Trump Could Have Been Great

wallyj84

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I think Trump could have been one of the greatest presidents in recent memory. I'm completely serious.

As a Republican president he was in a unique position to do a lot of things. He could have gotten us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, fixed healthcare and even changed our trade situation without the Republicans stonewalling or calling him a "socialist". He could have done some great things. But he lacked competency and honestly didn't really want to do any of the stuff he was voted into office to do.

So long Trump. You had potential but squandered all of it.
 

dom1000

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I think Trump could have been one of the greatest presidents in recent memory. I'm completely serious.

As a Republican president he was in a unique position to do a lot of things. He could have gotten us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, fixed healthcare and even changed our trade situation without the Republicans stonewalling or calling him a "socialist". He could have done some great things. But he lacked competency and honestly didn't really want to do any of the stuff he was voted into office to do.

So long Trump. You had potential but squandered all of it.
I feel the same way, especially with regard to enacting health care reform. He did not even try; his only talking point was eradicating Obama care with no replacement ideas and no action.
In addition, early in his term he passed huge tax cuts for corporations but never passed any comparable benefit programs for the lower or middle classes. And the Middle East peace accord is not only too little too late, but likely only lip service—is there really a way to enforce it?
 

Yasuke9

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Look he was never actually a populist. He just pretended to be one so rubes would vote for him and it worked. He is obsessed with wealth. He was never going to raise his own taxes, which would be a necessity for all the stuff you talk about. If you want people who will pass redistributive policies, Dems are the only game in town, love or hate em.
 

dom1000

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Look he was never actually a populist. He just pretended to be one so rubes would vote for him and it worked. He is obsessed with wealth. He was never going to raise his own taxes, which would be a necessity for all the stuff you talk about. If you want people who will pass redistributive policies, Dems are the only game in town, love or hate em.
Yes, but Dems have their hands tied with the new Biden presidency because they can’t really raise taxes unless it’s for a small subset of the wealthy otherwise it will look really bad. In addition, many democrats are also beholden to corporations and lobbyists just like Hillary was, so it’s difficult to really create any effective reform. Basically, we Americans love low taxes and our benefit programs like social security so it’s difficult to make effective change without finding a way to pay for it.
 

dreamer20

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I feel the same way, especially with regard to enacting health care reform. He did not even try; his only talking point was eradicating Obama care with no replacement ideas and no action.
In addition, early in his term he passed huge tax cuts for corporations but never passed any comparable benefit programs for the lower or middle classes. And the Middle East peace accord is not only too little too late, but likely only lip service—is there really a way to enforce it?

Trump was never great - except at personally enriching the Trump organization whilst in office. On the domestic front Trump fired competent federal employees and replaced them with inexperienced persons. Trump did not bring peace to the Middle East as he would have to negotiate with Iran and the Palestinians to achieve that peace. Instead he was weirdly obsessed with undoing everthing Obama had achieved. See this link:

President Trump Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize
 

b.c.

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Trump was never great - except at personally enriching the Trump organization whilst in office. On the domestic front Trump fired competent federal employees and replaced them with inexperienced persons. Trump did not bring peace to the Middle East as he would have to negotiate with Iran and the Palestinians to achieve that peace. Instead he was weirdly obsessed with undoing everthing Obama had achieved. See this link:

President Trump Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

PRECISELY. If one looks back far enough, one would find a post in which I speculated (half hoped) that all Trump's hateful and divisive rhetoric during his 2016 campaign would turn out to be hype. Speculated on what if he actually DID good (if not "great") things.

That hope ended quickly, when he immediately empowered the likes of Bannon, and Sessions, and appointed agency and cabinet heads whose were either completely unqualified, or whose ideologies were CLEARLY the exact OPPOSITE of what their duties ENTAILED. That's when I KNEW it was going to be a complete SHITSHOW.

Trump was who and what TRUMP IS. He could NEVER have been "great" - because that takes GREAT MAN.
 

halcyondays

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The truth isn't in him. He's a massive egomaniacal narcissistic megalomaniac. A pathological liar. An acolyte of the Richard Nixon & Roy Cohn School of Scorched Earth Politics. He's a humongous multiple business failure who couldn't get elected dog-catcher in New York if he tried. Our Impeached, Junk Bond Reality Show President.

That said I'll give him a few props.

-He did not start any wars in the Middle East (or elsewhere) like his last two Republican presidents did.

-As loathsome a man he is I would have voted for him had he been the Democratic candidate in 2016--though I cannot begin to imagine the alternate reality where he would champion center-left issues let alone win the Democratic nomination. Only the right wing could field such a demagogue.

In speech, attitude and appearance he bears an uncanny resemblance to the guy who won the Golden Shoveler Award in the senior superlatives section of my high school yearbook. :poop::laughing:

The ship of state--upside down for the last four years--is about to shake off Trump and sit upright again. :cool:
 
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ActionBuddy

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I think Trump could have been one of the greatest presidents in recent memory. I'm completely serious.

As a Republican president he was in a unique position to do a lot of things. He could have gotten us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, fixed healthcare and even changed our trade situation without the Republicans stonewalling or calling him a "socialist". He could have done some great things. But he lacked competency and honestly didn't really want to do any of the stuff he was voted into office to do.

So long Trump. You had potential but squandered all of it.
I feel the same way, especially with regard to enacting health care reform. He did not even try; his only talking point was eradicating Obama care with no replacement ideas and no action.
In addition, early in his term he passed huge tax cuts for corporations but never passed any comparable benefit programs for the lower or middle classes. And the Middle East peace accord is not only too little too late, but likely only lip service—is there really a way to enforce it?

Do you fools have any idea about his personal history, before his egotistical run for the presidency, and his Electoral College win, but, popular vote loss, in 2016?

Do you know anything about his character, before then? I really doubt it.

Get real. Read about his entitled privileges, his bankruptcies, his adultery, his crassness, his outrageous egotism, his bogus businesses, his false "birther" campaign claiming that Obama was not born in the USA... and on an on, in the decades preceding 2016, and convince me that there is anything "great" about Donald Trump.

A/B
 
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dom1000

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Do you fools have any idea about his personal history, before his egotistical run for the presidency, and his Electoral College win, but, popular vote loss, in 2016?

Do you know anything about his character, before then? I really doubt it.

Get real. Read about his entitled privileges, his bankruptcies, his adultery, his crassness, his outrageous egotism, in the decades preceding 2016, and convince me that there is anything "great" about Donald Trump.

A/B
I didn’t vote for Trump in either the first or second elections, but after he won the first election I thought that at the very least he could stir things up in a positive way by virtue of being an outsider—but it didn’t happen. He just doesn’t really care about much more than his golf schedule.
 

ActionBuddy

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I didn’t vote for Trump in either the first or second elections, but after he won the first election I thought that at the very least he could stir things up in a positive way by virtue of being an outsider—but it didn’t happen. He just doesn’t really care about much more than his golf schedule.

And yet, you post THIS!:
I think Trump could have been one of the greatest presidents in recent memory. I'm completely serious.

I feel the same way, especially with regard to enacting health care reform...

Duh!
 

chrisrobin

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Trumps biggest asset has having a load of acolytes prepared to believe his every word, treating him as a modern day messiah
And he squandered it before he began
From the outset he was so into proving Obama wasn't American, was so racist that everything Obama did was his to dismantle and change. His hatred, for some reason best known to himself, of Obama was deep and ingrained racisms, to him, steeped in the old ideals of German Ideology of White Supremacy, a Black Man wasn't capable of becoming president.
And so week after week after month he removed every trace possible of Obama's time in office, even down to the White House.
His acolytes applauded, the rest of the country was appalled, but cheered on by the faithful Trump continued with his quest to turn the presidency into a dictatorship and lost the 2020 election not only in the Public Vote but in the Electoral College as well.
Had he been humane, understanding and sympathetic, had he had understanding of foreign policy, how democracy works and what the constitution stands for then he could have been a President, as it transpired he had none of these skills, divide, insult and ignorance were his only tools and so he failed.
 
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deleted15807

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The Greek knew. A man’s character is his fate and Trump has none. His presidency was doomed from the start.

A man we knew boasted about grabbing women by the pussy was going to be great? Hilarious.
 
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wallyj84

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Do you fools have any idea about his personal history, before his egotistical run for the presidency, and his Electoral College win, but, popular vote loss, in 2016?

Do you know anything about his character, before then? I really doubt it.

Get real. Read about his entitled privileges, his bankruptcies, his adultery, his crassness, his outrageous egotism, his bogus businesses, his false "birther" campaign claiming that Obama was not born in the USA... and on an on, in the decades preceding 2016, and convince me that there is anything "great" about Donald Trump.

A/B

He was a shitty person and a shitty president. I can't deny that. All I'm saying is that he was in a unique position where if he had not been so shitty, he could have been an amazing president.
 

Yasuke9

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I think the original poster is correct that *if* he had actually supported populist, pro worker policies he would have been very successful. Republican politicians were afraid of him. He could have made them get on board, and Dems would have supported him even though he was a republican because they actually want most of that stuff. It's usually the republicans in congress blocking it. His popularity would have been through the roof and he would have been re-elected easily against any Dem.

But instead he chose to use his leverage over republicans by making them cover up his various crimes and protect him during impeachment. He wasted his power all on himself, like he's done his entire life.

And I need to add, if he had gotten his popularity ratings up and helped workers economically more, voters would have let him do whatever he wanted with the anti-immigrant, white supremacist stuff. This country would have become a very dark place for minorities and immigrants.
 

wallyj84

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I think the original poster is correct that *if* he had actually supported populist, pro worker policies he would have been very successful. Republican politicians were afraid of him. He could have made them get on board, and Dems would have supported him even though he was a republican because they actually want most of that stuff. It's usually the republicans in congress blocking it. His popularity would have been through the roof and he would have been re-elected easily against any Dem.

But instead he chose to use his leverage over republicans by making them cover up his various crimes and protect him during impeachment. He wasted his power all on himself, like he's done his entire life.

And I need to add, if he had gotten his popularity ratings up and helped workers economically more, voters would have let him do whatever he wanted with the anti-immigrant, white supremacist stuff. This country would have become a very dark place for minorities and immigrants.

You make a really good point. Things could have gone very bad for a lot of people if he was competent.
 
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gr8gatsby

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I don't think that Donald Trump has it in him the ability to be a great American President. His far too many personally flaws that get in the way.

There may have been an opportunity for a different populist or republican leader to effect meaningful change ... but alas, we will never know as we suffered four years under the leadership of an egomaniac.