Trump's Accomplishments

Although he was president for only four years, Trump truly accomplished more in his term than just about any other president, 1- or 2-term. Just so we don't forget, here's a small list:

• Tried to buy Greenland.
• Wanted to nuke hurricanes.
• Doctored a hurricane forecast map with a Sharpie.
• Attempted a coup to stay in power.
• Absconded with thousands of classified documents, lied about it and refused to give them back when the feds asked nicely.
• Sent unidentified federal officers to Portland, Oregon, to abduct protesters and spark a conflagration that could be used as a pretense for implementing martial law.
• Ordered peaceful protesters tear-gassed so he could pose for a photo-op with a Bible outside a church.
• Tried to blackmail Ukraine into manufacturing dirt for his 2020 campaign.
• Asked Russia for help in his 2016 campaign — and got it.
• Had a weird affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Remember the Helsinki summit?)
• Invited Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to an in-person meeting in the Oval Office, where he accidentally revealed top-secret intelligence.
• Wanted to withdraw the U.S. from NATO.
• Separated migrant parents from their children, locked the kids in cages and then failed to reunite them.
• Insisted that “raking” would prevent forest fires because “you’ve got to take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important.”
• Covered for Saudi Arabia after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered the gruesome murder and dismemberment of a U.S. journalist with a bone saw. (Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, owes Saudi Arabia $2 billion, and the crown prince has reportedly bragged about having Kushner “in his pocket.”)
• Intervened to get Kushner top-secret clearance after he was denied over concerns about foreign influence.
• Put Kushner in charge of Middle East peace.
• Embraced rampant nepotism.
• Touted injecting disinfectant as a COVID-19 cure.
• Touted ultraviolet light as a COVID-19 cure.
• Touted hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure.
• Touted ivermectin as a COVID-19 cure.
• Told people not to wear face masks to cut down the spread of COVID-19, even though they work.
• Actively discouraged COVID-19 testing.
• Refused to send federal aid to New York City amid the first COVID-19 wave because the virus was hitting Democratic-voting states hardest.
• “Jokingly” said on multiple occasions that he deserved to be president for more than two terms.
• Thought climate change was a Chinese hoax.
• Built an incomplete border wall that doesn’t work, wasn’t needed and wasn’t paid for by Mexico.
• Started a trade war with China that mainly hurt U.S. consumers.
• Threw food when angry.
• Saw no problem with his vice president potentially being hanged by a violent mob he’d summoned and sent to the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transition of power.
• Stared directly at the sun.
• Started his presidency with an easily disproved lie about the crowd size at his inauguration.
• Thought people needed an ID to buy cereal.
• Fired James Comey as FBI director because he didn’t like the bureau investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election. (Later, it was revealed that Trump’s campaign manager gave detailed internal polling data to a Russian intelligence agent.)
• Was a “_______ moron,” according to Rex Tillerson, his secretary of state.
• Fired the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s China-based pandemic response team — and then when a pandemic happened years later, said, “I don’t take responsibility at all” for COVID-19.
• Repeatedly embraced racism.
• Thought repeating “person, woman, man, camera, TV” would assure Americans of his mental stability.
• Tweeted literal gibberish — a lot.
• Lied all the time. (And still does.)
• Openly embraced and amplified QAnon conspiracy theories.
• Got impeached twice.
• Passed huge tax cuts for wealthy corporations ― and massively grew the national debt.
• Flip-flopped on whether the White House had ordered the USS John McCain be hidden so he wouldn’t get mad. (It did.)
• Called American military members who died in the line of duty “losers” and “suckers.”
• Claimed to have bone spurs to get out of military service.
• Binge-watched Fox News when he should have been working.
• Played so, so much golf, costing taxpayers more than $150M.
• Raked in cash from foreign interests at his Washington hotel in an operation sometimes described as the “epicenter” of a corrupt presidency.
• Held a rally that may have led to the death of Herman Cain.
• Allegedly directed his lawyer to commit campaign fraud to cover up that Trump cheated on his wife after she had recently given birth.
• Was accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women.
• Dismissed any bad news about himself as “fake.”
• Lied about voluntarily turning over his tax returns.
• Ate well-done steak — with ketchup.
• Described white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, as “very fine people.”
• Grossly abused the presidential pardon on his way out the door.
• Used private communication services extensively after arguing that Hillary Clinton should be jailed for having a private email server.
• Refused to release White House visitor logs.
• Went to Puerto Rico and threw paper towels at people desperate for actual hurricane aid.
• Discouraged exercise because he believes bodies are like batteries, with a finite amount of energy.

From: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-president-things-you-forgot_n_63890ec3e4b0d17409602b90

If you've come this far, here's a fact-checking article by Politico that compares the number of indictments for various presidents' administrations. You can probably guess how that turns out: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jan/09/facebook-posts/many-more-criminal-indictments-under-trump-reagan-/ But if not, here's a hint: Clinton 3, Obama zero, and Carter zero.

 

I copied the list verbatim (except for removing one expletive). The point isn't the accuracy of any particular point; it's the gestalt.

 

While this is all true, the fact remains that on many occasions when Trump has been asked to clarify his position on these hateful groups or to repudiate these hateful groups he has declined or sidestepped the issue. Even when asked specifically about his very fine people on both sides comment. The white nationalists believe Trump is on their side, the Oath Keepers believe that Trump is on their side, the Proud Boys believes that Trump is on their side. Why do they believe that? I think the reason is obvious, Trump wants them to believe it.

 

I do appreciate this sentiment. We just have to keep in mind that the vast majority of racists do not believe that they are racist, at least that is my belief. Also it's a general truth that many if not most people will believe whatever they want to believe. My parents were racists but denied it. For example, they were disgusted by mixed marriages between blacks and whites. They thought that blacks were less intelligent but better athletes than whites. These were stupid beliefs but they really weren't stupid people in general.

 

Pushing aside the arguable entries in this list (there are quite a few; especially the canard that he is a racist), one could provide an extensive list of numerous important accomplishments with relative ease. Let's not pretend that the pre-COVID Trump economy wasn't incredible (e.g., the lowest poverty rate in history; 3.5% unemployment; record high stock market; etc.); he did much for free speech and religious liberty; his energy policy was obviously superior to previous (and current) administrations; first substantive criminal justice reform; highly effective border policy; the establishment of the middle east accords; etc. etc. etc. Clearly, there is much to dislike and much to appreciate-- hence, half of the voting populace supported his second term.

 

It's Gish gallop.

The Gish gallop is a rhetorical technique that involves overwhelming your opponent with as many arguments as possible, with no regard for the accuracy, validity, or relevance of those arguments.

A person using the Gish gallop might attempt to support their stance by bringing up, in rapid succession, a large number of vague claims, anecdotal statements, misinterpreted facts, and irrelevant comments.

https://effectiviology.com/gish-gallop/

 

No. It's just a list of stuff from an article. I have no opponent to overwhelm.

 

"Well, that's enough of that."

“The fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives is: Conservatives believe man was created in God's image; liberals believe they are God.”

Ann Coulter – Treason

This thread is merely a continuation of a thread I started, Trump 2024. In that thread, I simply announced my support for President Trump. The mob then attempted to shout me down.

President Trump, and I –by extension, were accused of being racists. Neither President Trump nor I am under any obligation to prove we are not racists.

During the discussion, due to poor reading comprehension, an erroneous mass hysteria came to be; insisting that President Trump had called for the suspension of the Constitution. It was very ironic to read so many of you, who are so often very quick to denigrate the Bill of Rights and other parts of the Constitution, become apoplectic

The Trump 2024 Thread was closed, apparently due to the way I responded to a habitual cyberbully. The harsh reality is – the bully does not get to assault another and then set the rules of engagement

I'll be back.
I'm taking a little leave from DI for a while. My life is so rich away from the keyboard. In the interim, I ask you, DI colleagues, please review your recent behavior, is that really who you are? Who you aspire to be?

 

I absolutely LOVE this post!

 

I agree this is a continuation of the Trump 2024 thread in that if you support Trump, you can list all his accomplishments, and if you don't support Trump, this thread is an open invitation to bash Trump.

In terms of actual legislation, what did Trump accomplish? Pre-COVID, mainly the tax cut. Nothing else was done with Democrat approval.

People overestimate the power of the president. All the president does is sign bills.

Executive orders are a bunch of B.S. A lazy and temporary way to run the government.

Without 60 votes in the Senate, nothing can get through congress except one reconciliation bill per year.

There hasn't been much change in the past 20 years.

 

This thread is not a continuation of Charles thread. This was supposed to be a funny opening post. I thought it was funny. Now I could follow in the Charles vain and try to denigrate and insult people that weren't amused by the opening post but I really don't want to.

 

Five things Trump did right

I disagree with these, but the argument the writer makes is interesting.

 

I left out a funny thing my parents said about blacks. I think that they may have come up with this idea from their Scientology friends. I don't know anything about Scientology except that the founder wrote a bunch of science fiction novels that I very much enjoyed. Anyway, my Mother asked me once if I thought that a few hundred thousand years ago if space aliens could have landed on earth in flying saucers and had sex with humans. The offspring of this mating were blacks. So that is where black people came from. I told her that it would make more sense to say that a human could mate with a dog and produce an offspring because we would have to be genetically more compatible with a dog than a space alien.

I thought this was a funny story but didn't mention it earlier because I think it weakens my argument that my parents held some stupid beliefs but weren't stupid people in general. :-D

 

Before Trump became president, black people probably couldn't even walk do you remember that? They couldn't walk. They couldn't speak English. And now they're doing such great things. And they weren't doing so good before.

 

That is a very funny stand up comedian routine. Thank you.