Any American Mumsnetters around?

[Wildflowers99]

To have a respectful discussion about Trump. Did you expect him to act in the way he has? Are you happy with it? What’s the mood towards him over there?

I’m completely speechless at his ambush of Zelenskyy tonight and just trying to understand how this has come about, and whether he has support to continue acting in this way. He was obviously chosen to be President by the public but I assume they would never have guessed how the last few weeks would have gone.

Trump doesn’t understand diplomacy or leading a country.
We are seeing the difference in a politician vs a businessman

And not a very good businessman at that, despite his claims. Multiple bankruptcies, and managed to lose money running a casino!

The scary thing is that Trump doesn't understand nuance or subtle.

I'm baffled by what he is planning and concerned as to how this is going to evolve. I would imagine Putin also calls him a large orange clown behind his back. The stupidity is off the scale.

Lol. I remember Pelosi quipping, about a Republican whose bill failed, "Well, you do need to know how to count."

This is something I often talk about, which baffles me. In America, Republicans often say they like the idea of a businessman as president, even in the absence of any political experience. Before Trump, there was Steve Forbes, Ross Perot, et al.
They don't seem to understand that, even in the absence of political experience, running a private company is nothing like a democracy!

Yes. "Run it like a business" -- well that's Elon Musk randomly sacking everyone he can without knowing what they do or the procedures he has to follow. Or that there's all sorts of dedicated offices already doing what he claims to be doing.

His idiotic cuts mean that Social Security isn't being processed properly, they had to rehire nuclear safety people, we're losing VA nurses, and national parks won't be open full time this summer. And let me tell you, loving the national parks is probably the most bipartisan thing in America along with Dolly Parton. I wonder how many Trump voters will connect the dots. Not enough I fear.

Knit, do you think those voters ever bother to visit National Parks? I think they are sitting in their basements watching Fox News.

Surprisingly yes some of them do. I've met quite a few conservative outdoorsy types. The ones who spend their entire lives glued to Fox News (or worse) are a whole different bunch.

I can't criticise much. Love the scenery, but the outdoors is not my forte.

All you need to know about trump is that he installed a gold toilet in the penthouse whose size and value he grossly overstated.

Yes that is a lower case t. I think it suits him well.

I live here, and I'm not surprised at what he's done. The way he's done it, however, is shocking, though completely aligned with the crassness and vulgarity you would expect.

But I think that is purposeful. He is deliberately showing his contempt for all the norms of political conduct and diplomacy, thus encouraging members of his cult to disregard all forms of human decency. So we get toxic masculinity all over SM, contempt for women and what is seen as feminine values, with self-identified "Christians" spitting on the idea of empathy.

And it is all about power and self aggrandisement. He sees no boundary between his person and the office he holds, has no regard whatsoever for the constitution, and I suspect if enough judges uphold lawsuits against his decrees, his flying monkeys will start beating the drums and baying "treason".

I'm glad I have my Irish passport and that my DCs have theirs.

Midterms are in 2026...

Yes, but the midterms are only for the house of representatives, plus 1/3 of the senators. The Awful Orange Offal will be with us, assuming his dementia doesn't get to him, until 2028.

@user1471492582
Are your neighbours happy with what they see? The Doge firings, the cuts to Medicare, the tariffs, the threats to Canada. I don't honestly expect them to give a hoot about Europe and our relationship.

But it's not that simple is it. We've had a longest period of world peace and that's because of the US' military and financial strength. We , and the US included will probably descend into WW3 because of this frankly idiotic administration. The really terrifying thing is that this time the US will side with Russia. The lifestyle of US citizens will change potentially forever. The US has made a ton of cash out of their role, so it's not all one way traffic.

Also, I really don't think the rest of the West sneer at the Americans or their culture. I'd say we love it and can't get enough of it.

i don’t know because I don’t engage with Trump supporters. My husband has a friendship with one of our neighbors and they have agreed not to talk politics. they have argued about it in the past.I don’t think the neighbor has a problem with what Trump is doing. My brother-in-law told my husband that project 2025 was just propaganda before the election. All the people that my husband works with are Trump supporters.He can’t escape it. They think that he is the stupid one for not liking him. Thank God neither of our parents are Trump supporters. Honestly, most days I could just scream and cry about it. I am so frustrated with these people. I don’t agree with anything that Trump does.

Jkf inaugural address.

It's about US response to the Cold War and international co operation. God, it would be funny if it weren't so bloody awful.

I mean of course, what's happening would be funny if it weren't so awful....not JFK's address...

It's not like household debt. You'll see, they'll be plenty of money for the richest in the US to have lots of tax cuts.

@LuckyPeonies
Where are the Democrats in all this? From where I'm sitting this looks like a coup. Where are the checks and balances that the US is famed for? There are unelected officials causing havoc. Isn't DT making those people born in the US from non US parents apply for citizenship or be repatriated or something. Isn't that against the constitution? Where is the fight back?

i did not expect Trump
yo win. I am disguster but not surprised. I am so ashamed and worried.

37 Trillion and counting!

Two things are happening with checks & balances.
one is that the GOP has unified control of the government and they've also appointed most of the Supreme Court justices at this point.
two is that part of the checks are the courts. Trump has not been doing well there, loaded court aside, but it takes time. He's also ignored a couple of court rulings and we have no mechanism for dealing with that.

what he is doing is issuing executive orders and moving too fast for the system to keep up. He's also using a new and untested theory called the unified executive, which states that the president has full control of the executive branch -- under which all agencies fall. By this argument he can do whatever he wants and fire everyone. So far the courts have been skeptical.

it's a bit like asking why the Tories don't stop Labour benefit cuts.

Right now, a bunch of Trump voters are mad because they didn't believe he'd do what he said he'd do, and did believe him lying when he said he didn't believe in Project 2025. A bunch of them wanted him to cut other people's jobs but not their own. The LeopardsEatingFaces subreddit is hopping.

the Republican strategy is to lie and avoid their constituents. When they did the town halls were extremely angry. So they then claimed they were bussed-in Democratic agitators.

Elon and Doge are decidedly unpopular.

as for the debt? Their plans are $4.5Tin tax cuts and $2.5T in spending cuts so they clearly don't care. Moreover they want to cut the IRS because poor little rich people. It will save less money than it will cost in lost revenue. This has nothing to do with economic sanity.

the GOP has unified control of the government

If that were true, then Trumps one bigly beautiful bill would be law by now.

The real truth is the GOP is totally splintered and you will have little cabals of representatives who will leverage their wafer-thin majority in order to pursue their own grifts. Which may - or may not - alight with Trumps.

The house is in a similar state to the last Tory government. Where there were enough headbangers to threaten the parliamentary majority so Sunak was forced into a permanent compromise.

Which is why Trump wants to make Congress an irrelevance. (And they are doing a good job of helping him).

And WTF is it with politically appointed judges ? Whoever thought that was a good idea ? Clearly fucking idiots, that's who.

Being non American I can take a pop at the founding fathers .... remember their mission was to ensure that landowners kept their land. All else was fine words and parades.

You’re right that they don’t have enough votes to get legislation through, but the question was about the Democrats and why they aren’t stopping things. They don’t have enough votes to do anything except filibuster. So yes Trump is avoiding congress. But the outcome is the same; Congressional Democrats can’t stop what he’s doing right now.