Will Trump be Re-elected?

[stuper1]

And who cares if Bolton is gone? He always seemed like a war-mongering psychopath to me, but that's not based on any substantive conversations that I've had with him. If the president decides that an advisor is no longer the right fit, he should get rid of him. Isn't that what the American people wanted when they voted for him?

[ochotona]

And who cares if Bolton is gone? He always seemed like a war-mongering psychopath to me, but that's not based on any substantive conversations that I've had with him. If the president decides that an advisor is no longer the right fit, he should get rid of him. Isn't that what the American people wanted when they voted for him?

I don't think a quality attribute of a President is how readily he fires people who no longer fit his mercurial whims. Certainly the Constitution doesn't say anything about that.

The problem with Trump is that no one of quality is going to want to serve under him. You'd have to be a complete idiot / masochist to want to have him as a boss.

So it'll just be Trump alone in a room with a little red button.

[stuper1]

That's your read of the situation.

My read is that the guy has made billions of dollars during his lifetime. Have you ever seen someone do something like that without being able to work with other people? We know oh so little about what really goes on in politics. Basically everything we get comes third- or fourth-hand and through a media filter.

[technovelist]

And who cares if Bolton is gone? He always seemed like a war-mongering psychopath to me, but that's not based on any substantive conversations that I've had with him. If the president decides that an advisor is no longer the right fit, he should get rid of him. Isn't that what the American people wanted when they voted for him?

I don't think a quality attribute of a President is how readily he fires people who no longer fit his mercurial whims. Certainly the Constitution doesn't say anything about that.

Actually the Constitution does say something about that, namely:

"The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. " (Article II, section 1)

Of course there is more about how he is elected, who is eligible, appointments with the advice and consent of the Senate, and so on.

But none of that changes the fact that the powers of the executive branch are vested in him.
Legally, he is the executive branch, just as in England, legally the King is England.
Anyone who serves in the executive branch gets power only by delegation from the President.

[stuper1]

Yup, and remember that Trump just fires people. Obama was more likely to have people offed with a drone strike -- judge, jury, and executioner.

[ochotona]

Ah, the old "King Can Do No Wrong" chestnut.

Have all drone strikes ended with Trump?

[moda0306]

Yup, and remember that Trump just fires people. Obama was more likely to have people offed with a drone strike -- judge, jury, and executioner.

Trump expanded drone strikes and the Afghan war and vetoed ending the Yemen war.

You’re really a great example of how a fucking moron could get elected President.

[ochotona]

That's your read of the situation.

My read is that the guy has made billions of dollars during his lifetime. Have you ever seen someone do something like that without being able to work with other people? We know oh so little about what really goes on in politics. Basically everything we get comes third- or fourth-hand and through a media filter.

He must've made billions (but we don't know because his finances have never been released) so he must work well with others. Wow, that is a stretch. Making billions is not a measure of much.

"Prosecutors estimated the size of the (Madoff) fraud to be $64.8 billion, based on the amounts in the accounts of Madoff's 4,800 clients as of November 30, 2008."

[dualstow]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_of ... erformance

A 2016 analysis of Trump's business career in The Economist concluded that his performance since 1985 had been "mediocre compared with the stock market and property in New York."[42] A subsequent analysis in The Washington Post similarly noted that Trump's estimated net worth of $100 million in 1978 would have increased to $6 billion by 2016 if he had invested it in a typical retirement fund, and concluded that "Trump is a mix of braggadocio, business failures, and real success."[43]

He should have just bought Vanguard's 2015 Target Retirement Fund!

[stuper1]

I feel very confident in saying that he's not an idiot.

If I were a voting person, which I'm not, the main criterion I would vote on is just this: is this person likely to make the government bigger or smaller? The more areas that government infiltrates, the worse off we are. I know we'll never be back to a small government, but at least hopefully the scope creep can slow down.

Based on that criterion, I would vote for Trump over Biden, Sanders, Warren, or Harris.

[shekels]

Yup, and remember that Trump just fires people. Obama was more likely to have people offed with a drone strike -- judge, jury, and executioner.

Trump expanded drone strikes and the Afghan war and vetoed ending the Yemen war.

You’re really a great example of how a fucking moron could get elected President.

Do you have Hard Data, and not just someones Opinion/Guess on drone strike/ death toll?

Drone strike Casualty Reports have been cancelled.

Also when Trump vetoed ending the Yemen war, why did not CONgress succeed in overturning the Veto?
https://www.justsecurity.org/63855/gett ... n-succeed/

Another question, is how many American Troops are stationed or have Died in Yemen during Yemen's Civil War?

Now the Afghan war has been going on for 18 YEARS... Do you just turn out the lights and go home?

[technovelist]

I feel very confident in saying that he's not an idiot.

If I were a voting person, which I'm not, the main criterion I would vote on is just this: is this person likely to make the government bigger or smaller? The more areas that government infiltrates, the worse off we are. I know we'll never be back to a small government, but at least hopefully the scope creep can slow down.

Based on that criterion, I would vote for Trump over Biden, Sanders, Warren, or Harris.

So would anyone with two working brain cells.
Which I think includes enough of the population that he will be easily re-elected even though the Democrats will pull out all the stops in their voter fraud attempts.
Fortunately we don't have a national popular vote election, because then the Democrat would win easily with 50 million votes from Chicago alone.