Simply put, Donald Trump is a performer, not a politician.
No matter what he may say, his sole role in this campaign is to stir up attention from the media and further promote his personal brand. While you can't deny that he has definitely made this race more interesting, he has also managed to turn it into the "Donald Show", drawing the spotlight away from real presidential contenders and onto himself. All the media can talk about is one offensive Trump comment after another, without paying any attention to the real political issues at hand.
Though he will never actually make it to the Oval Office, he has earned himself the title of Commander-in-Chief of Drama. As much as he may bluster about different hot-button issues, his real role is to stir up drama. Even as he spars with his fellow candidates and puts them down in front of the cameras, he actually does have one important job in this race: forcing the other candidates to take strong sides on various issues. Think about it: normally when you ask a politician what their stance on issues like federal budget or Planned Parenthood funding, they dance around the topic and don't give any specific future plans. But with Trump taking loud stances on things like immigration and climate control, it forces his opponents to take a side or risk looking weak. Except we don't really get to hear what his opponents stances are because all the attention is focused on Donald.
Take the recent GOP debate. Instead of spending time asking candidates about their individual plans, the interviewer spent most of the time asking them what they thought of Trump saying this, or what did they think about Trump's stance on that. Meanwhile, Trump took advantage of the cameras to insult his opponent's appearances (really? Are we still in high school?).The majority of the debate was centered around Trump, leaving us with little information on the other candidate's plans for our country (once again, the Donald Show).
The national debt is growing each day. In fact, there's a nifty little website that you can go to to watch it rise live. It's the presiden't jobto set our national budget and oversee the debt ceiling, but with Trump's spotty business record, how can we trust him with our money and our nation's finances? He has gone bankrupt 4 times in the past 18 years. And paid his businesses off with his own personal finances. As nice as it would be if Trump could pay our way out of debt, it's not exactly ethical. If he can't keep his own businesses afloat, how will he keep our country afloat?
Freedom of speech is a great part of our Constitution and everybody has the right to exercise it of course, but Trump is exercising his right a little bit too much. It's great that he can state all of his opinions, but in my opinion he needs to learn a little tact. As president, you have to talk with a whole array of different people, and I'm sure Obama isn't best friends with everybody he deals with, nor does he agree with all of their respective opinions. But does he go around insulting everybody who opposes him? No, he doesn't (at least not in front of the cameras). Meanwhile, Trump is insulting people left, right, and center, from reporters to fellow candidates to Obama. If he somehow ended up president, nobody would be willing to work with him because of this disrespect.
He can certainly talk the talk, but can he walk the walk? For as much as tells everyone what his views on various subjects are, he hasn't really told us what he's going to do about any of these problems. For example, when asked how he would defeat ISIS, he gives several conflicting answers, none of which spell out a plan for what is a very important issue.
Version #2: [Secret plan]
Bill O'Reilly, Fox News Channel: "Are you telling me you are going to send American ground troops into Syria?"
Trump: "I'm not telling you anything." (June 16)
Version #3: No longer secret. Send in American ground troops.
"I will tell you what my plan will be…You have to go in. You have to go in."
O'Reilly: "With ground troops?"
"Well, you bomb the hell out of them and then you encircle it, and then you go in." (June 16, shortly after Version #2).
Version #4: Maybe don't.
O'Reilly: "There's no way you can defeat them without invading."
Trump: "I disagree." (June 16, minutes after #3). [Washington Post]
And to solve immigration, his favorite topic, his big master plan is.. to build a wall. Along nearly 2,000 miles of the border. But it's going to be super easy, because we don't have to pay for it! Trump plans to make Mexico pay for it, a plan that a spokesman for the Mexican president has already turned down. I don't know about you, but whenever our new president is elected, I would hope they have some concrete plans to put into action, which Trump clearly doesn't.
I could go on and on with more reasons Trump shouldn't be in office, or why he should drop out of the race and spare himself the embarrassment. But for now, let's just sit back and enjoy the spectacle he's making of himself (and all of the hilarious memes he's inspired).
