The Reaper Should Have Gone To SpecSavers - Trump Thread #168

[Spandauer]

Surely it's time.

Trump’s Final Term Ends in: - Countdown Timer

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5551862-oh-peacemaker-peacemaker-make-me-some-peace-trump-thread-167

You know, I always felt a little sorry for May Pang. She just seemed like a Yoko Ono dupe who was 'in lurrvvveee' with Lennon. Natalie engenders no such sympathy from me. She's sucking up to Scrotus because he is powerful. If he were to become 'no longer powerful' 🙏🏼 I think she'd drop him like a bag full of dog shit.

I don't know, based on the letters that have come out, I'd say mental illness seems more likely than calculated motives

I am not convinced by your argument. Yes I get the re-distribution of wealth, but Trump presents the state as being the solution. Go to the Reform manifesto and they suggest "trickle down" is the solution. That for all to be well off, the economy must be geared up to the benefit of the super rich. And that if they have the freedom to get richer (lower tax/less reg/small guv). then everyone will benefit.

Trump does not do that. He presents the economy as being state managed. Even private investment is down to the state. And there is a fair bit of state capitalism in there. As well as just plain old state owned companies. Rare earth for example. Another is Intel. He gave them $9 billion of taxpayers money, and he makes out he done it as an investment for the people. Add in crapto, his investment fund for kids, his medicine website...

He never mentions trickle down. And when he does mention the super rich, I read that as cronyism. That he, the state, is allowing them to get richer, and that is for the benefit of the workers. The super rich will repay him, the state, the people.

Re the Austrian Corporal. I saw a clip of Don Jr once explain why they were socialist. It was at a Dinesh D'Souza film. He said, and I paraphrase, " I never knew the Nazi Party had socialist in their name. There you have it, the Nazis were socialist".

I fear that there will be a lot more of this US military newspaper editor voices censorship fears after being fired - BBC News when the USS Abraham Lincoln arrives back in port. Court martials, sackings, arrests and lawsuits when some of the sailors, their families and friends start speaking the truth about how awful it got aboard the ship.

They went after the woman who was in charge of the base in Greenland I recall.

And that was before the "Mary Celeste" hospital ship that vanished into the fog, never to be seen again.

She posted 150 pro-Trump tweets on day of Capitol riot

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/08/22/politics/deleted-tweets-trump-aide-natalie-harp-jan-6-invs

It does not say how many followers she had.

From that article, anyone know what she is doing here ?

Att.

Yes, but the state ultimately owning everything is also a feature of absolutist monarchies. It's just that one man, the monarch IS the state. Or even further back in the past I am sure there were god kings who would claim the same - they are literal god kings and everything they survey they have responsibility for. Mussolini also talked about how fascism is the ultimate merger of corporations and the state- control of everything is unified like a bundle of sticks held in one hand. I don't want to accidentally invoke Godwin and anyway I think Trump's instinctive default would be more absolute Monarch than fascist. But I included all the other examples to show that it's not just communism that puts everything under the control of the state. Other systems do as well. It's just who "the state" is varies.

ETA for MAGA and Trump supporters the idea of the state coming in to fix the real problems they have ka tempting because the American state has surrendered a lot of power to corporations etc in a way that likely has hurt them.

ETA I just thought of another example, the East India Company at it's peak had complete control or wanted complete control of everything in the territory it controlled. In that case a corporation WAS the state and ran it like a command economy for the benefit of it's shareholders.

You have gone from populist to Monarchist.

And that is fair enough given the "No Kings" movement. Trump does want to be a Dictator or King. But it still does not get away from the fact that is socialist policies he is pushing instead of free market capitalism.

He is ticking a lot of boxes on the 14 points of fascism though.

I guess my point is that there are two things that are features of Communism but also features of lots of other things too.

Anti-elitist sentiments - a big feature of communist type uprisings but also a feature of all populist uprisings. So the MAGA anti-elitist elements, them talking about things that sound like "left wing talking points" (eg big pharma) is because of that. Luigi Mangione was very opposed to the way insurance companies operated but he did not identify himself as left wing. Quite the opposite.

State control/command economy - a part of classic communism but also a part of a lot of other types of authoritarian ways of governing. And also a feature of emergencies, eg during WW2 the British state took on a lot of temporary additional control.
ETA: communism is not free market capitalism. But not everything that is not free market capitalism is communism.

(And yes, I guess there was also a real time shift in MAGA itself from populist to monarchist). That's normal. You overthrow the elites. The "people" (as represented by you) take power. You are now the elites. Probably one of the oldest cycles in history

" From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs "

When I had Reddit I was banned off the Socialism/Communism board for debating that. Because what Marx did not do was define what "needs" were. CPC scholars have written a fair bit on that, about how leaders have greater needs than the rest.

Bloody Marx. But I suppose he was writing before the concept of risk assessment had been developed.

But yeah, my thing with Trump is that he is not preaching free market economy at all. I think he simply does not understand any of it.

"Switzerland has better interest rates than the USA: declare economic war on Switzerland" seems to be about his level of understanding.

Mental illness on May's part? Or Yoko's?

I was always under the impression that Yoko encouraged (pushed?) her into her involvement with John. But my info is decades old.

From the background I'd say that's the 'Presidential Walk of Fame' gallery.

Looks like she's putting up paper templates for the portraits that are there now. Probably to check spacing or something.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Walk_of_Fame

Ahh right. Makes sense.

Of course, that is the sort of thing that would mightily piss off the people who are already employed there to do these things. Such as Donna here :

White House Announces Appointment of New Curator | The White House (archives.gov)

From that, Donna has a BA and a Masters in Art. She is rather an expert at it.

"Originally from Wahiawa, Hawaii, Ms. Hayashi Smith received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 1990, she moved to Washington, D.C. for a Smithsonian Institution minority fellowship at the National Museum of American History and was hired as a museum aide at the National Museum of American Art a year later. Shortly after arriving at the White House, Hayashi Smith earned a Master of Arts degree in Museum Studies at the George Washington University while continuing her work in the Office of the Curator. Ms. Hayashi Smith is the first Asian American to hold the title of Curator of the White House."

Ain't this Nats just the sort of person that everyone in a workplace dislikes. Probably pushing people out the way to impress the boss. And who knows what sort of damage she is doing to art that the nation owns.

He is yelling at Canada again

https://bsky.app/profile/brianplatt.bsky.social/post/3mttgsunyc22o
In a new post, Trump threatens to hike his autos and auto parts tariffs on Canada to 50% on Jan. 1, 2027.

That's a long time away. What happened to the 2 weeks ?

Canada has made it clear they don't want to be bothered wasting their time on him and his "negotiators". Of course he's having a tantrum! (I wonder where in the aether he plucked that 95% from....)

To say Natalie is deranged is being kind. She appears to be in the throes of a long lasting psychosis. ( I am not a doctor)

I recall Japan done the same.

“However, during the coordination with the US, because it became apparent that certain points required further technical discussion, the trip was cancelled, and it was decided that discussions will continue at the administrative level,” Hayashi told reporters.

Basically saying, sort it out then we will talk. I remember at the time, Japan was saying the US don't know what they want. And there was this :

"Also on the agenda was also a written confirmation of the details of Japan’s $550 billion investment package for the U.S., according to Reuters."

Art of the deal.

Japan's top trade negotiator reportedly cancels U.S. trip (cnbc.com)

Given the weak JPY, Japan is right to be wary of signing details and timelines for a USD 550B bribe investment before the Mid-terms.

Bessent has finished his Economic D-Day briefing which was full of threats but a tad lacking in detail.
I'm going to stand back and watch whan happens next. Especially with China and Pakistan. Trump has been busy phoning world leaders to ask them to join his pack. In the spirit of WW2 D-Day. Allies banding together against the common enemy... or else.

We don't know which world leaders.

I doubt Mark Carney was one of them.

Bessent did try to dis Carney tonight.