My Thoughts on Trump

[Anonymous]

I'm British, but live in South America, so I'm about as unconnected and impartial as I guess possible, so I'll take a stab at this one…

I first learned who Donald J Trump was when I landed on his Apprentice show (while channel hopping). A quick Google search and some background information didn't earn him my respect in any way. So many bankruptcies and malpractice tracing all the way back to his first receiving money from his father.

I happen to know a few very wealthy people where I live, and most of them started from nothing, without two pennies to rub together. Their hard work and sacrifice got them where they are and they have all the respect I can muster.

When Trump won the republican nomination, I was shocked. I remember thinking “this is the best the Republicans have to offer? What a joke!”

But it became serious. I'm not a Hillary supporter, but I did think that Hillary was the lesser of two evils, from my own limited perspective.

The problem I have always had with Trump, and still have with Trump, is that I simply cannot follow what he says. I'm not stupid, it's not that, it's because the guy gets halfway through a sentence, stops, then goes off on a tangent to something else. The guy simply cannot follow one line of thought.

His campaign promises always seemed ridiculous to my un-American mind. Build a “great wall” on the Mexican border? Please…. Make Mexico pay for it?! What are you, high?

Drain the swamp? Excuse me? What swamp? What kind of hypocritical nonsense is that, coming from an obviously corrupt businessman. His verbal abuse of the Obama administration didn't win him any points with me either. I thought Obama was a good president. Maybe he didn't get everything right, but as president, he was obligated to make difficult decisions where he was damned either way. (Trump recently learned this lesson with his strikes on Syria - he slammed Obama for doing it, calling him a terrible president, then found himself doing the exact same thing.)

Furthermore, Trump seems to have a huge inferiority complex. He seems obsessed with making sure people see him as an amazing and awesome man and brags to everyone more than I've ever heard in my lifetime. To borrow a quote from Game Of Thrones: “Any man who has to remind people that he is the king, is no king at all”. And that's because actions speak louder than words. Screaming “I'm the best president ever” achieves nothing. BEING the best president ever achieves everything, however Trump simply isn't delivering.

I watched his recent 30-minute rant on Fox and Friends the other day, his claim: “I've achieved more in my one year as president than any other president”. I sat with my mouth open trying to figure out exactly what he had achieved… so he tried to ban Muslims from the USA, that failed. He claimed he would drain the swamp, but from my point of view, the swamp has more monsters lurking in it than ever.

I'm a hotel manager, my job is 24/7 work. I sleep when I can and work the rest of the time. I haven't played golf once since I've been in my position (I'd like to, but my responsibilities are to my hotel and guests first, myself second). And I'm just a lowly, run-of-the-mill, insignificant hotel manager. I’d think a PRESIDENT should dedicate himself to his country and its constituents at least as much, if not more, than I’m dedicated to my hotel and its constituents.

Perhaps I'm missing something that didn't get reported in the news, or I simply didn't see it. Perhaps I've got the wrong end of the stick. But each time I see Trump talking on TV, making his weird little circle gesture with his thumb and forefinger while telling everyone how great he is, I just think to myself:

“Given the choice, I wouldn't let that lunatic run an ice cream truck, let alone a country”

[anonChineseMale]

well at least you did some research about him and actually tried to make sense of high speech.
I actually had a conversation with by boss about the election. That is Hillary won, everything would pretty much stay the same because republicans had control of the house and senate. BUT is Trump won then the world would be come very interesting as his actions are very unpredictable and he will make constant headlines throughout the media. Would it be terrifying here? Very much so, as he's known to have business failures and do some shady practices. His upbringing was not anything like of the average American yet he boasts about his "success" and how he is going to win everything.

And at the end, I told my boss that he was going to win because it is technically the republicans turn to have the presidency. plus our election system is stupid and screws the popular vote. I could go more into different voting system or theories but I'll leave that out for another talk.

I'm glad to hear an outsiders perspective and how you looked into his background, it is something I wish more people would do but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I can't force people to read or to think critically and then come to a conclusion.

Right now, I can't wait to see how congress will slow down the current administration. Plus, I wasn't against Trump because I saw him as America's tipping point. When the poor and middle class got so fed up with the current system, they will do irrational things such as vote for the most radical and nationalistic person to be president. Trump in my eyes is the force that will enact change. And it has, after his presidency and his voice a lot of other countries nationalistic parties sprung up and gained momentum in striking back at the more open liberal party. Which is now very interesting as the world is getting more and more globalized people feel threatened because of the massive change. This includes the rapid adoption of technology and the internet. So now it is a game of information control. Looking at China you can see how extreme they are at censorship. BUT does that mean it is for the better? it depends. looking at how free european and America is, there is a possibility that no it pushes progress back when all they do is debate about it. It is kind of like the argument of it is easier to do it first and then ask for forgiven because it is easier. Now China couldn't have done that by being totally transparent which is why they have such extreme censorship.

[Ellie-V]

I appreciate your perspective because it isn’t biased. I am American and I am not a supporter of trump either for similar reasons. I also don’t support Hillary. Both are incompetent in my opinion. I’m honestly not sure that there is hope for the NEAR future, but after maybe 12 or 16 years down the line, we can have someone running the country who isn’t a complete joke.

[hans1416]

Well, the summary of your take is: 'I don't know anything about Trump or economics or politics, but I don't like this man'. You will find lots of equally ignorant people here.