No, I don't really "get" the appeal of Trump.
I have seen and even known some people who are passionately into Trump. Yet when I ask them what it is that they really like about the guy, usually they come up with generalities which, frankly, are debatable at best. "He's entertaining." I heard this a few times early on, particularly during the 2016 election, but I never found Trump remotely entertaining. Even as a kid, I frankly just thought he was an asshole. It was just in the way he carried himself. And he never, ever did anything to remotely challenge that distinctive early impression I had of him. Also, on my personal list of what makes a good president, "entertaining" would likely rank quite low. It's a serious job, and we need a serious person there. Not a clown who makes a fool of himself - and thus, of the entire country - time and time again.
Here was something else that people seemed to say of him, especially early on: he speaks his mind. They claimed that this was "refreshing." But as much as these people seemed to believe that early on, they spent pretty much the next four years of his actual presidency claiming that he did not really mean what he said, when it worked against him, or his Republican party. He did not mean it when he had a difficult time condemning outright Nazis (for days, as you may remember). He did not really mean it when he continually insulted gold stat military families, or went out of his way to belittle John McCain even after McCain died. He did not really mean it when he dismissed numerous countries as "shithole nations." Half the time, he was allegedly just kidding around, like when he said that America might want to explore having a "president for life" like they have in China, or when he claimed that he might run for a third term (before he had bothered even running for, let alone winning, a second term). Now, many of these same people are downplaying his outright admissions that he might want to be a dictator, or that he would focus on revenge during his second term. You know, because everybody just jokes around like that, right?
Another thing that some people say is that he "gets things done." Yes, I would actually agree that he gets things done. The problem that I have with this is that everything that he gets done is purely self-serving. Not in the best interests of workers or contractors or, later, once he became a politician, for the country. Pulling the United States out of treaties with Russia, as well as the Paris Climate Accord, were frankly embarrassing steps. Yes, he got these done, but I frankly wonder if it was worth it. Another thing he got done was lining the Supreme Court with extreme conservatives and "finally" reversing Roe v. Wade. Now, in the aftermath of the controversial Alabama case, some people - including Trump himself - are expressing their opposition. But this law was only possible precisely because Trump reversed Roe v Wade. So again, getting things done did not work out in the best interests of the country. Obviously, he won the White House, and that is an achievement. Yet, he frankly disgraced himself and the country time and time again with his personal conduct, as well as his absurd policies.
Let me now focus on what he didn't "get done." He did not "lock her up," and frankly, he never had the power to. After all, the Constitution limits the power of the president, and all three branches of government were designed by the Constitution to keep checks and balances on one another, to make sure none of them ever did grow too powerful. So there's one failure. Here's another thing he failed to do: build a wall. Another thing: get Mexico to pay for that wall. Another campaign promise he failed at: making America respected and strong again. Whenever he went to Britain, for example, there was a balloon of a crying baby Trump flying the British skies in protest. He was literally laughed at before the entire world during an address to the United Nations. He made a major mistake praising a nonexistent country's healthcare system before assembled leaders of Africa. And he disgraced and shocked the entire world when he dismissed literally dozens of countries in Latin America and Africa as "shithole nations." All of this showed in his approval ratings in most other countries, which was consistently very low.
Want some more? How about his promise to pay off the national debt in eight years? In the four years he was in office, he increased the national debt by well over 25 percent. He also promised to create an affordable healthcare system that would cover everyone, and went so far as to suggest that it would be easy. Then, he lifted not a finger to actually follow up on this important promise, and just put his approval on House Speaker Paul Ryan's proposed healthcare system, which never even came close to passing. He promised that he would divorce himself from his businesses to assure that there would be no conflict of interest, and then simply refused to actually do that. I could go on, but let me sum up by reminding people that on election night in 2016, when it became clear that he won, he promised to be the president "for all Americans." Then, he turned into far and away the most polarizing president in modern American history, and it isn't even close.
All I see in Trump - and the seeming unwavering support he gets from his loyal followers - are contradictions. Paradoxes. The guy is supposed to be strong. Yet he never fails to whine about how he is such a victim, and always being targeted by those mean people who oppose him, by which he seems to mean almost everyone but his loyal supporters. The media is against him - they are, in fact, "enemies of the people," remember? - yet he relies on them far more than he would ever admit to. The Democrats are his enemies, and increasingly, the language that he uses in describing them is similar to the language that past dictators in history have used.
Also, he is supposed to not only be very rich, but a self-made man, who made a fortune out of a "small loan" of $1 million from his father. In fact, $1 million was most certainly not a small loan back then, and all of the evidence, if you're objective, suggests that he received a hell of a lot more than that. And even though he is supposed to be a billionaire, his lawyers just admitted that he cannot post the $454 million bail. This, despite claiming that his Mar-a-Lago estate is worth $1 billion, and also owning the Trump Tower in New York City, and presumably plenty of other estates. Again, you either are a billionaire, or you are not. Since his lawyers made it clear that he could not pay it, that sure suggests that he is indeed inflating the prices of his estates, much as was claimed in court, and that he probably is not actually a billionaire, or anywhere near as rich and successful as he claims. Yet, his supporters never question any of this.
He claims that he is the "least racist person" that anyone could ever meet. Yet he described Mexicans are rapists and criminals, wanted a ban on immigration from Muslim countries specifically, singled out "my African American" at one of his rallies, received the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists groups and individuals (like David Duke), and had a ridiculously tough time condemning outright Nazis and white supremacists following the "Unite the Right" protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. He described many countries in Latin America and Africa as "shithole nations" and then held up Norway as the ideal kind of nation to receive immigrants from, and posted a video clip of one of his followers yelling out "white power!" in his 2020 re-election bid.
Also, he once infamously suggested that a president's responsibility is "total." At the time that he said this, of course, Obama was the sitting president. Somehow, conveniently, this authority was a lot less total while he was president, when he divorced himself from any accountability regarding the failed coronavirus crisis response. Specifically, he said that he would not "take responsibility at all." Curiously, he somehow tried to sweep under the rug the fact that one of the things that he and his administration did while in office in 2018 was to eliminate the NSC pandemic unit. Given what happened early in 2020, it is interesting to think about how differently things may have been had he not done that. Yet, he claimed no responsibility, and his supporters never questioned it. Interesting how that works.
Now to me, a few things are clear. Trump is, always has been, and always will be, a con artist. I actually suspect that most of his supporters know this. Just look how mad they get when you mention things like Trump University, or Trump Airlines, or Trump Steaks, or Trump Magazine, or his failed casino ventures (I still am rather amazed how a "very stable genius" who prides himself particularly on his business acumen, on being a shark, could have run casinos into the ground).
So I get why he does the things that he does. Because he is forever and always a scam artist, and I truly mean that. He is truly an artist when it comes to scams and self-preservation. That means that it's no mystery to me that he would indeed come up with all of these elaborate and - let's give him credit - creative ways of self-promotion, regardless of when his claims are transparently untrue, or when it is self-evident that he is lying.
Yet, I don't really get why he still retains the kind of support that he does. The guy is a criminal, a scam artist of the highest levels. He is a wanna be tyrant, and has outright claimed that he would be a dictator (do you actually believe that he would give up those dictatorial powers after only one day, or restrict it merely to building that damn wall, or off-shore drilling?
When I think of what once was a controversial sentiment, but which today is almost universally accepted - that being the American decline in recent decades - I think of this unconditional, unthinking, and unwavering support of Trump by his Cult 45. And that is enough to confirm for me that, yes, the country has, and is continuing, to fall. And the whole world is watching.
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