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The Spectacle Blog
Yesterday, in his article on Donald Trump, Jeff Lord noted that the real estate mogul and reality TV icon went on New York 1 shortly after Barack Obama’s election and described President Bush as “maybe the worst president in the history of this country.”
Yet it was hardly the first time that Trump had spoken of Bush in those terms. During an appearance on Fox & Friends in September 2007, Trump said called Bush “a terrible President, perhaps the worst president in the history of this country.”
It should be noted that Trump’s appearance coincided with the opening of the UN General Assembly where both President Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were scheduled to speak. Consider what Trump had to say about the Bush Administration’s approach to Iran:
Maybe the President, instead of saying let’s not even see this guy, maybe he should be negotiating with him, maybe he should be talking with him.
Upon hearing that, Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doucy asked Trump with regard to Ahmadinejad, “Do you think he’s mentally stable?” Trump replied, “Who are you talking about? The President?” To which Doucy retorted, “Of Iran.” Trump said he did not think Ahmadinejad was mentally unstable and, in fact, called him “smart like a fox.”
So not only was Trump comparing Bush unfavorably to Obama, he was also comparing him unfavorably to Ahmadinejad, a sworn enemy of the United States. But of equal importance is that Trump’s position on Iran was identical to that of then Senator Obama.
Earlier that year, Trump also accused President Bush of lying about WMDs in Iraq when he appeared on CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer:
Everything in Washington has been a lie. WMD was a total lie. It was a way of attacking Iraq which he (Bush) thought was going to be easy and it turned out to be the exact opposite of easy.
During both TV appearances Trump also made a point of stating that Saddam Hussein “hated terrorists.” I am not exactly sure which terrorists Trump is talking about. After all, Saddam gave refuge to Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas, the mastermind of the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking. During the hijacking, Abbas’ thugs shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a wheelchair bound elderly Jew, at point blank range and had him thrown overboard. Let us also not forget that Saddam gave $25,000 apiece to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Trump’s ignorance here is breathtaking.
Believe me when I say I want someone other than Barack Obama to be sworn into office on January 20, 2013. Donald Trump’s devil may care attitude may have convinced some Republicans that he is the only one standing between President Obama and a second term. But those who are entertaining giving their support to Trump should strongly consider the tunes he was singing while President Bush was in office.
View all comments (37) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/04/20/trump-bush-ahmadinejad
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Red Phillips | 4.20.11 @ 3:33PM
"Earlier that year, Trump also accused President Bush of lying about WMDs in Iraq"
Umm... Aaron, Bush did lie about WMDs as a pretext for war.
Paul McGrath| 4.20.11 @ 5:11PM
Mr. Phillips,
If you want to say Bush was a liar, okay, but you would then have to agree that President Clinton, Vice President Gore, Sen. John Kerry, Madeline Albright, and a host of others from the previous administration were liars also. Each and every one of them publicly stated that Iraq had WMDs. (And, of course, there is the little detail that Iraq USED them against Iran during their war with them, and against the Kurds in northern Iraq.)
C Bowen| 4.20.11 @ 7:38PM
Agreed- they were all lying, Mr. McGrath.
And "right back at you", can you state for the record that you think John Kerry, Ms. Albright and Clinton were telling the truth, that they really thought (LOL, I know) Iraq had WMDs?
Mike W| 4.21.11 @ 8:44AM
Bush wasn't a liar. He was just a fool that was cajoled into war by some lying advisors.
We knew Iraq had WMD's before the attack on the Kurds. Rumsfeld expedited the sale of chemical weapons technology in 1983 under Reagan. By 2000 those WMD remains had decayed into unreliable and dangerous antiques as chemical warheads are prone to do.
Trump got it mostly right.
Have to go with Trump on that one.
Bob K.| 4.21.11 @ 9:30AM
The subject of this blog is Trump the Idiot, who is contemplating running for President.
This argument is old history. There is new history being made and future history to worry about and the reader's here are yammering about the old history.
No wonder we can't get together and they call us the "stupid party."
The Dems must be laughing their asses off at this silly argument.
Maybe they will become overconfident. Of course that might be impossible if this is a typical cross section of Republican voters.
Birdie| 4.21.11 @ 8:15PM
We'd be the Stupid Party if we elect another worthless RINO.
George S| 4.20.11 @ 6:08PM
If you had any sense of shame you would be a tad outraged that Obama went to Libya to protect European oil interests and lied through his teeth about being a humanitarian reason while Syria and Iran were shooting protestors dead a few hundred miles away. At least Bush was face to face with the nightmare of 2,973 dead Americans with the prospect of maybe more attacks -- and no one publicly challenging the assertion that Iraq had WMD's. Not one challenge. Zip. Zero. Not from Congress, State, CIA, Mossad, MI-5, the UN... not even Saddam himself. It was only after we got there that the cowards puffed up with the courage to call Bush a liar when it was politically safe. Cowards, by the way, whose actions or opinions in no way affected the lives of anybody. But Bush's actions -- or inaction -- after 9-11 certainly had serious consequences for all Americans no matter what course he took. That's called responsibility, something the current occupant seeks to distance himself from. Cowardice and Liberalism go hand in hand.
Margie| 4.20.11 @ 9:21PM
Bravo! Well stated.
The Liberalterriors hate the Republicans more than they hate Obama.
Sad, but true.
Clint| 4.21.11 @ 8:57AM
The Israel Firster Apocalyptic Crank Lady Victor-Margie loves Her Israel Firster Agenda more than Real Conservatism.
Sad & True.
Birdie| 4.21.11 @ 8:04PM
She'd sing a different tune if her fat ass was drafted to fight overseas. She'd sink a battleship.
C Bowen| 4.21.11 @ 6:42AM
The liberals, Kerry, Clinton, the NY Times were all for toppling Saddam and occupying the country.
Remember the ridiculous Judith Miller stories on the cover of the Times, about scary Iraq?
It was pretty obvious we were being lied to, you just apparently were easily scared of Iraq that a trillion dollar debt financed invasion seemed reasonable to you..
Aaron Goldstein| 4.20.11 @ 4:02PM
Bush was wrong about WMDs. There's a difference between being wrong and being untruthful.
C Bowen| 4.20.11 @ 4:05PM
Aaron--then is Rick Santorum and Sean Hannity amongst others guilty of lying for saying the WMDs were really moved to Syria? (LOL-- I know.)
The Bruce| 4.20.11 @ 11:28PM
Actually, they were reporting on Russian satellite photos sent to the US, in the lead up to the war, where large trucks were seen leaving suspected weapons sites and heading for the Syrian border.
And the MSM actually reported on it... for a single day. Then they, like you, went back to sleep.
Bush's biggest mistake was his 6-month "rush to war" succumbing to all of the diplomatic bullshit with the UN, giving Hussein all the time he needed to relocate.
And Sean Hannity reported this? Hmm, I didn't know that. Perhaps Fox News spent an extra day covering it before they too went to sleep.
C Bowen| 4.21.11 @ 6:14AM
So then Aaron is lying, and Bush is lying? And Rummy is lying? There really were WMDs that they allowed to escape per something read from DEBKA, a Russian source with Mossad links?
LOL--so you really thought Iraq was a threat?
Mike W| 4.21.11 @ 8:47AM
You betcha. Fox and the Bush Administration covered up the shipment of WMDs to Syria. For God knows what reason, all conservative media and the Republicans facilitated and/covered it up.
You make about as much sense as some crazy "Truther".
Birdie| 4.21.11 @ 8:07PM
Why didn't GWB talk about the WMDs that were shipped to the Beccah Valley? Why did he defend Willy Clinton?
There were a lot of things about GWB that made me suspicious.
C Bowen| 4.20.11 @ 4:06PM
Is Rumsfeld guilty of lying because he said "we know where they (WMDS) are?"
As a basic example, if I told you that I know this stock is going to go up, and persuaded you to give me 10K, only to see the stalk tank, was I wrong, or did I lie to you about what I knew?
Or did I just plain pull a confidence job?
R. Dittmar| 4.20.11 @ 4:16PM
I'm torn here because although I don't want to defend Trump, it nevertheless is the case that Bush WAS a terrible President. His 8 years of bungling is one of the main reasons we ended up stuck with Barry! The fact that Americans looked at an inexperienced nobody from Chicago and told themselves that he'd still be an improvement on Bush tells you all you need to know about Dubya's disastrous presidency.
Paul McGrath| 4.20.11 @ 5:06PM
You are absolutely correct Mr. Ditmar. He established new entitlement programs, the economy was going into the tank, the nation's debt (as we perceived at the time) was huge, unemployment was rising, and he bailed out the banks at a huge cost to the taxpayer. The average voter figured it couldn't get much worse.
Man, were they wrong.
Bush was the worst Republican president in American history. (Yeah, yeah, I'm aware of what Hoover wrought. Bush was worse.)
Birdie| 4.21.11 @ 8:13PM
I agree; GWB was a real asshole.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.20.11 @ 5:37PM
Since Trump was not a politician what's the problem? Everything he stated in that CNN interview turned out to be true. Someone lied in Washington, D.C. Maybe it wasn't Bush but it's disingenuous to pretend Bush wasn't responsible while you want to hold Obama accountable for current screw ups.
Also, his other statements were based on what he knew and he didn't have the government intelligence forming his views. Basically, you're holding him to a higher standard than Bush, who did have all the intelligence.
Don't get me wrong. I disagree with his statements in regard to terrorists. But something wasn't right with the WMD statements and if more people had questioned it we wouldn't have gone to Iraq and we wouldn't be bankrupt. It's still costing 100 million a day and we get little in return.
The Bruce| 4.20.11 @ 11:34PM
I submit that it's a little hard to question the presence of WMDs when there wasn't a single politician, government agency, international agency, or the UN, doubting their presence.
And let's not forget that in 1998, when Hussein kicked out the UN inspectors, only 2/3 of what was known to exist was destroyed.
Sean| 4.20.11 @ 5:52PM
Saddam pretty much had Abu Nidal killed. As for Abu Abbas, Italy helped him get to Iraq. So there are cases to be made that Italy, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia were aiding and harboring terrorists. I am not defending Iraq but if we are to be consistent there are whole hosts of countries that harbor terrorists. Look the USA still harbors Bill Ayers.
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 4.20.11 @ 6:19PM
Bingo! And he's one of the President's best friends.
Paul McGrath| 4.20.11 @ 7:54PM
We still harbor Bill Ayres! You are very funny man, Mr. Sean.
Rev Trask| 4.20.11 @ 9:04PM
I guess you wouldn`t have been thrilled with Ronald Reagan. He SAT DOWN with Gorbachev, commie head of the Evil Empire, in Reykjavik and TALKED with him! Heavens! Imagine THAT.
Margie| 4.20.11 @ 9:24PM
Yeah, but he also built up our military while he "spoke with" him.
Aaron Goldstein| 4.20.11 @ 10:30PM
Except that Gorbachev was a reformer. There is no perestroika or glasnost in Iran.
Birdie| 4.21.11 @ 8:08PM
..And GWB was no RR.
Margie| 4.20.11 @ 9:28PM
President Bush is evil to some because he went to war. Period.
Trump's an Isolationist. That's why they like the loser.
Wow~ I called the rich guy with the t.v. show a loser.
Watch out!
Birdie| 4.21.11 @ 8:10PM
It takes one to know one. Margie's for every useless war out there as long as she doesn't have to fight and die in them. Chickenshit.
Ben| 4.21.11 @ 12:57AM
Trump says lets get paid for our sacrifice and 1.5 trillion-SSS costs for 8 years in Iraq !!!
The Rumaila , the Kirkuk , and the West Qurna oilfields of Iraq are all up and running.
The royalties from that oil is worth TRILLIONS.
It it is light sweet crude and some of the easiest, most cost effective oil on the planet to produce.
So when Donald Trump says the US should take that oil he's not just whistlin' Dixie, people.
The American People should be demanding this Commie Obama be impeached and ran out of town along with his enablers in both parties who have allowed this adminsistration and the previous one,
to get away with gutting our economy by sending millions of our jobs to China, and refusing to annex oilfields in the middle east on behalf of the American People, who have sacrificed all for the people of Iraq.
However, regardless who has been awarded contracts to produce that oil, the ROYALTIES which is what we're really talking about, go to whoever owns the mineral rights. The ROYALTIES are worth TRILLIONS.
What Donald Trump means when he says,"To the victor go the spoils," is that the United States should ANNEX these oilfields, and receive the ROYALTIES from that oil to cover our 1.5 trillion SSS costs, not to say the sacrifice of those who fought to free and rehabilitate Iraq.
It's not complicated, folks. In fact it's so obvious we should have already done this.
Mike W| 4.21.11 @ 8:52AM
Why didn't Bush do it? Why was oil in the 20 to 30 dollar range when the war started, shooting up 147 in 2008, draining trillions from our economy and playing a role in our recession?
And don't forget the clown Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels was head of the OMB whe the war started. He had Lawrence Lyndsay fired because Lyndsay said that the war would cost 200 billion instead of the absurd 55 billion that the administration pushed.
All of this Iraq talk, reminds me of why we got stuck with the current occupant of the White House.
Birdie| 4.21.11 @ 8:11PM
Trump's right when he says Iran will take those oil fields as soon as we leave. It pisses me off. The Left was correct: GWB is a moron.
Jim Hlavac | 4.21.11 @ 9:30AM
Weirdly, I recall a lot of people saying that Bush senior, and Rumsfeld, and the US in general provided the WMD to Iraq when they were having their war with Iran -- and then when Bush junior said they were there everyone said he's wrong. So which is it? We sold them WMDs or they never had them? Can't be both.
Meanwhile, who cares? Saddam was a dictator and should have been removed. Just like Khaddafi should be. Sort of almost irrelevant whom gets in next, but when dictators start bombing their own cities and killing people by the 10,000s then it's probably time to take them out with a few pinpricks of cruise missiles. I'm sure there's a capable general wanting to be leader of Libya. But we can't do that because of the Boland Amendment, or its successors, which says we can't kill a foreign leader. So the one week war drags on into the second month; still without a plan.
Meanwhile, other than Trump's bankruptcy experience what exactly does he have to offer? And everyone thinks he's some great deal maker, when it was his father who made the money and gave Donald $25 million to go play with on his 21st birthday. Such a skill, inheriting money.
And furthermore, for a party that is supposedly all about "Family Values" and is almost quite sure that the greatest threat thereto is a few gay guys it seems awfully hypocritical to salivate over a twice divorced man on his third trophy wife.
And if Trump is the best that can be found, we are maybe doomed indeed.
Birdie| 4.21.11 @ 8:12PM
We don't have a problem with "gay guys" just the Marxist Gay agenda.