Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

Or both of these while being incredibly hateful.

Maybe the Coca Cola and Washington Commanders Redskins kerfuffle was a diversion for Trump, along with the Epstein List distraction making him take his eye off the ball. Allegedly he was caught on the hop twice by his favourite Israeli when Benny authorized his military to carry out attacks in Syria and Gaza, something Trump did not receive an advance warning of. It looks like Putin is not the only friend who's gone rogue on Trump.

But don't you think his reaction to stuff coming out is very very telling?

trump has elevated himself to a practically untouchable position, the media are wary of him, voters won’t have the opportunity to pass judgement on him as he won’t be running again.
meanwhile the democrats flounder with no leadership, and Trumps acolytes are positioning themselves for the next presidential election.

His acolytes are probably blinded by their desire for power - to sit on the throne.

If it is a concerted effort to unseat Trump, the problem is that MAGA falls apart without him. It's a cult of personality and there is no other figure in the movement who is such a perfect chimera of all the attributes which characterise the movement other than Trump. Everyone else is like a facsimile. Without him the thing would dissolve into a parcel of warring factions. A civil war within the party.

Not that this wouldn't be a good outcome for the rest of America, but it's interesting that all these people who probably think themselves cogent political operators cannot see this obvious strategic error if usurping Trump is indeed the aim.

For sure, the quality of both interviewing and debate on TV, etc, has plummeted, especially in America, where what passes for interviews these days can often just be two people talking about the same thing and agreeing on everything, al la Tucker Carlson "interviewing" Vladimir Putin. That type of thing is more akin to reinforcement propaganda than an actual interview.

I've said for ages that the best thing that could happen to media over there is if Jeremy Paxman type sprung up and conducted proper interviews. It isn't going to be happening any time soon though. The problem is that when you do get a few mildly difficult questions thrown at certain types they always shit themselves and then whinge about it later. Fuck sake, MAGA can't even be fact checked without crying like little bitches and complaining about "bias". Then they actively go about banning certain press outlets. There's no hope there.

As far as debates are concerned, you'll have to elsewhere for good ones. I don't believe they can happen any more in the States. Intelligence Squared debates can often be very interesting. They're up on YouTube. But they can often be rather dry, which tends to turn off some people.

As far as that surrounded thing with Medhi Hasan, I can see what he's going for. But that type of environment won't breed anything positive really. All you'll get is what you got. A bunch of ignorant 20 something’s endlessly repeating tired talking points that they've been fed by people like Ben Shapiro and not understanding how flawed they are even when they are so easily dismantled before their very eyes.

You could literally say he needs to provide evidence for ANY of his claims…and you'd still get silence.

All this is, is classic Trump deflection and distraction. Anything to stop people thinking and talking about the Epstein files. The media needs to wise up to this nonsense and keep beating the Epstein drum.

Anyone have a clue what hes on about here?

Will drug companies now pay Americans to use their products?

The maths ain't mathing.

"We will have reduced drugs prices by a 1000%, 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400… Not 30 or 50%."

It's been 10 years since Trump ran his campaign on this and he's still saying it. It's already a failure, it's just that there isn't any one yet on the GOP side to point the finger and say the emperor has no clothes as they don't have an alternative to offer.

It has risen significantly since 1990 (5%) to now (48%).

https://www.statista.com/statistics/804430/us-citzens-owning-a-passport/

As you say though, it's what is the breakdown of numbers, i.e. military plus companies that travel overseas supporting the military.

From 2000 onwards it could be seen as more international business travel kicking in with outsourcing of manufacturing to China there were more passports required for travel.

Probably need to see figures for American tourism outside the US on a year on year basis to see maybe the average American's exposure to life outside the US.

Isn't it absolutely crazy that the Republicans shut down an arm of the government to try and stop Epstein information coming out....

Its that his base (and possibly himself) simply dont understand or know what percentages are. The basic logic of most of his rally/speeches appears no more advanced than -

Trump say big number, Trump get big cheer, Trump get big cheer mean idea is GREAT.

Trump say bigger number, Trump get bigger cheer, Trump get bigger cheer mean idea is BIGLY GREAT!

Everyone happy, Trump is love, Trump is life.