Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Breccia]

I can see the supreme court shooting down the tariffs but to go 'don't try this with another silly illegal law'. No, that boat sailed when they declared the President had full and complete immunity.

I agree that Trump won't be arrested, but Trump doesn't want to lose his only backup plan to tariffs: tariffs. If he goes full steam ahead with more illegal tariffs, he will lose the ability to use them. If he picks his battles, the case might not immediately be filed, letting him go after, say, just China or just automobiles for a while.

Also, and I should have said this earlier, if SCOTUS strikes down Trump's use of IEEPA and Trump does the same with, say, Section 301 or 232, obviously lower courts will immediately rule against him. What they won't do, however, is allow the tariffs to stand while appeals continue. They don't have to do that, and until SCOTUS sees the case, SCOTUS can't make them. "SCOTUS has already ruled" would be all the lower courts would need to say to take Trump's tariffs away until SCOTUS is handed the case again.

[Rasulis]

We already talked that US employment in 2025 was supported by healthcare and social services.

Also, how the US GDP in 2025 was propped up by AI funding and data center construction. Here are some additional data to illustrate the rapid growth of data centers construction.

The US economy is in a very strange place right now.

[Nymrohd]

We already talked that US employment in 2025 was supported by healthcare and social services.

Also, how the US GDP in 2025 was propped up by AI funding and data center construction. Here are some additional data to illustrate the rapid growth of data centers construction.

The US economy is in a very strange place right now.

A massive chunk of your economy is invested in a single project whose monetization is entirely unclear.

[Bwgmon]

A massive chunk of your economy is invested in a single project whose monetization is entirely unclear.

To note: A project that, even when they're going out of their way to force everyone to utilize it, is almost universally maligned in the ways that matter and shows absolutely no sign of being able to make any real money in the foreseeable future.

[Fugus]

To note: A project that, even when they're going out of their way to force everyone to utilize it, is almost universally maligned in the ways that matter and shows absolutely no sign of being able to make any real money in the foreseeable future.

Yeah but when the end goal is a post consumer economy where workers aren’t needed for the most part and the first people to achieve that basically owns the economy lock, stock, and barrel then no amount of money and resources is too much for them.

Without the need for workers or consumers, they have all the power, or so they think. They forget that they aren’t smart enough to troubleshoot or make the machines and those that are won’t be of their class and it would only be a matter of time before they start looking to using the ai systems they build and maintain to take that spot for themselves and their kids.

[Breccia]

The US economy is in a very strange place right now.

Jesus Christ, that graph is legit terrifying.

[Elder Millennial]

Without the need for workers or consumers, they have all the power, or so they think.

That's the bit I can't fucking wrap my brain around. What's the point of even having an economy at that point?

[thilicen]

We already talked that US employment in 2025 was supported by healthcare and social services.

Also, how the US GDP in 2025 was propped up by AI funding and data center construction. Here are some additional data to illustrate the rapid growth of data centers construction.

The US economy is in a very strange place right now.

Maybe alienating an entire continent is a bad idea at this point?

[Fugus]

That's the bit I can't fucking wrap my brain around. What's the point of even having an economy at that point?

Think of a world where you have all the power and don’t need money. They are at a level where they are so rich that money isn’t an issue but want to be so powerful that money isn’t even a factor and they don’t have to worry about consumer or worker rights or lives since none of that impacts them, their power, or their factories.

In the world they want, they are kings with an infinite coffer that can do no wrong.

Imagine Putin if he didn’t have to worry about his citizens at all with infinite resources to do whatever he wants and to crush anyone he wants. That’s a post money post consumer economy for those at the top.

[Rasulis]

Jesus Christ, that graph is legit terrifying.

Even the government is getting into it.

U.S. Navy, Ameresco, and CyrusOne are working on a 100-megawatt AI-optimized data center at Naval Air Station Lemoore, CA.

The amount of funding going into these data centers is terrifying. Just to name a few.

Tract Data Center Campus (Buckeye, Arizona) - $20B.
Project Sail (Coweta County, Georgia) - $17B.
Homer City Redevelopment (Pennsylvania) - $10B.
Galaxy Digital’s Helios Campus (Texas) - $8B.
Hut 8 River Bend Data Center (Richland Parish, Louisiana) - $7B.
AVAIO Digital Leo (Little Rock, Arkansas) - $21B.
Meta Richland Parish Campus (Monroe, LA) - $10B.
Stargate (OpenAI / Oracle / partners). Multi-site, multi-year AI compute program largely projected at $100B.
Google’s Pryor & Stillwater (Oklahoma) - $12B
CoreWeave AI Data Center Campus (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) - $6B
Project Marvel (Bessemer, Alabama) - $14.5B

[Xyonai]

Certain Governments want all in on AI because it'll make their servailence state easier, huge companies want all in on AI since they think they can replace all their worker drones with robots, and Tech Bros are obsessed with AI because it's proven incredibly valuable in fleecing morons by doing all their brain work for them (Or they're like Musk who just wants to build a validation robot). By also double downing on AI and fucking with the market for PC parts (GPU and RAM), they can also force computing power onto AI Powered Cloud servers that they control.

So that all said, these people will do their utmost to make sure AI cannot fail, regardless of the material reality we exist in, since the end-goal justifies all this bullshit to get there. It's why we've had the same five or six companies hot potato-ing the same twenty billion around eachother to inflate stock value, and why the current US Government has been obsessed with AI integration. It's at a point where I don't see this being a sudden bubble pop, if a bubble pop even happens, and we'll be stuck having to deal with a gradually deflating market that leads into an Economic Event Horizon as increasingly large chunks of our GDP are hurled into a money hole that now cannot ever produce as much value as has been invested into it.

The only way I see the brakes going on this immediately are if we actually see this industry regulated (In both how it performs and operates), or enough shareholders get bored/scared and move onto something else.

[Veggie50]

https://www.icj-cij.org/home

Where are you getting this nonsense?

Veto’s

The UN only condems.

[Rasulis]

How do you define petty?

Visitors to the US National parks will no longer get in for free on MLK Day or on Juneteenth. Both official Federal holidays. They will, however, on Trump’s June 14 birthday, which was added to the list this year.

[Draco-Onis]

How do you define petty?

Visitors to the US National parks will no longer get in for free on MLK Day or on Juneteenth. Both official Federal holidays. They will, however, on Trump’s June 14 birthday, which was added to the list this year.

Considering our tourism numbers are in the shitter even with the dollar at an all time low it's doubtful that parks are having that many visitors any more thanks to Trump.

[DarkTZeratul]

How do you define petty?

Visitors to the US National parks will no longer get in for free on MLK Day or on Juneteenth. Both official Federal holidays. They will, however, on Trump’s June 14 birthday, which was added to the list this year.

California, at least, declared MLK Day to be a free day anyway for state parks:
https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/01/16/go...m-national-pa/

[diller]

This is uncharacteristically poor writing by the NYTimes. "Begin replacing them" means replacing the tariffs with other tariffs from other laws. Team Trump has already said this much in public on purpose multiple times.

good to see the conclusion was wrong

[Corvus]

And now Trump is deliberately trying to torpedo the relationship with the UK, attacking the deal the UK had made to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Trump had supported the deal when it was made.

This attack on the UK comes just the day after Stamer was urging restraint on the part of Europe. It's like Trump actively wants a conflict with Europe.

And of course he ties it all to Greenland as well.

[PrimiOne]

So....about the tariffs....how is it going?

Neat...

Americans bear almost all the cost of Trump tariffs study shows

Paywalled but you can find the study referenced in the article here

Conclusion
Using high-frequency, shipment-level data covering over 25 million transactions and nearly
$4 trillion in trade value, we provide unambiguous evidence that US importers bear nearly
all the cost of the 2025 tariffs. Foreign exporters did not meaningfully reduce their prices
in response to US tariff increases. The coefficient on tariffs in our unit value regressions is
approximately −0.04, implying that only 4% of the tariff burden is absorbed by exporters.
The remaining 96% passes through to American buyers.
Event studies around discrete tariff shocks on Brazil and India confirm this finding. Brazil
ian export prices to the US did not fall following the 50% tariff increase in August
2025. Indian export prices—measured directly from customs records at the port of
departure—remained unchanged relative to exports to non-tariffed destinations. In both
cases, exporters adjusted by shipping less, not by cutting prices.
The policy implications are stark. The 2025 tariffs function as a consumption tax on Ameri
can businesses and households. The $200 billion in additional customs revenue represents
wealth transferred from Americans to the US Treasury, not from foreign producers. The
claim that foreign countries “pay” these tariffs is a myth.
The tariffs are, in the most literal sense, an own goal. Americans are footing the bill

Can I point out the both funny and disturbing aspect of how Trump made a tax cut that mostly affects only wealth people and then put another tax raise that mostly affects consumers....In any sane universe one would say that Americans should feel outraged and betrayed but...we don't live in that universe,don't we? Anything is worth if you don't have to listen to anyone pronouns.

[Mayhem]

So....about the tariffs....how is it going?

Neat...

Americans bear almost all the cost of Trump tariffs study shows

Paywalled but you can find the study referenced in the article here

kiel institut article

nice they include bluesky for easy sharing

[Corvus]

Macron wisely declined trumps offer to join his board of grift. Trumps answer? 200% tarrifs on French wine and champagne.