The Three Justifications for Voting for Trump
I keep hearing my Republican friends say “Of course I don’t like Donald Trump. However…”
I’m not referring to those who agree with his divisive rhetoric and his view of a long-lost America that must be reclaimed. I’m not referring to the low-information voters who adore his alleged alpha-male image and angry, contrarian “plain talking.” I’m referring to that nice neighbor who put up a yard sign and said he’s voting for Trump for “moral reasons.” I’m also thinking of the uncle who cares that Trump is “appointing good judges.” And there’s that sensible co-worker who claims, “he’s good for the economy,” as she sees her retirement funds doing well.
These three mantras are a testament to the power and durability of memes, slogans, and what used to be called “The Big Lie.” These claims are made so often by Republicans that they have become “facts” to be weighed against the distaste of voting for Donald Trump. Let’s examine each one:
“Trump is the Moral Choice”:
This is a truly Orwellian claim about a man who is the embodiment of the seven deadly sins, but it’s become common among the Trump base.
To his supporters who define morality strictly in religious terms, Trump heralds — with his characteristic eloquence — Joe Biden would “hurt God.” Never mind that Trump ridicules and laughs at evangelicals behind their backs and uses bibles and prayers as props in public stunts… “Mr. Two-Corinthians” has somehow succeeded at cultivating the meme that he is “the chosen one” sent to fight against a purported “war on religion” and the ever-expanding rights of privacy concerning sexual identity, marriage, abortion, and medical procedures. Never mind also the glaring lack of morality in his own selfish personal character. Is this really about morality?
If it were, would the conversation include taking health insurance away from 21 million people during a pandemic, not to mention endangering many more with preexisting conditions? Would hundreds of thousands of extra COVID deaths due to Trump’s pride be an issue? Does minimizing the danger about COVID and ridiculing those who wear masks matter, not to mention willfully endangering his staff in the White House, his Secret Service detail, and his supporters at rallies?
Would it include 545 (or more) innocent children permanently kidnapped by policy design to deter immigration? Would lying more than 20,000 times as president be a moral issue? Would thieving, not paying bills, and profiteering off his office matter? How about admitted sexual assault, sexual harassment, affairs with porn stars, entering the dressing rooms of underage girls, and disgusting comments about his own daughter? Would making racist, misogynistic, discriminatory, hurtful, insensitive comments daily make this list? How about his love affair with authoritarians and murderous dictators?
And then there’s his utter lack of empathy. Every time Trump is asked a question, his answer is always about — and only about — how it affects him personally: his personal convenience, his wealth, his power, and his “ratings.” In the final debate, how did he answer Kristen Welker’s question (1:15 into debate) about whether he understood minority parents’ fears of their children being targeted? He attacked Biden and bragged about how he’s done more for the black community than anyone except maybe Lincoln.
Seriously, Donald Trump is the moral choice?
“Trump Appoints Good Judges”:
Another persistent meme among Republicans is that for all Trump’s warts, he does appoint good (i.e., conservative) judges. But wouldn’t any Republican president appoint conservative judges? Does anyone really believe that Donald J. Trump spent countless nights poring over law journals, reading opinions, researching statutes, studying the arguments for strict constructionism and original intent… In fact, is there any evidence that Trump is even familiar with the U.S. Constitution or congressional statutes? This is not sarcasm; his confusion and misunderstandings have been well documented. His aides constantly plead with him not to take illegal actions.
So how exactly did he nominate all these fantastic judges? Like all presidents, he took the advice (and ultimately consent) of senators, especially Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. More notably, he took the advice of the Federalist Society (famous for their promotion of preferred judges), of White House Counsel Don McGahn, of The Heritage Foundation, and of others. Trump is not known to listen to advice, but in this case it made his task so much easier and bought him good will with the party on an issue that he is uninterested in and uninformed of.
So, if one’s only concern is that a Republican president is available in the next four years to make judicial appointments and nothing else whatsoever matters about the executive functions of the presidency, then this is perhaps a reasonable position. However, continuing to endorse Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party sacrifices its values and reputation. In the long term, that is a dangerous Faustian bargain that endangers its future. Is it worth it?
In any case, Trump is not some mastermind of judicial selection.
“Trump Understands the Economy”:
From the beginning, many Trump voters claimed he was “a successful businessman.” Yet it was never clear how much he owed, how much of his wealth was inherited, how many times he didn’t pay his bills, how much was exaggerated, how many times he defaulted on debt, and how much was due purely to licensing his celebrity name to other businesses including The Apprentice television program.
Throughout his presidency we read a flood of reports about the inflation of his assets and the undercounting of his debt — both of which he struggles to keep secret, along with his tax records. We also learned of his (and his family’s) foreign entanglements, conflicts of interest, charging the taxpayers for every service his businesses could possibly provide, and outright corruption. We are learning this on a daily basis — so much that it is impossible to remember and keep track of it. His voters wanted a businessman… and they got one, one who was highly motivated to profit while in office and shrug off accountability like no president before him.
But even assuming Trump is a good businessman, does this transfer to the presidency? Business and politics are two very different professions, and for very good reasons. We want a government that cares about service, justice, and accountability as well as fiscal responsibility, and one in which profit is not the bottom line.
Now we are told that Trump personally built the best economy in the history of the country. This is an especially curious comment from the party that in 2012 vehemently argued that individual entrepreneurs — not government or society — were responsible for building the economy, and growth in the economy was certainly not due to any contributions of Barack Obama. (A good economy can be defined in many different ways, but it is fair to say that it requires both a secure society with a modern infrastructure, an educated and talented workforce, and a stable marketplace… as well as industrious entrepreneurs and a successful business culture.)
The bottom line is that the economy had recovered from the 2008 recession and was growing steadily before Trump took office. It continued along that path by every measure at roughly similar levels of improvement (employment, GDP growth, stock market gains, productivity) until the onset of COVID-19. (Prefer charts?)
Note also that while Obama was president, unemployment fell from nine or ten percent in his first year to less than five percent in his last year, and the deficit as a percentage of the economy was cut from 9.8% to 3.1% ($1.4 trillion to $600 billion). When Obama was elected, the Dow Jones industrial average was in free-fall, cratering at 6,627 just 45 days later (March 6, 2009), but by Trump’s inauguration, it had soared to 19,827.
It’s important to note that Trump’s record is not much different (in some ways worse) that the Obama years in spite of massive tax cuts and deficit spending, which was supposed to lead to huge growth rates. Of course, tax cuts and spending always stimulates growth in the economy, but at a cost to the deficit. In case you forgot, Trump is the candidate who promised that in eight years as president, we would pay off the entire national debt, which was almost $20 trillion at the time. This embarrassingly naïve promise would have required us to almost double the revenue at that time of about $3.5 trillion to get an extra $3 trillion dollars per year in tax increases and budget cuts — in order to get to a surplus of about $2.5 trillion a year.
Even if the imagined growth rates of 4.5–6% that Trump guaranteed materialized, this was impossible. Instead, we had roughly the same growth rates, and due to his tax cuts, doubled the deficit to a trillion in 2019, even before COVID-19 hit. (The 2020 deficit will exceed $3 trillion.) In fact, judging from his comments about solving the problem by fighting costly trade wars with China, it’s likely that during the campaign he didn’t even know the difference between a budget deficit and a trade deficit, two very different measures. As president, his gut instincts led to irrationally withdrawing the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the very agreement that excluded China and was designed by Bush and Obama to counter Chinese trade dominance.
Trump’s confusion about economics goes far beyond the deficit, the debt, and trade policy. It’s clear that as a candidate and at least into the beginning of his presidency he was confused about employment statistics, the Gross Domestic Product, the budget process, tax rates, the Federal Reserve Board, and international currency exchange rates.
The economy is a vast collection of forces and events and no one person is responsible for it, whether successful or not. Government can influence the economy, but not truly control it. As the most important person within that government, a competent and hard-working president can make a positive difference as a leader. But even an incompetent leader can’t really wreck the country’s economy.
That’s assuming there’s not a massive war, a climate catastrophe, or perhaps… a pandemic.
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So please, dear neighbor, dear uncle, dear colleague… None of these reasons justify voting for Donald Trump.
