Donald Trump Time Capsule

Events occurring and how they relate/affect Anabaptist faith and culture.
temporal1
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by temporal1 »

Bootstrap wrote:A reminder:
Bootstrap wrote:No debate, please, and please do not quote what anyone else says. Just make your own predictions. No more than one post per person per day.

If Robert has good backups, we will revisit this in four years.
thanks. i moved my posts. did not intend to violate your OP.
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Szdfan
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by Szdfan »

​It's really hard to predict the future because Trump is a narcissistic man-child who exaggerates and lies constantly and has little consistency. The future "leader of the free world" is so insecure and vindictive he cannot resist lashing out against critics and satirists on Twitter. And yet he also wants to be adored. I am struck by how Trump condemned and mocked the New York Times on Twitter, but totally sucked up to them when he met with them.

I recognize that some of my concerns about Trump will be written off as "liberal hysteria." And maybe they are. But I also believe that my concerns are not in the same category as conservative fears that Obama was a secret Muslim, a disciple of Saul Alinsky or not born in the US.

I do hope my concerns are overblown and that I'm proven wrong over the next four years.

So...predictions:
  • I don't think that Trump is particularly ideological, nor do I think he's particularly interested in governing. So I'm in some more ways more concerned about the kinds of people who Trump is surrounding himself with who are ideologues: Steve Bannon, Mike Pence, Jeff Sessions, Scott Pruitt, etc. I think these are the people who will have incredible influence in this administration.
  • Rather than "draining the swamp," Trump and his family are going to enrich themselves with the presidency. These significant conflict of interests between the Trump presidency and the Trump Organization are already happening and it may be impossible for Trump to construct a significant enough firewall to prevent the appearance of impropriety.
  • Trump is part of an international populist backlash against the perceived elites. This backlash is illiberal, anti-immigrant (i.e. xenophobic), authoritarian and driven to "take back" the country from "elites" and people perceived to benefit from the elites: i.e. racial, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities. In some ways, this election is a white rural rejection of a multicultural society and I'm afraid of repercussions. According to the FBI, there already was a 6% increase of hate crimes and harassment in 2015, the largest surge against Muslims. While I don't believe most Trump voters are racists, Trump's campaign has emboldened and legitimized certain fringe elements, especially with the appointment of Steve Bannon. Footage of white supremacists calling "Heil Trump" and doing the Nazi salutes is chilling. These people are not going away.
  • There's going to be a scandal. Whether or not this scandal hurts Trump will depend entirely on whether it damages the Republicans politically.
  • Trump will not build a 2,000 mile wall on the border of Mexico. Trump will also not successfully deport 20 million illegal immigrants. I do think deportations will increase. I think the private, for-profit prison system will benefit from these deportations.
  • Trump is going to discover that some of his campaign promises violate the Constitution.
  • The Republican project to make it more difficult for minorities to vote will continue. I think Jeff Session's DOJ will gut the Civil Rights division and focus on the almost non-existent problem of "voter fraud."
  • I think there's going to be an attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade and same-sex marriage in the Supreme Court. I'm not convinced that these efforts are going to be successful.
  • There's going to be a Putin-Trump bromance until Putin does something to piss Trump off.
  • The US's relationship with China will continue to deteriorate and will have economic repercussions.
  • Trump will not solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially if he moves the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
  • Trump will have conflict with the Republican Party over his anti-free trade position. His desire to punish companies that offshore will be met with incredible resistance.
  • Obamacare will be repealed, but replacing it with something that doesn't cause 20 million people to lose their health insurance and doesn't disrupt the insurance market will be next to impossible. We will probably end up with something like "Obamacare light" -- basically the same thing as Obamacare, but less generous.
  • There will be conflict between Trump and Paul Ryan if Ryan attempts to privatize Medicaid.
  • Alec Baldwin will be gainfully employed over the next four years as a Trump impersonator. Future Thanksgiving dinners with his younger brother Stephen are going to become increasingly awkward.
  • At some point, somebody will release The Collected Tweets of President Donald J. Trump. It's going to be a bestseller and really awful.
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Peregrino
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by Peregrino »

I expect there will be a popular backlash against conservative evangelicals in the political sphere. They will have signed their death warrant by "hitching their wagon" to the Trump elephant.

As it becomes more apparent what a vile, vulgar, and incredibly narcissistic person Donald Trump is on a personal level, the conservative Christians who hailed him as their messiah and held him up before the entire world as a person who represents their beliefs will sink with him.

In the future, conservative Christian politicians will have to downplay their Christianity to have much of a chance at credibility in the public eye. All of which, IMO, could be positives for "kingdom Christianity".
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by MaxPC »

appleman2006 wrote:My prediction. He will be hounded and harassed to such an extent that he will be almost constantly on the defensive and over time some of his big moral failures may actually come to destroy him. ( See Rob Ford)
As I have said many times before. Your debt problems (and ours) are too great for any one administration to fix. The medicine needed to actually fix it would be far to sour and distasteful to the masses and they will rise up in revolt were he to try. And if he does not try? Then he will be just another president in a line of presidents that will bring you closer to the financial brink.
And no I am not a sour negative old man. I am actually very positive about the future. But it has nothing to do with the future of this old world. :pray :)
YEP :up:
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temporal1
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by temporal1 »

MaxPC wrote:
appleman2006 wrote:My prediction. He will be hounded and harassed to such an extent that he will be almost constantly on the defensive and over time some of his big moral failures may actually come to destroy him. ( See Rob Ford)
As I have said many times before. Your debt problems (and ours) are too great for any one administration to fix. The medicine needed to actually fix it would be far to sour and distasteful to the masses and they will rise up in revolt were he to try. And if he does not try? Then he will be just another president in a line of presidents that will bring you closer to the financial brink.
And no I am not a sour negative old man. I am actually very positive about the future. But it has nothing to do with the future of this old world. :pray :)
YEP :up:
i much concur.
i don't know a lot about Rob Ford, but, drugs and alcohol are not on Trump's list of sins. that will help him.
Peregrino wrote:I expect there will be a popular backlash against conservative evangelicals in the political sphere. They will have signed their death warrant by "hitching their wagon" to the Trump elephant.

As it becomes more apparent what a vile, vulgar, and incredibly narcissistic person Donald Trump is on a personal level, the conservative Christians who hailed him as their messiah and held him up before the entire world as a person who represents their beliefs will sink with him.

In the future, conservative Christian politicians will have to downplay their Christianity to have much of a chance at credibility in the public eye. All of which, IMO, could be positives for "kingdom Christianity".
i do not see Trump as more vile, vulgar, or narcissitic than the prior admin, or those so vehemently opposing him now (as appleman predicted.) his style is a bit different, perhaps, but, his opposition has nothing to brag about. if they had not been "so awful," Trump would not be POTUS today. they may not have been as brash as he in outward appearances, but, heavens, what awful debauchery they "nicely" put forward. their outward appearances since losing in November have not been at all nice or polite. it's just ugly as sin.

i'm glad i took the view of, "i'm not afraid of Trump as POTUS."
all signs now are that things would be even worse if he were not POTUS.
it's a treacherous world out there.
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Robert
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

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I told my wife today as we drove to the store that I think President Trump will go down as one of the most irritating presidents and one of the most productive ones. She reminded me that history often forgets about the irritating thing.
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KingdomBuilder
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by KingdomBuilder »

lesterb wrote:Does anyone remember the fuss about Reagan being elected? The press was out in right field that time too. But he actually did pretty good. He at least had the guts to do some things that were needed. Trump may turn out to be the same.
He did pretty good with facilitating and hiding from his hand in the Guatemalan genocide.

He, like Trump, also did a nice job at tapping into the popular underlying mindset of large social groups. Guess all that Hollywood acting worked well ;)
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Robert
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by Robert »

KingdomBuilder wrote: He, like Trump, also did a nice job at tapping into the popular underlying mindset of large social groups. Guess all that Hollywood acting worked well ;)
Or maybe there are is a large part of the population that actually agreed with Reagan. Just saying it COULD be a possibility. 8-)
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Sudsy
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by Sudsy »

I predict Trump will always remain unpredictable. :)
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KingdomBuilder
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Re: Donald Trump Time Capsule

Post by KingdomBuilder »

Robert wrote:Or maybe there are is a large part of the population that actually agreed with Reagan. Just saying it COULD be a possibility. 8-)
I'm just saying it's hard to know what politicians actually think and to know what they're just "agreeing" with in order to secure support.
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