Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning added to OP 10/1/26

Combining the open manipulation of the stock market, the tax cuts for the rich, the cutting of benefits for the middle and lower classes and the ultimate failure of his plan to solve the Ukraine issue (see below), it is absolutely staggering that despite all of this plain to see for all that this was coming, America still voted for this...

Not a man that does subtlety well I'd imagine.

His narcicism probably makes him happy that everyone can see him doing it.

Salazar of Portugal had dementia in his last years so his officials would just feed him fake documents. This doesn't sound a million miles away from that.

They had fake newspapers made up for him as well didn't they?

Trump sounds like a complete idiot when he speaks about most subjects, but I think his lack of anything resembling a reasoned or informed thought is probably most obvious when he babbles on about Ukraine. He sounds like a naive incompetent pawn in that post, totally divorced from the reality of what has been happening since the start of the war. So does he think that Putin has only started targeting civilians recently? What an absolute embarrassment to his country.

Trump's Art of the Deal has always been one of the big bluster. When someone sued him, he would countersue on frivolous grounds for 10 times as much and his opponents often settled. With North Korea, he threatened obliteration. He threatened 125% tariffs on China knowing that it would be economic suicide for both the US and China but hoped that China would settle for higher tariffs than were in place previously. Similarly with the 50% tariffs on the EU. Nixon wanted Vietnam to think he was a madman who was about to use nuclear bombs. The EU, Canada, Mexico, India, UK etc. need to stand up to Trump's bully boy tactics.

There's no "vast resources" being poured into Ukraine by the US. No new US military/economic/humanitarian aid under Trump (and there never will be, in my opinion).

In a way, while large, the US expenditure on Ukraine was never "vast" in context of a country that is seemingly so rich the public there barely seem to blink at insane burning of money on utterly stupid stuff like invading Iraq (approx 5 Ukraines, back of the envelope) their inefficient health care system, or giving bumper tax cuts to people who don't really need another $1m added on their bank balance every time a Republican is POTUS.

I don't believe he'll be ramping up pressure on Putin no matter what Russia do, but hopefully Putin does annoy him enough by not giving him his big war-ending public moment that normalisation of US relations with Russia gets halted, and the US continues to be willing to sell weapons to Europe/Ukraine for the war.

I had a look at it looks like estimates vary on the cost of the Iraq war but Brown University's conservative estimate is $1.1 Trillion.

How much money has the United States provided Ukraine?

The U.S. Congress has voted through five bills that have provided Ukraine with aid since the war began, doing so most recently in April 2024. The total budget authority under these bills—the “headline” figure often cited by news media—is $175 billion.

https://www.cfr.org/article/how-much-us-aid-going-ukraine

Looks like you're right. Again, quick google so I may have some stuff wrong but the overall point holds easily.