What does the future hold for Donald Trump? - threadbans in OP

If the thread were about the dangers of woke culture, I'd gladly dilate. So I'd rather stick to Trump, if you don't mind.

Many people have been asking me: what are your criticisms of Donald Trump?

I've many times said that my position is reasonably well established. I already said that I wouldn't want Donald Trump to become the GOP nominee, nor would I want him to become US President again. Though I largely support many of his policies [particularly when it comes to illegal immigration (6 million illegal migrants have so far crossed the border under Biden), the lunatic woke agenda, keeping biological males out of women's sport, tough on inner city crime etc], there are many other voices who can carry that message better, and without the associated excess baggage that comes with Trump. Whilst Trump was an outsider in 2016, the situation is very much different today. Though 60-70% of GOP voters would continue to back Trump, I wouldn't.

A large part of the reason is the events of January 6, 2021 - when, as we all well know, Trump behaved utterly recklessly. It was unnecessary, and tarred Trump in a way that no political opponent could have achieved by themselves. He scored a massive own goal. If Trump is willing to behave like this once, there is every likelihood the situation may repeat in the future. Second, is that Trump's policies will outlive his political career anyway. The centre of gravity has very much shifted in the GOP, and so "Trumpism without Trump" makes sense. The novelty factor has wore off.

Many people condemn Trump because he had an affair. I don't mind this, however. Most men either have affairs, or fantasize about having one during the course of their marriage. Do you really believe Melania is with Trump because she is utterly besotted with the man? Of course not! She's with him for the same reason he's with her; it's a marriage of convenience. And a loveless marriage like that means that it doesn't matter if Trump has an affair because the marriage is illegitimate to begin with. It's a marriage on false pretences.

So whilst there are many good reasons to criticise Trump, particularly over the events of January 6, I don't believe his behaviour during marriage is a particularly good rebuke of the man.

It was mentioned a couple of times earlier in the thread.

For sure, and I raised the events of January 6 front and centre in my rebuke of Donald Trump. Of all possible criticisms, I think that event is without question the worst possible thing that Donald Trump did.

But we can criticise Trump without resorting to delusional levels of hyperbole, sensationalism, fabrication, and lies.

And unfortunately, that's what we often see peppered throughout this thread (i.e. TDS).

It's worth emphasizing that when Donald Trump talks about the so-called woke agenda, he's referring to the lunatic activists that animate the movement.

He's not necessarily talking about individual people like yourself, who self-identify as "woke". Ultimately, it's the activists that are trying to destabilise western countries with abject, often self-loathing nonsense, and Trump - for all his faults - is at least willing to call that out.

That said, I must re-emphasize that I believe there are better political vehicles than Trump to carry this message across.

Ultimately, what matters is the jury decision at the end.

Until then, Trump should be considered innocent until proven guilty (even then, what a jury decides cannot be considered 'proven' in any literal sense). Some might even say, how convenient, given that Trump has decided to run again in 2024.

Too many times, what turn out to be false allegations are hurled against US presidents. Trump isn't the first in that regard. Even allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against Joe Biden.

And you'd alone need an entire shelf to cover the allegations made against Bill Clinton.