On December 9th, our beloved ex-president Donald John Trump has responded to the comments claiming that his victory in 2024 would be a "threat to democracy", and in the most Donald Trump way possible, he flips it onto current president Joe Biden, who's job performance rating hits all-time low in the latest polling. "Hoax... Democrat Misinformation" were words used by Trump to describe these latest accusations as he continues to grow his lead over Biden for the 2024 presidential election. Trump, facing federal and states charges stemming from his effort to overturn the 2020 election, claims that Biden is "the real threat to democracy."
Our former president, claims that he never wanted to be a dictator, except for his day 1 in office, where he expresses how badly he "Wants a wall," and that he'd like to "drill, drill, and drill." These comments soon drew attention from many Democrats who would call out his behavior and label his potential victory "threat to democracy." Trump said later that Democrats’ attacks regarding democracy were a “desperate and shameless attempt to distract from the monstrous abuses of power the left is committing before your very eyes." His evidence? The dozens of state-level petitions to remove him from the 2024 ballot. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a rival for the 2024 Republican nomination, believes that Trump's second stint in office could be very different than his first. Christie claims that "[Trump] Is an angry bitter man who wants to be back as president to exact retribution on anyone who has disagreed with him."
But this showdown doesn't end here, Trump went on to say that Democrats and the media "think the threat to democracy will save Biden from having created the worst inflation in our country's history, a fragile economy that may soon end in a depression like 1929 … We are very, very close to a depression, the likes of which you have never seen. We owe $36 trillion and this guy has no clue." The former president is currently facing 91 Indictments yet warns Biden about potential "retaliation" if he returns to the White House.
Trump seems to be gaining steam as we get closer and closer to the 2024 presidential election, and to conclude his speech on Saturday, he predicted that he'd return to the White House and make American "Great Again."
Here's a bonus quote for reading this blog of mine. "We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country. We will rout the fake news media. We will evict Joe Biden from the White House and we will finish. This job of making our country great again once and for all." - Donald John Trump.
19 comments:
I find the many quotes you used exploring Donald Trumps attacks on supposed breaches in American Democracy very interesting, as it seems as that the presidential vote, viewed as one of most democratic parts of Americas political process, is ironically under attack by those who claim to support democracy first. Additionally, the 91 indictments as well as the many petitions to take him off state ballots is definitely history in the making, as from we've learned thus far in AP Government, no incumbent/popular nominee has ever faced such heavy (and legitimate...) legal challenges to being elected. At this point though, it seems that Trump is set on running whether or not this petitions get passed through, so it will no doubt be a heavily contended election due to factors such as Biden's approval rating dropping as you mentioned.
Donald Trump is seriously a joke. I can’t believe he still has the audacity to say all these things and proudly claim he will take over the election— honestly, I aspire to have even half the confidence he has. His saying that Democrats are “abusing their powers” because they raised state petition ballots to remove him is just hilarious, considering the fact that he is facing almost 100 Indictments and the many controversies surrounding him.
I also agree with what Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said about Trump exacting revenge on people who have beef with him. After all, he’s known to be extremely petty: trash-talking, firing, and doing other things to people he dislikes. Some examples of his vindictive behavior are him still belittling and trashing Senator John McCain well after his death and firing the director of the FBI (James B. Comey) because he was leading an investigation on whether or not Trump’s advisor manipulated the 2016 presidential campaign.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/19/politics/donald-trump-john-mccain-dead/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/james-comey-fired-fbi.html
Firstly, I'd like to say that I'm loving the very sassy tone of this blogpost, I share that same sentiment every time I have to read about Trump's general tomfoolery. The threat of a second Trump presidency is very real at this point, because as you said, Biden is doing pretty terribly in the polls. That isn't to say that he hasn't done anything commendable while in office, as he did recently just cancel a couple billion dollars in student debt and has boosted the economy far more than publicized while in office, but his team hasn't done the greatest job of proving him to be the most suitable candidate and properly recognizing him for his accomplishments while in office. His position of support for Israel and denial of Gaza death counts especially have made him more unpopular among young Democrat voters, so that's a big factor in his recently polling data. Now, I wouldn't say that this necessarily tips the vote in favorite of Trump, but more so that the inevitable ticket-splitting due to more people voting independent might just be the nail on the coffin at this point.
It's honestly scary that this buffoon is leading in the polls. While I don't agree with Joe Biden's policy at times, he is certainly a better option than Trump. Trump's policy record is pretty bad. He handled COVID relief pretty badly, failed to offer an alternative to Obamacare which he tried to repeal, wasted billions of dollars on a wall, and much worse. His character is arguably worse, as he has been impeached, invoked an almost- coup on the White House over accusations of a "stolen election" and now is facing multiple indictments. It concerns me that people even support him- the corruption is laid right in front of them!
I have also heard of a plan if he gets elected to expand presidential power. This might be a way for him to allow himself to stay in power for over 2 terms, and maybe over the course of a lifetime. This is not just scary because it is Trump- it undoes the precedent that has been implemented since the birth of this country and is a hallmark of American democracy that no one person has an incredible amount of power. Undoing this won't just allow Trump to stay in power more, but might allow others to be influenced by this behavior and undo this precedent. Some people may argue that Trump being a dictator is a bit absurd, but his comments about his autocratic-like tendencies already convey a lot about his views of power and his position as president.
Haha, I agree with Mikaela, the tone of the blog makes it fun to read. Moreover, I think it is ridiculous that Trump plans to utilize misinformation, manipulation, and other propaganda as methods to try and win his election. This makes me frightened for our future and also for the 2024 election.
I wanted to double-check how many times Trump has been impeached, and according to congress.gov--he was impeached twice during his ONLY term in office. Which I think is crazy, and Americans/Trump-supporters should take this as a sign that he shouldn't win again.
I think that Luke points out an important note about Trump's numerous indictments and petitions to have him removed from the ballot. With Biden's low ratings and numbers of MAGA supporters increasing, it's concerning how Trump has an opportunity to actually be re-elected. Trump's second term is a real "threat to democracy" as he hopes to repeal and offer a new alternative to the Affordable Care Act, which he had previously failed to do in his first term. With 40 million Americans relying on the ACA, Trump will make healthcare less accessible to the people.
Adding on to what Nolan said about how Trump handles policy, the first head-scratching decision / event that Trump made during his presidency that comes to mind for me is how he handled the COVID outbreak in 2020. He called COVID a "democratic hoax" (which doesn't make sense in and of itself and yet many believed him --- and which arguably led an increase of misinformation and conspiracy theories online), suppressed COVID testing, and tried to cover up the outbreak as a potentially fatal issue (which it ended up being). And as a result of his attempts, people didn't listen to trusted sources like health institutions at first and risked their safety, and then U.S. went on lockdown for a year and a half. So I think it's funny that Trump said "We will rout the fake news media".
As funny as this article is, I don't think Trump should be taken as lightly as before. In the 2016 election, Trump was widely discussed as simply a joke president. Among the Democrats, it would be a fever dream for him to be president. Unfortunately, this dream became a reality when Trump won the election as a result of winning decisive swing states. Let's not have history repeat itself in this election. According to Reuters, Trump is leading in the polls among the Republicans in Iowa, which has one of the first and most decisive primaries as we learned. It is very possible for Trump to once again, be nominated, despite his criminal acts in January 6th.
It is as important as ever to vote in order to prevent worst possible outcome, even if the alternative may have some downsides. In 2020, we learned this lesson, beating out Trump by the massive increase in voter turnout as compared to 2016.
Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-increases-polling-lead-iowa-ahead-first-republican-contest-2023-12-11/
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/turnout-in-2020-spiked-among-both-democratic-and-republican-voting-groups-new-census-data-shows/
I think a lot of what Trump says is extremely concerning. First, is that he claims that he wants to be a dictator for a day to build a wall and "drill, drill, and drill". I don't think that it would be possible for him to achieve these things on the first day he is in office, and would be a dictator for a long time, not just the first day, which would threaten our democracy. In addition, he claims that we owe 36 trillion dollars, but he doesn't mention how he incurred nearly 8 trillion dollars in office, compared to Joe Biden's 4.7 trillion. Neither is great, but 4.7 trillion is a whole lot better than 8 trillion. I think some voters might think that voting between them would just be choosing the lesser evil, and may not feel properly represented, leading to people choosing not to vote. Finally, I found the bonus quote to be very concerning as well. What Trump sees as fake news is anything that does not align with his beliefs or says anything bad about him, and restricting these media sources would violate the First Amendment and our right to free speech.
I think that Ray points out a very good, point highlighting the humor to this post, but also that in reality this is actually pretty scary that Trump is somehow winning in the polls at the moment. His confidence regarding the fact that he will be "returning to the white house" and making "America great again" is an alarming factor in itself. Trump winning the 2016 election was shocking, and the fact that it could happen again, is something we should avoid. Allowing history to repeat itself, with someones doesn't believe "fake news" is real, would be a foolish decsion that we allowed to happen
I agree with Mikaela I was laughing while reading. Nolan mentioned a plan that a large group of conservatives plan to put in place if a republican president (Trump or not) is elected; I believe he was referring to Project 2025. It is a 920 page document, and here are a few of the things included in the plan that I find most alarming in no particular order: concentrate power in the hands of the president (centralization of power), 50,000 federal workers fired, excluding critical race theory and gender ideology from all public schools, criminalizing anything having to do with trans people (teachers/librarians with books on this topic will be registered as sex offenders, affirmation of a trans child's identity is child abuse, etc.), dismantle all public sector/labor unions, re-centralize the idea of religion and "traditional" family, gutting the administrative state AKA "fourth branch of government" (EPA, social security, FEMA, the Fed, etc.), build more nukes, dismantle the FBI Departments of Justice, Education, and Commerce, and would give the president complete power over quasi-independent agencies (agencies in between government and private business)(ex. Federal Communications Center: enforces all regulations for TV and the internet). The plan is led by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation along with almost 80 conservative groups.
Quoted directly from the official Project 2025 website: "It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration." Basically, if they win the election, they will entirely change the executive branch of American government. A section in the plan titled the 180-Day Playbook contains step-by-step instructions for the next conservative president to implement all of the changes in the first 180 days of their presidency. The Heritage Foundation did the exact same thing when Regan became president, except this time it is much more extreme. Again, this plan would go into effect January 2025 if ANY conservative candidate wins, not just Trump.
good summary of Project 2025: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k3UvaC5m7o
Project 2025 pdf: https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
Sources. Forgot to add them in
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/10/politics/trump-democracy-threat/index.html
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi4zNDYzIaDAxUBIDQIHfWFALgQxfQBKAB6BAgIEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fpolitics%2Ftrump-calls-claims-hes-threat-democracy-hoax-says-biden-real-threat-will-save-democracy&usg=AOvVaw2mk7kzeGKkurACUvyzUAIf&opi=89978449
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiGo5jTp4uDAxUeMDQIHeF4CwwQxfQBKAB6BAgTEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Ftrump-biden-democracy-election-2024-f2f824f056ae9f81f4e688fe590f41b4&usg=AOvVaw10hXFC0fUyAW-LKXqU1hM-&opi=89978449
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiGo5jTp4uDAxUeMDQIHeF4CwwQxfQBKAB6BAgSEAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fabcnews.go.com%2FPolitics%2Fbiden-argues-trump-existential-threat-america-trump-point%2Fstory%3Fid%3D105401847&usg=AOvVaw2dJ13tNSeZzuajfi6aBriJ&opi=89978449
I'm always surprised to hear that Trump is doing as well in the polls as he is, partially because to me he seems so incompetent/corrupt, but also because in CA I am surrounded by media/personal opinions that are mainly in agreement with my political ideas. It's another reminder of just how polarized politics has become. Additionally, so much of Trump's campaigning relies on buzzwords and slogans with no real merit backing them up (for example, declaring that he will repeal Obamacare without even offering an alternative).
I find it concerning that Trump is currently ahead in the polls. The record of Trump's policies during his presidency is notably problematic; mishandling COVID relief and squandering billions on a border wall. Although I may not align with some of Biden's policies while seeing his deteriorating health throughout his presidency, he represents a more favorable presidential candidate towards American democracy compared to Trump. Trump's character offers insight into my concerns of his possible second presidency given his impeachment, involvement in the January 6th insurrection, and current facing of multiple indictments. The fact that there is still mass support for him despite multiple apparent negative news headlines is quite concerning to say the least.
That was a great blog from Lequan I loved the words he used and how he used them, in regards to the great content on Lequan's post I think most of us in the comments are in agreement that it would be very dangerous if Trump goes on to win re-election. Right now, in both Michigan and Georgia, both which are critical states, Trump is leading. This is because of the negative opinions of Biden's time in office which both states have. In my opinion, from what we have seen from Trump's term in office he is not and should not be leading Biden in the polls. Im shocked that Trump has not lost respect from his supporters after everything he has said about the election being rigged and with his involvement in the Jan 6th attack. In regards to the quotes from Trump that Lequan used I find them scary but at the same time most of what he says is just to grab attention, now, I don't think any of us want to see if he will go through with his "promises" if he actually becomes president.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/11/politics/cnn-polls-trump-biden-michigan-georgia/index.html
In concurrence with Aurin, I think Lequan's choice to include Trump's own quotes in the article is powerful-- some might ignore these especially intriguing statements when they're blended into a longer interview or speech, but highlighting in an article like this really demonstrates how radical Trump's beliefs are. Others have mentioned their shock at how he's currently leading in the polls, which is a sentiment that I share. We've discussed the expansion of presidential power through the cult of personality and the rise of celebrities after the popularization of TV, which I think is a phenomenon observable here. He hasn't shown up to the debates, and he's leading the party from a courtroom, yet he's still leading the polls... which is odd but explainable: we discussed voter trends and populations earlier in the year, and this Pew report (linked below) states that it's mostly white practicing Protestants that support him-- a population that constitutes much of the US. Additionally, Trump has such a distinct personality, and to quote historian Catherine Allgor, during times of political turmoil, “Americans [look] to personalities for reassurance, legitimacy, and unity." Allgor referred to Dolley Madison in early America, but perhaps the same is happening here, given the domestic and international changes that have happened since the Obama and Trump presidencies. I think there's a distinct Trump-supporter identity here.
Pew report: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/08/30/most-white-americans-who-regularly-attend-worship-services-voted-for-trump-in-2020/
Although I personally do not have very strong opinions on this, I do feel as though Trump’s accusations of Biden “threatening democracy” are a bit ironic considering the viewpoints of his follower base. In a Pew Research poll, titled “In GOP Contest, Trump Supporters Stand Out for Dislike of Compromise” (which basically sums up the findings), 63% of Trump supporters would push for policies Republicans want rather than finding common ground with
Democrats, compared to 47% for DeSantis supporters and only 28% for Haley supporters.
Poll: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/12/14/in-gop-contest-trump-supporters-stand-out-for-dislike-of-compromise/
I think this type of culture that some of Trump’s supporters have is extremely counterproductive. Although it’s nice to always get our own way, it’s important to remember there are still people with differing viewpoints. The “sticking to one’s guns” mindset that many of Trump’s supporters have, or at least the ones represented in this poll, is what feels more like a threat to democracy to me. I think this culture is in part cultivated by Trump’s strong personality. No matter how much somebody may disagree with the opposing side, it is still a two way street, and compromise is always necessary to have to prevent tyranny of the majority.
Like Lequan mentions in his blog, it is very concerning to have someone driven by retribution in contention for President of the United States. Additionally, this situation is one that we don't really have precedent in, especially for someone who already holds such a large amount of power without being in office, therefore unless a drastic change is made, we can only hope for the best. People willingly follow former President Trump to an almost cult like degree, seemingly ignoring the fact that he has been indicted on numerous counts. With the power and influence that comes with being the President, including the power to pardon and veto, Trump's power will be at an all time high and it may be quite difficult to regulate his decisions that will undoubtedly by controversial. In recent weeks, Trump has also been directly attacking some of his rivals, calling them "vermin". This immaturity and disrespect should not be a quality of someone that we choose to elect as President of the United States.
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