"perhaps Stu doesn't respect anyone - how can we know. we've never met him."

Not true!

I have huge amounts of respect for lots of people, including many on this forum (including Teribus, when he's not being insulting). I just don't respect people simply because they have a title, they have to be decent people. It's not the office of POTUS that demands respect, it's the POTUS themselves. So given the way Trump conducts himself, his attitude and his actions I have zero respect for him, not a jot. Now the Obamas, despite being flawed (cos they're human) I have a huge amount of respect for, both as POTUS and first lady and as human beings.

I really don't see the issue with this. If you meet someone you don't know you treat them with respect and accept them with an open mind of course, but if after a while they turn out to be a bit of a knob, do they deserve your respect regardless?