I have so much to say about this, I've been watching this 3 hour podcast of him with Joe Rogan. I normally avoid him like the plague but in this case I make an exception.

I don't trust the media in America at all, I want to hear it from Trump himself in full context, not clipped. So many times I've heard people panic with fear and disgust at something Trump has said, only to find it was out of context and it was, for example, just a spicy joke. Or, they sneakily misquote him as saying 'they're rapists' instead of what he actually said, 'their rapists' (which makes a huge difference).

I have seen so much lies and slander against him, that I can only take his own words now. And, yes, I disagree with him a lot, I think he spouts a fair amount of BS, I think he is simply wrong about many things, and I disagree about many things. I think he could reign in his crazy talk a bit if he could read a room, and I think he probably is indeed a multi-criminal in various ways, of which he has been adequately punished at least up to this ongoing point. I could say the exact same thing about a majority of politicians in the UK government.

I do not think, in any capacity whatsoever, that democracy is on the line, nor do I think he is in any way, shape or form, dictatorial. I think this is kinda gross, media lies designed to make everybody panic, year after year and it hurts me to see that happen. Trump is absolutely right about that one thing if nothing else; the enemy is the media. I do think for better or worse, Trump loves the USA and its democratic process. He seems to make that quite clear to me.

I could write you a very long list of examples I've collected of the slander against him, the defamation, the clearly illegal libel and falsifications. The stuff that has, ultimately, directly lead to multiple presidential assassinations.

Even after that, the opponents didn't learn and immediately start calling him a Hitler supporter - like that isn't going to 'incite violence' against him. But oh that's totally fine from the democrats, of course.

Oh, Trump didn't accept the election results? Neither did Hillary, Bush, Nixon. Democrats have claimed the ballot machines are not to be trusted in the past. John Oliver did a whole segment of his show about how broken they are and not to be trusted. Until they won of course, then they were the most secure things in the world.

Oh he said 'fight like hell' inciting violence? There's entire compilations of democrats saying those exact words, sometimes even suggesting 'with violence'. Silence on that, though - they're only saying it metaphorically, while Trump really means it even though seconds later he says 'peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard'.

See what I mean? It's vile.

Would I vote for him if I were American? Oof, not sure. At the end of the day he still is a lot of bad things; a liar, a moron, a criminal. And more generally the Republicans don't really stand for my political ideas so it wouldn't make much sense for me to do so.

But, I'd need to weigh up how much the genuine bad things he's done over the years play a role in the fate of the country and its massive global responsibility. Does a fraudulent University affect peace in the Middle East? I don't think so. Does saying 'Grab them by the p**sy' have any influence on a ceasefire in Ukraine? Not really... Who is more likely to reduce the insurmountable deficit?

I would not vote Democrat even though in principle I would if they were who they're supposed to be. But as far as I'm concerned, they're not. They're corrupt, slimy liars just as much as Republicans.

In the end... I probably wouldn't vote. The USA is going to steamroll ahead of the world with rapid success regardless. It's just placed in too perfect a position with extremely productive and intelligent civilians. The drama on top isn't gonna make much different, ultimately.

But I say with confidence as somebody who watches politics every day - You needn't worry about democracy. It's gonna be fine in the USA. In the UK... well, that's a luxury we don't get to enjoy nearly as much.

(Honestly I probably know more about US poltiics than UK lol... UK politics is so friggin' boring)

(second edit: I know this doesn't acknowledge the rest of your post - I think it's automatically assumed I will find it a top Hive article once I finish, I just had to make a pit stop and get all that out in the open, sorry XD)