Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[En Sabah Nur]

Wants the average person to give up pencils while needs needs everything to be tacky gold and is building a ballroom. Truly a man of the people. Truly a booming economy.

[s_bushido]

It was like half a year ago that he said something stupid like "kids have too many toys anyway!" I don't think anything is ever going to top the whole "hosting a lavish Halloween party while we actively work to deny food aid to hungry citizens" fiasco, though.

[Odinfrost]

It was like half a year ago that he said something stupid like "kids have too many toys anyway!" I don't think anything is ever going to top the whole "hosting a lavish Halloween party while we actively work to deny food aid to hungry citizens" fiasco, though.

I dunno. Man is absolutely trying.

I mean, currently, he's torn down one wing of the White House for no apparent reason, since they weren't even sure how the replacement building should be. And now they got nothing. Aside the White House being a wing smaller.

[Draco-Onis]

I dunno. Man is absolutely trying.

I mean, currently, he's torn down one wing of the White House for no apparent reason, since they weren't even sure how the replacement building should be. And now they got nothing. Aside the White House being a wing smaller.

Are you forgetting about the beautiful bathrooms and the gold vomit everywhere? surely you jest when you said nothing.

[Odinfrost]

Are you forgetting about the beautiful bathrooms and the gold vomit everywhere? surely you jest when you said nothing.

Are those sins against modesty and good taste located where the East Wing once stood?
No?
Then yes. Nothing.

[Paetolus]

I dunno. Man is absolutely trying.

I mean, currently, he's torn down one wing of the White House for no apparent reason, since they weren't even sure how the replacement building should be. And now they got nothing. Aside the White House being a wing smaller.

There's a reason such projects in the normal world take such a long time. (Especially on such a historic building.)

Yet again, rushing through stupid actions without solid plans is such a Republican thing to do. Funny to see it reflected even in something like construction.

[Rasulis]

Trust me, I know what a shit hole Florida is. I have lived here for 23 years, soon to be 24 years come February.

One of the selling points of Florida has been affordability. That's a major factor why so many people retired there. Not anymore.

Miami metro area ranked least affordable for homebuyers: Bankrate report and second most unaffordable for renter.

[Edge-]

Trump says people don't need so many pencils or many products as he tries to defend his tariffs, and yet blames Biden for why things are bad.

democratic voters should be able to take republican voters money when the economy collapses lmao

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Anthony Nel is the kind of voter who doesn't like to skip an election. The 29-year-old lives in the Dallas-Forth Worth area and usually votes early, which he did as recently as Texas' Nov. 4 constitutional election.

So he was disturbed last month to open a letter from his local election office in Denton County, calling into question whether he was eligible to vote at all.

"We have received information from the Texas Secretary of State reflecting that you might not be a United States citizen," read the notice.

The notice said he needed to provide proof of citizenship — such as a copy of a U.S. passport, birth certificate or naturalization certificate — within 30 days. Otherwise, his registration would be canceled, though it said he could be immediately reinstated if he showed that documentation at a later date.

Nel, who was born in South Africa, became a U.S. citizen as a teenager, more than a decade ago. Yet he is one of 2,724 people Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson identified in October as "potential noncitizens" on Texas voter rolls. Nelson came up with the tally after running the state's entire voting list — more than 18 million voters — through a federal data system known as SAVE that the Trump administration has overhauled this year.

The tally of 2,724 potential noncitizens is about 0.015% of the state's voters.

Nelson's office directed county election officials to investigate the flagged voters, including by sending out the notice Nel received. The list of voters has not been publicly released.

"I was confused because I have a passport. I've been voting for almost 10 years. Why is this happening now?" Nel recalled in an interview with NPR. "My first thought was something is going on in terms of wanting to adjust and change who is registered to vote."

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/10/nx-s1...ta-us-citizens

like good little SS soldiers, state republicans are enacting this administrations policies too

including Texas, of course, harassing citizens over their citizenship because the states republican leadership are all awful, bigoted, hateful liars.

for stats on how "widespread" the supposed illegal voting is -

More than 47 million voters have been run through SAVE, according to the agency. States that have announced their results so far have not identified large numbers of suspected noncitizens casting ballots. Louisiana found 79 likely noncitizens voted in elections going back to the 1980s, Tennessee referred 42 potential noncitizens who cast ballots to the FBI, and Indiana said it found "at least 21" noncitizens who voted.

So a total of around 150 votes out of 47 million? And they're only "possible", like the example above?

Yeah, fuck these people. Republicans shouldn't have the right to vote unless they acknowledge that there is no fictional widespread voter fraud.

Republicans continue to be terrible, awful, no-good human beings and I will continue to have 0 respect for anyone who identifies as one.

[Mayhem]

I'm so fucking confused how this works in the US. How can you register to vote without anyone checking for citizenship? Also, how does one identify "potential noncitizens"?

HU??

[Edge-]

I'm so fucking confused how this works in the US. How can you register to vote without anyone checking for citizenship? Also, how does one identify "potential noncitizens"?

HU??

Some states auto-register when getting a license, which non-citizens can get if they're residents, and mistakes happen. Happened in California some years back - https://abcnews.go.com/US/1500-nonci...ry?id=58377069

DMV screwed up/had a glitch that registered a ton of non-citizens as part of auto-registration, got alerted to it and addressed it pretty quickly and I don't believe any votes were cast improperly as a result.

[Kaleredar]

I'm so fucking confused how this works in the US. How can you register to vote without anyone checking for citizenship? Also, how does one identify "potential noncitizens"?

HU??

Their mental image is cackling democrats bringing in busses of illegals to all sign multiple ballots (where did they get the ballots? Shut up!) to stuff ballot boxes with so they can vote to make everyone gay socialists or whatever.

[Edge-]

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/10/nx-s1...rt-judge-trump

The Trump Administration must end its deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles and return control of the troops to the state, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco.

Judge Breyer granted a preliminary injunction to California officials who opposed President Trump's use of state troops since June, when the administration seized control of the guard — against Governor Gavin Newsom's wishes — to confront protests against immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles

They just can't stop losing.

The administration has argued that after initially federalizing a state's National Guard, any extension should be allowed, without review.

"That is shocking," Judge Breyer wrote in his ruling on Wednesday, saying that adopting that interpretation of the law would "permit a president to create a perpetual police force comprised of state troops, so long as they were first federalized lawfully."

yeah fuck these losers all the way to hell

[Mayhem]

Some states auto-register when getting a license, which non-citizens can get if they're residents, and mistakes happen. Happened in California some years back - https://abcnews.go.com/US/1500-nonci...ry?id=58377069

DMV screwed up/had a glitch that registered a ton of non-citizens as part of auto-registration, got alerted to it and addressed it pretty quickly and I don't believe any votes were cast improperly as a result.

wtf? what kind of "system" is that?!? Why aren't citizens registered when they become uh, I don't know, citizens?

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Their mental image is cackling democrats bringing in busses of illegals to all sign multiple ballots (where did they get the ballots? Shut up!) to stuff ballot boxes with so they can vote to make everyone gay socialists or whatever.

I get that, well, kind of, I mean I've been online for decades now, so I get that crazy exists, especially in republican circles, but that didn't answer my question.

[Malkiah]

wtf? what kind of "system" is that?!? Why aren't citizens registered when they become uh, I don't know, citizens?

I get that, well, kind of, I mean I've been online for decades now, so I get that crazy exists, especially in republican circles, but that didn't answer my question.

i don't mean to be flip here but there is a direct answer and it's quite simple.
the US started out as being like the EU - it wasn't designed as a single country with 13 territories, it was designed as 13 territories entering into a series of trade and regulation agreements, and only putting on a "we're a country now" costume in order to protect itself against outside influence, similar to how a country now might want to join NATO.

over the 250 years after that as the number of states expanded and the world changed it's become essentially a single country in the way we think of countries now, but there's still a lot of the original design left over.
states are mostly autonomous mini-countries that operate most of the day-to-day bureaucratic hum-drum and each state has their own policies and rules in place for how they go about doing that.
there's no country-wide uniform ID system, the states each do their own thing. there's no federal voting rules (not really), just whatever each state comes up with.
90% of the time if you read something crazy in the US that bullshit is only in the state where it happened, not everywhere.

you really need to think of the US at being 52 countries in an EU style coalition, it makes it all a hell of a lot clearer.

[Edge-]

wtf? what kind of "system" is that?!? Why aren't citizens registered when they become uh, I don't know, citizens?

Because citizenship is handled by the federal government. Voter registration and administering the votes are handled by states. The states don't have a mechanism to auto-register new citizens that I know of, just some that auto-register through their respective DMV's (since that handles ID verification at the same time). Add onto that many states that very much don't want voters to register (Republican states, usually) as registration and voting remains optional vs. compulsory and you have this weird system we have where each state handles things a bit differently.

[Kaleredar]

wtf? what kind of "system" is that?!? Why aren't citizens registered when they become uh, I don't know, citizens?

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I get that, well, kind of, I mean I've been online for decades now, so I get that crazy exists, especially in republican circles, but that didn't answer my question.

Ah but it does. Because ultimately you’re asking “what’s the logic?”

They don’t care about the specifics of how it would happen. They care that the risk of the thing they imagined happening is so scary that it’s worth disenfranchising any number of legitimate voters (who just so totally, coincidentally happen to not vote the way they do!) and oppressing any number of people who they assume could be immigrants to ensure that it doesn’t happen. Regardless of whether what they imagined was even possible.

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https://www.npr.org/2025/12/10/nx-s1...rt-judge-trump



They just can't stop losing.



yeah fuck these losers all the way to hell

I’m not holding my breath. Because this is an unfortunate case of “Trump has already done something, now you have to stop him.” Who’s going to materially stop him?

I guess they could demand intervening officers just stop listening to Trump. But then of course this could also get kicked to the “we’re just letting Trump do what he wants” Supreme Court.

[Mayhem]

i don't mean to be flip here but there is a direct answer and it's quite simple.
the US started out as being like the EU - it wasn't designed as a single country with 13 territories, it was designed as 13 territories entering into a series of trade and regulation agreements, and only putting on a "we're a country now" costume in order to protect itself against outside influence, similar to how a country now might want to join NATO.

over the 250 years after that as the number of states expanded and the world changed it's become essentially a single country in the way we think of countries now, but there's still a lot of the original design left over.
states are mostly autonomous mini-countries that operate most of the day-to-day bureaucratic hum-drum and each state has their own policies and rules in place for how they go about doing that.
there's no country-wide uniform ID system, the states each do their own thing. there's no federal voting rules (not really), just whatever each state comes up with.
90% of the time if you read something crazy in the US that bullshit is only in the state where it happened, not everywhere.

you really need to think of the US at being 52 countries in an EU style coalition, it makes it all a hell of a lot clearer.

Uh, comparing it to the EU is not the best idea because we handle voting for non-citizens when there are EU elections. So we have a registry of even non-citizens who are eligible to vote in EU elections.

And to add to the confusion, EU citizens who are residents are eligible to vote in regional elections, but not state or federal elections, still they are held at the same time.

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Because citizenship is handled by the federal government. Voter registration and administering the votes are handled by states. The states don't have a mechanism to auto-register new citizens that I know of, just some that auto-register through their respective DMV's (since that handles ID verification at the same time). Add onto that many states that very much don't want voters to register (Republican states, usually) as registration and voting remains optional vs. compulsory and you have this weird system we have where each state handles things a bit differently.

I don't understand the difference. Is the federal government prohibited from telling state governments about who has just become a citizen? Do they have to keep it a secret from state governments for reasons?

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Ah but it does. Because ultimately you’re asking “what’s the logic?”

They don’t care about the specifics of how it would happen. They care that the risk of the thing they imagined happening is so scary that it’s worth disenfranchising any number of legitimate voters (who just so totally, coincidentally happen to not vote the way they do!) and oppressing any number of people who they assume could be immigrants to ensure that it doesn’t happen. Regardless of whether what they imagined was even possible.

I do get that. What I don't get is how someone can get registered without anyone checking for citizenship. Edge explained that somehow the DMV can register people without checking citizenship, which does, but also doesn't answer my question.

[Malkiah]

Uh, comparing it to the EU is not the best idea because we handle voting for non-citizens when there are EU elections. So we have a registry of even non-citizens who are eligible to vote in EU elections.

...
ok fine, "EU-lite" or "Eu from the late 1700s" - the point of the comparison was broad, in that the US is a coalition of independent mini-fiefdoms unified under common cause but not expressly ruled by singular principle of law.

this also address your other question: there isn't a system in place for the federal government to communicate to states who is or isn't a citizen, nor of states to check with each other (or the federal government) on who is or isn't a citizen.

basically in the US when you're born the hospital gives you a state issued birth certificate, and that's your "proof" of citizenship operating under the assumption that if you're born in the US you're a citizen by default.
if you move from one state to the next, in order to register as a citizen of the that state you have to provide your birth certificate from the previous state to prove you're a US citizen.

[Kaleredar]

Uh, comparing it to the EU is not the best idea because we handle voting for non-citizens when there are EU elections. So we have a registry of even non-citizens who are eligible to vote in EU elections.

And to add to the confusion, EU citizens who are residents are eligible to vote in regional elections, but not state or federal elections, still they are held at the same time.

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I don't understand the difference. Is the federal government prohibited from telling state governments about who has just become a citizen? Do they have to keep it a secret from state governments for reasons?

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I do get that. What I don't get is how someone can get registered without anyone checking for citizenship. Edge explained that somehow the DMV can register people without checking citizenship, which does, but also doesn't answer my question.

The error edge described was a rare fluke and was caught before it was an issue.

And I can guarantee you that no hand-wringing conservative voter who’s looking on Trump’s crackdowns with approval know or even care a single iota about the ins and outs of how new citizens gain the ability to vote.

[Sezerek]

this also address your other question: there isn't a system in place for the federal government to communicate to states who is or isn't a citizen, nor of states to check with each other (or the federal government) on who is or isn't a citizen.

As someone living in germany, this statement is absolutely mindboggling.