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

More people died from covid in the first year of bidens term than in 2020. I hardly think those deaths were either president's fault. It was a virus killing people worldwide.

Trump reminds of a big schoolyard bully beating up little kids and stealing their sandwiches. Eventually enough of the kids gang together and get their own back. That is what countries need to do to put Trump in his place. Trump may think he is making America great again. Instead he is dragging America's name into the dirt. The US looked for backing during the Gulf Wars. In future, it may find it is very much on its own when it seeks assistance as countries put their own interests first

To keep the school bully analogy going, the problem is society is in his gang. The voters of America approve of him and everything he stands for. They want this. He represents what America is. The country as a whole is the equivalent of the uneducated school yard bully.

Most of what Trump says and believes is exactly what was always under the hood in America. It was silent until now, but he has embolded their "coming out" party. The irony is many who voted for him hoping to stick it to the libs or immigrants or whatever, will be the very ones to suffer under his reign. The problem is so many of them are either too blinkered, ignorant or ideologically entrenched that they will go along with blaming everything except for Trump and MAGA for their misfortune.

Clearly we have a different opinion, but someone who looks into the sun and thinks you can nuke a hurricane to me are profoundly stupid.

He is a snake oil sales who happened to lead a charmed life, with inherited wealth and an array of henchmen and dodgy connections from his father, who achieved world fame by doing the minimum for a TV show.

None of that is demonstrative of any level of genius.

He was successful in spite of himself. This is evident from the amount of clean ups that follow him everywhere he goes.

If someone is profoundly stupid, they will be stupid in all aspects, but this is not the case with Trump. He knows how to play a great portion of the American public like fiddles and in a way that no other traditionally-schooled US politician has been able to match. This is not profound stupidity.

The lack of willingness to admit that he has certain formidable qualities has, as I say, been a boon to him. His rivals on the American political scene - all those people who've played the Washington game for years, waiting for their turn - seem to all have experienced some level of indignation at the thought, and yet it is the case.

If you want to defeat Trump, pointing out the buffoonery is worthless. You have to look at the areas in which he is effective and beat him on that level, otherwise the only way the US will be shot of him is in death, and even then I can imagine them hanging big banners of his face like some sort of conservative Kim Il Sung.

I don't know if I agree completely. He's a charismatic populist leader/politician. He might be selfish, greedy, corrupt, ignorant etc. (we could go on about his flaws for a good while), but he obviously speaks to something in Americans. I think rather than opponents who are repulsed by him underestimating him, his success (he got lots of Americans to vote for him again) suggests there's deep problems in US society, maybe in the education system over there that so many can fall for and support such a figure.

To me he has always seemed like the kind of politician/wannabe strongman that sometimes rises up to power in poor and unstable "developing" countries (e.g. African "Big Men"), by promising to crack heads and quickly fix everything that is wrong. He usually brings on far worse chaos and disaster at some point.

An internal crisis like serious economic collapse, civil/communal strife, persecution or even genocide of minorities. Or (maybe in worst cases) external crisis, where the "Big Man" kicks off a war with neighbours.

I'm pretty confident we were getting that vaccine regardless of Trump. Also worth remembering those were largely non US companies.

Absolutely, there may be many odious cultural/societal factors which lead to someone like Trump taking power, but my point is that Trump appears to have identified that and known what to say those people, and known how to present himself to them, and doing it for ten years of political life, including a comeback few predicted, doesn't sound like a fluke.

It's not like there aren't plenty of power-hungry politicians in the Republican party without scruples, who would have loved to take the mantle Trump currently enjoys, but none of them appear to have figured it out in the way Trump did, and have accordingly been forced out of politics altogether or else are riding Trump's coattails and using their association with him to give them any kind of political legitimacy.

And let's remember, the only reason Fauci's well being is at risk is because of the rhetoric of Trump and RFK jnr.... I'm guessing you're pretty grand with that in spite of the fact Fauci did nothing wrong...

Trump was the one who made it a campaign issue and presented it as if he could do something about it. Just a charade to dupe the ignorant. A pack of lies as is clear now from Trump running away from any responsibility for such prices.

"They know this but wont admit it" - your words seemingly describing your own post perfectly there.

Oh and if thats the logic Trump should fund his own protection so. He is a billionaire isnt he? Right?

Ones views on Fauci depend on whether one belives Covid originated in a Chinese lab, one which the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease helped fund.

RFK doesnt like Fauci, it is a bit petty to remove his security detail though, but Trump is a petty man.

Funny how the sycophants always fail to mention how he botched the response from the very beginning, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths. And it wasn't "Trump's operation warp speed"...he had fück all to do with it.

Operation warp speed was something rare for trump, a good plan that was backed up with execution.

However, the first successful vaccine came outside of operation warp speed and was spearheaded in Europe. trump would have still had the opportunity for success by pushing the vaccine by getting manufacturing and roll out in place and by being a vocal support of the vaccine like he had been for hydroxychloroquine, internal sun lamps and disinfectant but he utterly fluffed it.

It was no surprise when large numbers of trump supporters died due to vaccine hesitancy or being afraid of masks or being unable to observe social distancing.

And also, no surprise that Biden pardoned Fauci to prevent further stupidity by trump in that area.

Same trope, adjusted for modern times.

So, the obvious question with Trump's immigrant policy is if he can get past the birthright citizenship bit in the US Constitution, there remains the problem of Mexico or Nicaragua or Honduras or wherever saying, "Eh, this person who wasn't born here isn't exactly our citizen either, mate." and refusing to allow the deportation flight land, or the individuals in question to disembark.

But it perfectly sums up the Trumpist attitude to think they can go, "You there - shtthole country. Take this swarthy progeny off our hands and make it snappy."