Trump - The positives - (see Mod note in OP)

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123191843#Comment_123191843

Plays golf an excessive amount. https://www.statista.com/chart/23464/estimated-number-of-times-president-trump-played-golf/

Got shot running for POTUS because he was running to avoid his legal trials. The tax cuts were his first admin, which guaranteed him lots of wealthy donors. Same thing true now, the cuts expire this year so he got lots of donations to make them happen again, bloating the deficit by another $4tn per reports. $4tn. Pretty scary amount of money.

As for Patriotic, he's got a man-crush on Putin that's pretty actually pathetic to watch, and he risks your life, my life and everyone around here in Ireland because of it. But, do keep supporting him, he might not actually f*ck things up, though I doubt it, he mostly f*cks up what little he gets done (where's that replacement for Obamacare?) What saved us the last time was his laziness which hasn't improved.

Oh, and as for his patriotism, what was that insurrection about on Jan 6 2021 again? Really I don't think you have much idea what you're talking about when it comes to Trump or recent US history.

Francis McM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123191898#Comment_123191898

To be fair, he would not have been shot at if he was not running for President. I was replying to Igotadose who claimed "Trump never ran for President to fix anything, other than tax cuts for himself and his ilk."

My point was if he just wanted to pay less tax he could base some of his bigger companies in Ireland and run his worldwide profits through Ireland, like Apple did? Why attack Trump but not attack Apple if you want to claim either wanted to save tax? Apple saved a lot more by paying their worldwide tax through Ireland than Trump ever would by possibly bringing down the American tax rate a few percentage points.

As regards his work rate, I do not know how hard he works but since he took office it seems he has been doing a lot, if you follow the news. Maybe time for him to take time off and play a game of golf: some of the best deals ever done were done on the golf course. Trump is far from perfect but I would bet he has done a lot more than our politicans since Christmas, so I am not sure why you call him lazy. I would say he has quite a lot of balls in the air. Unless people under him make all the decisions, but you are not attacking their decisions, and we have not heard dissenting voices from any of Trump's team?

Sam Russell

I think you should look at Martyn Turner's cartoon in yesterdays Irish Times.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/cartoon/

I think that shows Trump's main intention wrt Ukraine. 'MINE, baby, MINE' - a big steal for Trump.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123192240#Comment_123192240

He ran for President to stay out of jail and to prevent all his assets being seized.

Simple as that.

And as for his "work ethic" - It's non-existent.

Late night rage tweeting isn't a display of "work ethic".

The idea that he's "working" when he plays golf with Tiger Woods etc. is just ridiculous.

He has spent 50% of his 1 month in office so far at his home in Florida playing Golf or attending the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500.

All of which come at very significant cost to the US tax payer and benefit no one but his wallet and his ego.

Of course you haven't heard any "dissenting voices from Trumps team" , he has purged anyone that might even dream of disagreeing with him.

Anyone that doesn't express absolute loyalty and fealty to the man has been fired.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123193831#Comment_123193831

Let’s ignore the millions/billions he’s saved America via DOGE, his stopping of the Gazan Holocaust, his pushing for peace in Russia.

But, but, but, golf……..

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123193915#Comment_123193915

Wait, how did Trump doing his best to foment a second Holocaust stop a second Holocaust?

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123193915#Comment_123193915

Exactly how much has DOGE banked so far? Maybe $2bn in savings - which aren't cash clawbacks of course, it's just layoffs (with severance and who knows what else.) Plus the numbers are, at best, dodgy. They're spending reductions, that is, future obligations being cut. "Funny money" in other words.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/19/nx-s1-5302705/doge-overstates-savings-federal-contracts#:~:text=The%20doge.gov%2Fsavings%20page,it%20now%20shows%20%248.5%20billion.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123193971#Comment_123193971

The degenerate convicted rapist is championing women's rights, the man who called neo-Nazis "very fine people" prevented a holocaust, the repeatedly bankrupt businessman saved Americans $3 a year and now the strongman who never settles is settling on the worst possible terms with Putin.

We've four more years of this cultish drivel.

Francis McM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123192874#Comment_123192874

Nothing that funny about that cartoon. Trump and the Americans want to stop spending so much money around the world, in far flung corners of the world to them. For what? Ukraine has got more aid from America than anywhere else, even though it is on the other side of the world.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62002218

Why should America spend another 100 billion to support a war it is slowly losing, according to the BBC? All reports say that after years of vicious fighting, the Ukrainian military is facing a manpower shortfall. What western country is going to send its army to support? We will not.

Biden was the President before and during the invasion if Ukraine, if there had been a stronger US President it would not have happened.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/19/politics/russia-ukraine-joe-biden-news-conference/index.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/28/politics/poland-biden-putin-remarks-ukraine-analysis/index.html

spacecoyote

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123193915#Comment_123193915

Yeah, these DOGE guys seem to be great.

They've got a wage bill already set at around 400m dollars, so that a chunk of change gone again. Have access to enormous amounts of private data, with 0 accountability. Their team seem to have zero experience in how a large economy or system functions. One of their hires is a guy who was fired from a tech company for selling privileged data...and this guy now has access to government information. They've already had to re-hire a significant number of the people they originally fired when they realised what happened when they removed them.

They really do seem to find all the best people.

The reality is, the US civil service and federal government is far from perfect. But a critical element to any successful functioning country is actually a strong civil service and government. Its what every one of the large Asian economies had in place which allowed them to expand and grow.

Sam Russell

@Francis McM

Trump wants that contract that give the USA (or himself) ownership of the Ukraine rare earth minerals for free, and wants to hand Ukraine over to Putin.

He also wants Greenland, the Panama canal, Canada, and the Gaza strip.

He wants to impose heavy tariffs on every trading country.

He has cancelled US A.I.D. and sacked all the personnel. He is closing down most of the federal Gov, giving the unaccountable Musk free reign.

All this after a month in the WH.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123194427#Comment_123194427

Sometimes the best thing to do is rip it all up and start again.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123194427#Comment_123194427

It's beyond parody.

What they are calling an "Audit" is actually just reading the titles and brief descriptions of contracts from publicly available Government websites and trying to cancel any of them that use words they think sound "Woke".

The firing thing is just a stupid stupid version of an IT Admin approach to systems management.

I've done it myself in IT - You find a Server or process that you know nothing about and can't see any owner for , so the quickest way to find out if it's needed or not is to turn it off and see if anyone complains .

That's perfectly fine if all that happens is that some TPS report doesn't run on time , but it's a very very different thing when you fire actual people that are Air Traffic controllers or the guys that look after the Nuclear bombs and so on.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123194518#Comment_123194518

Not when it comes to government services it's not.

Imagine if the current Irish government were like "Healthcare is expensive, so we'll disband the HSE and fire everyone who works in the Department of Health and then start again". Think that would fly here?

spacecoyote

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123194518#Comment_123194518

The infrastructure of the largest economy in the world is not really the place to be applying that kind of logic.

...also it appears that Trumps popularity isn't as much as the claims around the amazing election results made it out to be. He's officially started with the lowest approval rating of any president.

And his own supporters are annoyed that he's not helping with the economy already. The good old "egg price scale" that seems to be the new benchmark is not looking too hot either, with a 15% increase in the price of eggs in the last month

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123194604#Comment_123194604

To be honest , the financial impact to his "base" might be the only thing that puts a stop to him

Between Musk randomly hacking away the Services that a large number of them rely on and Trumps tariff nonsense driving inflation through the roof , there is a lot of pain coming to the lower paid, and fast.

How long they can be distracted by "Get the immigrants" and "Kill Woke" remains to be seen , but it won't be indefinitely.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123194710#Comment_123194710

It's an interesting one. Red states tend to rely on blue states to stay afloat so it will be interesting to see where the is. Or, in the words of the Joker, "How loyal is a hungry dog?"

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123194538#Comment_123194538

…its not necessarily about wide scale acceptance of such an act, as it simply wouldnt here, but its the fact it would lead to catastrophic social and economic collapse, this is potentially whats on the cards for the us with this admins approach to governance!

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123194710#Comment_123194710

unfortunately trump has an infinite list of blamers for his actions, we already have biden inflation, his base, just like him, will never accept trumps policies are the cause of their pain!

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123195150#Comment_123195150

If he runs out of subjects to blame, he will just invent some new ones - like Zelensky for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

None of his supporting Republicans have come out against that lie.

saabsaab

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123195490#Comment_123195490

Two senators did? It's hard to see positives with Trump bit like that Derry Girl's episode where the students are asked for things that Catholics and Protestants have in common!

Sam Russell

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123196033#Comment_123196033

I did qualify the 'supporting Republicans' not coming out against him lying that Zelensky had started the war. I think the two senators voted against one of his nominees. Not quite the same thing.

A Dub in Glasgo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123193915#Comment_123193915

Yes ignore them because none of it is meaningfully true

Glenomra

Reading a book at the moment about the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants [WASPS]. Fascinating how this elite, arrogant, exclusive, bigoted, racist, rich class dominated American politics, the legal systems, economics, government positions etc for so long. It put me thinking of a Positive relating to the election of Donald Trump. I realise what type of arrogant, obnoxious person he is but the fact is that he has broken up, temporarily at least, another elite comparable to the WASPS, namely the Washington Beltway class. When one looks at the connections between so many Washington pollical families the privileged positions of their spouses, including Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland etc, the enrichment of government appointees including Samantha Power, the appointment of the select few to lucrative positions once they retire etc, imo it is no harm to see a change!

ArmaniJeanss

A Trump-related positive, for Ice-Hockey. Highest ever viewership, surpassing previous Stanley Cup records. Even more notable as the international game has generally been the poor relation with the NHL club game traditionally much more high-profile/lucrative.

Canada-USA 4 Nations Face-Off Final Made Staggering Hockey Ratings History

patnor1011

He managed to put USA in Guinness world record book as a country with most of the 120-150 year old people in the world.

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123199343#Comment_123199343

Was this by executive decision or did trump get historical event dates wrong again? Or is he trying to invade France?

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123199343#Comment_123199343

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123200816#Comment_123200816

There's a non-trivial number of people in the US social security database whose dates of birth are not verified by a birth certificate (because, basically, their births were never registered). When this happens, people verify their age by other means (church baptismal records, school attendance records, birth notices from newspapers, whatever). But, in the social security database, in the field where a registered date of birth would be entered, the entry is 01-01-1875 (because the system crashes if you don't have an entry in that field). The actual payment of the pension is controlled by data in other fields.

So, when Musk and his gang of idiot geeks were hacking the social security database in search of supposed fraud and waste, they came across these entries, failed to think that a large cohort of people born on 1 January 1875 was highly anomalous, took the entries at face value, didn't bother to ask anybody who knew anything about the system what was going on, and announced that they had proven that the social security system was the victim of massive fraud because it was paying pensions to a huge number of people who were born 150 years ago and must, therefore, be long dead.

Dr Robert

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123203630#Comment_123203630

Ffs.

Tech 'geniuses'

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123203630#Comment_123203630

I hate that the answer is always stupidity and that some boards users are being used to spread that stupidity.