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

One man campaigned on it. One man has moved Ghislaine Maxwell to a lower security prison and given her lots of allowance. That guy's name ain't Biden... Btw, you guys would be proclaiming it a conspiracy if Biden behaved as Trump currently is around Epstein.

We have 40 shades of Green so we are a Greenland 😉

It’s trade between markets, not countries.

The countries singled out are in the same market. It would be illegal under WTO rules to try to do what bricks was suggesting, or what Trump thinks he can do.

They can single out specific companies if they want, but that not what they have said.

Biden had to as they were sealed under court order until last year.

It's not what Trump thinks he can do, it's what he can or will do. Canada & Mexico had a nice trade deal with the US until Trump just decided to impose tariffs.

You'll have to cite me the WTO rules he would be breaking. Regardless, what's the WTO going to do, issue a statement? Didn't he hamstring the WTO in his first term by not appointing an official?

The US is a sovereign state, under Trump, or to be precise without any checks and balances in place, it is well within his powers to tariff any country/company he chooses. He's thrown out the rule book and everyone else is frantically flicking though theirs for an answer.

The thing about America now is that the MAGA talking heads have their points ready to go no matter how bad the offence is, so it's not even a minute after something like the Renee Goode shooting happens before some MAGA influencer takes to Twitter to call her a criminal, to undermine her character, to call the reaction hysterical etc. It's a far cry from Charlottesville or 6/1 where there was even a momentary pause before coming up with some kind of defence. So, this gives a leeway for moral equivocation that I don't even know how far they can take it, but it evidently goes as far as murdering people in the streets and beating peaceful protestors without any overwhelming pushback.

There's only one side that are actively preventing the release of files and have pretty much collapsed any further investigations. I think you're very much so trying to downplay the fact that Trump has actively interfered to the degree he has.

Canada and Mexico are also markets, much like the EU, so that’s not really doing what you think it is.

WTO rules say you must treat all WTO member products equally, so the EU is the main problem for Trump here as France, Germany etc are not individual members, they are part of the single market. America can’t discriminate against individual members, as much as Trump thinks he can. He can’t reclassify goods from the EU, try as he might.

He can throw the rule book out if he wishes, doesn’t mean America won’t feel the punishment for his actions. These could be retaliation with tariffs, suspension of certain concessions, etc.

Ultimately, Americas suffer from tariffs as they pay them, not the EU.

This again will breach WTO, and the EU will have them on that. It’s clear Trump and his ilk have no clue how the EU works or trades, hence focusing on some countries over others. It’s easier for his base to understand too, keeping it simple for simpletons.

You’re spot on ya he is trying to divide the EU, and the EU will have known this for a long time. Hence the EU commission responding, not solely individual states.

If he ups the tariffs, it will only hurt America, and when the citizens feel the pinch, so will his already declining popularity.

Ah look, we knew it at the time - lessons and experience from childhood alone would tell you that appeasing a bully is just about the worst thing you can do .

That is a screenshot from an actual customs decoration to the US. Notice the Country of Origin… it's IE.. Ireland. There's no EU country of origin. So any US customs official looks at that, they see Ireland and apply tariffs as such.

You're grasping at WTO rules and assume the US will abide by them. Don;t be so naive. Every product shipped into the US from the EU has to have the country of origin displayed, so yes, it's within Trump's control to charge a different tariff on each one. He can also charge a different tariff depending on the day of the week or the month of the year or based on how many **** he had a day. It's within his control.

He has already thrown the rule book when he placed tariffs on USMCA goods already, not to mention the reciprocal tariffs worldwide. And what has the WTO done…. absolutely nothing!

You're expecting Trump to start following the rules when all he has done is bent and broken them.

Can the US identify products from individual countries from within the EU? …Yes
Can Trump apply an additional tariff on those goods? …Yes
Maybe the supreme court in the US will stop him, who knows at this stage.

They can think it’s dead, but the rules still apply. This pretty basic to grasp, obviously not by Trump though. I also know how tariffs work, Trump doesn’t, nor do some of his base.

Again, he can ignore them, and he is. The rules still apply, and the EU know the rules inside out.

It`s past time for the E.U. to stop playing nice with this lunatic.

Rather than copying what he is doing with a percentage being imposed on all exports to the U.S. from the E.U. go after his base. Target red state companies exports to the E.U. with a percentage that would equal the total amount that his tariffs would cost the E.U.