By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Along with the rest of the world and tens of millions of Americans I am hoping that the nightmare called
Trump will be over on November 3.
Fortunately, Trump just announced that if he loses the election, he will leave the United States. That is the
best thing he has said in four years! He probably is worried that he will go to jail after he loses the election
for the multiple crimes he has committed both during and after holding office. The only problem is which
country would be willing to give him refuge; maybe Turkey or Azerbaijan. Or maybe Israel.
I know that some Armenians will not be happy with my position. But I have always strongly expressed my
point of view as honestly as I could. I sincerely believe that Trump has been a menace to the United States
and the world! Hopefully, with Trump’s defeat on Nov. 3, we will all breathe a big sigh of relief. We will
once again live in a free democratic country without the fear of a dictator ruining our health and our lives.
There are not enough negative words in the dictionary to describe all the wrong things Trump has said and
done in the past four years. This must come to a stop. It will take a long time for the next U.S. President to
undo the damage that Trump has done to America and the world.
The Washington Post meticulously kept track of Trump’s lies and exaggerations. As of May 2020, Trump
has lied over 20,000 times since becoming President. He is a serial liar. You cannot trust a word he says.
He says one thing in the morning and the opposite in the evening. When confronted, he says he did not say
it, even when it is proven by a tape recording of his own voice. He said in a speech in 2018: don’t believe
what you are reading or what you are seeing! In other words, ignore the facts and trust his lies.
The only thing you can trust is that Trump will do what is in his self-interest. As President he has directed
business to his hotels and golf courses around the world. He owes $400 million to unknown individuals
and entities, but will not reveal their names. Could it be that some of the dictators he embraces are the ones
that lent him these funds. And that could be the reason, among others, why Trump adamantly refuses to
make his tax returns public.
Turning to the coronavirus pandemic, Trump’s incompetence and ignorance has caused the deaths of over
220,000 Americans as of now, with the count going up every day. He never took the deadly virus
seriously, describing it as a Democrat hoax and said on Feb. 27, 2020 at the White House that “It’s going
to disappear. One day -- it’s like a miracle -- it will disappear.” Regrettably, many more will die before this
pandemic is over. Trump has held large political rallies around the country and several events at the White
House with most attendees not wearing masks and no social distancing. Many of them, Trump’s own
voters, were infected and some died. Trump and his family were also infected, but he seems to have
learned no lessons from his reckless behavior.
Trump has confessed that he is in love with dictators and against traditional U.S. allies. Trump told
journalist Bob Woodward in a taped interview: "I get along very well with Erdogan, even though you're
not supposed to because everyone says, 'what a horrible guy.’ But you know, for me it works out good. It's
funny, the relationships I have, the tougher and the meaner they are, the better I get along with them. You'll

explain that to me someday, okay? But maybe it's not a bad thing. … The easy ones are the ones I maybe
don't like as much or don't get along with so much."
It is therefore not surprising that Pres. Trump has not lifted a finger to pressure his good friend Erdogan to
stop arming and encouraging Azerbaijan in the attack on Artsakh. He is not even interested in telling
Erdogan to stop flying terrorists from Northern Syria to Azerbaijan, because Trump does not have anything
personal to gain from the Artsakh conflict. Meanwhile, young Armenian soldiers are dying every day. If
Trump wanted to, he could have stopped the war with one phone call to Erdogan. But, as Trump confessed
to Breitbart News Daily in 2015:  “I have a little conflict of interest ’cause I have a major, major building
in Istanbul. It’s a tremendously successful job. It’s called Trump Towers -- two towers, instead of one, not
the usual one, it’s two.”
On Oct. 18, after noticing a group of Armenian protesters in Orange County, California, at a rally in Reno,
Nevada, later that day, Trump praised Armenians and said he liked their flag. Even though he made no
reference to the Artsakh War, he said, “we are working on something.” Trump may be alluding to the Oct.
23 planned meeting in Washington, DC, of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with the Foreign Ministers of
Armenia and Azerbaijan. As Trump often says, “let’s see what happens.”
Many books have been written in recent months by either Trump’s relatives or his White House staff,
revealing his multiple flaws. Recently, former White House Chief of Staff retired General John Kelly said
about Trump: “The depths of his dishonesty are just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional
nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I
have ever met in my life.”
One of the amazing things about Trump supporters is their blind following of Trump as their cult leader, no
matter how despicable his actions or statements are. How can evangelicals and other decent people ignore
his immoral practices and his lies? He has had many illicit sexual affairs with prostitutes and paid them
hush money. He has probably not entered a church in his life, yet he is worshipped like a God! This is very
sad and regrettable.
Trump has also ruined the United States’ reputation around the world. According to a Pew poll, Russia’s
Putin is more respected than Trump and he is just one point ahead of China’s Xi Jinping (29% to 28%)
among world leaders. The Trump administration has also violated several international agreements signed
by the United States.
To conclude, a vote for Biden is a vote to get rid of Trump. I am not naïve to believe campaign promises,
but one thing is sure, Trump must go. So regardless of what Biden promises to do, he cannot be any worse
than Trump for Armenian Americans, for Armenia, for the United States and the world. We have seen four
years of Trump’s inept governance and that is long enough for me and many others. No wonder many
analysts have said, “Trump is unfit to be President.” It is time for sanity to return to the White House!
Imagine the damage Trump could do in a second term if uninhibited by concerns for reelection!