The Orange Man and the State of his Union - Trump thread #139

[Spandauer]

Thanks to @JoshLymanSwagger for the thread title.

Trump, Vance and Musk are building a bigly bridge across the Bering Strait...
...and creating a gaping chasm in the Atlantic.

Kind hearts are more than coronets, and simple faith than Norman blood.
Alfred Lord Tennyson

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/5275361-an-unholy-trinity-or-just-a-seedy-threesome-trump-musk-and-putin-trump-thread-138

Yes I agree. It just sounded very convenient. Oh dear, I just sent it to my friend and look what happened... okaaaaay 🤷‍♂️

The thing I can’t square in my mind is the rate at which he’s bouncing from one crackpot idea to another.

Ukraine
Gaza
Tariffs
Threats to Canada/Greenland/Panama

All of these in their own right demand huge amounts of consideration and time but like commentators have said, it’s like he’s treating the Presidency as a TV show and needs a “new episode” every day to keep the ratings up.

It’s bizarre and terrifying.

I am holding on to the hope that there are sufficient right minded senior officers within the US military who still know right from wrong and will refuse to obey any insane orders.

By the way, worth listening to the TRIP Live they did yesterday (released as a podcast today). I don’t think I’ve heard Rory so seethingly excoriating about someone when he talks about Vance and his comments on European military capabilities.

For Americans to get richer (and let's face it, we know trump doesn't mean the average American will get richer) millions will get poorer and die in their poverty and sickness.

But that is just picking up the mantle of the attitude of the European colonial powers who basically felt they were anointed by God. It is their destiny.

Heather Cox Richardson this morning is a potted history of Manafort, Stone and Trump and Ukraine.

Her "join the dots posts" are brilliant.

He's a wrecking ball.

And the rather nasty truth regarding Europe is he may have a point - there was not reason why we had to let our defence spending fall. Plays right into the old Soviet trope of a decadent West.

And if the world hasn't realised by now, he has no friends.

Looks like the historic French distrusts of the USA has prepared them better than the UK - the possibility that Trump could "remove" the UKs nuclear deterrent are now being floated.

www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/article/uk-urged-to-prepare-for-donald-trump-halting-trident-partnership-cj8rdjw0w

Whilst I agree Europe needs to now stand on her own two feet I find the rhetoric from America quite hard to swallow. For years the US wanted a monopoly on defense because it suited their interests, they wanted to be the defacto leaders of NATO. They can’t now bitch and whine because as a result the Europeans expected them to be a reliable partner. It really sticks in my craw!

I know people have been criticising the King for not speaking up for Canada, but I did note that an image was posted on Twitter yesterday showing him in his Naval uniform at a military event and he was wearing all of his Canadian decorations. Interesting choice for a U.K. event.

He can’t be vocal on political issues, but he’s a master, as was his mother, at the signalling via clothing choices!

I've never been so glad that my kids are ND as I am right now. It's terrifying what's happening and my only reassurance is that they won't face conscription.

Unless they have a moderate learning disability, they likely would be. We have so many ND people now that not conscripting those physically and mentally capable won’t be an option.

Well quite - the whole reason that Europe has historically underspent on defence is because the US has actively dissuaded Europe, and in particular Germany, from re-arming ever since the establishment of NATO. France decided to go their own way after Suez, much to the US's annoyance. The whole "Europe has been freeloading off US defence" trope is ironic considering that having the Europeans as client states of the US has been their entire strategy since 1949 - and an enormously successful one too, for both the US and Europe.

Agree. They’ve revelled in being big and powerful and throwing their weight around, and now they want to row back on all the responsibilities they got themselves into.

Given the current leadership that’s a good thing.

You know how Britain - once the greatest empire the world had seen - slowly declined and the US rose and the British said it couldn't happen ?

No one has ever said it couldn't happen to the US. Except the US.

Yes, although they’re currently enjoying squaring up to China so it may just be that they’re turning their focus to something else

Absolutely the US have encouraged the current situation. And taking a long term view it is American defence contractors who will take a big hit because European counterparts will now benefit from new contracts.

My SIL is an engineer in a drone building/software startup. They are anticipating a massive surge in business off the back of the current situation.

I don't know about long term but here in Sweden currently people with autism are banned from the military entirely and those with ADHD are banned if they're medicated. I'm praying that continues for teen DS. DD already has her documents to show she's in a reserved occupation.

Yes there's a book by Maureen Callaghan iirc about how absolutely abysmally women are and have been treated by the Kennedy clan, which is only now being seen after JFK Jnr switched to Trump.

It always used to be glossed over BC of the Kennedy bros reputation as great liberal reformers. Think of why it's always the men who end up front and centre of politics and the women (Maria Schreiber married to Arnold Schwarzenegger) who remain behind the scenes

As DH was leaving the RAF 5 years ago he was part of a big research project and push on Diversity in terms of actively recruiting ND people.

Not necessarily for frontline roles but things like drone pilots, reconnaissance, data analytics, etc are examples of roles that they think are good options for ND people.

I think talk of conscription is ... misguided.

Being brutally honest, I wouldn't have the chutzpah to ask generations that have been shafted by us oldies to fight for us. Not without cast iron guarantees that whatever emerged after their sacrifice would be worth it.

And the phrase about "die free or live in bondage" would particularly grate on me if I was 18-30 and the idea of "free living" seemed like a sick joke.

In all out war it wouldn’t be a policy they could continue. It would rule out a fifth of young men if not more. In WW2 the conscription criteria gradually got wider and wider. I expect that would happen too.

I can see that happening. The policy if war comes is 'total defence'. Which means everyone from 16-75 is expected to serve in some capacity. There was a massive exercise in our area last year and the schools' dinner personnel at some schools had to produce thousands of lunches for the military. The others had cook for the kids but using mobile emergency kitchens that I didn't even know the municipality had.

Bill Browder:

The Trump administration were already planning to cut aid to Ukraine before the Zelensky meeting. Goading him in the oval office just provided cover

https://x.com/Billbrowder/status/1897546398763024485

So what does this mean for Starmers Plan for Donnie to like them again?

Team Trump have convinced themselves there is $4trillion of free money to be had if only they stopped the federal government paying for anything.

A lot of the noise in the popular press is deliberately disguising the total batshitness of that idea. Tariffs here, cuts there. No cuts here, tariffs there. Did I say cuts ? I mean efficiencies. And so on.

Americans should contemplate a world where the federal government doesn't pay for anything. Because that is project 2025.

Hi everyone, I backed out of these threads when Trump was elected as the only way my brain could cope was to stick my fingers in my ears and go "la la la, it's not real" but that didn't work.

Poor old Trump. He still thinks he's President and no one has the heart to tell him that actually Musk and Putin are currently job sharing that position