On Sept. 8, Donald Trump reiterated his earlier declaration that he plans to vote “yes” on Florida’s upcoming ballot measure to legalize cannabis. He did this on Truth Social, the site that has a higher proportion of reactionaries among its members than Twitter (or “X”) now has under Elon Musk’s stewardship.
Trump elaborated on his “stance”:
“As I have previously stated, I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” some staffer wrote using Trump’s account login. “We must also implement smart regulations, while providing access for adults, to safe, tested product. As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November.”
And:
“As President, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws, including safe banking for state authorized companies, and supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws, like in Florida, that work so well for their citizens.”
None of that, of course, means anything at all and anyone who might be tempted to vote for Trump because of it is a potential sucker. That’s because Trump doesn’t actually take “stances.” Or anyway, when he does, he might easily take the opposite stance later that same day, depending on how people reacted previously or his mood, or what some guy said to him minutes earlier, or just what he thinks will sound good in the moment.
The media, naturally, framed the story as a set of serious policy proposals issued by a normal, sane candidate, and not as what they are: the mindless jabbering of a lunatic criminal whose brain is melting, posting on a social-media site populated by reactionary dead-enders.
CNN went so far as to declare that cannabis represents “a rare area of agreement between Trump and his opponent in November” and noted that Kamala Harris also favors legalization, pardons for pot crimes, etc.
The Harris camp days earlier had issued a memo noting Trump’s many “brazen flip-flops” on the cannabis issue (and many other issues). Sure, he favors decriminalization (or legalization) now, the Harris campaign declared in the memo, but “his own Justice Department cracked down on marijuana offenses,” as when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the feds were free to bust legal pot operations in states with legal weed.
But “flip-flops” probably isn’t the best frame through which to view Trump’s statements. It makes him sound like a serious person who thinks in a traditional way about how his utterances will be received by the electorate. But Trump doesn’t do that at all. He says whatever sounds good in his head at a given moment.
Sessions, a lifelong drug warrior, actually cared about the cannabis issue (in a bad but sincere way). Donald Trump doesn’t give a shit about it, or about anything that doesn’t affect him personally, or his chances of winning. If some prohibitionist Republican were to get Trump on the phone at the right time and talk to him in the right way, Trump could very easily change his mind completely. He’s done it countless times on countless issues.
Harris has been characterized as having “flip-flopped” on the issue. But her “flip-flopping” looks more like evolution. She busted people as a prosecutor for simple possession (which Trump—who hired Jeff Sessions, remember—has made sure to note) but now she favors reform. She’s thought about the issue and about how voters feel about it and, over time, she changed her mind. That’s what politicians are ideally supposed to do.
Weirdly enough, there are still a lot of people deciding between the two candidates in this election. Estimates put the number at about 15% of the electorate. If any of them are looking for the stances of the candidates on a particular issue—like cannabis—they will find them on the Harris side. They will never find them on the Trump side. We know what Harris thinks. Trump doesn’t think anything at all.
