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

The sheer irony of a draft dodger wanting to change the names of public holidays that commemorate historic military victories.

:/

Holding on the the freedoms SCOTUS gave you is being made harder. Kim Davis, who denied same-sex couples marriage licenses, will appeal case to Supreme Court to overturn marriage equality.

Talk about WW1 Victory day: the USA drafted about 4m men into the army, and suffered 53,000 killed in battle. France had over 8m in the army, and 1,300,000 killed in battle. Trump saying that the USA won WW1 is a sick joke. Sure, they helped turn the tide , but this ""we" won" bragging is just another BIG LIE..

His draft dodging is the only thing I respect about Trump. The same as I would respect a German in 1940, or an Israeli or Russian today, for dodging a draft. The fact it had to be dodged and you went to prison for doing it properly through conscientious objection is a stain on American history, not a stain on those who got out of it by other means.

I've blown up about this before on here so won't do it again but I do not like that Irish people use that as a slight against any American with regards to the Vietnam war. I can understand how we unfortunately import many of their social issues, but I will never understand the import of any respect for their soldiers in needless wars in the past.

If my grandfather avoided going to Vietnam through having "bone spurs", I'd be proud of him. My Irish grandfather had as much reason to be Vietnam with a gun as any American. ie. None.

TBF, that is not a misuse of the pardon powers. POTUS can pardon whomever he likes (I think the only limit is that it must be federal rather than state). That is the power the country has opted to give all POTUS, past and present.

Trump is simply using the powers as he is allowed to do. The real issue is the very existence of this power. It should be kept to the most extreme cases and based on sound reasoning and a clear issue with the law itself or how the law has been used.

None of that is the case here, but then it wasn't the case when any other POTUS did it either.

It really is an odd power to give any one person, particularly in a democracy. That this one person, regardless of their understanding of the law, can simply opt to set aside laws voted for by Congress and the Senate for any reason is crazy.

I see the "de minimis" exemptons on packages coming into the USA ends today.

This above anything else is going to focus the minds of people who don't understand the economics of what Trump is doing.

No longer can they buy a small item like a radio, batteries or bag of screws from Aliexpress, Temu and Shein for a few bucks.

Every package is going to default at $100 import tax going up to $200 on June 2nd.

There are 5 million of these small packages coming from China to the USA every day.

It will be interesting to see how this one pans out. Especially amongst Trumps MAGA supporters.

.

On top of that, there are some very worrying signs from Las Vegas as well. Very little Canadians are going there now, and they would make up 30% of the tourists going there.

Some casinos have let folks go already, so Trump is not only going to be responsible for bankrupting his own, but a few others.

Just watched the highlights of his address to Alabama university, mother of God, it was like he was holding a rally to all these new graduates, it was the usual lies.

Eggs down 87%, petrol down below 2 dollars, groceries down, GDP to -.3 %, but it’s all Bidens fault, all his figures are wrong

If I order a set of batteries on Aliexpress, I pay €3 for the batteries plus 60c import tax.

If an American orders the same set of batteries today from AliExpress, It will cost them $3 + $100 import tax. Upped to $200 import tax on June 2nd. Slightly different don't you think?

UPS have laid off 20,000 workers because of this, and thats only UPS.

Some delivery services are not going to handle the package unless the flat fee is paid.

Makes sense for very small items, the paperwork involved would cost more to process than the actual worth of the package.

They are going from a situation where nothing is checked to reams of paperwork …..for a set of batteries.😀

You don't get to pick, the $100 is the minimum customs charge regardless of the package value. Otherwise people would still be ordering $1 junk because the tariff would only add about $1.25.

One persons junk is another persons essential item. A carpenter getting bags of screws and tools will be badly affected by this.

Or a mother on minimum wage getting a 5 pack of t-shirts from Shein to clothe her family.

Millions of other examples where it's not junk. Its essentials.

I would argue that a country shouldn't have those ideals instilled in them in first place and the President shouldn't be required to have supported its military's actions in the past. Like what, every US president should support the Vietnam war.. There's no room for progress with that mindset.

Like I get it, people fought for your country. But America hasn't faced an actual military threat in centuries. They have a military which has for decades largely served solely to protect American interests. WWII ended a very long time ago. Everything since has been by choice.

Call it what you like, junk, tat, widgets, essentials.... The point I was making was the customer doesn't get to choose either to pay a $100 duty charge or the tariff %. It's a minimum duty charge of $100. Import a sock from China valued at $1 and you pay a $100 flat duty charge.