June 6, 2020
76th Anniversary of Normandy Invasion, 1944.
A conservative person I deeply respect recently gave me this challenge. “Put aside Donald Trump’s vicious character and objectionable personality and tell me what he has actually done wrong.” So let’s ignore his psychology and focus on his behavior. Headings will make this easier, though some items will overlap.
A. Isolates the country internationally.
- In a 2017 conversation with Russian ambassador Segei Kislyak and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, the President unwittingly revealed Israel as the source of highly classified intelligence about plans for terrorist attacks by ISIS.
- Kowtowed to dictators: Putin (Helsinki), Kim (Singapore), Xi (G20 in Osaka), Erdogan (Dec. 4, 2019, the White House), thus undermining our democratic traditions.
- Diminishes support for NATO, our bulwark against Russia, and co-defender of our democratic ideals.
- Withdrew from international accords limiting Iran’s nuclear development (the Iran Deal).
- Abandoned the Kurds in Syria, our allies against Saddam Hussein, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS, to curry favor with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who opposes them in Turkey.
- Weakened U. S. support of Ukraine against Russia.
- Mercantilism (economic nationalism). Trade wars. Tariffs on all goods from China, on steel, aluminum from Canada and Mexico.
- His exaggerated emphasis on a Southern border wall weakens ties with our neighbor, Mexico.
- One good thing: opposes China’s theft of intellectual property.
B. Weakens environmental safeguards:
- Removes many environmental checks on industries — unwise given global climate change.
- Supports coal and petroleum industries, which emit carcinogens and carbon dioxide, thereby causing disease and warming the planet.
- Withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement, the beginning of an effort to attack a global problem on a global scale.
- Cuts budget of Environmental Protection Agency.
C. Exacerbates hatred.
- After the “Unite the Right” Rally in Charlottesville, August 11-12, 2017, Trump, in a misguided effort to please everyone, declared “There were very fine people on both sides.” Note that one of the organizers of the rally took the internet alias, Crystal Knight, a punning allusion to the first, nationwide action against Jews in Nazi Germany, Kristallnacht, 9-10 Nov, 1938. Prior to the march that killed a counter-protester, the demonstrators prepared in neo-Nazi, White Supremacist, and Klan meetings and, online, declared their despicable loyalties. As they marched, they chanted, “Jews will not replace us.”
- Stigmatizes categories of people with pejorative language: Muslims (“terrorists”), Mexicans (“animals, rapists, drug dealers”). Uses criminal or terrorist fringe, like MS-13, hardly a typical group, to characterize whole populations. Stigmatizes women, “who will let you do anything if you’re famous.”
- Fostered cruelty against immigrants as a deterrent, thus undercutting U. S. reputation as a refuge for the persecuted (like many of my professors in graduate school).
D. Oppresses the needy.
- Although I cannot find the actual source, Ronald Reagan is frequently credited with expressing this sentiment: “Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.” Donald Trump fails to meet this deliberately minimized standard.
- Oppresses women worldwide by eliminating reference to sex education, contraception, and abortion from international aid programs. He applies this “gag rule” at home and abroad.
- His tax cut of Dec. 22, 2017 increased the national debt although it distributed its benefits inequitably. It (1) reduced corporate tax rate from an average in 2012 of 29% to a 22% stipulated rate (not counting deductions) and (2) limited deductions for state taxes, which impacts states that tax more heavily. Upshot: makes it more expensive for liberal states to offer social services.
- Restructured Affordable Care Act. (1) Removed the individual mandate, which thereby reduced the size of the insurance market and increased premiums for sicker individuals. (2) Encouraged states to restrict Medicaid expansion (a benefit for the poor) by, among other things, adding work requirements. (3) Allowed states to essentially substitute their own Medicaid programs. Because many states are required to balance their budgets, the removal of federal aid reduces medical help to the poor.
E. Exaggerates Presidential Authority.
- Banishes note takers from his summit meetings. Without notes, we cannot hold our leaders accountable. We cannot “trust but verify” (Ronald Reagan’s advice) whatever the foreign leader might have agreed to, so the arrangements cannot be enforced. This violates the first of Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points. “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at. . . . Diplomacy [should] proceed always frankly and in the public view.”
- Appointed Brett Cavanaugh to the Supreme Court because he wrote an essay exaggerating the powers of the executive branch and despite fact he was beneath inclusion on a list of 25 recommended by the conservative Federalist Society.
- Appointed William Barr who, as an AG hopeful, wrote a brief (probably much like this speech) designed to augment the unitary executive, which misrepresents the president’s power to act alone.
- Circumvented congressional power over the budget and declared an emergency, Feb. 15, 2019, where none existed, to obtain funding for a border wall.
- Preference for acting heads of federal agencies, thus avoiding need for congressional advice and consent — a fundamental aspect of constitutionally mandated checks and balances.
- Demanded loyalty from FBI Director James Comey even though Comey’s revival, in October, 2016, of the case against Hillary Clinton over her private email server was instrumental to his election. As the FBI is, in principle, an independent agency, a demand of loyalty is not appropriate. Loyalty pertains more to feudal lords than to constitutionally limited presidents.
- The Mueller investigation into the possible collusion of the Trump campaign with Russian interference in the 2016 election, “does not exonerate” Donald Trump on 10 counts of obstructing justice. Because the president cannot be exonerated of obstructing the investigation into his collusion with the Russians, his participation in the collusion remains unresolved. Our president should be above suspicion of collusion with a foreign power to secure his own election.
- In Helsinki, on July 16, 2018, he naively, publicly, embarrassingly, accepted Vladimir Putin’s guarantee that the Russian president had not meddled in our 2016 election despite evidence to the contrary, which, at that time, was growing. At the very least, he should have declared it an open question and thanked Putin for his opinion.
F. Errors of omission. Our president fails to solicit, engage, or heed information from experts in science, medicine, policing, diplomacy, international law, and military affairs. He ignored early signs of the danger from the Coronavirus, redrew the path of Hurricane Dorian contrary to expert projections, advised police not to shield heads of arrestees being put into cars, advised ingesting bleach to treat Covid-19, denies the status of refugees despite the international standing of the right to sanctuary, claims noise from wind turbines causes cancer, ignored CIA station chief in Iraq prior to abandoning the Kurds in that country. “Once again, we’ve turned our back on a loyal ally, an ally that not just shared our ideology and our goals, but actually bled for the United States on the battlefield. . . . The Turkish military was poised and immediately filled the vacuum,” said veteran Doug Wise.
G. Tells lies: This heading violates the rules of this exercise because the president’s mendacity is part of his character. Still, it harms the country when a president makes untrue statements — especially if he does so often. A Republican supports this observation here. And here is a link to the fact-checkers of the Washington Post.
In conclusion: It’s not true that character and personality don’t matter. Presidents should exemplify a leadership that emanates from probity, courage, service, patriotism, and statesmanship.
The terrible and frightening thing is that it is precisely because of Trump’s vicious character and objectionable personality that his voters adore him.
This is extremely well-done. A real service to everyone.
Your listing of egregious behavior is excellent. The resultant cumulative erosion of our most cherished traditions and values provokes intense indignation, but, as it becomes normative, can threaten to produce a feeling of powerless numbness. These past three and a half years do indeed leave us hoping and praying for reversal of the trend, and a return to sound and moral leadership after what will undoubtedly be a fraught election, uglier than any in living memory.
If you haven’t yet seen the lead article in the July/August issue of _The Atlantic_ by Anne Applebaum, with its perceptive historical and psychological perspective, I’d recommend it very highly. (“Why have Republican leaders abandoned their principles in support of an immoral and dangerous president? History will judge the complicit.”) Also very good in that issue is John Dickerson’s “A Presidential Guide To Crisis Management. What Trump should have learned from his predecessors”)
We can only hope and pray that enough Americans have the wisdom to get trump defeated in November. Although there is overwhelming evidence to support his defeat , it continues to shock me that so many core supporters are still with him. That suggests there are still many uninformed racist-leaning bigots out there…depressing to say the least.
Your friend has the right, without fear, to ask these questions and to support Trump.
This is because we have a precious shield to protect our rights called The Rule of Law.
Every day, Trump does all he can to undermine the Rule of Law.
Your friend should want any children and grandchildren to have the benefit of this seldomly preserved and fragile privilege. Supporting Trump does the opposite.
In reading your list, most items of which I agree with, I would distinguish between areas of policy disagreement and actions/values fundamentally unacceptable in a national leader. I have had major disagreements with most American presidents over both foreign and domestic policies, but I recognized that they had been legitimately elected through a fundamentally fair process and hence my responses should be to work to defeat them for re-election (Republicans) or work to move them to the left (Democrats). A lot of what you list above falls into areas of policy disagreement, which, as much at variance as they may be to your preferences, would probably not make much headway with a conservative (depending on what kind of conservative) who might in fact think them legitimate approaches to foreign or domestic issues. And which do not, in my mind, distinguish Trump categorically from previous presidents. (Even stupidity does not put him in a category of one.)
What to my mind truly distinguishes him from previous presidents (at least modern ones) is his contempt for the institutions of government and for the laws that regulate those institutions. Since taking office he has acted as an autocrat, to the extent that he has been able to do so, and he has continuously tried to broaden his capacity to so act. His brazen use of the presidency to further his and his family’s business interests is one example. (The fact that this has effectively been acceded to by Congress probably makes the emoluments clause a dead letter going forward.) His widespread use of rotating acting directors/secretaries, etc. as a means of avoiding mandated Congressional confirmation is another. And, of course, his highly visible retaliation against everyone in the executive branch who dares oppose him. Finally (a broad category) the many ways in which he has poisoned all aspects of communication with respect to governance, through his unceasing lies and barefaced denials, his demonization of his opponents in the other branches of government, and his blanket and personal attacks on journalists and news organizations — all of this, while not attacking constitutional elements of government directly, have served to delegitimize every other branch of government beyond the presidency. All of which leads to a well-grounded fear that he will not be bound by the electoral process or the laws governing presidential succession. All of that should be anathema to any principled conservative.
I can only admire the patience with acceptance of the indefensible that led you to compile this distressing catalogue. I hope it isn’t just provincialism that leads me to say that you might have added Trump’s hostility to the European Union and his support for Brexit, in direct furtherance of the strategic goals of Vladimir Putin, of fossil fuel interests and climate denialism, and of international neo-nazism, against which forces the EU is at present the most effective international counterweight. As with the UK’s Boris Johnson, whether Trump knows or cares what he is doing hardly matters. He has put the US and its resources at the disposal of humanity’s enemies.
Your last sentence is burning in my heart. “He has put the US and its resources at the disposal of humanity’s enemies.” And among those resources is our reputation for many things that it would seem naive if not jingoistic to list. But, poof! We are now pariahs — except “among humanity’s enemies.”
This is a terrific list of Trump’s wrongdoings. And let’s hope there will be even more if the new place-holding Attorney General for the Southern District in New York gets to work. She sounds formidable.
But I want to start with the premise.
“A conservative person I deeply respect recently gave me this challenge. ‘Put aside Donald Trump’s vicious character and objectionable personality and tell me what he has actually done wrong.’”
“Put aside his vicious character?” How does one put that aside? Trump’s actions flow from what your friend has called out as “his vicious character.”
After reading through the list of Trump’s wrong-doings that are apparently acceptable to him, I would like to know why you deeply respect this person. Is it because of his academic work? Because he is a good family man and considerate friend?
There were people in Coeur d’Alene who, when the Neo-Nazis were marching there, said things like, “Well, I know one of them and he has some funny ideas, but he’s a nice guy. He helped me clear my driveway last winter.” (Mein Kampf is full of funny ideas.)
If this man is conservative, what principles of conservatism does he espouse? And which of Trump’s actions does he applaud?
What good has Trump done for our country that your friend would offer up as a counter-weight to the racist, misogynist, self-serving, criminal actions that Donald Trump has served up: the hatred and violence he has unleashed, the constant barrage of lies he tweets, the damage to our economy with his tax give-away to the super rich, the continuing assaults on our democratic institutions, the revocation of rules that protect clean air and clean water, the peopling of governmental agencies with his ignorant sycophants, and the deliberately dangerous and incompetent handling of a deadly pandemic that interferes with his pleasures and ambitions?
I know you want to have an intellectual and temperate conversation about this, but I would say to your friend, that he needs to realize that his very proposition to you is morally untenable.
So, it’s a good thing I’m talking to you and not your friend. And I would like to know if your list has any effect on this man. If it does, then Hallelujah!
Not very temperate but hoping, hoping the Donald will go away and that his support will wither.
It’s more than error of omission. Trump fails as a leader: acting late on COVID-19 has led to unnecessary deaths; confusing messages confuse people and put their health even more at risk; fails to put CDC front and center–in fact, he’s weakened the CDC until they are not worth much. And where is his leadership on civil rights? I’d say there’s a lot more that he’s done wrong, that has weakened our democracy, that has diminished our standing in the world.
The occupant in the White House on a daily basis “Makes America Groan Again.”
His mishandling of a national Covid response.
His denigration of the press.
His adulation of dictators/strong men.
His firing of five I.G.s.
His intrusion into judicial matters.
His withdrawal from T.P.P.
His entire cabinet.