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

It seems like only a week or two ago musk saying something along the lines of "and if there's a conflict of interest, I'll recuse myself...Trump interjects , I wouldn't allow it". Like two weeks later he is selling Tesla's for Elon. Like wtf is this nonsense?

Ah I think the likeability angle is very harsh. As with all things you have to weight your factors relative to the pool of candidates available, in this case Irish politicians. People like him because he manages to look humble still and the last thing Irish people want is hubris in their politicians , he pulls off the reliable, not to big for boots , will do his best politician. Nothing spectacular, no commitments but won't embarrass us.

"worst politician in the history of the state."

Lol

Let me guess, we need Peter Casey or Conor McGregor in the Aras, and Niall Boylan and The Monk as Taoiseach and Tanaiste.

Anyone calling Micheal Martin one of the worst politicians in the history of the state is talking out of the lowest part of their gastrointestinal tract. That's just an objective fact.

One of the things I've been proud of as an Irishman over the last X number of years is how we've had a lot of politicians who genuinely seem to want to do well for the country in the top positions. And we've managed to continually have robust opposition at the same time. We've thankfully avoided the populist, waffling, antagonistic bluster and noise that has severely and impacted several countries worldwide. Something to be proud of. And no, I'm not saying they're angels or the best in the world, but we keep the noisiest and those with the least to offer to the back benches for the most part instead of making them PM or President.

According to some middle aged angry Facebook clown who discovered politics 18 months ago.

Mod Edit: Warned for uncivil posting

Just what the hell is this image? Trump meets Mr Bean?

Like he is basically an agent of uncertainty. Tariffs on, tariffs off. Executive order, then overruled by courts. If I didn't know any better I'd think he was a foreign asset, intent on causing such disruption as possible. I might finally have fallen for my first conspiracy theory, it's just too obvious for it not to be at least possible.

Target my closest allies, befriend my adversaries.

Purposely cause a crisis of confidence in the electoral system that lead to my return to office.

Open federal databases to private individuals, randomly fire swathes of federal workers. Hire some back. Send emails to the rest to destroy morale.

It just goes on and on.

I keep seeing this posted by people is it actually happened, have the markets come back up once Trump reversed the tariffs each time. I'm not saying it's not happening just curious is it

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/its-bad-for-our-relationship-australia-slams-donald-trumps-tariff-move/news-story/cd4c18090b040beab5eed528c669ec7f

Add Australia to the list now.

How many trade wars has Trump started now?

It's the country version of what happens when your mates realise you're dating a complete bunny-boiler....

Not gonna discuss the fact that your charismatic has been crashing the US economy for the last 3 weeks? I

well.. 😃

Trump has been called a transactional person when it comes to the way he "operates" as US president. One way transactional is defined [Merriam-Webster] is that of a way to do business based on value derived from transactions rather than on morals, ethics, or principles. He [edit] is, at heart, defines himself as a businessman.

I'm mentioning the above where it comes to Trump and the deal he has pushed Ukraine into accepting and is apparently also pushing Russia into accepting. I wrote in my last post about Trump and Putin probably having done a private deal where the minerals in the territory Russia has seized are concerned.

The question arose as to why Ukraine and the US, let alone the international community, should think Russia will accept the ceasefire deal which Trump is pushing on it when Putin probably has not succeeded in his full scale plan for Ukraine. I looked at how Trump is a transactional person and maybe that's something that Putin is scared or unsure about to the extent he cannot fully rely on him NOT to do something out of the ordinary, despite what Trump has said about NOT involving the US on the ground in Ukraine.

Though I do not know what they said to each other in their phone-calls, I would not be at all surprised if Trump threatened Putin in the same way he's publicly used tariff threats recently, a form of transactional economic warfare against other nations, incl Ukraine: agree to my deal or I'll loosen the US arsenal against Russia, play ball with me on the backroom sweetheart deals we've cooked up and all will be OK, none of the extra sanctions I've said I will apply to Russia will happen. That would be purely transactional….

I'm speculating on the how and why Putin would go along with a ceasefire in Ukraine with his enemy still in office there and assume that in the near future, with warfare [and Martial law] over, Zelenskyy could step down and run for re-election [as Trump did] within the constitution, with Putin hoping Zelenskyy would lose or not run. Zelenskyy has said he would step down and so far he has been a man of, and true to, his word.

So the question is there: Does Trump give a flying **** about the US economy and the US dollar in reality? He has properties all over the world and free travel as well, courtesy of the US, for the next 3 and a half years.

The consensus now is that he did in Trump 1 but has now been infected by the “crash and burn it all down” revolutionary school of thought

He went on tv with business leaders during one of the worst crashes yesterday and basically said “it sucks to be you” and today we wake up to more tarrifs, this time on Australia

He doesn’t give a flying **** about economy that much he made repeatedly clear while lying about the best US economy ever which he is now rapidly dismantling with open talks of US default

I laugh that someone higher up referred to him as businessman, he **** ran every one of his businesses into the ground, including casinos that literally have a license to print money, if he did nothing and invested his inherited daddy’s wealth in passive stocks he be worth hundreds of billions now