This, exactly. I wasn’t going to bother to post that, because it seems a bit of a minor semantics argument. But since you broke the ice…
Hate to me is a very personal emotion - I’m not capable of hating someone I don’t know. I do have utter contempt for him though. I feel in context that is good enough for government work 
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And this, I think, is at the root of the beyond-visceral (if that’s even possible) dislike: the disappointment so many of us feel that, after all the progress of the last n years, so much of the country is so . Really thought we were past that, for the most part: that the people who are like that were fewer and kind of knew they were wrong on some level. Their legitimization saddens and terrifies me.
There are many, many good reasons to strongly dislike Trump as enumerated in detail in this thread so far. But I’d like to mention another one that I don’t think has come up yet: his constant whining.
Is there anyone and I mean anyone in this world who has money and fame and privilege yet who spends all of their considerable airtime constantly whining that you admire? Is there anyone who is a perpetual victim, the most oppressed person who has ever been oppressed who actually attracts you with their victimhood? He has been whining since he started his political career despite ample evidence in the public record that says the President of the United States is going to be under constant, sometimes literal attack at any and all times.
Trump has no ability to cope. All he can offer is complaints. Why would anybody want to follow a person like that? He is literally useless and the world becomes a better place the second he is gone because he won’t be sucking up any more oxygen just so he can bitch up another storm about how unfair his life is. I don’t care, Trump. Why anyone would follow such a weak, useless perpetual victim is beyond me. You will never gain anything from his whining and he’ll always have something new to whine about.
I feel for the most part the opposite, I don’t hate anyone I know personally, but Trump is among a quite small group of people that I don’t know personally but do hate. My definition being that I wish them misfortune and would be glad if they were removed from the earth.
Exactly my feelings. It seems to me that he personifies the Ugly American which most Europeans has learned to despise.
UNLESS you secretly want to fondle kids (grab pussies, ditch NATO, kiss Putin on the mouth) and have been afraid to admit it in public up to now.
Here’s a guy who voices out loud the ugly, sick, illegal, destructive, cruel things that you’ve been thinking-- and he’s the freakin’ president of the USA! Finally, it’s okay to admit-- nay, shout from the rooftops!– that you really want to burn down the government, kill all the rich people, grab every pussy within reach, split up the families of those illegals (who are taking OUR jobs!) and watch the parents weep and moan, shoot the finger at those snobby in-tee-leck-choo-uhls who think they’re better than me ‘cause they listen to NPR and read books. This big ol’ gun and my hero Donald J. Trump say I’M the one that’s better’n’ you, you pussy pink librul! 
As has been said above, trump gave permission for the creepy crawlies to come out from under the rocks. Many of those closet haters turned out to be Republican office holders. I was surprised there were so many – I guess I was naive.
I 100% agree with your post. The only possible positive is now that the proto-fascist movement, and all the deplorables, have been identified, and pose a serious threat to the USA, it can hopefully be addressed. The jury is still out on that though. There’s a sad possibility that the Republicans will win, and they’re committed now to the fascist course. So hopefully your fellow Americans vote accordingly.
No. No. No. No. This is terrible attitude. I dislike Trump, but the idea that everyone who doesn’t want a pet or doesn’t particularly like animals is untrustworthy is just wrongheaded and offensive and without a reasonable basis, IMO… Likewise, there is no reason to believe that just because an animal dislikes a “new” person that there is anything bad about that person.
I’d agree with the precept that Trump cares about nothing but his own popularity and attention. He’s willing to say and do anything to that end.
I don’t think that he himself cares about causing controversy for its own sake. That behavior is just instrumental to getting attention from his base, and depends on what his base wants. His base love trolling the left, they want to see a guy who trolls the left, so that’s what he does. The only guiding principle in his head is getting attention. There is no other.
If somehow trolling stopped getting attention from his base, then he’d pivot and do whatever new thing they want. But that’s not likely to happen because trolling is an easy thing to want, and an easy thing to do.
The OP poses the wrong question. The real mystery is the slavish devotion displayed by his admirers, gadding about with flags and banners like tweens at a Bieber concert. Who the hell are these people? Trump wears his insecurities like a cheap, baggy suit. Weak, needy, spiteful, petulant and flatulent. Isn’t the number one goal of a ‘strongman’ the projection of strength? But somehow being a whiny little punk is acceptable? Mystifying.
I saw a headline recently about Florida having more lead pipes than other states. Perhaps we’re inching closer to an explanation for this whole sorry spectacle.
Right? That’s what makes those over-the-top depictions of him as a strong manly man even more risible (is that the right word?). He’s such a whiny toddler. Man up already! Jeez.
Because his followers are also weak, useless perpetual victims. If they aren’t complaining about how the sun shining on them today is a form of persecution, they are complaining about how the potential of the sun shining on them tomorrow terrifies them.
I don’t know that hate is the right word. I don’t really hate anyone. I feel the same way about Trump as I would a serial killer. I certainly don’t like them, I want them to face consequences, I don’t think that they should be free to continue to cause harm to society, and I don’t understand why there are those who worship them.
If anything, I don’t understand the intensity of the love for Trump. People not only vote for him to their own detriment, they donate beyond what they can afford to his grift, they commit violence in his name, they even go to jail for him. I don’t understand how someone can look at him and say, “Yes, this is a man I will destroy my own life for.”
I’d ask them to explain - calmly and without exaggeration - exactly/specifically/precisely what Trump has done to drive his worshippers into such a frenzy?
This morning while doing the barn chores (association of ideas), I reflected that I can actually visualize Trump behind bars, flinging his own shit at people passing by. This is something I previously thought reserved to the clinically insane.
Yeah, I’ve mentioned that in other threads. So many people have destroyed their lives, reputations, careers for this obvious con man. Why this loser? It’s so weird. I just don’t get a cult of personality growing around that whiny, racist, loser personality.
My first impression of him was that he is an asshole. That’s it- an asshole. I don’t like assholes and they shouldn’t be president.
Oh yeah, the grand old fashioned use of the word ‘despite’!
Despite: outrage, injury, contempt, disdain
Early Middle English: from Old French despire, from Latin despicere, from de- ‘down’ + specere ‘look at’.
Middle English: from Old French despoillier, from Latin despoliare ‘rob, plunder’ (from spolia ‘spoil’).
Mid 17th century Modern English: from Latin despondere ‘give up, abandon’, from de- ‘away’ + spondere ‘to promise’.
That covers it very precisely.
Hate is such a personal emotion, CFSG doesn’t rise to that level.
Well if the original thread has apparently run its course, and we’re gonna veer off into dissecting the meaning of “hate”, then I’ll play along.
I guess maybe I don’t have the level of “hate” for him that someone might oh, I don’t know, “hate” an adulterous ex-spouse that ran off with the kids, etc., or “hate” someone who bilks your grandmother out of her life savings, but I can’t think of anyone else’s obituary who I’ll (hopefully be around to) take more comfort in reading (wasn’t there some old Mark Twain quote about that, I think).
For me it’s about all the reasons that have been mentioned in this thread (some of those I’d somehow forgotten about). The division and “hate” that he’s brought to this country, which it wouldn’t surprise me if we do end up in some sort of “Civil War 2.0” after the 2024 election, for me is unforgivable.
I actually have an adulterous ex-spouse who lied to our kids and fucked up my relationship with them (for awhile). I hate her, but I hate Trump more.
I’ve held off contributing to this thread. My feelings about Trump around the board are well known, I imagine.
I clocked that fucker as bad news for as long ago as I was aware of him. His corruption, including his ties to Russia, were well known long before he entered the political realm. As soon as he started with his racist birtherism garbage, I knew he would plumb the depths in his quest for money and power. It scared the shit out of me, and I still couldn’t comprehend how low he would go.
I co-sign nearly every post in this thread outlining reasons for my feelings. Trump is the worst human being ever to hold the reins of power in this country, so far as I’m concerned. Nixon was a scary guy, but he was a babe in the woods compared to Trump when it came to perverting government functions for his own benefit. Even Nixon respected the Constitution enough to resign. Trump? He’ll gin up an insurrection and ruin thousands of lives without batting an eye.
And that’s the thing that for me, the thing inspires the greatest revulsion: His willingness to destroy the entire country in service to his self-perceived needs. There is not a shred of ethics, intelligence, empathy, kindness or love in that wretched shell of a human being.
I’ve watched him take a wrecking ball to our core founding principle: The rule of law. He has created (with a lot of help from craven Republicans) a deep mistrust in the judicial branch of government. Some of it is valid due to his shitty judicial appointments, especially in the Supreme Court. Much of it is based on his nasty rhetoric about “Democrat” judges.
In every way possible, he injected the corrosive element of partisanship into how we view our judiciary: No longer an impartial forum for dispute resolution or criminal justice, many in this country now view every judicial action with suspicion. It will take years if not decades to rebuild that trust. If ever. And for what? To enrich himself and protect only him from the justice he so profoundly deserves.
I can’t call it hate. More like revulsion. Revulsion is not a focused emotion, but it’s one I feel when confronted with something so twisted, non-empathetic and just plain evil that my body responds with an involuntary shudder. Trump engenders it to such an extent that I look away when his image flashes across my tee vee. I look away a lot.
When someone tells you who they are, believe them. I wish that we as a nation had.