I recognize that writing about Donald Trump is in high supply as of late, but there is more that needs to be said about him. First and foremost, I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican. My opposition to Donald Trump does not come from some misguided sense of allegiance to Party politics. This is also not a support piece for Hillary Clinton. I am not a Clinton supporter, but I am terribly, terribly afraid of the consequences of a Donald Trump presidency, which, barring any extreme moves by the Republican Party, is the only realistic alternative to a Clinton presidency. With all that in mind, consider the following summary of Donald Trump’s political (and moral) faults.
Donald Trump is a bigot. This is a polarizing statement, but it is also an accurate one. His flagrant opposition of Islam, which, by the way, is not an inherently violent institution, can only be described as religious discrimination. He is using a small subset of a group, radical Islam, to categorize an entire religion as a violent, evil people. That religion is the second largest religion on Earth, with nearly 1.6 billion adherents worldwide. Donald Trump wants to ban 22.4 percent of the world's population from ever entering the United States. Not only is this impractical, unrealistic, and functionally impossible to enforce, but it is also morally corrupt and fundamentally unconstitutional. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifically prohibits the government from interfering with the free exercise of religion. Stopping Muslims from entering the country, based on their religion, clearly does just that, and therefore would be unconstitutional. That being said, Donald Trump doesn’t care about the law, as he has shown time and time again. Donald Trump is attempting to unite the people of the United States against a common enemy in order to gain a political foothold. That sounds kind of familiar, doesn’t it?
Secondly, Donald Trump has literally no political experience. He has held no public office, no elected position, and has never been in a position where his opinions reflect the position of a larger body. If he were to be elected President, comments like this one will be represent our nation.
Donald Trump says whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and that is not how one exists in politics. One can only exist in politics through temperance and compromise. There is a time and place for strength and anger, but there is no place for belligerence and anger like that which Donald Trump displays, daily. The day that Donald Trump gives out Vladimir Putin’s phone number like he did Senator Lindsey Graham’s, last year, is the day that we make an enemy out of Russia and they -- like many other nations -- are an enemy which we cannot afford to make.
Donald Trump is a bully, and if we won’t allow that on the playgrounds where our children spend their days, there is no reason to allow it in the White House. Donald Trump's ignorance over political practice is clearly shown in his insistence that he will have a wall built between the United States and Mexico, but built by the Mexican Government, and paid for by the Mexican people. This is nothing but lunacy, and if he thinks he can bully Mexico into actually doing this he is equally as insane as his political stance on the issue. Additionally, when discussing the issue of radical Islam, Mr. Trump has repeatedly insisted on the murder of the families of enemies of state. This is Donald Trump, the possible future President of the United States, advocating what is unequivocally a war crime. This is political blindness and insensitivity at it’s finest.
Thirdly, Donald Trump is not a business genius. Yes, he does have money. He inherited a lot of it, which does not disqualify his work in the field of business, but it certainly helps. When you have a father worth dozens of millions of dollars, you have the ability to go out and build companies, and fail over and over again. Donald did just that. Trump bet huge on companies like Trump Vodka, Trump Magazine, Trump Steaks (which were sold at Sharper Image, as the hilarious John Oliver reminded the world), Trump University, gotrump.com and, perhaps most comically, Trump Mortgage, which was founded in 2006 -- quite possibly, the worst time in history to found a mortgage company. I challenge anyone to tell me why any of these businesses were great investments made by a supposed business genius.
Today Donald Trump estimates his own net worth at about $10 billion, which is a bit of an exaggeration. It has been suggested on several occasions that this estimate is a hilarious fallacy, but even if this were not the case, he still values his own name at approximately $3 billion. Names are worth something, but they aren’t liquid and cannot be made liquid, so stop counting them in your net worth. Mr. Trump also said that the estimate of his net worth “fluctuates based on feelings… even his own feelings that can fluctuate rapidly from day to day,” which hilariously came up in a lawsuit over a supposedly low estimate of his net worth -- which he lost. Donald Trump says that he’s worth $10 billion because $10 billion is an impressive number -- not because it reflects the reality of his financial situation.
Lastly, Donald Trump is lying to you, and he does not tell it like it is. He has, in effect, no political position. He has been on both sides of the aisle on a huge number of political issues, including the war on drugs, abortion, gun control, health care policy, social security and, hilariously, his political opponents, such as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In fact, Donald Trump has donated to the Clintons numerous times over the years, and now disavows Hillary about as harshly as he does David Duke, former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Donald Trump once said emphatically “I have the best words” when discussing his education. Well, he may have the best words, but they certainly don’t mean much.
