The Trump Presidency 2.0

[flere-imsaho]

The eventual (and inevitable?) Trump-Musk breakup is going to be spectacular, right?

[PilotMan]

Musk is just the vessel that will allow maga to flourish long after trump is dead. With his money, he will play literal kingmaker and ensure that the old south (africa) rises again.

[Flasch186]

HS they just bribed “any prosecutor” that’ll sign off on dismissing the case against Eric Adams with promotions.

They’re doing it in plain sight lol


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[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Edward64

...we are unnecessarily pissing off other close allies like Canada and UK.

And every other ally the USA hopefully still has. His vice-president is on the road stirring a fight with about 50 allies in one swift swing by calling their political systems broken by projecting the current state of the USA onto all those countries. What a bunch of lunatics has Trump surrounded himself with. Those sidekicks almost make the incompetent right wing ministers in my homeland look like they do know what they're doing.

[Ksyrup]

Projection is the hallmark of the GOP. Everything they accuse of others, they are already guilty of.

[RainMaker]

I would rather go to prison than debase myself like Adams did this morning. Dude didn't even get a pardon either.

[GrantDawg]

Seen on Bluesky:
"Mama always said Kristi Noem is like a box of chocolates; they'll both kill your dog."

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[Atocep]

Just like Musk did with Twitter, some of the people that opted into the deferred resignation program have received notice of termination.

[Ksyrup]

People have basically been induced into self-identifying as easy termination targets? All of a sudden those were jobs that needed to be immediately terminated for "efficiency" reasons. Is that what's going on?

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

People have basically been induced into self-identifying as easy termination targets? All of a sudden those were jobs that needed to be immediately terminated for "efficiency" reasons. Is that what's going on?

What I'm guessing is going on is that since there was zero communication and coordination with agencies on this, some of these positions are critical needs that must be filled. Someone opts into the deferred resignation program because they were going to retire later this year, were within their probationary period and didn't feel safe, whatever. The agency would now be on the hook for paying someone to sit at home and paying to recruit and hire someone to refill that position.

Our hospital would be in the same position on hires. Due to the impact of being under a continuing resolution for so long the budget isn't there for a lot of our hospital departments to hire anyone, let along pay someone to sit at home and pay to hire someone.

DOGE, in the name of efficiency, is asking agencies to pay 2 people to do the work of 1 person (along with the recruitment cost, etc) while these agencies are under a budget crunch and are being threatened with further cuts.

Some of these are likely also cuts from DOGE, who decided to just eliminate positions and don't care if the person in that position had opted into their offer.

[JPhillips]

Trump wants to be Napolean but he can't even make sure people an buy eggs.

[Edward64]

I'm okay with below for law abiding citizens, there are applications for hunting and hearing. But we know it'll be used by bad guys and that'll be a problem for LEOs, so would prefer if it didn't pass. But it probably will.

If it does pass and it gets easier to own, I would buy one to try out.

NRA Hunters' Leadership Forum | In Support of Suppressors: U.S. House and Senate Introduce NRA-Backed Hearing Protection Legislation

In what stands to be a huge win for hunters, two pieces of NRA-backed federal legislation have been introduced that will remove the $200 tax currently required before someone can purchase a suppressor and will simplify the overall process to qualify for a suppressor.

I guess they have to call it something ...

As shared by the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA), the Hearing Protection Act (H.R. 404/S. 364) was recently reintroduced in the 119thCongress by U.S. Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA-06) in the House and U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) in the Senate to make it much easier for hunters and all gun owners to protect their hearing when exercising their Second Amendment rights.

[BYU 14]

"Hearing protection act," what a crock of shit. Just a way to arm their militia's more effectively. Crazy how my hearing has never been damaged firing thousand's of rounds over the years, ya know, cause I wear ear protection.

[JPhillips]

I think the shit is going to hit the fan over the next two weeks. This letter from Trump to colleges saying everything from targeted scholarships to affinity clubs to classes is discriminatory and will result in the termination of federal funds is going to cause a lot of outrage on campuses all around the country.

[Flasch186]

They want to replace the college system with indoctrination schools because they think that they currently are that.


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[JPhillips]

We're all fucked.

Trump admin is starting to say we need to stop killing chickens when bird flu is discovered. Very similar to the Covid response of just not wanting to see the numbers go up.

[PilotMan]

No knowledge, no critical thinking, just pure allegiance and servitude the Randian pleasure of work for the well being of the individual in the service of the country.

[Mota]

Some people on X were whining that Canadians booed the US national anthem before the USA/Canada hockey game last night. What did they think would happen, when you threaten a nation's sovereignty? Somehow they must imagine that all around the world, people are jumping at the chance to be taken over by the USA. And as one of the republican senators said on an interview, they wouldn't take any risk with giving those 40 million people a vote, they would be a territory.

[Edward64]

Alright, Boyz. Let the SCOTUS show(s) begin.

Anyone know how impromptu cases work? I'd guess that SCOTUS has a full 2025 docket already so are they able to insert this (and others) into their schedule? Or are new ones taken but in later +1 or +2 years?

Just a moment...

President Donald Trump’s bid to expand his power to fire executive branch officials reached the Supreme Court on Sunday — the first of many fast-moving legal challenges during the early weeks of Trump’s second term to land at the high court.

Trump fired Dellinger, an appointee of Joe Biden, on Feb. 7. Dellinger sued to get his job back, citing a federal statute that limits the ability of the president to remove the special counsel.
:
Late Saturday, a divided appeals court panel declined to disturb the district judge’s order, prompting the Trump administration to go to the Supreme Court.

A nearly century-old Supreme Court precedent upheld federal laws that restrict the president’s ability to fire officials who run independent federal agencies. But the high court has narrowed that precedent in recent years

[Edward64]

Interesting move (trolling?) but yet another inch forward in escalation with China.

I sure hope it stays economic, technological, geopolitical and not a shooting war, but I can easily see Xi realizing he's getting old (71) and running short of time for a really big legacy.

The US State Department has dropped a statement from its website which stated that Washington does not support Taiwan's independence - a move which has sparked anger in China.

China said the revision "sends a wrong... signal to separatist forces advocating for Taiwan independence", and asked the US to "correct its mistakes".

The department's fact sheet on Taiwan-US relations earlier included the phrase "we do not support Taiwan independence" - this was removed last week as part of what it said was a "routine" update.

A US spokesperson was quoted as saying that it remains committed to the "One China" policy, it said, where US recognises and has formal ties with China rather than Taiwan.

[Atocep]

Imagine the outcry from the GOP if Biden had gone to a sporting event during a natural disaster that people are dying from, caused the start of the event to be delayed due to his ego, tried to make it all about himself, and then made cuts to FEMA staff when he got back.

[Atocep]

The right is losing their minds because DOGE ran with some numbers showing something like 80% of social security claims are fraudulent. Elon said it's the biggest fraud in US history.

Common sense would say that when your data comes back with a result that far off whar would be expected that you should double, triple, and quadruple check your data sets and work. Maybe have someone else go over it and check for errors as well. Not DOGE. It took people knowledgeable of social security and databases a few minutes to spot the errors. First, our social security uses COBOL, which was released around 1960. DOGE took COBOL data and imported it into SQL. Thats going to cause data issues. COBOL doesn't allow an unknown or nul number to be inputed for birth date. Instead it defaults to 1875. It's a limitation of a system that's 60+ years old. Additionally, Elon and his team don't understand how social security works. It's not uncommon for a social security number over 100 years old to be pulling social security. Surviving spouses and, in some instances, children can pull social security from a dead spouse/parent. The last surviving Civil War vet's social security number was pulling social security until 2020 because the guy had a child at 86 years old.

I think nearly everyone would have been for a line by line and agency by agency audit by forensic auditors and people that understand government systems. Instead we have kids and a guy that always thinks he's the smartest guy in the room leading this mess and posting misinformation on a daily basis.

It's also blatant misinformation. Elon claims to have uncovered a $2 billion research grant to study smart toilets that can identity your anal imprint. The grant was actually to research smart toilets that could identify early signs of colorectal cancer and other diseases. It's lies, and Musk is using Twitter as a platform to justify his work through misinformation.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by Atocep

It's lies, and Musk is using Twitter as a platform to justify his work through misinformation.

Remove Twitter and insert literally any other social media platform and you have the republican party platform for the last ten years. And half the country continues to eat this shit up like fucking Sherlock Holmes has made a break in the case!

[Lathum]

They are going to use it as justification for nuking it altogether, but don't worry. Trump will come back with something better in two weeks.

My in Laws are big Trumpers and part of me wants to see how they would react to not getting their SS checks they depend on.

[JPhillips]

You don't even need to do much investigation to see there isn't anything like the levels of fraud in Social Security that Elon is claiming. Just look at the average monthly check and use it to divide the Social Security payment budget and you get very close to the number of seniors in the USA.

[MIJB#19]

WTF? Now Google is in on the Trumpian bullshit and puts "Gulf of America" on their maps. This is reaching Wikipedia levels of Trumptastic propaganda.

Coincidentally, today I was shocked to see people around me call for boycotting USA based tech businesses, specifically social media. This is inside a country that's been a loyal ally since WWII and that has it's own obscure right stupidity in it's government.

[JPhillips]

Huge anti-Trump boost to the liberals in Canada has the race nearly tied now.

[Danny]

Originally Posted by Lathum

They are going to use it as justification for nuking it altogether, but don't worry. Trump will come back with something better in two weeks.

My in Laws are big Trumpers and part of me wants to see how they would react to not getting their SS checks they depend on.

Oh yes my in laws are both trumpers (well her dad i consider a good person but he is highly infleunced and she has fox news on all day. Hed rather watch sports usually. Literally their only asset is social security checks. They also live rent free with my sister in law who earns her living on accessability rights and what would be considered "woke agenda). Theyd be homeless without such things.

[Mota]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Huge anti-Trump boost to the liberals in Canada has the race nearly tied now.

Yeah, our conservative gov't was going for a massive majority with the anti-Trudeau strategy, and then Trump became a bigger villain than Trudeau.

[larrymcg421]

Amazing graph...

[JPhillips]

lol

The math on this doesn't work, but it wouldn't surprise me to see it happen.

New: Elon Musk expresses interest in idea of sending ‘DOGE dividend’ checks to Americans, saying he “will check with the president.” The proposal from @j_fishback involves returning 20% of the cost savings from DOGE efforts back to American tax payers in form of $5,000 rebates.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

lol

The math on this doesn't work, but it wouldn't surprise me to see it happen.

$50 billion in "savings" would come out to something in the neighborhood of $200 per adult. They'd have to hit $1.2 trillion in order to get to $5k and that would be dollar for dollar.

[SirFozzie]

x.com

An X link, yes, but it breaks down why this is all just imaginary bullshit. $8 million becomes $8 BILLION, savings counted three times, etcetera

[RainMaker]

Dem leadership.

Hakeem Jeffries refuses to call for Eric Adams' resignation, instead calling on Adams to show "that he has the capacity to continue to govern in the best interest of New Yorkers" pic.twitter.com/cjCM6prV0d

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) February 18, 2025

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

x.com

An X link, yes, but it breaks down why this is all just imaginary bullshit. $8 million becomes $8 BILLION, savings counted three times, etcetera

I'm kind of curious to see how this all ends. It's mostly just bullshit because if this was real fraud, there would be arrests. And at some point, people are going to ask why they aren't getting refunds and why the deficit keeps going up.

There's also going to be a massive crashout with Elon. The guy is so doped up on ketamine and god knows what else that I don't think it ends well. Especially when pressure mounts on his companies. Although I guess he'll just keep getting government handouts to keep them afloat like he always has.


Would be interesting to see a Dem say that if they are elected in 2028, they'll kill all his government contracts. The guy is incredibly unpopular and that's a pretty good thing to get you excited over a candidate with. But Dems won't do it.

[Ghost Econ]

So Trump signed an EO stating only the President and AG determine what laws are valid.

Can't wait to hear how our centrist friends need to do more research and ask a bunch of nonsensical hypotheticals demanding an answer while refusing to directly have an opinion.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

So Trump signed an EO stating only the President and AG determine what laws are valid.

Can't wait to hear how our centrist friends need to do more research and ask a bunch of nonsensical hypotheticals demanding an answer while refusing to directly have an opinion.

What laws are valid as it pertains to Federal agencies. In other words, all agencies that are considered independent must come to the President or the AG before determining something is lawful or illegal. The only exemption was the Fed, though that will probably come in another EO. It is still grossly against the laws as congress has passed them, but not exactly a complete usurping of the Judicial branch, yet.

[Atocep]

MAGA has become to the rest of the world what the Soviet Union was to us in the 70s and 80s. We're going to be the bad guys in a lot of movies in the future.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

What laws are valid as it pertains to Federal agencies.

Thanks for the clarification. Still bad, but not near as bad as claimed.

It is still grossly against the laws as congress has passed them, but not exactly a complete usurping of the Judicial branch, yet.

Agree.

[Atocep]

My most openly MAGA coworker off the Trump train. She lost her 2 days of telework per week and is seeing the havoc Elon is wrecking on the federal government firsthand

[cuervo72]

Damn leopards, man.

[CrimsonFox]

I guess gop voters confused they now have to be the communists

[Edward64]

When I first read this, some apprehension but overall, I liked it. 8% each year for next 5 years is pretty significant out of a $850B budget. And it shows "good faith" in Step 1 which is to stop the deficit bleeding.

Pete Hegseth: Defense secretary orders military to prepare for major budget cuts | CNN Politics

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the military to prepare plans to make drastic budget cuts over the next five years, with an exception for border security, according to a new memo obtained by CNN.

The memo, dated Tuesday, calls for military leaders to provide a proposal for eight percent in budget cuts each year for the next five years. The proposals for the massive cuts to the Pentagon’s budget of approximately $850 billion are due by February 24,

But reading further down seems to contradict this. I'm sure it'll be resolve soon but shows confusion at the highest level (no surprise with Trump).

It was issued the day before President Donald Trump endorsed the House’s budget plan which includes a $100 billion increase in defense spending, suggesting a major disconnect within the administration.

Hegseth himself called for an increase to the defense budget one week ago. While visiting Stuttgart, Germany, Hegseth said, “I think the US needs to spend more than the Biden administration was willing to, who historically underinvested in the capabilities of our military.”

I'm not convinced that Trump can win this fight. I'm guessing there'll be some GOP who will push back hard. If not 8%, I'll take 4%. Looking forward to the fight.

The proposal is certain to meet with resistance from Congressional Republicans, many of whom have called for increasing the defense budget and derided the Biden administration for only modest hikes in defense spending. Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called for defense spending to gradually increase to more than $1 trillion per year.

[GrantDawg]

Let me guess what is happening here. They are going to cut vital services for the military by 8% while increasing the budget by 10% to spend the money saved and the increases on imprisonment and deportation of illegals. People have been wondering where they planned on getting this money, and here is the answer.

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[Ksyrup]

When Mike Pence is fact-checking a Republican President with Fox News articles, you know the party has lost the plot.

[Atocep]

There's no way they're cutting the defense budget. That's a battle Trump wouldn't even be able to win with the GOP.

[Mota]

There's no battle to fight. He has annointed himself as the King, and he can do whatever he wants.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Atocep

My most openly MAGA coworker off the Trump train. She lost her 2 days of telework per week and is seeing the havoc Elon is wrecking on the federal government firsthand

you forget that cultists are cultists and whatever dumbass does they will love it

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

you forget that cultists are cultists and whatever dumbass does they will love it

Some things Trump can't even overcome. See: Vaccines

[Brian Swartz]

Yep. There are limits. Not vaguely reasonable ones ofc, but they do exist.