Without exception, credible presidential candidates have validated credentials. They have passed F.B.I. or D.O.D. background checks. Either they are Senators or Representatives or else Generals and had already gone through the system. Or else they have been governors. By the conventions the governors have had to submit to interviews and background checks.
Well, I said credible.
Things change big time when we get to Donald Trump. The problem is that Donald Trump looks to have gone twenty years mobbed up. And his loan applications and corporate borrowing patterns indicate intentional fraud.
Trump built Trump Tower with S&A Concrete, Inc. which was owned by Anthony Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family, and Paul Castellano, head of the Gambinos. This same S&A built dozens of other Trump properties. Tens of millions of dollars in contracted business.
The same Anthony Salerno who was convicted for bid rigging, RICO violations and other crimes. Serving 100 years on Federal racketeering convictions when a stroke took him out. I have no idea whether Donald Trump attended the funeral.
Most skyscrapers are built with steel frame construction. That's because it lasts. Trump went with the Mob for concrete construction and saved money doing it.
David Cay Johnston has covered New York real estate for decades. 21 Questions for Donald Trump includes the mob connections.
-- The Donald J. Trump Foundation looks to be a kick back tool. Trump hasn't put in a dime since 2006.
-- Trump University was a scam. Sued by NY State's Attorney General. Fines and penalties all around.
-- And what pay-offs passed when Trump got a $400 million tax abatement for his Grand Hyatt hotel? That was the first such hotel tax abatement in New York City.
All that and the loan applications are fair game for background interviews and subsequent investigations.
F.B.I. does background checks at the point where delegates are allocated for the national conventions. Just saying.
Management
And then, yes, there's management. Trump has a record from his casino company. This guy wants to run the country? He ran the single worst managed company in the United States.
Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City was ranked 496 of 496 for "Most Admired Companies of 1999." Dead last. And that was when AC gambling was still a viable business.
He and Carlie Fiorino made a lot of money over the years. That was based on selling themselves.
Fact is, they both lost money for investors.
Trump as a Diversion?
Can we get back to serious politics? National conventions are for candidates who can pass the security checks. Trump is a temporary disruption to news coverage, but that's about it.
Trump's not staying around for an FBI enquiry. No way. He went 20 years doing business every day with the Mob. He signed property declarations for loans that fell short by as much as $3 billion. That's with the standard perjury notification on page.
What Trump will do, hanging around till November is to safeguard the money candidates: Jeb Bush and Scott Walker, principally. Other candidates get no serious attention. Same time there are fewer "undecideds."
News design is what it is. Corporate MSM obsess over Hillary's Secret Service email server. If not on the GOP's Benghazi propaganda. Any talking head can go on camera with a round of empty complaints that Hillary has not satisfied their demands.
Yet these worthies are silent on Donald Trump's business with the Mob. There is no mention of his many less than honest business dealings. He is too useful for their owners' political interests.
Imagine if Hillary has so much as shared a lunch with "Fat Tony" Salerno?
Should voters feel a need for "reality tv" there's "Housewives" and the Kardashians. This Trump candidacy is an invention that beggars our sense of what is real.