While it is no secret that Donald Trump has made offensive remarks even before his presidential campaign, it is important to judge him based upon the actual facts surrounding his 2016 candidacy. While some may be tempted to write him off as a terrible person off the bat (like me), one must investigate past social media posts and news clips to make a factual evaluation. A factual evaluation that nevertheless may prove that he is just as shady as we thought.
Immigration
What You Should Know: Donald Trump’s official stance on immigration is to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States of America and to even take away legally-obtained green cards.
In addition, Trump has proposed that the U.S. temporarily not accept any Muslim immigrants and also build a wall across the whole southern border of the country to prevent any more undocumented immigrants from arriving.
The Shady Part: Donald Trump’s immigration policy, to many Americans, appears to enact nativist discrimination against all immigrants.
While other candidates have advocated that there be a path to citizenship for undocumented citizens, Trump wishes to block those attempts and force people back to their native country no matter how long they’ve been in America and regardless of their family circumstance.
Beyond his view of undocumented immigrants, he has declared that the nation should no longer accept Muslim immigrants. He associates Muslims with terrorists, which is blatant discrimination against all of Islam.
Even if one can turn a blind eye toward his offensive policies on immigration, the man wants to spend billions of dollars to build a wall across the whole southern border of the country.
While some may see his views as a firm stance against people who come to America illegally, Trump’s immigration policy seems to be riddled with discrimination and financial naiveté.
Not to mention, even Pope Frances has felt the need to voice concerns over these racist policies.
Shadiness Rating: 10/10 (getting Hitler flashbacks)
Financial Skills
What You Should Know: As a result of the fact that Trump’s net worth has been placed at over 10 billion dollars, many of his supporters cite the belief that he has been a successful business man. The Republican candidate’s official plan to tackle the nation’s debt is to minimize government spending.
Donald Trump also plans to take away income taxes from Americans making under $50,000. He then plans to have a roughly 15% income tax for wealthier Americans to further pay for the national debt.
The Shady Part: Mr. Trump does seem to have some solid plans for his financial policy if he were elected president, but the mogul has had some financial disasters in the past that may cause some to question his financial prowess. One famous example was the recent bankruptcy of his Trump casinos.
Even though the Republican candidate claims that he had little to do with those casinos (named after him) he still owned a fourth of them. Other interesting failures he has had includes “Trump University” which was his attempt at creating his own college that not only failed but was sued for essentially being a scam.
In contrast, Donald Trump has had financial successes such as his Trump Towers, however, just because one can run a business may not necessarily mean they can run a country.
Shadiness Rating: 5/10 (wouldn’t call him Midas)
Accusations of Being a Secret Democrat
What You Should Know: Perhaps Donald Trump is really just secretly a Democrat trying to destroy the Republican Party’s chances of having a Republican president elected in 2016.
The fact of the matter is that Mr. Trump gave money to Hillary Clinton’s senate campaign and was even present at her daughter’s wedding. However it is also true that Donald Trump has donated heavily to members of both parties.
The Shady Part: Not only does the Republican candidate have a close relationship with the Clintons, but Trump has, in the past, expressed ideologies that can be attributed to the Democratic Party.
He has spoken against the Iraq war and in support of Planned Parenthood because of the services that it provides for women.
This is a stark contrast to calling for the de-funding of Planned Parenthood in the Republican debate (and to his other anti-female commentaries).
What a shock it would be, come election night, if Donald Trump would tell America that he was just trying to ensure the presidency of a Democrat. Well, perhaps it would be better than the even bigger shock of him actually getting elected.
Shadiness Rating: 7/10 (I hope he's a secret Democrat)
Overall Shadiness Rating: 7.3/10 (WARNING: Do NOT vote for him!!!!)