mika & tons of other media whores looking to boost their profiles on his outrageousness. Haberman & most of the NYT staff were complicit. Faux News, of course. Parroting his lies is not reporting.

They amplified his taking serious issues & treating them with taunts & sound bytes. He should have been ignored.

I don't know if we can ever crawl out of his filth.

@Sheree @ecksmc
It is unfortunate that people outside of New York didn't fully appreciate or understand how awful Trump is.

I feel like there's a lesson in there, somewhere?

I remember people telling me he'd lost all his money and was not impressive, but I had no idea the full scale of his grift and malignant narcissism.

@Sheree @ecksmc
Disclaimer: BEFORE he ran, I had no idea of how awful he is. Obviously, I do now!

Just clearing that up. 😁

@janallmac @Sheree thing that got me was all the info is there it's all public - his audience don't care about facts though that's a big issue

he knew his audience you could say he's been grooming them for years just waiting to pull the trigger

he's always pushed conspiracy theories - and with the help from Cambridge analyst's - he knew how to push people's buttons and target that audience

@ecksmc @janallmac Every accusation is a confession. Sheep. Lock Her Up. Biden Crime Family.

The other scary thing outside of his bringing out the worst in folks is his access to info. You know he sold our secrets & those of our allies to Russia, China, the Saudis. We won't know the damage done for decades, if ever.

@Sheree @ecksmc
I agree 100%. He should never have had access to that information. It's ironic, isn't it, that he says "Make America Great Again" while in reality he was making us and our allies and friends much weaker and more vulnerable.

@ecksmc @Sheree
I do ask myself why people were so eager to believe what he was selling.

He knows our biggest weaknesses as a country/collective. Racism, sexism, love for wealth, love for guns and violence -- these are things the US has woven in our culture. They damage us, collectively. They are our self-undoing as a group.

And I don't mean everybody's a racist sexist gun obsessed warmonger, that's ridiculous! No.

Trump capitalized on those weaknesses. And he looked rich. Fooled people.

@ecksmc @Sheree
And you know what else? There are regional/class divides that cause people to look down on each other and treat each other badly.

Trump capitalized the hell out of that unfortunate fact.

It's all a big, complicated mess, and I hope so, so very much we collectively get our act together and start behaving with some pride and decency and frankly love towards each other.

I feel like the indictment is a start. Maybe. 🤞

@janallmac @Sheree like I said he knew his audience

he aimed it at the people who probably wouldn't have bothered voting and those who were on the fence

btw Boris Johnson done the exact same thing in UK he got people to vote who wouldn't have and got those on the fence to lean his way < it's simple manipulation tell them what they wanna hear