I’d like to start this off with an obligatory disclaimer that you lovely readers have grown so accustomed to seeing in these columns: I don’t want to keep writing columns about Donald Trump. I don’t want to hear his name. In fact, I don’t want to breathe the same air as His Orangeness.

Recently, it seems as if my columns and writing have become consumed by all things Trump; I guess that makes sense when the entire country has been consumed by him and his absurd, preposterous governance that made Mussolini seem like Mother Teresa (kidding). I’m tired of seeing his face every time I turn on the television or in the reflection of a nearby pond.

His face and god-awful hair are my Rorschach test. I’ve become the very thing I swore to destroy.

But more than anything else that has tired me as of late — more than anything that has made these less than two weeks feel like two years — there is one thing I am more tiresome of than any: people telling me to give Trump a chance.

This request has died down somewhat since the arrival of Trump’s executive order to ban Muslims (don’t say it’s anything other than such) from entering the U.S. via certain countries and whatever other craziness happened this week (I’m losing track).

But time and again, I’m hearing people and seeing posts on social media asking others to give this man the good-hearted chance to win over the American people, as if he’s done so much to deserve it.

And you know what I say to that? Hell. No.

Because for the last eight years I, and many others, had to listen to these same people blast former President Barack Obama over every single detail of his presidency. I watched eight years of Congress and others in government repeatedly block any legislation Obama attempted to pass.

I repeatedly listened to the erroneous claims that he was not a U.S. citizen and other claims about his birth certificate, most notably from Trump himself. I watched as people who have shown more respect for Trump in the last two weeks than they did Obama in the eight years prior ask to show decency to a man who is anything but.  

As I write this, Trump’s press secretary and personal doormat Sean Spicer is asking the Senate and the press to support Trump’s appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet, Republicans repeatedly blocked President Obama’s attempt to appoint Merrick Garland to the same position for almost an entire year.

But since your party’s head is in office, I and others are supposed to suddenly accept his appointment? I’m good on that one, thanks.

The point of this column, as some of you may fail to realize, is not to incessantly bash Republicans, because that doesn’t solve anything at this point. Believe it or not, I know some of them and they’re good people!

The fact of the matter is this man has done nothing to warrant my, or anyone else’s, respect or admiration in his young presidency. This man, who throws around executive orders like Aaron Rodgers throws touchdowns, has repeatedly shown that this is nothing more than a game to him. Nothing more than a reality show at the highest possible level for people like me to take the bait and write 700 word columns about.

Obama’s tenure as president was far from perfect and he’s not without his criticisms. But if he had done anything that Trump has done within the first few days as president or during his campaign, he would have been chastised beyond all belief, ridiculed to no end.

So please, stop asking me to give Donald Trump a chance.

Forgive me for not finding it appropriate or acceptable that the president of the United States tweeted the words “World War III,” said “go nuclear” in his latest comments and somehow managed to make Black History Month about “the dishonest media.”

Does not supporting him mean I want to see this country crumble into a barren wasteland via nuclear fallout? Of course not.

It means I’ll extend the same courtesy to Trump as so many of you did to Obama for all those years until he does something to earn it. And while I’m betting on the Super Bowl this weekend, I wouldn’t put a dime on that even if you gave me the points.

God, I miss writing about sports. 

Matt Poe is a columnist, contact him at [email protected].