Where I’ve Always Stood
I want to be clear about Trump. I have not liked him for a long time. I have never voted for him and I take pride in that. From the beginning, I found him deeply self centered, openly swindly, and oddly proud of it. He has always talked about winning, exaggerating, and bending the truth as if those were virtues.
Even the way he speaks reflects this. It is usually “I did this” or “I ended that war.” It is rarely “we” or “the American people.” Everything centers on him. That alone should have raised alarms.
Corruption as a Feature, Not a Bug
Then there is the corruption, which feels blatant and constant. He owns his own social media company and continues to use it while in office, personally benefiting from its growth and valuation as he announces policy and foreign affairs on it. That is an enormous conflict of interest and would disqualify almost anyone else immediately.
There is also the issue of foreign money, particularly from Saudi Arabia, which cannot be brushed aside. Saudi sovereign wealth funds and Saudi backed investors have directed significant sums toward Trump affiliated businesses and projects, both during and after his presidency. This includes major investments in properties and ventures connected to his family and inner circle. Even when technically legal, the appearance is deeply troubling. A president should not be financially entangled with authoritarian foreign governments while setting foreign policy that directly affects them.
When you combine this with his crypto ventures, the pattern becomes hard to ignore. Trump has repeatedly blurred the line between public office and private enrichment, whether through hotels, social media, NFTs, crypto tokens, or foreign investment. Supporters are encouraged to buy in literally, while foreign powers with vast resources quietly do the same. This is not how a healthy democracy functions. Public trust should not be monetized, and the presidency should not be treated as a personal brand accelerator.
Transparency He Demands From Others but Avoids Himself
Refusing to release his tax returns willingly would disqualify most candidates. So would his documented friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
He has also been notably reluctant to support full transparency around the Epstein files, repeatedly urging caution about their release and arguing that doing so could hurt people. That hesitation stands out given how often he otherwise claims to favor maximum transparency. At the same time, the Department of Justice has acknowledged redacting portions of the Epstein releases to protect victims and private individuals. As reported by the New York Times, those redactions have included material involving Trump himself, going so far as to black out his face in an image attached to Epstein related communications. That does not prove criminal conduct, but it directly contradicts the claim that he has nothing to hide or no connection worth scrutiny.
Personal Conduct That Never Seemed to Matter
He has been divorced three times. He had an extramarital sexual relationship with a pornographic film actress and later arranged hush money payments related to that encounter. His ex wife testified under oath that he assaulted her and explicitly used the word rape, even though she later walked that language back.
The Access Hollywood tape alone should have ended his career. January 6th should have ended it again. Calls to nationalize elections should have ended it yet again.
Yet people keep insisting he has changed. They recast him as humbled, moral, even Christian. This requires ignoring everything he has said and done in favor of a version of him that exists only because it is more convenient.
Instead, the lines keep moving.
Contempt for Democracy and the Rule of Law
He lies openly and repeatedly. He labels people domestic terrorists while his allies warn others not to attend protests armed, a direct contradiction of the Second Amendment rhetoric his supporters claim to care about.
I also remember him saying he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. I remember him repeatedly claiming the only way he could lose an election was if Democrats cheated. That is not confidence. That is poisoning the well of democracy in advance.
He isolates us from allies and strengthens our enemies. He has floated invading Greenland, threatened Mexico, posted AI images of invasions, and carried out unilateral acts of war without Congressional approval. Don’t get me started on the foolish tariffs.
He is currently suing the US government for ten billion dollars over the handling and disclosure of his tax return information, a case legal experts say is unlikely to succeed and that taxpayers are ultimately forced to defend. If he were to win, that money would come out of your pocket and mine.
Selective Outrage and Downward Enforcement
At the same time, he points to a roughly 0.25 billion dollar fraud case in Minnesota as justification for aggressive federal raids, including masked agents detaining people and transferring some to overseas facilities.
What goes unmentioned is that the Paycheck Protection Program created and almost entirely distributed under his administration resulted in over 100 billion dollars in fraud according to government watchdog estimates. That is hundreds of times larger than the Minnesota case. If this were truly about fraud, accountability, or protecting taxpayer dollars, that disparity would matter. Instead, the response is selective and aimed downward.
We now have documented cases of US citizens being arrested and legal residents being held in detention for months, including reports of warrantless or highly questionable home entries. That should alarm anyone who claims to care about constitutional rights.
Death by a Thousand Cuts
And yet, nearly everyone I personally know who has supported him continues to do so.
This feels like death by a thousand cuts. A bed of needles. A boiled frog. Pick your analogy. It is constant, cumulative, and exhausting.
Immigration as the Scapegoat
The treatment of immigrants as lesser human beings is not new. He has been openly anti immigrant for years, despite the fact that immigration is a fundamental part of our national identity and consistently positive for economic growth.
This is what fascist movements have always done. They find a scapegoat. No, he is not targeting Jews, and antisemitism is not synonymous with fascism. But fascism is about centralized power, single party dominance, control of elections, and defining who belongs and who does not. By those standards, his behavior is unmistakable.
The Line That Never Comes
What shocks me most is that I kept believing there would be a line. A moment where people would finally say enough. Instead, that line keeps moving.
Project 2025 was dismissed before the election as something he did not know about or would never implement. Now that he is openly doing those things, the same people are silent. That tells me something uncomfortable. This is not accidental. This is what they want.
The Pro Life Argument Falls Apart
People excuse it by saying they vote for him because they are pro life. They claim Democrats want the death of babies. That argument collapses under even minimal scrutiny. Abortions increased by roughly seven percent during his first term, according to Guttmacher Institute data.
Beyond that, the absolutist rhetoric collapses under basic reality checks. In vitro fertilization, frozen embryos, and miscarriage all expose how shallow and selective the supposed moral framework is. Knowing Trump’s history, it strains credibility to believe he has not personally paid for or offered to pay for abortions. The certainty with which his supporters moralize simply does not match the complexity of real life.
I am not claiming abortion rates are directly controlled by presidents. They are not. Just like gas prices, they are shaped by many forces. But pretending this is a simple moral equation is dishonest.
If you tell me Democrats want to kill babies because they support choice, I cannot reason with you. That is not a serious position.
If Life Matters, It Has to Matter Everywhere
My values are rooted in caring about human life broadly, not selectively. Experts warn that cuts to USAID could result in up to fourteen million deaths, including roughly five million children, while saving less than one percent of the federal budget.
If life matters, it has to matter there too.
An Off Ramp for Those Willing to Take It
I also want to be clear about this. Supporting him in the past does not make someone a bad person. He has swindled a lot of people. That is, in many ways, his defining skill. Many supporters were sold a story about strength, honesty, and patriotism that simply does not match reality.
But there comes a point where continuing to excuse everything becomes a choice.
If you are someone who is reconsidering your support, the door is open. Walking away from him is not a betrayal of your values. It can be an affirmation of them.
You may say you do not support this policy or that policy. But at some point, that is not enough. When you look at who he has consistently shown himself to be, you are left with two options. Either you are deluding yourself about who he is, or this is the version of leadership you want.
In either case, I find it increasingly difficult to have a conversation with you.
Nearly a Decade In
It has been nearly a decade of this at this point. This is not a snap judgment, a reaction to one scandal, or a sudden shift. It is the accumulation of years of words, actions, patterns, and consequences. Anyone who wants to see it has had more than enough time.
Because of that, I am not trying to convince anyone directly anymore. I am not here to debate, persuade, or litigate every individual example. If the evidence laid out over nearly ten years is not already clear, no argument from me is going to change that. At that point, continuing the conversation would be a waste of your time and mine.
This is not about winning an argument. It is about being honest about what has been plainly visible for a long time.
If your values and your view of reality are this far removed from mine, it’s going to be very difficult for us to have a productive conversation or relationship.
Disclosure and Use of AI
Some posts on this site including this one were developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence, used as a tool for drafting, editing, and organizing ideas. AI does not determine my beliefs or conclusions. Every piece is reviewed, revised, and owned by me. This is my opinion you are reading.
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