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

Why are people talking about the locations of factories?!

Surely that's a 20th century way of looking at this.

Is this (tariff war) not about where the Pharma and Tech companies IP resides?

Locations of their factories are not relevant.

There's a colossal amount of US IP in those industries that's tax domiciled in Ireland and that's what's in Trumps sights.

The point I was making was If Trump decided to invade Greenland, using what ever excuse he wanted, those orders would be lawful orders to generals and soldiers (assuming he doesn't order them to commit war crimes or genocide on the local population etc…)

Eh no. Apple doesn't make any Irish made iphones. The physical product (subjected to tariffs) is produced in China.

The iPhone is a Chinese made product. Tariffs are based on country of origin. If I, in Ireland sold a Chinese made widget to an American, it would be tariffed as a Chinese product as the tariff is based on the country of manufacturer and not the country who sells it.

AH NO that is not how it works.

If a product is made in a say Ireland, regardless of the company IP is the product is still made in Ireland and will be subject to tariff for imports from Ireland

All valid, but has nothing to do with tariffs.

When iPhones land in the US, they are tariffed on their country of origin, in this case China, it doesn't make a difference if it was designed in California or sold by Apple Ireland etc…

A Trump blessing (if the Orange Lummox can extract himself from his own arse long enough to manage one) is a bit of a mixed bag. In a State/District where a non-MAGA candidate is a significant threat to the MAGA canditate, Donnies endoresment tends to work against them. Theres also the unreliable factor of trying to implant this person into the MAGAverse as an alternative to Trump. I doubt many of the cultist have even considered the possibility that Trump cant legally run anymore. If he’s not on the ballot, I`m not certain MAGA voters will be anywhere near as energised to vote.

This is also all assuming that Donnie even goes through the normal process of helping the next canditate in a timely fashion. We saw how this played out with Biden & Harris. Frankly Biden should have nominated Harris to succeed him from the beginning to allow her (or any other potential candidate) to get more exposure ahead of the vote. Donnie will likely not bother at all until well into the year of the vote, and likely right up until that point he will tease people with the idea of illegally running for a 3rd Term, torpedoing the GOP canditate’s chances in the process.

And your point is still inaccurate. The Constitution grants Congress the sole authority to declare war.

Trump could argue it’s a “national security” move, butin the absence of a clear threat from Greenland, Congress and courts would almost certainly see it as an over reach. It would alsi breach the UN Charter,

But my original point stands. The military chain of command are perfectly entitled to resist an illegal, unconstitutional order and the order coming from Trump doesnt make it legal or constitutional. Officers swear oaths to the Constitution, not to the President. Courts could intervene via injunctions, and Congress could cut funding or impeach.

A deeply disturbing look at one of the more quiet results of the Trump regime dictats. Services for disabled people are being removed, including sign language services and provision of supported education for disabled children.

This video talks about what is happening,

it is based on a Guardian article here https://www.theguardian.com/global/2025/mar/27/us-disability-rights-trump

Just as Huffington post reports his golfing bill since taking power this time - barely 3 months- has already hit $26million - to ferry himself and his entourage to his own golf club and pay for playing costs/ accommodation/ security there - to a club he owns - priorities?

For the posters who've frequently called Trump a peacemaker, I guess that's even further out the window since he's not ruling out invading Greenland? He's pretty clearly behaving like a warmonger at this stage.

The US has been involved in many wars since WW2. How often, if ever, did Congress declare war? AFAIK, never.

What about subsequent Congressional approval, which I suppose was implicit if Congress voted for the necessary military expenditures?

Denmark should be supplied with the latest anti-aircraft defences and artillery to deploy near US bases in Greenland.

"We have assessed Mr Trump's concerns and agree with our allies in the US. Therefore we have increased our security footprint in Greenland to ensure protection against any potential aggressors."

Although the US has technically been at war several times since WWII, it’s hasn’t been legally at war with a Declaration of War since WWII. That was the last time the US Declaired War on anyone.

Since then, US Military action has usually been under the umbrella of a UN Resolution. The Korean War was a UN action that mostly involved US forces. In that case it was sort of the UN itself going to war with North Korea. The Vietnam War was styled as a «Police Action» in support of the South Vietnam government, despite it being clearly a direct conflict between the US (+ Australia for some reason) and North Vietnam.

Even the Gulf Wars were not done on the back of a Declaration of War, despite them having all the elements of a traditional War.

Possibly the most clear cut case for a Declaration of War in modern times was when Argentina invaded the Falklands. The UK however chose to act under established UN Resolutions regarding self-defence. They would have had every right to declare war in that case, but the legal headaches around being in a State of War ment that it wasn’t really worth it when they could simply fight back with existing UN rules.

The US have a tradition of not declaring war to act militarily, they’ve usually had plenty of sneaky ways around that. The element that might impede a US attack on Greenland would more likely be the perceived impact on Donnie’s administration both domestically and from the EU. They have be means to simply take over Nuuk and the other settlements, but I’m not so certain they have bottle to find themselves under permanent santions from the world’s largest trading block (the EU), or the domestic fallout at home from all the difficulties they’ll have to endure for the sake of a frozen arctic island inhabited by people who don’t want to be Americans.

Danish Military are present on Greenland. Their main activity is patrolling the North and East frontiers of Greenland to detect and/or dissuade Russian encroachment.

One such example is the «Sirius Patrol», a Danish Naval special forces regiment who trek out into the ice with dog sleds.

Happy 2nd April y'all!