BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
Along with the rest of the world and tens of millions of Americans I am hoping that the nightmare called Trump will be over on November 3.
Fortunately, Trump just announced that if he loses the election, he will leave the United States. That is the best thing he has said in four years! He probably is worried that he will go to jail after he loses the election for the multiple crimes he has committed both during and after holding office. The only problem is which country would be willing to give him refuge; maybe Turkey or Azerbaijan. Or maybe Israel.
I know that some Armenians will not be happy with my position. But I have always strongly expressed my point of view as honestly as I could. I sincerely believe that Trump has been a menace to the United States and the world! Hopefully, with Trump’s defeat on Nov. 3, we will all breathe a big sigh of relief. We will once again live in a free democratic country without the fear of a dictator ruining our health and our lives.
There are not enough negative words in the dictionary to describe all the wrong things Trump has said and done in the past four years. This must come to a stop. It will take a long time for the next U.S. President to undo the damage that Trump has done to America and the world.
The Washington Post meticulously kept track of Trump’s lies and exaggerations. As of May 2020, Trump has lied over 20,000 times since becoming President. He is a serial liar. You cannot trust a word he says. He says one thing in the morning and the opposite in the evening. When confronted, he says he did not say it, even when it is proven by a tape recording of his own voice. He said in a speech in 2018: don’t believe what you are reading or what you are seeing! In other words, ignore the facts and trust his lies.
The only thing you can trust is that Trump will do what is in his self-interest. As President he has directed business to his hotels and golf courses around the world. He owes $400 million to unknown individuals and entities, but will not reveal their names. Could it be that some of the dictators he embraces are the ones that lent him these funds. And that could be the reason, among others, why Trump adamantly refuses to make his tax returns public.
Turning to the coronavirus pandemic, Trump’s incompetence and ignorance has caused the deaths of over 220,000 Americans as of now, with the count going up every day. He never took the deadly virus seriously, describing it as a Democrat hoax and said on Feb. 27, 2020 at the White House that “It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear.” Regrettably, many more will die before this pandemic is over. Trump has held large political rallies around the country and several events at the White House with most attendees not wearing masks and no social distancing. Many of them, Trump’s own voters, were infected and some died. Trump and his family were also infected, but he seems to have learned no lessons from his reckless behavior.
Trump has confessed that he is in love with dictators and against traditional U.S. allies. Trump told journalist Bob Woodward in a taped interview: “I get along very well with Erdogan, even though you’re not supposed to because everyone says, ‘what a horrible guy.’ But you know, for me it works out good. It’s funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and the meaner they are, the better I get along with them. You’ll explain that to me someday, okay? But maybe it’s not a bad thing. … The easy ones are the ones I maybe don’t like as much or don’t get along with so much.”
It is therefore not surprising that Pres. Trump has not lifted a finger to pressure his good friend Erdogan to stop arming and encouraging Azerbaijan in the attack on Artsakh. He is not even interested in telling Erdogan to stop flying terrorists from Northern Syria to Azerbaijan, because Trump does not have anything personal to gain from the Artsakh conflict. Meanwhile, young Armenian soldiers are dying every day. If Trump wanted to, he could have stopped the war with one phone call to Erdogan. But, as Trump confessed to Breitbart News Daily in 2015: “I have a little conflict of interest ’cause I have a major, major building in Istanbul. It’s a tremendously successful job. It’s called Trump Towers — two towers, instead of one, not the usual one, it’s two.”
On Oct. 18, after noticing a group of Armenian protesters in Orange County, California, at a rally in Reno, Nevada, later that day, Trump praised Armenians and said he liked their flag. Even though he made no reference to the Artsakh War, he said, “we are working on something.” Trump may be alluding to the Oct. 23 planned meeting in Washington, DC, of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan. As Trump often says, “let’s see what happens.”
Many books have been written in recent months by either Trump’s relatives or his White House staff, revealing his multiple flaws. Recently, former White House Chief of Staff retired General John Kelly said about Trump: “The depths of his dishonesty are just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life.”
One of the amazing things about Trump supporters is their blind following of Trump as their cult leader, no matter how despicable his actions or statements are. How can evangelicals and other decent people ignore his immoral practices and his lies? He has had many illicit sexual affairs with prostitutes and paid them hush money. He has probably not entered a church in his life, yet he is worshipped like a God! This is very sad and regrettable.
Trump has also ruined the United States’ reputation around the world. According to a Pew poll, Russia’s Putin is more respected than Trump and he is just one point ahead of China’s Xi Jinping (29% to 28%) among world leaders. The Trump administration has also violated several international agreements signed by the United States.
To conclude, a vote for Biden is a vote to get rid of Trump. I am not naïve to believe campaign promises, but one thing is sure, Trump must go. So regardless of what Biden promises to do, he cannot be any worse than Trump for
It would have been best if you had not voted for Biden and this election year you SHOULD have kept it private. It’s plain obvious you are a globalist and part of the swamp
I am really surprised.
THANK GOODNESS !!!!!
To all the Armenians who are planning to vote for Trump, remember how he sold the Kurds in Northern Syria to Erdogan without even consulting with his own military
Trump could not care less about us, whether it is Artsakh or Genocide recognition
Harut Sassounian, the fact that you are expressing you opinion freely, mostly borrowed form “leftist” media, and you are free to campaign and vote for anyone you want proves that we have democracy and not dictatorship and you claim, You are entitled to your opinion and not your fact. Most people do not care about your misquoting and misrepresenting. I very strongly recommend that for your own sake you EDUCATE yourself about Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s corruption and their ties with China and other countries and recent Hunter’s disgusting acts in China that I can not mention here. Maybe those acts are not disgusting and immoral for you and that is your choice. Also I am very disappointed in Asbarez that instead of real issues facing Californians and Armenian publish such a garbage, Maybe just maybe you are running out of ideas.
I add to this choice of vote, that of the diasporic people and I vote with Garen the massive arrival of the Armenian youth in the four corners of the world. Indeed we are recognized, laborious, loyal, constructive, imaginative, daring, persevering in everything and in the affirmation of our immortality in fraternity with the peoples, cultures of the world, we are a peaceful people, non-aggressive by our secular family education, millennial. We are exemplary in many areas that underpin civilized societies. Thank you to the Armenian people to our martyrs of all times and today of whom I feel proud. 2
I am really surprised with your choice.
I am really surprised with your choice. I hope you don’t ask us to call Trump during the next four years.
Thankfully Sassounian’s opinions are not shared by everyone and certainly not the rest of the world. God greatly bless Armenia and God bless Donald Trump.
Harut is reading the Democratic party line. If Harut really want to help Armenia, he’ll vote for Trump because all the other politicians are bought and paid for by Turkey.
I am sorry, Harut, that I disagree with you 100% on President Trump. I don’t see how any rational person would or could vote for a crooked, stupid jerk J. Biden. He would ruin this country from top to the bottom.
James.
Hmmm, this may be a wrong time for advertising one’s political partialities. But if that’s what we’re doing here, then…
We’ve already had Biden’s former boss, Barak Hussain Obama. He collected our votes, and didn’t manage to say “genocide”. His Sec of State Hillary Clinton? I wasn’t impressed with those protocols at all! I’m almost sure that Biden will do something similar, just to pretend he cares.
Harout,
None of these career politicians have done anything for us for over 100 years. Why would someone vote for Biden since he does not want to recognize Artsakh. I have never voted for these politicians that have promised us that they would recognize the genocide. Please read the Biden website, his statement about NK and see if you would sill vote for the man that stood by Obama, another one of those characters that lied to us. Interesting how Biden said he would push to recognize the genocide in April this year of an election election. None of these politicians writing these resolutions are human rights advocates nor social activist they are just pandering to the Armenian community like they do to the black community. They’ve all lied and tried to keep us in a corner with no action, empty promises and worthless resolutions. Why would you not demand action? You need to stop thinking in the past. Reparations for lost land is ridiculous. Are you really going to live there? Have you been there lately? I have and would not want to live among those people or have Turkey as a neighbor. If we got those lambs back, who would move there you, diaspora, displaced Armenians, or residents from current Armenia? I don’t know anyone who wants to go live in western Armenia. I do know people from the diaspora who would want to go live in Armenia. Have you been there lately? There is nothing for us except to be closer to Turkey. The diaspora has built so much and thrived in other countries, why would we want to go live in a land of sorrows no opportunity. That’s the old political opinion of old school Armenian groups that is tired and has not served us for over 100 years. I hope those organizations can change with the times and look toward the future instead of looking back. Instead of resolutions and proclamations from politicians instead Board of Education and have our children’s textbooks include the history of the genocide and have required reading to include a book about the genocide. The Turks Have indoctrinated their population in school for over 100 years. Why would we not want to have history taught in our schools instead of throwing away money on Washington lobbyist and politicians? The future is the new Armenia and we should be all thinking about how we make it stronger and improve the lives of our people there. Support Pashinyan and Armenia. This is a beautiful moment of unity for us and we all feel what are our priorities and Armenia is first! This is the year of Covid transparency let’s ride the wave and flush out all the garbage.
I am sorry to hear only some Armenians will not be happy with your position. In my view, all Armenians should be unhappy with your position on the 2020 election! You seem to be proud you are expressing your point of view honestly, unfortunately for your readers, you are not presenting Trump’s first term honestly.
Trump has kept his campaign promises in spite of the Schiff nightmare, the pathological liar, California sent to Congress to stop him. You all supported Obama/Biden who promised to recognize the Armenian genocide, did he? What about the promises made about Obamacare, how much of it ended up being true, what about ISIS and the Syria tragedy, what was done about that? Your ability to interpret reality is twisted.
In spite of what you said, it is Trump’s State Department that brought about the ceasefire between Azerbaijan and Armenia! That’s in spite of your declaration you will vote for Biden!
You think Trump is a dictator? Who’s behind changing the meaning of words? Who’s using censorship to shut down free speech? Who’s talking about taking your rights away? The Biden supporters are doing all that while they’re not in power! What will they do when they take power!
Like 2016, the choice will be the lesser of 2 negatives.
One of personality and the other someone who could have done something but never did and now–once again–naive Armenians embrace Biden. Will we never learn ? He won’t last 2 years and true racist Harris will take over.
Then, God help our nation.
Therefore, we have a choice which should be based on policies that affect us every day.
Looking at policies and good for citizens
Vote policies that better our lives as U.S. citizens so that we can do more for the Armenian Cause.
The “Armenian card” as a tie breaker in voting presidential elections does not exist.
What happens if Biden says genocide ?
Nothing
What happens if Trump says it?
Nothing
Remember, Reagan said it and as a reminder–nothing changed.
As much as there is sound Armenian activism, we are still naive and purr when stroked.
I thought we had had enough of sound bites.
We are all voting for Biden as well. I am surprised to see such small, closed minded; illiberal minds, in the Armenian community. I guess they still like the USSR mentality