Why would a Republican dislike Trump? Ask the McCain or Bush families.
Of those things mentioned earlier, if I was a Republican I would dislike him most because of foreign policy. The way he openly admires dictators is bad enough, but the way he has repeatedly trashed our allies and shown contempt for NATO is even worse. This flies in the face of 75 years of post-war agreement among Democrats and Republicans alike that strong alliances are key to preserving the world order. Sure, some are probably unhappy with protectionism but I would think that the collapse of American leadership on the world stage is the most troubling from a Republican viewpoint.
Leaving aside character reasons, they are plenty of reasons to dislike Trump.
Almost all of the good things he has done would have been done by any Republican, and most of the bad things would not have. In terms of remaking the judiciary Bush did more, but had more time, and 90% of the credit for that goes to the Senate who actually approves the nominees. He has done a good job there but nothing any Republican in his position would not have done. He has appointed some good cabinet members and they have done a good job but they were choices almost any republican president would have made. Possibly Carson might be a Trump only appointee and I give him credit for that. Rolling back regulations is a standard republican idea and I don’t see evidence that he has been especially effective at it.
In foreign policy his best idea was to allow the commanders to go after ISIS harder and that worked out great, but other than that there is not much to celebrate. There has been alot of effort to North Korea but I don’t see any real progress and I think cancelling military exercises is a big mistake. Rejecting the Iran deal was a good idea any republican would have done. Playing with Ukraine aid for political reasons was stupid and we are lucky nothing bad came of it.
I don’t see any progress in attacking entitlements or even any indication that he wants to or thinks it is a problem.
The tax cuts were good, but that was something any republican could have done. Even a democrat would have been forced to lower the corporate tax at some point. The biggest disappointment is the tariffs which is a type of tax. He has raised tariffs by large amounts, hurting American businesses, and then tried to bail those businesses out with huge amounts of spending. Taxing and spending is the opposite of what a Republican president is supposed to do, and no other presidential candidate would have done that if elected.
I don’t see much progress on his signature issue, immigration. The small parts of the wall are finally being built, but his outspokenness on the issue has made compromise less likely. Getting Mexico to get tougher on immigrants passing through was a big win, but that is pretty much it.
He has been a better president than I feared, and I am planning to vote for him this time, but he was the worst candidate of the 2016 republicans and I still would rather vote for almost any other republican.
There are many, MANY Republicans that wish he would stop tweeting. My personal opinion is that if he stopped tweeting (right after he won) his approval rating would be up 10 points. I think it would also deplete some ammo for his detractors. Others disagree, saying he needs it to counter the media, but I don’t think so. It’s kind of too late to make a difference now however, the damage to civil discourse is already done.
I think this is true. I’m not (currently) a Republican, and I usually vote for Democrats, but I tend to agree with many of the traditional Republican economic policies and at least some of their social ethic. I find it hard to imagine ever voting for a Republican again after Trump.
Assuming he loses (and I can’t bring myself to do this yet), the most interesting thread in this forum might be the one called “What now for the GOP?”
We may actually have had one of those already but it’ll be tons more interesting to discuss if they’ve put all their hopes into this awful president and been defeated in a landslide.
Not just Republicans but establishment CONSERVATIVES are more pissed off at Trump than the Democrats. The Bush/Kasich brand of conservatives has been promising for 20 years what Trump has delivered in three. They’ve been smoked and their egos are bruised.
People still haven’t figured out that Trump is not an ideologue. That’s not how he thinks. He doesn’t see the world in the black and white of liberal versus conservative. He’s not comfortable talking about it. He’s a businessman. He doesn’t play by the rules. He sees a task and gets it done. He’s nice to everybody but he fights back if he is attacked.
Remember, the Republican establishment HATED Ronald Reagan as well.
One of the reasons Trump ignored the House race in the last election and put his energies into the Senate races was precisely for one of the reasons you hate him. He is completely realigning the court system. He has appointed judges who follow the LAW and not just prop up liberal sources.
And I can see why you’re pissed. Most of the things you liberals want would never pass a Congress. You can only get them through the court system. If a Republican Congress passes something and a Republican president signs it into law and you don’t like it, you can use the court system to overturn the will of the people.
Trump has been patiently taking that away from you. I expect major street riots of liberals when Ruth Bader Ginsberg finally takes her dirt nap and is replaced by Trump.
What reason do Republicans have to believe in Trump. He’s made promises that he didn’t keep, he’s made the wrong choices multiple times, and, worst of all, during hurricane Irma, he told people to shoot the hurricane! All he’s really done for my community is show how you don’t have to be smart to notice that he’s made america worse everyday. Even common citizens would know not to strengthen a hurricane by giving it something hard and metal to fling.
Probably the reasons why Republicans believe in Trump (at least 91 percent polled) is because he is the greatest president in the history of America. He created the greatest economy of all time with ZERO Democrat help whatsoever.
If you have found a source with the “shoot the hurricane” lie and you believed it, I’ve got some Pacific Oceanfront property in Iowa I’ll be glad to sell you, real cheap. I live in Southwest Florida and was DIRECTLY in the path of this Category 5 nightmare. The president NEVER said any such thing. Most of the news we were getting anyway was from our brilliant Governor Rick Scott, but anyone claiming Trump said such an idiotic thing is a liar.
To copy and paste myself from a different thread:
I’ll also note:
Many of us are painfully aware that Trump is not an ideologue; we figured that out a long time ago. While he has many prejudices, he has few real ideas. Even The Wall (that Mexico is going to pay for…any day now, I’m sure) was initially not really anything Trump actually cared about. It was just a throwaway line in a speech, but the crowd loved it, and if Trump believes in anything, it’s getting a big crowd to whoop and holler and cheer his name.
Because he isn’t an ideologue; he’s a narcissistic demagogue. He doesn’t care about ideas–I don’t think he even really cares about bad ideas, although he certainly promotes many of those–he ONLY cares about himself (because that’s just how narcissists are), and everyone else is just a means to an end, whether lining Trump’s pockets or gratifying Trump’s ego.
Here you go folks: The Greatest Economy Of All Time! (Hint: The blue line and the numbers on the left are like a golf score: High is bad, low is good.)
Now to be fair, even under a competent POTUS, that line and that number would quite likely look pretty scary. But look at the blue line BEFORE it takes off like a Saturn V; notice that it hit a peak (a normal, mountain-type peak, not a straight vertical line) in late 2009, then started sliding gradually back down all through the presidency of Barack Obama (D), and then did continue declining for the first years of the Trump Presidency, before the Greatest Economy Of All Time! fell off a cliff.
So: NOT, actually, The Greatest Economy Of All Time! and NOT, actually, “ZERO Democrat help whatsoever”.
OK, to be completely fair, that one does seem to be a garbled re-telling of what was intended as a joke by some random guy from Florida.
I thought “greatest president in the history of America” was a joke post. No?
…
Many of us are painfully aware that Trump is not an ideologue; we figured that out a long time ago. While he has many prejudices, he has few real ideas.
That’s true. Most of what he has done to accomplish this miracle of creating the greatest economy of all time has been by following the Reagan model. Admittedly Trump was a lot quicker on the draw and got results much faster. Trump is a genius businessman. He’s in his element.
Even The Wall (that Mexico is going to pay for…any day now, I’m sure) was initially not really anything Trump actually cared about. It was just a throwaway line in a speech, but the crowd loved it, and if Trump believes in anything, it’s getting a big crowd to whoop and holler and cheer his name.
With the new trade deal and new revenues coming in from Mexico, that country IS paying for the wall.
Because he isn’t an ideologue; he’s a narcissistic demagogue. He doesn’t care about ideas–I don’t think he even really cares about bad ideas, although he certainly promotes many of those–he ONLY cares about himself (because that’s just how narcissists are), and everyone else is just a means to an end, whether lining Trump’s pockets or gratifying Trump’s ego.
What politician ISN’T an narcissistic demagogue, (other than Reagan)? And how can you say he’s lining his pockets when he is WORKING FOR FREE and his company is losing MILLIONS of dollars because he can’t work it?
How about the egomaniacal Obama, who totally screwed the American economy and retired, having made $70 million off his job?
So far, Trump has NOT gotten richer in this job. But show me ONE Democrat who hasn’t gotten richer because of the office.
All this “miracle of creating the greatest economy of all time” talk would have been a pretty ludicrous argument a month ago. But to be making it now really kind of defies belief. At this point, it’s a line of argument worthy of “Baghdad Bob”. “There are no American infidels in Baghdad–Never!”
…As American tanks can be seen right behind him, merrily rampaging through the city.
Aaand it looks like the Coalition forces just captured Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf.