Saturday, October 15, 2016

Reasons I Can't (and Won't) Support Trump



To write an entry, in readable form, listing all of the reasons why I think electing Trump would be a terrible mistake for the American people would just take WAY too long, so I'm going to do my best to just post them all in list form, with links to sources or articles that discuss the points. First up, a collection of quotes:

  • “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” - Twitter (Here he is denying that he ever said that, despite not even bothering to remove it from his official Twitter feed)
  • [About foreign policy] “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things...my primary consultant is myself” - Politico (and people tell me that it's okay that he doesn't have a lot experience, because he'll surround himself with advisors and experts)
  • “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on.” - His Own Campaign Website (blatantly unconstitutional)
  • “Don’t tell me it doesn’t work — torture works… Waterboarding is fine, but it’s not nearly tough enough, ok?” - Youtube (nevermind the UN Convention of Torture, but torture does not work)
  • "I am being proven right about massive vaccinations—the doctors lied. Save our children & their future." - Twitter
  • "If we didn't remove incredibly powerful fire retardant asbestos & replace it with junk that doesn't work, the World Trade Center would have never burned down." - Twitter (talking about asbestos...proven to be extremely carcinogenic and hazardous to human health. What's more...he apparently thinks the movement to remove asbestos is a mob conspiracy)
  • [Of Vladimir Putin] "I will tell you, in terms of leadership, he's getting an 'A,' - Washington Post (I'm assuming I don't have to go into detail on why Vladimir Putin is bad...)
  • [To Californians] "There is no drought." - ABC (*facepalm*)
  • Called Geneva Conventions 'the problem' - Politico

So that's not really a comprehensive list...but that's mostly because Trump seems to say something stupid or offensive every time someone puts him in front of a camera or a microphone. I've also tried to keep his quotes to things he's said that have a political nature. I've completely left out his hundreds of quotes disparaging women and people of other races, and I haven't even talked about "the video". For now, I'm going to assume that everyone who still supports Trump knows that Trump is a raging sexist that has no trouble sexually and verbally assaulting women, and they're just okay with it. If you think that statement is inaccurate, then let me know and I'll be happy to dump a truckload of evidence on you proving my point.

Anyways, the above list was just things that Trump has directly said or posted, so here's the rest:

  • Trump's Tax plan would cut federal revenue by over $9.5 trillion and could increase the national debt by 80% of the gross domestic product by 2036. - Tax Policy Center
  • Trump's tax cuts largely focused on the top 1% like Mr. Trump, both in dollars and as a percentage of income. The tax plan costs $11.2 trillion, more than any other candidate, and $4 trillion of that comes from tax breaks to the top 1%. - Tax Policy Center
  • Economic Intelligence Analysts ranked Trump on the same level as ISIS in terms of causing global economy instability. - The Guardian
  • The U.S. will never default on its debt, because we can always print more money. - CNN (taken from a speech he gave on his campaign trail) and Financial Times
  • Trump said that he would cut taxes without increasing the national deficit. His tax plan would increase the national deficity by $10 trillion. - Politifact (for the quote), Tax Foundation (for the data)
  • Flip flopped on banning assault weapons. - Politifact
  • Flip flopped on Hillary Clinton. - The Hill
  • Flip flopped on Japan nukes - CNN
  • Flip flopped on Libya - Politico
  • Flip flopped on Muslim ban - Politico
  • Flip flopped on the Iraq war - Fortune
  • Flip flopped on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - NBC
  • Flip flopped on torture - IBT
  • Flip flopped on abortion (5 times in 3 days) - Washington Post
  • He has exaggerated his net worth by at least 100% - Forbes
  • He is apparently okay with Vladimir Putin killing journalists. - Business Insider
  • Said he would eliminate the "Department of Environmental"...which doesn't exist. - IBT
  • Says the families of terrorists should killed - The Hill
  • Trump's “plan” to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants would shrink the economy by about 2 percent. The sudden subtraction of 7 million workers would cause an immediate shock to thousands of businesses, triggering a GDP collapse ranging from $400 billion to $600 billion in production. - The AtlanticReutersThe Hill, and VOA
  • Trump's trade war with China would increase the price of everyday goods by 40% or more. - National Review
  • Trump's current spending plan would bankrupt the country. - The Federalist
  • Trump spent 10's of thousands of dollars on an ad campaign in 1989, urging New Yorkers to bring back the death penalty and execute five minority youths who were suspects in a brutal rape case. Decades later, the youths were completely exonerated when DNA evidence proved they had nothing to do with it. Upon hearing about the settlement, Trump wrote a lengthy editorial in the New York Daily News calling it a "disgrace" and "the heist of the century". In this screed, he complained that the youths were still certainly guilty and that the city was "stupid". - The New Yorker
  • Donald Trump's "trade wars" would lose around 4 million jobs, and another 3 million jobs would not be created that otherwise would have been, had the country not fallen into a trade-induced downturn. - Washington Post