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

storker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123512393#Comment_123512393

The kind of person for whom his advisors need to pepper briefing documents liberally with his own name, because if he doesn't keep seeing his own name he gets bored and stops reading.

thereiver

Elon musk has grown up he .tears apart. The big beautiful bill for increasing us national debt by 4 to 5 billion and leading America into a debt spiral

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513015#Comment_123513015

Way too little, too late.

He should shut his mouth.

kowloon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513015#Comment_123513015

Trillion. An incomprehensible amount of money.

10000maniacs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513015#Comment_123513015

Trillions. Not billions.

everlast75

Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a ship named after the late gay rights activist and politician.

 

And this, during Pride Month.

More performative, petty arseholery from a bunch of pathetic bullies.

Peregrinus

I don't doubt that this is being done because it's Pride Month.

machiavellianme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513112#Comment_123513112

They should call it the "USNS Harvey Milk McTrumpFace" or the "USNS Golden Harvey Milk" and it'll be more acceptable

Rosahane

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513112#Comment_123513112

Haha hilarious 😀

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513019#Comment_123513019

It's an attempt at pure damage control for himself rather than anything to do with the bill. Start to try and separate himself from Trump a bit to slow down the negative impact his association with Trump has had on his companies, and change the media narrative about him regarding his drug use and being punched.

If he was still part of DOGE and in Trump's inner circle, he'd be praising it at least as a first step towards future cuts.

everlast75

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513182#Comment_123513182

At least we know some of their audience...

aloyisious

While it's been known for decades not that a lot of Senators and Congresspersons never read the finance bills through from start to finish, due to the size of the document, and it's additions, it's good to hear that one voter, Marjorie Taylor Greene admit [full transparency] that after voting for the bill she realised there is a section in it on pages 278/279 that strips rights from the individual states from enacting bills to regulate AI for 10 years and if she'd known, she'd have voted against the bill. More likely that she'd have argues for the deletion of the section in return for her vote.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513483#Comment_123513483

I think there was another House GOP member who admitted in a Town Hall that he hadn't read the bill either.

Edit: Found it

https://twitter.com/HouseMajPAC/status/1927776148152349167

If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if more of them come out to say the same thing, considering it's going to be deeply unpopular and it's now in the hands of Senators to vote through. "Don't blame me, I only voted it through the House. It was the Senators who had final responsibility for it!"

bog master

Hurricanes!

Picked this up from a comments section,

Donald wants a hurricane named after him.

"If Jimmy Carter had Hurricane Carter named after him,
it's only fair that I get one too!", he whined.

RickBlaine

Musk and Trump falling out was bound to happen. I wish I could have bet money on it. Two strange deluded narcissists who massively over-estimate their own competence.

ArmaniJeanss

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513568#Comment_123513568

I guess it'll be interesting to see where any fallout goes. In the UK there was a somewhat similar dynamic between Dominic Cummings and de Pfeffel 'Boris' Johnson. And when they fell out it got nasty with DC devoting a lot of time to leaking the dirt on Johnson. Which in truth was relatively meagre dirt, - but DC played it quite cleverly by unsourced leaks, getting Johnson to deny on the record, then releasing the actual evidence, then rinsing and repeating.
For those of us who hated both, it became a 'the enemy of my enemy' situation.

If the rumours about Trump are true, then there are major stories out there. If anyone has access to them it's Elon Musk.

Some key differences at the moment though.
Musk and Trump may not have had a full falling out, Musk's issues may be more with the people around Trump as both still seemed cordial up to last week.
When DC was sidelined he had nothing to do but wallow in self-pity and dedicate himself to bringing down Johnson. Musk has a business empire to run.
DC had absolutely nothing to lose and also it appears had no skeletons of his own that he wished to keep secret. Musk won't want to risk the business, and may not want the full force of MAGA, the DOJ and the IRS to descend upon him if he is not squeaky clean himself.

So potential for lots of fun if they have seriously fallen out, but also might be stalemate situation.

Irish Aris

Mod note:

I deleted app. 10 off topic posts.

Back on topic please and thank you.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513522#Comment_123513522

Uhh… a comments section? I'd like to believe even CFTrump isn't this stupid, but this is America we're talking about so…

Tell me how

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513483#Comment_123513483

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513503#Comment_123513503

I came here to comment to this effect. The main people I've seen in the media speaking out against this Bill in clips like those referenced here, are all Conservatives. Greene, Mike Flood, Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, Elon Musk.

It's quite a line up and their comments are not easily dismissed. Can't recall seeing this before where members of the party proposing a bill are the more vocally visible opponents to the bill.

The likes of Flood, Greene and Musk are putting a not insignificant amount of pressure on Republican Senators.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123513503#Comment_123513503

Marjorie Taylor Greene is now also back-tracking saying that she didn't know that there was a provision in the Bill that blocks State level legislation on AI for 10 years.

It's almost like they just voted for it because Daddy told them to and not because they thought it was a good thing.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123511734#Comment_123511734

It's like his recently announced 50% tariff on Steel , it's only on "raw" steel and not on end-products containing steel so it just screws the downstream industries.

Saw an article today that said for every 1 job in "Steel making" there are 80 jobs in companies that use steel as a raw material and they are now all screwed.

US Produced steel is way more expensive than imported and now imported Steel is going to cost stupid money.

The US doesn't have the capacity to make all the steel they need and won't do anytime soon , so all those companies costs have just spiked and it will be significantly cheaper for them to shift production overseas and pay the lower tariff rates on importing the finished Products. Failing that , all their customers will just buy the overseas manufactured end-product because it will be significantly cheaper..

So massive job losses coming in all those downstream industries..

Just performative nonsense for the clapping seals..

Lewis_Benson

Trump next week: "Elon Musk? Never heard of him".

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123514410#Comment_123514410

Far more likely to try desperately to ignore him and any questions about him..

Trump is terrified of his money - Musk could just as easily spend a few hundred million destroying the GOP before the mid-terms as he did spending it to get Trump elected..

eightieschewbaccy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123514438#Comment_123514438

You'd think but he was attacking Bezos a few weeks back and he's equally capable of harming him. Plus Trump can harm Musk too IMHO, Tesla is a meme stock and if Trump turns on Musk that could harm that value.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123514465#Comment_123514465

Perhaps , but Bezos hasn't shown any real interest in doing that one way or the other whereas they have 1st hand experience of the kind of things that Musk can and will do to get someone Elected or otherwise..

You are right , there's an element of mutually assured destruction there.. but you are dealing with arch narcissists, one of whom is off his face of drugs most of the time if reports are to be believed and the other is a moron..

So who knows..

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123514533#Comment_123514533

Indeed but Trump has the MAGA cult behind him and could gut Tesla, SpaceX and Musk with the stroke of a pen by putting Tariffs on raw materials that Musk's firms import or just by gutting subsidies. Bezos by contrast is probably smart enough to keep his head down.

Wolf359f

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123512247#Comment_123512247

Is this the same Musk who threatened GOP members with funding challengers to their relection campaign if they didn't follow Trump's agenda?

threeball

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123514465#Comment_123514465

If Trump pulls the governemnt contracts in any of Musks businesses they're screwed, especially Tesla. All of his businesses are only viable once the government contracts keep rolling.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123514545#Comment_123514545

No doubt Bezos is far "cuter" than Musk..He'll go about getting his way quietly and without fanfair..

Musk loves the attention though..

Like you say - They could both do massive damage to each other if they really went for it and if they were logical they'd put down the weapons and agree to disagree , but both of them are massive arseholes with paper thin skins and easily bruised egos , so who knows how it might play out..

everlast75

Reuters: US HOUSE REPUBLICAN TAX-CUT AND BUDGET BILL WOULD ADD $2.4 TRILLION TO NATIONAL DEBT, CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE ESTIMATES

I remember reading one guy polled said he voted for Trump because of his "business acumen".

Well, Trump did bankrupt companies, so I guess if that's what you voted for, mission accomplished!