If you were a former Trump supporter, what is the point at which you finally said, “He’s gone too far this time, I’ve had enough”?
Ben Kleschinsky, studied at Nashua Community College
................
Election Day:
There was nothing more bittersweet and nerve wracking than November 8th of 2016. The streets were silent and it was a cold fall before Thanksgiving. That was probably the one day where no one discussed politics. We had campaigned, we had done our part. Now let democracy take place. Both sides were so confident they would be winning the election, but at the same time I knew how powerful Hillary Clinton was in the political world. It seemed impossible.
..........................
Donald Trump Wins:
The next day my parents were in shock, and I told my father I was going to Washington DC to see the greatest inauguration in history. So I found tickets on eBay and bought myself a train ticket. On January 25 I took a train down to Washington DC and I sat across from NBC’s Chris Hayes who told me he was also in disbelief and attending a shocking inauguration.
..........
I felt victory, I felt glory. I felt for the first time in a long time our country was on the right track.
4 Years Later:
That was in 2016. Flash forward to the present time which is almost in the year 2020. Today I would say I no longer support President Donald Trump and there is a very simple reason why.
Everything he said, every promise he made, every remark that came out of his mouth during the campaign season turned out to be a complete lie.
The Lies:
1.) The Wall Has Not Been Built
How Trump’s Wall Failure Will Forever Doom His Presidency
Candidate Trump promised to solve our immigration problem, and that he could do so as soon as he stepped into office. That he would build a wall, and put a “big beautiful door” in that wall to fix our broken immigration system. Flash forward to today, the wall has not been built and there are still millions of disenfranchised illegal immigrants that cannot obtain a VISA that are working for slave wages.
2.) Jobs Are Not Coming Back
Candidate Trump promised to pass new trade deals by terminating NAFTA within his first week in office. He also promised to get tough on corporations by “forcing” Apple to manufacture iPhones in America.
AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka says Trump's USMCA deal 'would be defeated' if House votes before Thanksgiving
Trump promised new trade policy might be worse than the old one
The U.S. deficit hit $984 billion in 2019, soaring during Trump era
Despite Trump, Ford moves ahead with plans for Mexico plants
Today he has failed to pass NAFTA 2.0, we never terminated NAFTA and a new trade deal with China never happened like he said it would. GM just recently closed down three plants and have outsourced jobs to Mexico. Ford continues to build new factories in Mexico, and Trump said the factories would be cancelled. The trade deficit is growing larger than ever before not shrinking. Trump has mace it worse.
3.) Didn’t Cut Middle Class Taxes
A big part of his campaign was rallying against the unfair tax system, with too many loopholes for the “elites” to take advantage of. He promised to simplify the tax code and cut middle class taxes. Remember when he said the bottom 10% should pay 0% in taxes? Yeah that didn’t happen.
Middle-class homeowners hit by the new tax law: "This is going to wipe us out"
12 Tax Deductions That Disappeared This Year
In reality most of the tax cuts were drastically lowered on corporations after he appointed Steve Mnuchin to Treasury Department, and instead he removed middle class tax deductions and kept the lowest income bracket the same. I am an automotive mechanic and bodyman, that buys thousands of dollars worth of tools every year. On my commute to work I pay a toll on the road. I am not married so I don’t file jointly. I can no longer deduct job related expenses from travel and tools from my taxes that may exceed the standard deduction because of President Trump. Many blue collar workers that Trump rallies behind are in fact paying more in taxes than they did before Trump. Many Republicans have even argued that we should put back the deductions. Another failed promise.
Trump did cut taxes, but his tax cuts really only benefited the top income brackets.
4.) Repeal & “Replace” Obamacare
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare with a healthcare system that was “so much” better. He promised that every American family would be able to afford healthcare again and called Obamacare a “disaster.” It turned out he had no plan when he stepped into the White House, and couldn’t even rally enough Republicans around repealing.
He then said there would be no bailouts for insurance companies which never happened, and is now saying the healthcare plan is now not going to be revealed until after the 2020 election.
Trump Swears He’ll Reveal His “Really Great” Health-Care Plan—After 2020 Election
6.) Our Infrastructure Is Still Crumbling
Remember when he said that The United States is starting to look like a “third word country”, and that we should build bridges and highways like the “good old days” instead of rebuilding other countries. Yeah, that never happened.
Trump promissed 1.5 trillion in infrastructure spending, he’s 1% of the way there
The Shrinking Ambitions of Donald Trump’s ‘Infrastructure’ Plan
His proposed multi trillion dollar infrastructure plan to fix inner cities and bridges and airports never happened, and he has in fact now cut infrastructure spending by appointing Elaine Chao to the Transportation Department. Elaine Chao happens to be married to the leader of the swamp Senate leader Mitch McConnell.
7.) Pulling Out Of Afghanistan
On the campaign trail yet again, Trump asked what are we still doing in Afghanistan? So he promised to appoint figures like Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon who were against the Iraq War, and repeatably said “Let’s get the hell out of Afghanistan.” Hillary and Obama were war mongers because they “liked using drones.” He told the press he had a plan to get it done.
How Trump’s Plan to Secretly Meet With the Taliban Came Together, and Fell Apart
US to stop revealing drone deaths
Under Donald Trump, drone strikes far exceed Obama's numbers
Instead of lessening our involvement around the world, Trump increased weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and Ukraine and drastically increased military spending. He fired Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn and appointed “mad dog” Mattis the leader of the Iraq War. Today American troops are still occupying and fighting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is now the longest war in our history and Trump has aligned himself with Senators like Lindsey Graham. He is not spending money back at home like he promised, and has already used more drones in three years than Obama used in his entire presidency. Another lie debunked.
8.) Ban Lobbying/Drain The Swamp
One of Trump’s largest criticisms of Hillary Clinton was that she was “owned and controlled” by Wall Street. Trump promised to ban lobbyists in government and “drain the swamp” of corruption.
Trump outpaces Obama, Bush in naming ex-lobbyists to Cabinet
Former Trump Officials Are Supposed to Avoid Lobbying. Except 33 Haven’t. — ProPublica
That never happened. Looking forward at 2019, he never banned lobbying. That turned out to be a lie. Most of his original administration that left, have now become lobbyists in Washington. He criticized that Obama fired his original team and filled his cabinet with lobbyiests. Trump did the same thing, exactly what he said he wouldn’t do.
9.) Promise To Break Up Companies
Going into the election Trump said that he wanted to break up companies like Amazon and Google, that were getting “too powerful” for their own good. Trump has the power to use his pen to break up any company that he wants, but as of 2019 Trump has broken up zero companies and has in fact allowed Wall Street and big banks to grow in size with the largest profits in history. This was yet again another failed promise.
The government’s failure to block the AT&T-Time Warner merger could lead to even bigger monopolies
He’s now mocking Senator Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders for proposing the same thing he did back in 2015. How can he do that?
Trump mocks Elizabeth Warren's plan to break up Facebook and Google by saying they support her
10.) Legalizing Medical Marijuana
On the campaign trail Trump said that he wanted medical “to happen”. That he saw so many people benefit from using it. As opposed to Hillary who was against legalizing marijuana. You can even find transcripts of old Donald Trump interviews where he said that all drugs should be decriminalized. I had hope he would do something about drug reform for this country.
The Trump administration’s crackdown on marijuana legalization might end under Bill Barr
Judge Napolitano: Trump administration's war on vaping is ‘affront to personal freedom and responsibility'
He then appointed Jeff Sessions as Attorney General instead of Rudy Giuliani who was pro legalization. Sessions was probably the most far right politician you could have ever elected. He had served under Reagan and called marijuana “devils drug”. There was now no hope in sight that we would see marijuana rescheduled under Trump. He is now declaring a war on marijuana vaping products in a “public health crisis”.
11.) Decrease Spending
Now nobody thought President Trump would eliminate the national debt like he said, but many at least thought that he would produce a surplus in the budget instead of increasing spending. He criticized Obama’s golfing.
Trump Golf Costs Top $110 Million -- More Than 1 Estimate For All Of Obama’s Travel
Trump’s Golf Trips Could Cost Taxpayers Over $340 Million
Trump's acting defense secretary called F-35 fighter jet program 'f----d up'
Instead, President Trump is on the track of spending more than Obama ever did, and we have a greater deficit because of the tax cuts. His so-called deregulations on industry have not done anything for decreasing government spending.
The F35 project Trump criticized on the campaign as an “Obama Failure” he brought back to life. He created a Space Force for the commercialization of space. Today Trump has increased subsidies to on the private sector like on farms and Walmart in food stamps because Trump is against ever raising the minimum wage again. His solution instead is tariffs which raise coats even more for the middle class.
My Conclusion:
So yes I supported him, I greatly supported what he said in the last election and I fully admit that. However it gets the point where you have to admit that someone is a liar, and that you were wrong. Well I admit as a Trump supporter that I was wrong, and in the next election I will no longer be voting for Trump. Everything that Trump said he was going to do, he did the exact opposite.
It really is a shame because I supported a lot of his populist proposals that never happened. I think you will find that out about a lot of Trump supporters. We didn’t vote for the man because we hated the color of your skin or the religion you follow. We were tired of an economy that forgot about the middle class, and we were frustrated with losing jobs and lowering wages. We were saddened by watching our once great nation, not even be able to build a new bridge or a factory here at home instead of in Mexico.
Yes President Obama didn’t perform a lot of drastic changes or made a lot of gigantic promises, but at least he did everything he said he was going to do and did it well. I really wish we returned to the days of more pragmatic candidates and moderates. I would have voted for a Jim Webb or O’ Malley in a heart beat.
I don’t regret voting for the man though. I voted for him based on what he said, not on what he had actually accomplished. As the saying goes fool me once shame on you. I’m not going to let President Trump fool me again. |
