A foreign friend of mine asked me about my opinion of Trump. Here is how I responded in writing. It is not only about Trump (the human) but it is about the entire Trump election situation.
You asked about my political opinion about Trump. First of all, Bernie Sanders was my first choice! He is a successful businessman who has NEVER declared bankruptcy or fucked people out of money like Trump has (Business and government without morality and integrity are nothing but greed and oppression of the masses – that’s my quote ). He didn’t need campaign contributions; he used his own self-made money. I respect that! Running a country is similar to running a company or business; they have many of the same elements. I think Bernie would have been the best person for POTUS. Of the remaining three (Clinton, Trump, Stein), I didn’t really like any of them but I think Hillary has more experience and less mental health issues than Trump (He would probably claim the “affluenza” defense), and she certainly has better integrity (No one under the microscope can look good). Jill Stein also had some good ideas but she lacks experience and reputation.
Trump “bought” the POTUS by 1) manipulating voters through big data, and 2) getting help from Russian hackers who hacked into key states’ voting systems. He needed both elements to be able to win because without them, Hillary would have won, I think. Trump’s history of dishonesty and bankruptcy should have eliminated him from the presidential election but it did not (the American legal system is a joke!). He settled his fraud case out of court right before election day. He defrauded students with his fake online university. He is also notorious for “robbing Peter to pay Paul”, and for his using his fake non-profit organization’s donation to pay his legal bills when he is sued, and for the fines he is ordered to pay by the court system.
However, I do think Trump is correct that we should try to “make nice” with the Russians. Too many Americans are still living in the Cold War Era thinking that Russians are “Commies”. Russia has the largest amount of millionaires in the world, most living in Moscow. They have had a free market system for 25 years now, and they are just now starting to feel the social impacts of this new system; the stresses that such a system causes over the quest/greed for money. The Russian market is HUGE and has HUGE potential for new customers to buy products and services.
Of course, there is a lot of government corruption there, but there is here too. I find it interesting that almost everything the US accused the Soviets and Russians of doing are the exact same acts the US has been and is still doing to its own citizens. The Russian free market economy was and still is an untapped income source for international businesses. In fact, Trump has many businesses in Russia, and these felt the financial crunch when the sanctions were levied against Russia in 2014. So, Trump wasn’t making money either from his business investments he made in Russia. This further motivated him to ask the Russians to help him win the POTUS. The economic sanctions were levied collectively by the European Union but also singularly by the US. Russia also levied import bans that hurt many European and American business that were still allowed to do business in Russia under the economic sanctions, but Russia said, “Nope, you cannot do business here”. This also hurt the Russian people, who are just economic “collateral damage”. Believe it or not, It is rumored that Russia banned Western condoms (for several reasons).
Trump bit off more than he could chew with the Russians. I am rather sure that he made a deal with the Russians that if they got him into POTUS, he would lift the sanctions against Russia (specifically Putin’s inner circle of corrupt and extremely wealthy friends who were most affected by the sanctions) because of the 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine has always been rather Russian. The reasons Russia would have made this deal is that 1) Russia’s economy was shrinking because of the sanctions, and 2) Russia’s “bread and butter” is based on oil. All their social programs and the government function due to the proceeds of oil sales. The sanctions against Russia included no sale of replacement parts for the oil drilling rigs, and most of these rigs were purchased from American manufacturers. So, as the parts began to wear out, the Russian oil companies (especially GasProm) could not extract oil, therefore, they could not sell much on the world market (but the Russians asked Chinese engineers to design similar replacement parts, but this took a lot of time for development). And then the 5 years of oil embargo that mandated that Iran could not sell oil on the world market ended in September 2016. This flooded the global oil market since Iran started selling oil at a very low price so that they could raise hard currency (US Dollars) to improve their very hurt economy. This further hurt the Russian economy. Oil was selling at about USD30/barrel (it is now only up to USD68). Russia needs USD110 per barrel just to break even on its government and social program bills. Russia has drained most of its two very big money reserves, both in USD. The long term drop in oil prices has certainly caused devastating effects on countries that rely on income from selling oil on the world market.
Also, Russia’s currency devalued to the dollar. At one time, it was at an amazingly high rate of 93 rubles per 1 US dollar (it had been 30 rubles per 1 USD before the Ukraine invasion). Since most goods (and travel) are purchased using US dollars as the international purchase currency, the cost of consumer goods in Russia greatly increased while people were losing their jobs or taking pay cuts just to keep their jobs because the economy greatly slowed. Many of my clients, friends and students lost their jobs during this time. Additionally, it was becoming costly to buy USD in Russia because many of the Russian banks refused to give the names of their American clients to the US government, so the US Federal Reserve refused to sell USD to such banks (as a form of “blackmail” or “leverage”). Many small banks actually closed during the worst of this economic situation.
But Trump was an idiot about this deal. He was stupid and let his “Johnson” cause him trouble. The Russians videoed him with various beautiful Russian women in his hotel room. This was released to Trump to show him that the Russians had secret videos of Trump, but he did not know what else the Russians had videotaped about him. I’m sure he remembers the shit he had done, and perhaps was concerned about what shit was recorded. This was to make him “behave” and to do his part that he promised to do (lift the sanctions). Videoing Trump was the Russians’ insurance that Trump would do his part. However, he was not able to deliver the promise of lifting sanctions because of the way the US “checks & balances” work. Russia did their part but Trump didn’t deliver his part; a “breach of contract”. So, this left Russia in a bind to stimulate their economy since the US and the world sanctions against it are still practiced. Trump has no “street smarts”; he took a knife to a gun fight with the Russians. The Russians hung his ass out over a barrel because of his arrogance and narcissism. Perhaps he thought that “They will never do that to me because I have lots of money!”
I do think that Trump is very much like Hitler. Hitler outright killed those he did not like, or opposed him, or felt had a low quality of life. Trump is doing this too by taking away health care so that people die. Trump has taken away health care for children of indigent families including a lot of immigrant families. He has taken away educational assistance for children with disabilities. He has taken away the subsidies to help the elderly pay for heat, utilities and prescriptions. Hitler did an “ethnic cleanse + quality of life cleanse” but Trump is doing an “ethnic cleanse + socioeconomic cleanse + quality of life cleanse”. He is trying to kill off anyone who is not VERY healthy, wealthy white people. His slogan should definitely be “Make America White Again”. But what he doesn’t realize is that he too was from an immigrant family. All of us “white people” (I am one of these) came here through immigration so he should not be such a hypocrite.
Hitler also consolidated his power into a dictatorship shortly after being elected. Trump tried this too as soon as he was sworn in. He has still been trying to do it. He signs executive orders and he also limits communication from government offices such as the EPA. He has also cut funding to government offices or organizations that he feels are not important such as climate change. He has made the US a laughing stock around the world to the point that the world is looking for a new reserve currency instead of the US dollar (which would cause SOOOO many problems because international contracts are normally written in US dollar, and the contracts may be for decades with predicted exchange rates). The US credit rating has been downgraded for the first time in US history, thanks to the Republicans. People in other countries have lost a lot of respect for the US because of Trump. I can say this because I talk to these people in my job. In fact, the Koreans and the Russians are very much impacted by Trump. Several Koreans have made it known that they hate me just because I’m American. Of course, I understand their reasoning but I am not Trump and I am not my government. I feel this way about the Russians too. They are not Putin and they are not their government.