200 Reasons to Vote Against Trump
A must-read list compiled by Mark Jacob.
This comprehensive list was compiled by Mark Jacob, former editor at the Chicago Tribune, author, and writer of the newsletter Stop The Presses. It highlights 200 reasons to vote against Donald Trump, addressing his actions, statements, and policies that have undermined democracy, harmed the country, and divided Americans. From inciting the January 6th Capitol riot to promoting dangerous conspiracy theories, these points serve as a powerful reminder of the need for accountability and informed decision-making in 2024. Share these with any persuadable voters you know, and be sure to follow Mark Jacob’s newsletter here for more.
Trump incited a deadly assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
His extremist justices took away women’s right to control their own bodies.
He wants huge tariffs, which are essentially a tax on American consumers.
He stole top secrets and left them in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom.
He bragged about grabbing the private parts of women he’d just met.
He called for a “day of violence” in which police could do whatever they wanted with no accountability.
He says his mass deportation of undocumented immigrants will be “a bloody story.”
He pushed the fake-electors scheme to overturn a fair election.
He called his opponents “vermin,” echoing hate speech from the Holocaust and the 1994 Rwanda massacre.
He invited the Taliban to Camp David.
He claimed you need an ID to buy cereal.
He pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
He said a 2nd Trump administration would give a major health policy role to anti-vaxxer RFK Jr., a disturbed person who dumped a dead bear cub in Central Park and cut off the head of a dead whale with a chainsaw and strapped it to the roof of his minivan. (Really.)
He was friends with Jeffrey Epstein.
He helped the Saudis cover up the murder and dismemberment of a U.S.-based journalist.
He wants to use the military to put down “the enemy from within” – Democrats.
He thinks windmills cause cancer.
He used a Sharpie to doctor an official weather map rather than admit he was wrong about a hurricane hitting Alabama.
He lied that “Dems want to shut your churches down, permanently.”
He said falsely that Mexico would pay for the wall.
His administration separated migrant children from their parents and then lost track of the parents.
He said he'd be a dictator, but only on “Day 1” (which is not how dictators operate).
He denounced Denmark’s leader because she wouldn’t sell him Greenland.
He increased the national debt by 39% in just 4 years while giving the rich a big tax cut.
He said of his daughter Ivanka: “She does have a very nice figure. I’ve said if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her.”
He lied publicly that Covid-19 was “like a regular flu that we have flu shots for” while he privately said it was “more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”
He suggested that putting light in people's bodies and injecting them with disinfectant could kill Covid.
He had to pay $2 million in a lawsuit over the Trump Foundation’s misuse of charity funds.
He called Mexican immigrants “rapists.”
On 9/11, he bragged that the fall of the Twin Towers meant his building was NYC's tallest. That boast was tasteless — and false.
He touted his business acumen but couldn’t make a profit from casinos and filed for bankruptcy six times.
He said a judge in one of his legal cases should be removed because he was of Mexican descent.
He called Haiti and African nations “shithole countries.”
He threatened to withdraw the U.S. from NATO, a key alliance for global stability.
He urged supporters to "knock the crap out of" protesters at a 2016 rally.
He made false statements more than 30,000 times as president.
He lied that an “extremely credible source” told him Obama’s birth certificate was fake. After years of pushing the birtherism hoax, Trump admitted it was bunk — and he blamed it on Hillary Clinton.
He took Putin’s word over the word of U.S. intel agencies.
He insulted Gold Star parents whose son, a U.S. soldier, had been killed in Iraq. It was no coincidence that the family was Muslim.
A NY judge found Trump and his adult sons liable for business fraud and canceled the Trump Organization’s business certification.
He exploited the assault on a NYC jogger by taking out newspaper ads calling for the death penalty. The young Central Park 5 suspects were exonerated, but Trump never apologized.
He paid actors to pose as supporters at his June 2015 campaign launch event.
In a bizarre speech to a Boy Scout Jamboree, Trump described a cocktail party for “the hottest people in New York.” He later claimed the group’s leader called to say it was “the greatest speech that was ever made to them.” The Scout leader denied any call happened.
He cheats at everything, including golf. There's a book: "Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump."
Trump claimed he “helped a little bit” to clear 9/11 rubble, but there’s no evidence it happened.
He lied about being named Michigan’s Man of the Year.
After a MAGA supporter massacred Latinos in El Paso, Trump and his wife went to the city and used a newly orphaned baby as a prop for a photo op.
He lied that “we're the highest taxed nation in the world.” Nope.
He bragged about his penis size on national TV, and Stormy Daniels later fact-checked that as false.
He tweeted in 2019: “Today I opened a major Apple Manufacturing plant in Texas.” In fact, the plant had opened nearly 6 years earlier.
He makes the absurd claim that people weren’t allowed to say “Merry Christmas” until he came along.
He accused Ted Cruz’s father of a role in the JFK assassination and said Cruz’s wife was ugly. But Cruz is so low that he sucked up to Trump anyway.
He claimed he coined the phrase “priming the pump,” which has been around since 1932. He said he gave Defense Secretary James Mattis the nickname “Mad Dog”; he didn't.
He lied that there were “205,000 more ballots than you had voters” in PA.
He made the U.S. a laughingstock when he gave a speech at the United Nations.
He denounced 4 women in Congress who are members of minority groups, telling them to go back where they came from, even though 3 were born here and the 4th immigrated as a child.
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Trump wanted to shoot social justice protesters. "We reached that point in the conversation where he looked frankly at Gen. Milley and said, 'Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?'"
He lied that the strategic oil reserve was “mostly empty” and he filled it. In fact, the reserve was lower at the end of his term than at the start.
He lied that "the entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED!"
He overruled experts to give a security clearance to Jared Kushner, who later leveraged his access to get $2B from the Saudis.
He bathes in his cult of personality: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot people and I wouldn't lose voters."
After the right demonized Anthony Fauci, Trump claimed not to know who gave Fauci a presidential commendation. It was Trump.
He said he got to know Putin “very well” when they were on the same episode of “60 Minutes.” But Trump was in NY, Putin in Russia.
Discussing the breakup of his marriage to Ivana in 1990, he said: “When a man leaves a woman, especially when it was perceived that he has left for a piece of ass—a good one!— there are 50 percent of the population who will love the woman who was left.”
He said in 1991: “I have black guys counting my money. … I hate it. The only guys I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes all day.”
He said in 2015 he favored the creation of a database to track all Muslims in the U.S.
Asked in 2016 if women should be charged with a crime for having an abortion despite a ban, he said: “The answer is that there has to be some form of punishment.”
He defended Putin in 2015: "Nobody’s proven that he’s killed anybody."
In 2016, he called for not only killing terrorists but killing their family members, too.
He invited Russians into the Oval Office and shared classified information.
He tried to revoke CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s credentials because Acosta did his job.
His company, the Trump Organization, was convicted of 17 tax crimes, including conspiracy and falsifying business records.
He called for government crackdowns on MSNBC and CBS because he didn’t like their coverage of him.
His pardon got Steve Bannon out of federal fraud charges in a “build the wall” scam. Right-wing disinformation is Bannon’s game: "The Democrats don't matter. The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit."
He falsely accused 2 Georgia election workers of election fraud – the same allegations that led to a $148M judgment vs. Rudy Giuliani.
His bid to monetize the presidency by hosting the G-7 summit at his Doral golf club sparked outrage, and he backed off.
As Notre Dame Cathedral burned, Trump embarrassed the U.S. by tweeting: “Perhaps flying water tankers could be used to put it out. Must act quickly!”
He declared publicly in 1999 that he was “pro-choice in every respect.” But he tossed that aside for politics.
He’s always been a sore loser. After Ted Cruz beat him in the 2016 Iowa caucuses, he tweeted: “Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.” Sound familiar?
He praised Hungarian despot Viktor Orban as “one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world.”
A Trump golf club put up a marker about a “River of Blood” at a Civil War battle that supposedly took place there. But no such battle occurred. It’s a lie.
Several Trump golf clubs displayed a Time magazine cover featuring him. You guessed it: It's fake.
He pardoned Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of ignoring a court order to stop profiling Latinos.
He tweeted about MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski “badly bleeding from a face-lift.”
He lied about Brzezinski’s husband/co-host: “When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so.”
He hired Kellyanne Conway as a professional liar, and she fulfilled that role, saying early in the pandemic that Covid was “contained,” calling lies “alternative facts” and referring to a terrorist attack that never happened: the “Bowling Green Massacre.”
He uses phrases like “brilliant” and “strong like granite” to describe China’s dictator Xi Jinping.
He quit the Iran nuclear deal, raising the chances of nuclear war.
He told his Cabinet that the Soviet Union was justified in invading Afghanistan in 1979.
After former Klan leader David Duke endorsed him for president, Trump said: "I don't know David Duke. … I just don't know anything about him." But researchers found video clips showing Trump talking about Duke on national TV multiple times.
He refused to attend his successor’s inauguration, becoming the first president to boycott the transition since Andrew Johnson in 1869.
He tore up official documents, forcing aides to tape them together to preserve them as required by federal law.
He encouraged a “lock her up” chant about Hillary Clinton and her private email server, but Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner improperly used personal messaging services such as email and WhatsApp for hundreds of government communications.
He endorsed NC gov hopeful Mark Robinson, a Holocaust denier who called Obama a “top-ranking demon” and said "I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn't vote.”
Trump's social-media Christmas wish for his opponents: “May they rot in hell.”
He used the South Lawn of the White House for a partisan event, ignoring precedent and propriety, when he gave his 2020 Republican National Convention speech there.
In late 2020, sore loser Trump delayed transition talks with the Biden team even though the stonewalling hurt public health efforts during a pandemic.
Trump's administration asked Japan to nominate him for a Nobel Peace Prize. Japan did so to curry favor.
Asked about QAnon, the conspiracy cult that claims JFK Jr. is still alive and Democrats kidnap children to harvest their blood, Trump said: “I don’t know much about the movement other than I understand that they like me very much, which I appreciate.”
He lied that U.S. Steel was building 6, 7, 8, or 9 new plants (the number varied). But the company built no new plants.
He was asked about charges vs. Ghislaine Maxwell for conspiring with sex predator Jeffrey Epstein. Trump said: “I wish her well, frankly.”
He bragged that he received “the highly honored Bay of Pigs award” from Cuban Americans in Florida. There’s no such award.
He retweeted a GOP pol's post suggesting duct-taping Nancy Pelosi’s mouth so “she won’t be able to drink booze on the job as much.”
After a 75-year-old social justice protester in Buffalo, NY, was shoved to the ground by police and suffered a fractured skull, Trump suggested it was a “set-up” by “an antifa provocateur.” Trump tweeted that the activist “fell harder than [he] was pushed.”
A 1973 New York Times story said Trump “graduated first in his class” from Penn’s Wharton School. Nope. It was an early case of media swallowing Trump lies.
He said about Covid in June 2020, “If we stopped testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any.”
He encouraged police to be more violent. After describing how police put their hand over a suspect’s head to prevent injury as they’re loaded into a police car, Trump said, “You can take the hand away, OK?”
He lied that Obama spied on his campaign.
He said: “We will be ending the AIDS epidemic shortly in America and curing childhood cancer very shortly.”
Trump’s Agriculture Dept. ordered staff to stop referring to "climate change" and call it “weather extremes” instead.
He is selling watches, crypto, and sneakers.
He secretly shipped Covid test equipment to Putin when it was needed in the U.S.
There is credible evidence that Egypt gave Trump's campaign a $10M bribe.
He says he’d withhold aid and let California burn if the governor opposed him politically.
He opened most of Alaska's Tongass National Forest to logging and other development, removing protections for a temperate rainforest. Biden reversed the move.
Trump's coup attempt projected such instability that Gen. Mark Milley assured his Chinese counterpart that the U.S. planned no attack. This infuriated Trump, who suggested Milley deserved execution: “In times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”
As he plotted to keep power despite losing in 2020, Trump considered naming conspiracy crackpot Sidney Powell as a special counsel to "investigate" the nonexistent voter fraud he claimed. Powell later pleaded guilty to conspiring to interfere with an election.
Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bibles were printed in China.
Trump wants to pardon the rioters who beat up police officers at the Capitol.
Trump did nothing but watch for 187 minutes as his followers stormed the Capitol. Why? Because he liked it.
Trump said he'd “withhold aid and let California burn” if the governor didn’t support him politically.
He claimed to have built hundreds of miles of new border wall, but most of it was just repairs to existing sections.
He spread false claims that mail-in voting would lead to massive fraud, even though it’s been used safely for decades.
Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. would lose its energy independence under Biden, even though the U.S. was energy independent before and after his presidency.
He downplayed the importance of wearing masks during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to unnecessary deaths.
Trump hosted super-spreader events during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to multiple outbreaks.
He tried to block the publication of a book by his niece, Mary Trump, which described his unfit mental state and corrupt behavior.
Trump pressured the FDA to speed up the approval of a Covid vaccine for political gain ahead of the 2020 election.
He repeatedly lied about voter fraud to undermine confidence in the 2020 election.
He encouraged his followers to storm state capitals and “fight like hell” to overturn the election results.
Trump attempted to overturn the election results by pressuring Georgia officials to “find” votes in his favor.
He used his presidency to enrich himself by directing government business to his hotels and resorts.
Trump’s administration cut taxes for the wealthy while leaving middle-class and lower-income Americans with a growing national debt.
He separated migrant children from their parents as part of a cruel immigration policy and failed to reunite many families.
Trump praised dictators like North Korea's Kim Jong-un and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, while alienating democratic allies.
He pardoned political allies and criminals, including those convicted of corruption and war crimes.
He repeatedly attacked the media, calling them the “enemy of the people” and undermining free speech.
Trump continued to profit from his businesses during his presidency, violating the emoluments clause.
He refused to condemn white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys, telling them instead to “stand back and stand by.”
He tried to use the Department of Justice as his personal legal defense team, undermining the rule of law.
Trump undermined pandemic relief efforts by refusing to sign stimulus bills until they included unrelated demands.
He attacked democratic institutions, including the FBI and CIA, when they didn’t support his narrative.
Trump criticized peaceful protests against police brutality while encouraging violence by his supporters.
He refused to release his tax returns, breaking decades of tradition and transparency.
Trump suggested delaying the 2020 election, which would have been unconstitutional.
He pressured foreign governments, including Ukraine, to investigate his political rivals, leading to his impeachment.
Trump downplayed the threat of Covid-19 despite knowing how dangerous it was, as revealed by journalist Bob Woodward.
He mocked a reporter with a disability during a campaign rally, showing a lack of basic decency.
Trump’s administration failed to address the growing opioid crisis, leading to more preventable deaths.
He repeatedly insulted veterans and military leaders, calling them “losers” and “suckers.”
Trump attempted to sabotage the U.S. Postal Service ahead of the 2020 election to disrupt mail-in voting.
He refused to support measures to protect against Russian interference in U.S. elections.
Trump tried to pressure governors to reopen their states during the Covid-19 pandemic against public health advice.
He failed to address the rising threat of domestic terrorism, including from right-wing extremists.
Trump repeatedly violated the Hatch Act by using government resources for political purposes.
He ignored intelligence reports about Russian bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Trump’s administration rolled back environmental protections, contributing to climate change and pollution.
He falsely claimed that U.S. troops voted overwhelmingly for him, when military ballots showed otherwise.
Trump pushed baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, including claims of rigged voting machines.
He endorsed violence against protesters, saying “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Trump withdrew from the World Health Organization during a global pandemic, weakening international cooperation.
He promoted unproven Covid-19 treatments like hydroxychloroquine, which endangered public health.
Trump repeatedly lied about his administration’s accomplishments, including jobs created and trade deals made.
He defunded essential public services like the CDC during a public health crisis.
Trump ordered the violent removal of peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square so he could stage a photo-op with a Bible.
He claimed without evidence that wind turbines cause cancer, undermining clean energy efforts.
Trump’s administration ignored early warnings about the Covid-19 pandemic, delaying critical responses.
He sought to criminalize peaceful protests while defending violent actions by his supporters.
Trump tried to politicize the U.S. military by using them to suppress protests against racial injustice.
He insulted John McCain, a decorated war hero, saying he prefers “people who weren’t captured.”
Trump’s handling of natural disasters like Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico was widely criticized for incompetence.
He downplayed the severity of climate change, reversing policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions.
Trump repeatedly undermined the credibility of U.S. elections, a cornerstone of democracy.
He called for imprisoning political rivals, a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.
Trump’s administration failed to protect whistleblowers and actively retaliated against them.
He used his platform to promote dangerous conspiracy theories like QAnon, endangering public safety.
Trump’s trade wars, particularly with China, hurt American farmers and manufacturers.
He falsely claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him, inciting violence and division.
Trump refused to fully divest from his business interests, leading to conflicts of interest throughout his presidency.
His administration’s family separation policy left lasting trauma on thousands of children.
Trump’s reckless foreign policy decisions alienated key allies and damaged the U.S.'s reputation globally.
He attempted to overturn the results of a free and fair election, threatening the future of American democracy.
He bragged that he received “the highly honored Bay of Pigs award” from Cuban Americans in Florida. There’s no such award.
He retweeted a GOP politician's post suggesting duct-taping Nancy Pelosi’s mouth so “she won’t be able to drink booze on the job as much.”
After a 75-year-old social justice protester in Buffalo, NY, was shoved to the ground by police and suffered a fractured skull, Trump suggested it was a “set-up” by “an antifa provocateur.” Trump tweeted that the activist “fell harder than [he] was pushed.”
A 1973 New York Times story said Trump “graduated first in his class” from Penn’s Wharton School. This was false and an early example of media swallowing Trump lies.
He said about Covid in June 2020, “If we stopped testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any.”
He encouraged police to be more violent, saying: “You can take the hand away, OK?” when discussing how suspects are loaded into police cars.
He lied that Obama spied on his campaign.
He said: “We will be ending the AIDS epidemic shortly in America and curing childhood cancer very shortly.”
Trump’s Agriculture Department ordered staff to stop referring to "climate change" and call it “weather extremes” instead.
In unprecedented behavior for a presidential hopeful, he is selling watches, crypto, and sneakers.
He secretly shipped Covid test equipment to Putin when it was needed in the U.S.
There is credible evidence that Egypt gave Trump's campaign a $10 million bribe.
He opened most of Alaska's Tongass National Forest to logging and other development, removing protections for a temperate rainforest. Biden reversed the move.
Trump's coup attempt projected such instability that Gen. Mark Milley assured his Chinese counterpart that the U.S. planned no attack. This infuriated Trump, who suggested Milley deserved execution, saying, “In times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”
As he plotted to keep power despite losing in 2020, Trump considered naming conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell as a special counsel to "investigate" the nonexistent voter fraud he claimed. Powell later pleaded guilty to conspiring to interfere with an election.
Trump’s “God Bless the USA” Bibles were printed in China.
Trump wants to pardon the rioters who beat up police officers at the Capitol.
Trump did nothing but watch for 187 minutes as his followers stormed the Capitol. Why? Because he liked it.
To fill out 200 examples, several of these were repeats. Including more than once.
I only point that out because there were so many possibilities to make it a nice round 200 with no repeats. And leaving plenty of leftovers for a second list.
Any single one of those 200 reasons is good enough for me. Here is another one: Kamala Harris is the alternative candidate!!