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

One of the resident "I'm not a Trump supporter, I'm a centrist" posters was in making it out like Trump was actually a nice person, according to Bill Maher, as a result of a meeting put together with Kid Rock.

All three of these people are gobshites.

Not sure I get what you’re saying - in America today Trump is somewhat “popular” according to his ratings - he was up at around 51% in March albeit that’s gone down to about 47% now.

That’s just fact- I haven’t placed any value judgement on it in terms of my “view” on whether it’s a good thing or not- saying Trump is “popular” is not an endorsement of Trump - it’s simple commentary using facts. I would need to ask that person their view on Trump - I couldn’t assume it from just someone posting a favourable opinion poll

You could be right. However I sense that it would take a truly signifigant price drop to have the impact that you suggest (including a substantial drop in Park ticket-fees in Orlando).

If you compare the two, a typical package sun holiday doesn't usually include the apparent danger of being turned around after an 8 hour journey, or detained shortly thereafter. I feel that a price drop would probably have to also include at least one tourism season with enough stories of things going fine for it to actually encourage more people to take up those possible bargains.

Until that happens, the percieved difficulties and dangers of entering the US will likely still act as a deterrant, regardless of how many 100s of Euros you might dock off a holiday package.

Religion and fascism go hand in hand, even if the actual dictator himself doesn't believe in it, he always recognises the power he has when aligned with the religious leaders of his support base.

The RC church supported Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy and the protestant churches strongly supported Hitler in Germany.

The fascist often believes himself to be the supreme authority but has no problem in referring to religious traditions to bolster support and unify his followers against 'the other' who are often people of other religions and atheists

I was refused travel to the US yesterday in Dublin Airport. Business traveler with L1 visa on an AA flight to Charlotte. Was initially flagged for extra screening. Then there was something about not having a form to accompany the visa in my passport. Been to the US well over 100 times on the same visa type and never needed anything additional before, except for the first time after visa renewal. And as far as I remember, they stamp and keep it.

Wasn't really detained, but in some waiting room with a counter. Was asked to power on both laptop and phone. They were work items. Didn't really go through much thoroughly, but did check on browser items I had open on both laptop and phone. Cycled through some open files on the laptop. I was still being asked questions in random burst and my flight gate had closed. I told them I've now missed the flight and I'm going to leave. I was then told I was denied entry due to improper documentation and that it may affect future visits.

Well they can **** off. As there won't be any future visits. Told my employer today that I'm done with the US travel. It's remote or nothing. Was also considering a 3 week trip to Florida later this year. Completely off the table now.

Pre-clearance didn't look as busy as it usually was when I'd regularly fly Sunday mornings in the past. Not sure how much of it is due to people avoiding the US though.

I also wonder though if they'd accept paying more tax to invest in education for all to improve the general workforce.

Half of PhD graduates in the US came from other countries with better funded education systems.

You’d like to think that if the ratings went further south he’d be forced to resign - but as we know that’s not really how American presidencies work - I imagine Trump will act like nothing will stop his 4 year tenure - he’ll simply spin it as the vast majority of republicans love him and all the democrats hate him and the poll organisers are Democrat biased - he won’t give a sh1t about polls

I think many people will end up opting to visit Canada instead, including the FX bargain hunters given that America's betrayal has damaged the Canadian dollar also. It ticks many of the same boxes without the potential immigration drama, while offering a bit of economic solidarity to people being put upon by a bunch of absolute ars*holes.

Power on phone and laptop to go through them is a hard no from me. I'm aware that plenty of countries do this on entry but I get the impression that the US policy is currently more aggressive than most.

Just checked my employer policies

Basically have to report this and work laptop or phone wiped asap

Well done for posting the experience and what happened- the more stories we get the more accurate a picture of just what exactly is happening at pre-clearance .

In terms of some people mentioning relative quiet of the US boarding area, possibly the week before Easter is the calm before the storm- I imagine even if numbers are down slightly on previous years, the airport will be packed full of people flying to America

If it was your own private phone (or your boss'es there would still be information about other people that might be confidential to them (they might be happy for you to hsve that information but not a third party)

Have the police always had the power to go through people's phones even when they are not guilty or suspected of anything criminal?

Have customs always had this power?

Edit :and they can record all this data?

It's just more lies.

Everything about them is a lie.

America offshored it's business out to places like China & India 20+ years ago because they were greedy bastards, who didn't give a **** about the lives that were destroyed because of it, and now they're whining like little bitches because the places they outsourced to are enjoying the increased GDP because of it and the US is in the ha'penny place having to import stuff that they once made.

Jesus, who knew?

This idea that Trump, Lutnick and other MAGA twats are throwing around that China somehow took their manufacturing base is bullshit. You gave away your business and now you're crying.

This crowd just keep lying and lying and I can't believe that there's nobody taking them to task on it. If ever a country needed a Jeremy Paxman figure, it's the US.

I don't think Trump has had any crediblity for a long time — not even his fans pretend that anything he says is to be believed. What has taken a battering over the last couple of weeks is the credibility of the United States.

Various Trump enablers have told themselves that they can profit from, or take pleasure in, his disruption and destruction, but they have believed or assumed that those around him will in the end restrain him from doing anything truly disastrous, or the famous checks and balances of the US political system will kick in. It's now clear that neither of those things are going to happen; that nobody may be able to save the US from Trump. When US government bonds are seen as more risky than Greek government bonds, you know the US has burned financial credibility in a way the markets would never before have imagined possible. That's not a loss of crediblity for Trump, but for the US, and even if Trump and the MAGA movement are removed from office, that degree of credibility will not easily be recovered. The markets will always price in the knowldge that, if the UK elected an obviously corrupt, incompetent and antidemocratic president like Trump before, they can do so again.