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

The Russians would have every hotel room bugged in Russia so when Trump visited they definitely set him up.

100% they have something on him. Russia said 70 years ago they would win the war with America by making them eat themselves up as a nation.

They played the long game and won.

you would have been laughed at a year ago - now I’m not so sure

Hopefully, Trump becomes extremely unpopular before he has gained a total foothold over the institutions. In one sense, he has shot himself in the foot by moving so radically and forcefully in the last three months……his ratings are rapidly dropping and there has been no 'honeymoon period'. It's debatable if the MAGA disciples / headbangers alone can keep him in power. Most of them were already struggling and have least to lose in a recession, unlike the vast majority of the population who would be hit very hard.

But again the question is how and indeed who? If Trump is actively disrupting all institutions and ignoring court rulings (such as the sending of prisoners to El Salvador) just how and by whom will he be stopped? ( not expecting you to know the answer BTW- I don’t think anyone knows - but someone or some entity is going to have to move to stop Trump - but don’t see anyone doing anything right now- and obviously the longer they leave it the harder it will be)

The American Dream is all about having money in the bank, a nice house, a car on the road, several 'vacations' a year etc. Anybody who threatens that is going to rapid lose popularity. The hardcore MAGA crowd perhaps number around 30m or 40m at most - they were already struggling badly in life and it's difficult to see how they alone could keep Trump and MAGAism in power. It's clear that tens of millions of middle class and well off people lent their vote to Trump at the recent election, but they may not stick with him.

On huge difference with Hitler is that he was actually popular with the German public by the mid 1930s and perceived to be doing a good job with the economy.

Hitler also actually improved some of voters lifes - public holidays, radio in every house(even if it was only progranda), smoking ban, highways were built if i remember correctly.

People under hitler in the latter years and after his reign were also quite aware that he was bad for germany, even if they were afraid to speak out. After his death Germany surrendered after just a few days.

Trump is actively harming his voter base and some of them will still believe he is doing good for them. They are delusional and beyond saving if they can't see what a problem he is (and Vance).

yeah…. great way invoke our largest trading partners ire even further to put Ireland even more in the crosshairs of the Trump regime and every other dictatorship or tyrannical junta on the planet.

Anyway I'm sure if the UN was moved it would be to a relatively important country on the global stage, not a geographically remote island in the middle of nowhere.

What an incompetent clumsy idiot. You are right. This should be the meme for the Trump administration now for how clumsy and incompetent they are.

Not all of them will, but enough of them will buy his 'we gotta take some pain while we repair the damage done by Biden' nonsense

This is the same logic that Milei has spouted as he crashes the Argentinian economy and brought the IMF and World bank in to bail out his ultra libertarian selloff of everything in the Argentinian state.

Its impossible to argue against this position as they will adopt the wait and see position until they are either wiped out (by which time the damage is done) or there is some bounce back and then they can claim it was worth it all along.

It took almost 10 years for the hardcore brexiteers to finally accept that maybe the sunlit uplands weren't coming after all (and many of them still cling to the hope of a mythical brexit dividend just around the corner)

Seriously why do people have to put Ireland down. Ireland is not a geographically remote island in the middle of nowhere. Othewise Meta, Google,Intel, Apple, Pharma industry etc would not have such large operations here. Don't come back with tax answer as they don't have to have as much as they have here to avail of our corporate tax rates.

I’m glad to see this getting coverage. We ( I’m in the US) literally have people “disappearing”. A local guy went for a routine immigration appointment three weeks ago and was detained. Has no criminal background, no political or protest activity. His family has been advised to keep a low profile and avoid attention so few people outside the neighborhood know. Makes me wonder what the scale of this s abuse is. Trump shouted about “illegal” “violent criminals”. What we are seeing is the local waiter falling foul of an arbitrary process. This is terrifying. I

Hesketh has removed hundreds of books from military libraries including on civil rights but Meine Kampf is OK.

Well, perhaps multi-generational Irish Catholics fit your description, but this arc of the thread was about your question on Hispanic voters & Trump in 2024. I don't think that group worships the same way as more established American Catholics. Remember that only a generation or so ago, most were living in fairly religiously backwards countries under the thumb of the RCC.

One additional thing; the Democratic party can make some major hay with the INS/DHS/ICE horrors Trump is visiting on brown people in this midterm. Hopefully they will, but 'snatching defeat from the jaws of victory' is a long-tested Democratic political strategy.

Speaking of corruption, I was watching Brooks and Capehart, a couple of fairly mainstream WaPO commenters talking about tariffs. David Brooks, long-time Washington correspondent, said it's just an opportunity for institutionalized corruption. Countries will be visiting DC and sending lobbyists to ask who to bribe in the government. With the shift to cryptocurrency it'll be easy for them to transfer money, and of course the Orange smegmite is immune as he was just executing his duties as POTUS (wink, wink). (just first few minutes is enough)

Also, seems like you can buy justice with sufficent campaign donations, too:

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-03-28/convicted-of-bilking-investors-nikola-founder-and-trump-donor-gets-a-presidential-pardon

It has set a very dangerous precedent. This administration has indicated that the whim of senior government officials is all that it takes for people to be targeted.

If this continues in future, all sort of dissenting voices from non-residents will be targeted in this manner. And some people might say "Good riddance, you are a guest in America, they can decide whether or not they want you to be there". But that is ignoring the facts that there is a huge amount of subjectivity in how this could be used.

We've already seen it used to quell voices appalled at what is happening to Palestinians and a big part of this is because of the influence the Israeli's have on America and American policy.

America used to be the place that dissenters ran to because of its commitment to free speech. Now, people are at the whim of the administration or God knows how many individuals along the chain who have the ability to influence who the finger will be pointed at.

I saw on the news yesterday a Massachusetts lawyer who was actually served with a notice to deport (she is an American citizen) probably because someone made a mistake in transcribing the name of the person on the order but that is all it could take for someone to end up in a whole world of trouble.

These are very dangerous times and to see the epitome of evil Stephen Miller absolutely misrepresent the orders of the Supreme Court so as to vindicate the administrations actions is very sinister. And to have the AG, Pam Bondi, sitting there giving her tacit approval to what is being done is makes it even worse.

The US is supposed to have 3 equal branches to it's government and this administration is driving a horse and carriage through those principles.

Now should be the time those who want to keep their guns to defend against a tyrannical government step up to add their voices in protest at what is happening. Instead, these people are loudly cheering the President on. Dark dark times.