Trump - tell me what to think

[changemymindabouttrump]

Right I'm not particularly clued up and have been challenged over my dislike of Trump by someone who states it's all media smears and he's nothing like the racist bigot he appears to me to be.

So Trump supporters or haters... can you give me facts that should help me make a more informed judgement than my current dislike of him which is entirely formed by what I've heard in the media

[rainingcatsanddog]

Are you looking for info about Trump the person or Trump's politics?

[Kursk]

As a Brit living in the US. I disliked the election. Clinton and Trump were 2 poor choices. I voted for Johnson.

The press vilifies him. 99% if what is reported is probably true but it’s not important stuff. The media could make the pope look like Satan if they wanted.

I am not a Trump supporter. But to be fair to him. The economy is good, he is making progress with North Koria, trade agreements are being renegotiated. He may have a unorthodox way of doing things but he is getting good results.

[NineNine]

How exactly is anyone supposed to give you an opinion that hasn’t been informed by what they’ve seen in the media?

The person who has challenged you is just choosing to consume media that confirms his own opinions. Something about Trump’s words/actions/behaviour appeals to him so he chooses to confirm that bias.

Every single little thing I have ever seen Trump say or do has repulsed me, so it is unlikely I will agree with any media that is sympathetic to him.

Look up Sarah Kendzior on twitter for some incredibly clear and horrifying insights into Trump. She is an expert on authoritarian dictatorships...

[changemymindabouttrump]

Are you looking for info about Trump the person or Trump's politics?

Both really I guess. Politics is more important to me to understand if I should dislike him or not.

[rainingcatsanddog]

Politically I don't understand why he's all about undoing everything Obama created. He's also still banging on about Crooked Hillary when he won the election already.

Having his kids and in laws working on policy is dodgy af. Interesting what emerges about his Russian links and how much sway they had over the election result. He promised to publish his Tax Returns. Has he done that yet?

I suspect that he's not as racist as the media portray him but he's doing stuff like not criticising the Far Right to keep Mike Pence from undermining him. He also seems very cosy with Russia

[rainingcatsanddog]

He has admitted that his #fakenews stance on things is so that his supporters distrust negative stories about him in the media. He's used the media to his advantage.

[BIWI]

I'm sorry, but if you can't spell 'Korea' properly then you're probably not someone who should be a good source of advice

[changemymindabouttrump]

Okay - what evidence is there (aside from what the media says) that he is a racist or a bigot? Do any of the things he's done validate that opinion of mine?

It's quite interesting to hear some positive things attributed to his actions... is there any way the economy would have improved anyhow regardless or did he really change things so it did?

[Kursk]

BIWI spelling isn’t my strong point, but that’s in the details. Nobody is perfect at everything.

[BIWI]

It's a fairly major detail

[MyBeloved]

I am not a Trump supporter. But to be fair to him. The economy is good, he is making progress with North Korea, trade agreements are being renegotiated. He may have a unorthodox way of doing things but he is getting good results

This, basically.

[Kursk]

BIWI

Maybe to you,

[LighthouseSouth]

OP I can only give a media source but there are video links in here so you can hear what comes from his own gob

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/01/15/opinion/leonhardt-trump-racist.html

I presume you've heard him disparaging women, so many comments pre election.

[rainingcatsanddog]

One of the most baffling things about him is his insistence that climate change isn't real. No idea if he's a flat earther but not believing in science is weird.

[BIWI]

Just watch him on television and listen to what he's saying. Or read his tweets.

If you can't see from his own words what he's like, then no-one here is going to persuade you!

[Spinflight]

I wouldn't expect any favourable press... He won the election on an anti-feminist ticket, though few seem to have twigged this, even the mostly feminist media.

He has continued this in the international sphere... Which has really confused a great many people.

Take the recent G7, May, Merkel and their Canadian girlfriend were all given a pasting with tariffs and cold shoulders greatly weakening their domestic positions.

[goinglopsy]

He is evil, money driven, shared Britain's firsts posts on his twitter - shows his support for far right extremist groups, white supremacy, hate speech, sexist, and oh the little incident of his changing/enforcing - which ever way you want to view it - (frankly I don't care who started the policy - he is the one who enforced it) the law to separate kids from their parents and put them in what can only be described as concentration camps. He has now done a U-turn that in reality is a 20 day reprieve, & there are no plans at all for reuniting or saving the 1000s of children, some baby's held prisoner.

He has insulted our country on numerous occasions, put tariffs on our steel - he has destroyed any last threads of a relationship between the UK & the US.

He may be the president of the USA, but in my opinion he is a monster.

[Charolais]

People have been made to hate Trump by the main stream media.

Among other things people should be asking themselves why the media wasn’t showing the Obama administration separating illegal immigrants from their children. People should be questioning why Trump is being smeared for doing the same things other admins did or for just following the laws as they are written.

Obama caused a division between the races in the U.S. that will only get worse. Currently the media is showing cases where white people are calling the police on black people for perceived wrong doings and ignoring black on white crimes.

[lljkk]

if racism is your criterion then "It's complicated." He doesn't show signs of caring about individual ethnic background or skin colour.

Meanwhile, he's the sort of person who doesn't care about indirect racism. If his policies are harder on some communities than others, he doesn't give a shiny unless that community is part of his base. He does respect (or act like he respects) 1) money and 2) threatening individuals with real power (eg. Putin).

A lot of the far-right ppl I know have a kind of "Nobody was nice to people like me so why should society try to help your kind of people?": bigly lack of compassion. Only the tough guy matters or gets a vote.

Ivanka converted to Judaism so the ConMan's grandchildren are Jewish. Yet Trump doesn't care that the Charlottesville far right protestors were chanting very anti-Jewish slogans. He doesn't recognise a threat to his own, I guess coz being rich makes his grandkids rise above other identities.

[BrittW]

I've never believed that a PM, President, etc has to be an angel - but he/she does have to put the country first, be fair and decent with other nations and deliver on a fair number of promises.

JFK is still to this day held in high regard, as is his brother Bobby. But they shared a mistress with a guy from the Mob, and JFK was a serial adulterer, a difficult life for Jackie no doubt. This may be a difficult dose of reality for some of you to swallow, but this is how alpha men behave.

I liked Trump's tactic with Kim Yong-un. Sometimes there is only one way to deal with a bully, and that is to bully back. It may have come across as juvenile Twitter, but trading insults got a result.

[lljkk]

DT is constantly denigrating rule of law, including his own appointees & own Dept. of Justice. The tariffs are causing economic damage. Env. protection laws are being rolled back, ACA is being systematically undermined, education secretary is clueless, federal courts are being changed for a generation. DT has no respect for law or a free press or American institutions. Nothing DT does is putting country first.

DT loves power & limelight. He respects nothing else.

[MsAmerica]

I'm appalled by him on every level. He's a bigoted, inarticulate, bullying, self-aggrandizing, greedy, narcissistic, petty, predatory ignoramus. He is not only the worst president in history, but is taking the country down a horrifying path, undermining all the basic national ideals. And possibly the worst aspect is that there are millions of Americans who are fine with that and adore him. There are also, sadly, many Americans who don't much care, as long as they're doing well economically.

[r0semadder]

trump not racist? fuck off

[onemorecupofcoffeefortheroad]

Similar thing happened to me - got challenged over negative views of Trump by a highly intelligent colleague (late night in a bar after a conference). There was a group of us discussing Trump and one of us outed himself as a Trump supporter.
Our jaws hit the floor but he had a defense of Trump for every one of our attacks.