Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[gondrin]

Well, Trump has now put his name on the US Institute of Peace building and renamed it the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...08e9809cf&ei=7



Because that is what is going to get him his Nobel Peace Prize. /s

[Dontrike]

Well, Trump has now put his name on the US Institute of Peace building and renamed it the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...08e9809cf&ei=7

[IMG]https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1RFSIR.img?w=768&h=432&m=6[/IG]

Because that is what is going to get him his Nobel Peace Prize. /s

I'd be prying those letters off, employment be damned.

[Gorsameth]

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.

like 30% of the population are cultists who would support live broadcasts of Trump shooting random passersby on 5th avenue.

There is a hard floor on approval ratings because people will support 'their side' no matter what. Reaching that floor doesn't show 'its working'.

[Darththeo]

Well, Trump has now put his name on the US Institute of Peace building and renamed it the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...08e9809cf&ei=7



Because that is what is going to get him his Nobel Peace Prize. /s

Trump only wants the Nobel Peace Prize because Obama got one.

That's it, he needs it. Despite his claim for stopping wars is not even dubious but outright disproven by the countries he claimed to have helped stop a war between.

Trump: I stop a war between X and Y countries.
X and Y Countries: Um? No.

[alach]

Being on the world's most reknown pedophile list, nah.
Administration being sued and accused of war crimes at the most, murder in the least. Not important.
Building big buildings and putting my name on them, now that's what really matters!
Priorities folks.

So, Gym Jordan has subpoenaed Jack Smith, you know the guy that has everything on trump, including an all but guaranteed conviction on the documents case, but ran out of time before he could use it. Will be fun to watch this explode like a jelly donut in the face of that drama queen.

[Draco-Onis]

like 30% of the population are cultists who would support live broadcasts of Trump shooting random passersby on 5th avenue.

There is a hard floor on approval ratings because people will support 'their side' no matter what. Reaching that floor doesn't show 'its working'.

Fair enough most of them have voted for him 3 times already.

[Breccia]

Fair enough most of them have voted for him 3 times already.

Now now, we have all read the arrest reports. Some of them have voted for him far more than that!

[Endus]

like 30% of the population are cultists who would support live broadcasts of Trump shooting random passersby on 5th avenue.

There is a hard floor on approval ratings because people will support 'their side' no matter what. Reaching that floor doesn't show 'its working'.

I don't think "cultist" is really the correct word, as emotionally satisfying as it may be. These people aren't misled or confused. They're full-throated fascists. They're voting for Trump knowing who Trump is and what he stands for. They aren't voting for him despite him metaphorically shooting people, they're voting for him because he is, in their minds, shooting the right people. Immigrants and non-whites and non-Christians and non-fascists. They want those people shot, and Trump's willing to do that, so he gets their votes.

"Cultist" carries an implication on some level that they're gullible and misled and could be deprogrammed. I don't agree that this is the case. It's why exposing Trump's faults doesn't matter to them. It's not that they don't believe they're true, it's that they support those evils. He raped children? Good, they say. They want children to get raped. He's killing innocent people? As long as they're the correct people to target, they're all for it. They want it televised so they can watch them suffer.

These aren't poor, misled idiots. These are deeply evil people. The worst of humanity. On the same scale of depravity as Nazis were, and for exactly the same reasons.

[Edge-]

Well, Trump has now put his name on the US Institute of Peace building and renamed it the Donald J. Trump United States Institute of Peace.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...08e9809cf&ei=7



Because that is what is going to get him his Nobel Peace Prize. /s

i hope the next president sends donald, or his estate, the bill for removing all the tacky press-on gold shit and his name off all government buildings and shit

- - - Updated - - -

like 30% of the population are cultists who would support live broadcasts of Trump shooting random passersby on 5th avenue.

There is a hard floor on approval ratings because people will support 'their side' no matter what. Reaching that floor doesn't show 'its working'.

this is, i regret to say, not hyperbole at this point.

[Breccia]

Sued for his part in Jan 6th, Trump declares Executive Privilege so he doesn't have to turn over evidence.

Meaning, Trump admits what happened on Jan 6th was an official act as President. And a bunch of terrorists Trump pardoned, unable to do the same, are pleading the 5th - something Trump said only guilty people do.

In other words:

I don't think "cultist" is really the correct word, as emotionally satisfying as it may be. These people aren't misled or confused. They're full-throated fascists. They're voting for Trump knowing who Trump is and what he stands for. They aren't voting for him despite him metaphorically shooting people, they're voting for him because he is, in their minds, shooting the right people. Immigrants and non-whites and non-Christians and non-fascists. They want those people shot, and Trump's willing to do that, so he gets their votes.

This. This is a willful membership of a fascist terrorist party.

It is unclear exactly which records Trump is aiming to keep out of the hands of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

However, Politico has reported that a White House spokesperson confirmed that the president has decided to fight disclosure of some material subpoenaed last year from the National Archives and Records Administration.

"The President asserted executive privilege over the discovery requests in this case because the overly broad requests demanded documents that were either presidential communications or communications among the president’s staff that are clearly constitutionally protected from discovery," the spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, said in a statement.

In other words, "Please don't read our texts or you'll know we started a riot with the intent of overthrowing the country. Please."

Unrelated: A first look at November hiring shows the private sector lost 32,000 jobs

"But the government was shut down!"

So? Nobody believes Trump anyhow. Reasonable people are looking at other sources.

ADP’s latest monthly look at private-sector employment showed that about 32,000 jobs were lost last month, marking a drop-off from the upwardly revised 47,000 jobs gained in October.

ADP’s reports have gained in prominence in recent weeks as the longest shutdown in US history stifled statistical agencies’ abilities to collect, analyze and release economic data.

The November jobs report, originally slated for release on Friday, is delayed until December 16. It also will include partial data from October, a month where a full jobs report was nixed.

As such, Wednesday ADP data is likely the next-best estimate on the labor market Federal Reserve officials will get before their policymaking meeting next week.

Still, while ADP’s tabulations don’t often correlate with the official jobs numbers, they’re looked to as an indicator of hiring and wage growth activity.

And in recent months, that trajectory hasn’t been great.

Private employers have shed jobs in four of the past six months, ADP data shows. The net loss of 32,000 reported for November is the largest monthly drop in two and a half years.

Trump is willfully causing higher prices in public on purpose.

Trump is willfully costing jobs in public on purpose.

And Trump is a terrorist who leads and pardons terrorists.

At this point, if you support Trump, no you're not doing so because you were misled. You are doing so because you want to see damage done to America.

[Edge-]

Sued for his part in Jan 6th, Trump declares Executive Privilege so he doesn't have to turn over evidence.

didn't donald have some thoughts on pleading the fifth and how people who do it are guilty? this seems similar

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https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/1...trump-comments

More than 100 people gathered in St. Cloud on Wednesday for an event aimed at showing community solidarity, following President Donald Trump’s disparaging remarks about Somalis.

Somali residents and other community members said they felt compelled to speak out against what they call the president’s unfair and divisive rhetoric, in which he called Somalis “garbage” and said they contribute nothing. A sign on the podium read, “An attack on one is an attack on all.”

“We are not here tonight because we are afraid,” said Abdikadir Bashir, executive director of the Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization, a St. Cloud nonprofit. “We are here because we refuse to be silent.”

btw have we talked about donalds creepy obsession with rep omar and somilis? and how he went on yet another rambling, racist tangent about somali folks recently?

anyways, racist, fascist cult leader (really a bad one, too) continues to be a terrible, dishonest human being supported by other terrible, dishonest human beings.

[Rasulis]

Black Friday spending raises eyebrows over US economy

According to Adobe Analytics, U.S. consumers spent $6.4 billion on Thanksgiving Day and $11.8 billion online on Black Friday, both record highs and up significantly compared to last year. But Salesforce data, cited by Forbes, found that order volume fell by about 1 percent year over year, while average selling prices were up 7 percent—indicating that much of the growth was caused by inflation rather than any uptick in shopping enthusiasm.

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is the elephant in the room.

Adobe and Salesforce noted the effects of artificial intelligence and buy now, pay later (BNPL) options in driving spending this year. Salesforce estimated that AI agents drove about $3 billion in online sales on Black Friday, while Adobe reported an 805 percent increase in AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites.

Meanwhile, Adobe forecast $761.8 million in BNPL spending on Black Friday, adding that $20.2 billion would be spent through the payment method in November and December, up 11 percent year over year.

Tracy Schuchart, a senior economist at NinjaTrader, called BNPL the “elephant in the room” of consumer spending, noting high levels of usage among high earners for discretionary purchases and among lower-income groups for essential items.

“The demographics explain why spending hit records while unit volumes declined,” she wrote on X on Saturday. “Younger shoppers financing purchases on mobile devices drove transaction counts. High earners financing luxury goods on BNPL drove dollar amounts. Lower income shoppers financing necessities kept participation rates high even as they bought fewer actual items.”

Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, similarly noted the outsized role higher-income shoppers were playing in keeping consumer spending afloat—seen by many as symptomatic of the economy’s increasingly clear “k-shape.”

An October survey from Bankrate found that 30 percent of consumers planned to spend less on holiday season than last year, with 43 percent spending around the same. Rossman told Newsweek that these figures could only be reconciled with the increase in total spending if one considers the disproportionate impact of America’s affluent consumers, as well as the fact that “a clear majority of holiday sales growth can be attributed directly to higher prices.”

And despite higher online sales, retail analytics provider RetailNext charted a 5.3 percent year-over-year decline for in-store traffic on Friday and Saturday.

[Kathandira]

From watching financial shows and podcasts, I can say that most people are financially irresponsible.

Black Friday will do well regardless if they are broke. Between things like payday loans, credit cards, and BNPL services, people put their gift giving on debt, and do so without considering how much more they will pay for those items after interest is applied, basically eliminating any savings they got from discounts and sales.

In summary, reckless consumers will be reckless.

[Darththeo]

Trump is willfully causing higher prices in public on purpose.

Trump is willfully costing jobs in public on purpose.

And Trump is a terrorist who leads and pardons terrorists.

At this point, if you support Trump, no you're not doing so because you were misled. You are doing so because you want to see damage done to America.

But, they won't see it as such. They are cheering record money spent on Black Friday, but ignore less items were sold.

They cheer tariffs because inflation is low so clearly the tariffs won't cause inflation like the Liberal Media said. Despite nearly EVERY business taking steps to mitigate tariffs when Trump stated he was entertaining them. Those steps can't and won't last forever. Tariffs aren't a bomb that goes off when it is dropped, it is a delayed explosion. Eventually stockpiled goods will run out and prices are going to increase.

[Draco-Onis]

From watching financial shows and podcasts, I can say that most people are financially irresponsible.

Black Friday will do well regardless if they are broke. Between things like payday loans, credit cards, and BNPL services, people put their gift giving on debt, and do so without considering how much more they will pay for those items after interest is applied, basically eliminating any savings they got from discounts and sales.

In summary, reckless consumers will be reckless.

Fun fact although credit card and consumer debt are at a record high, buy now pay later is not counted in those totals because it is considered a "black box". Some experts are guessing it is the biggest chunk of consumer debt we have but as of now we are purposely not keeping track of it.

[Kathandira]

Fun fact although credit card and consumer debt are at a record high, buy now pay later is not counted in those totals because it is considered a "black box". Some experts are guessing it is the biggest chunk of consumer debt we have but as of now we are purposely not keeping track of it.

That is quite concerning that it isn't tracked and monitored.

- - - Updated - - -

But, they won't see it as such. They are cheering record money spent on Black Friday, but ignore less items were sold.

They cheer tariffs because inflation is low so clearly the tariffs won't cause inflation like the Liberal Media said. Despite nearly EVERY business taking steps to mitigate tariffs when Trump stated he was entertaining them. Those steps can't and won't last forever. Tariffs aren't a bomb that goes off when it is dropped, it is a delayed explosion. Eventually stockpiled goods will run out and prices are going to increase.

I'm imagining, a reduction in items purchased creates a surplus. A surplus causes a reduction in production. A reduction in production leads to layoffs (less to produce, less people needed). Layoffs reduces income. Less income reduces purchases. And we circle back to the beginning.

This could be a vicious cycle.

[fwc577]

Fun fact although credit card and consumer debt are at a record high, buy now pay later is not counted in those totals because it is considered a "black box". Some experts are guessing it is the biggest chunk of consumer debt we have but as of now we are purposely not keeping track of it.

Honestly, it's a good system for non-reckless spenders. I ended up getting a Sleep Number bed like a decade ago. No way could I afford it outright and it was difficult to set money aside for it. But with a BNPL plan, I was able to get one and pay it off before the expiration of the terms so I paid no interest.

Pretty sure that it goes outside of that black box though once the terms expire and it starts appearing on credit reports when the payments explode because of predatory terms that charge ALL the interest if not paid off in time.

[Draco-Onis]

Honestly, it's a good system for non-reckless spenders. I ended up getting a Sleep Number bed like a decade ago. No way could I afford it outright and it was difficult to set money aside for it. But with a BNPL plan, I was able to get one and pay it off before the expiration of the terms so I paid no interest.

Pretty sure that it goes outside of that black box though once the terms expire and it starts appearing on credit reports when the payments explode because of predatory terms that charge ALL the interest if not paid off in time.

Actually it stays in the black box and doesn't get reported to the credit bureaus, the reason BNPL can charge so many fees and higher interests is because it is in a legal gray area. There are some issuers reporting it to credit bureaus but it is voluntary, there are no requirements on what type of data or information they report. It's like crypto no regulations no rules.

[Rasulis]

Honestly, it's a good system for non-reckless spenders. I ended up getting a Sleep Number bed like a decade ago. No way could I afford it outright and it was difficult to set money aside for it. But with a BNPL plan, I was able to get one and pay it off before the expiration of the terms so I paid no interest.

Pretty sure that it goes outside of that black box though once the terms expire and it starts appearing on credit reports when the payments explode because of predatory terms that charge ALL the interest if not paid off in time.

When we bought our Sleep Number, the company offered no interest if paid in full Within 24 months.

[Edge-]

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/04/nx-s1...-lgbtq-inmates

The Department of Justice has instructed inspectors to stop evaluating prisons and jails using standards designed to protect transgender, intersex and gender-nonconforming people from sexual violence, according to an internal memo obtained by NPR.

This population is uniquely vulnerable to attacks while incarcerated, data shows, and advocates say the change will put such people in even more danger.

These people should all be allowed to be publicly abused for the rest of their lives for the harms they are trying to do to others, especially vulnerable folks.

Vile bigots deserve nothing but hatred and abuse.