A different take: If he was a Democrat, would he have the same opinions? If he existed as current, he would not be a democrat, but maybe his experiences were caused him to develop in other directions.

If Trump espoused democratic values, and was for things like universal healthcare, higher wages, privacy and personal autonomy, hadn't been a sex pest, wasn't a grifter and on and on and on... then no, I might not despise him.

Not that Jason above was in any way being sincere in the question.

How the Hillary Clinton campaign deliberately “elevated” Donald Trump with its “pied piper” strategy

He only made it through the Republican primary because the Democrats helped him through it.

The punchline of the last decade has been how neoliberals and reactionaries within the liberal party laid the foundation for a Permanent Republican Majority. Even now, they're more interested in beating back an insurgent popular progressive movement than ousting fascists in their own backyards.

Pennsylvania has a Democrat ogre

Two, really. Fetterman's the one that keeps showing up on reactionary news media to talk shit. But Shapiro's been taking his own turn as an avowed Zionist, a corporate sleaze, and a reactionary fearmonger whenever he's had the opportunity.

Well tbf, he got a stroke and basically that's how he turned conservative

The Democratic Party has its Gavin Newsoms and Joe Manchins and Michael Bloombergs and Anthony Weiners aplenty.

No shortage of Democrats on the Lolita Express. No shortage of liberal billionaires hungry for another war in the Middle East, another trillion dollar data center spend on public land, or another Bay of Pigs on Cuba.

None of Trump's politics are unique to Trump. We've got shitty little fascists crawling all over the country, from the bluest cities of Washington and Minnesota to the reddest oil fields of Texas and Wyoming. If anything, the latest wave of Silicon Valley "Network State" fucks have been more concentrated in liberal districts. And their money has produced a wave of horrifyingly bad liberal politicians who are as much responsible for the Obama->Trump party slump as any QAnon club.

It's easier on their hamster brains that way. Means they don't have to worry about doing any homework.

Ironically, when it comes to actual sports, they'll get on some Good Willing Hunting shit and go ultra deep into player stats and coaching strategies. Probably the only time I've ever heard one not sound like a complete idiot.

For them, it is. So they assume it is for everyone.

It's more that these morons actually behave this way. They trust anyone with an "(R)" at the end of their name.

They exist, because we allowed them to.

Above all else, Donald Trump is a useful idiot. More powerful people have been using him for a lot longer than he's been president.

He'll go along with whatever, as long as he gets attention/money. He's crass, so if he was a Democrat president, he'd still be an asshole, but he would have gone along with the liberal policies.

But it would never happen because Democrats are held to a higher standard and, as an idiot, the only way he can make himself stand out is through bigotry, which doesn't fly for liberal voters. DEFINITELY flies for conservatives though.

I never watched The Apprentice, but I saw ads for it and I figured he was just playing an exaggerated asshole clown of a boss.

Believe it or not, I always took it as the opposite. The first time Trump wanted to run he was laughed out of the primary. He had a long history as a narcissistic con man to anyone in the northeast and there’s no way he’d be elected. The entire point of “The Apprentice” was to rebuild his image.

Maybe some people took it as playing an exaggerated asshole clown of a boss, but he was toned down from reality. His narcissism was toned down, he acted mostly morally, less of an asshole, he appeared to know something about business. They even played down his need to plaster his name in gold everywhere. His entire image was much more palatable than the previous two decades of headlines

Unfortunately it succeeded

I still think it's possible that in 2016 they told him they were signing him up to play the President in a mockumentary. And that they still haven't told him otherwise.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

- George Washington, being absolutely correct about how political parties are a bad thing.

I would suggest that his logic is, in fact, based in the notion that his personal interest must be placed above Party, Country, and Principles.

as long as he paid his taxes and would be held accountable for any fraud he commits.

When he was campaigning the first time he bragged that the irs did not have the ability to untangle his businesses enough to prove anything ….. somehow people thought that was a good thing?

he shouldve just gone into pro wrestling instead of politics. would have been an all time manager

1. It puts legitimacy behind their statements. You are no longer discussing with an internet no-name weirdo, the person you are writing with has a name and face.
2. They weild authority in the field or bear respect assigned to them and are thus using it...or simply used to writing under their name due to that.
3. They're one of "I have nothing to hide" folks. And I don't mean surveilence apologists - I mean folk who have such weirdly strong ego (without being egoists. At least most of the time) that their belief in who they are is unshakeable. They tend to rawdog the world.

Some combination of the three above is most common in my perspective.

It's not just cope. It's that these people are so surrealistically stupid and lack all sense of curiosity that many legitimately don't know a fucking thing about the guy they voted to be the most powerful figure on the planet. So they think we must be acting unreasonable to hate him so much.

I mean a common phrase among them leading up to 2016 was "he'll run it like a business" because they were entirely unaware that the dipshit has driven every business venture he's ever attempted into the ground except for real estate because a monkey could be successful at real estate if it inherits a bunch of its daddy's money and real estate.

They don't even know who he is.

It's also a self-report that they like him only because he's a republican.