Robert FathmanMary Kilpatrick, cleveland.com
DUBLIN, Ohio — Robert Fathman is a 71-year-old grandfather who isn’t expecting anything good from President Donald Trump.
“My expectations are for dismal results,” he said. “I think he will continue to be a divisive influence in our nation. He will alienate vast swaths of people. I don’t think he’s going to change his stripes. I think he will continue to be insulting.”
Fathman is married with four children, and five grandchildren. He’s a semi-retired psychologist and still sees patients once a week.
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The mental-health professional said he’s concerned about Trump’s tendencies to repeat lies.
“It worries me about his mental health. That in his judgment, that he continues to flout the truth by saying things that are known lies, and he repeats them over and over,” Fathman said. “So I think to myself: What kind of a person does that? It’s somebody with sociopathic tendencies who tends to believe their own reality, believe their own truth. And here he is heading up our government, and repeating stupid lies.”
Trump’s policies concern Fathman, too. He’ll watch to see if Trump can earn Congress’ support.
He said he believes in free trade, and is concerned by Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“It’s not going to help jobs, it’s going to hurt jobs as we start building walls with our trading partners. And we lose more and more respect from other countries,” Fathman said.
His daughter uses the Affordable Care Act for her insurance, and he said he’s concerned, not only for her, but for the millions of Americans who rely on the program for coverage. He travels abroad frequently — he’s visited 47 countries — and said he faces questions from foreigners about America’s uneven healthcare polices.
“It has long been an embarrassment to me as a world traveler to go to other countries and have to field questions from foreigners who live in counties where everyone is covered with universal health insurance,” he said.
Though he didn’t think the Affordable Care Act was perfect, he’s worried about the alternative under Trump.
“My expectation is that we’re going to have millions and millions of people that have been temporarily covered who will not be covered, and that will suffer. Betexper Suffer death, illness and family problems because of that,” he said.
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