Why do people like Trump?

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In the first quarter of 2020:

• January 2, 2020: Trump orders an airstrike that kills Iranian General Qassim Suleimani. Trump says that he believed that Suleimani had plans for imminent attacks on America.  No specific piece of evidence has ever been cited to support his claims.

• January 9, 2020: Trump diverts $3.6 billion from Defense spending to the construction of his border wall.

• January 21, 2020: Trump ridiculs climate change activists as "prophets of doom" and "radical socialists".

• January 23, 2020: Under Trump, protections for many rivers, streams, and wetlands are officially removed.

• January 24, 2020: Trump's State Department imposes a new rule that allows consular officers to deny a woman who is pregnant or may become pregnant a tourist visa in order to deter alleged "birth tourism".

• January 31, 2020: Trump cancels a policy that prohibited the use of anti-personnel landmines outside of the Korean peninsula.

• February 6, 2020: Trump's Department of Homeland Security announces that New York residents will no longer be able to enroll in Trusted Traveler programs that expedites security screenings at ports of entry.

• February 7, 2020: Trump fires European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman after they testified in the president's impeachment trial.

• February 10, 2020: Trump's proposed fiscal year 2021 budget includes significant cuts to foreign aid and Medicare. Among the departments facing the biggest losses is the Environmental Protection Agency.

• February 18, 2020: Trump commuts the sentence of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on corruption charges in 2010; the same year he appeared on Trump's TV show, The Celebrity Apprentice.

• February 24, 2020: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA," Trump tweets. "We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries.  CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart.  Stock Market starting to look very good to me!"  Within a few days, the stock market suffers its worst week since the 2008 financial crisis.

• February 24, 2020: Trump lashes out at two Supreme Court justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, who had been critical of him in the past. While visiting India, he asserts in a news conference that they should "recuse themselves for anything Trump or Trump-related".

• February 26, 2020: Trump appoints Pence to lead the United States' response to the coronavirus outbreak. Pence has no medical background.

• March 4, 2020: Trump disputes the deadliness of Covid-19 on a "hunch".

• March 9, 2020: The Trump administration finalizes a new rule that allows law enforcement authorities to collect DNA from immigration detainees in federal custody.  Under the rule, the privacy rights of migrants is no longer protected.

• March 13, 2020: Trump says an Obama-era rule is to blame for the Trump administration not being able to provide coronavirus tests more expediently.  However, no such rule exists.

• March 15, 2020: Trump offers large sums of money to CureVac, a German company working on a coronavirus vaccine, in order to give the U.S. exclusive access to its information. CureVac's CEO confirms the agreement.

• March 18, 2020: Trump announces that the U.S.-Mexico border will be sealed off to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The measure allows the administration to deport migrants without due process.

• March 18, 2020: Trump defends his use of the term "Chinese virus" to refer to COVID-19.

• March 21, 2020: Trump endorses the combination of two drugs, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, to treat coronavirus despite a lack of testing or backing by the FDA, and when taking the drugs together is dangerous.

• March 23, 2020: Trump equates the alarming increase in coronavirus deaths to automobile fatalities.  "You look at automobile accidents, which are far greater than any numbers we're talking about," he says.  "That doesn't mean we're going to tell everybody no more driving of cars".

• March 26, 2020: Trump claims that the coronavirus crisis caught the U.S. by surprise.  "This was something that nobody has ever thought could happen to this country," he says.  "Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened".

• March 27, 2020: Trump singles out the governors of Michigan and Washington for not being "sufficiently grateful" for federal government aid during the pandemic.

• March 27, 2020: Trump falsely boasts that "We've now established great testing … We've tested now more than anybody".

• March 29, 2020: Trump says that as many as 2.2 million Americans could have died "if we didn't do what we're doing".  He adds that if the U.S. is able to limit COVID-19 deaths to between 100,000 and 200,000 people, "we altogether have done a very good job".

• March 31, 2020: Trump says his impeachment "probably" diverted his attention from dealing with the crisis more swiftly, a claim first made by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

More to come...

Last edited by Fnord on 06 Oct 2020, 11:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

1. I believe the average Trump tax cut benefit is $1300 per household for eight years, so 8*1300 = $10,400.

2. The "individual mandate" is a substantial tax (penalty) that citizens had to pay for not having health insurance. Six to eight million Americans were paying this yearly. In 2018, it was maximum of ....

-$695 per uninsured person and $347.50 per child (up to a $975 maximum) OR
-Two-and-half percent of household income

3. The ACA (Obamacare) established a terrible precedent that the US government can constitutionally tax you for *not engaging in commerce*. This is an incredible loss of freedom.

Other countries are probably not use to having the freedoms and wealth enjoyed by Americans.

I think they have mistaken bellowing, bluster and rudeness for strength.

From what I've been reading, I get the impression modern Germany, and indeed most nations of Europe, are better off than Americans and enjoy a higher standard of living too.

My own country has a very complex situation where attempts to redress the mistakes of the past never quite reached their potential because of rampant corruption. That potential is still there but gets more elusive by the year as attempts to address this move so slowly. We had great prosperity and at one time supplied two thirds of the world's gold but those reserves are now much depleted. The country was very prosperous but only for a certain racial group. Now, that prosperity is enjoyed by cadres and hangers-on who have no intention of sharing it with those they consider hoi polloi. So, the average citizen has not seen their way of life substantially improved.

That's a long list of reasons to NOT vote for Trump. Yet his diehard supporters will overlook all that.

During the second quarter of 2020:

• April 1, 2020: Mike Pence says Trump had never "belittled" the coronavirus threat. Trump makes the same argument at his daily briefing. "I knew how bad it was," he says. Both statements contradict what Trump has said in the past, as when he claimed on Jan. 22 that "we're not at all" worried about the virus. "And we have it totally under control".

• April 2, 2020: Jared Kushner, a White House adviser and Trump's son-in-law, asserts that the Strategic National Stockpile of ventilators and medical supplies are "supposed to be our stockpile -- it's not supposed to be states' stockpiles that they then use". Journalists at the Kushner news conference point out that what he said went against the program's description on its website.

• April 3, 2020: The Strategic National Stockpile program website's wording is altered under Trump's orders to match what Kushner had said the previous day.

• April 4, 2020: After Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, confirms there is no evidence that hydroxychloroquine fights the coronavirus, or that it is safe, inspiring Trump to say he is considering it for himself.

• April 5, 2020: The U.S. stockpiles 29 million hydroxychloroquine pills, even though health experts denounce its efficacy and warn about its dangerous side effects, inspiring Trump to push for hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19.

• April 6, 2020: Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro warned the White House as early as January that the coronavirus poses a great threat to the United States; but Trump continues to downplay the threat.

• April 7, 2020: Trump blames the World Health Organization for what he calls its slow response to the pandemic. The WHO, however, warned of a "public health emergency of international concern" weeks before Trump declared a national emergency.

• April 7, 2020: Trump ousts the chairman of a watchdog panel that oversees how the Trump administration manages $2 trillion in coronavirus relief.

• April 9, 2020: Defying health experts, Trump rejects the notion that more people need to be tested for the coronavirus before the U.S. economy could be restarted.

• April 11, 2020: Trump refuses to help the U.S. Postal Service, arguing that it needs to raise its rates for Amazon and other private shippers.

• April 12, 2020: "Time to #FireFauci" read a message that Trump retweeted after the nation's top infectious disease expert said fewer Americans would have died had the country gone under lockdown earlier. Trump goes on to condemn China, the World Health Organization, and President Obama for the Covid health crisis.

• April 13, 2020: Trump holds a 2-1/2 hour news conference in which he attacks the press. "You know you're a fake," he tells one reporter. "Everything we did was right," he says. He also incorrectly says that the power to reopen the country rests solely with him, not state governors. "When somebody is the president of the United States," he said, "the authority is total, and that's the way it's got to be".

• April 13 – The Treasury Department orders that Trump's name appear on the $1,200 stimulus checks that millions of Americans are to receive. According to administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, it was Trump's idea to have his name printed on the checks.

• April 14, 2020: Trump says that he will cut off U.S. payments to the World Health Organization while falsely claiming that the WHO engaged in a coverup of the outbreak in its early days in China.

• April 15, 2020: The Trump administration pays companies $5 per N95 respirator mask -- almost eight times what the price was earlier in the year.

• April 17, 2020: Trump uses Twitter to call on protesters to challenge governors' stay-at-home orders. He also urges Virginians to resist stricter gun-control measures in that state.

• April 18, 2020: Trump falsely accuses Democratic governors for not doing enough to test people for COVID-19, when his administration failed to provide enough testing kits that actually work.

• April 20, 2020: Trump announces that he plans to temporarily suspend immigration into the country. Trump also says he wants to block what he called an "attack from the Invisible Enemy".

• April 21, 2020: Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., asks for a break on its lease payments ... from the Trump administration. Trump's business also ask Florida's Palm Beach County if it is required to continue making $88,000 monthly lease payments for the Trump International Golf Club.

• April 21, 2020: Congress approves $6 billion to help college students affected by the pandemic pay for food, childcare and housing. The Trump administration works in a restriction to prevent undocumented students from getting any of the aid.

• April 22, 2020: Dr. Rick Bright, who heads the agency to develop a coronavirus vaccine, cast doubts on whether hydroxychloroquine prevents Covid-19. Bright is ousted by Trump as director of the Department of Health and Human Services' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

• April 23, 2020: Trump speculates about ingesting or injecting disinfectants to fight the coronavirus. He also muses about the use of ultraviolet light. Health officials and manufacturers of household cleaners urge Americans not to follow Trump's proposed remedies.

• April 24, 2020: New York City's poison control center reports more than twice the calls related to ingested household disinfectants than it received for a comparable timeframe in 2019.

• April 25, 2020: "I never said the pandemic was a Hoax!" Trump tweets. "Who would say such a thing?" Two months earlier, at a South Carolina rally he said, "Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus," he told the crowd on February 28. "And this is their new hoax".

• April 26, 2020: Trump assailed reporters who have received Noble Prizes for their work on Russia and complained about a New York Times story on his work ethic.

• April 27, 2020: Trump declares that if Americans are ingesting or injecting disinfectants to fight the coronavirus, it isn't his fault. States report numerous cases of people drinking cleaning products after Trump's comments.

• April 27, 2020: Trump ignored at least a dozen classified briefings in January and February that called the coronavirus an imminent threat. Officials say that Trump seldom reads or listens to an oral summary of the President's Daily Brief.

• April 29, 2020: Trump berates his political advisers after they tell him that his polling numbers ae declining in key states due to his mishandling of the pandemic. According to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, Trump repeatedly said, "I am not f███ing losing to Joe Biden".

• April 29, 2020: Jared Kushner predicts the country will be back to normal by June.

• April 30, 2020: Trump administration officials put pressure on U.S. spy agencies to dig up evidence that the coronavirus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China -- a conspiracy theory that is widely discredited.

• April 30, 2020: Trump says of the coronavirus, "Nobody's thinking about it more. Nobody has spent more time, late in the evening, thinking about what's happened to this country in a short period of time". The Washington Post notes at least 44 times in March, April and early May in which Trump downplays the threat of the virus, falsely calling it "very well under control" again and again.

• May 3, 2020: The coronavirus death toll could reach 100,000, Trump said during a Fox News town hall broadcast from the Lincoln Memorial. The figure was double the estimate he predicted only two weeks earlier.

• May 4, 2020: The White House issues new guidance that bans members of its pandemic task force from testifying before Congress. The decision is made shortly after infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose views often diverged from Trump's, is prohibited by Trump from testifying before a House committee.

• May 5, 2020: Rick Bright, the scientist who lost his job as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, files a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. In the complaint, Bright says his warnings about the coronavirus were dismissed by the Trump administration and that he was punished by being moved to another post.

• May 6, 2020: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put together a 17-page report advising Americans on when they could reopen the economy. According to a CDC official, the Trump administration prevented the release of the report, telling the CDC that it "would never see the light of day".

• May 7, 2020: The criminal case against Michael Flynn, Trump's first national security adviser, is dropped by the Justice Department under Trump's order -- even though Flynn had pleaded guilty twice to lying to the FBI in an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

• May 8, 2020: Trump meets with seven World War II veterans, all in their 90s, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Allied victory in Europe. Even though he is close enough to speak with the men, he doesn't wear a mask in their presence.

• May 11, 2020: The Trump administration unveils two large banners at a Rose Garden briefing that read, "AMERICA LEADS THE WORLD IN TESTING". The event ended suddenly, however, after a testy exchange between Trump and journalists Weijia Jiang and Kaitlan Collins. "You've said many times that the U.S. is doing far better than any other country when it comes to testing," Jiang said. Trump told Jiang, who is Chinese American, "Don't ask me, ask China that question, OK?" He then tried to have Collins ask him a question, but she deferred back to Jiang. Frustrated, Trump abruptly turned around and left the briefing.

• May 12, 2020: Though U.S. law dictates that the election occurs on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, White House adviser Jared Kushner says that the presidential election might have to be delayed because of the pandemic.

• May 12, 2020: Trump promotes a conspiracy theory that falsely suggests Joe Scarborough of MSNBC committed murder.

• May 13, 2020: Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort is released from prison at his attorneys' urging. Manafort, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and obstruct justice, is allowed to complete his seven-year sentence under home confinement.

• May 14, 2020: Trump speaks of coronavirus testing in contradictory terms while visiting a medical equipment distribution center in Pennsylvania.

• May 15, 2020: The coronavirus stabilization law that Congress passed included money for public education institutions hurt by the pandemic, but Trump's Education Secretary Betsy DeVos directs $180 million of it to private and religious schools under Trump's direction.

• May 16, 2020: Trump fires State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, who was appointed by President Obama. Linick is replaced by an ambassador who is close to Mike Pence.

• May 17, 2020: After President Obama alludes to Trump's lack of leadership during the pandemic, Trump attacks his predecessor as "grossly incompetent".

• May 18, 2020: Trump confirms that he is taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug he has long praised even though medical experts warn that it could be dangerous and was not shown to combat Covid-19.

• May 21, 2020: Unlike everyone around him who followed company policy and state law, Trump does not wear a mask when touring a Ford Motor Company factory in Michigan.

• May 21, 2020: Michael Cohen, Trump's former attorney, is released from prison, a week after Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chairman, was released, cutting short Cohen's three-year term for financial and political crimes. He is ordered to serve the remainder of his sentence in his multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment.

• May 22, 2020: Calling houses of worship "essential", Trump tells governors to reopen them, despite the pandemic. Trump says of the governors, "If there's any question, they're going to have to call me, but they are not going to be successful in that call".

• May 22, 2020: Trump expresses doubt that the nation's coronavirus death toll is as high as health departments say it is. The official total is almost 95,000, but Trump says it is "lower than" that. Medical experts confirm that it is certainly higher than the confirmed count.

• May 24, 2020: Trump uses the Memorial Day weekend to insult numerous people on Twitter. The president calls Stacy Abrams "Shamu," saying she "visited every buffet restaurant in the State", he falsely accuses Nancy Pelosi of drinking "booze on the job", and he refers to Hillary Clinton as a "skank".

• May 26, 2020: Trump continues to spread a conspiracy theory that MSNBC's Joe Scarborough had committed murder, this time addressing the allegation at a press conference in the Rose Garden. Police in Florida had ruled that there was no sign of foul play in the 2001 death of Lori Klausutis, who died when hitting her head in a fall after a heart attack.

• May 27, 2020: Twitter adds a fact-check label to two of Trump's tweets that claimed that mail-in ballots were fraudulent. In response, he threatens to shut down his favorite social media platform on which he has issued more than 50,000 tweets.

• May 28, 2020: Following up on his threat to punish Twitter for tagging warning labels to two of his tweets, Trump signs an executive order to "defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in American history".

• May 29, 2020: Trump says he will end the country's relationship with the World Health Organization.

• May 29, 2020: On Twitter, Trump responds to protests against George Floyd's murder by police by calling the protesters "THUGS". For the second time in a week, Twitter attaches a warning label to his tweet, in which the president condons violence, writing, "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts".

• May 30, 2020: For the second day in a row, Trump condemns people across the country who protest the murder of George Floyd, threatening them with "vicious dogs" and "ominous weapons". In a tweet that seemed to welcome a confrontation, he wrote, "Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE".

• May 31, 2020: Following days of unrest and rioting, Trump stays silent -- except for tweets that he composes from within a White House bunker while fires raged outside.

• June 1, 2020: Declaring himself "your president of law and order," Trump threatens to summon "all available federal resources -- civilian and military" to quell protesters who demanded justice after the killing of George Floyd. He refers to demonstrators as "an angry mob".

• June 1, 2020: After spending time in a White House bunker, Trump arranges a photo-op for himself in front of nearby St. John's church. Protesters in the area were sprayed with tear gas and rubber bullets so that Trump and his entourage could walk unencumbered to the church.

• June 2, 2020: Trump continues to assail protesters, singling out demonstrators in New York City, where marches were largely peaceful. "NYC, CALL UP THE NATIONAL GUARD," he writes in a tweet. "The lowlifes and losers are ripping you apart. Act fast!"

• June 3, 2020: Trump's press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, denies that tear gas and rubber bullets were used to clear out protesters so that Trump could have his picture taken at St. John's church. The Park Police, however, acknowledge firing "pepper ball" projectiles and "smoke canisters" into the crowd. Trump also denies going into a bunker while protesters gathered outside the White House. He later acknowledges that he had gone to the bunker, but only for an "inspection".

• June 4, 2020: Trump signs an executive order that allows him to expedite infrastructure projects by working around environmental reviews. He says the national emergency brought about by the pandemic makes it necessary to override environmental regulations.

• June 7, 2020: Confronted with growing protests in Washington, D.C., Trump demands that the military deploy 10,000 active-duty troops to the city. This demand leads to a "contentious" exchange with Pentagon officials.

• June 8, 2020: Martin Gugino, a 75-year-old peace activist, is hospitalized after two police officers shove him to the ground, fracturing his skull, at a protest in Buffalo, N.Y. In spite of not being an eye-witness to the event, Trump falsely claims that he "could be an ANTIFA provocateur," adding, "he fell harder than was pushed. Could be a set up."

• June 10, 2020: Trump says he will hold a campaign rally, the first such event in three months, even though coronavirus cases are rising in many states. Trump's campaign team scheduls the rally on Juneteenth, African-Americans' Independence Day, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a notorious race massacre in 1921.

• June 10, 2020: Amid renewed calls to rename Army bases honoring Confederate leaders, the Pentagon says it was "open to a bipartisan discussion on the topic". Trump puts an end to any discussion, tweeting, "my Administration will not even consider the renaming of these Magnificent and Fabled Military Installations".

• June 10, 2020: The topic of drilling for oil and gas off Florida's coast has long been a third rail of politics for both parties in the state. Having relaxed regulations, though, Trump's Interior Department plans to open up drilling off the state's coast -- but not until after the November election.

• June 11, 2020: Attendees of Trump's rally have to sign a waiver that forbids them from suing the campaign if they contract COVID-19 at the rally.

• June 12, 2020: The Trump administration eliminats health care protections for transgender patients. The rule is announced during Pride Month, on the anniversary of the 2016 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

• June 14, 2020: Trump testily defends himself after videos shot at West Point show him tentatively walking down a ramp and struggling to drink from a glass of water. Though the day was sunny and hot, Trump tweeted that the ramp was "very slippery".

• June 15, 2020: Trump blames an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases on testing.

• June 16, 2020: Officials in Tulsa urge the Trump campaign to cancel his rally there, warning that it could be a coronavirus "super spreader". Trump, though, blames the media for fomenting opposition to his gatherings.

• June 17, 2020: Trump rails against John Bolton, his former national security adviser, over the publication of his new memoir, which paints the president as an ill-prepared leader who curries favor with dictators and schemes to stop criminal investigations.

• June 18, 2020: Too much testing for the coronavirus "made the US look bad," Trump says. "I personally think testing is overrated, even though I created the greatest testing machine in history," he says.

• June 18, 2020: In a tweet, Trump calls two Supreme Court rulings -- one protecting young immigrants from deportation, the other defending gay and transgender workers -- "shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives".

• June 18, 2020: The Trump campaign posts advertisements that feature an inverted red triangle were removed by Facebook, which cited the company's policies on hate-group symbols. The triangle was used by Nazis to single out political opponents.

• June 19, 2020: Trump threatens those who plan to demonstrate at his rally in Tulsa. "Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis," he tweeted. "It will be a much different scene!"

• June 19, 2020: Twitter added a warning label to a doctored video that Trump tweeted, saying it went against the company's policies. The manipulated version posted by Trump included a fake CNN headline that read, "Terrified toddler runs from racist baby ... Racist baby probably a Trump voter".

• June 20, 2020: Trump says he ordered his administration to "slow down" coronavirus testing so that fewer cases of COVID-19 would be reported. In his speech, which drew far fewer people than the arena could hold, Trump also referred to the coronavirus as the "kung flu".

• June 20, 2020: In his latest dismissal of a government official, Trump fires federal prosecutor Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. Berman's office prosecuted Michael D. Cohen, Trump's former lawyer who was sentenced to prison for financial crimes. He was also investigating Rudolph Giuliani, Trump's attorney.

• June 21, 2020: Trump's rally in Tulsa attracts only 6,600 people. Much of the 19,000-capacity venue is empty. Trump's campaign manager says the low attendance was the fault of "the fake news media," which urged people not to go "because of Covid and protesters, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire".

• June 22, 2020: Trump renews his opposition to mail-in voting, which could prove useful during a pandemic. There has been no evidence of significant fraud aided by mail-in ballots.

• June 23, 2020: Trump's family files a petition to block the publication of a tell-all book by Mary L. Trump, the president's niece. Trump says Mary Trump is "not allowed" to write the book because of a nondisclosure agreement she signed in 2001. The book's subtitle calls her uncle "the world's most dangerous man".

• June 23, 2020: Trump aides say he was joking when he told his administration to slow down coronavirus testing; but Trump says he was not being sarcastic.

• June 24, 2020: The criminal case against Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, is ordered dropped by a federal appeals court. The ruling is handed down despite Flynn's guilty plea for lying to the FBI during Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

• June 24, 2020: At least six advance staffers, including two Secret Service employees, test positive for COVID-19 after helping staff Trump's rally in Tulsa.

• June 26, 2020: Russia offers Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill American troops. Trump and his administration knew about the bounties for months, and did nothing to punish or confront Russia.

• June 26, 2020: Holding the first briefing of the coronavirus task force in almost two months, Vice President Mike Pence cites "remarkable progress" in its fight against the virus. COVID-19, however, is spreading at a record rate across the country.

• June 26, 2020: With an hour to spare before a midnight deadline, the Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The brief is submitted at a time when millions of Americans have lost their jobs and health care during the pandemic.

• June 28, 2020: Trump tweets, then deletes, a video that shows a supporter of his shouting "white power" at anti-Trump protesters at The Villages, a Florida retirement community.

• June 29, 2020: Trump retweets a video of a white couple threatening peaceful protesters outside their St. Louis mansion. The man brandishes a semi-automatic rifle, and the woman points a handgun at the crowd.

• June 30, 2020: Fireworks at Mount Rushmore were banned a decade ago over fears of wildfires, but the Trump administration announces that he will host a Fourth of July fireworks celebration at the park. South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who organized the event with Trump and the Department of Interior, says there will be no social distancing.

More to come...

A number of reasons to be honest. But I'd imagine they vary depending on the person.

Reason 1: Many people who like Trump are evangelicals or are simply single issue voters. These are the kinds of people who have one or two concrete policy ideas but consider themselves pragmatists and will support anyone who seems to agree with that. That is one being pro life and two supporting Israel.

Reason 2: Trump is an authoritarian. In all honesty, I personally regard this as being the biggest reason why people support him. When you are an authoritarian candidate, there is something instinctively people about that: a sense of a tough guy fighting for your side, as well as a sense of guidance, pride and stability. However in supporting an authoritarian leader, there is also a large degree to which people have to make a leap of faith, and let themselves become devoted to a strong leader. As a result Trump's support is resilient and will always be for the rest of his tenure.

Reason 3: Many superficial reasons. "These may include Trump is always in the news, wants to make America great again and he is funny, so yeah I like Trump." "I like Trump because he is a Republican and I always vote Republican." "Trump is subversive and anti-establishment and I want to be that." "I like his demeanor."

Reason 4: An overwhelming sense of malaise and disorientation faced by many Americans. Over the past 20 years wages have not gone up, jobs don't pay what they used to and the economic situation for many has either deteriorated or stagnated. This is particularly true in some American states like West Virginia, which used to overwhelmingly vote Democrat, but now as the state has been poverty struck and faced with enormous economic hardship it has since turned hard to the right.

Reason 5: A massive and deep running sense of resentment and anger towards ethnic minorities, immigrants and Muslims. Say what you will but this has been an enormous part of his appeal. Trump's very first campaign speech was him denouncing undocumented immigrants as "rapists and criminals." Never mind the fact that illegal immigrants commit less crime than the average American citizen, this is how people FEEL. They feel angry with immigrants and brown people and want an outlet to express that.

To summarize I think Trump's appeal can be boiled down to three main points. One legitimate grievances towards the status quo, a desire for strong leaders and the general feeling voters have of "ohhh that Trump guy looks different never had him before might want to test out that new car."

This topic is named, "Why do people like Trump?".

You're mistakenly posting information critical of Trump.

Depends on what you value.

OECD has a calculator that lets you select what you value, and see which countries are best.
http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org

Putting "Income" at max (10) and everything else at 0, puts the United States as #1.
Putting "Income", "Housing", "Jobs", "Health" at max (10) and everything else at 0, puts the United States as #1.

No, I am purposely posting critical information about Trump because it seems to be why some people like him.

July & August, 2020:

• July 1, 2020: Trump condemns New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to have the words BLACK LIVES MATTER painted on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower. On Twitter, the president claims that the words are a "symbol of hate".

• July 1, 2020: Trump promises to veto a $740 billion defense bill over a provision to remove the names of 10 Confederate generals from military bases.

• July 3, 2020: In a rally-like speech at Mount Rushmore on the eve of Independence Day, Trump assails protesters with the words "This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore. We will not be terrorized, we will not be demeaned, and we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people". Trump's remarks were followed by fireworks, even though it was wildfire season. Thousands attended the gathering without wearing masks or socially distancing.

• July 4, 2020: Trump renews his attack on protesters in remarks at the White House. "We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children or trample on our freedoms," he said. "We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the Marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing".

• July 4, 2020: COVID-19 had killed nearly 130,000 Americans, but Trump maintains that 99 percent of coronavirus cases were totally harmless.

• July 5, 2020: Trump boasts that the nation woill have a coronavirus solution long before the end of the year. Dr. Stephen Hahn, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner in charge of approving vaccines, says, "I can't predict when a vaccine will be available". Many experts have said a vaccine would not be available until at least mid-2021.

• July 6, 2020: More than 40 lobbyists connected to Trump obtain at least $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid for their clients. They include at least five former Trump administration officials who violated a Trump executive order restricting lobbying activities.

• July 6, 2020: International students enrolled in online classes in the fall will have to leave the United States, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced. ICE said that foreign students who do not take any in-person courses could risk immigration consequences including, but not limited to, the initiation of removal proceedings.

• July 6, 2020: Trump rebukes NASCAR's only African American driver, Bubba Wallace, after the FBI concludes that a rope in Wallace's garage stall was not made to look like a noose. The president also berates NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag.

• July 6, 2020: Companies linked to Trump's family and friends apply for $21 million in Small Business Administration funding meant to help businesses hurt by the pandemic. Those positioned to benefit from the bailout money include companies owned or backed by the family of Trump's son-in-law, White House adviser Jared Kushner, and the president's son, Donald Jr. The government refuses to share details of the loans.

• July 7, 2020: Trump demands that schools open in the fall, even as the number of coronavirus cases soar across the country.

• July 8, 2020: Trump says students should go back to school in the fall. If school districts didn't obey him, he said, they could lose their federal funding.

• July 8, 2020: Trump's June 20 indoor rally in Tulsa is to blame for a spike in COVID-19 cases in Tulsa County. A one-day record-high number of cases was reported in the county after the event.

• July 9, 2020: Trump blasts the Supreme Court for ruling that he can not block the release of his financial records. "This is all a political prosecution," he wrote on Twitter. "I won the Mueller Witch Hunt, and others, and now I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York. Not fair to this Presidency or Administration!" In another tweet, he wrote, "Courts in the past have given "broad deference". BUT NOT ME!"

• July 9, 2020: Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer who was serving his sentence under home confinement -- due to the pandemic -- is ordered back to prison. Cohen, who had pleaded guilty to financial crimes and campaign finance violations, had "refused the conditions of his home confinement," the federal Bureau of Prisons said.

• July 10, 2020: Trump brags that he "aced" a mental acuity test he recently took at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Trump says that he thinks his political rival, Joe Biden, should take the same test.

• July 10, 2020: Trump suggests that thanks to him, people today know that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

• July 10, 2020: Trump commutes the prison sentence of his friend and political adviser Roger Stone, who had been convicted of obstructing a criminal investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Stone was declared "a free man!" in a White House statement just days before he was to begin a 40-month prison term.

• July 11, 2020: Trump wears a mask while visiting Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to meet healthcare workers and wounded service members. It is the first time Trump was seen in public with a mask during the pandemic; for months, he had dismissed the idea of wearing one.

• July 12, 2020: Trump warns of automatic prison sentences for anyone who harms federal monuments.

• July 14, 2020: All data about patients with the coronavirus must be sent by hospitals to a central database in Washington, D.C., the Trump administration said. The order bypassed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and meant that information might not be accessible to the public.

• July 15, 2020: White House adviser Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, posted an image on social media of her holding up a can of Goya beans days after a boycott of the company was announced in response to Goya's CEO praising Trump. Employees of the executive branch (except for the president and vice president) are prohibited from using public office "for the endorsement of any product, service, or enterprise".

• July 16, 2020: Science "should not stand in the way of" schools reopening during a pandemic, says White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. When her comments were reported, she said the coverage was a "case study in media bias".

• July 17, 2020: Dozens of federal officers descend on the streets of Portland, Oregon, wounding demonstrators and taking some of them away in unmarked vans.

• July 17, 2020: The House Education and Labor Committee invite CDC Director Robert Redfield to appear at a hearing on schools reopening during the pandemic, but Trump orders him not to testify.

• July 17, 2020: The official portraits of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were taken out of the Grand Foyer of the White House, where portraits of recent presidents have long been displayed. The paintings were moved to the Old Family Dining Room, which is seldom visited. Trump has yet to unveil a portrait of former President Obama.

• July 18, 2020: The Trump administration fought to keep states from getting billions of dollars of coronavirus relief money to conduct testing and contact tracing. Republican senators also want to have billions go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but the administration tries to block that funding as well.

• July 19, 2020: Trump says he might not accept the results of the 2020 presidential election if he loses. Trump also falsely states that the United States' coronavirus mortality rate is "one of the lowest" in the world. He adds that his prediction about the pandemic will come true. "It's going to disappear, and I'll be right," he said. "Because I've been right probably more than anybody else".

• July 20, 2020: Blaming Democrats for allowing cities to get "out of control," Trump says he plans to send more federal agents to Chicago and other cities.

• July 21, 2020: Trump signs a memo to have the Commerce Department compile data on undocumented immigrants in order to exclude them from the 2020 census, which determines the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives.

• July 22, 2020: During a press briefing on the coronavirus, Trump extends his sympathies to Ghislaine Maxwell, who was arrested on charges of aiding sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

• July 22, 2020: Amid protests in American cities, Trump's re-election campaign publishes a Facebook ad showing the president standing with police leaders -- contrasted with an image of protesters attacking a police officer on the ground. The ad reads "personal safety vs. chaos & violence". The man who took the photo of the protesters confirms that it has nothing to do with U.S. demonstrations and that he took the picture in Ukraine in 2014.

• July 22, 2020: Trump again boasts about the results of a cognitive test that he took.

• July 23, 2020: Reaching out to "the Suburban Housewives of America," Trump indicates that he would repeal an Obama-era fair-housing rule.

• July 27, 2020: Trump announces that he has been invited by the New York Yankees to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Yankees game in August -- sharing the news an hour before Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease expert with whom Trump has sparred, threw the opening pitch in the Yankees' first game of the season. The Yankees, however, had never invited Trump, and the White House followed his statement by saying that the president was, in fact, booked on the day of the game and had to cancel.

• July 28, 2020: Former Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama are scheduled to attend the funeral of civil rights icon and Congressman John Lewis, and when asked if he, too, will pay his respects, Trump replied, "No".

• July 28, 2020: Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. share a video of a group of people in white medical coats dismissing the importance of masks and touting the benefits of hydroxychloroquine, the drug that the president has touted as a coronavirus treatment, but that medical experts discredited. The video of the self-proclaimed "America's Frontline Doctors" was viewed tens of millions of times on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter before the websites were able to remove it.

• July 29, 2020: The Trump administration says it will block any new applications to DACA, the Obama-era program that protects young people from deportation. The move is announced a month after the Supreme Court ruled against the administration's efforts to eliminate the program.

• July 29, 2020: In praising his administration's recent decision to revoke an Obama-era fair-housing rule, Trump writes on Twitter, "I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low-income housing built in your neighborhood. Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!"

• July 29, 2020: Trump said he did not ask Vladimir Putin about reported bounties on U.S. troops during a call with the Russian leader because it was "fake news".

• July 30, 2020: Trump again assails mail-in voting and raises the possibility of delaying the November election.. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"

• July 30, 2020: Herman Cain, who ran in the Republican presidential primary in 2012, dies from COVID-19 complications. The chairman of Black Voices for Trump, Cain attended Trump's June 20 campaign rally in Tulsa, where he was seen not social distancing nor wearing a mask.

• July 31, 2020: A day after Trump aired the possibility of delaying the election, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany rebukes the Hong Kong government for postponing its own elections.

• August 3, 2020: Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, says that the pandemic was "extraordinarily widespread". Trump replied that she was "pathetic".

• August 4, 2020: Jonathan Swan of Axios asks Trump how the coronavirus is "under control" when 1,000 Americans were dying of it every day. "They are dying. That's true. It is what it is," Trump replies.

• August 4, 2020: Trump maintains that he did not know about Russia's offer of bounties for American troops killed in Afghanistan. The bounties, though, were reportedly brought to his attention in intelligence reports.

• August 4, 2020: Trump's campaign sues Nevada, arguing that a bill allowing voters to mail in election ballots would lead to fraud. In a tweet, Trump calls the legislation "an illegal late-night coup," adding, "See you in Court!"

• August 5, 2020: The United States records 1,380 COVID-19 deaths in a day, but Trump says, "This thing's going away. It will go away like things go away".

• August 6, 2020: Trump says that Biden, a Catholic who has long attended Mass, was "following the radical left agenda; no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God. He's against God".

• August 6, 2020: White House health officials say that the U.S. might have a coronavirus vaccine in early 2021. Trump, however, claims that one could be available "sooner than the end of the year, could be much sooner". No reputable scientists, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, believe a vaccine is possible before 2021.

• August 7, 2020: The Trump administration issues two rarely-used executive orders to ban TikTok and WeChat. The popular social media networks are owned by companies in China -- a frequent target of the president's pre-election rhetoric. He does not, however, outline any specific threat from the companies.

• August 8, 2020: An aide to Trump asks the South Dakota governor's office what it took to have a president added to Mount Rushmore.

• August 9, 2020: Trump cut short a news conference when a reporter asks him why he repeatedly takes credit -- more than 150 times -- for a veterans' health care bill that was signed into law by President Obama. Then he abruptly walked away.

• August 10, 2020: Trump says he would not have called for Obama's resignation if 160,000 Americans had died on his watch. Trump, though, had said in 2014 that Obama should resign for his response to the Ebola outbreak, during which two people died in the United States.

• August 10, 2020: "I think it's been amazing what we've been able to do," Trump said about his administration's response to the pandemic. "We understand the disease. Nobody understood it because nobody's ever seen anything like this. The closest thing is in 1917, they say, right? The great pandemic. Certainly was a terrible thing where they lost anywhere from 50 to 100 million people. Probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick". The pandemic that Trump spoke of actually began in 1918 and lasted until 1919. World War II ended 26 years later, in 1945.

• August 11, 2020: In a radio interview, Trump says, "China will own the United States if this election is lost by Donald Trump". He adds, "If I don't win the election…you're going to have to learn to speak Chinese, you want to know the truth".

• August 12, 2020: Trump repeatedly calls Kamala Harris, Biden's choice of running mate, "nasty". Trump adds that Harris "was the meanest, most horrible, most disrespectful of anybody in the U.S. Senate".

• August 12, 2020: Trump congratulats Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congressional candidate from Georgia who voiced her support of the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon. The FBI identifies QAnon as a potential domestic terror threat.

• August 13, 2020: Trump says he opposes $25 billion in emergency aid for the U.S. Postal Service. He made the unfounded claim that the coronavirus relief funding would help the service process "fraudulent" mail ballots for the November election.

• August 13, 2020: Trump, who had spread the lie that Obama was born in Kenya, gives credence to the conspiracy theory that Kamala Harris could not be vice president because her parents were immigrants.

• August 13, 2020: The Trump administration eliminates an Obama-era rule that required oil and gas companies to repair methane leaks.

• August 13, 2020: Trump's Energy Department proposes eliminating an Obama administration rule that limits showerheads to 2.5 gallons of water per minute.

• August 14, 2020: The Senate Intelligence Committee asks federal prosecutors to investigate former Trump strategist Stephen Bannon for possibly lying during its inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

• August 14, 2020: The Senate Intelligence Committee says that Donald Trump Jr., Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks offered conflicting testimony.

• August 16, 2020: Trump says that the Food and Drug Administration should approve an extract from the oleander plant as a coronavirus cure, even though there is no evidence that it is beneficial. Oleandrin had been touted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, a major Trump donor who has invested in the company that makes the extract. Lindell is not a doctor.

• August 17, 2020: Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is accused of deliberately slowing mail delivery to give the president a boost in the November election. Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Ted Lieu of the House Judiciary Committee call for the FBI to open a criminal probe into DeJoy, who was appointed by Trump in May. The businessman earns millions of dollars from a company that does business with the Postal Service. He donated $1.2 million to Trump's election campaign.

• August 17, 2020: The Trump administration announces that it will begin selling leases for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a vast area of undisturbed wilderness in Alaska.

• August 19, 2020: As Obama criticizes Trump in a speech at the Democratic National Convention, Trump assails his predecessor in tweets.

• August 19, 2020: When asked at a news briefing about the internet conspiracy theory QAnon, the president says, "I don't know much about the movement other than I understand that they like me very much, which I appreciate".

• August 19, 2020: Trump demands a boycott of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. after the Ohio company banned its workers from wearing Trump campaign apparel.

• August 19, 2020: Trump's re-election campaign sues New Jersey for its plan to mail voters ballots because of the pandemic. Trump wrongly claims that mail-in voting results in widespread fraud. He and his wife also request mail-in ballots for the Aug. 18 Florida primary.

• August 19, 2020: Trump will "see what happens" in the November election before accepting its result, says White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

• August 20, 2020: Stephen Bannon, Trump's former chief strategist, is charged with cheating hundreds of thousands of donors who were told that their money would go toward building a wall along the Mexican border. A federal indictment says that Bannon, arrested with two other men, used almost $1 million for personal expenses; in all, the men raised more than $25 million. Bannon, who portrayed himself as a man of the people, was arrested on a $35 million yacht owned by fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.

• August 20, 2020: A federal judge rules that Trump must give his tax returns to the Manhattan district attorney, who is investigating Trump's financial records. Judge Victor Marrero rejected the president's most recent attempt to block the release of his returns.

• August 20, 2020: In order to prevent voter fraud, Trump says, he will order law enforcement to the polls on November 3. Law enforcement is barred at polling places in several states because of concerns over voter intimidation.
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• August 20, 2020: Trump blames California for the wildfires, threatening to withhold federal emergency funds.

• August 21, 2020: Trump says he had a theory that if November's election results were not known by the end of 2020, Nancy Pelosi would become president.

• August 21, 2020: Trump tells Department of Homeland Security officials to watch Lou Dobbs every night.

• August 22, 2020: Trump is ordered by a California judge to pay an adult-film actress $44,100. The money is for her legal fees related to a lawsuit that she had brought against the president. Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, had sued Trump to be released from a $130,000 nondisclosure agreement to keep her quiet about their sexual relationship.

• August 22, 2020: Retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry says, "You can't trust him" about her brother, Donald, in a conversation secretly recorded by their niece, Mary Trump.

• August 23, 2020: Twitter hides one of Trump's tweets behind a warning that says the president's wording violates the company's rules about civic and election integrity.

• August 23, 2020: Trump alleges that the Food and Drug Administration is intentionally delaying coronavirus vaccine trials. He also provides no proof,

• August 24, 2020: New York State's attorney general asks a State Supreme Court judge to compel Eric Trump, the president's son, to testify in an investigation. The inquiry is looking into whether Trump and his business overstated assets to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits. Eric Trump canceled an interview with the attorney general in July, and the Trump Organization said it would not comply with seven subpoenas that it was sent.

• August 25, 2020: The Trump administration announces that if hospitals do not report coronavirus data to the Department of Health and Human Services -- until now a voluntary program -- they would have their Medicare and Medicaid funding revoked. The loss of the money could force hospitals to close.

• August 26, 2020: The White House's coronavirus task force changed the advice on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website without making an announcement. Whereas the wording had said anyone in contact with an infected person should be tested, it now said people without coronavirus symptoms do not necessarily need a test. The new guidelines followed months of Trump saying that he was opposed to more testing because it revealed more cases.

• August 27, 2020: The Trump administration breaks norms and flouts the Hatch Act by using government property -- the White House -- for a political convention. Trump delivers his closing-night speech from the South Portico, flanked by Jumbotrons on the South Lawn that screen campaign billboards. Roughly 1,500 people attend the speech, sitting closely together, most refusing to wear masks. A senior White House official dismisse any concerns about the coronavirus, telling CNN, "Everybody is going to catch this thing eventually".

• August 27, 2020: In visiting his own properties 271 times as president, Trump and Secret Service agents netted the Trump Organization more than $900,000. According to the Washington Post, Trump's business also brought in at least $3.8 million in fees associated with 37 political events held at Trump's properties.

• August 28, 2020: At a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Trump ridicules social justice protesters around the country.

• August 29, 2020: National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe tells Congress that his office will stop briefing lawmakers about election security. Trump defends the decision by saying that Ratcliffe got tired of intelligence leaking from members of Congress. The decision is made just 10 weeks before the presidential election.

• August 30, 2020: Trump praises a "Trump cruise rally" caravan headed to demonstrations in Portland. His words contrast with what he said previously about social justice protesters, whom he called "anarchists" and "terrorists".

• August 31, 2020: Trump suggests that a 17-year-old charged with murdering two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, acted in self-defense. The shootings occurred during an anti-racist protest after Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by police. Trump planned to travel to Kenosha, but Blake's family said they would talk to the president only if the family's lawyers were present. Trump said he would not speak with them.

• August 31, 2020: Trump retweets a conspiracy theory claiming that the coronavirus killed only 9,000 people in the country.

• August 31, 2020: In defending police officers, Trump says they can make mistakes in using deadly force in the same way golfers sometimes miss putts.

He's a self-declared "professional" writer...There's no mistakenly about it.

My guess is it's a combination of distrust of the establishment, and nostalgia for 1950s white suburban social norms.

He's very thorough and his research is impeccable.

The thing is that many people like Trump for precisely these reasons, and can't see anything wrong with his remarks or actions.

Those traits that reasonable people view as bugs his cult views as features.

Thank you.  It is nice to receive praise and recognition from a moderator.

As has been stated by others, while these traits are likely to offend any reasonable person*, they also seem to be points of praise for DJT's most rabidly loyal fans.


*The 'Reasonable Person' belongs to a family of hypothetical figures in law including: the "right-thinking member of society," the "officious bystander," the "reasonable parent," the "reasonable landlord," the "fair-minded and informed observer," the "person having ordinary skill in the art" in patent law, and stretching back to Roman jurists, the figure of the bonus paterfamilias, all used to define legal standards.

Always find it odd when someone just gives a blanket thumbs up to tax cuts and thumbs down to tax raises.

Surely you need to know the level of tax required before you know what is good or bad, otherwise you are running the risk of cheering on a policy of underfunding vital resources and your fellow countrymen struggling.