Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[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.

[Edge-]

Expanding on this:

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



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:



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.

She seems like another DUI hire.

[Breccia]

MAGA loser facing Jan. 6 charges tries to kill himself by driving head-on into oncoming traffic, kills an innocent woman.

Obviously, depression and suicide are serious topics and I'm not making light of either.

But I will say, this 100% fits in what we know about the religion of Trump. "I am willing to take on substantial damage to myself, as long as it does damage to random innocent people, I still get what I want." Dude could have driven his car into the lake or into the side of a building. Nope. Chose to cross the highway and murder someone. Guy was clearly a sociopath for both events and not a surprise considering who he worships.

[Inuyaki]

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.

Disagree.
Giving legitimacy to fascists is clearly worse than some access.

[Edge-]

Republicans: We don't need gun control for kids and mass shooters, we need more mental health services!

Also Republicans: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/01/nx-s1...-mental-health

The Trump administration says it will stop paying out $1 billion in federal grants that school districts across the country have been using to hire mental health professionals, including counselors and social workers.

The U.S. Department of Education is telling impacted districts that the Biden administration, in awarding the grants, violated "the letter or purpose of Federal civil rights law."

This is a disaster.

Every day is a disaster.

Every day is worse for America and Americans.

The grants were part of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — a bill passed in the aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which a teen gunman killed 19 elementary school students and two adults and injured 17 people. The bill, among other things, poured federal dollars into schools to address rising concerns about a student mental health crisis.

Those dollars helped Superintendent Derek Fialkiewicz in Corbett, Ore., more than triple the number of school mental health professionals in his largely rural district of 1,100 students east of Portland. Before the grants, Fialkiewicz says his district had just two counselors, "and we realized, that's just not sustainable for our students and especially coming out of COVID."

This is Congressionally passed, bipartisan funding. This should be illegal.

But of course Republicans will do nothing about this because they want an unaccountable dictator, even as this harms countless children in their states and districts.

[alach]

Every administration goes through the decisions of the previous to undo the unpopular opinions and policies.
I don't think it will be possible to undo everything trump is doing in a single term. It will take decades to repair this.

Oh and it's only day 102.

[Nymrohd]

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.

So you are saying Trump can get tax-exempt status? Someone should really tell him to try cause I know it will be sad but as someone not in the US, I'll find it hilarious.

[Rasulis]

House votes to overturn California gas car ban — again defying internal watchdog

Still need to pass Senate.

The CRA allows Congress, with a simple majority in both chambers and presidential approval, to reverse recent regulations, evading the Senate filibuster’s 60-vote threshold. It’s sometimes used at the start of a new administration to eliminate regulations put forward by the last one.

However, the 246-164 vote came in defiance of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan congressional watchdog that also issues legal opinions.

That office has determined that because the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval came in the form of a waiver rather than a rule, it is not subject to the CRA.

By holding the votes anyway, House Republicans are demonstrating that they are willing to carry out their agenda regardless of whether the nonpartisan arbiter deems them legal.

It similarly voted to ax EPA waivers allowing California clean truck rules Wednesday — similarly defying the GAO.

Senate Republicans, who also want to target California’s rules, are facing similar circumstances. The Senate parliamentarian, a rules authority for the upper chamber, has also determined that the waivers allowing the rules to go forward are not subject to the CRA.

Senate Republicans have signaled they could seek to defy the parliamentarian but have not yet said definitively whether they actually plan to do so.

If they do, they could be setting up a legal and procedural conundrum — especially as the parliamentarian also sets the rules for what provisions can go into a high-stakes budget package that also evades the filibuster.

If it passes Senate, I am sure it will be heading to litigation.

[Moralgy]

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

Just another notthatconcerned question

He will probably drop by to post about the minerals deal and say "dems are done forever after this boosts the economy". Nothing else can really be spun positively lately.

[Edge-]

House votes to overturn California gas car ban — again defying internal watchdog

Still need to pass Senate.



If it passes Senate, I am sure it will be heading to litigation.

That's fine. California can just ignore the federal decision. What are they gonna do about it? Deny disaster aid they're denying other states already?

[Rasulis]

He will probably drop by to post about the minerals deal and say "dems are done forever after this boosts the economy". Nothing else can really be spun positively lately.

The bizarre case of Ukraine’s ‘rare earths’

And bear in mind that Trump wants scale — $500bn worth of rare earths, to be precise. It is difficult to put an exact monetary value on the rare earths market, and analysts naturally arrive at different figures, but most estimates for 2024 stand at $4bn-12.5bn globally. It would therefore be astonishing for Ukraine to conjure up $500bn worth.

It was a very good deal for Ukraine.

[Endus]

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.

You don't need access. You're offering the potential interviewee the opportunity to tell their side of whatever story you're writing. If they put down unacceptable requirements or refuse the interview outright, you publish anyway, and without their chance to give their side of the story. Which probably makes them look far worse.

That is why they should be inviting you to talk to them. To ensure you can frame the story in the best possible light for you. Because if you don't, and they can corroborate the other side, that's all they'll be reporting, and it's gonna go much worse for you.

A journalist opting to not interview you for your side should be considered a threat. They're not asking for an interview as a gift. They're threatening you with publication without your input.

If you're investigating a company dumping chemicals into the water supply, and they ask the CEO for the interview to explain themselves, that's not to provide a puff piece, and the CEO refusing doesn't mean the story goes away. It means they publish anyway and your company gets destroyed in the media. Offering you a chance to explain yourself is you getting a gift, not you giving one.

Journalists just need to be willing to torch their potential interviewee again. That's how it used to be. You're standing there holding a lit match, and they're doused in gasoline, and they're the one making threats? Throw the fucking match already.

[Milchshake]

Senile Grandpa confims!

Lol so Waltz is getting Stefanik's spot, while Rubio double-hats. Good luck Marco.



Having Rubio do the Kissinger, sure, why not

[Edge-]

Senile Grandpa confims!

Lol so Waltz is getting Stefanik's spot, while Rubio double-hats. Good luck Marco.



Having Rubio do the Kissinger, sure, why not

how many people are holding multiple jobs in this administration now lmao

when is the next white house job fair?

stupid musical chairs continues

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

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

At the same time though...what do you do in that situation? He countered Trump's claims about the Tattoo several times...Trump continued to say "he had those Tattoos". Like...do they just spend the rest of the interview going back and forth with "Yes he did"/"No he didn't"? You know Trump will never ever admit that he's wrong or lying.

At this point there are two kinds of Americans. Those that know that Trump's a liar and won't support him and those that know he's a liar and will.