I confessed in a previous post my (unfortunate) predilection for American politics.

My views are biased (I’m a lefty-tree-hugging-commy-pinko-woke-ist), but they’re not unchallengeable.

In that post I explained how I sometimes wade through right-leaning media waters (cesspools?) to challenge my biases.
I voluntarily listen to Piers Morgan, Tucker Carlson, Charlie Kirk, Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Fox news, Laura Ingraham, Steve Bannan, Candace Owens and worse. (Self flagellation amirite?) 

I have so many questions for today’s Trump supporter. 
I genuinely want to understand.  

A challenge whenever asking questions of a Trump supporter is ‘whataboutism’, conflation and deflection from the actual question.
Trump did XYZ, yeah but Obama/Kamala/Biden/Clinton/Jesus Christ himself did ABC… Circular conversations leading nowhere. 

So this is a list of 10 of my (mostly) genuine questions for today’s Trump supporter.  
They’re about Donald J Trump specifically. 
Not Obama, Biden, Harris, the Clintons, Democrats or Republicans.  
They’re in plain, uninflammatory language (to my best ability). 
I’ve fact check them and can bring receipts. 

They’re numbered.
Trump supporters: answer one, answer some – delight me and answer all.  
Answer any or each in good faith on the merits of the question itself.  
Without deflection, conflation, no whataboutism. 

The questions are:

• Question 1: What do you make of Trump’s priorities this early in his term? Are his priorities proportionate and reasonable?
• Question 2: Can Trump manage money and the economy? Has he broken economic election promises already? Does he understand tariffs and their implications? Is it OK for a president to hawk merchandise? Is wilful disinformation acceptable from a president?
• Question 3: Are Trump’s election promises to protect women and children believable? 
• Question 4: Does Trump have poor HR judgement? Are his appointments unethical? 
• Question 5: Will Trump ignore all judges and court orders he doesn’t like or agree with?  Will he illegally deport all foreign-looking-people without charges or their day in court? 
• Question 6: Should boycotting and vandalising cars for political reasons be pardoned like storming government buildings? Which political protestors are ‘great people’ or ‘domestic terrorists’? 
• Question 7: Does Trump respect the Constitution? Should all presidents have immunity or just him? Did he win or lose the 2020 election? 
• Question 8: Why hasn’t Trump acknowledged Russia as the aggressor in Ukraine war? What day will he end the war in Ukraine? 
• Question 9: What is Trump’s dress code? 
• Question 10: Is Trump a hero of free speech or just speech he likes? 

Priorities

The American astronauts were stranded in space for ten months, 286 days. 
Trump played golf 325 times in his first term.  
He has played golf 13 times – roughly 20% of his time – this term. 

He declared the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in the first week of this term, while much of the country battled natural disasters and economic pressures. 

In these early days of his term, he has repeatedly declared his intent to annex Greenland, Canada and the Panama Canal. 

Less than 0.1% of the American population identifies as transgender. 
There are no available statistics for crimes perpetrated by transgender people. 
Crimes against transgender people however are disproportionately significant, with 400 murders in the last 10 years, 36 in the last year alone. 
Transgender women are six times more likely to die of murder or suicide than CIS women. 

As they are so few, statistics of transgender people competing in sports aren’t available. However the president of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) testified he knew of fewer than 10 transgender athletes among 510,000, or 0.002%. 

Firearms remain the leading cause of child deaths, with 7 children dying a day, every day. 

• In 2016: the NRA gun lobby donated more than $50 million to Trump’s election; 
• In 2020: the NRA gun lobby donated more than $29 million to Trump’s election; 
• In 2024: the NRA gun lobby donated more than $10 million to Trump’s election. 

Trump has said and done nothing about gun control in his time in office (either terms) but has said and done a lot on gender politics. 
(Incidentally, as a convicted felon Trump can’t vote in many states, enter many countries, own a gun, or pour a beer). 

Question 1: What do you make of Trump’s priorities this early in his term? 
Are his priorities between gender politics and gun violence proportionate and reasonable?

Money management 

Trump received about $400 million from his dad.  
He then bankrupted six businesses, including three casinos.  
He has a long, documented history of not paying bills or taxes. 
Tax returns show he paid $750 tax in 2016 and 2017. 
He and Melania paid $0 income tax in 2020 and claimed a refund of $5.5 million. 
In 2023, he sued 20 media outlets for reporting these financial disclosures. (He has not won any of these). 

After announcing his candidacy, Trump didn’t file a financial disclosure, a requirement of presidential candidates for transparency and managing conflicts of interests. 

He promised in his election campaign he’d reduce inflation and bring the cost of groceries down ‘from day one’.  
Since he took office, the opposite has happened: inflation has increased, consumer confidence has decreased, the stock market is falling and the Federal Reserve has issued a contraction. 

During his first term, Trump added $8 trillion to the nation’s deficit, the largest increase in history. 
Despite rhetoric around eliminating ‘fraud, waste and abuse’ in government, government spending under Trump has increased.  
It rose to $710 billion, up 13% from the same period last year under his predecessor. 

Trump is personally advertising sneakers, watches, hats, fragrances, books, made-in-China bibles, NFTs, bitcoin, sponsorships of White House events and his social media platform.  
He held a press conference advertising Teslas at the White House while much of the country were enduring natural disasters. 

He has implemented tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners: Canada, Mexico and China, sparking a trade war and retaliatory tariffs. 
Tariffs are taxes imposed on companies importing goods, they are passed down to consumers, leading to inflation. 
Trump and his spokespeople say tariffs are taxes on other countries. 

Trump said the punitive tariffs on Canada are to mitigate fentanyl crossing the border. 
Less than 20 kilos of fentanyl crossed the Canadian border last year, less than 1% of all fentanyl. 

Trump and Elon said there were more than 20 million people over 100 receiving social security payments. 
This is not only untrue, but there’s evidence Trump and Musk knew it to be untrue. 
 

Question 2: Can Trump manage money and the economy? 
Has he broken election promises?  
Does his evasion of financial disclosures cause transparency concerns?  
Does he understand tariffs and their implications?  
Is it OK for a president to hawk merchandise?  
Is wilful disinformation acceptable from a president?

Family and women

Trump is three-times married with a long list of credible sexual assault and infidelity claims.  

He was found liable of sexual abuse by a jury of his peers, and of an affair with a porn-star when Barron was four months old. 

He buried one of his ex-wives in his back yard. 

He has a long and well documented friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, who he calls ‘a terrific guy.’ 

He has changed his position on women’s reproductive rights four times, from ‘very pro-choice’ (1999) to women who seek abortions should be ‘punished’ (2016). 

Question 3: Are Trump’s election promises to protect women and children believable? 

Staffing 

There have been 14 firings or resignations from cabinet positions since Trump’s first term, the most in history. 
His Vice President (Mike Pence) did not endorse him; 
Nor did his National Security Advisor (John Bolton): 
Or his Secretary of Defense (Mark Esper); 
Or his Chief of Staff (John Kelly). 

During his first term, Trump’s National Security Advisor (Michael Flynn); 
FBI Director (James Comey); 
Secretary of State (Rex Tillerson); 
Attorney General (Jeff Sessions); 
Chief of Staff (Reince Priebus); 
Communications Director (Anthony Scaramucci); 
Secretary of Health and Human Services (Tom Price)  
all resigned or were fired. 

16 people in Trump’s current cabinet are TV or media personalities, most without government experience or experience running organisations. 

JD Vance referred to Trump as ‘America’s Hitler;’ ‘unfit for our nation’s highest office;’ said that he is ‘a never Trump guy’, and that ‘anyone who voted for him is an idiot’.  
Trump then appointed him Vice President. 
Polling shows JD Vance is the most disliked Vice President in US history.
When asked if Vance could be his successor, Trump replied ‘no.’

Marco Rubio called Trump a ‘third-world strongman’ who would be ‘selling watches in Manhattan’ if he hadn’t inherited his dad’s money and said ‘we cannot allow a con artist to get access to the nuclear codes.’ 
Trump then appointed him Secretary of State.

Trump has ‘waged war’ on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) in government, championing meritocracy. 
Government employees should be hired based on their skills, experience and merit only. 

Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump is the Chair of the Republican National Committee; 
His daughter Ivanka is a ‘Senior Adviser’; 
His son-in-law Jared Kushner is ‘Director of Innovation’; 
Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, is the Ambassador to France; 
His other daughter-in-law, Kimberly Guilfoyle, is the Ambassador to Greece; 
His Secretary of Defence is a weekend Fox News host who bankrupted two charities. 

Trump appointed Elon Musk to lead a government efficiency agency and shed ‘unelected bureaucrats’ and eliminate ‘waste, fraud and abuse’ from the government. 
Elon is a foreign born, recently Democrat, deeply unpopular, unelected bureaucrat with billions in government contracts. 
Musk’s ‘Special Government Employee’ status means he is not required to declare his financial interests as other federal government employees are required to.  
His more than $20 billion in government contract interests include: 
Supply of armoured Teslas to government; 
SpaceX supplying NASA servicing of the International Space Station; 
Starlink supplying satellite internet services to remote areas, particularly those impacted by natural disasters. 

Question 4: Does Trump have poor HR judgement?
Are any of his appointments unethical? 

Law and order 

This month Trump contravened a federal judge’s court order to stop planes of alleged immigrants being deported to El Salvador. 
He then called the judge a biased lunatic on social media.  
Many of the deportees have legal rights to be in America. 

These alleged immigrants were rounded up and deported to El Salvador without legally protected due process: no charges, evidence or defenses. 

Two of Trump’s wives were immigrants. 

Question 5: Will Trump ignore all judges and court orders he doesn’t like or agree with?  
Will he continue to illegally deport foreign-looking-people without charges or their day in court? 

Americans have been protesting Trump’s administration by boycotting and vandalising Teslas. 

Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi have condemned these protests as ‘domestic terrorism’. 

On 6 January 2021, more than 2,000 people stormed and vandalised the Capitol, two people died and $3 billion damage was caused. 

They were blanket pardoned by Trump and praised as “great people.” 

Question 6: Should boycotting and vandalising cars for political reasons be pardoned like storming government buildings? 

Are these political protestors also “great people” or are they domestic terrorists? 

This week Trump reiterated his intent to run for a third term, contravening the 22^nd amendment of the Constitution.  

When asked by a journalist if he was joking, he replied “No.” 

When he lost the 2020 election, Trump tweeted election fraud warranted “termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” 

Last year the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution. 

Trump still has not formally conceded losing the 2020 election.  
He filed and lost more than 60 lawsuits contesting the election outcome. 
Yet in August last year he acknowledged on a podcast (Lex Fridman) he lost the election, and earlier in July 2021. 

Question 7: Does Trump respect the Constitution? 
Does he feel all presidents should have immunity or just him? 
Did he win or lose the 2020 election? 

Ukraine 

Trump repeatedly said he would end the war in Ukraine on day one. 
He has been in office 72 days. 
Russia invaded Ukraine (twice) instigating war. 
Trump called President Zelensky a dictator who ‘refuses to hold elections.’ 
Zelensky was democratically elected in 2019 (by 75%). 
Vladmir Putin is a known dictator of 20 years. 

Question 8: Why hasn’t Trump acknowledged Russia as the aggressor in this war? 
What day will he end the war in Ukraine? 

At their meeting in the White House last month, Trump and a reporter commented on Ukraine’s president Zelensky not wearing a suit. 

Trump dodged the draft five times for sore feet and has never served or worn combat fatigues. 

Elon Musk wears t-shirts and jeans in cabinet meetings and brings his children to the White House. 

Question 9: What is Trump’s dress code? 

The First Amendment 

The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech and freedom of the press. 
Trump campaigned on free speech. 
Trump banned the Associated Press from the White House press pool because he didn’t like that they didn’t use his term ‘Gulf of America’; 
He has sued X, Meta, the NYT, CBS, CNN, MSNBC and regularly threatens to withdraw broadcasting licenses of media outlets he doesn’t like. 
He has filed more than 4,000 lawsuits against media outlets in 30 years, with most dropped or dismissed.  

As far back as 2016, he admitted using the term “fake news” to discredit the media, explaining how he attacks the press to ‘demean’ and ‘discredit’ reporters so that when they write negative stories about him, people won’t believe them. 

Question 10: Is Trump a hero of free speech or just speech he likes?