Last night gave America a preview of what to expect in the upcoming presidential debates from Donald Trump — spoiler alert: it’s more of the same. For months, Trump has repeatedly insulted U.S. military leaders, lavished compliments on dictators like former KGB officer Vladimir Putin, and displayed a total ignorance of foreign affairs.
Trump’s ego reared its ugly head several times, especially when he was asked about our military leaders. “The generals have been reduced to rubble,” he said. From the Khans to his past comments on Vietnam, it’s obvious that Trump doesn’t understand sacrifice. Last night, he showed America he doesn’t understand respect either.
The GOP nominee didn’t back down from previous comments on military sexual assaut. Trump stood by a 2013 tweet where he insinuated that women shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the armed forces and offered no substantial plan on how to address the issue.
On foreign relations, he didn’t just compliment Putin — Trump showed his jealousy for the dictator’s propaganda-created approval ratings and called him a better leader than President Obama. Trump was so Putin-happy last night that this morning, Republican Rep. Sean Duffy and Trump supporter had to explicitly say, “I’ll take our president over any kind of Russian leader any day of the week.” Too bad for Duffy, his presidential pick doesn’t feel the same way. Trump’s affection for Putin is disqualifying on its own, but his admiration of Putin’s style is down right terrifying. Trump doesn’t want to be president — he wants to be dictator.
Instead of giving Americans confidence in his ability to lead, Trump spent the night making it clear he’s desperately lacking. There’s no wizard behind the curtain, no secret plan. Trump is dangerously uninformed and tempermentally unfit to be commander in chief. So why are GOP leaders and senators like Paul Ryan, Richard Burr, Joe Heck, Pat Toomey, and Kelly Ayotte still saying they’ll vote for him in November?
Published: Sep 8, 2016