Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[thilicen]

Leavitt is hilarious trying to claim that everyone loved Trump's speech, that it got rave reviews because 'he tells it like it is' and that he never confused Iceland with Greenland, despite being caught on camera doing it multiple times.

And the crowd cheered etc. etc. right? It's like they don't know what a camera is.

[Edge-]

And the crowd cheered etc. etc. right? It's like they don't know what a camera is.

they don't care

i cannot stress this enough

remember how the first administration started: days of sean spicer angrily demanding that everyone repeat his lies that it was the biggest inauguration in history

if she speaks it from the podium, it gets carried by conservative outlets and networks to create reality for their viewers.

[thilicen]

they don't care

i cannot stress this enough

remember how the first administration started: days of sean spicer angrily demanding that everyone repeat his lies that it was the biggest inauguration in history

if she speaks it from the podium, it gets carried by conservative outlets and networks to create reality for their viewers.

At least with Spicer it was always a fun watch, that "Hitler never used chemical weapons" line lives rent free in my head. Leavitt however makes me want to punch someone in the neck.

[Poopymonster]

Why not the sun? It's biglier.

Because Solar is DEI wokeness.

[Breccia]

This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like

Donald Trump delivered a fear-drenched rant live from the White House.

When a president asks for network time, it’s usually to announce something important. But tonight, Donald Trump did not give anything like a normal speech or address. He was clearly working from a prepared text, but it sounded like one he’d written—or dictated angrily—himself, because it was full of bizarre howlers that even Trump’s second-rate speech-writing shop would probably have avoided, such as his assertion that inflation when he took office was the worst it had been in 48 years. (Why did he pick 1977 as a benchmark? Who knows. But he’s wrong.) He read the speech quickly, his voice rising in frustration as he hurled one lie after another into the camera.

We could take apart Trump’s fake facts, as checkers and pundits will do in the next few days. But perhaps more important than false statements—which for Trump are par for the course—was his demeanor. Americans saw a president drenched in panic as he tried to bully an entire nation into admitting he’s doing a great job. For 20 minutes, he vented his hurt feelings without a molecule of empathy or awareness. Economic concerns? Shut up, you fools, the economy is doing fine. (And if it isn’t, it’s not his fault—it’s Joe Biden’s.) Foreign-policy jitters? Zip it, you wimps, America is strong and respected.

In effect, Trump took to the airwaves, pointed his finger, and said: Quiet, piggy.

I consider myself a connoisseur of Trump’s speeches. I’ve watched them and live-tweeted them for years because I think Americans need to see what kind of man sits in the Oval Office. But even by Trump’s standards, this was an unnerving display of fear. I can only imagine America’s enemies in Moscow and Beijing and Tehran smiling with pleasure as they watched a president losing his bearings, berating his own people, and demanding that they absolve him of any blame when things get worse.

His rant contained no news, other than an example of his contempt for the U.S. military, whose loyalty he thinks he can purchase with a onetime $1,776 bonus check. This is projection: Trump has shown his willingness to be bought off with gold bars and trinkets, and he may think that the men and women of the armed forces are people of equally low character.

This was not a holiday address from the leader of a great democracy to its citizens. This was a desperate tin-pot leader yelling into a microphone while cornered in his palace redoubt. The president has been unraveling for weeks, and his speech tonight, like Trump himself, was unworthy of America and its people.

Emphasis mine.

[Belize]

This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like



[IMG]https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/XHcXxf1gZUcOfjfyMy-0vt-fBSY=/0x0:2000x1125/976x549/media/img/mt/2025/12/2025_12_17_Nichols_Trump_Speech_final/original.jG]



Emphasis mine.

It's not even a bonus, he's taking the money from housing assistance for military members....

[gondrin]

UPDATE: Bondi announces departure of Halligan from US Attorneys office

She blamed Senate Democrats.



"I thought Senators were also democratically elected?"

They are.

"And you just posted that it was a federal judge who said-"

Look, Bondi is lying. Halligan is not the first Trump appointee to be disqualified by a judge, not the Senate. She, and others, were illegally appointed. That's why the Comey case was thrown out. The Senate would be doing a disservice by filling a role permanently with someone legally ruled out of holding it. The problem is Trump. Bondi would just rather die than admit it.

So, I guess the US Constitution is now a serious obstacle. Because that is why she never became a US attorney.

The Judge literally was following that seeing as she never got confirmed and was required to leave the job and Trump tried to play the shell game and nobody fell for it.

- - - Updated - - -

This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like







Emphasis mine.

On that emphasis, will we see another "Bonus Army" where they received nothing and then become the very protestors that Trump hates?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army

[Breccia]

Wealth inequality in America just hit its widest gap in more than 3 decades

Trump keeps claiming things are getting better. He's lying by omission. But, seriously, nobody reading this is surprised by anything other than the exact timespan.

Data from the Federal Reserve shows that the so-called K-shaped economy in America is alive and well, with low- and middle-income households falling further behind as the richest Americans pull away.

The top 1% of households owned 31.7% of all U.S. wealth in the third quarter of 2025, the highest share on record since the Federal Reserve began tracking household wealth in 1989. That share has increased even as wealth growth for the rest of the population has stalled or slowed, the data shows.

Collectively, the wealthiest 1% held about $55 trillion in assets in the third quarter of 2025 — roughly equal to the wealth held by the bottom 90% of Americans combined.

In the second quarter of 2025, the top 10% of income earners accounted for nearly half of all U.S. consumer spending, according to Zandi's analysis of Federal Reserve data.

The stock market posted strong gains last year, thanks in large part to investments in artificial intelligence. Wealthier households tend to benefit most from bull markets because a larger share of their wealth is invested in stocks and other securities.

According to Gallup, 87% of Americans who own stocks are adults living in households earning $100,000 or more.

Middle-income households, on the other hand, tend to have their wealth tied up in their homes, and house price growth has been slowing, Zandi added. Lower-income Americans are struggling with higher debt loads, he said.

Uneven wage growth is also contributing to the divide. Higher-income Americans have seen their wages grow at a stronger clip than other income groups. Bank of America data shows that higher-income households' wage growth grew at 3% rate in December 2025, compared to 1.5% and 1.1% for middle- and low-income households.

Trump is a sociopath. He is unable to understand the thoughts and feelings of others. That's why he keeps telling them they are getting richer when all evidence says they are not.

Bolded for emphasis. Middle/lower class Americans are not spending, are going further into debt, and have income growth below Trump's increasing inflation.

Trump is bad for America. Everyone knows it. Half of them would just literally die than admit they're wrong, and each day, that gets closer to being literal.

[gondrin]

Leavitt is hilarious trying to claim that everyone loved Trump's speech, that it got rave reviews because 'he tells it like it is' and that he never confused Iceland with Greenland, despite being caught on camera doing it multiple times.

Leavitt has to say this because otherwise she would be fired. It is literally her fearing for her job seeing as she has no actual future outside of the far right anymore. And those choices are few and far between.

- - - Updated - - -

Wealth inequality in America just hit its widest gap in more than 3 decades

Trump keeps claiming things are getting better. He's lying by omission. But, seriously, nobody reading this is surprised by anything other than the exact timespan.

I mean, things are getting better.

For him and the billionaires who "support" him.

Everyone else can go get fucked pretty much.

[Breccia]

In 2025, Trump tried to unilaterally break contracts to schools with DEI programs on the grounds of "it's woke and I don't like it, because I'm a hateful racist fucktard".

In August, that wasn't enough and his attempt to block it was ended by a federal judge. Naturally, the hateful racist fucktard appealed.

The hateful racist fucktard has dropped the appeal.

The Education Department, in a court filing Wednesday, moved to dismiss its appeal. It leaves in place a federal judge’s August decision finding that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules.

The dispute centered on federal guidance telling schools and colleges they would lose federal money if they kept a wide range of practices that the Republican administration labeled as diversity, equity and inclusion.

While Team Trump did not give a specific reason, I suspect it was "we're clearly in the wrong and will lose, and we don't want SCOTUS to tell us that".

[btlcryct]

While Team Trump did not give a specific reason, I suspect it was "we're clearly in the wrong and will lose, and we don't want SCOTUS to tell us that".

Speaking of Trump being wrong, I present:

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/21/polit...ok-trump-power

Let's hope it comes to fruition.

[Breccia]

Let's hope it comes to fruition.

I saw bits of that. Apparently, there were laughs in the courtroom when Team Trump was trying to explain its "case".

[alach]

trump is getting glowing reviews of his newly formed League of Supervillians.

Trump unveils ‘Board of Peace’ ahead of Zelensky meeting in Davos

• Trump in Davos: US President Donald Trump unveiled his “Board of Peace” in Davos, Switzerland, with the signing ceremony attended by fewer than 20 countries. The board will oversee Gaza’s reconstruction and seek to resolve global conflicts. He will later meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to two sources.

Seriously, take a look at those people at the ceremony and tell me they don't look like a group interested in total world domination. Meanwhile, the melon-man is sitting in the center while people heap praise upon him and show off newly signed papers.
I'm having a hard time trying to figure out just what the point of this is, other than another way for the trump family to funnel money. Maybe for next years Nobel award? Maybe so he doesn't have to talk to Starmer and Macron ever again? Its supposed to be about Gaza, but Netanyahu isn't even there.
God, will something good please happen.

[Dontrike]

In a combination atrocious thing to say and something truly devoid of all logic Trump's CDC deputy director said that the measles outbreak is a "cost of doing business."

.....?.....? What business has the cost of spreading fucking measles?

A top official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been condemned for his remarks that rampant measles outbreaks in the U.S., and increasing concern that America could lose its longstanding elimination status, were the “cost of doing business” in a global economy.

The elimination status, held by the U.S. since 2000, indicates that there has not been continuous spread of the highly infectious disease for more than a year.

“It’s just the cost of doing business, with our borders being somewhat porous [and] global and international travel,” Dr. Ralph Abraham, the agency’s recently sworn-in principal deputy director, said in a phone call Tuesday, according to STAT News.

The former Louisiana surgeon general, who had previously advocated for personal choice on vaccines, reportedly added that he would “not really” view the loss of the country’s elimination status as a significant event.

With measles cases at the highest levels since 1991 and unprecedented child deaths from infections, Abraham’s comments were met with swift criticism from public health experts.

“This is appalling and not how public health leaders typically respond to ongoing outbreaks of preventable infectious diseases,” Kathleen Bachynski, an associate professor of public health at Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College, posted on the social media platform Bluesky.

“You can KEEP your status IF you identify imported cases and ACT to prevent ongoing transmission,” Dr. Gavin Yamey, a professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute, urged in his own post. “But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., won’t take action.”

Department of Health and Human Services Press Secretary Emily Hilliard told The Independent in an email on Wednesday that the U.S. continues to have a “lower overall measles burden than Canada ... Mexico and much of Europe.”

“As Dr. Abraham has noted, current outbreaks are largely concentrated in close-knit, under-vaccinated communities with prevalent international travel that raises the risk of measles importation,” she said. “The CDC’s focus remains on measles prevention and treatment education and targeted public health interventions to protect communities and provide clear, accurate information to all Americans.”

Whether or not the U.S. will lose its elimination status in the coming months remains to be seen, but the nation is heading in the wrong direction.

In 2024, there were just 285 reported measles cases, according to CDC data. In 2025, there were more than 2,200 cases, as well as three deaths including two children.

The nation’s last child death from measles was in 2003, Dr. Leana Wen, the former commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department, posted on Instagram.

“This is tragic - and not normal,” she wrote. “In many ways, vaccines are a victim of their own success. People have forgotten the diseases that they prevent. While most who contract measles will fully recover, many will experience complications and there are some who will die.“

Two doses of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine are 97 percent effective against infection and help to prevent severe cases, the CDC says.

The majority of infections - about 93 percent, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics - have been in people who are unvaccinated. Recent research has shown that the proportion of children not receiving their vaccine by the recommended age has increased since the pandemic.

[Gorsameth]

In a combination atrocious thing to say and something truly devoid of all logic Trump's CDC deputy director said that the measles outbreak is a "cost of doing business."

.....?.....? What business has the cost of spreading fucking measles?

This shit just happens.
Except it happens no where else in the developed world.

American exceptionalism indeed

[Darththeo]

In a combination atrocious thing to say and something truly devoid of all logic Trump's CDC deputy director said that the measles outbreak is a "cost of doing business."

.....?.....? What business has the cost of spreading fucking measles?

It is what happens when you put Yes Men in power rather than actual competent people.

[Dontrike]

Something something Democrats are awful with the debt something something please stop investigating Trump's awful economic record.

Trump’s first year back in the White House closed with the U.S. national debt roughly $2.25 trillion higher than when he retook the oath of office, showing how fast Washington’s red ink is piling up even amid DOGE hype and promises to pay it down. Over the calendar year 2025, the growth in the national debt was even higher, some $2.29 trillion.

The acceleration in borrowing, with the national debt standing at $38.4 trillion and growing as of Jan. 9, is sharpening warnings from budget watchdogs and Wall Street alike that the country’s fiscal path is becoming a growing vulnerability for the economy.​ The total national debt has grown by $71,884.09 per second for the past year, according to Congressman David Schweikert’s Daily Debt Monitor.

In terms of deficit reduction, the final monthly Treasury statement for FY 2025 (ending in September) showed a deficit of roughly $1.78 trillion, as compared to roughly $1.82 trillion for FY 2024. This means that the deficit did come down during Trump’s second term, but quite modestly.

Over the 12 months from the close of trading on Jan. 17, 2025, to the end of day Jan. 15, 2026, the federal government added approximately $2.25 trillion to the national debt, according to calculations shared exclusively with Fortune by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. That period roughly captures President Donald Trump’s first year back in office, as it is the last business day before last year’s Inauguration Day and the most recent day for which data are available. The jump from $37 trillion to $38 trillion in just two months between August and October was particularly notable, with the Peterson Foundation calculating at the time that it was the fastest rate of growth outside the pandemic. Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the nonpartisan watchdog dedicated to fiscal sustainability, told Fortune at the time that “if it seems like we are adding debt faster than ever, that’s because we are.”

As for how these figures compare to recent presidencies, the Peterson Foundation provided calculations (below) for each calendar year over the last quarter-century, revealing that President Joe Biden owns the highest year of national debt growth outside the pandemic, with almost $2.6 trillion in 2023. President Trump far and away holds the record, with nearly $4.6 trillion of national debt growth occurring during the pandemic year of 2020, when massive federal spending occurred in the form of economic relief measures.

Trump and Biden together own the top five highest-debt-incurring years, two for Trump and three for Biden, across five of the last six years. While the figures are not adjusted for inflation, by and large, Trump and Biden have roughly doubled the rate of debt accumulation under President Barack Obama and tripled, even quadrupled, the rate of growth under President George W. Bush, depending on which term you’re looking at. To be sure, both Bush and Obama presided over the aftermath of the Great Recession of 2008, with experts still debating whether their fiscal responses were large enough.

Interest costs explode

The surge in debt is landing just as interest costs on that debt become one of Washington’s fastest‑growing expenses. The specific line item for net interest in the federal budget totaled $970 billion for fiscal year 2025, but the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculated that, including spending for net interest payments on the public debt, this broke the $1 trillion barrier for the first time. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, another nonpartisan watchdog, projects $1 trillion per year in interest payments from here on out.

Trump has repeatedly argued that his ambitious tariff program will be enough to tame the debt burden, casting duties on imports as a kind of magic revenue source for Washington. Treasury data show tariffs are bringing in significantly more money than before—likely in the $300 billion to $400 billion per year range—but even optimistic projections suggest those sums cover only a fraction of annual interest costs and an even smaller slice of total federal spending.​ As Trump retreated from many of his tariff threats—before the January 2026 spike that he threatened in relation to his desire for U.S. possession of Greenland—the CBO calculated that $800 billion of projected deficit reduction had also vanished.

At the same time, the administration has promised to share some of that tariff revenue directly with households through a proposed $2,000 “dividend” for every American, a pledge that independent analysts estimate could cost around $600 billion per year and further widen the deficit unless offset elsewhere. Economists say that the combination—more borrowing, high interest rates, and new permanent commitments—risks locking in structural deficits that keep the debt rising faster than the overall economy.​
Markets and America’s ‘Achilles’ heel’

Financial markets are taking notice. As Washington auctions hundreds of billions of dollars in new Treasury securities each week, yields on longer‑term notes and bonds have moved higher, reflecting both tighter monetary conditions and investor unease about the sheer volume of U.S. borrowing. Recent analysis from Deutsche Bank and others has described America’s mounting debt load as an “Achilles’ heel” that could leave the dollar and broader economy more vulnerable to shocks, particularly as geopolitical tensions and tariff fights escalate.​

Those worries are amplified by the prospect of future recessions or emergencies that could force the government to borrow even more heavily on top of today’s already elevated baseline. Rating agencies and international lenders have not sounded any immediate alarm about U.S. solvency, but they have increasingly highlighted fiscal risks in their outlooks, pointing to widening deficits and a political system that has struggled to impose discipline.​
Voters are paying attention

If there is one thing Americans still broadly agree on, it is that the debt problem matters. Recent polling sponsored by the Peterson Foundation found that roughly 82% of voters say the national debt is an important issue for the country, even as they remain divided over which programs to cut or taxes to raise.​

Trump first won office vowing to erase the national debt over time; a decade later, after his return to power, that figure has instead climbed to record highs. As the administration prepares for another year of governing—and another season of fiscal showdowns on Capitol Hill—the question is shifting from whether the debt is growing too fast to how long the world’s largest economy can keep outrunning its own balance sheet.

[Breccia]

What business has the cost of spreading fucking measles?

As he says in the article, the outbreak is due to "open borders". You know, blatant racism. The fact that the outbreak is being spread by anti-vaxxing white people is, naturally, being withheld. "Continue to not vaccinate your children," the WH is proudly saying, "their sickness, injury, and death will be the fault of a brown person."

[Kathandira]

Your children are the sacrifice Trump and RFK are willing to make to keep non-whites out of the country

[Breccia]

"debt!"

Now, to be fair, the deficit and debt have been bad for a while. This article would have been written no matter what, just with different contents.

But, let's all remember, Trump said he would bring down the debt and he would do so easily. First in 2015, of course, all the way through to these National Security Lol tariffs which...seem to have done nothing, and in fact as the article explains, it's gotten worse. DOGE did nothing. Firing thousands and thousands did nothing. Cutting services did nothing. Well, nothing for the deficit.

So, it's not that the debt is bad, it's that the debt is worsening under the tiny hands of someone who claimed a primary goal was making it better. \

And it's about to get worse. The US is proving it is a bad investment risk, and also, Trump is a target for anyone who wants to weaponize the dollar and/or the USA's ability to borrow money. Trump has antagonized every continent and he's done it on purpose.

Even the rabid fanbase, the mentally ill cult, know this. They knew Trump, incompetent bankrupt fraudster, would not do anything, and they knew it would hurt them when he failed. They are just pretending otherwise.