Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[fwc577]

Kind of feel hopeful for the first time in a while that Trump and the GOP are cooked.

With the SCOTUS ruling and a lot of the infighting going on at the moment, there is absolutely a chance for the Democrats to have a path forward to completely invalidate the current GOP until they finally change their platform and shift towards being a more moderate party.

At this point too, I feel that Trump is done. If he runs in 2024, it will be a guaranteed loss. There isn't going to be a "Because he's not Biden" vote like Biden benefited against Trump in 2020. Biden will likely get even more support because of Roe v Wade and the SC fuckery.

The midterms have the potential to be a blue wave because of Roe v Wade now as well. Gerrymandering could end up biting Republicans in the ass since margins are slim in some places, having independents and people who don't normally vote suddenly showing up in a midterm because of Roe v Wade could result in an early termination for Republican hopes of regaining the House and/or Senate.

At this point, it looks to me like the Republicans had a game plan. It involved Trump winning in 2020 and because that didn't happen, they've gone off script. If Trump won in 2020 and they could regain control of the House if the win was large enough while also maintaining control of the Senate, they could've killed the filibuster and fucked this country into a true authoritarian state and made the Democrats powerless forever.

Then you have the SC hand down rulings like Roe v Wade while overturning other things like Obergefell, etc. and then not have to worry about the fallout because they've legislated and changed the judicial branch to ensure that Dems remain powerless and fuck over voting? Man, I think America really dodged a bullet in 2020 by actually showing up and electing Biden.

[Kaleredar]

Kind of feel hopeful for the first time in a while that Trump and the GOP are cooked.

With the SCOTUS ruling and a lot of the infighting going on at the moment, there is absolutely a chance for the Democrats to have a path forward to completely invalidate the current GOP until they finally change their platform and shift towards being a more moderate party.

At this point too, I feel that Trump is done. If he runs in 2024, it will be a guaranteed loss. There isn't going to be a "Because he's not Biden" vote like Biden benefited against Trump in 2020. Biden will likely get even more support because of Roe v Wade and the SC fuckery.

The midterms have the potential to be a blue wave because of Roe v Wade now as well. Gerrymandering could end up biting Republicans in the ass since margins are slim in some places, having independents and people who don't normally vote suddenly showing up in a midterm because of Roe v Wade could result in an early termination for Republican hopes of regaining the House and/or Senate.

At this point, it looks to me like the Republicans had a game plan. It involved Trump winning in 2020 and because that didn't happen, they've gone off script. If Trump won in 2020 and they could regain control of the House if the win was large enough while also maintaining control of the Senate, they could've killed the filibuster and fucked this country into a true authoritarian state and made the Democrats powerless forever.

Then you have the SC hand down rulings like Roe v Wade while overturning other things like Obergefell, etc. and then not have to worry about the fallout because they've legislated and changed the judicial branch to ensure that Dems remain powerless and fuck over voting? Man, I think America really dodged a bullet in 2020 by actually showing up and electing Biden.

It’s all about mobilization in the places that matter. We saw that bold things are indeed possible in Georgia.

As for dodging a bullet… that’s the understatement of the century, not just on a National scale but likely an international scale as well.

Biden has taken zero crap from Russia about Ukraine. Were the pumpkin man still in charge I have few doubts that the US would have withdrawn from NATO and trump would have insisted upon Ukraines immediate surrender to any and all Russian demands, all the while spewing Russian propaganda to obfuscate and confuse.

Instead, we have a largely United world telling Russia to fuck off, with the US effectively leasing the charge in economic support for Ukraine.

[Breccia]

Biden has taken zero crap from Russia about Ukraine. Were the pumpkin man still in charge I have few doubts that the US would have withdrawn from NATO and trump would have insisted upon Ukraines immediate surrender to any and all Russian demands, all the while spewing Russian propaganda to obfuscate and confuse.

Normally I come down hard on people who make hypothetical statements, but normally that's because they're making shit up with no backup. Trump openly threatened to leave NATO and actively worked to shield Russia from sanctions. There is no reason to believe he'd have sided with NATO against Russia from his own words and actions.

[Endus]

Need more of this playing dirty, frankly.

Some might call it stooping to their level, but I don't really think that's true. Unlike the GOP just blatantly making shit up as their "dirty tactic," this is showing things that actually happened that they just so happen to want hidden.

Is it true? Then it's not stooping. It's exposing the truth.

It can't be defamation or character assassination if it's true.

[Breccia]

And DWAC is already down another 3%.

[Flarelaine]

Biden has taken zero crap from Russia about Ukraine.

Biden has been doing Foreign Affairs in the Senate since before Vlad ever left KGB school. Of course he wouldn't fall for him like Cheeto did.

[Edge-]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/05/05/p...hes/index.html

Michigan police have seized voting machines in connection to an investigation into improper access to them.

NOTE: The suspected access took place after the election and did not in any way alter the results. It seems like part of the continued investigations into Republicans improperly granting access/sharing data with outside third parties that do not legally have any right to access these machines/this data.

[Zan15]

Need more of this playing dirty, frankly.

Some might call it stooping to their level, but I don't really think that's true. Unlike the GOP just blatantly making shit up as their "dirty tactic," this is showing things that actually happened that they just so happen to want hidden.

He got Hunter'd !!!

hard to be outraged about the leak after the past couple years.

It's kind of like how we don't hear about Hillary's emails anymore once they found out trump and family were doing the same thing.

[Paranoid Android]

NEW: Mark Esper recounts Trump asking the stunned SecDef if the government could fire missiles into Mexico and then pretend it wasn’t the US who did it in his new memoir

When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that “we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,” adding that “no one would know it was us.” Mr. Trump said he would just say that the United States had not conducted the strike.

Trump keeps giving. I'll admit paywall so just reading Twitter headlines here, but I guess he wanted to target drug labs. Then of course since Trump is always playing 1 million D chess, that Mexico would never know who did it.

Plus Patriot missiles are surface to air with capability of shooting down other missiles. But hey, he thought our stealth aircraft were actually invisible and such.

[Edge-]

NEW: Mark Esper recounts Trump asking the stunned SecDef if the government could fire missiles into Mexico and then pretend it wasn’t the US who did it in his new memoir

When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that “we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,” adding that “no one would know it was us.” Mr. Trump said he would just say that the United States had not conducted the strike.

Man, I'm so glad all these officials saved all these details so they could make a profit off of it instead of revealing just how dangerous Trump was while in office.

Esper can choke on a dick.

- - - Updated - - -

https://wcti12.com/news/nation-world...lizabeth-nikki

An Indiana man who is currently in jail reportedly is one of three winners in a GOP primary, and will appear on this year's ballot for a township board seat.

Andrew Wilhoite, 39, is awaiting trial for the murder of his wife Elizabeth “Nikki” Wilhoite, according to WXIN News. He was reportedly arrested in March.

Nikki's body was pulled from a creek after her husband told deputies he dumped her there after striking her with a flower pot during a fight outside their home, WTHR News reports.

During Tuesday's Republican primary for the Clinton Township board seat, Wilhoite received 60 votes (21.74%), placing him behind the only other two candidates.

Since three candidates could win the nomination, and only three candidates ran, all three won, WTHR News explains. No Democrats ran in the primary for the Clinton Township board, WXIN News reports.

Yo, the fact that this guy got a single vote is kinda fuckin terrifying.

[PhaelixWW]

NEW: Mark Esper recounts Trump asking the stunned SecDef if the government could fire missiles into Mexico and then pretend it wasn’t the US who did it in his new memoir

When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that “we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,” adding that “no one would know it was us.” Mr. Trump said he would just say that the United States had not conducted the strike.

Trump keeps giving. I'll admit paywall so just reading Twitter headlines here, but I guess he wanted to target drug labs. Then of course since Trump is always playing 1 million D chess, that Mexico would never know who did it.

Plus Patriot missiles are surface to air with capability of shooting down other missiles. But hey, he thought our stealth aircraft were actually invisible and such.

NYTimes: Trump Proposed Launching Missiles Into Mexico to ‘Destroy the Drug Labs,’ Esper Says

President Donald J. Trump in 2020 asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir.

Those remarkable discussions were among several moments that Mr. Esper described in the book, “A Sacred Oath,” as leaving him all but speechless when he served the 45th president.

Mr. Esper, the last Senate-confirmed defense secretary under Mr. Trump, also had concerns about speculation that the president might misuse the military around Election Day by, for instance, having soldiers seize ballot boxes. He warned subordinates to be on alert for unusual calls from the White House in the lead-up to the election.

The book, to be published on Tuesday, offers a stunningly candid perspective from a former defense secretary, and it illuminates key episodes from the Trump presidency, including some that were unknown or underexplored.

“I felt like I was writing for history and for the American people,” said Mr. Esper, who underwent the standard Pentagon security clearance process to check for classified information. He also sent his writing to more than two dozen four-star generals, some cabinet members and others to weigh in on accuracy and fairness.

Pressed on his view of Mr. Trump, Mr. Esper — who strained throughout the book to be fair to the man who fired him while also calling out his increasingly erratic behavior after his first impeachment trial ended in February 2020 — said carefully but bluntly, “He is an unprincipled person who, given his self-interest, should not be in the position of public service.”

A spokesman for Mr. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Esper describes an administration completely overtaken by concerns about Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign, with every decision tethered to that objective. He writes that he could have resigned, and weighed the idea several times, but that he believed the president was surrounded by so many yes-men and people whispering dangerous ideas to him that a loyalist would have been put in Mr. Esper’s place. The real act of service, he decided, was staying in his post to ensure that such things did not come to pass.

One such idea emerged from Mr. Trump, who was unhappy about the constant flow of drugs across the southern border, during the summer of 2020. Mr. Trump asked Mr. Esper at least twice if the military could “shoot missiles into Mexico to destroy the drug labs.”

“They don’t have control of their own country,” Mr. Esper recounts Mr. Trump saying.

When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that “we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,” adding that “no one would know it was us.” Mr. Trump said he would just say that the United States had not conducted the strike, Mr. Esper recounts, writing that he would have thought it was a joke had he not been staring Mr. Trump in the face.

In Mr. Esper’s telling, Mr. Trump seemed more emboldened, and more erratic, after he was acquitted in his first impeachment trial. Mr. Esper writes that personnel choices reflected that reality, as Mr. Trump tried to tighten his grip on the executive branch with demands of personal loyalty.

Among Mr. Trump’s desires was to put 10,000 active-duty troops on the streets of Washington on June 1, 2020, after large protests against police brutality erupted following the police killing of George Floyd. Mr. Trump asked Mr. Esper about the demonstrators, “Can’t you just shoot them?”

Mr. Esper describes one episode nearly a month earlier during which Mr. Trump, whose re-election prospects were reshaped by his repeated bungling of the response to the coronavirus pandemic, behaved so erratically at a May 9 meeting...

(Probably because he was forced to miss his favorite parade...)

...about China with the Joint Chiefs of Staff that one officer grew alarmed. The unidentified officer confided to Mr. Esper months later that the meeting led him to research the 25th Amendment, under which the vice president and members of the cabinet can remove a president from office, to see what was required and under what circumstances it might be used.

Mr. Esper writes that he never believed Mr. Trump’s conduct rose to the level of needing to invoke the 25th Amendment. He also strains to give Mr. Trump credit where he thinks he deserves it. Nonetheless, Mr. Esper paints a portrait of someone not in control of his emotions or his thought process throughout 2020.

Mr. Esper singles out officials whom he considered erratic or dangerous influences on Mr. Trump, with the policy adviser Stephen Miller near the top of the list. He recounts that Mr. Miller proposed sending 250,000 troops to the southern border, claiming that a large caravan of migrants was en route. “The U.S. armed forces don’t have 250,000 troops to send to the border for such nonsense,” Mr. Esper writes that he responded.

In October 2019, after members of the national security team assembled in the Situation Room to watch a feed of the raid that killed the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Mr. Miller proposed securing Mr. al-Baghdadi’s head, dipping it in pig’s blood and parading it around to warn other terrorists, Mr. Esper writes. That would be a “war crime,” Mr. Esper shot back.

Mr. Miller flatly denied the episode and called Mr. Esper “a moron.”

Mr. Esper also viewed Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s final White House chief of staff, as a huge problem for the administration and the national security team in particular. Mr. Meadows often threw the president’s name around when barking orders, but Mr. Esper makes clear that he often was not certain whether Mr. Meadows was communicating what Mr. Trump wanted or what Mr. Meadows wanted.

He also writes about repeated clashes with Robert C. O’Brien, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser in the final year, describing Mr. O’Brien as advocating a bellicose approach to Iran without considering the potential fallout.

Mr. O’Brien said he was “surprised and disappointed” by Mr. Esper’s comments.

[postman1782]

He tweeted it was a “friend” so idk what we’re supposed to believe.

Update on this, he posted a video late yesterday or today that "clarifies" that it is indeed his cousin and his aide.

https://twitter.com/CawthornforNC/st...%2F11819885%2F

He claimed he was ahead in the polls massively, but his lead is slipping with all of these leaks. In March, he was leading 49% to 14% in March. It is now down to 38% to 21% in the NC district Primary. https://www.citizen-times.com/story/...22/9574387002/

@Edge-
Just to tag you as well. So yeah, he admits it is his cousin he is naked in bed with, and was humping.

[Edge-]

Mr. Miller flatly denied the episode and called Mr. Esper “a moron.”

Man, if there was ever better proof this exchange happened than literally having a video, I don't know what it would be.

- - - Updated - - -

The fact this was even a thought in his head is disturbing enough.

Is it? I mean, our shiney-domed neo-nazi being an awful person shouldn't be remotely surprising at this point.

[postman1782]

"Mr. Miller proposed securing Mr. al-Baghdadi’s head, dipping it in pig’s blood and parading it around to warn other terrorists"

The fact this was even a thought in his head is disturbing enough. A war crime and not remotely something you'd expect from a "civilised" country.

It isn't surprising. There has been plenty of evidence to show that he has been a staunch defender of his racism and Nazism on message boards, his policies that he has given Trump. He was the designer of the family separation policy after all. Trump did tell a fake story about a general dipping bullets in pigs blood and shooting Muslims. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-a8829676.html

He probably got the story from Miller.

[PhaelixWW]

"Mr. Miller proposed securing Mr. al-Baghdadi’s head, dipping it in pig’s blood and parading it around to warn other terrorists"

The fact this was even a thought in his head is disturbing enough. A war crime and not remotely something you'd expect from a "civilised" country.

Just a reminder about Miller's oft-compared doppelgänger:

[Edge-]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/06/trum...dismissed.html

A judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by former President Donald Trump seeking to lift his ban from Twitter.

But San Francisco federal district court Judge James Donato left the door open for Trump and other plaintiffs to file an amended complaint against Twitter that is consistent with his decision to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety Friday.

Womp womp.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.wral.com/u-s-rep-madison...show/20268981/

A relative and close adviser to U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn has pocketed more than $112,000 from taxpayers and campaign donors since 2020, according to congressional and campaign payroll records.

The documents also show a roughly eight-month period during which the 26-year-old North Carolina congressman paid Stephen Smith, his second cousin, simultaneously from Cawthorn’s congressional office and campaign. The payments were addressed to Smith at a Hendersonville home that he shares with Cawthorn, state voter registration records show.

U.S. House members are prohibited from hiring immediate family members, such as first cousins. But the requirement doesn’t extend to second cousins. Nonetheless, the payments sharpen the focus on the nature of the relationship between Cawthorn and Smith and raise questions from political observers about the perception of family self-dealing.

Luke Ball, a spokesman for Cawthorn, didn’t immediately respond to questions about the congressman's relationship with Smith.

Smith was listed as a congressional office scheduler to Cawthorn and received $32,744 between Jan. 4, 2021, and Aug. 22, 2021, according to quarterly statements of disbursements published by the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House. Records for the first three months of 2022 haven’t been published. Smith wasn’t listed on Cawthorn’s final congressional office report of 2021, signaling a departure.

Other flings show Smith has also received more than $80,000 from Cawthorn’s campaign since January 2020, which excludes more than $4,000 in other compensation for campaign supplies and travel reimbursements.

While taking in almost $33,000 from U.S. taxpayers for his congressional work, Smith also received $16,669 as a campaign salary over the eight-month stretch.

Certain chamber rules restrict how congressional employees interact with an incumbent’s campaign operations. For instance, congressional staff members are allowed to work on campaigns as long as they do so outside their regular working hours.

Kedric Payne, vice president of the nonpartisan watchdog Campaign Legal Center, said Cawthorn’s decision to hire a family member is unusual but doesn’t constitute a clear violation of federal law.

Note: THIS AIN'T ILLEGAL!

But I'm sure all the Republicans very concerned about Ilhan Omar hiring family/relatives or whatever to work for her campaign are also going to be very upset about Madison Cawthorn doing the same with his second cousin.

Whom he lived(s) with. Who also touches his crotch for some reason. Who I guess as the one filming Cawthorn going buck-wild on a pillow while fully nude.

I'm not super judgy usually, but those two have a weird relationship for a guy that says he's all about "traditional family values".

[PhaelixWW]

https://www.wral.com/u-s-rep-madison...show/20268981/

Other flings show Smith has also received more than $80,000 from Cawthorn’s campaign since January 2020...

Hmm... Freudian typo.

Very... aprotypos?

[Edge-]

https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/s...68227636883456

In which Donnie Jr. doesn't seem to understand what a pre-emptive attack on a foreign nations soil is a bad thing and actually act of war. And that the US does (well, should) not attack other nations and then not claim credit.

To steal one of the images from the many responses -

[RaoBurning]

https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/s...68227636883456

In which Donnie Jr. doesn't seem to understand what a pre-emptive attack on a foreign nations soil is a bad thing and actually act of war. And that the US does (well, should) not attack other nations and then not claim credit.

To steal one of the images from the many responses -

More than that, who the hell else would it be? Canada? Cuba? Canary Islands? I was really just aiming for the alliteration there. Also I don't believe for a second the ol' mango could have kept something like that to himself for 5 minutes in public. The only thing he does more than lie is brag.

[Belize]

Y'all ready for some GQP cringe? No? Too bad:
https://mobile.twitter.com/repmtg/st...d0RFX3PyD1DTfQ