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

That poor metal factory owner who makes profit from the military 😞

YouTube influencers. There are a ton of them.

He isn't. He hates Zelensky and blames Ukraine for the war and is completely on the side of Putin.

Complaining about the money, or not saying thank you enough, was just the excuse for coming out against Zelensky s he knows he cannot simply side with Putin.

But Zelensky played him but getting funds together to buy weapons and that puts Trump in a position of having to help what he sees as an adversery.

Not selling them weapons is completely consistent with Trumps stance

Chris Hayes discusses - rather forcefully - the lawlessness of the current US administration's sending people to El Salvador prison. Every aspect of it is lawless, and its hard to argue with it.

The only possible arguments are along the lines of 'Trump knows what he is doing, he is getting gangs out of America' and 'there are more important things to talk about that a few illegal aliens being deported, good riddence to them'. If those arguments are acceptable, well there is a lot further to go before they get to the 'and then they came for me' stage.

I think the plan here was to expose Trump and his nonsense by offering money Ukraine doesn’t have and getting a public rejection from Trump before going to European manufacturers

Zelensky is playing the cards he was dealt well and just called Trumps bluff and nonsense out

Now when Ukraine spends money in Europe and he complains they can say “well remember that time”

Exactly as predicted, the rest of the world will adapt and work around the US.

Everyone was willing to stick it out for the first 4 years of nonsense but the rest of the world has come to the same consensus after the last 2 weeks that this is not a blip it is a trend and they are adapting to the new trend.

I saw someone mention today that the US is the wealthiest country in the world, are by far the biggest consumers and the biggest beneficiaries of globalisation and yet somehow have the cheek to complain they are being "ripped off" by everyone else.

Indeed Trump nor his idiot followers understand the complex global supply chain that has been built centered around them for the past 80 years and how much it has benefited them, they only see things in an entirely transactional, zero sum way much like a 5 year old.

Biggest consumers AND they are the ones who sought out cheap locations to manufacture goods outside the country.

Trump is ripping up the American strategic economic focus that has been in play since the 70's.

I don't think he is doing it for any other reason than that he doesn't understand the root cause of trade deficits.

What is leading to the fall in his approval? I don't see anything that he has done that would be a surprise.

Those numbers would suggest that those people are easily swayed, and the next bit of good news will see them flock back to support

People might indeed be beginning to lay the blame at trumps feet but I also think you would be surprised how many still probably believe the tariffs are paid by the other countries and not US consumers and therefore this is the other countries fault somehow.

Trump complaining about countries having trade deficits with the USA is like somebody maxing out their credit card and buying everything in Brown Thomas and Weirs jewelers and then complaining that Brown Thomas and Weirs are cheating them and ripping them off. All they are doing is outspending their income by maxing out the credit card.

The USA is maxing out their credit card by $2 trillion a year and Trump is blaming every other country on the planet except Russia and of course the USA for this.

Russia has linked the ruble to the war economy, and increased interest rates massively in the civic economy to compensate. In other words, they've based the ruble on their weapons based manufacturing, and not the general economy.

It's a boost right now because they're manufacturing weapons on a scale not seen since the Soviet Union, but it's not sustainable in the long run.

I wouldn’t be holding my breath on people laying the blame at trumps feet- considering the number who voted for him, believing all the rubbish he’s spouted, they’re not going to turn away that quickly - they are in general, thick as two planks - they will believe what MAGA tells them

Yeah, I think America is a lost cause. A great country in so many ways, but what made it great seems to be going or gone.

And as long as the MAGA crowd are there, it'll never be a well country again. Let's be honest, they're degenerates who's main hope is that hope for Jesus to come back to life to start wiping out people they don't like. Between fundamentalist religion, racism, greed is good, hatred of their government, cuck-level slavishness to money, a "me first" philosophy towards society and ever increasing stupidity, in their soul the MAGA crew are a fundamentally broken and hate-fuelled people.

And if that's what the majority of Americans vote for after 10 years of this nonsense, then that's what they want as the character of their nation, and there's no disguising the fact the Americans, either through devotion, support, indifference or quiet deference, are happy to have the MAGA agenda be their doctrine.

MAGA is America now. It is the mainstream, it is the driving philosophy, and the most popular one overall. MAGA isn't a fad, after more than 10 years of this carry-on, it's the true character freed from it's shackles. This what the majority of Americans are, and thus this is what America is.

And to be honest, if that's the way they're going, the further we are away from them as a society, the better. They're only going one way, and it ain't up or forward.