I have been amazed at how people continue to support Donald Trump. I honestly just don’t get it.  I go out of my way to read, or watch articles that talk about why people still believe in him. In many cases I think the people who support him do it because they can’t see the consequences of his actions, in other cases I think they don’t understand the issue, or aren’t well informed, sometimes I think they are willfully blind. But I have not myself been able to find common ground with people who support him. Some people think he is the best President ever.

Here is a CNN piece that talks with Christian women who think he is doing a fabulous job, and turn a blind eye to some of the things he has done. In their mind he is forgiven of his sins from before he was President, and that is the Christian thing to do. I get that, but they also talk about how he has grown in the job, gotten better, which seems to indicate that he didn’t make all the right choices earlier in his Presidency, it makes me think there is other factors which have motivated them to turn a blind eye.

Below I will try to work this out, for my own benefit. I am open to seeing that I have made a mistake and misjudged him. I would suggest to anyone reading this, that if they support Trump that maybe they also remain open to the fact that they may have misjudged him. Maybe we can find common ground.

Things Trump has done as considered by his supporters.

Some of these were taken from:

An opinion piece in USA Today.

  1. Appointed a conservative Justice to the Supreme Court
  2. Appointed other conservative justices to federal courts.
  3. Passed a Tax Cut
  4. Tried to dismantle the Affordable Healthcare Act
  5. Has called for protectionist trade practices to protect American Jobs
    1. Cancelling TPP
    2. Renegotiating NAFTA
      1. Softwood Lumber tariffs against Canada
  6. Trump has worked out Trade Agreements with
    1. China
    2. Vietnam
    3. South Korea
  7. Enabled Extreme Vetting of people from Muslim Countries
  8. Called for a Wall for Illegal Aliens
  9. Illegal border crossings were down 41% in August 2017, on the Southern Border compared with August 2016.
  10. Rescinded DACA and is deporting illegal immigrants who arrived in the USA as children.
  11. Has stood up to North Korea
  12. Has called for expanded Drilling offshore and energy independence for the USA
  13. Approved the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines which will create 42,000 jobs.
  14. Has called for America First.
  15. ISIS has been eliminated Iraq and forced out of Raqqa in Syria
  16. Has called for the move of the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.
  17. Economy is doing well with 2 quarters at more than 3% growth.
  18. Stock market is at record highs, rising 5,000 points in one year for the first time in history.
  19. Consumer confidence is at highest level in 17 years.
  20. Unemployment is at a 44 year low.
  21. Has tried to remove regulations on coal.
  22. Withdrew from the Paris Climate Change Agreement citing that it would undermine the economy.
  23. Has given the green light to the school choice program across the country.
  24. Ended the Obama era deal with Cuba.
  25. Called for blocking Transgender troops in the military.
  26. Got tough on NATO allies for not funding their militaries as much as he wanted.
  27. Has promoted that he will end the war on Christmas.
    1. No such war exists. Business promote Happy Holidays, and it is the Supreme Court that enforces and interprets the Constitutional separation of church and state.
  28. Doesn’t involve the US in the affairs of other countries.
  29. Advocates torturing prisoners for information, or retaliating against their families.
  30. Attacks NFL players for not standing for the National Anthem.
  31. Supports a merit based immigration system.
  32. Filled his cabinet with billionaires a move some think as putting successful people in charge.

Things Trump has done wrong as considered by his opponents.

  1. Has numerous associates who have been implicated with involvement with Russia
  2. He won’t acknowledge that Russia interfered in US elections despite even his own cabinet and all US intelligence agencies saying they did.
  3. His National Security Advisor started negotiating with Russia about removal of sanctions for US election meddling. Trump said he didn’t know anything about that, but is that believable?
  4. His Son, campaign manager, and son in law sat in on a meeting with Russians for information against his opponent in exchange for removal of sanctions, but he says he didn’t know anything about it. Is that believable?
  5. Has sided with Nazis and failed to categorically reject them.
  6. Has rescinded environmental protections for air and water pollution
  7. Has removed Bans on offshore drilling in many areas.
  8. Has called for an end to Net Neutrality.
  9. Has tried to block people from entering the USA based on their religion.
  10. Has fought with allies like Canada, Australia, UK
  11. Has called out any news he doesn’t like as “Fake News”, attacking the Free Press and a pillar of democracy.
  12. Has been cited in a dossier as possibly being under the influence of Russia due to some information they have on him that he might be blackmailed with.
  13. Appointed a political person to the National Security Council
  14. Attacks his Presidential Election appointment after the election and has called for her jailing.
  15. Did not relinquish his business holdings or put them in a blind trust.
    1. Raising questions about his personal profiting from being the President.
  16. Has visited his own properties over 100 times in his first year.
    1. This has resulted in Trump personally getting tons of taxpayer dollars as the Federal government pays for him to stay there, plus pays for his travel, plus pays for his entourage, secret service and staff to stay there.
    2. Thereby promoting his own businesses and profiting.
    3. He profited and gauged Taxpayers and the Secret Service during election campaign.
  17. Profits from business dealings with foreign governments through his ownership of properties.
    1. A possible violation of the constitution.
  18. Did not reveal his income tax information
    1. This has resulted in citizens unable to verify his claims of business success.
    2. This has resulted in people not being able to verify if or by how much he has profited from his tax cut.
  19. Had an affair with a porn star days after his current wife had their first Son Barron Trump.
  20. Has been married 3 times.
  21. Declared that he could “Grab women by the pussy” because he was rich and powerful.
  22. Bragged that he could walk through his beauty pageants while the contestants were getting dressed because he was the owner.
  23. Called for discriminating against people in the military based on their gender identity.
  24. Called into question the integrity of the Election, and the election system in the United States.
  25. Called the previous President a Muslim and said he was born in Kenya when he is a Christian, and was born in Hawaii.
  26. Required that James Comey swear loyalty to him.
  27. Fired James Comey for investigating his ties to Russia.
  28. Pulled the USA out of the Paris Climate Accord, which every other country in the world signed on to.
  29. Attacked NATO allies and said they owed the US money (they didn’t).
  30. Appointed Scott Pruitt to head the EPA when Scott has previously said he wanted to dismantle the EPA
  31. Appointed Rick Perry to head the Department of Energy when Rick Perry had said he wanted to get rid of the Department of Energy
  32. Appointed Ajit Pai as chairman of the FCC when he said he wanted to get rid of Net Neutrality, and had worked for years for Verizon a for profit communications company, and as seen as advocating for broadcasters over consumers.
  33. Appointed Betsy Devos to Secretary of eduction despite her advocacy for alternatives to public schools, and her profiting personally by this because of her and her families ownership of publicly funded charter schools.
    1. reinstating heavy collection fees for defaulters
    2. removed allowances for students who were defrauded by education institutions from loan forgiveness
    3. appointed the CEO of a private student-loan company to run financial aid operations.
  34. Stood by Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate Race, seemingly putting his Agenda above the rights of Roy Moores alleged victims, women, the Republican party.
  35. Attempted to destroy the Affordable Care Act.
    1. Despite the fact that it would cut 11 years from funding for medicare.
  36. Passed a huge tax cut for businesses and the wealthy.
    1. Increased the national deficit.
  37. Has called into question the integrity of the justice system.
    1. Attacks on the Appeals Court
    2. Attacks on the FBI
  38. Has attacked his own Cabinet
    1. Including Jeff Sessions
    2. Including Rex Tillerson
  39. Called African Countries “Shithole” countries.
  40. Doesn’t address human rights issues with other countries, thereby giving up any moral authority on human rights.
  41. Advocates retaliation against families of militants
  42. Advocates for torturing for information.
    1. Tortured information is known to be unreliable and exposes Americans to the same behaviour.
  43. Attacks NFL players for not standing for the national anthem, seemingly disregarding their issue and their right to protest.
  44. Trump presents himself as a businessman who doesnt make mistakes, but has had 4 bankruptcies.
  45. Trump has failed to pay tradespeople for their work, or paid them less than agreed to because he is a bully
  46. Trump has strong armed financial institutions to take less money or he would use the legal system to go bankrupt and give them even less.
  47. Said John McCain is not a Hero, he’s only a hero because he was captured, and that he likes hero’s her weren’t captured.
  48. Has destabilized the Healthcare market with threats to removing funding or remove affordable care act.
    1. Has increased costs of premiums
    2. Has caused insurers to withdraw removing choice
  49. He doesn’t take responsibility for anything he does, always finding a way to blame others.
  50. Refused to help Puerto Rico financially for their Hurricane but did help Texas and Florida (two states who voted for him).
  51. Pardoned Joe Arpaio from Contempt of court, an insult to the judiciary and the constitution. Also an attack on the minorities that Arpaio was targeting that resulted in the contempt of court.
  52. Trump supports a merit based immigration system. Many believe that the USA should take everyone in a lottery giving people without anything the opportunity to do anything.
  53. Has filled his cabinet with billionaires, some people see this a not allowing people who relate to them to make the decisions that affect them.
  54. Tells a lot of lies, there are numerous lists of all the lies he tells. Many show he tells more lies than truths. (Politifact has 66% of what he says as mostly false, false, or pants on fire).
  55. Asking people in the Justice Department who they voted for. (Andrew McCabe)
  56. Attacking people because their spouses supported Democrats. (Andrew McCabe)
  57. Put his name on university that cheated thousands out of their life savings.
  58. Removed Obama era regulations requiring health lunches.
  59.  Used his money to get multiple Vietnam deferments for bone spurs that probably don’t exist.
  60. Pandering, Trump said he was pro-choice before flipping to pro-life when he started for the GOP Primary, he was Pro Universal Healthcare even as he was campaigning but wanted to get rid of Obamacare, he said he would likely run as a democrat, until he found he had a better chance running as a republican.
  61. Has attacked career bureaucrats because of how they voted, or because they worked for a project by a previous administration that he didn’t like.
  62. Rolled back regulations that required the Social Security Administration to disclose to national gun background checks about people with mental illness.

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