American Mythology: The Presidency of Donald Trump (Part Six: The Looting of the Nation)

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The Intercept

Politics, Unknown, Daily News, History, News

4.8 • 6.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Donald Trump has run the White House like his family business with one primary aim: to enrich his brand, his family and his cronies. In part six of American Mythology, we examine how Trump and the GOP — at times with help from the Democrats — have opened the gates to the federal feeding trough for corporate greed and unaccountability. Throughout the 2016 campaign Trump claimed that, unlike Hillary Clinton, he was not beholden to corporate or special interests and that he would uplift the working class. Once in power, he appointed record numbers of Goldman Sachs veterans to his administration, passed sweeping tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, attacked organized labor, and chiseled away at an already abysmal health care system. Unprecedented inequality and stagnant wages have persisted. Fewer Americans currently have health insurance than when Trump was sworn into office. These sharp economic injustices have come into clear focus during the Coronavirus pandemic: Corporate robber barons like Jeff Bezos have increased their wealth by billions while 40 percent of Americans say they couldn’t withdraw $400 in the event of an unexpected emergency. In America, eight million more people have descended into poverty in recent months, as the wealth of billionaires grew by $845 billion dollars.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is intercepted.
0:30.0	I'm Jeremy Skehill coming to you from New York City and this is part six of an
0:37.5	intercepted special American mythology the presidency of Donald Trump.
0:47.0	This is the most important election in the history of our country and people
0:53.7	have to get out and vote because what they want to do is crazy. We will never
0:59.6	allow this country to become a socialist nation and that's what they're trying to do.
1:05.1	During the 2016 election Donald Trump regularly criticized Hillary Clinton for
1:14.6	her relationship with Wall Street and in particular her paid speeches to the
1:19.4	investment bank Goldman Sachs. I know the guys at Goldman Sachs they have total
1:24.9	total total control over him just like they have total control over Hillary
1:29.3	Clinton. They have total but they have no control they have no control over
1:35.0	Donald Trump. While many progressives including Clinton's Democratic primary
1:42.7	opponent Bernie Sanders also blasted her Wall Street ties Trump's attacks often
1:48.0	utilized some unsavory tactics. He claimed in one of his many anti-Semitic
1:53.2	dog whistles that Clinton's past supportive trade agreements like NAFTA and
1:57.6	the TPP proved she was a globalist. Hillary Clinton is merely a vessel for
2:04.3	those global special interests trying to strip our country of its wealth its
2:08.1	jobs its status as a sovereign nation and we have been stripped folks we don't
2:13.8	make anything anymore we don't make anything we're gonna start making things
2:19.5	we're not gonna let countries like China devalue their currents and have
2:25.4	trade deficits of $400 and $500 billion a year we're not gonna let it happen
2:31.4	she's a globalist who makes a living taking jobs from our country and giving
	...

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