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HELPING TRUMP ISN’T EASY

Making Sense by Michael Reagan

Donald Trump actually looked like a statesman in Mexico City Wednesday afternoon.

It didn’t matter what he and the president of Mexico talked about.  It didn’t even matter if they made a secret handshake deal to split the cost of building the great Wall of Trump.

For the first time in his long campaign, Trump actually looked presidential. The visual gravitas didn’t last long, though.  Six hours later in Arizona the old Trump was back, reading a speech from the teleprompter and throwing big slabs of U.S. Prime red meat to his hardcore fan base.  He erased all thoughts that he was headed to a kinder, gentler place on immigration, which, unfortunately, remains the signature issue of his campaign.

Not only did he promise to build his wall taller and deeper and stronger, and make Mexico pay for it, but he also promised to get tougher on illegal immigrants in every way.  That’s great. But Trump —- and his campaign —- still don’t get it.  He’s still pounding away at immigration when he should be talking about the economy, Obamacare and making the country safe.

His tough stand on immigration is what won him the Republican primary. It’s what keeps his hardcore base applauding and cheering for him at his rallies.  But he doesn’t have to pander to that base anymore.
He also doesn’t need to be boosting Fox’s ratings every night by appearing with his soulmates Greta, Bill and Sean.

He doesn’t need to please the conservative Fox audience anymore, either, who tune in to see everyone beat up on Hillary. They’re already in his bag of votes.  How hard is this? Trump needs to address all those people out there who are not part of his base —- people who aren’t Republicans but who dislike Hillary enough to vote for him because of issues like the economy or trust.

Speaking to a black audience this weekend and pointing out how the Democrat Party has failed blacks for 50 years is the right idea.  He has to do more of that. Next, I’d like to see him shaking hands at a corner taco stand in L.A. After that, he should show up on CNN and even PBS, if they’ll have him.  He needs to eat away at Hillary’s base. And that means talking about the economy, jobs and lying Hillary’s personal failings, which are huge.

Trump’s campaign staff had a good week.
But calling Hillary a bigot because she takes the black vote for granted was a total waste of time. It’s not going to win Trump votes in November.

When I tried to tell the Trump team that in a tweet this week, the response I got from a campaign operative in Trump Tower was, “Oh, are you on the Hillary Clinton payroll?
That’s the common response from Trumpsters and the campaign’s brain trust. If you say anything critical they say, “You must be on Hillary’s payroll.”

They don’t want my advice, but everything I’ve said about Trump’s campaign has been proven to be true.
I told them not to hire Paul Manafort to run the campaign. But they did —- and then had to fire him.
I told them long ago Trump had to soften his approach to Latinos —- and eventually he did. I think.
I refuse to be a Trump enabler. I’ve decided to be a consultant to him via Twitter or my columns.
But when I criticize Trump’s campaign I get grief from his followers and his campaign people for being a Hillary lover.

When I told my father in 1980 to fire Paul Manafort and the rest of his campaign team because I could see they were losing the Iowa caucuses to George H.W. Bush, did that mean I was a supporter of Jimmy Carter?
No.

There are too many major differences between Trump and my father to count. But one difference is that my father had the sense to listen to me when I gave him good advice.

WELLS FARGO IS A BANK, NOT A CENTER FOR POLITICAL ACTIVISM

By Susan Stamper Brown

If Wells Fargo was focused on bank charges and interest rates rather than political hot button issues, perhaps they wouldn’t have had to fire thousands of employees for ripping off customers and be liable for millions in fines.

In a recent press release, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] recounted that Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. will pay “the largest penalty the CFPB has ever imposed,” $185 million, because thousands of Wells Fargo employees “covertly” opened “more than two million deposit and credit card accounts,” transferring funds from consumers’ authorized accounts without their knowledge or consent, often racking up fees or other charges.”

The press release says the employees who engaged in this “widespread illegal practice” were “spurred by sales targets and compensation incentives.” “Spurred” is a little mild, considering that CNN Money reports that a “pressure cooker environment” at Wells Fargo resulted in employees engaging “in all kinds of sordid practices.”

Specifically, approximately 5,300 employees may have opened roughly 1.5 million deposit accounts, transferring funds from consumers’ accounts to temporarily fund the new, unauthorized accounts. The CFPB reports that consumers were “sometimes harmed” from insufficient funds or overdraft charges. But it seems it was a win-win for Wells Fargo for those actions apparently helped the bank meet sales goals and also helped employees earn additional compensation.

Additionally, CFPB says employees applied for “roughly 565,000 credit card accounts that may not have been authorized by consumers, leading to “incurred annual fees, as well as associated finance or interest charges and other fees.” They also issued and activated debit cards and created PIN numbers and fake email addresses to enroll unaware consumers in online-banking services.

All this while Wells Fargo was simultaneously shoving social issues down consumers’ throats, something they’ve done for years.

Last year, in response to an advertisement featuring a lesbian couple, noteworthy Evangelicals like Franklin Graham said they’d had enough and closed out their accounts. Nonetheless, Wells Fargo remained resolute in its activist stance and has the right to do so.

But individuals also have the right to put their money in banks that leave what people do in the bedroom out of the boardroom.

During an interview in 2015 with the San Francisco Business Times, Wells Fargo executive Doug Case said, “…our CEO John Stumpf very frequently will talk about LGBT inclusiveness and, talk about walking the talk…”

Walking the talk? Sure, Wells Fargo repeatedly receives high rankings from the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBT advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the United States. But the bank’s latest scam is just one more in a “string of infractions,” reports USA Today.Wells Fargo “faced or settled four key areas of litigation as of the end of 2015” including FHA insurance claims, Visa and MasterCard interchange fees, mortgage products, and order of posting (overdraft) fees.

So why not try walking the bank talk? Obviously, Wells Fargo has lost its focus. It is easy to do. But when a distraction sidetracks your purpose, something’s got to give. Wells Fargo’s forgotten that a bank is not a social experimentation petri dish. It is a financial institution…a bank. Banks lend and borrow money and accept customers’ deposits and pay interest in return. Then they use those funds to lend to other customers. Pure and simple.

Given that 5,300 employees, not just a handful of bad actors, were fired for what boils down to identity theft for profit, Wells Fargo would be better served serving its purpose, rather than investing time and energy bartering in social and political activism.