Since Donald Trump's "Major Announcement" the week before last turned out to be his attempt to sell ridiculous "digital trading cards" featuring his head photoshopped onto cartoon bodies he only wishes he had, Republicans have begun to abandon him. It is puzzling, to put it mildly, that this latest grift in a lifetime of grifting could be Trump's bridge too far for many Republicans.
Let us consider a few of the things Donald Trump has done and said that were not enough to get his fellow Republicans to turn against him, and how his supporters apparently reacted:
Taking more than $400 million (in today's dollars) from his father and, during the decade between 1985 and 1994, losing more than a billion — more than anyone else in America — and declaring bankruptcy several times while claiming to be a great businessman?
Losing vast amounts of money while running a casino, a business where the house always wins?
Well, look at all those buildings with his name on them — and his private jet!
♦ ♦ ♦
Using fake names to pretend to be his own publicist and calling reporters to spread stories that he was having sex with many top celebrities?
Everybody likes to blow their own horn!
Reacting to the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 by claiming that the building he owned on Wall Street had been "the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan — and now it's the tallest"?
Gaining celebrity fame by telling people, "You're fired"?
Declaring "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters."
He's so smart — and so funny!
♦ ♦ ♦
Allegedly raping his first wife in a fit of rage and casually asking her the next morning, "Does it hurt"?
Describing Marla Maples his mistress at the time, as "nice tits, no brains"?
Declaring, "You know, it really doesn't matter what they write [about you] as long as you've got a young and beautiful piece of ass"?
Bragging almost constantly about all the other women he had sex with while married?
Responding to a question about whether he'd ever had a "threesome" by claiming he had "slept with" three women at the same time?
Proclaiming, "I'd rather have a retarded hot woman than a slob who's a doctor"?
Describing reporter Megyn Kelly, after she asked him difficult questions in a debate, as having "blood coming out of her wherever"?
Calling women "bimbos, "fat pigs, "dogs," "slobs" and "disgusting animals"?
Boasting, "I did try and fuck her. She was married, and I moved on her very heavily … I moved on her like a bitch!"?
Saying, in the most famous hot-mic moment in history, that he likes to "grab 'em by the pussy"?
That's just what men do!
♦ ♦ ♦
Boasting on worldwide television about the size of his penis?
Proclaiming at a dinner party during the 2016 campaign, "I don't need Viagra. I need a pill to make my erection go down"
That's just what men do!
♦ ♦ ♦
When asked if he had a lower age limit for women he'd have sex with, first responding, "No," but then catching himself: "No, I have no age — I mean, I have an age limit. I don't want to be … with, you know, 12-year-olds," and then saying that 35 is "checkout time" for women, perhaps indicating that his preferred age range is between 13 to 35?
Obviously lusting for his daughter, saying, "If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I would be dating her. ... Don't you think my daughter's hot? She's hot, right. ... She's really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren't happily married and, you know, her father ," and then answering a question about what he has most in common with his daughter with. "Well, I was going to say sex …"?
Democrats are groomers and pedophiles!
♦ ♦ ♦
Calling Mexicans drug dealers and rapists?
Admitting that his "university" was a scam?
Refusing to release his income tax returns?
Asking Russia to help him dig dirt on a political opponent?
Mocking a person with a disability?
Intentionally separating migrant children from their families and putting children in cages?
Huh. What's the problem?
♦ ♦ ♦
Faking "bone spurs" to avoid being drafted and later saying he felt "like a great and very brave soldier" in his "personal Vietnam" of avoiding STDs from all the girls he had sex with while other men were overseas, because vaginas are "potential landmines"?
Saying of John McCain, "He's not a war hero; I like people who weren't captured"?
Referring to American service members killed in wars as "losers" and "suckers" and refusing to visit a military cemetery when it was raining because it might mess up his hair?
He is a true patriot and a true American!
♦ ♦ ♦
Hovering over Hillary Clinton like a stalker during a debate?
But her emails!
♦ ♦ ♦
Insisting that his obviously small Inauguration crowd was the largest in history?
Introducing the concept of "alternative facts" (also known as lies)?
Inviting the Russian foreign minister and ambassador into the Oval Office, yucking it up with them and spilling some top secret intelligence?
Telling people that climate change is a Chinese hoax, and taking the United States out of the Paris climate accords?
Doing everything he could to undermine NATO and help Vladimir Putin?
Scuttling the Iran nuclear deal?
Calling Haiti and various African nations "shithole countries"?
Attempting to blackmail Ukraine to help him win in 2020?
Benghazi!
♦ ♦ ♦
Saying the Nazis who marched in Charlottesville in 2017 with torches and chanted, "Jews will not replace us" were "very fine people"?
Saying he wants to be president for life, like Xi Jinping, and have everyone stand when he enters a room?
"Falling in love" with Kim Jong-un, the world's most evil and murderous dictator?
Trying to order a Fourth of July military parade through Washington, like the ones Putin, Xi and Kim get to have in Moscow, Beijing and Pyongyang?
Calling Putin a "genius" for invading Ukraine?
Telling a gang of right-wing terrorist thugs to "Stand down, and stand by"?
Getting awfully close to overtly embracing QAnon insanity?
Openly consorting with Nazis, white nationalists and antisemites?
He's unpredictable! He goes his own way!
♦ ♦ ♦
Thinking that Frederick Douglass, who died in 1895, "is being recognized more and more"?
Suggesting that the Continental Army "took over the airports" from the British during the War for Independence?
History's bunk, we've got no past!
♦ ♦ ♦
Telling more than 30,000 lies, an average of more than 20 a day, as "president"?
Using his position as president to enrich himself and his family?
Appointing right-wing extremists to the Supreme Court and ending women's right to control their own bodies?
Deliberately hiding the severity of the COVID pandemic resulting in at least 200,000 unnecessary deaths?
Science is a hoax! Vaccines are evil! Doctors, nurses and "public health" officials are communists. Repeal the 19th Amendment! Freedom!
♦ ♦ ♦
Intentionally promoting the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, further dividing the nation and endangering the survival of our republic?
Plotting a coup to make himself dictator?
Stealing top secret documents?
Calling for the termination of the Constitution and his "reinstatement" as president?
Nobody cares! But this grotesque digital trading card scam? That's too much — we have to draw the line somewhere!
