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

I am reminded of the photos of Putin on the horse, projecting the strong man persona.

As others have said, some will lap it up, some will ridicule it, very few if any votes will change because of it.

Did he really say that??

If so it shows again how totally gutless Trump is

Typical morning commute in Feasterville, Pennsylvania . . . . . . to your new job at McDonald’s.

So Trump now has no problem with threats of violence to FEMA workers in North Carolina….. The floor just gets lower and lower.

Of course he also said that when he was president FEMA were perfect.

heil!!!!!

An interesting piece on Sky News today by Mark Stone. He is reporting from Dearborn & surrounding towns in Michigan. High Arab population and also, quite conservative Arab at that. The primary "current" political motivation of most folk he spoke with? Stopping the war and the ongoing massacre of civilians in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank.

Colour me a little bit surprised when the path to doing that? Was described as voting for Trump.

Arabs voting for the man who moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, told Bibi to "get it done" and regularly lambasts Jews who might vote for Harris as idiots, has labelled Harris' as anti-Semitic and has made very clear he will happily ride or die with Bibi. Has recently confirmed coordination with Bibi and supports his greater Israel policy...

I mean there's turkey's voting for Christmas and there's this 🤦

Elected officials (a Dem town mayor) and college educated teachers. The lack of knowledge of Trump's prior actions or current fulsome support for Nethanyahu is incredible. It is some of the most Ill informed political opinion I've ever seen, absolutely mind boggling with zero reference to either his previous time in office or plain old consequential thinking.

couple that with

1. the disgusting influence of money on advertising
2. length of election cycle
3. pay to play with politicians
4. voter suppression
5. worship or "loving" your election official
6. the continuing blurring of the lines between political rallies and music concerts
7. a media that is far worse than most in terms of click bait and in this election in particular
8. sane washing Trump

"greatest democracy in the world" my hole!

Its the media bias that always shocks me, blatantly fawning over one candidate or showing the other one with the worst possible picture. As a whole I dont think Irish media has so much of a love in with either to FF or FG. The shinners admittedly do sometimes get a raw deal but even then its not so obviously biased reporting as in America. Would Trump stand a chance in literally any other country?, I doubt it, which says a lot about American "democracy" and media reporting.

That’s not just in the US though, I believe that this is a widespread issue across pretty much every representative democracy on the planet. The uncomfortable fact is that democracy is hard work for the electorate. To have a proper functioning democracy, the onus is on the electorate to not just cast your vote when the time comes, but to inform themselves about the issues at hand, not just by watching doctored clips on Instagram, TikTok, Threads and whatnot, but to actually read up on issues, use multiple sources, and critically but constructively analyse the information before you, even if you don’t necessarily agree with it. It is on the electorate to engage with their candidates and representatives not just by shouting and raging, but by laying out concerns in a structured and logical manner, just as much as the onus is on the candidates and representatives in question to respond in a similar fashion. The same goes for discussions with other people, people who might not share our own political views or agree with our interpretation of the issues at hand. This is the only way that a true dialogue can develop and by extension the only way to reach the type of compromise that is at the heart of democracy.

The thing is, all of the above takes time and effort. It takes time to properly read up on issues beyond clickbaity headlines, especially when you’re using multiple sources. It takes time to properly analyse issues, and quite a bit of effort as well, especially if you’re from a household where these types of thoughts and discussions aren’t really happening, or even welcome. And it takes a whole lot of effort to remover one’s ego from the equation and really look at the facts, regardless of where they lead. And that’s where I believe a lot of the tribalisation of politics comes in, both in the US and over here. Simply sticking to one side and decrying and demonising the “others” is simply easier. Whether you’re raging against Trumpists, Liberals, Shinners, FFFG, Labour, the Greens, the Tories or whatever political boogeyman you believe you’re facing, it’s simply easier to be angry and cynical, because it relieves you of the burden of having to put in the effort to actually engage with the issues at hand.

And honestly, to a certain extent, I can see where people are coming from. It’s hard to put in any kind of effort when you come home from a long day at work, especially when you’re in a lower wage job where you might have to work two jobs to make ends meet. You’ll still have chores to do, likely a spouse and possibly a family to look after and are probably trying to figure out how to make your two days worth of money stretch until the next pay day. It’s easier to just turn on the TV, repost a few memes and maybe drop a pithy remark or two, and if that’s what you were used to when you still had your family around, that’s likely what you’ll take into your retirement age, if you have enough money to retire that is.

It is easy to sh*t on intellectualism but the ugly truth is that a proper democracy requires all of its participants, whether as candidates, representatives, or a part of the electorate to be intellectuals to a certain degree. And whilst the standard of education over here generally seems to be higher than it appears to be in the US, this does not mean that we can just lean back and relax. We, all of us, need to work on ourselves, keep educating ourselves, in order to keep a functioning democracy.

Couple of South American, Eastern Europe countries and a long shot in the U.K.

Again, I agree with what you're saying, at least in part. And yes the US has been entrenched for decades in that Team A/Team B mindset where its flawed political system is concerned. I just find it absurd that anyone could be genuinely, and I mean genuinely, oblivious to what Donald Trump and the current iteration of the Republican Party represent.

However, I'm not limiting anything to the last 9 or 10 years. That kind of "footballism" has been a part of the American political landscape for a long, long, time. There were people swearing up and down the street that Nixon was a decent guy that was undone in the 70's and that Ronnie was entirely innocent during the Iran Contra affair in the 80's even as it was obvious that Ollie was being sent to fall on his sword. The "fans" of the GOP were more than happy to accept any old nonsense that salved the conscience.

On the flip side, you also had people that were willing to overlook Bill's shenanigans too and there are still old schoolers that will forgive Kennedy any wrongdoing despite a litany of them.

If Trump doesn't win, he will have a big legal battle ahead of him. So he'd better win, then he can pardon himself.

That's how ugly this is.