# What would President Trump do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 13, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295 "2016-06-13T21:43:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/1 "2016-06-13T21:43:49Z")
Here’s the basic idea. Imagine that Donald Trump is the President of the United States. How would he handle a currently significant issue? A few rules: 1. This is not a joke thread. If you want to just bash Trump, do it elsewhere. Same thing if you see this as an opportunity to bash Obama or Clinton. I’m not saying you have to support Trump; you can post how you think he would handle a situation poorly but only serious responses not jokes. And people who support Trump and want to post how he would handle a situation well are of course also invited to respond. 2. No retrofitting of history. No posts about how if Trump had been President four years ago we wouldn’t be dealing with this situation. For the sake of the thread, assume he just became President last week and everything else is exactly the same as it is in the real world. 3. I’d prefer to focus on what President Trump’s short-term immediate responses to a current situation would be rather than long-term policy plans. 4. Feel free to introduce new situations as they arise. But keep it limited to events that are actually occurring; no hypothetical situations that might occur other than the central premise of Trump being President. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/2 "2016-06-13T21:46:38Z")
To start out, the current big news story is the mass shooting in Orlando. How would President Trump respond? Would he call for a change in gun laws? If he did, what direction would he be seeking to move those laws in? Trump has made immigration a major issue. Would he seek changes in immigration policies based on the shooting? What would Trump’s response be to the gay community? To focus on the second set of questions I raised, Trump has suggested banning all Muslims from entering the country. Would that be a wise policy? Would it be relevant in this situation when the shooter was born in the United States? Should President Trump seek to deport Muslims who are living in the United States? Would such a policy be Constitutional? ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/3 "2016-06-13T21:47:41Z")
A lot less than he imagines. Just to begin with, there’s going to be a hell of a lot of scrutiny of his Cabinet nominees. We might actually see one or two rejected by the Senate. (Rarely happens.) He’s going to issue a flurry of Executive Orders…and that will lead to a big clogging up of the Federal court system, as he gets reminded, gently, “You can’t do that.” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/4 "2016-06-13T21:55:18Z")
Raid the treasury, make the government pay for his personal expenses, refuse to pay our bills, blame everybody else when things start to go south, and then resign when the well runs dry so that he can brag about how much money he made off his term. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/5 "2016-06-13T22:05:18Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > A lot less than he imagines. > > Just to begin with, there’s going to be a hell of a lot of scrutiny of his Cabinet nominees. We might actually see one or two rejected by the Senate. (Rarely happens.) > > He’s going to issue a flurry of Executive Orders…and that will lead to a big clogging up of the Federal court system, as he gets reminded, gently, “You can’t do that.” > [@Smapti](#): > > Raid the treasury, make the government pay for his personal expenses, refuse to pay our bills, blame everybody else when things start to go south, and then resign when the well runs dry so that he can brag about how much money he made off his term. As I said in the OP, I’d rather focus on President Trump’s short-term responses to situations rather than his long-term policies. I’d like to try to develop a sense of how President Trump would handle the job on a day-to-day basis. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/6 "2016-06-13T22:13:43Z")
Trump has said that President Obama has been wrong for not being quick enough to declare that “radical Islamic terror” was responsible for the shootings. So we can presume that President Trump would have made this declaration by now. How would he follow through on that? Would President Trump seek a military response against Islamic terrorist groups? Would he be calling for the sending of troops to the Middle East to fight ISIS? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/7 "2016-06-13T22:39:47Z")
I seriously don’t mean to threadshit, but I can’t see that any answers to these questions are at all possible. I’m sure that Trump doesn’t honestly know how he would respond if he were the actual president. How is any of our wild-ass speculation meaningful? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/8 "2016-06-13T22:47:31Z")
[“Open up the libel laws”](http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/02/donald-trump-libel-laws-219866) so that he can sue anyone who dares to criticize him. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/9 "2016-06-13T23:03:58Z")
Neither party in congress wants to cooperate with him, so very little. Whatever he does do would mostly just be talking to the media, using the bully pulpit and whatever executive powers he has. He’d likely be a 1 term president after it becomes obvious he can’t accomplish the stuff he talks about. I think deep inside Trump knows he is in over his head, and I think he is a pragmatist who would hire the most competent people he could to actually run the country. So in that regards, I don’t think it would be terrible. I can’t name any actual policy changes he would do though, I have no idea what policies he can do via executive branch vs which ones he needs the legislature or courts to agree with. I think a lot of his talk about anti-immigrants is just talk, I don’t think he’d actually do any of it. As far as banning muslim immigrants, he may use the executive branch to ban the immigration of male muslims of military age, assuming he has that power. But the courts may overturn that, I have no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/10 "2016-06-13T23:10:45Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I seriously don’t mean to threadshit, but I can’t see that any answers to these questions are at all possible. I’m sure that Trump doesn’t honestly know how he would respond if he were the actual president. How is any of our wild-ass speculation meaningful? The man is the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee. I think it’s reasonable to speculate about what he would do if he was President. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/11 "2016-06-13T23:15:09Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Neither party in congress wants to cooperate with him, so very little. Whatever he does do would mostly just be talking to the media, using the bully pulpit and whatever executive powers he has. He’d likely be a 1 term president after it becomes obvious he can’t accomplish the stuff he talks about. > > I think deep inside Trump knows he is in over his head, and I think he is a pragmatist who would hire the most competent people he could to actually run the country. _ **No, he doesn’t** _ > **[Of Course Trump Chose a Global Warming Denier as His Energy Adviser](https://slate.com/technology/2016/05/trump-picks-climate-change-denier-as-energy-adviser.html)** > > Donald Trump picks global warming denier Rep. Kevin Cramer as his energy adviser. > [@](#): > > Donald Trump has announced his new energy adviser: Rep. Kevin Cramer (R–North Dakota). > > I hope you’re sitting down for this shocker: Cramer is a global warming denier. And to be clear, he’s not just a denier. He’s a crackpot. > > First, watch this video put together by the folks here at Slate to get an overview of this guy’s view on science: > [@](#): > > It’s the degree (so to speak) to which he denies it that’s staggering. He’s part of the tiny, tiny head-in-the-sand deniers who won’t even acknowledge the planet’s heating up. That line in the video where he says, “We know the globe is cooling; number one we know that” is from 2012, just a few years ago. We’ve known since long before then the planet is heating up, and the past few years the warming has gone into overdrive; each of the past seven months have been the hottest of those months globally. To actually say out loud that the Earth is cooling would make Orwell blush. > > But he wasn’t done; he also added, “… the idea that CO2 is somehow causing global warming is on its face fraudulent.” > > Holy. Baloney. He’s not just denying global warming, he’s denying a link between carbon dioxide and the planet’s increasing temperature. For the record, carbon dioxide being a greenhouse gas has been a matter of scientific fact since 1896. And that is from our own **Bad Astronomer** , who is so busy nowadays working at Slate, Crash Course and the Discovery Chanel. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/12 "2016-06-13T23:20:27Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I think deep inside Trump knows he is in over his head, and I think he is a pragmatist who would hire the most competent people he could to actually run the country. So in that regards, I don’t think it would be terrible. If Trump acts according to past form, he’d hire whoever was cheapest, and then throw them under the bus whenever they became inconvenient. Or threaten to sue them and pay them 70 cents on the dollar. This is who he is. This is what he does. It’s all about personal self-aggrandizement. ---
**Author:** ![escaped](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@escaped](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/escaped)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2016, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/13 "2016-06-13T23:29:10Z")
I believe trump willself destruct and ge thimself in enough hot water to lose relection. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/14 "2016-06-14T00:12:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > As I said in the OP, I’d rather focus on President Trump’s short-term responses to situations rather than his long-term policies. I’d like to try to develop a sense of how President Trump would handle the job on a day-to-day basis. Fair enough, but I’ll amplify what I said: there will be trouble, right off the bat, with his Cabinet nominees. He will nominate people from business, not government, and will be very unpleasant about it when there is push-back from the Senate. He will react as if personally attacked. As time goes on, the same problem will happen with his Ambassadorial nominees. He’ll appoint utter bozos, and the Senate will have to nix some of them. Trump will fly into a huge rage. He might bypass the constitution and send his nominees to foreign posts as “personal envoys.” In the opening days of the administration, it is traditional for foreign ambassadors to pay a courtesy call. I would expect him to behave discourteously to some of them, and inelegantly to them all. He’ll mispronounce countries’ names, and might even make ethnic jokes. He really is that big a yokel. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Krupe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Leo\_Krupe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Krupe)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/15 "2016-06-14T00:42:22Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Neither party in congress wants to cooperate with him, so very little. [snip] I agree with the full post. Trump doesn’t know how to cooperate and compromise, and when you get down to it, that’s what politics is. Sure, there’s a certain amount of “grab 'em by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow,” but it’s really about getting deals done. Supposedly, Trump knows how to do that, but what we’ve seen in his public persona since his campaign began suggests something else. In all seriousness, I imagine it would be similar to the dictator’s speech from Bananas I linked to in another thread. Although the meltdown wouldn’t be literally that crazy, but compared to American presidencies (and failures thereof) of the past, it would be sadly comical. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/16 "2016-06-14T01:51:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The man is the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee. I think it’s reasonable to speculate about what he would do if he was President. Sure, but only in generalities. You’ve deliberately side-stepped those for specifics. Which is flatly ridiculous. And you haven’t gotten one answer for specifics, because there aren’t any. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/17 "2016-06-14T02:06:45Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > The man is the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee. I think it’s reasonable to speculate about what he would do if he was President. It’s _reasonable_ to speculate, but it doesn’t follow that our speculations can be meaningful or useful. The fact is that Trump is an angry and incoherent toddler that we don’t know very well, and his reactions when placed in situations that he has never yet experienced are hard to predict. Where Trump has already said what he would do in relation to any particular matter, we can speculate (though I think not with any great confidence) that he might attempt to to that. Where he hasn’t said, we can only speculate wildly. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/18 "2016-06-14T02:11:55Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Sure, but only in generalities. You’ve deliberately side-stepped those for specifics. Which is flatly ridiculous. And you haven’t gotten one answer for specifics, because there aren’t any. So you’re saying the future is a complete mystery and we have no way of even speculating on what might happen in a Trump Presidency or, I assume, in a Clinton Presidency. What do you plan on doing on Election Day; flipping a coin? Or does making a plan for the future violate your principles? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/19 "2016-06-14T02:43:35Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > _ **No, he doesn’t** _ > > [Trump picks climate change denier as energy adviser.](http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2016/05/20/trump_picks_climate_change_denier_as_energy_advisor.html) > > And that is from our own **Bad Astronomer** , who is so busy nowadays working at Slate, Crash Course and the Discovery Chanel. Wow, thanks for that link. Things like this does not bode well for a Trump presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295/20 "2016-06-14T02:46:34Z")
Here is [why](http://www.poynter.org/2016/donald-trump-announces-plans-to-deny-washington-post-press-credentials/416661/) every news origination in the country is going to go after The Donald’s Balls (or should I say, “balls”…). Yessiree! Tee-Hee. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-president-trump-do/757295.md?page=2)