To ask if Donald Trump could actually be president again?

[tinkertee]

I've just seen a headline about him now being the front runner for the Republican nomination. Which I assume means it's entirely a possibility that he could then win.

I'm British (English) so I know our current government is a complete embarrassment. But I will never get my head around DT having been president once never mind possibly twice.

How could this happen??

I did the fact-checking with several reliable (as opposed to social media troll-type) sources, so yes, I did. Check for yourself. And stop think Greg Abbott is reliable: he isn't.

Links to these reliable sources? Doubt I will get any as the information is so, so wrong.

Link to reliable sources saying you're right?

cba, because you are clearly not going to accept them. I find there is no point me debating with the hard of thinking, so I have tended of late not to bother.

If you look in some of the fact-check sites (there are plenty) you'll find facts which do not absolutely accord with your views, which you can then ignore at your leisure

Trump is an insane, dangerous bigot.

A sex offender that brags about it, a racist, someone who mocks disabled people

He loves gun culture, he's lazy , he's a fraudster and a conman. He tried to destroy democracy at the highest level in his own country

Despite all this, he still has loads of support. That's mid America and the Deep South for you.

I have absolutely no problem in saying online or to someone's face if the situation occured, that they are complete disgrace and without any morals or common decency if they supported this wretched human being.

Thank you for proving the point.

Key Facts:

• Encounters at the Southwest border (SWB) in FY2023 increased over 40% since FY2021, 4% compared to FY2022, and more than 100% compared to FY2019.
• Last month, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported a 40% increase compared to September 2021 and 18% compared to September 2022.
• Since President Biden took office, there have been 7.5 million encounters nationwide and 6.2 million encounters at the Southwest border, in addition to 1.7 million known gotaways.
• In FY2023, 169 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watchlist were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry. 18 were apprehended in September alone.
• So far in FY2023, CBP has arrested 35,433 aliens with criminal convictions or outstanding warrants nationwide, including 598 known gang members, 178 of those being MS-13 members.
• In FY2023, CBP, including Air and Marine Operations, has seized 27,293 pounds of fentanyl, coming across the Southwest border—enough to kill more than 6 billion people.

saltinesandcoffeecups, sure; and if there are encounters at the borders, that rather tends to indicate that the borders are not open, does it not?

If they were closed there would be no encounters. I don’t think our border control routinely strolls into Mexico, do you?

@SOBplus, I’ve lost respect for your views after you’d previously posted on this thread that Alexandria Ocasio Cortez had said ‘the government should just print more money’ when the truth is that this line came from a parody account imitating her and was not something she herself actually said.

I think it’s unfair - and intellectually dishonest - of you to belittle Trump-critical posters for their views, to support incorrect theories (regarding the AOC comment above) and to not be able to find reliable sources that back up your own claims.

Does The New York Times count?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/10/29/us/illegal-border-crossings-data.html
Why Illegal Border Crossings Are at Sustained Highs

If you think about it, that more people are being arrested means that the border is not open, since the people arrested are not crossing it. It is closed to them. Sorry, but if it were open there would not be arrests and all the rest of it; people would as you suggest simply stroll across unhampered.

Thanks but someone ELSE attributed the point about AOC as the parody tweet. I used her interview so try again please.

Sorry, but the Border Patrol also count the people NOT caught, seen but escaped, those caught on video but not by agents, etc so the problem is even WORSE

SOBplus
Does The New York Times count?

No, because it is behind a paywall and I can't see it. (And if it is like the London Times, it used to be a good paper but I no longer know whether it is worth reading on account of the paywall.)

I agree with this. I think the NY Times figures in SOB’s post suggest that, whilst crossings have increased over the years, law enforcement efforts to prevent these crossings have also improved.

Also, this is just me speculating, but perhaps border crossings were lower in the Trump government years because people didn’t want to live under Trump’s rule? As we’ve seen earlier in this thread, Trump has expressed some racist views about Mexican people (to name just one nationality of people who are trying to cross the border to enter the USA) - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jaz1J0s-cL4

@SOBplus can you post a link to the interview? I can’t find it when I search for it.

What I have found is this: https://www.businessinsider.com/modern-monetary-theory-mmt-explained-aoc-2019-3?r=US&IR=T. This article - and a few others that came up when I searched for ‘AOC print more money’ - explains something called Modern Monetary Theory, which is the idea that a country can create and spend its own money. It is not the same as someone asking a government to just ‘print more money’.

The NYT is still a reputable newspaper, despite some dubious journalists who like to post completely false drivel about the UK.

Would that be the majority who voted for Trump in 2016, or the majority who voted for him in 2020? Oh, hang on....

Neither, @AskingQuestionsAllTheTime. I'm well aware of what the figures were last time, but we were discussing the next election which is why I said it "remains to be seen" whether Trump supporters will be the majority

As said I'm not a Trump fan either, but I had to smile when you repeated the old one about Biden's stammer. Having asked several times before I'm still waiting to hear how a stammer explains him confusing the southern hemisphere with the third world, wandering the wrong way, falling around, mixing up his late son with his granddaughter and needing "what you need to do" cards, but I suspect I'll be waiting a long time

With the US I feel there is a crisis at the border than Biden is refusing to deal with

You forgot all of the creepy child sniffing

Thanks, Wallaw.

So the article says that Biden's administration expanded Article 42, and put in place harsher punishments for crossing illegally. And yet it is an open border.

Something doesn't quite fit together there...

I already answered that one … with sources. 1.7M

• Since President Biden took office, there have been 7.5 million encounters nationwide and 6.2 million encounters at the Southwest border, in addition to 1.7 million known gotaways.

As opposed to sexual assault, rape, financial crimes, election crimes, and sedition? All of which Trump is currently charged with or has already been convicted of?

Not forgotten, just omitted from that particular list

Let's face it, if any of us tried to list all Biden's oddities we'd be here all day (and ditto for Trump)