Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Ivanstone]

behind a paywall, unusual for FOX News

https://archive.ph/VZ2vS

[Breccia]

https://archive.ph/VZ2vS

Thanks, but their kung-fu is weak. The issue isn't I couldn't read it, I could, the issue was them trying to block how shitty their "poll" was.

Speaking of weak:

Well, first of all, they're fake polls. And if you take a look at the polls, they interviewed more for the most part, they interviewed more Democrats and they did Republicans, which is ridiculous and unfair, and Democrats aren't voting for Trump. And you look at him, John McLaughlin, who's the most respected pollster, said, I'm at fifty, fifty-five, and maybe even higher than that. And he said that these polls are largely fake. When you look at the New York Times, when you look at the Washington Post, ABC, they predicted I was going to lose Wisconsin by 17 points, and I ended up winning Wisconsin.

Trump literally phoned in his town hall with Bill O'Reilly. And that's not even the biggest whopper of a lie he told.

The president faced a grilling from author and journalist Bill O’Reilly and sports pundit Stephen A Smith, as well as moderator Chris Cuomo. However, responding to a question from an audience member about what he believed his biggest mistake from his first 100 days was, Trump was blunt.

“I’ll tell you, that's the toughest question I can have, because I don't really believe I’ve made any mistakes,” he said.

"Maybe he doesn't believe he's made mistakes."

He's objectively breaking campaign promises and losing most court cases. Believing those are the results of him making no mistakes is some form of insanity.

Naturally, O'Reilly let Trump say whatever he wanted without challenge or correction.

[alach]

Sorry for yet another CNN piece but I can't help myself in hammering home the global effects of the "Trump Slump"

First Canada, now Australia? Conservatives fear the Trump slump is spreading

Political analysts say comparisons to Trump have eaten away at any lead Dutton had over incumbent center-left Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is topping opinion polls before Saturday’s vote.
He’s been accused of stoking culture wars, claims Australia takes in too many migrants, and days ago branded the nation’s public broadcaster “hate media.”

“His instincts are those of a right-wing populist. I have no doubt about that, so they do bear resemblance to the kind of politics and rhetoric we’ve associated with Trump,” said Frank Bongiorno, professor of history at the Australian National University.
Dutton also faces the potential ignominy of losing his own seat in parliament, as happened to Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre. Dutton holds Dickson, a constituency in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, by just 1.7% – and rivals are circling.

Australia is seeing “a diluted version” of the Canada trend, according to Marija Taflaga, director of the Center for the Study of Australian Politics at the Australian National University.

Joe Scarborough would repeatedly remind his viewers that from 2016 to 2022, trump won one election out of like six. Sure, he won one more since then, but in general the trump brand is still a loser across the world.

[Captain N]

So Trump managed to lose the election in Canada and now he's setup to lose in Australia. This must be all that winning he's been telling us about....winning for the Liberals that is.

[s_bushido]

So Trump managed to lose the election in Canada and now he's setup to lose in Australia. This must be all that winning he's been telling us about....winning for the Liberals that is.

At least there's some good news to come out of this debacle. Fingers crossed we actually get elections in 2026 and 28 so he can lose there as well...

[zorkuus]

moran is still a bit of a coward

it's not contested

you don't just move on

it's a lie, it's not true, it's fictitious.

continuing to refuse to call this out to his face and to the public is how we got donald trump again to begin with

This 100%. It's so infuriating to watch. CALL HIM THE F OUT. If he continues to lie, say it's not true. Call it a lie. Over and over again. Show the evidence straight to his stupid orange face. He will look like the idiot, not the reporter. What the hell are they afraid of?

[btlcryct]

This 100%. It's so infuriating to watch. CALL HIM THE F OUT. If he continues to lie, say it's not true. Call it a lie. Over and over again. Show the evidence straight to his stupid orange face. He will look like the idiot, not the reporter. What the hell are they afraid of?

Sadly I think they're afraid of losing money more than honest reporting. This administration has shown they'll cut off access to Trump, see the AP, if they say anything but glowing praise about him. If they lose access, they lose ad revenue, so gotta play nice and give him softball questions and don't follow up on anything questionable.

[Breccia]

Sadly I think they're afraid of losing money more than honest reporting.

Yes. And that would happen, if they acted alone. All news agencies that aren't FOX News could take care of this with one Zoom meeting. "We're going to say objective falsehoods are objective falsehoods, even to Trump's face. Anything else is not reporting the truth." Bullies lose power when their victims remember they outnumber him.

"But that sounds like a conspiracy!"

Merriam-Webster defines conspiring involved with "something unlawful or wrong". News agencies admitting they will tell objective truths is neither.

[zorkuus]

This whole access journalism thing is the dumbest thing to begin with. If you're not doing journalism then find another fucking job. These muppets are just so sad and pathetic.

[btlcryct]

Yes. And that would happen, if they acted alone. All news agencies that aren't FOX News could take care of this with one Zoom meeting. "We're going to say objective falsehoods are objective falsehoods, even to Trump's face. Anything else is not reporting the truth." Bullies lose power when their victims remember they outnumber him.

"But that sounds like a conspiracy!"

Merriam-Webster defines conspiring involved with "something unlawful or wrong". News agencies admitting they will tell objective truths is neither.

Completely agree, except I don't know if it'd even need that. I think all it would take is for one of these new agencies to stand up to him regardless of the outcome, and more will jump on it. Kind of reminds me of something we had happen here in CT about 18 years ago. We hada horrible ice storm during the work week. No major corporation would let their employees leave early. Finally one blinked and did, and then all of a sudden all of them did. And that majorly clogged all the streets with all those people let out at the same time. It normally took me about 10-15 minutes to drive home. That day it took almost 2 hours because traffic wasn't moving. Which also meant they couldn't plow/treat the roads. The governor tore all these companies apart afterwards. I think something similar could happen here, one news company has to blink and then others will pile on. I realize this is very much a tangent, but basically saying one of them has to grow some balls and then I think we'll see others do the same, regardless of the outcome. But for now they're content earning that money playing nice.

- - - Updated - - -

This whole access journalism thing is the dumbest thing to begin with. If you're not doing journalism then find another fucking job. These muppets are just so sad and pathetic.

Yup. Today's journalism would be on par with the National Enquirer and World Weekly News 30-40 years ago. How long before we see Batboy as a member of his cabinet.

[Odinfrost]

This whole access journalism thing is the dumbest thing to begin with. If you're not doing journalism then find another fucking job. These muppets are just so sad and pathetic.

That's not the problem.
The problem is that you need access to do journalism which means journalists need to be careful instead of pursuing the truth.
Because it's worse to be unable to do anything than having to be soft, because when you're soft, you can still press to *some* degree.

[Gorsameth]

Yes. And that would happen, if they acted alone. All news agencies that aren't FOX News could take care of this with one Zoom meeting. "We're going to say objective falsehoods are objective falsehoods, even to Trump's face. Anything else is not reporting the truth." Bullies lose power when their victims remember they outnumber him.

"But that sounds like a conspiracy!"

Merriam-Webster defines conspiring involved with "something unlawful or wrong". News agencies admitting they will tell objective truths is neither.

Are you aware that Fox News is like 2/3's of the market and their viewers are living in a bubble?

[TACOshake]

Down goes Walz! He's down.... The “adult in the room” is the first one out, shocking!



Iron Law of History; The GOP is filled with infinite fuckwits. For every dumbo that gets fired, I can probably name a GOP thats dumber.




Signal Chat is saying Witkoff is up on deck, another win for Undecided?!


**Spits out coffee**

Eva Braun 3.0 is taking credit for Walz's ouster. LOL

[Edge-]

look at laura loomer

the anti-cancel-culture warrior

bragging about cancelling that man

honestly the fact that the women who handcuffed herself to the front doors of twitter's offices to protest her account getting banned and was just left there and ignored because nobody cared having influence in the oval office is an indictment on this entire nation

[Breccia]

Eva Braun 3.0 is taking credit for Walz's ouster. LOL

Reported outster. Bear in mind, Trump has an image he's trying to salvage, he might insist his people stop fleeing the sinking ship. Not that the story is false, not at all. Just that Trump might try to force a course reversal to save what's important: his image.

But CBS, CNN, and the WSJ all say they all have multiple sources. Either he wants to leave, which is funny, or people want him to leave, which is even funnier.

[Edge-]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-has...ys-2025-05-01/

The United States has approached China seeking talks over President Donald Trump's 145% tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state media said on Thursday, potentially signalling Beijing's openness to negotiations.

"The U.S. has proactively reached out to China through multiple channels, hoping to hold discussions on the tariff issue," Yuyuan Tantian said in a post published on its official Weibo social media account, citing anonymous sources.

U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett, also expressed hope for progress in easing trade tensions.

Hassett told CNBC that there have been "loose discussions all over both governments" about the tariffs and China's easing of duties on some U.S. goods last week was a sign of progress.

Beijing has made little effort to contain its anger at the tariffs, which it says are tantamount to bullying and cannot stop the rise of the world's second-largest economy. Instead, it has directed its fury at rallying public and global condemnation of the import curbs - showing no interest in a reprieve.

In some positive and stupid news: Donald is losing his game of chicken with China.

Again.

[Breccia]

So, shell we talk about egg prices?

This is an OP ED but like many OP EDs the author does cite sources, such as this one:

Egg prices reached another record high last month. It now costs American shoppers an average of $6.23 for a dozen eggs — nearly a five-fold increase since 2020.

Yet while families have been squeezed by grocery sticker shock, agriculture corporations have been raking in record profits. Cal-Maine, the country’s largest egg producer, took in $509 million this quarter alone, tripling its profits from a year ago.

Gouging consumers is bad enough. But it gets worse: Cal-Maine and other ag companies were breaking the bank at the same time they were also quietly getting millions in taxpayer-funded relief payments from the federal government. Congress and the Trump administration must put a stop to this: No company that is getting corporate subsidies should be allowed to hike prices and extract windfall profits from American consumers.

Citations in those three paragraphs:

https://apnews.com/article/egg-price...277c9c63396a76

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/APU0000708111

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...ase-cal-maine/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...ase-cal-maine/

You know, actual real sources. Not Some Concerned Guy claiming the are down at his local store.

So the OP ED goes on, but I'll jump straight to my point for once: if egg prices are down at the store, but only because of government taxpayer subsidies...are egg prices really down? Or are you paying for eggs you'll never eat?

Bear in mind, we already saw this kind of thing from COVID. Once a price goes up, it stays there. If people are willing to pay $XXX a dozen in April, they'll pay $XXX or even $XXX.50 a dozen in May. Or June. Hell, the XBox just jumped in price, you think it's coming back down? The Switch 2 sure ain't.

Of course, forcing companies to stop price-gouging and just keeping the profits...yeah, nobody here expects either Trump (convicted fraud) or the GOP (routinely favors businesses) to do anything about that. "That sounds like regulations," they'd say, "and regulations are bad! Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to remove funding from colleges that admit brown people."

- - - Updated - - -

In some positive and stupid news: Donald is losing his game of chicken with China.

Why would China listen to anyone who demonstrably does not have the authority to lower or remove tariffs? Like, what's the opening line in that kind of negotiation? "Mr. China Sir, I know the USA is deliberately damaging your economy in public on purpose and I can't do anything about that...but come on, you know? Come on!"

[Edge-]

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2...t-murder-trial

Lauren Wegner’s parents wrapped their arms around each other in the front row of a Sangamon County courtroom as they braced to learn whether the man who killed their daughter in a 2022 wrong-way crash would be held accountable for her death.

They weren’t alone. Around their necks, Bill and Evelyn Wegner each wore Lauren’s ashes. Evelyn raised her necklace to her lips. She gave it a kiss. Then she listened as a jury returned its verdict Wednesday.

That jury found Shane Jason Woods, a man once convicted for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, guilty of reckless homicide for driving his GMC Sierra the wrong way onto Interstate 55 near Lake Springfield on Nov. 8, 2022, killing Lauren Wegner of Skokie.

But the jury rejected a more serious charge of first-degree murder, as Woods’ defense attorneys had urged them to do.

The verdict followed less than an hour of deliberations.

Woods, 47, testified Wednesday that he drove into oncoming highway traffic in a failed attempt to take his own life, for fear of the federal prison sentence that loomed over his head for assaulting people at the Capitol.

He told the jury he believed “millions and millions of people” hated him.

Now, President Donald Trump has delivered a sweeping pardon to nearly everyone convicted for their role in the Capitol riot. But Woods again faces serious prison time, though not nearly as much as if he’d been convicted of first-degree murder.

MAGA loser facing Jan. 6 charges tries to kill himself by driving head-on into oncoming traffic, kills an innocent woman. 14 years is a pretty light sentence IMO.

Just more examples of the MAGA Master Race and the kinds of people Donald Trump pardoned, including a guy who went on to try to sexually molest a child!

In other news - https://www.npr.org/2025/05/01/nx-s1...te-maria-ressa

Last year, David Koranyi attended his mother's 70th birthday party back home in Hungary, but the indirect route he took highlights the autocratic rule that grips his homeland. Instead of flying straight to Hungary, Koranyi flew to neighboring Austria and then turned off his phone and drove across the border where there was no passport control and he knew he could slip in undetected.

Koranyi runs an organization called Action for Democracy that has mobilized Hungarians overseas to vote back home, where political scientists say Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has tilted the electoral landscape toward his ruling party. The government says Koranyi threatens Hungary's sovereignty; pro-government media routinely call him an "enemy of the state."

"Friends and even embassies in Hungary ... told me that maybe it's better if I don't come back to Hungary anytime soon," says Koranyi, who was concerned Orbán's government might try to detain him.

Threats like this are one reason Koranyi came to America and became a citizen in 2022. So, he's been struck to see U.S. government agents stopping and aggressively questioning people — including citizens, tourists and green-card holders — returning to America.

They include Michigan lawyer Amir Makled, who was stopped at Detroit Metro Airport in early April as he returned from a family vacation. Makled, who said agents asked to search his phone, thinks he was targeted because he represents a pro-Palestinian protester at the University of Michigan.

Reporting on NPR about some folks who fled authoritarianism elsewhere seeing the same behaviors they fled happening in America right now, at the direction of Donald Trump and the Republican party.

[david0925]

Somewhatconcerned has been a bit quiet recently. Did they pull his funding?

Just another notthatconcerned question

[Breccia]

https://apnews.com/article/trump-par...7cf52d5a606d19

Blue lives matter. But not as much as loyalists getting the Trump lift.

Expanding on this:

Michele Fiore is a possibly former Nevada judge, we'll get back to the "possible" later.

On June 8, 2014, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo were gunned down while they were on their lunch break in northeast Las Vegas. Fiore claimed to raise money for statues for the fallen officers, and some of the high-profile citizens from whom she collected donations were Republican Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo and the Local 872 union boss Tommy White, both of whom testified at trial.

In October 2024, a jury convicted Fiore, suspended in July 2024 from her position as justice court judge in Nye County, after deliberating for two hours. The panel convicted her on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and six counts of wire fraud for taking money meant for fallen police officers’ memorials and spending it on herself.

She raised over $70,000 which is admirable of her donors. Then, she used it to pay for her daughter's wedding, her rent, and plastic surgery for herself.

"Okay...sounds like someone played a stupid game and won stupid prizes. Why are we talking about her?"

Trump pardoned her.

"Okay, but that's stuff we knew from the linked article. Why are you adding to this?"

Well for one, I will take every opportunity to point out, accurately, "People like @tehdang will deport a 2-year-old American citizen against the will of her parents without due process, but will support a judge who stole from a dead cop, and he will do so proudly."

And for two:

On Thursday, April 24, Fiore announced the president’s pardon, signed the day before.

“On Monday, I will walk back into my courtroom as the elected justice of the peace — not because man permitted it, but because God ordained it,” Fiore said in a statement.

Fiore did not appear on Monday when the 8 News Now Investigators visited court.

Now, she is suspended without pay. It's possible she was told "don't come back" and didn't. Of course, that makes her a liar, doesn't it?

And third, of course, "because God ordained it". I want to remind everyone that this is a cult, and it is a religion. Trump supporters are a religion now. This is not an isolated case, either.

Fortunately, we already know we're allowed to discuss religion on these forums, so nothing on our end changes.