"It's a Brazil thing"

There´s no perfect president. Everyone has his own weakness and strength. If you ask me, I want a strong economy where our people has jobs to support their families.
Trump is doing just that. I can´t complain. I wish that all our armed forces were all home, enjoying our success domestically and not being bothered protecting other
countries. These countries should fend for themselves, but being the strongest military and a country with a lot of clout overseas, they seek our help for their
problems´solutions. And when we do our job, many countries are quick to scorn and condemn us as imperialist yankees, shameless capitalist, bigot, opportunists, war monger and no good for nothing Gringos. Damned if you do and also damned if you   
don´t. We might as well go home, mind our business and only stay in, protecting our country. That would be billions of dollars saved for our citizens. They designate us as the policeman of the world; we lost a lot of American lives protecting them, and what we get are many thankless people from many countries.

People are quick to condemn us. All countries should look at their past to see first if what  they´re describing as a stupid, no good for nothing is actually them. Have you looked at previous Brazil´s presidents and their governments? How about the present one?
How about the rest of Latin America and also Africa?

Compared to them other countries, my friend, I´m the proudest of all Americans!

robal

Yup, happens way to often for me and my personal privacy and the protection of it. That's why both myself and wife tell people that i am Canadian (which in my case is true) but solves this issue immediately. I'm not into defending or justifying my personal beliefs nor the beliefs and or actions of anyone. Brazillian people have to clean their own house with all the political corruption and defending people like Lula (convicted of bribery and taking money) before they have any moral high ground on lecturing me or any other American. But to spare hurt feelings of others, I just honestly tell em I'm Canadian and leave out being an American also

Yesterday I was going to tell a Brazilian friend to not throw stones from a glass house but my wife stopped me. Brazilians do express their high opinion against our president and I do want to respond but try to keep my mouth shut. I do not express any political opinions of Brazil, I'm not a citizen...yet.

Mike,
No where did I say I was ashamed of being American. I actually alluded to the opposite with what  I said about not wanting to hurt others feelings...if and when I do get placed in a corner and am forced to defend Trump or being American, my blunt tounge and blunt words hurt these people's feelings.
I never hide the fact that I am a retired US Marine Corps Officer, and when people in Brazil are bright enough to link that with being an American as well as Canadian and then when they try to shame me, my bluntness comes out and my feelings and usually I in turn shame the shamed and their feelings are hurt. To avoid this, especially with family of my wife, we try to avoid such convos with telling them I am Canadian and hope they don't continue on with their ignorant and stupid ANTI Trump and America comments...if they continue with these to me, I tell them the truth as i see it, and kindly ask them to refrain from this issue of conversation in future

3% per quarter, the same as it was under President Obama except the GOP always complained that was too low when he was in office.  The GOP also mentioned nothing about the stock market, where records fell regularly, when Obama was in office.  trump has done nothing. He's been able to accomplish nothing except divide the country. I'm not proud of that. I'm not proud that my fellow countrymen elected a *** who thinks everyone is attacking him all the time and then lashes out like a child in retaliation. I was proud when we had an adult in office.

How is that so called article you were writing? The country was divided during and by the last administration.

This yo-yo argument about divisions... The US and any country will always be divided. It´s impossible to please everyone!

Trump is trying to bring companies back from overseas for more jobs in the US. Corporate tax breaks on US operations... Also the cash stashed overseas by corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Procter & Gamble etc. are given a 10% tax break. At least a trillion dollars! I´m bullish on the dollar! Anyone investing in FOREX?

Americans should also expect increased revenue through increased taxes on imported goods from other countries. I hope he´ll also hit Brazil because of Brazil´s practice to levy heavy taxes on American goods. Sorry Ljd, Canada has already been hit with higher taxes that enter the US. This is the president that we want as US citizens. He´s a nationalist and this change is welcomed by many people.

He can be immature by some people´s opinions and the irony is that he is a billionaire who also doesn´t accept a penny as salary to serve his country. But he´s surrounded by very intelligent and expert advisors not to mention the very clever generals and a very able NSA chief Gen. McMaster to guide him to do the right thing. Attitudes like that that Trump possess is very alarming to North Korea! Perhaps the idea of NATO as now irrelevant is true because the world has changed. We shoulder the most burden in supplying the fighting men needed for defense aside from contributing the most funds for NATO. Germany and France is below the ideal threshold including many more countries. China and Russia as permanent members of the Security Council has hampered a lot of actions that could have been implemented years back on rogue nations like North Korea, Iran and Syria because of their veto power. Perhaps on another aspect, we also should get out of NATO altogether and create a new alliance to be able to do more worldwide or negotiate the status quo to improve efficiency and monetary balance of expense.

Trump is still our president chosen by the majority of our people and therefore should be respected.

robal

He was chosen by the majority of electoral votes, not the majority of voters. He lost that by more than 3 million votes. I'm guessing that if a presidential election were to be held today, the electoral vote would be very different and the popular vote would be a landslide.

How does the election process work in America Mike of SP? Our founding fathers established this system so the large metropolitan areas would not control the country. The majority or popular vote means absolutely nothing. Plus, you have no idea what the outcome would be today and the majority of my friends that are Trump supporters are not wavering. I would assume the heartland silent majority (electoral) would show up again to cast their votes. I think the man is doing an awesome job with the shit sandwich he was served and all the bullshit that is said about him daily. Go back to writing your so called articles.

I should have specified electoral votes as each member state represented by electors
cast their ballots by the the number of senators and representatives of their state.

I do remember that Trump lost in California.

By any means, Trump is doing a great job. North Korea, for 25 years, has escaped the process that Trump is doing now. Trade imbalances are being dealt with and US companies are being given tax breaks so they return home, giving employment to Americans.

With his performance now, I don´t think ANYTHING would change. I think it would even improve.
Yes, he tweets which is out of the norm for a president. I guess it´s his way to mass communicate.
There is no school for would be presidents so they all come AS IS!

robal

LOL

Hi everyone,

Let's keep politics out of this, it's not the subject here.

@Mike in Sao Paulo, nearly 6 months after your initial post, how are things going with your family ? Did you notice any improvement ?

Are there other expats who can relate to Mike's situation and how did you overcame such circumstances ?

Feel free to share

Thank you

Chris
Expat.com

Thank you, Christopher,

I am here to help people with advice and to share my experiences relevant to Brazil. It really disappoints me to see these discussions about politics and then the insults back and forth. Thank you so much for your intervention.

Jim

Hi Chris.

6 months after my original post, the wife's son is out of the picture, but not for the reasons I gave.

He sold a piece of property here in town shortly before I traveled to visit my family. He immediately moved himself and his sister's family into a somewhat nice 2 bedroom with a detached suite house. Then he started shacking up with two different girls and told his daughter that his latest girlfriend was her mommy. He then started picking up his kids and dropping them off to be cared for by his mother and sister and would himself disappear. The latest "gf" has 3 of her own and he now is paying them more attention.

Being screwed over and lied to continually only disappointed my wife and her daughter. But these actions have basically made them tell him that unless and until he becomes a decent dad, they want nothing to do with him.