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

A thing i don't get, in all this tariff stuff, is that today Trump is claiming a great deal, and tariffs gone etc....

But literally 2 weeks ago tariffs were free money, the IRS would be scrapped and an ERS set up so Americans reap the benefits of all this free money.

Sensible people pointed out illogical that all was, but MAGA fans heralded it as start of golden era. Now that tariffs are gone, how do they reconcile that the IRS stays, free money that was promised is gone, and all those benefits will not appear because Trump has reneged on those pledges.

It’s a bit cliché of me to reference this, but if you want to learn why MAGA are like this; you’re best bet is to read Orwell’s «Nineteen Eighty-Four» (or watch the 1984 Movie starring John Hurt)

It will show you how a conditioned group can accept two opposing versions of reality, despite it being impossible. MAGA are very much the «Outer Party» in Orwell’s story, a people who are expected to agree with any statement issued by the facist government of «Oceania», for the simple reason that the government said so. So when Donnie says something is good….it’s good, to them. If Donnie says it’s bad the next day…it is bad to them…even if it didn’t make sense.

«Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.»

US reporters are completely spineless, it’s time they grew a pair and stood up to him . Next time when he asks “who are you with”, reporters should reply “not relevant, please answer my question “ and be backed up by other reporters. Of course they’ll probably be banned but at some stage they’ll end up with just loopers from the likes of newsmax feeding soft questions.

How exactly does he plan to set drugs prices? Is this not socialism that they hate?

“Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. So maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”

Swap out dolls for pills and that's what will happen with his concept of a plan for drug prices.

From Trump down to the bottom-feeders like MTG they have absolutely no shame when it comes to blatantly lying.

How anyone with an ounce of sense or decency can believe a single word out of their mouths is mindboggling.

The land of the free and the home of the brave is now shamelessly being shown to the rest of the world as the land of the liar and the home of the scumbag.

Given how Trump had included them in his and the GOP's plan to change the overseas postal vote rules to deny them that right, the military can use their electoral franchise to effect a change in administration legally and peacefully at central and local govt levels. Stick it to them before them deny you the right.

Ref the reduction in tariffs, according to Trump; "Basically what we're doing is equalizing. That's a new word that I came up with, which is probably the best word". The quote doesn't end there, is somewhat longer and includes the words "most favoured nation" along with the "we'll pay the same as the lowest nation"…..

When he uses "nasty", it just means he can't bully them.

The EU will have Trump and his team for breakfast.

Jesus, that's fu*king hilarious.

🤣

I think that this is the best take on Trump's latest tariff move: kind of appropriate that it should be a nursery rhyme.

Oh, the grand old Duke of Trump,

He had ten thousand men;

He marched them up to the top of the hill,

And he marched them down again.

When they were up, they were up,

And when they were down, they were down,

And when they were only halfway up,

They were neither up nor down

With apologies to the Grand Old Duke of York, who seems a master strategist by comparison.

If your concern is for the constitution, then the means of removing the president or presidential candidate should not be unconstitutional....which this is

Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.

Authoritarians (the supporters of demagogues) do not care about political facts or history or logic. They only care about fulfilling their roles that allow their side to 'defeat' their enemies and support their faction.

As long as they are defeating their 'opponents' they feel like they are on the winning side, and trust that they will be rewarded by being loyal to their faction.

Fascists don't necessarily hate minorities. They just see the world as a battle between 'us vs them' and if they don't dominate their opponents, they will be dominated.

In reality, the vast majority of fascist supporters will actually be harmed personally by their support for the demagogues. The are pawns that are strung along as long as they are useful and will be jettisoned as soon as it is politically expedient for the demagogue to abandon them.

Once the fascist has played their hand, they then become irrevocably hitched to the movement. In a world where there are 3 types of people in the world:

The in group,

The Other,

Those who used to be in the in-group and have been cast aside

From the 'us vs them' mentality of the authoritarian, the 3rd group is in the worst of all positions. They chose a side and were evicted from that side leaving them hated by the other two groups and rejected by all of their social network

(In reality, there is a 4th option, which is to build alliances across the divide and try to come to mutually beneficial arrangements where society flourishes and it isn't divided into camps of dominators and subjects)

Well, a few of us called it.