Remember when people sat out of the 2016 election because they thought Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were one and the same? Yeah, good times. Great job Bernie or Bust folks. And here’s to you Jill Stein. As for those of you who voted for Trump, well, let’s be honest, odds are you aren’t reading our site. But if you are, shame on you.
So we’re here now, for a myriad of reasons. We wanted to examine what ten things that are happening under Trump wouldn’t have happened under President Hillary Clinton, you know, just in case someone invents a time machine so that we can go back to 2016 and show this column to people. Be forewarned, this is not a happy list.
10. Sucking Up to Kim Jong-un.
Yes, the historic North Korea summit. You know, that one that happened because Trump and Kim almost started a war over whose genitalia was bigger? The summit that accomplished nothing except to show our allies that we treat dictators better than leaders of democracies. Sorry, it did accomplish something. We got a vague assurance that North Korea will denuclearize and in return, Trump is going to do whatever Kim wants as long as he keeps getting compliments coming his way. Yay! Victory! So much winning! At least we got three hostages back, so there is that.
9. Exploding the Deficit In the Name of Tax Cuts for the Rich and Massive Military Spending.
Usually in a good economy a country seizes the opportunity to reduce deficits, lower debt, and get its books in order. But not us. Exploding the debt is not a GOP problem, but exploding the deficit in the name of massive military spending and lowering things like the estate tax for uber rich people sure is. If your name is Daddy Warbucks, you’re a happy camper right now.
8. Treating Our Allies Like Crap.
Can someone please tell President Trump that Canada is one of our staunchest allies? The Canadians send troops to fight with us even when Canada wasn’t attacked. And we’re making up BS trade problems?! Maybe it’s because of how Ivanka Trump eyes Justin Trudeau?
7. Destroying Our Leverage With China By Ripping Up TPP.
TPP actually irked some ill-informed people on the left wing too; however, President Obama did the right thing and signed a free trade agreement with the Pacific nations. Why? Because Trump is actually right on China. They do screw everyone over. To counter that, we need to work together with the nations in the Pacific. But if you’re Trump, you take away the one piece of leverage we had. Now China is dominating the region even more than it did before because we pulled out. Great.
6. Starting a Trade War With China Despite Having Zero Leverage.
Did you notice that President Trump hasn’t been touting the stock market lately? That’s because the market hates his trade war with China. Yes, we should have been taking action vis-a-vis China’s practices; however, when you back out of TPP, you’re done before you started. Trump is fighting a war he can’t win and we’re the ones paying for it. Not China, and definitely not Mexico. Crap, he better not back out of NAFTA too.
5. Backing Out of the Paris Climate Accord.
Why believe 99% of scientists and commit to renewable energy when you can just go back to 1950 and fire up the coal mines?
4. Fox News Dictating Policy.
Trump watches Fox News. A lot. And not only that, he talks to the “talent” at Fox News often, including daily conversations with Sean Hannity. No word on whether they say “I love you more . . . no I love you more” before they hang up with each other.
Note: Our long shot pick of Sean Hannity as one of the people who ends up in jail is starting to look good.
3. Giving Dictators Freedom to Commit Their Atrocities Against Their Own People.
While the U.S. used to condemn dictators like Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey and Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, Trump cozies up to them. Dictators used to fear pissing the U.S. off lest they get hit with sanctions or be barred from doing business with us. Trump gives them compliments. It’s truly disgusting when you see what these dictators do. Unless you like imprisoning journalists and the wonderful advent of extra-judicial killings.
2. Letting Russia Get Away With Cyber Warfare.
No matter where you come down on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia (it did, come on), you have to be alarmed that Trump doesn’t seem to care one iota about the fact that Russia is meddling in our elections. And if you’re not concerned, what does that say about you as an American? Needless to say, Hillary Clinton and Vladimir Putin are not exactly friends. We know Clinton would be all over this.
1. Ripping Children From Their Parents At the Border In Order To Try and Get Congress To Fund a Border Wall.
Shame on us.