There is a lot of confusion about giving Trump a chance. I think no one can give him a chance if they look at the campaign he has run and the time between the outcome of the elections and his inauguration. And now his inauguration speech did not change tone, there is no way we should give him a chance.
I used to be all for giving him a chance. I hoped he would change to be more presidential after he got elected. In his first couple of speeches, in his victory tour across the country, when the public started chanting "lock her up", he literally said this: "That plays well in the election, but not anymore". I really held on to the hope that this man wasn't insane, that this man was actually going to lead the country in an intelligent way.
However, very soon he started to pick up his old retoric again. He still wanted to build the wall AND make Mexico pay for it. He still wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The only thing he had done away with, was locking up Hillary Clinton. And then he appointed his cabinet. The richest cabinet ever. The cabinet that has a total worth the same as the lower third part of all Americans. This has nothing to do with "giving back politics to the public". All the cabinet nominees have been extensively discussed everywhere. Republican or democrat, no one can deny that most of them are the worst picks that one could possibly have for their positions. The CEO of an oil company, the oil business, the most terrible business in the world, as state secretary? The candidate-nominee for president, who could not remember the department he would do away with, will now head the very same department?
And then there's the fact that the Trump administration is not ready for the presidency. They never were. Three days ago, they had appointed 28 out of 690 positions that need senate confirmation. I have seen some people reply to this news that the democrats need to stop blocking nominees. But this is not about blocking, there is nothing to block! There are no nominees, and no one knows if there are people being interviewed. During a normal transition there would be at least 100 of these 690 positions should be filled, confirmed and everything, around inauguration day. But only 28 people have been appointed and not all have been confirmed. This story gets worse. There are also about 3000 positions that need NO confirmation. Mike Pence boasted three days ago that the Trump administration had appointed 536 people to these positions. This is stunning and not normal. One positive point about this: Some people of the Obama administration will stay on to fill some of these position, but the number that goes around is about 50 only, so this doesn't help a lot.
Then of course, there's the issue of his ties to his business. He does not want to put his companies in a blind trust (No, his sons are not a blind trust). In his first press conference in half a year he boasted that he did not take a bribe. That is all good and well, but the darker message is that he is offered bribes. He was offered 2 billion dollars for a project somewhere in the middle-east. Trump has not given his tax returns. This means the public cannot know where his ties are exactly, and the fact that he does not cut these ties in a meaningful way, means that we cannot trust him.
There are so many more points like this, I haven't even started about ties with Russia. I don't want to write an entire book in one post. But giving this man a chance? Even if his policy will be all good, he still has his cabinet that can destroy the world. They have already taken down the pages of civil rights and climate change on the .gov websites. Trump is not in control, and even if he was, all the signs are there that he is a corrupt president. This sort of behaviour is normal in the third world countries. In Africa, Gambia, president Jammeh did not want to leave after a new president had been voted in, this happened over the past few days. Only after an army of surrounding countries stood on the doorstep of Gambia, Jammeh finally gave in. Is this what awaits the United States of America?
