Donald Trump Is Bad and None of This Is Okay

After the United States Presidential Election of 2024 was called for former President Donald Trump on November 5, I’ve been letting my thoughts simmer and collect. But my way of processing them fully is to put them down here. Naturally, after one political party and its candidate loses, the recriminations begin: who and what is to blame? How could this happen? I’m not someone who is going to offer political strategy for the Democratic Party and what they could have done differently in the 2024 campaign, or what they can do differently in the upcoming 2026 election and/or the 2028 election. I’ll leave that to other people. I do believe one data point is worth emphasizing, though. Regardless of what anyone thought about Kamala Harris as the choice for the Democratic ticket, she was up against the headwinds every Western democracy was facing post-COVID: inflation and voters blaming the incumbent officeholder for that inflation. It doesn’t matter if the ship was turning against inflation, as it was here and among the best of any of the other Western countries, the blame was baked in and evidently difficult to overcome.

What I do want to say is this: Nine years into Trump’s MAGA movement, from when he came down that golden escalator in 2015 to announce his run for president, to this past Tuesday, whether it was the nearly 63 million voters in 2016, the 74 million voters in 2020, or the nearly 75 million voters in 2024, I will never fully understand how my fellow Americans — particularly, family members, friends, and colleagues, all of whom I consider otherwise good, intelligent people — could vote for him. Yes, I know many of the stated reasons, such as, again, inflationary concerns and the economy writ large, concerns over immigration, so-called progressive overreach (more commonly referred to by “woke” or DEI or remember CRT?), with particular salience given to the “trans issue” and all manner of other culture war issues, or those common refrains, “he’s a businessman” and/or “he’s not a normal politician.” I also know at some level, all of the stated reasons also have other, sometimes far nastier, iterations (I’m just not sure how widespread it is), i.e., perceptions of the economy aren’t tethered to reality but rather one’s political tribe and “vibes”; immigration concerns are a polite way of describing demonization of foreigners and unjustified fear of immigrants; progressive overreach is a tough criticism to take seriously given how the right wants to control speech and culture, too, just in their way, and of course, also demonization and unjustified fear of trans individuals; he’s not actually a good businessman, but rather a good brander and marketer to convince people he is a good businessman, and at this point, when one of two major American political parties nominates a guy three cycles in a row and he wins two of those times, he is a politician and he is the establishment. Two common themes through all any of these versions of support for Trump is also (and again, I’m not sure how widespread it actually is) 1.) a desire to make the “libs mad” whatever the means and ends may be, which is to say, there are not actual principles at stake because the principle is whatever makes the libs mad; and 2.) conspiracy-thinking, again, untethered from reality and facts on the ground, with the most obvious example being misplaced concerns over voter fraud leading to Jan. 6 after Trump lost in 2020. (For what it’s worth, it’s astounding to me that Trump won in 2024, which is not only accepted by those same people, but that they are still litigating 2020.)

So, I’m aware of those reasons. I’ve listened to those family members, friends, and colleagues. I’ve listened to focus groups of Trump voters. I’ve read their stated reasons.

None of it makes sense. None of it justifies voting for someone who is a diametrically opposed to our Constitutional form of government — his attempt to overthrow and overturn the results of the 2020 election. But that also came after the first two election cycles where people voted for him. To put it another way, Jan. 6 ought to have been the ultimate deal-breaker for anyone still hanging on to him. As should his conviction for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, or mishandling of classified materials, or fraud (where Trump must pay $355 million plus interest due to his “ill-gotten gains from fraud”), or that a jury concluded that Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll and awarded her a total of $88.3 million, or election subversion in Fulton County, Georgia. Any one of those items ought to have been a deal-breaker. Instead, none of it was considered a bridge too far for American voters. None of it materially mattered.

But again, what about 2016 and 2020 before those cases? What were the deal-breakers then? The Moral Majority, the evangelicals, and a country full of people who spent years arguing how much character matters in a person and a president (particularly juxtaposed to the scandalousness of the Bill Clinton presidency) apparently turned off that part of their brain when Trump descended down the escalator in 2015. He was infamously, quite literally on tape, admitting that when you’re a star, you can grab women by the pussy, “they let you do it.” He mocks, demeans, and is an intentionally cruel bully to women, people of color, the disabled, foreigners, veterans, which used to be so sacrosanct, and essentially, anyone who dares go against him, including within the Republican Party itself. I don’t support bullies, even if they are a bully pushing my policies. The Trump Foundation was found to be misusing funds, and there are many other such examples of Trump abusing the “common man” through such means. Trump University defrauded scores of students and he settled for $25 million. Trump has an extensive history of not paying his bills to carpenters, dishwashers, painters, his own lawyers, and throughout the 2024 campaign, openly bragged about not paying vendors. In the 1970s, the federal government sued and settled with Trump and his father for discriminating against Black apartment seekers. And of course, his tax schemes are a whole can of worms, too (I wrote more about that here). Quite simply put, Trump is a conman, a chronic liar, a fraudster, a huckster, and a serial sexual abuser. And unrepentant about it all. Those facts of his character and well-documented examples of the ways in which those facts and deficits in his character harm everyday people should matter. But they don’t. For millions of people.

Ahead of the 2020 Election, so taking into account his first term as president, (in addition to the aforementioned), there’s also Charlottesville, his ambysmall mishandling of COVID-19, his attempts to have his political opponents investigated, including his political rival in the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden, which led to his first impeachment over the Zelensky phone call, profiting off of the presidency (foreign hotel guests, as one example), and all the things he’s reported to have wanted to do but was thankfully stopped by smarter, wiser people (nuking a hurricane, or shooting protesters, as examples). I’ve only scratched the surface on the problems with Trump.

All of the above matters a great deal to me. But there’s also this particular part of the Trump phenomenon I’ve bemoaned since 2015. How does anyone listen to him and possibly come away thinking he is smart and/or has a command of any policy issues? He’s dumb, chronically so, and has no willingness to learn. Even on his signature two policy issues over the last nine years, tariffs and immigration, he doesn’t understand how either work.

To state it all again: Trump is a morally flawed human, who is a conman, a chronic liar, a fraudster, a huckster, and a serial sexual abuser, who has no interest or understanding of policy, and tried to subvert our democratic form of government in 2020, and surely would have tried again had he lost in 2024. He’s spent a life erecting a marketing mirage as a brilliant businessman and a strongman, but he’s the exact opposite. He’s weak and pathetic. A whiner. A sore loser. A bully. He is not someone we want to hold up as a model for our children.

But, if you talk to his supporters, you might have heard them say, yes, he’s crass and I wish he’d shut his mouth more, but his policies are good and our country was better under his administration. First, see my aforementioned point that perceptions of the economy are not tethered to the reality of the economy (as well as crime and immigration). Secondly, even if I took Trump on his stated policies seriously, they’re bad. Tariffs are bad. Closing off immigration is bad. Those two items alone are an economy-killer. Not to mention all of his other awful policies inasmuch as they exist (everything to do with foreign policy with respect to a desire to leave NATO, leave Ukraine to fend for itself, likely to leave Taiwan to fend for itself, if China decides to go in, and putting Robert F. Kennedy anywhere near healthcare is disqualifying in and of itself). He’s not a conservative in any sense of the word conservatives used to use it. He’s not a Christian in any sense of the word as Christians used to use it. He’s bad on policy.

However, I don’t accept the argument anyway. Even if I thought his policies were good, which again, I decidedly do not, that still wouldn’t justify voting for Trump. The “ends” do not justify the means. In other words, voting for a bad person, who is a wannabe authoritarian, and who is unfit for the presidency in every conceivable metric, does not become okay because I believe he’ll bring prices down and put more money in my pocket. It’s not acceptable. Voting for him because you’re mad at progressive overreach on trans issues, or DEI, is not acceptable. The worst, of course, and I don’t know how widespread it is, are his supporters who don’t even feign the above. They like him. They think he’s a good person. A patriotic person. The person we need for the betterment of the country. I can at least stomach the bad trade off mentioned above. But defending him on his character merits? On his brains? On his affinity for the U.S. and its constitutional order? Worse still, defending him on his desire to be an authoritarian? No. It’s unconscionable.

All of which returns me to my original point. Whether someone voted for Trump because they believe the trade off is valid (accepting his shortcomings because his policies are better) or because they genuinely think he’s a good person and are okay with his authoritarian direction, I have an immensely difficult time squaring knowing and loving otherwise good, intelligent people with people who willingly voted for a bad man. It’s not okay. It’s not a matter of policy differences. I don’t care if you think tariffs are the way. I don’t care if you think we need to secure the border. I don’t care if you think progressives have overreached. That’s not what we’re discussing. This isn’t a matter of you supported Bush and I supported Kerry (not a real example since I was only 14). We’re discussing supporting a bad man. In 2016, you could have had John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, etc., or in 2024, Nikki Haley. They all would have pushed similar policies that you ostensibly approved of. But you chose the bad man. Again (in the 2016 Republican Primary), and again (in the 2016 Presidential race), again (in the 2020 presidential race), again (in the 2024 Republican Primary), and again (in the 2024 Presidential race). When you keep supporting the bad man and justifying that support however you decide to, is it any wonder that family, friends, and colleagues might start to wonder about your own character and goodness? Yes, we can say people are complicated and the American voter is therefore, complicated. People are “more than their vote,” as pundits like to say. But any way you want to slice it, voting for a bad, unfit man is a reflection of who you are. It certainly says something about who you are, and I’m struggling with that something when it comes to my family, friends, and colleagues. It’s disheartening what that something says.

None of this is normal, and as long as Trump and Trumpism continues to be a part of our politics and our political culture, I will continue to oppose it adamantly, and I will continue to wonder how otherwise good, intelligent people allowed it to happen, and indeed, enthusiastically supported its success over and over again.