Donald Trump is not a normal president. Be suspicious of anyone who treats him as normal.
Trump is not strong. He never takes on anyone more powerful than he is. He only targets the weak (clean air and Big Bird are among his first targets). That makes him a bully.
Look at that picture of the National Mall this morning. For Obama’s inaugural in 2008, the Mall was full by early morning. For Trump’s inaugural, it’s mostly empty. It’s a strong argument that Trump voters don’t support him or his policies & just voted for him as an anarchic protest vote.
His supporters are desperately insisting that Trump be treated with respect based on norms – the same norms Trump is constantly trampling. Anyone who demands Trump be defined only as a legitimate president based only on his Electoral College win is trying to excuse everything that came after it. They want you to forget Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes with a significantly lower percent of the popular vote (46.1%) than Mitt Romney (47.2%).
Legitimacy is earned. Obama and even George W. Bush immediately worked to reach out to all Americans after their wins and selected cabinets that were mainstream.
In contrast, Trump has spent every day since the election either holed up inside his palace or holding victory rallies reliving his victory last fall. He’s put up a series of cabinet nominees who are fringe anti-public good extremists, vulture capitalist billionaires, or both. He lies constantly, even about trivial things. It’s left Trump as a historically unpopular president-elect, with almost twice as many opponents than supporters. Donald Trump is already less popluar than President Obama has ever been at any point in his eight years as president.
Trump will be violating the Constitution’s prohibition of taking payoffs from foreign governments the moment he takes the oath of office. His ties to Russia are clear and treasonous. It’s not “conflicts of interest.” It’s corruption.
Donald Trump will be the most corrupt president ever. Nixon and Bush were terrible presidents, but I never doubted that they did what they did because they thought it was best for America. Donald Trump is in this to enrich & empower himself and his friends – some of them Russian.
Many journalists and political pundits will seek to fit Trump into their world view and as a result normalize him. Seek out people who’ll tell you the reality that America is going off the tracks and only unrelenting resistance and activism will save us.
Pundits constantly tell us gerrymandering has left House Republicans immune to public pressure, but look at how quickly public outrage forced them to reverse course on gutting the Office of Congressional Ethics.
Resistance works. Protests and marches work. Phone calls work.
Let’s work harder than ever.
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