5 Hard-Hitting Facts Proving Donald Trump Has Become Just Like Hillary Clinton

By Rachel Blevins

 

As Donald Trump flip-flops on a number of key issues that made the public believe he was the “outsider”  candidate who would change the status quo in Washington, Americans are  reminded that the current president now appears to have more in common  with his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, than he does with the  candidate they thought they elected. 

Not only did Clinton lose the 2016 election, but she is now forced to  watch the man who won it using her ideas and taking credit for  them—making many wonder whether Trump is just caving to the pressure  exerted by the overwhelming number of neoconservatives he has surrounded  himself with, or if these were his views all along and he just said  what he needed to say to get into office. Here are five key issues where Trump is now just like Clinton: 

1. Despite promising to end the war in Syria, Trump is now  escalating it to push for the overthrow of Assad—just as Clinton would  have done

When Trump said  that he blamed the Obama administration for destabilizing the region in  Syria and creating the perfect climate for a group like ISIS to grow  and flourish, Americans were shocked. They believed that because Trump  clearly saw that Obama’s downfall was his determination to overthrow  Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, then surely Trump would be different.   

However, even after killing thousands of civilians  in Syria in an alarmingly short time period as part of a mission to  eradicate ISIS from the region, Trump is now escalating the conflict  between the U.S. and the Syrian government. Every time the mainstream  media has claimed that there was a chemical attack in Syria and Assad  was behind it, Trump has jumped on the bandwagon and used the unverified  reports to call for more war—even when there is no proof to support them. Now, Trump looks exactly like Clinton, who has spent the last several years claiming, “The world will not waiver, Assad must go!”   

2. Trump once railed against Clinton for catering to Wall Street—then he did the same thing when he pardoned five megabanks for rampant fraud and corruption

During the 2016 election, Trump was one of many who scrutinized Clinton for charging nearly $3 million  for the speeches she gave to major Wall Street banks from 2013 to 2015.  In addition to using Clinton’s ties to Wall Street as talking points  during presidential debates, Trump openly criticized her on Twitter,  claiming that “Hillary will never reform Wall Street! She is owned by Wall Street!”     However, during the first year of his presidency, Trump quietly issued pardons  to Citigroup, JPMorgan, Barclays, UBS and Deutsche Bank—all megabanks  facing charges of fraud and corruption. This move is notable, not only  because it goes against Trump’s claims on the campaign trail, but also  because he reportedly owes at least one of the banks a significant  amount of money. Trump has been using Deutsche Bank since the 1990s, and Financial Times reported that  he now owes the bank at least $130 million in outstanding loans secured  in properties in Miami, Chicago, and Washington. However, a source told  the Times that the actual number is likely much larger at $300 million.   

3. Americans welcomed the idea that Trump would improve  diplomatic relations with Russia—but instead, he is creating more  conflict, just as Clinton would have done   

While the mainstream media has spent an agonizing amount of time pushing the false narrative  that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his government officials  to hack the servers of the Democratic National Committee to gain  information that would harm Clinton and help Trump in the 2016 election,  Trump has devoted nearly as much time to calling the claims a “Witch Hunt” against him. In fact, Trump acknowledged the amount of effort Russia put into  eradicating ISIS from Syria and he claimed that he wanted to work with  the nation, instead of against it.   However, Trump’s tune has changed since then, and he now sounds a lot more like Clinton, who claimed to wholeheartedly believe the “Russians hacked our election” narrative, and who pushed for increased tension between the U.S. and Russia. In an alarming Tweet after the latest unverified reports of a  chemical attack in Syria, Trump took the bait and went after Putin, threatening a level of aggression that could provoke World War 3.   

4. Trump once said the Trans-Pacific Partnership would be used to “rape our country,” but he now shares the same hope for its potential as his former rival  

Before Trump was in office, he was vocal about his disdain for the  Trans-Pacific Partnership, an ominous trade deal between 12 Pacific Rim  nations that make up 40 percent of the world’s economy—including  countries such as the United States, Japan, Canada, and Mexico, while  excluding countries such as China and Russia. Trump called the TPP a “job killer” and said he believes the deal is “another disaster done and pushed by special interests who want to rape our country—just a continuing rape of our country.”   In contrast, Clinton praised the TPP and called it the “Gold Standard”  of trade deals. It now appears that Trump is starting to see potential  in the deal and he could be breaking yet another one of his campaign  promises by pledging his support to it.   

5. Trump said he wanted to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for  its role in 9/11, but he appears to be taking notes from the Clintons  and he is now closer to the Saudis than ever

Once upon a time, candidate Trump promised that if he was elected, he would hold Saudi Arabia accountable for  the role it played in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. His statements struck  a chord with a number of Americans who have become frustrated with the  United States’ continued ties with the Saudis, despite evidence that the county provided funding for the hijackers who carried out the attacks.   

However, once Trump was in office, his tune quickly changed, and he must have realized why the Clinton Foundation accepted $25 million in donations from a country that denies basic civil rights to a number of its citizens. Saudi Arabia became the first stop on Trump’s first foreign trip as  president, which helped to pave the way for the completion of the largest single arms deal in U.S. history. He has since worked with the Saudi government to bring unprecedented death and destruction to the poorest country in the Middle East, and the reign of terror shows no signs of stopping any time soon. 

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