Trump on Kelo: I happen to agree with it 100 percent
Credit Mark Levin with bursting the Trump bubble. Just last week he was the first voice on the right to thoroughly dissect Trump’s history of political activity (donations to Hillary, Weiner, Rahm, Schumer and others).
He was also the first to ask a number of important questions about Trump’s world view, including, “What does he think about Kelo?” The Club for Growth is out today with the answer … directly from Trump himself from 2005 on Fox News.
“I happen to agree with it 100 percent, not that I would want to use it. [note below, he would actually want to use it]
But the fact is, if you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and government, whether it’s local or whatever, government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and make area that’s not good into a good area, and move the person that’s living there into a better place — now, I know it might not be their choice — but move the person to a better place and yet create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good.”
But the reality is, Trump did try to use the power of eminent domain to seize private property. He did this in Altlantic City, and it wasn’t to build an elementy school or even a “tremendous economic development.” He wanted to knock down an old lady’s home so he could build a parking lot for limousines near his casino.
Full disclosure: I used to work for the Institute for Justice, which successfully defended Vera Coking against Trump’s land grab in Atlantic City. More details about that case can be found here.
The Right’s love fest with Donald Trump is coming to an end. But will the media’s love affair with him ever end? The MSM isn’t known for vetting their own, so they’re likely to only give Trump the harry eyeball if he wins the nomination. Don’t forget, John McCain was the MSM’s second favorite candidate out of the entire 2008 field. And we know how well that ended.
Further confirmation of my thoughts on this guy. Anyone that thinks Kelo was a good and just decision should be drummed out of office and have THIER property confiscated…. for the greater good of course.
He’s no Ross Perot, but he could mess US up even worse.
“The Right’s love fest with Donald Trump is coming to an end.”
It NEVER EXISTED outside the minds of people who think news coverage creates reality.
I think Trumps moment in the sun is a contrived exercise by the left to see if they could launch a third party torpedo into those Tea Party trouble makers.
Agreed. Trump was never a serious candidate on the right. He was attempting (or was used by the media) to fill the Ross Perot niche: a spoiler who could shave off 5-10% of the electorate to hand the election to a candidate who can’t win otherwise.
Consider this: even in the midst of the financial crisis (at a time when the public story was that it was somehow caused by the Bush Administration, though of course they were clear on precisely how that was the case), after Katrina, and with war-weary public convinced that Iraq was Vietname Come Again, even then, against a supposed moderate promising a net spending cut and competent centrism, Obama won by only 7%. President Bush won two very narrow victories, but historically speaking 7% is not a big win.
Even if you assume that Obama’s performance has been historically average, subtract out Bush Derangement Syndrome and the financial crisis and you have a surprisingly vulnerable candidate. Now add back in Obama’s performance in office, and you can see why he needs a spoiler candidate so badly. I don’t doubt that the JournOlisters are eager to supply him with one.
Trump is playing the Catspaw. It is a very old tactic.
Don’t know about the right, but I suspect most of the libertarian-leaning sorts (fiscal conservatives, if you will) have been more bemused (and, in my case, amused) by the latest Trump phenomenon.
There is only one reason Trump polls high. Because a LARGE number of conservatives want answers on the Obama document concealment. What part of the information he is hiding will harm him? Clearly his grades SUCKED or he would have transcripts out that prove he is the smartest president EVAH. No grades, no papers from school, either HS or any of the colleges.
and the birth certificate, containing quite a number of facts which are not publicly available because he instead released the COLB green thing, the short form that isn’t really a BC.
I have seen a BC from someone born immediately after him. There is the name and signature of the attending doc, the name of the hospital, the father’s address and mother’s address and the occupation of the father. I do not know which datum or what combination of them is harmful to him, but it can be assumed that some of it is.
The talking point, shared by liberals and by establishment Repubs alike, that it’s a distraction and harms our campaign and we should stick to the issues, is BOGUS. Constitutional qualifications are as much of an issue as any of the others. His signed laws would all become invalid if he was discovered to be a fraud. That is enough for me to hound him ’til the end for this info. It is the “easy button” to undo the harm from the Borg.
Why do some people not see this? No matter. A LARGE AND GROWING number of us do. We don’t know what we don’t know, but nobody spends millions hiding NOTHING.
I’m satisfied from the docs that President Obama has disclosed that he was born in the united states and is legitimately the president.
So why the secrecy? I used to think he was egging on his opponents, trying to radicalize them, but now I’m not so sure. Even moderates find it weird that he’s stonewalling on something so silly. Something embarrassing? Maybe they list his birth name as “Barry” rather than “Barack”. If it came out, it would make him look like a phoney and a poseur.
Assigning Trump to the right just because he wants to run against Obama is lame.
I agree that if Trump supports Kelo, it indicates he does not have much respect for private property rights, and that would be a huge strike against him.
I don’t see how Trump is a right-wing darling. He fascinates the Press, for sure. But the press certainly isn’t equivalent to the right. He’s willing to ask some questions which need asking; and (at least in theory) a diehard leftie might want to do the same thing. Trump seems concerned that the American left and its sycophants imagine that the President is above the law, in this case a bit of Constitutional law. At one time – remember the Nixon days? – many Dems thought the same. What’s changed since then? Only the party affiliation of the offender. A good Dem will change his spots as required; Trump won’t. That makes him a bad Party man, but he could still be a terminal leftoid.
The news about Kelo seems disastrous for Trump. He’d have done better to admit to putting fetuses in blenders.
The lovefestm with Trump isn’t so much from the right as the MSM, who
a) like the ratings his take-no-prisoners rhetoric brings, and more substantively
b) will in a few months use guilt by association to paint every candidate opposed to Owebama as a birther.
I’m certainly not a Trump fan, but I also agree with the Kelo decision. The Supreme Court ruled that state eminent domain is up to the states, not the federal government. If the citizens of a state want to change the eminent domain laws than they need to elect people that will do so. It is an area where the federal government shouldn’t intrude. It was actually a positive ruling for right of a state to enact their own laws. If you don’t like something, get the law changed.
Your analysis does not seem to be correct. The Kelo decision itself points out in a footnote (No. 1 in the Opinion of the Court) that previous SCOTUS ruling(s), as long ago as 1897, had made the eminent domain clause in the federal constitution “applicable” to the state governments.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-108.ZO.html
My apologies. I’m not a lawyer. Of course, the Court did mention that states have enacted legislation to further restrict the use of eminent domain and may, in fact, go beyond those court rulings that concern the 5th Amendment. Sounds like a deferral to state authority to me.
Okay. But that’s not what you claimed in your first comment. Nor is it what SCOTUS held: “The city’s proposed disposition of petitioners’ property qualifies as a ‘public use’ within the meaning of the Takings Clause” of the federal constitution. (Syllabus)
Of course some states have enacted stricter rules for eminent domain: that wasn’t the question being decided, and the states’ power to do so was not at issue. “This Court’s authority, however, extends only to determining whether the City’s proposed condemnations are for a ‘public use’ within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.” (Opinion)
Once again, I’m not a lawyer. You can spout all the legalese you want, but I’m just a regular citizen and thats what it looks like to me. I really don’t feel like arguing with you about the law. If thats your thing, go for it! My brother was very much like you and now he doesn’t have any friends and finally realizes it. Enjoy.
I’m not a lawyer either, but at least I can read and comprehend what I read.
Your original statement here was incorrect. Your second statement, a lame attempt at correction, was also incorrect. Your final statement was ad hominem. Who couldn’t see that one coming?
It is my experience that an expert in anything can make their point in no more than 3 sentences, in under 30 seconds. If someone can’t do that, they are a technician, not an expert. I’m not an expert in the law but I can sum up the Kelo decision easily: There were no rights violated. The law wasn’t broken. If you don’t like the law, change it.
I didn’t mean to do the “ad hominum” thing (whatever that is), I was just making an observation about your fixation on legal minutia. My brother regrets his insistance on being right all the time quite a bit, now that he is getting older.
Hey, look, Trump is a real estate developer. Of course he is in favor of eminent domain to let him pull together a developable parcel of land. I’m sure he remembers some of his deals that fell thru when holdout property owners refused to sell out to him. I don’t think the Donald would make a good president. Sooner we Republicans blow him off they better of we will be.
Trump is the new Schwarzenegger.
http://www.wcvarones.com/2011/04/trump-loves-crony-capitalism.html
“Crony Capitalism” was the first thing that popped into my mind when I jumped from the headline on Instapundit.
Sure, it’s nice that someone’s out there, jumping on the third rail, grabbing live wires, and poking hornets’ nests. Particularly when the Old Media watchdogs turned into lapdog gatekeepers, blocking even mere hints of issues against their chosen ones. But when you need a serious figure, such as for the Presidency, Trump doesn’t rank high up there. Even his business dealings, particularly the major bankruptcies (plural!), should leave one wary.
The Kelo decision? That’s a red flag smacking you right on the head.
My wife can’t take Trump’s hair and BS.
I agree with Krauthammer: Trump is a modified huckster in the Al Sharpton mold.
If you just look at the polls on Hot Air and NRO, you will find that there is very little support for Trump from real conservatives.
In Benton Harbor, Michigan there is an entire historic incorporated lakeside community that is being subjected to a ['possible'] land grab for leisure development by Whirlpool Corp., in a nearby community.
Ready for the kicker?
A Republican State legislator is on the side of the corporate developer. He got passed legislation that gives the State the right to effectively defunct any cities government and guess who was the first community government to be effected? Right you are! The law only permits the city council to open a meeting, approve the minutes of the last meeting AND then close the meeting…..PERIOD!
Here’s the language from the order:
NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED AS FOLLOWS:
1. Absent prior express written authorization and approval by the Emergency Manager, no City Board, Commission or Authority shall take any action for or on behalf of the City whatsoever other than:
i) Call a meeting to order.
ii) Approve of meeting minutes.
iii) Adjourn a meeting.
2. That all prior resolutions, or acts of any kind of the City in conflict herewith are and the same shall be, to the extent of such conflict, rescinded.
3. This order shall be effective immediately.
["the Jean Klock Park situation, a story that the Messenger has been following closely for years — and most of the media in the state have been ignoring. A large chunk of that park, deeded to the city on the condition that it remain a public park forever, was leased to private developers to be made into a golf course.
The land was swapped for land owned by Whirlpool, property that turned out to be highly contaminated; taxpayers are now paying for the cleanup of that land through a Brownfield redevelopment credit worth millions of dollars.
Though that situation took place before the new Emergency Manager law went into effect, this is exactly the sort of thing that an Emergency Manager would have the power to do. Faced with a deficit, the EM might decide to sell off public property to developers — and there’s nothing that local residents or their elected officials could do to stop it because, as this situation shows, the EFM can simply order the local elected boards not to do anything."]
March 10, 2011
Nobody in Lansing was neutral yesterday when the Michigan senate completed passage of new, tougher Emergency Financial Manager legislation on a straight, party line vote.
State Senator Phil Pavlov said this is needed to maintain “vital services, such as public safety and education,” when a city or a school district is in desperate financial straits.
This reform, he said, is necessary to allow steps to be taken “to protect public interests and the public’s money and strengthen local control and accountability.” His fellow Republicans all agreed.
Does one not understand how divided the GOP hierarchy is today? You cannot tell one party’s ideology from another in so many places.
He is probably the perfect man for our times. Those times being a welfare state drifting quickly into omnipresent statism. Some people just want an ass-kicker to fix things – right up to the point where they say, how did we get here?
I disagree with Kelo 100%. However, I appreciate Trump’s honesty. It’s a responsible voter’s dream. What a contrast to Oboob and his “Lie till you die”, and “Promise ‘em anything and everything.”
Trump should not be president, but I love the way he is shaping the debate. He is fearless. Republicans, watch and learn.
And Glenn, if you know your bible you know that God has used less than perfect people for his means. God even used an ass to speak to Saul of Tarsus.
The guy went bankrupt running casinos. TWICE! I think that’s all you need to know about Trump’s qualifications to be president. OTOH, that experience with bankruptcy will probably come in pretty handy over the next few years…
Trump is a Progressive – from the same mold – they’re “in cahoots”. you don’t think “they” get together and talk about how they’re going to bamboozle “the masses”? da–ed elitists.
Thank you for pointing this out. I am flabbergasted at the public’s fascination with this guy. He is a typical crony capitalist who lacks even a marginal understanding of economics.