Still dancing the Tariff Tango, Vlad and Bibi still playing him like a fiddle and Epstein's list must be written in invisible ink - Trump thread #146

[Spandauer]

Awa' a bile yer heid, ya greet orange jobbie.

(Virtual Placard for his upcoming visit to Scotland - others welcome)

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5357151-trumplethinskin-wants-his-situation-room-photo-because-it-most-definitely-rained-on-his-parade-trump-thread-145

He is suing the WSJ and Murdoch now

As Spandauer has said exact what I was thinking, I call bull shit on the reasoning.

How think does Trump and Co think the American public is? They haven't realised that they ain't that smart themselves.

Apparently, the Daily Show is considered to be going to be the next to go. I like Jon Stewart more than Colbert, and his colleague, Desi Lydic, is my favourite of all the late-night chat show presenters.
This whole thing is outright censorship. It’s disgusting.

This kind of thing never ceases to amaze me, and you’d think I’d have stopped being amazed by now, after 9 years of this bullshit. Surely it is just so below the status of the office of the President to be suing a news source for printing stuff about you that you don’t like? Surely there are far more important things to be worrying about, like what happened to his ear and the gunman who was killed, for example, or any of the multifarious serious things affecting the entire population of his country, that a normal President would be dealing with? He really is bringing the office of the President into disrepute. As I’ve said before, I do wish world leaders would treat him like the trumped up, ignorant, useless, little egotist he is, and ignore him, rather than treating him with gravitas.
Well, this has got my week-end off to a bad start.

I don't know who it was that was speaking on R4 Today earlier, but he was going into the detail of the Epstein files supposedly being redacted.

The real stuff of interest isn't so much the client list but "the hours and hours of (secret) video tape footage" that is supposed to be in a warehouse in Virginia. "Trump knows this"

(Watch out whoever's guarding that).

Also mentioned that trump had been involved in several "catch and kill" operations with the pliant editor of the National Enquirer. That's where media organisations buy up gossip stories and effectively gag the source rather than publishing it. It's also a form of Kompromat.

Popbitch did a whole series of articles on this method of media control. If anyone's read it it's fascinating

TRIP US worth a listen this morning.

I’m inclined to agree with Katty and Mooch saying that Trump will survive the Epstein stuff, but that MAGA will continue to fracture and crumble.

Right now MAGA is Trump and vice versa, no one else will be able to hold them together (especially not Vance or Don Jr).

I agree @CaveMum - he won't be brought down by this.

But at the same time, I expect Vance's people are going/have gone through his personal life and doing some 'editing'... much easier now than back in ye olde analogue 80s/90s.

And whatever continues to give Drumpf personal pain is more than OK by me.

😆

@SerendipityJane
Did we already know this? Scary, but not surprising and yet another manifestation of how those famous checks and balances to the President have completely failed.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nancy-pelosi-reveals-why-republicans-wont-cross-trump_n_6878bf6ce4b09816d3162894?fbclid=IwY2xjawLnRzBleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFjUGVrRmVvcjJuNDFpa3RCAR5bW5zlXQgKKRcnGoTasga4Lm3NKMGEy83rg_ekzCviWbI4VPbxWaLfD6ntlA_aem_IepiVPu3ddHo2Jo5umlppA

Yeah, it's the Nazi playbook.

Just remember what happened on the Night of the Long Knives.

I think we have known for a while that the threat of violence against anyone who disagreed with Trump was real. What might be new would be certain information that the Republicans knew the threat was real and tempered their behaviour because of that. I don't think Pelosi really added anything here.

and it just confirms that Republicans are cowards. What would Nathan Hale say ?

I’m sure you’re right, @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime, you’ve answered my question

https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/trump-signs-executive-order-banning

The satire of those Borowitz columns sails soooo close to the wind I often have to double-take to check.

That's the problem with satirical news sites at the moment. It's getting harder to tell which way is up.

Reminded me of Spitting Image.

😂

😂

https://bsky.app/profile/fhp.bsky.social/post/3luavhyd4rc2c

Tucked away in the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' is the requirement that all visitors to the US must pay $250 just to enter the country starting 1 October! For a family of 5 that's $1250! I doubt this will help America's crashing tourism business which is down 10% already since January

Just as well most people wouldn’t want to go while the big 🍊 🌮 is President even if he paid them $250 🙄

Who believes Bigly will enter a courtroom and get into being questioned under oath about Epstein (who? Never heard of him. Don't know him) and their lengthy relationship? No, me neither. Bigly v Murdoch. What a choice.

More on the $250 charge for US visitors.
Sounds very confusing and unclear how they will collect then potentially reimburse it. Madness.

www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/07/18/visa-integrity-fee-what-to-know-about-new-travel-fee-to-enter-the-us-.html

Madness indeed
I don’t plan visiting for the next few years except emergency. Tried to work out whether would be affected by this Integrity charge - would come under visa waiver scheme?

So for the next election, as long as Trump actually hasn’t put himself in place as the Bigly Dictator and no voting at all takes place, the opposition to him is going to have to promise to take back almost everything he has done, which is the only way the country can then move forward, I would think? Or am I missing something?