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

Great summary but why do you conclude that the Europeans are learning to deal with Trump. Certainly they are making a few modest incremental moves but the EU leaders couldn't even agree on fundamental issues at last week's meeting. Few indications that the UK, Germany, Poland etc are prepared to challenge Trump imo. And Trump doesn't even deal with Von der Leyen and Kallas.

A fair challenge - in my defence judge -I said they’re “learning”- but that doesn’t mean they’ve perfected that art - I take you’re point, even Europe has a long way to go to achieve a united front, if they even ever get close to that - but I feel there’s at least a concerted effort

Yes, there's been a lamentable dumbing down of American society for decades now. Their media feeds it and the dog and pony show that is their politics perpetuates it. But Trump and his coup are really doubling down on it, with their direct attacks on education.

Those in charge want a dumb population to control. They're easier that way.

Can we as a country and continent start to paddle our own canoe and ignore what is happening 3000 miles away. They voted for that/this. I want to know what our plan is to spark indigenous industry if we lose our mncs due to trump.
Spitting fire about unfairness won’t work.

Irish trump supporters as I refer to self pro claimed Irish patriots.

Anyone who uses twitter or has been observing the various protesters outside migrant centres over the last two years will know of most of these self pro claimed patriots and who they are' they often love to use and loosely throw around the word " traitor " .

Now when you read things like this about what could be planned / tariffs and what the consequences of such actions will not be good for everyday average Irish people' you would really have to wonder why these self pro claimed Irish patriots love trump so much If and when he might act against our national financial Interests.

We haven't got one.

What do you think our plan should be and how do we circumnavigate the fact the we trade directly and indirectly with the US all the time? What "indigenous industry" do you think we should be sparking that would be able to replace American MNC's?

In any case, I don't think we are in any danger of losing them. Not to any large degree anyway. American multinationals are here for numerous reasons (and have been for many years) and I can't see them them upping sticks to move to the States because some twat over there says that they should.

Trump won't be around in 4 years time and businesses tend to project beyond that. I don't think any corporation would be willing to relocate on the whim of a fool just out of the interest in seeing where things go.

Trump will have to wave something very, very, sweet in their faces in order for that to happen and so far he's shown nothing.

I disagree- there’s a strong likelihood American companies will transfer a certain % of their business outside of Ireland- leading to the loss of 1000s of jobs and billions in tax.
Yes many even most will still have a presence - but I think we’ve seen the peak - for the moment at least - every European country is going to lose income and business to America and Ireland will suffer considerably - and looking at 4 years from now, I certainly don’t see some sort of saviour Democrat party coming to save the day- they’re a complete mess and will be for some years to come

Between this and the tariffs, the next few months are going to really show the profound economic damage this administration is causing. And it won’t be Joe Bidens fault.

Ffs Witkoff’s grandparents were both Russian. Ukraine have no hope

was this posted?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62zm4eqvp7o

Sir Keir Starmer's plan for an international force to support a ceasefire in Ukraine has been dismissed as "a posture and a pose" by Donald Trump's special envoy.

Steve Witkoff said the idea was based on a "simplistic" notion of the UK prime minister and other European leaders thinking "we have all got to be like Winston Churchill".

In an interview with pro-Trump journalist Tucker Carlson, Witkoff praised Vladimir Putin, saying he "liked" the Russian president.

"I don't regard Putin as a bad guy," he said. "He's super smart."

Witkoff, who met Putin 10 days ago, said the Russian president had been "gracious" and "straight up" with him. Putin told him, he added, that he had prayed for Trump after an assassination attempt against him last year. He also said Putin had commissioned a portrait of the US president as a gift and Trump was "clearly touched by it".

During the interview, Witkoff repeated various Russian arguments, including that Ukraine was "a false country" and asked when the world would recognise occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian.

Witkoff is leading the US ceasefire negotiations with both Russia and Ukraine but he was unable to name the five regions of Ukraine either annexed or partially occupied by Russian forces.

He said: "The largest issue in that conflict are these so-called four regions, Donbas, Crimea, you know the names and there are two others."

The five regions - or oblasts - are Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea. Donbas refers to an industrial region in the east that includes much of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Witkoff made several assertions that are either not true or disputed:

• He said Ukrainian troops in Kursk were surrounded, something denied by Ukraine's government and uncorroborated by any open-source data
• He said the four partially occupied regions of Ukraine had held "referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule". There were referendums only in some of the occupied parts of Ukraine at different times and the methodology and results were widely discredited and disputed
• He said the four partially occupied oblasts were Russian-speaking. There are many Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine but this has never indicated support for Russia.

I think the democrats need to show that they have policy's to tackle inflation illegal immigrantion crime inflation and issues that effect ordinary people like low income housing if they want to have a chance of getting the Latino and male working class vote.

Democrats are seen as the party for the liberal elite they have lost touch with ordinary working people

Democrats need to come up with plans for inflation, illegal immigration, crime?

Wtf have the Republicans to offer?

Sound bites and illegal acts.

Still waiting on that "concept for a plan" for Medicare from MAGA

I wouldn't be well up on US politicians but I do know Harris was a lawyer and a prosecutor. Such people are hardly going to be "rip up the evil system and throw down the Man" lefty radicals in power, whatever their skin colour, sex and background. Look at how centrist Obama was.

The idea she was just "too left wing" to be in power in the US is rubbish IMO. As have said before I see no need to baby the US electorate or shield them from harsh criticism, speaking as Irish people (mostly) on an Irish forum.

The majority of US voters were either catastrophically ignorant and stupid, or they are moral black holes who actually badly wanted to try out a bit of authoritarianism at home (for whatever reasons, incl. belief that a strong man President will cut inflation and lower their tax bills and, well, that is only thing that really matters).

Per the quote "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard"…f-ck em (Trump's voters, and the people who stayed at home and sat it out).

Just awful so many others around the world will get to suffer, thanks to the immense wealth, power, and influence the US has.

I changed my trip from US to Canada for this year, best avoid the place for next while, there’s no rule of law anymore.