What does a successful Trump presidency look like?

[Taran Wanderer]

I have deep concerns about Donald Trump becoming president of the United States. Based on his campaign, the potential worst case is frightful from many points of view - economic (tax cuts, debt explosion), foreign policy (American isolationism, Chinese and Russian military expansion), civil rights (limitation of press freedoms, further racial divides), climate change, and social issues (reduction in basic civility, scaled back women's rights).  I could go on and on and on based on his own comments.

If the worst case is a descent into recession/depression, isolationism, elimination of civil liberties, and a slide toward World War III, then what would you consider a best case outcome? 

[Dicey]

Following, because I've got to hope that there is some good to be had. Somehow.

[MandalayVA]

Having been exposed to Trump since the eighties, I can say that he goes much more to the left than people think he does.  New York Republicans are generally like that, and Trump's really only a Republican in name.  The true GOP is just as horrified that he got in as the Democrats are.  He's always been good at sound bites and saying things that people want to hear.  Not so much the Mexican wall and banning Muslims, but the whole "make America great again" thing.  It doesn't matter that Trump has about as much in common with the average person who voted for him as I do with the Queen of England.  He told them what they wanted to hear and promised he'd make things better.  The media on both sides basically thumbed their noses at "average Americans" ... and the average American just told them to go fuck themselves.

Things are about to get REALLY interesting.

[2Cent]

The best case is Trump actually "draining the swamp" and cutting through all the red tape and stop the wasteful spending on things that benefit only small but politically active groups because he just doesn't care if people get mad at him.

He could use his experience in dodging taxes to close the loopholes for the others using it.

Alternatively a positive thing may be that he could prove once and for all that this type of person should never again be anywhere near power, and he could inspire a new generation of leaders with integrity.

[chasesfish]

We aren't the first country to try this experiment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_Berlusconi

[GuitarStv]

The best case scenario is that it turns out that Trump was lying about all the promises that got him elected:

- Really big wall between the US and Mexico.  Paid for by Mexico.
- Entry to the US will be restricted based on your religion.
- Muslims have to carry registration papers and ID cards at all times.
- New laws passed to muzzle the press.
- US military will be commanded to engage in war crimes (torture, murder of civilians, acts of terrorism).
- The US becomes very, very friendly with Putin's Russia.



If he was telling the truth at all during his campaign, the US is headed for some dark times.

[deadlymonkey]

Having been exposed to Trump since the eighties, I can say that he goes much more to the left than people think he does.  New York Republicans are generally like that, and Trump's really only a Republican in name.  The true GOP is just as horrified that he got in as the Democrats are.  He's always been good at sound bites and saying things that people want to hear.  Not so much the Mexican wall and banning Muslims, but the whole "make America great again" thing.  It doesn't matter that Trump has about as much in common with the average person who voted for him as I do with the Queen of England.  He told them what they wanted to hear and promised he'd make things better.  The media on both sides basically thumbed their noses at "average Americans" ... and the average American just told them to go fuck themselves.

Things are about to get REALLY interesting.

Even if he wants to be a figurehead, who is going to be running the country?  Pence (super religious...think the handmaiden's tale as his ideal country)...Chris Christie....Rudy Guiliani (crazy guiliani of the last few years, not semi-sane one of 2000)...the entire editorial wing of breitbart?

[KCM5]

Having been exposed to Trump since the eighties, I can say that he goes much more to the left than people think he does.

I think this is true. While I find the man to be personally repulsive and in possession of almost none of the qualities that I would want in a leader of a country, I'm not convinced that he's the conservative firebrand he's been elected as.

[boarder42]

you guys realize he cant just do whatever he wants congress and the supreme court have to support his decisions. 

we're gonna get lower taxes ... b/c he wants to lower them and republicans like lower taxes. thats the only real thing he talked about on his campaign i see happening sooner than later.

[deadlymonkey]

you guys realize he cant just do whatever he wants congress and the supreme court have to support his decisions. 

we're gonna get lower taxes ... b/c he wants to lower them and republicans like lower taxes. thats the only real thing he talked about on his campaign i see happening sooner than later.

lower taxes in the short term until the spiraling deficit and debt caused by those lower taxes crash the economy......again

[boarder42]

our corporate tax rates drive corporations out so we dont get ANY of their taxes.  lowering taxes for them brings them back.

[I'm a red panda]

you guys realize he cant just do whatever he wants congress and the supreme court have to support his decisions. 

Yeah, and a republican controlled house and senate will never support a republican president!

[boarder42]

you guys realize he cant just do whatever he wants congress and the supreme court have to support his decisions. 

Yeah, and a republican controlled house and senate will never support a republican president!

i'm talking the extreme outlandish campaign issues he ran on like walls mexico will build and treating muslims like jewish people during the early days of hitlers reign.

[MandalayVA]

you guys realize he cant just do whatever he wants congress and the supreme court have to support his decisions. 

Yeah, and a republican controlled house and senate will never support a republican president!

Considering that the Bushes distanced themselves and Paul Ryan couldn't even speak Trump's name--you know, Paul Ryan, the current Speaker of the House--among other things, the GOP's not a given in supporting Trump. 

[TheDude]

I suggest you read Paul Ryan's blueprint it's the future.

[acroy]

lower taxes in the short term until the spiraling deficit and debt caused by those lower taxes crash the economy......again

Fed deficit has never yet crashed the US economy.
US economy has been crashed by capital misallocation (bubbles) not fed debt.
Study up! Get the facts straight.

[Weedy Acres]

you guys realize he cant just do whatever he wants congress and the supreme court have to support his decisions. 

we're gonna get lower taxes ... b/c he wants to lower them and republicans like lower taxes. thats the only real thing he talked about on his campaign i see happening sooner than later.

lower taxes in the short term until the spiraling deficit and debt caused by those lower taxes crash the economy......again

So that's bad, but out of control spending in the past 8 years causing the deficit to double doesn't cause you concern?

[Nemesis.]

Well he's facing racketeering charges in less that three weeks. Will they have to impeach him for that or wait until he commits a crime while president.
That should take...5 minutes?

this man runs companies into the ground to make himself more wealthy. Do you really think he's not going to do that with our country?

All the promises have been a big smoke screen. Maybe once he realizes he doesn't have as. U h control over the money as he thought he would,, he'll get bored and go away.

[Nick_Miller]

Well if the question is what would *I* consider to be a "successful" Trump presidency, I'd say he tones everything down about...hmmm...90 percent or so.

1) He would focus on (good) job creation more than anything else. Jobs jobs jobs. 

2) ISIS.  Figure out how to deal with them WITH other countries working together. Work with those "amazing" generals he's been talking with. F*ck them up however possible - that's something 99% of Americans can agree with.

3) Welfare state. I'm moderate, but I absolutely despise when people game the system or just totally fail to contribute to society. As a personal injury lawyer, I admit to seeing some of it first hand, not that I can do anything about the system as a whole. Yes I know the argument is that you need to fix the problems (teenage pregnancy, failure to graduate high school, lack of desire/ability to get a job), but I truly think some folks are raised to view "the government" as being responsible for paying them just for being a warm body.

If he was successful in creating tons of (good) jobs, struck huge blows to ISIS, and scaled back the welfare state, I'd consider it not a horrible presidency, although I'm sure the inevitable blows to women's reproductive rights, gay rights, the environment, etc., would be hard to ignore.

[deadlymonkey]

you guys realize he cant just do whatever he wants congress and the supreme court have to support his decisions. 

we're gonna get lower taxes ... b/c he wants to lower them and republicans like lower taxes. thats the only real thing he talked about on his campaign i see happening sooner than later.

lower taxes in the short term until the spiraling deficit and debt caused by those lower taxes crash the economy......again

So that's bad, but out of control spending in the past 8 years causing the deficit to double doesn't cause you concern?

Sigh, these have been posted before, but an Obama spending spree is just not true.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/01/07/the-story-behind-obama-and-the-national-debt-in-7-charts/

There are charts in there that reflect good and bad points of spending under Obama.  The biggest thing it doesn't explain is WHY some things increased.  The biggest driver was obviously the great recession and we can run around in circles talking about whether public spending to get out of that was the correct decisions.  Most economists say it was, but to each his own.  The big driver was the Feb 2010 law that Obama signed saying that if the government was going to spend something, it had to be paid for in the budget in dollars allocated.  That had the effect of being sound business practice but also ending the hand waving part of spending.  Remember those pesky little wars in Iraq and Afghanistan......put on credit card.  They were never paid for.  Obama put them in the budget so now we suddenly have a paper cost of 1-2 trillion where none exited before. 

SO no, I don't see a lot of uncontrolled spending by Obama.  Getting down into the weeds there is a lot of uncontrolled wasteful spending, mostly on pork products and military spending that the military doesn't want but some senator does.  Of course there is our spending on healthcare and Social security which is high and could be lowered but few people in the legislature are brave enough to take on that fight.

[deadlymonkey]

Well he's facing racketeering charges in less that three weeks. Will they have to impeach him for that or wait until he commits a crime while president.
That should take...5 minutes?

this man runs companies into the ground to make himself more wealthy. Do you really think he's not going to do that with our country?

All the promises have been a big smoke screen. Maybe once he realizes he doesn't have as. U h control over the money as he thought he would,, he'll get bored and go away.

Don't forget his court case in December for child rape.

[Nemesis.]

Well he's facing racketeering charges in less that three weeks. Will they have to impeach him for that or wait until he commits a crime while president.
That should take...5 minutes?

this man runs companies into the ground to make himself more wealthy. Do you really think he's not going to do that with our country?

All the promises have been a big smoke screen. Maybe once he realizes he doesn't have as. U h control over the money as he thought he would,, he'll get bored and go away.

Don't forget his court case in December for child rape.

Yeah, but that's a civil case, not a criminal one due to the statute of limitations.
Of course if it leads to questions of the disappearance of the other girl then maybe it will turn into one.

[Nick_Miller]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/09/news/economy/donald-trump-means-for-your-money/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

Okay, so I was reading about some of his proposals, which to me, he should have been talking about more! Hell, I didn't even know about them. Maybe it's my fault but I seriously didn't hear any discussion of them on the campaign trail or in the debates.

A few possible good ideas in here.

1) Letting parents deduct the FULL cost of childcare, up to the average in the state for a child that age. HUGE help to working parents.

2) 15-year cap on student loan payments, instead of 20. I'd need to read into that more, as it's possible that lower time frame would just result in forced higher payments during the 15 years.

3) Allowing folks (like me) who aren't offered health insurance at work to deduct their health care premiums! That would be a HUGE benefit to many families, including many small business owners, but again, if the negatives (higher premiums, less coverage, denials for pre-existings) outweigh this benefit, it's not really a net gain. Still, it will be interesting to follow.

And finally here are the tax brackets for comparison...

Current

Table 1. 2016 Taxable Income Brackets and Rates (Estimate)
Rate
Single Filers
Married Joint Filers
Head of Household Filers
10%
$0 to $9,275
$0 to $18,550
$0 to $13,250
15%
$9,275 to $37,650
$18,550 to $75,300
$13,250 to $50,400
25%
$37,650 to $91,150
$75,300 to $151,900
$50,400 to $130,150
28%
$91,150 to $190,150
$151,900 to $231,450
$130,150 to $210,800
33%
$190,150 to $413,350
$231,450 to $413,350
$210,800 to $413,350
35%
$413,350 to $415,050
$413,350 to $466,950
$413,350 to $441,000
39.6%
$415,050+
$466,950+
$441,000+



Trump's proposed

Brackets & Rates for Married-Joint filers:
Less than $75,000: 12%
More than $75,000 but less than $225,000: 25%
More than $225,000: 33%
*Brackets for single filers are ½ of these amounts

*EDIT* Ran some numbers. With a married filing jointly family earning $150,000, they would pay $29,042, but only $27,750 under Trump, for a savings of $1,292. Not huge, but at least it's a cut. And combined with deductions for privately purchased health insurance premiums and larger deductions for child care, that could all help many middle to upper middle class families.

[OurTown]

Maybe he won't do anything except insult people every day. 

[boarder42]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

[onlykelsey]

Having been exposed to Trump since the eighties, I can say that he goes much more to the left than people think he does.  New York Republicans are generally like that, and Trump's really only a Republican in name.  The true GOP is just as horrified that he got in as the Democrats are.  He's always been good at sound bites and saying things that people want to hear.  Not so much the Mexican wall and banning Muslims, but the whole "make America great again" thing.  It doesn't matter that Trump has about as much in common with the average person who voted for him as I do with the Queen of England.  He told them what they wanted to hear and promised he'd make things better.  The media on both sides basically thumbed their noses at "average Americans" ... and the average American just told them to go fuck themselves.

Things are about to get REALLY interesting.

Even if he wants to be a figurehead, who is going to be running the country?  Pence (super religious...think the handmaiden's tale as his ideal country)...Chris Christie....Rudy Guiliani (crazy guiliani of the last few years, not semi-sane one of 2000)...the entire editorial wing of breitbart?

I think this is the most interesting question as well.  He doesn't actually want to run the country, so it will be interesting to see who he chooses to be behind the scenes.

I'm not super worried about him leading a unified Republican Congress in economic or healthcare policy changes.  I'm mostly worried about:

• him getting us nuked/nuking someone
• the Supreme Court
• him appointing alt right folks to anything

[Nick_Miller]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

Really? That's freakin' huge. We won't even be able to itemize this year (house half paid off so not a huge amount of mortgage interest), so increasing the standard would be a welcome change.

Why the hell didn't he talk more about these sorts of tax breaks on the campaign trail instead of insulting random groups of people? Well, I guess whatever he did worked so never mind!

[boarder42]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

Really? That's freakin' huge. We won't even be able to itemize this year (house half paid off so not a huge amount of mortgage interest), so increasing the standard would be a welcome change.

Why the hell didn't he talk more about these sorts of tax breaks on the campaign trail instead of insulting random groups of people? Well, I guess whatever he did worked so never mind!

b/c those biggoted things won him the office now he can back peddle and get the more reasonable stuff done ....

those who think that he's going to overturn roe v wade and buiild a wall and kick out the muslims and persecute the LGBT community... really you really think thats going to happen.  cmon now.

[deadlymonkey]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

Really? That's freakin' huge. We won't even be able to itemize this year (house half paid off so not a huge amount of mortgage interest), so increasing the standard would be a welcome change.

Why the hell didn't he talk more about these sorts of tax breaks on the campaign trail instead of insulting random groups of people? Well, I guess whatever he did worked so never mind!

He didn't talk about it because they are untenable.  Look, he wants to drastically reduce revenue by reducing taxes while increasing government spending slightly.  There is no way to balance that equation without 5%+ annual growth which pretty much everyone who knows economics says is impossible.  So you get your tax cut, but sell out your kids and grandkids.  Great trade.

[boarder42]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

Really? That's freakin' huge. We won't even be able to itemize this year (house half paid off so not a huge amount of mortgage interest), so increasing the standard would be a welcome change.

Why the hell didn't he talk more about these sorts of tax breaks on the campaign trail instead of insulting random groups of people? Well, I guess whatever he did worked so never mind!

He didn't talk about it because they are untenable.  Look, he wants to drastically reduce revenue by reducing taxes while increasing government spending slightly.  There is no way to balance that equation without 5%+ annual growth which pretty much everyone who knows economics says is impossible.  So you get your tax cut, but sell out your kids and grandkids.  Great trade.

the current regime has double the deficit.

[bacchi]

He didn't talk about it because they are untenable.  Look, he wants to drastically reduce revenue by reducing taxes while increasing government spending slightly.  There is no way to balance that equation without 5%+ annual growth which pretty much everyone who knows economics says is impossible.  So you get your tax cut, but sell out your kids and grandkids.  Great trade.

the current regime has double the deficit.

What's that got to do with anything now? Reagan tripled the deficit.

You can't cut taxes and keep spending the same or the deficit will balloon even more. It just doesn't work unless the economy responds.

[Scandium]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

Really? That's freakin' huge. We won't even be able to itemize this year (house half paid off so not a huge amount of mortgage interest), so increasing the standard would be a welcome change.

Why the hell didn't he talk more about these sorts of tax breaks on the campaign trail instead of insulting random groups of people? Well, I guess whatever he did worked so never mind!

Because
a) yes insulting people got his hateful, moronic base riled up enough to elect him.
b) those are massive tax cuts for rich people. Deducting something is only good if you pay a lot in taxes. If you're in the 0-15% bracket that's not much help is it? This is zero help to poor people who already pay little if any taxes and can't afford child care anyway.

[boarder42]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

Really? That's freakin' huge. We won't even be able to itemize this year (house half paid off so not a huge amount of mortgage interest), so increasing the standard would be a welcome change.

Why the hell didn't he talk more about these sorts of tax breaks on the campaign trail instead of insulting random groups of people? Well, I guess whatever he did worked so never mind!

Because
a) yes insulting people got his hateful, moronic base riled up enough to elect him.
b) those are massive tax cuts for rich people. Deducting something is only good if you pay a lot in taxes. If you're in the 0-15% bracket that's not much help is it? This is zero help to poor people who already pay little if any taxes and can't afford child care anyway.

how is this 0 hoep to poor people they just got 30000 of their dollars to keep for free vs the 12600 in the current tax code.

[Scandium]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

Really? That's freakin' huge. We won't even be able to itemize this year (house half paid off so not a huge amount of mortgage interest), so increasing the standard would be a welcome change.

Why the hell didn't he talk more about these sorts of tax breaks on the campaign trail instead of insulting random groups of people? Well, I guess whatever he did worked so never mind!

Because
a) yes insulting people got his hateful, moronic base riled up enough to elect him.
b) those are massive tax cuts for rich people. Deducting something is only good if you pay a lot in taxes. If you're in the 0-15% bracket that's not much help is it? This is zero help to poor people who already pay little if any taxes and can't afford child care anyway.

how is this 0 hoep to poor people they just got 30000 of their dollars to keep for free vs the 12600 in the current tax code.

that's not how the standard deduction works..

[boarder42]

Nick Miller you missed that the standard dedcution for married joint filers will go up from 12600 to 30k under his porposed plan.

Really? That's freakin' huge. We won't even be able to itemize this year (house half paid off so not a huge amount of mortgage interest), so increasing the standard would be a welcome change.

Why the hell didn't he talk more about these sorts of tax breaks on the campaign trail instead of insulting random groups of people? Well, I guess whatever he did worked so never mind!

Because
a) yes insulting people got his hateful, moronic base riled up enough to elect him.
b) those are massive tax cuts for rich people. Deducting something is only good if you pay a lot in taxes. If you're in the 0-15% bracket that's not much help is it? This is zero help to poor people who already pay little if any taxes and can't afford child care anyway.

how is this 0 hoep to poor people they just got 30000 of their dollars to keep for free vs the 12600 in the current tax code.

that's not how the standard deduction works..

really b/c if i make 30k and i have a 30k deduction i pay no taxes on that 30k how does it work where you are from.

[Scandium]

how is this 0 hoep to poor people they just got 30000 of their dollars to keep for free vs the 12600 in the current tax code.

that's not how the standard deduction works..

really b/c if i make 30k and i have a 30k deduction i pay no taxes on that 30k how does it work where you are from.

They wouldn't get $30k to keep vs $12k. They would not pay tax on it.
And as Romney pointed out 47% of people don't pay any federal income tax so any increase in deduction is meaningless to them.

[bacchi]

how is this 0 hoep to poor people they just got 30000 of their dollars to keep for free vs the 12600 in the current tax code.

that's not how the standard deduction works..

really b/c if i make 30k and i have a 30k deduction i pay no taxes on that 30k how does it work where you are from.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/

Plug in a couple filing as MFJ making 30k.

[mtnrider]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/09/news/economy/donald-trump-means-for-your-money/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom

...

3) Allowing folks (like me) who aren't offered health insurance at work to deduct their health care premiums! That would be a HUGE benefit to many families, including many small business owners, but again, if the negatives (higher premiums, less coverage, denials for pre-existings) outweigh this benefit, it's not really a net gain. Still, it will be interesting to follow.

This is wonderful until you get sick, and are then denied coverage due to a preexisting condition.

[Bourbon]

nope

[mtnrider]

I will be VERY happy if Trump just stays alive.  His record is like a loose cannon, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, and entirely for him.  OK then.

His VP though, is a straight-right shooter on social and religious issues.  He believes in conversion therapy.  He has taken a stance against condoms.

[Scandium]

He has taken a stance against condoms.

About time someone took on the important issues facing the nation!
#waronrubber

[deadlymonkey]

He has taken a stance against condoms.

About time someone took on the important issues facing the nation!
#waronrubber

Hey California rejected Prop 60, ensuring that porn stars will not be required to wear condoms on the job.

[oldtoyota]

Having been exposed to Trump since the eighties, I can say that he goes much more to the left than people think he does.  New York Republicans are generally like that, and Trump's really only a Republican in name.  The true GOP is just as horrified that he got in as the Democrats are.  He's always been good at sound bites and saying things that people want to hear.  Not so much the Mexican wall and banning Muslims, but the whole "make America great again" thing.  It doesn't matter that Trump has about as much in common with the average person who voted for him as I do with the Queen of England.  He told them what they wanted to hear and promised he'd make things better.  The media on both sides basically thumbed their noses at "average Americans" ... and the average American just told them to go fuck themselves.

Things are about to get REALLY interesting.

Great point about him being more left. I always thought of him as a liberal and was surprised to see him come out as a Republican. However, I think he may have changed parties more than once. I imagine he changed because that's the only path he could envision to the presidency. Dems would never have him or take him seriously. Two of his kids only registered as Republicans in the past year (they could not vote for him in the primaries because they forgot to change from Democrat to Republican).

By not providing any policy details, he was able to attract the uneducated by saying he'd make things better. No details. Nothing for them to read. He made it easy for them.

[onlykelsey]

Having been exposed to Trump since the eighties, I can say that he goes much more to the left than people think he does.  New York Republicans are generally like that, and Trump's really only a Republican in name.  The true GOP is just as horrified that he got in as the Democrats are.  He's always been good at sound bites and saying things that people want to hear.  Not so much the Mexican wall and banning Muslims, but the whole "make America great again" thing.  It doesn't matter that Trump has about as much in common with the average person who voted for him as I do with the Queen of England.  He told them what they wanted to hear and promised he'd make things better.  The media on both sides basically thumbed their noses at "average Americans" ... and the average American just told them to go fuck themselves.

Things are about to get REALLY interesting.

Great point about him being more left. I always thought of him as a liberal and was surprised to see him come out as a Republican. However, I think he may have changed parties more than once. I imagine he changed because that's the only path he could envision to the presidency. Dems would never have him or take him seriously. Two of his kids only registered as Republicans in the past year (they could not vote for him in the primaries because they forgot to change from Democrat to Republican).

By not providing any policy details, he was able to attract the uneducated by saying he'd make things better. No details. Nothing for them to read. He made it easy for them.

Yes, this is definitely true.  He'll make things magically better, and it's someone else's fault and they don't look or act like you.  I'm not sure how you build on this now that you're in power, or what big policies you try to enact.

[Scandium]

He has taken a stance against condoms.

About time someone took on the important issues facing the nation!
#waronrubber

Hey California rejected Prop 60, ensuring that porn stars will not be required to wear condoms on the job.

So that should make Pence happy. I assume it's because the man does not want his view of pornstar's penises obscured by anything..

[Scandium]

Having been exposed to Trump since the eighties, I can say that he goes much more to the left than people think he does.  New York Republicans are generally like that, and Trump's really only a Republican in name.  The true GOP is just as horrified that he got in as the Democrats are.  He's always been good at sound bites and saying things that people want to hear.  Not so much the Mexican wall and banning Muslims, but the whole "make America great again" thing.  It doesn't matter that Trump has about as much in common with the average person who voted for him as I do with the Queen of England.  He told them what they wanted to hear and promised he'd make things better.  The media on both sides basically thumbed their noses at "average Americans" ... and the average American just told them to go fuck themselves.

Things are about to get REALLY interesting.

Great point about him being more left. I always thought of him as a liberal and was surprised to see him come out as a Republican. However, I think he may have changed parties more than once. I imagine he changed because that's the only path he could envision to the presidency. Dems would never have him or take him seriously. Two of his kids only registered as Republicans in the past year (they could not vote for him in the primaries because they forgot to change from Democrat to Republican).

By not providing any policy details, he was able to attract the uneducated by saying he'd make things better. No details. Nothing for them to read. He made it easy for them.

Yes, this is definitely true.  He'll make things magically better, and it's someone else's fault and they don't look or act like you.  I'm not sure how you build on this now that you're in power, or what big policies you try to enact.

History has a few examples of what this looks like in practice, and none of them are particularly appealing.

I think Trump is too stupid and narcissistic to be a straight up con man (i.e, a secret democrat). I think he really is as hateful and awful person as he has been showing and he might try to enact some of this. After all I can't imagine he doesn't want to win again. This is the problem all BS-peddling populists face when in power. Heck, the Brexit idiots have the same issue. "We promised you cake and eating it too! Hey, turns out we'll get neither.."

[LennStar]

you guys realize he cant just do whatever he wants congress and the supreme court have to support his decisions. 

we're gonna get lower taxes ... b/c he wants to lower them and republicans like lower taxes. thats the only real thing he talked about on his campaign i see happening sooner than later.

lower taxes in the short term until the spiraling deficit and debt caused by those lower taxes crash the economy......again

So that's bad, but out of control spending in the past 8 years causing the deficit to double doesn't cause you concern?

Are you concerned about an increase in private savings?
Are you concerned about rising money in company balances?
Because that are all the same things.
For every $ someone has, someone else needs to have a $ dept. And vice versa.
Its the most basic thing of money creation and double accounting. And so many people are literally blind to that fact.


The best that could happen is that Trump gets together with Putin. They drink a bit - okay, a lot - of Wodka, hunt a few bears, riding a few horses and that get down to stop playing Colliding Empires and actually work together.

[pdxbator]

He has taken a stance against condoms.

About time someone took on the important issues facing the nation!
#waronrubber

Hey California rejected Prop 60, ensuring that porn stars will not be required to wear condoms on the job.

So that should make Pence happy. I assume it's because the man does not want his view of pornstar's penises obscured by anything..

Thanks for this! Been a depressing morning and this made me laugh.

[AvisJinx]

Having been exposed to Trump since the eighties, I can say that he goes much more to the left than people think he does.  New York Republicans are generally like that, and Trump's really only a Republican in name.  The true GOP is just as horrified that he got in as the Democrats are.  He's always been good at sound bites and saying things that people want to hear.  Not so much the Mexican wall and banning Muslims, but the whole "make America great again" thing.  It doesn't matter that Trump has about as much in common with the average person who voted for him as I do with the Queen of England.  He told them what they wanted to hear and promised he'd make things better.  The media on both sides basically thumbed their noses at "average Americans" ... and the average American just told them to go fuck themselves.

Things are about to get REALLY interesting.

I agree. It will be particularly interesting over the next 4 years (if he can make it that long without being impeached for something) for the Republican House and Senate majority. The RNC really dropped the ball. 

[randommadness]

Well if the question is what would *I* consider to be a "successful" Trump presidency, I'd say he tones everything down about...hmmm...90 percent or so.

1) He would focus on (good) job creation more than anything else. Jobs jobs jobs. 

2) ISIS.  Figure out how to deal with them WITH other countries working together. Work with those "amazing" generals he's been talking with. F*ck them up however possible - that's something 99% of Americans can agree with.

3) Welfare state. I'm moderate, but I absolutely despise when people game the system or just totally fail to contribute to society. As a personal injury lawyer, I admit to seeing some of it first hand, not that I can do anything about the system as a whole. Yes I know the argument is that you need to fix the problems (teenage pregnancy, failure to graduate high school, lack of desire/ability to get a job), but I truly think some folks are raised to view "the government" as being responsible for paying them just for being a warm body.

If he was successful in creating tons of (good) jobs, struck huge blows to ISIS, and scaled back the welfare state, I'd consider it not a horrible presidency, although I'm sure the inevitable blows to women's reproductive rights, gay rights, the environment, etc., would be hard to ignore.

Ugh the Government should not be involved in "creating jobs." :(

Just hoping all the BS rhetoric he threw out during the election stops at the door when he takes the WH. Or now, that he's President-Elect.