Trump and Musk -What is motivating them? What is their end goal? Partial thoughts First

Trump and Musk -What is motivating them? What is their end goal? Partial thoughts

First . . . what the heck is going on here? What are Donald Trump and Elon Musk trying to do anyway? What are their goals? What are their motivations? Why this rapid fire flurry of actions of all kinds? Most of this craziness is nothing that I noticed in Trump’s campaign promises or speeches.

Clearly, there is no reason to assume that there is either a single motivation and a single goal in these fast and varied actions, nor is it necessary to even assume that they themselves know why they are doing things. They are both, clearly, very emotional and impulsive and seem over-confident in their decision making capabilities. So it’s probably best not to over think things looking for some hidden ideological motivation here.

Some loosely linked potential evidence. I admit it’s far from completely conclusive, consider it a theory, a hypothesis.

Elon Musk, a possible resurrection of Apartheid ideology, and the Immediate targetting of USAID, whch he labelled a “criminal organization.” Why did he do that?

Elon Musk is a product of the South African Apartheid era. Elon Musk was born in the Republic of South Africa in 1971 during the Apartheid era. During this time, South African society was legally structured in a way where White South Africans had rights and privileges that their Black neighbors did not have. Whites ran the nation, controlled the economy, and owned most of the property. Black Africans had very limited rights or privileges and most pubic places were divided into Black areas and White areas. Of course, the White areas were much nicer. Should you wonder, non-Black, non-White people South Africans such as those of Asian or South Asian descent had an intermediary set of rights and travel privileges, and, just to make things thoroughly icky, rich foreign business people from Japan were often accorded honorary status equal to Whites. As a friend commented, “Ack! Those White South Africans aren’t even consistently racist when there’s money involved, I guess.”

If one grew up White in South Africa during this time, you basically had the choice of deciding your society was unjust and unfair, an action that put you in opposition to many of your friends, neighbors and family, but it did happen, 5 or you can form the opinion that the entire racially stratified, repressive South African Apartheid society where Whites were unabashedly given legal and economic advantage over non-Whites along with access to economic and educational opportunity that Blacks were denied, was in fact a sensible, good, and justified way for things to be. It would be easy to see this society as one where the “civilized” people have assumed their necessary yet rigid patronage over the “uncivilized” people.

Of course, such a belief does show lack of empathy for the Blacks but Musk has said “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.'

SNOPES -Yes, Musk said 'The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.' Here's context

He also occasionally speaks of “saving civilization.” For instance:

 

In response to a question, Elon Musk said about his $43 billion bid for Twitter: "This is not a way to sort of make money. My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important... So the future of civilization, but you don't care about the economics at all." 6

And right after he gave his two infamous Nazi salutes Musk said “it is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.” 7

I

 think that when he says “civilization,” and describes it as something that is endangered, he is referring to “White civilization,” something in other contexts I would describe as Western civilization.

We may be seeing an attempt to re-establish at least part of the White South African ideology taking place in our era and in our democratic nation where most embrace, at least in theory, racial equality and equal opportunity.

See:

Financial Times - Musk, Thiel and the shadow of apartheid South Africa by Simon Kuper Published SEP 19 2024

And why, when given the opportunity, did Elon Musk make a priority of destroying USAID, arguably one of the most benevolent of all American Federal Governmental Institutions?

Why did he, in a seemingly bizarre turn of phrase, label it “A criminal organization?”

My suspicion is that this action and the strange label “criminal organization” were because USAID was quite active in implementing the American people’s desire to help the majority of South Africans and work to dismantle Apartheid.

See:

ADST - American People’s Foreign Policy: USAID’s Role in Apartheid South Africa

ADST - Ending South African Apartheid: Guiding U.S. Policy Towards South Africa with Secret Knowledge

See:

AP- Rubio says South Africa’s ambassador to the US 'is no longer welcome' in the country ELLEN KNICKMEYER and MATTHEW LEE Fri, March 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM EDT

Donald Trump

As for Donald Trump, there is no doubt in my mind that he is a racist who looks down on darker skinned people. I admit, my African-American friends, acquaintances, and teachers noticed it before I did, but it’s there once you see it.

See the following.

(FYI, I wrote a book on Trump. ( See: Scams from the Great Beyond --The Presidential Edition: A Skeptical Look at Our 45th President Using the Tools of a Paranormal Debunker and Historian by Peter Huston ) A couple these essays are from a deleted biographical chapter on the life of Trump. They are footnoted.)

See:

History for Fun, Profit, and Insight Trump's 1970 Racial Bias in Housing Lawsuit.

History for Fun, Profit, and Insight Donald Trump and the Central Park Five --Calling for the Death Penalty for Innocent People

New York Times - Donald Trump’s Racism: The Definitive List, Updated By DAVID LEONHARDT and IAN PRASAD PHILBRICK JAN. 15, 2018

For recent developments see:

NPR- Trump ignites political firestorm in South Africa over Afrikaner asylum status offer February 13, 20255:25 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Kate Bartlett

White House - Presidential Actions Addressing Egregious Actions of The Republic of South Africa The White House February 7, 2025

And this month we have: New York Times: Trump Offers South African Farmers Expedited Citizenship By John Eligon Reporting from Johannesburg March 7, 2025

Roy Cohn, Donald Trump’s mentor back in the day

Finally, if you really want to understand Donald Trump’s personal character, you really should familiarize yourself with Roy Cohn, his mentor.

BBC - Roy Cohn: The mysterious US lawyer who helped Donald Trump rise to power 17 May 2024 by Caryn James  

4

5

For example see Wikipedia - Johnny Clegg —For reasons of space, I’m skipping music videos from the guy and his band, but you can click here: Scatterlings Of Africa - Johnny Clegg & Juluka As an aside, I just noticed this anti-Apartheid South African musician was the child of Eastern European Jewish immigrants to South Africa. It would be interesting to investigate the role of South African Jews in ending Apartheid and viewing it in connection with Musk’s occasional anti-Semitic statements.

6

India Today - Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter because it will save civilization, money is no reason, April 15, 2022 Undoubtedly there are many, many other sources. This just happened to be the first I found.

7

See: WATCH: Elon Musk speaks at Donald Trump's post-inauguration celebration at Capital One Arena PBS NewsHour

Old West Undead Miniature Wargaming Army

An Old West Undead Miniature Wargaming Army in 28mm Scale

But first, deep thoughts 

on hobbies, stress, and living a Good Life

Years ago, I set an informal personal goal of painting a different miniature wargames army each year.  As I have gotten older, I have gotten away from that, but I think it was a good goal, and I will try to get back to it. Not too small, it's a real hobby. Not too big, it is an achievable goal and a fun one.

If a hobby goal is too big, it's not achievable, and if it's not achievable it becomes frustrating and a source of stress.  And that's not the goal of a hobby. In fact, its the direct opposite of what a hobby should do. Hobbies are to destress, not increase stress, and while I, for one, have lots of unpainted figures collected over the years for several reasons, I also have a very sedentary job. Painting wargame figures does not help people, it does not make the world a better place, it does not really help me achieve my dreams (save for the small dreams involving owning nicely painted figures,), and should only paint figures when it relaxes me.

And in today's internet, social media, highly connected world, it's easy to find yourself unconsciously setting hobby goals that climb higher and higher as you try to impress your social media contacts on the other side of the world with your hobby related accomplishments or at least keep up with them. Little social media voices from strangers continuously joke about things like "You can never have too many miniatures" and the (alleged) importance of painting, painting, painting all those figures and doing so to the increasingly higher (yet admittedly wonderful and impressive) standards that we see in magazines like "Miniature Wargames" and the internet. In such cases, one needs to catch yourself, recenter, recalibrate your perspective, and remember why are doing this in the first place --to have fun and relax. 

My advice, remember that. And when you forget, as I surely will from time to time, try to catch yourself and remember why you are here.

Which brings me to photos my latest project, The Old West Undead Miniature Wargaming Army. 

The Old West Undead Miniature Wargaming Army

Figures

Figures come from a variety of sources. 

The undead or zombies come from Foundry, Reaper, Artizan (Dracula's America range), Great Escape Games, and the old 1990s Deadlands range (those are the noticably tall ones). Several are conversions made from some extra Artizan dismounted Seventh Cavalry that I had acquired but wasn't sure what to do with. Conversions often consisted of drilling holes in them with a mini-drill and adding wounds with an exacto knife. A couple undead figures from fantasy ranges were painted appropriately and slid in.

The Grim Reaper and the Cowboy Vampires on Foot were from Pontoonier but purchased through Badger Games (Many of the zombie figures were also purchased from Badger Games.)  

The Vampire on the Haunted Bicycle from Eureka's Pax Limpopo range and is sold as "French Lady on Penny Farthing." Making her a vampire was done with a carefully chosen paint job and a little bit of green stuff ectoplasm adding to the one and a half inch washer I used for her base. 

The gray coated necromancer leading the zombies is a simple conversion from Copplestone's Back of Beyond range "Mad Baron" figure. (The historical "Mad Baron" was a crazed warlord with very strange and bloodthirsty beliefs who led an army in Central Asia during the mid-war period. He may be best known for leading his army to burn Ulan Bator, the Capital of Mongolia. See: War History On-Line.  ) The figure was modifed by adding a sword to the foot figure so that he would match the mounted figure and adding gree stuff flames to the bases of both the foot and the mounted figure.

Note that both the Grim Reaper and the Mad Baron figure came in sets of a matching mounted and dismounted figures for the same character. This is how I prefer to buy figures for skirmish gaming when availability and the budget allow.

Rules

As for rules, there are a quite a lot of Old West Gunfight Rules out there. Most of them are quite good and produce good games. Several have rules for supernatural creatures, but not all do. 

I have recently started using Gunfighter's Ball rules. They produce a good game, but they are designed for smaller actions than I'd like. Although well researched, they are intended for fun but historically sound games and do not include rules for supernatural creatures. 

I have written my own rules to add the things I want to these games, but I haven't playtested them yet. Therefore, I am not ready to discuss or share them. Perhaps in the future. 

 

And please don't forget to check out the Hamchuck Writers Collective Website.

Hamchuck Writers Collective

The 1950s and the Contactee Phase of Modern UFOlogy

First, updates and news. Follow my writing at this blog, my other blog - www.peterhuston.blogspot.com and the Hamchuck Writers' Collective Website, www.hamchuckwc.com    

And you can also try my Goodreads page at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/339311.Peter_Huston Or my Amazon.com page at https://www.amazon.com/Peter-Huston/e/B000APT3YY?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1646105078&sr=8-1

I have pieces scheduled to appear, most likely within the next year in the following edited volumes. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brickcommajason/there-i-waswhen-nothing-happened?fbclid=IwAR2OgupQaj1Jzn-fBATT5hgS-DUFQadggCcu_BIi_LHZ57JCaatjk0Ne-38

There I was and . . . Nothing Happened, edited by Jason Brick. 

Buy this, or get it from the many public libraries that have expressed interest and made plans to acquire a copy (has yours? If not, why not?), and you can treat yourself to the story of how one night I almost got my face slashed to ribbons in a dive bar in Shanghai. Due out within the next year. Please enjoy the read. 

Second piece is scheduled to appear here: 

 The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony, edited by  VICENTE-JUAN BALLESTER OLMOS

For this one, I also drew on past events, and wrote about my experiences meeting Betty Hill, Richard Price, and many other UFO Abductees, of the late 1990s / early 21st century. Read it, and you can learn why I remain skeptical of their stories.

Having done extensive research into UFO claims, I decided it was time to turn my knowledge and views into a book and am working on it now. What follows is one excerpt. 

The Contactee Phase of Modern UFOlogy

 

The so-called “Contactee Phase” of UFOlogy began in the mid 1950s, less than ten years after Kenneth Arnold’s sighting. It would only make sense that if people were seeing piloted objects of unknown origin zipping around in the skey, that sooner or later someone would claim to have met their pilots. And so, it happened.

Although during this period, there were a few people who claimed such contact, George Adamski was the first and most famous. Although Adamski made his name spreading the philosophical teachings of the benevolent saucer beings who had allegedly spoken to him, prior to his claims of contact with saucer beings, Adamski had been spreading the messages of other enlightened beings and had created his own order, the Brotherhood of Tibet. In addition to this,  he ran a hamburger stand near the famous Hale Telescope and lectured on Eastern philosophy. 

The teachings of this organization, like those of Adamski’s later flying saucer related organization, were heavily influenced by Theosophy and similar organizations. Theosophy was an American religious or philosophical organization based on the teachings and ideas that Russian immigrant Helena Petrovna Blavatsky had allegedly received from Ascended Masters reported to be living in exotic places such as Tibet or Egypt. These teachings consisted of several Asian religious or mystical concepts that at that time were largely unknown or unfamiliar to Americans (such as “karma” and”reincarnation”), mixed in with reworked versions of more familiar Western fringe concepts such as the stories of Atlantis, Mu, and Lemuria, mixed in with the ideas of the spiritualists of those days such as astral projection and telepathic communication.  Although little known today, Theosophy had a lasting impact and influence on the Western intellectual landscape and many of today’s popular fringe, esoteric, “New Age,” and other pop-spiritual beliefs and ideas.  

While Adamski had limited formal schooling, he lectured regularly on such subjects using the title “Professor.” He also took advantage of prohibition and his special standing as a religious order to manufacture wine, something very much in demand when prohibition made the sale and purchase of alcohol against the law, against the law, of course, except for special religious orders.

Adamski seems to have realized that by using the public interest in flying saucers to add to his mix and attributing the messages he spread to enlightened beings from Venus, Mars, and the Moon he could better capture the public imagination, spread these messages and teachings, and get attention and profit for his organization. 

Although he and a ghost writer had together written a novel describing contact with aliens and a voyage through the solar system on a flying saucer in 1949, it was in 1950 that he gave his first lecture on “flying saucers” in which he shared the story of how the US Naval Laboratory had asked him for assistance with using the observatory to take pictures of flying saucers. Alas, the Navy denied it although the fact was that two members of their laboratory personnel had, indeed, visited his hamburger stand and bought lunch one day and they had chatted with him while doing so.

According to Adamski’s reports, it was November 20, 1952, when he made his own personal first contact with a saucer being named Orthon who came from Venus and shared important messages about how we should all be nice to each other. Ultimately, he wrote two more books on his contact with the saucer beings and lectured and travelled widely speaking on the subject. Although most flying saucer enthusiasts of the time were skeptical of the truth of Adamski’s cl;aims, nevertheless he became a regular speaker and panelist at UFO and flying saucer related gatherings for the next few decades.

In  his memoir, “Shockingly Close to the Truth –Confessions of a Grave-Robbing Ufologist,” James Moseley describes Adamski as “charming,” clearly enjoyed interacting with him, but points out several discrepancies between Adamski’s claims about the events described and the people who witnessed them. Similarly, a French biographer of Adamski, Marc Hallet, while reportedly beginning his biography of Adamski as a believer, came to a very different conclusion by the time he finished. His conclusions were summarized in the very bluntly titled, nine page document, “Why I can say Adamski is a liar.” For reasons such as those offered by these two men, as well as what astronomers have since learned about conditions on Venus, Mars, and the Moon that make it difficult to believe that they are or ever were home to the societies and peoples that Adamski described, it’s safe to say very few historians consider George Adamski’s claim of contact with enlighted beings as having taken place and being historically important events.

Nevertheless, soon there were others claiming similar experiences, telling similar stories, spreading similar teachings, and writing similar books. These included Truman Bethurum, Daniel Fry, Orfeo Angelucci, and Howard Menger.  

To put this in historical context, although all the prominent contactees began to share their stories in the 1950s, Adamski, the first, begin in 1953, they all claimed to have been interacting with the enlightened space beings for several years. Nevertheless, most historians see them as a mid-1950s cultural development.

Gordon J. Melton, scholar of new religious movements, has made a few generalizations about these contactees and their stories. In order, he offered the following. As can be seen, these points make it clear how in many ways the contactees and their stories were doing and offering a distinctly different message, experience, and approach to the issue of alleged extraterrestrial visitation than the later UFO abduction proponents.

First, and this is unlike later beliefs held in ufological circles about on-going extraterrestrial visitation to our planet, the visitors came from within our solar system. Originally, they were beings from Mars, Venus, and the Moon. Later they came from a little further, places like Jupiter and Saturn. In 1953, one contactee, Truman Bethurum began telling stories of being visited and taken on flying saucer trips by the inhabitants of the mysterious Planet Clarion, but as he also reported that this unknown world was directly opposite the Earth on the other side of the sun (and thus impossible for us to see), it was still located in the solar system. Although flying saucers from other worlds were visiting, they were not presented or said to be interstellar craft.

Second, according to Melton, “the flying saucer remains the only new element in the contactee story.” The other elements of the Contactees’ stories, argues Melton, had all been seen before in other stories, in other tales which reported the teachings of enlightened beings and otherworldly teachers. The difference was that they met their enlightened, mystical teachers through astral travel or other means, not by travel in flying saucer.        

In the reports of the Contactees, interactions with the alien saucer pilots were surprisingly easy. Communication was either done in English or through non-verbal telepathy. (As a teacher of English as a Second or Other Language, I confess that I have never understood how this could possibly happen as so much of human thought is, indeed, based in language.)

Bottom line is, however, that very little in these reports was terribly groundbreaking or eye opening.

Third, what the Contactees did share tended to be ethical and religious teachings. Very little time and focus was spent on describing the anthropological details of the alien societies or the intricacies of their technologies. In other words, the Aliens and the Contactees who had met them were much more interested in spreading messages that warned the people of Earth about the dangers of atomic weapons testing or pollution and advocating for world peace than they were interested in telling us about themselves or sharing their advanced technologies or teaching us how to make our own flying saucers.  

Fourth, the Contactees operated in a religious context. Many came from a religious or occult background or a background where the two overlapped such as Theosophy. As Peebles wrote in his excellent history,  Many founded churches or organizations devoted to spreading religious or philosophical teachings. (It needs to be mentioned, that under US law, there are many advantages to structuring an entity as a church, a fact that no doubt affected the way many contactees structured their organizations.) 

In summary, the picture presented by the contactees was that highly advanced space brothers lived in the other worlds of our solar system, and, if one was lucky enough, they would take you on a trip around the solar system on one of their flying saucers. Since their societies were free of war and disease, they had a lot to teach us and one thing in particular that they hope we would do was stop atomic testing. They offered us a message of peace and brotherhood and since they either spoke good English or else communicated through telepathy, the message was not just simple but also easy to understand. 

The whole thing was in some ways delightful. Optimistic.

Although the world was in trouble and humanity imperiled, fear                 not. There were beings out there who knew more about this than we did, and they were here to offer guidance. All we had to do was listen and believe and all would be well.

Unlike the later grays and other extraterrestrials of later decades, rather than presenting a mystery and leaving us with disturbing questions as to who were the aliens and what were they hoping to ultimately accomplish, the contactees of this era claimed to have answers for us instead.  And they were more than willing to share the answers they had obtained through lectures, radio appearances, and books.

Columbus as an Anti-racist symbol in American history, yes, you read that correctly -A couple great essays on Columbus Day

 History, like current events, tends to be complex. And when we write or speak about historical happenings, obviously, what gets discussed or reported is not necessarily what happened. Everyone knows that. 

But what's more important, is the way in which different aspects of history get looked at, emphasized, or de-emphasized. And different things become exposed or become clearer because they are looked at from different angles or perspectives. 

People tend to choose what they wish to remember, what they try to forget, and what the presumed lessons might be from real events that occurred in the past. And this changes over time.

When I was in graduate school studying Chinese history, my adviser, Sherman Cochran, simply loved a book called " Discovering History in China: American Historical Writing on the Recent Chinese Past," by Paul A. Cohen.  Every time he spoke of it, his eyes lit up. Basically it's a history of how Americans have approached the study of Chinese history and how that has changed over the decades. Very interesting. Well worth reading for the serious historian.

(You can learn more about the book here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1952590.Discovering_History_in_China )

And nowhere at the moment, is this perhaps more true than with Columbus. He's shifted from hero to villain, when the truth was, obviously, much more complex. Of course, most people know that Columbus "discovered" America by accident while engaged on a ground-breaking, high-risk attempt to open a new trade route to India. Most of us also know that he never realized that he had found a pair of new continents and that when he did land, he not only treated the indigenous inhabitants very badly, he paved the way for years of exploitation and colonialism. Yet for decades he was and to many still is, remembered as a heroic figure. This needs to be put in context and not just swept aside as uninteresting and wrong headed. If I can cite Sherman Cochran, my above mentioned thesis advisor, an important part of studying and learning history is what motivated the people of a certain time and place to do and believe the things they did? And again, with Columbus, what not only motivates the people who are quick to cast him as a villain and destroy his statues, but what also motivated the people who worked hard to put those Columbus statues there in the first place? 

The answer, interestingly, is that both groups of people, the Columbus-statue-builders, and the Columbus-statue-destroyers, were motivated by anti-racism and the desire to make the United States a more equal and culturally embracing place to live. Yes, both sides.

Here are a couple essays that I found on the subject that I think are well worth reading. They both discuss Columbus and his fame and role as a hero in the context of Roman Catholic Italian-Americans seeking Italian-American heroes and symbols at a time when Protestant White Supremacist Nativist sentiment was an important part of the American societal landscape. In other words, they speak of the use of Columbus as a symbol and force against American racism.   

The first one is by Heather Cox Richardson, a historian and history professor at Boston College. She is responding to a recent 2020 White House Proclamation celebrating Columbus day. ( https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-columbus-day-2020/?utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0konL1VlriDq137qBSx70ko0JVWbTZev-2Gl50b1W9AicHtgpNjf06FZk ) Personally, I find her essay much more interesting and thoughtful than the White House Proclamation. 

Heather Cox's essay on Columbus from October 2020.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/october-12-2020?r=4msj0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy&fbclid=IwAR2KFmRd8HvIyHfI0VJECUeCnZDtIjBhlkm31ovtnW1uekJerGX70EwK8iI

Jason Colavito is an author and popular historian who specializes in analyzing and explain the actual facts behind sensationalized claims of ancient and early history, particuarly those involving claims of "ancient aliens." Here he writes of Columbus, again, as a symbol for countering discrimiation against Itlaian Americans. 

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/the-two-faces-of-columbus-how-a-genocidal-tyrant-became-an-anti-discrimination-icon-for-italian-americans

(As another aside, again when in graduate school studying Chinese history, my thesis advisor, Magnus Fiskesjo, recommended that I read a book called "Terra Cognita -The Mental Discovery of America," by Eviatar Zerubavel. If you have any interest in Columbus and the "discovery" of the New World by Europeans, I highly recommend this book. The author is an Israeli cartographer and his focusing is to find an answer to the question of "If Columbus did not know he had found new continents, when and how did Europeans realize they had found completely new continents? A so-called "New World"? In this book Zerubavel approaches the important question, seeking answers in maps by early explorers and others to see what they were representing of their discoveries and when and how they came to realize they had "discovered" something completely new. The answer, of course, is complex, and depicts an evolution of thought as more and more evidence is collected. Again, well worth reading. 

You can learn more about the book here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/379776.Terra_Cognita

Donald Trump, Roy Cohn, and Early Life After College in Manhattan.

 Another excerpt from the cut biographical chapter of "Scams from the Great Beyond --The Presidential Edition." My upcoming book intended to explain the techniques Donald Trump uses to sway crowds and influence people. It should be helpful to people who wish to understand "the Donald Trump phenomena."

  

Donald Trump, Roy Cohn, and Early Life After College in Manhattan

Roy Cohn, an unethical lawyer, was one of Trump's most important mentors and influences.

Donald Trump and Roy Cohn, the aggressive and often unethical lawyer
who was his mentor in many ways. 

                After graduation in 1968, Trump went to work for his father, helping to manage his rental properties.

                In 1971, he fulfilled a dream and moved to Manhattan. He had always been ashamed to have come from Queens and sometimes lied about it, as his father had, telling people he was born in New Jersey.  Soon after, seeking both women and to be able to move in the chic, trendy Manhattan elite social circles, he applied to join “Le Club.” “Le Club was a then-popular night club located in Manhattan whose membership included many wealthy and powerful people.  Trump described it as “perhaps the most exclusive” members night club in New York City and said “its membership included some of the most successful men and the most beautiful women in the world,” ^[1] an interesting and notable illustration of how Trump views interactions and roles for the two sexes.

                Here he met many rich and important people, but the most important among them was undoubtedly Roy Cohn. Roy Cohn, 20 years older than Trump, was a New York City lawyer known for his aggressive and frequently bullying tactics. In many ways, Cohn became a mentor to young Trump. ^[2]

                Which is a shame as Cohn’s career showed a certain lack of adherence to moral principles that some would say he passed on to his de facto protégé. Cohn had at one time been Chief Attorney to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Senator’s notorious anti-Communist witch hunts. He was known to pursue expensive lawsuits against people designed to intimidate and harass them with little thought of the justice or morality behind the suit. Trump took up this practice.  Cohn often bought expensive things and hired people to provide expensive services and then didn’t pay for them until taken to court at which point he tried to drag out the proceedings and ultimately settle the debt for a fraction of what it was worth. Trump also has made a career out of doing this. Cohn served as a “fixer” for many people, quietly fixing problems and hushing up consequences of poor choices for wealthy clients. Cohn is also the person who introduced Trump and Rupert Murdoch, former owner of Fox News. In 1986 Cohn was disbarred for unethical and unprofessional conduct. Much of these misconduct accusations stemmed from actions taken with Roger Stone, later Trump associate, on behalf of Ronald Reagan during his 1980 campaign.^[3]    

                Cohn was not known as a terribly ethical man or as someone who took ethical stances. He was gay, largely in the closet aside from bringing handsome young men to Le Club, of the belief that if people knew he was gay they’d think he was gay, and known for publicly opposing gay rights.  He died of AIDS in 1986. Like Trump, he loved to appear in the press and the New York City papers gossip columns.^[4]

 

Finally, my books . . . 

Yeah, I've written books. Please check them out and see if they interest you.

  

---

[1] Schwartz, Tony and Trump, Donald “The Art of the Deal” (1987. Warner Brothers, New York.)

[2] Pages 33-39, Johnston, David Cay. “The Making of Donald Trump.” ( 2016. 2017. Melville House. Brooklyn.)

[3] “Roy Cohn: The Toughest, Meanest, Most Brilliant Lawyer in New York,” by Peter Carlson. NO DATE Historynet.
https://www.historynet.com/roy-cohn-the-toughest-meanest-most-brilliant-lawyer-in-new-york.htm 

[4] “THE LIFE AND TIMES of Roy Cohn,” by Geoffrey C. Ward. July/August 1988. Volume 39 Issue 5 American Heritage.
https://www.americanheritage.com/roy-cohn#1

 

Donald Trump's Immigrant Roots -Scams from the Great Beyond --The Presidential Edition

Donald Trump's Immigrant Roots

The Trump Family in America 

 I am currently working on a book on Donald Trump. A sequel to my earlier, Scams from the Great Beyond books, this one will focus on the skills and techniques Donald Trump has used to sway crowds and achieve his amazing accomplishments. (Trump is the first US President ever elected without any public service experience.) While the original outline included a biographical chapter, the editor recommended it be cut (it was taking up a third of the book and still growing.) Therefore, these blog posts.

 

 

Family and TRUMP’S IMMIGRANT ROOTS

                

Trump with an immigrant from a sh*thole country to his left,
and the child of immigrants who came through chain migration on his right. 
In other words, his mother and father.

For a man who has a thing about immigrants, Trump sure seems to have a lot of them in his family. And for a man whose slogan is “Make America Great Again,” “again,” as in in the past, his family really hasn’t been here very long. And for a man who reframed and renamed “family based immigration” as “chain migration” and told his base it was a threat to everything good and pure in the USA, there’s a lot of that, too. Make of that what you will.

                 Donald Trump’s mother was an immigrant. She came, basically, through so-called “chain-migration,” and arrived in  New York City in 1930 at age 18 where she stayed with three sisters who came first. She arrived from a place that could easily be called a “sh*thole.” She was the youngest of ten children and from a desolate, impoverished, and Gaelic speaking section of Scotland where the first world war had killed a large number of the town’s men. She left, seeking a better life overseas.

She found work as a domestic servant. Six years later in 1936, she married Fred Trump, Jr., Donald Trump’s father.^[1] Six years after that, she became an American citizen. ^[2]  

Three generations of Trump men. 

                On Donald Trump’s father’s side of the family, both his grandparents were immigrants, too. Friedrich “Fred” Trump arrived from Germany, dodging the draft, in 1885. Another chain migration case, he stayed with his sister in New York City upon arrival. He soon moved out and did well for himself running restaurants and low-cost brothels in Washington state and the Yukon during the gold rush. ^[3]  He then attempted to resettle in his homeland, but the authorities would not forgive his draft dodging.

He returned to the USA and settled in New York City where he managed a barber shop, then a hotel. At the time in New York City, these businesses were often fronts for illegal activities. A German in New York City, during world war one, he undoubtedly experienced what it was like to be an immigrant  hated by bigots.^[4] He died of the Spanish flu during the epidemic of 1918. ^[5] Since this was before Trump was born perhaps it explains why he never seemed to have learned about either the evils of bigotry or the dangers of epidemics.

In “The Art of the Deal,” his ghost written bestselling biography, Trump claims on page 66 that his father came from Sweden. Trump’s father, Fred, start this lie about his own father, because it made it easier to sell and rent property to the New York City Jewish population.   

 

Donald Trump’s father, Frederick Trump, Junior,

               

Donald Trump’s father, Frederick Trump, Junior, made his fortune in real estate. His major project was low rent housing built with government subsidies. In the post world war two baby boom era, there was a great demand for such housing. ^[6] Although Born in the Bronx, he told people he was born in New Jersey. Despite being the son of immigrants, he was involved in the KKK and showed racist tendencies throughout his life. He was investigated for profiteering. [7]

 

Finally, my books . . . 

Yeah, I've written books. Please check them out and see if they interest you.

  

---

[1] Some sources say 1934. I’ve chosen 1936 as it matches more easily with other statements made regarding her marriage.

[2] Primary source: 20th May 2016

An inconvenient truth? Donald Trump's Scottish mother was a low-earning migrant

By Martin Hannan for The National (the newspaper that supports an independent Scotland)
https://www.thenational.scot/news/14903147.an-inconvenient-truth-donald-trumps-scottish-mother-was-a-low-earning-migrant/?fbclid=IwAR3hSYAtQadS9lx3LOubYouq8dhM9uj-xoAd1OKDtu6-B8bjPtA05cwzKgk

Secondary source: Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, from Wikipedia. Accessed on August 9, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anne_MacLeod_Trump  

[3] Page 4. Johnston, David Kay. The Making of Donald Trump (2016, 2017. Melville House, Brooklyn) He cites a biography written by Gwenda Blair as his source.

[4] “Frederick Trump.” Wikipedia. Accessed on September 1, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Trump

[5] “Frederick Trump.” Wikipedia. Accessed on September 1, 2020

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Trump

[6] Page 75. Kranish, Michael and Fisher, Marc. “Trump Revealed” (2016, Simon and Schuster, New York) 

[7] Page 27-30,. Kranish, Michael and Fisher, Marc. “Trump Revealed” (2016, Simon and Schuster, New York) 

Melania, Trump Wife # 3. Oh how we love those grimacing scowls!

Melania, 

Trump Wife # 3

Another patented "TRUMPinfoDUMP" from the 

cut biographical chapter of the upcoming

"Scams from the Great Beyond --The Presidential Edition."

                Melania, is, of course, Donald Trump’s third and current wife. Of all the things about living under the Trump administration, watching Melania interact with her husband is my favorite. Melania is, of course, a former model from Eastern Europe who knowingly married a self-absorbed millionaire who she had to know had cheated on his two previous wives and divorced them with as much publicity as possible. She knew this. Put everything she does in that context.

                I know it’s evil, I know it’s wrong, and I promise I do feel guilty about it, but watching her is one of my favorite things about having Trump in the White House now. Those “don’t touch me” hand slaps in front of the airplane ramps, those “I hate being here and I hate this man too” expressions at public events when he’s not looking, the alleged plagiarism of Michelle Obama, a woman her husband can’t stand, in her 2016 speech,[1] and the same suspicion a few months later that she plagiarized Marla Maples, Trump’s second wife and another woman he can’t stand, in a later speech.[2]  And those choices, like choosing cyber bullying awareness and prevention as her cause she would promote when first lady despite her husband being a notorious cyber bully himself. Or the 2020 Republican National Convention where spoke about how America deserves an honest president and the importance of understanding our history in order to achieve racial harmony, two statements that made many listeners wonder which convention they were listening to and which presidential candidate she was really advocating for. Or those clothing choices. The “I don’t care. Do you?” jacket. The amazing “green screen” dress at the convention that enabled meme making in such an amazing way.[3]   

                The fact is that their marriage had troubles long before he won the presidency,[4] and I know she lies and doesn’t really speak all those languages she claims to, [5] or those weird claims she made about bathing Barron in caviar, [6] but that really seemed designed to promote a line of skin care products she was going to sell on QVC and did promote on The Apprentice. [7] I mean, she did wait six months to move into the White House which kind of hints at something going, (some argue she was renegotiating the pre-nuptial agreement before doing so), but, regardless, she’s there now, and, well, like I said I know it’s wrong, but it’s just so much fun to watch.    

                Melania, an immigrant in the family of our most anti-immigrant president, is from Slovenia in the former Yugoslavia. She gained the right to live in the USA through an EB-1 or “Einstein Visa” for people who show talent in a special field. If you’re wondering, she began the application process in 2000, when she was dating Donald Trump. Part of the process for applying for this is to demonstrate or show evidence of extraordinary talent in a field. Many have wondered how Melania demonstrated “extraordinary” talent as a model. Lacking demonstrable evidence of extraordinariness, this was probably done through endorsement letters from people in the modelling field. It is likely that her then boyfriend, now notoriously hard on immigration president, Donald Trump, a man with many connections and contacts in that field, pulled some strings and asked for some favors to get her such letters. [8]   She, like Ivana, is claimed to have done modelling work, working illegally in the USA, on the wrong visa, but, in fact, it appears that Melania did more of it while here on a tourist visa in 1996. Which, it has to be said, is a bit ironic considering that she’s the second wife of America’s most anti-immigrant, anti-undocumented illegal foreign worker president to, in fact, be an immigrant who worked here illegally. [9] And, as for that “chain migration” thing, well, she brought her parents here using it. [10]

                Melania and Donald Trump had a big fancy wedding with many celebrity guests. The guest list included Bill and Hillary Clinton, Chris Christie, politicians, billionaires, and countless celebrities including several of the Liberal Trump despising actors, actresses, and musical performers that now publicly criticize Trump. Some have commented that a large segment of the swamp he promised to drain has attended his three weddings over the years. [11]

Finally, my books . . . 

Yeah, I've written books. Please check them out and see if they interest you.

  

---

[1] “Melania Trump and Michelle Obama side-by-side comparison,” uploaded on July 18, 2016 by CNN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcbiGsDMmCM

“Comparing Melania Trump’s Speech With Michelle Obama’s | The New York Times,” uploaded on July 19, 2016 by The New York Times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz375GoHaMk&list=LLPeXKAAiecwg3uHOU2a6Uvg&index=656

[2] “Melania Trump leaves the media scratching its head — again,” by Callum Borchers. November 3, 2016. The Washington Post

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/03/melania-trump-leaves-the-media-scratching-its-head-again/

[3] “Melania Trump's Green Dress At The RNC Became An Instant Meme -"Melania's fashion choices always send a message," by Stephanie K. Baer. August 28, 2020. BuzzFeed News.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/skbaer/melania-trump-green-screen-dress-rnc
“Melania Trump's Bright Green Dress On Final RNC Night Screams Meme,” by Andrew Limbong. NPR
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/28/906986560/melania-trumps-bright-green-dress-on-final-rnc-night-screams-meme
“HaHA! Melania Trumps Green Dress gets green screen madeover - Seeall the styles Trump RNC Convention,” uploaded on August 27, 2020 by Tony Dortie - 24/7 Eyes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCs6S7uWn2k

[4] “What's Really Going On With Donald Trump's Marriage,” uploaded on May 24, 2017 by Nicki Swift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbUMTF8X3E8

[5] “Is Melania Trump really fluent in five languages?” uploaded on August 3, 2017 by John Aravosis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxbeaFgDS_o

[6]  

“Donald Trump's 7-Year-Old Son, Barron, Uses Caviar Moisturizer Every Night” April 11, 2013, Updated January 20, 2017. Huffington Post.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trumps-son-barron-caviar-moisturizer_n_3063299

[7] “The Real Story of Melania Trump's Defunct Skincare Line,” by Karen Bennett. May 1, 2018. The CheatSheet.

https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/the-real-story-of-melania-trumps-defunct-skincare-line.html/

[8] “What is the Einstein visa? And how did Melania Trump get one?” by Joel Gunter. March 2, 2018. 

BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43256318

[9] “Melania Trump modeled in US prior to getting work visa,” by Alicia A. Caldwell. November 4, 2016 AP News

https://apnews.com/37dc7aef0ce44077930b7436be7bfd0d/Melania-Trump-modeled-in-US-prior-to-getting-work-visa
“The huge questions about Melania Trump’s immigration history nobody will answer,” by Aaron Blake. February 21, 2018  The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2018/02/21/the-huge-questions-about-melania-trumps-immigration-history-nobody-will-answer/

[10] “Melania Trump’s Parents Become U.S. Citizens, Using ‘Chain Migration’ Trump Hates,” by Annie Correal and Emily Cochrane August 9, 2018 The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/nyregion/melania-trumps-parents-become-us-citizens.html

[11] “Trump's wedding to Melania was 15 years ago. It explains so much about our cultural moment,” by Steve Krakauer January 22, 2020. NBC News.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/trump-s-wedding-melania-was-15-years-ago-it-explains-ncna1120236