#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.

[republikkkanorcs]

[sher-ee]

Bloop.

[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

[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

[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.

[tomorrowusa]

Democrats have been missing an opportunity for 9 years by not bringing up the issue of the alleged bone spur{s} which got Trump out of being drafted for military service during the war in Vietnam.

Memes and stickers with the slogan SHOW US THE X-RAYS! should be produced in mass quantities.

New York Times: Daughters of foot doctor say he diagnosed Trump with bone spurs as ‘favor’ to Fred Trump

Relatively few people may care directly about Trump being a nepo baby draft dodger. But the issue does put Trump on the defensive and causes him to get distracted from his usual playlist of self-pity. And when Trump gets distracted, he goes off on typically weird tangents like sharks & boat batteries, Hannibal Lecter, or how Democrats are somehow plotting to rename Pennsylvania.

So Weird Donald, SHOW US THE X-RAYS! 🩻

[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) .

[velandvithestarlightgullwings]

Only the Knowingly Ignorant and the Privileged decide to sit out Voting

As a black women that has not only engaged in both online and offline canvassing but have engaged in tons of arguments and debates on Reddit, Tumblr, Tik Tok (not twitter because Nepo Baby Elmo Muskrat will never get my patronage), I've talked to many of people, Gay, Enby, Straight, Black, White, Rich, Poor, Young, and Old. I've been talking so much, I hate the sound of my voice. And I've noticed a trend. There have been so many people who need to vote refuses to do.

Whether its from a defeatist mindset that their vote means nothing, the "Enlightened Centrists" (That always tend to have more complaints about democratic party than the GQP) that like to preach that BoTh SiDeS bAd who will often invoke George Carlin (one of my faves) while not understanding that he was a staunch liberal and would actively shit on them had he lived to this point, voting Third/Green Party, or the Palestine-Israel conflict, and those that need the US to fall to bring a new, left leaning country from its ashes.

The truth is that those that live in privilege or willfully ignorant will often cite these excuses. Now, I'm not talking about the uninformed. That group are sincerely not in the know and just need a gentle push to get them on the right path of understanding. They legit only vote like every four years and need to be caught up because live is tough out there and they don't have enough time to be this deep into politics.

I mean the ones that purposely ignore any sort of information given to them and will choose not to vote for any of the reasons above. They will refuse reason to a near insane degree to keep themselves willingly ignorant and the privileged that believe "Oh, it can never happen in the good US of A!" or "I'm Rich as fuck, this won't touch me!" or even "I will make YOU burn for Palestine, even if they won't feel YOUR warmth because YOU have to suffer with them!"

You can lead those horses to water but they will refuse to drink.

They know about women rights being stripped away, they know that LGBTQ people are being seen as something they are not, they KNOW that predominately black and other POC will suffer the most from Trump's Agenda 47/Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, and they know that if America, being the leader of the free world (Whether they want to admit it or not) falls to Trump again, many other countries will follow suit.

And yet they will still say "Well, my vote won't matter/still voting Stein/MAGA 2024!/It won't happen here/Both sides still bad/Palestine needs to be saved, so nyeh!"

So, I want to go point-by-point to debunk all of this.

Both Sides Bad: Now, this one should be easy to debunk. While many of us is aware that both the Democratic Party and the GQP, much like us Poors, live by Wu Tang's C.R.E.A.M, there are a lot of fucking differences.

When one side is actively trying to strip rights away, burn books, call those in the LGBTQ family groomers, threaten teachers and librarians for teaching their students, make Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion an outright slur, and other heinous shit in the name of their version of GOD aka while the other side is dragging them kicking and screaming toward progress, both sides are definitely not the same.

Hell, the GQP seem to not even life by C.R.E.A.M because the reality is that they are constantly making horrible decisions that are costing the country money. (But then again, if Black people and other "Undesirables" gain from it, they will do all they can to fuck everyone over but that's a discussion for another day.)

Green Party/Third Party Voting: When was the last time a third party won anything? I'll answer that. NONE. The only one who was close was Teddy Roosevelt and even he couldn't do it. Even Bernie Sanders, someone who ran as independent, realized that it was better to work with the Democratic Party to get anything done.

Until Ranked Voting becomes a thing, the Third/Green Party will never win anything. And even outside of that, let's look at our choices. Jill Stein, a known Putin Shill, Cornell West, a known tap-dancer for those sweet, sweet MAGA dollars, and RF-Oh wait! RFK JR is on Trump's side because he was always a stooge that was there to try to take votes from Biden, only to take votes from Trump with his dog-eating, sexual assaulting, bear killing, whale killing, self.

Hm, I see how that could happen.

So with a Tap Dancer and a Putin Shill as the leaders of the Third/Green Party, they are just shades of red.

Voting doesn't matter: Now this is just objectively false as the GQP have been trying to restrict voting in many ways from gerrymandering to outright purging voters (as seen in Texas) and if we look at history, so many elections (not only nationally but statewide) have been narrow as fuck with only a handful deciding it all.

It won't Happen Here: This one is also objectively false. People have often said that Project 2025/Trump's Agenda 47 is a "Leftist Boogeyman" while not understanding that a lot of what is in there is happening in many states already such as Florida, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana for example with voters rights being hindered, women's rights being ripped apart and climate change causing plenty of damage, and CRT being under constant attack.

Look at how many doctors have fled from these states since RvW (Which was all thanks to Trump's two SC picks and surprise, also in P2025) was struck down, causing women to be in grave danger down there. Look at how Trans people can't even change their names and are being put on some kind of watchlist. and do I need to talk about the million of voters that were just purged and that Latino woman's house being raided for legally helping people register to vote?

Palestine: I've railed against the performers about this subject plenty and I'm honestly sick of it. This entire conflict has been going on for 78 years versus one year that people realized it was the next protest trend after their love of Ukraine died. All that Palestinians wanted was for us to make things known and donate to their causes and that turned into "We all have to die to make sure they live" which actually means "YOU have to lose all your rights and die so THEY can lose and die" because we all know that if Trump wins, his bestest buddy Netanyahu can destroy Palestine without impunity and without Harris calling for that pesky Ceasefire. Also with the help of Jared Kushner, Trump can make that beachfront property that would look oh so good.

Palestine already told us what they need to do to help and that is to make sure Trump doesn't win and many seem to not know that because they are doing what they THINK they want them to do. And if proof is needed, look at my Tumblr page as I have proof of all the points that I have made and tons of reblogs with FURTHER proof.

And finally...

Anarchists and Accelerationism: This one just pisses me off. A lot of people who have railed against people voting and voting for third parties and Trump believe that if Trump wins, a revolution will come and they will achieve their perfect leftist paradise from the ashes.

SHUT THE FUCK UP WITH YOUR FANFIC BULLSHIT!

Do you understand that with any revolution comes death and a loser? The first group of people that will suffer is not the rich fucks that rule, it will be you, your family, your friends and that's later on down the line.

The first group that will suffer immediately would be Black people and only minorities. We would be the first ones dying for this so-called revolution before anyone else would feel it. And not only that, you all act like you would win when the GQP would be the ones with the army and the hightech weapons while you have what? WHAT? You're just talking out of your ass.

It is very, very rare that the underdogs win and on the sliiiim chance the revolution wins, what will be left? Look at other countries who did the revolution and then look at the immediate destruction and destabilization that happened, which then gave way to more atrocities which put the "Winners" in an even worse state they were in at the start.

And those that want this don't even realize that they won't be the leader of the resistance. They will either be dead or an underling.

Wake up from that dream.

So if any of you see anyone saying "Don't vote" and they AREN'T Palestinians (because I will not hold them to this), don't even entertain their bullshit because they are in

[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