Donald Trump the Megathread part II

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123615530#Comment_123615530

What were the options? The Canadians wouldn't let her in, the Americans wouldn't let her in. Was she to float downstream, perhaps to the Pacific and swim to Japan? Or just live on the bridge like that guy in Paris Airport who wasn't allowed in and couldn't go back whence he came? She was going to get detained in one country or the other, until deportation proceedings were conducted.

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123615730#Comment_123615730

So here’s the thing. I read it before I posted, and saw nothing supporting such a claim.

Then you posted the above, and so I read it again. And I still saw nothing supporting such a claim.

I like to think I’ve a pretty good mastery of English, even American English, but if you can find something there which says they’ll happy nab you in the airport or border crossing as you’re on the way out, please point it out for me.

Iecrawfc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123614640#Comment_123614640

Its so they can contribute to causes or people they want to or like, non white people area in disaster, naw not going to help them, good Christian folk that's a yes, they can play God then with their money and not trust the government to use it wisely

ZeroThreat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123615991#Comment_123615991

yeah, probably see the first TV live broadcast summary execution in US history…

10000maniacs

Trump back on the pharmaceutical bandwagon again. Touting 200% pharmaceutical tariffs on some countries. Probably Ireland is top of the list.

fullstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616300#Comment_123616300

Ah yes, more outlandish nonsense he hopes people will focus on instead of his friend Jeffrey, whose client list he definitely wasn’t in.

aloyisious

On the Ukraine/Russia war front, it seems from Trumps response to media questions on whom cut back on Air defence supplies to Ukraine "You tell me, you seem to know the answer" that he was getting tetchy on several topics. It seems that after a conversation between Trump and Hegseth as to whether the U.S forces in the Middle East had enough ammunition in reserve to keep up a strong defence if needed, that Hegseth and one of his Pentagon civil deputies discussed the matter and one or other of them came up with the idea that stopping the planned flow of air defence munitions to Ukraine was necessary to the U.S forces in the Middle East and a cutback was put on the Ukraine supply. The problem for Trump began when the media heard about the cutback as, apparently, neither he nor his National Security Advisor Sec State Rubio were informed beforehand.

Last night, the issue came front and centre for Trump with the media and he apparently lashed out at Putin directly talking about the bullshit (Trump's own word) Putin was saying. It seems that Putin's close Kremlin ally, Medvedev had given an earlier release to the media in Russia which was not complimentary about Trump and the U.S. It seems that Trump was getting hot under the collar and needed to lash out at some-one, this time not Zelenskyy.

Back to what apparently happened in the Pentagon between Hegseth and his Pentagon deputy on the supply cutback decision, it's not clear yet whether there will be any repercussions for either of those last two people in leaving Trump without a "by your leave" hint or plausible deniability and with no answers in front of the media.

kowloon

Trump doesn't really do anything to help himself when it comes to Epstein. I expect a lot will come out after he dies, just as it has with so many other celebrities. Wishing Ghislaine Maxwell well wasn't a good look and then there's this gem: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZJorAVgHy7Y

Widdensushi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616300#Comment_123616300

Handy enough, remove people's health insurance and then increase the cost of medicine by 200%, sure what could go wrong?

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616300#Comment_123616300

He's already saying that he'll be giving companies a year to 18 months before the tariffs allegedly kick in, the TACO will be served long before then.

They'll ask for more time and get it as even if they were really serious about coming back to the US (they aren't) they'd need at least twice that long to get new production facilities up and running.

They'll smile and nod and spend a bit of money on "planning" but ultimately do nothing significant.

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123615991#Comment_123615991

It really needs to happen....

Peregrinus

There's a distinct possibility that Trump could bring in a general tariff on pharmaceuticals, but grant exemptions/rebates to companies that meet certain (vaguely-stated) criteria.

He did this in his first term; he imposed heavy tariffs on China but US companies importing from China could apply for tariff exemptions on "public interest" grounds. In practice whether a company would get tariff exemptions was heavily influenced by how close the owners/controllers were to Trump; how much public support they gave him, his favoured Republican lapdogs, and his vile policies; how much the company or its owners donated to Trump or to Trumpy candidates; etc.

If Trump is serious about using tariffs to bring pharmaceuticals manufacturing back to the US, he could operate a less blatantly corrupt version of this — impose a 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals, but give companies an exemption for (say) four years if they have an approved plan for reshoring manufacturing, and they commence and carry through the construction/equipping/commissioning of the necessary US manufacturing capacity.

Or, he could combine the two approaches — your company can get a tariff exemption either if you make and implement an agreed plan to relocate your manufacturing to the US or you pay a big enough bribe. This would raise a lot of money for Trump; the cost of building and operating pharma plants is huge, so even a very large bribe is likely to be the cheaper option for most companies, and therefore the one they will go for.

everlast75

Again, I'm not in x, but this info is from George Conway, so probably accurate. Can others confirm if it's not?

looksee

and they commence and carry through the construction/equipping/commissioning of the necessary US manufacturing capacity

The planning for that could easily take 4 years, and in the meantime they negotiate a temporary exemption 'in the public interest' or whatever garbage he will swallow. If they can get even 12 months he will be so tied up in the mid-terms he will not notice who is 'paying' tariffs and who is not. And a few 'donations' will distract/convince him. I would imagine major companies will have to appoint a team just to deal with running rings round Trump.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616486#Comment_123616486

Exactly.. they'll string him along, spend a bit of money on planning ( and a whole lot more on lobbying) and just wait him out.

Worst case, they take the tariff and just fully pass it on to the consumer.

The vast majority of their products are 100% not optional for the consumer and they'll have to buy it. And that's when they get more of those "public interest exemptions".

But, him announcing this right now is absolutely categorically an attempt to shift the narrative away from Epstein and his Governments responsibility for the failures relateded to the Texas floods.

The death toll keeps rising and the number of people confirmed "missing" is repeatedly rising as well, so the final toll could be many multiples of the current number.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616475#Comment_123616475

It's unlikely Trump will put tarriffs on pharmaceuticals. The biggest purchaser of them in the US is the federal.goverment itself. The other large buyers are older people who may complain but will put up with the costs. It's highly likely that pharma will get an exemption from what looks like a minimum 10% tariff anyway.

Listening to a radio broadcast yesterday it was interesting to hear an analyst say tgat it's unlikely that pharmaceutical plants will move back to the US in the medium term as the building costs are astronomical and as well DOGE and Trumps anti liberal universities has stripped research funding out of Fedral spending

McFly85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616478#Comment_123616478

What feels authentic about this is that not only does it ring true with Musks actions and agenda, MechaHitler is extremely cringeworthy and definitely sounds like something the 54 year old edgelord would find funny.

So if it’s fake, it’s a good fake!

looksee

Even if pharma companies did move back to the US, China produces up to 50% of the world's APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and if there is a 200% tariff it will have a significant effect on prices of finished medicines. Trump probably thinks (if he thinks about it at all) that since the US also produces APIs they will be able to produce finished drugs, without taking account of the need for many different APIs.

As has been pointed out though, you can't throw a pharma plant into an old disused factory and just get into production in weeks, all they have to do is make appropriate noises for a couple of years and he will lose interest.

'Sorry Mr President, but your medication is no longer available, the factory has had to cut down on production because their warehousing has become overwhelmed by staff shortages due to deportations'.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616518#Comment_123616518

To be fair, the government collecting tariffs on their own purchases is ultimately a zero sum action. They pay it from one place and collect it in another.

But you are correct , they aren't moving back not least because building and running the factories would be prohibitively expensive, but as other posters have pointed out, the ability to source all the component elements of the end product from inside the US is effectively impossible so the tariffs will still apply anyway.

kowloon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616475#Comment_123616475

If Trump is serious about using tariffs to bring pharmaceuticals manufacturing back to the US, he could operate a less blatantly corrupt version of this — impose a 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals, but give companies an exemption for (say) four years if they have an approved plan for reshoring manufacturing, and they commence and carry through the construction/equipping/commissioning of the necessary US manufacturing capacity.

That would be a fair way of incentivising a move of production while keeping the supply chain open in the short-medium term. Which is exactly why it'll never happen. If the tariffs ever fully bite, it'll only be a matter of time before Trump's friends start complaining that they're paying too much for their Ozempic.

Rawr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616475#Comment_123616475

Whenever I see talk of Trump strategies regarding tariffs or even the potential grifts he might have behind them, I feel the urge to repeat my Quarterly PSA to the thread to remind everyone of a fundamental truth about Donnie.

• He has no plan.
• He has no strategy.
• Donnie doesn't know what a Tariff is or how they are used.
• Donnie doesn't care what happens to any US business apart from possibly his own.

Everything and anything he does is in service of one thing, and one thing alone: His own damned self.

Talking about tariffs makes him sound all grown up and Presidential…without having to do any of the homework involved. It is a threat that sounds impressive, but is toothless since he doesn't know how to practically do it, nor is he interested in the work needed to make it happen. Thus he TACOs. "Ooo…I'll Tariff you next time! Better be nice to me, or I'll tariff you!" Then he pushes it another 3 months and goes back down to Florida to spend the weekend cheating at golf. Rinse and repeat.

Now he wants to be the Great Peacemaker. But again, that's all about his ego. We wants a Nobel, and so he'll cling onto any and every ceasefire he think he can steal credit for. That's going to continue until at least October when the actual winner is announced, after which he'll rant his head offand then maybe launch his own America Peace Prize, of which he'll award himself 15 of them.

Nothing Donnie does is worthy of being compared to government work or any grade of political state-craft. He is a self-important blaggard who not only doesn't know how the branches of the US Government work (even after a term of doing this) and who isn't even interested in doing the work itself.

Patrick2010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616547#Comment_123616547

Its not fake

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/09/grok-ai-praised-hitler-antisemitism-x-ntwnfb

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI has deleted “inappropriate” posts on X after the company’s chatbot, Grok, began praising Adolf Hitler, referring to itself as MechaHitler and making antisemitic comments in response to user queries.

In some now-deleted posts, it referred to a person with a common Jewish surname as someone who was “celebrating the tragic deaths of white kids” in the Texas floods as “future fascists”.

“Classic case of hate dressed as activism – and that surname? Every damn time, as they say,” the chatbot commented.

In another post it said, “Hitler would have called it out and crushed it.”

aloyisious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123615991#Comment_123615991

It seems that Karoline has taken note of what reporters and other media heads (Fox News Peter Doocy for one) are asking about the non-existent list and has copped on that it can be best to let others answer for themselves.

“According to the report, this systematic review revealed no incriminating client list. So what happened to the Epstein client list that the attorney general said she had on her desk?” Doocy pressed White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who insisted Bondi was speaking in generalities.

“She was saying the entirety of all of the paperwork and relation to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, that’s what the attorney general was referring to, and I will let her speak for that,” she asserted.

Baba Yaga

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123614446#Comment_123614446

dont care what 'positive' spin donnie and his merry band of gowls put on it,that there is a concentration camp…a good fart never mind a hurricane will spread it all over the everglades..

aloyisious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616475#Comment_123616475

With a degree of seriousness now, how would China react to an attempt by the U.S Govt to persuade Pharma Co's linked to the U.S to up stakes and fly home to the U.S with commercials interests China has invested in for the future commercial good of China?

If one takes it for granted (easily enough if one sees Trump as NOT being as good a commerce genius as he claims) that it is some-one from within his chosen team who is promoting use of the tariffs threat, how far would China go to protect its own commercial pharma interests by nullifying the threat? Would it put a black on any transfer of any part of the U.S companies properties being removed from within China's national interests? It has a lot of its own nationals employed in its pharma industry and an increase in the jobless numbers, along with a cut in U.S. Dollar income, wouldn't be acceptable.

poop emoji

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616646#Comment_123616646

Ah yes half way through 2025 and we already reached FourthReichGPT stage

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616616#Comment_123616616

I hate to split hairs but while you are correct to say that Trump does not have a plan beyond satisfying his short term impulses, the creatures he has surrounded himself with absolutely do. The Heritage Foundation, the Federalist Society and the like will be doing Trump's long term strategic planning and thinking for him and they know full well what they're doing.

aloyisious

Deleted contents of post on reported Russian response to Trump angry words about Putin and Russia's killing of civilians on Kyiv and Ukraine as outdated based on an old Newsweek article.

Rawr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123616883#Comment_123616883

Oh god yea, for sure. Donnie himself has no plan, but totally agree that the gouls around him certainly do.

However…the nitwit isn't particularly good at following other people's plans either. They'll do what they can with whatever leeway Donnie has given them, but if any of the plans ever required active help from him…then they are kind of stuck.

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123617135#Comment_123617135

Reminds me a bit of the line from the Simpsons movie…

"I was elected to lead, not to read".