Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 18/03/25

PropJoe10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504055#Comment_122504055

No, but hypocrisy and stupidity are the key cornerstones of the current GOP so you won't ever hear anyone in Trump's circle apologise for that. It's always all about the Donald, and to hell with anyone that gets in the way.

For Forks Sake

Absolutely savage

https://www.instagram.com/ericswalwell/reel/C-qbzWVSaSH/

looksee

What does it say? Instagram want me to sign my life away to see it.

For Forks Sake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504466#Comment_122504466

It's embedded in this article

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/eric-swalwell-donald-trump-bus-ads-1236106043/

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504055#Comment_122504055

Oh wait, I have one for this:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/05/22/sc-democrats-apology-mcmaster-hunt-dogs/70244765007/

MAGA Republicans. Go figure.

Overheal

Tiktok is the same way on mobile, insta and tiktok links on desktop work ok

Headshot

https://twitter.com/i/status/1823827060504015158

I don't think there's words to describe this man at this point tbh

Bass Reeves

Trump gone off message again

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/aug/14/harris-trump-polls-swing-states-election-updates

For Forks Sake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504613#Comment_122504613

another round of the greatest hits. again 🙄

The Trump campaign had billed the Republican presidential candidate’s rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday as a significant economic address.

But Donald Trump struggled to stay focused on topic during his speech, and continuously veered off message to air grievances against Kamala Harris and inflammatory attacks on undocumented people.

Here are some of the things Trump said at the rally:

• Trump said that his advisers had wanted him to focus on economic concerns, but he said he was “not sure” he agreed that the economy is the most important issue of the election.
• Trump accused Harris of being “not smart” and of having “the laugh of a crazy person”.
• Trump said he would slash energy and electricity prices “by half”, but added: “If it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, ‘Oh well, I voted for him. I still got it down a lot.’”
• Trump said he would open up federal lands to drilling and ease the permitting process for pipelines.
• Trump appeared to dramatically escalate his calls for imposing tariffs on all US trading partners, suggesting import duties of up to 20%.
• Trump invited on stage Scott Bessent, the Wall Street investor seen as a possible contender to be treasury secretary in a second Trump White House.
• Trump claimed that his interview with Elon Musk was “one of the most successful shows ever done”.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504613#Comment_122504613

He literally said he doesn't think the economy matters that much. And couldn't stop bemoaning her laugh, and fawning over her Time magazine cover.

Some 'address on the economy'

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504646#Comment_122504646

His problem is he is probably unwilling to learn basic details about the economic issues. It's too easy to speak drivel and ramble on about past grievances.

The debate will be interesting in September. He is down to a 5 point lead qith 5% undecided in Florida where DeSantis won by 20% two years ago. Its not in play at the moment but it means they will need to spend there make sure they hold it

aloyisious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504612#Comment_122504612

What about his hair-dryer?

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504652#Comment_122504652

Well I'm sure potential Trump voters know at this stage they're not getting Milton Friedman.

But

I'm thinking there could be the makings of an economic package in this lot that might be sellable to floating voters

• Trump said he would slash energy and electricity prices “by half”, but added: “If it doesn’t work out, you’ll say, ‘Oh well, I voted for him. I still got it down a lot.’”
• Trump said he would open up federal lands to drilling and ease the permitting process for pipelines.
• Trump appeared to dramatically escalate his calls for imposing tariffs on all US trading partners, suggesting import duties of up to 20%

Obviously he's way overselling and probably hasn't mastered the details yet. But it's ultimately the big picture that matters in a populist election campaign. And those broad policy proposals are likely to go down well in the Rust Belt…

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504693#Comment_122504693

Why didn't he slash them in half when he was president?

Why did he ban offshore drilling when he was president?

And tariffs were a disaster that he bailed out in part with with soybean socialism.

See he's trying all these grandiose promises, like his run in 2016, but he no longer has the benefit of the outsider, he's an incumbent, he's been in that office, and he has questions to answer for his tenure. In 2016 he could get away with grandiose claims because there was the benefit of doubt from lack of substantive evidence to form opinions to speculate on his performance. But now he makes grand promises and we have his record of failures, in 2016 he promised to eleminate the national debt, instead he added $7+ Trillion to it.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504695#Comment_122504695

Well he never built the wall either but he seems to have an in-built edge with voters on immigration.

https://www.nbcmontana.com/news/nation-world/attributes-issues-ap-norc-poll-shows-where-harris-trump-hold-advantages-2024-election-politics

So maybe all he needs to in those areas is find a few aspirational proposals/slogans that hit the spot with the voters and he might be able to claw back a couple of points in the polls..

Maxface

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504728#Comment_122504728

There is a bill there ready to go that both side agree with, Harris just needs to go with that angle.

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504728#Comment_122504728

Immigration.

And the economy.

People believe Trump is better on both.

It's incredible really.

If you look at these independently and on the surface, he's constantly banging on about immigrants. They think - he is stronger on that. What they don't know is that his whole "build a wall" solution was boll0x, he didn't do it and he didn't get Mexico to pay for it. Plus, as said above, he tanked the legislation to help the border issue.

In relation to the economy, on the surface he looks like a successful businessman, but they forget or don't know his business failures, his business fraud, his history of not paying workers/contractors, his stubborn refusal to understand how tariffs work, his tax cuts only benefiting the wealthy and the trillions he added to the deficit.

That's why headlines are so important. There are a large portion of the general public who don't read below them, so correct phrasing matters.

It's no wonder the uneducated are his target group.

Penn

Clips of an interview with Adam Kinzinger (Republican & 20-year veteran) defending and explaining Walz's military record and retirement

https://twitter.com/Politics_PR/status/1821947484962205887

briany

To be absolutely fair to the boy, he said that he wasn't criticising Walz's service. He claims he was criticising what Walz said about his military service, ie the supposed quote from Walz about carrying weapons of war during wartime - with the criticism being that Walz wasn't deployed in a combat zone, so the Trump campaign are trying to say Walz lied with that claim. This is where we may get into some semantics, because Walz was stationed in Italy for a time during the occupation of Afghanistan in a support role. If he'd carried/shot a gun during that time, does that count as carrying a weapon of war in a time of war, or do you have to be where the action is?

In any case, if this is all the Trump campaign has to bite into, they don't really have much.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122499248#Comment_122499248

He said that exact same thing Iin 2020

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504652#Comment_122504652

And that's going to be his undoing.

IF he could keep it simple and talk about specific things like the economy, cost of living and immigration he could make inroads.

BUT he can't, because he's a rage filled malignant narcissist who has to make everything about him and he can't move past his mile long list of enemies and petty grievances.

People have heard it all before and just don't care anymore.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505019#Comment_122505019

he's constantly banging on about immigrants. They think - he is stronger on that. What they don't know is that his whole "build a wall" solution was boll0x, he didn't do it and he didn't get Mexico to pay for it.

I think most Trump-leaning voters are dimly aware of that but they still sort of buy the signals his campaign is sending out on the issue

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505274#Comment_122505274

talk about specific things like the economy, cost of living and immigration he could make inroads.

IMO if he hits the right points on those issues the voters he is targeting will be willing to look past this stuff

he's a rage filled malignant narcissist who has to make everything about him and he can't move past his mile long list of enemies and petty grievances.

After all that was a big chunk of his 'campaign' in 2016 and 2020 and he still got nearly 50% of the electorate to vote for him both times

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122504646#Comment_122504646

We're lucky he's so fcuking stupid.

aloyisious

From the pen of Drew Sheneman, editorial-cartoonist with the Star-Ledger, New Jersey.

PropJoe10

The US media is now saying that Trump is laying the groundwork to reject the election results in November if he loses. No sh!t, Sherlocks. What in the last few years would give anyone the impression that Trump would accept election results this time, considering what happened last time? And considering that getting elected is his final "get out of jail free" card, it's likely to be even more blatant this time if he does lose the vote.

The US media seems to be about 10 steps behind Trump, most of the time. They allow him to get away with constant and dangerous lies by never calling him out on it to his face. They just sit back, broadcast his nonsense and then get surprised when he actually follows through on his threats. Absolutely dreadful country.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505387#Comment_122505387

People are bored of his schtick now - He is incapable of shifting direction even slightly to appeal to a broader base.

He will continue to rant and rave about all the usual things and more and more people will tune out.

Inflation is dropping , the Fed are about to cut rates and Border "interactions" are at their lowest levels for 3 years plus so all his actual talking points are being taken away from him.

And that's before he goes to court and loses again and again through the month of September , including confirmation of his Federal conviction which will make him ineligible to even vote for himself.

Detritus70

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505711#Comment_122505711

I wonder how much Trump spends on lawsuits.

I know he has a habit of not paying, but lawyers won't fall for that one forever and start demanding cash upfront.

And I'm hoping that his stock will drop enough that he won't make much of it. It's at $23, I'm hoping it will dip below $20 before the weekend. I see his stock as an indicator of his popularity and after a brief bump after the shooting, it's dropped quite significantly.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505622#Comment_122505622

The only question about a potential Trump loss in November is how much ground has been laid by MAGA to actually follow through on an attempt to bypass the vote and install Trump as president. Think about how close they got the last time despite it being chaotic and ad hoc and consider that they've had four years to plan. Is that being slept on or are any measures being quietly taken to counteract it?

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122505803#Comment_122505803

He spends lots of other peoples money - I saw a figure of something like $70m had been spent across the various PACs and Super-Pacs around his campaign on legal fees in the last year.

The Stock is down 41% since the brief high-point after the shooting a month ago.

He can't sell until sometime in mid-September and that current trajectory would have the stock down in the low to mid-teens at best by then.

The problem for Trump will be finding buyers for that amount of Stock - No institutional investors will want to touch it so he can't bundle up a big ball of stock and sell it as a single deal at a fixed price.

So if he wants to sell , he just basically has to put the stock out there in the open market and no matter what company you are , if a large chunk of the stock hits the open market at the same time the price will tank. Layer in the fact that the company is a complete turd and within minutes the offer price will be 60/70% down on whatever the initial price was.

It's currently valued at something close to $5B but in reality it's worthless. They say they have ~$350M in cash on hand and no debt but they are also losing 10's of millions annually so the true value is likely less than $200M if you discount the cash assets against those run rate losses - So about 95%+ less than current Stock price which is about $1 a share.

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122506150#Comment_122506150

The key difference between this time and 2020 is that Trump won't be in power if he loses come November - January. He won't have the special forces or police to command.

And do we think people will rock up this time knowing what happened to the last bunch?

Or do we think that the police and security detail will be caught short again?

If he loses this time, they should suspect the worst, but it'll be a whimper I think.