He Has No Deal, He Has No Dice - Trump Thread #162

[Spandauer]

Old enough to remember whole years in which I barely thought about the American president.

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/chat/5513875-depraved-desperate-deluded-and-dangerous-trump-thread-160

eta: in my haste I think I've numbered the thread incorrectly! Oh well.

"AI" famously struggles to get fingers and limbs correct.

Bishops be not happy.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ issued a statement Wednesday defending Pope Leo XIV’s teachings on war, pushing back shortly after Vice President JD Vance said the pope should “be careful” when voicing opinions on church teachings, amid an escalating clash between Washington and the Vatican.
^^
The Committee on Doctrine, a subset of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that advises bishops on theological and doctrinal issues, said Pope Leo XIV’s criticisms of the war maintain a “thousand-year tradition” of church teachings that war is only legitimate “in self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed.”
^^
The statement appeared to push back against Vance, who said at a Turning Point USA event the pope should “be careful” if he chooses to “opine on matters of theology,” questioning his comments about war.
^^
The Committee on Doctrine’s statement said the pope is “not merely offering opinions on theology,” he is speaking as “supreme pastor of the universal Church” and is “preaching the Gospel and exercising his ministry as the Vicar of Christ.”
(Forbes)

Trump believes diet soda kills cancer cells, Dr Oz reveals.
Physicians issue reminder to public after TV doctor and CMS chief relays president’s claim on Don Jr podcast.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/15/trump-diet-coke-soda-kills-cancer?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It failed to make his arms look like giant slabs of dimpled orange corned beef, flapping in the wind

Good stuff. I have been keeping an eye of the US Catholic League to see what they say. This org is one of those right wing Republican/ Trumpist things that gets a lot of big money donations and it masquerades as an official part of the Roman Church, but it is NOT. Although the guy who runs it, Bill Donohue, does go on EWTN etc

They do a lot of political lobbying and open letters to politicians. And these letters are often reported in right wing media. The Catholic version of Turning Point USA. With Bill Donohue playing the part of Charlie Kirk. Does YouTube and all that, worth tens of millions, and apparently pays himself $408k a year.

The repugs really do have a massive and well organized/funded propaganda arm. An entire media ecosystem.

Here is what they say.

POPE AND PRESIDENT CLASH - Catholic League

I think the key part of that is this bit.

"Pope Leo’s desire for peace is understandable. Less understandable was his sweeping statement on March 1 claiming that peace is achieved “only” through “dialogue.” That is simply not true. Historically, war has frequently resulted in peace, an outcome that comes about when dialogue fails. That is why the Catholic Church is not a pacifist religion—it understands the necessity of “just wars.”

And it does the whatabout immigration stuff as a rebuttal to the official US Bishops. Yup. Trumpists really do have the whole news system covered. They hand their minions the "approved" talking points on a plate. No thinking required.

More Trump propaganda being spewed by DHS/ICE:

Minnesota probes possible ICE kidnapping of US citizen ChongLy Thao | CNN

"A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said “ICE does not ‘kidnap’ people” in a statement to CNN."

"“This is nothing but a political stunt to demonize ICE law enforcement who are facing a 1300% increase in assaults against them as they arrest for the worst of the worst,” the statement read."

And of course, the usual that DHS come out with"

"DHS had said the ICE officers had been seeking two convicted sex offenders, and were executing a warrant."

FIFA peace prize ?

"FIFA chief says Iran will participate in World Cup "for sure" despite war

FIFA President Gianni Infantino reiterated his stance Wednesday that Iran will participate in the World Cup "for sure" despite its war with the U.S.
Speaking at CNBC's Invest in America Forum, Infantino said it is important that Iran participates in the World Cup even though that has been in doubt since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on the country.

"The Iranian team is coming for sure, yes," Infantino said. "We hope that by then, of course, the situation will be a peaceful situation. As I said, that would definitely help. But Iran has to come. Of course, they represent their people. They have qualified. The players want to play.""

Makes a change from executing people.

I'm not exactly sure how effective this will be but at least the UK gov't is thinking ahead and looking at options. Once Trump weaponised tariffs to force compliance to his narrative from the rest of the world, that genie isn't going back inside the box.

Ministers are drawing up sanction powers to retaliate against economic pressure after Trump threatened the US-UK trade deal

Ministers are preparing to create a trade “bazooka” that will allow Britain to retaliate against potential “economic coercion” from the United States or China.
Under plans being drawn up by Peter Kyle, the trade secretary, ministers could impose wide-ranging trade sanctions to counter “adverse economic pressure” brought by other countries.

The tactic is inspired by the European Union’s anti-coercion instrument, nicknamed the “trade bazooka”, that came into force three years ago. It allows the bloc to impose extensive sanctions such as excluding the aggressor’s companies from the EU market, implementing export controls or ending intellectual property protections.
The instrument was seen as one of the factors that forced President Trump to back down on plans to impose 10 per cent tariffs on EU goods at the height of the row over Greenland.

Businesses and trade experts have been asked to share ideas for the measures with the government, which could include restrictions on the export or import of certain goods, services or investment to or from any coercive state.

The Department for Business and Trade said action could be taken in the “same or in a different area of the economy to that being targeted by an act of adverse economic pressure”. It would have the “aim of resolving the situation swiftly and effectively”.

This week Trump threatened that the US-UK trade deal “can always be changed” as he once again criticised a perceived lack of support by the government over his war in Iran. The president told Sky News: “We gave them a good trade deal, better than I had to.”

Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, also signalled a return to trade tariffs being “back in place at the previous level” by July after previously being struck down by the Supreme Court.
Bessent said on Tuesday: “We had a setback at the Supreme Court in terms of the tariff policy but we will be implementing or conducting section 301 studies so the tariffs could be back in place at the previous level by the beginning of July.”

The Times 16.04.26

Warnings of potential imminate flight cancellations.

Yet another "read this and weep", from a Heather. Long and depressing article.
https://open.substack.com/pub/heatherdelaneyreese/p/trumps-wars-are-just-getting-started?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

At least we are sending drones to help Ukraine. Glad we aren't being distracted and that we seem to understand these will be pivotal www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-announces-biggest-ever-drone-package-for-ukraine-to-push-back-putin

We can save the jet fuel from one trans-atlantic trip quite easily.

Not sure why Starmer persists in sending King Charles & Queen Camilla (with presumably a large entourage) to try to butter up the big 🍊🌮💩.

Are they taking him a gift? Maybe some 🍔🍟🥤? Or some plastic covered in gold glitter from Temu?🏆

ETA If they do go, I hope Camilla packs the Greville Festoon Necklace, Greville Chandelier Earrings and the Queen Alexandra's Kokoshnik Tiara. Then look at Melania pull a face and poke 🍊🌮 in the gut because she hasn't got that many diamonds. 😉

Yes, given the King’s “green” sympathies, he should just bow out saying it is costing the earth too much, particularly as current lack of fuel oil is thanks to Trump’s illegal war. Hardly diplomatic, though, is it? Although given Trump’s complete lack of restraint when dealing with any foreign government which dares to oppose him, I dare say it wouldn’t make any difference anyway!

Scary and depressing - could Trump personally prep for wars though like with a ‘to do’ list and all? so who is sorting it and not trying to de escalate the aggression- they all backed the ‘no new war’ ticket.

Re corruption in the US Military.

CNN is reporting that the US navy has lost a drone. It was lost on April 9th over the Gulf. The Navy has said a drone crashed but won't say where. But it is all on flightradar24, because it was squawking, Great bit of operational security there.

But get this. The drone, a Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton, of which there are 20 made, costs ........ $240 MILLION EACH.

An F35 for comparison costs $100 million each. A Saab Gripen is $85 mil. The F22, which was cancelled because of cost, worked out at $369 mil each (about 190 made)

That's $240 MILLION for a surveillance drone. It boggles the mind. Either the US Military Complex has superb sales folk and spin artists, or the US Government have really dumb people signing purchase orders.

from the Heather Long article:

So when Trump tells us the war is almost over, we have to watch what he does. Not what he says. He is sending 10,000 more troops. He is moving to convert civilian factories to weapons production. He is blockading a sovereign nation’s ports. And he is already telling us who could be next. Because we also learned, in reporting from both USA Today and Zeteo, citing multiple sources, that the Pentagon has received direct orders from the White House to prepare for a potential military operation in Cuba. This is the President of the United States ordering his own Defense Department to plan for another conflict before the current one has even ended.

I'm of the mind now that 🍊💩 is indeed planning a ground invasion and/or a concentrated Netanyahu-style bombing of Iranian sites.

Charles and Camilla could be sitting next to the Turd Toddler when it happens.

And does anyone in the world have the bandwidth left to advocate for the ordinary Cuban people?

Seeing 'the plan' in writing like this is seriously scary, especially in comparison to Hitler's war planning.
The world needs to read this piece.

How much are Irans Shaheed drones ?$50,000 ? So you could have 960 Shaheed drones for one of the Triton drones ?

The US has already lost. Just doesn't know it yet.

Articles of impeachment against Kegsbreath.

Democrats file articles of impeachment against Hegseth for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ | Trump administration | The Guardian https://share.google/8YFonWUUyYauRwh3q

This part from the Heather Delaney Reece article is very concerning too:

Today, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Pentagon has begun approaching American automakers, including Ford and General Motors, along with other commercial manufacturers, about helping to produce weapons and military supplies. The Journal itself described the move as reminiscent of a practice used during World War II. But not the version of World War II most Americans were taught in school. Not the clean narrative of Allied liberation. The earlier phase. The buildup. The part where governments quietly began converting civilian industry into war machines because they were preparing for something far larger than they were telling their people.

This is a very unnerving direction to be heading in.

How are they going to do that when they have tariffed and pissed off all teh countries they need to supply components ? Presumably they will need to be invaded too.

I believe the term is 'going global'.

Who's going to tell him?

I'm saying it here. Thank goodness that right now China controls 90% of the world's processing of rare earth minerals, which are a necessary component in electronics.