Why I Like Former President Trump
Similar to why the Left likes AOC and Bernie
I’m sure this is a controversial opinion to take on this particular site, to say the least. But I’d like to go through some of the more personal reasons as to why I like Trump. I’m not going to be addressing his policies, enough people have done that already, and have done far better jobs than I could ever do. I’m going to talk about what goes through my mind when I see him speak. I may fanboy a little bit, or a lot, and for that I apologize in advance. However, I’m sure nothing I could come up with would rival CNN’s public simping for and fawning over Biden on Inauguration Day.
Trump is a man of many flaws. He exaggerates almost everything, and is susceptible to getting his facts incorrect. He can also be far too trusting of questionable advice. He’s short-tempered, has an ego the size of the moon, and can be a sore loser. He’s the biggest bully in the schoolyard, and he needs to prove it. All of these are in many ways bad things. Whenever I have kids, I would not teach them to emulate Trump. I would want my kids to be more sensitive to the feelings of others, and be in general more tolerant. I imagine Trump has been tough on some of his kids and his wife, and I don’t approve of that.
All that are some of what I think of as his personal flaws. The thing is, everyone has personal flaws. They’re what make us human. When you get invested in a TV show with flawed characters, you end up loving the characters and loving their flaws as well. The flaws make them vulnerable, relatable, and more innocent. To me, Trump is the same. Picture Trump speaking at one of his rallies, he says one of his trademark admittedly ridiculous lines like “we had the best economy, maybe ever” and the crowd erupts in cheers. At that moment, Trump’s facial expressions freeze, as the approval of the crowd washes over him. Trump needs that approval, it’s what drives him and keeps him happy. You can see the gears turning in his brain, him telling himself, “I did a good job, and everyone’s happy”. That vulnerability that he always displays at moments like that, sometimes seemingly close to tears, is one of the best things about his rallies.
Trump is one of the only politicians of modern times that seems like an actual human. You can see that Trump really believes whatever he’s saying. Whether what he says is 100% true or only 70% true is not the issue, what matters is that he honestly believes what he says, and that puts him miles ahead of any talking-point-recycling two-faced regular politician.
The reason many on the Right are infatuated with Trump is the same reason many on the Left are infatuated with Bernie and AOC. They have radically different policies than Trump, of course, but the key thing, actually believing your own message, is what makes them so popular. When you listen to any of the three, while you may disagree with what they’re saying, all three come off as sincere and actually interested and invested in issues. Regular politicians aren’t like that. When you listen to someone like Hillary talk, she has this amazing skill of speaking a lot while actually not saying anything at all. It’s hard to even listen to what she’s saying, because there’s not enough emotional substance for your brain to latch onto. Biden is the same, and McConnell is similar. They have a way of making their listeners feel confused. Trump, AOC, and Bernie on the other hand, say what they mean and mean what they say, no more and no less. You get the feeling that they actually care about things.
The other thing I like about Trump, is his never give up attitude. His confidence is somehow infectious, he has this aura of “I can do it!” and he manages to convert that into “we can do it!” He has the natural qualities of a leader. One of his biggest flaws that always gets him in hot water, his unhindered and unfiltered rhetoric, is also one of his greatest strengths. He has the confidence to say exactly what he thinks, with no dodging around the issue, no time for politically correct word games. In a world of hypersensitivity, virtue signaling, and woke semantics, such people (along with comedians) are essential for society to take sanity checks . Without straight-shooters like Trump to set the record straight, ordinary people get the wool pulled over their eyes by woke intersectionalists and reverse racists. His ability and willingness to constantly tussle with the media, whether that was a good idea or not, was inspiring to watch. He never gave up, and he never stopped standing up for himself. After the Nov 2020 election, when he believed (again, whether rightly or wrongly) that the election was stolen, he was willing to take on the media, the courts, the detractors, the pundits: he was willing to take on everyone and leave no stone unturned fighting for what he thought was truth and justice. Some will call that dangerous, and there is definitely truth to that. But to me it’s also inspiring.
Strength in face of adversity is Donald Trump’s greatest asset, and he inspired me to keep standing up for myself in my own life. I started standing up for myself at work, standing up to my roommates if they ever did something that bothered me. As I learned to defend myself, and my own personal “borders,” I got more confident and didn’t need to get into as many confrontations. I got more assertive in a way that required less confrontation, and less anxiety. I learned to form my own opinions, without worrying about what other people think. I started this blog. I got myself kicked off several group chats (proud achievements, because it means I can think for myself). I started engaging in political discourse online, and getting more effective in social discourse offline. I became a more independent person, and I have Donald Trump and Ben Shapiro to thank for that.
