Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:39 pm
Kurt Eichenwald embarked on a twitter storm this afternoon to rip into Donald Trump over his unsubstantiated attack on Boeing. The whole claim of overruns is a lie, says Eichenwald:
I have searched everywhere. I cannot find anything saying there was a $4B cost overrun in 3wk old Air Force One contract. Trump made it up.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 6, 2016
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Eichenwald went on to ask Trump supporters to “Explain how a 3-wk old contract has $4B in cost overruns. Trump is lying because Boeing said something he didnt like.”
Then come the other problems that arise from his lies:
Trump is priv citizen. $4 bill, Air Force One falsehood cratered Boeing stock. He "sold" shares in June. Shareholders can sue him 4 fraud.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 6, 2016
Not to mention stock market manipulation:
If any person associated with Trump purchased Boeing shares today, that could be charged as a market manipulation called "stock bashing."
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 6, 2016
The lies and possible fraud and market manipulation are only the beginning. Awful as these charges are, and however damaging to Boeing, there are many more companies and individuals who can be hurt going forward once Trump is sitting in the Oval Office. There is the abuse of power factor:
Air Force One tweet tantrum — a lie pushed just after Boeing says concerned about Trump trade policies — is a frightening abuse of power.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 6, 2016
Far more serious for what all this means going forward into four years of a Trump administration is a Congress that lacks the spine to even pretend to investigate actual Trump scandals while working overtime at invented Obama and Clinton scandals:
In any real world of actual government oversight, this Air Force One lie that cratered stock wuld be subject of congressional investigation.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 6, 2016
Yeah. That’s not gonna happen.
Trump just showed he will scream lies 2 cripple the share price of any company that raises concerns about him. They will go silent. Obscene.
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) December 6, 2016
This is how Trump has functioned all along, of course, intimidating critics and even destroying them. Now, about to become the most powerful man on earth, the dangers his reckless and vindictive behavior poses is breathtaking. This is only the beginning. It won’t be the end.
As he has so often before, out of spite or sheer vindictiveness, Trump simply lied without worry over the consequences for others. He did what he has done so often before: he made sure none of the fallout fell on him and the devil take the hindmost.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.