I’ve been trying to avoid blogging too much about politics and the world situation. It turns out that just means I don’t post to my blog very often. As we get into Donald Trump’s 4th year, and the kerfufflefuck theater that is his impeachment, I figure it’s now time to roll back my sleeves, take a deep breath, and get this off my chest.
Donald John Trump was born on June 14th, 1946 in Queens in New York City. In 1971 he took over his family’s real-estate business, building/renovating skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. He did a lot of… business stuff. He licensed his name on a lot of things, owned the Miss Universe and Miss USA beauty pageants for a couple decades, co-founded a company that acted as a University, and produced a reality show that he starred in. I’m not going to cover the man’s entire life. You can check out his Wikipedia page if you really want to. Regardless of what your political views are, you probably know more about Donald Trump than you know about most other real estate tycoons/entrepreneurs.
As the 45th president of the United States of America, Donald Trump has some die hard fans, as well as lot of vocal critics. He’s loved and praised, and endlessly mocked. Even his supporters acknowledge and knowingly overlook some of his character flaws, such as his inability to be coherent or accurate when off-the-cuff. In all honesty, you can excuse a lot of flaws, as long as the person in charge does good (as opposed to “does well”). Of course, we can’t have politics without potshots taken by both the left and the right. The left, for example, focuses on Trump’s crude lack of courtesy and his bewildering statements about literally anything he’s asked about. The right calls this “telling it like it is.”
We saw something similar back when Obama was president. Obama was generally liked by the left, who turned a blind-eye to the drone strikes that lead to a lot of civilian casualties during Obama’s administration. I’m not going to continue to compare Trump with Obama, or bring up Hillary’s emails (Jesus fucking Christ, why is that still a meme?). Instead, let’s just look at the man who is in the White House now, and the people he has gathered around him.
The Objectively Good Things Donald Trump Has Accomplished
America is Producing More Crude Oil and Petroleum
We’re buying less oil, and producing enough that we might actually become a net exporter in a few years. The world needs oil to run at the moment, especially because we refuse to take big steps to adopt other alternative sources of energy. If you own an oil company, this is a huge huge boon for you.
Source: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mttntus2&f=m
The Coal Industry has Stabilized and Had a Slight Rise
Trump’s campaign had a very strong push to support our nation’s fading coal mining industry. The number of jobs in the coal industry hasn’t reached what it was in 2014-2015, and isn’t nearly what it was back in the 80’s and 90’s. Still, it shows that Trump paused the 35-year long trend of steady decline for the 50 thousand-or-so Americans in that industry.
Source: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=ms3P
The Trump Administration Eliminated the Individual Mandate from the Affordable Care Act
The individual mandate required all U.S. residents to either have health insurance or pay a penalty. Now, if someone doesn’t want to pay for health insurance, they no longer get penalized. This did cause insurance companies to increase the cost of their premiums across the board.
Source: https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/how-premiums-are-changing-in-2018/
Possibly related, the uninsured rate has increased to the highest it has been in four years.
Source: https://news.gallup.com/poll/246134/uninsured-rate-rises-four-year-high.aspx
States are now Allowed to Add “Work Requirements” to Medicaid
A big part of the Affordable Care Act was Medicaid expansion, where the federal government would assist states to expand Medicaid eligibility to include low-income adults, and make it so more people could be eligible. Most states (37 as of October 2019) and Washington DC have opted in to expand Medicaid. It granted Medicaid to almost 15 million adults that didn’t have access before.
States can now require an adult to prove they are working in order to get Medicaid. Arkansas was the first to use the work requirement program, causing almost 17,000 reported individuals to lose their eligibility.
Cost-Sharing Reduction Subsidies to Health Insurers Has Been Eliminated
This one is a little confusing. Basically, under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government was paying subsidies to insurers to keep them in the ACA program and help keep premiums down. In 2017, the Trump administration stopped paying for these altogether. The insurance companies reacted in an interesting way. Instead of increasing the baseline cost of premiums to make up for the subsidies, most increased the silver plans on the health insurance exchanges.
Interestingly enough, the federal government is likely to be spending more than the subsidies due to the increase in price put upon the people who want health insurance, as it still subsidizes people’s premiums.
The Trump Administration Had a Positive Role in Prison Reform
Trump has made significant headway in fixing America’s awful prison system. The First Step Act gives prisoners more opportunity to transition from prison to society, and includes better approaches to mandatory sentencing. It even reduces drug sentences retroactively. This is a massively significant step in the right direction and I suggest everybody read up on it. In my opinion, this is by far the most net positive impact of the Trump administration.
Donald Trump Has Embraced Gun Control
Donald Trump, in reaction to the 2017 Las Vegas massacre, used his powers to ban bump stocks. Bump stocks allow semi-automatic rifles to mimic automatic rifles. It’s a small step. Obviously this is a difficult, highly-contested topic for most, but taking steps to protect our people while reserving the rights of the individual are important. Unfortunately, Donald Trump didn’t feel we should invest more thought into background checks. He vowed to veto an expansion of background checks that was passed by the House.
Source: https://www.foxbusiness.com/features/trump-federal-bump-stock-ban-goes-into-effect
Donald Trump Donates His $400,000 Annual Presidential Salary
Every year, Trump has donated his presidential salary. He’s given it to such organizations as the National Park Service, the U.S. Education Department, the Transportation Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
If Donald Trump continues on with this tradition, his donation amount will just surpass Barack Obama donating his Nobel Prize money.
Donald Trump Influenced Mexico to Overhaul Their Labor Laws
The Trump Administration’s trade deal with Mexico and Canada required Mexico to reform their labor laws. Trump’s deal was designed to de-incentivize American businesses from hiring Mexican residents by making Mexico crack down on cheap labor. Now, workers in Mexico have more rights than they did under NAFTA.
Source: https://www.vox.com/2018/8/29/17791430/trump-mexico-trade-deal-nafta-labor
Trump Wants to Buckle Down on HIV/AIDS Relief
This one is surprising, considering how many people were killed by the Donald Trump’s party during the 80’s AIDS crisis. Trump’s proposal takes the disease very seriously, and even covers the poverty aspect. The goal is to have a 90% reduction in the next decade. Right now, the budget might not be significant enough to accomplish that goal, but progress is progress.
Source: https://www.factcheck.org/2019/10/trumps-spin-on-aids-epidemic/
Trump Cut Some Taxes with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
This act makes changes to both individual and business taxation. The idea was that economic growth would end up paying for the tax cuts (it didn’t, as of yet). This means the budget deficit has been rising faster than predicted. Still, this has made some improvements for businesses and certain tax brackets have felt the difference. This act even managed to reduce the amount of home mortgage interest that is eligible for tax deduction without disrupting the real estate market. The guy seems to know a thing or two about real estate, I’ll give him that.
Economics is complicated, and trying to sum it up by the amount we add to the deficit alone isn’t going to give you the full picture. That leads me into my next point:
The U.S. Economy is Doing Well
Although Donald Trump often boasts that the U.S. economy is at an all-time historic high, this isn’t the case. We’ve seen some much better numbers from the Obama Administration, but we also saw the GDP drop during the recession. The U.S. unemployment rate has been steadily shrinking since 2010, and not any faster since Trump has been in office. Trump spins the numbers in his favor, but at this point, the economy seems to be somewhat stable.
The Problems with Donald Trump
I often get put on the spot to give some examples for why I feel that Donald Trump is a bad president. I feel it’s time to make a list.
This is definitely not going to cover everything either…
Donald Trump is Known to Lie
At a clip of about 14.6 for each day in office, Donald Trump made 1,999 false or misleading claims in 2017, and 5,689 in 2018. As of December 10th, 2019, Trump’s 1,055th day in office, he had made 15,413 false or misleading claims.
Donald Trump is Unqualified
Trump is the first president with absolutely no political or military experience. While having either military experience or some political education doesn’t necessarily make you fit to run the nation, it definitely would aid with the decisions you would need to make. Trump almost had military experience though, which leads me to my next point:
Source: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/11/13587532/donald-trump-no-experience
Donald Trump is a Draft Dodger
He probably faked bone spurs to avoid the Vietnam draft. To be fair, having a draft is antiquated, and it is my personal opinion that the age limits for the draft should always be between 55 and 70. Still, it sounds like he lied to weasel out of service.
Donald Trump Belittled the Muslim Parents of a Slain U.S. Soldier
Not only did he criticism the mother of Capt. Humayun Khan, who died in Iraq while serving in the army, but in the same breath buckled down hard on the Muslim ban.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/us/politics/donald-trump-khizr-khan-wife-ghazala.html
Donald Trump Mocked Senator John McCain for Being a POW
The official quotes are pretty hard to take out of context. “I like people who weren’t captured,” and “I don’t like losers,” As the article points out, Trump has gone through corporate bankruptcy four times (the actual number is six).
Donald Trump Insults Top Military Generals
The very professional, and very respectful Donald Trump called top military officials “a bunch of dopes and babies” and claimed that they “don’t know how to win anymore.” Of course, being in the military, regardless of rank, doesn’t necessarily make you a great person, the Commander in Chief probably shouldn’t castigate the military like a school child.
Donald Trump is Blatantly Racist
There are a lot of examples of this, and Trump uses his racism to rally his most loyal supporters. If you were to ask him, he would tell you he is the least racist person you’d ever meet, but he would have all his black employees removed from the floor when he and his wife visited his casinos. From the “birther” conspiracy to the Muslim ban, Trump was not coy about his intolerance for non-white people.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/trump-racism-comments/588067/
I know what you might be thinking – fake news. Well, here is another source on Wikipedia with plenty of citations.
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_views_of_Donald_Trump?wprov=sfla1
Donald Trump is Sexist and Likely Intimidated by Women
Trump talks about women like a drunken 1950’s sitcom dad. From interrupting 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton throughout the debate cycle and stating things like “She doesn’t have the look [to be president]” to his cringey explanation of Megyn Kelly’s period. Clearly, the man does love women, he not-so-subtly stated that he wants to fuck his own daughter.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50563106
He Wants to Grab ‘Em By the Pussy
Sure, this was supposedly behind-closed-doors locker-room-talk. Still, there wasn’t an apology or a claim that this behavior isn’t acceptable. Instead, Trump doubled down on how it was just boys sayin’ boy stuff. Oh yeah, and it kind of confirms sexual assault.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/08/us/donald-trump-tape-transcript.html
Donald Trump Cheated on His Wife with a Pornstar After His Son was Born and Lied About Paying for her Silence with Campaign Funds
Hoo boy. That’s a lot to unpack. If you only know the name of one pornstar, it’s probably Stormy Daniels, and it’s probably not because of her career work. Donald Trump had his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, gave Stormy $130,000 to stay quite. This was one month before the 2016 election. Let me get one thing clear – there is nothing wrong with paying a pornstar to sleep with you, and paying extra to make it discreet. You probably shouldn’t do it when your wife just gave birth to your son, and you definitely shouldn’t pay off a pornstar with campaign funds.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43334326
At Least 17 Women Came Out and Accused Him of Sexual Misconduct or Assault
Some of these women were pageant contestants, which we will get to in a moment.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410
But Trump Publicly Claimed They Weren’t Pretty Enough to Sexually Assault
Always a classy gentleman.
Source: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/10/donald-trump-insults-accusers-ugly
Donald Trump is Creepy Around Women, Including Underage Girls
Trump would walk into the dressing rooms of 15 and 16-year-old Miss Teen USA pageant contestants while they were naked.
Trump Allegedly Raped a 13-Year Old Girl
The girl was being held by the late Jeffery Epstein. The lawsuit has been picked up and put down a few times over the years.
Source: https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/06/23/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit/
Trump Allegedly Abused and Raped His Wife
This is a murky, dark mess. It’s hard to know who or what to believe, but no matter how you look at it, it looks bad.
Source: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/24/documenting-trumps-abuse-of-women
Trump Pursued the Wives of His Friends
I suppose “friends” is a strong word here.
Wait, Go Back, He Wants to Fuck His Own Daughter?
Trump has said that it is okay to refer to Ivanka as “a piece of ass.” and if she wasn’t his daughter, he’d date her. Maybe Trump doesn’t realize how much of a creep he is being, but this does clearly show that he has no tact.
Donald Trump Publicly Mocked a Disabled Journalist
This happened while he was campaigning for the 2016 election. For some reason, this didn’t topple his platform. It absolutely should have.
Trump was doing an impression of Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital joint condition. Fox News, of course, spun this in a way that says Trump always makes this gesture when mocking someone he thinks is mentally disabled. So there’s that.
Source: https://www.snopes.com/news/2016/07/28/donald-trump-criticized-for-mocking-disabled-reporter/
Trump Doesn’t Care About You If You Aren’t Rich
This is the theme of the GOP in general, but tax cuts for the wealthy and the larger corporations don’t trickle down to help the middle and lower class. It’s interesting to me that so many registered republicans are in rural America, and often fall into the lower or middle brackets, but they stick with the GOP because of a conservative blue-collar narrative that isn’t acted upon.
Donald Trump Lied About His Origin Story
The Donald has claimed many times that his father gave him a mere million dollar loan to get his career going. That number is looking to be closer to $413 million dollars.
Trump Has Participated in Tax Fraud
He gained that money above due to some sketchy accounting, Trump hasn’t had to pay taxes on it.
Thousands of Children Taken From Parents Under the Trump Administration
Detained Immigrants at the border are experiencing concentration camp conditions. Some of these policies were put in place under the Obama administration, but it has only gotten worse and more severe since Trump has been in office. The argument almost always cycles back to the point of racism and “American First.”
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/14/the-weekly/trump-immigration-border-separation-family.html
The Trump Administration Makes Obtaining Asylum Nearly Impossible
The administration has created a number of impediments to prevent immigrants from being able to claim asylum. It’s now more difficult to get H-1B visas for skilled technology workers, and is proposing new regulations that could bar hundreds of thousands of legal immigrants each year from the country by denying visas.
Source: https://www.vox.com/2019/10/9/20903541/trump-proclamation-legal-immigration-health-insurance
Donald Trump Calls Breastfeeding Mother ‘Disgusting’
I wonder if he would be okay with it if it were his daughter.
Kettle Meet Pot, Trump Shames Fat Supporters
At a rally, he pointed at one of his supporters and said “That guy’s got a serious weight problem. Go home. Start exercising. Get him out of here, please.” Trump however, being a very fit man, had his doctor lie about his weight, rounding down by about 60 pounds.
Donald Trump Founded a Fraudulent University
Everything about Trump University was a giant grift.
Donald Trump Has Faced Bankruptcy Six Times
There is no shame in going bankrupt, I suppose. That said, six times is a lot for someone who claims to be so wildly smart and successful.
Donald Trump Stole Money from a Children’s Cancer Charity
The money was distributed to a few other charities, including some golf tournaments at some of Trump’s own golf courses. The man stole money from children with cancer. Let that sink in. He stole money from children. Children with cancer.
Donald Trump is an Anti-Vaxxer
Let’s be frank, there is absolutely zero evidence that vaccines cause autism. It is a flat out lie. Policies shouldn’t be made by someone who strongly believes that safe, helpful preventative medicine is harmful.
Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/449525268529815552?lang=en
Donald Trump Posed as His Own Publicist
When accused of this, he claimed it was just some guy impersonating his voice?
Donald Trump Has Spent One-Third of His Presidency Playing Golf
Often, he golfs at his own golf courses, which drives American tax dollars into his own businesses. That shouldn’t be legal.
Also, Donald Trump Cheats at Golf
Donald Trump Assaults the Free Press
Meanwhile, a radicalized Trump supporter was mailing bombs to news outlets. He has worked to make legitimate news sources and journalists the enemy of the people.
Yet Sean Hannity Corroborates Directly with Trump’s Closest Aides
Source: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmaloop/sean-hannity-trump-allies-mueller-memos-fox-news
Cambridge Analytica Stole Your Data to Help the Trump Campaign
This is more of a problem with Mark Zuckerberg than with Donald Trump, but it’s yet another turd on the lawn of the White House.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/what-did-cambridge-analytica-really-do-for-trumps-campaign/
Donald Trump Inflated His Assets to Apply for a Loan to Buy the Buffalo Bills
I don’t really care about a single word in that headline, but I do know it’s frowned upon.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/business/donald-trump-buffalo-bills-deutsche-bank.html
Donald Trump is Probably Lying About His College Achievements
His lawyer at the time sent threatening letters to Trump’s schools and the College Board to prevent the release of Trump’s SAT scores.
Donald Trump Appoints Unqualified Judges
And Unqualified Cabinet Members
Betsy DeVos is perhaps the worst-case scenario for our country’s education system.
Source: https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-eli-broad-opposes-devos-20170201-story.html
Donald Trump Puts His Children Into Positions They are Unqualified For
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/01/donald-trump-ivanka-g20-north-korea-nepotism
Donald Trump Accepted Federal Aid Reserved for Victims of 9/11
The aid was meant to help small businesses recover after the events of September 11th, 2001.
Source: https://fortune.com/2016/05/29/trump-911-grant/
Donald Trump Bragged About Having the Tallest Building in Lower Manhattan Immediately After 9/11
That wasn’t the best time to measure your dick.
Donald Trump is a Long Way From Holding the Christian Values He Claims to Have
I don’t care what religion my president has. It’s just a thing some people decide to believe in. It’s fine, whatever. Trump seems to try to cater to the Christian base, but his behavior is far from Christian values.
Source: https://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article216494035.html
In Fact, Christianity Today Doesn’t Endorse Him
Source: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html
Donald Trump Screwed His Chronically-Ill, Fatherless, Infant Nephew Out of Inheritance, and Canceled Family Medical Coverage
Fucking-A. This is a sad story about his alcoholic brother.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/donald-trumps-cruel-streak/501554/
Donald Trump Has Avoided Releasing His Tax Return
There is no law saying he has to, but it sure is shady that he won’t, when it is fairly traditional for presidents to do so.
But Donald Trump Demanded that Obama Release His Birth Certificate
This is just another example of racism.
Source: https://mobile.twitter.com/i/moments/776795610817007616?lang=en
Donald Trump Has Taken Russian Money
All those one-panel comics of Donald Trump and Putin holding hands have some credibility.
Donald Trump Abandoned Our Kurdish Allies
This is one of America’s most shittiest moves (which is saying a lot). Our presence was the only thing preventing Turkey from shelling the Kurds into the dirt. The Kurdish have been fighting alongside Americans for a long time.
Donald Trump Downplayed the Head Injuries of Soldiers from Recent Missile Attack in Iraq
This was from the time we shot missiles at Iraq to get back at Iran for shooting missiles at Iraq.
Donald Trump Was Friends with Jeffery Epstein
But Donald Trump is Best Friends with Putin
Donald Trump is Known to Work with Shady Criminals
Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, is in prison for financial fraud convictions related to the collusion with the Russian government in 2016.
Michael Cohen was Donald Trump’s lawyer. The same guy who gave Stormy hush money. He’s in prison for doing just that.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/nyregion/michael-cohen-trump-jail.html
Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un are Super Tight
And Donald Trump Really Respects North Korea
Either that, or he was tricked into saluting. My educated guess is it is a little bit of both.
A Misinformed Trump Demanded a New Nuclear Non-Proliferation Deal, Attacking the Current One
It’s almost as if he doesn’t fully understand what he is dealing with.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-calls-nuclear-deal-bashing-misinformation/story?id=68148374
Donald Trump Doesn’t Take a Hard Stance Against Nazis
White supremacists love Donald Trump. It’s easy to see why.
Donald Trump Obstructed Justice During the Mueller Report
Unfortunately, the Mueller Report wasn’t specifically able to charge Trump for that.
Source: https://qz.com/1670783/all-the-evidence-of-obstruction-of-justice-in-muellers-report/
The Trump Administration Wants to Greatly Cut Healthcare
Why would the GOP care about providing good healthcare for Americans? The lawmakers and their lobbyists can afford whatever healthcare they want.
Donald Trump Endorsed a Pedophile
Source: https://www.npr.org/2017/12/04/568274917/removing-any-qualifications-trump-endorses-roy-moore
Donald Trump Inspired Someone to Send Bombs in the Mail
This is what can happen when you radicalize your supporters.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/mail-bomber-cesar-sayoc-obsessed-trump-fox-news/story?id=64500598
4 Out of the Top 5 Largest Protests in US History Were Partially Directed Towards the Trump Administration
Two of these were women’s marches, and the other two were against gun violence and to encourage action to prevent climate change. Speaking of climate change…
Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_protests_in_the_United_States_by_size
Donald Trump Wants to Stop Green Energy and Uses Misinformation to Do So
He’s really confused about the chemical output of wind turbines.
Donald Trump Wants to Remove Protections Against Water Pollution
Because how dare we limit the amount of garbage our beloved companies can dump into our drinking water?
Donald Trump Ends the Healthy School Lunch Program
He wasn’t going to sit idle while one of Michelle Obama’s programs encouraged schools to provide children with healthier lunches.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/us/politics/michelle-obama-school-nutrition-trump.html
Donald Trump Flat Out Denies Climate Change
Anyone who denies climate change is wildly, incompetently, impotently mistaken.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51213003
Donald Trump Lowered the Standards for Carbon Emissions
Not only does this cause harm to our planet and air quality… no wait, that is the core issue.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html
Donald Trump Publicly Bullies Teen Girl with Asperger’s
Donald Trump has lashed out at Greta Thunberg, a young environmental activist who made headlines for passionately addressing the U. N. concerning our role in climate change. Trump continued to mock the girl when she was made Time Magazine’s Person of the Year.
Donald Trump Faked a Time Magazine Cover
This is either sad, or someone on his marketing team opened Photoshop for the very first time.
Donald Trump Attacks the Congressional and Judicial Branches
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/judge-curiel-trump-border-wall/index.html
Donald Trump Appoints Goldman Sachs Executives
Because we need more Wall Street investment bankers making decisions that affect us all.
Donald Trump Pushes to Remove Food Stamps
If you are poor, the GOP doesn’t want anything to do with you.
Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/14-states-sue-to-block-the-trump-administrations-food-stamp-cuts/
Donald Trump Advises Staff to Avoid Press Conferences
What better way to avoid accountability.
Donald Trump Claims Emoluments Clause in the Constitution was “Phony” while Breaking It
The clause bars federal office holders from accepting gifts from foreign governments. A lot of Trump’s die-hard supporters are pretty adamant about the constitution, I thought.
Donald Trump Held the Longest Ever Government Shutdown to Get Taxpayer Funding for the Border Wall
The same border wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. The same border wall that just partially fell over due to a strong gust of wind.
Donald Trump Sold Nuclear Tech to Saudi Arabia After Regime Murdered American Columnist
Donald Trump Inspired the El Paso Mass Shooter
The shooter’s manifesto fit Trump’s anti-immigration narrative.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/04/us/politics/trump-mass-shootings.html
In Fact, Trump Has a Record of Encouraging Violence from His Supporters
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/back-trump-comments-perceived-encouraging-violence/story?id=48415766
Donald Trump Abuses His Position to Give Pardon
Source: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/29/18117745/trump-manafort-pardon-dangle-abuse-power
Donald Trump Often Makes False Claims and Exaggerations About the Economy
Experts say that most economic growth stems from the Obama administration.
Source: https://www.snopes.com/ap/2019/06/19/in-2020-debut-trump-exaggerates-growth/
Donald Trump Lost the Popular Vote
If I’ve learned anything from Trump, it’s to not like losers.
Donald Trump Welcomes Foreign Election Influence
Despite What He Says, He Has Historically Low Polling
Donald Trump Says “Take Her Out” About the Ukrainian Ambassador
This was a few weeks before the infamous call where Trump bribed foreign aid to Ukraine to get dirt on Joe Biden. It’s worth noting that he’s talking to one of Rudy Giuliani’s associates. Rudy Guiliani is the President’s lawyer, and not a government official.
Donald Trump Did Crimes, Threatening Ukraine That We Will Withhold Foreign Aid Unless They Help Investigate A 2020 Candidate Running Against Trump
Seems legit. This is why Donald Trump is impeached at the moment.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181
Donald Trump Is Impeached
Source: https://time.com/5552679/impeached-presidents/
Donald Trump Obstructed Congress
Donald Trump Even Admits that the Economy Does Better Under the Democrats
It’s Not Clear, But It Looks Like Trump Spends 60% of His Scheduled Day Taking Shits
Donald Trump Gave Half a Million Dollars of Anti-Trafficking Funds to ‘Hookers for Jesus’
Because reality is zanier than satire can ever be, or maybe he thought he was giving them hush money.
Donald Trump is a Scumbag
Source: https://www.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
Why Would Someone Like Donald Trump Be Elected President?
It’s pretty clear by now that Trump doesn’t embody any of the values of the majority of his supporters. He supports the values of the wealthy 1 percent. He supports the values of white nationalists. He supports the values of those who he has business dealings with.
There is something that Donald Trump is very good at that keeps him in favor of his supporters.
Donald Trump is Great at Targeting Anger and Frustration
We can all pretty much agree that the world is pretty fucked up, right? It is harder than it really should be. The cost of living is high, getting good, affordable health care is a challenge, and there are a lot of things going on that just don’t make sense.
Donald Trump’s greatest tool for this is his ability to pinpoint a scapegoat. His entire campaign has not been to solve problems, but to blame them on someone else. Health care is jacked up? Blame Obama. The job market sucks? It’s those pesky Mexicans. Your life sucks? You can thank the democrats for that.
Trump uses childish language and mockery to direct hatred and vitriol towards his opponents. His supporters are an endless supply of dry tinder (and for legitimate reasons – the world IS pretty fucked up) and Donald Trump is the spark.
Because of this, he has radicalized many. He dangerously condones violence and uses his supporters to smear his opponents.
His supporters parrot his rhetoric, fed by memes, exaggerated articles, and conspiracy theories. Much of the social media noise can still be traced back to Russian influence.
Nobody is Accomplishing Anything
The world is getting hotter, Americans are dying in droves due to the opioid crisis, corporations are destroying or buying up natural resources, and America is seeing its greatest political divide in decades.
The right is now desperately defending Donald Trump during his impeachment, attempting to claim that the laws don’t apply to sitting presidents. Supporters, who hold no power, flood Facebook and Twitter with false information and harmful narratives against Trump’s opposition (we still hear about Hillary’s emails). Meanwhile, white nationalists are being stoked to commit acts of violence.
Progress is being dismantled in front of our eyes. If you really want to reset America back to the 1940’s, the GOP is the club for you, and Donald Trump is probably your man. For those of us living in this millennium, we need to encourage America to do better.
Thanks to Reddit Users WyldBlu and Taint_my_problem. Most of the links were collected here on Reddit.
