[meowface]

I agree the post is overly politicized and biased towards Trump, but I think a strong argument could be made that Obama's reasons for and uses of expanded intelligence capabilities may turn out to be less concerning than Trump's. (Not to defend Obama's intelligence expansion.)

[oh_sigh]

Why would you assume that? Is it more than just you like Obama, and don't like Trump?

[meowface]

I suppose in some sense it amounts to that at a very fundamental level (though I wouldn't really say I "like" Obama).

But, worded more eloquently, I think that Trump's ego, insecurity, arrogance, and overall personality makes him more likely to abuse his power; especially for petty or vindictive reasons.

Not incredibly more likely. I don't think he's going to call the NSA director and ask him to spy on an ex-wife or something (probably...). I just think Obama respected the gravitas of his position more.

[dsfyu404ed]

> makes him more likely to abuse his power; especially for petty or vindictive reasons

And everyone around him knows this and wouldn't hesitate to say "don't f*ing do it, the media will crucify you if you do and they hear about it"

Trump also doesn't have a good relationship with the intelligence agencies.

There's two sides to the coin. I think the fact that Trump does not have a good working relationship with these agencies is probably a good thing.

[zachkatz]

Yeah, the media's been pretty lax on the guy! /s

I don't disagree, though. I just think the media cried wolf too many times and they're not a real threat anymore.

It really comes to this: Deep down, is Trump a good guy or not? Who knows?

[oxide]

You don't become successful in a city like NYC by being a good guy, you do it by being cutthroat. I'm not saying successful people are always bad people, of course. I mean, he hasn't exactly lived out of the public eye up until this point.

As an aside, from what I can tell he seems to not realize the power of his words as President, or the consequences of certain actions in the realm of politics.

After taking credit for good things happening he had nothing to do with, I nautrally wonder how much credit he will take if things don't pan out as he plans.

The buck stops with him, I don't think that has fully sunk in during this past 90 days or so of his adminstration.

Only time will tell.

[cmdrfred]

His children know and they seem to like the guy.

[zachkatz]

Fair point, but one could also hypothesize that his children are "in on it" and/or "bad," whatever that means.

[eksemplar]

Well for one, Trump doesn't seem to understand how the law or even democracy functions. I mean, you can't bully the courts to get your way, and you run votes on legislation when you've secured the necessary votes through comprise.

Failing to understand such basic concepts would make me extremely concerned about giving the man access to anything.

[COGlory]

Obama did both those things that you mentioned, routinely. I don't think they're good examples.