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

This time probably with Wall street money behind it.

How would it rise if everyone was trading it for something else?

I can't see it short to medium term. Fair enough, you did say long term. But that would involve the US coming to it's senses.

Are the mid term elections not under the control of each state and not under the control at federal level.?

So two points if this is the case.
(1) will the Governers/ administration in the Blue/ democratic leaning states make sure what you are suggesting will not happen - so anyone who wants to vote can vote

(2) There is a REALPOSSIBILITY that SOME of the governers /administration in red states are not TOO ENAMOURED with Trumps behaviour and what it’s doing to the economy and might not be too happy to carry out trumps bidding re voter suppression, etc.

If Trump is dumb by any measurement, then what does that make Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris, the Democratic party and the Republican party? Geniuses??

They've all been defeated by him and yet some people cling to this strange fiction that he is dumb, and rarely question the intellect of those other people, and they say this without qualification.

The problem with calling him dumb, despite him being the biggest political force in the USA today is that it's dismissive. It just says that "he'll shoot himself in the foot too bad to recover from sooner or later, so I don't really have to do anything". Now, THAT is dumb, because all evidence has been to the contrary. Not only has he not sabotaged himself to that point, but he looks poised to end US democracy entirely.

How much do I have to say that simply calling him 'dumb' plays entirely into his hands? Because it has.

And I'll tell you something else - you can go back and watch many interviews of him in the 90s and 80s where he sounds like a completely different man, speaking calmly and with decent articulation. Few these days seem to stop to think that maybe most of the stuff he's saying these days in public is strictly meant as red meat for the base. Why should we think this? Because he's said as much at rallies . He's said before something like, 'I talk about this trans thing and you people go crazy, so I just keep talking about it!' He knows what he's doing in that regard. He knows how to play the rubes. He knows how to stir up the lowest common denominator. He is a political PT Barnum.

Again, there is a difference between being dumb and being ignorant. Trump is deeply ignorant in many ways, but highly effective in manipulation when it comes to getting what he wants, which is power and admiration.

No matter what the rich lose, it's still the people on the lower ends of the ladder that will lose an awful lot more.

Based on Sanders recent utterings/statements re the state of the economy , the issues that US Senate/ Congress/ Trump should be addressing re the environment, education, health and other sectors with some basic issues to be addressed and that effect the American less well off such as housing , I cannot see why individuals have a problem with him .

I assume that he knows that what he is proposing cost money and he has plans as to how to source it.
The only problem that some Americans have with him is that his source of funds to finance the above is to increase taxes paid be the rich companies/individuals

I used to have to listen to him on the Howard Stern when I was with a landscaping crew back when he was lapping up the Martha Marples attention. The blue collared loved him, a silver spoon slob that's just like us!

He sounded dumb to me then, full of what is now known as "main player syndrome", but then a lot people I was surrounded by in the US were entirely self centred. There's nothing smart about Trump.

His tariff formula removes all doubt that there really isn't anything going on in his head other than me, me, me.

You can't fix stupid.

However, there's plenty of ignorant folk that might eventually cop on when they start to feel the pinch.

My father-in-law is a staunch conservative, my wife remembers him having shouting matches with his dad (who was a Democrat from an immigrant family) over politics. I brought this up during the summer and he dismissed it all as scaremongering, saying that the courts wouldn't let him do even half the stuff he proposed. But on a recent call, his tone has changed to one of concern.

US uncle wouldn't be particularly liberal but hated Trump since day one. He kept telling my mother as he was coming in for term 2 that checks and balances would kick in. But honestly his tone has changed dramatically. Basically he prefers not to discuss the direction the country is currently going at this stage.

There'll be worse. It's Trump.

The funny thing about those digital ones and zeros is that they can be exchanged for goods and services like food and medical care!

I don't know if sycophants like that genuinely believe the sh*t they are shoveling, or if it is part of a rage baiting for clicks scheme, but if I ever posted something as nonsensical as that I'd be embarrassed to leave my house.

The first and most simple thing a company with do is pass the extra cost of the tariff onto the consumer.

Some companies might decide to take a hit, and reduce the profit they make per sale, in order to keep the quantity of sales higher. This may also be done in conjunction with increasing the cost on the consumer somewhat.

Some may look to see if the foreign company selling the product will reduce their price, but that becomes much harder if the dollar becomes devalued (and the sale is in $). There is no guarantee the foreign company will accept this, and even if they agree a small reduction, they may still have to increase the price on the consumer to maintain the same level of profit.

So while occasionally you'll have exceptions, in the main the primary thing tariffs will do is increase the price on the end consumer.