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

I guess if you think about it, you had a guy who had 4 solid years of campaigning squeek a very tight election running against a candidate who was tied to an unpopular president and had to run a full presidential campaign in the space of 4 months.

So, despite his declarations of a "landslide", he won an election that he really should have won (because the US is so imbecilic and has a two party system)

The truth is that the American public are idiots for voting for him and the country is ******d. I wouldn't pay to take a holiday in that country. It's Europe for me from now on.

There we go, young people swung it for trump

So I won’t shed a tear when it all ends badly for them while they are waiting for yellow liquid to trickle down

Its already fcuked. Looks like he's on a mission to clean it up which people voted for. Not sure how it will pan out.

But he was also a convicted felon, had been blamed (rightly) for the attack on the Capitol and was before the courts for it, had consistently questioned the outcome of the 2020 election without a shred of evidence, and had a very "interesting" spell as president previously.

Yet the Democrats could not beat him, not only did he win every swing state the popular vote also.

It's a huge country, diverse in many many ways, and the people are generally very friendly.

It's still a great place to visit.

The Dems had these aces previously.

I don't want to rerun the election here but the Democrats picked a poor candidate and the reason they picked a poor candidate was because their poor incumbent hung around too long to allow them pick a better candidate.

I dont agree Harris was a poor candidate. I 100% agree that Biden should have stuck to the original plan and stepaside after the first term. Allow Harris prepare and execute a full election campaign.

It has nothing to do with who runs social media.

If you think social media has no effect on how people vote then you are deluded.

I'm not saying it has no effect, but you have to have the right candidate and the right message in the first place, something the Democrats didn't have.

I've been over there a lot between work and various trips in the last 9 or 10 years and some of the reasons I would see:

(i) Business owners benefitting from his policies that take less from their pocket each month

(ii) fuel prices being consistently less when he's in charge

(iii) Crime rates in the cities increasing. Something similar is happening here when you see the backlash against Helen McEntee. Constantly being told that cities are safer than ever when on the gound people can see that it's not true

(iv) The entire progressive all inclusive agenda (Won't use the "W" word). Whatever your thouhgts, a lot of americans on the gorund see some of the more extreme forms of it and are bemused. There is a genuine fear of where it could all lead, considering it has changed so quickly in the last 10 years, what could another 10 do. That's why all the "common sense" speech resonates with people.

(v) The 'young men' thing is well documented. I think it's hard for any of us older and not based over there to understand just how put down teenagers and men int heir early 20s feel by the media in the US. It's also the demographic that is the least likely to do as they are told. Hence the pushback.

(vi) The "wars" issue. Whatever about his methods and the truth of it all, Trump was on good terms with Putin, North Korea etc and does a great job of selling that as a positive.

Won't be replying to anyhting here, just wanted to set out what i've seen/heard from experience. I would also say that in my experience normal people on the ground are not radicalised in either way. Dem supporters are generally 'Nah I wouldn't vote for him, bit of a creep' while GOP supporters are 'Yea he's a bit of a creep but he does a decent job'. They just want to get on with their lives

sorry slightly off topic, our taxes are plenty high in Ireland. The civil service and the Government just can’t help themselves with wasting our money.

The musk thing would be a great thing in Ireland but unless people were comfortable with a year of cs union led strikes nothing would change

I disagree about the people, yes they are loud but they are not fake.

I lived there for 6 years and obviously meet a huge amount of people in that thim but there are two examples that have helped shape my overall opinion of Americans.

I broke down on the highway during a snow storm. As soon as it was obvious I broke down cars in the other lane had their windows down holding out their phones so I could call for help (traffic was crawling).

The same happened about a thousand miles from where I lived.

I was pulling off the highway in Madison Wisconsin and my car lost power, I glided into the hard shoulder and as soon as it was clear I was in trouble three cars were behind me offering help, one had jump leads and I got up and running and he told me how to get to the nearest garage.

Back in Ireland in County Clare about 20 years ago I broke down just getting off what was then the end of the N18 dual carriageway in Dromoland.

I spent an hour there and only one car pulled over to offer help, everyone else just drove by, including a Garda car.

I was at the college football game in Dublin last year with my son, and one thing he said to me while we were hanging around town before the game and chatting to people was "Americans are very friendly" and he's right.

Now I know it's only me and it's anecdotal but I think a lot of Americans are friendly genuine people, rather than fake.

I doubt any church or religion accepts everyone.

In almost every circumstance the views of a bishop in Ireland would be disregarded, but say anti Trump things and you have people quoting the bishop.

What a joke.

Every American president since 1948 has supported Israel. Unfair to single out Biden. The Palestinians have been subjected to ethnic cleansing and genocide since 1948 - the only difference in the most recent war is the scale of the atrocities. It would take a massive revolution in American politics like the election of a Bernie Sanders type President before any serious change in the relationship between America and Israel might happen.