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

Like Trump Im a fan of Neoclassical architecture, and wish we had built some after independence. I think our leaders historically frowned on it both because we used to be a poor country, and also because they associated it with the Protestant Ascendancy. Of course in other countries like France and the USA, Neoclassical buildings are associated with republicanism.

Granted we did rebuild the Custom House and Four Courts albeit with sandstone instead of marble.

I think some of it also comes from Modernist ideas that we need to move beyond "Western" styles of architecture. Sortof "architectural multiculturalism". I was watching a documentary that was visiting Baku last night and it showed western style buildings built by the Soviets, which were kept after independence.

For me, Neoclassical buildings represent democracy, or at least constitutional checks and balances. The Soviets didn't see it that way of course, though they sometimes used the word "democracy" and rigged elections to claim the people assented to the rule of the Party, just as the Chinese Communist Party does.

But the way Trump is going about it in my opinion is wrong. There needs to be transparency about who the private donors for the ballroom are. I don't believe there is such a thing as a free lunch in politics.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an agreement today declaring the federal government will not seek any sort of audit or payment from the president, his family members and companies as part of Trump’s settlement agreement with the IRS.

In a sweeping one-page addendum to yesterday's settlement agreement establishing a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, Blanche agreed that the U.S. is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED from prosecuting or pursuing, any and all claims” including “monetary relief” that “have been or could have been” asserted by the IRS against Trump, his family or his businesses.

The addendum comes a day after the Justice Department announced that Trump and his co-plaintiffs would drop their $10 billion suit against the IRS in connection with the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home, and the Russian collusion scandal “in exchange” for creating the fund, which the Justice Department said set up a “systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.”

Yes but I think in a few years there is likely to be a UK version of MAGA in power. I would be very concerned if they tear up the Windsor Framework for example.

We've already seen Farage dodging questions about the £5 million from a crypto billionaire based in Thailand.

Looking bad for Thomas Massie so far. The Cinncinnati suburbs in Northern Kentucky around Covington are going for Gallrein so far. For a Republican looking for anti Trump votes, this should be the sort of area you look. Massie is ahead barely in Mason County, which borders the he lives in.

Also Trump poking the Greenland polar bear again. Sending a doctor with his presidential envoy Jeff Landry.

Greenlanders are not ‘experimental subjects’, says minister as she decries US doctor’s visit

Health minister in Nuuk condemns doctor’s presence in US delegation as ‘deeply problematic’

Miranda Bryant Nordic correspondentMon 18 May 2026 19.06 CESTSharePrefer the Guardian on Google

Greenland’s government has criticised the arrival of a US doctor in Nuuk alongside Donald Trump’s special envoy, Jeff Landry, saying that Greenlanders are not “experimental subjects”.

Joseph Griffin said he had joined the delegation as a volunteer to “assess the medical needs” of the Arctic island, which the US president has repeatedly threatened to invade.

Greenland’s health minister, Anna Wangenheim, immediately condemned his presence, describing it as “deeply problematic”.

“The health sector in Greenland has historically been the subject of geopolitical interest,” she said in a statement hinting at deep sensitivities in the now largely autonomous territory, which as a Danish colony experienced repeated health-related abuses of Indigenous Greenlandic people.

We were less dependent on US FDI before 2015.