Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Sunseeker]

They plan on charging anyone vandalizing a Tesla as a "domestic terrorist" so that president Musk's cars start selling again. Apparently harming a Tesla is worse than trying to overthrow the US government.

I would think even the threat of doing so would turn people off to even visiting a Tesla dealership. I mean imagine some rando goes there, decides he doesnt really like them, and goes over the Rivian dealer, just to get the FBI called on him for not buying a Tesla.

[Draco-Onis]

Tesla Model VolXwagen, every real American patriot needs to own one, by law.

Don't give them ideas, several red states are now ordering Teslas but it's a drop in the ocean when the boycott is pretty much worldwide. China is the only good market but margins are razor thin there due to competition.

[Mayhem]

Don't give them ideas, several red states are now ordering Teslas but it's a drop in the ocean when the boycott is pretty much worldwide. China is the only good market but margins are razor thin there due to competition.

I like my Nazis easy identifiable.

[Draco-Onis]

I like my Nazis easy identifiable.

Frankly I do not understand the moaning and bitching from Musk he is looting the treasury and is probably going to force all payments to go through his X platforms not to mention other stolen government contracts to the biggest welfare queen in history.

[Mayhem]

Frankly I do not understand the moaning and bitching from Musk he is looting the treasury and is probably going to force all payments to go through his X platforms not to mention other stolen government contracts to the biggest welfare queen in history.

Probably because he convinced himself, thanks to a few drug-induced all-nighters, that he is actually what the world and humanity needs to survive and he is pissed that he is the only one that sees it, well he and the ones that lick him clean daily.

[Gorsameth]

Musk 100% has a messiah complex

[Poopymonster]

Frankly I do not understand the moaning and bitching from Musk he is looting the treasury and is probably going to force all payments to go through his X platforms not to mention other stolen government contracts to the biggest welfare queen in history.

As I've said before, money is like pretty or lucky.
Some people believe you can't have too much of it.

[Makabreska]

Musk 100% has a messiah complex

He is supposed to bring us to the Primised Land (Mars), after all.

[Breccia]

The market value of the S&P 500 at its Feb. 19 peak was $52.06 trillion, according to FactSet. Thursday’s decline put the index’s market value down to $46.78 trillion.

That makes for a total loss of about $5.28 trillion in about three weeks.

Yeah, the S&P alone lost $5 trillion. Oddly enough, that's the amount Trump wants to give to the rich with additional tax breaks, above and beyond the tax cut for the rich which is already permanent for them.

The decline has come in the shadow of Trump’s burgeoning trade war with several of the United States’ major trading partners, with headlines about tariffs at times seeming to drive market moves. There have also been signs of slowing economic growth, with weak consumer sentiment surveys and tepid outlooks from retailers like Walmart.

“Our interactions with clients indicate that the mood music is changing. While many see recession talk as premature, concerns about erratic policy from the new administration abound, with the ‘uncertainty tax’ hitting growth expectations,” Barclays strategist Emmanuel Cau said in a note to clients.

Yep. There are multiple factors, there always are, but Trump is routinely cited as the leading cause by pretty much everyone.

Consumer confidence plunges to 29-month low as economic uncertainty grows

Consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell for the third consecutive month in March, now down 22% from December 2024 before President Donald Trump took office, a new survey found.

The University of Michigan survey showed consumer sentiment fell to 57.9 this month, a 29-month low. The index showed participants' expectations for the future of their personal finances and the stock market had deteriorated. It also showed that Americans are expecting inflation to get worse, not better, during a time when many are worried tariffs will raise prices at the checkout aisle.

I'm pretty sure Michigan rushed that study out before Ontario turned its lights off :P

S&P 500 correction in six charts

Obviously I'm not going to show all six charts here. But I will quote this:

Stock market corrections are fairly common, with the S&P 500 logging a correction 56 times since 1929, according to a Reuters analysis of data from Yardeni Research.

If they were spread out evenly, that's one correction every 20.35 months. Near as I can tell, it happened to Biden twice, one in Feb 2021 and one in 2023. Seems about right on average. It took Biden 13 months to see his first correction. Trump did it in under two months.

The Motley Fool is warning that the NASDAQ is about there as well, pointing out that this happened to Biden only once and Trump twice his first term (and one was the COVID crash). In other words, Trump is speedrunning that even faster.

For fun, I'll add this: Stock market is not pricing in the good things Trump is doing *ding*

You can smell the desperation flowing off that headline.

- - - Updated - - -

He is supposed to bring us to the Primised Land (Mars), after all.

Musk's announcement about putting a humanoid on Mars by the end of the year is childish desperation. He needs literally anything to distract the people from his failed presidency. Tesla is leading the charge HARDEE HAR HAR the stock market falling, so much that Tesla warns that Trump's trade war could hurt U.S. automakers.

Incidentally, Musk is also likely fuming that Trump called him a DEI hire, very likely by accident.

To hear President Trump and some of his closest supporters tell it, South Africa is a terrible place for white people. They face discrimination, are sidelined from jobs and live under the constant threat of violence or having their land stolen by a corrupt, Black-led government that has left the country in disarray.

The data tell a different story. Although white people make up 7 percent of the country’s population, they own at least half of South Africa’s land. Police statistics do not show that they are any more vulnerable to violent crime than other people. And white South Africans are far better off than Black people on virtually every marker of the economic scale.

Trump's claims that white people in South Africa are pushed down and aside is, well, exactly what the DEI and many other American changes were all about. But, yeah, he just called Elon Musk a disadvantaged minority who needs help. Musk likely is smart enough to have caught this, Trump is not.

[Teriz]

As a small business owner dependent on imports, I'm sick of winning.

[Breccia]

As a small business owner dependent on imports, I'm sick of winning.

Then I apologize for linking this.

Economic alarm bells are ringing everywhere

First, the good news: There is no solid evidence right now that the economy is in recession, or even particularly close to it.

The bad news is that warning bells of what is to come are ringing every which way.

This Axios article doesn't just cite the same Michigan study I already mentioned, but also calls out Trump's tariffs ping-pong and firing half the federal government. Honestly, this article basically summarizes the last 20 or so things I referenced, and goes on to say "any one of these individually isn't proof of anything, but all together is bad news".

Basically, roll a die once, it comes up six, it proves nothing. Roll a die 20 times, it comes up six 17 times, the die is loaded. And even FOX News and Trump are publicly saying "expect more sixes to be rolled" as the economy is about to crap out.

The good news lately — on solid Q4 GDP growth, for example — has come from data sources that are backward-looking.

Thanks, Biden.

[Xath]

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-03...rport-detained

We are now torturing green card holders holy fuck

[Muzjhath]

Frankly I do not understand the moaning and bitching from Musk he is looting the treasury and is probably going to force all payments to go through his X platforms not to mention other stolen government contracts to the biggest welfare queen in history.

His networth is tied to the value of Tesla.
He got the loan to buy twitter of the value of Tesla. If Tesla drops below a certain value it's likely his creditors will come for shit.

[Draco-Onis]

His networth is tied to the value of Tesla.
He got the loan to buy twitter of the value of Tesla. If Tesla drops below a certain value it's likely his creditors will come for shit.

As long as he is in charge of the government I doubt any creditor will go after him, he can send the thugs from the justice department or any other regulator to torment those that go after him. He stands to make billions from looting the social safety net as well, that's not even going into possibly shorting markets using dark pools. I am going to agree with the other posters that it's pure ego, he seems to be obsessed with being loved.

[Fugus]

As long as he is in charge of the government I doubt any creditor will go after him, he can send the thugs from the justice department or any other regulator to torment those that go after him. He stands to make billions from looting the social safety net as well, that's not even going into possibly shorting markets using dark pools. I am going to agree with the other posters that it's pure ego, he seems to be obsessed with being loved.

Depends on if those creditors are within the US or not. They very well could come after him in other nations and start going after his assets there.

Personally, I would love to see Mexico, Canada, the EU and every other nation start putting Trump and any members of his administration and their immediate families on lists that deny them entry into those countries. To actually see them forced to stay in the US or nations like China and Russia and the nations they are trying to turn the US into. Make it where their families WILL be stuck living in the hell they create and they will not be able to escape it either.

[Mekh]

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-03...rport-detained

We are now torturing green card holders holy fuck

That's the third German now who went through something like this. The consulate must be quite busy.

[fwc577]

That's a fair analysis, I honestly hadn't thought of other TCGs eating MTG's lunch.

Yeah, I used to be big into TCGs back in the late 90s early 2000s and even back then there were a lot of trends and fads. MTG was always the go-to game, but a new Pokemon expansion would come out and people would be playing that for a few weeks. A new Star Wars TCG set came out and people would be playing that for a few weeks. At my local gaming shop, we all got into things like Rage, Robotech, 7th Seas and LOTR for small stints.

But there were definite drop-offs, at least locally, when all the kids were playing the new thing.

- - - Updated - - -

'Self-inflicted wounds': New data shows even MAGA's hardcore is souring on Trump's antics

Not expecting much...

'Oh what a difference!' Trump blames all the world's problems on his 2020 election loss

"Trump is hardly in pariah territory; his overall approval rating is at 45 percent, similar to much of his first term," Blake added

Wait until we hit an ACTUAL recession. We're in the early stages right now but when things go fucking haywire, there will come a point in the next 4 years where you won't be able to find more than a couple fanatics who even admit to voting for Trump.

[Poopymonster]

Yeah, I used to be big into TCGs back in the late 90s early 2000s and even back then there were a lot of trends and fads. MTG was always the go-to game, but a new Pokemon expansion would come out and people would be playing that for a few weeks. A new Star Wars TCG set came out and people would be playing that for a few weeks. At my local gaming shop, we all got into things like Rage, Robotech, 7th Seas and LOTR for small stints.

But there were definite drop-offs, at least locally, when all the kids were playing the new thing.

- - - Updated - - -



"Trump is hardly in pariah territory; his overall approval rating is at 45 percent, similar to much of his first term," Blake added

Wait until we hit an ACTUAL recession. We're in the early stages right now but when things go fucking haywire, there will come a point in the next 4 years where you won't be able to find more than a couple fanatics who even admit to voting for Trump.

Loved Rage. I still have my Wyrm deck. The artwork was fantastic for those cards.

[Fugus]

Loved Rage. I still have my Wyrm deck. The artwork was fantastic for those cards.

Used to love MTG, stopped playing over a decade ago. Made an infinity deck that made most of my friends quit.

Had a friend who used to love playing the Amugaba card, he would sing "We all live in a Yellow Submarine". Since I favored my Squirrel deck I would counter with swinging "When the Saint's Come Marching In" except I would say Squirrels instead of Saints.

Nephew is into Pokemon now, went to a shop and was surprised looking at what my cards are worth nowadays. Got something like $600 in just Earthcraft cards from what I could tell.

[Rasulis]

Another red signal.

1 in 7 Pending Home Sales Are Getting Canceled, the Highest Share During This Time of Year on Record

Atlanta, Las Vegas, Houston and parts of Florida are seeing the highest share of deals falling through, with supply piling up in those areas. Los Angeles is among the metro areas with the biggest increase in cancelled sales, due largely to January’s devastating wildfires.

More home purchases are being canceled, especially in the southeastern part of the country. Just over 41,000 U.S. home-purchase agreements fell through in January, equal to 14.3% of homes that went under contract that month. That’s up from 13.4% a year earlier, and the highest cancellation rate for this time of year since at least 2017.

There are a few reasons today’s homebuyers are skittish:

• Supply is rising and demand is falling. Housing inventory has risen to its highest level since 2020, giving homebuyers more options. At the same time, pending home sales fell to their lowest level on record (aside from the start of the pandemic) in January. More supply and less demand means the housing market has tilted in buyers’ favor, with some house hunters backing out during the inspection period because a better house for them has come along–or at least the promise of a better house.
• Economic uncertainty. Redfin agents report that some deals are falling through because buyers (and sometimes, sellers) are getting cold feet due to widespread economic and political uncertainty. Tariffs, layoffs, and federal policy changes are among the factors contributing to an air of instability. Some people are choosing to stay put.
• Sticker shock. Mortgage rates and home prices remain stubbornly high, with January’s average rate hitting 6.96%, an eight-month high (weekly average rates have since declined to 6.76%, and the median U.S. home-sale price rising 4.1%. Combined with economic uncertainty, high housing costs are causing some would-be buyers to change their minds.

Florida, Other Parts of the South Are Seeing Highest Share of Deals Falling Through
Atlanta leads the nation in canceled deals, with one in five (19.8%) of January’s pending home sales canceled. It’s followed by Orlando, where 18.2% of deals were canceled, Las Vegas (17.9%), Houston (17.8%) and Jacksonville, FL (17.8%). This analysis includes the 50 most populous U.S. metros.

The so-called pandemic boom towns are seeing this issue the most. Lots of buyer's remorse also.

Home-purchase agreements are getting canceled at the lowest rate in the Bay Area. San Francisco has the lowest share, with 4.1% of deals following through, followed by San Jose, CA (5.9%). Rounding out the top five are Nassau County NY (6.8%%), Oakland, CA (8.4%), Seattle (8.7%). All of those markets are currently tilting toward sellers, with a limited amount of supply on the market, meaning buyers typically don’t have many other choices if they back out of a deal.

With the exception of FiDi and Mission, all the other districts are hot right now. Sunset is ridiculous.

Amid Wildfires, Home-Purchase Cancellations in Los Angeles Rose to Highest January Level Since 2017. In Detroit, 17.4% of home-purchase agreements are falling out of contract, up from 13.1% a year ago–the biggest increase among the major U.S. metros. Next come Atlanta (19.8%, up from 16.6%), Virginia Beach (15.2%, up from 12.1%), New Brunswick, NJ (11.8%, up from 9.1%) and Los Angeles (15.9%, up from 13.2%).

Thirty-seven of the 50 most populous metros saw home-purchase cancellations rise, as a percentage of all pending sales.

The biggest declines were in Fort Worth, TX (16.2%, down from 18%), Fort Lauderdale, FL (17.2%, down from 18.6%), Philadelphia (11.8%, down from 13.2%), Cleveland (16%, down from 17.1%) and Columbus, OH (14.1%, down from 15.1%).

We are still talking double digits cancellation rate.