Would You Have Voted For Trump If You’d Seen This Future?

Set your mind back to November 4, 2024, one day before the presidential election.

I know. That’s hard.

Imagine that you were about to vote for Donald Trump for president.

I know. That’s even harder.

But if we can do time travel, then surely we can adopt the mindset of the 77 million people who chose to vote for Trump about 15 months ago.

If, on November 4, you’d been able to see the future, would you have cast your ballot the same way?

If you had known that, upon taking office, Trump would immediately pardon 1,600 of the January 6 rioters, would that have made a difference to you?

Suppose you had known that Trump would support the idea of setting up a “compensation fund” to reimburse the rioters who had lost income or paid fines because of their conduct? Still voting for Trump?

Suppose you had known that Trump was going to fire 17 inspectors general on his fifth day in office in his second term? That’s an awful lot of lawlessness. Do I have you yet?

Suppose you knew that, as part of his crackdown on illegal immigrants, Trump would have thousands of masked federal agents storming around American cities, and those agents would have shot (and killed) some American citizens? Is the name “Kamala Harris” starting to sound acceptable?

Suppose you knew that Russia’s rate of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine would increase for the first year Trump was in office, rather than drop to zero because Trump had ended the war on his first day in office, as he promised?

Suppose you knew that, after Trump had been in office for a year, the inflation rate would be essentially the same as it had been when Trump was campaigning on the promise of reducing the rate of inflation “very quickly“?

Or suppose you’re a supporter of Palestine, living in Michigan, and your vote helped Trump to win that state in 2024. Suppose you were figuring no one could be as bad for your cause as Joe Biden had been. Are you still voting for Trump despite what you’ve seen happen for the last year?

Suppose you knew that Trump would have approved airstrikes or bombing operations in seven foreign countries during his first year in office? Does that conflict with your “America first” priorities?

Suppose you knew that tariffs would have jumped from about 2.5% (on average) to about 18% (on average) during Trump’s first year?

That Trump would have threatened to invade Greenland, prompting our NATO allies to send troops to the country to help defend it in case of American attack?

That the value of the dollar would have crashed 10% against the euro during Trump’s first year in office?

That the United States would be on the verge of losing measles elimination status, which it had held since 2000, as a result of the pockets of unvaccinated people around the country?

That two members of the Federal Reserve Board would be the subject of federal criminal investigations?

That Trump would sue his own government — the IRS — for $10 billion in damages supposedly inflicted on Trump when his income tax records had been leaked during his first term?

That the East Wing of the White House would have been torn down?

That the U.S. economy would have lost 68,000 manufacturing jobs during Trump’s first 12 months in office?

That the U.S. Agency for International Development would have been gutted, and thousands of people would have died as a result, at Trump’s command?

That the National Institutes of Health would have been gutted?

That Trump would replace the board of the Kennedy Center and the new board would choose to rename the building the “Trump – Kennedy Center”?

That the United States would have attacked, without showing probable cause or giving warning, boats sailing off Venezuela, killing the crew members on board, and later attacked Venezuela and abducted President Nicolas Maduro without congressional approval?

Did your bingo card capture all these thoughts?  

Or are you gonna need a bigger card?

Was your wildest imagination wild enough?

And, last but not least, do you regret your vote?

C’mon.

A little bit?

Would Kamala Harris really have been this bad?

---

Mark Herrmann spent 17 years as a partner at a leading international law firm and later oversaw litigation, compliance and employment matters at a large international company. He is the author of The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law and Drug and Device Product Liability Litigation Strategy (affiliate links). You can reach him by email at [email protected].