Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[Cowley]

Tomorrow’s another day - And series of policy decisions.

And Day Whatever of the Trump reality show. He’s probably been missing the attention this last couple of days so who knows what mad stuff we have to look forward to this week!

 

[jon0844]

1. They're going to bring back the jobs and have Americans putting in the tiny screws in iPhones.

2. They're going to open factories to build iPhones and fully automate the process to save money and not create new jobs, except perhaps to maintain the robots.

3. They're going to allow tech companies to keep making tech products abroad as they did before. Now there's little reason to open factories here at all.

What's happening tomorrow?

 

[brad465]

Another thing Trump is giving us is the ability to see what would have happened in the UK if Liz Truss just never quit and pursued her agenda unhindered.

 

[jon0844]

1. They're going to bring back the jobs and have Americans putting in the tiny screws in iPhones.

2. They're going to open factories to build iPhones and fully automate the process to save money and not create new jobs, except perhaps to maintain the robots.

3. They're going to allow tech companies to keep making tech products abroad as they did before. Now there's little reason to open factories here at all.

What's happening tomorrow?

Oh, so it will be this..

Trump warns exemptions on smartphones, electronics will be short-lived, promises future tariffs

The US president has said no one is ‘getting off the hook’, as he promises to launch a national security investigation into the semiconductor sector

www.theguardian.com

The exemption of smartphones, laptops and other electronic products from import tariffs on China will be short-lived, top US officials have said, with Donald Trump warning that no one was “getting off the hook.”

“There was no Tariff ‘exception’, Trump said in a social media post on Sunday. “These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”

In the post on his Truth Social platform, Trump promised to launch a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector and the “whole electronics supply chain”.

“We will not be held hostage by other Countries, especially hostile trading Nations like China,” he added.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...f-uncertainties-global-supply-chains-pressure
The White House had announced on Friday the exclusion of some electronic products from steep reciprocal tariffs on China. US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery after the announcement. Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.

However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.

 

[GusB]

Another thing Trump is giving us is the ability to see what would have happened in the UK if Liz Truss just never quit and pursued her agenda unhindered.

Liz who?

Oh, yes. I vaguely remember her - the iceberg Prime Minister that melted after a few weeks. Thankfully our country still has some checks and balances.

Oh, so it will be this..

Trump warns exemptions on smartphones, electronics will be short-lived, promises future tariffs

The US president has said no one is ‘getting off the hook’, as he promises to launch a national security investigation into the semiconductor sector

www.theguardian.com

Another day, another flip-flop. I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

 

[jon0844]

Another day, another flip-flop. I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

Another U-turn to confuse the hell out of every business trying to get by in the USA.

But the ups and downs will be making a lot of investors very rich if they're in on the right Signal group chat...

 

[Harpo]

Another day, another flip-flop. I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

Seems the spiralling tax on Chinese goods which was u-turned to exempt Apple, sorry tech products, may be subject to a further u-turn.

 

[SHD]

One side remark about this amusing screwing business that is presented to us the next Klondike for Americans in search of success and wealth - I'm not aware of much manufacturing capacity left in the US to actually make the screws in the required quantities.

- My comment is not only sarcastic. Japan's tremendous industrial success from the 1960s, especially in consumer and precision goods, was based in part on an extremely robust and consistent underlying infrastructure of capital goods manufacturers (all kinds of production equipment), standards (think of the JIS screw head, for example) and practices (the famous Total Quality approach) . This infrastructure was actively maintained by the "alliance" of business conglomerates and the Japanese government. Replicating that in the US today will be... folkloric.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Dealing with 3 year old / dealing with Trump

I want fish fingers / Tariffs

Heres your fish fingers / Tariffs

Don't want them / Don't want them

 

[brad465]

Sony have announced they're putting the price of PS5s up in response to "challenging market conditions". Several voices have pointed out that they and other companies might be planning to absorb the impact of tariffs by putting prices up for their products globally to offset increased costs of doing business in the US. If this is true then several governments a) need to further decouple from the US to weaken its influence, b) make very clear to their citizens that these tariffs are responsible for this, to both enhance a US boycott and ensure they don't vote for extreme political parties jumping on the inflation bandwagon.

PS5 price increases by £40 as Sony cites 'challenging' conditions

The digital, disc-free edition of Sony's console has increased by roughly £70 since it first went on sale.

www.bbc.co.uk

Sony has raised the price of its PlayStation 5 consoles worldwide, citing "challenging" market conditions.
The price of the digital edition of the PS5 console in the UK has increased by £40 to £429.99.
Its cost for European customers has risen by approximately €50 to €499.99.
The company pointed to high inflation and "fluctuating exchange rates" in a blog post explaining its decision, external.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) executive Isabelle Tomatis said PS5 prices in Australia and New Zealand would also rise - including for physical versions that have a disc drive.
The company said the price of the physical edition of the console would not change in the UK.
But it has reduced the cost of its disc drives - which are required for those with digital consoles who want to play physical media - from £99.99 to £69.99 in the UK.
Piers Harding-Rolls, research director at Ampere Analysis, said the disc-free version of the PS5 had formed a larger share of Sony's total sales over the last 18 months.
He said this new price adjustment had brought "the digital edition more into alignment with the standard version".

Cost of tariffs?​

While President Donald Trump has revealed a tariff exemption for some electronics, video game consoles are not thought to be among them.
Christopher Dring, who writes about the gaming industry in The Game Business newsletter, said while Sony did not directly mention tariffs in its decision, their "knock-on effect" could have an impact on pricing worldwide.
"The US is the biggest market for video game consoles, and rather than simply increase prices there, it's possible the likes of PlayStation could increase pricing globally in an effort to protect, as best they can, the US market," he told the BBC.
"Ultimately, the era when game consoles went down in price over time is certainly over."
The price increase comes as Nintendo's launch of its rival Switch 2 console was marred by the impact of US tariffs on markets worldwide.
It said it would suspend US pre-orders for the device so it could "assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions".
And Mr Harding-Rolls said he felt Sony may have been given "the green light to increase pricing" due to the Switch 2's £395 price tag.
"At its current pricing, the digital version would be cheaper than the Switch 2, leaving Sony with some breathing space to increase its pricing, while remaining competitive across the console hardware market," he said.
This is the second time Sony has increased the RRP for its latest console.
Its initial £360 price tag for the disc drive-free digital edition was seen as a low price at the time, as Sony sought to match its price to that of the Xbox Series X.
But it rose the price by £30 in 2022 - meaning with the latest price increase, the digital edition of the PS5 has increased by roughly £70 since it first went on sale.

 

[Cloud Strife]

- My comment is not only sarcastic. Japan's tremendous industrial success from the 1960s, especially in consumer and precision goods, was based in part on an extremely robust and consistent underlying infrastructure of capital goods manufacturers (all kinds of production equipment), standards (think of the JIS screw head, for example) and practices (the famous Total Quality approach) . This infrastructure was actively maintained by the "alliance" of business conglomerates and the Japanese government. Replicating that in the US today will be... folkloric.

A friend in the US once thought about opening a small manufacturing facility in her town, because she'd identified a clear gap in the market and her calculations showed that it would be profitable enough to make it worthwhile. The numbers were nothing particularly impressive, just 30 jobs created and an ROI of around 8% yearly, but she wanted to give something back to her community after making her money in tech.

What happened? The project never got off the ground, because when she started to talk to local business owners, the same theme kept coming up: you won't find people to work. The town itself has problems with unemployment, but the locals simply don't want to work. The more she dug into it, the more that it became obvious that the town has deep social problems that can't be resolved by one Sarah. End result? She didn't go ahead.

In reference to Japan, the one thing that comes to mind is that the Japanese place a lot of emphasise on the collective whole. America seems to be an incredibly selfish, individual country, and I just cannot see them pulling together in any way. I'm a keen fan of https://www.reddit.com/r/ChoosingBeggars (a subreddit dedicated to people demanding things for free) and it's just frightening to see how selfish their society is.

 

[SteveM70]

This might be a daft question, but how exactly does Trump govern the USA? We see endless video clips of him waffling like an unhinged bag lady to an invited audience of generally friendly media on Air Force One / in the Oval Office / wherever; we get stream of consciousness diatribes on his in-house social media; we see occasional sit down interviews with hand picked pro-Trump “journalists”.

Does he ever get asked tough questions by opposition politicians? I know there’s no direct equivalent of our (largely useless anyway) PMQs, but is there anything to put him under a harsher spotlight?

 

[najaB]

Does he ever get asked tough questions by opposition politicians? I know there’s no direct equivalent of our (largely useless anyway) PMQs, but is there anything to put him under a harsher spotlight?

In a word, no.

Because their government isn't parliamentary.

 

[Magdalia]

This might be a daft question, but how exactly does Trump govern the USA?

I'm not an expert on the US constitution, but my understanding is that Trump uses executive orders more frequently than most other presidents, and that executive orders bypass scrutiny by congress. Theoretically executive orders can be challenged in the courts.

 

[Giugiaro]

In a word, no.

Because their government isn't parliamentary.

The irony in this video is beyond me

 

[ainsworth74]

I'm not an expert on the US constitution, but my understanding is that Trump uses executive orders more frequently than most other presidents, and that executive orders bypass scrutiny by congress. Theoretically executive orders can be challenged in the courts.

Yeah Trump II is shaking up to be quite the outlier. He's issued 124 EOs so far, Biden issued 162, Trump I issued 220 (itself quite high), Obama across two terms was 276, Bush II across his two terms was 291 and Clinton over two terms was 364. So if he keeps up the pace he's going to issue a lot more than has been the recent norm. Though he still has someway to go to match FDR he managed 1,707 in his first term alone!

But the main issue comes back to that most of what these EOs are doing is illegal and it should properly be Congress that is stepping in to assert control. The Courts obviously have their own role to play in the process and they're slowly doing it (though they lack the enforcement powers to make the Executive do what it's told). But it should be Congress that is slapping the Executive down and passing legislation to overturn (at least where Congress has the Constitutional power to legislate on the matter) EOs which are muscling into Congresses territory. For instance the EOs which are used to defund agencies like USAID or the Department of Education. Those are matters to do with finance and the Constitution clearly gives Congress the "power of the purse". Of course Congress also has the final power to impeach and remove the President as well.

However, the GOP control both Chambers of Congress and shows no interest in restraining the power of the Executive and is therefore seemingly content for their powers to be sapped away through inaction. The mid-terms, should they be free and fair, will be vitally important. If the Democrats are at least able to wrestle the House of Representatives back that would start to give them levers against Trump (though they'd need the Senate to be able to effect any real power). But we're a long long way away from the mid-terms and so in the interim there appears to be very little interest in actually doing anything about the various EOs which Trump has no real authority to issue (or I suppose more properly the EOs should have no effect).

 

[Annetts key]

I'm not an expert on the US constitution, but my understanding is that Trump uses executive orders more frequently than most other presidents, and that executive orders bypass scrutiny by congress. Theoretically executive orders can be challenged in the courts.

The advantage / disadvantage with executive orders is that the next, or indeed any future president can cancel them without needing to go through congress. So all these executive orders issued by Trump can be cancelled by the next administration if they so choose.

 

[edwin_m]

However, the GOP control both Chambers of Congress and shows no interest in restraining the power of the Executive and is therefore seemingly content for their powers to be sapped away through inaction.

The GOP majority in both Houses is small, so literally a handful of Republicans voting with the Democrats could pass a motion that opposes something Trump is doing. This has actually happened in the Senate with Canada tariffs and there is potential for Trump's legislation to be defeated if it goes to Congress. However, as I understand it, overturning an executive order requires legislation to be actively passed by both Houses. That requires the Bill to go on the agenda in the House (controlled by the GOP Speaker) and to get a supermajority in the Senate (requiring more Republicans to vote with the Dems).

 

[najaB]

I can't believe that it only just dawned on me, based on a report from MSNBC, that the most chilling part of the whole process of shipping people off to the hell-hole prison in El Salvador is that it's being done without trial.

This is such a violation of basic American rights to due process, which have been repeatedly held to apply to both citizens and non-citizens alike that I struggle to understand how they got where they are, so quickly. The idea that, in the "Land of the Free", "Give me Liberty or give me death", and "Don't tread on me" people can be grabbed on the street by unidentified, hooded men, bundled into unmarked vehicles and then shipped off to another country without so much as a hearing or chance to even speak with a lawyer should send shivers down anyone's spine.

Especially since, as in the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, there's no guarantee of being returned to the USA even though they have admitted he shouldn't have been sent there in the first place!

 

[Annetts key]

I can't believe that it only just dawned on me, based on a report from MSNBC, that the most chilling part of the whole process of shipping people off to the hell-hole prison in El Salvador is that it's being done without trial.

This is such a violation of basic American rights to due process, which have been repeatedly held to apply to both citizens and non-citizens alike that I struggle to understand how they got where they are, so quickly. The idea that, in the "Land of the Free", "Give me Liberty or give me death", and "Don't tread on me" people can be grabbed on the street by unidentified, hooded men, bundled into unmarked vehicles and then shipped off to another country without so much as a hearing or chance to even speak with a lawyer should send shivers down anyone's spine.

Especially since, as in the case of Kilmar Ábrego García, there's no guarantee of being returned to the USA even though they have admitted he shouldn't have been sent there in the first place!

Never mind without trial, the reason can be just “suspected”, there doesn’t need to be any actual evidence...

 

[najaB]

Never mind without trial, the reason can be just “suspected”, there doesn’t need to be any actual evidence...

Basically you just need to be brown...

 

[jon0844]

The 'first they came for...' text is perfectly apt because Trump has said many times he wants American born citizens to be deported. Some say he's joking but clearly he isn't.

He said he'd have to look at the law, but now he's ignoring the Supreme Court it's quite obvious he's not bothered about that either.

But, phew, he did add US born criminals could be deported so that's fine then. Wait, but what if they decide something you do, or are, is a crime? You protested against something? That's illegal. You're gay? That's illegal now (never say never).

Once arrested then you can now be deported at all. Due process? Sue us... Bye.

I think if the Supreme Court doesn't step in and do something this could be the week we officially declare the USA has become a dictatorship. Trump can just do whatever be wants without any fear whatsoever.

Am I being hyperbolic here? No, I don't think so.

 

[Harpo]

An interview with a US government spokesman on ‘Today’ this morning was fairly blunt in stating that the US is seeking a ‘US or China’ commitment from trading partners those who trade with the US.

Let’s see which nations want to do Trumps dirty work for him.

 

[jon0844]

Any sensible country will go with China. The USA is done, for now at least.

China will never back down and is more important to most countries than the USA. Trump has now made that perfectly clear with his comments about supplying things like military products, and now refusing to sell to Ukraine.

I do fear the UK still believes in this 'special relationship' nonsense, plus now Brexiteers thinking this is our moment to show why leaving the EU was good and will push for a US trade deal at the expense of everything else, but would hope we resist.

And we still have the state visit with a meeting with the King ace up our sleeves. Trump seems keen to do a deal just for this, so we must find a way to drag things out because once he's been then we're done too.

 

[DarloRich]

I can't believe that it only just dawned on me, based on a report from MSNBC, that the most chilling part of the whole process of shipping people off to the hell-hole prison in El Salvador is that it's being done without trial.

It is ok. These people are forigns. OBVIOUSLY:

This is all just testing the water to see how far he can go with things.

 

[najaB]

But, phew, he did add US born criminals could be deported so that's fine then. Wait, but what if they decide something you do, or are, is a crime? You protested against something? That's illegal. You're gay? That's illegal now (never say never).

Once arrested then you can now be deported at all. Due process? Sue us... Bye.

As per a Threads post I saw earlier today. I'm okay with deporting US citizens who have multiple felony convictions, but only if they're demonstrated repeat offenders. So how about we set the bar at 33 convictions? More than that and you get deported...

 

[The Ham]

The 'first they came for...' text is perfectly apt because Trump has said many times he wants American born citizens to be deported. Some say he's joking but clearly he isn't.

He said he'd have to look at the law, but now he's ignoring the Supreme Court it's quite obvious he's not bothered about that either.

But, phew, he did add US born criminals could be deported so that's fine then. Wait, but what if they decide something you do, or are, is a crime? You protested against something? That's illegal. You're gay? That's illegal now (never say never).

Once arrested then you can now be deported at all. Due process? Sue us... Bye.

I think if the Supreme Court doesn't step in and do something this could be the week we officially declare the USA has become a dictatorship. Trump can just do whatever be wants without any fear whatsoever.

Am I being hyperbolic here? No, I don't think so.

Given that the US is deporting students (who have historically been able to be deported for serious crimes) who appear to have done little more than having a traffic violation against them, then it's not such a far step to assume that this could be used as legal president for the same (or similar) standard to be applied against US citizens at some point in the future.

Of course, the right need to be careful, as if such a low bar can be used against people which they don't like, once set in law then others could follow (for example January 6th rioters) if there was a change in the party in charge.

 

[jon0844]

I think pushing to see how much they can get away with, like ignoring the supreme court, is all part of the (supposedly jokey) plan for Trump to have a third term. Given his other jokey comments haven't been jokes at all, I think they're dead serious.

If he gets away with everything now, and ignores all court directions, then why wouldn't he just tear up the constitution? Let's see all those who have allowed scores of shootings to defend the second amendment and if they actually rise up to tyranny. Chances are, a lot will be on the side of Trump and it will end up a civil war.

Didn't some people get tased at a town hall today/last night?

 

[ainsworth74]

If anyone reckons this ends in 2028/29 with a harmonious transfer of power then I really don't think you've been paying attention.

The 2026 mid-terms are going to be extremely fraught with rampant accusations of fraud and suppression some of which will be true and some of which will be fake. The elections certainly will not be free nor fair either way. And the 2028 presidential will be even worse.

 

[Gloster]

Didn't some people get tased at a town hall today/last night?

This was at a ‘town hall’ meeting held by Marjorie Taylor Greene near Atlanta. It was a bit rowdy, but the reaction and expulsions seem to have been a bit of an overreaction.

Curiously, although the Republicans have recommended ceasing holding these meeting, she chose to hold one in the most left-leaning part of her district. It has a slight smell of deliberately pulling the dog’s tail.