What The Trump?!

Trump shaved Vince McMahon's
head at WrestleMania 23.

Have you ever seen a future President shave someone's head in person? Come next January, I will be able to say that I have. After a year-long spoof, Donald Trump was elected as the President of the United States in the most controversial President Election in its 240+ history as a nation.

In the wake of the Brexit vote, my department head at work was posed whether Donald Trump had a similar chance of winning the presidency (keep in mind, this was back in June). His response was as thoughtful, diplomatic, and intelligent as you would want in a boss, and he effectively said that it would be hard to trust our polls because many voting for Trump would not admit that they will vote for Trump.

I thought it was a good non-answer at the time, but I failed to realize what he meant at the time. The Intolerant Left had already started pushing the country to the right in their indictment of anyone willing to weigh the merits of Donald Trump as a candidate, damning that open-mindedness as racist, sexist and bigoted. "End of story" as they were too fond of saying in their smug certainty. I was on Hilary's side, only because I wanted a female President. I was on board, but I was not a supporter because of which woman it was. I stayed away from the debates. I ignored almost all Trump supporters, although I did actively seek an intelligent argument for Trump as president that did not sound like racism, sexism, or bigotry, and I did find one. But, admittedly, I was not interested enough in the movement to keep up with his viewpoint.

Trump endorsed Jesse Ventura
running for President in 2004.

Throughout the election process, I had not seen Donald Trump as a serious candidate myself, but I was not anti-Trump either. Instead, I had been saying that if you hate Trump that you should vote for him because the unrelenting scrutiny accompanying that position would be the most suitable punishment for all of his smug opinions.

Aaaaand Donald Trump himself would know better than anyone else, because he had been one of the most outspoken critics of Barack Obama over the past 8 years, keeping the "birther" movement alive long after it was a relevant issue (not to imply that it ever was). Therein lies the first thing that I found to respect in Trump's bid for President. He was American enough to live up to the "if you think you can do better, be my guest" cliché (albeit, no one provided opportunity quite so simply).

Furthermore, I had been on record that a vote for Donald Trump was a vote for his Vice-President, explaining that if Trump were elected (very hypothetical in my mind at the time, but I'll stand by it now) that he would step down from the position after the pressure (or the undue stupidity that the media projects upon the role) would be too much for him. When the controversy regarding his tax returns started, I mused that if he were elected, then the dissenting populus could pester him over his tax returns in the exact same fashion as President Obama's dissenters (led by Trump himself) pestered him about his birth certificate. The irony of it all is quite delicious.

There is reality television, and then there is reality. It is unpredictable what kind of U.S. President that Donald Trump can make at this point, but I can see it going either way.

He could be a half-decent president, enacting several changes to the current status quo. He could take his business acumen and rework the nation's existing debts into better positions than they are through a bunch of politicians unaware how to approach such an endeavor.

Conversely, it took Republicans a little under six years to get President Bill Clinton impeached, so based on the potential rap sheet Donald Trump has (from sexual assaults to tax evasion), it may not even take four years for Democrats to impeach Trump.

As with everything, although it has never felt more accurate: time will tell.