The list of reasons to oppose Donald Trump for the presidency, a collaborative project, grows each day. It now totals 51 solid reasons.
With the Wisconsin presidential primary a week away, and the possibility that Badger State voters might make a difference, I have been offering a collaborative project to come up with 100 reasons why not to vote for Donald Trump as he attempts to follow in the footsteps of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Monroe, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Reagan.
I am getting it going, but please respond with your reasons. I will play editor, as I have done in multiple newsrooms. If valid and non-duplicative, your reasons will be added to the list of why he should be fired as a candidate.
The list is also open to edits (like Wikipedia). Submit proposed edits or additions to me at jbt01@serigraph.com.
Here is the latest list:
• A major league narcissist, probably a sociopath, Trump believes he can “make us great.” It’s the contributions of individual Americans American people who make this country great. Leaders come and go.
• Some contributors to this analysis go further, seeing him as a megalomaniac.
• Some see him as delusional, as in his promise to make the sovereign Mexican government pay for his infamous wall between our two countries. A former of Mexico told him where to park that one.
• During the Vietnam War, he got four student deferments, a medical deferment and finally 4F status for heel spurs to avoid the draft. He had gone to a military high school, so he had something to offer the armed services. This not a good track record for someone who aspires to be commander in chief,
• As the old joke goes, he was born on third base, with a million dollars (in today’s dollars) in his jeans on getting out of college, and he thought he got robbed of a home run.
• As an heir later to a huge fortune, he is unable to relate to the average American. “He doesn’t represent me,” said one early contributor to this blog. Narcissists don’t relate to other people unless it serves their purposes. It’s all about “me.”
• He constantly brags about how rich he is, as if that were the major measure of a human being. My heroes are elsewhere, including great humanitarians like Mother Theresa, Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Gandhi and great innovators like Franklin, Edison, Gates and Salk. Some ended up rich; some didn’t,. There are rich people who are saints and rich people who are jerks.
• He has an identity problem: He was a Democrat from 2001-2009 and before 1987; a Reform Party candidate from 1999-2001; an Independent from 2011-2012; and Republican from 2012 to the present, 2009-2011 and 1987 to 1999. That’s six switches.
• His position on health care reform is so vapid that it amounts to gibberish. He is spectacularly uninformed on one of the largest issues facing the United States.
• He has been on many sides of big issues, the ultimate flip-flopper.
• A loose cannon, you have no idea of what kinds of decisions he will make out of the Oval Office.
• He’s got lots contractors who won’t do business with him again.
• He’s got bankers who won’t lend to him again getting flushed when he went to bankruptcy courts. Would you lend your money to him? His bankruptcies cost lenders and shareholders more than $5 billion.
• He likes to sue people. Would he use the Department of Justice to go after opponents? Would he send the IRS after them? Per his book, “The Art of the Deal,” he practices deal making by intimidation.
* At his rallies, he excuses violence toward protesters as displays of patriotism. He instigates those outbursts. He doesn’t walk away from dumb fights; he picks them.
• His business of hotels and casinos adds little value to the American economy. His products are not essential. Casinos are just transfer payments, from losers, often people of meager means, to casino owners.
• The Economist points out that he, though rich, did not create a great company, raised no permanent capital on the public markets, did not go global to any significant degree and did not successfully diversify his holdings. His wealth creation trailed market averages.
• Trump was fined for hiring illegal immigrants. Get the contradictory irony from someone who wants to deport them all?
• He has cratered more businesses than he has led to success: His losers include an airline; two magazines; a travel booking website; Trump University, which was rated as low as D minus before going out of business; a mortgage company launched with exquisite timing in 2006; a liquor brand; a line of “the world’s greatest steaks” steaks; a condo project in Mexico; and Trump Plaza, a casino and hotel combination in Atlantic City,
• Specializing in personal attacks, he insults and demeans. No religion condones that kind of conduct.
• He is a divider, not the unifier he says he is.
• Though he obviously communicates well with many people, he has a language deficit and a limited vocabulary. Good speech is a function of clean thinking, and vice versa.
• He obfuscates as he puts out reasons for not making his income tax filings public. If his 2015 return is still being processed by staff, OK. But he could release the 2013 and 2014 returns.
• He quotes Mussolini and makes no apologies for doing so. He likes despots. Would he become one?
• He is backed by David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan.
• He said praise from Vladimir Putin is a “great honor.” In another quote, he said,”I have always felt fine about Putin. He’s a strong leader. He’s a powerful leader.”
• His combination of tax cuts and spending proposals would sharply increase the federal debt. Like a lot of today’s pols, he has trouble with ways and means, with solving fiscal equations.
* Trump wrote 10 checks for campaigns for Hillary Clinton. How does he explain his opposition to her now?
* His hip-shooting style could trigger dangerous interactions with dictators in countries like North Korea and Iran, which have some nuclear capacities. It’s doubtful he could be diplomatic in foreign policy.
• He mocked a physically disabled person.
• His focus is on doing whatever it takes to win, not on doing the right thing. He lacks the ethics that most Americans asbscribe to in their own lives.
• In a private meeting with high-level executives, he repeatedly used the F-bomb and voiced a high level of vindictiveness as he described his deals. My source described his presentation as vulgar. Further, over-use of the F-bomb points to a language deficiency.
• One blogger cited court records to show that he has had connections to mob figures.
• Though experienced in deal making, he has no experience in holding elective office or in governing. He would be a rookie president.
* In a country that has made huge strides in gender equality, he has disrespected multiple women, always in a coarse manner. His latest was a threat against Heidi Cruz and a twitter showing her in a unflattering photo.
* He has not listened to the business community that says it cannot function without immigrant labor.
• One parent wrote in to say she had to pull her kids away from the TV during the presidential debate because of the coarse nature of his language and behavior.
• He made inflammatory, prejudicial pretrial statements about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Whatever his opinion of the soldier, such comments from a man who could be president subvert the due process of our legal system. It is for the courts to decide. Remember also, Trump chose not to serve.
• Though New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie endorsed him, Trump trashed him publicly for spending too much time in New Hampshire before the primary there. So much for loyalty and gratitude.
• To his enemies list, he has added “disgusting reporters.” Those same news people have made his campaign, giving him far more ink and air time, both positive and negative, than all the other To his list of enemies, he added journalists, calling them “disgusting reporters.”
• At 69, he looks over-weight and out of shape. Could he stand the rigors of the presidency?
* Three Politico reporters fact-checked 4.6 hours of Trump speeeches and press conferences and found more than five dozen untrue statements — one every five minutes. In their Truth-O-Meter scorecard. PolitciFact rated the five remaining candidAtes for the percentage of time they made statements that were true, mostly, true, half true, mostly false, false and Pants on Fire false. Clinton and Sanders rate 51% on true or mostly true, Kasich 50%, Cruz 22% and Trump 9%. Trump rated 42% false and 19% Pants on Fire false for a total of 61%. Like many narcissists, he says whatever he needs to say to make his point and get what he wants, true or untrue.
* The ultimate outsider, Trump will have a hard time getting anything done in Congress if elected president. He may snag a few Democrats for some of his initiatives, but will not be able to bring along many Republicans he trashed on the way to the Oval Office. They will not forget.
* With dispproval ratings of nearly 70% of the overall electorate, he will a hard tiome being elected president, which shiuld give pause to GOP primary voters.
* He brags about being rich, as if that is a measure of a human being. Some rich people are saints; some are jerks. My heroes are great humanitarians, such as Mother Theresa, Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Gandhi, and great innovators, such as Franklin, Edison, Gates and Salk. Some ended up rich; some didn’t.
* He blurted out in a debate that he woulde condone torture of terrorist suspects and the killing of gtheir family members, both violations of international law. He backed off, but his final position is unclear.
* For a builder, Trump has trouble with math. His first estimate for building 1000 miles of “beautiful wall” between the U.S. and Mexico was $4 billion. He later estimated $6-7 billion. The then he took it up to $8 billion. Then he estimated $10 billion. His latest estimate is $12 billion. John Oliver, the TV pundit, found expert construction sources that put the real total at about $25 billion, not counting operating costs to maintain the wall. Usually, it’s Democrats who can’t do math. Trump can’t either, which may explain his five bankruptcies.
* Ann Coulter, an arch-conservative writer who backed Trump early and aggressively, now has reservations. She likened his attack on Heidi Cruz as that of a repeatedly errant 16-year-old.
* An open GOP convention in June in Cleveland, with Trump short of a majority, would give Republicans the opportunity to draft Paul Ryan. speaker of the House and a level-headed conservative.
•Trump called the North Atlanta Treaty Organization (NATO) “obsolete” and too expensive for Americans. With his usual lack of depth on policy matters, he offered no alternatives.
•One special education aide, a Democrat who is crossing over to vote for Cruz to stop Trump, pointed out that Trump uses mockery as a standard form of insult, often against fellow Republicans like Jeb Bush and Gov. Walker after losing to him in the primaries. That makes him an ungracious winner.
•His disagreement with Rep. Paul Ryan on Social Security and Medicare again shows his lack of depth on the major issues facing the nation. Economists of all stripes agree that both entitlement programs need to be reworked so they stay solvent for the long term. Ryan has been one of the only politicians to face up to that looming challenge. Trump proposes to leave them alone without any plan for their long-term viability. He is ducking the fiscal realities of the two programs. Real leaders deal with tough issues.
This list is open to more reasons from any and all. Respond on this web site or e-mail me at jbt01@serigraph.com.
