The Comprehensive Case Against Donald Trump

Source: Real Clear Politics | September 11, 2016 | Peter Wehner

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Perhaps the place to begin is to recall what one of the chief selling points of Donald Trump was, which was that he’s not a typical politician. He “tells it like it is” and says what he means. He has the guts to do what weak, incompetent and unprincipled politicians won’t. Yet it turns out that he’s far worse on this score than the typical politician. He is much more cynical than most, and the half-life of his promises are shorter than those of any politician in memory.

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Limited Government, Obamacare and ISIS

Prominent conservatives have said, in an attempt to allay concerns about Trump, that he is solidly conservative on matters like the size of government and reducing the debt; repealing and replacing Obamacare; and defeating ISIS. But none of these claims withstands scrutiny.

Trump has shown no commitment to limited government. He has repeatedly stated he’s against entitlement reform, a basic requirement of those wishing to re-limit and rein in the costs of government. His plan to cut the deficit consists of cutting “waste, fraud and abuse,” the ultimate fiscal dodge. He also said he would “at least double” Hillary Clinton’s plan to spend on infrastructure – at an estimated cost of $500 billion. (Remember, too, that Trump was praising President Obama’s stimulus package in Obama’s first term when virtually every Republican, including Republican members of Congress, was criticizing it.)

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The Supreme Court “Trump Card”

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I will concede that the chances of Trump appointing a better Supreme Court justice than Clinton are better, but just barely. Trump’s promise to nominate a conservative on the court is as meaningful to me as his pile of other (broken) promises. He put out a list of fine judges – none of whom he probably knows anything about. It was a list prepared for him in order to pacify conservatives.

Now add to that the fact that Trump has said his liberal, pro-choice sister would be a “phenomenal” Supreme Court justice; that he has not shown the slightest bit of interest in or knowledge about judicial philosophy; and that he believes judges “sign laws” (they don’t). The idea that Trump would fight for a conservative nominee, especially if Democrats regain control of the Senate – that he would expend political capital for a Scalia-like nominee – is fanciful. He would almost surely opt for the Art of the Deal with the likes of Sen. Chuck Schumer.

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Conspiracy Theories and Crazed Staff

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Affinity for Dictators and Slandering America

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Policy Illiteracy

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Redefining the GOP

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Temperamentally Unfit

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I’ve gone at length on these matters precisely because too often, Trump supporters glide over his faults, downplaying them or ignoring them, often misrepresenting the case against him. It’s always easier to battle strawmen than it is to confront actual arguments.

This is an effort to present actual arguments based on real-world facts. The cumulative case against the Republican nominee for president is, for many of us, overwhelming. (So, for different reasons, is the case against Hillary Clinton, who is an ethical wreck, untrustworthy and a woman of the left who has amassed a record of failure over her career.)

The Trump oeuvre – what he has said, and done, and shown over the course of his life and this campaign — leads to an unfortunate but inescapable conclusion: Donald J. Trump is manifestly unfit to be president of the United States.

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