Concerns About Trump Presidency Part 4: Character

This is the forth in a series beginning with Concerns About Trump Presidency Part 1: Important Intro.

Prior to the 2016 presidential election, I expressed concern that Trump demonstrated signs of technically diagnosable narcissistic personality disorder (in other words, not just the generic use of the term). One response I received was along the lines of “every presidential candidate is that way.” Politics is often frustrating, and one way of dealing with this is to throw up one’s hands and say, “They’re all bad.” Politicians the two primary parties in the United States do share many things in common. But I don’t believe they are all equivalent nor equally bad. Responding to a potentially valid concern by deflection to another target is a fallacy.

The concerns I want to outline here aren’t so much about direct policy decisions; I’ve covered those in Concerns About Trump Presidency Part 3: Domestic Policy and Concerns About Trump Presidency Part 2: Foreign Policy. Instead, these concerns have to do more with what it means for our society to support a person like Trump and elevate him to the position of greatest power.

Though a president may be elected for his (or theoretically her) promised policies, they end up being a role model. This is because, regardless of the type of character they demonstrate, so much attention and power is given to them that people, especially young people, can’t help but look up to them to some degree.

Now I would agree with those who might say that other presidents have not been great role models. I have strongly disliked many of our presidents. Nevertheless, I am here examining Trump specifically and others’ failures do not excuse him.

Trump’s persona—if not his actual character—is that of aggressive, heartless, win at all costs, domineering. Some anecdotal stories suggested a rise in bullying in the wake of Trump’s first election. One study in the state of Virginia did show an increase in bullying in areas which supported Trump. (Interestingly, there was a decrease in bullying in areas which supported Clinton which resulted in a consistent overall rate of bullying before and after Trump’s election.) In any case, it seems that Trump’s behavior would encourage some people to be more aggressive and less concerned with others except in how one might use them to get ahead. This is both because the president makes this behavior seem more acceptable as well as strongly suggesting that it is the way to win—and even that winning is the goal in the first place.

…Just 14 percent of 9- to 11-year-olds believe that the country’s leaders model how to treat others with kindness — and 70 percent said it would help kids their age to be kinder if adults in charge of the country set a better example.
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/09/683177489/virginia-study-finds-increased-school-bullying-in-areas-that-voted-for-trump

Women

Trump has appointed women to leadership.¹ Despite this, my impression is that Trump generally views women as objects for men. He notoriously made the “grab ’em” comment in a leaked recording. I don’t want to judge a person based on one passed private statement. Yet beyond that statement, Trump seems to represent the “boys will be boys” / “rape culture” paradigm.

Trump has been publicly accused of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape by at least 18 women.² He was found guilty in at least one court.³ I think it’s safe to assume that if there are this many public accusations, there are more women who have been on the receiving end of this type of behavior but who decided to keep it private. Once again, I’ll state that this behavior has (apparently) been way too prevalent among men in positions of power. Still, this in no way excuses Trump.

In the wake of Trump’s recent election, many women shared this as an example of why women as a whole often don’t want to speak up regarding sexual misconduct. This is because a majority of voters were either unaware of these allegations (which says something itself) or believed this type of behavior to be unconcerning enough as to not disqualify one from the highest office (much less any criminal punishment).

Truth

Our period in time has been called the information age. However, the technology which has granted us the unprecedented access to information has also made possible the rise of “disinformation“. In the past, white men of European descent tended to occupy all positions within publishing in the west. The higher technical bar for publishing in the past meant that those in publishing leadership acted as gatekeepers. On the bad side, this meant that women and minorities had limited ability to share their points of view and to counter common misconceptions. On the plus side, these gatekeepers also limited crack-pot, fringe, and baseless ideas from wide distribution.

My concern regarding Trump is that he defines truth. What I mean is that, in his mind, whatever he says is true, is true. He makes truth. He will says things which go against all evidence and expect people to believe them. On the flip side, if any media or person counters his truth, he’ll adamantly insist that they are wrong, “fake news”, and in many cases motivated by an agenda to get him.⁴

It can be difficult at times to determine what is most likely true. Many times there are various people expressing differing beliefs. Who is right? There is actually very little I know on my own. Most of my knowledge comes via other people. Is it just a toss up as to who I can trust? Fortunately, no. There are people who have spent their lives studying certain subjects. This doesn’t make these individuals infallible. But we can mitigate individual’s imperfections by basing our understanding on the general collective consensus of the group of experts.

If beliefs had no consequences, then this whole subject of truth would be moot. People could believe whatever they wanted to believe and it wouldn’t matter. But beliefs do have consequences. How many people died after refusing to get vaccinated for covid-19 even though vaccines are one of the most widely proven resources in medicine? It would be one thing if beliefs only affected the individual holding the belief. Vaccination might at first seem to be one of these types of issues. But even in this case, how many people had to mourn the lost of a love one who refused to be vaccinated? Furthermore, how many people died after having contracted covid from someone directly or indirectly who refused to believe it was serious and refused to take the prescribed precautions?

Another important example is how Trump refused to concede the 2020 presidential election, and how he continued to insist that he won despite all evidence concluding otherwise. Not only was this his public statement, but he pressured people to overturn the election results in multiple ways.⁵ This certainly constituted a threat to U.S.’ democracy if there ever was one.

There is significant division in the U.S. There have always been strong disagreements in politics about what to do. Specifically in the U.S., the disagreements have been so strong that the country was split into a civil war which killed over a half-million men. I can’t say for sure if this is new, but what seems different now is that people can’t seem to even agree on what is real. This is part of why one’s news sources are so important.

Now as much as ever, if we want the country to prosper and go in the right direction, we could use a leader who clarifies rather than confuses and misleads. The president ought to rely on experts and point the public toward them. Again, this makes a real difference. You’re not likely to successfully launch many satellites if you believe the earth is flat. And that is a relatively benign example. For a more pertinent example, if you incorrectly believe that the opioid crisis is largely due immigrants smuggling in drugs and enact policies accordingly, the result will be that the crisis is not solved and perhaps unintended consequences are experienced as a result. (How many immigrants or descendants of recent immigrants do the undesirable labor of agriculture and construction for us for example? What if we didn’t have these people to perform this work?)

White Supremacy

Eight years ago I posted, “Make America great again…. for straight white males.” I since discovered what MAGA is about (a desire to return to the post WWII economic/manufacturing boom). Regardless, Trump seems to be sympathetic toward the idea that the U.S. should be a country for those of white European descent led by males.

The president was criticized for his muted response to the white supremacist motivated attack in Charlottesville, VA in 2017.⁶ Then in a 2020 presidential debate, Trump made comments which were seen as being supportive of white supremacist groups.⁷ The president later made an explicit condemnation of white supremacy.⁸ Nevertheless, he still seems favorable to people and groups of this disposition.

Trump’s first legal trouble came in the form of his rental business attempting to rent to as few non-whites as possible. Trump is proud that he settled the case without admitting to wrong doing. Yet years later, the practice had still apparently not changed.⁹

Going along with the above issue of truth, Trump has continued to maintain for years that 5 non-white youths were guilty of raping a white woman despite their clear and legally declared innocence.¹⁰ He also was vocal in questioning Obama’s citizenship.¹¹ Beyond these, there is a whole, long Wikipedia page outlining all of Trump’s apparent racist comments or views.

Immigration

While not explicitly racist, the issue of immigration is clearly xenophobic for many people. After all, the rhetoric generally isn’t sounding the alarm regarding people coming to the U.S. from Canada, Europe, Australia, or other people who look white and speak English. Instead, Trump stokes the unfounded fear that many have that immigrants are somehow on a whole dangerous to the U.S. This is unfortunately a sentiment which isn’t unique in the U.S. but is quite contentious in at least Europe as well. I discussed immigration in greater detail in my previous post, Concerns About Trump Presidency Part 3: Domestic Policy.

Conclusion

There are certainly other actions which could be mentioned as demonstrations of Trump’s questionable character, including his refusal to release his tax returns,¹² his potential profiting from actions taken as president,¹³ his pressuring of others do take actions which would benefit him politically, and his support for the use of torture.¹⁴

Trump legitimizes the unfounded and often outright false fears and claims of the worst of impulses of Americans on the far, radical right. Certainly not all those who voted for him are like this nor do they agree with all he says and does. But his election twice to the presidency does give people who do think this way a reason to believe that they are right.

Many have complained about how divided the U.S. has seemed to become. Many desire our politicians to lead us together. However Trump exacerbates the divide by stoking the fears of the far right as just mentioned.

Women

Truth

White Supremacy

Immigration

Conclusion

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