Hopefully you will elaborate, because I am truly curious, and hopefully others in the forum that disagree with you will be mature enough to not flame you.
Be happy to. I will try to keep this succinct. But it's kinda long even in the succinct version.
I will focus on the two big ones for me.
The first pivotal point in my view of Trump came in July 2018 at the press conference after the "Helsinki Summit" with Putin. You may recall that the two leaders spoke after meeting in private at side-by-side podiums. President Trump, who as you know is always pretty energetic when speaking, walked in the room and got behind the podium as if he were a wet dog that was almost drowned. I was absolutely shocked. He spoke mechanically. I may have been raised in the rural mountains of upstate New York, but Trump behaved and spoke as if he had had his ass handed to him. Watch the press conference if you haven't and you will see.
This is the same summit where Trump met with Putin in private and dismissed his American interpreter. And the same one where he said be believed Putin over the American intelligence agencies.
My take on it was that Putin had something on Trump, big time.
But wait, there's more...
The following related item did not come out until much later, but it solidified that my take on the summit was much more on the money than I even guessed. You can find interviews of Trump's x-lawyer Michael Cohen who was asked what made him turn in Trump. Keep in mind that although Cohen is "Persona non grata" now, he was a loyal side-man of Trump for years. And he said that he decided after watching the Helsinki that Putin had something on him... on the President of the United States. This coming from a man that knew the real Trump.
There were other matters with Russia, such as the Trump campaign in 2016 inserting in the GOP platform to loosen restrictions.
I served in the military for 20 years. And what I know is this, we are 15 minutes from total annihilation at any given time. We can not have a President that is in any way beholden to our enemies. It's not that I think Trump would sit by as the missiles are heading our way, but we must insure that our two biggest enemies know that our President is 100% independent, because if they ever think he will hesitate, it weakens our defenses. And lowers the bar for a
first strike.
Dialing it down a few notches, a President beholden to a foreign power may make bad decisions during a "less than nuclear conflict".
Bottom line when it comes to national defense, in my heart of hearts Trump is not the person I want to have in the situation room.
Second item. Just a bit of background. I was married to a narcissist for 5 years. After that, I studied the heck out of the subject. If you've lived with a narc, then you know several things about them. First, they do not lie. Not like you or I. Second, they can never admit a mistake, to others or to themselves. Third, they must ALWAYS be the winner, but if they can't be the winner, they will downshift immediately to VICTIM.
So when the pandemic started, and Trump kept saying in so many words it will just go away, he wasn't lying. He believed what he said. It was based on nothing, but a narc doesn't need reality to believe in something. Weeks turned into months, and he convinced a sizable portion of the country to ignore masking, to hold big rallies, etc. Worse, he ostracized those that did follow public health guidelines.
Every action by Trump was out of the textbook 101 Narcissist.
Now Covid is bad. 500,000 people have died in the US. Millions and millions of Americans, etc are suffering. But it is not Ebola. It is not Measles. The later, Measles can spread by hopping a ride on dust particles. Not just spittle.
So what I am saying is as President we are lucky it was Covid and not something that was transferred like Measles. As a Narc, they are use to believing their own lies. That's ok when we are talking about income, etc. But when it comes to public health, a President that does not follow the science will result in American deaths and tragedy.
It is a matter of survival. The next time a pandemic happens, we may not be so "lucky".
As an aside, I know this is a sensitive subject, but in my opinion, all Trump would have had to do to win reelection is get behind the virus science early on. But instead, for those people in the "middle" (independents) who helped him win in 2016, he provided nearly endless "cringe worthy" moments.... it (in my opinion) became apparent that we were on our own when it came to the pandemic. This is just my opinion, but it fits my observations. His base was going to vote for him, democrats against. Only the independents were in play.
So, for me, believing he was compromised with Russia and that he lacked the ability to follow the science when it came to the pandemic there was no contest who I would vote for. For myself, for my family and for all Americans, not Trump. BTW, half my adult life I was Republican.
Thanks for asking, and listening.
