"Do you have anything to do with your life besides hate on Trump?”

A real question from a Trump supporter

Have you ever had someone comment on one of your Facebook posts, and it makes you scratch your head? That happened to me last week.

An acquaintance, a young woman who did my exercise class more than 15 years ago (I think), commented on a post I shared last week. If I’ve interacted with her on Facebook, I have no memory of it. And certainly I haven’t spoken to her face-to-face since she quit the class. Her comment was attached to my post from May 2nd that cataloged Donald Trump’s sexual assaults with documentation of those assaults. ( https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10227011012772592&set=a.1346738999860 )

She complimented my writing—I was unaware that she reads what I write. But she was very complimentary and kind. And then she asked: “Do you have anything to do with your life besides hate on Trump?”

Honestly, my first reaction to the question was grievous disappointment. “Why would any woman defend a serial rapist?”

I also felt insulted by the question.

This question would have been 100 times more appropriate and respectful for her to ask: “Tony, I respect you and your education and experience, so would you explain why you have such disdain for Donald Trump?”

In almost 10 years, not one Trump supporter has asked me that. But I have asked plenty of them to explain why they support such a person. The answers have either not been forthcoming, or the answers were so fantastical it was hard for me to believe a person with eyes to see and ears to hear could be so deaf and blind.

I tried to explain the question that was unasked. I asked her to think about something she is an expert in. This was what I wrote to her:

“I’ve tried to diversify my life’s experiences and education. I started teaching American history and American government in 1986. I have a PhD in American history. I came from a patriotic family with a male member of my family in the military going back 100 years. My two sons are on active duty now. My oldest is in his 25th year.

“I say all of that to explain that my understanding of American history, American government, and the military’s role in domestic and foreign policy just might be different from most people’s. Statistically, I’m in a 2% category of Americans with my background, that makes my perspective different from 98% of the people you know.

“I read my first book about Donald Trump in 1991. By the summer of 2019, I had read every book Trump says he wrote and every book written about him. He’s a morally bankrupt person, totally depraved. There’s a good reason why 90% of his former White House cabinet and staff from 2016 to 2020 refused to endorse him in 2024. His former Chief of Staff said that Trump is the most flawed person he’s ever met and that his capacity for dishonesty has no limit.

“So, imagine if someone was wrecking the thing you’re an expert in. Imagine someone so incompetent that they took control of everything you hold dear and set it on fire, sure that the light and heat from the fire would be glorious. Then imagine trying to explain to someone who doesn’t have your expertise and your perspective that such a person was ruining what you committed your life to preserving. And then imagine that person asking you why you’re so upset when they themselves clearly don’t understand what is happening.

“What’s happening in our country has never happened in 250 years of American history. Unchecked, these are the last days of American democracy. I can explain that to you, but I can’t understand it for you.

“In addition to my sons, I also have a daughter-in-law in the Marines. The Commander in Chief, our president, can, with a phone call, send them anywhere at any time without anyone’s permission.

“Instead of picking up his cell phone at 2 AM and writing some indecipherable nonsense on Truth Social, he can call his gin-blossom-frat-boy at the Department of Defense and tell that imbecile to send a strike force to (pick a country) and attack them. And no one can stop him. He can have those troops engaged for 90 days before Congress must approve. You know what can happen in 90 days?

“In 90 days, several hundred American troops could die in Trump’s folly. And then America will feel the need to exact revenge.

“I have more skin in the game than anyone I know, and Trump is unfit and too stupid to send my family into another asinine republican war.

“You ask me, ‘Do you have anything to do with your life besides hate on Trump?’

“To answer your question, yes, I do have things in my life besides exposing the character flaws of Donald Trump and this administration.

- I’ve been trying to write a book about Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

- I’ve been trying to make progress reading the list of “100 Books Everybody Should Read.”

- I’m studying to take the highest Japanese language proficiency exam in December.

- I meet with a Japanese tutor twice a week to augment my self-study.

- I usually take two classes at the U of M, mostly philosophy and political science.

- I write an essay on Substack at least once a week, sometimes more.

- I’m working on a YouTube channel. (More work and tech than I thought!)

- I’m trying to figure out how to make a podcast.

- I try to play chess once or twice a week.

- I have a wonderful wife who enjoys my company.

- Chewie, our amazing dog, occupies a good part of my day!

- I have seven grandchildren! One of my grandsons is a starting pitcher for Houston High School’s baseball team, #6 Isaiah Ludlow—a junior this year.

- I usually read three books a week, none of them novels. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

- I still lead my boot camp classes in the early morning (5:30 and 6:45).

- I backpack, camp, and travel.

- And I try to keep up correspondence with friends and family.

So, yeah, I do have other things in my life.

“If you should find my commentary about the crisis in our country and our government to be bothersome or annoying, you could chalk it up to a worried expert who is also a father and father-in-law of loved ones in uniform who could be forced to man Trump’s front line. You could sympathize with me, that’s what a friend would do. Or, you could ignore me. But if you knew what I know, you’d sound the alarm day and night.”

She responded by saying, “Everyone already knows you hate Trump, so why keep telling us?”

And that’s a fair point.

Imagine you’re in the beginning stages of battling cancer and you need surgery. The problem is that, for whatever reason, it’s impossible to operate on you until November 2026.

But by then, you might be dead.

Will there be any country left to save in November 2026?

My only hope?

Trump is 78 years old.

終