The big-time business man turned top GOP presidential candidate hasn't always claimed allegiance solely to the Republican party. Currently, Donald Trump is the king of taking sides when it comes to controversial issues, but before embarking on the campaign trail, he crossed back and forth between party lines quite regularly. In the past, Donald Trump has actually supported a variety of both Democratic and Republican candidates. In July, The Washington Times published an article proposing that Donald Trump was a "democratic plant." In other words, suspicions that Donald Trump was a closet liberal trying to weaken the GOP were running rampant. An anonymous GOP official expressed his concern.
Look, I don't know what his intent is, but he's infuriating Hispanics, the very group of voters the GOP is looking to make gains with in 2016. You could just be an egomaniac running his mouth, but he's starting to look like a guy hand-delivered by the Democrats.
Given the acidity of his initial remarks about immigrants and Obama's birth certificate, the prospect that Trump was intentionally trying to give the Republican party a bad name was plausible — especially after taking a look at his past support for the Clintons. This became particularly relevant recently when he sided against both of the Clintons on Twitter this past Tuesday.
In a Politico article, journalist Nick Gass differentiates between the Trump that was loyal to the Clintons when Hillary was Senator of New York and the "Donald Trump of 2015" who clearly is not. And to be fair, she is his biggest opponent at this point. Just a few years ago in 2012, Trump talked about Hillary with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren.
Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman. I am biased because I have known her for years. I live in New York. She lives in New York. I really like her and her husband both a lot. I think she really works hard. And I think, again, she's given an agenda, it is not all of her, but I think she really works hard and I think she does a good job. I like her.
The Washington Times reported that according to Opensecrets.org, Donald Trump has donated to a number of Democratic candidates since the 1980s, including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid and Anthony Wiener. In total, Trump donated $330,000 to the Democratic campaign. But, he has also donated almost $500,000 to the Republican one. According to The Washington Post, who also performed a donation analysis, the numbers differ slightly. They report that, regardless of the actual dollar figures, 54 percent of Trump's $1.3 million spent in campaign donations went towards the Democratic party.
It's rather comforting to know that there are people in America who support candidates across the board and resist abiding by aggressive party lines that create harmful polarization. However, I wouldn't be so sure that this is the case with Trump. His donation records suggest he was a moderate, but there is one underlying trend: he donates to campaigns that control states where he has the most real estate. In otter words, his allegiances could be framed as a product of personal interest.
The Washington Post reports that Trump has contributed almost $600,000 total to New York state campaigns. He owns at least 15 immense pieces of real estate in New York, compared to the one or two buildings he's built in each of several large cities around the world. Most of his eggs are in New York's basket and he wants to make sure that New York's government honors his interests. And who can blame him? Now his interest is the presidency. That's how politics generally works across the board — whether you're Democrat or Republican.
The fact that Donald Trump supported Hillary Clinton in the past really doesn't come as good publicity for her either. Here's a speculation: If Trump donated to Hillary Clinton's New York campaign for Senator based on his personal financial real-estate interests, it's implied that Hillary Clinton has a reputation for honoring big business interests. Coincidentally, Clinton's relationship with Wall Street banks has been brought under scrutiny and highly criticized by Bernie Sanders in previous debates. That being said, Donald Trump's contribution history isn't positive for either party.
