Trumps Presidency 2025

[mtutiger]

8 hours ago, Deleterious said:

Trump releasing a list without him on it would be absolute amateur hour right now.  The smartest thing he can do from a political standpoint is keep this going as long as he can.  It doesn't move the needle on his approval rating much at all.  It also eats up massive column inches that would instead go to tariffs, a topic that does move his approval rating negatively.

 

The degree to which Trump has lost popularity because of tariffs and the economy to-date probably has less to do with column inches and more to do with people's actual finances.

As far as the Epstein stuff is concerned, no it doesn't help him and Nate, like many people, equates Trump's base with the entire universe of Trump voters, not all of whom are Trump's base. I don't think any of this stuff helps with the latter group. 

[mtutiger]

7 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

 

The numbers with Hispanics are notable given how he performed in 2024 with that group... it would set off alarm bells for a normal political party

[LaceyLou]

3 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

This is 1987.  He hasn't changed at all.  Complete fraud.  

The best part is that from what I remember of Bonfire of the Vanities, he would have fit in perfectly as a character.

[Deleterious]

12 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

The degree to which Trump has lost popularity because of tariffs and the economy to-date probably has less to do with column inches and more to do with people's actual finances.

As far as the Epstein stuff is concerned, no it doesn't help him and Nate, like many people, equates Trump's base with the entire universe of Trump voters, not all of whom are Trump's base. I don't think any of this stuff helps with the latter group. 

Since inflation has not kept up with tariffs, it has everything to do with column inches right now.  People are not feeling the pain, yet.  Yet the media is acting like inflation has spiked to 6%-7% when that just isn't true.  So anything that keeps them from writing, that is good for Trump.

He has the numbers that show his point.  If you don't believe them, that is fine and I won't argue it.  I just thought it was interesting.

[mtutiger]

3 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Since inflation has not kept up with tariffs, it has everything to do with column inches right now.  People are not feeling the pain, yet.  Yet the media is acting like inflation has spiked to 6%-7% when that just isn't true.  So anything that keeps them from writing, that is good for Trump.

I understand his numbers, but given that he's already wildly unpopular on the issue of tariffs, I don't know that I agree with the premise that more columns about tariffs is going to further drive down his approval ratings... it stands to reason that you have to wedge him on other issues. Whether that's Epstein, immigration, detention camps, etc. Or perhaps weave a broader narrative from all of these issues into one cohesive message.

Either way, even if it isn't top of mind for most Americans, I don't think it's helpful to Trump... and it plays into some broader narratives that are exemplified by things like tariffs, such as that he's all about the billionaires and not about the average American.

 

[chasfh]

I don’t think the media has acted like inflation has gone up to 6% or 7%, and I don’t feel like they are being unfair to Trump.

[Tiger337]

17 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I don’t think the media has acted like inflation has gone up to 6% or 7%, and I don’t feel like they are being unfair to Trump.

The media has been very good to Trump for 10 years.  No other President would get away with the **** he pulls daily.  

[LaceyLou]

The media has been making money from Trump for years. 

[mtutiger]

32 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I don’t think the media has acted like inflation has gone up to 6% or 7%, and I don’t feel like they are being unfair to Trump.

Case in point: the trade deals he's cut being framed as "wins" despite the end result of you and I having to pay more for goods.

The thing dogging Trump is that "Liberation Day" cemented the idea with the public that tariffs are bad for consumers and make things more expensive, and given that tariffs are a big part of his political identity, as well as his subsequent actions, the public largely has negative vibes toward him on the issues. Not hard to figure out.

The media or column inches or what have you matter less than his own actions. Which have even chaotic and incoherent from the jump on trade

Edited 20 hours ago by mtutiger

[mtutiger]

30 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

The media has been very good to Trump for 10 years.  No other President would get away with the **** he pulls daily.  

Conservatives will argue (not totally incorrectly) that mainstream media leans left and is adversarial toward Trump, but it's pretty clear there is a Sam and Ralph dynamic to it. (ie. The old Looney Tunes cartoon where they'd punch in, go at each other, and clock out at the end of the episode)

At the end of the day, Trump drives ratings and makes the media a lot of money... Conventional politicians don't. Hard to ignore when evaluating how the media covers him

[romad1]

Oh, this is really interesting

CBS News investigation of Jeffrey Epstein jail video reveals new discrepancies - CBS News

[Tiger337]

12 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Conservatives will argue (not totally incorrectly) that mainstream media leans left and is adversarial toward Trump, but it's pretty clear there is a Sam and Ralph dynamic to it. (ie. The old Looney Tunes cartoon where they'd punch in, go at each other, and clock out at the end of the episode)

At the end of the day, Trump drives ratings and makes the media a lot of money... Conventional politicians don't. Hard to ignore when evaluating how the media covers him

They are not adversarial toward him.  He brings it all on himself and most of it is deliberate.  

[romad1]

This is a checkable fact by Mr Bongino and Mr Patel. 

Epstein believed Trump was the 'rat' who snitched on him to FBI: biographer - Raw Story

[chasfh]

1 hour ago, Tiger337 said:

The media has been very good to Trump for 10 years.  No other President would get away with the **** he pulls daily.  

He's good copy = impressions = ad revenue.

Also, he's good copy = clicks = affiliate revenue.

[chasfh]

26 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

They are not adversarial toward him.  He brings it all on himself and most of it is deliberate.  

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy: Trump behaves in an adversarial and unfair manner toward his targets, who respond appropriately, then he claims they the ones being adversarial and unfair toward him. And it works like a charm, because he has successfully primed his fan base to seek only his side of the story.

[mtutiger]

1 hour ago, mtutiger said:

The thing dogging Trump is that "Liberation Day" cemented the idea with the public that tariffs are bad for consumers and make things more expensive, and given that tariffs are a big part of his political identity, as well as his subsequent actions, the public largely has negative vibes toward him on the issues. Not hard to figure out.

Worth noting that listening to the radio this morning, I heard another car dealership hawking "tariff free" deals.... months after Liberation Day

This is the kinda stuff that I'm talking about.... 

[Tigermojo]

Any ETA on when the American people are going to march into the White House and string up fascist Trump by his balls?

[Mr.TaterSalad]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

This is a checkable fact by Mr Bongino and Mr Patel. 

Epstein believed Trump was the 'rat' who snitched on him to FBI: biographer - Raw Story

So Wolff says that Epstein showed him photos of Trump, at Epstein's home, pictured with underage young girls. I am disgusted but I am not at all surprised. What a pig of a human being.

[Tigerbomb13]

The people in his cabinet can’t possibly be this dumb, can they?

[LaceyLou]

4 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

So Wolff says that Epstein showed him photos of Trump, at Epstein's home, pictured with underage young girls. I am disgusted but I am not at all surprised. What a pig of a human being.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who only like children around when they're good for publicity-especially when they're cute. 

I know a fair number of survivors of sexual abuse (which is depressingly common) and their own mothers looked the other way or even went along with it. Or they blamed the kids for 'leading the adult on' or dressing/acting 'sexy.'

Sigh....

 

[Tigermojo]

Maybe Scott Harris supports the creation of a Palestinian state making him very hard to make trade deals with.

[romad1]

21 minutes ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

The people in his cabinet can’t possibly be this dumb, can they?

But oil is continuously being manufactured by God to make Oklahomans, Texans and the Gulf sheikhs rich and powerful

[CMRivdogs]

23 minutes ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

The people in his cabinet can’t possibly be this dumb, can they?

Can one of our MAGA apologizers/explainers actually give credible reasons why solar and wind farms are terrible. I've seen massive wind farms the past couple of weeks traveling back roads from Ohio to Montana. There seems to be nothing wrong with these things that I know. Farmers get compensated for land and can continue to grow crops from what I've seen. 
 

Same with solar. It seems a lot of the solar farms basically replace corn, wheat or soybean fields with what seems to be a credible income. 
 

In other words it's all a big lie thanks to big dirty unhealthy coal. I lived with coal furnaces as a youngster. Paying the price today.

[mtutiger]

16 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

Can one of our MAGA apologizers/explainers actually give credible reasons why solar and wind farms are terrible. I've seen massive wind farms the past couple of weeks traveling back roads from Ohio to Montana. There seems to be nothing wrong with these things that I know. Farmers get compensated for land and can continue to grow crops from what I've seen. 
 

Same with solar. It seems a lot of the solar farms basically replace corn, wheat or soybean fields with what seems to be a credible income. 
 

In other words it's all a big lie thanks to big dirty unhealthy coal. I lived with coal furnaces as a youngster. Paying the price today.

There are legitimate questions around land use, I know we've had cases where villages near where we live have intervened in areas which are agricultural in nature but could be developed for future subdivisions and housing for instance. But at the same time, we have seen instances of people complaining when these developments are happening on land that it isn't conducive to farming as well, and that just strikes me as people signaling their politics more than any actual legitimate complaints.

Good example is that we had an announcement in the village I live in about a month ago of a solar farm development on a swampy piece of land with land that has seen farm activity in the past but isn't necessarily the most ideal for it (zoned Industrial, adjacent to the Illinois River/I&M Canal). And not only is the company coming in to develop the solar farm, they are also funding the reconstruction of a road that had been abandoned for 15 years that would provide a better connection for some residents to access the town adjacent (Morris, IL) and vice versa.

Despite the obvious benefits of this development both in terms of tax revenue, energy generation and reconstruction of a village/county road connection being paid for by the development, the usual people on Facebook still whined and cried about it.

Edited 17 hours ago by mtutiger

[CMRivdogs]

11 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

There are legitimate questions around land use, I know we've had cases where villages near where we live have intervened in areas which are agricultural in nature but could be developed for future subdivisions and housing for instance. But at the same time, we have seen instances of people complaining when these developments are happening on land that it isn't conducive to farming as well, and that just strikes me as people signaling their politics more than any actual legitimate complaints.

Good example is that we had an announcement in the village I live in about a month ago of a solar farm development on a swampy piece of land with land that has seen farm activity in the past but isn't necessarily the most ideal for it (zoned Industrial, adjacent to the Illinois River/I&M Canal). And not only is the company coming in to develop the solar farm, they are also funding the reconstruction of a road that had been abandoned for 15 years that would provide a better connection for some residents to access the town adjacent (Morris, IL) and vice versa.

Despite the obvious benefits of this development both in terms of tax revenue, energy generation and reconstruction of a village/county road connection being paid for by the development, the usual people on Facebook still whined and cried about it.

That's happening here as well. Eastward expansion from the Richmond suburbs as well as westward from Hampton, Newport News. Areas that were once primarily agriculture now being considered for new housing (We have a development across from us with an expected several hundred homes being developed). 

There are a couple of things happening here. 1) Older farms where the owners have passed on, the kids have moved and none of them want the property. 2) Population growth in the older cities and locally is either pushing folks out of Richmond and Newport News or an influx of retirees (guilty) looking to relocate from either northern climes or escaping Florida and South Carolinian. Throw in the usual addition of military transfers.

The old timers complain. But forget that the decided to move here 10,20,30 years for basically the same reasons.