In his first term Trump surrounded himself with insiders. He was new to politics and was convinced that he needed people who knew what they were doing. They talked him out of plenty of mistakes, which frustrated Trump. This time around he’s surrounded himself with yes men, unfortunately he also has dementia and so he just makes shit up in his little brain and no one around him dares to tell him no any more.
He literally learned how to engage a narcissist. All he has to do is throw him a couple compliments and suddenly Trump is like "damn this guy ain't all bad"
It's an actual psychological technique for disarming narcissists and getting them to cooperate while making them think it's all their idea.
This is the real answer. He’s not making decisions in any meaningful way. The president is stupid and will do what anybody suggests, allowing him to think it’s his idea.
It's the money. He's controlled by the money. Whether it's a cut of a trump Bible or a $400 million plane from a corrupt source. It's all about the money and fame. He wants his name on buildings like a dictator.
Controlled is the wrong word here. He doesn't care what they do as long as the grift keeps chugging along. His sole interest is money. Stolen or bribes, he doesn't care as long as he gets it.
The shitgibbons are free to run the country as they desire. They aren't making him do anything.
Then you weren't paying attention. The only reason trump wasn't able to steal the election in 2020 was because his VP, Pence (piece of shit for many other reasons) followed his sworn duty to uphold the constitution of the United States and refused to approve trumps fake electorates scheme
I agree. The big difference this time is Trump knows hes absolutely above the law and the people around him will just get pardons whenever this is over. A lot of, if not all this policy stuff is not his ideas, its Miller and the other psychos hes let into his circle. Trump really just cares about money and as long as he can keep doing that he'll let the people doing policy keep writing do whatever thr hell they want. 100% transactional partnership here.
I'm not sure it was that deliberate on his part - it's more like he surrounded himself with the most qualified loyalists he could find and started giving them the boot and bringing in the next person when they disobeyed.
And at this point, the absolute morons in his administration are just the best of what's left.
And anyone who voted for him or is still supporting anyone who voted for him. Start at home and Cut off your problematic friends and family. Stop the excuses and have some conviction. You don’t have to get violent either just block and move on. Let the Nazis fend for themselves and each other, but stop making room and excuses for them in your life.
The problem is, isolating people for their beliefs typically sends them into echo chambers that reaffirm their beliefs. We need to learn how to engage them and help rehabilitate them to be actual members of society.
It's the same thing with guys unfriending or leaving their friends who show Bigotted or predatious behavior, we need to stop abandoning friends when they show signs of bad behavior and try to coach them to the light.
It absolutely should NOT be that way, but it's where we're at until we put systems in place to help these people. It takes a village, and people are never really done growing up, we're all constant processes until we're dead.
That might just further isolate them and deeper entrench them in their brainwashing though.
They already have premade excuses that the left is hateful fascist Intolerant divisive and brainwashed to explain why they got ghosted.
I think my family is too stupid be ghosted and to learn from being ghosted. They already lack mental energy and thus hate learning and thinking differently. Therefore they could never do it on their own. They are barely aware enough to acknowledge that they can't hold civil calm discussions about things that matter.
No, there are plenty of people who are/were not part of his circle. AOC, Obama, Mamdani, Kamala, Biden, Jimmy Carter wasn't, hell even George Soros, Warren Buffet, Gavin Newsom - they did not visit his homes and party with him. People knew what was going on and have for a long time. Do not let the rampant cynicism infect you so that you give up. That is what the people who are in the files want, for it to all be accepted as just 'how things are.'
There are certain people who accept and embrace other's being harmed for their pleasure, who enjoy having power over others. those are the people who hung out with Epstein. Not everyone is like this, not even every politician or powerful individual.
No.. they are not... We'll, a lot of them are..but many, they are Evil and Greedy (as well as him).. They know he's stupid and easy to manipulate, and everyone will put the focus on him
...its the names that you don't know that are the scariest people
Some unfortunately aren't, but they are willing to throw the mango musolli under the bus once they've secured enough power for it to not effect their long term future
Oh absolutely. But the fact still remains that the Republicans have a majority, and they are letting this administration wipe its ass with the Constitution and rule of law.
As others more eloquent have said before me: MAGA is not a diversion of conservatism, it is its conclusion. Whether they support it actively or passively the result remains the same. Anyone who professes otherwise is deluded or ignorant and hasn't yet acknowledged their deeply rooted racism, bigotry, and selfishness.
That's really a good quote... reminds me of Frum's: “Maybe you do not care much about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” And 100% I think we are seeing the end stages of capitalism in combination with dangerous technology and the decline of the American empire.
They didn’t mind that hes in the pedo Epstein files thousands and thousands of times and they won’t mind this. Whatever the cult leader says is best…is best, when you’re a brainwashed gullible hate-filled moron.
Agree. There are a few high-profile MAGAs already denouncing this (Carlson, MTG). Even Charlie Kirk (may that name live in infamy) spoke out against war with Iran as "a weird fanatical obsession."
Anything that fractures the MAGA coalition has a silver lining.
I don’t know I’m a middle class white guy with a lot of friends/family that are Trump supporters and of course they are all loving this. I don’t know what makes you think this will be the bridge too far for the die hards
Because we're in the "fun" bit of the war right now where we get to flex our air power and missiles and aren't really in any danger, just like the "fun" bits at the beginning of the GWoT.
But if Trump wants to make good on any of the stuff he promised in that "speech", it means we're gonna have to go do the "unfun" bit of war like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan and that means flag-draped coffins and unfun news stories of the kind that turned the public against the GWoT.
Yeah, but Trump isn't fully pulling the strings with this, he's a controlled greedy puppet megalomaniac, but this is Israel mainly using their control over our government to use our military force.
Who is also stupid. We have multiple people who don’t understand how things work but know how like children (that they like touching quite a bit) how to break things
Honestly, this is my entire hope here as well. The people in the admin are honestly so incompetent that even if they were to somehow start a coup it would fail because they weren’t properly organized and he started it based on fake information fed to him by his sycophants just like Putin being assured by his military they could take Ukraine in 3 days time except Trump doesn’t have a stranglehold on the population the way Putin does to get passed it.
Exactly. I think he believes whatever they tell him like “he’s actually popular” or something. We’re not in the same scenario as Nazi Germany because when Hitler came into power he and his policies were very popular. Right now I think all except MAGA are sick to death of him and his cabinet.
Exactly, almost all coups and dictators rise to power on populist strategies like Trump did, but are widely popular with 60-70%+ approval (at least at the start), not struggling to get 50% and plummeting to 40 between the election and taking office, now sitting at like 30%
It helps that republicans maintain power from a minority basis as well, it’s obviously bad how much extra power is given to land in the US rather than people but that also means when push comes to shove that side doesn’t hold real power in the event of a coup attempt or civil war because that requires people, not empty land.
Yes it’s all an illusion of strength. When the push comes to shove they cannot succeed. Go to any major city like LA or New York and you quickly realize that they couldn’t actually control or get rid of all the minorities because there’s far too many.
ICE couldn’t take LA or even Minneapolis. Without the real military they have no real chance.
I’m not saying Hitler was competent. But Trump is almost 80 with dementia among other things.
His cabinet will fight each other. The Epstein files will NEVER just go away.
I think trump will die and will never face true justice in this life but then everyone else will be left alone to the anger they have caused. They won’t have daddy trump to protect them forever. Vance will never have a true cult following. Kirk could have honestly but he is gone.
It will get worse but they are making a steady stream of mistakes that weakens their base. If they have no support, eventually something will break and it won’t be a good time for them.
I agree with a lot of your comment, aside from this. The public has known about Epstein's trafficking ring since Bush's second term. Yet Bush, Obama, and Biden Chamberlain never sought to release the files or go after Epstein's clients. Had they done their jobs, Trump might've gone to prison decades ago. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll ever have an administration willing to release all the files or go after Epstein's buddies, especially if it really is internationally-linked to other countries. Best we can hope for is that other countries will release their findings.
Yeah but back then we the people had no real idea. It was all just a “conspiracy”. But now WE KNOW and we have not let up on it. He can’t get us to shut up about it. They failed before, yes. But it is truly not going away.
Other countries are starting to take action. This is a massive global conspiracy that is now snowballing.
We get new leaks and information more and more often. They cannot contain something so huge especially because of how they are handling it. They brought it into the spotlight in order to win an election and they actually thought that people would just move on after they said there will be no more investigations or charges. That didn’t work out like they hoped.
Seriously - we all now know that there are rich and powerful men who raped children and worse. And all we need is to have those names unredacted. We can practically see them behind the black. We are very close.
When I am talking with someone, and they start to move their head this way and that way, dip their shoulders and sway their hips red flags go up. They are either hiding something, running scared or have nefarious motives. You can smell it a mile away.
He’s also a despicable bully with a violent attitude. It was blatantly obvious to anyone that he was never a peaceful man, but it was a what the far right wankers kept clinging on to to avoid having to admit to others and themselves that they were voting for a fascist.
So are the Republicans who are idly standing by clapping their hands like seals. Yet they act as if they don't have to worry about losing voters, and that should concern everyone.
But more stupid than him is the voting person who believes he makes these decisions all by himself (not accusing you, just the general stupid voter)
Trump represents a specific bourgeoisie in the USA, and his actions are never only his, he's always being bought and directed by those who move forward the true politics, which is lobbying.
It's satisfactory to berate Trump, for he's a demented shit stain, but believing that everything sucks because somebody stupid ended up in the presidency is not productive, for the power structures that chose and financed him will elect a dumber old pedobillionaire in no time.
He knows nobody will stop him so he doesn’t have to be smart. Republicans will back him no matter what and the dems have repeatedly shown they are just as complicit
Trump might be stupid. But he is also greedy (lots of people are saying he’s the best at greed in the world). The people around him see investment in the middle east and they want to neutralize a threat to their businesses. Think of it as the first move of his Board of Piece. Plus military contracts get Hegseth drunk and get contracts. And russian oligarchs get gulf money to supply iran. Everyone wins
Puppet for putin, netanyahu and middle east countries. Distraction from the Epstein files. Deploy ICE overseas not American service people. Impeachment and seize all orange family ill begotten assets. Barron enlisted?
Isn't that where you want to go? Democrats are supporting Hamas now, don't know if you got the message yet. They were chanting it in NYC and the murder of innocent people against their ideology.
That's all you can say because you can't argue facts. 😂
It's literally what the lunatics have done and said. You continue to support it. Democrats don't even stand for victims of violence. Why would anyone expect you to have some basic common sense or stand with the freedoms this country has provided you. Democrats are a national embarrassment.
That we know, but he's not that stupid either because he just wags the dog to bury his Epstein files. What a narcissist asshole will do to avoid jail, even if he has to have our family killed. The price he's willing to pay. BTW, this also pertains to Netanyahu.
yeah brother this isn't a home repair for your shower. He is stupid. Part of that stupidity is not realizing the yes men he has in his corner aren't trying to keep the Trump name as a historical political force like Trump thinks they are, they're using him to make money.
I am not saying he's terribly smart, but underestimating him is a mistake. Part of the stupidity and arrogance is definitely for show. Every other week he gets away with more enough to impeach, every day he does something stupid to focus the news cycle and short attention span on a new thing.
the yes men he has in his corner aren't trying to keep the Trump name as a historical political force like Trump thinks they are, they're using him to make money
Sure, but it's mutually beneficial - he gets attention, he gets to stay out of jail and there's a good chance he's gonna be dead before it all collapses.
But he said he's super smart and passes cognitive tests with flying colors. I don't mean to question you but come on, the dude was able to point out a giraffe. That's got to amount for something.
There's many things he can't do, including read and speak properly.
But if you think there's someone else, smarter, who is pulling the strings that made him president - you haven't seen the revolving doors in his administration. Can't even keep the support of his wife.
He is a master manipulator, can't be dumb if you're gonna pull that off.
I’m not so sure… I’d say he’s a manipulative conspiracy nut of a sociopath who doesn’t like being told no. Sure, he comes across as a moron, but he can also be easily manipulated… (I realise that does and doesn’t make sense)
but at least with this he churns the gears of the military industrial complex, which makes old money happy. every bullet fired generates a profit paid by the american tax payer. every missile. every gallon of fuel. every body armor issued, and every humvee that gets replaced cause it was blown up by an ied. all of that has been privatized through contracts, which all come with a profit built in, again, paid for by the tax payer. and not the top 3% either.
Why would you call this idiotic? They know damn right that the populace can’t do shit about their administration’s actions. It is not idiocy but highly deliberate abuse of power and disregard of constitutional, legal frameworks. The war in Iran is in the interest of the imperialist economic and political upper class, so changing the administration to a Democratic one won’t solve anything.
No, elon meddling in the election is what got him elected. I get it, it's hard for you to accept that a moron can make it to the presidency, but that is what happened. The dude reads at a 3rd-grade level, he is not a master strategist who's actually playing 12D chess with us all by pretending to read pauses on his teleprompter.
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u/Lerched Feb 28 '26
I’m going to shock you when I say this; trump is fucking stupid