As a businessman, Donald Trump has always considered himself as being good with numbers. Whether it’s his alleged billionaire status or the number of votes he received, Trump has always been about the numbers. And now that his tax returns and financial records have been turned over to New York prosecutors, it may be the numbers that prove Trump’s undoing.
So, let’s look at Trump by the numbers:
One
No matter how many times he or his misguided supporters deny it, Donald Trump was a one-term president. It’s a number that few of his predecessors can claim, but it’s one few of them are happy to acknowledge. Despite this, Trump continues to push the lie of voter fraud and a “stolen election”, that is an indisputable fact to all but Trump’s hardcore base.
Instead, there is even a Q Anon conspiracy theory that Trump will somehow be returned to office on March 4th. They base this wild assertion on the fact the original inauguration date of March 4th was illegally changed when Congress adopted the Twentieth Amendment in 1933. Through some twisted leap of logic, they claim that Ulysses S Grant was the last “legitimate president”. Since he was the 18th president, Trump would take office as the 19th “legitimate president”.
Two
The number two applies to Trump in many ways. Whether it’s his two daughters or the two women he allegedly paid off to maintain their silence during the 2016 election or even the fact Trump is the only president to be impeached twice, the number two is part of Trump’s legacy.
Trump’s two daughters, Ivanka and Tiffany, hold vastly different places in Trump’s eye. Ivanka is the offspring of Trump’s first wife Ivana. She is highly involved in the Trump empire and even the Trump administration where she was a nondescript “Senior Advisor”. She has a successful business of her own and also is being investigated for various financial improprieties while she was a member of the White House senior staff.
Tiffany is the daughter of Trump and his second wife, Marla Maples. Largely ignored by her famous, and infamous, father Tiffany has remained relatively obscure and avoided the limelight that her siblings basked in. Seen mainly as a party girl, Tiffany nonetheless graduated from Georgetown Law School and continues to work there as a research assistant. All the while, she remains one of the few, excluding Barron, who have avoided legal scrutiny.
There are two women, Stephanie Clifford, AKA Stormy Daniels, and Karen McDougal, who were allegedly paid for their silence in not revealing sexual encounters with Trump. Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is at the center of the investigation as to where the actual hush money came from and how involved Trump was in arranging these payments.
Two is also the number of times Donald Trump has been impeached, cementing his place as the worst president in history with approval ratings that never approached 50 percent. Yet, despite being impeached twice, Republicans came up with reasons not to convict Trump of the high crimes and misdemeanors for which he was charged, while all the while claiming Trump did not commit impeachable offenses.
During the first trial, senators argued that the decision about Trump’s guilt or innocence should be “up to the voters”, while the second impeachment trial led to another acquittal because “Trump was no longer in office” and therefore not subject to impeachment. This feat of legal legerdemain was made possible because, although impeached by the House prior to his leaving office, then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) refused to consider the option, which gave Republicans a reason to vote for acquittal.
And finally, two is the number of times Trump lost the popular vote.
Three
Trump has three sons and has had, to date, three wives. He cheated on the first with the woman who became his second wife, and like the instructions on a shampoo bottle, it was lather, rinse repeat onto wife number three.
His two elder sons, Don Jr and Eric, have taken a large role in the family business, and both are under investigation for various legal issues related both to the Trump Organization and improprieties related to the 2017 inauguration.
And despite Trump’s assertions, he will not have the opportunity to “beat the Democrats a third time” should he decide to run in 2024.
Other Numbers
Six is the number of times Trump has filed bankruptcy.
There are also six lawsuits that threaten Trump with financial ruin.
Seven is the number of people who died because of the January 6th insurrection. Five died that day and two other police officers, who were on duty that day, died from suicide.
Twenty six is the number of women accusing Trump of sexual misconduct.
306 and 232 are the Electoral College votes in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. When Trump was on the winning side, he declared it a “landslide”. When he was on the losing side, he pushed, and continues to push, the lie of a “stolen election”.
400,000 are the number of people who died from coronavirus during Trump’s time in office. All the while, Trump called it a hoax and encouraged his followers to shun masks and social distancing. There is no telling how many deaths could have been prevented if it had been taken seriously from the get-go.
Millions are the number of pages in Trump’s tax returns and other financial documents that the Supreme Court finally ruled had to be turned over to the New York District Attorney, as part of a legal probe into alleged improprieties and discrepancies in how Trump valued his properties.
Thirty million is the number of people who were unemployed at the worst point of the pandemic. And while Trump can’t be blamed for COVID-19, his mismanagement of the economy prior to the pandemic can be blamed for the sky high numbers.
$7.8 trillion dollars is how much the federal deficit has risen under Trump. And while the pandemic undoubtedly contributed to this, the numbers were already at historic highs prior to the outbreak.
There are so many numbers that it boggles the mind. But there is one number that has still not been reached. How much prison time will Trump serve for his illegal actions.