Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 06/06/25

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336621#Comment_123336621

Believe it or not. I’m still awaiting an “upside” of all of this nonsense - aside that is for billionaires making a stock market killing- but there has to be a silver lining somewhere.

There’s a crtici opportunity here right now - a crossroads - whereby now that America has the attention of the world and less face it the balls of the world in the palm of their hand- they have a prime opportunity to negotiate 100’s of billions in their favour and trillions over time .

I’d really like to know what the experts would say at this point - how could America leverage this situation to actually do some good for the country - we know Trumps claimed plan will do very little and a lot of pain will face the world but including Americans - how could he turn this into a win win?

poop emoji

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336180#Comment_123336180

I think it’s important to highlight that China and most Asians will fight him to bitter end because the concept of saving face and showing respect is so important in their cultures

Hoop66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336587#Comment_123336587

Lot of blue ticks, so probably 50-50 bots/intellectually subnormal.

8-10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336659#Comment_123336659

20 states above the average of 50 states seems like an issue

Field east

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336398#Comment_123336398

better paid less back breaking

If what you say is true then why is Trump UPSETTING THE APPLE TART/CART?

If the economy is experiencing close to full employment, people are on better paid and less back breaking jobs because it has outsourced the production of certain products and by ‘all’ accounts the economy inherited from Biden was said to be in fairly rude health then why did Trump take the proverbial sledge hammer, steam roller, crow bar and scalpel to the economy and turn it completely on it’s head . Did he ever think of ‘building on what is there’?

IMO, what is happening at the moment - AND AGAINST ALL ADVICE EVEN FROM WITHIN HIS OWN PARTY/ BIG BUSINESS SUPPORTERS - proves to me that he is either missing an ESSENTIAL GENE which is vital to the running of a democratic country OR he has an excessive/recessive gene that is bigot interfering with same

8-10

Seems like today will be rebound day in the markets

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336718#Comment_123336718

He thinks everything is zero sum, ie he views the world in a purely transactional way so there is always a winner and a loser. He sees the US running a trade deficit with all these countries and thinks they are somehow losing so hes trying to make them winners again, its a fundamental misunderstanding of global trade because places like Cambodia, Madagascar and Vietnam will never be able to balance their trade with the US and if they somehow magically did it would actually be terrible for the US. In the most basic sense the US is already winning because everyone else makes their stuff for them and they don't have to do it themselves.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336709#Comment_123336709

Welcome to the US. It's a federated republic after all.

Hawaii's always going to be expensive except for pineapples and poi. Alaska too, for anything requiring warm climates.

Living in a small, low population parliamentary democracy isn't the same. It's one of the things I find frustrating when my Irish friends and neighbours try to tell me what it's like in the US when their perceptions and experience are based on the occasional vacation, or even some Visa gig for a few years. It's a very large country with lots of local contributions, good and bad, to the experience.

It's why averages are problematic when talking about the US.

8-10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336748#Comment_123336748

Why can't they balance trade with the US?

Isn't that the whole point? That Americans are buying too much from those countries? So he tariffs them, goods become more expensive, and then Americans buy less of them....closing the deficit

I think people are assuming that he wants the same level of imports from Vietnam and Cambodia as today, but somehow force them to buy the same amount of American goods. It only works if he discourages America from importing

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336758#Comment_123336758

Madagascar produces something like 90% of the worlds vanilla beans but they are poor as sh1t, they cant afford to buy American stuff so the only way to balance trade is to stop selling vanilla beans to the US. No more Vanilla ice cream, vanilla essence, vanilla perfume, hell its even used in some medications.

Someone stupid would argue well the US can just start making their own Vanilla, but much like the factories problem with pharma it would take years, probably a decade or more to get to the farming and production level to even close to what their consumption requires, secondly its hard labour which Americans dont want to do and would demand far higher wages than those in madagascar would for the same work so Vanilla prices will sky rocket.

Neamhshuntasach

Any time I see all this pro Trump nonsense online, I really struggle to believe they correspond to actual real people. It's all just so mental.

8-10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336771#Comment_123336771

77 million actual real votes

Rawr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336758#Comment_123336758

That just isn't how cross-border trade works, but of course Donnie and his gaggle of toadies don't know that.

For example, a 3rd World Nation might have far greater exports of a cash crop to the US compared to anything they themselves can afford to buy from the US. Some stuff will be imported, but nowhere near the same amount. This is normal in a relation between richer and poorer nations. "Trade Balance" is not realisitc, and often not even nessisary.

When 2 First World nations trade in similar goods, then it's often down to market factors such as consumer demand. German cars (for example) are well regarded and are exported to the US. US brands however stuggle in Germany (and Europe as a whole) due to consumer tastes. This is the whole "Free Market Capitalism" thing at play that the GOP used to champion in previous years. More trade goes to the party who know how to market and sell themselves.

Of course, not of this is actually about Trade, or Taxes, or even the US itself. It is about Donnie wanting to be the center of attention, and to have himself styled as The Most Important Person. For the past week or so that's exactly what he's got, but that's also why "negotiations" about these self-destructive tariffs are nearly pointless. Should Donnie ever feel slighted, or less important than he wants to be, he'll just re-apply tariffs or increase them…regardless of any "Deal" he might make.

He might be talking big about China, but what he's done might actually end up being the biggest win that Beijing could ever had hoped for. The world's supply chains are going to bypass Donnie's America, and China is there waiting to take up the remaining slack, cash and influence. Oh…what a "Stable Genuis"…

8-10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336757#Comment_123336757

But I'm not trying to tell you what it's like over there. I made a small statement reacting to a stat posted

Will_I_Amnt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336709#Comment_123336709

Its sort of a mathematical certainty. You expect something near half of something to be above the average of that something. That's what an average is.

Oscar_Madison

Actually I’ve thought of one upside of all of this and it has “green” benefits - an awful lot less useless cheap tat and fast fashion will be purchased, in America at least, due to the tariffs - reuse recycle will be the order of the day - MAGA - the Green Party 😀

looksee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336770#Comment_123336770

Its a bit irrelevant in the wider argument, but you do realise that vanilla essence is synthetic? Given the US food industry's love of chemicals in food they could get by with synthetic vanilla instead of vanilla extract - vanilla extract is actual vanilla, 'essence' and 'flavour' are synthetic.

Will_I_Amnt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336625#Comment_123336625

Since the supreme court election defeat, Musk has been conspicuous by his absence in terms of his physical proximity to Trump. And he's already started to go rogue on the messaging. Imagine what he'll be like when he severs ties with DGE entirely. His criticisms will become frequent and anti Trump media will seek him out.

I predict many of those who were investigating Musks companies but who were fired, will suddenly get their jobs back.

Strazdas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336771#Comment_123336771

The numbers of American MAGA heads cheering on the Trump tariffs on social media is unreal. It's like the biggest religious cult in history. They can't even be debated with, their level of devotion to 'the leader' is something to behold.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336452#Comment_123336452

Wage gaps have grown, but real income is up across all brackets and far more people are earning real higher wages.

There are indeed some problems here, but none of them are related at all to the decline of manufacturing in the US. It is certainly not the reason an electrician is so godawful at budgeting that he can't take sick days while on 90th percentile income. Also, less than 1% of workers are on the federal minimum wage in the US.

Also, the number of people working multiple jobs is high, but it is not higher than in the past. It's pretty much just the long-run average.

The US is an exceptionally rich country. A large majority of people there are exceptionally well off by even western world standards. The bottom percentiles face more hardships than in other countries, but that is nothing new.

Housing I 100% agree is a massive issue, but the decline of domestic manufacturing has nothing to do with perverse zoning laws and other barriers to housebuilding.

The US was always rich, and it got a hell of lot richer for most of its population by buying all their consumer goods cheaper from abroad and transitioning their workforce to more "productive" pursuits. And now they're trying to throw it all away.

Will_I_Amnt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336602#Comment_123336602

What currency would become the new reserve currency. It certainly can't be the Chinese Yuen?

Cookie_Monster

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336578#Comment_123336578

Shipping in the US is weird, only US ships can deliver US port to US port so it simply doesn’t happen on a large scale apart from California to Hawaii as it simply costs far to much to build and crew ships in the US and with Americans so there are next to no US container ships serving global markets.

Plus US ports already cannot take the biggest container ships and need slightly more expensive smaller ships to supply them (some 20% smaller than the largest active today) so it's less of an issue for those companies to simply not worry so much about even supplying the US as much or as a priority and focus on their larger markets, namely European ports. Ultimately though if America wants the goods US consumers will end up paying the fines in vastly inflated prices charged.

Will_I_Amnt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336771#Comment_123336771

The online vitriol against Amy Coney Barrett is gonna get out of hand. She better have a decent level of secret service detail. These people are mental.

ronjo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336935#Comment_123336935

Yeah this is gone way over the top.

The cult 100% feel anyone and everyone whether in Judicial or Legislative should be 100% subservient to Trump with Zero exceptions due to his "overwhelming" mandate

Wolf359f

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336843#Comment_123336843

Or the same MAGA cheering on the tariffs and then unable to understand why the Nintendo switch 2 preorder is unavailable for them. It's a little hard to pre-sell something that Nintendo don't know what tariffs will be applied when they finally ship.

Then you have the other MAGA crowd complaining that high tariffs on China is not what they voted for, despite Trump campaigning on a 60% tariff on China and I think 100% on autos.

Or the other MAGA who cheer on everything Trump does until it affects them, then it's I still support Trump.... But

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336895#Comment_123336895

the Chinese are happier with currency swaps like they've had with Australia for a decade and established with Saudi Arabia last year.

The post WWII elevation of the USD was probably more tied to the global need for oil production, even the Soviets sold oil via the USD.

It's days as a safe haven are definitely passed.

Neamhshuntasach

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336785#Comment_123336785

Indeed.

These Maga cultists are like black holes to me. I know they exist, I've seen the pull they have, how they warp everything around them, suck in reason and facts, and cause chaos around them. But they're so far removed from reality that it feels like they're just a theoretical anomaly rather than actually something real.

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336718#Comment_123336718

The Why is US National Debt. The CBO (US equivalent of our fiscal council) released a report recently with dire warnings around US National Debt with future projections around Debt-GDP ratio and annual budget deficits. I believe they will also hit a debt ceiling soon which will need to be negotiated with Congress.

Anyway, that's they Why. The How they are going to fix it is what's driving Trump since he came to power e.g. DOGE to cut federal/government costs, Tariffs to reduce the trade deficits etc. They need to get their budget deficit down before their debt burden gets out of control.

Will their policies work? Very very very doubtful.

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336771#Comment_123336771

I don't think they're all real… But there are 77m MAGA voters in the united states which represents about 23% of the US population (340m) so some are probably real

8-10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337026#Comment_123337026

A huge proportion, over half, of that 77m are not Maga