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

“The President in particular is very much a figurehead—he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had—he has already spent two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud.”

Zaphod lives

Nate

Does anyone think an attack on Iran is imminent?

Would that put the present tariff situation /stock market fall into the shade?

I hear there may be quite a build up of forces going on now (and Netanyahu is in Washington)

and you seem to revel in that 'sin'

Mainly B and C.

In relation to the latest disaster he started, this is the evolution of the responses to criticism of tariffs....

They will, maybe even can't, ever admit they were wrong or Ttump is bad. Because to do so now would raise the serious question of why now when the evidence was overwhelming before.

The only real explanation, and we see posts like the one above about people looking to destroy the establishment, is that in reality people really liked him and far from fearing what he might do they hoped he would do it.

The only difference is they thought he would do it to others. Not them. Their support for Trump is not built and getting inflation down or gas prices, its about getting back at other people.

So they welcome these tariffs, not because it will do anything to benefit them, but they see it as getting back at others.

And they will continue to support him bacause they believe that once he deaks with all the others they will get all the benefits. Despite there being evidence that Trump doesn’t care about them and isn't remotely concerned, he says he is and that is enough for them.

But if market won't bear a retail price of 21.60 then the retailer won't stock them at that price, so either the retailer, importer, or exporter has to take some of the pain. So importer goes back to exporter and demands a lower price of 8 for the t shirt, or will find another supplier who can. That's how it hits the exporters. So now the trade deficit is narrowed. It's not all one way Trafic.

Tech stuff, maybe right. Ag imports dwarf them, though China's been buying them elsewhere since Combover Caligula started his first go at a trade war in 2018:

(goog)

'In 2021, the United States exported $36.4 billion worth of agricultural products to China, setting a record and making China the largest export market for the United States for the second consecutive year.
[Soybeans accounted for nearly half of these exports, with a value of $16.4 billion], surpassing the previous year's record by more than $2.2 billion.
Other significant agricultural products exported from the United States to China include beef, with export value reaching a record $2.1 billion, and cotton, with export value reaching its second-highest level at $2.7 billion.

However, China's agricultural imports from other countries have also been increasing. For example, Brazil has overtaken the United States as China's largest supplier of soybeans, with Brazil's share of China's soybean imports growing to 76% from 46%.
Similarly, Brazil has also become China's top supplier of corn.'

Almost all have disappeared. A few are left but they aren't making a huge amount of sense from what I've seen.

Imagine being in college or working and then being told you have to leave the country immediately. That is serious.

US revoking all visas for South Sudan passports and blocking new arrivals - as the African nation is not accepting its nationals expelled from the US. “every country must accept the return of its citizens in a timely manner when another country … seeks to remove them.. will be prepared to review these actions when South Sudan is in full cooperation" https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/06/us-revokes-all-visas-for-south-sudanese-over-countrys-failure-to-repatriate-citizens

Maybe, but it depends.

Triggering a war with Iran appeared to be a goal Donnie wanted in the first term, likely as part of some blockheaded scheme to glean popularity as a «War President». Sort of like what Bush Jr. managed for a short while after 9/11.

However thanks to Donnie’s general fecklessness and total lack of any real follow-though it didn’t happen.

I’m certain he’d love an Iran War was a distraction from his current wave of extra-concentrated stupid, but that idea is not complicated by his buddy Putin having a weapons relationship with Iran. Russia and Iran are allies now, and for the forseeable a useful one to Moscow. So Donnie likely can’t attack Iran in the short term at very least.

Maybe doing serious calculations and deep thought about tariffs - or anything else Trump has come up with - is pointless. Maybe he gave no thought whatever to what he was doing. He had a simplistic calculation to base his numbers on, and applied it, but all he was looking for was submission from world leaders. He expected they would come, cap in hand, begging for negotiation so that he could feel powerful. That is all he needs, the approach; his attempts at negotiation have proved to be laughable but that is not important. He has the weight of the most powerful country in the world behind him, as he sees it, they would have to come begging. Its not even so much a power grab as his ego and vanity trying to overcome his insecurity. His thinking process is so simplistic he felt able to drop his bomb then go golfing while the world struggled - he hoped - to cope with his demands.

He sees it as being within his gift to create wealth for wealthy - and thus in his mind powerful - people, who will then respect him. Submission from world leaders and respect from the wealthy, and wealth for himself, so no grift is too brazen, these are all that matter to him.

He is totally and absolutely superficial, look at the gold ornaments he surrounds himself with, the women who decorate his environment, his concern with how many people flock to see him, his strange appearance, his obsession with everyone's 'ratings'. He is the ultimate vacuous influencer of vacuous people. There is nothing else.

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” G. Michael Hopf

The physical copy of the Business Post is quite dramatic today. Front page has a big picture of an angry Trump with "New World Order" as the headline.

Not as dramatic as what is going on in the USA with Trump. The media and politicians here are very muted in their reaction so far. Maybe they thing it will go away?