55 points cinderelacinder 1 hour ago 23 comments

spiderfarmer 24 minutes ago | parent

I would love to hear from HN republicans why they think this amount of self enrichment and corruption is okay. Add to this all the paid-for pardons, the shady stock trades, the never ending vacations at his own properties, the plane deal and much, much more.

No whataboutisms or anonymous downvotes, I’m genuinely curious why people continue to support him.

16000198 17 minutes ago | parent

what's wrong with that if he's making America strong? well-deserved I guess?

jameskilton 16 minutes ago | parent

Please explain / define how America is "strong" today?

atwrk 16 minutes ago | parent

He has certainly made gas prices stronger

grim_io 13 minutes ago | parent

I wonder if you are, maybe accidentally, implying that any president before has made America weaker?

I'd argue that actively trying to make enemies out of friends is in no way going to make America stronger. Quite the opposite.

schnika 17 minutes ago | parent

You forgot to mention the Epstein files

rplnt 16 minutes ago | parent

People are really bad at acknowledging a mistake so they rather double down. It's way past anything rational, it's a cult. Doesn't matter what the leader/party does, it's always okay.

Abekkus 15 minutes ago | parent

Ape-brained tribalism. Apparently many humans just operate without standards & principles, whether from incompetence or personal benefit. Good luck fixing that.

sajithdilshan 14 minutes ago | parent

Let's say we got rid of Trump, but then who is going to be the alternative in your opinion?

jansport123 10 minutes ago | parent

how about anyone else with an ounce of integrity?

gadders 7 minutes ago | parent

Lol. Who was the last president with integrity?

andyjohnson0 4 minutes ago | parent

> Let's say we got rid of Trump, but then who is going to be the alternative in your opinion?

You seem to be using the "they're all as bad as eachother" argument. But previous US presidents haven't used their office for enrichment on this scale - and so it seems likely that there are alternative potential presidents who would behave with integrity and dignity.

peder 11 minutes ago | parent

Why are you assuming this is corruption?

dmm 10 minutes ago | parent

> whataboutisms

Not a Trump supporter but from the ones I've spoken to it's mostly this. Something like, "They all do it, he's just honest about it."

gadders 7 minutes ago | parent

I don't think it's OK, but it's semi-understandable given the lawfare undertaken by Democrats after his first term.

I would say that despite whatever pardons (which I believe can only be federal, not state?), he pro-actively gives himself and colleagues, family etc when he leaves office he will be spending the rest of his life fighting spurious court case after court case, none of which will be cheap.

In that regard, having massive personal wealth makes some kind of sense.

However - they're all at it to some degree across both sides of the aisle - Pelosi, Crenshaw etc etc.

hermannj314 3 minutes ago | parent

I living in a Republican part of the country, I think they believe power is its own morality.

A God that murders people because his feelings got hurt while demanding no one murder, a husband beats his wife and kids because he wasn't respected - these are valid in their moral framework, cruel asymmetrical power structures.

There is a dominant race, a dominant gender, and a dominant country in their view. Laws exist only to control the weak.

These people love Trump because he represents the slave owning, male-dominated, terrorist rebels that form the myth of who we are as a nation. His corruption and enrichment is why they love him.

exceptione 1 minute ago | parent

[delayed]

mo7061 20 minutes ago | parent

When the leader of a political party is misaligned with the total social benefit to the society, the story as old as stories themselves

saadn92 17 minutes ago | parent

This is just the amount we know about. How about all the stuff we don’t know?

vasco 8 minutes ago | parent

Self defeating question, if we don't know about it we don't know.

tyrabound 11 minutes ago | parent

It’s astonishing how America has been led to this point where a certified con artist frauds is in charge of the world empire of lies. The only real silver lining seems to be that he is ending his vile and pathetic life of fraud and criminality and abuse by exposing his putrid character as he is unraveling America in a likely irreversible way.

President Genocidal Rapist Pederast Rug Pull, the last President of the fake American empire of lies, the emperor with no clothes, exposing his vile and disgusting true self.

Is really rather epic, like a story one would imagine has been made up about a historical figure if we hadn’t witnessed it all unfold in real time.

gadders 6 minutes ago | parent

Man, wait until you find out about Biden.