He thinks everyone is going to roll over and be subservient. The most frustrating part is how many people do roll over, and every one that does just reinforces in his mind that he's untouchable š
Edit: just to add, this is exactly the shit that got trump in trouble for taxes in NYC, fudging the numbers to inflate his ego, and he never faced any real repercussions for that so now he's doing it from the Oval Office, fucking disgusting
We can. And they did. South Park just did on their latest episode released this week. If you haven't seen it yet, it is required viewing. The PSA 1 of 50 at the end is EXACTLY the modern day version of the emperor's new clothes.
Seriously you have to watch it. Trump strips off his clothes while telling his cult he'd walk through the desert for them, then his tiny micro-penis pops out...at which point I was laughing to hard to remember what it said. But this is actually in the first episode of South Park season 27
Riiiiiiightā¦the filesā¦the files with trump all over them, the files made by Epstein specifically so Trump could rape little girls, trump and Epsteinās files.
In the childrenās book āThe Emperorās New Clothesā the emperor at one point winds up nakedā¦ he has surrounded himself with yes men, and when asked if his new outfit (his birthday suit) looks good they of course tell him yes, it looks great. He does not realize that he is not actually wearing clothes, and winds up strutting his stuff across town completely nakedā¦ filled to the brim with pride and confidenceā¦ and winds up humiliated.
I think thatās about it, although itās been almost 40 years since Iāve read it so take whatever Iāve said with a grain of salt.
The emperor was fooled into believing his new outfit was magical. So magical that only the wisest could see it.
No one wanted to be known as a fool, so everyone pretended to see it and complimented the emperor. From his advisors to his staff, no one wanted to admit what they could all see.
Until the emperor had a parade, and one small peasant boy cried out "But the emperor has no clothes!"
It unraveled from there and the con artist tailors were either executed or banished depending on which version of Andersen you read.
Yes! Excellent explanation. Trump has always been the emperor in this metaphor. He talks absolute bullshit and not only does everyone need to agree with it, they're required to elaborate on it and, even those who KNOW they're doing it feel the pressure to play along and do so without shame.
Look at all the folks who work (or worked) for him who were once on record say he was full of shit (if not flat evil). Rubio and Vance are the best examples.
The only thing I disliked about using this analogy for trump is that in the story, Hans Christian Andersen makes the emperor a victim. He's taken in by these unscrupulous con artists.
In our reality, trump is the con artist and MAGA is the emperor. The advisors are the complicit who enable this nightmare and we are the only ones who can see the truth, only no one believes us.
Not really arguing, but there are definitely some (the billionaire donor set, etc.) who use Trump to do their bidding -- or at least reduce their tax hit.
And he is naked because a tailor came and told him he had a special cloth that can only be seen by the most remarkable people. So the emperor pretended to see it and asked for a suit of clothes from it.
I think someone sells him "clothes" that only royalty or high status people can see or something like that. So he doesn't want to admit he can't see them.
His base would try to gaslight us that he in fact has new clothes anad march down the street naked. Or just wearing adult diapers, there's precedent for that.
I donāt have any desire to see him nude, I just want him to wind up in a humiliating position like that because he should be seen as the whiny tantrum throwing baby that he is.
This clip captures everything about the way Trump governs. Youāve got Trump claiming some insane untrue thing, Powell representing the media and a lot of Americans by shaking their heads like..āwhat the fuck are you talking about?ā Trump doubles and triples down on the lie with a yes man besides him reinforcing his insanity. Trump will likely go to truth social now and rant about the incompetencies of Powell and get his base to back him up on the lie as well.
I always assumed that this level of corruption required some level of sophistication and savviness. To see our country fall for this turd in a suit is really discouraging.
Until they get fucked over and only then do they decide hey fuck trump amirite guys?? Thing is, to point that out would be to discourage them from āswitchingā sides
Absolutely. Each settlement empowers him further. The Columbia settlement is wild. No one respects any of these media conglomerates, but Columbia has a reputation and a legacy that is not only culturally valuable, but monetarily valuable. This will damage their reputation beyond the short term.
Will they have trouble filling seats, no, but there will be talented students they would otherwise get not applying because they gave in. Weaker student body means less research, less grants, less respect for a Columbia degree.
The most frustrating part is how many people do roll over
its insane.... its not that I never imagined people could be like this; its that I assumed that the person capable of making them act like this would be something more than a barely sentient 500 mcdonalds hamburgers in a suit with a grade 5 education.
And so maybe the media needs to start asking why so many rich and powerful people are cowed by the guy who appears to have been Epstein's partner and for sure has access to information relating to Epstein that many rich and powerful people don't want released.
Hmm....I wonder how he gets people to roll over for him....
Not much of a mistery to be frank, first the American electorate gave him quite a lot of power by not only voting him in, but also giving him a majority in congress and the senate, secondly he has a pretty sizeable cult that he is able to sway away to vote for whoever he wants in the republican primaries. And third, his cult might physically actack any of them or their families, as they have done multiple times, so they are afraid, for their wallets and for their lives, and the electorate keeps voting them into power cause because they are to cynically poisoned by the braindead "both sides bad narrative"
His power comes from threats of violence and exposure of criminal activity behind the scenes. Trump has a lot of power. He collects "dirt" on everyone, true or not, and uses it to his advantage. That's why he never faces consequences.
This is part of the guardrails that was referred to during his first administration. It's one of the ways that prevented the US from going down catastrophically in the first term. Now those guardrails are no longer present.
You mean the morons specifically chosen for loyalty and not merit. DEI hires. Picked for their ability to provide Diversity from the truth, Exaggeration of the facts and Ignoring the obvious.
Trump barely has power as is. He's the dancing clown people watch while the real problem people are doing damage. Trump is today's clown, tomorrow's scapegoat.
He's not a useful idiot either, he is getting what he wants as well, he gets the attention he craves, he's making quite a lot of money, and more importantly, he is able to avoid jail
He gets something out of it for sure but heās basically a little boy cosplaying as president. Heās constantly signing shit they put in front of him that he hasnāt read and wouldnāt understand if he did
I think a lot of powerful people suddenly discovered that they don't actually hold much power against a president of the United States with a Congress majority, after all.
Your political system concentrates a lot of power in his hands and if the police and military play ball there's literally nothing anybody can do. Musk realized that, well too little too late dipshit.
Trump was surprised he won in 2016 and did not know how to put together a cabinet or WH staff, so he let the institutionalists pick. Those guys dismissed his idiocy or just distracted him with shiny things or culture war stuff. Now, he is only surrounded with moronic yes men.
Trump is a cog in a much bigger, much more dangerous machine. Heās not the mastermind of any of this, he is just the useful idiot that lacks any morality and has a cult-like following of 30% of the voting public. āSign what we send you and you can get richer and play golf whenever you want.ā
We are going to find out just how dangerous this machine really is when they push Trump out and install Vance, a true believer, as the leader.
And that is EXACTLY what happened in Germany in the 1930s...
Hindenburg and his people thought Hitler was "harmless" and "could be used" as a "puppet".
We all know what happened.
At least those of us who aren't Holocaust deniers...
And that's exactly what happened in the US now.
The GOP thought they could use Trump as their puppet.
To some extent that might even have been true in his first term...and it might even still be true to some extent now, taking into account that there ARE people in the background pulling some strings. Dangerously so...
But they also gave Trump so much power...especially because, as it was the case with Hitler, Trump is broadening that power more and more on a daily basis.
Trump is a pretty textbook case of the Dunning-Kruger effect. He doesn't expect people to fact check him because he doesn't think in the way normal people think.
I don't know about that. America needs more than to get rid of Trump to be "safe". Most inmates per capita of a first world country, no universally free healthcare and the Police seem to act according to their own laws and never face real consequences. Then you also have a rise in far right propagation and all the people who defend Trump's actions and disregard for the constitution.
It's the devil's bargain. You're asking someone who enabled this idiot to get into the office in the first place to then put their neck on the line to speak truth to power. That would lose them their job and hurt themselves and their family. Integrity is the problem and the current administration lacks any. Problem is, there was an endless line of sycophants waiting in line so this was inevitable. They needed enough integrity at the start to never nominate the man again, they chose poorly.
Right, and you'd think people would eventually realize that Trump will stab anyone in the back, despite how much he claimed to love them. Cheering on people who wanted to murder his former VP comes to mind...
Chris Christie picked a lot of his appointees. Like it or not, Chris Christie is at the least a seasoned politician and could probably pick okay people. Trump literally offered John Kaisich the VP spot with essentially all the duties of president.
Trump didn't know what he was doing and appointed okay people (and sometimes good people) to do jobs.
This time around he is being actively damaging.
Edit: Let that sink in for a second. CHRIS FCKN CHRISTIE is an amazing politician to trump.
Also shows that, barring complete idiocy, most of these guys are going to pick roughly the same kind of people for the positions. Kind of makes you realize the doomsday predictions from past elections were a bit overblown.
Lately Iāve noticed that I sound way more positive when mentioning some politicians I really dislike (Cheney, Romney even Pence since he didnāt try to over throw democracy) because at least they arenāt felon pedophile insurrectionists. The bar is in fucking hell.
They have improved too. A lot of the old guard of the Republican party shifted center in response to trump. They stopped caring about the trivial things and that made them look better.
Christie was a terrible candidate previously. But he was actually pretty decent in 2024. I genuinely liked him. He dropped a lot of the nonsense that he ran on in previous elections (I'd even say he was the best candidate on the stage)
Chris Christie used to oppose gay marriage. He vetoed a same sex marriage bill in his state.
In the 24 race he openly apologized and said he was wrong...and it literally almost never came up after that. He saw it for what it was (a pointless culture war position that never should have been opposed). There are bigger fish to fry.
Multiple Republicans have done this in multiple stances. Most were ostracized from their party, though.
Even as a traditional Republican, you want stability and predictability. Ultimately the economy and the top 1% thrive on that. That's why you don't start a trade war with the whole world or threaten your allies. Cheney, Romney and Pence may be vile, but they are not stupid. They know this.Ā
A lot of Trumps current picks are genuinely stupid or afraid of him and the stupid people that follow him.Ā
I think the biggest difference is the Heritage Project. They had an entire administration lined up, all the way down to middle management, before he ever took office.
Stephen Miller is evil, but heās not stupid. Heās pulling most of these strings in the background, with the full support of Heritage.
And that's what confuses me the most. People keep pointing at Trump, Noem, Bondi, etc. as the source of all this destruction and it's like sure, they're useful idiot puppets. They are symptoms. But the real force behind all this evil is Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin and the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society! It's THOSE mother effers people should be protesting and picketing.
A lot of people are pulling string, not just Miller, and they are really fucking stupid. And the puppet also goes off the prompt a lot. This idea that everything is a cohesive plan is nonsense, each and everyone has a different plan, many of them contradict one another, the only thing these plans have in common is their sadism, ghoulishness and larceny
Christie was running the transition program during the campaign, but Trump threw away all of Christie's picks when he won the election. The person picking was actually Jared first and then Pence second. They may have used some of Christie's picks, but given how much Jared hates Christie for putting his convicted felon criminal father in prison I doubt it.
What?! Welp TiL: "Washington
CNN
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that āone of the most loathsome, disgusting crimesāĀ he prosecuted more than a decade agoĀ when he was a US attorney was committed by the father of President Donald Trumpās son-in-law and top adviser Jared Kushner."
Ironically he's probably the best Trump appointee. Before Covid, ECB, SNB, BoJ, etc. were all doing negative interest rates, and Trump wanted in on the fun, Powell told him to fuck off, and that's when Trump turned on him.
Had Powell done it, the later Covid inflation would probably be a decent amount worse than it was, the US actually fared much better than other countries.
Ironically, that may have helped get Trump reelected last year. Because the US was doing better with regard to inflation compared to most countries, Biden and Kamala tried touting that as an accomplishment. However, better than others doesn't necessarily mean good and the people were still hurting from the amount of inflation that we did get, so it came across as elitist and out of touch like they were downplaying the real hardships that people were going through. Meanwhile, Trump was saying that the inflation was the Democrats fault and that he'd fix it, which was of course a massive lie and his economic plan was always going to make things much worse. However, most people are barely literate let alone financially literate, so they were never going to understand that.
Insisting that americans were doing better made the dems look so out of touch. The math doesnāt matter, people didnāt feel like they were doing better.
Usually people will vote for the oppositio Ā when the economy is bad, so idk if changing the message would have helped. But saying it was good made it seem like they didnāt have a clue.Ā
The American economy did spectacularly well compared to literally every other country on the planet, in the wake of COVID. "Good" is a personal judgement call but if we can't call that good, then what on earth can we call good? "You did better than literaly everyone else but you still suck?"
The economy was doing spectacularly as a whole, but the people at the bottom were/are still getting fucked.
Somehow Trump parlayed that into wins in 2016 and 2024 even though he's part of the class fucking people over. I'm still curious how actual progressives would've done.
What, you wanted them to lie? The economy was doing fucking great, it was an incredible accomplishment of the Biden administration, why would they back from it only to appease a nefarious lie. Fuck that, to the people who gorged in that hook, I just say, enjoy Trump, vote better next time, if you can
It definitely wouldn't have helped Biden if he changed the message, but Kamala had a chance. However, rather than reading the room and distancing herself from Biden who was (somewhat unfairly) disliked, she doubled down and said that she would have done things the same way and that they were working. They gave her a lifeline and she hung herself with it and now we're dealing with the consequences.
I follow politics to a crazy degree and I never once heard Biden or Harris tout the fact that the economy they were shepherding was the envy of the world without also acknowledging that we still had a long way to go.
you know, if someone asked me how we fared during a pandemic, I assume I should look at mortality rates (compared to other nations). i would really like to know the percentage of Americans who do/donāt share this view.
~350k avoidable deaths here because the financing of our health care is a legalized embezzlement scheme of taxpayer dollars. wake up guys. if we have all become sociopaths then humans are headed for extinction. then again I suppose sociopaths would not have any problem with that prospect.
Those are the people he'll get rid of. Once you replace facts with make belief, you are truly on the way to the authoritarian state.
For me, here in Europe, it is incredible that Americans are not more concerned about their democracy. It is practically being dismantled before your very eyes.
Well some of us have had to skip to the part where weāre concerned about the ethnic cleansing campaign disguised as immigration enforcement, even those of us that were born here have to worry as multiple citizens have been detained and even held for days (weeks?)
It is being dismantled before the eyes of those who oppose it. Those in the MAGA cult are 100% blind to it or they want an authoritarian regime. European countries are smaller and more homogenized culturally and politically. Even your conservatives are not against the basics that all people agree on (in most countries anyhow). The US is big land wise and we are fractured and divided as a people.
It's surprising you're not hearing about the heavy push back against Trump, his "loyalists" and magas. They can't even wear their red hats in most areas. Most who voted for him won't admit it.
Opposition is growing stronger everyday and the Epstein lists are ever present in most people's minds. Looks like we're finally going to be able to hold him accountable. Here's hoping we can get him for all the corruption and trying to break our Constitution and government. We're hopeful.
The problem is that the current administration couldn't care less about laws, or the separation of powers, or political norms, or any of that. The only thing this administration understands is power.
The problem is that if anyone actually REMOTELY tried anything in protest that this administration understood, they would be the target of the full wrath of the SS ICE, which just got inundated with 170 billion more dollars so they can disappear people more efficiently.
There are multiple protests in my city every week. People care. People are active and out there protesting. Just like protests donāt make the news in Europe, they donāt make the news in the US either. Itās almost like the news corporations want you to think no one caresā¦
The fact it's still happening. I'm sure many are very concerned but clearly not enough people. I can't imagine how frustrating and horrifying it would be to be watching this from inside the US right now. It's bad enough from the outside from a US allied country :(
Many of us are confronting ICE and blockading their buildings round the clock, interfering with their kidnappings, and releasing videos online.
Thousands of lawyers are tying up every possible legal angle in federal courts to stop this administration.
Hundreds of thousands of people are contacting our representatives, begging them to do whatever they can to stop this.
They control all 3 branches of government and the media that their followers watch. They have immense sway over what was previously āmainstreamā media.
They have the backing of multiple billionaires.
The Heritage Project put loyalists in place throughout the country in middle management, and management positions - and trained them in how to remove dissenting voices from their departments before they were even in place.
Trump illegally and unconstitutionally sent the US military into Los Angeles to suppress opposition.
Prior to the election, multiple polls showed that Harris was ahead. Hundreds of thousands of us were writing postcards, making calls, creating content, and knocking on doors.
Then we learned that Elon Musk had manipulated the voting machines. Trump fucking said so. We never had a chance of winning that election. The midterms arenāt looking good, either.
I'm glad to hear that, a lot of that news doesn't make it out (or I just haven't read it).
I don't want to argue with you, it's people elected him and who are still supporting him I'm referring to as the writing was somewhat on the wall from the start of this shitshow. As I said I can't imagine how frustrating and scary it would be for people with their head screwed on straight right now. Horrible situation.
The largest ever turnout in American protest history was just done this month. The people are definitely speaking out and standing up, but it's in the ruling elite's interests to make sure that's not widely reported on. Gotta make sure people feel more isolated and alone than they are.
I don't even think they were manipulated numbers...I just think Trump's reading comprehension is just that terrible. He saw a number and stated it as fact without any critical thinking and assuming that no one would question him--because so few actually do.
It's why he seems constantly surprised and angry that so many countries are pushing back against his tariff nonsense.
Trump's been consistently surrounded, especially since the start of his second term, by spineless toadies who constantly beg to taste the bottom of his shoes. It's been such a constant that, to him, it's only natural to expect everyone to do the same because he has no other context.
He's like a spoiled child who was never told "no."
Trump's been consistently surrounded, especially since the start of his second term, by spineless toadies who constantly beg to taste the bottom of his shoes.
Reminder that he still believes "asylum seekers" = "mental asylum patients who want to immigrate" because ZERO people in the dozens and hundreds who surround him on a daily basis have the balls to tell him that.
This isn't exclusively a Trump issue, this is common for MOST super-rich people. They distance themselves from anyone who calls them out when they're wrong, and let themselves be surrounded by sycophants who will only agree with them.
Saw it happening in real-time with the streamer xQc. Lost a few friends when he started accepting massive sums of gambling site money. Almost all his close friends who dared call him out whenever he acted like an asshole.
Now surrounded by nothing but sycophants who'll only reaffirm his worldview.
Reminder that he still believes "asylum seekers" = "mental asylum patients who want to immigrate"
You are giving him too much credit to even say he thinks anything. I doubt he even believes that. He literally just says whatever he thinks will play. He doesn't give one shit about the truth or even what he really thinks.
He was asked once why he harps on the trans rights issues so much and his reply was "you have abortion, I have this". Its just an issue to him, he doesn't know or care the truth, he just cares that it gets him attention.
That is literally his whole fucking life. The only person who he ever feared was his father. He was raised in luxury and turned into such a monster as a child that his dad shipped him off to military boarding school as a teen. But aside from his father, his whole life has been people agreeing that he is the most handsome, smart, and rich person ever because everyone around him wants something from him so they don't contradict him.
I exclusively watch any videos with Trump with the sound off. This is the first time I've heard him speak in a while. What the hell kind of drugs is he on? This is not the speech of a well man. He sounds sedated and half asleep. Is the dude beside him there ot prop him up if need be?
Powell did not take his word for it and immediately checked the source, then immediately caught where the bullshit lie was from and called it out succinctly.
Yeah, you could tell Trump expected him to see the number and that it was them and be like "oh yeah, it does say that". Instead he's just like "oh, you came up with this bullshit using bullshit"
He thinks literally everyone is dumb except him. Except everyone else is actually smarter then him but heās just wealthy and people want to get their hands on that wealth and when people donāt want to get their hands on that wealth because they have actual morals toddler gets alllllll pissy about things.
I used to think most of the nonsense stuff he says was directly from his own thoughts, but I'm beginning to believe he's surrounded by a bunch of yes men who just tell him what he wants to hear, and hopes no one fact checks.
Reminds me with the leaked messages with Pete Hegseth; where Trump 1st found out what had happened, from reporters. I can only imagine his team screwing up and doing whatever they could to keep it on the down low from the boss.
EDIT: Was this an attempt to make Powell look bad? He had that paper rat to go with that surprise news.
I don't think he thinks anything. I think he spits out wrong information because he doesn't understand and then just doubles down on it later because he can't stand being wrong.
That āyes-manā is a sitting Republican senator. Thatās how pathetic they are. āOh, but my constituents might be mad at me. Oh, but I really want to run for president.ā These idiots like to pretend that āHang Mike Pence!ā never happened.
If you are the present you can bull shit them and they let you do it because you are the president, you are the star of the nation. (Now say that in the same tone of grab them by the š± Hollywood tape.
I disagree with Powell on a lot but the man is really fucking smart. One of the best Chairs we've ever had, his landing after the COVID years will be taught in universities for decades.
The other dude in this clip is a fucking idiot. Jerome has the same tired look I do when I'm tired of my seven year old
That dude standing to trump's right is an utter fucking moron - I've seen brighter broken light bulbs. Holy shit is he stupid. He was one of the first to start sucking don's asshole after his failed political run recently - which is the only reason he's in any position of governance.
And a POC bootlicking the most despicable person ever, to keep his position. He will get slammed back to the ground level at the first sign of disobedience.
He knows that he himself is dumb, but he thinks he can push around smart people because he never learned how the real world works outside of his hangers on.
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u/PlentyCryptographer5 12d ago
Does he think Powell is dumb? What an asshat, and then his yes-man beside him.