Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[martin butler]

Actually taking all the money from the bank and still losing.
Does his version have as one of the chance/community chess cards a "you've been caught paying for women, pay the bank $xxxxxx to hush it up" card?

Or a " become president to avoid going to jail" card.

 

[edwin_m]

Trump actually had a hotel and casino in Atlantic City, the prototype for the Monopoly Board. It went bust.

 

[brad465]

I can't link any article because the content is technically inappropriate for the forum, but if you Google "Trump Bubba", you're in for a shock about the latest in the Epstein saga.

 

[Gloster]

I can't link any article because the content is technically inappropriate for the forum, but if you Google "Trump Bubba", you're in for a shock about the latest in the Epstein saga.

No, no, that is a mishearing of ’I’m forever blowing bubbles’. However, the possibility that Trump is a West Ham supporter is the most damaging revelation yet.

More seriously, it is quite possibly a bit of a diversionary tactic to produce a bit of fake news that really is fake so that he can claim that everything else is fake. Or it allows him to remind everybody of Monica Lewinsky. Or to to justify holding everything up while the Clintons are investigated for…something or other, which he has apparently recently said he would do. Or…

Or it is just bizarre.

 

[Strathclyder]

Trump actually had a hotel and casino in Atlantic City, the prototype for the Monopoly Board. It went bust.

One of them (the former Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino) was demolished (imploded) in February 2021, not even a month after he left office and while his second impeachment trial was ongoing (IIRC), though it had closed back in September 2014:

 

[Peter C]

I can't link any article because the content is technically inappropriate for the forum, but if you Google "Trump Bubba", you're in for a shock about the latest in the Epstein saga.

The BBC are reporting that the US justice department is to investigate Epstein's alleged links to major banks and Democrats including Clinton: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj97x2lere0o

The US justice department has confirmed it will investigate paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein's alleged links to major banks and several prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton.
US President Donald Trump said he would ask Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI to look into Epstein's "involvement and relationship" with Clinton and others.
Bondi said the department "will pursue this with urgency and integrity".

Trump's request came days after thousands of Epstein's emails were released by the US Congress - which include mentions of the US president. Democrats have accused Trump of trying to deflect from questions about his relationship with Epstein.

The emails, released by the US House Oversight Committee, include many high-profile figures. A review by the Wall Street Journal found that Trump was mentioned in more than 1,600 or the 2,324 email threads.

Robert Garcia, the leading Democrat on the committee, said Trump was attempting to "deflect from serious new questions we have about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein".
In addition to Clinton, Trump said he asked the Department of Justice (DoJ) to investigate banks JP Morgan and Chase, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who is also a prominent Democratic donor.

"Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat's problem, not the Republican's problem!" he wrote on social media.

"They all know about him, don't waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!"

Clinton has strongly denied he had any knowledge of Epstein's crimes.

A spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase said the firm regrets "any association" they had with Epstein, and added that the firm "did not help him commit his heinous acts".

It is unclear whether Trump made a formal request or issued a directive to the justice department, or if Bondi was responding to his post on his Truth Social platform.

Bondi said she appointed US Attorney Jay Clayton to lead an investigation into the ties with Epstein.

Trump's request comes ahead of the House of Representatives' vote next week on whether the justice department should release all its files related to the investigation into Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.

Democrat Adelita Grijalva's swearing in to the chamber on Wednesday triggered the move, after she immediately signed a discharge petition from calling for the release of the files.

Her signature was the 218th - the final signing needed to trigger a floor vote. Four Republicans joined with Democrats to call for the vote.

Interest in Epstein's relationships was renewed this week after US lawmakers released more than 20,000 pages of documents from his estate, including many mentioning Trump.

Documents released by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday appeared to show correspondence between Epstein and the former US Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers from October 2017.

-Peter

 

[najaB]

The BBC are reporting that the US justice department is to investigate Epstein's alleged links to major banks and Democrats including Clinton: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj97x2lere0o

Classic "Whataboutism" but, as always, it misses the point that the fact that someone else did [insert bad thing] doesn't change the fact that your guy did [insert bad thing].

 

[martin butler]

IMHO, Trump is going to try every tactic to divert attention from his own involvement, he will throw as much mud as he possibly can to hide his own involvement, much of it will be done very poorly by his people, and I've got my popcorn ready, because, they will screw up and they are taking on very powerful institutions, with very expensive, very good Lawyers who will end a lot of peoples careers,

 

[Stewart2887]

Trump is clearly wrecking everything for his own benefit. BBC thing is a distraction, I hope they can fend him off. Anyone from the US on here to comment? And once he's gone, will others keep up the pressure. I apologise that he's half Scottish

 

[najaB]

BBC thing is a distraction, I hope they can fend him off.

At this point, pretty much everything is an attempted distraction.

 

[D6130]

Trump is clearly wrecking everything for his own benefit. BBC thing is a distraction, I hope they can fend him off. Anyone from the US on here to comment? And once he's gone, will others keep up the pressure. I apologise that he's half Scottish

Only a quarter Scottish I thought? Still too much though!

 

[Gloster]

Only a quarter Scottish I thought? Still too much though!

Sorry, you don’t get off that easily. His mother was a Gaelic-speaking Macleod from Tong on the Isle of Lewis.

 

[AlterEgo]

Classic "Whataboutism" but, as always, it misses the point that the fact that someone else did [insert bad thing] doesn't change the fact that your guy did [insert bad thing].

Oh indeed. Right on cue. They are not even hiding it.

 

[brad465]

Nobody is immune from falling out with Trump, the latest is staunch MAGA poster-girl Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who he now says should be unseated:

Trump targets ally Marjorie Taylor Greene ahead of Epstein files vote

The Georgia congresswoman has criticised Trump's foreign policy and handling of Jeffrey Epstein files.

www.bbc.co.uk

Disagreements between Donald Trump and Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene have ballooned into a public feud, signalling a breakdown in relations between the US president and one of his fiercest defenders.
On Friday, Trump called Greene "wacky" in social media posts and said she should be unseated in next year's elections. On Saturday, he called her a "traitor".
Greene has in recent days questioned whether Trump was still putting "America First" and criticised his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The feud comes as the House is set to consider whether to release the files to the public.
"All I see "Wacky" Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!" Trump posted on Friday night, claiming that she turned on him after he suggested that she shouldn't run for governor or senator in her home state of Georgia.
"She has told many people that she is upset that I don't return her phone calls anymore," Trump said, adding: "I can't take a ranting Lunatic's call every day."
He pledged to back any Republican opponent that takes her on in next year's midterm elections, when she is up for reelection, before intensifying his attacks in social media posts on Saturday from his home in Florida.
"Marjorie 'Traitor' Green [sic] is a disgrace to our GREAT REPUBLICAN PARTY!" he wrote.
The comments follow days of criticism from Greene, who has said that Trump is not doing enough to bring down costs for voters. She also denounced his recent decisions in foreign conflicts and on tariff policies.
But she has been most critical of his approach to handing the Epstein files.
The turnaround is remarkable for a lawmaker who stood by Trump during multiple scandals, most notably the Capitol riot in 2021 when Trump supporters stormed the US legislature in an attempt to block Trump's election defeat.
The US president also vigorously defended Greene when she was accused of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Greene is one of only four House Republicans who joined Democrats in signing a discharge petition calling for the release of the Epstein files last week.
On Friday, Greene posted on X that Trump was trying to stop other Republicans from voting in favour of the Epstein petition.
"He's coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files," she posted, adding: "It's astonishing really how hard he's fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level."
She returned to X on Saturday to say Trump's had made her a target for threats "fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world".
"As a Republican, who overwhelmingly votes for President Trump's bills and agenda, his aggression against me... is completely shocking to everyone," she wrote.
"I don't worship or serve Donald Trump," she wrote in one post.
Former Republican pollster and strategist Robert Moran said it was clear the US president did not want the Epstein files to be released and "is trying to pressure" Greene.
Mr Moran doubted the row would affect Trump's popularity as the electorate was so divided, but said it was inevitable the files would eventually come out.
"Many of his voters are sceptical of power and so they want power to be held to account, and they support the release of these files," he added.
Trump has long faced criticism from both parties over his handling of the US Department of Justice files related to Epstein, the late financier and convicted paedophile.
Trump was a friend of Epstein's for years, but the US president has said they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

 

[AlterEgo]

Nobody is immune from falling out with Trump, the latest is staunch MAGA poster-girl Marjorie Taylor-Greene, who he now says should be unseated:

Trump targets ally Marjorie Taylor Greene ahead of Epstein files vote

The Georgia congresswoman has criticised Trump's foreign policy and handling of Jeffrey Epstein files.

www.bbc.co.uk

Even a broken clock etc.

 

[D6130]

Deleted.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 15 Nov 2025 ==

Sorry, you don’t get off that easily. His mother was a Gaelic-speaking Macleod from Tong on the Isle of Lewis.

Yes....sorry! You're correct. I was thinking - somewhat wishfully - that she was his grandmother.

 

[generalnerd]

Sorry, you don’t get off that easily. His mother was a Gaelic-speaking Macleod from Tong on the Isle of Lewis.

If he cared about his mothers mother tongue he wouldn’t sue the BBC, considering they provide a Gaelic language tv channel and radio station and that operation is skint!

 

[Peter C]

An interesting article from BBC News today:

Trump calls on House Republicans to vote to release Epstein files

"We have nothing to hide," the US president writes - a reversal after previously resisting publishing the documents.

www.bbc.co.uk

US President Donald Trump has urged lawmakers in his own party to vote to release files relating to the late convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump wrote on Sunday night that Republicans in the House of Representatives should do so "because we have nothing to hide".
The reversal of his recent position follows a slow drip feed of documents concerning the disgraced financier by House Democrats, some of which reference Trump, who has always denied any link to Epstein's sex abuse and trafficking.

But details of his and other prominent figures' past relationship with Epstein have fuelled speculation and led to a public spat with one of Trump's staunchest supporters.
Potentially dozens of Republicans have now signalled they are willing to break ranks and vote in favour of a bill that would compel the US government to publish all the documents on Epstein and the criminal investigations into him that it holds.

Supporters of the bill appear to have enough votes for it to pass the House this week, though it is unclear whether it would pass in the Senate, the other chamber of the US Congress.
Epstein was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019, in what a coroner later ruled a suicide. He was being held on charges of sex trafficking, having previously been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.

Trump repeated White House dismissals of the attention over the Epstein files as a Democrat-led "hoax" to "deflect" attention away from his party's work.

"The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on 'Epstein,' are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON'T CARE!," he wrote on his Truth social platform.
He added that he wanted Republicans to "get BACK ON POINT".

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson made a similar point on Sunday, saying calls to release the files were the "entire game plan" for opposition Democrats.
"Trump has clean hands," Johnson told Fox News. "He's not worried about it. I talk to him all the time. He has nothing to do with this. He's frustrated that they're turning it into a political issue."

-Peter

 

[ainsworth74]

An interesting article from BBC News today:

Trump calls on House Republicans to vote to release Epstein files

"We have nothing to hide," the US president writes - a reversal after previously resisting publishing the documents.

www.bbc.co.uk

-Peter

Presumably they've finally finished editing the files to remove any embarrassing/criminal details. Though my money is still on them refusing to release them (assuming the Congressional vote goes the way it seems likely to) due to the active "investigation" that Trump ordered the DOJ to launch over the weekend meaning that it would be prejudicial to the investigation were they made public at this time.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I think they've lost control of the situation.

They will, no doubt, release something and then claim they've released everything. They will go on the attack against Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.
I am very surprised that they didn't do this a year ago. Bill Gates' links to Epstein came out a couple of years ago around the time he divorced from Melinda Gates, and Melinda did obliquely reference Epstein in that divorce. Tactically, that would have been a good time for Trump to go in on the Epstein files.

But I think they've now lost that window of opportunity. Maybe we will find out who Bubba is after all.

 

[Gloster]

Start by publishing selected extracts from the files that are damaging to people Trump doesn’t like (quite a wide choice there) or is willing to throw to the wolves (an even wider choice) and then get some tame toady to raise some sort of legal objection. Then it is, “Oh, dear. We mustn’t break the law so we’re halting publication until this is sorted out by the courts”. Cue years of obscure argument and a final decision by the tame Supreme Court.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Nov 2025 ==

But I think they've now lost that window of opportunity. Maybe we will find out who Bubba is after all.

According to Epstein’s brother, Bubba is some friend of Epstein’s who is unknown to the general public. (So it said in an item in my newsfeed a day or two ago, but it has gone now.)

 

[brad465]

Presumably they've finally finished editing the files to remove any embarrassing/criminal details. Though my money is still on them refusing to release them (assuming the Congressional vote goes the way it seems likely to) due to the active "investigation" that Trump ordered the DOJ to launch over the weekend meaning that it would be prejudicial to the investigation were they made public at this time.

Either that, and/or Trump has found a way to brush off all the dirt involving him in the same way every other scandal has done.

 

[ainsworth74]

Either that, and/or Trump has found a way to brush off all the dirt involving him in the same way every other scandal has done.

Perhaps but I think he might really be in trouble this time. Now I'm not convinced it's the sort of trouble that will topple him. But I reckon the infighting it might trigger could be interesting.

 

[edwin_m]

Definitely some kind of game going on here. If he wants them releasing then he can surely just do that, rather than asking people to vote to ask him to?

 

[dosxuk]

I think it's more about being on the winning side. It was looking almost certain the vote was going to pass, despite his best efforts, so by switching to "I told them to vote for it anyway" skips the losing. He has to sign off on the release anyway, and I'm sure he can find plenty of ways to delay that.

 

[jon0844]

I think it's more about being on the winning side. It was looking almost certain the vote was going to pass, despite his best efforts, so by switching to "I told them to vote for it anyway" skips the losing. He has to sign off on the release anyway, and I'm sure he can find plenty of ways to delay that.

Yes, like opening an investigation that means the documents can't be released.

He can then leak names and imply it's only Democrats on the list.

A strategy that I don't think is found to work. People are moving on from Trump and I'm sure the Heritage Foundation no longer consider him useful and will be happy for JD Vance to step in.

 

[ainsworth74]

People are moving on from Trump and I'm sure the Heritage Foundation no longer consider him useful and will be happy for JD Vance to step in.

Not too early though, I reckon he's fairly safe from a knife in the back at the moment (unless he becomes really problematic in their eyes) because they won't want Vance to burn one of his two terms if they can avoid it. Twenty-second amendment means that if Vance took over right now then this would count as one of his two Presidential terms:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Reckon the danger moment for Trump will come in January 2027. That's after what could be potentially catastrophic mid-terms, a further year of Epstein shenanigans, another year of quite clear mental and physical decline as well as, crucially, being the point at which if Vance became President (or Acting President if they removed him via the Twenty-fifth amendment) then at that point he could see out the rest of Trump's term and not have used up one of his two shots at being President.

 

[martin butler]

I think it's more about being on the winning side. It was looking almost certain the vote was going to pass, despite his best efforts, so by switching to "I told them to vote for it anyway" skips the losing. He has to sign off on the release anyway, and I'm sure he can find plenty of ways to delay that.

I think it's about taking down others who in his eyes have shown disloyalty towards him, He knows his names in the emails, but what if others, such as Collings, Vance etc, as well as others, who have a lot to lose?

For all we know, he might already be planning to resign, possibly in mid-air on the way to a chosen safe country, with what he has grifted out of the US state, he escapes, whilst others take the fall,

And Bubba? clearly trump only worships men with power, and influence, often heads of authoritarian regimes, So, who might have trump, by his short and curlies? who does he owe money to,

 

[najaB]

Presumably they've finally finished editing the files to remove any embarrassing/criminal details.

At this point would anyone buy that?

 

[Gloster]

At this point would anyone buy that?

Some would. The question is: would they be enough?