Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[Annetts key]

I think that is worth doing, but if they can't stop the drones and glide bombs, let alone the ballistic and hypersonic missiles there won't be a Ukraine left to defend.

Even with everything that Russia is throwing at Ukraine, it's a small fraction of the damage that was caused by general bombing, carpet bombing and the V1 and V2 weapons during WWII. Did the U.K. give up then? No.

Besides which, Ukraine is working on developing jet powered interceptor drones to deal with the Russian jet engine drones. Yes, dealing with ballistic missiles is a lot harder, but Ukraine with European help is working on this as well.

It did seem that after the massive and totally obvious drop in bot activity (yet for some reason the BBC went with the belief it wasn't real) Elon got extremely upset and it was the day after that Starlink suddenly stopped working in Ukraine.

I am not sure if Elon really had nothing to do with this (it could well be that Trump decided to do it) but given his angry posts, it certainly seems like he did - but now is perhaps backtracking and trying to throw Trump under the bus because it does look very bad for Elon and Starlink in general.

This in itself is going to be interesting, because I'm sure Trump needs Elon's help in the mid-terms - but Trump and the GOP in general must be somewhat upset to be blamed so openly.

I suspect Trump doesn't want any more data centres knocked out, so wants to limit Ukraine's ability to target them. In fact, I'm certain this is the primary (or only) reason.

We all saw with our own eyes how all the bots just disappeared as if by magic for 24 hours or so. It was blissful and also highlighted how the bot problem is even worse than many of us could have imagined.

Reform posted some outrageous things and they had no backup from the bots at all, meaning pretty much 100% of replies were attacks on Reform. I believe much the same can be said for things in the USA too.

Ukraine has not been able to use Starlink over Russian territory as the U.S. has never given permission for this. So all long range strikes into Russia use other methods of navigation and control.

Starlink is most useful to Ukraine in controlling drones (air types, ground types and sea types) hitting moving targets or targets that can change location within the occupied Ukrainian territory. Or for reconnaissance.

In terms of intelligence services, Ukraine does rely on U.S. intelligence to warn them of incoming cruise and ballistic missiles. Plus helping identify targets.

Ukraine will survive without these U.S. services but yes, they will suffer more deaths and it will extend the war by an unknown number of years.

European countries can help with some of these issues but cannot replace all of them. And Ukraine using other technologies (such as mesh networks) can help.

IMHO, Ukraine should continue targeting Russian factories used to produce weapons, components or chemicals used in weapon production, oil production facilities, refineries and data centres. And any other legitimate military targets.

And yes, the countries that support Ukraine need to step up and significantly increase support with more weapons as well as putting as much pressure as possible on Russia and Trump.

To put maximum pressure on Trump without him being able to single out individual countries, the countries that support Ukraine need to act as a group.

 

[najaB]

And yes, the countries that support Ukraine need to step up and significantly increase support with more weapons as well as putting as much pressure as possible on Russia and Trump.

To put maximum pressure on Trump without him being able to single out individual countries, the countries that support Ukraine need to act as a group.

Unless the GOP engages in massive electoral fraud I think Trump has about two and a half weeks of real political power.

 

[jon0844]

Unless the GOP engages in massive electoral fraud I think Trump has about two and a half weeks of real political power.

All sorts of rumours going around of what he might do during and after the mid terms.

I don't have a clue what he will do, but I'm pretty sure the answer won't be doing nothing.

 

[Strathclyder]

All sorts of rumours going around of what he might do during and after the mid terms.

I don't have a clue what he will do, but I'm pretty sure the answer won't be doing nothing.

Indeed. The saying about a cornered rat lashing out applies here I think; throwing anything and everything at the wall to see what, if anything, will stick.

 

[martin butler]

All sorts of rumours going around of what he might do during and after the mid terms.

I don't have a clue what he will do, but I'm pretty sure the answer won't be doing nothing.

I think you can safely say he will resort to type,

That is, bluster and threat, He actually has little actual power to stop the mid-terms, the states organise them, and the senators automatically lose their seats a few weeks after the vote, 2nd of November I believe?

so, no speaker, to hold things up, and the next speaker will be a democrat anyway, he can try to delay the seating of new senators, but they will happen, then will come the push backs, especially if the democrats then control house and senate, investigations will start, looking into the many misuses of presidential powers, and how his family have profited from his presidency,

He I expect will shout and scream, at how unfair it all is, but will largely be dead duck, at that point, does he run, resign, and accept a pardon from Vance, who will then be under investigation himself, or do something really stupid like start another insurrection, then when it fails, flee to Russia?

 

[ainsworth74]

In a rare outbreak of sanity (such as it is) they're now not going to livestream the upcoming execution of the Fort Hood murderer:

US President Donald Trump has called off plans to livestream the execution of former US army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan by firing squad.

Trump had previously said he approved of showing online the death of the Fort Hood attacker, while Vice-President JD Vance cast doubt on whether it would happen and said he would not watch it.

As criticism over the public display mounted, Trump said on Thursday that "many very good and well meaning people would rather not watch him die".

"I think streaming the execution for all to see might have been a strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with Terrorists and SCUM like Hasan," Trump said.

"He will die, as scheduled, by firing squad, but this event will not be streamed," the president added.

Hasan fatally shot 13 unarmed US soldiers at a military base in Texas in 2009, injuring another 32. His execution by firing squad will be the first military execution in more than 60 years.

Trump said the execution can be viewed in person by the families of the victims.

"They deserve to witness JUSTICE!" Trump said.

Trump calls off livestream of Fort Hood attacker's execution by firing squad

Trump said some would "rather not watch" the execution of Nidal Hasan, the first military execution in over 60 years.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Strathclyder]

In a rare outbreak of sanity (such as it is) they're now not going to livestream the upcoming execution of the Fort Hood murderer:

Trump calls off livestream of Fort Hood attacker's execution by firing squad

Trump said some would "rather not watch" the execution of Nidal Hasan, the first military execution in over 60 years.

www.bbc.co.uk

Sanity is in extremely short supply in this day and age - especially where Trump/MAGA is concerned where it's rarer than unmined Russian Alexandrite - but one has to take these small doses of it when and where they appear. Something else utterly insane will happen to balance this out though before the end of the week, as is always the way with Trump.

 

[AndrewE]

Don't know if this belongs here or in a "Ukraine invaded" thread, but https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqwyrnwd9dw1o says

Russia has accused Ukraine of attacking an oil refinery after Volodymyr Zelensky said such strikes, halted at the request of the US, would resume.

Ukraine's president said he had restricted attacks for three days while Russia had continued striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure. "We're done," he told the Financial Times, external.

Why would anyone be surprised? The Trump link is in a later paragraph:

He previously said he would agree to the "energy ceasefire" announced by US President Donald Trump on Sunday if Moscow also abided by it.

But he accused Russia of ignoring the proposed deal within hours of it being announced, with strikes leaving hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power. The Kremlin never said it had agreed to the deal.

 

[Annetts key]

If I was the president of Ukraine, my response to Trumps announcement (any of his peace or ceasefire announcements) would be - okay, come to Kyiv in person and we can discuss it... Otherwise unless Russia stops first, we will continue to defend ourselves.

 

[HSTEd]

Even with everything that Russia is throwing at Ukraine, it's a small fraction of the damage that was caused by general bombing, carpet bombing and the V1 and V2 weapons during WWII. Did the U.K. give up then? No.

Besides which, Ukraine is working on developing jet powered interceptor drones to deal with the Russian jet engine drones. Yes, dealing with ballistic missiles is a lot harder, but Ukraine with European help is working on this as well.

As with almost all bombing attacks in WWII, the majority of fire from V1 and V2 was wasted.
Blowing up random residential buildings is not a particularly effective means of reducing your opponents ability to fight.

The allies had to torch whole urban areas to reliably destroy the critical factories contained within them.

The difference now is that Russia can target actually useful installations and reliably strike them.

Less total destruction, but total destruction doesn't win wars. Destruction of the enemy's ability to sustain the fight does.

I am very sceptical that jet engine powered interceptor drones will prove feasible, the engagement regime has just become analogous to cruise missiles. Jet powered SAMs have been tried before but largely failed, it will be back to rocket motors in the end I think.

 

[AndrewE]

As with almost all bombing attacks in WWII, the majority of fire from V1 and V2 was wasted.
Blowing up random residential buildings is not a particularly effective means of reducing your opponents ability to fight.

Really? V1 failed to deliver because the UK managed to report them falling North of London when they were actually on target, hence the aiming being re-set to fall short, with much-reduced effects... Read "Most Secret War" for the story. - p.s. and the Blitz wiping out housing in London, Liverpool and Plymouth certainly had an effect.

The allies had to torch whole urban areas to reliably destroy the critical factories contained within them.
The difference now is that Russia can target actually useful installations and reliably strike them.

Less total destruction, but total destruction doesn't win wars. Destruction of the enemy's ability to sustain the fight does.

I thought that the Russian policy was to totally wipe out cities, see e.g. the flattening of Mariupol. A scorched earth policy followed by token reconstruction and Russification.

 

[brad465]

Making Liz Truss look like vintage wine:

Trump says new White House press secretary Zacharia should 'reconsider' job days after starting role

Katie Zacharia has given only one White House briefing after she was picked for the job a week ago.

www.bbc.co.uk

Trump says Zacharia should 'reconsider' White House press job​

US President Donald Trump has suggested maybe the role of White House press secretary is not for Katie Zacharia, following her shaky debut earlier this week.

"I said Katie, you know you don’t have to do this if you don’t want," Trump said earlier today, speaking to reporters outside Marine One.

"If I were you I'd reconsider," he added.

Zacharia has faced heavy criticism since she made her first appearance in the role on Tuesday, which lasted less than 15 minutes and saw only three questions from reporters.

The biggest scrutiny has come over her legal credentials, having been introduced by Trump as an "attorney" yet Zacharia has never passed the bar and does not meet the legal definition for the term.

Zacharia has spent the week playing defence, answering tough questions from conservative outlets about her credentials and preparedness for the job.

 

[AlterEgo]

Making Liz Truss look like vintage wine:

Trump says new White House press secretary Zacharia should 'reconsider' job days after starting role

Katie Zacharia has given only one White House briefing after she was picked for the job a week ago.

www.bbc.co.uk

She's just been taken round the back of the barn:

BBC News - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ck0j3z1q6pwgt?app-referrer=push-notification
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia leaving role days after taking job - BBC News

Daniel Bush
Washington correspondent

Katie Zacharia is "transitioning out" of her role as White House press secretary, the White House confirms to the BBC.

They did not provide a timeline for when she would be leaving the position.

 

[brad465]

She's just been taken round the back of the barn:

BBC News - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ck0j3z1q6pwgt?app-referrer=push-notification
White House press secretary Katie Zacharia leaving role days after taking job - BBC News

I know it's a metaphor, but if anyone saw Trump taking a blonde lady round the back of the barn...

 

[dgl]

I know it's a metaphor, but if anyone saw Trump taking a blonde lady round the back of the barn...

"I wasn't there and even if I was I did nothing, the videos are all fake news!, anyway she's not my daughter..."

 

[najaB]

White House press secretary Katie Zacharia leaving role days after taking job - BBC News

So half a Scaramucci. Impressive...well, impressively bad.

 

[Trainguy34]

So half a Scaramucci. Impressive...well, impressively bad.

Combine this with the rate of inflation under Trump and they can now only afford a Fan or a Dango!

 

[altnabreac hq]

In a word trump is a "Disaster"

 

[Killingworth]

We can, and do, mock Trump but the longer this chaotic confusion of government by off the cuff ill mannered and ignorant tweets goes on the harder it will be for decent standards of law, order and civility to become established in the US. I almost said again, but I'm beginning to wonder when, or if, they've existed.

Pity help whoever comes next, be they red or blue. And pity help us having to keep side stepping the collateral damage.

 

[HSTEd]

Really? V1 failed to deliver because the UK managed to report them falling North of London when they were actually on target, hence the aiming being re-set to fall short, with much-reduced effects... Read "Most Secret War" for the story. - p.s. and the Blitz wiping out housing in London, Liverpool and Plymouth certainly had an effect.

Destruction of housing had a non zero effect, but not an especially serious one on total production.

Workers who were bombed out largely still went to work and still turned out munitions.
Intelligence efforts to distort targeting certainly reduced the effect of the campaign, but the campaign never had the capability to seriously damage war production or Britain's ability to fight.

Throughout the period Germany was hit by many times more explosive each day than fell on Britain.

I thought that the Russian policy was to totally wipe out cities, see e.g. the flattening of Mariupol. A scorched earth policy followed by token reconstruction and Russification.

Mariupol was reduced the rubble during a house to house fight with the Ukrainian garrison that fought to its own destruction. They eventually held out in the local steelworks, which like most soviet facilities, had been hardened against nuclear blast effects, so took a lot of time and explosives to winkle out.

The Russians don't have the ordnance to regularly reduce whole cities to rubble, but cheap and plentiful precision weapons mean they no longer have to.

 

[Annetts key]

I am very sceptical that jet engine powered interceptor drones will prove feasible, the engagement regime has just become analogous to cruise missiles. Jet powered SAMs have been tried before but largely failed, it will be back to rocket motors in the end I think.

There are various types of jet engines. The European MBDA Meteor air-to-air missile uses a ramjet for example, and that out performs purely rocket based air-to-air missile missiles in that particular application.

I don't know what Ukraine is cooking up, but if there is a way, they will find it.

The Russians don't have the ordnance to regularly reduce whole cities to rubble, but cheap and plentiful precision weapons mean they no longer have to.

Destroying civilian infrastructure, including thermal power stations (that produce heat for homes and electricity), damaging or destroying parts of the electricity distribution network, natural gas facilities, petrol stations, hospitals, grain export facilities, passenger trains, shops etc. is not going to significantly help the Russians win this war.

Even when Russia hits economic targets, yes, Ukraine does suffer, but it's getting a hell of a lot of help from friendly countries.

Ukraine is however managing to significantly increase the costs of this war to Russia by hitting oil export facilities, refineries, as well as military targets (including factories etc.) and no other country is giving Russia financial or economic help. Russia is having to buy or barter to get supplies to help it. Russia is selling off gold and multiple times this year has had to abandon selling government bonds. In a normal country, those together would be an absolute disaster for a government. How long Russia can hold it's economy together is unknown, but every week it gets a little bit worse.

Plus, this year, Ukraine is doing better than expected on the "front lines" holding or making Russian advances very slow with a lot more losses. And in some areas, is actually pushing the Russians back.

Currently the biggest problem that Ukraine has is that orange idiot in the White House.

 

[brad465]

Trump's dementia might be the first case of dementia causing someone to come out of the closet:

Trump And Vance Keep Making Weirdly Homoerotic Comments — And The Timing Makes It More Disturbing

This isn’t a fever dream.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

As we approach midterm elections, many of us are reflecting on just how deeply unserious our current leadership can be. We might find much more humor in the day-to-day foolishness, of course, if our collective rights weren’t on the line because of the politicians leading our country.
This week, certain members of the administration seem to be really feeling themselves.
It all started on Monday, when President Trump flew to Ohio to support Republican incumbent Jon Husted. Although Trump is known for his intrusive and professionally inappropriate comments about people’s bodies, they’re usually directed at women.
During this rally, though, the president mentioned that he had heard Husted had once been a “great athlete” before checking him out head-to-toe and admitting to the crowd that he had “looked at his ass.” It seems this was meant as an endorsement of sorts.
The following day, Vice President JD Vance was at a rally in Texas for Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton, who is running against popular Democrat James Talarico. When someone in the audience expressed his admiration for Vance, the vice president responded: “I love you too sir... In a totally platonic way, to be clear. I’m the vice president, not James Talarico,” per the New York Times.
This isn’t a fever dream. It’s 2026, and the vice president of the United States is “no-homo”-ing people at his rallies. All while the president is making unsolicited, borderline homoerotic comments about a 59-year-old Republican politician’s backside, seemingly in an attempt to get people to vote for him.
Not only are these interactions absurd and unprofessional in context, but they’re also indicative of something deeper — in both instances, two of the most powerful men in the world are using other men’s bodies or perceived sexuality as political props. Trump turns Husted into the butt of a joke (literally), while Vance suggests that being gay is a disqualifying characteristic, or at the very least one to laugh at, for a political opponent.
These are the kind of jokes we usually expect from teenage boys trying to establish who’s the most masculine of the group. For years, the manosphere has pushed a version of masculinity in which dominance, aggression and putting other people down are seen as signs of strength.
These types of comments feel even more disturbing right now in light of several disturbing cases of sexual violence that perpetuate the idea that men in power can say and do whatever they want at the cost of others’ bodies. They raise questions about the culture of masculinity we’re enabling, and what happens when men are taught that asserting power over other people’s bodies is supposed to be funny.
Again, Trump vocalizing his surprisingly great taste in men and Vance being so insecure in his masculinity that he needed that disclaimer would all be kind of hilarious if these weren’t the people running the most powerful country in the world.
Americans are struggling with the cost of living, young people can hardly afford rent, and the country is grappling with very real questions about sexual violence and accountability. But sure, let’s make unsolicited comments about people’s asses and sexualities.

 

[Cdd89]

Knife crime is certainly a problem in the UK especially in certain places like parts of urban London but the murder rate in London is dwarfed by the murder rates in most, if not all, major (and some minor) US cities. Let alone the UK murder rate nationally compared to the US murder rate nationally.

Just to pick this up, as I think there's an interesting point here. We all habituate to risks, so a resident of London doesn't ordinarily think too much about knife crime and a resident of Chicago doesn't ordinarily think too much about the risk of death through firearm homocide. (And neither group thinks much about the risk from driving, which is the riskiest thing anyone does!).

Gun crime being lower in the UK doesn't reassure American visitors because the lowered risk is one they're habituated to and don't value highly; they focus on the new risk they're accepting. Similarly a UK visitor to the US would not be reassured about increased gun murder rates just because knife crime rates are far lower.

One might look at these two groups and conclude that the American tourist is irrational in feeling uneasy, whereas the British tourist is rational, since gun minus knife is a positive number. But the actual change in risk is still a tiny number on an absolute scale, so it's probably the case that both visitors are irrational!

I had the same conversation with people who asked why I was happy to wander around Dubai while it was being bombed by Iran. They clearly valued highly the (new) risk of being blown up by a Shahed, but placed no value on the reduction in risk from other forms of crime.

 

[najaB]

One might look at these two groups and conclude that the American tourist is irrational in feeling uneasy, whereas the British tourist is rational, since gun minus knife is a positive number. But the actual change in risk is still a tiny number on an absolute scale, so it's probably the case that both visitors are irrational!

There is truth to that, however in this specific case the risk of death by both stabbing and gun is higher in the USA than the UK, based on a quick search! Some 1,600 stabbing deaths in the USA in 2023 vs 31 in the UK.

 

[The Ham]

There is truth to that, however in this specific case the risk of death by both stabbing and gun is higher in the USA than the UK, based on a quick search! Some 1,600 stabbing deaths in the USA in 2023 vs 31 in the UK.

The BBC suggests some slightly different numbers forthe UK:

Knife killings down by 21%, figures show

The annual ONS crime data also shows overall recorded homicides have fallen.

www.bbc.co.uk

It comes after official data previously showed that homicides had fallen to their lowest level in nearly 50 years.

Crime statistics published on Thursday by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed 172 homicides involving a knife or sharp instrument were recorded by police forces in 2025, compared with 217 in 2024.

Last year's number of knife-related killings is also the lowest since comparable data was first collected in 2010-11.

The dataset also shows that the total number of homicide offences last year - when there were 503 offences - fell by 6% compared with 2024, when there were 534.

However, even if we multiple 217 by 5 (to get to a comparison for the US due to the 5 times larger population) it's 1,085, so still significantly lower than the USA rate.

Yes the numbers are low (both are single digits per million population), although there's then around 42 homicides per million in the US vs slightly less than 9 per million in the UK.

I'm not sure how reliable the data is, but someone suggested that if a British child spent a lunchtime in a US school they would be comparable risk of being killed than for the whole of their time at secondary school on the UK.

 

[najaB]

The BBC suggests some slightly different numbers forthe UK

Yeah. It seems that deaths by stabbing aren't recorded as consistently between jurisdictions as by shootings.

 

[WelshBluebird]

just because knife crime rates are far lower.

But it isnt far lower. Thats the hilarity of it. Both knife crime and gun crime is higher in US cities.

 

[jon0844]

Can't speak for the USA, but in the UK at least most knife attacks aren't totally random. The majority of people can walk the streets safely, go to work, go to venues and indeed go to school without some random attack.

Yes we've had some terror attacks but they're still low in the grand scheme of things.

Most attacks will be on someone the attacker knew.

 

[Tetchytyke]

But then you look at how many people are being persuaded here in the UK that London is a crime ridden hellhole and you can't help but wonder if there isn't some sort of disinformation campaign underway after all...

Of course there is. London has a Muslim mayor. You’re starting to see the same stories coming out about New York again now they also have a Muslim mayor.

I concur with others that you shouldn’t get any issues and is really no different to any other time. The reality is the US is a vast (and beautiful!) country and whoever is in the White House doesn’t change day to day life for the average American.

The problem is not that the US are going authoritarian, the problem is that they’re doing it in a very erratic way.

In other authoritarian states you can go knowing where you stand. If you go to Dubai you don’t insult the Sheikh and you don’t outwardly promote homosexuality, if you go to China you don’t take your Winnie the Pooh t-shirt, etc etc.

But in the US the ICE have a lot of power and whilst you probably won’t have an issue, there have been a few too many stories of people randomly coming a cropper because an ICE official didn’t like something. It happened to F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda in 2024.

 

[The exile]

Of course there is. London has a Muslim mayor. You’re starting to see the same stories coming out about New York again now they also have a Muslim mayor.


The problem is not that the US are going authoritarian, the problem is that they’re doing it in a very erratic way.

In other authoritarian states you can go knowing where you stand. If you go to Dubai you don’t insult the Sheikh and you don’t outwardly promote homosexuality, if you go to China you don’t take your Winnie the Pooh t-shirt, etc etc.

But in the US the ICE have a lot of power and whilst you probably won’t have an issue, there have been a few too many stories of people randomly coming a cropper because an ICE official didn’t like something. It happened to F1 driver Yuki Tsunoda in 2024.

Isn’t that less that its erratic than that we haven’t got used to it happening at all. There will be times when you get away with things in other regimes we know to be authoritarian - but that counts as “luck” rather than an erratic regime. With the USA we still have a memory of it being “The Land of the Free”.