Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[draynay]

Yes, and one assumes they've learned from their mistakes.

Vegas exists because people don't learn from their mistakes.

[Breccia]

Vegas exists because people don't learn from their mistakes.

Yeah, I'm still going to assume the casinos know more about odds than the gamblers who lose all their savings.

But you know who else isn't betting on Vegas? Trump. Low-energy Trump went to Vegas and nobody cared, including him.

Donald Trump’s 2024 Nevada debut in Las Vegas came with little of the former president’s trademark showmanship.

Trump’s return to the city that boasts a gleaming Trump hotel comes exactly one year after he held a campaign rally for then-GOP Senate candidate Adam Laxalt, who went on to lose to Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto in the 2022 midterms.

Now, a year later, as Trump vies for a nonconsecutive return to the White House and to maintain his stronghold on the Silver State’s GOP, he spoke for a mere 40 minutes at the Clark County volunteer recruitment drive in a church 15 miles from the city’s famous strip.

“We have a big job to do. This has been a hard state. I really believe it’s a Republican state,” Trump said. “This is the most important election in the history of our country.”

There were a few theatrics from Trump, who from the outset stressed the purpose of the relatively small event. As usual when speaking at smaller gatherings, he made note of a “large crowd” outside, and pointed to media coverage of crowd sizes at recent rallies.

Trump drew cheers when he rattled off names of Nevada GOP power brokers, including state party chair Michael McDonald, who served as a so-called “fake elector” in 2020. McDonald testified last month before a Washington federal grand jury investigating Jan. 6 and the former president’s efforts to stay in office.

“Michael McDonald has been my friend for a long time,” Trump said.

As he wrapped his short address, Trump hinted at bigger things to come as campaign season progresses.

“I just want to thank you all for volunteering and being with us, and we love you,” Trump said. “And we’ll be back many times, and we’ve got a couple of really big rallies scheduled over the next couple of months, and we’ll have 60, 70,000 people at these rallies.”

Yep, Trump spent his short-ass weak-ass rally talking about his crowd sizes. The one thing you never have to tell a crowd is how big that crowd is. They know how big the crowd is. It's them. Yes, he mentioned Jyna and DeSanctimonious, but once again, we see what sociopathic narcisist Trump finds important is Trump.

Oh, and hanging out with felons. And not just the fake electors, either. Roger Stone went with him, followed him from Iowa.

So speaking of Vegas and felons, FOX News had an interview with a mafia boss making one of the most difficult articles I've ever tried and failed to segue into. I mean, how am I supposed to transition into "FOX News posts literal hit piece"?

In the new biography about him, D'Elia says he did business with former President Trump when he owned Atlantic City casinos in the 1980's, and that Trump shaved off $1 million from one real estate deal... by flipping a coin.

D'Elia says he dealt with Trump when he owned flashy New Jersey shore casinos like the "Trump Taj Mahal," "The Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino," and "The Trump Marina Hotel and Casino."

"(He's) just like he's on TV now, arrogant. He don't keep his word."

The revelations about Trump are in the new book about D'Elia, "The Life We Chose, William 'Big Billy' D'Elia and the Last Secrets of America's Most Powerful Mafia Family," by veteran journalist Matt Birkbeck. Birkbeck covered D’Elia and the Buffalino Crime Family for decades in northeast Pennsylvania, and is the author the biography "The Quiet Don," about the crime family’s namesake, Russell Buffalino.

"Trump, when he did deals, he didn't want his lawyers doing it. He didn't want anyone else doing it, he did it himself, and he did it with gangsters," says Birkbeck.

"Billy did business with a lot of people, including Donald Trump," he says. "Trump knew exactly who he was, Trump knew exactly what he was doing and exactly what they were negotiating about."

Guys, I don't think Murdoch likes Trump very much.

- - - Updated - - -

You know who else heard Trump's rally in Vegas? Chris Christie. And he has a few thoughts.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) called estimates of tens of thousands of people attending Trump’s campaign rallies “absurd.”

Fox News’s Shannon Bream asked Christie on “Fox News Sunday” to weigh in on local authorities in South Carolina estimating that one of Trump’s recent rallies there had been attended by around 50,000 people, which Christie labeled “absurd.” He said that Trump’s rallies are meant to serve Trump, not the American people.

“50,000 is absurd,” Christie told Bream. “But I am not going to get in an argument about that. Here’s why he doesn’t care about the American people. He droned on for an hour and a half yesterday in Iowa.”

“He lied about the farm deal with the Chinese,” Christie continued. “They haven’t even complied with a quarter of what they agreed to Donald Trump to do in terms of buying soybeans and other things from the farmers in Iowa. And he spent the rest of the time talking about his own indictment. This is not somebody who’s fighting for the American people and their future. This is all about his ego.”

“What he cares about the most is trying to undo the loss he had to Joe Biden in 2020,” Christie said. “But since he’s a three-time loser, having lost in 2018 the House of Representatives, lost the White House and the Senate in 2020, and in 2022 he winds up losing two more governorships, another seat in the Senate and we barely won the House by five votes.”

I wonder if he's reading my posts...

[Flarelaine]

I wonder if he's reading my posts...

He's reading reality. We're just not used to Republicans who can still do that.

[Chonogo]

I think it's why I still have a sliver of respect for Christie. He doesn't tow the party line regarding nonsense, for the most part. He tends to "tell it like it is" as in reality, instead of the Trump method of "telling it like it is" as in made up bullshit.

His thoughts on reality? Not bad.
His solutions to reality? No thanks.

[Dontrike]

Did you know that Trump colluded with big tech to bury the Hunter Biden story? That's what Desantis thinks, at least. Nothing like wanting to end the weaponization of government by......weaponizing the government to fire the people you don't like for no reason.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Sunday accused Trump administration agencies of “colluding” with Big Tech to bury the Hunter Biden story in 2020 and criticized the former president for not firing those involved with the alleged collusion at the time.

“I look back at the Hunter Biden censorship, which was a huge, huge deal to happen in the 2020 election, and yet those were Donald Trump’s own agencies that were colluding with Big Tech. I would never allow that to happen. I would fire those people immediately,” DeSantis told Maria Bartiromo in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Republicans have raised concerns about alleged “collusion” between the FBI and social media companies in order to silence conservative viewpoints — which they say is particularly evident in Twitter’s initial decision in 2020 to limit the spread of a story containing contents of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. Twitter executives have since said their initial decision may have been flawed, but they adamantly insisted Democrats had no involvement in their decision.

DeSantis, who frequently touts his war on Big Tech in Florida, is now using the frequent Trump talking point against the former president himself — pointing out that the New York Post story was published during his presidency.

“We will end the weaponization of government. And that’s, of course, a new FBI director on day one,” DeSantis said, repeating a frequent pledge. “That’s a difference between me and Donald Trump. He says the jury is still out on FBI Director Wray. I think you need a new start on day one. We’re going to clean house at the Department of Justice.”

DeSantis, who has been trailing Trump in recent primary polls, continued to pitch himself as the more disciplined, results-oriented alternative to Trump, with all the same policy positions.

“But here’s what it requires, Maria. It requires a president that is disciplined, a president that is focused,” he said. “You can’t get distracted on this. These people are not going to voluntarily give up the power that they have accumulated over many decades of neglect. I have shown in Florida the ability to get the job done.”

The man who is distracted by a cartoon mouse is telling others he is focused.

[Breccia]

He's reading reality. We're just not used to Republicans who can still do that.

I think it's why I still have a sliver of respect for Christie. He doesn't tow the party line regarding nonsense, for the most part.

Fair enough, but let's all remember where his loyalties were in 2016.

Defeated by Donald J. Trump in the 2016 primaries and derided by fellow Republicans for his subsequent embrace of Mr. Trump, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey has quietly emerged as one of the most influential advisers to his party’s presumptive presidential nominee and one of the leading contenders to be his running mate.

Four months after endorsing Mr. Trump, Mr. Christie remains one of the few major figures in the Republican establishment to align himself entirely with Mr. Trump’s candidacy. In public, he has defended Mr. Trump’s freewheeling and sometimes offensive pronouncements, vouching for him even after Mr. Trump attacked a federal judge for his Mexican heritage. (Mr. Christie said he knew from personal experience that Mr. Trump was not a racist.)

Mr. Christie is among those being vetted as Mr. Trump’s possible running mate, according to people briefed on the process, and Mr. Trump has said in interviews that Mr. Christie would have a prominent place in a Trump White House.

Already, Mr. Christie has begun the task of designing a government on Mr. Trump’s behalf. Chosen to lead Mr. Trump’s transition efforts, Mr. Christie has taken a role that some of his allies liken to that of a White House chief of staff, soliciting views on what a potential administration should look like.

Christie, of course, was never Trump's running mate. He was also discarded as head of the transition team Nov 11 by Trump's children and Kushner. That's right, Trump's kids were WH employees even before Trump moved in.

I appreciate that there are Republicans who have turned away from Trump publicly, saying they made a mistake. That's better than being a cultist. But most of us knew Trump was a problem even before he won the RNC primaries. Christie is at least saying "don't back the person in 2024 that I backed in 2016" but I'll wait for a Republican who can say "See, I told you".

He's begging for forgiveness. And he's not alone.

Conservative group plans anti-Trump ad blitz in early states

The group, Win it Back, will on Tuesday begin airing TV commercials in Iowa and South Carolina. The new super PAC is spending $3.6 million on the blitz, which will run through the end of the month.

Under oath, John Kelly raises serious allegations against Trump

John F. Kelly, who served as former President Donald J. Trump’s second White House chief of staff, said in a sworn statement that Mr. Trump had discussed having the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies investigate two F.B.I. officials involved in the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia. Mr. Kelly said that his recollection of Mr. Trump’s comments to him was based on notes that he had taken at the time in 2018. Mr. Kelly provided copies of his notes to lawyers for one of the F.B.I. officials, who made the sworn statement public in a court filing.

Dozens of witnesses have testified as the Jan. 6-focused grand jury probes Trump

Smith’s team has investigated areas where there might be a clearer instance of potentially illegal conduct. The witnesses called indicate that the special counsel probe has focused particularly on the “fake electors“ scheme in which false slates of electors from states Trump lost would assert that he won. In total, 84 fake electors in seven swing states signed documents falsely declaring Trump the winner.

Ukraine President Rejects Trump’s Boast He Could End War in ‘One Day’

It looks as if Donald Trump already had these 24 hours once in his time. We were at war, not a full-scale war, but we were at war, and as I assume, he had that time at his disposal but he must have had some other priorities.

[Edge-]

https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCring...me_is_uncanny/

"It's not a cult!"

A man in a MAGA hat says between mouthfuls of his Trump Tower burger at Trump Burger, where the walls are lined with Trump flags and posters and cutouts and the tops of buns have Trump's name burned into it. They purchased a "Biden sniffs kids" shirt on the way out.

Really though, I don't think even a small minority of libs built whole-ass identities around Obama in the way that seemingly around 1/4 of the Republican party have built their lives around Donald Trump.

[Twdft]

I mean the burger looked good but... two 8 oz patties? That's just the ground beef. 16 oz. For one person. I guess I just don't work hard enough to imagine eating that much for lunch.

[unfilteredJW]

I mean the burger looked good but... two 8 oz patties? That's just the ground beef. 16 oz. For one person. I guess I just don't work hard enough to imagine eating that much for lunch.

Burgers are still in “too much meat” mode, hell most dishes are here. Some places are moving away from doing this but the too hard to eat burger is still pretty standard and fucking stupid.

I say this as a 6’4” Viking looking chef. It’s too damn much food.

[Gorsameth]

I mean the burger looked good but... two 8 oz patties? That's just the ground beef. 16 oz. For one person. I guess I just don't work hard enough to imagine eating that much for lunch.

Gee, how could America possibly be so Obese... oh wait.

[Chonogo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCring...me_is_uncanny/

"It's not a cult!"

A man in a MAGA hat says between mouthfuls of his Trump Tower burger at Trump Burger, where the walls are lined with Trump flags and posters and cutouts and the tops of buns have Trump's name burned into it. They purchased a "Biden sniffs kids" shirt on the way out.

Really though, I don't think even a small minority of libs built whole-ass identities around Obama in the way that seemingly around 1/4 of the Republican party have built their lives around Donald Trump.

Please tell me this isn't real. Why are so many Americans so desperate to worship this dude?

[unfilteredJW]

Gee, how could America possibly be so Obese... oh wait.

Portion sizes of burgers is a lot less to do with it than the availability of healthy food or time to prepare one’s own meals due to needing multiple jobs to survive.

[Templar 331]

Please tell me this isn't real. Why are so many Americans so desperate to worship this dude?

They think he's like them because he says what they want to hear.

[Edge-]

Please tell me this isn't real. Why are so many Americans so desperate to worship this dude?

Lots of theories, I'm sure some more well founded that mine but...

The base is primed for this exact kind of behavior due to topics we can't really discuss here, and you'll notice a lot of overlap in rituals and traditions around that behavior and how they view/talk/behave about Trump.

Conservatives in the US have long had a fairly hard bend towards authoritarians and strongmen, or at least the appearance of strength.

[Benggaul]

Portion sizes of burgers is a lot less to do with it than the availability of healthy food or time to prepare one’s own meals due to needing multiple jobs to survive.

I was about to post pretty much this. Couple that with the fact that good, healthy meals often cost way more to make than crappy alternatives and you can often buy meats cheaper than decent fruits and vegetables and it's not hard to see why it's such a big problem in America. It's not so much that Americans just always crave gross food--a lot just can't afford to eat healthier.

[The Stormbringer]

Conservatives in the US have long had a fairly hard bend towards authoritarians and strongmen, or at least the appearance of strength.

You can say it. Conservatives need a big strong Daddy to boss them around and tell them what to do, a hunky masculine husband who can protect them and keep them safe, a tall drink of water they can cuddle up to at night and--sorry, I lost my train of thought there. They need a Big McLargehuge they can rally behind and support who will actually do things, or appear to do things.

[unfilteredJW]

you can say it. Conservatives need a big strong daddy to boss them around and tell them what to do, a hunky masculine husband who can protect them and keep them safe, a tall drink of water they can cuddle up to at night and--sorry, i lost my train of thought there. They need a big mclargehuge they can rally behind and support who will actually do things, or appear to do things.

blast hardcheese!

[Edge-]

You can say it. Conservatives need a big strong Daddy to boss them around and tell them what to do, a hunky masculine husband who can protect them and keep them safe, a tall drink of water they can cuddle up to at night and--sorry, I lost my train of thought there. They need a Big McLargehuge they can rally behind and support who will actually do things, or appear to do things.

I mean, they are salivating over RFK Jr's ripped, tanned dadbod because apparently that's some sort of presidential qualification that nobody mentioned to me until recently.

[The Stormbringer]

I was about to post pretty much this. Couple that with the fact that good, healthy meals often cost way more to make than crappy alternatives and you can often buy meats cheaper than decent fruits and vegetables and it's not hard to see why it's such a big problem in America. It's not so much that Americans just always crave gross food--a lot just can't afford to eat healthier.

There's also the time and energy factor. If you come home from working all day, especially a long shift, it can be really difficult to muster up the energy you need to prepare a meal and clean up afterwards. That's not even including the extra time and planning shopping takes. I would eat better if someone did the extra work for me, but sadly I live alone and cannot afford a robot maid.

- - - Updated - - -

blast hardcheese!

Bolt Vanderhuge!

I mean, they are salivating over RFK Jr's ripped, tanned dadbod because apparently that's some sort of presidential qualification that nobody mentioned to me until recently.

I just don't get why the guys they're into are always so old. Like, a silver fox is one thing, but every potential leader they've pushed is over sixty, pushing seventy, or over seventy. I'm not trying to kinkshame but it's weird, right?

[Edge-]

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-leaves-...170142831.html

Trump gets invited to Iowa charit event thrown by Senator Joni Ernst, declines to show. Multiple other Republican candidates show up.

Trump's people want to send a video though! So Ernst's people rented big TV's and everything so that attendees could see his recorded remarks.

Trump did not send a video.

Trump also returned a signed motorcycle helmet that was supposed to help sell tickets, late, and added the numbers "45" and "47" to it because he's confident he will be reelected. The helmet was never actually used.

One day Republicans will wise up to this guy that keeps lying to them and using them and leaving them with the tab at the end of the night. Or maybe they're all just a bunch of beta cucks who enjoy the repeat humiliation?