Is Trump liberal or conservative?

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I heard some rumors that Donald Trump used to be liberal and he only became conservative shortly before he started running for president in order to appeal to his would-be base. But then I heard other rumors that Donald Trump was racist for several decades (I think he was running some resort where blacks wheren't welcome, or something like that). I realize that people who say one set of rumors don't believe the other set, or visa versa. But what if I try to take both of them seriously, and just think objectively, what would I get?

One thing that I am thinking of is maybe he is conservative when it comes to race issues and liberal when it comes to gay rights issues. I mean, even as a president, he was asked whether he wants to undo the gay marriage thing and he didn't want to undo it. Now, its true that he didn't say he is "for" gay marriage; rather, his argument was that they already voted for it so just leave it the way it is -- which is a neutral stance to take. But still, it seems rather odd for someone positioning himself as conservative in other issues.

So could it be that Trumps politics did "not" change? And the people that say he used to be liberal are simply the ones who "used to" pay attention to his stance on homosexuality while ignoring his stance on race? In other words, Trump was "always" liberal in homosexuality and conservative on race -- but people that were watching them switched their focus from former to latter, and thats why it appeared "to them" as if Trump changed when in fact it was their focus that changed?

That is just a random speculation though. I don't know that much about Trumps politics in the past. I didn't even know who he was before 2015. So what is your opinion on this?

He's a self-serving narcissist in power with no real loyalties to anybody but himself. Does that answer your question?

He was a registered democrat for years. As far as I know, he only ran for the republicans because he figured he'd have a better chance of winning.

Still his narcissism must direct him to particular decisions.

Maximum admiration?

Crediting Trump with ANY beliefs, or convictions, at all, is an extraordinary claim. Even crediting him with bad beliefs like racism (as opposed to just exploiting the xenophobia and racism of his base) maybe a stretch. But I do credit him with that at least. His daddy was a racist landlord, so at least his racism might be sincere.

He dumps on conservative values. Makes fun of a gold star family, and ridicules a combat veteran GOP rival for being a combat veteran.

And the GOP is willing to abandon its own convictions, like belief in free trade, and in balanced budget, to get behind his cult.

He could have picked either party. He was a registered Dem for ages. But he saw a ripe underserved market:angry White Men, and White Evangelicals. So he went for that market to pitch himself too. And it worked. Its not obvious how much he actually shares beliefs with those groups, or even if it matters to him if he shares beliefs with them.

Maybe he'd be classified as somewhat socially conservative and largely fiscally liberal.

The crucial question is when. I heard that democrats and republicans "switched sides". So, a few decades ago, democrats used to be more conservative ones.

Trump is neither.

His political ideology is what he finds convenient at any certain moment. If liberalism was in style, he would be a liberal.

He is isolationist, anti-free trade....and a believer in conspiracy theories promulgated by reactionary types.

He is a staunch believer in the Social Darwinist ethos.

I'm not sure if he really believes in these crazy conspiracy theories or if he makes them all up himself just to spread confusion and hostility for kicks.

It seems like what you said in lines 1 and 2 contradicts what you said in lines 3 and 4.

Speaking of line 2, what makes you think that conservative values are more in style than lineral values? I thought it is all divided along party lines, and the size of each party is about the same.

[Facepalm]. Your history is SO far off!

In a sense you could say that the Dems and Republicans have "switched sides", but thats over the whole sweep of the last 170 years of US history since Andrew Jackson.

Trump maybe old, but he isn't THAT old! Even John McCain wasn't THAT old. Lol!

During Trump's lifetime (most of which he was not even pursuing public office) there wasn't a radical change between the parties. Except yes... there was one important regional switch during Trump, and my own, lifetimes. In the Fifties the GOP was the party of business (as opposed to labor), so had a certain type of conservative stance. The Democrats consisted of northern democrats who were the party of labor (as opposed to management), and so was progressive. But the Dems also included the Dixiecrats, or Southern Democrats (who were conservative, though a slightly different kind of conservatism from that of the Northeast based GOP of that time). The Northern Democrats became the allies of the Black Civil Rights Movement of the Fifites and Sixties. Allies against the main enemy of the Black civil rights movement: southern Democrats.

Dial ahead four decades to the Nineties. During the Clinton years Whites in the south deserted the Democratic party en masse to join the GOP. So the modern GOP is kind of a combination of the old GOP plus the Dixiecrats. The modern Dems are the old Dem party (moderate liberals) plus the new wave of AOC and Sanders type almost Socialists.

Anyway...yes there WAS a big wing of the Dem party that was conservative. But that was the Southern Wing, and it started to merge into the GOP back in the Sixties (Nixon's Southern Strategy). That was when Trump was just an elementary school kid too young to vote. And Trump is a New Yorker. He was never part of the Dixiecrat, Bible thumping, culture that produced Jesse Helms and Governor George Wallace, Strom Thurman, and like that. Trump was nominally a northern type Democrat (ie liberal).

Trump is a moderate national libertarian. He's probably the most libertarian president since Calvin Coolidge in the early 20th century.

Krafty doesn't literally mean "in style". He meant Trump picks whichever side serves him at the moment. What I said above. Whites who are angry, and maybe Evangelical Christians, feel ignored. So that's the "underserved market" that Trump went for. And that might be partially because of some actual sympathies he has for that group, but it looks to the outsider like they are just group ripe to be exploited, so that's why he picked them and that brand of conservativism- and that he has no actual beliefs of his own.

I read that David Duke used to be democrat in the 80-s but then become republican in the 90-s. Since David Duke was in KKK both times (and, therefore, conservative) the two parties must have switched pretty recently.

What about his struggle against illegal immigration? Does this take him out of libertarian "camp"?

Trump isn’t a libertarian that’s for sure, either in the Randian sense or in the real world sense. When you look at his positions on abortion, trans rights, separation of church and state, freedom of the press, free trade, immigration - he’s an authoritarian conservative.

There’s a trend amongst the far-right to paint themselves as “libertarian” or more often “classic liberal” because they assume everyone else has zero political literacy and will fall for it. It’s annoying for actual liberals on the centre-right because there’s naturally a suspicion that we’re trying the same trick.

I think trying to put him in any one bucket without modifiers is foolish.

Trump’s first concern is “what does Barack Obama think about this?” and then doing the opposite.

Before Obama, he described himself as “Republican on most issues but Democrat on health” and supported something like Medicare for All in the early 00s. But he’s never been a smart or principled man; during one of his many failed runs for the Presidency he expressed support for partial birth abortion without knowing what it was.

If I had to give President Trump a label, it would be populist paleoconservative. Gay marriage is a fig leaf, but nobody ever fits perfectly into an ideology unless they define it. So you could call Trump a Trumpist, but that’s just circular.