This Guy Feels Your Pain?

Ever heard the phrase, “Born on Third Base”?
It means, "born to privilege".

Football coach Barry Switzer (University of Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys) summed up the idea when he said, "Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple."

In other words, the phrase refers to the favored few who are born with advantages over the rest of us but they think they "bootstrapped" themselves up, earning their way.

If you plan to vote for Mr. Trump this November because he is amazingly successful, wealthy, brash, a political outsider and a bully, please stop for just a second and think about the legacy you are building for your grandkids.

Yes. Your Legacy.

Mr. Trump is not a self-made man. He did not get his wealth because he worked hard and was a smarter dealmaker than you.

He got his start with his dad’s money and continued to rely on his Dad's fortune, at least through 2007, to help him through (and out of) his financial mistakes.

I’ll bet that you didn’t benefit from "family privilege" the way Mr. Trump has. Nor, is it even remotely likely that you even tried to pull off a Trump-similar charade as, “I am a savvy bootstrapper and made my billions because I’m smarter and a wily deal maker”.

Please reflect a moment on this man’s character. Then, consider what your grandkids world will be like if you turn over the keys to the most powerful office in the world to Mr. Trump.

If you are still reading, please check the following excerpts (below) from: Where Was Donald Trump Born? He Even Lies About That, Peter Dreier*, AlterNet , 20 Sept 2016.

“During his presidential campaign, Trump has claimed he made it on his own. When pushed, he acknowledges that his father loaned him what he's called the ‘small amount’ of $1 million. In fact, Trump inherited his father's real-estate empire worth tens of millions of dollars, made by building middle-class housing financed by the federal government. Earlier in Donald's career, his father paid his son's debts. Donald also took several massive loans from his siblings' trust funds.”

"I went to the Wharton School of Finance," (Trump) said multiple times during a speech last year in Phoenix. "I'm, like, a really smart person."

"In an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" last year, he described Wharton as "probably the hardest there is to get into." He added, "Some of the great business minds in the world have gone to Wharton."

"Trump surely knows he didn't get into Wharton on his own merits. He transferred into Wharton's undergraduate program after spending two years at Fordham University in New York. But Trump's grades at Fordham were not good enough to transfer to the University of Pennsylvania, home of the Wharton School. In her 2001 biography, The Trumps, Gwenda Blair wrote that Trump got into Wharton as a special favor from a "friendly" admissions officer who knew Trump's older brother, Freddy.

"Moreover, a 2011 article in Salon reported that Trump has exaggerated his academic accomplishments at Wharton. According to Salon, on at least two occasions—in a 1973 profile and in a 1976 article—the New York Times reported that Trump "graduated first in his class" at Wharton in 1968.

"That is a lie. Trump didn't even make the honor roll while at Wharton. 

"Trump's efforts to portray himself as an up-by-his-bootstraps entrepreneur is typical of the self-made man myth surrounding someone who was born on third base but refuses to acknowledge his birthplace.

"It has not been easy for me," Trump said at a town hall meeting on Oct. 26, 2015. "And you know I started off in Brooklyn. My father gave me a small loan of a million dollars."

"At a news conference early this year, Trump repeated the same story: "I got a very, very small loan from my father many years ago. I built that into a massive empire and I paid my father back that loan."

"An investigation by the Washington Post earlier this year demolished the idea that Trump made it on his own. Not only did Trump's multi-millionaire father provide Donald with a huge inheritance, and set up big-bucks trust accounts to provide his son with a steady income, but his father also was a silent partner in Trump's first real estate projects.

"Trump's first big real estate deal was the construction of the Grand Hyatt hotel, near New York's Grand Central station, in 1978. Fred Trump's Village Construction Corp. provided a $1 million loan. But, as the Post investigation explained, "that loan was only a small part of the father's involvement in the deal."

According to the Post:

"Trump's father—whose name had been besmirched in New York real estate circles after investigations into windfall profits and other abuses in his real estate projects—was an essential silent partner in Trump's initiative. In effect, the son was the front man, relying on his father's connections and wealth, while his father stood silently in the background to avoid drawing attention to himself."

"Wayne Barrett's 1992 book, Trump: The Deals and the Downfall, reveals the magnitude of his father's involvement. Fred Trump and the Hyatt hotel chain jointly guaranteed the $70 million construction loan from Manufacturers Hanover bank, "each assuming a 50 percent share of the obligation and each committing itself to complete the project should Donald be unable to finish it."

"Trump's father was not only his silent partner but also his safety net. In a 2007 deposition, Donald admitted that he borrowed at least $9 million from his future inheritance when he encountered financial difficulties. In effect, Donald was on welfare. The funding came from his father, not the government. But it actually came indirectly from the government, which had financed Fred Trump's real estate business.

"Other investigations have shown that Trump's business career is filled with multiple bankruptcies, bogus businesses (like Trump University), repeated rip-offs of suppliers, contractors and employees who he failed to pay for services rendered, and misuse of the Trump Foundation to feather his own nest while trying to look like a philanthropist. Trump has also lied about the size of his wealth, as various business publications have pointed out. Many observers suggest that one reason Trump has refused to release his tax returns is that they will show that he has repeatedly exaggerated his wealth and, thus, his success.

"Like Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate, the Washington Post's investigation provides the documentation needed to confirm Trump's birthplace on third base. But even though he was born on third base, he has had to lie, cheat, and break the law in order to get to home plate."

Still feel Mr. Trump feels your pain?

*Peter Dreier is professor of politics and chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His most recent book is The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame (Nation Books).