Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Gelannerai]

Or Lizard Nazi?

Jamming out to Snake Jazz on the freeway heading towards his 18th DUI.

[Nightmare Queen]

Pete Hegseth SSecretary of War



Clerical error or Nazi reference in plain sight, call it

Maybe he's a snake

[Mayhem]

But, again, this is the level of incompetence we're seeing. Team Trump can't get a good makeup artist, despite decades in show business. That's embarrassing. Trump doesn't just hold his palm forward, hold a present, ask Melania to stand in front of him, or any of a dozen things you, me, or any carbon-based life form could have come up with to hide the bandage? That's just fucking stupid.

I mean that, or just edit the picture before releasing it to the press.

[some guy]

Maybe he's a snake

Even the placard of his name is slurring.

[DarkTZeratul]

I mean that, or just edit the picture before releasing it to the press.

They did, because Trump is rather obviously photoshopped into that picture to begin with.

[Odinfrost]

Even the placard of his name is slurring.

Where's the like button on this site?! I need to like this comment, dammit.

I guess you just get this appreciative reply.

[Breccia]

I mean that, or just edit the picture before releasing it to the press.

I don't give them enough credit to do that realistically, either, but it's definitely an option that they should have entertained over the truth.

- - - Updated - - -

We’re going to be giving back refunds out of the tariffs because we’ve taken in literally trillions of dollars, and we’re going to be giving a nice dividend to the people, in addition to reducing debt. As you know, I inherited a lot of debt, but it’s peanuts compared to the kind of numbers we’re talking about.

So we’re going to be making a dividend to the people and additionally we’re going to be able to reduce debt, and as time goes by over the next two, three, four years, those numbers are going to go up.

Trump said this, in public, on purpose. Even said it at a cabinet meeting and nobody objected, of course. Naturally, everyone with common sense knows this is false.

This is hardly the first time he's made such blatantly objectively false statements on this issue. Let's start with the Motley Fool.

Earlier this year, President Trump said, "From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation, and the United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been."

That statement is patently false. Real GDP per person has increased tenfold since 1900, which means Americans generally have a much higher living standard today.

Trump has made similar claims on other occasions. "Tariff power will bring America national security and wealth the likes of which has never been seen before," he wrote on social media in November. Trump has even proposed using tariffs to eliminate individual income tax, or else to pay Americans (excluding high earners) a $2,000 dividend check.

Unfortunately, those plans are disconnected from reality. The new tariffs are projected to bring in $210 billion in 2026. That sum is nowhere near enough to offset individual income tax, which totaled $2.6 trillion last year. Nor is it enough to cover $2,000 dividend checks, which would cost more than $600 billion, depending on who actually gets the payments, according to the Tax Foundation.

However, there is a more fundamental problem with Trump's tariffs: Historical information suggests they will not make America wealthier. A recent study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco examines 150 years' worth of data and arrives at this conclusion: Tariffs will lead to higher unemployment and slower economic growth.

The study attributes those outcomes to economic uncertainty. Consumer sentiment tends to worsen during periods of uncertainty, which reduces economic growth by suppressing demand and prompting companies to hire fewer people. Indeed, those circumstances are already coming to fruition: Consumer sentiment fell to the second-lowest reading in history in November after the unemployment rate increased to 4.4% in October, the highest level in four years.

The article has other bad news, but it's for another thread.

Fortune magazine continues the current topic.

Donald Trump has made some big promises about his tariff regime. It will help pay down the national debt, he has said, and the scheme is also so wildly successful that it will pay dividends—literally—to the American people.

But the math doesn’t quite add up.

In his cabinet meeting Tuesday, Trump [EDITOR: the quote above]

He then suggested, vaguely, that in the future Americans would not need to pay income tax: “I believe that at some point in the not too distant future, you won’t even have income tax to pay because the money we’re taking in is so great.”

While it is true that tariffs are estimated to bring in trillions of dollars to the U.S. economy in the longer term, the regime, which was fully announced in April, has yet to rake in that level of cash. Per U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, for the fiscal year 2025 updated as of August, America generated $195.9 billion in customs duties. This, of course, only captures some of the revenues tariffs will generate as they kick in: In October, duties brought in an all-time monthly record of $31.4 billion, up from $29.7 billion in September.

Even then, the yearly generated income still sits comfortably within a $300 billion to $400 billion bracket, which is not even a fraction of the interest payments on America’s national debt obligation. For fiscal year 2025, interest payments on national debt came to $1.22 trillion, and mere months of fiscal year 2026 have already cost the government $104 billion at a rate of 3.355%.

On top of that, economists are also scaling back their projections of how much the tariff scheme will generate in the long haul. In late November, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported: “In total, the tariff changes will reduce deficits by $3 trillion.” This is a 13-figure downgrade on projections made only a matter of months prior, when the CBO said it expected “tariffs will reduce total deficits by $4 trillion altogether.”

The CBO explained: “Roughly two-thirds of the downward revisions result from adjustments to reflect new data. Modifications to tariffs, which on net lowered the effective tariff rate (although rates on certain products were higher in November than they were in August), also reduced the estimated effect on the deficit.”

Obviously, everyone knows Trump is lying, because Trump is speaking. The important thing is that lies are all he has. There are no realistic or reasonable numbers in reality that match what Trump is saying, but because what Trump is doing is costing so many Americans so much (lost income, lost jobs, lost houses, record levels of credit card debt, etc) he feels he has no choice but to say "everything you see is fake, you are actually doing very well". And since that isn't working either

'Affordability is a con job by the Democrats,' Trump says

he had to change his tune to "well it will get better because I'll write you a check". And yes, anyone who claims they believe Trump will pay what he promises is lying or insane.

Yeah, the money he's talking about does not exist. He's making it up. I'll keep saying it as long as he keeps lying-

"So, forever?"

I mean, he'll die eventually. But he keeps not just overstating tariff revenue by one or two orders of magnitude, he keeps promising they'll pay multiple things at once when they can't. Halt income tax for even a portion of Americans, and also give everyone a check, and also reduce the deficit? As pointed out above, the tariffs could remain as high as they were last month we saw and they wouldn't even meet interest payments. Trump's own BLS says there are 121,000,000 working Americans. Giving a $2,000 check to the lower half of them would be $120 billion, also known as "even that small number of workers is over half of what was collected, plus those of you whose wife is in the kitchen fuck you and your wife and your kids".

Congress won't do it.

Congress won't do it.

No really, Congress won't do it. That last one's the WSJ.

And yet Trump doesn't change his tune. The only person saying it will happen is Trump.

So why does he keep repeating a lie that not even his own voters and party believes? Well, he's senile and retarded. But beyond that, Trump wants everyone to love him. So he's promising something he cannot provide, so when Congress says "No we're not removing income tax, no we're not giving you a check for $2000 and no we're not bringing prices down" he can blame them.

Incidentally, only Trump thinks that will work, too. I don't think the GOP is ready to go with this one. Already they're discussing lower numbers like $600 while cutting food stamps and Social Security. Did anyone else see those new Dell grants? They're planning for failure, because they are following Trump and know failure is all they're getting.

Trump either knows it won't work, and is manipulatively lying just to make himself look good, or he's too senile and too retarded to be in charge.

And just to make it clear: I'm saying even Trump knows Trump won't return the money he stole by raising taxes on every American without oversight or approval. All tariffs have done is make things worse, and Trump wants to die before people blame him for his own actions he did in public on purpose.

[Edge-]

'Affordability is a con job by the Democrats,' Trump says

I hope Democrats send him a nice gift basket for the ad he just cut for them.

- - - Updated - - -

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/03/nx-s1...general-report

A Pentagon watchdog has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked the safety of U.S. servicemembers by sharing sensitive military information on the Signal messaging app, according to a source who has reviewed the forthcoming inspector general report.

The report, which is expected to be released as early as Thursday, was launched after a journalist for The Atlantic revealed in March that he had been added to a chat on the encrypted messaging app in which Hegseth and other top officials were discussing plans for U.S. airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

A summary of the report provided to NPR finds that had a foreign adversary intercepted the intelligence discussed in the chat, it would have endangered both U.S. servicemembers and the mission at large.

Clean opsec.

The report concludes that Hegseth, who sent the information about targets, timing and aircraft to two Signal groups, including his wife and brother, violated Pentagon policies about using personal phones for official business. Hegseth would not sit for an interview with investigators, the report said, and would only provide a written response.

lel

In his response, Hegseth stated that he was able to declassify information; the inspector general did not determine whether Hegseth had declassified information in the chat by the time it was shared, but acknowledged that, as secretary of defense, he had the authority to do so.

Ah, "Sure it's dangerous and stupid but I'm allowed to do it!" is a compelling argument.

"The Inspector General review is a TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along — no classified information was shared. This matter is resolved, and the case is closed," Parnell said.

Liars continue lying lyingly because they're incompetent, malicious liars.

[Gorsameth]

Ah we're back to 'I telepathically willed to be declassified despite not knowing it was being shared publicly at the time.

Time travelling telepathy, amazing super power.

[Darththeo]

Trump's White House bragging that they have had as many Cabinet Meetings than Biden. (Source: https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1996...133441231?s=20 )

And Trump supporters are impressed because he is clearly "leading" by doing this.

And I just wonder more and more how these people can't see the obvious stage show these people are putting on.

The issue with this is Cabinet meetings shouldn't be necessary if the government is working smoothly. They are fine for updates, but they are often used to deal with department butting heads over something and mediation is needed. Just having more often is a sign of more disfunction, not less.

[Edge-]

Trump's White House bragging that they have had as many Cabinet Meetings than Biden. (Source: https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1996...133441231?s=20 )

And Trump supporters are impressed because he is clearly "leading" by doing this.

And I just wonder more and more how these people can't see the obvious stage show these people are putting on.

The issue with this is Cabinet meetings shouldn't be necessary if the government is working smoothly. They are fine for updates, but they are often used to deal with department butting heads over something and mediation is needed. Just having more often is a sign of more disfunction, not less.

i hope the next president hosts 9 cabinet meetings in 9 days and ends with "see how fucking pointless this all was? now we all have more important things to do and are getting back to work"

god these people are so fucking pathetic from top to bottom

[Darththeo]

i hope the next president hosts 9 cabinet meetings in 9 days and ends with "see how fucking pointless this all was? now we all have more important things to do and are getting back to work"

god these people are so fucking pathetic from top to bottom

Honestly, I don't know what is more pathetic. The fact the entire Trump administration thinks the shows are a good idea or the people who are falling for it despite Trump's administration not even doing a good job at pretending they can govern.

Like I saw the tweet today and was like, there is no way people are believing this ... and while I can't be certain they aren't all bots or foreign accounts; there were a few who were definitely real people.

[Draco-Onis]

Honestly, I don't know what is more pathetic. The fact the entire Trump administration thinks the shows are a good idea or the people who are falling for it despite Trump's administration not even doing a good job at pretending they can govern.

Like I saw the tweet today and was like, there is no way people are believing this ... and while I can't be certain they aren't all bots or foreign accounts; there were a few who were definitely real people.

He still has a 36% approval rating so it's working, the Trump administration is basically an IQ test for the American people and so many people are failing badly.

[Edge-]

Honestly, I don't know what is more pathetic. The fact the entire Trump administration thinks the shows are a good idea or the people who are falling for it despite Trump's administration not even doing a good job at pretending they can govern.

Like I saw the tweet today and was like, there is no way people are believing this ... and while I can't be certain they aren't all bots or foreign accounts; there were a few who were definitely real people.

very much the latter

the administration knows they just have to "look like they're doing things" to convince the cultists that Things Are Indeed Actually Happening Because I Said So, Sir. because it's a cult, all you need is a bit of performative theater to keep the cult members in line.

[Breccia]

Consumer confidence has started chewing through the bottom of the barrel.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® declined by 6.8 points in November to 88.7 (1985=100) from 95.5 in October. The Present Situation Index—based on consumers’ assessment of current business and labor market conditions—fell by 4.3 points to 126.9. The Expectations Index—based on consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions—fell by 8.6 points to 63.2. The Expectations Index has tracked below 80 for ten consecutive months, the threshold under which the gauge signals recession ahead. The cutoff for preliminary results was November 18, 2025.

“Consumer confidence tumbled in November to its lowest level since April after moving sideways for several months,” said Dana M Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference Board. “All five components of the overall index flagged or remained weak. The Present Situation Index dipped as consumers were less sanguine about current business and labor market conditions. The labor market differential—the share of consumers who say jobs are 'plentiful' minus the share saying 'hard to get'—dipped again in November after a brief respite in October from its year-to-date decline. All three components of the Expectations Index deteriorated in November. Consumers were notably more pessimistic about business conditions six months from now. Mid-2026 expectations for labor market conditions remained decidedly negative, and expectations for increased household incomes shrunk dramatically, after six months of strongly positive readings.”

Also, the St. Louis Fed has Consumer Sentiment dropping since Trump took office. It is now nearly as low as the lost point in Biden's tenure, 2022. It improved a lot since, then Trump destroyed it, except without killing a million people. He just destroyed it because he felt like it.

[Cthulhu 2020]

I do find it funny that people on this forum are still needing news sources to tell them what is happening in the world, especially when all of the pentagon and white house press corp has been gutted and replaced with propagandizing yes-men. Like if you believe any of the current news organizations affiliated with this administration in any friendly way, you're just straight up consuming propaganda.

[Edge-]

I do find it funny that people on this forum are still needing news sources to tell them what is happening in the world, especially when all of the pentagon and white house press corp has been gutted and replaced with propagandizing yes-men. Like if you believe any of the current news organizations affiliated with this administration in any friendly way, you're just straight up consuming propaganda.

Your alternative to "having reputable and trustworthy sources of news" is...?

[Kaleredar]

I do find it funny that people on this forum are still needing news sources to tell them what is happening in the world, especially when all of the pentagon and white house press corp has been gutted and replaced with propagandizing yes-men. Like if you believe any of the current news organizations affiliated with this administration in any friendly way, you're just straight up consuming propaganda.

…who here is doing that?

Most of the articles posted here are about how shit under trump sucks and lots of people know it.

[Captain N]

I see the US has once again become the "Comforting Lies" and "Unpleasant Truths" meme for 36% of the population....

[s_bushido]

I do find it funny that people on this forum are still needing news sources to tell them what is happening in the world, especially when all of the pentagon and white house press corp has been gutted and replaced with propagandizing yes-men. Like if you believe any of the current news organizations affiliated with this administration in any friendly way, you're just straight up consuming propaganda.

Huh? Who here believes anything this administration has to say? Much less when it comes from the DoD, DoJ, or DHS?