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

Sounds like 2 steps backwards, 1 step forward for the UK. Obviously the full details haven't been released, but it appears there's just a reduction in tariffs on steel and autos.

The UK steel industry is not even owned by anyone from UK anymore right?

Also the UK have been forced to cut US tariffs by 65%.

The UK has been shafted. Hook, line and sinker.

If that's what happens when you have a trading surplus with the US, don't even bother if you don't.

The EU and China should have an all out economic war with Trump. Go for the jugular.

Trump is boasting that tariffs in the UK-US deal will generate $6Bllion in revenue. He forgets that this is most likely to be because US importers are paying a higher prices than before. If the exporters were to bear the burden of the tariffs, there would be no revenue.

What a liar!

maybe its a bit of karma kicking in after donnie turning up to the funeral in a blue suit and putting up the photo dressed up as the Pope…? or maybe donnie is the new Pope?

I'm sure we'll see Pope USA in the Oval Office soon, listening to Vance go on about abortion. This timeline is really weird.

Technically the new Pope will carry a Vatican passport, so ICE can detain and deport him for any criticism of Trump in his social media feeds.

Anyway I know nothing about this new pope, but if he's socially conservative against reproductive and gay rights then Donnie will count it as a MAGA win.

So, have we got a MAGA pope?

Sounds quite the opposite, he would be a tad liberal.

No doubt there will be some spin from Trump that the pope has something to do with him.

The new pope publicly contradicted JD Vance earlier in the year:

In February this year, he criticised comments made by Vice President JD Vance. 

In an interview with Fox News, Vance said:  “There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then you love your neighbour, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that.”

“JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others,” Prevost wrote on X. 

https://www.thejournal.ie/who-is-pope-leo-xiv-the-new-american-leader-of-the-catholic-church-6699727-May2025/

The FT fairly comprehensively tore the UK-US trade deal to shreds, basically saying it doesn’t bode well in terms of the precedents it sets for other negotiations.

https://www.ft.com/content/7e92d393-c08d-4be5-b349-403de6b70fbf

I reckon Starmer is canny enough to have sought advice from EU negotiators on how best to pull the wool over the eyes of everyone on Trump's team. An expat American Youtuber put up a video a couple of weeks ago outline the devil in the detail of the EU's "ban" on American beef. In short: there isn't one … because the EU got the deal they wanted several years ago, i.e. that the 'Muricans can sell us almost as much beef as they want, provided that (a) they can prove where the cattle came from (bog standard traceability, same as applies to every farmer in the EU) ; and (b) that it's certifiably hormone free.

And whaddyaknow, according to Ms. Ashton citing the USDA, only 14 beef farmers out of 732123 can be bothered to do the work to meet the requirements. Fourteen.

Considering that the UK has always been one of the leaders in European food safety (until the Brexit Tories said fekkit, who needs checks anyway) it'd be very strange if Starmer didn't offer Trumps an equally juicy "win" with a load of similar, effectively unmeetable, conditions buried in the detail.

The video, for anyone who's interested:

I am pretty sure most tweets in this vain are constructed by picking words from a hat.