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

I'm kind of surprised that we got to this point already. I was expecting this to possibly come to a head sometime after summer. But now here we are just short of the 100 day mark and Donnie has made himself a de-facto Lame Duck President.

There's now no point at all taking any tariff threats from him seriously. The idea that other nations are "making deals" with him or "discussing" the tariffs have been shown to be the fiction that we all knew it was. To amend your proposed headline Quin_Dub, I would go as far as having: "Trump makes pointless statement worth ignoring"

Add to this the very public way Putin has been ignoring his "Peace" overtures regarding Ukraine. To top it all off, Musk has called uncle on his DOGE shenigans and has left…likely not to return. All within 100 days..not that I should be all that surprised.

Got to wonder what he hopes to manage to do with the rest of the 3 years…assuming his health lasts that long.

And the consequence of this is that businesses cannot plan for the future. How can businesses even attempt to make long term strategy when their trading conditions can suddenly and drastically change overnight by a random tweet from the unmitigated fool in the white house.

Trump signed other EO's on Wednesday, these covering education reform and school discipline in K-12 schools.

In a potential hit to higher education, Trump signed an executive order targeting the college accreditation process.  

College accreditation ensures a university can access financial aid, but, Scharf [as W/H staff secretary] said, “many of those third-party accreditors have relied on sort of woke ideology to accredit universities, instead of accrediting based on merit and performance.” 

Accreditors have pushed back on these accusations, as colleges in states that have bans on diversity, equity and inclusion have had no problems getting accreditation.  

But if a school does not have accreditation, it would have devastating effects, likely increasing concerns among higher education institutions who have seen Trump is not afraid to mess with their finances.  

That’s especially true of Harvard University, which had $2 billion in federal funding revoked in retaliation for not changing its policies based on Trump’s demands. The Ivy League member has sued over the action.  

Another Wednesday order seeks to further integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into American classrooms.  

“The basic idea of this executive order is to ensure that we properly train the workforce of the future by ensuring that school children, young Americans, are adequately trained in AI tools, so that they can be competitive in the economy years from now into the future, as AI becomes a bigger and bigger deal,” said Will Scharf, White House staff secretary.

“President Trump is taking historic and commonsense action to boost school safety standards. Disciplinary decisions should be based solely on students’ behavior and actions,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. 

The school order and Scharf's words seem to infer that if a child doesn't get the hang of AI, their education is over - sorry kid, you're out. McMahons words, paraphrasing what she sees as Trumps view on school safety, centre on behaviour and actions - which could refer to anything from weapon carrying to use of words like DEI or gay, or obligatory use of loyalty phrases. The thing is that Trumps school order included the word discipline. That word carries many variations, corner-time or other practices allowed in the past.

THe problem for the USA is that they have spent most of that $36 trillion. If you spend borrowed money, which the USA has always done, it is money that that will at some stage have to be paid back. You are now at the whim of the lender of that money, so in all intents and purposes is ex money. It's lost assets.

Similar to keeping your credit card in credit because there are serious consequences if you don't.

This is a major issue going forward. Trump has created a hugely unstable business environment with his constant flip flopping. Businesses love stability, but instead there is an unstable nut in the Oval Office who changes his mind every six hours.

Do we know who is buying?

Makes you wonder how he bankrupted so many of his companies.

Nobody at the moment. Or very few.

That's why Trump was being less of a dick on tarriffs in the last week.

He knows that the bond market is the main reason why America has stayed afloat in the last 20 years. Or somebody with more intelligence told him.

I'd imagine Ireland and other EU countries are dipping in for a little more. I wouldn't be surprised to discover if Russia are buying it up via a partner in the Middle East to use as leverage once Trump inevitably pulls back on sanctions. Developing nations probably see this as an opportunity too. Obviously these would probably be longer term holdings in the hope that once MAGA runs its course, the US economy will become more reliable again.

I believe Donny's goal is to drive the Dollar down in value to make exports more attractive. Not of course, in any sensible or structured way, more like throwing a hand grenade into global trade arrangements.

And I was bananas the last time I posted here a few days ago. Sorry about all that. Been avoiding the thread out of shame.

"Make a statement with our MAGA hat"- yeah, I'm an idiot.

Our company manufactures small medical devices, even with 10% tariffs it is still cheaper to manufacture and export devices from Ireland. It is a fantasy if the tango moron thinks there will be whole-scale return to the US. Given the fact the possibility of a lame duck after the mid-terms, no CEO will up roots and leave based on the daily changing whims of a rather dim individual

My understanding is that the only loophole in the constitution that would allow Trump to be president for a third term is if he gets some other GOP candidates to run as President and Vice President, and if they win, and if the GOP wins control of the House, and if they elect Trump as Speaker, and if the President and Vice President resign as per the agreement. The Speaker would then be next in line. That's a lot of very big ifs.

This is because the constitution says nobody can be elected for more than two terms. That's the catch. But this is a highly specific scenario that would involve utter insanity by the GOP, not to mention trying to find two dopes to run on a presidential ticket knowing they'll have to resign soon after. Even if it reached the SC, I can't see them affirming this.