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

Royale with Cheese

Maybe they're just going to unleash Enoch to stand outside the White House gates all day.

swiwi_

So I had a scroll through stopping to watch at the points Martin spoke. About 50 minutes of which about 45 minutes was Trump waffling, 3 minutes Martin talking and 2 minutes journalist questions. Trump would be lost if the words “very” and “great” didn’t exist. Martin is a real politician: replies to the Q without addressing it and says nothing that can offend Trump. A+

thatsdaft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258725#Comment_123258725

Didn’t someone get shot outside whitehouse during the week

techdiver

Martin did fantastic. He knew exactly what to say and when to say it. He buttered Trump up and played to his ego and like most guys like Trump he ate that up.

When he needed to get a few points across (Irish companies being the biggest Boeing customers etc) he did.

SuperBowserWorld

We are the best boys in the class today !

Oíche Na Gaoithe Móire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258779#Comment_123258779

💯

You need to be cute, know how to manage all sorts of people.

Billy Mays

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258699#Comment_123258699

Well the oul fella got clearance to enter the country despite being recently convicted of assaulting a female garda. If it was you or I we wouldn't have made it on to the plane. Someone must be pulling strings for them.

amandstu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258763#Comment_123258763

Well he did say he was a "friend of Ireland"

MisterAnarchy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234400#Comment_123234400

Glad to see Martin took the sensible approach.

A good old plamasing. Thats the only way to do it.

Trump likes Ireland, he has businesses here, in fact he said today that he “loves” Ireland and the Irish “love” him too. He knows his stuff.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258794#Comment_123258794

Antiabortion industrial complex in the USA is my guess.

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258892#Comment_123258892

Somewhat telling that you haven't said a word about the impending Trumpcession...

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258586#Comment_123258586

I proposed it as a distinct possibility -I expressed an opinion - that’s what this website is about - are you just here to gloat and point fingers and laugh at other posters or do you have something constructive to say?

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258892#Comment_123258892

I’m sure the Irish “love” him too…

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258402#Comment_123258402

Easy to understand though. And get soundbites from. Obama did the same with those “Preacher like” pauses. I am not sure it is Trump dumbing down?

“I know words. I have the best words”

Donald Trump

fullstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258892#Comment_123258892

He knows **** all if he thinks Ireland loves him. He’s a prick.

reclose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259137#Comment_123259137

Nobody understands words better than I do.

yagan

Tomorrow he could be calling us thieves.

My name is URL

Is there an official supper later on? That's where the fun happens. Not to put too fine a point on it, but that's where MM will speak directly and candidly to intelligence and military leaders.

The level of access we get every year is remarkable. It can't be said enough tbh

DrPsychia

A few years ago on Quora, somebody asked the question; " Why do many British people not like Donald Trump?"
This answer by British writer - Nate White - sums Trump up perfectly.

A few things spring to mind.

Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.

For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.

I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.

But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.

And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.

Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.

Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.

And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.

Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.

He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.

He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.

That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.

There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

* Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

* You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.

After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of ****. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.

He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.

In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:

'My God… what… have… I… created?

If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.

trashcan

I’d agree with all that. I genuinely don’t get it when people say Trump is charismatic. Really ? Not in my book, not by a long shot.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259624#Comment_123259624

Agree with most of that but I'll have stick up for Trump on this

while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.

I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever.

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-election-2024/story/us-election-al-smith-charity-dinner-new-york-donald-trump-mocked-white-dudes-for-harris-group-joking-wives-lover-vote-for-him-2619291-2024-10-18

Probably crafted by his handlers but still…

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258335#Comment_123258335

He is not an astute businessman.

Kermit.de.frog

I think MM did the best he could be expected to do given the occupant in the White House. He was always going to take some punches but remained calm and did get a few counter jabs in.

All the leftists saying he should have challenged him on Gaza and all that stuff are delusional and, frankly, either dangerous or dangerously ignorant with the interests of this country.

Sinn Féin are the biggest losers here. They allowed the government get the whip hand over their silly decision not to attend because it actually worked out well for MM. They also allowed the DUP get an edge on them in the north (even though they are only at this yearly event at our grace facilitating it every year - my own opinion is if most people in the north want to be part of the UK then why are they even there? but anyway)

MM did ok to get through it without a blowup on trade. That was the landmine.

Mr.Wemmick

It’s like something out of medieval times watching leaders of countries sitting painfully beside Trump, being tested and made to feel utterly uncomfortable, much to the joy and delight of that sneering low-life rabble in the White House.

I’m sure everyone who has to go through it must say to Trump in their heads: Fook you and the Musk horse you rode in on..

One thing’s for sure - everyone’s a loser. If he hasn’t targeted or hurt any country or political group, it’s most likely because it has slipped his mind.

Canaibh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123256952#Comment_123256952

Mod edit:

Post deleted.

@Canaibh next time you will attempt this (commenting on moderation on thread) you will get your prediction of another ban.

FishOnABike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258135#Comment_123258135

The saying "Don't wrestle with a pig in the mud. You both get dirty, but the pig likes it." comes to mind.

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123258135#Comment_123258135

Micheal did very very well.

And Mary Lou said when she announced she wouldn't be going that she recognized that Micheal Martin would and that he should given the office he holds and diplomatic relations.

Ireland has politicians in leadership and in opposition that are many streets ahead of their American equivalents in terms of dignity and focus.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259743#Comment_123259743

No one should be even going there. Its only giving Trump the exposure and platform he craves, as well as a victim to harass and intimidate.

That's Trumps oxygen and they keep giving it to him. Not a single person has come out of there with anything positive, so why do it.

gormdubhgorm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259705#Comment_123259705

The gas thing about the SF protest. Trump didn't seem to know one iota about it when a Journalist with an Ulster accent asked him. He didn't even know what they were protesting about. And finally he didn't seem to care when told about it.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123259985#Comment_123259985

We were bound by decades long precedent to be there yesterday, but ultimately all world leaders will be avoiding any necessary exposure as Trump has no good will for anyone.

Trump wanted the next meet up with Xi to happen at Mar-a-largo, but they declined and insisted that any meeting should be in a formal setting in Beijing or Washington, and I bet they'll insist that they have as many delegates in the room as Trump will have.

It could well be that yesterdays meeting could well be one of last casual oval appearances by a foreign head of government. Trump can not be trusted to not make such appearances TV events for his MAGA faithful.