Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[PhaelixWW]

Well, SCOTUS delivered at least a partial rebuke to Trump.

Supreme Court upholds lower court order to force USAID to pay contractors

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday reined in some of the Trump administration's sweeping effort to eliminate foreign aid that has been authorized by Congress.

In an order, the justices left in place a lower court order that so far has only required the Trump administration to pay contractors for foreign aid work that has already been completed — roughly $2 billion.

Justice Samuel Alito dissented, and was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

[NED funded]

Well, SCOTUS delivered at least a partial rebuke to Trump.

Supreme Court upholds lower court order to force USAID to pay contractors

Has someone pinged tehdang. He was batting hard for Trump to have king like powers and calling the judge tyrannical

Its actually kinda embarrassing to be so wrong on this when everyone knew that the issue at hand wasn't the ability to direct foreign policy but that they need to honour contracts

[For_The_Horde]

Man, watching conservative social media these days is nauseating. The amount of misinformation and flat out lies is disturbing sure. But the depths of their delusion is astounding. Like how they're spreading around how Trumps approval rating is the highest of any president, and his state of the union had a 75% approval by all viewers, or that Trump is chosen by God and anyone who doesn't support him is a enemy to humanity.

[david0925]

As long as they are consistent and I'm not wasting my tax money bailing red states I'm fine

We need to reduce waste right

[Kaleredar]

Man, watching conservative social media these days is nauseating. The amount of misinformation and flat out lies is disturbing sure. But the depths of their delusion is astounding. Like how they're spreading around how Trumps approval rating is the highest of any president, and his state of the union had a 75% approval by all viewers, or that Trump is chosen by God and anyone who doesn't support him is a enemy to humanity.

I have to imagine that’s no different from what they said about every other Trump SOTU. And I think they’ll find reality doesn’t care about their feelings when prices have spiked across the board and people aren’t buying their bullshit about what a great guy dear leader supposedly is.

[Mekh]

I have to imagine that’s no different from what they said about every other Trump SOTU. And I think they’ll find reality doesn’t care about their feelings when prices have spiked across the board and people aren’t buying their bullshit about what a great guy dear leader supposedly is.

r/conservative is really upset about Dems not applauding for the cancer kid getting his DEI position with the Secret Service.

[Tech614]

As long as they are consistent and I'm not wasting my tax money bailing red states I'm fine

We need to reduce waste right

True, if we really want to reduce waste we should cut off the entire south from government welfare and make it strictly Texas and Florida's responsibility to fund all the rest of those shit bird states.

[Breccia]

or that Trump is chosen by God and anyone who doesn't support him is a enemy to humanity.

As we've seen on these very forums, yes, the cult is now in full-on non-sarcastic religious worship. This is mandatory, because faith by its very nature defies proof and evidence, leading to "God works in mysterious ways" Job-level situations where it's somehow okay that the person that said they would fix all your problems made it worse.

[Templar 331]

I have to imagine that’s no different from what they said about every other Trump SOTU. And I think they’ll find reality doesn’t care about their feelings when prices have spiked across the board and people aren’t buying their bullshit about what a great guy dear leader supposedly is.

It will literally be a cold day in hell before that happens. I know I'm getting tired of hearing people I have to associate with giving praise to Trump for the most made up reasons. Or give hate towards Democrats for the same made up reasons. You can't explain to them the reasons why we are here and why it's a bad thing. It's not like the trolls we have here who are making shit up just for the lulz, these people actually believe this shit.

Case in point, the last "civil" discussion I had was about COVID. The guy believed that hospitals were receiving extra money if they'd just declare the cause of anyone's death was COVID related. Even if they'd "died in a car accident." And it was somehow the government's, not Trump's, fault for this.

These people want to be angry. They'll take bullshit lies that paint the people they hate in a bad light over any truth.

- - - Updated - - -

True, if we really want to reduce waste we should cut off the entire south from government welfare and make it strictly Texas and Florida's responsibility to fund all the rest of those shit bird states.

"I'm tired of my tax dollars going to other people!!"

We (Georgia) receive more federal tax dollars than we give.....

"/staresblankly......well yeah, those illegals on welfare get it!!!"

[Kaleredar]

It will literally be a cold day in hell before that happens. I know I'm getting tired of hearing people I have to associate with giving praise to Trump for the most made up reasons. Or give hate towards Democrats for the same made up reasons. You can't explain to them the reasons why we are here and why it's a bad thing. It's not like the trolls we have here who are making shit up just for the lulz, these people actually believe this shit.

Case in point, the last "civil" discussion I had was about COVID. The guy believed that hospitals were receiving extra money if they'd just declare the cause of anyone's death was COVID related. Even if they'd "died in a car accident." And it was somehow the government's, not Trump's, fault for this.

These people want to be angry. They'll take bullshit lies that paint the people they hate in a bad light over any truth.

I meant people who aren’t maga cultists.

I don’t really care what Trump supporters delude themselves into thinking after eight years so long as we can go back to ignoring them and teaching others to be smarter.

[Templar 331]

I meant people who aren’t maga cultists.

I don’t really care what Trump supporters delude themselves into thinking after eight years so long as we can go back to ignoring them and teaching others to be smarter.

Oh you mean the Republican voters who don't baptize their children at the MAGA church in the name of their Lord and Savior Trump. I'm sure there are some out there, but I wish there were more.

[Endus]

Man, watching conservative social media these days is nauseating. The amount of misinformation and flat out lies is disturbing sure. But the depths of their delusion is astounding. Like how they're spreading around how Trumps approval rating is the highest of any president, and his state of the union had a 75% approval by all viewers, or that Trump is chosen by God and anyone who doesn't support him is a enemy to humanity.

It's cult behaviour. And I mean that literally; a core aspect of cults and how they function is that members are asked to believe things that are clearly untrue. And out of a deep desire for belonging, they choose to express that they agree with those untrue things. That the alien mothership is returning to collect them all, that the world will end on a given date because the prophet said so, that the lizardpeople have been replacing major political figures, it doesn't matter how crazy it is. The craziness makes it stronger. Because cults, fundamentally, are about creating a sense of belonging in their membership, and reinforcing that the rest of the world doesn't support its members, so they have to stay close to the cult and refuse to believe the outsiders. The craziness of the beliefs does several things; it acts as a shared belief by which cult members can recognize and relate to each other, it isolates them from non-believers who will, like you are here, deny that the belief is true, or even approachably valid, and it reinforces trust in the leadership who both provide comfort and support to believers and reinforce that they have very good reasons for the belief (even if said reasons never get laid out or are equally crazy).

People believe in Trump for the exact same reasons the Jonestown members drank the Kool-Aid knowing they'd die as a result. Because social pressures are so incredibly dominant in our species, and "belonging" can be more important than "survival".

You can't challenge such beliefs with logic, reason, or evidence. That challenges their sense of belonging, and they'll fight to the death to maintain those beliefs. In many cases, quite literally. See, again, the Jonestown massacre. Those kinds of measures only work when you can break that sense of belonging first, whether because they hit an internal breaking point and can't keep it up, or they risk losing another form of belonging (typically family) which makes it a choice between which group to cleave to.

And once you're in such a group, it doesn't matter what the leadership does or says. That's just the new belief, that confirms membership in the group, that identifies you as a member of that group, and which separates you from everyone else. It doesn't matter if it directly contradicts another such belief they're asked to trust; logic and consistency are not factors. Membership and in-group support are.

And unless they're close family, you're never going to convince them otherwise. You don't have an angle and every effort you make threatens their basic social safety and security. You have to realize they're beyond reaching, and treat them as a malicious force. That doesn't mean they can't break themselves out, just that you shouldn't waste time or effort trying to help them when they see that help as an attack.

[Breccia]

The craziness makes it stronger. Because cults, fundamentally, are about creating a sense of belonging in their membership, and reinforcing that the rest of the world doesn't support its members, so they have to stay close to the cult and refuse to believe the outsiders.

See also: Trump communicates solely through his own social media, which of course lets him post whatever lies he wants without fear of being challenged. Any actual source of facts or reason, like Fauci or the AP, are forcefully thrown aside in favor of Some Guy On Twitter (possibly a Russian bot).

[Gabriel]

Well, SCOTUS delivered at least a partial rebuke to Trump.

Supreme Court upholds lower court order to force USAID to pay contractors

Nice. Now let's see someone enforce this court order on Trump.

[alach]

A large majority liked the speech.

Blue wave by 2040....maybe?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbs...ess-poll-2025/

Those very positive approval numbers are lower than his speech during his first term, and lower than Bidens. It's not really a win in any form.

[Edge-]

Well, SCOTUS delivered at least a partial rebuke to Trump.

Supreme Court upholds lower court order to force USAID to pay contractors

isn't it weird how almost everything donald keeps trying to do keeps being found to be illegal by the courts including the SCOTUS?

it's almost like the entire party is just a criminal enterprise at this point

[Kaleredar]

Nice. Now let's see someone enforce this court order on Trump.

If the court says it goes through and is to be paid… then it’s just… paid, is it not? Trump isn’t required to physically hand anyone money.

[Edge-]

If the court says it goes through and is to be paid… then it’s just… paid, is it not? Trump isn’t required to physically hand anyone money.

People still need to authorize/re-authorize the payments, the ruling doesn't just magically release those funds.

[Templar 331]

People still need to authorize/re-authorize the payments, the ruling doesn't just magically release those funds.

And I imagine anyone of those government employees who authorizes the payments will find themselves in the crosshairs of DOGE and probably fired. In any sane world that would result in a lawsuit.

[Iphie]

Nice. Now let's see someone enforce this court order on Trump.

Unless they want to create a constitutional crisis they'll comply, and it seems Amy Coney Barnett isn't as deep in the pocket as trump would like so he can't actually be sure he'll get his way.


(re: constintutional crisis, that may very well be the goal.)