Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[PhaelixWW]

We have arrived.

But I'm still tired! That wasn't long enough!

[Mayhem]

In which First Amendment protected free speech continues to be something that Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, and Republicans do not acknowledge as they continue to try to punish and deport foreign-born students for expressing protected First Amendment speech.

So the government has no evidence and wants to argue that the executive branch is above the law and the authority of federal courts. This isn't a foreign policy matter, this is a Constitutional Rights matter.

Nobody hates the First Amendment like the Republican party hates the First Amendment.

The protectors of free speech are continuing their "Silence the opposition"-Tour.

The Justice Department Monday submitted new court filings that included a two-page letter from Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating that the "activities and presence of Mahdawi in the United States undermines U.S. policy to combat antisemitism." It added that protests like those Mahdawi led at Columbia "potentially undermine the peace process underway in the Middle East," where efforts for a ceasefire have stalled.

Right now some 59 hostages taken from Israel are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, about half are believed dead according to Israel. Meanwhile Israel has been withholding aid from Gaza for eight weeks and Palestinians are going hungry as they endure daily attacks.

Ok, ok, so a protest in the US is bad because it potentially undermines the peace process underway .. the peace process underway: Palestinians being starved while bombarded by Israel. Call me an idiot but I'd say such a peace process should be undermined.

[gondrin]

So hey, remember that photo of Garcia that had MS-13 photoshopped right onto it, well Trump thinks those were real tattoos. Not that the MS-13 was what the tattoos already on his fingers were being interpreted as, but the actual photoshopped MS-13 was actual tattoos. When told that they were photoshopped on, he dug in and argued against it.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...aa445bad&ei=10

Donald Trump has been on quite a press tour around his first 100 days in office, the latest stop of which was a sit-down interview with ABC News that aired Tuesday night. It wasn't always cordial between the president and correspondent Terry Moran - particularly as Moran tried to tell Trump that an obviously edited image of "MS-13" appearing across the knuckles of Kilmar Abrego Garcia was not, in fact, real.

"On his knuckles he had MS-13," Trump said of Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador. The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the Trump administration must facilitate his return. Trump and his allies have baselessly tried to cast Abrego Garcia as a terrorist gang member they were justified in expelling from the country without due process (even though the administration itself has admitted in court his deportation was due to an "administrative error").

"He had some tattoos that were interpreted that way," Moran replied.

Abrego Garcia has four symbols tattooed across his knuckles, and the White House has been circulating an image onto which someone Photoshopped - or just superimposed with a basic paint app, really - "MS13," purporting that it's what Abrego Garcia's actual tattoos represent. Trump even posed with a printout of the photo in the Oval Office.

Trump kept insisting the text overlaid across Abrego Garcia's knuckles were the actual tattoos. "Wait a minute. Terry, Terry, Terry. Don't do that. It says ‘MS13.'"

"That was Photoshopped," Moran said.

Trump then started mocking Moran. "That was Photoshopped? Terry, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime. You're doing the interview. I picked you because, frankly, I'd never heard of you, but that's OK," Trump said. "You're not being very nice."

Moran again tried to move to another question, but Trump wasn't having it.

"Terry, do you want me to show you the picture?"

"I saw the picture."

Moran kept trying to move on - even saying "agree to disagree" - but Trump kept insisting: "No, no: He had ‘MS' as clear as you can be, not ‘interpreted.' This is why people no longer believe the news, because it's fake news."

The exchange was emblematic of the Trump administration's unconstitutional deportation agenda, which seems to be predicated on doing anything possible to label immigrants gang members and then banishing them to a Salvadoran prison without due process. When Moran pressed Trump about the apparent illegality of the deportations and the court orders blocking them, the president passed the buck to the Justice Department. "I'll have to ask the lawyers about that," was a typical response.

Of course, the interview touched on several other lowlights from Trump's second first 100 days. Moran asked the president what he said to people who felt that the president was acting recklessly in his tariff and economic policy, and that they "didn't sign up for this."

Trump replied that the people who voted for him "did sign up for it, actually."

"This is what I campaigned on," Trump added. "I said that we have been abused by other countries at levels that nobody's ever seen before. We were losing $3-5 billion a day on trade."

When asked if he had a message for "small businesses who are saying we can't live two months with these tariffs," or was willing to offer them a break like his administration did for Apple and other major companies, the president deflected: "Not only Apple. We have $7 to $8 trillion being invested in our country in two months. Biden didn't have that for over a year. I mean, if you look at Biden, nobody was really investing in this country. Everybody was ripping off our country."

Trump said that "everything's going to be just fine. It wouldn't have been if I didn't do this. I had a choice, I could leave it to have a nice, easy time, but I think ultimately you would have had an implosion."

There was tension between Trump and Moran for most of the interview.

When Moran asked Trump whether he had "100-percent confidence" in Pete Hegseth, his scandal-plagued defense secretary, the president replied "I don't have 100-percent confidence in anything," adding that it was a "stupid question" and that he doesn't even have "100-percent confidence that we're going to finish this interview."

[PhaelixWW]

So hey, remember that photo of Garcia that had MS-13 photoshopped right onto it, well Trump thinks those were real tattoos. Not that the MS-13 was what the tattoos already on his fingers were being interpreted as, but the actual photoshopped MS-13 was actual tattoos.

Called it:

That all being said, I'd not put it past Trump to think the "MS13" on that page are literally tattoos.

[Mazza]

I swear, the entire point of this timeline is to drive The Onion out of business

Lindsey Graham:

I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!

The first Pope-U.S. President combination has many upsides. Watching for white smoke…. Trump MMXXVIII!

[Dontrike]

I swear, the entire point of this timeline is to drive The Onion out of business

What a talent to speak so fluently while having a cock in one's mouth.

[Odinfrost]

It's! A! Cult! And anyone who says otherwise are delusional!

[Nightmare Queen]

So hey, remember that photo of Garcia that had MS-13 photoshopped right onto it, well Trump thinks those were real tattoos. Not that the MS-13 was what the tattoos already on his fingers were being interpreted as, but the actual photoshopped MS-13 was actual tattoos. When told that they were photoshopped on, he dug in and argued against it.

He just fell for some fake news

[PhaelixWW]

So hey, remember that photo of Garcia that had MS-13 photoshopped right onto it, well Trump thinks those were real tattoos. Not that the MS-13 was what the tattoos already on his fingers were being interpreted as, but the actual photoshopped MS-13 was actual tattoos. When told that they were photoshopped on, he dug in and argued against it.

When you watch it, it's even worse than imagined.

Here's a link cued up at the correct time, otherwise you can watch below and scroll to the 7 minute mark:




...


History will not be kind.

[Paranoid Android]

US economy contracted at 0.3% rate in first quarter ahead of Trump tariffs

www.ft.com/content/104e...

https://bsky.app/profile/financialti.../3lnzshdvr6y2j

Q4 was 2.4%. So a crater

[Draco-Onis]

I swear, the entire point of this timeline is to drive The Onion out of business

This cannot be real, please be fake.

[En Sabah Nur]

When you watch it, it's even worse than imagined.

Here's a link cued up at the correct time, otherwise you can watch below and scroll to the 7 minute mark:



...

History will not be kind.

This interview, plus his rally last night... I'm so very tired.

Its been 100 days. Why does it feel like its been years?!

Well, other than the fact his rally material hasn't really changed in years, I guess.

Has. Not. Changed.

[Breccia]

Q4 was 2.4%. So a crater

Not even FOX News can put a positive spin on this.

Economists expected GDP to grow at a 0.3% rate

Hey, I didn't say they didn't try.

*ding*

The decline in GDP was attributed primarily to an increase in imports, which count as a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, as well as a decrease in government spending. Those shifts were partially offset by increases in investment, consumer spending and exports.

Later, they begrudgingly admit the surge of imports was people trying to dodge Trump's tariffs. Then, they show a graph of quarterly GDPs that happens to start just after Trump's COVID losses.

It's actually kind of adorable seeing them desperately floundering for an answer other than "Trump did this by his direct words and actions". Kind of like watching @tehdang explaining why it's okay to deport American citizens if you allow forced confessions from their parents as evidence.

Personal saving as a percentage of personal income was 4% in the first quarter, up from 3.7% in the fourth quarter

"That's good!"

though it's down from 5.4% in the first quarter of 2024.

"That's bad."

Federal spending on national defense activities was down 8%

"That's good!"

while nondefense spending declined just 1%.

"That's bad."

The toppings contain monosodium glutemate.

Ryan Sweet, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote that "GDP is backward-looking but there was some good news as real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the engine of the economy, posted a decent gain."

"This will be tested as the economy is being hit now by several shocks, including tariffs, supply-chain stress, tighter financial market conditions and uncertainty, but the daily data imply that the engine of the economy didn't stall early this quarter," he said.

"Does he not know what 'stall' means?"

It's a small shop you open at a farmer's market, because you don't have the goods or money to open a real store, because the economy stopped moving.

So FOX News is desperate, no surprise there, but at least most of what they cherry picked were actual objective truths. Most. Did economists really predict a 0.3% growth? That sounds suspicious. Let me check.

The U.S. economy was forecast to show 0.8% growth in the first three months of 2025, according to the average estimate of economists polled by FactSet.

Oh...wow, FOX News picked a worse estimate than was available. Damn. Hey, remember when Trump demanded criminal investigations into his bad polls, a direct attack on the Constitution that @tehdang supports and approves of? He's already yelled at FOX News once, recently, for daring to have an accurate pollster on their team who said something other than "Trump is amazing and his cock tastes like cherry cola". I wonder if he'll see this.

So, yeah, a quick look around the hotsheets and everyone was expecting sub-1% growth. We'd talked about a decline before, but those estimates were revised up. So, even if a later Q1 revision moves this up a full percentage point, making it positive, Trump will still miss forecasts.

And, again, all of this is pre-tariffs. Including the one-off surge of imports.

[PhaelixWW]

The toppings contain monosodium glutemate potassium benzoate.

"Can I go now?"

[NED funded]

https://bsky.app/profile/financialti.../3lnzshdvr6y2j

Q4 was 2.4%. So a crater

In case it isnt clear we are still running on the stockpiles of business have prepared ahead. Some of the news that are coming from ports are brutal

[Breccia]

"Can I go now?"

Yeah...I couldn't play the video at work

- - - Updated - - -

In case it isnt clear we are still running on the stockpiles of business have prepared ahead. Some of the news that are coming from ports are brutal

Some?

Port of Los Angeles says shipping volume will plummet 35% next week as China tariffs start to bite

Trump tariffs prompt slump in shipments to US ports

Tariff tit-for-tat has Seattle waiting for the ships to come in

I know you're just being cautious, and that's fine I'm not mocking/faulting you for that. But the only good news from ports are "that picture about Seattle having zero ships is fake".

[Draco-Onis]

In case it isnt clear we are still running on the stockpiles of business have prepared ahead. Some of the news that are coming from ports are brutal

It's even worse for transportation trucking companies are going bankrupt even UPS has announced massive layoffs. Even if Trump changed his mind tomorrow this type of damage will be hard to reverse even for a competent administration with a plan.

- - - Updated - - -

Measles Cases Climb to 800 in United States as Outbreak Spreads Across Borders

he CDC has reported a total of 800 measles cases across the nation. Although the outbreak remains most concentrated in Texas, cases have now been confirmed in at least 24 states, as well as across the borders into Mexico and Canada. This represents a 12% increase from the prior week. The outbreak has led to 2 confirmed pediatric deaths and 1 case that is still under investigation. As efforts to curb the outbreak continue, the CDC reports that cases of measles are underreported.1-4

“We do believe that there’s quite a large amount of cases that are not reported and underreported,” David Sugerman, MD, a senior scientist leading the CDC’s measles response, told NBC News. “In working very closely with our colleagues in Texas and in talking with families, they may mention prior cases that have recovered and never received testing or other families that may have cases and never sought treatment.”4

We're now spreading contagious diseases to Mexico and Canada something something MAHA I guess /s

[NED funded]

“This is [former President Joe] Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

“Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang,’” he claimed.

“This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!” Trump wrote.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/30/trum...-overhang.html

We are going to keep hearing this well into 2026 lol

[Breccia]

Well, they did sign up for it, actually. And this is what I campaigned on.

-- Trump, in public, on purpose

This is Biden's Stock Market, not Trump's.

I didn't take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers.

-- also Trump, in public, on purpose.

These are both talking about the same thing, namely, the drop in the stock market (the GDP report did not come out before the ABC News interview) The first was from an ABC News interview by Trump on Trump's first 100 days. The second is from Truth Social, I'm not linking that, anyone who cares clearly follows it already.

So, in addition to @tehdang admitting he is a terrorist supporter and traitor to the Constitution, I will give him the chance to comment on these clearly contradictory statements about the damage done to the stock market, and by extension, the GDP and economy. If it was what Trump campaigned and ran on, that people voted for, as Trump said, then it is not Biden's stock market. By contrast, if it was Biden's stock market, and Trump campaigned and ran on it, either Trump wanted something else (not shown) or Trump wanted the same thing (that's admission of blame).

But we all know @tehdang will not respond. There's no positive spin here, plus he's busy explaining why deporting American children is a good thing due to nitpicking semantics.

EDIT: Incidentally, Trump seems to be hiding behind "people voted for this". Remember his TIME interview?

‘24, yeah. ‘20, of course. But ‘24 also, they tried. They tried that. They did their best. It's the only thing they're good at. But we're gonna have a great country again. Just remember, every single question you're asking, I campaigned on it. I campaigned on all the things you're talking about, all the things you're asking about, and openly campaigned. And we're given credit, even by radical left lunatics. We are given credit for that. We're given credit for saying, This is what I'm going to do. If you look at your questions, that's what I campaigned on.

Full context here.

Can you imagine, being so horrible at your job, you blame the people who hired you? Oh, and @tehdang Trump just blamed you for what's going on, because you voted for this. On purpose. Oddly enough, I agree with Trump on this one. Do you want to deny that this what you voted for, on purpose? Because your failure to say otherwise means, yes, you are taking the blame for this one.

[Paranoid Android]

Peter Navarro on CNBC reacts to the shrinking GDP number by insisting it's actually good news because if you strip out the effect of tariffs "you have 3 percent growth. So we really like where we're at now."

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1917576...Vzclh4KfQ&s=19

I really don't want to post all the stupid shit the Trump toadies are going to stay today, but Holy Crap.