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Thoughts on the Trump presidency
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RailUK Forums
A topic of discussion today was the question of if DJT is suffering from dementia. I'm not a doctor, but I'll let his words speak for him: https://www.threads.com/@decodingfo...8ecs2O25HsCbDMVi9WihpHBFAFL0eYa5auUpFg&slof=1
Link is to a video with portion of a recent DJT speech read by text-to-speech software.
Link is to a video with portion of a recent DJT speech read by text-to-speech software.
Oh it's very clear that he's suffering serious mental decline at this point. As I've said before. Compare various speeches and press conferences from his first term to what we're getting now and it's blindingly obvious he's nowhere near the same as he was.
Of course because it's Trump though that's fine, unlike when it was Auto-pen Joe
I suppose the big difference between Biden and Trump is that Biden was sensible and said sensible things so it's easier to see any decline mentally, Trump on the other hand always said strange/mad stuff so it's been difficult to tell if he's just becoming more authoritarian or he's just plain losing it.
Plus there is probably a good proportion of his followers that like his madder and madder ideas.
Plus there is probably a good proportion of his followers that like his madder and madder ideas.
Biden was clearly showing early signs of dementia but at least he came across as leaving things to his administration staff where he didn't think he could handle them himself, whereas Trump is the sort of person who would simply rule in an erratic, incoherent manner as the result of dementia or cognitive decline.
A few months ago I created this graphic of how I would place various past and present political parties/movements/leaders on the left/right political spectrum. I personally feel the political spectrum is less of a linear line but more of a horseshoe (between communism and fascism, with a narrow gap in between since both have different ideologies but tend to rule in a similar totalitarian manner) as shown below:
Trump is probably about as far to the right in my view as what the UK's Militant Tendency was to the left during the 1970s and 1980s. I made this graph around the time Badenoch became the Tory leader, and in the time since they have probably shifted to being closer to Brothers of Italy or Javier Milei on this graph.
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I agree with most of your evaluations, but I would put Reform in basically the same location as Bolsanaro.
brad465
Veteran Member
Likewise, but I'd also move Putin above Mussolini, now he's waging full-on war in Ukraine and killing opponents at home far more easily and numerously than pre-2020. Netanyahu might also be worth adding to this, I'd put him similar to Putin as well (pre-2023 he'd have been closer to Milei's position on this chart).
Very interesting. Thatcher might need her own spot but balancing her free market liberalism vs her utterly brutal shock troops in police uniforms presents a challenge.
m0ffy
Member
That’s why a two dimensional graph is more useful.
At the time I made this almost a year ago, the MAGA movement didn't feel quite as extreme as it does now because it did not hold power (even though Trump had just been elected for a second non-consecutive term). I would now probably swap the positions of MAGA and Bolsonaro around. Reform do not currently feel quite as bad as the MAGA Republican Party but there's a good chance that this is because they are not currently in power. Some of the policies of the few Reform led councils, for example cutting disability support, banning certain books from libraries and refusing to speak to outlets other than GB News, all sound very out of the MAGA playbook. At the same time England is a lot less religious than much of the US, and I don't feel Reform have a significant Evangelical influence in the way that the Republicans do. If I recall correctly the Reform MP who won Runcorn in a byelection voted yes in the assisted dying vote, whereas their Labour predecessor had been against. There is little chance that a Republican politician representing a socially conservative region of the US would openly come out in favour of such a bill.
The Republican Party of Reagan was fairly comparable to Margaret Thatcher's Tories with a bit of DUP style Christian nationalism thrown in if you include the Moral Majority faction of the GOP from this era. That's why I put "traditional GOP" in-between the Tories as they were under Johnson and Sunak (which was probably fairly comparable on the spectrum to under Thatcher, but further to the right than under Cameron or May) and the DUP. Northern Ireland's DUP are not actually that right wing on economic issues (on the economic scale they are fairly close to New Labour or the One Nation wing of the Tories) but were originally founded on the teachings of Free Presbyterianism and are quite conservative on social issues, although they've become a little more moderate in the past 20 years or so with Traditional Unionist Voice now being essentially the "old" DUP.
Annetts key
Established Member
Please tell me if these ramblings from him are normal (for him) or not.
Link takes you to threads.com where a video has been posted. The original sound has been removed and a text to speech system reads out Trumps words. The image itself has a text box obscuring Trump. So you don't see or hear him.
Link to website where you will find the video
Link takes you to threads.com where a video has been posted. The original sound has been removed and a text to speech system reads out Trumps words. The image itself has a text box obscuring Trump. So you don't see or hear him.
nlogax
Established Member
Take away the bloated orange visage and low energy mumble that he's recently adopted and the raw words spoken by tts feel much closer to those of a five your old. Neatly underscores that Trump's appeal lives via a cult of personality. It's certainly nothing to do with coherent thoughts or words.
Tetchytyke
Veteran Member
Absolutely. Trump is far more incoherent than Biden was by the end, yet people flocked to him. Almost as though a black woman was just too much for the flyover states to bear.
The personality cult suits the people behind Trump just fine, though. They’re the ones who terrify me. Same as with Reagan, who didn’t know what day it was most of the time, the people behind him could push anything through with the personality cult.
Monarch010
Member
- Joined
- 28 Feb 2013
- Messages
- 94
Yes, that chimes with my view. While Trump rambles and lurches between ideas, it acts as a smokescreen behind which the real maniacs can develop their programme.
brad465
Veteran Member
Having previously offered words of support for Argentina's failing currency, the US administration has now gone and actually intervened and bought Argentine pesos:
www.ft.com
If the Argentine economy continues to see a run on the peso despite this, this has the potential to backfire on the US, losing a high proportion of the value on the purchases. Even if small in the grand scheme of things, the PR will be very bad. Even if this doesn't happen, this blunts the "America First" narrative.
US Treasury intervenes in Argentina’s currency market
Scott Bessent announces $20bn ‘currency swap framework’ with the South American country’s central bank
www.ft.com
If the Argentine economy continues to see a run on the peso despite this, this has the potential to backfire on the US, losing a high proportion of the value on the purchases. Even if small in the grand scheme of things, the PR will be very bad. Even if this doesn't happen, this blunts the "America First" narrative.
Annetts key
Established Member
Having previously offered words of support for Argentina's failing currency, the US administration has now gone and actually intervened and bought Argentine pesos:
US Treasury intervenes in Argentina’s currency market
Scott Bessent announces $20bn ‘currency swap framework’ with the South American country’s central bank
If the Argentine economy continues to see a run on the peso despite this, this has the potential to backfire on the US, losing a high proportion of the value on the purchases. Even if small in the grand scheme of things, the PR will be very bad. Even if this doesn't happen, this blunts the "America First" narrative.
A very good chance that traders will know this and the peso will continue falling in value...
brad465
Veteran Member
Cue 200% tariffs on Norway...
Also, to add insult to injury for Trump, the award went to a woman from Venezuela.
Yes, given Trump's history of using tariffs as sanctions against governments he doesn't like.
Oh this is going to be a tantrum of epic proportions. Quite honestly any White House staffers not calling in sick today have only themselves to blame!
brad465
Veteran Member
Some of them could be furloughed at the moment anyway, as the shutdown is ongoing.
Someone tell him that the deadline for nominations was January and that he can apply next year!
I think that they've been quite tactically clever though in their choice of winner. It's a woman from Venezuela, but at the same time it's the opposition leader to Maduro so is something or a snub to an enemy of Trump's America.
Not sure it will work and I reckon there's a none zero chance we wake-up to reports of American bombing raids on Oslo tomorrow morning.
Judging by the committee's announcement about how democracy is on the retreat and authoritarian governments are seeking to to shut down free press, criticism and even imprisoning their detractors, I think he's going to be disappointed next year too!
YorkshireBear
Established Member
- Joined
- 23 Jul 2010
- Messages
- 9,671
Amazing. I've seen it said a white house press officer said the committee chose politics over peace. It's beyond pathetic. Relevant extract from article quoted below alongside link to full article.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70821201ego
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70821201ego
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
So, Trump will start a flight over the peace prize...?
It would be quite the irony, but I've honestly given up being surprised by things now.So, Trump will start a flight over the peace prize...?
Between Norway's decision not to give him a peace prize, and his obsession with taking over 98% of Denmark's land mass; I wouldn't be surprised if he just started a new tariff system for Scandinavia.
I was listening to Cult of Personality by Living Colour on repeat on the train the day after he was reelected last year, and the lyrics felt extremely relevant despite the song having been 36 years old then (now 37). It seemed a little absurd to me why the Americans were willing to choose him again four years after he essentially instructed his most hardline supporters to storm the Capitol. I overheard several other people on the same train talking about Trump as well, and they all seemed quite bemused as to why he had been reelected over a much more sensible candidate who held far more moderate views and was nearly 20 years younger.