Donald Trump presidency discussion thread V

batgoat wrote: »

Remember years back when Mattis seemed like another bat**** person who was appointed. But overall he really turned out to be the sane moderate in there.

Everything is relative though. Mattis has been overseeing increased drone strikes leading to increased 'collateral damage'.

batgoat wrote: »

I do think increased drone strikes are one of those logical inevitabilities though. Suspect that wouldn't be different under either presidency overall. It's not something I'd support but I think that any technological advancement like that will win out.

Possibly, but they did increase greatly once The Donald took over. I suppose my point is that we looked on the likes of Kelly, Mattis, Tillerson et al as being moderating influences whereas they are actually not moderate people at all. It emphasises how relatively dysfunctional The Donald is.

batgoat wrote: »

That is true, moderate has swept to the right.

Sure they think the Dem's are leftists.

Whatever about your feelings on border security. Someone holding one of the highest Office's in the US speaking like this makes my skin crawl.
Someone must have told them that using 'a' as a prefix before wall was something only foreigners did.

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1075889887465730048

I truly hope that Trump voters from 2016 are sitting at home paying attention to this and will tell their children, "You know what, I was wrong. This isn't good enough for our country".

Igotadose wrote: »

Interesting read about a real, current, pressing threat to US national security. Trump Admin response: zip, nada, zilch.

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/422334-why-the-us-is-losing-the-information-war-to-russia

Good quote: "It’s hard to win a war when the commander-in-chief abandons his post."

My own thoughts is that Trump will be viewed, in years to come, as the man that sat idly by whilst Russia attacked the US.

Whatever about the collusion and shady business dealings, there is simply no excuse for his betrayal to his own country to simply ignore the threat.

Historians will view him as the man that first gained for it, did nothing about it, and in effect gave the Russians free reign to cause as much damage as possible. Damage that will take years to fix, if ever.

America has been shown to be weak and interested only in money, even at the expense of its own systems. Once you get a tag of being weak it is very hard to shake off and other countries will now be emboldened to undertake the same.

So it looks like the US is heading for a government shutdown over the wall. How do people see this one playing out? I think it could be the longest shutdown in a good while. The wall is a red line issue for trumps base (hilarious nonsense imo) but at the same time there’s no way in a million years Congress will fund it so it seems to me we have an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object which always makes for interesting viewing.

Trumpy’s in a spot here. The wall has very little support outside of his base. I think even in a GOP controlled congress he’d still struggle but with the recent departure of Mattis and the progression of Muellers investigation I think his base are starting to become unhappy with him. Also a gov shutdown over Christmas with no employees being unpaid would be very unpopular.

I think he’ll have to back down.

MadYaker wrote: »

So it looks like the US is heading for a government shutdown over the wall. How do people see this one playing out? I think it could be the longest shutdown in a good while. The wall is a red line issue for trumps base (hilarious nonsense imo) but at the same time there’s no way in a million years Congress will fund it so it seems to me we have an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object which always makes for interesting viewing.

Trumpy’s in a spot here. The wall has very little support outside of his base. I think even in a GOP controlled congress he’d still struggle but with the recent departure of Mattis and the progression of Muellers investigation I think his base are starting to become unhappy with him. Also a gov shutdown over Christmas with no employees being unpaid would be very unpopular.

I think he’ll have to back down.

I honestly don't get the GOP on this. Why are they so against it? $5bn is peanuts in the scheme of things. Surely they can just cut defence increase (wasn't it a further $58bn) and just reallocte it?

FreudianSlippers wrote: »

Narcissistic Personality Disorder is classed as a mental illness, and I'd put serious money on any legitimate psychiatrist diagnosing Trump with NPD.

NPD's essential features are:
1. Grandiosity
2. Persistent need for admiration
3. A lack of empathy


The American Psychiatric Association's DSM 5's criteria are as follows. At least five of the criteria must be obvious and persistent.

• A grandiose sense of self-importance
• A preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
• A belief that he or she is special and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions
• A need for excessive admiration
• A sense of entitlement
• Interpersonally exploitive behaviour
• A lack of empathy
• Envy of others or a belief that others are envious of him or her
• A demonstration of arrogant and haughty behaviors or attitudes

I'll let people decide for themselves if The Donald meets the criteria for NPD.

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

NPD's essential features are:
1. Grandiosity
2. Persistent need for admiration
3. A lack of empathy


The American Psychiatric Association's DSM 5's criteria are as follows. At least five of the criteria must be obvious and persistent.

• A grandiose sense of self-importance
• A preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
• A belief that he or she is special and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions
• A need for excessive admiration
• A sense of entitlement
• Interpersonally exploitive behaviour
• A lack of empathy
• Envy of others or a belief that others are envious of him or her
• A demonstration of arrogant and haughty behaviors or attitudes

I'll let people decide for themselves if The Donald meets the criteria for NPD.

I was looking at that before I made my earlier post and didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that he ticks every box on almost a daily basis.

MadYaker wrote: »

So it looks like the US is heading for a government shutdown over the wall. How do people see this one playing out? I think it could be the longest shutdown in a good while. ...

...Also a gov shutdown over Christmas with no employees being unpaid would be very unpopular...

I think he’ll have to back down.

I thought he would too, given that he owns the shutdown after the White House meeting with Schumer and Pelosi.

It seems that the negative reaction on Fox news, and from Coulter and other hate mongers have changed the mind of the Stable Genius..

E3 visa bid fails after being blocked by Tom cotton. Trump should string him up by his boot laces. The weasel of arkansas.

relax carry on wrote: »

So is the general consensus that he's mentally unfit and completely compromised? If it is and it's clear that he is why would the Republicans and the Democrats allow him to stay in office one minute more? Every minute he's POTUS he's doing damage not just to the US but the rest of the planet. How long more can this continue?

I have absolutely zero doubt that he has neither the mental capacity nor temperament to be the President of the US. I have no idea why Republicans would be so short-sighted to allow this to continue if I'm honest. The idea of them being in power and/or not upsetting their base is temporary - they either don't see or don't care to see that Trump is doing irreparable damage to the GOP; polling of people below 35 is not favourable to Trump or the GOP.

45% of Republicans under 30 polled do not feel favourably about trump; his total approval rating under 35 is less than 33%.

And according to Pew's data, in a face-off with Clinton Trump was expected to capture just 30 percent of the vote among those 18‒29 years of age. The proportion of those who preferred Trump to Clinton increased with each age bracket, but it is not until voters pass 65 years of age that Trump got the advantage.

His support is also skewed heavily towards those who are uneducated and poor, which is disproportionately representative of Americans over 40 compared to those under 40 - this shift as it continues (and when you look at the negative reaction to Trump from people under 18) only spells doom for the GOP if they continue down this path.

Figures sourced here.

MadYaker wrote: »

Trumpy’s in a spot here. The wall has very little support outside of his base. I think even in a GOP controlled congress he’d still struggle but with the recent departure of Mattis and the progression of Muellers investigation I think his base are starting to become unhappy with him. Also a gov shutdown over Christmas with no employees being unpaid would be very unpopular.

With Mattis gone, I fear how much more Trump will pander Russia. AFAIK, Mattis left as Trump wanted to give Russia pretty much what they wanted.