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

Wolf359f

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304458#Comment_123304458

When your paying tariffs on parts that cross the border multiple times between US/Mexico and Canada it may just be easier to build the entire car in Mexico or Canada and slap 25% on the sticker price.

We've seen with the brexit **** show that trying to unscramble eggs (the fact UK assembled cars used so many EU parts) is unrealistic overnight, let alone within years.

It's also very hard to commit to a new factory when you can't guarantee the tariffs won't be backtracked on again or if reciprocating tariffs stay. The auto industry doesn't make all the parts themselves, so they need to rely on third party manufacturers to also move production to the US.

The US will have to clarify what % makes it US made and tariffs free.

Qaanaaq

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304298#Comment_123304298

There will be announcements all right, but no company is going to spend actual money until they have long term certainty. And we have total uncertainty.

Announcements on the other hand create publicity without having to spend anything now.

I expect that we will probably remain flat in pharma for the next few years in reality.

FishOnABike

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304018#Comment_123304018

Trump has plenty of form for not paying his bills. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

nachouser

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/27/mike-waltz-venmo

These guys are gas. I can remember when Boris Johnson didn't change his mobile number and it was available from an article he'd written years before he became PM. But this is ridiculous.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304436#Comment_123304436

I think the Republicans would oppose any state expansion due to the likelihood that it would give Democrats more seats

Dr Robert

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304458#Comment_123304458

Plus relocating means losing talent, and most importantly experience. Not saying there's not good people in the US btw.

It's all pie in the sky populist nonsense.

ZeroThreat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304780#Comment_123304780

Meaning that either Canada or Greenland would just be ruled as a terrirtory.

thatsdaft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304780#Comment_123304780

Canada for 51st state - Republican dictator

political analyst

As far as I know, legislation needs a two-thirds majority in the US Senate to override the presidential veto. However, the fact that Trump is President means that the veto issue doesn't arise in cases where Republicans want to change the law.

So, regardless of how much filibustering the Democrats do in the Senate, the legislation that the Republicans want to have passed would be passed, wouldn't it?

everlast75

Reports that Judge Boasberg has ordered the Trump admin to preserve the contents of the Signal chat used to discuss military strikes in Yemen.

Any messages sent or received between March 11 and 15 have to be retained 🔥

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304780#Comment_123304780

They're up to such shenanigans I wouldn't put it past them to try something like have a 50yr moratorium before stakeholders is granted during which time they'd look to shift the needle.

Absolutely disposable hateful philosophies at the head of the GOP the last ten yrs or so, since Sarah Palin started pushing the Tea Party version. Hateful short sighted bigotry.

aloyisious

I'm waiting to see if the Chief Justice sends a reminder to K Leavitt on the boundaries of courtesy and legal niceties between the Presidency and the courts so she sees it'd be sensible to rein in her tongue or face the consequences of meddling with the courts, seeing as the Chief Justice sent a polite message to her chief on the same issue. Leavitt is not the US head of state and does not merit the same level of deference and politeness that Trump does, though she might imagine his mantle covers her as well.

A Dub in Glasgo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304987#Comment_123304987

They will just ignore that and there will be no consequences… checks and balances you see

Manic Moran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304481#Comment_123304481

It’s a frame of reference you might understand. Puerto Rican politics is primarily configured around the island status. And unfortunately, the Puerto Ricans themselves as demonstrated by their own voting patterns don’t fit into the simple division you want to put them in.

First things first, I checked in with my resident boricua (AKA the wife). Sure enough, there was an ulterior motive in that referendum, though I guessed wrong. Governor Pierluisi wanted to encourage his party voters (PNP-The pro Satehood party) to show up at the polls in the next election whilst not encouraging the next biggest party’s (PDP, no to statehood) folks to show up. (The third party is PIP, pro-independence, they are far smaller than the other two). To do so, he put a referendum to the voters which had his party’s position as an option, but did not have the opposition party’s position as an option.

It worked, kindof. His successor, Governor Gonzalez-Colon, also of the PNP won. But she considers herself aligned with the Republican Party, and when she was the Resident Commissioner in Congress until last year, she caucused with the Republicans.

However, her successor in DC, elected at the same time as the overwhelming “vote for Statehood” referendum, is a member of the PDP. And as a good “we don’t want statehood” party representative, Mr Rivera has decided to sit with… the Democrats. Gonzalez-Colon’s two predecessors in Congress were both PNP, but they went one each sitting with Democrats and Republicans. PR is a “swing state” in US terms.

Have a bounce around PR51st.com, a statehood advocacy group. The links seem to mess with Boards, but look for articles like “Are Puerto Ricans Democrats?” (Harris and Trump polled within a percent of each other. And the latter is obviously after the disaster of Trump visiting the place after the hurricane). Or “Republican party/Democratic Party Platform on Puerto Rico”

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123304984#Comment_123304984

Yeah, and this is the crux of the matter. Trump could get his various policies enacted as law, but he's not. He sees fit to do it all through executive order and the Republican-controlled Congress is happy to go along with that. This should be defcon 5 for every opponent of Trump. It is the executive branch, controlled by Trump, emerging as supreme in real time.

Trump just has to get his knee on the neck of the courts and that's it. Game over, barring a public revolt.

scrotist

85% chance this is a stupid question, but why does everybody hate trump for these tarrifs?

He said they're reciprocal, so if Ireland slaps a x% tarrif on American goods, America will do the same with Irish goods.

Maybe I have totally missed something, but isn't that fair?

Aurelian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305335#Comment_123305335

Trump started hiking up the tariffs, so, it's not reciprocal on his part, he's the instigator.

Ireland doesn't apply tariffs, the EU does as a whole.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305279#Comment_123305279

Trump is unable to "do a Derek Chauvin" on the courts. That is clear because of the rebuke from the Chief Justice after Trump called for the impeachment of a judge. This is from last week.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/roberts-rebuke-trump-shows-seriousness-concern-white-house/story?id=119921304

golfball37

Trump contends there is a tariff in place already that favours the eu and his tariff is just cancelling this out.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305003#Comment_123305003

This quote from an article written by Ian O'Doherty in the Indo (14 February 2024) turned out to be prescient, given Trump's overwhelming victory last November and also explains his 2016 victory (and I think that his 2020 defeat was a fluke that was caused by the pandemic).

"Many traditional Democrat voters have grown increasingly resentful of their party's apparent obsession with social justice matters such as transgender rights, the Black Lives Matter movement and, bizarrely, their repeated and entirely unworkable calls for reparations for slavery. Most middle Americans care not a jot for these fringe issues - they are more interested in how much money they have in their pay packet at the end of the month."

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305368#Comment_123305368

This quote from an article written by Ian O'Doherty in the Indo (14 February 2024) turned out to be prescient

Nope

https://www.yahoo.com/news/john-oliver-slams-democrats-think-114037409.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAALJ_2uitAbazG45WZ4FWxb-hC3x6-9DlBhXiwBe-tCROJ5TxcZ8djkb5tuVQ004M2wVgyANR_BlKdQcXxMF_Mj3CUftdXHSQw7Kvrr-mN8NOWhh12Zpw2xi4fY7r7ekCyjnOomos2Ikd2ahEbA-hSZjsHQtz5LsT74TvaWWIp0LE

Maxface

The Eu, UK, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia and others (maybe even some Chinese relief) should operate a temporary free trade agreement. Something that covers the products that Trump is tariffing. This should not only provide temporary relief to businesses and consumers, it should also frighten the shite out of USA stock markets. Trump is acting like the USA is the King of the World (not half wrong) but, if other countries are happy to trade away from the USA, inviting manufacturing back is the least of their worries.

10000maniacs

If Trump slaps 25% tarriffs on pharmaceuticals manufactured in Ireland, why don't Ireland cash in their €340 billion US bonds they hold and buy Euro bonds instead? I know it won't help Ireland but at least it would give Trump a big headache he has to deal with. €340 billion is a big hole to fill even in the USA.

Why doesn't Germany, France, UK, Canada and Mexico cash in their US bonds too. Its an easy way to give Trump a black eye and make him think about what he is doing.

It's obvious in 2025 that the USA is of no benefit whatsoever to the rest of the Western world. So just pull the plug on them.

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305408#Comment_123305408

The state doesn't own those bonds. They would be owned by financial institutions.

10000maniacs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305413#Comment_123305413

Yes but the Irish financial institutions have a vested interest in the Irish economy being healthy. Nothing stopping them from investing in Euro bonds instead. I would say the dollar is a worse bet than the Euro in 2025. Anyway I'd rather Ireland's financial institutions propped up the Euro than the dollar. Trump is trying to kill the Irish economy so why not?

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305368#Comment_123305368

"Many traditional Democrat voters have grown increasingly resentful of their party's apparent obsession with social justice matters such as transgender rights, the Black Lives Matter movement and, bizarrely, their repeated and entirely unworkable calls for reparations for slavery. Most middle Americans care not a jot for these fringe issues - they are more interested in how much money they have in their pay packet at the end of the month."

I don't actually buy that. I heard way more conservatives (like O'Doherty) talking about social justice matters than I did Democrats. It was all 'Democrats are focused on this, Democrats are focused on that" being claimed by Republicans and their mouthpieces. Sure, BLM garnered a lot of attention, but it was a real topic that started on the streets in a real way rather than being contrived by Democrats. And core factors related to the discussion did and do massively impact people in negative ways.

Like even on here, we had an inuit chaser conservative who posted time and time and time again about transgender topics to a level that was way out of whack with public discourse, all the time claiming it was what The Left cared about. But they were the one bringing it in to every conversation.

Look at all the bills conservatives have brought in at the state and national level around such topics, way more than what Democrats have. Bills to prevent Trans people using bathrooms of their choice, bills to force people to only refer to two genders, all driven by Republicans.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305357#Comment_123305357

Yeah, I saw Roberts' comments but two things...

One, it's early days in Trump's presidency. Given he's a man who saw no particular problem with trying to overturn the 2020 election on bogus terms, I doubt there's any bottom to how low he and his team are willing to go in order to yoke the courts, should they prove themselves a problem to his agenda, and there are potentially 3 and a half years of that mentality to go.

Two, if Trump stacks enough of the civil service and the justice system with loyalists, who would there be to actually enforce court rulings which run contrary to his wishes?

Hodger

Message from Canada " the special relationship is over "

" we will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere "

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1905347765053309285

Could likely be the start of countries start to pivot their their trade relationships elsewhere.

For anyone who is a US trump supporter what exactly is he doing for you that is going to be of benefit for you and the country you live in over the course of the longer term?

Iecrawfc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305400#Comment_123305400

The way to hurt the Americans these days is to target the tech sector, they've established monopoly in Google, Apple, LinkedIn, Facebook, eBay, Amazon, netflix, Disney etc.. Their dominance there is what Europe/Australia/ Canada/Japan/South Korea (and China in certain areas) should target and produce alternatives, its easy reproduce the technology but needs backing. First step would be an European+ Twitter that cuts the knees from Musk's platform.

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123305438#Comment_123305438

its more there dominance in the fundamental architecture of the internet. Cloud computing is all American companies. It would be very challenging to develop systems independent alternatives.