Donald Trump sounded an awful lot like the mafia types he's been linked to in the past when he told CBS' Face The Nation, that he wants foreign countries to pay "protection money," to the U.S.
In responding to host John Dickerson's question about Hillary's criticisms of Trump's policies, Dickerson asked, "what policy of yours did she mischaracterize?"
Trump responded by saying she only gave a "Trump policy" speech and said, "She talked about I wanted to nuke all of these countries, that's ridiculous. No, I want these countries to pay for protection."
Hillary never said Trump "wanted to nuke all of these countries." Here's what she actually said in her speech:
And it’s no small thing when he suggests that America should withdraw our military support for Japan, encourage them to get nuclear weapons, and said this about a war between Japan and North Korea – and I quote – “If they do, they do. Good luck, enjoy yourself, folks.”I wonder if he even realizes he’s talking about nuclear war.
As far as our deficit spending and budget is concerned, Factcheck.org writes:
Trump is entitled to his opinion that the U.S. “can’t afford” military spending in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany and South Korea. But the facts are that military spending in these countries is a relatively small percentage of total U.S. military spending and provides strategic benefits that cannot be quantified.
Why did Trump use the language of the mob when discussing the safety of our allies and our selves? Maybe he's tied a lot closer to them than we think and maybe that's one of the reasons he is refusing to release his tax returns.
The "protection racket" was something many mobsters used to line their pockets. Here's an except from the book, "Mafia, The History of The Mob":
Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Siegel was the son of a poor Jewish family from Ukraine. He began his criminal career demanding protection money from pushcart vendors. If they did not pay up, he set fire to their merchandise. He then joined Meyer Lansky's gang, stealing cars and running floating craps games. Lanky also hired Siegel out as a hitman.
In 1926, the 2f-yeae-old Siegel was arrested for rape, but Lansky's henchmen told the victim that unless she suddenly developed amnesia they would throw acid in her face, scarring her for life.
If we look further back at the Mafia, we see a long history of them shaking down land owners.
The Mafia, a network of organized-crime groups based in Italy and America, evolved over centuries in Sicily, an island ruled until the mid-19th century by a long line of foreign invaders. Sicilians banded together in groups to protect themselves and carry out their own justice. In Sicily, the term “mafioso,” or Mafia member, initially had no criminal connotations and was used to refer to a person who was suspicious of central authority. By the 19th century, some of these groups emerged as private armies, or “mafie,” who extorted protection money from landowners and eventually became the violent criminal organization known today as the Sicilian Mafia. The American Mafia, which rose to power in the 1920s, is a separate entity from the Mafia in Italy, although they share such traditions as omerta, a code of conduct and loyalty.
--
In the 1870s, Roman officials even asked Sicilian Mafia clans to help them by going after dangerous, independent criminal bands; in exchange, officials would look the other way as the Mafia continued its protection shakedowns of landowners.
The protection racket has reached as far as the twenty first century and Trump plans to make it a legitimate government policy:
Then, in November 2007, police arrested Salvatore Lo Piccolo, the head of Palermo’s Mafia. A notebook found in Lo Piccolo’s possession contained a list of hundreds of shop and business owners who paid the pizzo—an ancient word of Sicilian origin meaning protection money. Bisanti’s name was on the list. The Palermo police asked him if he would testify against the extortionist. Not long ago, such a public denunciation would have meant a death sentence, but in recent years police raids and betrayals by informers have weakened the Mafia here, and a new citizens group called Addiopizzo (Goodbye Pizzo) has organized resistance to the protection rackets. Bisanti said yes, took the witness stand in a Palermo courtroom in January 2008 and helped send the extortionist to prison for eight years. The Mafia hasn’t bothered Bisanti since. “They know that I will denounce them again, so they are fearful,” he said.
