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

Lewis_Benson

Weird times.

Patrick2010

The man is mad, his latest post on truth social

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114593880455063168

The U.S. Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade. Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of “TRUMP?” What other reason could it be? I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real “sleazebag” named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions. He openly brags how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court — I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is! In any event, Leo left The Federalist Society to do his own “thing.” I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations. This is something that cannot be forgotten! With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do what’s right for the Country! In this case, it is only because of my successful use of Tariffs that many Trillions of Dollars have already begun pouring into the U.S.A. from other Countries, money that, without these Tariffs, we would not be able to get. It is the difference between having a rich, prosperous, and successful United States of America, and quite the opposite. The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY. Backroom “hustlers” must not be allowed to destroy our Nation! The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around D.C. for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. If allowed to stand, this would completely destroy Presidential Power — The Presidency would never be the same! This decision is being hailed all over the World by every Country, other than the United States of America. Radical Left Judges, together with some very bad people, are destroying America. Under this decision, Trillions of Dollars would be lost by our Country, money that will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. It would be the harshest financial ruling ever leveled on us as a Sovereign Nation. The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that are doing it Economic and Financial harm. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123498917#Comment_123498917

Punctuation? Has CFTrump broken with the Federalist Society? Hard to read this - was it a 'Truth' maybe put in the link?

Patrick2010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123498924#Comment_123498924

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114593880455063168

Ask Donald about his lack of punctuation 😀

twinytwo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123498917#Comment_123498917

He still doesn't understand how tariffs work, or the courts or the constitution.

thereiver

If the new bill pas,s 8 to 15 million people will lose medicaid people in low incomes who work Also 200 planned Parenthood clinics will close due to cuts in medicare payments this clinics give medical care and free contraception to people on low income. Those so called jobs are low paid jobs that Americans do not want Americans but laptops and phones imported because it would be impossible to make them in America for a low price. Most people will not pay 2k for an iphone

China and other country's have built up supply chains and trained 1000 s of people to make phones There's a reason why theres no company making those products in america

American people will not work for the wages pays in Chinese factorys

Trump is attacking the middle class and working people so that the rich can get more tax cuts He is using the shield of anti dei and antisemitism to reduce freedom of speech

Leroy42

Remember all those people who claimed that Trump was only messing about being a dictator? Guess what, that is exactly what he is trying to be. He claims that being the POTUS gives him unlimited power and that there is no need for the other equal branches of the government.

Where are all those people who demand guns be allowed, as it is written in the cherished constitution, but for this, the constitution shouldn't be adhered to.

Even Fox News raised the pretty obvious question that ,rather than go down this anti-constitutional route, since the GOP controls Congress, why doesn't Trump get these tariffs through Congress? And they would get through. It is because that would be accepting that Congress does indeed have a say in the country, and that is not part of the plan.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499142#Comment_123499142

The guns protecting against tyranny narrative was always a pathetically thin veneer over a worship of wealth, selfishness, violence, force and oppression. Most of the same people are happy to wave the flag of the Confederacy, a pathetic slave state that lost the only war it ever fought.

Look at the way they responded to the pandemic. People always show their true selves during a crisis.

Wolf359f

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123498821#Comment_123498821

The TACO acronym really seems to have struck a nerve with Trump. I hope it becomes more widespread. You can even buy caps.

Imagine some press people in the Whitehouse wearing them. They would never get in the door!

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123498958#Comment_123498958

Heh. So, in typical CFTrump fashion, he attacked the Judges on the Court of International Trade. I haven't found the names of the Judges, but the vast majority of them are Trump appointees. Well, as no fault can ever be attributed to CFTrump, he blames the scurrilous Federalist Society and power-broker Leonard Leo who recommended those Judges for him to appoint.

(https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/1kytrs0/trump_turns_on_the_farright_federalist_society/#lightbox)

looksee

Its a bit self defeating though! I get that it is designed to annoy Trump, but it is suggesting that when he makes his outrageous rules he should then stick with them regardless of damage.

It would be better if he did not make the rules, and it causes chaos when he does, but him backing off is better than stubbornly holding to them.

He does not have the imagination or the flexibility to figure out the consequences of his dictats so this is not going to stop him making up his ridiculous 'laws'.

The hat is just another distraction from him trashing democracy, it could even be advantageous to him.

randd1

What is the point in doing any business with America anymore?

There are tariffs, then there aren't tariffs. Then there's a deal. But it's not really a deal, it's the concepts of a deal with nothing agreed upon, but it's still the best deal ever. But then it wasn't good enough, so there's more tariffs, but not for 90 days until we get the same great deal we had before the most recent tariff. The a court says the tariffs can't be implemented. Then another court says yes they can be implemented. Then the tariffs are increased because the court has given Trump power to do what he wants with tariffs. But then he suspends the tariffs because they've made a deal, the best deal ever, and the tariffs are postponed. But then the tariffs are back on because the best deal ever, nothing was agreed on it and it's hurting the US, so tariffs baby!! But the tariffs are suspended pending negotiations. Then a Court says tariffs are ok, so tariffs are back and bigger then ever. But then the market slumps so tariffs are suspended again for 90 days, with an deal ready for announcement. Next week. But it'll be subject to tariffs.

That's how America is operating right now. Trump changing his mind every few hours, and mindless and moronic lick-spittle sycophants bending over backwards to justify and implement the latest mood swing from the president-come-wannabe dictator king.

The American economy under Trumpist economics is about as reliable a partner as having an igloo as your house in the middle of the Kalahari and hoping to avoid it melting down.

And let's be honest here, not only has America voted for Trump, they voted for the MAGA version of the GOP to be over everything. This ain't going to go away with Trump, Trump has allowed the worst traits of the GOP of the last 40 years to become policy. This is their wet dream, they won't give this up, Trumpism will be the gold standard of GOP policy going forward. And a clear part of that policy is putting those dirty, nasty, scummy foreigners in their place under America's jackboot. That's their policy now.

How long before China, India, the EU, Africa and South America say "fcuk this bullsh!t, let's move on with out them"?

Because the way the US is going, they'll actually have to deal without the US out of basic self-preservation for their own economies. It's much, much better to go out into the rain in the street together and figure out shelter from there, than staying under a dry roof in a house with a lunatic that's dumping wood, coal and petrol all over the house and waving a lit candle.

RickBlaine

How can any business in America who imports from abroad, especially small ones or those with narrow margins, operate under this nonsense. Their trading conditions are changing dramatically on a regular basis. Pure insanity.

RickBlaine

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123498917#Comment_123498917

Prior to 2016, if any other president of either party released a statement like this basically demonstrating utter ignorance of the constitution and the role of the courts and congress and the desire for the president to be all powerful, they probably would have been impeached or perhaps even the 25th amendment would be invoked.

PixelCrafter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499407#Comment_123499407

Exactly. They can’t, and if this keeps up, plenty of them will go bust.

You’ve got GOP people shouting that businesses should just absorb the tariffs, but that completely ignores how these companies actually operate. Most of them, including the big chains that everyone loves to hate (yet still shop in), run on margins in the 2%-4% sort of area with lots of just-in-time delivery etc. They run very tight ships and survive comfortably on volume, not big profits per sale. So when their costs suddenly spike, those tiny margins disappear.

When that happens at scale, it doesn’t take long before the whole operation starts to unravel and that can happen extremely quickly in a big retailer. They can be profitable one week and insolvent the next. It’s not just unsustainable - it can't work and it's basically an economically illiterate act of self sabotage.

They won't listen to experts because anyone who disagrees them is part of the conspiracy theory they have built up in their head and they have it in for academics, universities, commentators in the 'main stream media' and often Wall Street and so on too. So, they will just keep driving the US closer and closer to the cliff and nobody's going to really be able to stop them.

I think the only thing that's going to cause a major reset in the US at this point is the reality of a complete financial meltdown - they may not listen to political logic, but they are suddenly snapped into reality by economic realities.

The unfortunate bit about that is that it will do enormous damage to everyone else too.

thatsdaft

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499539#Comment_123499539

Plenty of them are, yesterday we seen negative GDP growth figures coming out for Q1 another few months and it’s an official Trump recession (again)

Quite possibly too late now to avoid it as those ships from China haven’t sailed

PixelCrafter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499546#Comment_123499546

My concern is that even if the economic situation starts to slide into a really serious mess Trump will just continue to blame all of his usual targets and probably 'nasty people' 'who live far away' 'who are trying to destroy America' etc etc and it will just keep on rolling.

His audience is incredibly stupid, yet is driving the agenda.

You're basically dealing with a cult at this point within the GOP. Even calling it the GOP is a bit of a stretch at this point. That party has been utterly wrecked.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499556#Comment_123499556

They're stupid, yes, but they're also incredibly cohesive. Look at what Joe Biden was dealing with compared to the way MAGA venerates and adores Trump.

They'll be loyal to Trump until they start starving. The problem with having minimal social supports is that it takes a lot less force to destroy the social contract. A hungry dog will only be so loyal to its master.

PixelCrafter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499570#Comment_123499570

That's the problem though. It's a highly dangerous cult of personality in a broken political system and a culture that worships celebrity.

What I predict will happen is there'll be a significant economic meltdown. It will cause chaos and then eventually a fickle electorate will walk away from him, many claiming they've never liked him etc etc, but there's going to be a total mess between now and that point.

Cookie_Monster

What's the "CFTrump" reference mean? I'm assume some kind of (completely valid) slur, but can't figure it out...

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499580#Comment_123499580

Convicted felon.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499579#Comment_123499579

I think in that scenario, a civil war becomes just about possible.

I think a big problem is that technology has made elements of life which would once have required good judgement or death too easy. Take vaccines. We've basically eradicated diseases that would have been lethal if caught so one always had to be vigilant. Globalized supply chains and advances in agricultural technology mean that food shortages result in relatively low price rises instead of shortages and famines.

A lot of people take this for granted and so vote for the barely coherent grifter who clearly has no expertise in anything but scamming people. A few centuries ago, a monarch like Louis XVI who presided over a food shortage faced riots, civil war, defenestration and even death.

PixelCrafter

I’m not convinced the US is heading for a classic civil war between two clear factions, but large-scale civil unrest or random insurgency seems entirely plausible. Something not identical to, but perhaps with more in common with The Troubles in Northern Ireland. The fault lines are very different, and quite worryingly there is drastically more heavy weaponry in circulation, both among civilians and the state and many of those shouting the loudest are often also those who have a penchant for guns and violence.

Hopefully it doesn't go there but it seems not entirely unlikely.

What you're seeing is a breakdown of normal democracy and rule of law. A lot will depend on things like how the government interacts with the court rulings etc, but there's a major disconnect happening when you see things that should be taken for granted in a a functioning democracy just not happening, like an assumption that the underlying pillar institutions like the courts should be respected by the executive etc.

Even on something like the current tariffs. If the courts uphold the U.S. Court of International Trade ruling, and then the executive ignores that ruling then we're into a total mess! It would immediately result in a situation where companies would potentially refuse to pay tariffs that don't exist in law, and the executive would be in total conflict with the legal system. Then what? It's just rule by who has access to most force… Or, it ends up as old man shouting at the clouds and the entire US government goes into complete chaos.

Systems of government all have rules, regulations and constitutional frameworks underlying them. However, most of what they do relies on a prevailing political culture that accepts the legitimacy of those systems and institutions of state, and is willing to work within them.

yagan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499618#Comment_123499618

I don't know if you remember but during the pandemic there were a few instances where I thought MAGA nuts would seize a state capitol or two. I remember seeing the heavily armed anti lockdown protestors enter the Michigan capitol building in April 2020 and thinking they're not far off another Waco standoff.

After the intransigence toward gun law reform after Sandy Hook and the subsequent attempts to say it was a set up I really do think it will take national civil disorder for there to be a change. I could well imagine states like California setting up arms inspection check points.

Tony EH

I think the only thing that's going to cause a major reset in the US at this point is the reality of a complete financial meltdown - they may not listen to political logic, but they are suddenly snapped into reality by economic realities.

At this stage I don't even think a national economic collapse would change the minds of the MAGA idiots. They are so confused, themselves, by Trump's gibberish that he'd just blame it on Biden and they'll go along with it. The zone has been so flooded with shit that it has become impossible to separate fact from the enormous amounts of fiction that Trump and his cronies have poisoned political discourse with.

A substantial amount of them cannot even get their heads around the basic concept of what a tariff is and have no idea how it impacts them financially. Nor do they understand why this kind of economic yoyo'ing is just plain bad for trade on any level for ordinary people.

Far too many of them will just trust in Trump to deliver them to the sunlit uplands that they all have in the heads, which is a wildly varying concept for each individual. And with Joe Biden they've all been given a figure of hate on which they can hang blame on for everything that Trump screws up.

aloyisious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123498821#Comment_123498821

God forbid he knew a taco is a Mexican food dish.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499618#Comment_123499618

It's hard to say. I said possible but I should have added very unlikely. The odd thing is that there is some kind of identity in the form of the Confederacy which overlaps neatly with the pride Americans seem to attach to specific states, most noteworthy being Texas. An actual civil war with frontlines and war economies is unlikely but unrest, non-cooperation with the federal government and sporadic violence would be more likely.

The final paragraph of your post is the most important. If enough people put Trump above democracy then the constitution is just words on paper. We've already seen MAGA capture the supreme court hence my comment about civil war becoming possible as the legal route to stopping Trump becomes almost invalid.

rossie1977

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499579#Comment_123499579

The fever will break

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2_G28K0JUSA&pp=ygUfVGhlIGZldmVyIHdpbGwgYnJlYWsgc2FpbHkgc2hvdw%3D%3D

We need to stop looking at Republicans as rational people here. This is what they have been working on since FDR (to destroy his legacy The New Deal at all costs) and especially ramped up since Nixons impeachment where they vowed a Republican president would never be removed from office again.

They don't care if the entire world burns around them as long as their party is on top. I remember being on American political forums circa 2008 when US was losing 800,000 jobs a week and Dow spiraling towards 6k and yet as one Bush Jr was still viewed as being sent by god.

Even if Democrats manage to squeeze someone through the entire cycle starts again where a national vilification campaign begins to bury that particular person character to a point they are the most hated person on Earth.

blackcard

I grew up believing in America as the land of the free. Leaders in art, music, films, literature, sport, technology, science, enterpreneurship and democracy. Friend and ally to Western Europe and our protector against the USSR. To me, it didn't matter if it was a Republican or Democratic president. The US was the moral leader of the world.

Now, the US sides with Russia and lectures Europe and Ukraine. Wants to take over Greenland, Canada and the Pamela Canal. Believes an election was stolen. Has a president who lies continuously and deports people without due process. Threatens his opponents, media and the judiciary. Doesn't believe in science. Incites hatred. Lines his own pockets blatantly.Throws childish tantrums. Wants revenge against anyone who opposes him. Demands fawning loyalty.

The sad thing is that half the citizens support the president and many say he is not extreme enough. It is likely that his successor will be more hardline. The gap between the US and Europe is widening to the extent that it is not inconceivable that they will be foes in a number of years. Never has the US more needed a leader who can change course

Wolf359f

Lol how deluded is he? He done a fast deal to save China, what about America first? All those tariffs they should be collecting to finance his biggly bill.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123499901#Comment_123499901

He's more so trying to dispel the TACO stuff; he didn't chicken out, he was just trying to help the Chinese economy because of what an awesome and benevolent guy he is. But now he's going to be Tough, like he always was.

Yes, it's not Trump Always Chickens Out, it's Trump Was Always Tough!