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

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509623#Comment_123509623

If you want to believe that loads of voters who would have normally voted for the Democrats changed their minds because of Gaza and voted for Trump instead, go right ahead.

storker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509881#Comment_123509881

They may have stayed home, though.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509872#Comment_123509872

People with nothing to lose will vote for anyone. If they thought it was bad then…god love them now.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509891#Comment_123509891

They may have done, and some did undoubtedly opt for Trump purely because of Gaza. But I sincerely doubt it's anywhere near to a significant number.

Let's look at the "analysis" in question.

There are 8.1 million registered voters in Michigan. There are some 200,000 Muslims living there. Not every one of them are registered to vote and not every one of them would have voted for Trump. The article linked said 22% of 502 people polled (which is a very low sample rate) said they voted for Trump (and not all them did just because of Gaza). Harris was going to lose Michigan irrespective of the war in Gaza. Too many voters in general in that state, like all over America, chose to believe Trump's lies about making THEIR lives better.

The simple fact is this, however. The vast, vast, majority of Americans just don't give a damn about Gaza or Palestine. It's just something they read about in the newspaper or look at online. So the idea that it was a bone of contention that won Trump the election is ludicrous. Trump won because he promised the sun, moon and the stars to Americans and too many people went along with it.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509881#Comment_123509881

I don't have to "believe it", that's exactly what the post election analysis showed.

everlast75

In my opinion, when faced with a binary choice, I'd try and make sure the candidate who said Israel should "finish the job" didn't get in....

bog master

Only the best, only the best says the TACO boy and his henchmen!

Staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency were caught off-guard and left bewildered when the disaster relief agency’s new acting head David Richardson told personnel that he was previously unaware the United States has a hurricane season, which started Sunday.

https://us.cnn.com/2025/06/02/politics/david-richardson-fema-head-unaware-hurricane-season

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509993#Comment_123509993

According to the NYT…

"After losing nearly 600 employees to layoffs and retirements as part of the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal work force, the National Weather Service is planning to hire additional staff members to “stabilize” the department, a spokeswoman said"

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509993#Comment_123509993

Good job they werent an actually qualified DEI hire.

Instead of a unqualified Trump sycophant whose incompetence will cost lives.

pad406

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123509854#Comment_123509854

Agreed, but I think their biggest mistake was that Biden didn't absolutely declare on Jan 21st, 2021, that he would not be running again and let them have had the time and done their due process in selecting their next candidate.

Would it still have been Harris? Possibly. Another beige candidate? Likely. You're 100% correct that they need to put forward someone that the US voters want to elect, not someone who is less worse than the Republican.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510216#Comment_123510216

And Biden leaving it so long to drop out meant Harris couldn't distinguish her own proposed policies enough from what Biden had been doing, given that she was his VP and was still his running mate. So for everyone who was turning away from Biden for their complaints regarding the economy, inflation, cost of living etc, that followed Harris and stuck to her.

Biden originally ran in 2020 under the assumption he would be a one-term President. If he'd stuck to that, it would have given all the Dem candidates (including Harris) more time to set out their own stall for what they wanted to try and achieve and how they would do it.

Would Trump have still won? Probably. Inflation and the cost of living crisis were far bigger factors than any culture war bullsh*t, and even though Biden's administration dealt with that reasonably well and in many cases far better than a lot of other first world countries (given it was a global thing caused by the pandemic and wars and so was something that most countries were dealing with), it still stung a hell of a lot of people and was too easy for them to associate with and blame Biden's administration.

Podge_irl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510216#Comment_123510216

It wasn't "their" biggest mistake, it was his and he deserves to have his legacy destroyed over it tbh.

randd1

With regards to why Americans voted more for Trump than Harris.

Maybe, just maybe, modern America feels closer to the rhetoric of Trumpism than the rhetoric of the Democrats? As in they want Trump to be president because they actually want their country to be run like it has been under Trump.

Maybe, just maybe, Trump is the ideal that Americans want as a leader?

I know we can't figure out why, given he's an utter scumbag criminal rapist with racist tendencies, no common sense or basic decency, but we're not American. Maybe the reason Trump got elected is that he's a true reflection of American society, and they actually like what they see.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510239#Comment_123510239

Joe Biden might be a better person than Trump, but it seems like he's not without his own share of ego and stubborn mentality. I remember on one of the more recent PBS Frontline episodes, recounting his youth, his mother would say to him, "You're a Biden!" like the name carried a heroic standard. If he had some sort of setback, it'd be, "Get up. You're a Biden. Get up."

This attitude probably translated to a desire to get through any adversity and that none could not be overcome, so he probably didn't see his frailties as insurmountable. And you have to factor in his 'inner circle' who, if the new Tapper book is correct, cut him off from everyone and were probably encouraging him to run again, telling him that he was doing great in the polls - this last bit became evident when Nancy Pelosi confronted Biden over his polling and he ended up finding out the real numbers. I think Jill and Hunter Biden have a lot to answer for in the whole saga.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510776#Comment_123510776

Actually the biggest voting segment was non voters. Biden actually was one of the few presidents to ever have the biggest voting bloc surpassing both the main rival and non voters.

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510800#Comment_123510800

So, to add to Randd1 hypothesis, those voters who didn't vote didn't care about Trump's issues. The issues weren't a factor in deciding who they wanted to run the country. They looked at both of them and said, 'Who cares?'. And that in itself tells you that all the things we find objectionable about Trump is not something they consider important.

This is who America is. In 2016, you could shrug it off as something worth trying, and HC was terrible, and things needed to be shaken up. But 2024 proved that for millions (77m I think), look at Trump and say that this is the guy that best represents the US as I see it.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510776#Comment_123510776

If that were true, he'd have won the popular vote in 2016 and he'd have won the 2020 election though.

I think that Biden in 2021 probably thought that he'd be able for two terms and given that he's spent his entire life in politics, it makes sense that he'd be reluctant to step down. I didn't want him to and in hindsight, that may have been a mistake. The problem the left in any polarised country like the US has is that its voting bloc is composed of a lot of small blocs who often despise each other more than anything else. In other words, progressives insist on perfection and ideololgical purity while the right isn't too bothered either way.

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510777#Comment_123510777

You can't possibly get to the position of POTUS, or even be in the running for it, without a massive ego. The thing that most have is that they never know when to step aside. They firmly believe that they alone can solve whatever issues there are.

Power is quite a drug and very hard to give up. Same with money. All these millionaires and billionaires who seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get even more money despite having more than they can ever spend.

In that, Biden, unfortunately, is no different. He should have accepted his role in stopping Trump and handing it over to the next generation, which is what is intimated before 2020. But after waiting so long in the wings, having spent 8 years as the fool's errand to Obama, when he finally got his hands on the steering wheel, he found that he didn't want to let go.

sliabh 1956

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510216#Comment_123510216

Good point I was speaking to someone that is involved with the Democratic Party after the Election and she made that exact point. In fact she was very bitter towards Jill, she felt she was the one who refused to accept that Joe was not able to run for Reliction.

Wolf359f

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/06/03/business/trump-tariffs-china-pharmaceuticals-intl-hnk

Interesting report from CNN on how much the US depends on China for pharma. Hard to imagine any tariffs imposed in the short term.

Some medications produced in the US depend on China for 70-90% of the precursor chemicals.

Economics101

In addition to Trump nominating a FEMA head who was unaware of the hurricane season, there is a nomination for the National Parks Service who has built an airstrip on protected lans, among other things. Totally in line with picking the likes of RFK Jr to the Health job.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/climate/michael-boren-agriculture-nominee-idaho-airstrip.html

Sorry about the paywall.

Brief_Lives

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123511008#Comment_123511008

voila

https://archive.ph/3aVyQ

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510954#Comment_123510954

This really nails down why tariffs and bringing jobs/manufacturing back to America will just never, ever, work. So much of the global economy is interconnected, and reliant on everything you can imagine.

Trumps plan isn't just dumb, it is impossible.

Mefistofelino

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123510954#Comment_123510954

This isn't a uniquely USA'nian problem. Five years ago, nearly 2/3 of pharmaceutical actives produced in the EU relied on precursor materials manufactured in Asia. For nearly 100 products, there was no EU source of these materials ("CEPs").

Wolf359f

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123511869#Comment_123511869

I'm aware of that, but the EU isn't dumb enough to be threatening China with tariffs on pharma.

It only becomes a problem when one tariffs a critical supplier, like Trump is threatening.

AbusesToilets

In today's dose of insanity for Trump

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/06/trump-private-cellphone-china-hackers/683006/?gift=NBdGSmKfDQzLc1B6N1F-gQ6PGq_SgJ582v5eUWm4hgw

everlast75

Rand Paul got a bollocking from Trump for critising the bill.

Can't wait for the fallout with Musk next.

Flaneur OBrien

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123512247#Comment_123512247

I expect we'll hear...

*Crickets*

swampgas

There are many, many reasons why the US cannot just wind back the clock to (say) the 1950s or early 60s, when it comes to manufacturing. One of these is an American invention, shipping containers. This revolutionised manufacturing and supply chains at a global level. Shipping costs used to correlate with distance - local shipping was cheaper than national shipping and cheaper again than international shipping, and the paperwork and delays were much higher the further goods were transported, especially if they had to be packed and unpacked and stored in warehouses along the way. Today, sending goods long distance by container is ridiculously cheap, and reasonably quick, and the entire world is built around it.

There was a time when a US factory had a natural advantage over foreign competitors when selling into the US itself, and that was that transportation costs were significant for imported goods compared to local ones. Container shipping eroded that cost advantage to almost nothing, and as a result US manufacturing is no longer as insulated from foreign competition as it was back then.

(The 2006 book "The Box" by Marc Levinson is an interesting read for anyone interested in how it changed logistics.)

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123512239#Comment_123512239

Security risks aside,who has a lock screen photo of themselves?

Very very weird man.