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

Cluedo Monopoly · 08-04-2025 02:38PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337909#Comment_123337909

It's South Korea. They are staunch US allies and will absolutely make a deal. You know this.

Tony EH · 08-04-2025 02:38PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337205#Comment_123337205

That would be hilarious.

They've been dying to get into that market for the last decade.

😂

Red Silurian · 08-04-2025 02:40PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337853#Comment_123337853

speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share details on the meeting

That spokesperson sounds believable alright. I guess if you want honesty at a time like this you can absolutely trust the major corporations to not try and squeeze the trading block leaders for more money. We all know how honest the corporations are in fairness

</sarcasm>

Akrasia · 08-04-2025 02:57PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123336663#Comment_123336663

The only IRL trump supporter I know in person, all the way up to his inauguration has been saying 'We have to judge him on what he does, not what he says' every time I pointed out the insane plans he had in his speeches and the project 2025

Even as he starts a global trade war and likely the next great depression, he still thinks Trump had no choice but to 'do something' because the US budget deficit is over a trillion a year.
When I point out that the budget deficit is almost the same number as the value Trumps own tax cuts from his first term, he just doesn't accept that.

Its infuriating to talk with him about this topic. Everything else, he's perfectly normal and reasonable

10000maniacs · 08-04-2025 03:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337903#Comment_123337903

And to add to that, Vietnam is less than a third the population of the US and the GDP per capita is a tenth that of the USA. How can Vietnam have anything but a trade deficit with the USA? No amount of trade is going to equalize that gap.

What about Switzerland? 3% of the population of the USA. How the hell are Switzerland expected to equalize trade figures?

Trump is a conman and this is a shakedown on a worldwide scale of Americans first, and the World second.

The funny thing is 50% of Americans still think the tariffed countries are paying the tariff because they have Fox News on 24/7.

Moronic.

Mellor · 08-04-2025 03:06PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337864#Comment_123337864

But you have to put that into context:

2024: Trump 76% (17/22m)

2020: Trump 94% (18/19m)

2016: Trump 45% (14/31m)

That tells a more complete picture. His total votes, and percent of votes was much lower in 2024 than 2020.
He's increased votes since 2016, that's the norm after being in office.
But the biggest stand out for me, is that the turnout was much lower in both years than in 2016. So it's highly likely that the drop in turn out was ~10m republicans who knew it was pointless as he had it in the bag

Red Silurian · 08-04-2025 03:09PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338049#Comment_123338049

Well shame on them because now they all look like big dirty MAGA heads

Tony EH · 08-04-2025 03:13PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338021#Comment_123338021

Mmmm, sunk cost fallacy is a common issue amongst Trump worshippers. They've expended so much on this guy that they simply cannot back out now and be thought of as a fool for doing so in the face of overwhelming evidence. So they tend to continue digging.

The magasphere provides these people with all the stock answers and positions that they need to carry on ignoring the obvious. They'll further pass on these answers and positions online and the cycle continues.

It's been laughable looking at the MAGA responses to this fat disaster that Trump's tariff nonsense has created.

"But…but…Nancy Pelosi…"

Field east · 08-04-2025 03:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337034#Comment_123337034

the. I’d terms should give us a very good indication of the true MAGA picture if Trump carries on in the same vein

Will_I_Amnt · 08-04-2025 03:22PM

We now switch over to live coverage of tariff negotiations taking place on McDonald Islands

https://twitter.com/GzNftz/status/1909607394272813251?t=0qwdhsPFRP6DannDEBrk9Q&s=19

10000maniacs · 08-04-2025 03:24PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338073#Comment_123338073

The Pelosi, Sanders and Obama argument is a fallacy too. Fox News have been spouting it for years.

All they suggested was targeting China for the actual things that were costing Americans jobs, like Steel and cars.

Not a blanket tariff. And certainly not a worldwide tariff.

Tony EH · 08-04-2025 03:32PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338103#Comment_123338103

Exactly.

A targeted tariff can be of benefit to a country. Blanket tariffs make no real sense at all except as a bully boy tactic.

Most sensible countries will target a tariff on a specific good, a good that's produced domestically that can't compete with the foreign made equivalent. Trump, on the other hand, has just tariffed whole countries.

🤪

Field east · 08-04-2025 03:40PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337403#Comment_123337403

if we lay everything bare and start AT THE START again

. So, on the day of the election for president those who voted for Trump had , at the time a certain idea as to what Trump was going to do as against what Harris was going to do eg bring down the cost of living, clean the swamp, re-energise the rust belt, etc, etc,

Now, TODAY, the same Republican voter - a lot of them anyway- did not envisage for even one second that things would turn out the way they are ie things have turned out the complete opposite to what they thought when they were voting

The Mid Terms should give us a true picture of where the voter will be at then re for or against what Trump is doing

Goldengirl · 08-04-2025 03:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337452#Comment_123337452

Lol.

Mc Donald's is the best, you know , best of American beef , soo strong , you know, so strong !

Goldengirl · 08-04-2025 03:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337501#Comment_123337501

Salutary lesson to those in the Conservative Party ,one would now hope ?

briany · 08-04-2025 03:56PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123337123#Comment_123337123

America doesn't have a two party system. It has a system that heavily favours two parties. Other parties exist, but Americans won't vote for them due the idea that voting for one amounts to a wasted vote and is only a net benefit to the 'other side'.

This could be overcome. Yes, it would take a monumental grassroots effort to get it off the ground, but this isn't impossible. I mean, it's not like the Republican party wanted Trump when he first arrived on the scene, but he had enough appeal to the party base that he could essentially bypass the party apparatus.

Never more than now does America need a real alternative in the face of the insanity of the Republicans and the fecklessness of the Democrats.

SaoPaulo41 · 08-04-2025 04:17PM

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk sparred on social media Tuesday with White House Senior Counselor Peter Navarro, after Navarro said in an interview Monday that Tesla was a car "assembler" rather than a manufacturer.

"Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks," Musk said in an X post on Tuesday.

"Navarro is truly a moron," Musk said in a separate post. "What he says here is demonstrably false."

Both Navarro and Musk are two of Trump’s closest advisors, and Navarro previously served in Trump's first administration as the director of the White House National Trade Council and the director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy.

Glaceon · 08-04-2025 04:23PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338226#Comment_123338226

FPTP quickly facilitates minority rule if a third party comes into play. You could have a situation like this:

Party A: 45%
Party B: 40%
Party C: 15%

In this case, A is elected, despite the fact that the majority of the electorate did not vote for them.

Will_I_Amnt · 08-04-2025 04:42PM

The corruption just keeps getting more blatant. After launching his own cryptocurrency 3 days before inauguration, the Trump admin is now disbanding a unit dedicated to crypto-related investigations. NCET, or the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Unit, was disbanded “effective immediately” last night as part of the agency’s efforts to comply with Trump’s January executive order on digital assets, which aimed to “establish regulatory clarity” for the industry.

https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/04/08/doj-ncet-disbands-memo-todd-blanche-trump/

Will_I_Amnt · 08-04-2025 04:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338307#Comment_123338307

So.....like the UK and many other countries have had forever?

VinLieger · 08-04-2025 04:48PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338354#Comment_123338354

Yes its massively undemocratic, the UK have only had 1 government in the last 100 years elected by a majority of voters thanks to FPtP.

In 2024 Labour won 63% of seats with only 33% of the votes

Will_I_Amnt · 08-04-2025 05:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338368#Comment_123338368

I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just interested.

Wouldn't you say the lack of opportunity afforded to The Libertarian Party in the US.....the apparent joint effort to stop them gaining any traction in US politics is just as undemocratic?

briany · 08-04-2025 05:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338307#Comment_123338307

The UK has FPTP and several parties which can gain seats in its parliament and usually solves this potential issue via coalitions. I realise that the American political system at its top level is really geared toward oppositionality rather than broad, calm consensus, so the whole idea is quite alien to them, but they have had political coalitions in the distant past, of a sort, in 1854, 1858, 1860 and 1862. The timing of these coalitions does speak to the idea that America's really in trouble if anything disrupts their usual system because it speaks to intense political pressure, but I think America's getting to that point again.

At the moment, you have the MAGA caucus utterly dominating the Republican party. Moderates don't get much of a say on the party's direction. On the other side, with the Democrats, the corporate centre is quelling any new thinking from the left wing of the party. It used to be that both parties functioned as de-facto coalitions in their own right between several factions or 'caucuses' but this is getting less and less true. MAGA are busy tearing down US democracy while the left of the Democrats are screaming at the party's power brokers to do something, but they just carry on like it's business as usual. Something has to give, here.

VinLieger · 08-04-2025 05:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338401#Comment_123338401

Yes because the reasons for it are again entirely down to FPtP where any significant split for either of the 2 main parties towards a 3rd party will hand any election to the party that doesn't split. For instance if the Libertarian party siphoned off just 10-15% of the republicans support across all states for the midterms they would lose nearly every seat to the Democrats thanks to FPtP.

But also no because looking at it from the view that its the libertarian party being specifically targeted from gaining political traction is wrong, the 2 main parties cannot have any 3rd party gain traction whatsoever or they will lose everything.

Some would argue this is why the Republican leadership decided to row so heavily in behind trump as they saw the writing on the wall that if he did trigger a split the Democrats would ultimately decimate them. Just look at the Tories and Reform in the UK 2024 election, Labour likely would have still won but Reform split the vote enough that the Tories were very close to being absolutely decimated.

Kermit.de.frog · 08-04-2025 05:20PM

40 minutes left for Trump's deadline

https://twitter.com/ChineseEmbinUS/status/1909639986468597995

doyle55 · 08-04-2025 05:35PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338466#Comment_123338466

Team China ✊

LambshankRedemption · 08-04-2025 05:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123338505#Comment_123338505

I am wracking my brain thinking what would China want to buy from the US? Aside from the odd car, and bottles of wine, there's not a whole lot. Certainly nothing crucial. Meanwhile an analyst on CNN last night said that tarrifs could increase the price of the new iPhone to $3000 for Americans.