Arguments for opposing Trump (for your friends who are conservative or “not political”)

I live in something of a “bubble” and am rarely if ever in a position to converse about politics with someone who supports Trump or even someone who is neutral about him. Nonetheless I have thought a fair amount about what arguments for opposing him might be persuasive to those who do not share my own generally liberal policy views and who are indifferent to or skeptical of most of the Democratic/center-left policy agenda, and who may be sympathetic to some of Trump’s rhetorical points. I think I can understand why many of these people may have been reluctant to vote FOR Democratic candidates last year, but I feel that most of them should have seen that there were compelling reasons to vote AGAINST Trump. While these might have been more useful points to talk about BEFORE last November, I still think it is worth sharing them now:

1) Some people credit Trump with being “honest”, by which it seems they mean that he is not afraid to give offense. But if “honest” is intended to describe someone who tells the truth—or even what they they believe to be the truth—then there is overwhelming evidence for Trump’s inveterate DIShonesty. Over the years, Trump has stated falsehoods that he had to know were falsehoods about everything from crowd sizes, to whether or not he knew a particular person, to whether or not the sun was out on a particular occasion. He is further on record making a vast number of false statements about matters such as the law, the economy, history and science for which he had no evidence and for which only the most “generous” imagination would allow one to think that he nonetheless believed them. The only sources that you will find that do not support the above are ones that are themselves absolutely committed to defending Trump regardless of their own truthfulness.

2) Trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he is mean-spirited and lacking in empathy. He openly mocks or expresses revulsion for the disabled and the disfigured; he promotes himself in a smiling fashion in the midst of the most mournful occasions; when faced with a natural disaster, he makes minimal effort to show sympathy for the victims and instead seeks to make use of it for partisan gain. It is difficult to see how someone of any political stripe could think well of the character of such a man.

3) Trump has made clear his admiration for ruthless, murderous dictators such as Russia’s Putin, China’s Xi, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and Saudi Arabia’s MBS, while showing his scorn for democratic leaders in Europe and elsewhere. What does that say about his vision of political leadership?

4) Trump’s apparent enthusiasm for visions of territorial expansion is wildly anachronistic in the 21^st Century, and seems calculated to earn him the contempt of the civilized world. He cannot even offer historical or ethnicity-based reasons for his designs on Greenland, Gaza, the Canal Zone, or Canada. In that sense, his territorial aspirations are even less defensible than the Austrian Anschluss or the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany prior to World War II!

5) Perhaps the most telling: Trump has been described as ignorant, foolish, and dangerous by MANY of the people who have worked with or for him. Several explicitly warned the public last year that he should not be allowed to return to the Presidency. These were mostly conservative and in many cases extremely conservative people who were sympathetic with much of Trump’s policy agenda. It is unlikely that you would hire someone with such a poor reputation among those who know him to do gardening or home repairs for you; why on Earth did Americans hire him (again) to serve as President?

FWIW.