Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Dontrike]

Trump thanks Colombia for selling the US cocaine. There's no joke, besides Trump himself. I can't tell if he went super senile in that moment or he let something slip, but it's fuckin' weird nonetheless.

TRUMP: And we are going to start doing those strikes on land, too. You know the land is much easier. It's much easier. And we know the routes they take, we know everything about 'em. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live. And we're gonna start that very soon too."

REPORTER: You just mentioned potential land strikes. Can you elaborate anything on that?"

TRUMP: Yeah, I'll elaborate. If they come in through a certain country or any country or if we think they're building mills for whether it's fentanyl or cocaine. I hear Colombia, the country of Colombia is making cocaine. They have cocaine manufacturing plants, OK? And then they sell us their cocaine. We appreciate that very much. But yeah, anybody that's doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack.

REPORTER: So not necessarily just Venezuela.

TRUMP: No, not just Venezuela. No.

And to the surprise of no one Trump's description of mortgage fraud just so happens to match his own mortgages. If Trump projected any harder you'd have to pay $19 a ticket to watch a Marvel movie.

For months, the Trump administration has been accusing its political enemies of mortgage fraud for claiming more than one primary residence.

President Donald Trump branded one foe who did so “deceitful and potentially criminal.” He called another “CROOKED” on Truth Social and pushed the attorney general to take action.

But years earlier, Trump did the very thing he’s accusing his enemies of, records show.

In 1993, Trump signed a mortgage for a “Bermuda style” home in Palm Beach, Florida, pledging that it would be his principal residence. Just seven weeks later, he got another mortgage for a seven-bedroom, marble-floored neighboring property, attesting that it too would be his principal residence.

In reality, Trump, then a New Yorker, does not appear to have ever lived in either home, let alone used them as a principal residence. Instead, the two houses, which are next to his historic Mar-a-Lago estate, were used as investment properties and rented out, according to contemporaneous news accounts and an interview with his longtime real estate agent — exactly the sort of scenario his administration has pointed to as evidence of fraud.

At the time of the purchases, Trump’s local real estate agent told the Miami Herald that the businessman had “hired an expensive New York design firm” to “dress them up to the nines and lease them out annually.” In an interview, Shirley Wyner, the late real estate agent’s wife and business partner who was herself later the rental agent for the two properties, told ProPublica: “They were rentals from the beginning.” Wyner, who has worked with the Trump family for years, added: “President Trump never lived there.”

Mortgage law experts who reviewed the records for ProPublica were struck by the irony of Trump’s dual mortgages. They said claiming primary residences on different mortgages at the same time, as Trump did, is often legal and rarely prosecuted. But Trump’s two loans, they said, exceed the low bar the Trump administration itself has set for mortgage fraud.

“Given Trump’s position on situations like this, he’s going to either need to fire himself or refer himself to the Department of Justice,” said Kathleen Engel, a Suffolk University law professor and leading expert on mortgage finance. “Trump has deemed that this type of misrepresentation is sufficient to preclude someone from serving the country.”

[Nymrohd]

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion:

I'm kinda at the point where I'm just like "F*ck those farmers". Why do they need that aid anyways? Why is everything too big to fail? Automakers, bankers, now farmers? Like, how poor can you be when you have acres and acres of farmland, all the equipment for that land doesn't come cheap, and when I go down to my local Ford dealer to see the price of just ONE regular old F-150 these days on the lot...

They made their bed, let them have the dignity of their choice

Farmers are too big to fail because countries want a secure food supply to avert famine. It should not be a controversial decision to support them especially when the government is to blame for the damage they've taken.
Now how it ends up working IS a problem because historic subsidies are not reconsidered to match more modern needs and bail outs somehow end up disproportionately helping the mega farms.

[Gorsameth]

Farmers are too big to fail because countries want a secure food supply to avert famine. It should not be a controversial decision to support them especially when the government is to blame for the damage they've taken.

It becomes controversial when the government causes the damage through sheer stupidity and is doing nothing to remedy the situation.

China has moved to Brazil for their supply, they have little reason to go back to US farmers unless they can offer a much better deal to out way the inherent instability of Trump.

[Darththeo]

So, apparently, Trump's Participation Peace Prize was properly approved by the FIFA Council and may have violated their Neutrality policy.

So, if that isn't sufficient evidence for some shady deal between Trump and Infantino I don't know what would be. I think the only more obvious would be a neon sign saying "Brides Here"?

[Poopymonster]

Farmers are too big to fail because countries want a secure food supply to avert famine. It should not be a controversial decision to support them especially when the government is to blame for the damage they've taken.
Now how it ends up working IS a problem because historic subsidies are not reconsidered to match more modern needs and bail outs somehow end up disproportionately helping the mega farms.

Indeed, a food supply is necessary. If the producers do stupid shit that requires government intervention, are they too dumb to fail?

[Nymrohd]

Indeed, a food supply is necessary. If the producers do stupid shit that requires government intervention, are they too dumb to fail?

Yes. Is it fair? Nope. But most countries bail their farmers out when they need to. It is not some unique US feature

[Darththeo]

Farmers are too big to fail because countries want a secure food supply to avert famine. It should not be a controversial decision to support them especially when the government is to blame for the damage they've taken.
Now how it ends up working IS a problem because historic subsidies are not reconsidered to match more modern needs and bail outs somehow end up disproportionately helping the mega farms.

Oh, farms won't fail.

Family Farms may, but farms won't. There are tons of companies buying up farmland.

[Valdhammer]

Yes. Is it fair? Nope. But most countries bail their farmers out when they need to. It is not some unique US feature

Most of these farmers will soon be desperate enough to sell their enterprises to one of the few giant corporations that have been buying up all of the farmland over the past 10 years or so. This “bailout” is an attempt to keep the farmers voting republican in the interim but the goal of the tariffs is to drive small to medium independent farmers out of business.

[Poopymonster]

Yes. Is it fair? Nope. But most countries bail their farmers out when they need to. It is not some unique US feature

Bailing our farmers is not a unique US feature. What's happening in the US that requires a bailout is.

Most countries don't have a politician who runs on chaos and destroying the economy. Who even gives details about it. And gets voted in, by said farmers after being told "I'ma wreck dat" repeatedly by said politician.

[Nymrohd]

Most of these farmers will soon be desperate enough to sell their enterprises to one of the few giant corporations that have been buying up all of the farmland over the past 10 years or so.

It's only been 10 years? Damn I'd think consolidation was even older than that in the US.

[Valdhammer]

It's only been 10 years? Damn I'd think consolidation was even older than that in the US.

Of course it has been but like all mergers it has accelerated over the past 10-15 years.

[Breccia]

Oh, farms won't fail.

Family Farms may, but farms won't. There are tons of companies buying up farmland.

Pretty sure they're getting the majority of that $12 billion, too. Should it even happen.

[PhaelixWW]

Pretty sure they're getting the majority of that $12 billion, too. Should it even happen.

<mumble mumble> "...trickle down economics..." <mumble mumble>

[david0925]

I am 100% for just having the government manage farms and pay the farmers a wage like a government staff and require them to meet quotas

Right now there is no comparative advantage for us to be producing food so using the market to regulate us farms is stupid and inefficient. I do agree thay you shouldn't outsource all of your food production because it is a national security issue, so you hire them and pay them properly while expecting proper production, as opposed to farmers somehow both needing ridiculous amount of subsidies while still barely above poverty line

[Milchshake]

TRUMP TAKE EGG JOB

US labor market hiring slowed to nearly the lowest level since early COVID
The hiring rate fell to 3.2%, layoffs rose to 1.2%, quits fell to 1.8%, and job openings rose to 4.6%



This is exactly what the bosses who put Trump into office were trying to achieve. Crushing the tight labor market from the early Biden years that gave workers - for the first time in my adult lifetime - leverage over their bosses.
Slim majority of voters decided that higher prices are much worse than having a labor market that benefited your working class friends and family.

[Rasulis]

I preface this with a chuckle.

Trump replaces head architect after clashing over ‘big, beautiful’ White House ballroom

On December 4, a White House spokesperson confirmed to The Washington Post that the original ballroom architect, McCrery Architects, has been traded in favor of the firm Shalom Baranes Associates. The swap comes after multiple reports that Trump and Jim McCrery, CEO of McCrery Architects, clashed repeatedly over the size and scope of the new ballroom.

Basically, Trump wants a 90,000 sq. ft. ballroom which will dwarf the 55,000 sq. ft. main Whitehouse building. McCrery is a classicist and kept arguing against that.

My take on this is that they did the demolition, and they don't even have a blueprint for the addition yet.

[alach]

I don't know, guys, this pattern of behavior doesn't strike me of someone planning on leaving the White House and power in 3 years.

[Paranoid Android]

POLITICO: You pardoned the former president of Honduras even though he was convicted in a massive intl drug trafficking scheme. How is that 0 tolerance on drug trafficking?

TRUMP: Well I don't know him and I know very little about him other than people said it was like an Obama-Biden type set up

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m7l3qy4lqc2v

Kind of funny since this logic to Biden's autopen of signing something you do not know what it is.

[Mayhem]

https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m7l3qy4lqc2v

Kind of funny since this logic to Biden's autopen of signing something you do not know what it is.

"Uhu, ok, and one more question, Mr. President. Do you often sign pardons for people you don't know and know very little about?"

[Darththeo]

TRUMP TAKE EGG JOB

US labor market hiring slowed to nearly the lowest level since early COVID
The hiring rate fell to 3.2%, layoffs rose to 1.2%, quits fell to 1.8%, and job openings rose to 4.6%



This is exactly what the bosses who put Trump into office were trying to achieve. Crushing the tight labor market from the early Biden years that gave workers - for the first time in my adult lifetime - leverage over their bosses.
Slim majority of voters decided that higher prices are much worse than having a labor market that benefited your working class friends and family.

I do unemployment hearings for a job. I can always tell when things are going good or bad because of the ratio of quits to other separations. If quits are high, things are good because people feel they can safely leave their job and find employment. If quits are low, it means people don't feel safe leaving their job and will choose to stay in a bad job over taking a risk for a new opportunity.

And I have been seeing far more firings than quits in my case queue lately.