Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 06/06/25

This interview shows that actually he IS a journalist.

Just one with very few morals (which we knew anyway). He shouldn't be praised for pushing back on Cruz, he should be challenged for not having done this for so long.

Mehdi Hassan is one of the only journalists who asked questions like this on mainstream outlets, but they quickly learned to stay away from him and ultimately when he shone a light on Israeli hypocrisy, the network shafted him.

Society needs the type of interview Carlson gave Cruz, in full view, not just as an outsider somewhat on the fringes.

What should be worth noting is whether Tulsi Gabbard will be one of Trump's team at the Iran Meeting he's convening in the "war room" at the White House overnight to give him good guidance on whether to, or not to, involve the US in the Iran/Israel war by using US military personnel to deliver lethal US war materiel directly onto the heads of the Iranian population without using any other country's military or proxies to do so, or whether he throws her under the bus by denying her involvement in the meeting.

This is a distinct moment in time for Trump when he won't be able to point at some previous US presidents and blame them for what happens next. Given the geographical location of the war, I'd hope some-one would steer him to the '67 war [May 28th period] and how Johnson handled the situation on how to avoid the US getting dragged directly in on the ground to protect Israel. He'll either end up keeping his non-martial "America First" reputation intact or be seen as a President with bloody hands involved in a war which could end up FUBAR.

When the worst person you know makes a good point

At this point, I genuinely think Dwayne Camacho would be a better President…by some distance.

"Foreign students will be required to unlock their social media profiles to allow US diplomats to review their online activity before receiving educational and exchange visas, the state department has announced. Those who fail to do so will be suspected of hiding that activity from US officials.

The new guidance, unveiled by the state department on Wednesday, directs US diplomats to conduct an online presence review to look for “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States”.

Sounds very much like the Thought Police. Where's the Orwell fan gone again?

Sounds like a burner phone won’t pass muster -it gives them licence to essentially exclude anyone for whatever reason - you don’t need to have committed hate speech - a mediocre review of a McDonalds restaurant is all that it will take

That in itself will be seen as a Red Flag.

They know that in todays world, the vast majority of young adults have a social media presence, if you rock up with a clean phone, they are well capable of viewing that suspiciously.

Maybe,but what are they going to bar you for? Not having social media installed?

You are looking at it the wrong way - your thinking is that they will have to find and give a reason to bar you. i.e., default position is allowed in unless they find evidence not to let you in.

It's plausible that the opposite will apply - with a default of rejected unless you and your social media history are acceptable. In which case the absence of social media could lead to a rejection and presumably you have no right to be given the actual reason.

If you can't stand Cruz or Carlson, Daily Show's Klepper did an amusing job highlighting some of the more grotesque parts of the discussion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlTxj32w5E

They don't have to give a reason, they might just view as being suspicious and deny the visa application.

Even if you have them installed but all activity is in the last 3 months, it might be enough for them to be difficult.

Don't get me wrong, none of this should be the case. It's obviously intrusive and violates their much vaunted free speech they talk about so much but of course they will say that that is only for citizens like that justifies this.

We're already through the looking glass with this, this is Orwellian and I'd say we can not only consider this to be the norm, but in the near future to have the social media assessment carried out by AI meaning it will be extensive.

“but in the near future to have the social media assessment carried out by AI meaning it will be extensive.”

It’s very possible now and will only get more detailed as time goes on - they may well have bespoke apps that summarise your key posts into themes- very quickly they will determine the cut of your jib- just think of all the posts we make on this site - it would be very easy for an AI app to develop key conclusions of the poster - seconds is all it would take

I used to hear 'freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences' a lot round here. Not so much now.

That's because anyone who specifically shouts about freedom of speech these days actually just means freedom from consequences, i truly believe many don't actually know the difference.