Persona/personality/Trump’s characteristics: Tweeting, immature, inconsistent, prone to deception and exaggeration, little grasp of complex situations or of how things actually work, etc. Policies: The wall, tax cuts, Supreme Court nominees, judges for the circuits, withdrawal from Syria, meeting with North Korean leaders, etc.
AIUI, Trump’s policies actually aren’t much different than what any other Republican president would be doing in his stead. And compared to George W. Bush, his wars in Syria and Afghanistan have cost only a tiny pittance in comparison to the thousands of lives lost and trillions of dollars spent in Iraq. No major terrorist attacks or major economic collapse have happened (yet) under his watch. Building a border wall is something a President Cruz (or Rubio, Jeb, Pence, Ryan, Romney etc.) might very well be advocating for, albeit in much less bellicose fashion. President Obama deported a great many undocumented immigrants as well during his 8 years (in fact, isn’t Obama technically the record holder for most deportations?) The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act isn’t at all different than what other Republicans would have done, if they were president.
So it seems that the vast majority of opposition against Trump is more against his persona than his policies? (sure, most Trump opponents oppose both, but this thread is asking about which they object to more)
Policies.
His persona brings shame to the office of the POTUS but a new president can mend a lot of that.
His policies are actively damaging the country, possibly for years to come.
Sure, he’s a lying, stupid, asshat, but Trump’s persona isn’t the issue.
His destruction of international relationships and our standing on the world stage, his impact on civil rights, his attempts to create a cult of personality around the Executive Branch, his war on the Press - all of those things are the real problems (and I have left sooooo many things off that list).
His persona has not changed in forty years. He was a frightened, bigoted buffoon then and is still now.
But he now in a position to impact the future of my country and the world through implementing frightened, bigoted policies and that cannot be allowed to stand.
Like others, I can’t separate his persona from his policies. That’s pretty much the case with everyone.
I first became aware of Donald Trump back in the '70s, and immediately considered him the most repugnant human being on the planet. And now he’s much worse, and can do much more damage.
e.g. Climate change. He repeats a couple of popular myths, plus throws in some nonsense about hair spray, and then pulls the US out of the paris accords.
These things are not separable.
If he’d bothered to crack open a fucking pamphlet on CC, or if he didn’t talk or make decisions on important things before investigating, the US would not be on the terrible course that it is.
Trump is an iconoclast. He breaks the rules, and that makes people uncomfortable. Especially people who are living off the public teat. This applies to both his personality and his policies. And it applies to both Republicans and Democrats. As an anarcho-capitalist, I find him both amusing and refreshing.
How…juvenile? No that’s close but not quite right…
There’s definitely willful ignorance but also a good bit of bigotry and amusement at the suffering of others in this statement…je ne se qaoi…
The best I can come up with for now is Sociopathic Self Entitlement, but let me work on it…
“Let’s shut down the entire government just so that the Dems and my base know that my farts are the smelliest farts ever.”
— is that policy or personality?
“It’s not enough to shut down the border. Let’s also torture the little children of the asylum seekers. My base will love it!”
— is that policy or personality?
“When you revise the tax code to help the rich; make sure to find clever little tricks to transfer wealth from blue voters to red voters!”
— is that policy or personality?
“Obama negotiated foreign deals? Let’s tear those up; set things back; and eventually come up with something almost as good … but with my name on it!”
— is that policy or personality?
Well, that’s the narrative that gets pushed, but if you really think about it, he’s just the ultimate, classic politician who will say anything to get what he wants for himself, distorting the truth, flip-flopping if necessary, unprincipled, and most of all, entirely fake. Probably the fakest thing about him is this fiction that he’s an “outsider” and an “iconoclast.” Please–that dog-and-pony show has become pretty transparent.
Hi. I’m Canadian, and a complete outsider to this. But I would say that Trump is a mysoginist, narcissist, racist, sociopath, with an IQ lower than 120.
I’m pretty sure no other Republican President would have imposed tariffs on steel imports, or engaged in this kind of trade war with China, or withdrawn from TPP, or demanded a wall on the Mexico border, or ended the Iran nuclear deal.
I guess I’m an outlier. I dislike his persona more.
His policies are typical republican policies. I’d expect the same from Romney or pence.
But his person’s has destroyed the world’s ability to trust or respect us, and destroyed a lot of Americans ability to trust and respect each other. He has ushered in an age when being openly hostile to democracy is perfectly mainstream. His gross incompetence could lead to very bad consequences like war or economic issues.