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

Musk claims to have discovered that the entire US social security system is one big scam, but without offering any evidence.

All of your friends anxieties will be best addressed by open and free trade, more access to training and education and high skilled employment. It's the only game in town. People say globalisation didn't work as they enjoy the highest standard of living ever. Some work on public services and housing is better than "**** that let's go back to the stone age instead, it's clearly not working". Trump and his kin want people to live fearfully, be poor and be controllable.

It is not about finding fraud, it is all about carrying out fraud

What is standard of living? Globalization has given us deindustrialization, living at your parents into your 30's, necessity for a dual income to sustain a family, and strangers raising the children you can barely afford.

Many would argue, myself included that lived standards of living have been on the slide since the millennium.

Well of course it depends on the decade but I often think people have a rose tinted view of the past. Much higher unemployment, the relative price of food was much higher say 30 years ago, much higher income tax, lower quality healthcare, lower quality building, more lead more asbestos, less liberal society, more likely to get injured or die in a vehicular accident, less access to affordable travel, worse roads, less access to information in general, technology. And in the past you'd have had a more agrarian dominant culture , with single farmers living with their parents into their sixties before inheriting, or men working as laborers in unsafe and unhealthy conditions. Mass emmigration. People were often very poor not that long ago, buying off cuts or little to no meat, cooking, no wastage, mending their own clothes, no car, no phone or maybe one unreliable unsafe car. Honestly it was not that great but none of it mattered because most of us were in the same boat.

Yes, right wing politicians have grown because of the media, right wing media. And they haven't necessarily tapped in to a latent concern, they've manufactured that concern. The migrant caravans in the US, Turkey joining the EU narrative in the UK, these types of stories were largely falsehoods pushed by right wing media on behalf of right wing politicians.

And with respect to demand side measures, you can't talk about demand without talking about supply. And like the guy on Question Time last night pointed out. The UK built 5M council houses in the years after WW2, they built 300K in the years since Maggie Thatcher. The Irish housing minister recently said that it was hard to deal with supply issues while the building of houses was not as attractive to international investors. A question the media failed to ask him right there and then was "Why the fcuk do we need international investors to build houses in Ireland". But for some reason successive governments have prioritized these investors with respect to their influence on the housing market.

I'm not suggesting that immigrants don't influence the market, but they are in no way the sole or root cause of the issues that exist there, in Ireland, the UK, the US or any other country any of us live in in any sort of significant way.

I think that's enough 'evidence' for the die hard MAGA crowd so.

The White House press secretary at a news conference was waving around contracts Doge dug up and claiming they were fraud, when in fact they were just for programs which the new administration don't like. They are just feeding the lie that any 'DEI' program is fraud.

You have to wonder who wonder who will be the allies of the US after a few years of Trump. He is doing his best to aleniate the EU, UK, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Columbia, South Africa, most of the African continent, Egypt, Jordan. His tariff policy will alienate India, China and any country with decent trade with the US.

Russia will be the biggest fan of Trump. In the 80 years since WW2, no president has been as utterly feeble in their dealings with Russia. JD Vance seems to be following in his footsteps.

Inevitably the US will come under pressure some time in the future, whether this be be because of an economic decline or a terrorist attack. They will look for allies and countries will say to Trump that you put the boot into us. Why should we help the US?

The problem extends beyond Trump. He would be nothing without the support of 50% of the US electorate. From a worldwide point of view, the best thing that could happen is that his presidency turns into a fiasco and some of his cult stop believing in him.

Trump's legacy to the world will be that he broke up the post WW2 alliance. Changed the view of the US taking the mantle as being the most admired country in the world to being the country acting like a schoolyard bully.

The next election in the US will be critical for the world

He didn’t go off script. Trumpf called it a “tremendous speech” or something to that effect.

Vance looks totally unqualified for the job. A charlatan.

Capitalism is fully broken if a country as rich as Ireland cannot afford to build houses because the physical properties are too expensive.

I'm not buying it. (This reason, not the inbuilt house)

There has been lots of talk, but are actions taken to show people their concerns are being listened to, dealt with ,and not just swept under the carpet? (Actually the chartering of flights to remove people might be a start!)

People have legitimate concerns about the quality of their life and that of the next generation. Public services were stretched here a long time back, but seems even worse now. The person who doesn't have health insurance and has to wait longer and longer to access medical services is going to be frustrated and the easiest thing to associate with this is a rapid increase in population, which means immigrants.

School places are getting harder and harder to get in schools close to homes.

Housing is getting more and more expensive.

The list of issues is long and understandable and many come down to an increase in population without planning for it. The government comes out with token statements about building a few more homes each year but nothing close to what is needed, teachers and medics are hard to train and keep.

The easiest solution to come up with is to prevent more people coming into the country and deport those here illegally, reducing the population, freeing up medical services, school places, housing etc.

Until the government actually has a plan to solve the problems people will feel like they are being ignored (and immigration is necessary so closing borders is not an option) and look for scapegoats like immigrants

JD Vance is the last person who could be fired by Trump: he was elected to the office of VP, not appointed by Trump or subject to Senate approval.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/apple-changes-gulf-of-america-trump-b2697171.html

So if you're getting Gulf of Mexico, it's because of your location.