Donald Trump’s Reddit AMA

Donald Trump’s reddit fanbase has always been particularly rabid, particularly within the confines of the site itself. Notorious for banning dissent and ‘brigading’ other subreddits with vitriol; of particular note was their conflict with r/Sweden in April of this year. Finally, Donald Trump himself has decided to grace r/the_donald with his presence, conducting an ‘AMA’, reddit’s popular Question and Answer format. As of writing, the thread has over 23,000 comments.

Note: Although Trump was definitely handled throughout the AMA, I refer to his media team as ‘Trump’ for the purpose of expedience. This article makes no claims at objectivity.

First Response

Here, Donald Trump is asked five questions. He chooses to respond to only two of them. He must have read all five; Donald Trump isn’t the sort to skip to the end without reading the entire question.

His first response is essentially a non-answer. What is his campaign doing to ensure that the election is fair? Well, “authorities must be vigilant”, and voter fraud is “a serious concern”. Not really a response though, is it?

His second response is patently incorrect — the U.S.S.R led space exploration until December 1968, when Apollo 8 orbited the Moon.

We’re off to a cracking start.

Second Response

Mr. Trump is concerned about media bias and the “total dishonesty” of the press. For the first time, we may believe the same thing about a particular issue. Again, however, Donald does not respond to the question being asked — he offers no response for tackling media elites, except the typical platitude about “new media” being the new vanguard of “the truth”.

Which isn’t to say anything about the fact that social media may, in fact, further increase political polarization, as we move in smaller and smaller digital circles and get our news from people with the same opinions as ourselves.

Moving on.

Third Response

Donald Trump wants to remove the influence of money on politics.

Donald Trump’s net worth is $4.5 billion. The Clinton’s last public disclosure lists $53 million in assets.

Fourth Response

Trump drives home his opposition to Hillary Clinton by using the phrase “exact opposite”.

Donald Trump’s Immigration Reform platform is here, for those interested. It starts promising enough;

“A nation without borders is not a nation.”

A sound principle.

“There must be a wall across the southern border.”

Aaaaand you’ve lost me.

Fifth Response

An actual answer to a question, and it only took twenty minutes and 15000 questions being asked. Trump’s amazing new plan involves neo-liberal reforms to further increase “choice and competition” in the field of health insurance, because everyone knows the best and most efficient healthcare systems world-wide involve a lot of competition. Like France, where the majority of claims are paid for by the government. Or Italy, with universal healthcare.

Sixth Response

This questions asks why Hillary Clinton is not doing press conferences. It has indeed been a while since Hillary’s last press conference. However, it’s not exactly like the media has stopped talking about her. She hasn’t refused to answer questions any more or less than Donald Trump has, as evident in this very thread alone.

Seventh Response

No snark here, except to note that this may be the only genuine sentiment expressed by Donald Trump in the past twenty years.

Eighth Response

What about FDR, Trump? Bear-wrestling, Depression-crushing, Axis-beating FDR?

Ninth Response

Oh-no-a-Bernie-bro-they-were-the-fifth-column-all-along

Tenth Response

Hah.

Eleventh Response

Trump will create millions of new jobs (how?), reform education (how?) and reduce debt (how?).

Final Response

Americans are tired of “corrupt politicians”. Hillary’s message is “that things will never change”.

Look, here’s her husband pushing that message.

Oh, actually, he calls her “the best darn change-maker I’ve ever met in my entire life”. Which, whether or not they’re his words or her speechwriters, definitely seems like her message is not “things will never change”.

Donald Trump, however, the billionaire capitalist, is going to “return the government to the people”.

And that’s a wrap. Thanks for following, everyone.