In the past four weeks, Donald Trump has lost 18 points of support, according to one poll, the latest sign that his fake presidential campaign is coming to an end.
While Trump is now likely to recede from the national spotlight for a while, there's little doubt that he will try to orchestrate a comeback. We've learned a lot about the celebrity businessman in the past couple of months, much of it worth remembering.
So, as a public service, we have put together a Trump dossier. Save this link for the next time the Donald rears his head, and remember ...
- The time he killed a pro sports league As the owner of a team in the fledgling United States Football League in the 1980s, Trump "led the USFL into a self-destructive, all-out war with the NFL" that culminated in a disastrous anti-trust lawsuit and, ultimately, the premature death of the USFL.
- That his clothing line is made in China Even as Trump bashes the quality of Chinese manufacturing and bemoans outsourcing, his Donald J. Trump Signature Collection of suits and ties is made in China.
- How he wildly exaggerates his wealth Trump claims his net worth is as high as $7 billion, but various independent estimates have put the figure an order of magnitude lower than that. Indeed, the requirement for presidential candidates to file a personal financial disclosure is one reason Trump will likely never be a candidate for office.
- How he inflates his academic record Trump says he was a "really good student at the best school in the country;" multiple profiles early in his career claimed he graduated first in his college class. In fact, he was only admitted as a transfer student to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania through a family connection, and he graduated without honors.
- His poor grasp of the English language He once misspelled the word "too" in a letter of complaint to the Times' Gail Collins. Here's a sample semi-coherent Trump sentence: "Her storytelling ability and word usage (coming from me, who has written many best sellers), is not at a very high level."
- His multiple bankruptcies While describing himself as "a deal maker without peer," Trump has in fact had more business bankruptices (4) than wives (3), as Katrina vanden Heuvel pointed out.
- When he was sued for not renting to African-Americans Early in his career, a major discrimination lawsuit was brought against Trump and his company, accused by the Justice Department of declining to rent to potential black tenants. Trump ultimately agreed to take steps to avoid discrimination without admitting guilt.
- His constant race-baiting Trump's entire fake presidential campaign was characterized by racially tinged attacks and gaffes -- from his obsession with birtherism to his baseless claim that President Obama did not deserve to get into Columbia and Harvard Law School to his now-famous boasts about "the blacks."
- His long history of scamming the press Few remember it, but Trump's first fake presidential campaign was way back in the 1988 cycle. He did it again in 2000. We're living through the third iteration.
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