Mango Menace

 Anyone who knows me surely is aware of the fact that I bear no good feelings towards Donald Trump. The purpose of this post is to enumerate many (definitely not all) of the reasons why the emotions I harbor toward him are so negative. I want to make it clear that while I disagree with conservatives on points of policy, I am angry that they have three times chosen that man in particular to represent their party. Yes, I'll always be happier seeing a liberal in the White House than a conservative. But most conservatives I could just live with, tolerate, roll my eyes at. This one is different. It's not because he's conservative (which I don't even believe that he is, to be honest--I think he has no scruples or morals or values). It's because he's a wretched excuse for a human being.

I am aware that it is common for Trump supporters to believe that some, many, or all media outlets lie and cannot be trusted. In this post, I share links to many differing media outlets. Before dismissing any individual article as false, I encourage you to search the topic and see what other sources are saying. In most cases, the evidence is the words and deeds of the man himself.

In 2005, on the Howard Sterne show, he openly bragged about walking in on teenage girls while they were changing for a pageant he was running. One of the girls shared her recollection of that experience. The Rolling Stones article gives a timeline of his creepy history with beauty pageants. It is clear to me that he thinks of women not as equals, not as thinking humans with rights, but as eye candy. Clearly he believes that women exist expressly for the pleasure of men (particularly himself).

“He just came strolling right in,” Dixon said. “There was no second to put a robe on or any sort of clothing or anything. Some girls were topless. Others girls were naked. Our first introduction to him was when we were at the dress rehearsal and half-naked changing into our bikinis.”

 He has been married 3 times and has been unfaithful to his wives. At one point, he tried to get Playboy to do a piece called "The Girls of Trump", where they would feature some of his attractive female employees as being wooed by him. Whether he actually had an affair with any or all of those women, the fact that he wanted to be seen as someone who would says a lot about his character. If it is true, it shows that he does not believe in the sanctity of marriage--which most conservatives claim to hold sacred. If it is false, it shows that he is willing to tell even very big lies about himself in order to achieve the reputation he wants. Image is everything to him--he's very superficial. Conservatives claim to value truth yet they have selected a man as dishonest as Trump to represent their party. It doesn't make sense.

He has filed for bankruptcy for six of the business that he has owned. This shows that he is so inept at being a businessman that he must take advantage of government programs in order to subsidize his losses--two things that conservatives very frequently speak out against quite loudly. Most conservatives claim that they hate government assistance and they respect people with good business sense. Trump has shown six times that he is perfect happy to have the government bail him out when he fails.

In one of the first speeches he gave after first announcing his candidacy, he asserted that Mexico is intentionally sending criminals, including rapists, to the United States. In this clip, he's being asked to clarify his meaning on that. He does clarify that he doesn't believe they're all rapists. But he doubles down on the statement, asserting that rapists and murderers and drug dealers are coming in from all over the world. He even reiterates that he believes "Mexico" (I can only assume he means the government) is intentionally sending the worst of their populace to the US. It is clear from his response in this clip that he is expressing intense xenophobia. He wants to drum up fear of immigrants among the American electorate. In reality, undocumented immigrants are less likely than natural born citizens and immigrants who, in Trump's words, "came here legally". So again he's lying and he's doing it to stoke fear of immigrants. There are two reasons this is distressing to me. First, I know that any authoritarian relies on scapegoating and stoking fear of "the other" in order to gain power. It has been done by every dictator in history. The second reason is because I truly believe that all people are created equal and should be treated equal, so it bothers me when people believe bigoted things, such as that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes just because they were born somewhere else.

During a presidential primary debate, he literally argued about penis size with Marco Rubio. To me this says many things about him. First, he has very thin skin. He can't handle someone insulting him. He's in his seventies and he's never learned how to brush off an insult. He can't let it go, drop it, move on, rise above it, or any other tactic that most adults learn before they've turned 30. He feels the need to assert that the insult is false, that he's a "real man". It tells me that he's very sensitive about the size of both his hands and his penis--that he defines his own self-worth by something which is beyond his control (at least without surgical intervention). For some reason, he needs people to think his hands and his penis are big. Honestly, before the size of his hands was discussed back in 2015 I had no idea any man ever cared about the size of his hands--or how big people perceived them to be. I've never cared about the size of my own hands, much less what size anyone perceives them to be. And I only care what people think about my penis if I'm intending to have sex with them.

During his first term, he (unsuccessfully) tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act--a milestone in making healthcare more affordable for the average American and in making insurance companies cover conditions which existed prior to attaining coverage. The ACA was widely embraced and was a big win for Americans. Yet Trump attacked it and tried to undo it. Again, trying to attack medical care for the average American, he sought funding cuts to Medicare and Medicaid--potentially putting millions of Americans' lives at risk. 

He appointed Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. As far as the law is concerned, I do believe in the principle of "innocent until proven guilty", so I do not assert that he is guilty of rape just because he was accused of it. However, I watched the hearing where he was questioned about it and from the body language he exhibited, it is certainly my opinion that he believed at the very least that he was guilty of the things she was accusing him of, even if he had no memory of that particular evening or of her at all. From the way he reacted, from the way he dodged the questions he was asked, and even started questioning the committee himself, it was clear he was uncomfortable and he knew that he was a wild guy when he was younger and it was entirely likely a scenario like the one spelled out by Christine Blasey Ford actually happened, perhaps on multiple occasions, around that time. At the very least, I know that he committed perjury while under oath because in that hearing he asserted that he was of legal drinking age at the time. He was born in 1965 and the time in question was 1982, so he would have been 17 and drinking has never been legal in Maryland or DC at 17. 

At any rate, the topic is Trump not Kavanaugh. I bring up Kavanaugh to point out how Trump reacted to the accusation that Ford brought against Kavanaugh. He started mocking her for her accusation at his rallies. Trump is very much a performer, and loves having an audience to perform for (which is why he continued to hold rallies even after taking office the first time). So when he noticed the crowd enjoying what he's saying, he continues and does more. He decides that mocking a rape victim is the best approach to handling it. I believe rape victims deserve better than to be mocked for coming forward. It is clear that the reason so many women don't come forward when they're raped is specifically because of how men like Trump act when they do--openly mocking them, rejecting their claims outright, insisting she asked for it in some way or another or that she deserved it. Any and all of those reactions are utterly detestable. 

During one of his rallies, he mocked a disabled reporter. I'm sure he did this because he knew he'd get a positive reaction from the crowd. He clearly has no qualms making fun of disabilities. To me this shows that he lacks maturity, and common decency. 

In summary, the point is that there are no redeeming qualities about this man. He is so despicable, nothing is beneath him. He'll lie about anything to get what he wants--usually to get approval from other people. He mocks people who are different, mocks people for speaking out about their past traumas. He is incredibly sensitive about his own feelings and wholly insensitive to anyone else's. He is cruel and cowardly, unkind and selfish. I truly believe that the only person he cares about is himself. I don't believe he's capable of truly respecting anyone, and he has proven time and time again that he doesn't care about respecting people's rights or the Constitution. I find everything about him to be despicable and disgusting.