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

77 million Americans thought Trump would be the best person to lead the “free world”

He’s a criminal, charlatan and con man.

I mean come on ffs, do those US officials not realise Trump idolizes Putin?
I guess that's why the senate gave Trump an out with their Veto busting bill….. they knew he would fold.

Putin is objectively a better politician than Zelensky. Zelensky went to the WH in February with a single job - to ingratiate himself to a total narcissist like Trump. Which he completely failed by instead getting into a totally avoidable argument. Because he literally cannot help himself. It was a disastrous performance by Zelensky. But to be fair, he is just a crude comedian best known for a skit where he pretended to play the piano with his genitalia. He only got the job as a tool of a Ukrainian oligarch who thought Zelensky was a useful idiot. And the west has presented him as some sort of messianic figure of the age. He has been overpromoted. It is not his fault he cannot translate his skillset to handling a fool like Trump.

Say what you like about Putin but he has run Russia for 25 years now. He came from the pool of pro-western Yeltsin puppets which really believed they could make friends with the west. Putin was trusted as a safe pair of hands by the 1990s oligarchs who thought they ran Russia. Practically all of whom are now dead, exiled as reinvented democrats in London or have been neutered. He has outlasted the likes of Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden and far too many European PMs to even bother listing. Putin handled them all.

So of course a political operator like Putin can manipulate Trump better than Zelensky can. It's not about morality - Putin likely views Trump with total contempt. And rightfully so. But Putin is a better politician. Zelensky is much worse. The Europeans are midtable. They handle Trump better than Zelensky did but at the cost of total submission and humiliation. It's going to take a century for Europe to get over that "Daddy" comment by Rutte.

I'm only hoping the media goes with the strong man Alpha Putin angle to really piss Trump off. Even the MAGA loons can see Putin as a prick, they may hate their tax dollars going to Ukraine, but as a whole the US public do stand by Ukraine. This only makes Trump look weak by not getting a ceasefire…. maybe the media will ask Trump did he ask Putin to stop the invasion or stop targeting innocent civilians etc….

@Sand Is your point simply that Putin is a better politician than the Reality TV star or Comedian?

I'm not sure anyone was disputing that to begin with

But, but, but, he outlasted so many American Presidents who have to deal with pesky term limits.

They need to install a patsy for a term while they step down to the role of Prime Minister and dismantle the Term Limits so they can run again.

Hardly difficult, the man's an idiot

Well then why challenge Trump as making the same determination anyone would make? I mean Trump should naturally be sympathetic to a reality TV star/comedian given he is one.

My point is you can condemn Trump for a lot. But him being able to hold a civil conversation with an excellent politician vs. having an argument with a really bad politician is not one. Excellent politicians don't get into the sort of meltdowns we saw in the White House in February.

I think there has been a problem in Europe particularly where we think we only talk to our friends, only trade with our friends and only interact with our friends. Our friends being defined as people who think and act as we think they should. That is not politics. Politics is interacting with people who we don't necessarily view as our friends, but whom we have common interests with. I see this Zelensky vs Trump vs Putin comparison in that light.

I can fairly guarantee you that European leaders like Starmer and Macron do not have a very good personal opinion of Trump but they were certainly over to the Whitehouse to speak with him nonetheless.

If anything, the problem with liberal democracies in Europe is the abiding belief that all opinions need to be taken onboard and that we can talk problems out with people or peoples who fundamentally hate us.

Um…yes?

Leroy, we're just people on an Irish internet forum (on its last legs apparently) arguing about events we cannot influence. You zing me, I zing you. Its just internet clout. Who cares?

There are grown men - fathers, uncles, brothers, sons - living in horrific conditions which are unimaginable. And dying in them too. They are kidnapped from their families and their lives. They are ordered to hold villages nobody can remember the names of two weeks later. Strategically unimportant right?

Zelensky - wined and dined - had only one job. To ingratiate himself to Trump. Because Trump has the control over the supply of weapons and equipment those men need to survive. Starmer/Macron/Scolz/Merz/Rutte/VDL all debased and humiliated themselves in front of Trump for much lower stakes. But they did it, because they are at least vaguely competent at their job.

Zelensky utterly failed at his only job by getting into a bizarre argument with Vance and Trump because he literally could not stop arguing with the guy who he - and all those Ukrainian soldiers - depended on.

He is a terrible politician. If a free election was held in Ukraine today, he would lose by a landslide. He is only held up as this tragic heroic messiah by people who are not in those trenches.

Putin 1, Trump 0

Very clear now who wears the trousers in that relationship