Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Tech614]

all this did was make the US look like it's led by a fat coward bully to the rest of the world.

Well the US is led by a fat coward bully so their eyes do not deceive them.

[Timester]

The difference between Trump and Cartman right now?

Cartman is actually a money-making genius.

[Mayhem]

America alone represents more than 1/4 of the entire global economy. Canada meanwhile is like 2.5%.

Doesn't matter considering more than 30% of that is finance, insurance, real estate, rental, leasing, and government. Really, the stuff we're talking about is selling them shit and there is plenty of world left to sell to. There's also plenty of world left to buy from and the EU is pretty good at drafting FTAs and standing by them.

Also, we have a bunch of examples where the EU dictated changes American companies simply adhered to. The EU has enough weight to throw around.

[Edge-]

Doesn't matter considering more than 30% of that is finance, insurance, real estate, rental, leasing, and government. Really, the stuff we're talking about is selling them shit and there is plenty of world left to sell to. There's also plenty of world left to buy from and the EU is pretty good at drafting FTAs and standing by them.

Also, we have a bunch of examples where the EU dictated changes American companies simply adhered to. The EU has enough weight to throw around.

It's like California and mileage/emission standards for cars.

Sure the US can set lower targets than CA, but CA is a major auto market, and it makes no sense to design and tool different production lines for CA vs. the rest of the US. So they just target CA's standards which may be more aggressive and might lose them a bit on each car, but overall saves them money by not needing multiple variants.

[Xyonai]

Doesn't matter considering more than 30% of that is finance, insurance, real estate, rental, leasing, and government. Really, the stuff we're talking about is selling them shit and there is plenty of world left to sell to. There's also plenty of world left to buy from and the EU is pretty good at drafting FTAs and standing by them.

Also, we have a bunch of examples where the EU dictated changes American companies simply adhered to. The EU has enough weight to throw around.

The biggest takeaway is that the US is a trading hub with a massive consumer base. We don't produce a lot of the shit we use day to day (Or, if we do, it uses a lot of exports) and one of the pillars of the US's capacity to be a superpower hinged on how easily we were able to move goods through us. We can't produce a lot of the stuff we consume, either because we've dismantled the capacity or it's simply unfeasible from a geographical standpoint, so shutting off the valve without a means to replace those pipelines is phenomenally stupid.

Mexico and Canada are just the easiest to bully because their economies are very much linked to ours by virtue of being our direct neighbors (and previous trade agreements), but too much pressure and one or both of them will start looking elsewhere for trade goods when it's apparent the US will flip-flop on its policies every time a new party is in charge.

[Breccia]

i mean, you can see the results in this thread, some folks are very hyped about DOING SOMETHING

Actually wait, just thought of something: did Trump declare tariffs on Mexico, see the stock market drop 600 points instantly, then frantically call Mexico begging for help?

[Edge-]

Actually wait, just thought of something: did Trump declare tariffs on Mexico, see the stock market drop 600 points instantly, then frantically call Mexico begging for help?

that sounds plausible, realistic even!

[Fugus]

Mexico and Canada are just the easiest to bully because their economies are very much linked to ours by virtue of being our direct neighbors (and previous trade agreements), but too much pressure and one or both of them will start looking elsewhere for trade goods when it's apparent the US will flip-flop on its policies every time a new party is in charge.

They aren’t as easy to bully as many would think. Canada can find buyers for what they are selling easily while the US is fucking hurting if they cut us off and many of us losing everything or even dying without it.

Mexico is actual manufacturing and can sell their products abroad as well. Again, we need their products because the companies here spent decades moving ours out and would take decades moving it back.

Then add China into that mix and all 3 of them against us before even talking about his other stud he wants to do.

The only thing we can actually bully them with effectively would be our military because they are our neighbors and projecting our power would be easy but that would also have the entire rest of the world turn against us. Our allies would become out enemies and our enemies would remain our enemies and happily help our previous allies to take out their biggest thorn in their sides.

As far as them looking for the door and alternatives to sell to, that ship has already left the port. They humored Trump last time, this time he is doubling down out the gate. We have proven we are unreliable trading partners who don’t keep their words and are too unstable and unreliable to actually rely on. They are going to be distancing themselves from us throughout this entire administration and well into the next one and will take decades if ever to rebuild that trust. And if we keep allowing people like this in charge, they will never trust us again.

[Breccia]

Trump reverses plan to buyout air traffic controllers with severance pay, making it an offer that lasted a few days.

"That makes sense, air traffic controllers are mandatory for safety, it says so in the retraction even. So it was good that he did that."

Interesting take. Why did he make the offer in the first place, then? Either he shouldn't have offered to buyout and/or fire people in mandatory safety posts in the first place, or he did it by accident and is therefore incompetent. Jeez, this is like the tenth thing in two weeks Trump did and immediately reversed. I'm sure our local Trump cultists will cheer the reversal of his own directive as much as they cheered it when it was done, but at this point even they know they're just cheering indecision, randomness, and chaos running the government of the country they live in.

Related: Trump officially hires Musk into the federal government.

After-

"Whoa whoa whoa. He wasn't before?"

Um, no.

"And he issued all those directives, got his hands on Social Security payments...without being a federal employee?|

Um, yes.

"Now that he's officially a federal employee, will he back off of Twitter and Tesla decisions, since that's an obvious and public conflict of interest?"

No. Trump supporters cheered for conflict of interest even as they pointed at Hunter Biden and shrilled like a marmoset stepping on a sea urchin.

[Edge-]

Trump reverses plan to buyout air traffic controllers with severance pay, making it an offer that lasted a few days.

damn, only what...3 plane accidents in that time? mid-air collision, a plane crashing into the ground, and i saw another plane issue over the weekend.

sure, they're not all directly related to this or anything but i'm sure added chaos for no reason is very helpful!

[Breccia]

damn, only what...3 plane accidents in that time?

Literally the most deadly weekend in US airspace since 9/11. And no, unlike Trump I have not yet blamed any policy for the crashes, because I'm not a colossal fucking fat conspiracy theorist who wants to use the deaths of American civilians to score political points. But because Trump suddenly found himself in charge, it's moderately likely he saw how badly this weekend looked for him (well, the US, therefore him in what's left of his brain) and reversed course sobbing in fear. You know, like he did with tariffs. Twice.

[Doomcookie]

Sorry, but I presumed you had a source for facts or claims that you wanted me to respond to. If you don’t have one or am unable to share one, then my only response is I’d like to see the specifics on what is alleged and by whom before I offer commentary.

I provided them to you, including your own quotes.

You got upset, and refused to answer.

- - - Updated - - -

Let's see what Canada gives us.

You're not even American.

[Zaydin]

@tehdang when you're done clutching pearls about how people talk about Trump worshiping cultists, when are you going to state whether you support the pointless trade war that DonOld just started or not?

No one wins in a trade war.

Everything DonOld does just strengthens adversaries like China by driving the nations he pissed off to look to China to replace the US goods they used to buy.

[Breccia]

President of Mexico tells the world the piece of the phone call deal that Trump forgot to mention.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo issued a "read-out" of her call with Trump on Monday — but her list of what the two leaders agreed to is different from his in one major respect: guns.

Washington Post staff writer Meryl Kornfield pointed out on X that in Sheinbaum's list of things the U.S. had committed to do is stop the flow of guns into Mexico.

More guns flow into Mexico than flow into the U.S. — a fact that Vice President J.D. Vance was corrected on during the vice-presidential debate.

"There is long-standing evidence showing the gun smuggling route is going in the opposite direction," said NPR in a report.

"Most recently, the Mexican Attorney General of the Republic and the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) made an effort to trace the origin and number of firearms in Mexico coming from or through the United States," the report continued. "Mexico’s Secretariat of Foreign Relations found that 70-90% of traced firearms originated from and passed through the U.S. The ATF and U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated a lower rate of 68%."

Oh, no! Surely stopping the illegal flow of illegal guns, illegally, is a good thing? Surely Trump demanded this be in the deal, even volunteering it? If so, he sure forgot to mention such a bigly yuge win. That sure would fit into him being senile and/or retarded.

Or...bear with me...Mexico demanded something of Trump, and in addition to doing a U-turn on tariffs, also got Trump to commit to blocking the guns that go into Mexico against Mexican law.

"Why would Trump actually try to stop the guns?"

I dunno, why would Mexico try to stop the fentanyl? I mean, we know that guns are pouring over the border into Mexico, we even had some ill-fated attempts to stop them like the Fast and Furious Fuckup. Fentanyl over The Wall is less assured. Those 10,000 Mexican troops could just sit around watching football and we'd see the same effect. If Mexico thinks Trump is going to change his mind, which I admit he's random and chaotic so good luck, but if they see it coming they can just say "Trump isn't stopping the guns like he promised" to the world, and of course, be correct.

"But what if Trump actually does try to stop illegal guns?"

Then...Mexico gets somehing of high value for free? I mean, either way, they've 100% won this...uh...the situation where each person has a gun aimed at the other, and neither one fires but neither one lowers their weapon, shit, there's a term for that...

[Edge-]

President of Mexico tells the world the piece of the phone call deal that Trump forgot to mention.



Oh, no! Surely stopping the illegal flow of illegal guns, illegally, is a good thing? Surely Trump demanded this be in the deal, even volunteering it? If so, he sure forgot to mention such a bigly yuge win. That sure would fit into him being senile and/or retarded.

Or...bear with me...Mexico demanded something of Trump, and in addition to doing a U-turn on tariffs, also got Trump to commit to blocking the guns that go into Mexico against Mexican law.

"Why would Trump actually try to stop the guns?"

I dunno, why would Mexico try to stop the fentanyl? I mean, we know that guns are pouring over the border into Mexico, we even had some ill-fated attempts to stop them like the Fast and Furious Fuckup. Fentanyl over The Wall is less assured. Those 10,000 Mexican troops could just sit around watching football and we'd see the same effect. If Mexico thinks Trump is going to change his mind, which I admit he's random and chaotic so good luck, but if they see it coming they can just say "Trump isn't stopping the guns like he promised" to the world, and of course, be correct.

"But what if Trump actually does try to stop illegal guns?"

Then...Mexico gets somehing of high value for free? I mean, either way, they've 100% won this...uh...the situation where each person has a gun aimed at the other, and neither one fires but neither one lowers their weapon, shit, there's a term for that...

i'm sure we'll hear about the bungled obama operation from back in the day, but US guns have steadily been flowing into mexico and arming their cartels for decades and decades.

and then republicans get scared when they're armed and like, sirs, where the fuck do you think they got the guns?

[Draco-Onis]

Actually wait, just thought of something: did Trump declare tariffs on Mexico, see the stock market drop 600 points instantly, then frantically call Mexico begging for help?

We know that hedge funds made a lot of money from those drops maybe just maybe his rich buddies are getting even richer from his hijinks long live the oligarchy.

[Edge-]

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/03/nx-s1...-cfpb-director

Scott Bessent, who was confirmed as Treasury Secretary last week, has been named acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Bessent replaces Rohit Chopra, who was fired on Saturday.

In an internal email shared with NPR, staff were instructed to immediately cease much of the bureau's work, including issuing or approving proposed or final rules or guidance, and suspending the effective dates of all final rules that have been issued but have not yet become effective.

Staff were also instructed not to commence or settle enforcement actions, nor to issue any public communications of any type, including research papers. The directive was made "[i]n order to promote consistency with the goals of the Administration," the email said.

Bessent, a wealthy hedge fund manager, was already expected to be a business-friendly choice to lead the Treasury. Now he will lead the CFPB, the federal consumer watchdog, at least for a time.

"I look forward to working with the CFPB to advance President Trump's agenda to lower costs for the American people and accelerate economic growth," Bessent said in a statement.

Donald's team is already working to dismantle/hamstring the CFPB, which has delivered win after win for consumers since its creation and has been a hated target of Republicans for just that reason.

"While [Trump] parades a crowd of corporate lobbyists, billionaire donors, and Wall Street insiders like Scott Bessent to lead our country, we're looking at the end of basic protections for American consumers," said Tony Carrk of Accountable.US, a corruption watchdog group.

The CFPB is an independent bureau within the Federal Reserve system. It's funded outside of the congressional appropriations process, and its funding comes from the Fed. The bureau was created in 2010 by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

That legislation was passed following the 2008 financial crisis and it was intended to protect consumers from overreach by financial institutions and help prevent another crisis.

Speedrunning 2008, it seems.

[Woodtable]

Tough news for the "tariffs don't work" crowd.

Already getting concessions from Mexico, re: increased border enforcement.

Legit brain rot.

[gondrin]

Is this some allegation of criminal wrongdoing? The legality of executive orders are questioned in courts. The access of executive departments ultimately lies with the President. It’s generally difficult to shield subordinate members of the executive branch from the appointees of the leader of the same branch.

If you’re talking about authority that Congress delegated to the Executive Branch, the same argument applies. Let me remind you again that executive departments do not stand as their own fourth branch of government. There isn’t a super special public servant that is both not elected and preserves independent power that would be denied to Musk. Trump is apparently ending some types of grants, and it would appear that Musk is advising him on grants issued in defiance of his orders, or grants that ought to be canceled and haven’t yet been.

The problem is Musk is going way beyond the scope of what DOGE is allowed to do. DOGE is not allowed to access classified materials. DOGE is not allowed to unilaterally deny payments. Only Congress can do this. DOGE cannot shut down any government agency like they are trying to do with USAID. Only Congress can do this.

Musk is trying to basically unilaterally run the government.

Outside of the President, Musk can be arrested for doing these things as the President is the only person in the government that has broad immunity.

[Breccia]

Musk is trying to basically unilaterally run the government.

I mean, he should. He paid a lot of money for his shiny new toy.