{"id":10725,"date":"2016-02-29T09:53:02","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T14:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=10725"},"modified":"2016-02-29T09:53:02","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T14:53:02","slug":"what-would-president-donald-trump-do-that-would-actually-be-so-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/29\/what-would-president-donald-trump-do-that-would-actually-be-so-bad\/","title":{"rendered":"What would President Donald Trump do that would actually be so bad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a resident of\u00a0Massachusetts I am purely a spectator of the U.S. political scene. Though I will try to get down to the local school to vote for Bernie<\/a> on Tuesday, our votes generally don’t count; most candidates on our ballots are running unopposed and, for the rest, the outcome is seldom in doubt.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday and people have been in a tizzy for months over the prospect of Donald Trump as President. My Facebook feed is about 30 percent comparisons of Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n

Stupid Question of the Day: What could Trump actually do that would be so bad\/dramatic?<\/p>\n

Let’s assume that Trump isn’t going to start a nuclear war. He has too much property to protect, even if much may be mortgaged.<\/p>\n

Now what? The President can travel around the country making fine speeches (if Obama) or blunt ones (if Trump), but the President doesn’t make laws, set tax rates, or determine the budget. Maybe Trump wants to build a 100′-high wall somewhere but if Congress doesn’t fund it then he will have to pay for the wall himself, just as you or I would.<\/p>\n

President Trump would appoint federal judges. Is there any evidence that he would do a worse job at this than anyone else? His own sister<\/a> is a Federal appeals court judge, nominated to that job\u00a0in 1999 by President Clinton. Presumably Trump, like other Presidents, would delegate the grunt work of finding good candidates for various positions. Are we afraid that Trump will hire inferior advisors somehow? Why wouldn’t he just ask his sister for help with judges and similarly qualified people for help in other areas?<\/p>\n

Barack Obama has said that he was going to do a bunch of stuff that never got done. He was going to close Gitmo. He was going to tax oil. \u00a0Politifact has a longish\u00a0list<\/a>. In retrospect it seems that it didn’t make any difference what Obama said since Congress has the real power. What’s the practical downside of President Trump for those of us who don’t watch TV and who don’t pay close attention to what the current President says?<\/p>\n

He’s not a candidate that I have ever considered supporting, but I would like someone to explain why does the sky fall if Donald Trump is elected?<\/p>\n

[And, separately, what if Barack Obama were to nominate Donald Trump’s sister<\/a> to the Supreme Court?]<\/p>\n

Related:<\/p>\n