Open for Debate: Is Donald Trump's Vision Making America Great?

Editor's note: This page was setup in 2017 shortly after Donald Trump was sworn into office. Below follows the transcript from his inauguration address. It was clear to anyone paying half attention even at the time: Trump has been, and always will be a fraud. His "vision for America" is nothing but a con to make him money, regardless of the cost to others. As one of the first pages of this site to implement VisionScore -- an open-source polling system -- White House Resident Donald Trump has been given a negative 98 score. Given his track record in office, the lies, corruption and long-term damage his actions has caused, it's hard to believe he deserves even less than the full -100 points. But if there has ever been a single individual to spur active civic engagement, as seen by the record number of women and younger candidates running for office, we can give Resident Trump a bit of credit for sparking a rise in democracy like this nation has never seen. Perhaps if there is one beacon of hope we can have, is that Donald’s election demonstrates that the perceived walls of politics are actually paper thin: anyone can become president. And do a better job than Donald J. Trump.

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"The president is a deranged lunatic. He is erratic and deluded, driven by whims and rage, increasingly isolated from reality, addicted to propaganda, tainted by foreign money and willing to sacrifice anything to protect himself from the consequences of his actions."

2017 Donald Trump inauguration speech

Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning, because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.

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For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government, while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs, and while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. That all changes, starting right here ---

--- and right now, because this moment is your moment --- it belongs to you. It belongs to everyone gathered here today, and everyone watching, all across America. This is your day. This is your celebration, and this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. January 20th, 2017 will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country, will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now. You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement, the likes of which the world has never seen before. At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction, that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public, but for too many of our citizens a different reality exists.

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>Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted out factories, scattered like tombstones across the across the landscape of our nation, an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge, and the crime, and the gangs, and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

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We are one nation and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny. The oath of office, I take today, is an oath of allegiance to all Americans. For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries, while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.

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We've defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own. And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas, while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon. One by one, the factories shuddered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.

But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future. We assembled here today our issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power, from this day forward: a new vision will govern our land, from this day forward, it's going to be only America first. America first.

Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never, ever let you down. America will start winning again, winning like never before. We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth, and we will bring back our dreams. We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels, and railways, all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.

We will follow two simple rules: buy American, and hire American. We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow. We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and you unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

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At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, how good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. There should be no fear. We are protected, and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. And most importantly, we will be protected by God.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it. The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action. Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease and to harness the industries and technologies of tomorrow. A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights and heal our divisions. It's time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black, or brown, or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots. We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same, great American flag. And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator.

So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words. You will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love, will forever guide us along the way. Together, we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again We will make America safe again, And yes, together, we will make we will make America great again. Thank you. God bless you. And god bless America. Thank you. God bless America.

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I’m An Anonymous Trump Official. I Know It Seems Like Everything Is Pretty Bad Now, But Trust Me, It Would Be Worse If I Didn’t Keep Working For Him, But Also In Case Things Do Get Much Worse, I Tried to Stop It

By Anonymous

President Trump has had a tumultuous, chaotic first two years in office. If it weren’t for people like me, it could have been much worse.

The source of Mr. Trump’s frustrations is not merely the investigation into all the crimes he did — and I’d like to make it clear that not only am I not implicated in the crimes, but that I also told him not to do them — but also the fact that I and my allies in his administration have been working, within the White House, to restrain his worst impulses, except for when we failed and his worst impulses weren’t restrained, but I, and we, still deserve points for trying.

To preserve my anonymity, which I need to continue doing my important work, I can’t get into detail about which things I fought against; suffice it to say, if you thought it was a particularly bad thing, I was against it, and in fact helped make it less bad than it would have been otherwise.

To be clear, I am not a member of of the liberal “Resistance.” While Mr. Trump has shown himself to be singularly unfit for office, I have supported much of the work done by the many fine people he’s brought on to run his government, including myself. In general, I have supported the things this administration has done that you don’t consider to be shockingly beyond the pale, and the Cabinet members and other appointees who are not currently known to be extremely corrupt.

What the American people should know is that Mr. Trump got himself elected on a lie. While his campaign promises seemed to make it clear that he’d keep people like me out of government, he actually filled his administration with people like me. While Mr. Trump never would have been elected if he’d openly allied himself with us, the things that he is doing now that are making him unpopular are being done in spite of us and not because of our presence in his administration.

Mr. Trump has rejected most of the values I have always stood for as a Republican. This is key: The things you don’t like about how this administration has gone so far are the things that are un-Republican-like, and the things that have been fine have been because of the good Republicans like me, who believe in free markets and free people.

Yes, I decided to work for him despite his rejection of my values, but I did so to help the nation, not to advance my career. Just like I decided to write this op-ed to help the country, and not as career insurance in case this whole thing gets much, much worse and everyone involved gets permanently disgraced, unless one could out oneself as the author of an op-ed about how one was secretly trying to stop the bad things.

Every day, people in this administration say to each other, “Wow, can you believe the president said that? He’s dangerous and must be stopped. I’ll see you tomorrow at work, here at the White House.”

The president is a deranged lunatic. He is erratic and deluded, driven by whims and rage, increasingly isolated from reality, addicted to propaganda, tainted by foreign money and willing to sacrifice anything to protect himself from the consequences of his actions. The pee tape is real and Rod Rosenstein showed it to me.

All of that is why it’s vitally important that we continue to prop up his administration and attempt to keep him distracted while we implement our agenda behind the scenes. We have indeed thought about working to oust the president, because of his manifest unfitness for office, which I have described at length. But we did not want to provoke a constitutional crisis. That is why unelected White House employees will continue secretly working to subvert the will of the president of the United States, whom we believe to be incompetent and corrupt, but whom we will not remove from office. To avoid the constitutional crisis.

Finally, I’m not Jared.

Or… am I?

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