Trump+Musk; the DOGE and Pony show continues -Trump thread #140

[Spandauer]

Trump, as out of control as a faulty Tesla, takes an ICE pick to the Constitution.

Thanks to @AcrossthePond55 and @Jaichangecentfoisdenom for the thread title and sub-title 😊

Photocollage: Cold War Steve
Map illustration: Barry Blitt

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5286872-the-orange-man-and-the-state-of-his-union-trump-thread-139

I’d be interested to know what day to day life feels like at the moment in a red county within a blue state. Do things feel like business as usual or is there an undertone?

During the reporting of these events you're hearing a lot of "He's not doing what he said", "I didn't vote for this", and various other iterations of "I didn't think that I would be affected!". I have to admit to a bit of schadenfreude at their astonishment and upset at losing jobs or certain govt provided benefits or programmes being curtailed or DOGE'd out of existence. But if they voted for Trump they voted for this.

Yes to this. The only way they will sway is to be hurt personally

I could be wrong, but from what I've gathered here and elsewhere, much of the media US voters consume didn't go out of its way before the election to inform them of what Trump was really up to.

Many Republican voters genuinely may not have known about Project 2025.

A webpage about the Navajo code talkers in WW2 was restored after an outcry

https://apnews.com/article/navajo-code-talkers-dei-pentagon-native-american-5ae814f99a5c5e00128613b2be9b554e

Apparently "The Defense Department has had to issue reassurances that it is not omitting historic achievements by servicemen and women of color"

I think a lot of the pro-Republican media have a lot to answer for here.

They chose not to give voters an accurate picture of what Trump was up to – and of what he'd been up to previously. January 6th was a seismic event; every voter in the USA should have been aware of the violence and of the seriousness.

In any normal media landscape, that day would have ruled the man out of any public office ever.

The Republican party could have chosen ANYONE as their candidate. The pro-Republican media should have been all over this.

It's pretty much business as usual. And to tell the truth, we don't see near as many offensive anti-woke pro-Trump bumper stickers, signs, Tshirts or other obvious signs of MAGA. I can't think of the last time I saw a piece of MAGA gear. And it used to be 'flags nailed to the mast' IYKWIM.

I don't know if it really means anything though. It could mean they've just 'gone to ground' rather than actually changed their opinions.

Trump: it's about time Europe took care of it's own security America has better things to do

Europe: proposes strategy for peacekeeping after ceasefire in Ukraine

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff: OMG like the Europeans think they're like Churchill or something (scoffs) they can't do without the Americans

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/trump-s-team-believes-russia-does-not-attempt-1742620160.html

Prick

It depended on your sources. If they watched OAN, Fox, and Newsman P2025 was definitely downplayed, pooh poohed, or they only mentioned what MAGA c considered 'the good bits'. If you watched MSNBC it was trumpeted loud and clear. If you watched CNN or other true 'mainstream' media they sort of walked a fine line of trying to cover both sides 'fairly' often with a bit of a 'lean' one way or the other.

As far as many not knowing, I doubt that. They may not have known much, but they knew. And they eagerly swallowed Scrotus' "P2025? What's that?" bullshit. After all 'where ignorance is bliss 'til folly to be wise'.

💯

@cakeorwine

Thank you so much for the post on the Code Talkers, I actually burst into tears of happiness. I've been staying away from the news so I hadn't heard.

As a person of Native American heritage (although not Diné) I was so upset when they were scrubbed, as were Ira Hayes and Lori Piestewa. So happy to know they're back, as is Jackie Robinson who broke the color barrier in baseball as a player for 'my' team, the Brooklyn (now LA) Dodgers.

Heather Cox Richardson’s latest is well worth a read. I started by screaming in rage at Trump’s manipulative lies, and ended with a scintilla of hope, not misplaced, I hope:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-22-2025
i also much enjoyed Adam Schiff with Jimmy Kimmel:
O
Might there be a successful concerted fight-back? Or is that too optimistic?

Saw this. Another massive admirer of Putin and woefully ignorant about the country he’s giving away. Fucking jumped up property developer.

BBC coverage of the same:
Trump envoy dismisses Starmer plan for Ukraine
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62zm4eqvp7o

@Lalgarh nailed it.

Apparently, this is from a billboard in Alabama.

Is there a collective noun for a group of stupid, arrogant pricks?

MAGA.

😂

Quite a worrying story in the current climate

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/former-us-attorney-for-eastern-district-of-virginia-jessica-aber-found-dead-at-43/3874185/

Has anyone seen this?! https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-executive-order-segregation-federal-contractors-b2717572.html

On Twitter LOTS of people said
"but Trump says he's not part of Project 2025"

Many of those tweets have since been deleted (I bookmarked a couple to watch)

Yup. That was clearly stated as part of Project 2025
I am surprised that anybody is surprised.

Roger Stone has always been a racist.

So you can either pin your colors to the MAGA mast, and suffer lawsuit after lawsuit (and would I be correct that POTUS has no sway in civil cases ?) with the attritional effect on profits that implies. Or you can risk the wrath of MAGA and ignore Trump.

I noticed (with interest) that the whole Tesla-Musk issue shines a light onto the challenges coming next. Because I suspect the intersection between Musk-backing MAGAnauts and "people who can afford a Tesla" is very very small. Which leads to the problem that whilst he will appear popular on the MAGA press, the people he needs to actually buy Teslas hate him. And the more the GOP try to act as free advertising, the wider that disparity will become.

You mean the Project 2025 Trump did not admit to supporting? More fool me clearly. How can the majority of Americans support this? I think populist leaders like this reveal the true nature of people but is depressing. I was more hopeful than I ever realised. And I hear Elon Musk wants Trump to pardon George Floyd too. Are there people really do not believe they are racists?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/derek-chauvin-george-floyd-pardon-b2716832.html

A ball bag of stupid, arrogant picks?

In case anybody is wondering,
bottom of page three of this PDF explicitly
(page 583 of Project 2025)
states that removal of racial protections was the plan
https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-18.pdf
IT WAS ALWAYS THERE
but the US and world media failed in their duty

How anybody can pretend to be surprised that its being carried out
is beyond me