Forever Against Trump
Here we go again
This is the third in a trilogy of my anti-Trump essays. The first is Against Trump (2016) and second is Still, Against Trump (2020).
“A woman asks Dr. Franklin well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy? A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”
It seems that no matter what Donald Trump does, no matter how senseless or depraved, millions of Americans will still throw off any semblance of critical thinking to support him. Trumpism is a sickness which is dragging us deeper into fascism and bigotry by each passing day. Trump has exposed just how weak and decayed our institutions are in stopping authoritarianism. I could understand those who voted for Trump in 2016 (he was anti-establishment), and in 2020 (he was the only conservative candidate), but not in 2024 (he tried to overturn the election). It appears that too many Americans hate liberals more than they love democracy. If Trump wins again, it will be a damning indictment of the country.
This is Trump’s third election and I hope that it’ll be his last. Even if he loses again, his hateful way of politics will linger long afterwards. The hard work of de-radicalizing American conservatism will be a difficult, generational project, but it’ll go down a lot easier if Trump loses. I’ve decided to boil down my major issues with Trump to three: He is anti-democratic, he is a sexual predator, and he will not act on the climate crisis.
Betrayal of the Republic
Let me open with a clear condemnation of Trump’s three assassination attempts. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: In liberal democracies, we do not solve our problems with murder. Once you go down the road of normalizing political violence, there’s no telling how far the targets will reach. Even if you hate Trump more than I do, all that this violence will do is feed into the persecution narratives that his cultists have already bought into. It transforms Trump from a bully to a martyr. It is also true, however, that few figures have done more to normalize political violence in America than Trump himself.
During his 2016 campaign he encouraged his supporters to beat up protesters at his rallies, in 2017 he said that there were “very fine people” among the white supremacists who violently protested in Charlottesville, in 2018 he praised Montana Republican Greg Gianforte for assaulting a reporter, in 2020 he told the far-right Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by”, and in 2021 he incited a failed coup against the United States government.
Trump’s shameful actions leading up to the insurrection on January 6th, 2021, should have disqualified him from ever running again. America has a tendency to value decorum over justice. President Gerald Ford set an ugly precedent in 1974 when he pardoned President Richard Nixon for his role in covering-up the Watergate break-in. In the name of “stability”, Ford assured future presidents that if they broke the law, they would hastily be forgiven. This is why Trump felt comfortable violating his oath and betraying the Constitution.
The Capitol Insurrection is rooted in Trump’s own fragile ego. He has a history of refusing election results when they don’t fall in his favor. He called Obama’s 2012 re-election a “sham”, he claimed that the 2016 election (which he won) was “rigged” by the media, and he also claimed that the only way he could lose the 2020 election was if it was “rigged.” Sure enough, when Joe Biden was declared the winner in 2020, Trump, like clockwork, refused to accept the results.
From November 7th 2020 until January 6th 2021, Trump made numerous attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. On November 11th, Trump tried to disqualify more than 200,000 ballots in Wisconsin on the basis that many were done in absentee. On November 17th, Trump called two Republican canvassers in Wayne County, Michigan to pressure them not to certify the election results. On November 18th, Trump removed a dozen top government officials for their lack of loyalty to his bullshit claims. By November 19th, Trump had lost over two dozen legal challenges to the election results. On January 2nd 2021, Trump called Georgia’s Secretary of State to “find” 11,780 votes. Trump also pressured Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results, which Pence, to his credit, refused to do.
On January 6th, 2021, Trump held a rally where he insisted that the 2020 election had been stolen by “radical-left Democrats” and “the fake news media.” He also encouraged his followers to march to the Capitol to pressure Pence not to certify the election, saying, “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” His followers took his words literally and stormed the Capitol Building. Trump may not have intended for them to act violently, but he’s ultimately the one who sparked the fire and poured on the gasoline with his “big lie.”
Between 2,000 and 2,500 rioters invaded the Capitol. Among them were several members of far-right extremist groups, such as the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, and QAnon. Many chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”, two pipe bombs were placed at the Republican and Democratic headquarters, and at least one rioter planned to run over lawmaker Nancy Pelosi with his car. By the end of all this chaos, at least 140 police officers were injured and four other officers later died by suicide.
Trump did little to stop the violence. He resisted sending the National Guard to quell the riots. It took him two hours after the violence began for him to ask the rioters to disperse, and even then, he told the rioters that they were “very special.” Trump has since celebrated the Capitol Attack as a “love fest”, referred to the convicted rioters as “hostages”, and has promised to pardon them if re-elected. I can’t imagine anything more anti-American than that.
While 1,424 insurrectionists have been charged and 884 have so far been sentenced, Trump himself has proven elusive to justice. The Senate immediately impeached Trump for incitement to insurrection, but while the majority of the Senate voted to convict Trump, the Senate ultimately lacked the two-thirds majority needed to convict. Forty-three Republicans voted to acquit an insurrectionist.
The Department of Justice indicted Trump on four counts of trying to overturn the 2020 election. These include: conspiracy to defraud the United States, witness tampering, conspiracy against the rights of citizens, and attempted obstruction of an official proceeding. In February 2024, federal judge, Tanya Chutkan, postponed the case until an appeals court could rule on Trump’s presidential immunity. That month, the DC Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Trump was not immune from prosecution for acts committed as president. In July, however, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that the president is immune for official acts committed while in office. Chief Justice John Roberts, representing the majority opinion, was careful to stress: “The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official.”
There are many problems with this ruling. The first is that what constitutes “official acts” and “unofficial acts” remains ambiguous. This opens the door for future presidents to frame illegal actions as “official” and that any acts deemed sufficiently “official” in the eyes of the law may be permitted. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her scathing dissent, “…any use of official power for any purpose, even th most corrupt purpose indicated by objective evidence of the most corrupt motives and intent, remains official and immune.” Justice Roberts seems to believe that the president cannot properly do their job without breaking the law. This is a rather low view of our democracy.
The second problem is that two of the judges who ruled in Trump’s favor have serious conflicts of interest. Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, sent texts to Trump’s chief of staff urging him overturn the 2020 election. Justice Samuel Alito had flags flown outside of his home which were associated with the movement to overturn the 2020 election, such as the upside-down U.S. flag flown only days after January 6th. Alito may well have a legitimate excuse for the flag, and Thomas may not agree with his wife on the 2020 election, but these acts nevertheless represent a plausible conflict of interest in cases relating to Trump’s prosecution. Yet neither Thomas nor Alito have recused themselves from any such cases.
The third problem with this ruling is that it undermines the very foundation of the Republic, which is based in the idea that the president is not above the law. As Founding Father Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist Paper No. 69, this is what made the President of United States superior to the King of Great Britain:
“The President of the United States would be liable to be impeached, tried, and, upon conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors, removed from office; and would afterwards be liable to prosecution and punishment in the ordinary course of law. The person of the king of Great Britain is sacred and inviolable; there is no constitutional tribunal to which he is amenable; no punishment to which he can be subjected without involving the crisis of a national revolution. In this delicate and important circumstance of personal responsibility, the President of Confederated America would stand upon no better ground than a governor of New York, and upon worse ground than the governors of Maryland and Delaware.”
Jack Smith, special counsel for the Department of Justice, has since revised his indictment against Trump, arguing that Trump did not act within his constitutional duties during the 2020 election transition. It is unlikely, however, that Trump will be sentenced before the 2024 election.
Trump is also facing prosecution from Georgia for his attempt to overturn the results there, such as that damning phone call to “find” 11,780 votes. These charges include over a dozen felonies, such as conspiring to commit a felony, filing false documents, and racketeering. A Georgia appeals court has indefinitely postponed the case until after the 2024 election. This is due to questions as to whether or not District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified due to her romantic relationship with the special prosecutor on the case.
However, Trump has been convicted of thirty-four felonies by the State of New York for trying to illegally influence the 2016 election by paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels, with whom he once had an affair. The payments made to keep Daniels quiet about the affair were dishonestly listed as legal expenses. While these felonies do carry actual prison terms, Trump won’t be sentenced until after the election. If re-elected, Trump may try to pardon himself of his numerous crimes, but he cannot pardon state offenses. This means that even if he wins, this conviction could still prove troublesome for him.
Trump also grown more openly authoritarian and fascistic in his rhetoric. Trump has teased the idea of a third term. He has called for terminating the U.S. Constitution in order to overturn the 2020 election. He has said that if re-elected, he would be a dictator for one day. He told a group of Christian supporters that if they re-elect him, they “won’t have to vote anymore” because “it’ll be fixed.” He has suggested that he will lock up his political opponents. He has referred to his political opponents as “vermin” who must be rooted out. He has called for jailing people who criticize SCOTUS justices. He has said that illegal immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our nation.” He has said that migrants who commit murder have “bad genes.” He has said that he would deport Haitian migrants who legally came to this country to escape a civil war. This is not the type of language for a leader of a democracy.
If anyone still wants to defend Trump’s rhetoric, then imagine if Kamala Harris or Joe Biden said any of these things. Would conservatives still be giving them the benefit of the doubt or dismissing their rhetoric as mere jokes? Again, there were many other candidates in the GOP primary that conservatives could’ve have picked over Trump. They overwhelming voted for a man who holds the Constitution in contempt.
President Harvey Weinstein
Would sex pests like Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, or Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs be welcomed as GOP presidential candidates if they adopted conservative policies? No? Then why is it different for Trump? Why are all the evangelical Christian voters worried about our “family values” rallying around a sexual predator?
Hints of Trump’s abusive behavior first came to light when the 2006 Access Hollywood tape was leaked, in which he boasted that his celebrity status allowed him freely take whatever sexual liberties he liked with women without their consent. These comments cannot be dismissed in isolation as “locker room talk” when taken with over twenty accusations against Trump of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior.
Jessica Leeds, Kristin Anderson, Jill Harth, Temple Taggart McDowell, Cathy Heller, Rachel Crooks, Summer Zervos, Alva Johnson, Amy Dorris, Karena Virginia, Karen Johnson, Natasha Stoynoff, Mindy McGillivray, Jessica Drake, Ninni Laksoonen, and Cassandra Seales all allege that Trump sexually assaulted them. Three former Miss USA contestants, Samantha Hovley, Bridget Sullivan, and Tasha Dixon, allege that Trump walked in on female contestants while they dressed in the changing rooms. Furthermore, five former contestants of Miss Teen USA also accused Trump of walking in on them while they changed. Trump himself admitted in an interview with Howard Stern that “I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant and therefore I’m inspecting it.” Male model Andy Lucchesi has also alleged that Trump held sex parties attended by underage girls as young as 14.
The most notable of these allegations was that of Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of rape in 2019. That same year, she sued Trump for defamation after he denied the rape. Carroll filed an additional defamation lawsuit against Trump in 2022 for further denials that he made of her claims. In 2023, in response to her first lawsuit, a New York jury found that Trump sexually abused Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages. That same year, a federal judge threw out Trump’s countersuit, finding Carroll’s claims to be substantially true. In 2024, in response to her second lawsuit, a New York City jury also awarded another $83.3 million in damages to Carroll.
Make no mistake: Trump’s election was just as much factor in the rise of #MeToo as the Weinstein revelations. Of the two, one fell into disgrace while the other was elected president. Nor does Weinstein have half the country supporting him because of his political positions.
Now the Democrats aren’t perfect on this end, either. President Bill Clinton has faced several credible accusations of sexual misconduct from Paula Jones, Juanita Broaddrick, Leslie Millwee, Cristy Zercher, Eileen Wellstone, and Sandra Allen James. These accusations were all too often ignored or marginalized by many liberals. Even his affair with Monica Lewinsky, while consensual, was still highly inappropriate given the power dynamics at play. Sadly, even in the #MeToo era, Clinton was still a welcome face at the 2020 and 2024 DNC events. Unless the Democrats have evidence to exonerate Clinton, his continued elevation remains a blind spot in their women’s rights advocacy.
That said, there is a clear difference between the Democrats and the Republicans here. Bill Clinton isn’t on the ballot. Donald Trump is. It is naked moral hypocrisy to elevate Clinton’s accusers as credible and dismiss Trump’s accusers as liars. There were several other presidential candidates in the GOP primary that conservatives could’ve picked from. They overwhelmingly voted for the rapist.
The Climate’s Enemy
Trump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance, said in a 2021 interview with Tucker Carlson that Kamala Harris can’t be trusted to lead the country because she doesn’t have biological children, “And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” Vance has since downplayed his remarks as sarcasm, insisting that his larger point was that America “has become too antifamily.” Vance may not realize this, but his own running mate may have the most “anti-family” platform in American history. Why? He doesn’t take the climate crisis seriously. Trump wants to ensure that your children and your grandchildren live in a less habitable climate.
Let’s start with the facts. Global warming refers to the long-term heating of the Earth’s surface due to the release of heat-trapping “greenhouse” gases into the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels. Climate change refers to the long-term effects in Earth’s average weather patterns as a result of this heating. Climate crisis refers to the serious problems that will effect everyone on Earth as a result of these changes.
NASA estimates that humans have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by 50% since 1750. 97% of climate scientists and roughly 200 scientific organizations agree that global warming is caused by humans. After comparing 17 climate prediction models between 1970 and 2004, NASA found 14 of them to be accurate about the rate of warming. Many climate scientists, in fact, have accused the IPCC of being too conservative in their results. The consequences of this warming include more intense weather events, rising sea levels due to global ice melt, the acidification of the oceans due to absorption of carbon dioxide, the spread of tropical disease, the mass extinction of various plants and animals, an increase in crop failures and food shortages, and a decrease in nutritious plants. The Pentagon has referred to climate change as a threat multiplier to U.S. national security. A 2017 scientific study found that even if humans were to end greenhouse gas emissions overnight, the Earth would still heat up to 1.3 C by 2100. In 2019, the IPCC stressed that in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change, it is imperative that we limit the global temperature to 1.5 C. A 1.5 C climate will still be a struggle, but it is a climate which we are all better suited to handle.
Given this crisis, the denial of climate change or refusal to act on it is the most insane and dangerous position for a leader to take. Especially as we see the effects of climate change in real time. 2023 was the warmest year on record. Antarctic ice has declined by 40% since 1997. Greenland has lost a trillion tons of ice since 1985. July 2023 saw a series of extreme heatwaves that broke records in China, Europe, and Phoenix, Arizona. Rising ocean temperatures have caused coral reefs to suffer their fourth mass bleaching event in 2024. The recent Hurricane Milton which swept through Florida, was only able to grow in intensity from Category 1 to Category 5 by feeding off of record-warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
As president, Trump did little to combat the climate crisis or transition to a green economy less reliant on fossil fuels. When Al Gore reached out to Trump to try and find some common ground on the climate crisis, Trump spurned his goodwill by having the U.S. exit the Paris Climate Accord. Trump also de-funded NASA’s monitoring system into greenhouse gases. Trump also cut the social cost of carbon from $51 per ton to only $7 per ton. Trump also rolled back regulations on methane gas which were supported even by the oil and gas industry. Trump even refused to read a climate change report written by his own administration. It’s no surprise then that Trump’s re-election mantra is “drill, baby, drill”, and that, like before, he plans to roll back any environmental regulations of the previous administration. Is this “pro-family”?
While conservatives had many candidates to choose from, few of them seemed to grasp to gravity of the climate crisis. Pseudoscience has long plagued American conservatism, from radio host Rush Limbaugh denying the risks of secondhand smoke, to former HUD secretary Ben Carson calling evolution a Satanic plot, to even Trump himself promoting hydroxychloroquine to cure COVID-19. Take a look at the candidates of the primary. Ron Desantis, as governor, protected Florida’s environment from oil drilling, but has dismissed climate change as “left wing stuff” and would have exited the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane emissions. Vivek Ramaswamy has supported nuclear energy, but has called climate change a “hoax” and wanted to increase fossil fuel usage. Nikki Haley has acknowledged that climate change is real, but she denigrated Biden’s carbon emission reductions under the Inflation Reduction Act as a “communist manifesto.” Ultimately, on the climate crisis, Trump is only relatively worse than his competitors, and that’s a sad commentary on the state of the GOP.
A Final Appeal
I still sympathize with Trump supporters. Yes, even after all this. I myself have admired a lot of people over the years who turned out not to be so great. I was once a proud supporter of Hugo Chavez, the populist president of Venezuela, whom I believed was genuinely helping the poor. Only when the country fell into crisis after his successor, Nicolas Maduro, took power, did reconsider my previous support for Chavez. The public intellectual Noam Chomsky, more than anyone else, has shaped my views of politics due to his righteous critique of U.S. foreign policy crimes. Chomsky’s dogmatic anti-Western bias, however, led him to deny the Cambodian, Bosnian, and Rwandan genocides. Presidential candidate Andrew Yang introduced me to the idea of universal basic income and convinced me of its urgency, but his one-sided views on the Israeli-Palestinian issue turned me off of him.
Most significantly, for nine years of my life, I was in a cult known as the Unification Church, also called “the Moonies” after their founder, the Korean billionaire Sun Myung Moon. Moon claimed that he was the messiah who represented the Second Coming of Jesus. He promised to build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, an ideal world centered on true families, where there would finally be an end to conflicts on race, religion, and sex. He died in 2012 and his ideal kingdom was never built.
So, yes, I know what it’s like to throw all your hopes onto a single man, believing that he alone will make what was wrong right again. I know what it’s like to believe that all those who oppose this man are my enemy, and that all those who do not follow him are ignorant. In private, I secretly harbored doubts about Moon’s powers, I had reservations about his hate speech, and I feared to betray him. But I had been in the Moonies for so long that I lacked to language for getting out. I believe that there are many MAGA hats out there who also feel the same way as I did. Perhaps they feel as if there’s no other choice but to follow Trump. As if there’s no other way to be conservative.
This is why the Ex-MAGA hats are important. They will be key to defeating Trumpism in America long after Trump has left the political scene. The people who most aided my exit from the Moonies were ex-members like Steve Hassan and Nansook Hong. They showed me that there was life after Moon, that my private doubts were valid, and that there were better ways to be spiritual. The Ex-MAGA hats serve a similar purpose. They can show conservatives that there is life after Trump, and that life without him can be better.
The MAGA hats have to ask themselves whether they hate liberals more than they love democracy. On January 6th, 2021, Trump violently ended our unbroken tradition of peaceful transfer of power. Would they reward a man who wraps himself in the flag while spitting on all it stands for? To what end? Does Trump fight to renew the Republic for all? No. He fights only for himself. To ennoble his own ego and escape his own crimes. Conservatism doesn’t have to be this way. This was all a choice. A choice we’ll all be paying for long after this election. Make America Great Again? What was it that made America so great to begin with?
