#trump is a nepo baby

[tomorrowusa]

This POLITICO article is from 2019. But little mentioned in its content has substantively changed since then except that Trump is out of office.

There are few things less real than so called "reality shows". And Trump's Apprentice shows were even less real than most of that genre.

A lot of Trump supporters are unaware that he is a nepo baby who was known mostly as a self-promoting publicity hound who suffered a string of business failures and bankruptcies prior to making it big with the Apprentice.

Who is Donald Trump? Ask Americans and many of them will describe a self-made billionaire, a business tycoon of unfathomable success. In research recently published in Political Behavior, we found that voters are not simply uninformed about President Trump’s biographical background, but misinformed—and that misinformation has serious political consequences. Large swaths of the public believe the Trump myth. Across three surveys of eligible voters from 2016 to 2018, we found that as many as half of all Americans do not know that he was born into a very wealthy family. And while Americans are divided along party lines in their assessment of Trump’s performance as president, misperceptions regarding his financial background are found among Democrats and Republicans. The narrative of Trump as self-made is simply false. Throughout his life, the president has downplayed the role his father, real estate developer Fred Trump, played in his success, claiming it was “limited to a small loan of $1 million.” That isn’t true, of course: A comprehensive New York Times investigation last year estimated that over the course of his lifetime, the younger Trump received more than $413 million in today’s dollars from his father. While this exact figure was not known before the Times’ report, it was a matter of record that by the mid-1980s, Trump had been loaned at least $14 million by his father, was loaned at least $3.5 million more in 1990, had borrowed several more million against his inheritance in the 1990s after many of his ventures failed, and had benefited enormously from his father’s political connections and co-signing on loans early in his career as a builder.

Yep, The Donald was a rich kid who spent his dad's money rather poorly. While his father Fred was despicable in his own right, at least HE really did have a successful real estate empire.

When people do discover the true story behind Trump, attitudes about him are changed in a statistically noticeable way.

On perceptions of business acumen, which are higher across both parties, the information regarding Fred Trump’s role in his son’s business success is equally important. Democrats reduce their perceptions of Trump as a good businessman by 6 points, while Republican perceptions decline by 9 points.

And the producers of the Apprentice series had to do a lot of work just to keep up Trump's image.

Apprentice Producers Struggled to Make Trump—and His Decisions—Seem Coherent

The producers were the real (evil) geniuses of the series – not Trump.

Putting the series together was incredibly time consuming. According to journalist Patrick Radden Keefe in the MSNBC clip below, they would have to shoot 300 hours of footage for every 1 hour they actually aired. That is some serious editing for a "reality" show.

Mark Burnett was the metaphorical man behind the curtain pulling the levers of Trump's business image.

In close contests, it takes only a small percentage of votes to change an electoral outcome. The reality about Trump's business image is an additional tool we can use to gnaw away at his vote totals.

[odinsblog]

Large swaths of the public believe the Trump myth. Across three surveys of eligible voters from 2016 to 2018, we found that as many as half of all Americans do not know that he was born into a very wealthy family. And while Americans are divided along party lines in their assessment of Trump’s performance as president, misperceptions regarding his financial background are found among Democrats and Republicans.

The narrative of Trump as self-made is simply false. Throughout his life, the president has downplayed the role his father, real estate developer Fred Trump, played in his success, claiming it was “limited to a small loan of $1 million.” That isn’t true, of course: A comprehensive New York Times investigation last year estimated that over the course of his lifetime, the younger Trump received more than $413 million in today’s dollars from his father. While this exact figure was not known before the Times’ report, it was a matter of record that by the mid-1980s, Trump had been loaned at least $14 million by his father, was loaned at least $3.5 million more in 1990, had borrowed several more million against his inheritance in the 1990s after many of his ventures failed, and had benefited enormously from his father’s political connections and co-signing on loans early in his career as a builder.

—The Myth of Donald Trump’s Meritocracy

[jacks-weird-world]

🎶❝Money is the anthem of success,

So before we go out, what's your address?❞🎶

💸

[slacktivist]

WHEN WAR CRIMES ARE NO LONGER ECONOMICALLY LUCRATIVE

[sebibibebi]

breaking my silence. someone please god give mick a haircut

[messenger-of-stupidity]

Dude, this is killing me.

I genuine cannot understand how trump voters are choosing this guy. Like, WHY???

This man is a nepo baby and has never worked a real day in his life.

He's friends with Diddy and praised the bastard.

He's found guilty of 34 felonies.

He wants to turn the US into a fascist country.

He was friends with Jeffery Epstein.

He's friends with Elon Musk, a fellow nepo baby who's kids don't even want to associate with him. Who think women shouldn't be able to vote. Who didn't even design Tesla, but just bought it. Who's a massive fucking hypocrite. Who is a hateful bastard.

He hypersexualizes and objectifies women.

His only real defense is anti-immigration (bullshit), anti-LGBT (more bullshit), and misogynistic (surprise surprise, even more bullshit).

He's a horrible person. He doesn't care about this country, or the majority of people in it. He doesn't care about women's bodily autonomy. He doesn't care about survival.

He feeds lies and propaganda to make you think he'll make a change.

The only thing this man cares about is power and winning. And the people that voted for him are supporting that.

And if you're worried about the economy, let me tell you something.

Democrats don't fuck up the economy. Republicans do.

The way the government system works is that every policy takes time. A republican gets into office, and starts putting forth all these policies that aren't really going to take a strong effect until their term is almost up. Then a democrat gets into office and gets the blame for the negative effects that the policy has taken. They put in changes to fix it, which takes time. Their term is up. A republican takes office, and gets the credit for the benefits, only to fuck it all up again.

Also, Kamala Harris can't use tax dollars to fund sex changes for illegal immigants (because we've all seen that one ad). That's not the way the American healthcare system works, and sex changes are done through the American healthcare system. We'd have to be more of a socialist country for our tax dollars to go towards that. (Not that anyone should care about what someone wants to do to their body to feel more comfortable in their own skin.)

This man does not care about this country, so he should not be getting votes. And not voting for Kamala or Trump isn't going to help either. Independent parties pull votes away to give power to the Republicans. Most of the people who vote outside of the two major political groups are liberals. Which makes it more likely for the Republican party to win.

Stop voting for yourself, if you do this. Vote for the people who are going to be affected. Vote for the women who are going to die because they can't get the healthcare they need. Vote for the transgender individuals who are going to be hurt and attacked for something that we should all be sympathetic for. Vote for the people who aren't going to be able to marry those they love. Vote for the people who are going to lose the ability to safely practice their religion.

I've seen so many Republican woman talk about how "well it doesn't affect me, so why should I care?"

You should care because of human decency. Because of empathy.

Also, fun fact, the more educated you are, the more likely you are to vote liberal.

(It's British, but the point remains. I couldn't find the one specific towards US statistics. But it's almost 2 in the morning, so forgive me.)

And one of the first groups to be attacked in a fascist state is the more educated and intellectual individuals.

Secondly... Do you really want this being the face of America for four more years?

[liberalsarecool]

Every accusation is a confession.

So telling that Conservatives attack DEI, a policy that helps everyone [looking at you Appalachia], a policy that creates a pathway to success for white people just as much as anyone else, and use it to smear black competence and black excellence as unearned, all while turning a blind eye to white elites in Conservative culture with extreme unearned positions.

When the Right Wing whines about 'didn't earn it', they are talking about nepo baby Trump and his third generation of grifter scam artist children.

[shredsandpatches]

every time i think of that post about how the correct way to understand Richard II is as a trump-like nepo baby a little piece of my soul dies

(Also the post seems to be predicated on the assumption that Richard is meant to be the villain of the piece and I think that thinking of the play in terms of heroes and villains is deeply wrong-headed)

a very important element of Richard's character is that he was BORN INTO political power and there is only one way out of that, something that Richard makes explicit before anyone else in the play does and refuses to let anyone pretend it's otherwise. That's very different from rich people in a present day secular democracy believing they're entitled to power! Also if you associate Richard with the modern-day far right you're going to end up in very uncomfortable places at the end of the play because it's not like Bolingbroke is a heroic figure either and if you frame him as one you are just going "well both sides are the same" which is a much more valid take on feudal monarchy than on our current state of affairs! He sucks too, he just sucks differently! And he's also a nepo baby because THAT IS HOW ARISTOCRACY WORKS

[ouranfics]

Who the Until Dawn Characters Voted for: ELECTION DAY SPECIAL

Hannah voted for Kamala but she needed convincing. She was absolutely going to vote for Jill Stein but Sam talked her out of it after saying that it would just give votes to Trump.

Beth voted for Kamala too, but was with her from the start. As soon as Biden dropped out of the race she kept saying it’s time for a Kamalanomenon.

Sam ABSOLUTELY voted for Kamala. SHE IS A VEGAN ROCK CLIMBER AND ANIMAL ACTIVIST. She loves the idea of taxing the rich even though her best friends are all nepo babies.

Josh probably wanted to write in himself but his state didn’t have a write in box so he just voted for Kamala.

Mike voted for RFK.

Jessica accidentally filled in the box for Trump and started panicking so she had to go back to the registration table to get another ballot. Besides this little fumble she voted for Kamala, she might not be a girls girl but she does not want the orange back in office.

Emily voted for Kamala and announces it proudly. She is so tired of old men being in office and needs a woman to be in this position of power.

Matt voted for Kamala because Emily told him to.

Chris voted for Kamala because of her clean energy initiatives, idk I headcanon him as a climate activist even though he couldn’t handle not having wifi. He is still gen z okay.

Ashley filled in the straight democrat box and turned in her ballot. She knew what she wanted.

THIS IS YOUR REMINDER TO PLEASE GO VOTE! i know technically all of these characters are canadian but i wanted to write this for the laughs u know hehe.

[tomorrowusa]

It's sadly hilarious how some incel Trump fanboys consider him to be a hyper-masculine role model. Being a bullying nepo baby with creeping dementia does not make somebody a superhero.

In fact, he's a pathetic wimp who tries to make up for his deep insecurity with fulminating rants which consist of fantasies, self-aggrandizement, and verbose threats – but seldom any reality.

[miriam-heddy]

Fascinating. When Buck and Tommy were together, LouAnon fans hated Ryan Guzman. But now that LouAnon’s gone, they’ve redirected the hate to Oliver Stark.

And that may explain the seemingly purposeful misreading of Oliver’s interviews.

I’ve also seen people argue that it’s Oliver’s fault that Tommy’s gone. And that it was Oliver’s responsibility to defend Lou?

And that that Oliver isn’t a good actor and has no resume, which is odd because he’s NOT a nepo-baby and has been on a hit show for the 8th year after having been on another show before that for 3 years. And before that he was working in the UK.

This all might seem pretty damned strange. But Trump’s getting a second chance to fuck up Earth. So… yeah. We’re in the Upside Down.

[jacks-weird-world]

Vogue replaced the word "nepobaby" with "pedigree" 🐶. Cause, u know, if he were to depend on his own merits...

Funny the subtly underlined link redirecting to his Tik Tok... Negative marketing is the new thing now. Of course, in a mass culture – especially North American – it’s worth doing anything to win and generate buzz, Including using the sensationalism strategy!

https://www.vogue.com/article/jack-schlossberg-first-presidential-debate-2024

[centrally-unplanned]

How did dems shoot themselves in the foot with Latino voters? What did they do

I don't think there is one answer or any settled answer to this - in some respects of course the answer is "how did Trump successfully court Latino voters", he was president after all, and sometimes you just lose out to positive actions from the opponent.

IMO most of the evidence suggests that A: Latinos, like black voters, are more socially conservative than white voters within the Dem coalition (or even amoung independent voters), and less left in a general sense. But unlike black voters, latino voters do not have historically hyper-deep political orgs tied into the democratic party to keep them on their side despite the shifting views of the party. So in the 2010's - particularly when Trump was president and there was no democratic policy to evaluate, only their words as opposition & like media/vibes - the left shift on cultural topics, from racial politics to queer/identity issues and so on (or more muddled topics like Covid policy), was isolating to Latino voters. And this was paired with a generalized "taking them for granted" amoung many operatives - like they were just assuming Latinos would be opposed to Republican rhetoric on immigration, but no, they are quite capable of being just as nativist as anyone else (a human trait, that), and additionally tended to live in the communities most "exposed" to undocumented immigration waves and so many groups had negative opinions. Hispanic Americans are diverse, and Dem messaging didn't acknowledge that.

I also think that the 2020 crime wave should be its own point here too. In the summer of 2020, the Democratic party became vibe-associated with harsh anti-police sentiment, and then in the summer/fall of 2020 the US had a huge spike in crime, particularly violent crime like murder. Like black voters, Latino voters tend to disproportionately be the victims of crime, and thus are typically more "law and order" minded - and additionally don't have the same relationship with police black Americans might have that complicates that pattern voting-wise. So, even if imo it was pretty unfair because it wasn't like actual Democratic politicians (outside of a few cities where they almost immediately backtracked) ever themselves supported cutting police funding and Trump was president at the time, the Dems got heavily viewed as the weak party on crime, and that voting block heavily punished them in 2020. That block had a lot of Latino voters in it.

But I have no doubt there are other stories to spin. Like in the current election Robert F Kennedy disproportionally has Latino supporters. Probably some level of growing "anti establishment" sense there, and Trump (hilariously, as nepo baby billionaire megadonor former president) has the outsider brand in US politics right now, so 2020 may have reflected that.

[codecicle]

trump turned a question about him being handed money and not struggling as a nepo-baby into. Harris preforming transgender operations buzzwords buzzwords. Can we cut the cameras

[saucerfulofsins]

Same anon as before, and wow, you really get it.

And I know we can’t really say for certain what he was meaning in those interviews…he seemed pretty scattered, and maybe he was coming off a certain way and we’re just reading it wrong. But I really don’t think so.

Judging from the stuff people found from his older social media days, he seems like a pretty misogynistic guy, and that typically goes hand in hand with being homophobic and a bigot. That’s just a fact.

I think it’s shitty for him to take a job playing a character that he in his real life would most likely want nothing to do with, but I guess if the money is right someone like that will do whatever.

My husband clocked it immediately and said, “oh this man is way too much of an asshole to play a gay man, he’s hating this.” And I was like, so you see it too??? I guess it wasn’t just my Buddie obsessed brain running into overdrive.

I think it’s a shame because Oliver clearly put so much care into playing a bi character and that meant so much to me as a bi person. Oliver did everything perfectly and is so sweet and gentle about it, and he got stuck with such a creep to do his scenes with. I just hope it’s over soon.

Yeah, so... like I said in the tags on my previous response, I know a lot of guys who aren't homophobic. Like, "will kiss other guys for fun" and "are open to the possibility of being attracted to/falling in love with a man" not-homophobic. (Also, these men are distinct from bicurious because they know they aren't into men).

And LFJ's interview read as the opposite. You know how sometimes people with no knowledge still sound like they're at least accepting, in their own way? This sounds like someone with minimal knowledge trying to pass as accepting. And he's failing.

Even if things are coming off wrong, I think it's pretty egregious that someone who is a professional actor doesn't interview well at all, as well as nobody who wants him portrayed positively stopping the release of this interview. I don't think ABC needs him to be a shining light of representation (I don't think they WANT him to be at this point, the interview matches the vibes in the deleted scene), but his agency not taking measures here is fucking weird.

But yeah. It's the while package isn't it? The egocentrism, the focus on masculine masculinity and being cool, the misogyny he doesn't even CLOCK (sorry but why did Hen have to prove herself BECAUSE shes a woman?), the whole "lgbt spectrum" thing (huerk red flag), the trump support, racism etc etc on top of the uhh nepo baby vibes all of which just fucking send me. So much of this ISNT difficult!

And like yeah, actually Oliver is the opposite end of the... for lack of a better word, spectrum. He uses the word bisexual! He's doing this with a very clear intention, he's very open about Buck, and I'll be honest, I find it VERY refreshing. I know some younger actors (late teens/early 20s) have been cool about queerness, but having someone my actual age have these takes is... very healing, I won't lie. Because there definitely is a big difference in those 10 years and how we grew up?

But yeah, I can't imagine Tommy staying on the show. The fact he was meant to stay for 4 is kinda telling to begin with, and I personally wouldn't be surprised if they leaned into LFJ's creep vibes to aid Tommy's characterization. That's interesting because LFJ doesn't seem to realize any of that which... very telling! Very limited!! Tommy and Buck aren't very close, but for me, his absence during Chim's bachelor party is VERY telling. There's no reason Tommy had to leave, from a writer's perspective. That emergency was fake. It wouldn't have taken much of LFJ's time to be at those shoots, especially considering he was there for some of it anyway. And the party was important to Buck!!!! (Eddie looked so bitchy! The Buddie couple costume to hammer their pairing home! Etc).

So yeah. I fully believe it will be over soon, because there's just nothing there and besides LFJ and a handful of fans, I haven't seen any full support for the pairing... least of all from the show. He's as flat as flat characters come, a complete stereotype, and that for a show that rests predominantly on its characters! It's pretty damning, actually.

I guess what I'm hoping for is Tommy showing up a couple more times, Buck realising Tommy's hella toxic AND recognising his own patterns, breaking up with him, and figuring out not just what bisexuality really means to him but also the kind of relationship BUCK wants (versus someone else prompting Buck/falling for ONE aspect of him and never seeing the rest). He deserves that much, above everything else, and I don't think Tommy is leaving ANY room for that (possibly the least of all his relationships) .