The 330 Reasons why Trump has Disappointed

And doesn’t deserve 4 more years

Preface

In mid-July, I challenged a Trump-supporting friend to tell me 5 good things Trump has done. I committed that for every reason he listed I would then give him 5x as many things that he’s done badly.

Instead of giving me 5 reasons, he gave me 11. So for each of his 11, I gave him 30. (Thus 330 Reasons total). With more time, this list would have been longer. But, I wanted to get back to him within 24 hours, so here’s what I told him: (And, “dear Reader,” what do you think I overlooked? And what has occurred since July?)

(Note: If you’re inspired to create your own list, may I suggest you visit www.Top7Reasons.com )

A. The LIES

1. The President of the United States has told more than 20,000 lies and misleading claims since taking office. That’s 16 per day, or one per every hour he’s been awake. He is the biggest recorded liar in the history of Planet Earth. Literally. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/07/13/president-trump-has-made-more-than-20000-false-or-misleading-claims/

• The implications are enormous. When our president makes a point, it’s hardly better than a coin flip that he’s truthful. So even when he DOES say something accurate, we can’t know whether to believe it.
• On a moral level it’s despicable. But, as we’ll see, there are policy and governing implications of having a leader who just makes stuff up.
• Over his first 10 months, his frequency of lying was more than 50x higher than that of his predecessor. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/14/opinion/sunday/trump-lies-obama-who-is-worse.html

2. The increasing pace of the lies. Trump tentatively dipped his toes into the water of lying when he took office. In May 2017, he restrained himself to the tune of only 204 lies that month. A year later, in May 2018, realizing that there would be no implications to lying, he lied 250 times. By May 2019 he was up to 575. And for May 2020, even though he wasn’t hosting public rallies then, he came in at 649. He’s getting more brazen as time goes on. Imagine what a second term would look like.

3. Special attention please to the month of October 2018 in which Trump made 1,205 false or misleading statements. Let’s repeat that: The President of the United States lied 1,205 times in just one month. An average of 39 times every day.

• Please go back to 2014. Imagine we were told that a candidate would lie to us 39 times one day. And then do that again…for each of the next 30 days. Would we have believed any of their campaign promises? Would we have voted for them? And later, when they took credit for good things they did while in office, could we have believed those either?

4. Speaking of voting, Trump takes particular care to lie during rallies, when he feels unbound by common decency. Sixty seven percent of his claims at this one were false or misleading. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/01/07/anatomy-trump-rally-percent-claims-are-false-or-lacking-evidence/ If we were told that a candidate was going to lie to us 60 times during his campaign speech, would we attend that rally to learn more about his positions?

5. The Washington Post list of 20,000+ lies differs from this brilliant list, originated by Daniel Dale at the Toronto Star. We’ll lump all of those exclusively in the Star into this one bullet point. https://www.thestar.com/news/donald-trump-fact-check.html

6. The lies range from deeply harmful to trivial. Many, though, stem from his core inability to admit a hint of human “weakness.”

• Take, for example, the day Trump hunkered in his bunker under the White House. A traditional leader would have explained “The Secret Service instructed me to go down there. I wasn’t sure it was necessary. But, they are professionals, trusted by the American people to keep us safe. I have never been amongst a group of finer people in my life. So, we went. Fortunately, there was no need to stay long, and we resumed our normal activities. I’m grateful for the incredible sacrifices these men and women make every day.” But, no, he’s proud of his unusual style. So, instead, he lied this way: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/06/08/barr-says-trump-went-to-bunker-for-safety-not-to-inspect-it-as-president-claimed/

7. The leader sets the tone for his team. Because HE lies all the time, so can his minions. And the rot travels all the way down through not just government but society: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/06/05/sanders-lies-because-that-is-what-this-white-house-does/

8. WHY else do the lies matter? Here are some thoughts on the impact of all those lies: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-fact-checker-book/2020/06/01/c6323b88-a435-11ea-b619-3f9133bbb482_story.html

B. January 21, 2017: DAY 2 IN OFFICE

9. He stood in the CIA, in front of the wall of fallen American heroes, and gave essentially a campaign speech.

10. He forced his aide to call a press conference to lie about attendance at his inauguration. If this were a one-time situation, it would have been forgotten. Instead, it set the tone for how his Administration would interact with the American people over the next four years. Henceforth the only truth would come from Donald J. Trump. To his credit, Spicer later admitted he was ashamed of what he had done.

11. WHY was it unfair of “the media” to call attention to Trump’s small crowds? Because, said Kellyanne Conway, it would hurt the morale of the hard-working Administration members who were trying so hard to please. That statement would have been unacceptable in a world where honesty mattered, and she would have been fired by most other presidents.

12. This Administration offers “Alternative Facts,” proclaimed Conway. Nothing more needs to be said on that one.

13. Trump lies about even observational truths. More from Day 2. “The rain should have scared them away. But God looked down and he said, ‘We’re not going to let it rain on your speech.’… The truth is that it stopped immediately. It was amazing. And then it became really sunny, and then I walked off and it poured right after I left.” As everyone who watched knows, this is a complete fantasy, made up by a guy who’s either lying jauntily or incapable of processing input from the world around him. https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8620992/rain-president-donald-trump-inauguration-speech/ and https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-us-president-false-claims-inauguration-white-house-sean-spicer-kellyanen-conway-press-a7541171.html

C. DIVISIVENESS. Making it okay to Hate again.

14. He WANTS to hate people, especially minorities. Here’s an example, in his own words: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/opinion/trump-central-park-five.html

15. As far back as the ’70s, Donald Trump was found by the Justice Dept to have engaged in unlawful, racist activities. Small wonder, then, that he often spouts messages of hatred towards groups of Americans he doesn’t like. https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history

16. He pits states against states: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/opinion/trump-california.html with a particular visceral hatred towards the Great State of California.

• Along these lines, see #88
• And he even pits conservatives against the Philadelphia Eagles: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/04/politics/donald-trump-eagles/index.html

17. Unlike most people in Mississippi, he doesn’t think it’s wrong that the Confederate battle emblem adorned their state flag.

18. Unlike most NASCAR fans, he doesn’t think it’s wrong that the Confederate flag often flew over grandstands.

19. Unlike most Washington NFL fans, he doesn’t think it’s wrong that the team offended many Americans who begged them to change.

20. He has focused more attention these past six weeks on random protestors — who in a new fad have torn down statues — than he has on the perpetual problems of racism which have endured for centuries.

21. He issued an Executive Order targeting trans military members. And he did so without consulting “his generals” — he simply announced it via tweet. https://thehill.com/policy/defense/506407-116-democrats-push-for-end-to-transgender-military-ban-following-supreme-court

22. He and his team often retweet incendiary comments from white nationalists and neo-Nazis. His people make excuses that they didn’t know. But have they ever accidentally tweeted out a symbol used by, say, the trans community? Or somebody fighting for human rights?

23. Here’s just the most recent example. https://www.thedailybeast.com/kayleigh-mcenany-says-trump-didnt-hear-white-power-clip-but-shared-it-to-stand-with-demonized-supporters

24. “Very fine people” in Charlottesville

25. “Very good people” in Lansing https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1256202305680158720

26. Remember Putin’s “Little Green Men?” https://www.rferl.org/a/from-not-us-to-why-hide-it-how-russia-denied-its-crimea-invasion-then-admitted-it/29791806.html Here was Trump’s version. Was that the best way to impose law-and-order?:

THIS is Donald Trump’s America

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-dystopian-lincoln-memorial-photo-raises-a-grim-question-will-they-protect-us-or-will-they-shoot-us/2020/06/03/7a1c52b4-a5b7-11ea-bb20-ebf0921f3bbd_story.html

27. Wasn’t it an embarrassment to our nation when our president concocted this story? https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/09/trump-conspiracy-theory-protester-buffalo-cops-308716

28. These two pictures are worth 1,000 words

29. Two words: Lafayette Park. Among the most horrific things any president has ever attempted. And nobody even pretends otherwise anymore.

D. CONSPIRACY THEORIES. Making it okay for Americans to STOP thinking analytically

30. Spygate https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/28/us/politics/trump-conspiracy-theories-spygate.html was simply made up https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/27/rudy-giuliani-spygate-robert-mueller-donald-trump

31. Implying that Antonin Scalia may have been murdered. https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/donald-trump-justice-antonin-scalia-murdered-pillow-conspiracy-theory

32. Claiming ISIS targeted him in Ohio https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/mar/13/donald-trump/donald-trump-wrongly-links-campaign-event-proteste/

33. Claiming Bill Clinton was involved in the murder of their mutual buddy Jeffrey Epstein https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/13/donald-trump-defends-jeffrey-epstein-bill-clinton-conspiracy-retweet/1996632001/

34. Questioned whether Ted Cruz’ dad was involved in JFK’s murder. That appears to have been another one he made up himself. (How does one excuse that in a 3rd grader let alone a president?) But the troublesome part is that Ted Cruz now praises Trump’s integrity. Trump has hastened the elimination of Republicans in Congress who don’t march in lockstep with “Their President.”

35. So many of his backers now believe QAnon: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/qanon-politicians-candidates.html

• Bonus point: I guess JFK Jr isn’t going to replace Pence on the ticket after all. Have you seen these? https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Donald-Campaign-Reusable-Windproof-Balaclava

Does Pence know about this?

• Have you read this? https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/qanon-jfk-jr-conspiracy-theory-854938/
• Has everyone noticed how often Trump and his team have been tweeting QAnon stuff?

36. WHY does it matter that Trump is a conspiracy theorist? In this case, by spouting completely untrue stuff, he’s directly harming public health and safety. There are consequences of his daffiness, and they’re not good. https://www.insider.com/how-donald-trump-became-an-anti-vaccinationist-2019-9

• WHY has the science of vaccines become political? Why do more than twice as many Republicans say they won’t get vaccinated? https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/27-vaccinated-coronavirus-republicans-conservatives-poll/story?id=70962377

E. His distinct LACK OF ACADEMIC TALENT

He likes to brag about going to Wharton, an excellent school of finance.

37. Turns out he didn’t get in when he tried, so he went elsewhere. He overstated his record of academic achievement: https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/09/trump-overstated-academic-record-report-says

38. He eventually transferred to Wharton…thanks to connections https://poetsandquants.com/2019/07/08/trump-admitted-to-wharton-with-help-from-a-family-friend/

39. Surely to go to Wharton one needs good SAT scores right? Hmmm…. It seems Trump’s may have sucked. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/02/fordham-confirms-trump-obsessed-with-hiding-sat-scores-cohen-testimony

40. And ironically, he cheated on them! https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-cheated-on-his-sat-penn-wharton-mary-trump-2020-7

41. Once he finally got to Wharton, he impressed one of his professors as being “the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.” https://www.studyinternational.com/news/trump-student-wharton/

42. Let’s see the transcripts! Well, turns out he has threatened to sue academic institutions if they release his records. Let’s remember how this man rose to political prominence…by insisting that Obama show his records. And let’s remember that Obama then did so.

43. I’m going to take this opportunity, because it would be irresponsible not to do so, to note that Trump PROMISED to release his tax records…and he still hasn’t…and has sued right and left to avoid doing so.

F. His distinct LACK OF MENTAL ACUITY

One could argue that “book smarts” don’t matter once you get into the “real world,” and that Trump has “street smarts.” After all, Trump is “a very stable genius.”

Well, now that he’s in office, many people have come to the White House to work with him…and then seen up close just how genius-y he really is.

Look how impressed they all are! It’s like a movie review:

44. “A Fucking moron,” says his 1st Secretary of Defense: https://www.wonkette.com/and-now-we-know-exactly-why-rex-tillerson-called-trump-a-f-cking-moron

45. “An idiot,” declares his 1st Chief of Staff https://thehill.com/homenews/media/385685-msnbc-host-compiles-list-of-trump-staffers-whove-reportedly-insulted-him

46. “An idiot,” agrees his 2nd Chief of Staff https://www.newsweek.com/trump-kelly-white-house-fear-bob-woodward-book-1105477

47. “A fucking idiot,” clarifies Rupert Murdoch https://qz.com/1170680/donald-trumps-advisors-slam-him-in-michael-wolffs-fire-and-fury/

48. “Obviously in mental decline” raves his Communications Director https://www.salon.com/2019/09/03/scaramucci-predicts-trump-will-drop-out-of-2020-race-the-guy-is-obviously-in-mental-decline_partner/

49. “Like an 11-year old child,” gushes his chief campaign strategist https://theweek.com/speedreads/744764/bannon-reportedly-likens-trump-11yearold-child

50. “A dope and an idiot with the intelligence of a kindergartener,” brags his National Security Advisor https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/sources-mcmaster-mocked-trumps-intelligence-in-a-private

51. “The White House has become an adult day care center,” notes the Republican Senator https://twitter.com/SenBobCorker/status/917045348820049920

52. “Morally unfit to be president…unethical…untethered to truth,” writes the Director of the FBI

53. “Full of shit!” proclaims his 2nd Secretary of Defense https://www.businessinsider.com/pompeo-mocked-trump-full-of-s-t-bolton-book-says-2020-6

54. “Delusional,” observes both his Chief of Staff and his Secretary of Defense https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/trumps-explanation-for-ignoring-russia-intel-is-looking-worse-and-worse

55. “Narcissistic and unfit for office,” concludes the spouse of Trump’s top press advisor https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/george-conway-trump-unfit-office/599128/

56. “Terrible hiring skills,” summarizes his 3rd Chief of Staff https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/06/19/ex-trump-officials-are-criticizing-trump-mulvaney-blames-trumps-hiring-skills

57. “It’s worse than you can imagine. Trump is an idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything — not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored….Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits,” raves his top domestic advisor https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gary-cohn-answers-questions-about-future-at-white-house-with-im-here-today/

58. “Donald’s pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neuropsychological tests that he’ll never sit for,” boasts his brother’s daughter. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-niece-book-1.5646052

59. Here’s a summary of a bunch more. We’ll lump these into this one bullet point: https://www.villages-news.com/2020/06/05/what-they-have-to-say-about-trump/

Let’s take this moment to ask: WHY do so many people specifically condemn Trump’s brainpower? It’s not like they’re criticizing his sense of humor or his hair. They’re calling him, directly, mentally incapacitated. Are they ALL lying? Did they all sign a pact to harp on this one specific attribute?

• And it’s getting worse: https://www.businessinsider.com/psychiatrists-submit-warning-trumps-mental-health-deteriorating-2019-12

Let’s also ask ourselves: How come these proclamations didn’t come out about Obama? Or W? Or Clinton? Or Bush 41?

G. Okay, so he’s an idiot. Fine. But that doesn’t mean necessarily he’s bad at his job. AT LEAST HE LISTENS TO HIS INTELLIGENT ADVISORS. Right?

Sadly, no. So we’re left with an ignorant, incurious idiot who makes stuff up, doesn’t listen to the experts, and…is somehow still in charge of running things.

60. “He didn’t process information…He didn’t read….Some believed that for all practical purposes he was no more than semi-literate…He was often…paralyzed, less a savant than a figure of sputtering and dangerous insecurities…It was “like trying to figure out what a child wants,” enthuses Katie Walsh, the White House deputy chief of staff. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/01/michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-book-donald-trump.html

61. “Buddy Sam Nunberg describes his ignorance. Nunberg, a Republican policy analyst and former advisor, was sent to ‘explain the Constitution’ to Trump when he was a candidate. ‘I got as far as the Fourth Amendment,’ Nunberg recalled, ‘before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head.’” https://qz.com/1170680/donald-trumps-advisors-slam-him-in-michael-wolffs-fire-and-fury/

62. One result of being an idiot who doesn’t process information is that you have no knowledge of the world around you. And that’s the kind of thing a president should have, right? This example of Trump’s ignorance is too embarrassing to even type, so I’ll let John Bolton tell it: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1298123/donald-trump-UK-nuclear-power-new-book-John-Bolton

63. Reminds me of this Pearl Harbor incident. This is something that’s so implausible, yet so…sad: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-pearl-harbor-memorial-tour-john-kelly-stable-genius-2020-1

64. Doesn’t know Finland is a country: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53089609

65. Brags about ignoring expert advice: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/trump-follows-his-gut/580084/

66. Habitually ignores intelligence briefings: https://time.com/5518947/donald-trump-intelligence-briefings-national-security/

67. Ignores experts re Taliban: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ignored-warnings-of-top-advisers-on-meeting-with-taliban-2019-9

68. Ignores experts re trade war: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/06/trump-is-ignoring-his-aides-and-going-it-alone-in-the-trade-war-now-washington-post-reports.html

69. Ignores experts re coronavirus: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/how-many-warnings-did-trump-ignore/610846/

70. Ignores experts re DOJ: https://apnews.com/db64d4eaf5f65604cb147645e822a262

71. Ignores experts re Iran: http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/iran-trump-ignores-advice-us-military-leaders-again

72. Ignores the courts: https://www.newsweek.com/trump-ignores-court-ruling-he-cant-block-critics-twitter-president-thinks-hes-943315

73. Ignored WWI vets because it was raining: https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2018/11/12/24506718/good-morning-news-californias-on-fire-trump-ignores-veterans-and-portland-mulls-protest-rules

74. Ignores people who know a thing or two about this subject: https://atlanticsentinel.com/2017/06/donald-trump-ignores-all-of-zbigniew-brzezinskis-advice/

75. And here’s WHY it matters that the President is unable to read: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/americas-first-post-text-president/549794/

76. This is a good spot to think of those 20,000 false claims and ask WHY Trump makes so many of them. Two choices: Either he KNOWS he’s lying and doesn’t care; or he DOESN’T know he’s lying, because he’s not smart enough to keep facts in his brain.

• Trump and Biden are both senior citizens. Nevertheless, there’s a crucial difference between these two elder statesmen: Biden will surround himself with good people, and then he will listen to them. Trump has done neither.

H. IS HE GOD?

Some supporters think so! Or, at least very close to being God. Or at least heaven-sent.

77. Trump thinks he is. He’s “a supreme sexist…abusive…He started thinking that he walked on water. I don’t think there’s a person alive he respects because he thinks he’s God,” reports the person who served as his Exec VP for 16 years https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-donald-trump-executive-hes-a-supreme-sexist

78. His Secretary of State says he is https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47670717

79. His Secretary of Energy says he is https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/25/rick-perry-trump-gods-chosen-one/4295185002/

80. His UN Ambassador says he is https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/leading-republicans-praise-god-for-bringing-us-trump-918203/

81. His HUD secretary says he is https://www.indy100.com/article/donald-trump-administration-ben-carson-praying-white-house-video-clip-reaction-9166051

82. Well, maybe he’s “The Chosen One,” as Trump proclaims himself to be https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/21/i-am-the-chosen-one-trump-proclaims-as-he-defends-china-trade-war.html

83. If he’s not God, then he’s awfully close, implies Trump (This one is a Please Read. We should ask ourselves: Is this REALLY the guy we want leading our country? “Oh, that’s just Trump being Trump,” say supporters. But, are we REALLY sure he’s just joking here?) https://www.axios.com/everything-trump-says-he-knows-more-about-than-anybody-b278b592-cff0-47dc-a75f-5767f42bcf1e.html

84. By the way, he IS NOT JOKING. How do we know? He tells us so: “I don’t kid.” https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/23/trump-joking-slowing-coronavirus-testing-335459

85. Well, maybe Trump doesn’t think he’s God after all. According to his own Communications Director, Trump has “the self-esteem of a small pigeon.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anthony-scaramucci-trump-intimidated-good-looking-justin-trudeau_n_5d75d609e4b0645135709902

I. CORONAVIRUS

This is a terrible situation, and no leader could have gotten us through it unscathed. Every leader will do some things right, and every leader will make some mistakes. And Trump did some good things which others may not have done. Nevertheless, on balance, our country is worse off because he is our president.

86. The reason I’d vote for your 5-year old daughter over Trump is that, unlike Trump, she would probably follow the advice given by the experts in her Administration. One defining hallmark of Donald Trump is his scorn for people who have spent lifetimes becoming experts on detailed topics. He habitually ignores the wisdom of an aggregated thousands of years of knowledge — and then does the opposite. In particular, he has a vendetta against scientists. So, when your daughter’s staff tells her to start getting the country ready for a pandemic, she wouldn’t pooh-pooh it.

• If somebody read her a book, she would internalize it. This president, on the other hand, seldom reads anything that’s not on a teleprompter. (Imagine knowing that and then thinking “yeah, I want THAT guy to be my president.”) It’s unlikely, therefore, that your daughter would blow off these warning signs which Trump’s advisors screamed at him: https://www.axios.com/trump-coronavirus-warnings-46ea8006-2e19-4810-82c1-0f10f4f9aa97.html

87. Trump aligns himself with noted game show host Chuck Woolery over noted CDC expert Brett Giroir: https://www.newsweek.com/testing-czar-giroir-breaks-trump-over-retweeted-cdc-post-says-none-us-lie-1517676 Although I suppose doing so would make sense if the topic were Love Connections rather than Deadly Pandemics).

88. Forcing states to bid against each other, or to independently seek foreign assistance, to procure PPE.

89. “Closing the border” to China does NOT qualify as a fully sufficient response https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/trumps-snowballing-china-travel-claim/

90. Trump failed to act. In his own words: https://youtu.be/QuSVvzLPP34

• As FOX points out, if Trump had acted even one week earlier, the death toll would have been considerably lower, and the hit to both the economy and the deficit wouldn’t have been so bad https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/coronavirus-lockdown-1-week-earlier-in-the-u-s-could-have-saved-36000-lives-new-model-finds

91. Sigh. If only this were true even now, 4+ months later.

92. But testing doesn’t really matter anyway, Trump says https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/497846-trump-says-testing-may-be-frankly-overrated

93. Nevertheless, he tried to slow down all that evil testing which is going on https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/23/trump-joking-slowing-coronavirus-testing-335459

94. This headline says it all https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/06/trump-blew-it-not-who-fauci-or-jews/

95. He attacks Republicans who follow his own advice https://www.vox.com/2020/4/20/21228817/trump-larry-hogan-coronavirus-testing-kits

96. Not only does Trump not wear a mask, he encourages others not to https://www.salon.com/2020/05/18/trumps-war-on-masks-its-working--at-least-with-his-base/

• And this is why Covid death tolls are rising in so many red states in particular.

97. He suggested that injecting Lysol could be a cure. And the makers of Lysol had to correct him!

98. He suggested that perhaps we should just simply stick sunlight into our bodies.

99. March 13th: “I don’t take responsibility at all” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/americans-are-paying-the-price-for-trumps-failures/609532

100. He wanted filled pews by Easter (Well, we all wanted it, but knew it would be deadly if we did) https://www.salon.com/2020/04/16/trumps-pitiful-obsession-with-a-deadline-is-everything-thats-wrong-with-everything/

101. Why have churches become hotspots of coronavirus transmission? Because Trump ordered them to. https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/05/19/justice-department-tells-california-to-reopen-churches-1284597

102. This chart was even more dangerous than the Hurricane Dorian Sharpie chart https://slate.com/business/2020/05/trump-models-coronavirus-dumb.html

103. He put THIS guy in charge of the entire coronavirus response effort. The same one badly botched an earlier epidemic in his home state. The same one who mocked masks and seldom wears one now https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/politics/mike-pence-2020-election-coronavirus/index.html

104. Yet another manifestation of Trump’s inability to understand or relate to science https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/kelvin-droegemeier-trumps-science-adviser-is-a-real-scientist/580096/

105. In mid-Feb, Trump urged cities to prepare convention centers to serve as overflow hospitals. Later, Cuomo and others did that. And we see it still happening this week in Austin now that things have gotten so bad in TX. So, that showed Trump making a rational assessment of a cascadingly-awful situation and coming up with a cogent policy.

• Oh wait a minute, sorry, Trump did NOT do that; that was governors doing so on their own.

106. Trump’s third chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says this week it’s “inexcusable” that the Administration has botched things so badly on testing: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/13/mick-mulvaney-says-covid-testing-issues-inexcusable/5429248002/

107. Please note that on Feb 28th, that very same Mick Mulvaney claimed that the media is only paying attention to the virus in order to hurt Trump. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/28/trump-chief-of-staff-mulvaney-suggests-people-ignore-coronavirus-news-to-calm-markets.html

J. KIDNAPPING

108. The child “separation” policy. Our government kidnapped thousands of children and confined them or sent them to new families thousands of miles away. When the judge ordered the Administration to end the policy and reunite the families, the Administration couldn’t — because they hadn’t bothered to keep track of which kids belonged to which parents, or even where they’d been sent.

• Seriously, isn’t that reason alone for us to try some alternative to Trump going forward?

109. Remarkably, even though Trump’s chief enabler, Kirstjen Nielsen, had been driven from power, and even though the courts ordered Trump to stop, he was still continuing his kidnapping binge as of December 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/12/09/family-separation-policy-lawsuit/

110. Remarkably, he is still continuing to kidnap people even today. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/18/family-separation-policy-continues-two-years-after-trump-administration-claims-it-ended

K. ABUSE of pardoning power

111. Yes, the President has the authority to commute sentences. But few have been shameless enough to pardon those who were convicted of lying to coverup the president’s misconduct. Not even Nixon. https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-roger-stone-case-shows-why-trump-is-worse-than-nixon

112. Yes, the President has the right to pardon criminals. But none previously have used that power to pardon convicted war criminals. https://www.lawfareblog.com/should-there-be-war-crime-pardon-exception

• Trump promised to “shake things up.” But is THIS the kind of “shake up” we were clamoring for? Should THIS be our new norm as a society?

113. Not only is there something morally wrong about pardoning convicted war criminals, but it’s strategically foolish too:

“Trump’s pardons can also affect the battlefield if U.S. troops feel less need to follow military discipline. The empirical evidence from Afghanistan and Iraq demonstrates that when Americans kill foreign civilians in counterinsurgency campaigns, it helps the enemy recruit and discourages local populations from helping the United States…” If this happens, other U.S. soldiers will pay the price for the misdeeds of those Trump excused. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/16/do-americans-approve-trumps-pardons-court-martialed-military-officers/

114. The process by which Trump has chosen the lucky recipients of his pardons differs from those of other presidents. It’s more self-serving. https://www.lawfareblog.com/trumps-aberrant-pardons-and-commutations

115. Yet another example of how this president uses the power of the office to benefit himself https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/31/us/politics/dsouza-pardon.html

116. By proclaiming that he “may” pardon people like Flynn and Manafort, Trump discourages his minions from telling the truth. Why bother telling Congress, under oath, what actually happened in Russia or Ukraine? If the president’s going to pardon me for lying, I’m going to lie!

L. He’s the biggest threat to VOTING in decades

Two people on record as saying Russia was NOT trying to help Trump win the 2016 election are… Putin and Trump. However, Trump admits SOMEBODY was meddling with the elections. (“Maybe some guy sitting on his bed who weighs 400 pounds, okay?”). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSTGxKKmlXA

117. Given the meddling, shouldn’t he have taken robust steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again? Perhaps weigh in on how to properly balance first amendment rights with laws against certain activities? Yes, he should have.

118. How is it that people like Brian Kemp feel they have the right to steal an election? Because they know they have the backing of this president. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/10/georgia-election-recount-stacey-abrams-brian-kemp

119. This pure unadulterated nonsense. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-threatens-to-hold-back-funding-over-michigan-mail-in-voting

120. This is also nonsense. Yet, it successfully sows confusion and doubt among the gullible https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/29/politics/donald-trump-robert-mueller-team-midterm-elections-tweet/index.html

121. Frequently complains that the polls — even FOX’s — are out to get him https://www.salon.com/2020/07/06/furious-trump-tells-followers-to-turn-off-fox-news-after-poll-shows-him-losing-in-six-swing-states/

122. Lied about the 2016 polls https://cookpolitical.com/analysis/national/national-politics/polls-werent-far-2016-they-arent-wrong-now-either

123. Invented that 3MM fraudulent voters story https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/nov/18/blog-posting/no-3-million-undocumented-immigrants-did-not-vote-/

124. WHY do Trump’s fantasies matter? Because many of his supporters believe every word he says, so they start having unfounded doubts about the legitimacy of our system. Putin himself couldn’t wish for anything more disastrous to happen to our country. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/us/politics/trump-vote-by-mail.html

125. Even before he took office, pundits warned that Trump was a uniquely autocratic personality who might not be satisfied with two terms. He has now “joked” about seeking a third term a dozen times. He has been told it’s not funny. (“He was warned! He was given an explanation! Nevertheless, he persists.”) https://finance.yahoo.com/video/trump-jokes-third-term-closed-042513054.html

M. He defends his associates accused of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE against women — and he attacks the accusers/victims

126. Porter: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/09/trump-defends-rob-porter-after-abuse-accusations.html

127. Moore: (Okay, admittedly this was sexual assault, not domestic violence) https://www.npr.org/2017/11/21/565760674/trump-defends-roy-moore-amid-sexual-assault-allegations-he-totally-denies-it

128. Lewandowski: (Okay, admittedly this was simple assault, not domestic violence) https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-campaign-manager-charged-assaulting-reporter-n547306

129. Epstein: (Okay, admittedly this was statutory rape, not domestic violence) https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/13/donald-trump-defends-jeffrey-epstein-bill-clinton-conspiracy-retweet/1996632001/

130. Kavanaugh: (Okay, admittedly this was attempted rape, not domestic violence) https://www.factcheck.org/2018/10/trump-repeatedly-wrong-on-fords-testimony/

131. Kraft: (Okay, admittedly this was alleged prostitution, not domestic violence) https://time.com/5535806/trump-defends-robert-kraft/

132. Ailes: (Okay, admittedly this was sexual harassment, not domestic violence) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6X9GscLQtw

133. O’Reilly: (Okay, admittedly this was sexual harassment, not domestic violence) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/business/media/trump-oreilly-fox-murdochs.html

134. Thomas: (Okay, admittedly this was sexual harassment, not domestic violence) https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/19/trump-ford-kavanaugh-anita-hill-829569

• Do you ever wonder why he ALWAYS takes the side of the male defendant (except re Bill Clinton’s allegations?) Isn’t it possible that he too has committed those same crimes and does not want to be judged harshly himself?

135. Trump part A: (Okay, admittedly this was sexual harassment, not domestic violence) https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2017/10/27/official-white-house-position-women-who-have-accused-trump-sexual-harassment-lying/808285001/

136. Trump part B: (Okay, admittedly this was rape, not domestic violence) https://www.bbc.com/news/av/embed/p05qt59j/48754959

137. Trump part B1: Lying about Part B by claiming that he’d never before met the woman: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/us/e-jean-carroll-donald-trump.html

138. Trump part C: Concocting a laughable tall tale about that Access Hollywood tape (Okay, admittedly this was sexual molestation, not domestic violence) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/28/us/politics/trump-access-hollywood-tape.html

139. Okay, you note, these are just “things he says. It’s Trump being Trump.” Other than conveying the message that it’s okay to beat a woman, what impact does it really have? WHY else does this matter? Well, he actually changed the law so as to restrict the ability of victims to claim domestic violence https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/trump-domestic-violence-definition-change.html

N. COVFEFE

140. Covfefe.

141. Please check the structure of this series of 4 Presidential tweets. Ignore the content. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/420200-trump-launches-twitter-tirade-at-mueller-ahead-of-expected-manafort Notice how each tweet ends mid-sentence….and the next one continues the sentence. Now, please check the timestamps. The gaps indicate it took him ~ 11 minutes to type each tweet, thus ~ 44 minutes in total to complete his paragraph. How is that possible? It’s because he’s such a horrific speller and typist and thinker. It’s not like he put down his iPhone to call Angela Merkel in between sections.

142. Again, ignoring the content: He tweeted 6,934 times in 2019. Knowing how long it takes him to type each tweet, think of how much time that occupies. https://www.statista.com/chart/19561/total-number-of-tweets-from-donald-trump/

143. To be fair, he doesn’t type ALL tweets himself. Sometimes he gets a top aide, Dan Scavino, to tweet for him. Isn’t Scavino that well-respected top political operative who spent years in government learning how to best communicate important presidential decrees to the taxpaying public? No, sorry, Scavino was his golf caddie. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/16/trump-scavino-1327921

144. Trump now whines that Twitter has the gall to flag his hate speech as hate speech — and some of his anti-democracy voting misinformation tweets as voting misinformation.

145. He tweets simply to divert attention away from the most recent awful thing he said or did https://www.dailycamera.com/2020/05/12/opinion-michael-gerson-why-trump-tweetstorms-while-rome-burns/

146. He tried to illegally ban Americans from reading his official proclamations. You could argue this is “a big nothingburger,” as Don Jr likes to say. But, it’s yet another example of his autocratic ways. https://abcnews.go.com/US/tweets-led-landmark-court-decision-trump/story?id=55407710

O. The BEST PEOPLE

Part A: Best of the Best

147. Trump disparaged his predecessors by bragging that he would only hire “the best people.” This was a CENTRAL campaign pledge. Trump’s competency was not to be questioned, and the competency of his staff would be a huge selling point. Would we say he has upheld this promise?

Trump: I'll choose the best people for my administration

But if we ask Trump himself, he will tell us that he has instead hired some of the lowest, stupidest, most unethical people in America. In his own words, here’s his assessment of his own “best people”:

148. Tillerson, for example, is “dumb as a rock”: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1071132880368132096

149. Cohn: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/11/trump-on-gary-cohn-icould-tell-stories-about-him-like-you-wouldnt-believe.html

150. McGahan: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1127342552745762816

151. Sessions: https://apnews.com/f3d0d9eff8aa46d7940a0179d84fa73c and, for good measure, this one’s fun: https://www.vox.com/2020/3/4/21164977/trump-jeff-sessions-alabama-senate-obstruction-of-justice

152. Bannon: https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/16/politics/trump-steve-bannon-mitch-mcconnell-war/index.html and, of course, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-slams-bannon-after-criticism-saying-ex-chief-strategist-lost-his-mind

153. Mad Dog Mattis: https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/10/17/trump-blasts-mattis-as-the-worlds-most-overrated-general/

154. By the way, why is he called “Mad Dog?” Well, he wasn’t often called that before. But Trump thought that a MAD DOG nickname — even though Mattis didn’t like it — would make TRUMP look tough.

• Do you remember 3rd grade? Isn’t the assigning of undesired nicknames the hallmark of a bully?

155. And let’s not forget that Mattis was in office only b/c Trump took the unorthodox step of asking Congress to skirt the intent of laws prohibiting recently-retired military generals serving in that role. So if ever there was a hand-picked guy, this was it.

156. Powell https://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/story/trump-slams-fed-chair-questions-climate-change-and-threatens-cancel-putin-meeting-wide-ranging

157. And let’s not forget that Powell is in office only b/c Trump took the unorthodox step of essentially firing his predecessor. So if ever there was a hand-picked guy, this was it. https://thehill.com/policy/finance/418712-trump-was-concerned-janet-yellen-wasnt-tall-enough-to-run-the-fed-report

• Btw, what was Yellen’s problem that got her axed? She was too short! Literally. I refer you back to Trump’s Chief of Staff: See #56

158. So we assume it’s Powell’s fault that the Fed sucks, according to Trump? No! It’s also the fault of the OTHER people Trump installed into their positions at the Fed, Trump says. https://thehill.com/policy/finance/411695-trump-says-fed-is-his-biggest-threat-blasting-own-appointees

70,000+ likes?

159. Gosh, I don’t remember Obama calling his own advisors crazed lowlife dogs. But, of course, Obama didn’t hire crazed lowlife dogs in the first place.

160. I’m not sure he dumped on Whitaker, but there was no need for TRUMP to do so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLtHhAs1qY4&list=PL8BMlF4uBk88w6TpE0hYLVTtW2aP_HlX9&index=16

161. Cohen: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1032247043992023040

162. Kelly: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/trump-assails-kelly-after-exwhite-house-chief-of-staff-blasts-him-over-vindman-north-korea-immigration-2020-02-13 and before that there was this https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/417437-gops-grassley-admonishes-trump-on-kelly-comments

163. McMaster: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/20/trump-mcmaster-tension-national-security-adviser-417110

164. Even Donald Trump thinks his Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, is not smart: https://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/07/22/trump-rick-perry-put-on-glasses-so-people-think-hes-smart/

165. Except for Powell, all the above advisors have lost their jobs. But not Wilbur Ross! He’s actually still there. Look at how excoriating Trump’s criticism of his own cabinet official is. Of course, he might be expected to have lost a step…the man is 82 years old. But do we remain 100% convinced that Wilbur Ross is the absolute BEST PERSON to be in that position today?https://www.axios.com/the-decline-and-fall-of-wilbur-ross-1516568275-c795e9b4-f84f-4080-a129-da23cb91ed2a.html

166. We remember how Trump liked to brag about “my generals.” Turns out they’re actually just a bunch of “dopes and babies” https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/17/politics/trump-military-afghanistan-2017-pentagon-meeting-tillerson/index.html

Part B: MORE of The Best People

167. Papadopoulos:

• Hired him as a top advisor on foreign policy. Seriously, read this one. Is THAT the guy we want as our president? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/10/how-did-these-guys-get-hired/544358/
• And then lied about his role and their relationship https://www.npr.org/2018/02/12/584855759/former-trump-campaign-adviser-was-more-than-a-coffee-boy-fiancee-says

168. Page: Similar issues as Papadopoulos, but worse!

169. Manafort: See above. Gates: See above

170. Lumping several more into one bullet point here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbxqGYBnOpk

171. Mnuchin, sigh, smh… https://theintercept.com/2017/07/08/trump-treasury-ripped-its-tax-cut-recommendations-straight-from-the-chamber-of-commerce/

172. Trump nominated this person to be Ambassador to the United Nations. Really? REALLY? Future generations will be aghast that he even tried. https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/12/does-heather-nauert-have-what-it-takes/

173. Although maybe they shouldn’t be shocked, after seeing who he tried to appoint as his Secretary of Veterans Affairs: A doctor who had never led an organization before https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-appoints-ronny-jackson-chief-medical-adviser-2019-2

174. Although maybe they shouldn’t be shocked, after seeing who he appointed to lead Housing and Urban Development: A doctor whose only connection to “housing” was that he lives in one. And who, even after years on the job, displays a baffling level of ignorance. Are we okay with having unqualified people running massive, and massively important, agencies? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBF--J7qcA0

175. Although maybe they shouldn’t be shocked, after seeing who Trump tried to appoint as the head of the FAA: His personal airplane pilot! https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/14/trump-wanted-his-personal-pilot-head-faa-critical-job-is-still-vacant-amid-boeing-fallout/

• WHY does it matter? Well, for example, we’ve seen what’s going on at Boeing — it’s one of America’s biggest corporate disasters in a decade. And who’s the steady hand at the top of the FAA to help lead this vital company through this nightmare? Oh right, sorry…there isn’t anybody.
• Let’s please focus on this one for a second. Why does Trump continually try to appoint massively unqualified people for vital roles? Primarily three reasons:
• He doesn’t understand the importance of these jobs, so he doesn’t think competence and experience are necessary.
• He finds expertise in subjects to be personally threatening. He knows if he installed a qualified leader at the FAA, he wouldn’t be able to rationally argue with him. So, rather than learn something, he nominates a lackey.
• He can’t get truly qualified people to fill the roles. At this point, many sane individuals simply refuse to work for Donald Trump.

176. This must be just an FAA problem, right? Wrong. ☹. It’s the entire executive branch of the United States government https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/20/trumps-staffing-struggle-unfilled-jobs-100991

177. To be fair, though, working for Donald Trump is very stressful, because of his volcanic temper: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/16/james-comey-interview-trump-white-house-response-526281

178. So why are so many Best People fleeing?

“57% of Trump’s “A Team” staffers have left the White House in just its first year and a half, according to statistics maintained by Brookings Institute’s Kathryn Dunn Tenpas. That nearly equals the turnover among top staffers for the entire first terms of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush. (Tenpas’ data may actually undersell the changes in Trump’s administration, given that she only counts one departure for each office. So, while Trump has had five communications directors since being elected President, they only count as one departure in Tenpas’ calculations.) Focusing just on Cabinet secretaries, the numbers are equally stunning for Trump…and may underestimate the chaos of Trump’s Cabinet.” https://edition.cnn.com/2018/08/13/politics/donald-trump-jeff-sessions-omarosa/index.html

Part C: Why are so many of Trump’s Best People CORRUPT?

179. Here’s a nice overview, although it’s already dated: https://prospect.org/power/mapping-corruption-donald-trump-executive-branch/

180. Shulkin: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/03/28/shulkin-out-trump-nominates-his-personal-physician-head-va.html

181. Zinke: https://foe.org/news/ryan-zinke-resigns-amid-scandals-corruption/ and https://www.vox.com/2018/10/31/18044860/ryan-zinke-interior-investigation-ethics-justice

182. Ross: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/19/trump-just-gave-china-a-sledgehammer-to-smash-the-lng-monopoly.html

183. Two words: Betsy DeVos. No links required.

184. Price: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/tom-price-resigns-over-ordinary-controversy/580063/

185. Chao: https://www.citizensforethics.org/elaine-chao-mitch-mcconnell-inspector-general/

186. Perry had corruption-related issues in Ukraine https://apnews.com/6d8ae551fb884371a2a592ed85a74426

• Perry, by the way, had said this about the agency Trump would later tap him to lead. (Helps you appreciate where point #56 was coming from.) https://www.nbcnews.com/video/perry-tapped-for-position-he-wanted-to-eliminate-in-2011-831973955631

187. Acosta: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/12/labor-secretary-alex-acosta-is-resigning-as-pressure-mounts-from-jeffrey-epstein-case.html

188. Flynn

• Scandals before taking office
• Scandals during his 24 days in office
• Scandals since leaving office

189. Perdue: https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/donald-trump-sonny-perdue-agriculture-235982

190. Another take on the rampant corruption https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/31/1908645/-The-Trump-Effect-We-Can-t-See-the-Corruption-Forest-for-the-Trees-Will-2020-Finally-Be-Different

191. WHY does any of this matter? Aren’t all politicians corrupt? Well, no, not like this https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/democracy/news/2018/01/16/444997/cost-corruption-waste-abuse-president-trumps-cabinet/

P. Not only is he mentally weak, but he’s a PHYSICAL WRECK

192. Have you seen this one? Could he make it another 4 years?

193. You have to admit, this one’s pretty clever:

194. But this is nothing new. He can’t walk 700 yards, even though the eyes of the world are squarely on him: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/335424-trump-rode-golf-cart-while-g7-leaders-walked-through-siciliy

195. He has repeatedly had problems with balance: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-41204204

• And just for good measure, here’s Biden on that same treacherous ramp at West Point: https://twitter.com/bidenwarroom/status/1272266301122232328

196. This one has never been explained: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/11/18/20970407/trump-walter-reed-hospital-trip-explained

197. WHY is Donald Trump a physical mess? To a considerable extent it is because of his belief in conspiracy theories. Have you heard this one of his? Is this a philosophy we can all agree with? https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-thinks-that-exercising-too-much-uses-up-the-bodys-finite-energy/2017/05/12/bb0b9bda-365d-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html

Q. His INABILITY to express human-like emotions

198. This video is totally fascinating. Not just for the comparative empathy, but for the comparative ability to take action: Guns/CT/FL:

199. Another gun example: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/aug/12/john-oliver-trump-pathological-lack-of-empathy

200. NYC: (Or, at least his inability to empathize with something that didn’t happen outside his window) https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/01/politics/trump-vegas-nyc/index.html

201. PR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEe7_zgZbuI

202. El Paso: https://www.thedailybeast.com/backlash-over-donald-trump-giving-thumbs-up-as-melania-trump-holds-el-paso-shooting-orphan

203. The border (Bonus points for this being his wife): https://www.npr.org/2018/06/21/622410485/whats-up-with-melania-trump-s-i-really-don-t-care-do-u-jacket

204. MN: (Bonus points for Biden doing so much better on this). https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/30/politics/george-floyd-brother-talks-trump/index.html

205. He’s so bad at this stuff that people have stopped inviting him to their funerals: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/donald-trump-funerals.html

206. Here’s WHY it hurts the US national interest to have a president who lacks emotional intelligence: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-endless-self-regard-is-being-exploited--to-undermine-the-us/2019/07/01/ca330e90-9c2c-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html

207. A specific example thereof: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/22/trump-consoler-in-chief-coronavirus-crisis

208. Bonus points for his defect to have been recognized before he took office https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/trumps-emotional-intelligence-deficit

R. Donald J. Trump PERSONALLY is a national security risk

209. Shortly after taking office, he met in the Oval Office with top Russian officials. By itself, that’s not illegal. However, oddly, he allowed Russian reporters and photographers into the meeting…but nobody else from the US. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia/trump-revealed-intelligence-secrets-to-russians-in-oval-office-officials-idUSKCN18B2MX

Step into the Oval so I can disclose some vital secrets

210. During that meeting, he divulged crucial US top secret intelligence. What do we think…was he currying favor with the Russians, or was he simply too ignorant to understand the importance of that intelligence?

• Some of the relatively minor fallout from that: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-extracted-russia-spy-trump-classified-info-oval-office-2019-9

211. Meets with Putin behind closed doors. At least 16 times. Our government has no idea what they talked about.

212. Even threatened translators with legal action and tore up their notes. This is highly unusual. What’s he hiding? https://www.vox.com/2019/1/29/18202515/trump-putin-russia-g20-ft-note and https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/01/13/trump-putin-meetings-interpreter-notes/2565471002/

213. Disclosed our true spying capabilities to the world https://www.npr.org/2019/08/30/755994591/president-trump-tweets-sensitive-surveillance-image-of-iran.html

214. A few times during this one interview alone https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/05/20/trump-potentially-gave-away-us-intelligence-brian-todd-dnt-tsr-vpx.cnn

215. The idiocy displayed here by our president is hard to understand. How is this remotely possible that this is true? https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/u-s-officials-concerned-trump-discussing-sensitive-information-unsecured-cellphone-n924376

• It was big news when Obama took office and swapped his phone for a secure NSA version. Why does this president get to be different?

216. There was that time he did this https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2860956/donald-trump-aides-slammed-japanese-pm-top-secret-documents/

217. Some others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump%27s_disclosures_of_classified_information

• WHY does this matter? Some of our closest allies have cut back on sharing intelligence with this Administration because they’ve learned our president, personally, can’t be trusted. And we’ve lost spies overseas due to his leaks. Is that good for America?
• To be fair, I’m not sure I blame poor Donald for his poor judgment. After all, he’s a novice in government, with no mental capacity to think rationally and no advisors to guide him. It’s not HIS fault Americans voted him into our highest office.

218. Not only is he personally a security risk, but by definition so are 25 of his advisors: https://www.npr.org/2019/04/01/708726227/whistle-blower-says-white-house-overturned-denials-of-25-for-security-clearances

219. And so is this one: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/01/28/john-bolton-notepad-troops-colombia-venezuela-military-intervention/2705957002/

S. The RUSSIAN BOUNTY

Credible evidence indicates Trump has known for a year and a half that Putin pays Afghani soldiers to kill Americans. Yet he’s apparently done nothing about that. Let’s ask why Trump has done nothing. Several possibilities have been mentioned. Each hideous possibility gets its own bullet point. Pick your poison: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/trumps-explanation-for-ignoring-russia-intel-is-looking-worse-and-worse

220. Kayleigh McEnany says his advisors didn’t brief him because it wasn’t verifiable. That doesn’t really make sense in light of how intelligence actually works. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/russian-bounty-report-seems-like-kind-of-thing-trump-shouldve-known-gop-says

221. It’s also a lie; he was indeed briefed: https://apnews.com/425e43fa0ffdd6e126c5171653ec47d1

222. His advisors didn’t brief him fully because they were afraid he, the President of the United States, is a security risk and couldn’t be trusted with that info. (And really, isn’t this one single bullet point enough of a reason we should get a new leader into the Oval Office?) https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/29/politics/trump-phone-calls-national-security-concerns/index.html

223. His advisors did brief him, but he wasn’t mentally astute enough to internalize and act on it.

224. His advisors did brief him, but he decided to do nothing because he decided it wasn’t important.

225. His advisors did brief him, but he decided to do nothing because he’s impotent.

226. He decided to do nothing because he didn’t want to antagonize his patron Putin.

227. He tried to retaliate but it failed (à la Carter’s Iran hostage rescue attempt) and he’s too embarrassed to discuss it.

228. He did retaliate but can’t publicly disclose how. (Not even HE has claimed that’s the case).

229. Whose side is Trump on?

T. The ECONOMY, Stupid.

230. Doesn’t understand how it works https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/30/imagine-if-obama-had-said-i-built-greatest-economy/

231. The economy was doing well under Obama and essentially continued that path under Trump (pre-Covid). Please review these graphs and tell me how Trump’s policies helped the economy beyond the path we were on before he arrived: https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/02/10/trumps-economic-scorecard-3-years-in-office/#f7507a87847f

232. Most of the areas in which the economy HAS improved can be attributed to Trump’s reckless deficit spending. The deficit rose 68% on his watch (pre-Covid). https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/02/10/trumps-economic-scorecard-3-years-in-office/#f7507a87847f

233. The debt has exploded under Trump’s coronavirus rescue plans. I’m not saying that’s uncalled for, given these circumstances. But, note that Trump was sharply critical of Obama’s smaller bailout. And bailouts of these magnitudes wouldn’t have been required if Trump’s pandemic response had been better.

U. His unseemly PROFIT-TAKING from being in office

234. His attempt to enrich himself by hosting the G7. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/10/18/trump-grifter-family-corrupt-cabinet-attacks-on-constitution-column/3999665002/

235. By hosting himself: https://www.courthousenews.com/records-show-more-payments-to-trump-properties-by-secret-service/

236. By hosting Pence: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/pence-s-doonbeg-detour-cost-nearly-600k-ground-transportation-fees-n1052401

237. This case hasn’t been decided yet, but many constitutional experts feel Trump is bound to lose because, yes, he’s been illegally reaping rewards from his office: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/14/sweeping-setback-trumps-foreign-business-dealings/

238. WHY does it matter? Here’s an example. You think his policy towards China is unaffected by this kind of thing? https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ivanka-trump-brand-20170418-story.html

V. GOLF. And then GOLF again.

239. He mercilessly mocked his predecessor for golfing. This kind of criticism can make sense — unless it’s unspeakably hypocritical. https://youtu.be/wHJPpBI6AJo?t=55

240. He promised voters he wouldn’t golf once he became president:

241. In reality, Obama spent 3% of his time in office golfing. Trump has spent 20% https://qz.com/1753518/trump-golf-cart-rentals-have-now-cost-us-taxpayers-550000/

242. His Administration tries to cover up the frequency of his playing https://money.cnn.com/2017/12/27/media/truck-blocks-camera-trump-golf-course/index.html

243. And he makes pitiful excuses for why he plays https://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/20/president-trump-uses-golf-as-chance-to-do-presidential-business.html

244. And like at everything else in his life, he’s an inveterate cheater: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trump-the-serial-golf-cheat-in-the-white-house

245. This has cost US taxpayers more than ¾ of a million dollars on golf carts alone so far: https://thegolfnewsnet.com/golfnewsnetteam/2020/05/17/the-secret-service-has-spent-more-than-765000-dollars-on-golf-carts-to-protect-donald-trump-111647/

246. He plays exclusively at his own properties, thereby further enriching himself inappropriately. WHY is this bad? Well, wouldn’t some nice public course in New York — which he doesn’t own — or even a rival private course in Florida appreciate the publicity which comes with a presidential visit?

247. Focus on this: He has spent nearly one out of every three days of his presidency at one of his own golf resorts. And let’s just reiterate this for fun: https://youtu.be/f0NZt_-eB9o

W. NORTH KOREA

Barack Obama warned Trump that the #1 most important issue he would face while in office is North Korea. Trump promised us that fixing NK would be no problem.

248. So he started off like this. Is this what his supporters meant when they wanted Trump to shake things up? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42549687

249. His “summit meetings” with Kim Jong Un were unprecedented. And they went against the advice of his advisors. But most importantly, unfortunately, they accomplished nothing.

250. End result? Kim Jong Un now simply laughs at Donald Trump: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/06/22/ex-trump-aide-bolton-says-north-koreas-kim-laughing-at-us-president.html

251. Kim keeps his nuclear program running full-steam ahead: (or perhaps “full-chain reaction” ahead) https://au.news.yahoo.com/north-korea-satellite-images-suspected-nuclear-warhead-facility-114719853.html

252. And, after all this, Kim is now firing more, better missiles than ever before https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles/north-korea-fires-more-missiles-than-ever-amid-coronavirus-outbreak-idUSKBN21F0Y2

253. The gall to even be talking like this. Again, THIS is the person we want for our leader? https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/09/23/donald-trump-un-president-said-he-deserves-nobel-peace-prize/2420258001/

254. Special bonus bullet point for enlisting the support of Abe on this effort. What did Trump have to give Abe to win his agreement? https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/18/japans-abe-nominated-trump-for-nobel-peace-prize-on-us-request-asahi.html

X. The WALL

255. Very little has actually been built so far.

256. Mischaracterizes what he did accomplish: https://www.politifact.com/article/2019/may/15/donald-trump-says-400-miles-wall-will-be-done-2020/

257. Continued to do so later in that year https://www.newsweek.com/cbp-no-new-border-wall-1472077

258. This is despite having pilfered funds from the US military in order to fund his pet project, and overriding a Congressional veto to do so.

259. We all remember, though, his most prominent campaign pledge. Safe to say, it was nonsense at the time, and is still nonsense. It’s easy to forget how important this was to his 2016 win.

When his supporters watch that tape now, do they think “That is a con man right there. Well, I fell for it back then, but I sure am not going to fall for it this time.”?

260. Nevertheless, Trump’s trying even now to lie about it. In the old days, when a speaker said something like this, they’d run him out with pitchforks. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/10/trump-says-mexico-is-not-going-to-write-a-check-for-the-wall-contradicting-campaign-pledge.html

261. Trump very nicely asked Mexican president Pena Nieto to pay for his wall. Because if he didn’t, that would make Trump look bad. “If you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore, because I cannot live with that.” So, Trump, in a fit of pique, actually cancelled their previously-scheduled meeting. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-mexican-president-stop-pay-wall/story?id=49009884

• Denmark’s Prime Minister Frederiksen couldn’t have been too surprised, therefore, at the way Trump reacted over Greenlandgate. When Frederiksen made it clear Denmark wasn’t interested in selling Greenland, Trump, in a fit of pique, actually cancelled their previously-scheduled meeting. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49423968

262. Simply pitiful https://www.desertsun.com/videos/news/politics/immigration/2019/12/05/video-newly-built-border-wall-being-scaled-successfully/2611082001/

• As is this https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-claims-walls-work-discovery-border-tunnels-says-otherwise-n959311

Y. Lying about even the WEATHER

I noted earlier he lies about basic observational truths such as the weather. But that wasn’t the only time.

263. Trump misspoke about Hurricane Dorian and its potential impact on Alabama. It caused thousands of people to worry and prepare unnecessarily. But, okay, people accidentally misspeak all the time, and in the scheme of things it wasn’t THAT big a deal. But, still, given that so many people hang on his every word — particularly in Alabama, the state which supports him most ardently — he probably should have been more careful, right?

264. A normal leader would have, five minutes after his advisors informed of his error, issued a retraction, informing the good people of Alabama that, “I’m sorry, you don’t need to worry after all.” But Trump is not a normal leader. He KNEW he had just misspoken, causing thousands of people to upend their lives. But because he is too immature to admit he errs, he refused to take this courteous, decent act of leadership. Think about how thoughtless that is for any human to do to his fellow citizens.

265. Not only did he not issue a simple retraction, he doubled-down on his mistake. He forced the public servants at NOAA to issue an unsigned statement, full of lies. Let that one wash over you for a bit. NOAA, a non-partisan agency all Americans rely on to save lives in emergencies, was co-opted for political purposes by a simpleton. Think of how many people will say about the dangers of the next pending hurricane: “Trump told me NOAA is full of crap. I’m not going to believe them anymore.”

266. Not only did he force scientists to issue a phony press release, but he STILL kept at it via this memorable Sharpie moment. https://www.mediaite.com/news/ari-melbers-zapruder-esque-breakdown-of-sharpie-gate-will-leave-you-in-stitches-who-altered-the-map/ That’s the photo which will adorn his tombstone. When Trump displayed that map, I assumed one of his assistants drew it. But, no, the president drew it himself, to try to make himself look legitimate.

267. Did he learn his lesson from all this? No. He was lying about the weather again this week! https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/10/trump-fay-new-hampshire/

268. Speaking of being sunny, Trump proclaimed coronavirus would disappear in the US once the sun came out. Like a miracle! It was laughable then because coronavirus was circulating strongly in the southern hemisphere, and it’s now proven false in this country too. But WHY did Trump make that dubious claim? How did he come to believe that theory? No responsible leader was peddling that kind of nonsense. Why did HE? This helps explain: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dhs-study-trump-touted-sunlight-heat-killing-virus/story?id=70328629

Z. Assorted others

269. After JFK appointed his brother to his cabinet, the US passed an anti-nepotism law that essentially prohibits the president’s relatives from working in the White House. And yet, Jared and Ivanka are two of Trump’s key advisors. Isn’t that breaking the law? Well, the law says they can’t get paid to work there. So, they’re doing it without pay. So, if no law is being broken, no harm no foul? I see it, though, as yet another example of his feeling unconstrained by laws; feeling impervious and invulnerable. These aren’t traits you want in your leader. And thus it’s no surprise that both Jared and Ivanka, with no relevant prior experience, have been particularly ineffectual during their volunteer internships in DC.

270. Asks many foreign governments, not just Ukraine, for illegal assistance with his reelection campaign https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53089609

271. Questions climate change instead of reacting to it.

• Then ignores climate change on Earth Day https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-22/trump-earth-day-message-touts-job-gains-ignores-climate-change

272. Ignores Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/28/politics/white-house-holocaust-memorial-day/index.html

273. Broke with tradition by failing to recognize the holidays of minorities in this country https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/no-trump-passover-seder-after-all-1.5459837 (and also Muslim holidays)

274. Gives “personal favors” to dictators https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53089609

275. Tries to destroy American companies he personally dislikes. And there have been dozens of similar incidents. Can we imagine Bush telling Americans to boycott Heinz ketchup because John Kerry is related to that family? https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/13/media/comcast-president-trump-abuse-of-power/index.html

276. Tried to destroy American cultural institutions he doesn’t like https://www.ajc.com/blog/buzz/trump-hamilton-highly-overrated/4mbC8PA97nyPNPhaygXmXJ/

277. Attacks the press as “enemies of the people,” thereby simultaneously trying to destroy our free press and channeling his favorite 20th-century tyrants https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-president-trumps-phrase-an-enemy-of-the-people-2017-2

278. Attacks the media for taking steps to combat racism. (And yet doesn’t condemn the racism itself) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/us/politics/roseanne-barr-trump.html

279. Ends a decades-long tradition of accountability to the media https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/23/stephanie-grisham-white-house-press-briefings-1507288

280. I’m sorry, maybe I have a bad sense of humor, but I think this is inappropriate behavior for the leader of the free world https://time.com/4843303/donald-trump-twitter-cnn-video/

281. Maybe I just can’t take a joke. On the other hand, Trump can’t tell one. https://theweek.com/articles/836330/what-all-president-trumps-jokes-have-common

• Ah, the good old days. Remember when presidents were capable of doing this, and people from both sides of the aisle could laugh appreciatively? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxFkEj7KPC0 Of course he didn’t write all these lines, but the ability to deliver a joke is important.

282. Tried to impose one outdated inefficient architectural style on all federal buildings…without getting substantial input from, you know, actual architects: https://www.fastcompany.com/90465891/was-trumps-draft-order-on-classical-buildings-really-about-obama

283. Has ignored the advise-and-consent provisions of the Constitution by appointing “acting” secretaries and other officials who should have required Senate consent.

284. Reversed Obama’s enlargement of national protected areas. One example of many: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/06/803467297/trump-administration-finalizes-plans-to-allow-development-on-downsized-monuments

285. Removed legal protections for clean waters https://www.npr.org/2020/01/23/798809951/trump-administration-is-rolling-back-obama-era-protections-for-smaller-waterways and https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/23/trump-epa-curbs-water-protections-102779

286. Reversing 100 clean air regulations so as to encourage more air pollution https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html

287. Argued for rolling back those provisions by lying about the consequences of climate change https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/climate/trump-climate-change-carbon-cost.html

288. Sues people he doesn’t like https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/19/reelect-president-trump-or-hell-sue-you/

289. Fires people because they are legally investigating him and his associates https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/manhattan-u-s-attorney-geoffrey-berman-fired-trump-twice-refused-n1233363

290. Fires people illegally https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/us/politics/alexander-vindman-gordon-sondland-fired.html

291. Fires people (illegally) because they are simply related to people he doesn’t like https://www.businessinsider.com/yevgeny-vindman-ousted-white-house-same-time-as-alex-2020-2

292. Intimidates Republicans from punishing him for soliciting China’s electoral assistance https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/10/04/anthony-scaramucci-reaction-trump-china-biden-investigation-sot-ctn-vpx.cnn

293. Moved last week to ban foreign students whose colleges are doing online-only this fall. Only after being sued by essentially 200+ universities did he drop this plan.

294. Misunderstands the traditional role of the Justice Department. Uses it to impact investigations. Treats it as his personal defense team.

295. Insisted on dropping the Flynn case. Insisted on dropping the Stone case.

• And there are SO many others, but I don’t want to go over the 330 bullet point limit.

296. I don’t like where we stand now re the Taliban. Not much progress in these 3+ years, I’m disappointed to say.

297. I disagree with exiting TPP if for no other reason than the message it sends to the world: “The US is a mess. Every time we change presidents, that gives us license to pull a 180 on everything we had agreed to before. You can completely trust what we as a nation say and do…but only until our next election, and then you have to reset all of the treaties you signed with us.”

298. Have we already forgotten that he oversaw, and rooted for, the longest and costliest government shutdown in the proud 240-year history of the US? As this article notes, he was the first to “weaponize” a shutdown for his gain. Was this GOOD for America? Or is he simply inept? https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/under-donald-trump-longest-shutdown-ever/580114/

299. Have we already forgotten about his Week 1 Muslim Travel Ban? Whether we like the concept, the execution was horrific. To announce something like that which took instant effect? Which caused unprecedented chaos? The problem is not just that he did it. It’s that he thought he could. He is ignorant of how government works, and is imperious. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-chaos/chaos-anger-as-trump-order-halts-some-muslim-immigrants-idUSKBN15C0LD

300. A friend told me that one of the best things Trump has done is to enter us into a new arms race with our adversaries. “After all, that’s what helped defeat the Soviet Union the first time.” I see it differently. https://www.courthousenews.com/us-in-a-new-arms-race-with-russia-and-china/

301. I hope that as voters listen to Trump talking about Biden they remember that most of the substantive stuff Trump says about him is simply a lie: Here are multiple examples from yesterday even: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/14/politics/fact-check-trump-biden-speech-rose-garden/index.html

But none of this should come as a surprise. Donald Trump has been incompetent at nearly everything he’s done his whole life

Part A: PERSONAL stuff

302. Getting divorced is not a sign of failure. However, having bragged about cheating on his first two wives, and having been caught multiple times cheating on the third…now we’re talking about incompetence at personal relationships.

303. Chris Ruddy. And…that’s about it. When you read articles about Trump’s “friends,” typically he’s the only one whose name is revealed. I suspect that Trump has fewer than five actual friends in this world. Because most people who have gotten to know him despise him.

• This “buddy” (#61) may be another “friend.” But with friends who ridicule him like that, maybe Trump doesn’t want any others.

304. Certainly John Barron is not Donald Trump’s friend: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/exqkbp/remembering-john-barron-donald-trumps-spokesman-alter-ego-116

305. Nor is John Miller: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/16/donald-trumps-john-miller-interview-is-even-crazier-than-you-think/

306. How many tell-all books have been written by those whom he trusted with his career and life? And why didn’t (m)any members of Obama’s or Bush’s or Clinton’s Administrations or family write similar books?

Part B: BUSINESS stuff

307. Here’s one year of business ineptitude: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/05/donald-trump-one-of-the-biggest-losers-in-america-tax-returns

308. Here’s ten years: “Based on I.R.S. transcripts of Trump’s tax returns from 1985 to 1994, the Times report said that Trump’s core businesses racked up losses of more than a billion dollars in a ten-year period. During 1990 and 1991, the story said, Trump’s losses were so large that they “were more than double those of the nearest taxpayers in the I.R.S. information for those years.” So, no, this was not some clever tax-avoidance scheme. He’s not playing three-dimensional financial chess. It was failure pure and simple. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-business-failures-were-very-real

309. The Plaza Hotel in NYC: He ran it into the ground and it went bankrupt.

310. The Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City: His mismanaged it into the ground and it went bankrupt.

311. The Trump Shuttle: He mismanaged and had to sell.

312. Trump Wine. Trump Vodka. Trump Steaks. Trump Mortgage. Trump Ice. The New Jersey Generals. Tour de Trump. http://labor411.org/411-blog/here-are-all-of-trump-s-bankruptcies-and-failed-businesses

313. The Trump University collapse gets its own bullet because the company was simply a fraud, and had to eventually pay out $25MM to settle with the victims whose lives Trump upended.

314. Trump Hotels and Casinos: Bankrupt

315. Trump Entertainment Resorts: Bankrupt

316. Two other casinos: Bankrupt https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2016/live-updates/general-election/real-time-fact-checking-and-analysis-of-the-first-presidential-debate/fact-check-has-trump-declared-bankruptcy-four-or-six-times/

• Note that one bankruptcy occurred even after Trump’s father illegally bailed him out by buying and discarding millions of dollars of casino chips.

317. Stories abound about how as a businessman his modus operandi was simply to NOT pay people the money he owed them.

318. By the way, THIS is how Donald Trump “succeeded” in his first big business venture: By defrauding NYC out of millions of dollars of tax revenues. How did he do that? Essentially by forging documents https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/07/trump-files-how-donald-tricked-new-york-huge-deal/

319. One might reasonably claim: “But he can’t be a total failure at business. After all, he’s a billionaire!” First of all, we don’t really know if that’s the case. He’s been lying about his wealth for decades https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2019/05/08/why-we-took-trump-off-the-forbes-400-during-his-decade-of-tax-losses/ and here are the tapes to prove it: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-lied-to-me-about-his-wealth-to-get-onto-the-forbes-400-here-are-the-tapes/2018/04/20/ac762b08-4287-11e8-8569-26fda6b404c7_story.html

320. Secondly, let’s remember how he got his start in business — by stealing $413 million from US taxpayers (in 2019 USD). If you haven’t read the 23-page, years-long investigation, you might find it interesting now. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-wealth-fred-trump.html

321. Thirdly, if he were competent, he’d be FAR richer than he is now. If he had given his ill-gotten fortune to an orangutan, who then threw darts at stock charts for him, he’d now be $10 billion richer (minus the commission to the orangutan). It’s only due to his own incompetence that he’s so poor. https://fortune.com/2015/08/20/donald-trump-index-funds/

322. During the campaign he claimed he received only “a small loan of a million dollars.” That’s such a whopper of a lie that it bears repeating here. His myth of a self-made man is completely false. He was given (stole) 413x what he claims…and then squandered 70% of it (eg he took it from the $13b it should have been to $4b).

323. “He can’t be THAT big a loser,” one could claim. “After all, he had the #1 show on TV for many years!” Turns out his image of a competent businessman was also a lie, heavily doctored for television by producers desperately trying to figure out how to deal with such incompetence https://www.thewrap.com/apprentice-staffers-had-to-reverse-engineer-episodes-because-unprepared-trump-would-fire-contestants-on-a-whim/

324. “He can’t be THAT big a loser. After all, he’s President! And you’re not!” Well, he got there by lying TWENTY TIMES EACH DAY during the 2016 campaign. If we had known what lies they were being fed, it seems likely that the 77,744 who tipped the balance for him in MI, WI, and PA might have voted otherwise. If we were told in 2015 that a candidate was about to mislead us 5,000 times before the election, would we bother to consider voting for him? Or might we have looked around for a more honorable human being? https://www.thestar.com/news/world/uselection/2016/11/04/donald-trump-the-unauthorized-database-of-false-things.html

You listed 11 actions of Trump’s to which you gave a thumbs-up. Here’s a response to those:

Your #1. “Curbed illegal immigration (pre-Covid), mostly from Mexico.”

Are you SURE he has curbed it? The data are not clear on that. https://americasvoice.org/press_releases/fact-checkers-agree-trump-a-failure-on-immigration-and-a-liar-on-immigration-ad-claims/

Your #2. “Got China to commit to a more balanced trade partnership and begin a path towards greater respect for international law”

• Your wording on this is magnificent. As you imply, they have “committed” to changing, but haven’t actually “done” anything yet. And they’ve only “committed” to vague improvement, not much specific.
• I agree IP is an issue. So Trump indeed tried something new. But whatever he has accomplished there has come at ENORMOUS cost. The direct and indirect cost of tariffs have decimated farmers and other businesses and cost the US consumers billions of dollars. But more importantly, US-China relations have deteriorated so badly under Trump that we are now essentially in a new Cold War. That’s not something you want on your resume. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/u-s-china-spar-world-stage-cold-war-2-0-n1233815
• Trump likes to talk tough, eg “North Korea will never develop nuclear weapons.” But, he has allowed this, which may be just as bad: https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/04/17/chinas-island-fortifications-are-a-challenge-to-international-norms/

Your #3. “Defeated ISIS”

Yes, he oversaw the apparent demise of ISIS. However, the war on ISIS was going well when Obama left office. For the most part, with some tweaks and surges, Trump continued Obama’s plans, and they continued to have success. Look, I’m not knocking great success! But this is an example of Trump’s taking sole credit when, in fact, the credit should probably be shared between both Administrations.

Your #4. “Pulled troops out of Syria/Afghanistan and getting Turkey to fight a war along their borders vs Russia/Syria by proxy instead of us. It turned out to be a brilliant move which I initially doubted.”

• We disagree here. I too initially doubted it, but I’m unaware of what may have happened subsequently to change opinions on this one.
• Btw, since you’ve mentioned Turkey, I’m also concerned by Trump’s coziness with strongmen such as Erdogan, Putin, Orban, Duterte, al-Sisi, and others.

Your #5. “Has grown job rate and the economy”

• For the most part, the pre-Covid economy had not suffered badly under Trump. However, as noted above in #231, I believe Trump is taking more credit that he deserves. Perhaps the best you can say is that Trump hasn’t messed it up too badly
• But, that wouldn’t be entirely true, because of the impacts of the China tariffs, the (pre-Covid) skyrocketing deficits, and the unfortunate structural changes re his tax cuts. They’ve helped tamper down what would have been even stronger results.

Your #6. “Created more essential manufacturing jobs in the US”

• He did for awhile, but it’s unclear, even pre-Covid, if those gains will be permanent. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/09/05/trump-said-hed-rebuild-manufacturing-now-its-decline-what-happened/
• I agree Covid has clarified the need to have key manufacturing capabilities here. However, what have we LOST because of Trump’s focus on manufacturing? The chance to develop leadership in industries which will REALLY matter in the 21st century, such as AI and clean techs. The Chinese now win in those because their leaders devote resources there, rather than staking their future on coal mining jobs of the 19th century.

Your #7. “Pulled out of Iran deal”

Massive disagreement with you here, my friend. Let’s discuss!

Your #8. “Reduced prescription drug prices”

• Not so fast: https://apnews.com/7cb7a5786a274715a5ec63cb6e566e7a and https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/may/22/donald-trump/fact-checking-donald-trumps-claim-drug-prices-are-/
• Well those fact checks come from early 2019. By November 2019, the Administration was bragging about its impact; https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/may/22/donald-trump/fact-checking-donald-trumps-claim-drug-prices-are-/
• So maybe by then things were different, right? Not yet. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/05/donald-trump/donald-trump-said-drug-prices-are-down-his-state-u/

Your #9. “Appointed a Supreme Court Justice who will uphold, not rewrite, the constitution”

Do you think Brett Kavanaugh is the best America can do as a justice? Is HE the person you want your kids emulating?

Your #10. “When he brought justice to Al-Soleimani. I have to give Trump credit for pulling it off, I never thought it could be done. Democrats held a vigil and condemned Trump.”

• Well, killing him WAS pretty close to a war crime, so you can understand their concerns.
• And perhaps it’s not unreasonable to be skeptical of Trump’s Iran-related motives. After all, have you seen this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KV_nIgg008 Fascinating.
• Most people were not holding a “vigil” for Soleimani the human being. They were mourning the collapse of American rule-following. We’re supposed to be better than that.
• Reminds me of when Trump said he saw hundreds of Muslims celebrating 9/11
• Was it a good thing? Try explaining that to these 109 American kids who suffer permanent brain damage because of it: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/11/804785515/109-u-s-troops-suffered-brain-injuries-in-iran-strike-pentagon-says
• Note, btw, how Trump lied about the damages originally. I’m trying to remember first grade math: Let’s see, does “34 = 109?” No. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/01/24/pentagon-says-34-us-troops-were-diagnosed-with-brain-injuries-after-iranian-missile-attack/
• And try telling that to the family members of these 176 unwitting indirect civilian casualties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNhkfd2hQgU
• And Iran may be hobbled currently by coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean they are through retaliating against us. I don’t think America would simply “let it go” if Iran attacked Pence.

Your #11. “Prohibited 5G Huawei sales in US…Perhaps the biggest one.”

• If that’s among the best things he’s done, would his decisions regarding a different Chinese high-tech firm be the worst thing he’s done? It seems Trump was simply bribed by China to reverse sanctions on ZTE and revive that company from the grave: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/5/15/17355202/trump-zte-indonesia-lido-city Let’s just remember what our own spy agencies said about the threat ZTE represents to America: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/technology/fcc-huawei-zte-national-security.html (Hmm, it’s right there in the same proclamation: Huawei + ZTE)
• If China is truly an evil actor, there are other ways they can disrupt our communications, and they will continue to develop new methods. Cat and mouse.
• Trump also banned Huawei from using Google Play. So, in response, Huawei is now simply creating a ferocious competitor to Android to unleash worldwide. Bummer.
• I also think Huawei may be among the most important footnotes of the Trump era, but for a different reason. We should ask… If Huawei IS a legitimate threat to Western security, why aren’t more of our Allies going along with America on this? Donald Trump can’t convince them because…they no longer trust him personally. Trump supporters may say “I don’t love his style, but I like the way he gets stuff done.” Well, he can’t keep having THIS type of style and hope that those people will then work with us during our moments of need. It’s not just that he rants like a toddler, it’s that his doing so has consequences. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/06/09/as-he-takes-parting-shots-at-us-allies-trump-cuts-out-early-from-the-g7-summit.html

FYI, some things I like that Trump has done which you didn’t list

• Lowered the corporate tax rate (although he probably went too far, and the results haven’t been as beneficial as he’d hoped)
• I don’t know the details, but apparently he’s expanded on some of Obama’s VA-related programs in a beneficial and bipartisan way
• Undertaken efforts to incentivize US companies to repatriate some of their cash and spend it here
• Not only killed the ISIS leader, but also his likely successor.
• There was a bi-partisan criminal justice reform act that passed with flying colors; I don’t know the details, but pretty much everyone who knows about that field seemed to approve.
• He seemed to be considering taking steps to reduce teen vaping. (However, as he is wont to do, Trump quickly reversed that stance. Apparently, again, he spoke before thinking through the pros and cons.)
• Finally, when left with little choice, moved to ban bump stocks
• Made at least SOME supportive comments, however much-delayed and extremely tepid, for the Hong Kong protestors. Didn’t do much good, though, as China simply swallowed Hong Kong whole last month.
• Recognized Israel’s right to the Golan Heights
• Announced that the US no longer sees Israeli settlements as violating international law
• Conducted one (reported) bombing mission in Syria
• Launched an apparent cyberattack against Iranian assets in the Gulf in response to their shipping shenanigans.
• I don’t pretend to know the details. But, apparently the New NAFTA garnered some bipartisan support, even if the changes were marginal, mostly so that Trump could save face, and not worth his hoopla.
• His Opportunity Zone plan, may (or may not) have been well-intentioned and may yet prove beneficial; but is more bug-ridden than a well-conceived bipartisan plan could have been.
• Committed to return us to the moon. (But then disavowed it and claimed credit for setting us off towards Mars, thereby leaving even his own Vice President bewildered about what he wants.)
• Operation Warp Speed, to pick likely vaccine winners and hasten their arrival, seems to be a textbook use of the public private partnership concept. It’s the right time and place for it. Let’s hope it has been properly, intelligently, and ethically implemented.

325. Trump’s accepting bribes on behalf of ZTE (see Your #11 above) merits a numbered point.

In the end, what is the impact of all this? WHY does this matter?

326. The world has learned to ignore the President of the United States — because most of what he says is garbage. He’s a flip-flopper to an unprecedented degree https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/18/trump-ignore-wall-street-diplomats-493818

327. They don’t trust us https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/opinion/trump-nato-europe.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

328. They literally LOL at Trump, right here in America https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4y8OJxlK8

329. Not only is our country being ignored and mistrusted and laughed at, but Trump has destroyed the image for the rest of the world of America as a fundamentally decent place https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/04/opinion/trump-protests-global.html

330. The End Result: No longer is the United States a shining beacon to be admired by our allies, feared by our enemies, and envied by all. Instead, we are now a country and a people to be pitied. This Irish observer is very eloquent. As Trump would put it, SAD. https://247sports.com/college/kansas/board/103734/Contents/irish-times-editorial-on-donnie-146535795/

Remember: Our country has done better, both on the Republican and Democratic sides.

And it will do better on Election Day 2020.

(Note: If you’re inspired to create your own list, may I suggest you visit www.Top7Reasons.com )