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

Exactly, dont know what you mean about coping.

But they need Greenland because the arctic ice is melting due to climate change opening up sea lanes for Russia/China 🤷‍♂️

I read a piece recently (I'll try to find a link later) that showed global social media engagement peaked during the pandemic but has since waned, except for the usa where engagement continued to grow.

I think this may be a consequence of the radical individualism that simply believes that governments are evil, muh freedum etc...

It's an entirely logical deducement to believe that the real war is US individualist radicals umbrellaed under Trump tearing down everything that holds the nation together.

Trump as a political event is a societal implosion, and even if Trump died today that radical individualist force would still rail against everything, even if there's a power vacuum for a while.

What comes after him may be worse, Trump's arrogance but without his incompetence.

I agree that it is not about intelligent vs unintelligent, that would be wildly simplistic and very patronising. Personality /psychology is much more significant though : I've seen one assessment of hardcore MAGA supporters scoring highly for neuroticism, authoritarianism, self-discipline, prejudice and the need to belong to a group or tribe. It's understandable how a charismatic 'strong man' promising to restore order and stability would appeal.

The hole in your argument is the Biden presidency. He did more for those red states than any other President in the past few decades. His reward was to be derided as "Sleepy Joe" and to be portrayed as having dementia while Trump yammered on about Arnold Palmer's genitals and immigrants eating pets.

I get what you're saying. I honestly do but these people have only themselves to blame for their problems. They've been voting enthusiastically for the party that's been f*cking them over for generations. This is the result. In fairness, this is not unique to the United States. In the United Kingdom, there was a surge in Google searches for queries like "What is the EU?" and "What does leaving the EU mean?" on the 24th June 2016.

People use the badge because it's convenient and, honestly, it fits. I've read a few books on the subject of angry right wing people. They've gone too far to placated within the current political system. This aligns rather neatly with the GOP and MAGA's objectives of superimposing a system based on that of China or Russia, probably the latter given China's very long history of cultivating and maintaining and educated, bureaucratic elite.

The whole term 'Independent' is based on people's own description of themselves either to pollsters or when registering to vote. It's essentially meaningless. Clearly anyone 'happy' with Trump is not 'Independent' by any stretch of the imagination. As I posted here yesterday, the % of voters who have actually swung between the GOP and the Dems since 2000 has never exceeded 5-7% in any election. The Dems always get at least 48% and the GOP at least 45-46%. We'll know in November if 2026 is different. I doubt it.

73% is actually quite low - he normally gets 80%+ from Republicans. 73% of them would only amount to 35% or less of the overall electorate. That would be the MAGA hardcore.

This may be encroaching senility talking but I believe something like Trumpism exists in nearly all of us, our political id that can rise up at any moment. In response to news items, I often experience a wave of desire to simplify our decision-making process, get those houses and railways built like they do in China, stop crime on bail, close the asylum loopholes, protect tourists in Temple Bar etc., you get the picture, all fairly reasonable aims in themselves but how much of our legal protections would I be prepared to sweep away to achieve them in that moment? As with violence and greed, we have to recognize our own authoritarian impulses if we want to control them and preserve our fragile system of rights and freedoms.

What is behind the rise of far right parties? Is it just immigration? I think it’s more than that. Automation, globalization and, for men, female emancipation, have rapidly changed our roles while expectations have yet to be adjusted, resulting in widespread alienation and discontent in a time of plenty. Meanwhile, we are still in the Marlboro Man stage with social media, barely aware of its dangers and how much it is changing the way people see themselves and interact with each other. There’s no question it can isolate and radicalize people. I’ve been reading a bit about the Groypers in the US - so much anger and self-loathing in these young men. They have such bizarrely unrealistic ideas of how they should look that they have consumed online

I'd say there are some deep psychological issues going on in that head.

In the old days she would have been called "a bit touched" and usually avoided by most people.

Like any extremist political movement, there are always sound ambitions to be found in it.

The Nazi Party flourished in Weimar Germany because people were destitute, malnourished, subjugated and spent a decade or more without hope. That was the mistake of Versailles, it was spiteful, and implemented a collective punishment that was not warranted.

Hitler and the rest brought employment, investment, dignity and ambition. Then blamed Versailles on the Jews. And he was off to the races.

No one would blame you for the concerns you express, in fact theres really no argument against them, but some of them require a fundamental change in the constitutional position and the international conventions on the movement of people and the rule of law to address. So the question is, how far are you willing to go? And thats what far-right policy is, its upending many protections that have existed for generations.

Is the rise of the far right due to immigration? Only partly, in my view. I believe it has grown so steadily in Europe because a generation or two ago, a mechanic or a gardener married to a housewife could afford to buy their own home.

Now, their grandchild educated to postgraduate level, and working in the civil service or in the middle ranks of the corporate world cannot hope to do so.

And thats not just an Irish problem, by the way.

The social contract is broken, and the far-right is flooding into the cracks, just as they did all over Europe between the wars, just for different reasons.

Belgium had to release a statement that they were in fact no included in his Peace Board bollocks.

Turns out the White House meant Belarus but wrote Belgium in their initial press release.

It's just a shakedown for deals while he's still president.

Anyone putting in money knows that it's purely a bribe to Trump for favourable rates on trade deals.