Part 1: Background
May 4, 1987
Due to the American businessman’s “unacceptable” and “dangerous” mafia ties, the New South Wales Cabinet rejects a Donald Trump proposal to build the first casino in Sydney, Australia. The cabinet accepts the findings of the Western Australia Police Board: “[I]n our judgement, the Trump Mafia connections should exclude the Kern/Trump consortium.”
May 18, 1987
The Madison Courier reports: “Real estate developer DONALD TRUMP says he has been asked by the Soviet Union to build a luxury hotel in Moscow. ‘I don’t know the timing but I’ve been talking to the people. They are very dedicated to doing it,’ Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday on the WABC-TV program ‘Eyewitness New Conference.’ He described the project as ‘a very large, exclusive hotel,’ that would ‘bring a little luxury to the Soviet Union.’”
July 1987
Businessman Donald Trump pays a visit to the USSR, after a unique invitation from the Soviet Union’s ambassador to the U.S. Donald is accompanied by his Russian-speaking wife, Ivana Zelníčková, who was born in the Soviet Union. (Their all-expenses-paid trip occurs nine months before Bernie Sanders infamously arrives for his honeymoon.)
Donald and Ivana Trump at Winter Palace in Leningrad, 1987
July 8, 1987
From Moscow, Donald Trump tells the American press that the Soviets want him to build a “Trump Tower,” like the one in New York: “The reason I was contacted over others is the fact that numerous officials of the government loved Trump Tower in New York. That’s the kind of feeling they want here, they need an extreme luxury hotel.”
Picture of Trump in the Eugene Register-Guard, 1987
July 24, 1987
Lyndon LaRouche’s magazine, Executive Intelligence Review, describes the Trumps’ visit to Moscow. “Do the Russians have a Trump card?” asks EIR. “The Soviets are reportedly looking a lot more kindly on a possible presidential bid by Donald Trump, the New York builder who has amassed a fortune through real-estate speculation and owns a controlling interest in the notorious, organized-crime linked Resorts International. Trump took an all-expenses-paid jaunt to the Soviet Union in July to discuss building the Russians some luxury hotels. The Soviets ‘treated me beautifully,’ he told reporters. ‘The government would like me to build a major hotel in Moscow in quality and in style like Trump Tower’—the garish structure which Trump built on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.”
EIR mentions sudden interest in drafting Trump for president, now that Trump has returned from the Soviet Union: “Shortly after Trump’s return to the United States, Mike Dunbar, a well-known Republican Party organizer in New Hampshire[,] unveiled plans to enter Trump in the 1988 New Hampshire Republican primary. Although Trump said he had no prior knowledge of Dunar’s effort, he refused to categorically deny that he might be interested in running for President. ‘Anyone would be honored to hear this,’ he commented, when informed of Dunbar’s draft. Dunbar, who thinks George Bush is ‘boring’ and that Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) has voted for too many tax increases, believes he can convince Trump to run.”
EIR mentions sudden interest in drafting Trump for president, now that Trump has returned from the Soviet Union: “Shortly after Trump’s return to the United States, Mike Dunbar, a well-known Republican Party organizer in New Hampshire[,] unveiled plans to enter Trump in the 1988 New Hampshire Republican primary. Although Trump said he had no prior knowledge of Dunar’s effort, he refused to categorically deny that he might be interested in running for President. ‘Anyone would be honored to hear this,’ he commented, when informed of Dunbar’s draft. Dunbar, who thinks George Bush is ‘boring’ and that Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) has voted for too many tax increases, believes he can convince Trump to run.”
November 1987
Ahead of his sentencing, convicted cocaine dealer Joseph Weichselbaum submits a letter from Donald Trump, attesting to his character. The Trump letter says the dealer is “conscientious, forthright, and diligent,” and a “credit to the community.”
Daily News (1990): Trump houses convicted dealer
Weichselbaum’s helicopter company, Damin Aviation, had provided flights for Trump casinos for years. Despite major dealings in cocaine and other illegal substances, Weichselbaum receives a sentence of only eighteen months. (After his release from a halfway house in 1990, Weichselbaum would move into a $7,000/month Trump apartment under a partial helicopter bartering deal until 1994.)
December 7-10, 1987
Soviet Union head Mikhail Gorbachev makes his first visit to the United States, to talk to President Reagan. Reportedly, Gorbachev meets Donald Trump on the trip. (“We got along well,” Trump would say a year later, “even though our philosophies are very different.”)
December 16, 1987
|
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette satirically summarizes the recent works of Mikhail Gorbachev and Donald Trump in one review: “Although Trump is eager to appear tough and Gorbachev is eager to appear sweet, both are vain enough to temper these images with contrary anecdotes.” The Post-Gazette calls Trump “a powermad egomaniac” who “makes no secret of his hunger for world domination.”
|
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1987
|
October 21, 1988
A spy for Czechoslovakia’s communist secret service reports to the USSR’s Czech arm, CSSR, that Donald Trump is being pressured “to run for the office of President of the USA,” according to his wife, Ivana, but he plans to wait until 1996 to run as an independent.
The spy’s report reads, in part:
The spy’s report reads, in part:
“During her [Ivana’s] stay in Prague, she allegedly noticed that one of the employees of the US Office of Foreign Affairs appeared near her. Her nervousness was further exacerbated by the fact that she was scheduled to stay in the Czech Republic for a meeting with an employee of the Czech Republic safety. She did not specify this fact in more detail. She only said that as the wife of D. TRUMP, she is in constant attention, because pressure is being put on her husband to run for the office of the President of the USA. From the course of the election campaign, it is certain that any wrong step by her would have unfathomable consequences for her husband’s position. He intends to run for the office of president in 1996. He has currently refused this due to his young age (41 years). With his candidacy, he wants to become an exception in American history. He wants to run for the office of president as a politically independent person. He is not a member of the Democrats or Republicans, even though both parties are trying to get him into their ranks. Despite the fact that it seems like a utopia, D. Trump is convinced that he will succeed.”
December 1, 1988
The AP reports that communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev is planning to visit Trump Tower during his United Nations trip. (The appearance never happens. Instead, Donald Trump and the media are hoaxed by a Gorbachev impersonator outside Trump Tower.)
April 13, 1989
Donald Trump co-sponsors a dinner at his hotel for NARAL with about 300 abortion supporters. Trump unexpectedly does not attend his own event, as over a hundred anti-abortion protesters congregate outside.
October 10, 1989
A CSSR spy report states that soviet agents have paid a visit to Donald Trump, and that he has accepted their invitation to visit Slušovice, Czechoslovakia.
The same day, three of Trump’s casino executives die in a helicopter crash in New Jersey. Stephen F. Hyde, originally from Utah, was a father of eight and the chief executive of Trump casinos. Mark G. Etess was the Trump Taj Mahal casino president. Jonathan Benanav was Trump Plaza executive vice president. The pilot and co-pilot did not survive the crash, which happened after the top four-blade rotor and tail rotor snapped off the Italian Agusta A109 helicopter during flight.
February 23, 1990
A frequent topic of tabloid gossip, Donald Trump answers the question of whether he thinks adultery is a sin: “Very good question. I don’t think it’s a sin, but I don’t think it should be done.” Asked whether he would commit adultery, Trump answers: “I’ll let you guess.”
March 1, 1990
Playboy Magazine prints an extensive interview with Donald Trump. He says the Soviet Union should quell dissent the way the Chinese did at Tiananmen Square: “Russia is out of control and the leadership knows it. That’s my problem with Gorbachev. Not a firm enough hand. . . . When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength.”
The interview, ladened with obscenities, quotes Trump expressing a nihilistic view of human existence: “Life is what you do while you’re waiting to die. You know, it is all a rather sad situation. . . . We’re here and we live our sixty, seventy or eighty years and we’re gone. You win, you win, and in the end, it doesn’t mean a h*** of a lot. But it is something to do—to keep you interested.”
Trump goes on to say, “Every successful person has a very large ego.” Asked, “Every successful person? Mother Teresa? Jesus Christ?” Trump replies, “Far greater egos than you will ever understand.” “Even the Pope?” Trump: “Absolutely.”
Trump goes on to say, “Every successful person has a very large ego.” Asked, “Every successful person? Mother Teresa? Jesus Christ?” Trump replies, “Far greater egos than you will ever understand.” “Even the Pope?” Trump: “Absolutely.”
December 21, 1990
After thirteen years of marriage, and numerous tabloid rumors of infidelity, Donald and Ivana Trump divorce. The judge cites “cruel and inhuman treatment by Mr. Trump as grounds for granting Mrs. Trump’s divorce plea,” according to the New York Times.
January 7, 1992
The Philadelphia Inquirer writes of a new book by Wayne Barrett alleging “that throughout his adult life, Donald Trump has done business with major organized crime figures and performed favors for their associates.” Barrett describes Trump’s life as “intertwine[d] with the underworld.”
Fall 1992
Donald Trump reportedly cuts “a deal with U.S. banks” to pay off almost $1 billion debt.
November 1992
Donald Trump hosts Jeffrey Epstein at Mar-a-Lago. (One of many such events.)
Donald Trump and his neighbor Jeffrey Epstein watch young ladies dance
December 1, 1992
New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Thomas N. Auriemma writes a report defending Donald Trump against the accusations in Wayne Barrett’s book. While the report confirms Trump has had associations with mafia figures, Auriemma vouches for the “integrity” and “character of DJT” and says the “nefarious activities” of these associates “were unknown to DJT.”
1993
Travel logs show Donald Trump on Jeffrey Epstein’s so-called “Lolita Express” private jet.
May 3, 1993
Donald Trump celebrates forty years of pornography in Playboy magazine. Trump appears in a Playboy video to commemorate the milestone.
June 1994
Travel logs show Donald Trump on Jeffrey Epstein’s so-called “Lolita Express” private jet.
1994
Michael Caputo, a protégé of Roger Stone who considers him “like a big brother,” moves to Russia on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Foundation for Electoral Systems, to “advise the Russian Government on the election process.” He becomes an advisor to Boris Yeltsin. (After his first year in Russia, Caputo would enter the private sector and eventually start a public relations agency. In 1995, he formed “Choose or Lose,” a Russian version of “Rock the Vote,” to target younger demographics, and he “met regularly with a broad spectrum of national and regional politicians and business leaders.” He encountered deputy mayor of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin, but the extent of that interaction is unclear. Caputo first met Donald Trump in 1988, and in 2013 was in “almost daily” contact with Trump for six or seven months while organizing his campaign for governor.)
August 1995
Travel logs show Donald Trump on Jeffrey Epstein’s so-called “Lolita Express” private jet.
Early 1996
For fiscal year 1995, Donald Trump claims negative $916 million on his income tax return.
November 1996
Donald Trump pays another visit to Moscow. The trip is arranged by cigarette maker Bennett LeBow, a donor to Democrats. Howard Lorber joins the pair in Russia for a sit-down meeting with the Moscow mayor. (LeBow and Lorber would become major donors to Trump’s 2016 campaign. LeBow received heat for having Vadim Rabinovich attend a Clinton-Gore fundraiser in 1995. Rabinovich, from Ukraine, has been called a “mob boss” tied to organized crime in Russia.)
In Moscow: Trump, Lorber, LeBow, and unknown man
Trump tells the Moscow Times: “We’re looking at building a super-luxury residential tower, which I think Moscow desperately wants and needs.”
1997
Travel logs show Donald Trump makes his seventh known trip on Jeffrey Epstein’s so-called “Lolita Express” private jet.
October 9, 1999
Donald Trump teases a presidential run on Larry King Live: “I am going to form a presidential exploratory committee. I might as well announce it on your show.” He says he’s leaving the Republican Party to look at securing the Reform Party nomination, because “Republicans are too far right.”
Trump boasts of being an “activist Democrat and Republican.” First choice for vice president is Oprah, he says. “The sad part about President Clinton,” he comments, adding, “who I happen to like a lot,” is the scandals with women. But he dismisses the adultery controversies of Clinton and Gary Hart: “I don’t think it matters at all.” He calls himself “quite liberal, and getting much more liberal, on health care and other things.” He endorses “universal health care.” Asked whether he would pledge to never lie to the American people, Trump says, “Uh, I would never lie.” He explains, “I’ve been a public figure for a long time. Virtually everything is known about me,” so he insists, “I would not lie. I absolutely would not lie.” Trump says he likes the concept of serving only one presidential term.
October 24, 1999
On Meet the Press, Donald Trump says, “I hate the concept of abortion . . . but I just believe in choice.” Asked if he would ban abortion, even partial birth abortion, Trump says he would not: “No. I am pro-choice in every respect.”
November 28, 1999
|
Roger Stone appears on C-SPAN and speaks of helping Donald Trump with his campaign for president. A caller complains, “It’s very distasteful . . . all this name-calling Donald Trump does.” Stone says if you don’t like Trump, don’t vote for him. “I have worked for Donald Trump for almost twenty years now. I think he’s a charismatic figure. He’s kind of Ross Perot with charisma.” Stone says he’s left the Republican Party because he wants a party that’s “socially more tolerant” of homosexuality and immigrants. Before his divorce, Stone had helped his wife, Ann, form “Republicans for Choice” to help pro-abortion candidates get elected as Republicans.
|
|
January 2000
Still testing a presidential run, Donald Trump publishes “The America We Deserve.” The book names several leaders he would like to “enlist” to rebuild America, including Oprah Winfrey, Bob Torricelli, Muhammad Ali, Arlen Specter, Rudy Giuliani, and Jimmy Hoffa’s son. “Another person I’d call on has a familiar name: Hoffa. That’s Jim Hoffa, the new president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He has all of his old man’s good qualities—toughness, fairness, and an unbelievable talent for perseverance—with none of the bad. . . . [I]f anyone knows how to bring the Teamsters back to their rightful place at the table, Jim is that man. Some of my conservative friends are frowning. Is Trump a union man? Let me tell you this: Unions still have a place in American society. In fact, with the globalization craze in full heat, unions are about the only political force reminding us to remember the American working family. Does that make me an America First-er?”
All the names on Trump’s list are fairly liberal, even Republicans Arlen Specter and Rudy Giuliani, who support abortion rights. But Trump says, “Rudy is also a traditional conservative, at least in the sense that I think of the word.” He mocks “The Pure and Precious members of the photo-op morality club” who care about public reports of Giuliani’s adultery. “I stand with him, as I’m sure most Americans do,” Trump concludes.
All the names on Trump’s list are fairly liberal, even Republicans Arlen Specter and Rudy Giuliani, who support abortion rights. But Trump says, “Rudy is also a traditional conservative, at least in the sense that I think of the word.” He mocks “The Pure and Precious members of the photo-op morality club” who care about public reports of Giuliani’s adultery. “I stand with him, as I’m sure most Americans do,” Trump concludes.
2000
Fresh off his campaign for president, Donald Trump appears in another Playboy video.
July 2000
Investigative reporter Wayne Barrett publishes a book claiming New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s family has a history of organized crime. The book says Giuliani’s father, Harold Giuliani, “shoved people against walls, broke legs, smashed kneecaps, crunched noses” to “muscle” debt collection for his brother-in-law Leo D’Avanzo, a brutal loanshark. Harold served time in Sing Sing prison for armed robbery, and later engaged in a shootout when Rudy was eighteen. Also involved in the gunfight was Rudy’s loanshark uncle, Leo, and cousin Lewis D’Avanzo, the latter of whom was killed by FBI agents in 1977. Still another D’Avanzo cousin, Joan, met a violent death in the 1970s after getting caught up in drugs. Joan grew up in the same house as Rudy.
August 2001
October 25, 2002
In New York Magazine, Donald Trump says of Jeffrey Epstein: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it—Jeffrey enjoys his social life.” The two live three miles apart.
January 8, 2004
NBC airs the first episode of “The Apprentice,” starring Donald Trump. The reality TV show portrays Trump as the model CEO, despite his four bankruptcies. (Two more bankruptcies would follow.)
September 20, 2004
Donald Trump participates in a panel discussion for the Museum of Television & Radio in Los Angeles. Of his role on “The Apprentice,” he says, “This is a dictatorship, and I’m the dictator. There’s no voting. There’s no jury.” He mentions the difficulty in balancing a reality TV show and real life: “I don’t want to have cameras all over my office, dealing with contractors, politicians, mobsters, and everyone else I have to deal with in my business. You know, mobsters don’t like, as they’re talking to me, having cameras all over the room. It would play well on television, but it doesn’t play well with them.”
October 2004
Donald Trump receives a $160 million loan from George Soros to build Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago. Deutsche Bank lends $650 million for the project. (Trump would default years later.)
December 2004
Paul Manafort—whose lobbying firm with Roger Stone counted Donald Trump as their first client in 1980—begins work to reshape the image of the pro-Moscow Party of Regions in Ukraine and their presidential candidate, Viktor Yanukovych. (From 2010 to 2014, Manafort received an estimated $60 million or more for his Putin-friendly work in Ukraine.)
January 22, 2005
Donald Trump marries Melania Knauss (Melanija Knavs), a model from Slovenia. Of his three marriages, two have been to women born under the Soviet Union.
2005
For the pro-Moscow Party of Regions and Viktor Yanukovych, Paul Manafort crafts such messaging as “the Orange [R]evolution was a ‘hoax,’” “this is not the Ukraine we deserve,” “it is time for a change,” “‘anti-Russian’ policies of Tymochenko and Yushenko [Yuschenko] have hurt us,” “re-establish a ‘special’ relationship with Russia,” “Russia can be our friend.”
April 8, 2006
Donald Trump attends Hugh Hefner’s 80th birthday bash. Trump is no stranger to the scene, having appeared in Hefner’s magazine and films since the 1990s.
July 2006
Stephanie Clifford has an encounter with Donald Trump at Lake Tahoe (according to sworn testimony).
January 14, 2007
“The Apprentice” airs an episode in which Donald Trump “rewards” contestants with a pool party at the Playboy Mansion and personal advice from Hugh Hefner. Trump’s alleged mistress of ten months, model Karen McDougal, appears with other women. (She would claim the affair lasted until April 2007.)
The Apprentice, 2007: Trump, Hefner, and women
(A former producer of the show later said of Trump: “I remember him talking, I’m pretty sure it was to Hef himself, about some of the women that were around and especially Playmates and talking about how he would like to be hooked up with them. Somebody said to him, ‘You’re married, you just recently got married.’”)
November 2007
“Trump Vodka” is featured at the Moscow Millionaire’s Fair in Russia. An ad for the product played at the convention shows stylized images of the Kremlin and Vladimir Lenin. (The drink’s production would cease in 2011.) Donald Trump reportedly attends the luxury fair.
Trump Vodka ad: Vladimir Lenin
December 19, 2007
Donald Trump writes a letter to Vladimir Putin: “Congratulations on being named Time magazine’s ‘Man of the Year’---you definitely deserve it. As you probably have heard, I am a big fan of yours! Take care of yourself. With best wishes, Sincerely, Donald J. Trump.”
May 2008
Donald Trump defaults on $640 million from Deutsche Bank for his Chicago building.
July 16, 2008
Donald Trump sells his Palm Beach mansion to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for $95 million, breaking a record for the most anyone has paid for a single-family home in America. Trump had purchased the mansion for $41.35 million just four years earlier, in 2004. (The home, built in 1988, would be demolished in 2016.)
September 2008
Don Jr., 2008
|
Don Trump, Jr., represents the Trump Organization at a Manhattan business conference. He speaks from experience: “I really prefer Moscow over all cities in the world.” He encourages business dealings with Russia, and says of the Trump Organization: “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets; say in Dubai, and certainly with our project in SoHo and anywhere in New York. We see a lot of money pouring in from Russia.”
|
September 2009
Donald Trump changes his voter registration from Democrat to Republican.
December 24, 2009
Donald Trump attends a Christmas Eve party with George Soros.
July 2010
Deutsche Bank forgives $287 million of Donald Trump’s $640 million Chicago tower debt. (The bank would inexplicably lend Trump another $300 million in the years that follow. For two decades, Deutsche Bank lent Trump $2.5 billion. In 2017, the bank was exposed for major money-laundering schemes amounting to tens of billions with Russian criminals attached to the Kremlin.)
November 2010 (or earlier)
Michael Cohen, who works for Donald Trump, and billionaire Stewart Rahr manufacture a web presence to float Trump for president, with ShouldTrumpRun.com and social media accounts. (Cohen would say in his 2019 congressional testimony that he was behind the site: “It was my idea. I saw a document in the newspaper that said, ‘Who would you vote for in 2012?’ Six percent of the people said . . . they’d vote for Donald Trump. So I went into his office, and I said to him, ‘Mr. Trump, take a look at this.’ And he goes, ‘Wow, wouldn’t that be great.’ And with that is where it all started.” However, Cohen described Trump’s interest in seeking office as a “marketing opportunity,” and he remembered Trump “often” called his 2016 campaign “the greatest infomercial in political history.” “The sad fact is that I never heard Mr. Trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our Nation or wanted to make it better. In fact, he did the opposite,” Cohen testified.)
March 2011
Michael Cohen of the Trump Organization flies to Des Moines, Iowa, to test the political waters for Donald Trump.
May 16, 2011
After months testing the waters, Donald Trump announces he will not run for president in 2012. (Roger Stone would later say: “It was a very serious look at it. We spent a substantial amount of money examining the primary deadlines to get on the ballot and so on. In the end he didn’t make that race.”)
August 31, 2011
On his vlog, Donald Trump says he’s “not a defender of [George W.] Bush,” and he describes Dick Cheney as a liar for recalling things differently than Colin Powell on the decision to invade Iraq. Trump says: “I didn’t like Cheney when he was a Vice President. I don’t like him now. . . . Here’s a guy that did a rotten job as vice president. Nobody liked him.”
December 2011
Donald Trump changes his voter registration to “no party,” or, independent.
February 2, 2012
Donald Trump endorses Mitt Romney for president.
March 13, 2012
|
On his vlog, Donald Trump calls the war in Afghanistan “a total and complete disaster.” He demands, “Get out of Afghanistan. We’ve wasted billions and billions of dollars, and more importantly thousands and thousands of lives, not to mention all of these young men and women that come home and they really have problems.” He says we no longer can afford to build schools or maintain highways because of Afghanistan.
|
Trump: "Get out of Afghanistan"
|
April 2012
Donald Trump changes his party affiliation from “no party” to Republican.
August 21, 2012
Donald Trump tweets: “@RogerJStoneJr was great on @TheKudlowReport last night. Roger and Larry are good friends!” Trump and Roger Stone have been affiliated since the 1980s. Stone advised Trump’s 2000 test run for the Reform Party nomination, where he won the nomination for that party in California and Michigan, after dropping out of the race.
October 31, 2012
Kremlin-funded RT (Russia Today) attempts to cast doubt on the 2012 election and the integrity of voting machines, claiming that “the American electoral system [is] among the ‘worst in the world,’” and that America’s “electronic voting machines . . . are highly vulnerable to manipulation.” RT calls U.S. elections “dirty,” and easy to “hack.” (In 2017, the U.S. Intelligence Community would name RT’s reporting as evidence of a “Kremlin-directed campaign to undermine faith in the US government and fuel political protest.”)
November 6, 2012
The day of the election, Donald Trump unleashes a series of tweets claiming the election was stolen by rigged voting machines. He denounces the electoral college and declares Mitt Romney the winner. Trump calls for a “revolution” and a “march on Washington.”
He tweets:
He tweets:
- “More reports of voting machines switching Romney votes to Obama. Pay close attention to the machines, don’t let your vote be stolen.” (1:56 p.m.)
- “We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!” (10:29 p.m.)
- “Lets fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.” (10:30 p.m.)
- “More votes equals a loss … revolution!” (10:30 p.m.; deleted)
- “This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!” (10:33 p.m.)
- “Our country is now in serious and unprecedented trouble...like never before.” (10:39 p.m.)
- “He [Obama] lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!” (10:39 p.m.; deleted)
- “Our nation is a once great nation divided!” (10:43 p.m.)
- “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.” (10:45 p.m.)
November 19, 2012
Donald Trump trademarks “Make America Great Again,” in preparation to run for president. (Roger Stone would say, “Within weeks of Mitt Romney losing but before the end of 2012, [Trump] goes to the U.S. Copyright Office, and he trademarks the expression ‘Make America Great Again.’ I spoke to him on New Year’s Day 2013; he told me he was going to run, and I realized he was totally serious. He told me that he had trademarked the phrase.”)
December 7, 2012
After his initial claim that rigged voting machines cost Mitt Romney the election, Donald Trump now blames Karl Rove: “‘The Architect’ @KarlRove is directly responsible for losing both houses & @BarackObama becoming President. Ignore him.”
December 27, 2012
Donald Trump now blames Mitt Romney (not voting machines) for the loss. “I hate hearing after all of the hard work that @MittRomney never wanted to become President.”
February 6, 2013
Donald Trump, a frequent guest on the Howard Stern Show, makes the claim he is anti-abortion. Stern expresses disbelief: “But I know you. I know you. There is no way that you personally are against abortion.” Trump says, “Well, it’s never been my big issue, Howard. And you know, somebody asks me and I say, ‘pro-life.’ . . . You know, I’ve been pro-life. So, yeah.” Stern replies: “Well, I don’t believe it.”
February 11, 2013
Donald Trump tweets: “@KarlRove is far more to blame for Obama’s victory than the Tea Party.”
June 18, 2013
Donald Trump tweets: “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?”
June 26, 2013
Donald Trump writes to Vladimir Putin: “I hope you have heard by now the exciting news that we are bringing the Miss Universe 2013 Pageant to Russia for the first time in the 62 year history of the Pageant.” He continues, “I know that our Moscow pageant will be our biggest and best Miss Universe ever, and we are already overwhelmed with a very positive and extensive responds from both international and Russian media. We turned down many other competing countries in favor of Russia. I want to take this opportunity to personally invite you to by my guest of honor in Moscow on November 9th. I know you will have a great time. With best wishes. Sincerely, Donald J. Trump.” In black Sharpie under the signature is the handwritten note: “THE WORLD’S MOST Beautiful Women!”
August 1, 2013
Donald Trump tweets the credo of his religious mentor, Norman Vincent Peale: “What the mind can conceive and believe, and the heart desire, you can achieve.”
October 17, 2013
David Letterman mentions the governor's race and asks Donald Trump if he ever had “knowingly done business” with the mob. After distancing and saying, “Generally speaking, I like to stay away from that group,” Trump admits, “I must say, I have met on occasion a few of those people. They happen to be very nice people. You just don’t want to owe them money. Don’t owe them money.”
Letterman asks: “Have you had any dealings with the Russians?” Trump: “Well, I’ve done a lot of business with the Russians.” Letterman: “They’re commies—you know that. They’re commies.” Trump: “They’re smart and they’re tough, and they’re not looking so dumb right now.” Letterman: “Well, uh, Vladimir Putin. You ever met the guy?” Trump: “He’s a tough guy. I met him once.”
November 9-11, 2013
Donald Trump holds the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. Putin does not attend. (Putin replied to Trump’s June letter: “It is a pity we were not able to have our meeting, but I hope we will be able to talk during one of your visits to Russia. Yours sincerely, V. Putin.”)
In Moscow for the pageant, MSNBC asks Trump whether he has a conversational relationship with Putin. Trump answers: “I do have a relationship, and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today. He’s probably very interested in what you and I are saying today, and I’m sure he’s going to be seeing it in some form—but I do have a relationship with him, and I think it’s very interesting to see what’s happened. I mean, look. He’s done a brilliant job in terms of what he represents and who he’s representing. If you look at what he’s done with Syria, if you look at so many of the different things, he has really eaten our president’s lunch.”
"I do have a relationship" with Putin
March 18, 2014
Russian troops seize the Ukrainian peninsula, Crimea, at the cost of 6,000 lives. Ukraine’s pro-Moscow president, Viktor Yanukovych, takes refuge in Russia. (Yanukovych advisor Paul Manafort would end up back in the U.S., and in 2016 would run the GOP convention for Donald Trump and serve briefly as his campaign manager.)
May 27, 2014
Donald Trump tells the National Press Club: “Russia does not respect our country any longer.” He says the Miss Universe pageant in Russia was a “tremendous success,” and adds, “I was in Moscow recently, and I spoke, indirectly and directly, with President Putin, who could not have been nicer.”
