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

i dont think we can do much in Ireland except watch the sh1t show unfold and hope we dont get too screwed in the process…christ,what a time to be alive!

John Oliver last week tonight did a great informative section on rfk. Can’t post a link or I’ll be banned again. 😏

Well if RFK gets the Gig after this debacle. well the game is finally up Rip America health care

There are two threats to Ireland from this administration - our trade surplus (which is absurd btw and rightly is treated with contempt in the US, it's mainly tax optimisation) and the second is our attitude to Israel.

There is a reason the government has basically ditched the Occupied Territories Bill because this administration is the most pro-Israel in history from top to bottom and the government knows the consequences.

Through this country's broad political and tactical ineptness we've managed to put ourselves firmly on the wrong side of our national interests. We could be facing diplomatic isolation from the US and that could start before March. Don't be surprised if there is no St Patrick's Day invites to Washington this year.

That may be on it's own a relatively minor inconvenience but it would send a bad signal and of course the Israelis will claim another diplomatic coup with Ireland.

In relation to the first I think we're in for a tough 4 years. There is no getting around it. It's not only tariffs, it's corporation tax and IP as well. There are going to be mechanisms pulled that are not good for us. The state could lose a lot of income very quickly. I'm not sure the government has adequately warned the public that our fortunes could change really, really fast.

Our government bet the farm on the Democrats winning. That is why they had a very unwise giveaway budget in October. They were really sure.

I see an interview with Sean Spicer who was in the first Trump administration and he basically said the Irish government had done practically no reaching out to Republicans for the last four years, that they didn't build connections simply in Ireland's interests. You can disagree on policy but you need to act in the national interest as well.

In other words we didn't even cultivate a back up which is hard to fathom really.

Now we are told our diplomatic corps in the US has been running around like headless chickens trying to establish connections.

All in all I don't think we've played the game all small countries have to play to prosper in the world smartly for the last few years.

I think it's going to catch up with us now.

I am shocked at this /s

I wonder what odds you would get on it being declared unfit for use.

Can’t wait to see the Trump supporters tell us why RFK is a good choice for this role.

Let’s hear it.

I've fed hawks and owls and I never saw them being given blended anything. They ate whole chicks and mice that you buy already dead. Blending a live chick is fucked up. The guy is unstable.

isn’t it absolutely bonkers to think that the 2025 Trump presidency is a whole other level of deranged to his 2017 presidency..

We surely do live in interesting times (Chinese style.)

I will not be surprised if Trump does not adhere to the St Pat’s Day. protocol and Official Ireland. We should just ‘suck it up’ , move on and do DO NOT make a song and dance about it. We should, instead, look forward , in hope to St . Pat’s Day 2029

In a normal society he would never be seen as charismatic. Even Mussolini and Hitler were real orators compared to Trump and had a deranged compelling intensity to them. The triumph of a semi-illiterate buffoon like Trump speaks to the poor education, lowering standards of discourse, the addiction to cynical and sensationalist talk show hosts, raving, self-serving hypocritical evangelical preachers, conspiraloon social media and brutish and crude sporting spectacles characteristic of late 20c and early 21st America. Even the standard of populist rabble rousers has declined in our lifetimes. The USA had become an idiocracy before Trump ever ran for president. He is the bastard son of Alex Jones, Rupert Murdoch, Gerry Springer, WWF and MMA.

he said he saved $50 million by refusing to send condoms to hamas in the laken Riley press conference.

Trump 2017 was like Trump light. This now is Trump full on and its not good. I sure hope people on here saying he is copying Putin and Orbans ways and planning to become a Dictator are wrong because if he is he will not step down easily or willingly in 2028/9 and if he does then he will be planning to have his son taking over and I doubt he is much better.

Yes indeed, I wouldn't disagree with any of your points. 'Trumpism' is essentially a hateful ideology, concerned with screwing other people over, getting revenge for perceived misdemeanours or slights, 'showing them who is boss' etc.

But the more loony elements of the left probably contributed to the rise of Trump and MAGA alright, to the point that nearly everything was politically incorrect in their book and getting totally carried away with cancel culture.

No of course not, there are real big operations here and a lot of employment, but tax (and IP) is part of the package of them being here and that is the pinch point for us the administration is looking at. It's a very important industry for Ireland for employment and state income so we need to do what we can to protect what we have to the extent we can.