"To understand Trump’s relationship to the WWE and his appeal to its audience is to see a microcosm of the 2016 election. For Trump’s supporters, as in Wrestlemania, showmanship and symbols are often what matter. Where progressives saw an uncivilized brute bloviating about his sexual prowess, lying on cue, and viciously dressing down his opponents, Trump supporters saw something familiar and playfully spectacular. In Trump’s world, as in the wrestling world, absurd ‘alternative facts’ are not falsehoods but story lines, fueling an entertainment-driven narrative. Through this lens, Trump is a hero in the mold of Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Austin: a domineering titan promising to vanquish the forces of evil, to crusade against political correctness, to make aggressive masculinity fashionable again. Riffing off political analyst Salena Zito’s famous statement that the press took Trump, ‘literally, but not seriously,’ whereas his supporters took him ‘seriously, but not literally,’ Trump donor - and, briefly White House communications director - Anthony Scaramucci put it this way: ‘don’t take him literally, take him symbolically.’"

Political Tribes by Amy Chua - 2019

"The prosperity gospel is one of the fastest-growing movements in the United States. It teaches that being rich is godly and that God will make people rich if they pray (and tithe) correctly. The number of poor and working class African and Hispanic Americans who belong to prosperity churches is growing exponentially. Three out of four Hispanic Christians in the United States believe that ‘God will grant financial success and good health to all believers who have enough faith.’ A Mexican American student of mine - whose family members are now in danger of being deported by the Trump administration - recently wrote to me: ‘In my opinion, the Prosperity Gospel explains how much of my Hispanic family can be anti-Obama and pro-Trump, despite that being so obviously against their self-interest. It’s a coping mechanism for poor people who feel hopeless in this world. Just a few weeks ago, my mom sent me a video of one of her favorite pastors snapchatting from Trump’s inaugural ball. My mom was so excited to see Trump welcoming in men she considers to be ‘holy.’ For me, this is frustrating to no end.'"

"So, for example, the Paris climate negotiations, COP 21, though not as strong as they should be, were at least a step in the right direction, perhaps the basis for further action in the future. But the summit did not establish a treaty with verifiable goals- only an informal agreement. The reason was very clear: a treaty couldn't get through the Republican Congress. So here you have a political organization that is essentially saying, 'Let's race to the precipice as fast as possible.' Donald Trump is being condemned for all sorts of things by liberal commentators, but not for the most important thing: his policies on the climate. He's calling for more fossil fuels, more coal plants, ending EPA regulations, possibly getting rid of the EPA altogether. He wants to dismantle the Paris agreements and stop giving support to developing countries for addressing climate change. That really is saying, 'Let's race to the precipice.' It's very serious. and the precipice is not far off. We're already close to- if not past- the limits that were proposed in the Paris discussions, a temperature increase of 1.5 centigrade."

Global Discontents by Noam Chomsky - 2017

"A civil suit against Bayrock filed by a former employee, Jody Kriss, speculated that some of the money behind FL Group was Russian in origin. Kriss alleged that Bayrock operated for years through 'a pattern of continuous, related crimes, including mail, wire, and bank fraud; tax evasion; money laundering; conspiracy; bribery; extortion; and embezzlement.' He further alleged that the FL Group's investment in the Trump SoHo project was in fact a sale disguised as a loan, to avoid paying approximately $20 million in taxes. Bayrock denied the allegations. Trump insisted he had nothing to do with the financing, lending only his name. 'I don't know who owns Bayrock,' Trump said in a deposition in 2011, despite having signed a document that stated clearly that FL Group was helping to finance the project."

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"At one level, Trump's antics ensure that attention is focused on him, and it makes little difference how. Who even remembers the charge that millions of illegal immigrants voted for Clinton, depriving the pathetic little man of his Grand Victory? Or the accusations that Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower? The claims don't really matter. It's enough that attention is diverted from what is happening in the background. There, out of the spotlight, the most savage fringe of the Republican Party is carefully advancing policies designed to enrich their true constituency: the Constituency of private power and wealth, 'the masters of mankind,' to borrow Adam Smith's phrase. These policies will harm the irrelevant general population and devastate future generation, but that's of little concern to the Republicans. They've been trying to push through similarly destructive legislation for years. Paul Ryan, for example, has long been advertising his ideal of virtually eliminating the federal government, apart from service to the Constituency- though in the past he's wrapped up his proposals in spreadsheets so they would look wonkish to commentators. Now, while attention is focused on Trump's latest mad doings, the Ryan gang and the executive branch are ramming through legislation and orders that undermine workers' rights, cripple consumer protections, and severely harm rural communities. They seek to devastate health programs, revoking taxes that pay for them in order to further enrich their Constituency, and to eviscerate the Dodd-Frank Act, which imposed some much-needed constraints on the predatory financial system that grew during the neoliberal period. That's just a sample of how the wrecking ball is being wielded by the newly empowered Republican Party. Indeed, it is no longer a political party in the traditional sense. Conservative political analysts Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein have described it more accurately as a 'radical insurgency,' one that has abandoned normal parliamentary politics."