The following is Part 3 of a series of posts on the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.
- Read Part I: A Battle of Twits
- Read Part II: How Social Media Defined the 2016 Election (and How it will Determine the Future of American Politics)
BREAKING: Donald Trump is running for President of the United States (I certainly hope this is a surprise to none of you). Not only that, he’s won the Republican nomination and some recent polls have him very close to claiming victory, with more than 40% of all likely voters supporting him (again, I hope that’s not news to anyone reading this). The fact that he’s polling so well speaks to real needs, feelings, and desires from the American populace, and Trump’s opponents should not ignore that. However, I am not voting for Trump. Period.
A friend who supports Trump recently (and politely) asked me to explain why I refuse to bend on this issue and requested that I provide specifics example to justify my claims. The following is my explanation. Should Donald Trump win this election and become a great president, his supporters may feel free to rub this essay in my face while saying “I told you so.” If he wins and fails, however, I wish to have it on record that I neither supported his candidacy nor am responsible for any of his actions.
My opposition to Trump is based primarily on 13 criteria. I consider each item on this list is a bold accusation; therefore I have tried to provide evidence of each claim I am making (just follow the links to my sources). Where possible, I have included video of Donald Trump himself saying or doing exactly what I claim he has said or done. In other cases, I have cited the works of high profile journalists and biographers whose claims (to the best of my knowledge) have been known but not denied by the Trump campaign. Hopefully, this will keep any discussion centered on his actions, rather than whether or not those actions took place. That said, here is the list of reasons I will not vote for Donald Trump.
1. Donald Trump openly advocates war crimes.
A war crime is defined as an act committed during a war that violates international law. Any nation that commits war crimes faces serious political, economic, and diplomatic opposition from nearly every other nation on earth. Donald Trump does not seem to mind this.
He calls for deliberately targeting nonviolent civilians (including children) in deadly attacks, which is in direct violation of international law. He’s repeatedly sought to plunder oil via acts of war in Middle Eastern nations, which is expressly forbidden by the Geneva Convention. When questioned on what he would do if military leaders opposed illegal activities, he claimed “They’re not going to refuse,” seemingly implying that he would somehow coerce them into illegal activity.
He openly admits that he believes waterboarding is torture, nevertheless he says “it’s fine, and if we want to go stronger, I’d go stronger too.” He says this not only because he believes that torture is effective, but “because they deserve it.” He justifies his proposals by saying “we’re in danger” and that our enemies do worse. While both may be true, neither peril nor vengeance justify illegal, immoral behavior.
Perhaps most frighteningly, Trump is not completely opposed to using nuclear weapons in Europe or the Middle East to fight terrorism. The idea of starting a nuclear war is not only contrary to international law, it’s also deeply alarming.
“I love war,” he says. Well I don’t, and I don’t want that man anywhere near nuclear launch codes, nor do I want him committing any other war crimes in my nation’s name.
2. Donald Trump’s rhetoric is threatening to women.
There’s a scene in the movie Hitch where a man approaches Will Smith’s character, hoping the latter will help him manipulate and seduce a woman. “My clients actually like women.” I want a president who actually likes women, and I don’t think Donald Trump does.
“You have to treat ‘em like s---,” he reportedly said, as quoted in the November 9, 1992 issue of New York Magazine. He’s certainly achieved that. In his book The Art of the Comeback, he directly stated that women “are far worse than men.” He called breastfeeding “disgusting.” He says it doesn’t really matter what they do or say “as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of [expletive]” (Esquire magazine, May 1, 1991). On the other hand, he claimed Carly Fiorina could not be president directly because of her appearance: “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really folks, come on. Are we serious?” Though he later denied it, he insinuated that another woman’s work was affected by her menstrual cycle, with “blood coming out of her, wherever.”
The allegations of Trump committing sexual assault are more concerning still. He was recorded as saying that “when you’re a star, they let you do… anything. Grab ‘em by the p----. You can do anything.” Touching someone’s genitals without consent is sexual assault, and I do not like my presidential candidates cheerfully talking about about committing any sexual crime, whether they had intention to follow through with it or not. 15 women have accused Trump of assaulting them personally, and he awaits trial for allegedly raping a 13 year old girl, though it should be noted that Trump has resolutely denied these claims and has not been convicted of any sexual offense. Nevertheless, Trump’s rhetoric toward women is hurtful to them and empowering to would-be misogynists, abusers, and woman-haters. Giving him the world’s largest audience to continue saying such disparaging things will be extremely detrimental to women across the country.
3. Donald Trump threatens the religious freedom of U.S. Muslims.
Freedom of religion is literally the first freedom guaranteed in the U.S. Bill of Rights. Nevertheless, Trump has repeatedly threatened the basic rights of one demographic based entirely on their religion. I am speaking, of course, of Muslims.
He “would certainly implement” a database to monitor them, something that has been done for no other religious groups, instead being generally reserved for ex-convicts and sex offenders. He sought to deny them entry into the country, and even says he would consider shutting down their Mosques. After the Orlando shootings, he threatened that all U.S. Muslims would “have consequences. Big consequences.” He justifies his discrimination by saying “what I’m doing is no different than… FDR’s solution for Germans, Italians, Japanese.” FDR’s “solution” was one of the largest human rights violations in U.S. history.
As something of a religious minority myself, the idea of someone creating a database of my fellow worshippers, barring me from entering the United States, and shutting down my churches is horrific. It is only fitting that I seek the same rights for others as well, and that will not happen with a Donald Trump presidencies.
4. Donald Trump is openly critical, discriminatory, and insensitive of racial minorities.
Donald Trump has a habit of making judgments of people based on their racial and ethnic background, rather than “by the content of their character.” He began his presidential campaign by saying of Mexican immigrants “They’re rapists.” He opposed a judge officiating in a case involving him because “This judge is of Mexican heritage,” and therefore must be opposing Trump and his policies. Mexicans have drawn the brunt of his discrimination, but they’re not the only ones. He once advertised that the “Mohawk Indian record of criminal activity is well documented.” He’s quoted as saying “Laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that,” and twice has called out his own black supporters in derogatory terms, once as being “my African-American” and another time as a “thug.”
America’s racial minorities deserve better.
5. Donald Trump advocates and condones violence against his enemies.
When non-violent protesters have infiltrated Trump’s rallies, he has responded with violence. “Knock the crap out of them… I will pay for the legal fees,” he says. He tells his security to confiscate their coats (violating their right to personal property) and “throw them out into the cold.” Instead of apologizing, he defensively says “Maybe he should have been roughed up.”
He also defends those who commit unprompted acts of violence in his name. When two of his supporters assaulted, urinated on, and stole from a homeless man, he responded by saying they “love this country,” and are “passionate.” When his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski pushed a woman, Trump refused to fire him, saying “I’m not going to destroy a man for that.” (Trump later fired him for running a poor campaign, which apparently is worth destroying a man for.)
Most alarmingly, he once joked about his supporters assassinating his opponent to save the Supreme Court. “If she gets to pick her judges—nothing you can do folks. Although the 2nd Amendment folks, maybe there is.” Promoting, condoning, or even joking about civil violence is unbecoming of anyone seeking the highest office in the nation.
6. Donald Trump bullies and violates the privacy and dignity of those who criticize him.
In Trump’s book How to Get Rich and Think Like a Billionaire, he advocated “When somebody hurts you, just go after them as viciously and as violently as you can.” He certainly follows his own advice. When Trump is criticized, hi often childishly lashes out at whomever has criticized him. He mockingly impersonated Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Serge F. Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis. When criticized by Senator John McCain, Trump responded by attacking McCain’s war record and former POW status: “I like people who weren’t captured.” He read another Senator’s personal phone number at a rally. He publically attempted to blackmail another U.S. Senator, threatening to “spill the beans on your wife!” When a Muslim husband criticized Trump at the Democratic convention, he attacked his silent wife by saying “Maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say.” He admits to suing people, not for money, but “Because it would be fun.”
One of his prefered tactics is claiming others are lying about their religion. He famously claimed that President Obama is a secret Muslim, but has also asked of Mitt Romney “Are you sure he’s a Mormon?” He’s done the same thing with Ted Cruz. And with Ben Carson. And with (you guessed it) Hillary Clinton. It’s a simply way to create mistrust of someone else’s core values. What’s to stop Trump causing serious damage by using similar tactics with leaders of other nations? I’d rather not take the risk.
7. Donald Trump compliments and seeks to emulate the actions of dictators, fascists, and authoritarians.
When discussing his favorite world leaders from history, Trump does not mention Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, or Nelson Mandela. Instead, he says Kim Jong-Un is “pretty amazing… He goes in, he takes over and he’s the boss. It’s incredible. He wiped out the uncle, he wiped out this one, that one. I mean, this guy doesn’t play games.” He says “Putin’s been a very strong leader for Russia.” Of the Chinese massacre at Tiananmen Square, Trump said “That is a strong, powerful government that put it down with strength.” He also admires Saddam Hussein’s use of execution without trial to fight terrorism: “You know what [Saddam Hussein] did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights. They didn’t talk. It was over.” Indeed, he believes the world would be “100%” better if Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi were still in power. If these are the men that Trump looks to for role models, I hope I don’t have to see what type of President he would be.
8. Donald Trump opposes freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution, including freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the right to an attorney.
Donald Trump was made famous by the media, but it’s no secret that he’s largely opposed to it. Where the founders largely thought free press was critical to the success of a republic (many of them owned newspapers, after all), Trump seems to feel press would be better if it were limited. He barred several major news organizations from his events, though has since reinstated them. He wants to “open up our libel laws” (which already protect for false, malicious content) to make it easier to sue news organizations. After getting negative coverage from the Washington Post, he threatened to attack its owner’s (Amazon’s) tax loopholes to receive better press. He doesn’t seem to understand freedom of speech either. He said one of his critics “has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim that I have never read the Constitution” (the Constitution itself grants him that right).
His attacks are not just limited to the 1st Amendment, but the 6th and 14th as well. Trump claims it is a shame that suspects will be represented by legal counsel, and claims that some born in this country “do not have American citizenship.” I admire and respect the Constitution, and I fear a man who seeks to deny so many of the protections it offers.
9. Donald Trump makes unsubstantiated, hurtful claims.
Trump may demand the media get all of their facts straight, but he certainly doesn’t apply the same standard to himself. “I’m not sure it’s a fact, but I heard that…” could be the theme of his campaign. He tweeted false crime statistics to make it seem as though U.S. blacks were much more violent than they are (here are the actual statistics from the FBI). He constantly perpetuates bizarre conspiracy theories without evidence to attack his opponents (see birtherism, Obama trying to help terrorists, Ted Cruz’s father killing JFK, Muslims celebrating 9-11, etc.). Other things he appears to make up, like that story of a U.S. General slaughtering prisoners with bullets dipped in pig blood, that Obama “failed to issue [a statement] for Christmas,” or that “somebody called for a moment of silence” for the Dallas police killer.
He also lies to protect his own image. His claims of always opposing the Iraq War are well refuted. He certainly did in 2004, but a 2002 audio recording of an interview of Trump’s shows that he said “Yeah, I guess [I support invading Iraq].” Nevertheless, to save face, he keeps insisting he never did. I want to be able to trust my president, and I will not feel that way if Donald Trump is in office.
10. Donald Trump is irresponsible with his and others’ money.
Trump is definitely rich, but he wouldn’t be the first billionaire with poor spending habits. His companies’ many bankruptcies are well documented, and it was recently revealed that in 1995 alone, he lost nearly $1 billion, which has allowed him to avoid paying income tax ever since. While he boasts about donating millions to charity, not a single charitable organization has claimed they received money from Trump personally.
It’s not just his own money that Trump handles poorly. Trump’s businesses have repeatedly refused to pay hundreds of contractors and used legal loopholes to discourage victims from suing. He’s taken mooney donated to his charity foundation and used it to buy merchandise for himself, including Tim Tebow memorabilia and a portrait of himself. On another occasion, he held a fundraiser (supposedly for veterans) instead of attending a political debate. However, no veteran organizations received any payment until after several journalists tried to track down Trump’s contributions. He’s also used campaign funds unethically, spending over $1 million dollars of donations to support his own businesses and family members. With the economy, budget, and national debt in as poor of shape as they’re in, someone else needs to control the country’s checkbook.
11. Donald Trump is self-aggrandizing and self-serving.
If confidence is a virtue, Trump has it in spades. If arrogance is a vice, then Trump might just be hooked. After the death of 50 Americans in a mass shooting, his immediate response was to tweet “Appreciate the congrats on being right.” He boasts of his popularity using a bizarrely violent hypothetical: “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” In 2006, he said, “I sort of hope [a real estate bubble burst] happens, because then people like me would go in and buy,” ignoring the pain of those he’d be buying from. He seems to actually believe in his own superiority to everyone else, as evidenced by his speech in the Republican National Convention: “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.” To me, such arrogance suggests blindness and an unwillingness to listen to experts, traits I don’t want in my leaders.
12. Donald Trump is elusively and eerily crass.
There are worse character flaws than crassness, but the language public figures use has an effect on the people who hear it. Crass language leads to the acceptance of crass behavior, and the alleged “party of family values” should know better than to support someone whose behavior is laced with innuendo. He referred to the size of his penis in a nationally televised debate, and has made several seemingly incestuous comments about his daughters. On most of these occasions, he keeps his lewdness just covert enough so that he can claim he meant something else, as when he claimed Hillary “got schlonged” (did he mean the connotative “beaten” or the denotative “penised”?) or when he said Mitt Romney “would have dropped to his knees” to get Trump’s endorsement (did he mean begging or oral sex?) Republicans have been arguing that a candidate’s character matters. If that’s the case, Trump is unfit to become Commander in Chief.
13. Donald Trump’s being better or worse than Hillary Clinton is moot to me.
Many have argued that Donald Trump’s shortcomings do not matter, as they believe Hillary Clinton’s are far worse. I will not go into Clinton’s merits and faults here, but regardless of my thoughts on her, I cannot in good conscience vote for anyone to whom I am so thoroughly morally opposed as I am to Trump. I would not expect anyone else to either.
There are other reasons not to vote for Trump. These are mine. Again, I have done my best to portray Trump’s stances and quotes accurately by, wherever possible, linking to videos of him, his social media accounts, and his campaign’s website. Where none of these was available, I have attempted to use quotes corroborated by multiple major media sources that have not been denied by the Trump campaign. If you wish to refute any of what I have written, I only ask that you do the same. We cannot govern alongside each other if we do not listen to each other, and I’m eager to hear what you have to say.
There are also reasons to vote for Trump; to suggest otherwise would be horribly dismissive of his many supporters, who are generally good, rational, freedom-loving people. But at what cost? Are those potential benefits he could provide worth electing someone who publicly endorses war crimes? Bullying? Vulgarity? Slander? Misogyny? Racism? Violence? Authoritarianism? Removing Constitutional rights?
I’ve made my choice. I will not vote for Donald Trump. Not for this office. Not for any other. Not now. Not ever.
You may disagree. At least if he wins, one of us gets to say “I told you so.”
#NeverTrump.
To read more of Riley's work, click here or follow him on Twitter.