Well that's Orban, for you, I guess. A man approximately as obnoxious as Trump.
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Thoughts on the Trump presidency
- Thread starter Gloster
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Well that's Orban, for you, I guess. A man approximately as obnoxious as Trump.
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R
RailUK Forums
I don't think that explains the unhinged plaques underneath portraits of former presidents.
Nothing to stop him from trying to stop prices from inflating yet further though. Though generally it's down to states and cities to sort their zoning laws out to encourage denser development.
Try Sacha Baron Cohen's version. Clip from the film here:
It's a bit like how Trump cheats at golf by having a fast golf buggy that can get to the hole before anyone else and his caddie can move the ball.
Oh no that's just his regular psychopathic narcissism!
The problem that they may find is that "soccer" is still a bit of a niche sport in the USA, and there's a sizeable overlap between the people resident in the USA who would go to a football match, and those who would be targeted by ICE and CBP.
I suspect that the US-resident Millwall fans are a pale imitation of the London originals.
Spartacus
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I'm becoming convinced that Trump's after a 3rd term.
He's already sold Trump 2028 hats. Don't forget, he might be an idiot and a moron but he's not stupid. And he knows how to pull people's strings. Right now with Greenland he's engineered a hostile situation, rallied up all his fans, bringing along others who are always happy to declare the US's military prowess, and now it seems he's 'rescued' things, from dropping tariffs to NATO potentially breaking up by making a deal after going as far as making widespread insults. That'll bring him more support. Despite the deal probably giving nothing the US didn't already have or couldn't have got without all the threats, but that's not dramatic, that doesn't bring people to his side and gee up those already there. He engineered the problem and is going to bask in the glory of solving it. That everyone else thinks he's manic doesn't matter. They're either outside the US, so irrelevant to him, or they were never going to come around, so no time making any effort to seduce them.
Now what's to say he won't gee those supporters up with something else, maybe a lot else, before his term in office come to an end? Not currently he can't be elected a 3rd time, or even stand for VP, but that doesn't mean he might not try to change the constitution if he gets enough support. He might not get rid of the clauses, but an amendment, even one which increases restrictions, could be interpreted as a 'reset'. His previous terms then could be dismissed as coming under previous version, allowing him 2+2. Putin used this tactic.
Then we come to what might happen if that doesn't work. And this is relevant because he has previous form. Similar to what happened with the 2020 election he could claim victory anyway, as he did then, imaginary legal reasons, fantastic excuses, and as after those elections rallying his support, except it would now be bigger. Imagine the storming of the White House but backed by thousands of ICE agents, an expected increase of 10,000-14,000 in 2026 alone, from a base of 20,000, recruited by the hard right, some indirectly aimed at "Proud Boys", in what's been publicly called a 'wartime recruitment' policy. People who want power under the cloak of patriotism with a big signing on fee. Unrestricted force on peaceful protesters permitted again after a U.S. District Judge had successfully brought in restrictions. Imagine 2021 with all that, because you can bet he won't go quietly.
He's already sold Trump 2028 hats. Don't forget, he might be an idiot and a moron but he's not stupid. And he knows how to pull people's strings. Right now with Greenland he's engineered a hostile situation, rallied up all his fans, bringing along others who are always happy to declare the US's military prowess, and now it seems he's 'rescued' things, from dropping tariffs to NATO potentially breaking up by making a deal after going as far as making widespread insults. That'll bring him more support. Despite the deal probably giving nothing the US didn't already have or couldn't have got without all the threats, but that's not dramatic, that doesn't bring people to his side and gee up those already there. He engineered the problem and is going to bask in the glory of solving it. That everyone else thinks he's manic doesn't matter. They're either outside the US, so irrelevant to him, or they were never going to come around, so no time making any effort to seduce them.
Now what's to say he won't gee those supporters up with something else, maybe a lot else, before his term in office come to an end? Not currently he can't be elected a 3rd time, or even stand for VP, but that doesn't mean he might not try to change the constitution if he gets enough support. He might not get rid of the clauses, but an amendment, even one which increases restrictions, could be interpreted as a 'reset'. His previous terms then could be dismissed as coming under previous version, allowing him 2+2. Putin used this tactic.
Then we come to what might happen if that doesn't work. And this is relevant because he has previous form. Similar to what happened with the 2020 election he could claim victory anyway, as he did then, imaginary legal reasons, fantastic excuses, and as after those elections rallying his support, except it would now be bigger. Imagine the storming of the White House but backed by thousands of ICE agents, an expected increase of 10,000-14,000 in 2026 alone, from a base of 20,000, recruited by the hard right, some indirectly aimed at "Proud Boys", in what's been publicly called a 'wartime recruitment' policy. People who want power under the cloak of patriotism with a big signing on fee. Unrestricted force on peaceful protesters permitted again after a U.S. District Judge had successfully brought in restrictions. Imagine 2021 with all that, because you can bet he won't go quietly.
Amendments to the US Constitution require ratification by a two-thirds majority in the Senate.
Ain't. Gonna. Happen.
Heck, more likely than not the GOP aren't even going to hold a simple majority after the mid-term elections.
The only way DJT gets a third term is if he runs as someone's VP candidate and they then resign. Who in the current GOP could he trust not to stab him in the back?
Plus we’re also talking about him being three years older by then and I just can’t see it happening on that score.
He will of course say that the mid terms were fraudulent if he doesn’t do too well, despite doing nefarious things to weight it in his favour though.
Having heard stories from England's last trip to Naples to play Italy, I'd love to see ICE go up against the Carabinieri (Italian Police) and the Napoli Ultras. Now they are scary!!!
Quite. His is this bad already and we're still just under 3 years away from the next Presidential election. I can't see his health holding up even with the extremely good medical care a President get. It's just a question of when and how.
Except it's not going to make him look good in the eye of sensible Americans. They will just seem him as bringing their country's reputation down by playing these silly games. While he will likely not stand in three years, it could well impact negatively on Republican results in battleground areas this November.
It's just playing to the MAGA crowd. Preaching to the converted, and thus entirely politically useless. This whole saga will not bring one single new Republican vote in, I suspect - but it might lose a few million.
Furthermore, it will increase international distrust of hard-right populist "characters" (ahem), and likely lose votes for his mates over here in Europe. Does the UK, does France, does Germany want to risk their own local Donald Trump? Hopefully people are less willing to take that chance the more DJT carries on like this. Perhaps he is our useful idiot, after all.
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Gloster
Veteran Member
I think that his health is declining at such a speed that he won’t be going for president in 2028 and he may not even be still in post for the mid-terms in November. But his mind cannot process that: he still thinks that he will be able to push through the procedural changes or straightforward fiddles that are needed, and that he will still be capable of continuing as President. His handlers are no doubt quite willing to put the fiddles through, but they also pull the strings and know that, however useful he is to keep the MAGA faithful on board, there will come a point where it will be better to run with Vance and will drop the drooling imbecile.
One thing that I think is true is that even if he manages a whole term, or even if he doesn’t for that matter. There’s no way with his personality that he’s going to want someone to come in and be successful after him.
He’s going to want to shout from the sidelines “That I was the only person capable of running this country, the Republicans were nothing without me and now they’re nothing again, I stopped 57 varieties of war” etc etc, blah blah blah, until his last breath probably…
He’s going to want to shout from the sidelines “That I was the only person capable of running this country, the Republicans were nothing without me and now they’re nothing again, I stopped 57 varieties of war” etc etc, blah blah blah, until his last breath probably…
Killingworth
Established Member
Give him his due, and it's worrying, he's very good (i.e. bad) at doing that!
TACO yes, but he and his acolytes will be trumpeting that only by his tactics could this and that deal have been achieved - and after the Biden years that's not such a hard case to make.
Does it make the new world order ungovernable? Very possibly. Maybe we're in the opening scenes of WW3, a rather different multi facetted conflict. Time will tell but it's going to be a rocky ride.
At least today both the FTSE 100 and 250 are following the Dow's positive reaction to yesterday's relief. And that will be seized upon to sell Donald's tactics!
Even if he TACOs on everything, his antics have revealed significant weaknesses in the governance of the US. We've had some weak political leaders in the UK but "the system" has often protected the country from their worst excesses - looking at you, Liz. (Of course the upsides of this come with downsides in terms of democracy and transparency...)
The US instability will have consequences for its economy. I'm in my late 50s and at the weekend, I moved some more of my (private sector, defined contribution) pension money away from the US (I was underweight anyway). Now, that's not even a rounding error in the scheme of things but other individuals are doing the same and the professional fund managers are also more gently and gradually adjusting their US weights. And the USD continues to slide against all stable currencies. Having an underperforming stock market and currency is NOT something the US is used to dealing with
The US instability will have consequences for its economy. I'm in my late 50s and at the weekend, I moved some more of my (private sector, defined contribution) pension money away from the US (I was underweight anyway). Now, that's not even a rounding error in the scheme of things but other individuals are doing the same and the professional fund managers are also more gently and gradually adjusting their US weights. And the USD continues to slide against all stable currencies. Having an underperforming stock market and currency is NOT something the US is used to dealing with
Annetts key
Established Member
We are currently in a moment in time where oil prices are low and look to continue to stay low for a while. Maybe even slowly dropping further.
And all while Russia continues it's war on both Ukraine and the west (the latter by unconventional means), Trump's antics and instability in the middle East.
The U.S. economy has not yet gone into recession. But it may still decline.
Meanwhile in some countries, there are moves to reduce the use of fossil fuels. The U.K. now has no coal power stations at all. And the current trend is one of a reduction over time of the use of natural gas. This looks set to continue as domestic gas boilers are replaced with heat pumps and PV solar panels and wind turbines reduce the amount of electricity generated from gas turbine power stations.
Sales of electric battery powered cars, vans and buses are increasing. Reducing the demand for petrol and diesel, reducing the need for oil.
A major part of the reason why the U.S. dollar has remained strong is due to most trades in oil having to use this currency. As oil consumption declines, will this, along with Trump's antics and the potentially declining U.S. economy cause the U.S. dollar to fall out of favour so much that it's value drops substantially?
And all while Russia continues it's war on both Ukraine and the west (the latter by unconventional means), Trump's antics and instability in the middle East.
The U.S. economy has not yet gone into recession. But it may still decline.
Meanwhile in some countries, there are moves to reduce the use of fossil fuels. The U.K. now has no coal power stations at all. And the current trend is one of a reduction over time of the use of natural gas. This looks set to continue as domestic gas boilers are replaced with heat pumps and PV solar panels and wind turbines reduce the amount of electricity generated from gas turbine power stations.
Sales of electric battery powered cars, vans and buses are increasing. Reducing the demand for petrol and diesel, reducing the need for oil.
A major part of the reason why the U.S. dollar has remained strong is due to most trades in oil having to use this currency. As oil consumption declines, will this, along with Trump's antics and the potentially declining U.S. economy cause the U.S. dollar to fall out of favour so much that it's value drops substantially?
To be fair, the USA could remain the world's reserve currency post-petroleum as long as their economy remained strong. However in the era of a (comparatively) weak USA and strong Europe, India, and China there is no good reason to treat the dollar as the default setting for the global economy.
At approximately half of them, going by the results of the last few elections.
Less than that, once you account for those too lazy to get out of bed on election day who were complicit in this.
I'm assuming that laziness doesn't have political affinity.
Plus there are likely more GOP-voters who would now vote to get him out of office than there are Blue Trump supporters.
SargeNpton
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Red Trump supporters surely. I doubt that there are any Blue Trump Supporters!
There is more to it, of course. Many red states make it as difficult as possible for people in areas which lean blue (urban areas for example) to vote. In Michigan there was some kind of movement to abstain because Harris was supposedly implicated in Israel's assault on Gaza - quite what those non-voters think about Trump's plan to turn it into a casino is beyond me.
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Nothing would surprise me any more.
Exactly the point I was making. Apathy probably affects Democratic and Republican leaning voters equally, and there are likely more Republicans who would vote against DJT than Democrats who would vote for him.
So I'm confident in my original estimate that at least half of American voters are anti-MAGA/anti-Trump.
I realise your comment is light hearted and it did make me smile. But, sadly, there are much, much worse places in the world than Trump's US....
Indeed - but I suspect that if a footballer from one of those countries did claim (justifiable) asylum, DJT wouldn’t care any number of hoots about international conventions on asylum and would just show them the door (unless, of course, they were good enough to be part of the US squad for 2030).
For the major events - such as the football World Cup and Olympic games - the process of being accredited to the event is normally linked to the host country's immigration department, so your accreditation (your pass to access the event) also serves as your visa to enter the country for the duration of its validity. The host country therefore gets their opportunity to deny entry / track entry / exit through that process, without needing everyone to submit separate visa applications. Security services in the host country also get access to the details of who is accredited. With these types of event there are literally hundreds of thousands of people involved, so some streamlining / specialisation is generally needed to avoid overwhelming the normal processes (who are having to deal with an increased number of tourists coming to the event anyway).
Of course, with American exceptionalism, it's likely to not be the case for the next iterations of World Cup / Summer Olympics. I know the Russians were a bit annoyed about things being done this way too.
Of course, with American exceptionalism, it's likely to not be the case for the next iterations of World Cup / Summer Olympics. I know the Russians were a bit annoyed about things being done this way too.