The Task of Writing About Donald Trump
I think the first thing that I ever wrote about Donald Trump was back in 2017, and it was about weed. The article was originally written for this website called The Alaska Cannabis Institute, and was about the governors of Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington all sending a letter to the Trump Administration to get them not to change marijuana policies in places where it was legal to sell it.
Before that, I didn’t do any writing at all about Trump. All I knew about him was that he was one of the richest guys in the world, and that he was on a reality show called The Apprentice. I didn’t watch the show or follow it, but it wasn’t because I didn’t like him. Hell, I didn’t know hardly anything about him, definitely not enough to decide whether I agreed with his ways.
Truth is, I didn’t know a lot about the man until he became President of the United States. That’s when I realized that I didn’t like him.
Anyway, since this past summer I’ve been doing ongoing pieces for a new website called Top View TV. And, in just ten weeks, I’ve been assigned almost ten articles about Donald Trump to write. It’s a fun job writing about all kinds of current events, but every time I have to write about him it makes my stomach hurt a little bit.
The worst part is I can’t really express how I really feel in the articles that I do on him on that website, because I have instructions to remain neutral. This means that, when writing, I am just supposed to deliver facts, not personal opinions.
I guess that’s why I’m writing this article on Medium, because on this platform I get to speak my mind. So here goes.
Articles That I Had to Write Neutrally About Trump
The first one I was assigned to write was about those 4 Executive Orders he signed in August of 2020. When I saw that one was to hold off student loans, another was to help keep renters from getting evicted during COVID-19, another was to enhance unemployment benefits, and the other was for a payroll tax holiday, I thought to myself ‘Okay, maybe he’s trying to help Americans some…’
Then, as I did my research, I found out that he may be trying to make everyone pay back the payroll taxes, and that the unemployment benefits would be just 75% of federal money, meaning the States would decide if they could afford to give the other 25%, which most of them couldn’t during the pandemic crisis.
I wondered why he would make such a spectacle of the entire signing in the first place, and later found out. The Los Angeles Times did thorough research on the dozens and dozens of Executive Orders that Trump has signed since entering office in 2016. Most of those large signing events were more “ceremonial than substantive” according to their report, and he could have easily communicated them with a quick phone call. All those Executive Orders rarely have had any effect on any actual change in laws and policies.
In short, Trump does those large, ceremony-like signings mostly for show.
See what I mean? It’s so hard to feel positive about anything he does, even when his actions may initially seem good on the surface. A person who barely follows politics may fall for it, and believe that he is actually making constant positive moves as President. I used to be that guy, that is, before I started getting assignments several years ago to write about political things.
The next one I had to write about him was about that shooting that happened at the White House in August of 2020. I do hate Trump’s ways, but I wouldn’t wish death on anybody. I say that because, as mean as he has been by using racial hatred to divide America, when I first heard the story I actually thought that someone had taken a shot at him, especially with all the assassination attempts on Presidents in American history.
Several days later, I got another article assignment to write, on his feelings about Kamala Harris, the former Attorney General of California, being chosen to be Joe Biden’s running mate for Vice-President. While researching and writing this article, I felt a sense of pride that we may soon see the first minority female VP of the U.S.
Trump, on the other hand, felt everything except pride, and called her “nasty”, “a phony”, “disrespectful”, etc. I hated writing neutral on this article with him dissing her like that. So, when I submitted it, I sent it with the title Trump Begins to Hate When Biden Chooses His Running Mate (the title I used on Medium’s version).
But, the editors at Top View TV changed it to the much more “neutral” title of Biden Chooses His VP Running Mate, Senator Kamala Harris. Yeah, I knew they probably wouldn’t let me keep that title I originally wanted. But, it was worth a try…Kamala is my girl!
The next assignment I had to write about Donald ‘Chump’ was when he coordinated that peace treaty between Israel and UAE. This was another occasion where I thought he was doing something good, until I dug into the research and began writing the piece.
I then found out that Trump and the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, are just the same. These two “leaders” care nothing about peace, because if they did they’d be trying to stop the chaos that is going on in the streets of their own countries, instead of feeding it, ignoring it, or trying to put a smiling, presidential face on it for other countries to think everything is okay there.
Still, what makes Trump and Netanyahu the most similar is that they both ignore the Coronavirus like its nothing while their countries suffer, and their citizens can’t stand them for it.
Which brings me to the next piece I had to write in neutral fashion on Trump, the one about his temper tantrum after former First Lady Michelle Obama gave him a piece of her mind at the Democratic National Convention. It was mainly about his attitude on American deaths from the Coronavirus, using the words “It is what it is…” in nonchalant fashion in response to those deaths.
How I’ll Manage Writing Neutral Articles About Donald Trump
I’m a man of God, so I can’t hate Donald Trump. I hate his ways, but under God’s rules over my life I have to forgive him and pray for him that he becomes a better person.
I won’t be voting for him, because the Pledge of Allegiance describes what America is supposed to be which is “One Nation, Under God, INDIVISIBLE…”, and Trump is trying to divide up the country, one ethnicity against the other, all because he knows that so many people will side with him and vote for him if they are racist.
All the casualties and deaths that happen in between I don’t think he too much cares about. But again, it’s not my job to judge him. Only God can do that, and He will.
The Lord’s Prayer in the Bible says “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…” So, if I don’t forgive Donald Trump and pray for him, then God won’t forgive me, and I won’t go to heaven. It’s that simple.
So, all that being said, that is how I plan to remain neutral whenever I have to stomach writing any future articles about Donald Trump…by staying here on this earth, in the middle, a neutral human being between heaven and hell, and remembering that God will do what He sees fit with Donald Trump’s soul on Judgement Day, whatever that may be…
Hey, it is what it is.
