Trump Thinks He's Great for Gay People

By Gage Skidmore - CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47943348.

The Grand Old Party has a pretty terrible reputation when it comes to gay rights. Republican elected officials have been warring against the LGBT community for decades, particularly in recent years with the gay community's success in gaining marriage equality.

GOP hysteria over gay marriage, transgender bathroom habits, and the beauty of rainbows has flooded the republican party with bigoted rhetoric and a slew of anti-gay laws in dozens of states around the country. Despite GOP hatred for all things happy and gay, Trump thinks his presidency would be excellent for the LGBT community.

At a recently rally, Trump actually said:

"You tell me: who is better for the gay community and who is better for women than Donald Trump."

If Trump's decades of crass remarks and verbal harassment of women are any indication of how he'd treat the gay community, LGBT individuals would do well to run as far away as possible from The Trump. Just like every female within a 1,000 mile radius. After all, Trump wants to punish women who have abortions, doesn't believe we need paid family leave, and calls women pigs.

(you can read an excellent list of all the ways Trump hates women at The Huffington Post)

Right before Trump asked his followers who might be better for women and gay people than The Donald, he uttered this gem:

"As far as gays are concerned they throw them off buildings. They kill gays in these countries."

So, Trump thinks that because he wouldn't toss gay people off buildings and kill them that he'd be great for gay people. At the rally, The Donald also said:

"LGBT community is starting to like Donald Trump very, very much lately."

If we ignore his propensity for speaking about himself in the third person, Trump's blanket statements about how much gay people love him seem far fetched, particularly in light of his opinions on gay marriage.

In a pretty honest write-up of Trump's opinions, remarks, and current stances on LGBT rights, advocacy organization HRC (Human Rights Campaign) shares a pretty damaging account of Trump's stances on marriage equality:

"Trump has been a consistent opponent of marriage equality. He said that he opposed it because he was a "traditional" guy, choosing to support domestic partnership benefits instead. Trump later reversed himself and said he also opposed civil unions. Despite a brief flirtation with "evolving" in 2013, Trump has consistently maintained his opposition to marriage equality, sometimes by citing polling and making an analogy to his dislike of long golf putters. After the Supreme Court ruling, Trump said the court had made its decision and, although he disagreed with the ruling, he did not support a constitutional amendment that would allow states to re-ban marriage equality. He later said he would appoint Supreme Court judges who would be committed to overturning the ruling."

Trump thinks he's great for women despite a total lack of support for basic equality, he believes Mexicans "love" him and will be glad to build his wall, and he thinks he'll be awesome for gay people even though he wants to rescind their basic human rights. Trump must be one of those folks who thinks pain is a good thing.

Hillary Clinton's Twitter feed posted a pretty entertaining video about Trump's stances on gay rights:

Donald Trump says he's "the real friend" of the LGBT community.

Yeah, no.https://t.co/TWwZKC5ARS

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 17, 2016

A belief that a Trump presidency would be "good" for the gay community is about as strange as an organization of gay republicans. Yes, it exists. Sometimes this world makes no sense.

Trump Gets in Bed With Conspiracy Theories

By - Michael Vadon - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=42540601.

Donald Trump lies all the time. Just about every sentence he utters is a lie. Fact checkers have worn their pencils to nubs and exhausted themselves in an attempt to keep up with Trump's blistering speed of lying in every single speech he makes.

The most recent numbers from Politifact on Trump's record of lies and truths reveal that just 2% of Trump's statements rank as "true" and a staggering 19% rank as "pants on fire" lying (as of 14 June 2016). More than three-quarters of Trump's statements are mostly false or worse.

Source: Politifact

One of the most popular types of lies upon which Trump relies is the conspiracy theory.

This type of lie is easy to spot because it's almost always book-ended with Trump uttering "I don't know, I don't know" a few times. It's like he's trying to tone down the ridiculousness of his comments without actually retracting the comments.

You might see something like:

"I don't know, I don't know, maybe the sun revolves around the earth. I don't know, I really don't know. Listen, we just don't have enough information right now. Does the sun revolve around the earth? Maybe. I don't know. It might. I just can't say."

He floats a ridiculous idea that has no basis in fact, and then tries to soften the blow with a careless shrug, a smirk, and a wave of his tiny hands.

Take his comments in an interview last year in July with CNN's Anderson Cooper:


Trump's response to Anderson Cooper's question about President Obama's birthplace was a repeated "I don't know, I don't know."

Trump's latest theory is that President Obama invites terrorists to the United States because he sympathizes with them and is a secret Muslim. Because we've all seen Obama breaking out the prayer mat in the Oval Office to face Mecca every few hours, right? The LA Times describes Trump's conspiracy theories well and suggests there are two distinct types:

"In the first, Trump tries to cast suspicion on his political rivals. The most infamous example of this was when he implied that Ted Cruz’s dad was mixed up with the JFK assassination, citing the National Enquirer as his source... The second category is more ideological. Trump at his core is a nationalist, and nationalists are especially likely to embrace Enemy Outside stories."

Trump just says whatever he wants, and damn the consequences. He never really gets in any trouble even when he says absolutely ridiculous things. Honestly, he's a better Teflon Don than John Gotti ever was. Trump famously said:

"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters."

Trump's latest conspiracy theory comes right after one of the most devastating events to occur on American soil: the Orlando nightclub massacre. Almost 50 people dead and countless more wounded, and all Trump cares about is congratulating himself and making dumb comments about President Obama. Trump actually called for President Obama to resign because of the Orlando shooter and said in an interview:

"Look, we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind."

Trump has spent a lot of airtime insulting President Obama and launching conspiracy theories. Trump's favorite newspaper, The Washington Post, offers a video that shows how the presumptive presidential nominees - Trump and Clinton - responded to the Orlando massacre.

Steve Bennen with The Rachel Maddow Show offers an excellent response to Trump's verbal frivolity:

"Maybe Trump and his team have decided if the GOP candidate uses a firehose to spew nonsense, the sheer volume will become overwhelming, making it easier for him to get away with antics that might otherwise doom a traditional White House contender."

Trump has certainly dialed up the rhetoric on Muslims and immigration since the Orlando massacre. However, since 80% of terrorist attacks in the United States have been committed by Americans since 9/11, maybe The Donald should rethink his rhetoric about foreigners and immigrants. Isn't it time we locked up all the angry white men in our country?