Is Trump really that bad?

[Username taken]

Trump is an unholy disaster, plain and simple. In addition to insulting veterans, Gold Star families and POW's like John McCain despite being a draft dodger, he demeaned people with disabilities during the campaign, blatantly engaged in xenophobia with his Muslim travel ban, derailed the Paris Accords because of his skepticism about climate change, has played chicken with an unstable, nuclear armed despot by threatening to level North Korea, elected cronies to key government positions to wreck them from within, not to mention having the impulse control of a five year old (which is an insult to five year olds). Trump constantly indulges in childish feuds with literally ANYONE who angers him, has used the office of President to line his pockets, has gone out of his way to deny healthcare to millions of Americans by wanting to trash the ACA, and has been obsessed with destroying Barack Obama's legacy from day one with seemingly endless executive orders overturning every law Obama put on the books for no reason other than petty spite. Oh, yeah, his approval ratings haven't seen the high side of 40 percent since he took office. Yeah, Trump IS that bad, and more!

This says it all.

Not to mention the first President in my lifetime to openly cater to white ethno-nationalists. I mean, he's literally taken the country back centuries.

Yeah, Trump is a total disaster.

[Vakanai]

Since Trump became president, and even before then, he was getting heavily criticized by the media. What I want to know is, is he really that bad? Or is the media just not giving him a break?

I think we are all forgetting the silver lining - Trump is the best thing to ever happen to the Republican party!

Mind you I'm a liberal who thinks the best thing for the Republican party is for it to fail so hard and be damaged so irreparably that they never come into power again, so...

Yeah, yeah he is that bad.

[Username taken]

Seriously, what has Donald Trump achieved beyond stoking the fires of hatred towards immigrants (both legal and illegal), minorities and LGBT.

I mean, he apparently doesn't even know that Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are "managed" by the U.S.

All he's done is say things that make his core base (of mostly deplorables that Hilary Clinton rightly called them) happy.

He has no concrete achievements to point to.

[Yagamifire]

If you had an interest in objective reality, Trump was not the guy for you.

Blithe dismissal of reality is why the anti Trump folks lost so badly but, by all means, continue with the narrative. It's only helping since sarcasm tied to an unearned air of intellectual superiority doesn't earn votes.

[master of read]

Seriously, what has Donald Trump achieved beyond stoking the fires of hatred towards immigrants (both legal and illegal), minorities and LGBT.

I mean, he apparently doesn't even know that Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are "managed" by the U.S.

All he's done is say things that make his core base (of mostly deplorables that Hilary Clinton rightly called them) happy.

He has no concrete achievements to point to.

i've actually looked into it, just as something to do.

the only things he seems really driven on is undoing everything positive obama has done, the main thing being repealing the ACA while offering no real alternative for the millions who would suffer because of it.

[Carabas]

Blithe dismissal of reality is why the anti Trump folks lost so badly but, by all means, continue with the narrative. It's only helping since sarcasm tied to an unearned air of intellectual superiority doesn't earn votes.

Trump lost on votes. Won on a technicality. And broad multi-state voter supression.

[Username taken]

Trump lost on votes. Won on a technicality. And broad multi-state voter supression.

That's why I laugh at "most people voted for Trump".

They didn't, he lost the popular vote pretty badly.

That simply means most people in the United States didn't buy the bullshit he was selling.

[Vakanai]

What I as an outsider do not understand is how so many people could vote for a man who clearly does not represent their interests (even if he pretends to).

I wouldn't say so many people voted for him, he lost the popular vote. If we were a true democracy this thread wouldn't exist, but for some reason the founding fathers didn't trust the common man to pick the president so we got this little thing called the electoral college, ugh.

As for Trump's supporters, they mainly come in a few different types:
1. There's a section of rural, poor to middle class white Americans who feel, rightly or wrongly, they were being left behind, and whether he represents them or not, Trump verbally addresses them and their concerns.
2. Even if he doesn't represent them, there's a subsection that just wants to destroy the political system so that hopefully they can rebuild something more to their liking with the rubble. Not joking, a section of America wants Washington to fail that bad it needs to be built back up, in their political ideology of course.
3. Some people don't care what Trump believes or represents, they just hated Hillary that much. I have family who are so grateful Hillary wasn't elected, because they view her as having blood on her hands from Benghazi.
4. Trump's a con man, and there's a sucker born every minute.
5. And racists/homophobes/xenophobes/horrible people.

Edit: Just FYI this is my opinion and is in no way a rebuff on anyone's political views.

I mean, he's literally taken the country back centuries.

Centuries? No, slavery is still illegal. Decades, to pre-Civil Rights? Oh yeah...

[Yagamifire]

Seriously, what has Donald Trump achieved beyond stoking the fires of hatred towards immigrants (both legal and illegal), minorities and LGBT.

I mean, he apparently doesn't even know that Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands are "managed" by the U.S.

All he's done is say things that make his core base (of mostly deplorables that Hilary Clinton rightly called them) happy.

He has no concrete achievements to point to.

Regulations removed
Paris Agreement
TPP
Scalia replacement
Suspension of immigration from terror prone countries
Sanctuary cjty crackdown
Dakota and Keystones pipelines
STEM field support for women via EO
Female entrepreneur council creation
NAFTA renegotiation or cancellation
2 for 1 reg repeal
EO to fund historical black colleges
EO to prioritize protection of LEOs
Wall prototyping and funding
Military budget bolstering
Lobbying ban
EO targeting drug cartels
JR 38 to bolster coal industry
Multiple direct business meetings resulting in jobs/biz
Calling out NATO budgeting
Hiring freeze on federal employees
Removal of Obamacare penalty
Military action that has just recently lead to victory declarations ovet Isis in Iraq and Raqqa
VA support allowing vets to go outside of that currently broken system
Creation of VA accountability office
Tax reform progress that just passed a couple days ago
School choice act

Then of course theres Aya Hijazi.

Sure other than that stuff though...literally nothing

[Tendrin]

Regulations removed
Paris Agreement
TPP
Scalia replacement
Suspension of immigration from terror prone countries
Sanctuary cjty crackdown
Dakota and Keystones pipelines
STEM field support for women via EO
Female entrepreneur council creation
NAFTA renegotiation or cancellation
2 for 1 reg repeal
EO to fund historical black colleges
EO to prioritize protection of LEOs
Wall prototyping and funding
Military budget bolstering
Lobbying ban
EO targeting drug cartels
JR 38 to bolster coal industry
Multiple direct business meetings resulting in jobs/biz
Calling out NATO budgeting
Hiring freeze on federal employees
Removal of Obamacare penalty
Military action that has just recently lead to victory declarations ovet Isis in Iraq and Raqqa
VA support allowing vets to go outside of that currently broken system
Creation of VA accountability office
Tax reform progress that just passed a couple days ago
School choice act

Then of course theres Aya Hijazi.

Sure other than that stuff though...literally nothing

Objective reality is indeed not your friend, I see.

[Username taken]

Regulations removed
Paris Agreement
TPP
Scalia replacement
Suspension of immigration from terror prone countries
Sanctuary cjty crackdown
Dakota and Keystones pipelines
STEM field support for women via EO
Female entrepreneur council creation
NAFTA renegotiation or cancellation
2 for 1 reg repeal
EO to fund historical black colleges
EO to prioritize protection of LEOs
Wall prototyping and funding
Military budget bolstering
Lobbying ban
EO targeting drug cartels
JR 38 to bolster coal industry
Multiple direct business meetings resulting in jobs/biz
Calling out NATO budgeting
Hiring freeze on federal employees
Removal of Obamacare penalty
Military action that has just recently lead to victory declarations ovet Isis in Iraq and Raqqa
VA support allowing vets to go outside of that currently broken system
Creation of VA accountability office
Tax reform progress that just passed a couple days ago
School choice act

Then of course theres Aya Hijazi.

Sure other than that stuff though...literally nothing

Seriously? Come on....

He hasn't even done some of the stuff you listed.

And the others here aren't concrete achievements.

[Yagamifire]

Objective reality is indeed not your friend, I see.

By all means, pretend those things don't exist.

[Vakanai]

Regulations removed
Paris Agreement
TPP
Scalia replacement
Suspension of immigration from terror prone countries
Sanctuary cjty crackdown
Dakota and Keystones pipelines
STEM field support for women via EO
Female entrepreneur council creation
NAFTA renegotiation or cancellation
2 for 1 reg repeal
EO to fund historical black colleges
EO to prioritize protection of LEOs
Wall prototyping and funding
Military budget bolstering
Lobbying ban
EO targeting drug cartels
JR 38 to bolster coal industry
Multiple direct business meetings resulting in jobs/biz
Calling out NATO budgeting
Hiring freeze on federal employees
Removal of Obamacare penalty
Military action that has just recently lead to victory declarations ovet Isis in Iraq and Raqqa
VA support allowing vets to go outside of that currently broken system
Creation of VA accountability office
Tax reform progress that just passed a couple days ago
School choice act

Then of course theres Aya Hijazi.

Sure other than that stuff though...literally nothing

I'd argue some of those aren't achievements so much as embarrassments we'll have be ashamed of for a while, and the few things that don't look bad I'd like to know how much of that is actually done, effective, and how much a hand Trump had in it.

[Tendrin]

By all means, pretend those things don't exist.

Several of things that have no actual basis in reality to be called 'successes'

[Brian Cronin]

Asked and answered.