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

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123399808#Comment_123399808

We really need Trump to be pretty successful in the damage he does up to the midterms. Americans need to feel the pain before then. If it happens after, the democrats will be blamed for blocking his "beautiful plan", and MAGA will roll on, perhaps a decade or more. We need to see a serious drop in living standards. A shortage of consumer goods (this is happening already, the ports have very few containers in them and there's a significant drop in ships docking, especially on the pacific coast). Even the dumb dumbs need to see first hand the damage they've done.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401048#Comment_123401048

I'm not. However, it's on people in any society to have some interest in what their government is doing. The gerrymandering, voter fraud conspiracies and the other nonsense are nothing new and have been well documented at this point.

You are correct to note that in 2016 most Americans who voted did so for a qualified woman. However, the injustices that are baked into the system are seldom, if ever discussed. It's similar in the UK. We have a deeply unrepresentative voting system which is slowly attracting more criticism but most Brits don't seem bothered.

sock.rocker*

Amazon saying they weren't actually planning on putting tariff costs on its main website, but the Shlte House attack on the idea speaks volumes about how unprepared the US is to let consumers realise these tariffs are paid for by themselves.

The effects of this in the next few months will be interesting. I personally think that once some things start to disappear from shelves, panic buying will set in for things not even related to China. They freaked out over masks and toilet roll. I don't think Americans will keep a cool head and so they will self-inflict shortages by stockpiling.

Oscar_Madison

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401053#Comment_123401053

I could well imagine that the listing of calorific content no less the bloody ingredient list, could well be done away with under this current regime - well for one, it would allow the government to spike all fast food with anti-depressants reducing the risk of a rebellion and making even more people addicted to medications enriching further Trumps corporate “friends” - I think I’m liking this conspiracy theory writing business 🤪

ceadaoin.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401051#Comment_123401051

Vegas didn't vote for Trump.

One company laid off their concierges in some of their properties. They arent needed anymore when people can just use their phones to get directions or restaurant recommendations and reservations. Its hardly mass layoffs. Not yet anyway. It still seems as busy as ever to me, the place was packed last weekend for wrestlemania, stayed on the strip last month and it was the same as ever, very busy. Many people who work on the strip will tell you the same thing.

Yesterday was the third busiest day ever reported at the airport so it doesnt seem like vegas is dead or dying just yet. I know some people are hoping for the sky to fall and for vegas to be decimated, even people who live here (easy to say when your job won't be effected) but I hope not.

eire4

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123400680#Comment_123400680

One of the silver linings of the lurch towards authoritarianism in the US is that the rest of the democratic world can see what a train wreck it is when you actually put an authoritarian party in power and so hopefully in the coming years voters in other democracies turn away from authoritarian/fascist type parties that having been gaining traction in some democracies and hopefully yesterday's remarkable Candian election result was the first sign of that given the Liberals were down by 24% in January and now just 3 months latter largely based on what has happened in the US and the US initiated trade war and threatening language toward Canada that has turned into what looks like a 2-3% Liberal victory so a swing of over 25% in just 3 months.

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401229#Comment_123401229

Just how much of a dunce do you need to be that you can't figure out how a tariff works at this stage and you're relying on Amazon to bring it home. (*YOU, being the average American)

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401362#Comment_123401362

If they only consume and trust fox et al they either still haven't been told it or just don't believe it because of what orange man has previously said.

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401053#Comment_123401053

See, the reporter's follow up to Leavitt's bullshit should have been "Well, don't you believe that it would be of great benefit to the US consumer and that they'll understand the effect that Trump's tariffs are having on their spending?"

These bastards need to be cornered and their lies exposed and challenged every. single. time.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401357#Comment_123401357

Indeed - I think if you are looking for "positives" from the Trump administration they are exclusively about the reaction to them elsewhere.

• The rest of the world no longer ceding decision making and thought leadership to the US by default.
• Europe getting it's act together in terms of defence spending.
• I think it's going to accelerate the UK and EU getting to something like a Norwegian style relationship , which will be good all round.

And also as you said , the rest of the world gets to see a "live production test" of what can happen when you decide to pick someone based on "How could they be worse than the guys we have now?".

Having said all that , it would be nice to see the Liberals in Canada and indeed the Democrats in the US getting more voters because they are offering something better than before and not just because "They aren't Donald Trump".

It's enough for now , but it won't be enough to stop it happening again…

charlie14

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401408#Comment_123401408

At the outset of orange man`s ramblings on tariffs 66% believed that the country supplying goods would pay the tariffs, which really doesn`t say much for their even basic understanding of how tariffs work. But even in spite of fox et al they now seem to be getting the message, even if 38% of them still appear to believe the country suppling will pay the tariffs.

ixoy

This is classic:

Americans to "trust in president Trump", while Bessent said "strategic uncertainty" was a part of Trump's plan.

"Certainty is not necessarily a good thing in negotiating," Bessent said during the briefing.

Strategic uncertainty is a great phrase for the crap fest that happened.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401447#Comment_123401447

The problem isn't with "Strategic uncertainty" per se , the problem is the one that's "uncertain".

It's supposed to be the other guy that you keep on their toes with uncertainty - Not your own side!!!!

They don't know WHY they are doing any of this. It's an incoherent mess.

• If the plan is for Tariffs to replace income tax (which Trump has babbled about recently) then the Tariffs are permanent and No deals are done and no Manufacturing comes back, such that the tariff revenue is high enough to replace regular taxation
• If the plan is for the Tariffs to re-shore Manufacturing , then again the tariffs are permanent and no deals are done to force companies to come back home and income tax remains in place as the key revenue source for the Federal government.
• If the plan is for tariffs to force a rebalancing of trade , then they are temporary and deals are done on trade. No Manufacturing comes back and Income tax remains in place.

Aside from the fact that they don't seem to actually know WHY they have started a tariff war , the problem is that NONE of the versions above are a good idea or even realistic.

• Tariffs can never replace Income tax as they'd need to be about 400% across the board to get close to replacing std tax revenues , making everything unaffordable.
• Manufacturing won't come back in any meaningful volume - The US doesn't have the people , the supply chain infrastructure or the cost structure for it to be viable and it could take decades , if ever for them to achieve that.
• "Rebalancing of trade" just makes no sense as the zero-sum game Trump believes it to be. It's utter nonsense.

tl;dr.

It's an utter ****-show start to finish and can ONLY end in abject failure for Trump and the US economy.

Economics101

Now you get fired for writing scientific assessments:

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/29/climate/trump-dismisses-climate-report-authors/index.html

Stalin used to favour the view that acquired charestics could be inherited, so he promoted Trofim Lysenko. This is the level of the attack on reality that the Orange CLown is leading.

rossie1977

BBC article today is an eye-opener. 90% of Republicans approve of Trumps policies so far. That is nothing of incredible given how horrendous he has been.

Good article on RTE too talking about Democrats trying to get any sort of attention when the media is just wall to wall Trump/Trump/Trump. I just took at look at NBC news front page yesterday and every story was Trump related, imagine every story on RTE focused on Martin or Michael D day in day out..

yagan

^^

It's a cult.

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401676#Comment_123401676

But that begs the question as to how many former Republicans are now Independents, or some other label. Of course the diminishing band of declared Republicans will support DJT.

But I'm shocked that the GOP has not lost even more support.

PropJoe10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401676#Comment_123401676

There's two elements now to the GOP. The first is the kind that will only care that a "Republican" candidate is in power, and will assume he's doing a good job. The second is the Trump voter that's been brainwashed into thinking that Trump is the second arrival of Jesus. And would vote Trump even if he visited their house personally and torched it. The much more relevant portion (as always) of the electorate is the Independent voter. He is way underwater with that bracket.

sock.rocker*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401362#Comment_123401362

I teach high school students in Vietnam, who have been taught by their maths teachers etc. that the reciprocal tariff is a result of a 92% tariff Vietnam puts on goods from America.. What. Nonsense.

I did an entire lesson, with all the maths involved, to teach them how all this actually works. It is astonishing what people just believe to be true. It was the best series of lessons I've ever taught because it was relevant, blew the students' minds, and I taught it well and with obvious authority. I made it fun and got them really engaged. I threw in demand curves for the nerds and worked out the dumbass tariff rate calculation on the board for the doubters.

This insidious idea that other countries pays the tariff meant not a single student in any class got the right answer to "After the tariffs, now how much does Vietnam sell the coffee for." Every random combination of numbers was given using the number 46 apart from the arbitrary $1 that was written clearly on the board before the tariff.

They couldn't remotely grasp the idea that this was an import tax paid by Americans because it made no intuitive sense. I had even explained "import tax" at the start, knowing they would understand it, but would still be unable to link it to the tariffs. Americans are the exact same and that's why Amazon labelling the tariff is so damaging. It exposes the entire idea as being complete and utter dumbassery. It would make Americans look at the maths of it all, and like my students, realise something unintuitive was happening.

kneemos

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401859#Comment_123401859

Wouldn't have thought it was even that unintuitive. An import tax that's passed onto the consumer.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123400784#Comment_123400784

If this election was anything for the cons, it was a resounding failure on all accounts. Them getting more seats is a very distant booby prize when they were projected to win over 200 seats at one point.

And for Pierre to not even win his seat, the icing on the cake. It’s a great time to be living in Canada, and now with a stable leader.

Great result all around.

sock.rocker*

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401929#Comment_123401929

The idea of attacking another country by making things more expensive for your own population is rather unintuitive. Tariffs being a crude vehicle to alter user behaviour is definitely not something people are usually aware of. They're usually something industry deals with, to the benefit of industry in the long-term.

aloyisious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401053#Comment_123401053

So the question is: did Leavitt come up with the words in the quote that Amazon acted in a hostile political way? Will there be an explanation from the White House Press Office that Leavitt's words should not be taken to be a White House statement that Bezos was behind the "hostile political" act against the Trump administration?

sock.rocker*

America just prints money. They print money and invest it into themselves or buy shlt from abroad, and the rest of the world sells to America, gets money, and invests that back into America or buys their debt. They have "exorbitant privilege" by having this money supply. This is well-documented.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exorbitant_privilege

They can print money with less inflation because the dollar is held worldwide. Imagine the power of being able to print your own currency but because it is held all around the world, the inflationary effect inside your own country is minimised whilst enjoying the benefits.

And now, they are telling the world that they are ripping off America. The entire world apparently ripped off America by partaking in the financial system it created. The absurdity of the accusation and subsequent tariffs is galling.

Their entire life and economic status is built upon the dollar being the reserve currency, not because they are brilliant. They are living the absolute dream. The EU has to earn its dollars through actual economic output, same as Asia, and everywhere else. European companies flow west to get some of that US dollar, because Europe is a real place with a real currency that it can't print.

I just want it all to collapse. I want the Euro to be the reserve currency not beholden to the whimsy of whoever is power in the US or any European country. I am tired of mediocre Americans living mediocre lives thinking they are the best, as if their mediocrity is what makes America great. Is it any wonder they think Europe and Asia are so terrible when their completely normal lives can bring such wealth. "Obviously Europeans must be lazy and Asians hate their lives. Obviously."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system

I hope Trump's actions lead to the dollar losing its status, its debt losing its status, and investors around the world investing in their own economies. This is what the markets have been hinting at and if it happens, US wealth will crater.

Leroy42

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123402141#Comment_123402141

Trumps WH? They neither explain or retract.

It was said. The headlines are now how Amazon are anti-US. No need to talk about the impact of tariffs.

Who cares what the PR person says? Their job is to deflect and spout a line for their boss.

aloyisious

One thing for certain is that, unless she's an economist doubling as a PR person, Leavitt's words mean some-one on the White House team recognized the effect that Amazon's alleged plan would have on the consumers faith in Trumps message that all is OK with the economy under him and took steps to attack the messenger, and nullify the effect that Amazons plan would have had/might still have in nailing down the lie that the economy was doing OK in Trump's care.

If Leavitt makes some hashed up porridge of words to mollify Bezos, she's there for the long haul or until some-one higher in the food chain says goodbye and pushes her under the bus or moves her to another job in the Admin. It'll also show that Bezos is not expendable as a financier to the Trump campaign.

briany

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123401716#Comment_123401716

I think at some point we should stop with this moderate/former Republican thing and I think that point was last year. After Trump kerb-stomped Nikki Haley in the 2024 primary, you'd think the notion would have been decisively repudiated. They're like the political equivalent of dark matter - it's claimed they exist in large quantities, yet no empirical method can detect them. It's like this - if they dislike Trump enough to leave the party or disavow him or whatever, then they can vote for the other candidate. If not, they can fukk off.

Trump's been around so long, now, that we should have a reasonable analysis of where his political capital comes from. Yes, he may have turned off some old school Republicans, but he's also pulled in a lot of new voters. The critical thing about Trump is that he has always been able to appeal directly to the public instead of relying on the Republican party's media machine and he doesn't care about protocol, so he's not going to 'wait his turn' like every other career politician. He's no qualms or scruples about hijacking the party and this is why they can't get shot of him. There is no candidate they could put up who would be more popular. Going back to the Nikki Haley example, if such a person existed, maybe they could have defeated Trump in the primary with the aid of all these mythical disaffected/former Republicans?

poop emoji

Smart retailers should label extra tax on products as Trump tax or Freedom Tax, sure who doesn’t like extra freedom

RickBlaine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123400512#Comment_123400512

If Canada became the 51st state, it would almost certainly lean democrat because Canada has a more progressive political culture than the U.S. overall. So that would be like adding another California to the electoral college in terms of population and giving the democrats a major advantage in federal elections. Just another example of Trump not taking more than 2 seconds to think of the ramifications of his proposals. It'll never happen anyway.

swampgas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123402840#Comment_123402840

Trump and Co. have no intention of allowing any kind of free election where they might lose power. If they somehow manage to grab Canada, or anywhere else, they won't be worried about the voting intentions of their new citizens/serfs.