Donald Trump Political Views

Trump is never quiet about his opinions and has expressed them openly. Where does Trump stand on the issues and how does he compare to Obama? We'll compare the views from the two vastly different candidates.

On one hand, you have a candidate who is pro-choice, says we 'must have universal healthcare', advocates for a special tax on the wealthy to pay off the nation debt, and has a fairly large ego. On the other side, you have President Obama. Wait, was that a typo? Are these actually Donald's views? Interestingly enough, the Donald has expressed a lot of conflicting views. To be fair, when you are in the public eye most of your life, it is probably easier to contradict yourself. In either case, let's take a closer look at the two candidates.

Trump in general has been quiet on many of the major issues. I suspect this is so he can carefully position his words and intent if he becomes a viable candidate. In other words, don't say something that could come back to haunt you. I personally think Donald is more interested in the publicity than running for President, but who knows, I've been wrong before.

National Debt: Trump once proposed a one time tax of 14% on the wealthy to erase the national debt (the debt was also much lower when he proposed this. Obama acknowledges the need to pay down our debt but continues to put forth large budgets and takes the position that cutting spending too fast and too rigorously could hurt the economy. Obama will most likely try to raise taxes on individuals making over $250k. Trump has not put out an official position on the debt as of late but I'm sure he will eventually.

Size and Role of Government: Obama's policies clearly indicate that he believes in a strong and large government. While he has discussed the need to reduce programs, agencies, and spending, he will most likely have grown government at the end of his term. Trump takes the opposite approach that sees government as a threat. Again, Trump has not put out official positions but several quotes indicate that he is looking to limit government to public utilities and defense.

Healthcare: We know Obama believes health care is a human right and wanted to originally pass a bill that created a private single payer government option. This failed, but massive health care reform was passed. Trump has said in the past that we must have universal health care but has not released an official position on the matter more recently.

Tax Reform: In Obama's state of the union address, he expressed the need to reform the current tax code but has not put out a lot of details on how he plans to do this. He has been clear that closing tax loopholes for corporations is a priority and this has gone to vote (defeated with most Democrats voting to end the loopholes and Republicans voting to keep them by saying it is double taxation). Like Obama, Trump has indicated that he wants to simplify the tax code but is short on details. Trump is however opposed to a flat tax as he says it benefits the wealthy.

Education: Trump and Obama both agree that more competition will help improve schools. Obama has been a supported of charter and magnet schools and Trump seems to indicate he also supports these. Both sides have verbally been tough on the teachers union, although Trump's position is much firmer and more aggressively attacking unions.

Abortion: Trump originally said he was pro-choice back early in the 2000's but has since changed his position to Pro-Life. Obama has long been Pro-Choice but maintains there needs to be some middle ground. I'm not sure exactly what this means but he has used his executive orders to ban federal funds for abortion. Obama's position seems to be pro-choice but also to expand programs to help prevent unwanted pregnancies.

HAIR: (couldn't resist including this) Obama's position on hair is a tight cut and quickly greying roots. Trump's position is to let it run wild and shape it like a bad toupee.

Again, it is my opinion Trump will use his run for president as a way of getting free publicity and not having to spend a dime for lots of airtime. I could be wrong but I don't think you will see him matched up against Obama come 2012. In any case, we can be assured of one thing. If they were to go head to head, the negative campaigning would be at record levels.