These are half truths mixed with lies and hyperbole. Which only justifies Trump voters support for Trump.
I couldn’t agree more. If Mean Mr. Mustard wants to have any chance at all of convincing his Uncle Bob to disavow support for President Trump, he needs to avoid any sort of hyperbole or exaggeration and be as factually accurate as possible, and I’d encourage him to avoid focusing on trivialities. RioRico’s post is like an anti-example, a perfect what-not-to-do.
Trump has admitted to violating the consent of women and girls on multiple occasions; Trump spent years spreading an evidence-free and racist conspiracy theory (birtherism) and never apologized to the targets of that conspiracy theory; Trump praised at least some of the white supremacists who marched at Charlottesville as “good people”; Trump said that a judge couldn’t do his job because he was “Mexican”; Trump’s administration is on record as advocating that deliberately harming migrant children by separating them from their families is a positive good for deterrent purposes; Trump’s charity has fraudulently withheld funds meant to help veterans; Trump aided the hardliners in Iran who want nuclear weapons by withdrawing from an agreement that made it more difficult for Iran to get nuclear weapons with absolutely nothing to gain for the US by the withdrawal… off the top of my head.
All but the last two are “liberal talking points” to the ears of a Trump Supporter. The others are all issues that matter to YOU. Like I said, he has to frame the arguments in terms that matter to the other guy.
All of these are based on facts – mostly Trump’s own words, or the words of his administration.
If “the other guy” isn’t interested in such facts, then I’m not sure what the point of using things like “talking points” is. One can’t be reasoned out of a position that they didn’t reason themselves into. Maybe fabricated conspiracy theories and reddit memes would be more useful for swaying such a person?
If Uncle Bob is a coal miner, farmer or manufacturing worker, MMM can illustrate how Trump has lied to them about bringing back jobs.
If Uncle Bob is retired military, MMM can illustrate how Trump has disrespected the military, its leadership and undermined the chain of command.
If Uncle Bob believes in democracy and free speech, MMM can illustrate how Trump has cozied up to authoritarians who are hostile to such principles and America’s role in the world.
If Uncle Bob loves his family, MMM can illustrate how Trump has worked to undermine their access to affordable healthcare.
If Uncle Bob has neither heart and nor brains, MMM should practice saying, “Really, Uncle Bob? Aren’t you EMBARRASSED?!”, and then immediately change the subject.
I’d refer the OP to the military code of honor: not to lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate those who do.
Trump demonstrably lies all the time. More than any counterexample your relative can come up with. Wtf? Why is it tolerated? It could be because Trump’s racist attitudes resonate with your relative and take priority over honesty. In any case, your values are superior to those of a Trump supporter.
Cheat? There are too many examples to count, but bribing foreign governments with tax dollars to help him cheat in the next election is a biggie. Your values are superior to anyone who tolerates this.
Steal? Um, his entire fortune is based on tax fraud. Your values are superior to anyone who tolerates this.
The big one for me is intellectual honesty. Tax cuts do not pay for themselves. Climate change is not a hoax. These are the only intellectually honest positions on these issues. Sadly, bible beaters and rednecks aren’t allowed intellectual honesty- racism and bible beaterism fall apart under scrutiny. Your values are superior to their benigheted ones, no matter how many centuries of apologia have gone into convincing the deluded otherwise.
But it doesn’t matter. Your relative won’t be reachable. May I suggest attempting to dig to China by banging your head against the floor instead?
Of course, the reply to that should be, “And if I say that Trump is a Denebian slime devil, well, that’s my opinion.” 
Trump is the Commander In Chief of the military; he hasn’t undermined the chain of command. And you’re assuming that a retired military lifer will take the side of the brass over the grunts; a risky assumption.
There is no point in trying to persuade anyone to be against Trump like this. People may indeed eventually turn against him, but it won’t be because someone recited bullet points to them in a one-on-one conversation.
It doesnt matter that they are based on facts if they don’t persuade (as I’ve said in my previous posts). There are myriad studies that show that facts don’t change political opinions and usually entrench them further. You can use factual arguments but they must target each individuals intuitive moral center. Most of your points have to do with Care and Fairness (see my first post), whereas the best arguments to come from a liberal (so as to not set off SJW alarms) would target Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity. You can use Care and Fairness only if he considers those cared for, or shown fairness to, to be a member of his ingroup (ie not Mexicans). Your recommendation to bring up how Trump’s charity stole from veterans is on point.
The best thing to do is find out what’s important to them and from there one can best frame the argument. I don’t have time right now to get into detail, but going in blind I’d probably mention your point about Trumps charity, violating the warrior code by abandoning the Kurds (again, your word is your bond), how the trade war is destroying our steel industry and farmers and has already bankrupted companies, how he promised to revive the coal industry but mines are closing everywhere, how said he didn’t care about ballooning the deficit because “he’d be gone by the time it mattered,” gave tax cuts to corporations who didn’t invest but just bought back their own stock, says he wants to fight for coverage of pre-existing conditions while his admin is fighting the exact opposite in the courts, etc.
You undermine the chain of command when you reach down through the ranks and pardon someone who was convicted of a crime by a jury of his own peers, even before the ink has dried.
Perfect holiday opportunity to pull out the old, “You’re not entitled to ‘your opinion’, you’re entitled to an informed opinion.”
“Don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’.” (MIB)
It’s tradition mostly.
Dt is a wannabe fascist, and his followers are too. I think there are two things worth doing. One is to point out where trunp has let them down personally, by policies. What is it affecting #1? Make a schism in that system.
The second is to point out true stuff that dt has done which is humiliating or degrading, to them or to americans, and contrast this with trunps words. Bacially we need to treat dt like a toddler in all ways publicly. the more public ridicule he is under the better chance to strip voters away from him. He may act out, he may break down, but you never know until you put him under this pressure. it’s long past time.
He’s a liar, a cheat, and a crook. So was Bill Clinton, it’s true, but millions of conservatives hated Clinton, while they seem to like Trump more every day.
If being a liar, a cheat, and a crook is okay with Uncle Bob, there isn’t a whole lot you can say to change his mind.
If he is even remotely religious, or moral, bring up the fact that Trump is a *unrepentant **serial *adulterer.
He is also on record saying he’s never had to ask God for forgiveness for anything because he’s never done anything bad enough to “get God involved in it.”
These are but a few points I use to shut people down who praise Trump for being in the ballpark of a good or moral person, or as facts regarding his personal moral character. Even my dad concedes “I can’t consider him a Christian at this point…”
All that to say it’s easy to shut any religious-types down if they have that bent. As a bonus, none of them can ever crow on about immoral behavior of anyone on the Blue Team in perpetuity without me reminding them about “how they stopped caring about morality when it came to supporting Trump,” with a list of aaaaaaaaaall the moral issues they suddenly found a way to just “not be bothered about.”
Moving away form morals or religious reasons:
What about the “fiscal conservatives?” Don’t they care about the deficit getting jacked back up?
The Trade war has rippled beyond just ruining the lives of farmers, it’s now ruining farming and heavy equipment manufacturers and sales. John Deere is struggling. Farmer suicide is now at an all time high.
There’s a cavalcade of individual wrongdoings you could cart out, I just don’t know what exact angle you are looking for, so without further info in that regard I will digress.
But there’s another approach that should maybe be considered: Pointing out how much damage Trump has done to Republicanism as a party. They’ve had to adapt and have become the Party of Trump, someone who wasn’t really a Republican and doesn’t particularly hold any related values or principles (he holds no values and no principles whatsoever).
Because of this, the party is shrinking more under Trump than it even was before, with younger people so turned off by him that they are lost forever to that party. Prominent republicans have renounced the party over their embrace of him.
Finally–I’ll leave you with this:
I do not expect to change anyone’s opinions about Trump. It’s cultish tribalism and as others have stated, facts no longer matter. But what I can do, and DO do, is teach people that, at the very least, they will regret bringing up politics with me. A professor I often work with has learned not to bring up politics/Trump with me because I will quiz him on all the atrocious things Trump has done, things he is willfully ignorant to because he doesn’t want to have to justify supporting such things. So he’s learned not to bring it up around me.
My family knows not to bring it up because I will blast them with the religious hypocrisy.
My SO’s family knows not to bring it up because I challenge them by suggesting I’m going to teach their grandson to do/say/behave like Trump, “I should teach little Adam how he can grab women by the pussy if he’s famous enough, and that women who disagree with him are ‘pigs’ and ‘dogs.’” When they get indignant, I just say “well he’d just be acting PRESIDENTIAL.” They know their position is indefensible, so they just rather not talk about such things with me at all.
And that’s all I can really hope for–to just leave me alone when it comes to politics. Not to change minds.
In response to the OP:
As others have pointed out, you can’t win over Uncle Bob by bringing up a list of bullet points of things that don’t bother Uncle Bob. For instance, if Bob is pro-life, then lamenting over the fact that Trump’s judges may restrict abortion is hardly going to win Bob over, it’ll just make him more pro-Trump.
You can bring up Trump’s friendly relations with dictators, betrayal of the Kurds, “seize guns first, then due process later,” etc.
But then comes the trickiest part: Assuming Bob is a conservative, you’ll have to find a way to convince him that the Democrats would do a better job of being conservative than Trump. I don’t see how you can pull that off.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F04glr6
Mean Mr. Mustard,
Just a suggestion for you to mull over: Rather than trying to hit Uncle Bob with your prepped talking points at Christmas, why not engage him in a conversation. You might even consider doing it via email or an old-fashioned letter to give him some time to consider his responses and not leave him feeling ambushed. Ask him why he is fine with President Trump. What has he done that Uncle Bob approves of? Have there been things he’s done that Uncle Bob disapproves of? You might find that a more productive and interesting conversation.
And people in Trump Land will say:
-Fake news
-Fake news
-Fake news
-Liberal media
-300 angry democrats!
-Failing New York Times
-Fake news
-Witch hunt!
-Hoax!
I’ve given up. I have an older brother who has said that his family will leave (any holiday dinner) if we start complaining about Trump again.
I don’t know what imaginary planet you think we’re living on, but no one I’ve ever talked to who supports Trump is so asinine as to repeat Trump’s twitter rants. I’m guessing you’ve never met anyone who says that stuff like this, either.
Sure, they’re dug in, and their minds are made up, but I’ve never encountered anyone who wants to dig into defending his behavior.
My point is the fictionalized version of “Trump supporters” portrayed in this thread mirror’s Trump himself, not any real human I’ve ever encountered outside r/The_Donald, which aren’t even real people.