Trump at big-donor fundraiser: 'Who the hell cares about the budget?'

The Washington Post has obtained audio of Donald Trump schmoozing his deep-pocketed donors at a Friday night Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, and he made one remark that’s sure to enrage rank-and-file Republicans and GOP lawmakers — if someone can manage to stick the transcript in an enchanted pneumatic tube system and send it back to 2010.

Because today’s Republicans? They don’t give a shit about the deficit. They only care if a black man is spending money to prevent rickets or some shit.

In a separate audio clip, Trump is heard boasting about increasing the defense budget by $2.5 trillion. To those who criticized his spending and the growing national debt, Trump said, “Who the hell cares about the budget? We’re going to have a country.”

For most of Barack Obama’s time in office, Republicans seemed to care very much about the budget, making fears around the national debt and deficit their top talking point. They’ve backed off those concerns under Trump.

Gee, I seem to remember when the deficit was the biggest problem facing our country. It was an existential threat that was going to destroy us. Paul Ryan would stick his Eddie Munster-looking face in front of the cameras and kvetch about it for hours on end. 

Why didn’t they tell us that they just didn’t like spending money on health care, nutrition programs, and infrastructure? If you can funnel more money to Raytheon or fix it so giant corporations pay zero taxes, hey, that’s just peachy.

The recordings also captured Trump crowing and glowing about his order to assassinate Qasem Soleimani (annieli has more on that here). 

And then he said that it’s not just fiscal responsibility he doesn’t care about — he also doesn’t give a shit about wildlife. Because I guess when you’re 73 and feel nothing but contempt for most of your children (and everyone else, for that matter), biodiversity is pretty far down your list of concerns:

In another short file, Trump laments the complicated process to build infrastructure, mocking environmental concerns, specifically mentioning turtle and rattlesnake nesting.

“As far as I’m concerned, you can kill those rattlesnakes. I’ll give you a little secret. As many as we kill, they’ll be here long after us. The rattlesnake. You can kill every son of a bitchin’ rattlesnack,” he said.

Then Trump segues to, “I’m not a big person who believes in sharks too much…,” before the audio file ends.

Fucking sharks again? What is his deal with sharks? Dude, just stay out of the ocean. The people living in vulnerable flood zones will thank you.

Seriously, though, I’ve never seen a more severe case of logorrhea. Does his intern administer an Adderall suppository with a T-shirt cannon every time he brings him a Diet Coke? Because this is just weird.

Is Trump still singeing your sphincter? Then Dear F*cking Lunatic: 101 Obscenely Rude Letters to Donald Trump and its super-fun sequels Dear Pr*sident A**clown: 101 More Rude Letters to Donald Trump and Dear F*cking Moron: 101 More Letters to Donald Trump by Aldous J. Pennyfarthing are the pick-me-up you need! Reviewers have called these books “hysterically funny,” “cathartic,” and “laugh-out-loud” comic relief. And they’re way, way cheaper than therapy.