The economic sadism of Donald Trump

During the Republican primary, in state after state, voters who self-identified as “angry” supported Donald Trump’s candidacy. What is driving much of this emotion, frankly — among both Democrats and Republicans — is the feeling that the average American is being screwed by large and powerful institutions that get their way, while people get left behind.

{mosads}Banks that are too big to fail, Wall Street speculators, multinational corporations, lobbyists, campaign donors and even foreign governments all use their size, along with financial and political power, to gain advantages ordinary Americans are excluded from. When these large institutions rip people off, whatever penalties they pay are considered just another business expense. In September, Wells Fargo became the latest focal point of this anger when it was revealed that the bank had created 2 million unauthorized accounts designed to extract extra fees from its customers.

Throughout this campaign, Trump has proven himself to be the embodiment of this toxic system, personally taking advantage of every loophole and scheme to avoid obligations that most Americans consider part of being a good citizen.

Contractors — almost always small business owners — ranging from a music store that supplied one of his casinos with pianos, to the company that installed glass at the Taj Mahal Casino, to an architect who designed one of his golf clubs, were forced by Trump to take pennies on the dollar.

Sure, they could have gone to court, but Trump and his lawyers promised to fight to the bitter end, meaning that their cases could drag on for years and cost tens — if not hundreds — of thousands of dollars in legal fees that these businesses could not afford to pay. Trump took advantage of them because he could. Trump was simply too big to sue.

As the housing market was crashing and Americans were losing their homes, Trump stood beside those who were profiting from the chaos, declaring that he was “excited” for the housing market to crash because “I’ve always made more money in bad markets than in good markets.”

The Saturday evening revelation by The New York Times that the GOP nominee might not have paid federal income taxes for as many as 18 years beginning in 1995 provides another example of how Trump has taken advantage of money and the power that comes with it to get out of something most Americans consider to be an obligation.

In 2012, then-GOP nominee Mitt Romney was surreptitiously recorded telling a crowd of donors that he’d “never convince” the 47 percent of Americans who pay no federal income tax “that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

Who knew he was talking about Donald Trump?

Now Trump is running his campaign on the perverted logic that because he is the problem, he is the only one who can be the solution.

Former New York City mayor and Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani (R) said Trump was a “genius” for not paying taxes, and during last week’s presidential debate, the candidate claimed he would be “smart” not to pay any federal taxes. By that logic the rest of us are just dumb suckers for funding the government that Trump wants to run.

Other apologists for the GOP nominee are quick to point out that each of his maneuvers is legal. But this misses the broader issue voters face in the 2016 election.

The Wolf of Wall Street and Gordon Gekko make for interesting characters, but no one would suggest that Jordan Belfort or Martin Shkreli — famous for profiting off the misery of others while patting themselves on the back for being the smartest guys in the room — display the character we want in our commander in chief.

To thousands of Americans, Trump’s billion-dollar bust in 1995 meant the loss of jobs, bills going unpaid and families put in financial stress. To Trump, it was a “smart” way to avoid paying taxes for years afterwards.

The GOP nominee has built his career on the belief that those he works with, from small businesses, to those purchasing condos in buildings he licenses his name to, to the federal government, are dupes to be taken advantage of.

Wealth and success are admired in America, but the economic sadism that Donald Trump and his surrogates brag about has always been despised, for good reason.

Rabin-Havt is host of “The Agenda” on SiriusXM Progress 127 and a senior fellow at People for the American Way. Follow him on Twitter @AriRabinHavt.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.