How did your opinion of Trump change during his presidency?

[Heitmex]

Disliked him during the campaign but gave him a chance when he took office. That ended real quick. Somehow, 2020 has made me loathe him even more.

[The Ex-Factor]

He is far less competent than I thought he would be. A wanna-be dictator instead of a competent one.

[Canis]

Welcome to the Forum!

[Xing]

My opinion of Republican voters has changed more than anything. Trump is behaving exactly like any sane person could've predicted. What surprised & disheartened me was how willing run-of-the-mill Republicans were willing to go tribal & turn a blind eye to his most egregious & hypocritical actions.

My thoughts exactly.

[Joe Biden 2024]

My opinion of Republican voters has changed more than anything. Trump is behaving exactly like any sane person could've predicted. What surprised & disheartened me was how willing run-of-the-mill Republicans were willing to go tribal & turn a blind eye to his most egregious & hypocritical actions.

My thoughts exactly.

[IntelligenceWins]

It has been improving since he got elected. As a gay man, it makes me happy that cultural Marxism (before calling me a conspiracy theorist, note that I study Journalism at a liberal college and have seen how indoctrination works pretty well) has been weakened by Trump's attitudes towards the pathological left.

[Ferguson97]

It has been improving since he got elected. As a gay man, it makes me happy that cultural Marxism (before calling me a conspiracy theorist, note that I study Journalism at a liberal college and have seen how indoctrination works pretty well) has been weakened by Trump's attitudes towards the pathological left.

Genuine question. How do you reconcile voting for Trump when he has made it clear he wants to reduce LGBT rights?

[IntelligenceWins]

It has been improving since he got elected. As a gay man, it makes me happy that cultural Marxism (before calling me a conspiracy theorist, note that I study Journalism at a liberal college and have seen how indoctrination works pretty well) has been weakened by Trump's attitudes towards the pathological left.

Genuine question. How do you reconcile voting for Trump when he has made it clear he wants to reduce LGBT rights?

Thank you for your question.
First of all, I see no reason why my sexual orientation would play a significant role at this. However, as I have seen since I got into college, liberalism (which is deeply connected to the long-desired cultural revolution that has been going on) teaches that we should be voting based on which reproductive organ I'm attracted to, not based on my own goals and achievements. That's a widely common view where I study, and one might say "let's go blue because Obama did a lot for us". Okay, I'm happy that they feel like that, but what they don't know is the actual purpose behind the "did a lot" argument: although they pretend to be friendly to movements such as feminism, LGBTQ, etc, their ultimate goal is to take away individual liberties so that government can make decisions that should be left for Americans to make.
Before someone on here mocks me for telling what I consider to be the sad truth, I invite everyone who has an open mind to check out Antonio Gramsci's books. People like those in control of the Democratic Party certainly know Gramsci's techniques to play a socially revolutionary agenda, and have somehow convinced many teens that there's always an enemy to be beaten (it means a civil liberty to be undone).
America is being destroyed from within, and the same liberals who tell me to vote for Biden just because I'm gay are the ones who'll keep defending revolution until it is too late for them to realize they have been fooled.

[Saint Milei]

It has been improving since he got elected. As a gay man, it makes me happy that cultural Marxism (before calling me a conspiracy theorist, note that I study Journalism at a liberal college and have seen how indoctrination works pretty well) has been weakened by Trump's attitudes towards the pathological left.

Genuine question. How do you reconcile voting for Trump when he has made it clear he wants to reduce LGBT rights?

Thank you for your question.
First of all, I see no reason why my sexual orientation would play a significant role at this. However, as I have seen since I got into college, liberalism (which is deeply connected to the long-desired cultural revolution that has been going on) teaches that we should be voting based on which reproductive organ I'm attracted to, not based on my own goals and achievements. That's a widely common view where I study, and one might say "let's go blue because Obama did a lot for us". Okay, I'm happy that they feel like that, but what they don't know is the actual purpose behind the "did a lot" argument: although they pretend to be friendly to movements such as feminism, LGBTQ, etc, their ultimate goal is to take away individual liberties so that government can make decisions that should be left for Americans to make.
Before someone on here mocks me for telling what I consider to be the sad truth, I invite everyone who has an open mind to check out Antonio Gramsci's books. People like those in control of the Democratic Party certainly know Gramsci's techniques to play a socially revolutionary agenda, and have somehow convinced many teens that there's always an enemy to be beaten (it means a civil liberty to be undone).
America is being destroyed from within, and the same liberals who tell me to vote for Biden just because I'm gay are the ones who'll keep defending revolution until it is too late for them to realize they have been fooled.

hey did you get my pm?

[Alben Barkley]

On election night, i remember being ecstatic that he was elected president. Unfortunately, his presidency would highlight a lot of disappointments and failures. I had hope in him that he would turn out to be a good (socially) conservative working class president who would create a lot of jobs, and who would turn out to be a good president, and moderate his message and rhetoric. This all didn't happen. As incapable and populist he sounded throughout his campaign, that incapable he was during his presidency. Trump's cabinet will go into history as one of the most incapable and corrupt cabinets in the history of the United States for a long time. During periods of peace, he was a relatively okay-ish president, but when crisises did pop up, he failed to deal with them. His COVID-19 handling is an absolute disaster, and caused many lives, because he failed to implement effective lockdowns like we had in the USA and he failed to realize how serious COVID-19 would be. He failed to deal with the existent racism and gun violence in the United States, although I believe Trump's personal beliefs conflicted with what he said on gun violence, and he doesn't realize racism is a widespread problem in the USA. His worst year is clearly 2020, because before 2020 i always gave him the benefit of the doubt. Now i can't. I wasn't a fan of his climate policy or his tax policies, but i gave him the benefit of the doubt and failed to judge him. And things like tax policy are also influenced by party colour. What is bad to one person, is better for another. But he definitely didn't became the working class president we hoped for. We have a net loss in jobs, although part of it is to blame for the COVID-19, but where many world leaders saw a bump in their polls, mr. Trump's numbers only went down, and for a reason.

I thought for a long time Hillary Clinton would be a worse president than Trump, but I think I might be wrong. She would have dealt better with the 2020 problems, and I think her term would be less disastreous than Trump's one, although we would never know for sure, and I still prefer Trump's foreign policy over Hillary Clinton's assumed one. Foreign policy is what causes Trump to not go into history as one of the worst presidents in history, while others even ed up more on domestic policy (like the presidents before the ACW). Would Romney be a better president than Trump, probably. Was Bush a better president than Trump? No. But what became very clear during Trump's presidency, is how lucky we were to had Barack Obama, and while i'm ideologically not that similar to Obama, i cannot deny the influence and the charisma Obama had to change to world, and that's what I admire about Obama. He was a respectable and charismatic president who was the president of all Americans, and while definitely not perfect, i think it will take a long time before we will see a better president than Obama again. It will require a Democratic trifecta and an ambitious president who is ready to change things, and make a leap forward into the dawn of a new age, and is able to convince a majority of the Americans of the benefits of a Scandinavian social democratic system, who is able to clearly point to the dangers of climate change, and who is able to legalize marijuana and stop racial profiling of the police. Do I think Joe Biden is that man? Not really. But I have high expectations of him regardless, and I would if i was an American vote for Joe Biden. Not enthusiastically but i feel pretty confident I would, while it took a long time to warm up for Joe Biden however. Until 2019, i preferred Trump over Biden, but it changed.

1. You THINK you might be wrong? THINK?

2. Yes. Yes we do know for sure. SOME of us were 100000000000% sure LONG before the election, in fact. SOME of us actually believed that one of the most qualified candidates in history to ever run for the office would have definitely been better than a deranged, openly racist, bats—t crazy, narcissistic, sociopathic, reality TV star con artist with subzero qualifications, believe it or not. SOME of us STILL find it hard to believe there are people out there who ever at any point could NOT have thought this. We wake up every morning thinking it’s a surreal practical joke, that people out there actually, unironically believed the presidency was some kind of game show where the zaniest most colorful character should be elected rather than the most important job in the world that the person who knows what the f—k she’s doing should hold.

3. I don’t know what the f—k you believe about Hillary’s foreign policy or who the f—k told you it would be worse than Trump, but whatever it is, you’re dead wrong and always have been. Hillary voted to give Bush authorization for military force in Iraq in 2003, yes... As did Biden. As did Kerry. As did most senators. As did most of the public including Trump supported at the time based on the lies we were all told. She quickly came to regret it, however. She was extremely knowledgeable and experienced with foreign policy, unlike Trump who literally thought Finland was part of Russia. Trump veers between extreme neocon hawkishness, like hiring Bolton and coming minutes away from launching war with Iran before chickening out, and isolationist insanity that bends over for Putin to have his way with Europe and weakens NATO. Hillary never would have done either, which is why Putin feared her. Again, she knew what the hell she was doing. Trump does not and never has. He has made us the laughing stock of the world. That will be his foreign policy legacy.

You do not and never had any excuse to be this ignorant about Hillary or Trump. At a certain point it takes willful ignorance, i.e. stupidity, to be this in the dark. The facts are all laid out there bare for all to see who anyone who cares to find them, and they were in 2016 as well. I’m glad you apparently are finally coming around, only when it is clear to those of us who saw this coming all along that our worst fears have been realized and then some. But I’m not going to lie and pretend I’m not furious at you and all those like you for being too f—king dense to NOT see it coming yourselves and to think this monstrosity ever possibly could have been preferable or acceptable on any level whatsoever.

[Alben Barkley]

It has been improving since he got elected. As a gay man, it makes me happy that cultural Marxism (before calling me a conspiracy theorist, note that I study Journalism at a liberal college and have seen how indoctrination works pretty well) has been weakened by Trump's attitudes towards the pathological left.

Try going to an evangelical church or a Trump rally (same thing these days, really) to see how indoctrination REALLY works.

I f—king hate the far left and its “cancel culture” woke BS and such. But I hate Trump much more, because I’m not gonna let people who are mostly just annoying on social media and like 2% of the population at most cloud my view of reality. Trump’s cult is far larger and he is far more dangerous, as he actually has control of an entire party whereas the uber-woke crowd denounces even the Dems. And if you actually are gay, by all means continue to vote for the party of Mike “Pray and Electroshock the Gay Away” Pence and see how that works out for you.

I don’t believe you are, however. You are a brand new account going straight to the most concern troll type of BS that Rs eat up. Forgive me for being skeptical of your sincerity.

As for being a college student... LOL. OK, if that’s true come back in a few years when your brain is developed and let’s see if you still agree with this or if you cringe at how edgy you were trying to be.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Maybe my opinion of Trump "worsened" because some of my worst fears about him were actually confirmed.

There had been a small chance - although I never really believed in it - that the "he'll be tempered by the necessities of the office and move closer to the center" assumptions could have turned out to be correct. In the they didn't.

[IntelligenceWins]

It has been improving since he got elected. As a gay man, it makes me happy that cultural Marxism (before calling me a conspiracy theorist, note that I study Journalism at a liberal college and have seen how indoctrination works pretty well) has been weakened by Trump's attitudes towards the pathological left.

Forgive me for being skeptical of your sincerity.

As for being a college student... LOL. OK, if that’s true come back in a few years when your brain is developed and let’s see if you still agree with this or if you cringe at how edgy you were trying to be.

Yes, I forgive you.
Also, thanks for saying that my brain is not developed. This will impact me so much that now I'll watch AOC's speeches only to see If I become smarter. Thank you, really!

[Chunk Yogurt for President!]

I thought he was going to be way worse than he actually is.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

On election night, i remember being ecstatic that he was elected president. Unfortunately, his presidency would highlight a lot of disappointments and failures. I had hope in him that he would turn out to be a good (socially) conservative working class president who would create a lot of jobs, and who would turn out to be a good president, and moderate his message and rhetoric. This all didn't happen. As incapable and populist he sounded throughout his campaign, that incapable he was during his presidency. Trump's cabinet will go into history as one of the most incapable and corrupt cabinets in the history of the United States for a long time. During periods of peace, he was a relatively okay-ish president, but when crisises did pop up, he failed to deal with them. His COVID-19 handling is an absolute disaster, and caused many lives, because he failed to implement effective lockdowns like we had in the USA and he failed to realize how serious COVID-19 would be. He failed to deal with the existent racism and gun violence in the United States, although I believe Trump's personal beliefs conflicted with what he said on gun violence, and he doesn't realize racism is a widespread problem in the USA. His worst year is clearly 2020, because before 2020 i always gave him the benefit of the doubt. Now i can't. I wasn't a fan of his climate policy or his tax policies, but i gave him the benefit of the doubt and failed to judge him. And things like tax policy are also influenced by party colour. What is bad to one person, is better for another. But he definitely didn't became the working class president we hoped for. We have a net loss in jobs, although part of it is to blame for the COVID-19, but where many world leaders saw a bump in their polls, mr. Trump's numbers only went down, and for a reason.

I thought for a long time Hillary Clinton would be a worse president than Trump, but I think I might be wrong. She would have dealt better with the 2020 problems, and I think her term would be less disastreous than Trump's one, although we would never know for sure, and I still prefer Trump's foreign policy over Hillary Clinton's assumed one. Foreign policy is what causes Trump to not go into history as one of the worst presidents in history, while others even ed up more on domestic policy (like the presidents before the ACW). Would Romney be a better president than Trump, probably. Was Bush a better president than Trump? No. But what became very clear during Trump's presidency, is how lucky we were to had Barack Obama, and while i'm ideologically not that similar to Obama, i cannot deny the influence and the charisma Obama had to change to world, and that's what I admire about Obama. He was a respectable and charismatic president who was the president of all Americans, and while definitely not perfect, i think it will take a long time before we will see a better president than Obama again. It will require a Democratic trifecta and an ambitious president who is ready to change things, and make a leap forward into the dawn of a new age, and is able to convince a majority of the Americans of the benefits of a Scandinavian social democratic system, who is able to clearly point to the dangers of climate change, and who is able to legalize marijuana and stop racial profiling of the police. Do I think Joe Biden is that man? Not really. But I have high expectations of him regardless, and I would if i was an American vote for Joe Biden. Not enthusiastically but i feel pretty confident I would, while it took a long time to warm up for Joe Biden however. Until 2019, i preferred Trump over Biden, but it changed.

1. You THINK you might be wrong? THINK?

2. Yes. Yes we do know for sure. SOME of us were 100000000000% sure LONG before the election, in fact. SOME of us actually believed that one of the most qualified candidates in history to ever run for the office would have definitely been better than a deranged, openly racist, bats—t crazy, narcissistic, sociopathic, reality TV star con artist with subzero qualifications, believe it or not. SOME of us STILL find it hard to believe there are people out there who ever at any point could NOT have thought this. We wake up every morning thinking it’s a surreal practical joke, that people out there actually, unironically believed the presidency was some kind of game show where the zaniest most colorful character should be elected rather than the most important job in the world that the person who knows what the f—k she’s doing should hold.

3. I don’t know what the f—k you believe about Hillary’s foreign policy or who the f—k told you it would be worse than Trump, but whatever it is, you’re dead wrong and always have been. Hillary voted to give Bush authorization for military force in Iraq in 2003, yes... As did Biden. As did Kerry. As did most senators. As did most of the public including Trump supported at the time based on the lies we were all told. She quickly came to regret it, however. She was extremely knowledgeable and experienced with foreign policy, unlike Trump who literally thought Finland was part of Russia. Trump veers between extreme neocon hawkishness, like hiring Bolton and coming minutes away from launching war with Iran before chickening out, and isolationist insanity that bends over for Putin to have his way with Europe and weakens NATO. Hillary never would have done either, which is why Putin feared her. Again, she knew what the hell she was doing. Trump does not and never has. He has made us the laughing stock of the world. That will be his foreign policy legacy.

You do not and never had any excuse to be this ignorant about Hillary or Trump. At a certain point it takes willful ignorance, i.e. stupidity, to be this in the dark. The facts are all laid out there bare for all to see who anyone who cares to find them, and they were in 2016 as well. I’m glad you apparently are finally coming around, only when it is clear to those of us who saw this coming all along that our worst fears have been realized and then some. But I’m not going to lie and pretend I’m not furious at you and all those like you for being too f—king dense to NOT see it coming yourselves and to think this monstrosity ever possibly could have been preferable or acceptable on any level whatsoever.

First of all, I understand you, but I have some problems with your reaction. I'm entitled to my own opinion, and unlike others, i'm able to discover and realize the flaws of a Trump administration, but let's not forget that Hillary Clinton isn't a hero either, or that it automatically means, she would be a great president. I think, we can unanimously agree that Trump was a bad president, although some might argue otherwise, but from a left-wing POV, he is, or you're just not informed enough. And to be honest, maybe i wasn't informed enough when I had to make a decision (although I didn't had to).

From your point of view, many leaders wouldn't be experienced enough. Zelensky is an example of a succesful leader (although I don't follow Ukraine's news) from someone who didn't had experience, but only was a media personality. The Russian Paris Hilton was a better option than Putin, even though she didn't had any experience, but a vote for Putin was a vote for a dictatorship, while the Russian Paris Hilton criticized his legislature. Being experienced isn't a requisite to hold higher office, and they might be estranged from society, not being able to realize what people needs are. It's not because Clinton had more experience, that she was automatically going to be a better leader. Trump's campaign was indeed at times racist and misogynistic, and I should have recognized that earlier and condemn his behavior earlier. But Clinton also insulted 1/4th of America by calling half of Trump's supporters deplorables. Both candidates weren't flawless, and I never said Trump was a flawless candidate. Moral of the story: A reality TV-star CAN be a president than a former secretary of state. I say, he could've been. But it doesn't mean he was going to be. And we don't know how a Clinton presidency would have looked like. It might very well be a good presidency, but it could have been even more disastreous than Trump's presidency.

I disagree with your take on Trump's foreign policy. He is more intellectual and qualified than you think. He dealt with North Korea. He didn't brought us into a war, despite concerns or some of his cabinet picks. His isolationist trajectory is the way to go. America doesn't have to play the world's policeman anymore. The lies that were told about Iraq were clearly made up, and some of the world's greatest activists were against the war even than. Her Iraq vote is one of her many mistakes, and she should have seen it through. Diplomacy is the way to go. I don't care what Biden or Kerry did, they were at fault as well. Both were on the wrong side of history, and you criticize me of not being able to see through's Trump actions before his election when it was obvious, but Clinton, Biden and Kerry weren't on the right side of history as well on the Iraq vote, when it was obvious as well.

I'm generally very skeptical of those kind of politicians. I don't like Joe Biden as well. If i had to vote today, i would likely have voted for Hillary Clinton, because I believe she would have dealt with COVID-19 better mainly, but if i had to appoint a secretary of state in my cabinet and had those two picks, i would choose for Donald Trump.

I have my own opinion. There's ABSOLUTELY no reason to attack me at all - and I understand this might sound frustrating - but there's no "right opinion". There's no universal accepted knowledge that Trump is evil and Clinton is good. That's shortsighted. Maybe Trump is a darker side of grey than Clinton is. Maybe, he truly is. And I was wrong, and many people can be wrong. But you have to respect those people as well, respect those that are able to see through their faults, reflect on them and change their position, because it's exactly those kind of people you need to win back to swing the election in favour of Joe Biden, which is going to happen.

But no, Clinton wasn't a flawless candidate. That for sure. I regret supporting Trump at one point, but I don't regret not supporting Clinton. If she organized a better campaign, didn't insult 25% of the country + Sanders voters, and used three arguments: vote for me because i'm a woman, vote for me because i'm the lesser evil, or vote for me because i'm not Donald Trump and forget about what people really care about especially in the American heartland, maybe history would have changed, because it was totally a winnable election.

[Calthrina950]

My opinion of Trump has never been particularly high, but it has gotten significantly worse since he took office, especially in the past year. When he was initially running in 2016, I actually laughed at much of what he said and did, and didn't take him that seriously. Moreover, I absolutely despised (and I still do despise) Hillary Clinton, who in my view is corrupt, duplicitous, and an opportunist. Hence, by the time Election Night came around, I was hoping that she would lose, and was happy about her defeat.

While I'm still not upset about Clinton's loss, I have now come to realize that Trump is a far worse President than I could have possibly imagined, and certainly worse than Clinton would have been. He is an ignorant, arrogant, and selfish buffoon whose corruption exceeds that of Clinton. He has surrounded himself with worthless sycophants, caters to the basest elements of the voting public, and is very incompetent.

And he is unable to let bygones be bygones, as demonstrated by his never-ending attacks against Clinton, even though she is irrelevant at this point. Trump's bungled handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been the final straw for me, and I will gladly vote for Joe Biden this November to get him out. I've also remembered Trump's birtherism attacks against Obama (who I have a positive opinion of), and that has given me further pause.