John Feffer

"Trumpism is here to stay."

"The voters vowed to take their revenge at the polls. They’d missed out on the country’s vaunted prosperity. They were disgusted with the liberal direction of the previous administration. They were anti-abortion and pro-religion. They were suspicious of immigrants, haughty intellectuals, and intrusive international institutions. And they very much wanted to make their nation great again."

"Trump was, they concluded, sui generis, a peculiar mutation of the American political system generated by the unholy coupling of and the Tea Party revolt. But Trump is not, in fact, a sport of nature. He reflects trends taking place around the world."

"His opponents have tried to argue that America is already great, has been great, and will always be great. But the truth is, for many Americans, things have not been so great for at least the last two decades."

"Then it will matter little how much both liberals and conservatives rail against “stupid” and “crazy” voters. Nor will they have Donald Trump to kick around any more. In the end, they will have no one to blame but themselves."

"Before he became president, Donald Trump was... an unsuccessful businessman... He filed for bankruptcy six times—five times for his casinos and once for the Plaza Hotel."

"An astounding number of his... business ventures have gone belly up..."

"Only one institution, , continued to supply him with credit. ...Trump began to rely on ...questionable characters and networks."

"[H]e started to use large amounts of cash... since 2006..."

"[A]ll telltale signs of : the cash, the shell companies, the s, the lack of transparency and ."

"A Buzzfeed investigation... found... one-fifth of [Trump's] condos... since the 1980s have been bought in cash, which allows the purchasers to avoid... scrutiny... Many... purchasers were shell companies."

"[T]he Treasury Department estimates... one-third of... high-end real estate [transactions] involves potential ."

"Many of the purchasers of Trump properties are Russian."

"In 2015, federal authorities fined the... bankrupt Trump Taj Mahal $10 million for violations of anti-money-laundering laws. ...In a 1998 [$450,000] settlement... the Taj Mahal was cited for breaking anti-money-laundering laws 106 times in... 18 months of operation."

"CNN reports, "...violations date... to... when the Taj Mahal was the preferred gambling spot for Russian mobsters... according to federal investigators...""

"Russian money saved Trump... when his projects were on the verge of collapse."

"The Panama Papers... leaked... from ... revealed... mechanisms by which Putin's associates transferred enormous... money[s] overseas... to conceal assets. Putin... parked... money in shell companies created by... associates."

"... [l]ast year... was fined over $600 million for its role in laundering $10 billion of Russian currency. ...[R]elevant documents would link the bank's... most questionable... lending to Trump and washing Russian money."

"Compromising information about ... explains the president’s extreme deference to Vladimir Putin. As Alena Ledeneva... explained to ' It is possible... there is in the hands of... [former Soviet Union] business groups... Each would have bits and pieces of damaging information and might have found... ways to communicate that... to... Trump and Putin. Putin would likely have gathered some of that material..."