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

Frank Bullitt · 26-01-2025 08:38PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102193#Comment_123102193

I have already said that we benefit from the US, I’m not denying that.

We’ve gotten so much from the EU regarding access to the single market, even American companies only came here due to us having access to that market also. We’ve had access to the structural funds from the EU to improve our infrastructure, then there is the farming subsidies, development programs, and direct access to the single market to sell our goods.

I’m not saying we don’t benefit from America, but joint the EU literally transformed Ireland.

greenfield21 · 26-01-2025 08:39PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102181#Comment_123102181

Irelands trade with the US is multiples of any other EU country and our trade surplus with the US is huge. Trump openly says we're ripping them off. Yeah let's ignore Trump and not try and reduce the risk. I havent a clue? really no point discussing anything here.

Podge_irl · 26-01-2025 08:42PM

Ireland does not control its own foreign trade policy so it's a rather pointless discussion. However, the US would suffer far more in the short term than Ireland by any punitive tariffs etc that Trump would choose to enact. They don't have a massive trade deficit with us for funsies.

AMKC · 26-01-2025 08:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123101292#Comment_123101292

Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government

Women have nothing to fear from this because (A) the threat is made up and (B) Woman have more to fear from Cis Men and Men like like Trump than they do from Trans Women. It's a scare tactic from cowardice small minded people like Trump to spread hateabd fear.

Also if you mean Biological Truth is what Trump said then you are wrong and he is wrong. There is more than two Genders.

Who is Trump to tell people what commen sense is? He made some pretty stupid decisions over his lifetime and is still making some.

Frank Bullitt · 26-01-2025 08:58PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102223#Comment_123102223

You’re believing what Trump says, that’s your first problem. He is renowned for walking back on that and is just a waffler.

We have access to the single market with the EU, do you know what that means? That we do more trade within the EU than we do with the USA, we export more to the EU than the US. So yes, you haven’t a clue, you’re going off what Trump says over actual fact.

The combined trade to other EU members surpasses that of trade with America, now that’s a fact. In 2023, Ireland exported over 80 billion with the EU, compared to 63 billion to the USA.

Now, you were saying something about facts? Did you get them from Trump and not do some research yourself?

.Donegal. · 26-01-2025 09:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123101566#Comment_123101566

Imagine a western leader saying to clean out Israel and urging the United States to take Israeli refugees.

Kermit.de.frog · 26-01-2025 09:10PM

The Columbians caved in...in minutes after Trumps threat.

techdiver · 26-01-2025 09:11PM

Have we seriously got people here claiming we should turn our back on the single largest market on the planet in order to be "nice to Trump, because American companies blah blah blah". I have a little secret for you. American companies aren't here at behest of their current administration. Not now, not ever. They are here for a number of reasons, which all culminate in maximising revenue and profit. They don't give two **** what a host country think of their man child president.

Wolf359f · 26-01-2025 09:16PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102342#Comment_123102342

Not really:

Earlier in the day, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced he had blocked two US military flights carrying migrants heading toward the country and called on the United States to establish better protocols in its treatment of migrants. Petro also left the door open to receiving repatriated migrants traveling on civilian planes.

In another post, Petro left the door open to receiving migrant flights, but called on the US to use civilian planes and establish better protocols for their treatment of migrants.

While Colombia cannot allow migrants to remain in a country that does not want them, they must be sent back “with dignity and respect for them and for our country. We will receive our fellow citizens on civilian planes, without treating them like criminals,” the Colombian president wrote.

Seems to be a issue with using military planes for deporting migrants. Had they have been deported on civilian planes it looks like they would have been allowed to land.

kowloon · 26-01-2025 09:16PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102223#Comment_123102223

Us is in the region of 30% of our exports, so it would be more than any EU country, but less than the EU in total. Here's the thing though, US companies will decide if they stay in Ireland, not Donald Trump. He can make things difficult, but if US companies want a presence in the EU I Ireland is often their best bet. (Edit: Frank Bullitt said more or less the same thing above, my tab was out of date)

Any punitive tariffs he tries to put on an EU country would apply to the EU as a whole. We need to show a united front against a predatory empire or they'll just separate us and defeat us in detail.

techdiver · 26-01-2025 09:22PM

So Trumps entire plan when he doesn't get his way is to throw a hissy fit and impose tariffs. He and his entire gang of morons are economic illitetates. They are 100% guaranteed to lose the non maga floating vote once the impact of tarrifs hit reality at home with increased prices.

It's one thing to use tarrifs to respond to IP infringement like from China, but to do it against trading partners that supply goods and services that are not easily replaced domestically is the economic equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot.

The Trump voters are soon going to be in the finding out phase.

Podge_irl · 26-01-2025 09:23PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102366#Comment_123102366

Shock, horror. The reporting of Trump, his actions and the responses is **** dreadful.

Frank Bullitt · 26-01-2025 09:25PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102390#Comment_123102390

One to add here, it’s very apparent that his die hard followers have no clue who pays the tariffs.

Hint, it’s them.

Penn · 26-01-2025 09:28PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102346#Comment_123102346

Exactly. US companies aren't here through some kind of partnership between the US and Ireland. They're here because of lower corporation tax, English language, and a presence within the EU.

techdiver · 26-01-2025 09:31PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102403#Comment_123102403

It shows you the complete failing of the US educational system. They don't even have the intelligence to research tarrifs online, rather they just take its definition as gospel from whatever maga Twitter account claims. It's fairly basic. The fact that we even have debates on various media sources about what a tarrif is, is a serious problem.

TinyMuffin · 26-01-2025 09:33PM

mother knows best 😂

Frank Bullitt · 26-01-2025 09:34PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102442#Comment_123102442

And it’s the tip of the iceberg, we just had a poster tell us, because Trumps said it, that Ireland does more trade with them over the EU.

Even a very quick google search would have spared the blushes. And worse still, they won’t admit they were wrong, they’ll bring up a different topic to deflect.

26-01-2025 09:36PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123101665#Comment_123101665

The objective of the orders come from the White House, their wording not mine. I was referring to those items I posted. You're referencing things that are a different discussion.

Mind you, I think defending women, and everyone from injustice is a great thing to do, who doesn't?

techdiver · 26-01-2025 09:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102466#Comment_123102466

The point is they could give a flying **** about women. It's stomping down under the guise of protecting women. Now I've often argued that trans women should not be permitted to play in female sports but aside from that I say live and let live. Maga have used the trans situation as a misdirection to pull the wool over the eyes of voters.

Stanley 1 · 26-01-2025 09:42PM

Says it all.

AMKC · 26-01-2025 09:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123100811#Comment_123100811

"My brother met them and said it was surreal. Morons he said they were. Big into aliens and sci fi"

So what can someone not be into aliens (They are out there) and Sci-fi?

That does not make a person morons. Being into Trump and MAGA certainly does do.

26-01-2025 09:56PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123101564#Comment_123101564

Yes, this one too: Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing. (source link embedded in text)

This is also related to the merit based opportunities. The DEI trend has led to many negative impacts, particularly in large organisations and the education system. The word equity is the bigger problem of the three (at one point it used to be equality but that was not enough, there had to be angle, there's always a reason for people to be on the make, that's when equity replaced equality and DEI became policy in so many organisations, governmental and private. Why? not because of generosity, simply because of the bottom line and greed. Strike while the iron is hot as they say. Public sentiment was the wind in the sails on the ship.

Merit based opportunity is a fairer way, why would this not be the approach to strive for?

Having a diverse workforce or elsewhere is a good thing, we need the variation of thoughts to work towards better outcomes. But it has been abused for political and financial gains over the last few years and needs to be dumped in its current form. It's time to make improvements in how we approach diversity etc. I only care if my team are good problem solvers and willing to put positive energy into doing a good job, everything else is consequential.

greenfield21 · 26-01-2025 10:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102455#Comment_123102455

No I'm not, what are you even saying now. It's clear I said EU country but you just completely ignored this part. Will you admit you were wrong? A previous poster even referenced this point.

The data from the CSO is clear, Ireland exports more to the US than any other country. January to November last year that was €67 billion, no other country comes close, and actually in November we did export more to the US than all other EU countries combined.

Frank Bullitt · 26-01-2025 10:09PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102562#Comment_123102562

Oh dear, it’s usually a sign of intelligence when someone can admit they are wrong.

a few of your quotes:

“No, Ireland is already great and nearly all of it is because of the US. What we need to do is start importing more from the US and keep Trump on side.” - this is factually incorrect, as it has been explained to you already.

”Irelands economic prosperity depends on the US, that's a fact, it's in our own interest to increase trade with the US now. We should move from position of strength now to lessen the impact but I suspect our politicians are too stupid to realise this, instead we will wait to get wrecked.” - also factually incorrect, we do more trade with the EU, we do not and never have done more trade with the US over the EU.

”Irelands trade with the US is multiples of any other EU country and our trade surplus with the US is huge. Trump openly says we're ripping them off. Yeah let's ignore Trump and not try and reduce the risk. I havent a clue? really no point discussing anything here.” - The EU is a single market, and compared to the US it’s larger also. You going to the country by country is like going state by state for the US, but we don’t see you doing that.

You’re looking at things from an uninformed view point, trade happens with markets, not countries, so you putting in details with Germany, France, Italy etc, they are all the same market.

Do you understand yet?

briany · 26-01-2025 10:47PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102550#Comment_123102550

It occurs to me that if the US were a purely equal, fair and merit-based society, there wouldn't have been any need for Diversity-Equity-Inclusion, affirmative action or anti-discrimination legislation in the first place. To hear some tell it, it was all just a left-wing brainwave designed to address a non-existent problem, but America obviously does have a very long history with racial discrimination, and this is what these initiatives were designed to address. To rip it up comes across like a reationary move and very much a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Baseball72 · 26-01-2025 11:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102214#Comment_123102214

and GB is still a significant trade partner…..

Manic Moran · 26-01-2025 11:17PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102751#Comment_123102751

It does, but as Freeman said, the best way to stop thinking about everything as a race-based issue is to stop talking about race.

California mandated that a certain number of corporate directors of any company headquartered in California be women (exact number depended on how many directors were on the board). There were two ways of complying with the law.

Leave California. https://natlawreview.com/article/academicians-find-firms-all-male-boards-have-left-california
Find women to put on the board. The primary qualification being that they be women, not that they be particularly good at the job.

Any woman appointed to a board in California after 2018 then was tainted by the possibility that the only reason they were in that position was because of their gender. Even if they actually were the best possible candidate, that taint still stood, as being the diversity hire, not the best hire. Ever since anyone stood up and said "I'm going to appoint X type person" before looking at their actual qualifications, such as Reagan trying to find a female SCOTUS judge, people so appointed to their positions are undermined before they get out the gate. How does such undermining help address the root problems? "The only reason you are where you are is because of your characteristic, not your capability. That this law had to be passed validates my perception that you can't do the job."

A similar law was passed reserving seats on boards for members of "under-represented communities". The same results happened.

Both laws were later determined to be unconstitutional.

RedXIV · 26-01-2025 11:19PM

To be fair, and I think it's important to be very stoic about it, @greenfield21 has provided a source that does show that the US did get more exports from Ireland than the EU in November 2024. And when you consider explicitly what he said, that the US is the largest single country that we trade with, in isolation, that fact is true. Where this needs additional context though is A) Europeans have long embraced a single market which is our primary trade "partner" as it's allowed us to operate as a bigger individual on the global trade scene.

However, I do think it's very important to look at that the biggest benefit we really get from US is the presence of multinational companies, and as someone working in one of these (on the tech side anyway), it's virtually impossible for them to leave here now without drastically shooting themselves in the foot. Remember the EU is also a massive entity, and a lot of our rules insist that our data does not leave the geographical area of Europe so the Irish data centers are critical, the processing of the data needs to be in Europe, so again the presence here (or other European counties but we speak English which helps) is critical.

Don't get me wrong, I think we're in for a rough time, but ultimately money talks and pulling from Ireland would cost significant amounts of money and I can't see this happening.

And again, in the interest of trying to open dialogues to get folks on a level where reasonable compromises could be made, @JL555 has said that the key idea with diverse workforces which DEI policies were initially founded for is a good idea. But it's been abused in places, and if I'm being honest, I've been in multinationals and this can be the case. Being on hiring panels and it would be a lie if I said I was never "encouraged" to hire folks that would hit a DEI quota even if there is a better candidate on offer. I don't believe that taking DEI off the table is the answer but I can be honest enough to say that it's not perfect in it's current incarnation

Podge_irl · 26-01-2025 11:28PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123102858#Comment_123102858

As deeply flawed as it is, something like the Rooney Rule for the NFL is a better approach if you need to try and directly enforce a correction in representation. But there is no easy and obvious solution.

Unfortunately you will find plenty of people who claim that "no one talked about race and everything was fine" in the 50s…

Headshot · 26-01-2025 11:39PM

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/26/colombia-gustavo-petro-trump-deportation-flights

Colombian president Gustavo Petro announced on Sunday that he would be sending a presidential plane to “facilitate the dignified return of Colombian nationals” after he had earlier blocked two US military aircraft carrying deported Colombians from landing in his country, prompting Donald Trump to enact emergency tariffs and other retaliatory measures.
In a statement, Petro caved to US pressure, saying, the presidential plane would facilitate the “dignified return of Colombian nationals who were to arrive in the country today in the morning hours, coming in from deportation flights”, read a statement released on Sunday.
“This measure is in response to the government’s commitment to guarantee dignified conditions. In no way have Colombians, as patriots and subjects of rights, been or will be banished from Colombian territory,” the statement continued.

That was some fast turn

Trump will be playing the tariff card at every opportunity and I suspect it will work alot of the time

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

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