Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[Gloster]

At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, a certain Austrian politician didn't give his population the opportunity to act on their regret.

Given the Supreme Court's composition, I fear that the only thing that stops Trump is cholesterol.

The trouble with hoping that Trump will have to stand down is that the world will get Vance, who is, I fear, even nastier and more single-minded. I can see him deliberately preparing taking the country in a dangerously undemocratic direction, while Trump is only going to go as far as he might in order to get the deals he wants.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I’m sure he’s treating the Presidency purely as a business.

That's exactly what he's doing, and it's what he seemed to be doing the first time round.

You simply cannot run a country like a business...

 

[Tetchytyke]

The trouble with hoping that Trump will have to stand down is that the world will get Vance, who is, I fear, even nastier and more single-minded.

I can't get a handle on Vance. My gut instinct is that he's nothing more than a useful idiot. His wife is deeply sinister and both she and he hang around with some deeply sinister people. But I'm not sure Vance himself is actually all that bright.

But then history is full of dictators who were thought to be puppets right up until they decided they wanted the top job for themselves.

You simply cannot run a country like a business

You can run it like a Mafia Cartel though.

 

[SteveP29]

You can’t appeal to Donald Trump’s better side because he doesn’t have one.

I firmly believe the EU should simply cut all ties with the USA. I think we should too. They’re a busted flush. They want to be isolationist? Let them.

Starmer trying to fluff up Trump is going to end just as badly. Humiliating? Only if you let it.

And if anyone thinks Tate is going to abide by his promise to go back to Romania, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

Now is the time for the EU to unite, to have Romania’s back. Clearly they didn’t and clearly they won’t.

Very dangerous times we live in. President Xi must be creaming his pants.

Agreed

Similarly, it would be interesting to know what the MAGA faithful made of yesterday's performance at the White House. Does their enjoyment of watching Trump and Vance humiliate European leaders blind them to the wider picture? Or are they coming to realise that they've elected a Putin puppet to the Presidency, and that, far from "mak[ing] America great again", they are now dancing to the Kremlin's tune and doing Russia's bidding? The realisation may be painful when it finally dawns on them.

For a majority of them, I don't think it will dawn on them at all.

 

[edwin_m]

At the risk of invoking Godwin's Law, a certain Austrian politician didn't give his population the opportunity to act on their regret.

My feeling is that with the rate Trump is going, he will reduce his support enough that he will decisively lose both houses in the mid-terms, which reduces the threat to democracy. But it's not a view I have a lot of confidence in, and maybe that would be a reason to go to something more drastic.

 

[najaB]

Trump has said he doesn’t care about European security. We should take him at his word. We’re not special. He’ll drop us the second we’re not useful to him.

Thing is, how much of this attitude disappears when he does and how much sticks around? We need to ensure that any action/reaction that we take isn't a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Thing is, how much of this attitude disappears when he does and how much sticks around?

Sadly I think we've reached the stage where the attitude goes beyond Trump and will outlive him. There are some very very sinister people involved in the MAGA movement and a depressing number of them are both a) quite young and b) incredibly rich. I've said it before, but I think Peter Thiel is one of the most troubling people on the planet.

 

[SteveM70]

It seems to me that Trump’s domestic popularity will only dip when the people that voted for him decide not to, and they’ll only do that when they directly experience a dip in their lifestyle as a result of his policies.

People are saying the price of eggs has gone through the roof, but eggs will be 0.0000000001% of the average Yank’s spending, so even a doubling in price has zero impact.

Most Americans are deeply insular and just don’t care about what happens overseas (about 25% of Americans have never gone abroad; the comparator for us is a bit less than 15%). All they’ll see is what the likes of Fox broadcast, and they’ll barely pay attention to it.

The one thing that might just shift opinion significantly is if changes to Medicaid mean a lot of people either get wiped out paying medical bills or just can’t afford care and have to go without.

The thing I don’t know is whether there are American equivalents of the “men in grey suits” we have over here, and if they do exist could they actually achieve anything?

 

[DarloRich]

I note J D Vance ( is that not the name of a budget, regional shoe shop chain?) is now having to row back on some comments he made about US allies not fighting wars for 40 years. He got some blunt reminders about UK and other casualties in Iraqi and Afghanistan. Has he ever said thank you for that sacrifice? Moronic man.

EDIT - I have changed my view @Tetchytyke is right. Get the US forces out of the UK. They are not on our side and they mock the sacrifice of UK forces in their wars. They don't care that we have stood by them for so long. Get them gone.

 

[nlogax]

Given the Supreme Court's composition, I fear that the only thing that stops Trump is cholesterol

Even with that I'm betting on a weird Weekend at Bernie's rehash courtesy of the GOP's finest.

 

[AlterEgo]

I can't get a handle on Vance. My gut instinct is that he's nothing more than a useful idiot. His wife is deeply sinister and both she and he hang around with some deeply sinister people. But I'm not sure Vance himself is actually all that bright.

Vance is a dreadful person but he is weak and wouldn’t last two minutes in the highest office.

 

[Ostrich]

Assuming Trump imposes tariffs on the UK in the near future, something which I guess is now almost certainly coming down the line, I'd like to see some way of making our displeasure known not just through reciprocal trade tariffs but in a more direct way. How about a (say) £200 "landing fee" (on top of existing duties) levied on all USA passport holders, regardless of age, arriving in the UK. All proceeds to Ukraine.
Quite a few countries / cities worldwide are already imposing or about to impose a travelling or a tourist tax; this would merely be a more targeted version of the same.

 

[AlterEgo]

Actually what Britain needs to do is make Americans feel deeply unwelcome. And kick them out of their bases here. And kick them out of Cyprus as well; that one will really hurt them.

 

[ChrisC]

One of my main disagreements with Brexit was the prospect of our becoming more dependent upon the USA instead of our close neighbours in Europe. There are so many things, including trade agreements, where we should have remained closer to Europe and not tried to win favour with the USA.

 

[DarloRich]

I’m sure he’s treating the Presidency purely as a business.

That's exactly what he's doing, and it's what he seemed to be doing the first time round.

It is a business in the way a mafia protection racket is a business!

 

[nlogax]

One of my main disagreements with Brexit was the prospect of our becoming more dependent upon the USA instead of our close neighbours in Europe. There are so many things, including trade agreements, where we should have remained closer to Europe and not tried to win favour with the USA.

It has left arch-Brexiteers looking pretty foolish. Even then, noticing some definite lickspittle-ish behaviour from a few of them towards Trump in spite of the awkward position in which they now find themselves.

 

[GatwickDepress]

Trump continued his fixation with Greenland last night. It was hard to miss the uneasy laughter of the Republicans after his statements.

Courtesy of the WSJ:

President Trump said he wanted to annex Greenland, the self-governing island that is part of the kingdom of Denmark. "We strongly support your right to determine your own future. And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America," he said. “I think we’re going to get it, one way or another we’re going to get it,” he added.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

It is a business in the way a mafia protection racket is a business!

Given that the Musk Rat has been tweeting pictures of himself with the wording "The Dogefather" next to him in a Godfather style logo, are we surprised...?

 

[brad465]

Given that the Musk Rat has been tweeting pictures of himself with the wording "The Dogefather" next to him in a Godfather style logo, are we surprised...?

Musk and Trump make the Mafia look like a charity operation.

 

[Giugiaro]

My feeling is that with the rate Trump is going, he will reduce his support enough that he will decisively lose both houses in the mid-terms, which reduces the threat to democracy.

I have my doubts. Heavy gerrymandering is already a known issue in the US, and it's assumed that the MAGA movement will do anything in its power to skew the elections in their favor, including changing eligibility to vote.

Plus the Democrats are eerily silent. They are not enforcing opposition. They are cowering under the pressure of their own billionaire donors. Only outliers like Bernie Sanders are rallying the people around the country and reminding them of what are the real issues Americans are facing and the current administration isn't tackling or even worsening.

Something tells me God allowed Bernie Sanders to keep his mental wellness into his late 80s just to make the poor man suffer.

 

[nlogax]

As each week goes on the more I'm convinced that the 2028 election will be an absolute joke without serious top-tier intervention. Just three and a half years left for Supreme Court judges to find their independence and testicular fortitude and save the country.

 

[Nicholas Lewis]

Assuming Trump imposes tariffs on the UK in the near future, something which I guess is now almost certainly coming down the line, I'd like to see some way of making our displeasure known not just through reciprocal trade tariffs but in a more direct way. How about a (say) £200 "landing fee" (on top of existing duties) levied on all USA passport holders, regardless of age, arriving in the UK. All proceeds to Ukraine.
Quite a few countries / cities worldwide are already imposing or about to impose a travelling or a tourist tax; this would merely be a more targeted version of the same.

Theres no point antagonising the US their population are high tourist spenders in the UK and our products will still sell if its no more than 10% tariff. We shouldn't reciprocate either as hes so fickle he can easily remove it if he believes your on his side.

 

[Annetts key]

Is this the start? Is this bye bye to free speech in the U.S.A.?
Trump has threatened colleges’ federal funding for allowing “illegal protests” and said American students will be expelled.

All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests, Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Screenshot of Trumps post, the text of which is in the quote above.

See also this link from Politico

 

[najaB]

Is this the start? Is this bye bye to free speech in the U.S.A.?
Trump has threatened colleges’ federal funding for allowing “illegal protests” and said American students will be expelled.

Then they came for the educated...

 

[87electric]

Then they came for the educated...

You missing word is woke, before educated.

 

[Giugiaro]

Looking forward to the current Supreme Court overruling "New York Times Co. v. United States".

 

[dosxuk]

Is this bye bye to free speech in the U.S.A.?

Of course not - it's only the wrong sort of speech that is being banned.

Trump has threatened colleges’ federal funding for allowing “illegal protests”

These, obviously, are only protests which disagree with Trump or his mates. Protests about blind dwarves being employed as air traffic controllers will continue to be allowed and even encouraged.

 

[GusB]

You missing word is woke, before educated.

Does it really matter? Surely people with woke views are as entitled to express them as anyone else - first amendment and all that!

Don't you believe in freedom of speech? Or is that "woke" too?

 

[InkyScrolls]

Does it really matter? Surely people with woke views are as entitled to express them as anyone else - first amendment and all that!

Don't you believe in freedom of speech? Or is that "woke" too?

I think the point being made was that they're only coming after people and points of view seen as 'woke'.

 

[edwin_m]

People who are better educated are more likely to disagree with Trump.