I should start this article with a disclaimer: I can’t stand Donald Trump, and was deeply disgusted by his performance in the debate on Thursday. I turned off the debate at the end of the night with a sour taste in my mouth, mainly due to Trump’s many idiocies, which I have listed and given my two cents on below.
1. Trump refuses to “pledge [his] support to the eventual nominee of the Republican party and [...] not run [his] own campaign against that person” and later states in a phone interview with TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie “I don’t want to do the independent thing, but I do keep it and it is leverage.”
This reminds me of a Parks and Recreation episode I recently watched in which, during a debate for city council election, Bobby Newport threatens to leave town, along with his family business, the largest job provider in town, if he doesn’t get the town’s vote. (Please stay with me here, I do understand I am comparing a city council election in a sitcom with the GOP presidential debate, but I think this says something both about the not-so-subtle brilliance of comedy, and the theatrical routine that has become politics). By Donald Trump using his own candidacy as “leverage,” meaning he'll screw over his whole party if he doesn't get what he wants, he is, in effect, telling the Republican Party he does not care what they want.
Forget the voice of the people. The man has clearly forgotten, or perhaps has never understood what it means to live in a democracy. If your leader starts out his campaign by threatening your voice, he’s probably not fit to be president of the United States. I think Leslie Knope says it best here, when she retorts to Bobby Newport "I'm angry that Bobby Newport would hold this town hostage [...] if you don't give him what he wants. It's despicable [...] I love this town. And when you love something, you don't threaten it."
2. “I think the big problem this country has is being politically correct.”
This is in response to Megyn Kelly’s question about whether his comments calling women “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals” as well as other “disparaging comments about women’s looks” make him fit to be president. I’m not sure I would agree with Trump that telling a woman contestant on The Celebrity Apprentice she would “make a pretty picture on her knees” is purely an issue of being “politically correct.”
As a woman, I know there is no way in hell I’d elect a president who not only belittles and objectifies women, but doesn't even apologize for it. Trump further states he doesn’t have time for “total political correctness and […] this country doesn't have time either.”
You don’t have time? How does one not have time to avoid misogynistic language? Is sexism so deeply ingrained in your brain that you’d have to spend a significant amount of time concentrating before speaking in order not to let these comments slip?
And what do you mean America doesn’t have time? Women have certainly given America their time; they've given centuries of their time, centuries of movements, to eliminate language like this, especially in the governmental sphere. That's a major strike.
3. “And honestly Megyn, if you don’t like it, I’m sorry. I’ve been very nice to you. Although I could maybe, probably, not be, based on the way you have treated me.”
Here, Trump is like a spoiled child. All these candidates are getting tough, pointed questions. That’s part of the gig. If you don’t like the question, you don’t get to start attacking the moderator, as Trump did both during, and after the event.
If you haven't already heard what Trump said about Megyn Kelly after Thursday's debate, here it is: he tells a CNN reporter "You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever."
Immature is the best word I can think of to describe this behavior. Immature is not a label one should be using to describe a presidential candidate.
4.“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be talking about illegal immigration.”
Trump claims immigration “was not a subject that was on anybody’s mind until [he] brought it up.”
Yes, Donald Trump. America so revolves around you, that immigration had never been a subject before you mentioned it. This might be the stupidest statement I have ever heard. When has immigration ever not been a topic during a political gathering? This comment is arrogant at best.
Then, to make things even better, he goes into a bizarre theory that he claims to have heard through sources he is very vague about, but whom he later confesses to have been border patrolmen. The theory is that the Mexican government is sending criminals and rapists over the border. He blames it on the stupidity of our government. First, it's clearly incredibly racist to imply that all illegal immigrants coming over are rapists and criminals, or even that they're all Mexican. Second, he follows calling the American government stupid by asserting that building a trillion dollar, two-thousand mile wall is the solution. Because this wall will allegedly stop a mass of dangerous, Mexican criminals.
5. “When you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do.”
This is a comment he made about why he gives money to political candidates. Because bribery and corruption are what this country’s all about right? He does make the point that this is a sad system, which might be a more convincing point if he didn’t utilize that system so much himself.
The man has definitely lost my vote.
