Norm Coleman: I will never vote for Donald Trump

I won't vote for Donald Trump.

I won't vote for Donald Trump because of who he isn't.

He isn't a Republican. He isn't a conservative. He isn't a truth teller.

He's not a uniter. Donald Trump isn't the leader America needs after eight years of a president who deliberately divided us and fanned the flames of racial and socioeconomic strife — and, by doing so, diminished America's standing in the world.

I also won't vote for Donald Trump because of who he is.

A bigot. A misogynist. A fraud. A bully.

Who Donald Trump is should have been at the core of his campaign for president of the United States.

Instead, what Trump wanted us to believe is a marketing package that has been sold to the American people.

He is accused of stealing $40 million from thousands of fellow Americans through a phony "college" — promising opportunity to achieve the American Dream. He has left in his wake failed enterprises such as Trump Airlines, Trump Mortgage and Trump Vodka. His multiple corporate bankruptcies have left scores of "little guys" — suppliers — with unpaid bills. He is not to be trusted with billions of dollars from the hardworking labor of millions of other fellow Americans.

When a man mocks the disabled, dismisses the valor and honor of America's veterans, such as Sen. John McCain, and defames the last Republican commander-in-chief, he is not to be trusted to lead our nation's military in times of peace or war.

There is a coarseness to Trump that degrades the political discourse, such as when he calls women "fat pigs" or attacks a female reporter by a not-so-subtle reference to her menstrual cycle.

And any man who declines to renounce the affections of the KKK and David Duke should not be trusted to lead America. Ever.

We have been deceived by a con artist. A fraud wrapped in the veneer of being a businessman, who has slapped a slogan on a baseball cap and is closer to being president of the United States than any bigot, misogynist, fraud and bully in modern American history.

Republican leaders are to blame. Of this there is no doubt. Republicans like me and others who could not believe or comprehend that anyone would take Donald Trump seriously.

Republicans like me and others who did not understand just how angry, bitter, frustrated and anxious millions of Americans are about the future of our nation and their own economic and personal safety.

Americans are hungry for a strong leader. And yes, Trump projects strength. But his embrace of Putin, his lauding the butchery of Tiananmen Square, and the praise he evokes from French fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen — the founder of France's National Front — and American fascist David Duke, signal a strength that is inconsistent with American ideals of justice and liberty.

It's still not too late to stop Donald Trump from winning the GOP nomination for president. I am an optimist and still hope that millions of Americans supporting Trump today will tomorrow recognize the poison in who he is. There are many delegates still to be chosen.

But it's also not too late for me and others to make it clear that under no circumstances will we support Donald Trump for president.

Who my choice may be if Donald Trump is the standard-bearer under the rules of the Republican Party, I do not know. I know it won't be Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

And I know it will never be Donald Trump.

When Trump refused to condemn the embrace of the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke and then tried to blame his moral failing on a faulty earpiece, it became clear that it is not in his ear where there is a problem — it is in his heart.

It is said that our leaders are a reflection of who we are.

If we believe that, then people like Donald Trump will fall.

If not, then people like Donald Trump will rise up, and like every fascist before them, will lead a nation to its doom.

America is a great nation. We were a great nation long before Donald Trump sold us on a slogan — and we can be a great nation without Trump's false promises built on a legacy of fiction.

Keep America great.

Fire Donald Trump.

Norm Coleman is a former U.S. senator from Minnesota.