Young Men, You Deserve a Hell of a Lot Better Than This

Hey, young men in this country. Heck, young men around the world. Donald Trump is a lousy role model. Donald Trump is a horrible role model. In fact, young men, men in their teens on up to their early 30s, Donald Trump is the absolute worst role model you could have.

It’s Wednesday. A brief Meltdown today on this topic of Trump as a role model. I do a lot of speaking on college campuses, and I speak to a lot of young men. And before I turned on Trump seven years ago, I did a lot of speaking to young men on college campuses. I read an article this morning about how Trump’s numbers among young men, increasingly every year and every election, have increased, have grown. He’s gotten more powerful, more popular with young men in this country.

And I find this to be so sad, so depressing, and so indicative of where we are as a country. And I want to make it a mission of mine over the next year or two—to get the word out as much as I can to young men in this country, to get them to see that Donald Trump is a horrible role model. They have got to do all they can to grow up and be the opposite of Trump, and live lives that are the antithesis of the way that Trump has lived his life.

This was on my mind all morning. Let’s just be clear: Donald Trump is a cheat. He’s utterly corrupt. He’s a pathological liar. He lies every time he speaks. He’s a serial adulterer. He’s cheated on every single one of his wives. He screwed around with a porn star six months after his child was born. He’s horrible to women, has always treated women poorly. A couple dozen women over the years have accused him, credibly, of sexual assault or sexual abuse.

He’s lawless. Trump will break any rule he can break. He will break any law he can break. He’s mean. He’s a jerk. He’s indecent. He’s not trustworthy. He’s cruel. He’s a bully. He targets and picks on people who are not as strong as him. He picks on the weak. He picks on the powerless. He picks on those who aren’t doing well. He picks on the disabled. He’s a bully. He’s a coward.

He never takes responsibility for anything. He never takes accountability for anything. He is the opposite of what a man should be. He’s not loyal. He’s not honest. He’s not trustworthy. He’s a poor sport, maybe history’s biggest poor sport. When he loses, he never congratulates the winner. He’s everything that all of us taught our boys not to be. I have two boys—men now—and he’s everything I taught them not to be. He’s everything you should teach your young men not to be. He’s not a role model.

Listening to a conversation this morning on a podcast I came across—I’m not even going to give you the name—and there were a few young men talking about what a great role model Trump is. And the gist of what I heard was that Trump’s tough. He’s a straight talker. He’s not afraid, and he won’t back down from a fight. Shit like this.

This is what young men now look up to? This is what they revere? Isn’t a man supposed to be honest? Isn’t a man supposed to be decent? Does a man pick on people who are weaker than he is? Does a man lie all the time?

No.

This has got to change. This has got to be different. Donald Trump is no role model for young men. Young men increasingly have gravitated toward him. And I think a lot of that is because young men feel like they are lacking certain things in their lives. They’ve gotten bitter and resentful and all the rest. And they turn to a bully. They turn to a perceived tough guy who they think will get back at the people who have wronged them.

It’s all bullshit. It’s wrong, and it’s dangerous. Trump is not a role model, not for young men, not for any man. And I think all men—especially all of us who are dads, and now I’m a grandfather too—all of us men need to make it our mission to wake our young men up in this country and get them to realize Trump’s no role model. You need to be the opposite of Trump.

Trump is a bad, weak person, and he’s what a man should not be. And that’s what we need to teach our young men. We need to turn this thing around, and it’s going to take principled guys who are not afraid to back down and fight and punch back righteously for a cause, to punch back on this notion that Trump is any kind of a role model. Not at all.

This isn’t be like Mike. This is don’t be like Trump. Don’t be like Trump, young men. Just don’t.

APPEARANCES FROM THE PAST WEEK:

I was thrilled to be a speaker at the Ideas We Should Steal Festival in Philadelphia last week! Here I am pictured alongside my good friend Fred Guttenberg and host Ali Velshi.

INTERVIEWS & QUOTES FROM THE PAST WEEK:

• Trump ‘Looks Like His Goose Is Cooked’ on Epstein Files: Former Republican Congressman —Alternet.org

• Former Republican Lawmaker and Trump Critic Says Greene Has to ‘Prove’ She’s No Longer Committed to Being a ‘Divisive Asshole’ —The Guardian

• Donald Trump Says He Had ‘Standard’ MRI: What We Know —Newsweek

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