Donald Trump Appreciation Thread

[Sheaf Saint]

 

 

[Gloucester Saint]

Quelle surprise Trump strikes Iran as Americans go to the polls https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx240mrm3g8vo

[whelk]

12 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Quelle surprise Trump strikes Iran as Americans go to the polls https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx240mrm3g8vo

 There have been too many of these to save Republicans…….hopefully 

 

[tdmickey3]

23 minutes ago, whelk said:

 There have been too many of these to save Republicans…….hopefully 

 

It`s all rigged, rigged I tell ya

[benjii]

JD Vance with probably the most laughed at and ratioed Tweet in history gets absolutely mullered by Mamdani.

[benjii]

One observers view of Trump's term so far.

- - - - 

Republicans are going to have a terrible night, and the simple reason why is that Trump has put up perhaps the worst *performance* this term of any president in a century or more.

Remember that he entered with an actual mandate: the House and Senate, a popular vote victory and a swing-state sweep, and 6-3 Supreme Court. Democrats were afraid enough to vote for mild but real immigration restrictionist legislation in the Laken Riley Act. Everyone wondered how far the "Vibe Shift" would go.

Trump managed to turn that into essentially zero durable wins whatsoever. He personally *hates* the very idea of legislation, the notion that he would have to spend time going back and forth with Congress, learning details and making compromises. So he simply didn't do it! He didn't make a compelling case for abolishing the filibuster. He didn't try communicating clearly to the public in support of popular bills to get to 60 votes. He just decided not to do it at all.

So they passed an unpopular tax cut, some funding for ICE, and a sop to the crypto industry, and that was basically it. Least productive Congress in decades, due to the tastes of one man.

Trump adopted one of the worst macro policies we've ever had: high deficits, high tariffs, and attacks on central bank independence. We managed to pay higher interest rates while still having high trade deficits AND weakening the dollar. Just a total failure.

On immigration, perhaps THE signature issue, Trump essentially min-maxxed effectiveness and backlash. Instead of trying to leverage the political moment for new laws and a self-deportation agenda (that is, walling off the economy to remove the benefit of irregular presence in the US), he opted for a maximally aggressive approach. The administration spent attention, funds, legal manpower on stunts like deporting random people to Salvadoran prisons with essentially no due process. ICE and Border Patrol were encouraged to be aggressive and confrontational, which helped contribute to the shooting deaths of American protestors. It turns out, that's extremely unpopular!

What about the approach of going after employers? The obvious vector? Trump hated that idea! He repeatedly has said he doesn't want to target businesses (especially farms) that use large amounts of illegal labor. This is just an incomprehensible position. Instead of charging a few dozen businessmen and removing the incentive for millions of illegal workers to be here, you arrest people off the street one by one at the cost of thousands of dollars in manpower per each, while their crying wives and kids post TikToks about it.

Upshot on immigration: electoral strength turned into a crippling electoral weakness in exchange for deporting maybe 6% of the illegally present population.

The tariffs were a total shitshow. Embarrassing rollout, no underlying theory of action at all. No targeted focus on key industries. Our country tariffed products we can't grow. We tariffed *inputs* of our own valuable exports. The schemes and amounts changed constantly, sending the stock market reeling and presenting scenes of chaos to the world.

Trump's messaging throughout has been generationally bad. While facing nearly 2:1 unpopularity, he spends his days posting AI slop, saying he'll rename New Mexico or invade allies, among other bizarre remarks. He brags about a ballroom and a pool repainting while gas hits records. At no point has he ever attempted any kind of message discipline.

Then there are the deeply unpopular attacks on rule of law, his "game-recognize-game" pardons for all manner of scammers and criminals, the crypto schemes that he and his family engage in, the evilly conceived and embarrassingly executed legal attacks on Comey, Jerome Powell, and others. With his monthslong stand on NOT releasing the Epstein files, he became maybe the first president ever to stake out a 99-1 issue on the 1% side.

That's not even getting into Iran, DOGE, his candidate recruitment choices, or countless other things. Simply put: Trump has managed to royally screw up virtually every single facet of his presidency. It's been undeniable, voters have noticed, and there's really no escape from it. This is what the GOP base chose in early 2024, and this is the world they're living with now. Where they handed the reins of history to a fat, vain, washed-up old man and let him drive.

[whelk]

Great news to wake up to

[egg]

23 minutes ago, whelk said:

Great news to wake up to

Yep. Great turnaround, although it looks like the Democrats will fall a little short in a few places I'd like to have seen them flip, Florida for example. The downside is that he'll veto everything though so he's not been neutered. 

[Gloucester Saint]

28 minutes ago, egg said:

Yep. Great turnaround, although it looks like the Democrats will fall a little short in a few places I'd like to have seen them flip, Florida for example. The downside is that he'll veto everything though so he's not been neutered. 

Senate races lost in Kansas, Ohio, the Carolina’s and Texas will sting though. Walloped in Congress but the Senate was seen as a tall order don’t forget yet won it with fair degree of comfort. Florida is a very hard right state, but can see that flipping at the next Presudential race. Never has a political party deserved a good kicking like the GOP has and still does for rolling over for that fat Orange fascist. He can veto but touché on all his appointments and wars. It’ll hopefully start the rollback of the damage which will take decades reputationally.

The economic performance is terrible but what’s really done him in - to the point even he can’t contest the results - is Kushner and the Mad Bens with their loony war. The background stench of Epstein still lingers.

Edited 5 hours ago by Gloucester Saint

[whelk]

5 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Senate races lost in Kansas, Ohio, the Carolina’s and Texas will sting though. Walloped in Congress but the Senate was seen as a tall order don’t forget yet won it with fair degree of comfort. Florida is a very hard right state, but can see that flipping at the next Presudential race. Never has a political party deserved a good kicking like the GOP has and still does for rolling over for that fat Orange fascist. He can veto but touché on all his appointments and wars. It’ll hopefully start the rollback of the damage which will take decades reputationally.

Republicans must be seething - senile old twat has fucked them good and proper. Lots of eloquent Democrats coming through. Jon Ossoff looks a decent presidential candidate for them. Talerico too. Pleased Abdul took Michigan as well. Starting on Iran was monumental error. 

[egg]

7 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Senate races lost in Kansas, Ohio, the Carolina’s and Texas will sting though. Walloped in Congress but the Senate was seen as a tall order don’t forget yet won it with fair degree of comfort. Florida is a very hard right state, but can see that flipping at the next Presudential race. Never has a political party deserved a good kicking like the GOP has and still does for rolling over for that fat Orange fascist. He can veto but touché on all his appointments and wars. It’ll hopefully start the rollback of the damage which will take decades reputationally.

The economic performance is terrible but what’s really done him in - to the point even he can’t contest the results - is Kushner and the Mad Bens with their loony war. The background stench of Epstein still lingers.

Yep, although Florida would have been a massive statement win and sewn up the south east coastal states. The change in the south is huge though, and Mississippi will be interesting - only 28 votes in it after almost a million votes counted. 

[whelk]

Just now, egg said:

Yep, although Florida would have been a massive statement win and sewn up the south east coastal states. The change in the south is huge though, and Mississippi will be interesting - only 28 votes in it after almost a million votes counted. 

I was checking the odds beforehand and Florida was 1/25 for Republicans. Doesn’t appear to be the swing state it once was. Not that I know but know the bookies know.

[badgerx16]

Elon gets VFM for the $446M he donated to the GOP campaigns.

[egg]

Just now, whelk said:

Republicans must be seething - senile old twat has fucked them good and proper. Lots of eloquent Democrats coming through. Jon Ossoff looks a decent presidential candidate for them. Talerico too. Pleased Abdul took Michigan as well. Starting on Iran was monumental error. 

All 3 of them are impressive, and Abdul was very classy in the face of a horribly dirty campaign. I loved the way he dealt with the heckler who asked if he opposed the Muslim brotherhood, essentially exposing him as a racist but without pointing the finger. 

[benjii]

1 minute ago, badgerx16 said:

Elon gets VFM for the $446M he donated to the GOP campaigns.

He's probably gone liberal now.

[egg]

1 minute ago, whelk said:

I was checking the odds beforehand and Florida was 1/25 for Republicans. Doesn’t appear to be the swing state it once was. Not that I know but know the bookies know. I've looked at the vote map and unsurprisingly it's the rural good ole boy vote that's stayed red, although Miami moved to the Democrats suggesting the Latino vote has moved. 

The shift has been massive in just 2 years. 

Oh absolutely, massively red, hence taking it would have been a huge statement. 

[whelk]

10 minutes ago, egg said:

All 3 of them are impressive, and Abdul was very classy in the face of a horribly dirty campaign. I loved the way he dealt with the heckler who asked if he opposed the Muslim brotherhood, essentially exposing him as a racist but without pointing the finger. 

Did that bastard who dragged up the mother who protected her daughter’s rapist get fucked? Think it was Ohio

[egg]

7 minutes ago, whelk said:

Did that bastard who dragged up the mother who protected her daughter’s rapist get fucked? Think it was Ohio

Yep, he lost, deservedly. Bringing that up was a disgrace. 

[whelk]

The interaction with Sky News guy and Abdul was bit weird. Didn’t come across well

[LVSaint]

3 hours ago, whelk said:

Did that bastard who dragged up the mother who protected her daughter’s rapist get fucked? Think it was Ohio

Ramaswamy, a particularly revolting man. Alongside Elon musk, He was put in charge of the DOGE cost cutting experiments last year, another Trump fuck up. Every candidate Trump championed last night, failed. He's got the Midas touch. 

[revolution saint]

Biggest shock of the night has to be Trump accepting the results.

[Doctoroncall]

With the UK rape trial of the actor Russell Brand underway, he appeared last year when DOJ official Ed Martin boasted to X (on the DoJ official account) about hanging out with this accused sexual predator while he was awaiting trial.

 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

3 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Biggest shock of the night has to be Trump accepting the results.

Radio said that he blamed all of his candidates for the results. After saying quite a lot that it was really an endorsement of him. Accepting result, but not any responsibility for it. 🙂

[badgerx16]

11 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Radio said that he blamed all of his candidates for the results. After saying quite a lot that it was really an endorsement of him. Accepting result, but not any responsibility for it. 🙂

"Vote as if I'm on the ballot".

They did exactly as he asked.

Edited 1 hour ago by badgerx16

[Holmes_and_Watson]

Perhaps the Democrats, after the expected period of bragging and posturing, spend less time talking about how horrible Trump is, and more time learning from their own errors to position themselves for the next election. 

I wonder how free Republicans now feel they are to speak out against the wrath of Trump not endorsing them.

[Sheaf Saint]

15 minutes ago, badgerx16 said:

"Vote as if I'm on the ballot".

They did exactly as he asked.

And today he has claimed that if he had actually been on the ballot then the Reps would have won a landslide.

A stable genius.

[Lighthouse]

As good a night as this obviously was for the Dems, you can’t help but sit and wonder at the number of Yanks who still went out to vote for the apricot Pol Pot.

[LVSaint]

13 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

 

I wonder how free Republicans now feel they are to speak out against the wrath of Trump not endorsing them.

You'd imagine plenty suddenly develop a spine but depends on how maga their constituencies are.

17 minutes ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Perhaps the Democrats, after the expected period of bragging and posturing, spend less time talking about how horrible Trump is, and more time learning from their own errors to position themselves for the next election. 

MAGA isn't going away, it's still there and forms such an important block of votes. republicans will try to find a sweet spot, appeasing the cult and appealing to their less shitty voters. But carefully because their leader is a vindictive bastard who will take everyone down with him on his way out. 😁

and democrats need to find a united identity, that's the trouble. I can see them being a shambles in 2028 because they can't come to a consensus. Sleepwalking, like they did with Biden and open to attack.

[moonraker]

1 hour ago, revolution saint said:

Biggest shock of the night has to be Trump accepting the results.

Don't hold your breath

 

[revolution saint]

13 minutes ago, LVSaint said:

You'd imagine plenty suddenly develop a spine but depends on how maga their constituencies are.

MAGA isn't going away, it's still there and forms such an important block of votes. republicans will try to find a sweet spot, appeasing the cult and appealing to their less shitty voters. But carefully because their leader is a vindictive bastard who will take everyone down with him on his way out. 😁

and democrats need to find a united identity, that's the trouble. I can see them being a shambles in 2028 because they can't come to a consensus. Sleepwalking, like they did with Biden and open to attack.

I always find it interesting that US parties don't have the concept of a leader of the party in the same way we do in the UK.  Appreciate you have things like speakers, minority leaders and stuff like that but, for example, there's no equivalent to Kemi Badenoch for the Democratic Party.  Would have thought that, if they did, then imposing a united identity would be much easier.  I guess the answer is that it would interfere with the whole presidential primaries etc but parties in opposition in the US always look a bit of an aimless mess.