I make an effort to understand the things that I don’t. Things that seem wrong to me but other people believe or support.
In that category is Donald Trump. Most of what I know about Trump I have learned through articles written about him. But I hadn’t actually read or heard a speech. So I pulled the transcripts from his speeches.
I want to know where he’s coming from. I want to know if I am misunderstanding him because of my own bias. I want to know what his supporters see in him. So I’m reading his speeches.
And it’s hard. At first it was easy. It was the standard sort of things that politicians say that will get you to nod your head because we can ALL AGREE ABOUT THAT.
Of course it’s also got the lies and/or delusions for which he is so very famous.
But that is just the warm up. Then he gets started on the things that creep into the scary.
I haven’t finished all the speeches I’ve pulled up to read. It’s becoming harder. I’m not a fan of any political speech because I find the standard political simplistic generalities to be insulting, as they assume I’m an idiot. Rarely do you hear specific details of a plan or strategy.
Trump at least offers me more opportunities to fact check him. And those ventures have the pleasantness of finding them false. Its like always winning the scratch off.
But then he says the scary stuff my stomach gets churny.
It's a Thought 
Most of his speeches are ramblings. His statements that go for policies simplify everything to a bumper sticker phrase. As you noted, this is what you find underneath when you ignore the bigoted labeling and name calling in his speeches. I often tell people, everything that you need to know about his lack of veracity as a candidate, much less a president, is in his history and it is not hard to find.
Just yesterday, he ridiculed NBC News for showing footage of him making racist remarks about Native Americans in front of Congress several years ago to prevent the development of casinos which would compete against his. He also tried to link organized crime to the Native Americans, which was refuted by an FBI representative testifying. This is just one of countless examples of a man who wants to get his way and will say or do anything to get it.
Narcissists do not care about anyone else and tend to be pathological liars. It is no secret that Trump has set the record of any candidate, since fact checking started, on lying to people well over the majority of the time. And, it should be noted that he is the only candidate on trial for alleged misrepresentation in three class action lawsuits with Trump University. Since another trademark of narcissists is to blame others for things they do, it should be noted that he calls Ted Cruz “Lyin Ted” and Hillary Clinton, “Corrupt Hillary.”
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All of it true.
I just saw something yesterday that I didn’t have time to look into – that he’s now being accused of raping a teenager back in the 90s.
Just when you thought – it couldn’t get any worse…. I really don’t want to check that one out. My brain is going to have to be in a good place before I do it. .
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Apparently, he has been accused on a few occasions and settled one sexual harassment case with the wife of a business partner. We know about this one, as he apparently let the cat out of the bag citing her name; she said she was sworn to secrecy, but Trump revealed it in an article. The other one is alleged at this point, so we will need to see where it goes. Mainstream news has not reported on this, so we will have to wait and see.
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Note, I went a reread the Huffington Post article. The sexual harassment case I referenced was dropped when another case against her husband was settled. Trump did reveal her name in an article in The Guardian, yet denied the charges. This women still contends it was true per The Guardian. The current case by Jane Doe must be considered as alleged at this point, with the event preceding the case mentioned above.
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Add in the ugly allegations of his ex wife and it starts look like a pattern.
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His comments about military spending are downright scary. The US already spends more on its military than the next TEN highest spending countries in the world put together. Exactly what good would his massive increase in the military do? The military is completely ineffective in dealing with most of the threats we are facing now.
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It is indeed scary. He seems to think that using the Cold War playbook will work today. And it won’t. When he mentions upgrading the nuclear weapons I cringe.
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Take the first quote which you say “we can all agree about”:
“We will never be able to fix a rigged system by counting on the same people who rigged it in the first place.The insiders wrote the rules of the game to keep themselves in power and in the money.”
If you are informed about Trump, there are six or seven blatant “untruths” in this statement alone:
He has admitted to taking full advantage of the “rigged system” multiple times (bankruptcy laws, earlier campaign donations with the full expectation of quid pro quo . . .).
Ergo: he had no problem in rigging the system.
He was and still is an “insider” by his own definition.
He is also apparently willing to do or say anything to hold on to his power and money.
But, NOW, we should count on him to fix this system he played in – and ostensibly successfully (according to his own statements about his wealth).
Donald Trump is not an outsider.
Donald Trump has no incentive whatsoever to change (or “fix”) the system.
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Very true. But the statement isn’t designed to be thought about it. Its designed to hit the sweet spot of our collective agreement – politics is rigged.
Everything he proposes, general or not is without any possibility of happening. And in the case of fixing a rigged system, even supposing he wins, there isn’t any chance in hell’s half acre of getting congress to do things that will clearly undermine the golden eggs they are living on.
And just generally, he will not have a successful presidency because its very unlikely that congress will work with him.
So. Yeah. He’s a lying idiot and anyone who supposes that he might even attempt the things he proposes does not consider the fact that he hasn’t got much chance of doing much beyond executive orders.
Which, to be clear, is still terrifying.
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