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

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347375#Comment_123347375

Pardon my ignorance here, but does this mean that grok has been scraping personal data from twitter users accounts?

If that's the case, I'd imagine that would be a big no no under EU rules?

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347370#Comment_123347370

Steven seagal became a Russia citizen because he loved the whole stonk culture. There might even be an Irish merc fighting for Russia right now.

China doesn't care about being the good guy, it cares only about never allowing the century of humiliation to happen again.

It's a capitalistic society with communistic features. Unlike the USSR Chinese had property rights.

The nationalists lost because they tried to uphold feudalism. That's why so many Chinese sided with Mao, especially woman who had been denied education in the traditional society.

Xi is on the way out, the next leader is going to be a salesman.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347370#Comment_123347370

150 mercs from a country the size of China is nothing really.

Did you blame Ireland as a country when a couple of Irish people got caught doing Merc work for dodgy fekers ?

Nobody is fooled by China but I have noticed a lot of tutting and faux outrage the last few days because they are embarrassing Trump.

everlast75

Your monthly reminder that Trump still hasn't fulfilled his promise to end the war in Ukraine on day one....

3 months and counting....

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347439#Comment_123347439

After decades of doing well off the Chinese economy of scale that no one else could provide now we have people parroting Trump about being the victim.

duplo is about the only phone the US can make now.

Baba Yaga

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123346986#Comment_123346986

my man Generalisimo Pingu 🐧

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347209#Comment_123347209

When America’s only friends are Russia and a few dictatorships in South America you know the writing is on the wall for this administration

halkar

Trump is getting more like Comical Ali day by day

johnny_ultimate

The real shame of this tariff nonsense is how much smaller businesses and niche industries will pay the price.

Based on some online quarters I frequent, the board game industry is a good example of this. Quite complex international production and shipping, often with long lead in times between orders and deliveries due to the prevalence of crowdfunding campaigns. Some companies face potentially fatal price increases on the back of what's happening with the absurd China tariffs or even the 10% tariff on other countries. And while others have long planned for regional production so will survive, there simply isn't anywhere enough capacity and knowledge for everyone to suddenly pivot to US production, not even factoring in the potentially unviable costs.

Hard to feel much sympathy for larger corporations in all this, but they're not the only ones that are going to take the hit. Plenty of successful businesses in their own right now face catastrophe through no fault of their own, just the petulance of one man.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347473#Comment_123347473

Can't even do that. Duplo comes from Hungry apparently.

poop emoji

That tarrifs starting to .. sting

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maga-beekeeper-admits-trump-tariffs-have-cost-him-half-his-business/

poop emoji

Why doesn’t Xi call?

AMKC

Only 1351 more days of this Clown and his admistration to go before they are hopefully gone.

Mefistofelino

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347720#Comment_123347720

I'm a little concerned that there may not be enough face-eating leopards to go around.

kowloon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347573#Comment_123347573

There was a guy on James O'Brien the other day who was launching a Kickstarter for a board game. The company is in the UK, but the game is made in China, and many of the potential backers are in the USA. People like that are in for a world of hurt. The demand in the USA will fall off a cliff.

Plenty of manufacturing orders were placed with Chinese companies long ago and are going to be shipped on time to get hit by the tariffs. Nobody priced any of this in when placing orders or setting retail prices. And while that's part of the risk of doing business, these costs are beyond any reasonable safety margin.

indioblack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347140#Comment_123347140

This makes Brexit look like a shrewd move.

[I voted Remain.]

aidanodr

Like i said here recently - any US software / downloadable stuff you want .. maybe now is a good time to buy OR wait for the EURO value to get even better. I seem to remember a time whan €1 was about $1.40 .. will we get there again?

The euro is above 1.14, trading at its highest level in over three years. The dollar has lost 5.5% of its value against the euro since Liberation Day. That means buying European imports will now cost Americans 15.5% more. 10% for the tariffs and 5.5% due to dollar depreciation.

https://twitter.com/PeterSchiff/status/1910626377964888299

Discodog

Watching Karoline Leavitt is like North Korean news.

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347140#Comment_123347140

UK exports increased after Brexit. By about the same amount as the pound fell. The importers of UK goods weren't spending more of their own currency. It was a move that depreciated assets like the life savings and homes of UK citizens by 10-15% relative to other countries.

Devaluing currency can work in economies that export more than they import. See Italy devaluing the Lira back when they were making cheap cars and domestic appliances. For countries that import more it's like shooting yourself in the foot reloading and then shooting yourself in the other foot.

Protectionism might sound good , but if you don't have a domestic supplier then at best it's a stealth tax which affects the poor more.

eire4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347911#Comment_123347911

Its Orwell's The Ministry of Truth in real life.

Sierra Oscar

The turbulence on the bond market hitting mortgage holders in the US hard.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/11/mortgage-rates-surge-tariffs-bond-market.html

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage surged 13 basis points Friday to 7.1%, according to Mortgage News Daily.

Meanwhile, inflation expected to reach the highest level since 1981.

On Friday, another monthly report on consumer sentiment came in substantially lower than expected. The expectation for inflation jumped from 5% in March to 6.7% in April, the highest level since 1981.

RickBlaine

One of the side effects of Trump's reversal is that it makes his defenders look like total dopes. Before the reversal they were like, "Of course there will be no pause. That is fake news! Why would President Trump pause the greatest economic decision ever made. Only weak democrats would pause tariffs. There will be no pause!" Then after Trump capitulates, the same people are like, "Pausing the tariffs is a stroke of genius and was his plan all along!"

aidanodr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123348024#Comment_123348024

Not sure if y'all remember a great game called HALF-LIFE and HALF-LIVE 2 from the 90s. I could see these Overwatch Voice announcements across cities and towns happening in the US soon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlId_Cg-8bY

RickBlaine

The Pod Save America podcast had a short montage of clips from right wing media responding to Trump's tariff pause and it is the biggest load of BS propaganda I've ever seen. If Trump took 2 hours to walk 100m, they would all say he is one of America's greatest athletes.

trashcan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347470#Comment_123347470

I know there is no point responding to Trump with logic, but if he can’t stop the war now, how exactly would he have prevented it in the first place ?

Qaanaaq

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347911#Comment_123347911

The Lying by this administration really is off the scale. Its unbelievable. But it just seems its the new normal now and everyone is just anaesthetised to it.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123348070#Comment_123348070

If you take Fox News as an example, it's like a different world if you go back and watch their output from 2008, to pick a year in the 'before time'. OK, yeah, they were still heavily biased towards the Republicans and a mouthpiece for Rupert Murdoch, but at least there was some semblance of civility or reason. John Stewart could sit across from Bill O' Reilly and have a respectful debate.

What has happened since then is that their audience became radicalised through social media where absolutely anything goes because you can be essentially anonymous, and conspiracy theories became wildly popular. Right wing news media in the states have had to echo the talking points found online because they know that if they don't, the audience will drift over to the first network that does . This is absolutely not helped by having a president who will actively tell his supporters to change the channel if one network particularly displeases him. And the networks do this because they exist solely to garner ratings and profit.

Do the anchors on those networks believe what they're saying? Probably not. Do they feel guilty? Eh, maybe. But any guilt felt they can drown out with the material pleasures that a massive salary brings.

Will_I_Amnt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347399#Comment_123347399

They wouldn't need to scrape it. They'd have it stored in JSON or XML or some kind of database. But there are regulations about what they're allowed to do with PPI data and they're undoubtedly breaking those rules

PropJoe10

Just reading about how apparently Trump officials contacted the Chinese to warn them against retaliatory tariffs, but they went ahead anyway. Never thought I'd say it but fair play to the Chinese. I hope they laughed down the phone while they were at it.

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123347770#Comment_123347770

And at the end of the article the guy still says he doesn't blame Trump, its those around him.

TThst encapsulates why Trump remains popular. He can simultaneously be the strongest and greatest leader ever and also completely unable to make any decision himself.