Of course opinion in Europe doesn't matter to him in a direct sense.

But in this age of the Internet and of people moving around, opinions no longer stop at borders or at oceans the way they used to. Something I post on facbook may be read by somebody in the US and obviously that by itself won't spark any measurable change, but you cannot ignore crowd dynamics.

There is a reason that political developments in different countries show very obvious parallels.

Although you are correct, there is a grey area of intention to deceive. No one is a mind reader, so one can never prove another's internal thoughts and intentions.
Generally speaking, if a politician commits to a promise eg. I WILL do xyz, and they don't follow through, many consider it as a lie.


If Trump doesn't build his wall---it will generally go down in history as a lie to the masses--although it also doesn't fall under your definition of a lie.

Am I a leftist elite now?

My bank manager will be pleased.

More seriously having lived next to and worked in Raploch in Stirling, one of the poorest and most deprived areas of the UK (if not Western Europe I would guess), I have some idea. Not an expert, but I daresay far more exposure than many of my liberal elite cohorts, and most of my illeberal elite critics.

That is the cause of the political meltdown of the establishment we see today. The deluge of information is impossible for governments or anyone to manage. Compounded with everyone's ability to post their opinion.

Any government or politician that look like they are trying to appease all of it is either lying, or deluded and will fail through incompetency.

I don't think Democracy is about appeasement of any and all sentiments. Its impossible. It can only be done at the ballot box. And then put on a metal helmet, blinders if you have to, and carry your objective through. See how you did at the next election.

Yup that would be a broken promise! A lie is a lie. For example denying he had met with Putin in the past.

Were you finding mass graves across the border? Dozens of headless corpses of men, women and children regularly dumped on a sidewalk, hanging on lightposts and bridges?

The violence and evil in Mexico matches that of ISIS. Over 100,000 people have been killed in the last decade. Its seeping through to the US side. Any estimated $200M dollars flow through on a daily basis. There are networks of illegal criminals in the US that administer this flow.

That wall is not about racism. There is a good fight here worth fighting. We don't need to suffer the ignorance of fools in Europe to try to address this.

This is the culmination of the war on drugs started by the Reagan administration perhaps ending that might help. It's a real problem in Mexico, but brutal organised crime has always been a problem in America. Don't see anyone threatening to kick out all the Italian or Irish? The wall is quite a symbolic thing Phos, more then functional, it's a vast waste of money and time, and distracts from the real issues.

Maybe rashly dismissing anyone's opinion is ignorant folly. Why should anyone living near a successful and peaceful border be dismissed? Sounds to me like they're pretty experienced in getting it right...

Picking up tips and tricks from other drug-fuelled flashpoints in the world because somehow they understand your problems restricts their assistance and usefulness significantly.

Maybe it's a pride thing.

Trump is not calling for kicking out illegal immigrants who are doing the right things, and contributing to society. The focus here is on the criminal elements, and an orderly way for good immigrants to enter country.

Question for all the anti-Trumpers: Is the hysteria just your way of coming to terms with President Trump or do you intend to stay salty for the next 8 years?

Question for the pro-Trumpers: why do you see discussion or even protest as hysteria?

This should help

" Any estimated $200M dollars flow through on a daily basis. " The US drug administration in their 2015 report have clearly stated that the drugs from Mexico pass through the existing border points.
This is a big business. Nobody is running across the desert with tons of drugs strapped to their backs.
The wall will not change anything.

It's the hyperbolic false equivalencies and the shrilly overreactions that do it for me

So purely subjective stuff that pushes your buttons then.

Yes, I agree. Trump's hyperbole and shrilly overreactions kind of make me wonder about his fitness too.

The irony is delicious, isn't it?

I guess everyone has a place for hyperbole and shrillness which makes them feel fuzzy inside. Just has to be the right hyperbole delivered at the right degree of shrillness they want to hear.

One aspect of Trump that concerns me is his flirtation with vaccine conspiracies; from his anti-vaccine tweets, to his association with known anti-vaccine proponents such as Andrew Wakefield and, recently, Robert F. Kennedy. The threat of infectious diseases is truly of global concern.

About President Trump, now that he's president, I don't mind saying this. I suspect he has ADHD. I know many successful people who have it. Its not necessarily debilitating or incapacitating. Its actually useful at the executive level. Just not always conducive for interpersonal communication. It requires more patience from those who work with them.

I don't think it is grounds for impeachment or anything.

Well fingers crossed he makes it through - especially with Pence in the wings waiting to pounce. A man so unelectable he relied to Trump to get him into power.

Trump dances around like a monkey on crack because it sells. People "like" the fact he talks gibberish, that his statements are outlandish and from the Clarkson book of "How to offend people in all of the 198 relevant countries". They like the fact he's not the archetypal politician who reads the autocue, who sits calmly and who appear duplicitous.

Trump may well be the latter - his business dealings would suggest he is, but he approached the election as a sales contest - he told people what they wanted to hear - he researched and targeted those who could be easily swayed.

Hindsight may prove the left correct in their assumptions that Trump is a dangerous fool who has no place in politics OR it could show that the world has changed and being a crack-crazed monkey with a gun is the way forward.

__________________
"Don't believe everything you read on the internet" Abraham Lincoln

While I find it a bit churlish to diagnose someone with a complex condition purely by the way they appear on the telly...

There could be a host of conditions he is suffering under which kept his medical records under wraps during his campaign. Until he makes them available, I guess "suspecting him" of whatever ailment he is exhibiting is all we can do.