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.

I think that the US is now an oligarchy. I live in the UK and the won't be visiting anytime soon.

The problem is that democracy is not designed to cope with an egotistical maniac who ignores all rules.
Nothing short of violence is going to stop trump.
I agree with the pp about only giving him a small t. In fact I think I shall refer to him as fart from now on.

The problem is that democracy is not designed to cope with an egotistical maniac who ignores all rules.

No safety system is proof against deliberate malice. This is why the wiser of the rebels reminded us that "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance". The problem being that vigilance - like safety equipment, guardrails, inspections and standards - costs money.

American Conservative here. Long post. Probably not worth reading. You have been warned.

Here is my take on all that has gone and all that is happening. I do not pretend to have any special insight, but I come from a large purple western state that went for Trump, and I like to ask people questions. Please do NOT infer that I voted for Trump... or that I even voted at all.

Here is my objective view.

First, though: This notion that the only people who voted for Trump are either uneducated white hillbillies or "fascists" is ridiculous. It was exactly that sort of scoldy name calling that played a role, I think, in Harris losing the election. I believe that the political middle simply got sick and tired of hearing that. "If you don't agree with all we say, you're either an idiot or a fascist or a racist or...". I know many well educated, well grounded, down to earth people who voted Trump. They are neither stupid nor "fascists". To reduce Trump's win in November to being the result of stupidity or right wing fascism is simply following the same tired old trope that, as I said, in part, cost Harris a victory. I would drop that line of thinking. It's a lazy oversimplification. Trump made significant inroads into the BIPOC electorate and that would be hard to do for someone perceived as either an "ist" or "phobe" of one kind or the other. I know gay people who voted for Trump. I know at least two trans people who voted for Trump. I know a guy who came to the US illegally in the '90s and he's the biggest Trumper I know. It's just not that idiotically simple to pin down what a Trump voter is.

Second: Felony convictions. No one I know, right or left, believes in those. Everyone I know, right or left, sees those as nothing more than unprecedented Banana Republic style lawfare by a weak, feeble and failing President Biden attempting to use the courts to take out a political opponent. That's all anyone sees that as. Every time Trump got indicted, his poll numbers went up. It was a horrible strategy by the Biden administration and backfired badly.

The Biden administration seems to widely be held as a complete failure. I can go into details if anyone is interested. Harris inherited that mantle. She ran a horrible campaign. I can go into details about that as well.

Whatever the hell Trump campaigned on, he will move heaven and earth to deliver. I believe that. I think it's just part of his psychological makeup. He HAS to be a winner. And being a winner means making it all come true. Then he can say, "See? Told you I could do it. I'm the only one who could do it. I'm the best!" One of the things Trump ran on was ending the war in Ukraine. So, in Trump's view, he will by-God end it. Doesn't matter what apalling Oval Office spectacle it takes. Doesn't matter if it means having to stroke Putin's dick. Trump said it and therefore it MUST happen. That is how I see Trumps mentality.

I believe Trump sees the rest of the West as basically using the US as a money tree. Hence the reciprocal tariffs. The US, as I understand it, has about a $50 billion trade imbalance with Canada due to Canada charging US companies tariffs while, in return, getting a free ride from the US. By all means, fact check that. I could certainly be wrong. Trump will in no way, shape or form tolerate the perception (or misperception) US being economically taken advantage of. It's not in his make-up. It would be intollerable.

NATO, the EU and the UK: In 2017 Trump was within an inch of leaving NATO. People had to be sent to Europe (where he was at the time) to talk him off that ledge. Trump sees NATO partners as parasites who have steadfastly refused to meet defense obligations while relying on the US taxpayer to foot the bill. Given Vance's speech in Munich, I also think he sees the EU as abandoning foundational liberal democratic principles. If he thinks those two things are the case, I can see him questioning the value in having an alliance with Western Europe. I can, however, see him abandoning Western Europe to its fate. Or, hell, it is Trump afterall, manipulating Western Europe into towing the line.

I don't know many Americans who have any clue that there was a "special relationship" between the US and the UK. I don't know many Americans who have ever given a single thought, in their entire lives, to the UK at all. I work with all sorts of Americans: White, black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian... you get the picture. Most just swim through their small lives like all of us do. They worry about their kids' educations, whether or not they can afford a ski boat, should they go to Mexico to see family in April or wait til June? Stuff like that. Ukraine, NATO, Israel, Putin the Canada tariffs or the insecurity of the UK... all white noise to them. Irrelevant.

Finally near the end: The US Federal government does not work like many on this forum seem to think. Trump does not get every little thing his own way just because the Republicans have both Houses and the Supreme Court. The Dems can absolutely filibuster in the Senate and block any and all legislation (lucky for them they didn't kill the filibuster like they talked about doing). The Justices are rabidly independent and many's the time MAGA has gone nuts because Gorsuch or Barrett or one of the other Conservatives have gone against the MAGA narrative and sided with the Liberals. I read a lot of case law, and I'm often astonished at the 9th Circuit (a notoriously Liberal Federal Appeals Court) when it has rendered a "right wing" decision. (Sidebar: I read a post on this forum decrying "politically appointed judges". That, for me, was rich. Coming from someone who lives in a country where ALL judges are appointed (think there's no politics in that?) All of my State judges are elected. All of them.)

Where Trump has power is over all of the Federal Agencies. They fall within the Executive Branch of the government and he is the Caeser of that branch. He also controls the State Department. That means, short of declaring war (takes an act of congress) he sets the tone and says what's what when it comes to international relations... more or less, congress and the courts have some say in some of it.

Well, if you made it this far, congrats! I doubt I would have. Remember, this is just one American's opinion. America is huge and the diversity of opinions on all of this reflects that size. I am one person, as I said, in a large purple state who likes to know what his fellow citizens are thinking. I don't really have a "bubble" of like-minded folks I only speak with. I like to get all sides. However, talk to an American from, say, Manhattan and you could get a completely different and equally valid take.

Of course the US has given but it has also made money. The War Debt has been paid over many years and the last payment was only made in recent years. Yes America has supported other countries but usually where some source of self interest was apparent - usually oil or minerals. Of course we have been grateful but we have also supported them in such endeavours as the Iraq War. We have also been important to them as a convenient place for the establishment of military bases within Europe despite our being put in the firing line. There has always been a Ying and Yang in our association with the US but this looks to be shattered at.least for the foreseeable future. As for poor Canada, well when you are neighbours with a dog who sees you possess some juicy bones then watch out if he is orange and deranged.

At the risk of coming across as a Trump apologist; Trump does not want Canada. No one in the US "wants" Canada. The US has a hell of a lot of minerals, oil, etc. all by itself. Trump is, I think, trolling Canada. Bullying Canada, if you will. Hell, I could be wrong. Maybe he wants it. I just can't see why a Republican (self identified, anyway) would want to add another state the size of California, and far more Left, to the US.

I realize the UK paid its war debt. I do wonder, though, if inflation is factored into that deal. I borrow $5 from you in 1935 and repay $5 in 2000, it's not exactly the same $5. And I mean that, I wonder. Maybe the UK paid interest that adds up to the modern monetary equivalent. I just don't know.

The UK and Western Europe was always in the firing line of the USSR. That's why NATO originated. Not for nothing did the UK join NATO. If the UK was concerned about being in the firing line, the UK should have sat it all out. Like Sweden. But I doubt the UK had that option. I think the USSR probably saw the UK as an enemy. I would have if I were Khruschev. It was us against them in those days. All of us. With or without a US presence, I doubt London would have been any safer from nukes than Washington.

If you look it up, I think you will find that the US has been, by far, the most generous nation on earth to all of the earth. I'm guessing that a lot of that has to do with projecting soft power rather than anything altruistic. Still works, though. People still get fed. People still get clean water. People still get medicine. It is not all just minerals and deals and greed. I think you will also find that US citizens, independent of the government, actually are, by world standards, extremely altruistic on a personal, albeit distant, level. By that I mean American individuals donate a hell of a lot of money to overseas causes but are less forgiving when it comes to, for example, American drug addicts. That's my take, anyway.

Try living north of the border with the idiot Trump constantly threatening your country. He has zero understanding of how tariffs and trade works - his technique is to bully others into submission. He isn’t going to get Canada, Greenland or Panama - they aren’t his to have and why on earth we would want to be the 51st state amazes me - we’d be trading down to a lesser quality of life with totally different cultures, value , language and lifestyle.

He has caused deaths in Ukraine by withdrawing intelligence sharing but now wants everyone to worship him for creating world peace! He’s alienating America so that’s only allies are Russia and Israel.

America is likely to be in a recession shortly having crashed the stock markets. Hopefully Trump voters will soon wake up and see what they have got themselves into. As for his comments on the Gaza and converting into the Riviera are disgusting and he will be remembered for supporting ethnic cleaning.

I won't say that everyone who voted for Trump was a fascist. But a lot of them believed lies about inflation. Biden's administration isn't "widely considered a failure" at all. It's considered a failure by conservatives. Your opinion reflects the narrowness of your sources. They emphasize the immigration crisis and ignore the fact that post Covid inflation was significant everywhere. US inflation was lower than Europe's. Our housing crisis is largely caused by local government policies that prevent building housing where people need it.

plenty of his voters are now saying "I didn't vote for this". He told them he wouldn't implement project 2025 and he went and did it. He said that because he knew Project 2025 polled poorly.

Trolling Canada is unjustifiably stupid, and Canadians really do believe he wants to take over. It's destroying our reputation with our closest neighbour, and needlessly so.

he does not have sole power over all agencies. The courts have ruled against that in the past. He wants to implement unitary executive theory and politicise the civil service. We have a trade imbalance with Canada because we have 330M people and they have 41M. Of course we import more. Per capita, they do.

And let's not forget there was a border bill on offer. It got torpedoed because Trump didn't want it to happen under Biden's watch.

The book burning has begun in earnest.

Biden's approval rating was lower than whale shit and the Dems got pasted in the election. Hardly what I'd call a successful presidency. Ironically the only president since WWII who polled lower than Biden was Trump, yet somehow Trump handily beat Biden's surrogate. Which is weird. The Dems lost the political middle in the last go 'round. Successful Presidents don't do that. Midterms should be interesting.

Serious question: Was or is there a tariff imbalance between the US and Canada? You explained the trade deficit and that makes sense. Thanks for that.

Regarding Federal Agencies: I was generalizing. Of course, the courts will always have their say (and the occasional Trump Administration loss gives the lie to the idea that the courts are all in Trump's pocket). However, the Agencies, which have immense power over the day to day lives of Americans, do fall within the Executive Branch and are subject to Executive Orders by the President. He's the boss and he has a lot of fiat power.

Comparing Trump and Biden ratings at their first 50 days,

Trump's approval and disapproval ratings both currently stand at 48 percent.

This is lower than Biden's popularity at the same point in his presidency on March 11, 2021, when he had an approval rating of 53 percent and a disapproval rating of 40 percent

Ok. The question was about whether or not Biden's Presidency was widely perceived as a failure. I think that can be summed up by his polling at the end of his presidency, the pounding the Dems took in the election, and the shell shocked and ruderless state of the party today.

It was close in 2024 - Trump 49.8% v Harris 48.3% where Biden won easily in 2020 Biden 51.3% v Trump 46.8%.

I’ve seen this narrative a lot, that the US is paying millions for defence so the UK and EU doesn’t have to. Same with healthcare, apparently they pay for drugs etc which is why we get them cheap.

how much is true? Who are the US defending us against? We have are own military, and the NATO agreements etc so why is the US investing so much into defence on our behalf?

if they are spending money to defend others, why are they doing so? Is there an agreement somewhere?

if we are benefitting, how would it work if US and Russia sided against everyone else, surely they aren’t going war and give us the benefit of their defence?

or is it American posturing- we choose to spend billions on defence which you would benefit from in a war so be grateful?

it’s never occurred to me that the US is somehow responsible for defending us militarily, how does that work?

Here in Canada the only country we need protecting from are the Americans!

Mainly via NATO, of which the US is a member, paying 15% of its costs (down from 22% previously). Apart from NATO, the US stations armed forces in certain countries around the world. The US Navy also has a global presence.

But the narrative of ungrateful Europeans who are happy to accept 'protection' while refusing to allow their economies to be destroyed by importing of American foods, industrial products, Monsanto products, etc is one that has gripped the Maga imagination.

The agencies have "immense power over the day to day lives of Americans"?

Explain, please.

By defining practically everything in the US in a regulatory context.

Some examples: The Feds (that's a handy moniker) say what constitutes raisin bread to what safety features cars must have. Grazing is controlled on public land by the Bureau of Land Management. The US Forest Service has a slew of regulations governing how I can and cannot work my little 18 acre mining claim (not to mention how many nights a year I can camp on it). How airlines are run. What level of fire retardancy kids pajamas must have. Every single thing about highway construction. If I decided to start a tire making company, I would have to comply with all sorts of Federal Regulations from OSHA to the DOT to the EPA and probably lots of other agencies would want to have their say as well.

There are almost 100,000 pages in the Federal Register. Not all of those are regulations but, according to LegalKnowledgeBase.com there are over 88,000 Federal rules and regulations since 1995. There are 19 Federal Agencies. They are busy beavers.

Federal Regs touch every aspect of our lives whether we know it or not.

I'm certainly not saying the BLM shouldn't control grazing on public land or that highways should not be built to certain standards. I'm not complaining that there are Federal Agencies, I'm simply saying that they are woven into the very fabric of our existence and he who controls the Federal Agencies has got a hell of a lot of power.

Do you own the land you are mining and camping on?

😂😂😂

What a ridiculous, almost factless screed that was.

OP, this person is pretending to speak from some position of the American Everyman — don’t fall for it.

Nope. It's public land. I have got a gold mining claim, which means I own the gold on the land.

As I stated in my last line, talk to someone from another part of the country, get a totally different read. Did you miss all that where I stated it was my take and my opinion?

I tried to make it clear that I'm one person in one part of a big, diverse country and this is what I'm seeing and hearing. I don't think there is any such thing as an American Everyman.

Nonsense. You wrote some sweeping generalisations in your post that are easily countered under the guise of providing your “aw shucks!” American small-c conservative opinion. Honestly, your whole post looks very much like it was written for you. 🙄

I was speaking in sweeping generalizations of generally broad topics. That was my intent.

I don't understand "easily countered under the guise, etc."

You don't know me. How in the hell could you possibly be in a position to judge if I wrote that "screed" or if someone else did? For the record: I wrote that screed. The entire screed is all my screed. No one else writes my screeds. I write no one else's screeds. If I ever write another screed, it will also be thunk up by me. Shucks.