I don’t like writing about Trump. He’s not the problem. Although I’m criticizing him, just me talking about him strokes his ego and indirectly earns him a win. But, post Mueller Report, there is something so deeply alarming about his behavior that we as Americans MUST ask…
Trump is 1 dimensional, and that dimension is: Trump
I was not surprised the Mueller report revealed what it did. There is nothing hidden y’all. What do you think his taxes or his ties with Deutsche Bank are going to show? Investigating him will just tell us what we already know: he’s a narcissist, he says he’s wealthy when it will make people like him, and he says he’s poor when he can save on taxes. That’s it. There’s no further depth to this character.
We know the guy didn’t collude with Russia: he’s 1. Too inept to do so (even though willing) and 2. Why would Russia want to collude with him? They’re already getting everything they want out of him. The real question we need to be asking, that no one is asking, is this:
The Question
If he wasn’t colluding the whole time, why in the world would he defend Putin publicly? Why would he defend Russia who clearly attacked our election? Why would he say “I don’t see any reason why” Russia would have interfered with the election? It would have been politically beneficial for him to turn on Russia and denounce it and Putin in every way… but to this day he never has. Why?
Now immediately I will brush aside anyone who will say “he IS hard on Russia.” You know it was congress (and Obama) who levied heavy sanctions against Russia. Just ask yourself this question, has he attacked Russia/Putin more? Or has he attacked the Russia investigation more?
In every way he acts as if he is Russia’s ally. If he was colluding with Russia, then his actions would make sense. Now that we know that he wasn’t, it’s quite troubling and bothersome to think about: To this day this man still hasn’t condemned Russia meddling in our 2016 election. WHY?
Google “Trump Criticizes Russia” and behold the black hole of nothingness in the results.
The only conceivable answer
The only possible explanation for his behavior is his dream of opening a hotel in Moscow. It sounds absolutely crazy, but you try coming up with a better explanation!! “For at least three decades, Donald Trump has dreamed of a hotel stamped with his gilded name near Moscow’s Red Square” He even wrote about this desire in his book!
I’ve found when it comes to Trump, the reason is usually the most obvious one. I think he dreams of using his influence and connections, post-presidency, to open a hotel in Moscow. Criticizing Putin would be detrimental to that plan.
This should really concern any American, no matter where you are on the political spectrum: 1. Everyone agrees that Russia influenced our 2016 election (if you don’t believe that please remove the aluminium foil from your head and go to a hospital). 2. Russia tried to sway the election toward Trump and against Hillary. 3. Trump to this day has not denounced Russia/Putin and 4. He stands to gain a lot of wealth by building a hotel there!
He’s willing to put his own business interests over the sanctity of US elections… in other words, to Trump, making another billion by putting up a hotel in Red Square is more important than someone attacking our democracy. As an American I find this unacceptable… and every American should feel the same.
Our Demands
If you are a true Trump supporter this will likely not sway you; I can’t reason with someone impervious to facts. But if you are with me on this reasoning, I am asking you to publicly state your condemnation that Trump to this day has not criticized Russia. The person who claims to be head of the United States needs to condemn any foreign entity attacking our elections. Anyone who doesn’t do that is unpatriotic. Plain and simple.
Any leader who puts his own business interests over serving his people is not a leader, certainly not my leader.
For the love of money is the root of all evil -1 Tim 6:10
Postchristianity 
At the risk of sounding jaded, I have to ask, do you really think any modern US President became President to serve the country before their own interests? Trump may seem extreme in his self-serving attitudes, but that’s probably because he’s not been groomed as a politician. He means what he says, and says what he means. Good, bad, terrible- he lets it all out, so he’s pretty transparent (which usually makes me cringe. I can’t stand to hear him speak.) But I see very few politicians today striving to serve their constituents; most are seeking to advance their own agenda regardless of public opinion. Presidential salaries are high, but not nearly as high as many private citizens’ positions, like CEOs and large business owners. And yet, our modern day Presidents all come out of the Oval Office in much better financial condition than which they began. https://onlinebusiness.american.edu/blog/presidents-net-worth/
I’m not a Trump fan. There are many policies and positions of which I disagree with him. But that has been true of all those who’ve been elected since I’ve been of voting age :Obama, Bush, and Clinton.
As a high school senior, I would have told you that I wanted to be the first female POTUS. It only took one semester at USC as a Public Policy and Management major for me to come to the conclusion that I was way too honest and way too poor to ever be successful in politics.
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Ashley, thank you so much for commenting, and it’s lovely to engage you at this level of discourse. After gaining many connections in my locality I thought about office, but at the lowest level of governments. It wasn’t long before the ugliness of it all quickly discouraged me from it; this blog is now my effort to dialogue with people and perhaps make a bit of a change before November 2020.
If I could distill your comment into a single phrase it would be “I don’t like Trump, but aren’t all politicians just working for their own gain?” (correct me, please, if I’m wrong). My response to this would be qualified with the following pretext:
I think you may be falling into the trap of looking at a complex issue and oversimplifying it to meet a binary answer. In my travels I’ve found that Americans more than most people from developed countries tend to look at complex issues through a binary lens (take, for example, the non-american issue Brexit: only two solutions for a terribly complex issue).
In addressing whether politicians, at any level of government, run for idealistic reasons or for their own ego and wealth is not a binary question. The human psyche is too complex and enmeshed to tease out whether someone faces the devastating rigors of elections for ones own gain or the gain of others. I look at complex issues such as this one on a CONTINUUM.
I believe that war hero politicians such as John McCain, George H. Bush etc. have proven their loyalty to the US in their service. Have the slippery slopes in politics tainted their original idealism with the allure of profits? Of course, but I would argue that these and many others fall highly in favor of being generally altruistic, with putting their egos in second place.
Now on this continuum I would vigorously argue that Trump has put his interests 99.9% ahead of the interests of others. He has passed a tax law that will benefit his family greatly, he has profited greatly from the vacations he takes at his own properties, he has helped his friends out through his laws, and most sickeningly he drags his kids around (the heads of his company) as uninvited guests to rub shoulders with heads of state.
What did Jimmy Carter do after his presidency? Yes, he sold books and has a comfortable life, but the man is building houses as we speak for poor people. (https://www.habitat.org/volunteer/build-events/carter-work-project) What do you reckon Trump will do after his presidency?
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Forgive the multiple responses: Please have a look at an earlier post where I compare the late H. Bush to Trump. https://postchristianity.net/2018/12/02/george-h-w-bush-would-lose-badly-and-early-in-the-2020-primary-this-fact-should-give-us-pause/
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