Donald Trump, the ‘N’ word, & Marybeth Glenn

So some of the stories swilling around  relate to yet more footage of Trump. A recent rather public whisper is that there are segments from recordings of The Apprentice where Trump was being Trump. The producer of the show recently commented on the latest revelations as follows …

To put more meat on the bones here, the UK’s Independent reports things as follows …

More than 20 former contestants, crew members, and editors told the Associated Press that Mr Trump treated women on the show inappropriately, including talking about which contestants he would like to have sex with and rating them by breast size.

“If there was a break in the conversation, he would then look at one of the female cast members, saying ‘you’re looking kind of hot today, I love that dress on you,’ then he would turn to one of the male cast members and say ‘wouldn’t you sleep with her?’ and then everyone would laugh,” a former crew member, who spoke anonymously due to a non-disclosure agreement, told AP.

Well yes, but we all know that this is how he is, so what exactly does Mr Pruitt mean when he tweeted “far worse”. Mr Nee, another producer explained in a tweet (that has now been removed)…

I don’t have the tapes. I’ve signed a Burnett contract & know leak fee is 5 mill. Hearing from producers/crew N word is the “much worse”.

— Chris Nee (@chrisdocnee) October 9, 2016

OK, so why is there a leak fee of $5 million?

Apparently the issue here is that British born Mark Burnett, the producer of The Apprentice, and also a very vocal Trump supporter, has warned any and all staff that there would be legal consequences if anybody leaked any clips hence $5 million.

There is now a GoFundMe page that is attempting to raise that $5 Million. It is being called the Trump Sunlight Campaign. There they explain …

In the event that no whistleblower comes forward, we will donate all funds to a reputable organization that supports freedom of the press and journalistic integrity. 

As for Mr Burnett, well yes he is an evangelical, and yes some media outlets have suggested that his belief plays some part here, but I’m not personally convinced that is the case. The far more reasonable explanation is that Mr Burnett and Mr Trump have been buddies for some time, and so he is simply being loyal to that friendship. He is perhaps also sensible enough to see which way the wind is actually blowing here, and so in anticipation of Mr Trump not being elected, he might perhaps be anticipating the continuation of The Apprentice with mega-famous Trump yielding a huge ratings boost. Mr Burnett would quite frankly be incredibly stupid to scupper such potential.

And the surprise is?

The essence and calibre of who he really is and how he actually behaves has not exactly been an unknown. The latest revelations are quite frankly not a surprise in any way, but instead are confirmation of what most of us already know.

If the clip of him suggesting that he would “like to F**k that <N word>” emerged, would you be either surprised or shocked?

What perhaps is the real surprise here is that a major political party officially endorsed him as their candidate. On the surface that might appear to leave us with two distinct possibilities …

  • The GOP were so utterly inept at screening potential candidates for office that none of this was realised until it was too late
  • They knew he was like this, and hoped to simply keep it all hidden

However, the truth is far more complex and is neither of the above.

For quite some time now policies that have favoured the rich have more or less wiped out vast swathes of the middle class. This was also perhaps amplified by the banking crises of 2008. There are rather a lot of extremely unhappy people out there who have been kicked way too many times and so there has been a growing tide of resentment and anger against the status quo. Trump managed to tap into that by being different, popular and not the traditional career politician, and so he emerged on the scene carrying a vast multitude with him. The GOP was left with no choice. Rejection of Trump would have led to outright civil war within the GOP, so an endorsement for Trump was simply postponing that.

Trump however is such an unpalatable individual who is wholly unfit for office, so it becomes almost inevitable that his support will ebb away as the realisation of what he is really all about sinks in.

What comes next?

Trump will (thankfully) not win.

The GOP will then most probably end up pulling itself apart.

Let’s permit Marybeth Glenn to have the last word here

If you seriously do think that this is not how things will play out, then you might wish to pause that thought and consider the following serious of tweets.

Marybeth Glenn is a Wisconsin Republican activist who tweeted her resignation from the GOP yesterday in 17 rather vocal tweets …

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