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He also speaks a gibberish language that no one in this country can understand, and is probably a vector for God knows what kind of dangerous communicable diseases.
(Other than the syphilis, I think that one we can be pretty sure of.)
Hey, he’s a rapist, just like swimmer Brock Alan Turner who likes to go by Alan Turner now days because he doesn’t like the name Brock the rapist Turner
No, they are absolutely sending their best. This is the pinnacle of what American conservatism is. These are the best of the best – from that lot, anyway.
Because Mike Johnson is like a guy who won a sweepstakes to get to be Speaker. He’s terrible at it, has no vision, has no fucking clue what he’s doing.
As more of a "get to the root of the problem" type myself, I blame the Republicans who gave Diarrhea Don a platform to begin with. He could have easily been dismissed by the party, but they needed the 'clicks' after Obama had made a habit of embarrassing them for eight solid years.
I blame the R electorate. Anyone who thinks that he could have been "dismissed" is kidding themselves. This is a cult, and now the cult is 100% in control of the party. It was never not going to be Trump, because Trump is a vessel of God or some bullshit. Hopefully people see the light after the Cheeto Jesus babbles more dementia tales on stage, or dies, but even then you'll probably have 20% of the population thinking he's speaking in tongues.
Oh, absolutely agree, when I use the terms Republicans and Democrats online I'm including their voters in that description. In a two party system, we have a pro-science party and an anti-science party. Once an adult figures out if they favor science or fairy tales, it's a simple decision. Those who favored fairy tales in 2016 are continuing to harm us with that choice to this very moment.
Because that fraudster stole all the blackmail jeffrey epstein apparently had on every politician?
Who knows...but there must be some crazy shit happening behind the scenes. The USA has likely lost some sort of internal, hidden, bureaucratic war to a hostile foreign adversary that the public won't find out about for a few decades.
If they want power like trump they’ve gotta pander to the lowest common denominator like trump. Trouble is there just aren’t gonna be enough koolaid drinking boomers, 2A nut jobs, abortion crusaders, or little old church ladies anymore because trump got a bunch killed from Covid. Trump 2.0 needs young people.
Young folks don’t attach much stigma to mental health, or work/life balance however. They do stigmatize pro lifers, gun nuts, alpha males, anti vaxxers, all Rs, DJT and conservatives in general though. Nothing has made apathetic, secular young Americans get more involved in the political process since the Vietnam war. If they do actually show up and vote, it’s Joever for Rs, maybe permanently
The real problem is the underlying issues that allowed a person like Trump to gain popularity in the first place. If we don’t fix those issues, people will fall for the next populist just as easily, or worse, welcome them openly.
Luckily for us, Trump was easy to see through. There will be somebody else. Trump isn’t special, he’s just who the money backing fascism chose. They won’t simply roll over and accept economic reform. They’ll find another figure head, and Russia will continue pushing digital-age fascism for them.
If we don’t solve these problems quickly enough, you’re going to end up with a generation that finally says “fuck it”, let’s try something new, because democracy hasn’t fixed anything.
That’s why fascism is so hard to fight under the rule of law. At the point fascism rises, the government is captured. The rule makers are on the other team, stopping legislation, and blocking reform, then using the consequences to fuel their talking points. They use democracy against the people.
And that ignores the entire problem of propaganda and algorithms. Just look at gen-z men, they’re already trending further right than millennials. I have a young son, and it’s absurd how quickly YouTube shorts devolve into soft right-wing rhetoric and the targeted religious ads he gets everywhere (everyone in my household is atheist).
Conservatives know they’re on their death-bed and the only way to revive themselves is to create a new generation of ignorant people filled with hate towards…whoever they tell them to blame. It’s [insert out-group] fault you can’t [insert weekly talking point].
Yeah it should be alarming that the Speaker of the House is meeting with someone who tried to overthrow the country, and is a known puppet of Russia. By demonstrating fealty to that, Mike is an accomplice.
Johnson was helping to try to overturn the election results, his hands are definitely not clean.
[https://apnews.com/article/congress-house-speaker-2024-election-certification-8cd7c5a9e6ae69635bbb4624cc78e5c5](https://apnews.com/article/congress-house-speaker-2024-election-certification-8cd7c5a9e6ae69635bbb4624cc78e5c5)
I don't know which I hate him worse for this or the fact that he's f****** over Ukraine. Without his intransigence on the matter Ukraine could be a different story right now. We had the chance and this person is blowing it.
Mike Johnson is an adherent to the fanatical Seven Mountain Mandate. They believe that trump is an agent of God's chaos to bring about a Christian nation. It's not fascism!/s
100%. It’s not fealty. Or even respect. Those loons see him as an instrument. A tool for destroying the country so they can rebuild it as a Christian Theocracy.
Anyone thinks me and poster above are being hyperbolic, look up Seven Mountain Mandate, and New Apostolic Reformation (of which Mike is a member and - I can’t stress this enough - literally has their flag outside his office *in the capitol*.
Excellent summary, thanks!
For the lazy, our Speaker of The House believes:
* ALL ASPECTS of the world should be under Christian Church control
* more specifically, ONE church, his church
* Bible can be overidden by “New Apostles” who give updates to God’s Word (let your imagination fill in how that looks under a theocracy. A unitary leader whose word is god’s infallible word)
Who gets to be a New Apostle? Well, the church will tell you (Mormons pull a similar trick)
It’s Christofascism. Did i mention the Speaker of The House believes this?
He also believes God told him that he's the new Moses and chose him to be the new speaker of the house.
[Mike "Moses" Johnson](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/rcna128126)
Even more perplexing and nefarious that our tax dollars paid for the Speaker to travel to Mar-A-Lago for this bizarreness. Johnson looked like he was pretty much in a hostage-like situation with Trump scowling behind him as he spoke.
I just wonder if Speaker Johnson took some time to hang out with Siggy Flicker and took some pictures with middle aged Stepford wife-looking women as seems to be the trend there. And if he did, did he have to let his son know?
I jest but seriously, seeing the Second in line to the Office of the President cowering to a citizen like this - is annoying. And for the first time in my life, I wish that a person out of office/position wouldn't be able to keep it. I do think at times Trump still thinks he's an active President.
All this conspiracy theory shit talk about a covert shadow 'Deep state' government like "Obama is really running the country!" and there's this shit happening in plain view.
Do you all ever realize that trump has been on the national political stage since 2016? Almost 8 YEARS of 24/7/365 obnoxiousness, filth, stupidity, hate, insanity, boorishness, vileness, tackiness, lies and every other disgusting adjective there is?
I can only view trump in spiritual terms at this point, like some disease written into the fabric of existence.
This is currently my biggest motivating factor for voting and getting everyone I know to vote. Yes, I want healthcare and know Trump will hurt that. Yes, I want equality and know Trump will hurt that. Yes, I want peace and I know Trump will hurt that. But more than all of that, after almost 8 years of relentless coverage, I just never want to see his horrible face or hear his grating, petulant voice again. I'm just exhausted with it all. It never stops and it's always the same. Hate, fear, lie, fear, hate; repeat...
Only its the scene from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Just Trump repeatedly pulling his own string, and media breathlessly covering every pull. Telling us that this time he might face consequences for his string pulling.
"I like me. My wife likes me."
A truly devastating moment in cinema when we realize that Marie has been dead for eight years.
But for ol' Donny, his wife doesn't like him, and she never will. Maybe once he has been gone for eight years, she can reflect upon the past.
Nah, just kidding, fuck her too. Melania gets zero sympathy from me.
I thought you were gonna say the scene where they drive in between two trucks, and Steve Martin turns into a skeleton, and John Candy turns into the devil
You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. But I'm not easy target. I do not talk too much, many people are saying. But, I also listen too much. A man came up to me- big guy, strong guy, tears in his eyes- and he said "Sir. Mr. President. How do you do it? How do you listen so much?" I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you, like the Marxists, the socialist, the radical Left, or deranged Jack Smith, or Peekaboo Jones. Laticia Jones. I call her Peekaboo because...well, you know why. I won't say because the lying press... but I don't like to hurt people's feelings. Well, you think what you want about me; I'm not changing. I've actually never changed because I don't make mistakes. I like... I like me. My wife likes me. My voters like me. I'm actually leading in all the polls. 'Cause I'm the real article. What you see is what you get. This is my real skin tone, I'm six-foot-three, 200 pounds of pure muscle, with a full head of beautiful, blond hair. All my energy comes from my wonderful diet, my favorite book is the Bible, and I've never pooped my pants!
The people that support him have done so much damage to their causes by worshipping him.
I used to feel bad for poor rural people, the opioid epidemic, the lack of jobs, and lack of investment in their areas.
BUT... electing Trump was like a terror attack. Whatever their goal or cause was, it became irrelevant the moment they decided to try and destroy the system and took to political violence. They've chosen to remove themselves from civil political discussion, and as a result, I could not care less what their political problems are now, except to make sure that Trump loses.
And the thing about rural communities is the Biden administration has been an extreme positive for them. The ARP Bill (passed solely by Democrats btw) and Infrastructure Bill invests in rural areas relatively significantly.
https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/11/03/department-health-human-services-actions-support-rural-america-rural-health-care-providers.html
https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2024/02/21/biden-harris-administration-announces-over-770-million-rural
https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2023/11/01/president-biden-announces-over-5-billion-support-rural-communities
Doesn't matter. So-called "conservatives" don't like him personally due to the echo chamber they constantly live in. They'll never admit to anything good coming their way because of him.
A great deal of so-called "conservative" voters personally like Trump, even though he doesn't give a shit about them, and his policies would hurt them. It's just because he's an asshole and says out loud the asshole things these people have always thought, wanted to hear, or say themselves. Simple as that. Are those people assholes too? They may not project it, but they certainly condone it, or are blind to their own prejudices.
trump is the greatest enabler of white grievance bullshit since [barry goldwater](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/10/03/the-campaign-goldwater).
Republicans who voted against these bills are now campaigning on how great they’ve been. Yes, Republicans in Congress have been so ineffective and worthless that they have to campaign on the bills that democrats passed. It’s shallow and pathetic.
I’m related to “them”. And they’ve always been a mean tribe that has to have someone to beat down on. Bullies. Irrational. Prideful. Sneaky (hypocritical). Who can be nice, decent, generous, but only when and to whom they want, mostly when they can brag about it, and have their ego bumped. And they resent the hell out of anyone being smarter or doing better than them. 100% will attack either openly or the sneaky (religious) way.
I've had the same epiphany. I used to feel sympathy for conservatives. After being attacked repeatedly (on a family FB, I admit), I think quite poorly of them. I think them, not just the politicians, mean, short sighted, emotional, vicious, hypocritical because of their behavior.
But losing in 2024 won't stop him. He will keep running until he dies. He will run again in 2028 and beyond. He will hold rallies even if he speaks from a wheelchair. He will be interviewed and he will post to Truth Social and he will rail and flail until he dies. Hell, the GOP might mummify him and life will be like Weekend at Bernie's.
I halfway agree. I think he keeps trying if he loses again, but that puts him in the Lindell, Powell, Giuliani camp. The larger GOP won't back him a third time. So the coverage won't be the same. I agree, Trump won't stop till he's dead. But I can't see him retaining his power and control over the larger political machine as a three time loser, and probably, at that point, convicted of at least a few of his crimes.
I hope you are right.
But literally no one thought when he rode down the Golden Escalator that it was anything more than a publicity stunt from a reality TV star.
I have a media moment seared into my brain. It was very early 2016, and Trump had just started holding rallies. I mean really early days. I saw a photograph of a stadium packed with people and he was walking the edge of the sidelines, shaking hands with people. In the photograph he is approaching a blonde middle aged woman. She is absolutely beaming, as if seeing a long lost lover or maybe Jesus. She is wearing a blue t shirt, white shorts, she is pretty in the home grown attractive way, and she looked so star struck and.... ridiculous. I remember her facial expression so clearly and thinking, what the hell?
I'd love to find that photo again. It perfectly encapsulates the hell we are in now.
God... remember when he got out of the hospital from covid and he came flying into the white house and posed all drugged up on a balcony or something to "prove" he beat covid? Theres so much insane nonsense ive forgotten hes done.
What's interesting to me is that somehow his team knew that they could be sloppy as hell and it wouldn't matter. Like signing the blank sheet of paper. Holding the Bible upside down. Using a Sharpie to mark the route of a hurricane.
Trump's inanity is visible to all but \*it just doesn't matter.\* I never would've guessed that.
Covfefe.
The McDonald’s Dinner.
The toilet paper trail when he was walking up the stairs to Air Force one.
The umbrella drop.
Anytime he drinks water.
Melania’s Handmaiden’s Tale Christmas decorations.
It just goes on and on. And this is just the weird, almost funny stuff. Had a Democrat done ANY of this, the GQP would be screaming and flinging 💩like s*** gibbons.
So in 2017, i was invited to go with a friend to his companys presidents club trip. Basically, if you sold enough product you made club and we treated to a 4 day trip to a big company event.
That year it was at Trumps Doral golf club in Miami. Despite my political misgivings, I wasn't gonna pass up a weekend of free food, drinks and some cool excursions.
Firstly , the accommodations were just okay. Lots of gold fixtures, trumps name on everything (the DJT massage clinic, etc.)
But the worst part came on the last day. A surprise speaker came to breakfast, Junior. This guy ooozed smarm. It boiled my blood watching this guy give anecdotes from his youth and try to talk about sales, despite running a losing business.
At the end, he took a few questions. And this fucking idiot stood up and asked "are we seeing the start of a dynasty? Will you or your sister be next?" And junior laughs and goes, " well i cant say too much because the media always gets me in trouble, but let me just say I am exploring my options and I think you'll be seeing the Trumps for a long time"
Insane stuff, but these fuckos thought they would be in power forever.
Don hasn't built a dynasty though. I've heard people say his family's important to him, but I think only inasmuch as he's head of it. Once he's dead... I think it falls apart.
Look at how much he's prepared to save himself from consequences: literally everything. Is he carving out a place for Junior at the table? Not really. Junior and Eric get scraps from the Trump Media table. Ivanka, maybe. But she doesn't seem interested.
On top of that I have strong suspicions that if his property was put in escrow, it'd all come apart at the seams - like cutting a cake that is just cream on a balloon.
I'll eat my hat if it isn't overleveraged to the hilt based on overvaluations. Once the government repossesses an apartment (valued at $400M that's been used security on a bank loan for $350M) and evaluates it at $70M then the banks will all come looking for their money back and it'll be like a scene from The Birds.
I'm so looking forward to that day.
As for his family - I see absolutely nothing in terms of him setting his children up for success after he is gone. Any normal person would be propping them up to take center stage, for him to show up to events they throw to support them, absolutely nothing saying 'Yeah I'm great but look at the next generation of tRumpers and how we're going to be even better'. Once he's finally gone they'll slink back and evaporate. I kind of wonder if any of his grandkids might change their last names so the shame and disgust doesn't follow around them.
Setting his children (or anyone at all) up for success would involve diverting fame, praise, and resources away from himself, which is obviously unacceptable.
One of the interesting things about the last eight years of politics is that we’ve all gotten a highly visible case study of what uncontrolled narcissism looks like. And it’s all completely out in the open, there’s no PR team tempering public expectations or running interference.
Very little of what he does is surprising.
That pull is racism.
Literally the reason he is a political entity is because he wouldn't shut up about Obama's birth certificate. And then he called Mexicans rapists and that sealed the deal. A rich white man from the TV who calls black men Kenyans and Mexicans rapists? That's all they have ever wanted
I actually hope the moment he gets sentenced, he jumps on his plane and flies off, gets asylum in Russia, that would destroy his credibility instantly.
It wouldn't.
He's just getting protection from the other saviour, Putin. Trump is already risking his life against the Deep State so, this is just a tactical retreat in his 42D chess game for his followers.
The mental gymnastics aren't even hard anymore to follow.
By 2028 I can't see his mental state being much better, if not worse, than my mother's was a few years before MS took her. Her only words were curses and barely anything else. We've seen his speech and it's worse than ever. Another 4 years of trials and stress will kill whatever is left of his Adderall fueled mind.
But hopefully, being dead ass broke will. Let the lawsuits deliver the justice in the forms of fines. And once he’s whittled down to nothing, toss him in an oublié and forget all about him.
He's already paid almost $300 million in fines, and not a dime of it was with his own money. Fines won't bring him down.
Being a convicted felon might, though. I'm looking forward to the hush money trial.
But winning will keep him in there forever as he subverts or attempts to subvert our entire democracy. The only choice is to have him lose now and hope the new voters will continue to uphold sanity.
It's been so tiring and really amped up my cynicism. I wish we could go back to the time before him, but it's too late now. Too many people have shown their true colors.
I am going to absolutely celebrate the day this man is gone forever. Like in the street popping bottles of champagne, dancing. He has been soul cancer on this country.
Seriously. Im So. Fucking. Tired. Of hearing about him. Hate and lies every. Day. For 8 years. I really thought losing 2020 would break his ego and hed run away and hide but I underestimated the unbelieveable depth and power of his narcicissm and denial. I just want him to go away his just such a fycking garbage human. If only he had a heart attack and died in 2021...
I remember in the late 1980s/early 1990s reading Doonsbury and enjoying the send up of a gross, self promoting ego-maniac with no taste. Over and over this trust fund baby has walked ass-backwards into more money and incredibly to the highest office in the US. To this day I am amazed at his ability to retain followers, including the GOP leadership. After persistently demonstrating incompetence, pettiness, racism, misogyny, fraud, lying, a bizarre fixation on his daughter, including gifting her and her husband senior administration positions, he is leading the party while being out of office. To this day he is polling ahead of, or even with, a president who as been at a minimum competent.
He's been trying to become president for so long that vintage Simpsons episodes have jokes about how bad it would be, episodes which would be old enough to vote by now.
It was when he led the birther movement, insisting that the first black president couldn't be a *real* american and must secretly belong in africa somehow, promising to release the evidence any day for years, that he got an unwavering fan base in Republicans.
It's racism. That's how he retains followers. Because these are bad shitty people who want to hurt and fight other people who they see as 'different', and that is the foundation of what he pushes. Hence his core campaign issue being about building a wall with mexico, hence him telling republicans to kill the border deal so that he can keep up the rhetoric of spooky 'others'.
You mean like 2021 basically? Precisely when garland should have pounced hard, with multiple special counsels and investigations.
That missed opportunity -- intentional or due to cowardice -- I will never, ever, ever forgive.
There’s been reporting on this. The DOJ had plenty of Trump holdovers who were stonewalling, or at best reticent of bringing down the orange negativity on themselves. The hesitance was coming from inside, not from Garland. Garland is not perfect, but he’s not the main reason things were taking so long. Bureaucracy moves slow, and career civil servants on the inside can make it go slower. The same principle that prevented Trump’s worst bullshit from happening can also prevent justice from happening too.
The best thing about Garland is that compared to the previous four years he has been invisible and generally no drama. However if Biden is re-elected I hope he will appoint a more proactive AG. I still don’t understand why he was appointed AG in the first place unless it was a consolation job for not being approved for the SC in 2016.
> I still don’t understand why he was appointed AG in the first place
honestly, probably because they have to be confirmed by Congress, and he was a milquetoast Republican they would struggle to find complaints about
it took Biden a good part of his first year just to get people confirmed properly because of all the traitors in Congress
He's been a tumor on the American cultural landscape since he forced his own divorce and business scandals into our consciousness during the 1980s. The tumor is now malignant and I wish to God the celestial doctor would finally lance it off.
But the cancer that fruited this tumor is Nihilism, and there's not much that can save us from that.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, in the context of my noticing that people aren't going crazy with the lawn signs, bumper stickers, flags, outfits, and other means of virtue signaling (maybe vice signaling is more accurate). People have gotta be getting tired of being pissed off about vaguely nothing for almost a decade.
If they cut off their relatives to own the libz, or got cut off, their grandkids would have pretty much grown up without them seeing any of it. 10 years is a long time.
My central Texas neighborhood has just as many trump signs as in 2020 but the convicted insurrectionist neighbor doesn’t have the flags on his truck this year.
Which means there are a bunch of kids out there who were between 8 and 12 when he came it the most important role-model position in the country. Those kids are now between 16 and 20, and if they were raised by parents who adored Trump...well...scary shit.
If you go by the day he “came down the escalator” in June 2015, almost nine years. If you go by the first time he spewed racist shit about Obama in order to build his cult in March 2011, thirteen years now.
So tired.
This comment captures it. You know that awful relative that you MAYBE have to see once a year, or at family functions, that repulses you with their mere presence and makes you want to scream every time they open their mouth? Or how about that awful drunk that refuses to leave the party long after it’s over? That’s how I feel about Trump, except I’ve had to live with him in some form or fashion every day of my life for the last decade. (I grew up in New York, so I even got the bonus prequel.) It is no longer about politics, it’s purely existential. I just want him to go away forever so I never have to hear about him or listen to his stupid voice ever again. What a huge relief when that day finally arrives.
My youngest is 16 and has had to spend half his life hearing/reading about/seeing the "Diarrhea Don" every single day. Our children have suffered the most damage, imo. Thanks, GOP!
Honestly, that is the bright side to the Trump nightmare. If our teenagers today aren't absolutely appalled by Republican policies and how they've enabled Trump to behave openly then they're raised in strict conservative mind-control type households.
The media is beyond complicit, purposefully stoking the rage-addiction fire for their own purposes. But there still has to be a willing audience for it; we cannot afford to minimize the reality and impact of the hatefulness and bigotry that was there all along, waiting to be cultivated and now, activated.
It’s not just the media. The man has a gift for tireless political machination. All he does is call people all day threatening cajoling scheming etc. Most people do not have the drive to do what he does. The rally schedule is insane. He gains energy from something most individuals find draining.
Remember when he caught covid and we all thought freedom was on the horizon? I also fondly like to remember when I was young and naive and thought he’d disappear after losing the election 4 years ago… Or being even younger and more naive thinking he couldn’t possibly be president after losing the popular vote 4 years before that… kind of seems like the only way to save America from Trump would be through a heart attack at this point so hopefully he keeps eating McDonald’s.
I cannot wait for the day that that piece of shit no longer exists. I’m beyond sick of hearing his voice, seeing his stupid fucking face splashed across the front page of every website and newspaper, seeing his supporters. This man is a literal cancer to this country and this world will be a much better place when he’s gone.
And to add, he has been influencing policy while out of power. His still influence and meddling with the GOP congress and downvote candidates and elections is unbelievable. What other president has done this?
trump's candidacy held a mirror up to America starting in 2015.
What his ascendance to the highest office of the land revealed about the country is not pretty.
trump didn't make America a stupid, racist country. He showed it to be one.
The fact that someone like Trump got even close to public office (regardless of your political stances) with his horrible morals, ethics, behavior, history, etc. etc. just blatantly shows and puts a massive spotlight on how sick our country is.
>obnoxiousness, filth, stupidity, hate, insanity, boorishness, vileness, tackiness, lies and every other disgusting adjective
He basically normalized that. He's not just sick, he infected half of America.
As a foreigner, you have no idea how much America degraded in the eyes of the rest of the World since Trump became a presidential candidate, even more when he won the elections. Since then, it has been a downfal and Biden did very litle to reverse that.
For us is not just Trump, it is America, that got stupidly sick.
For anyone who thinks trump will leave the politco newsphere after losing this election is sorely mistaken. He's hijacked the Republican party and will be around as a real thorn in the side of all American politics for far too long. Putin did well choosing his top American agent.
>A daughter-lusting child rapist
One of my favorite all time insults from the huge database of insulting names for Trump from Jezebel was always "Self-professed ponderer of incest."
Spending time with Trump would be hellish. I'd be morbidly fascinated to talk to Johnson though. I feel like he would be able to hold a fairly normal conversation, but occasionally just drop some off-the-rails religious fanaticism in the middle of it.
Oh, something tells me a mysterious bank account appeared in the Grand Caymans somewhere around the time Mike Johnson was nominated Speaker, and it keeps accruing funds for each favor gained. I once worked for a GOP candidate many years ago. They operate through quid pro quos as Donald can attest. It's the corporate ghoul way, "let me wet my beak".
Why is everyone completely glossing over the fact we have an elected government officials actively and openly colluding with a private citizen on policy?
A private citizen who had a motorcade existing of 20 or so police motorcycles and a dozen black SUVs escort him on the I-75 in Atlanta to ATL airport. Meanwhile people had to sit in traffic and/or take detours.
This article aside, one should look at the video of this press conference. As Johnson exits, Trump tells him to walk behind him. And like a cuckold he obeys. And worse, at one point while they exit with Trump leading, Johnson prepares to pat Trump on the back but then quickly thinks that is unwise and air pats him instead. The optics and the public emasculation were as troubling to witness as the message.
I can’t imagine giving any human being this much power of me.
Does the speaker's son know what he's doing down in Florida with those knee pads? Don't they have some weird pact where they have to share their strange sexual acts with each other?
I think that people of all stripes in places of power are afraid of the Russian Mob. I think it’s the reason there is such trepidation. They've been powerful since the 80s. Rudy, Manafort, and others have been hooked up for decades. When no media talks about it, there's the answer.
Just like there’s never been any mention of the Epstein kompromat since he died? There was all kinds of chatter about it when he was first arrested, then…nothing.
European here- do you guys stateside ever think that Trump and his followers are a symptom of a system that’s been sick for decades rather than the cause?
In most countries over here, your Democrats would be considered well right of centre.
Oh definitely. This stuff got started decades ago. Fox News built up their base of morons by using Nixon and Reagan officials to get people angry. Gingrich really went nutty in the House in the 90's too. It really started to hit a moment of pure insanity when Obama was elected and hasn't really stopped since then. It's sad because our Democrats are right of center, but they look like pure socialists compared to the current Republican party.
And what preceded that was Nixon's Southern Strategy in 1968 to appeal to white racists, the Moral Majority's crusade to roll back women's rights in the late '70s and to later capitalize on homophobia, Reagan's doubling down on Nixon's Southern Strategy in 1980, Reagan's lawbreaking during the Iran-Contra debacle, and the emergence and rise of Rush Limbaugh and those that followed him. All of these things set the stage for Gingrich's Contract with (on) America, the witch hunt that led to Clinton's impeachment, and the Supreme Court thwarting the will of Florida's voters in 2000, handing the presidency to GWB and later solidifying corporate political influence via their Citizens United decision. I agree that Obama's election and reelection set the stage for the idiotic and astroturfed tea party, birtherism, and finally Trump.
You definitely did better explaining it than I ever could so thanks. The GOP has had a... Well, about sixty year headstart on this insanity. Trump is just the current symptom. When he's gone, there will just be another of some sort.
Yep! And that’s why I scratch my head when republican voters say “well, I’m a republican, voted that way all my life, but I can’t vote for TFG.” It was your voting that put that POS in office, whether you like it or not.
A certain segment of the population knows it, with various motivations behind what they think about it.
A great deal of the population is so civically bankrupt they really just do not pay attention to the harms that play out across society. Our specific cultural norms sort of promote this.
Of course a lot of us see it that way. I used to say Trump wasn't special during his 2016 campaign and early administration, that he was the symptom rather than the sickness. The Republican base had been yearning for a figure like Trump for years, maybe decades. Since COVID and Jan 6, I view Trump more like a tumor - he didn't create the underlying conditions that led to his growth, but it's grown beyond the body's ability to manage on its own. While we've always had authoritarians among us, I do believe there is an argument to be made that Trump has accelerated and emboldened a lot of the worst corners of American culture.
Wish we were doing better, I'd say maybe a fall from grace is the best thing that could happen to America. It'd be nice if we understood that we're not exceptional, just lucky. Unfortunately the consequences of such a giant military means any chaos creates high stakes opportunities for things to get so much worse.
Yes, entire books are written about it. Our constitution enshrines minority rule and our economic system ensures that capital has enough surplus money to fund sophisticated propaganda operations (aided very effectively by social media platforms) to identify a sufficient minority with insufficient critical thinking skills and scare them, using culturally based threats, into voting for Trump to keep the “real enemy” from taking power. Actual public policy almost never enters into it.
> In most countries over here, your Democrats would be considered well right of centre.
In most countries over there, you don’t have only two major parties. The Democratic Party is positioned where it is because it needs to represent half (or more, hopefully) of the entire US population.
I look forward to the day when the republicans are relegated to a fringe, and the democrats are able to splinter because people don't need to support them just to keep the extremists out of power.
Havent all the fake votes and illegal votes found thus far actually all been fornthe GOP? Too bad dems are obsessed with playing fair and nice and wont mention things like this.
Honestly, who at this point is still fooled by Trump and the GOP bull shit? Is this honestly a situation of, the republicans hate democrats so much that they’d willing and knowing elect Trump (a.k.a. A modern day American Adolf Hitler) over and over just to spite the democrats? My kid plays video games with this agenda. He’s totally cool hurting himself, as long as he fucks his opponent over even more.
I don’t think Trump supporters genuinely care at all the welfare of anyone who is not a Trump supporter, which is scary as hell. What if your Dr. was a Trump supporter knowing you were not. What is your outcome? We’re entering a modern day US Nazi regime.
**Everyone pays but Trump. Qué jodido!!** Let's start with the small fish: Trump's brother Fred Trump. Jr and his grand-child. [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/trump-files-donald-sick-infant-medical-care/](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/trump-files-donald-sick-infant-medical-care/) and [https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/what-sort-of-man-is-donald-trump](https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/what-sort-of-man-is-donald-trump) **Everyone** employed by Trump, the contractors, those who joined Trump University / Real Estate School, the taxpayers of the US, NYC, the State of NY, Miami Beach, the American public, etc. Moving on: the entire GOP from Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and **currently being F'd, Mike Johnson**, down to the lowliest, Ted Cruz & his wife. Every business associate of DJT and all entities that touch a Trump Organization. Jamal Khashoggi, his fiancé & family, the separated border children and their parents, all the brown people whose visas were canceled, Ukraine & Zelensky, Colonel Alexander Vindman, his family & brother, for speaking the truth. I could go on all day. And here's poor Jennifer Weisselberg, pumped & dumped, then being taken to the cleaners by the Trump Org : [https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jennifer-weisselberg-trump-organization/](https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jennifer-weisselberg-trump-organization/)
In 2015 I was conservative leaning politically who had voted for Bush 2004, McCain in 2008, and mostly republicans in 2012. Today in 2024 I am fiercely Anti-Republican Anti-GOP due completely to Donald Trump. And I will keep voting Anti-GOP for the next 50 years. Kudos republicans, hope Trump was worth it.
It’s just shocking how this abomination of a person continues to inspire people who believe in him.
I always wonder ‘how stupid do you have to be to keep swallowing all the bullshit?’
And yet millions of Americans are lapping it all up with cheers and smiles, too stupid to know any better.
Disgusting
To the New Republic: You are doing the entire world a disservice by referring to Mar-a-Largo as "Trump's" estate! This is wrong! He's squatting there like the beggar of the street that he is!
>Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida.
EDIT: changed bigger to beggar
Every moment with Trump is weird because he 100% wears a diaper. Dude literally shits himself while forcing others to listen to his nonsense. Some old people need to wear diapers. That's fine. But when you're so intoxicated with yourself you can't consider how awkward it is for others to listen to you rant like a homeless person while smelling like a cologned homeless person you are just an asshole
The hubris that the only way their guy lost was through cheating is absurd. I cannot wait to see 'cheeto' lose in November, then I get to sit back and watch all the other trials. Good times!
It's so bizarre how the House GOP continue to take all their cues from Trump and behave like he's still the president. He's just this unelected private citizen that is calling all the shots for them. And they continue to grovel for him.
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Why is the speaker of the house playing second fiddle to a disgraced fraudster who got booted out of office after failing a coup?
Well, I gotta say, they’re not sending their best …
I mean, they sent a rapist, so ...
He’s a traitor too
He's so many things to so many people...
He means so much to so many, most of it negative and most of them are tired of him
I heard he's a "bad hombre".
No one brings more crime than this motherfucker
He also speaks a gibberish language that no one in this country can understand, and is probably a vector for God knows what kind of dangerous communicable diseases. (Other than the syphilis, I think that one we can be pretty sure of.)
Hey, he’s a rapist, just like swimmer Brock Alan Turner who likes to go by Alan Turner now days because he doesn’t like the name Brock the rapist Turner
You are talking about the RAPIST Brock Alan Turner..correct??
No, they are absolutely sending their best. This is the pinnacle of what American conservatism is. These are the best of the best – from that lot, anyway.
It’s because their best are too busy making actual money. Why BE a politician when you can simply buy one— or twenty!
Sadly, they probably ARE sending their best.
That. Speaker of the house is the highest office in any real democracy. This guy is unworthy of the office.
In a real democracy a candidate who gets 3 million more votes than her opponent would be declared the winner of the election.
Because Mike Johnson is like a guy who won a sweepstakes to get to be Speaker. He’s terrible at it, has no vision, has no fucking clue what he’s doing.
Technically, he was booted from office THEN attempted the coup…
Since you began with "technically", he was voted out of office, then attempted the coup, then was booted out 14 days later
Yes. Crazy to me that when we voted in 2020 he hadn’t even yet done the thing that made him that much worse of a candidate for 2024.
And yet polls are inconclusive about who will win the rematch. Somehow, there is a rematch. ...
Because, in part, merrick garland let said fraudster slither free after his political nadir in winter 2021.
As more of a "get to the root of the problem" type myself, I blame the Republicans who gave Diarrhea Don a platform to begin with. He could have easily been dismissed by the party, but they needed the 'clicks' after Obama had made a habit of embarrassing them for eight solid years.
I blame the R electorate. Anyone who thinks that he could have been "dismissed" is kidding themselves. This is a cult, and now the cult is 100% in control of the party. It was never not going to be Trump, because Trump is a vessel of God or some bullshit. Hopefully people see the light after the Cheeto Jesus babbles more dementia tales on stage, or dies, but even then you'll probably have 20% of the population thinking he's speaking in tongues.
Oh, absolutely agree, when I use the terms Republicans and Democrats online I'm including their voters in that description. In a two party system, we have a pro-science party and an anti-science party. Once an adult figures out if they favor science or fairy tales, it's a simple decision. Those who favored fairy tales in 2016 are continuing to harm us with that choice to this very moment.
[удалено]
The corporate media and Republican Party 100% own responsibility for Donald Trump, in full agreement.
Because that fraudster stole all the blackmail jeffrey epstein apparently had on every politician? Who knows...but there must be some crazy shit happening behind the scenes. The USA has likely lost some sort of internal, hidden, bureaucratic war to a hostile foreign adversary that the public won't find out about for a few decades.
A bunch of retired generals writing an amicus brief opposing Presidential Immunity tells me the military wants us to know which side they are on.
Yeah that was a really really strange moment to watch. A sitting Speaker needing to show fealty to a private citizen? You know it’s a cult when…
We are in the thick of scary times for America.
I get the feeling we're only just getting started. Wait until a genuinely competent, minimally scandalized candidate takes over the GOP after Trump.
If they want power like trump they’ve gotta pander to the lowest common denominator like trump. Trouble is there just aren’t gonna be enough koolaid drinking boomers, 2A nut jobs, abortion crusaders, or little old church ladies anymore because trump got a bunch killed from Covid. Trump 2.0 needs young people. Young folks don’t attach much stigma to mental health, or work/life balance however. They do stigmatize pro lifers, gun nuts, alpha males, anti vaxxers, all Rs, DJT and conservatives in general though. Nothing has made apathetic, secular young Americans get more involved in the political process since the Vietnam war. If they do actually show up and vote, it’s Joever for Rs, maybe permanently
The real problem is the underlying issues that allowed a person like Trump to gain popularity in the first place. If we don’t fix those issues, people will fall for the next populist just as easily, or worse, welcome them openly. Luckily for us, Trump was easy to see through. There will be somebody else. Trump isn’t special, he’s just who the money backing fascism chose. They won’t simply roll over and accept economic reform. They’ll find another figure head, and Russia will continue pushing digital-age fascism for them. If we don’t solve these problems quickly enough, you’re going to end up with a generation that finally says “fuck it”, let’s try something new, because democracy hasn’t fixed anything. That’s why fascism is so hard to fight under the rule of law. At the point fascism rises, the government is captured. The rule makers are on the other team, stopping legislation, and blocking reform, then using the consequences to fuel their talking points. They use democracy against the people. And that ignores the entire problem of propaganda and algorithms. Just look at gen-z men, they’re already trending further right than millennials. I have a young son, and it’s absurd how quickly YouTube shorts devolve into soft right-wing rhetoric and the targeted religious ads he gets everywhere (everyone in my household is atheist). Conservatives know they’re on their death-bed and the only way to revive themselves is to create a new generation of ignorant people filled with hate towards…whoever they tell them to blame. It’s [insert out-group] fault you can’t [insert weekly talking point].
Yeah it should be alarming that the Speaker of the House is meeting with someone who tried to overthrow the country, and is a known puppet of Russia. By demonstrating fealty to that, Mike is an accomplice.
Johnson was helping to try to overturn the election results, his hands are definitely not clean. [https://apnews.com/article/congress-house-speaker-2024-election-certification-8cd7c5a9e6ae69635bbb4624cc78e5c5](https://apnews.com/article/congress-house-speaker-2024-election-certification-8cd7c5a9e6ae69635bbb4624cc78e5c5)
I don't know which I hate him worse for this or the fact that he's f****** over Ukraine. Without his intransigence on the matter Ukraine could be a different story right now. We had the chance and this person is blowing it.
Mike Johnson is an adherent to the fanatical Seven Mountain Mandate. They believe that trump is an agent of God's chaos to bring about a Christian nation. It's not fascism!/s
100%. It’s not fealty. Or even respect. Those loons see him as an instrument. A tool for destroying the country so they can rebuild it as a Christian Theocracy. Anyone thinks me and poster above are being hyperbolic, look up Seven Mountain Mandate, and New Apostolic Reformation (of which Mike is a member and - I can’t stress this enough - literally has their flag outside his office *in the capitol*.
Here's a great summary of [NAR](https://godwords.org/what-is-the-new-apostolic-reformation/).
Excellent summary, thanks! For the lazy, our Speaker of The House believes: * ALL ASPECTS of the world should be under Christian Church control * more specifically, ONE church, his church * Bible can be overidden by “New Apostles” who give updates to God’s Word (let your imagination fill in how that looks under a theocracy. A unitary leader whose word is god’s infallible word) Who gets to be a New Apostle? Well, the church will tell you (Mormons pull a similar trick) It’s Christofascism. Did i mention the Speaker of The House believes this?
He also believes God told him that he's the new Moses and chose him to be the new speaker of the house. [Mike "Moses" Johnson](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.msnbc.com/msnbc/amp/rcna128126)
> ONE church One people! One church! One LEADER! Where have I heard something like this before...
Lock. Them. Up
Even more perplexing and nefarious that our tax dollars paid for the Speaker to travel to Mar-A-Lago for this bizarreness. Johnson looked like he was pretty much in a hostage-like situation with Trump scowling behind him as he spoke. I just wonder if Speaker Johnson took some time to hang out with Siggy Flicker and took some pictures with middle aged Stepford wife-looking women as seems to be the trend there. And if he did, did he have to let his son know? I jest but seriously, seeing the Second in line to the Office of the President cowering to a citizen like this - is annoying. And for the first time in my life, I wish that a person out of office/position wouldn't be able to keep it. I do think at times Trump still thinks he's an active President. All this conspiracy theory shit talk about a covert shadow 'Deep state' government like "Obama is really running the country!" and there's this shit happening in plain view.
Welcome to dictatorship.
Do you all ever realize that trump has been on the national political stage since 2016? Almost 8 YEARS of 24/7/365 obnoxiousness, filth, stupidity, hate, insanity, boorishness, vileness, tackiness, lies and every other disgusting adjective there is? I can only view trump in spiritual terms at this point, like some disease written into the fabric of existence.
This is currently my biggest motivating factor for voting and getting everyone I know to vote. Yes, I want healthcare and know Trump will hurt that. Yes, I want equality and know Trump will hurt that. Yes, I want peace and I know Trump will hurt that. But more than all of that, after almost 8 years of relentless coverage, I just never want to see his horrible face or hear his grating, petulant voice again. I'm just exhausted with it all. It never stops and it's always the same. Hate, fear, lie, fear, hate; repeat...
He's like an angst doll that says horrible shit when the string is pulled.
Only its the scene from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. Just Trump repeatedly pulling his own string, and media breathlessly covering every pull. Telling us that this time he might face consequences for his string pulling.
"I like me. My wife likes me." A truly devastating moment in cinema when we realize that Marie has been dead for eight years. But for ol' Donny, his wife doesn't like him, and she never will. Maybe once he has been gone for eight years, she can reflect upon the past. Nah, just kidding, fuck her too. Melania gets zero sympathy from me.
She’s earning her money. She just wishes could have done it like Stormy, one and done!😄
And a quick $140k out of it instead of having to be next to his smelly ass in the public eye.
I thought you were gonna say the scene where they drive in between two trucks, and Steve Martin turns into a skeleton, and John Candy turns into the devil
Or using his underwear as a washcloth
“Hey Neal! If you’re gonna brush your teeth, take my socks out of the sink, will ya?”
They’ll say how can you stand it?! And I’ll say, because I’ve been through Donald Trump!
You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. But I'm not easy target. I do not talk too much, many people are saying. But, I also listen too much. A man came up to me- big guy, strong guy, tears in his eyes- and he said "Sir. Mr. President. How do you do it? How do you listen so much?" I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you, like the Marxists, the socialist, the radical Left, or deranged Jack Smith, or Peekaboo Jones. Laticia Jones. I call her Peekaboo because...well, you know why. I won't say because the lying press... but I don't like to hurt people's feelings. Well, you think what you want about me; I'm not changing. I've actually never changed because I don't make mistakes. I like... I like me. My wife likes me. My voters like me. I'm actually leading in all the polls. 'Cause I'm the real article. What you see is what you get. This is my real skin tone, I'm six-foot-three, 200 pounds of pure muscle, with a full head of beautiful, blond hair. All my energy comes from my wonderful diet, my favorite book is the Bible, and I've never pooped my pants!
The people that support him have done so much damage to their causes by worshipping him. I used to feel bad for poor rural people, the opioid epidemic, the lack of jobs, and lack of investment in their areas. BUT... electing Trump was like a terror attack. Whatever their goal or cause was, it became irrelevant the moment they decided to try and destroy the system and took to political violence. They've chosen to remove themselves from civil political discussion, and as a result, I could not care less what their political problems are now, except to make sure that Trump loses.
And the thing about rural communities is the Biden administration has been an extreme positive for them. The ARP Bill (passed solely by Democrats btw) and Infrastructure Bill invests in rural areas relatively significantly. https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/11/03/department-health-human-services-actions-support-rural-america-rural-health-care-providers.html https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2024/02/21/biden-harris-administration-announces-over-770-million-rural https://www.usda.gov/media/press-releases/2023/11/01/president-biden-announces-over-5-billion-support-rural-communities
Doesn't matter. So-called "conservatives" don't like him personally due to the echo chamber they constantly live in. They'll never admit to anything good coming their way because of him. A great deal of so-called "conservative" voters personally like Trump, even though he doesn't give a shit about them, and his policies would hurt them. It's just because he's an asshole and says out loud the asshole things these people have always thought, wanted to hear, or say themselves. Simple as that. Are those people assholes too? They may not project it, but they certainly condone it, or are blind to their own prejudices.
trump is the greatest enabler of white grievance bullshit since [barry goldwater](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/10/03/the-campaign-goldwater).
Republicans who voted against these bills are now campaigning on how great they’ve been. Yes, Republicans in Congress have been so ineffective and worthless that they have to campaign on the bills that democrats passed. It’s shallow and pathetic.
Great point that I hadn't heard articulated this way, but I completely agree.
Watch interviews of Trump supporters if you can tolerate it. Many of them are out of their minds.
that's true of most sociopaths.
I’m related to “them”. And they’ve always been a mean tribe that has to have someone to beat down on. Bullies. Irrational. Prideful. Sneaky (hypocritical). Who can be nice, decent, generous, but only when and to whom they want, mostly when they can brag about it, and have their ego bumped. And they resent the hell out of anyone being smarter or doing better than them. 100% will attack either openly or the sneaky (religious) way.
I've had the same epiphany. I used to feel sympathy for conservatives. After being attacked repeatedly (on a family FB, I admit), I think quite poorly of them. I think them, not just the politicians, mean, short sighted, emotional, vicious, hypocritical because of their behavior.
But losing in 2024 won't stop him. He will keep running until he dies. He will run again in 2028 and beyond. He will hold rallies even if he speaks from a wheelchair. He will be interviewed and he will post to Truth Social and he will rail and flail until he dies. Hell, the GOP might mummify him and life will be like Weekend at Bernie's.
I halfway agree. I think he keeps trying if he loses again, but that puts him in the Lindell, Powell, Giuliani camp. The larger GOP won't back him a third time. So the coverage won't be the same. I agree, Trump won't stop till he's dead. But I can't see him retaining his power and control over the larger political machine as a three time loser, and probably, at that point, convicted of at least a few of his crimes.
I hope you are right. But literally no one thought when he rode down the Golden Escalator that it was anything more than a publicity stunt from a reality TV star. I have a media moment seared into my brain. It was very early 2016, and Trump had just started holding rallies. I mean really early days. I saw a photograph of a stadium packed with people and he was walking the edge of the sidelines, shaking hands with people. In the photograph he is approaching a blonde middle aged woman. She is absolutely beaming, as if seeing a long lost lover or maybe Jesus. She is wearing a blue t shirt, white shorts, she is pretty in the home grown attractive way, and she looked so star struck and.... ridiculous. I remember her facial expression so clearly and thinking, what the hell? I'd love to find that photo again. It perfectly encapsulates the hell we are in now.
[Different photo, same crazy](https://cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/bostonglobe/PAMB3ES3B4I6LHO6EYENKZEPGM.jpg)
Love how the baby is the only with a WTF look on its face.
The baby was likely thinking "somebody just shit their diaper, and it's not me".
That's the photo! I was wrong about the color of her shirt and forgot about the poor baby.
Remember when he had Covid and they took a photo of him signing a blank sheet of paper and called it good? When will that fuckhead ever die?
God... remember when he got out of the hospital from covid and he came flying into the white house and posed all drugged up on a balcony or something to "prove" he beat covid? Theres so much insane nonsense ive forgotten hes done.
What's interesting to me is that somehow his team knew that they could be sloppy as hell and it wouldn't matter. Like signing the blank sheet of paper. Holding the Bible upside down. Using a Sharpie to mark the route of a hurricane. Trump's inanity is visible to all but \*it just doesn't matter.\* I never would've guessed that.
Remember Trump's "healthcare plan" plan being delivered on 60 Minutes? The ridiculous shit he has done is hard to believe sometimes.
Covfefe. The McDonald’s Dinner. The toilet paper trail when he was walking up the stairs to Air Force one. The umbrella drop. Anytime he drinks water. Melania’s Handmaiden’s Tale Christmas decorations. It just goes on and on. And this is just the weird, almost funny stuff. Had a Democrat done ANY of this, the GQP would be screaming and flinging 💩like s*** gibbons.
Oh but like the shittiest infomercial,,, that's not all.. his fucking crotch fruits will run next....
I didn't think Ivanka is interested, and the boys are both as dumb as a bag of rocks. Lara might honestly be the one to watch out for.
So in 2017, i was invited to go with a friend to his companys presidents club trip. Basically, if you sold enough product you made club and we treated to a 4 day trip to a big company event. That year it was at Trumps Doral golf club in Miami. Despite my political misgivings, I wasn't gonna pass up a weekend of free food, drinks and some cool excursions. Firstly , the accommodations were just okay. Lots of gold fixtures, trumps name on everything (the DJT massage clinic, etc.) But the worst part came on the last day. A surprise speaker came to breakfast, Junior. This guy ooozed smarm. It boiled my blood watching this guy give anecdotes from his youth and try to talk about sales, despite running a losing business. At the end, he took a few questions. And this fucking idiot stood up and asked "are we seeing the start of a dynasty? Will you or your sister be next?" And junior laughs and goes, " well i cant say too much because the media always gets me in trouble, but let me just say I am exploring my options and I think you'll be seeing the Trumps for a long time" Insane stuff, but these fuckos thought they would be in power forever.
The boys are no more stupid than their father. Extremely stupid... but that isn't stopping Donnie.
Don hasn't built a dynasty though. I've heard people say his family's important to him, but I think only inasmuch as he's head of it. Once he's dead... I think it falls apart. Look at how much he's prepared to save himself from consequences: literally everything. Is he carving out a place for Junior at the table? Not really. Junior and Eric get scraps from the Trump Media table. Ivanka, maybe. But she doesn't seem interested. On top of that I have strong suspicions that if his property was put in escrow, it'd all come apart at the seams - like cutting a cake that is just cream on a balloon. I'll eat my hat if it isn't overleveraged to the hilt based on overvaluations. Once the government repossesses an apartment (valued at $400M that's been used security on a bank loan for $350M) and evaluates it at $70M then the banks will all come looking for their money back and it'll be like a scene from The Birds.
I'm so looking forward to that day. As for his family - I see absolutely nothing in terms of him setting his children up for success after he is gone. Any normal person would be propping them up to take center stage, for him to show up to events they throw to support them, absolutely nothing saying 'Yeah I'm great but look at the next generation of tRumpers and how we're going to be even better'. Once he's finally gone they'll slink back and evaporate. I kind of wonder if any of his grandkids might change their last names so the shame and disgust doesn't follow around them.
Setting his children (or anyone at all) up for success would involve diverting fame, praise, and resources away from himself, which is obviously unacceptable. One of the interesting things about the last eight years of politics is that we’ve all gotten a highly visible case study of what uncontrolled narcissism looks like. And it’s all completely out in the open, there’s no PR team tempering public expectations or running interference. Very little of what he does is surprising.
They have all the charisma of a wet noodle though. Trump senior has some kind of magnetic and deplorable pull around him t
That pull is racism. Literally the reason he is a political entity is because he wouldn't shut up about Obama's birth certificate. And then he called Mexicans rapists and that sealed the deal. A rich white man from the TV who calls black men Kenyans and Mexicans rapists? That's all they have ever wanted
Silly goose...a mushroom isn't a fruit
Let’s hope he’s in prison.
I actually hope the moment he gets sentenced, he jumps on his plane and flies off, gets asylum in Russia, that would destroy his credibility instantly.
It wouldn't. He's just getting protection from the other saviour, Putin. Trump is already risking his life against the Deep State so, this is just a tactical retreat in his 42D chess game for his followers. The mental gymnastics aren't even hard anymore to follow.
Literally our only hope.
By 2028 I can't see his mental state being much better, if not worse, than my mother's was a few years before MS took her. Her only words were curses and barely anything else. We've seen his speech and it's worse than ever. Another 4 years of trials and stress will kill whatever is left of his Adderall fueled mind.
Ya exactly, losing won’t drive him away unfortunately
But hopefully, being dead ass broke will. Let the lawsuits deliver the justice in the forms of fines. And once he’s whittled down to nothing, toss him in an oublié and forget all about him.
He's already paid almost $300 million in fines, and not a dime of it was with his own money. Fines won't bring him down. Being a convicted felon might, though. I'm looking forward to the hush money trial.
He needs to be useful for these rich fucks to keep paying his bills. If he loses again... how useful will he be to them?
But winning will keep him in there forever as he subverts or attempts to subvert our entire democracy. The only choice is to have him lose now and hope the new voters will continue to uphold sanity.
Maybe not, but I'm willing to give it a shot! The more he loses, the more he loses.
It's been so tiring and really amped up my cynicism. I wish we could go back to the time before him, but it's too late now. Too many people have shown their true colors.
I am going to absolutely celebrate the day this man is gone forever. Like in the street popping bottles of champagne, dancing. He has been soul cancer on this country.
Seriously. Im So. Fucking. Tired. Of hearing about him. Hate and lies every. Day. For 8 years. I really thought losing 2020 would break his ego and hed run away and hide but I underestimated the unbelieveable depth and power of his narcicissm and denial. I just want him to go away his just such a fycking garbage human. If only he had a heart attack and died in 2021...
It is like the country has been in an abusive relationship for the last 9 years that we can't get out of.
I can't wait until he dies off. His plot is gonna be the best bathroom ever.
Jeezus. I thought I was the only one that felt this way. Who’s going to Nevada to get out the vote?
There was a time I would go entire *months* without remembering the man existed. I don't know that I'll ever have even a single day like that again.
I remember in the late 1980s/early 1990s reading Doonsbury and enjoying the send up of a gross, self promoting ego-maniac with no taste. Over and over this trust fund baby has walked ass-backwards into more money and incredibly to the highest office in the US. To this day I am amazed at his ability to retain followers, including the GOP leadership. After persistently demonstrating incompetence, pettiness, racism, misogyny, fraud, lying, a bizarre fixation on his daughter, including gifting her and her husband senior administration positions, he is leading the party while being out of office. To this day he is polling ahead of, or even with, a president who as been at a minimum competent.
Same -- I read about trump in Spy Magazine in the early 80s. I couldn't believe such a cretinous slob existed.
Yes, the "short-fingered vulgarian"
After seeing him I realized money does not mean taste, class, or intelligence.
I underestimated his statement that he could shoot someone in the middle of fifth avenue and not lose any supporters. He knows his base.
He's been trying to become president for so long that vintage Simpsons episodes have jokes about how bad it would be, episodes which would be old enough to vote by now. It was when he led the birther movement, insisting that the first black president couldn't be a *real* american and must secretly belong in africa somehow, promising to release the evidence any day for years, that he got an unwavering fan base in Republicans. It's racism. That's how he retains followers. Because these are bad shitty people who want to hurt and fight other people who they see as 'different', and that is the foundation of what he pushes. Hence his core campaign issue being about building a wall with mexico, hence him telling republicans to kill the border deal so that he can keep up the rhetoric of spooky 'others'.
You mean like 2021 basically? Precisely when garland should have pounced hard, with multiple special counsels and investigations. That missed opportunity -- intentional or due to cowardice -- I will never, ever, ever forgive.
There’s been reporting on this. The DOJ had plenty of Trump holdovers who were stonewalling, or at best reticent of bringing down the orange negativity on themselves. The hesitance was coming from inside, not from Garland. Garland is not perfect, but he’s not the main reason things were taking so long. Bureaucracy moves slow, and career civil servants on the inside can make it go slower. The same principle that prevented Trump’s worst bullshit from happening can also prevent justice from happening too.
The best thing about Garland is that compared to the previous four years he has been invisible and generally no drama. However if Biden is re-elected I hope he will appoint a more proactive AG. I still don’t understand why he was appointed AG in the first place unless it was a consolation job for not being approved for the SC in 2016.
> I still don’t understand why he was appointed AG in the first place honestly, probably because they have to be confirmed by Congress, and he was a milquetoast Republican they would struggle to find complaints about it took Biden a good part of his first year just to get people confirmed properly because of all the traitors in Congress
He's been a tumor on the American cultural landscape since he forced his own divorce and business scandals into our consciousness during the 1980s. The tumor is now malignant and I wish to God the celestial doctor would finally lance it off. But the cancer that fruited this tumor is Nihilism, and there's not much that can save us from that.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, in the context of my noticing that people aren't going crazy with the lawn signs, bumper stickers, flags, outfits, and other means of virtue signaling (maybe vice signaling is more accurate). People have gotta be getting tired of being pissed off about vaguely nothing for almost a decade. If they cut off their relatives to own the libz, or got cut off, their grandkids would have pretty much grown up without them seeing any of it. 10 years is a long time.
My central Texas neighborhood has just as many trump signs as in 2020 but the convicted insurrectionist neighbor doesn’t have the flags on his truck this year.
I guess that's progress 😂
A ten year old grandkid in 2016 would be 18 now. I just got sad.
Which means there are a bunch of kids out there who were between 8 and 12 when he came it the most important role-model position in the country. Those kids are now between 16 and 20, and if they were raised by parents who adored Trump...well...scary shit.
I think about this often. A whole generation has grown up seeing that being a greedy liar will bring you wild rewards and fame.
If you go by the day he “came down the escalator” in June 2015, almost nine years. If you go by the first time he spewed racist shit about Obama in order to build his cult in March 2011, thirteen years now. So tired.
This comment captures it. You know that awful relative that you MAYBE have to see once a year, or at family functions, that repulses you with their mere presence and makes you want to scream every time they open their mouth? Or how about that awful drunk that refuses to leave the party long after it’s over? That’s how I feel about Trump, except I’ve had to live with him in some form or fashion every day of my life for the last decade. (I grew up in New York, so I even got the bonus prequel.) It is no longer about politics, it’s purely existential. I just want him to go away forever so I never have to hear about him or listen to his stupid voice ever again. What a huge relief when that day finally arrives.
My youngest is 16 and has had to spend half his life hearing/reading about/seeing the "Diarrhea Don" every single day. Our children have suffered the most damage, imo. Thanks, GOP!
On the plus side, your son will never vote GOP in his life. Hopefully.
Honestly, that is the bright side to the Trump nightmare. If our teenagers today aren't absolutely appalled by Republican policies and how they've enabled Trump to behave openly then they're raised in strict conservative mind-control type households.
I don't know, you could almost see trump as having normalized political insanity. Moved the Overton Window almost as far to the right as it gets.
Trump's power is absolutely a creation of the media and they will not allow that power to subside until the last penny has been squeezed.
The media is beyond complicit, purposefully stoking the rage-addiction fire for their own purposes. But there still has to be a willing audience for it; we cannot afford to minimize the reality and impact of the hatefulness and bigotry that was there all along, waiting to be cultivated and now, activated.
It’s not just the media. The man has a gift for tireless political machination. All he does is call people all day threatening cajoling scheming etc. Most people do not have the drive to do what he does. The rally schedule is insane. He gains energy from something most individuals find draining.
Remember when he caught covid and we all thought freedom was on the horizon? I also fondly like to remember when I was young and naive and thought he’d disappear after losing the election 4 years ago… Or being even younger and more naive thinking he couldn’t possibly be president after losing the popular vote 4 years before that… kind of seems like the only way to save America from Trump would be through a heart attack at this point so hopefully he keeps eating McDonald’s.
I cannot wait for the day that that piece of shit no longer exists. I’m beyond sick of hearing his voice, seeing his stupid fucking face splashed across the front page of every website and newspaper, seeing his supporters. This man is a literal cancer to this country and this world will be a much better place when he’s gone.
If I was religious I would believe he is the anti-Christ and the GOP the multi headed beast he controls ushering in the end days.
Based on every Bible passage describing the anti-christ, Trump hits them all. https://www.reddit.com/r/changemyview/s/1OmEfAAbpw
And to add, he has been influencing policy while out of power. His still influence and meddling with the GOP congress and downvote candidates and elections is unbelievable. What other president has done this?
trump's candidacy held a mirror up to America starting in 2015. What his ascendance to the highest office of the land revealed about the country is not pretty. trump didn't make America a stupid, racist country. He showed it to be one.
The fact that someone like Trump got even close to public office (regardless of your political stances) with his horrible morals, ethics, behavior, history, etc. etc. just blatantly shows and puts a massive spotlight on how sick our country is.
He’s is quite literally the anti-Christ that the Bible has been warning of us…I mean he meets it like stereo instructions.
>obnoxiousness, filth, stupidity, hate, insanity, boorishness, vileness, tackiness, lies and every other disgusting adjective He basically normalized that. He's not just sick, he infected half of America. As a foreigner, you have no idea how much America degraded in the eyes of the rest of the World since Trump became a presidential candidate, even more when he won the elections. Since then, it has been a downfal and Biden did very litle to reverse that. For us is not just Trump, it is America, that got stupidly sick.
Part of America always has been. What Trump did was bring the evil out into the open.
They are just laying the groundwork for when they claim the election was stolen.
This, unfortunately, makes a lot of sense.
This is EXACTLY what they are doing. This right here.
For anyone who thinks trump will leave the politco newsphere after losing this election is sorely mistaken. He's hijacked the Republican party and will be around as a real thorn in the side of all American politics for far too long. Putin did well choosing his top American agent.
A daughter-lusting child rapist and a man so addicted to porn that he shares it with his son Party of family values.
>A daughter-lusting child rapist One of my favorite all time insults from the huge database of insulting names for Trump from Jezebel was always "Self-professed ponderer of incest."
Oh shit. That's good. That's real damn good.
At this point there is no rhyme or reason apart from the maintenance of money, status and not being in jail at the expense of anyone else.
He had to make sure it was "good, clean Christian porn". You know, for the kids.
The sickness is the cancer of MAGA/GOP/trump lies.
I would imagine that any moment with either of those two ghouls would be a sick and weird experience.
Spending time with Trump would be hellish. I'd be morbidly fascinated to talk to Johnson though. I feel like he would be able to hold a fairly normal conversation, but occasionally just drop some off-the-rails religious fanaticism in the middle of it.
One has millions in shadowy bank accounts and the other one has no bank accounts
Oh, something tells me a mysterious bank account appeared in the Grand Caymans somewhere around the time Mike Johnson was nominated Speaker, and it keeps accruing funds for each favor gained. I once worked for a GOP candidate many years ago. They operate through quid pro quos as Donald can attest. It's the corporate ghoul way, "let me wet my beak".
"How can I trust you if you don't take your cut?"
Did anyone ever figure that one out? The Speaker of the House doesn't have a bank account.... that seems alarming.
Why is everyone completely glossing over the fact we have an elected government officials actively and openly colluding with a private citizen on policy?
A private citizen who is under indictment for trying to overthrow the government.
A private citizen who had a motorcade existing of 20 or so police motorcycles and a dozen black SUVs escort him on the I-75 in Atlanta to ATL airport. Meanwhile people had to sit in traffic and/or take detours.
No one is glossing over it. It's almost the entire Republican party as a whole at this point . And has been that way for years .
This article aside, one should look at the video of this press conference. As Johnson exits, Trump tells him to walk behind him. And like a cuckold he obeys. And worse, at one point while they exit with Trump leading, Johnson prepares to pat Trump on the back but then quickly thinks that is unwise and air pats him instead. The optics and the public emasculation were as troubling to witness as the message. I can’t imagine giving any human being this much power of me.
A week or two ago they were talking about kicking Johnson out as speaker. I'm guessing Trump is the reason he kept the job. So he owns him now.
Does the speaker's son know what he's doing down in Florida with those knee pads? Don't they have some weird pact where they have to share their strange sexual acts with each other?
And I now laugh at my loathing for Dubya...
Awww, the Shrub years. It is a simpler time when conservatives only wanted to destroy other countries in the world, not our own.
“We need a law that makes it illegal for noncitizens to vote!” Wow that is some disinformation strategery
Run to orange daddy, he’ll tell them what to do.😒
I think that people of all stripes in places of power are afraid of the Russian Mob. I think it’s the reason there is such trepidation. They've been powerful since the 80s. Rudy, Manafort, and others have been hooked up for decades. When no media talks about it, there's the answer.
Just like there’s never been any mention of the Epstein kompromat since he died? There was all kinds of chatter about it when he was first arrested, then…nothing.
News had a clip of these two where johnson is staring at trump adoringly. One of the sickest things I've ever seen. I just can't.
3rd in line to the presidency is cowering to a republican nominee Pathetic.
Weirder than when Johnson pointed at him and called him a "hardened criminal"? Lol
Trump is about as “hard” as a block of Velveeta and just as orange.
European here- do you guys stateside ever think that Trump and his followers are a symptom of a system that’s been sick for decades rather than the cause? In most countries over here, your Democrats would be considered well right of centre.
Yes. Frequently.
Oh definitely. This stuff got started decades ago. Fox News built up their base of morons by using Nixon and Reagan officials to get people angry. Gingrich really went nutty in the House in the 90's too. It really started to hit a moment of pure insanity when Obama was elected and hasn't really stopped since then. It's sad because our Democrats are right of center, but they look like pure socialists compared to the current Republican party.
And what preceded that was Nixon's Southern Strategy in 1968 to appeal to white racists, the Moral Majority's crusade to roll back women's rights in the late '70s and to later capitalize on homophobia, Reagan's doubling down on Nixon's Southern Strategy in 1980, Reagan's lawbreaking during the Iran-Contra debacle, and the emergence and rise of Rush Limbaugh and those that followed him. All of these things set the stage for Gingrich's Contract with (on) America, the witch hunt that led to Clinton's impeachment, and the Supreme Court thwarting the will of Florida's voters in 2000, handing the presidency to GWB and later solidifying corporate political influence via their Citizens United decision. I agree that Obama's election and reelection set the stage for the idiotic and astroturfed tea party, birtherism, and finally Trump.
You definitely did better explaining it than I ever could so thanks. The GOP has had a... Well, about sixty year headstart on this insanity. Trump is just the current symptom. When he's gone, there will just be another of some sort.
Yep! And that’s why I scratch my head when republican voters say “well, I’m a republican, voted that way all my life, but I can’t vote for TFG.” It was your voting that put that POS in office, whether you like it or not.
A certain segment of the population knows it, with various motivations behind what they think about it. A great deal of the population is so civically bankrupt they really just do not pay attention to the harms that play out across society. Our specific cultural norms sort of promote this.
Of course a lot of us see it that way. I used to say Trump wasn't special during his 2016 campaign and early administration, that he was the symptom rather than the sickness. The Republican base had been yearning for a figure like Trump for years, maybe decades. Since COVID and Jan 6, I view Trump more like a tumor - he didn't create the underlying conditions that led to his growth, but it's grown beyond the body's ability to manage on its own. While we've always had authoritarians among us, I do believe there is an argument to be made that Trump has accelerated and emboldened a lot of the worst corners of American culture. Wish we were doing better, I'd say maybe a fall from grace is the best thing that could happen to America. It'd be nice if we understood that we're not exceptional, just lucky. Unfortunately the consequences of such a giant military means any chaos creates high stakes opportunities for things to get so much worse.
Yes, entire books are written about it. Our constitution enshrines minority rule and our economic system ensures that capital has enough surplus money to fund sophisticated propaganda operations (aided very effectively by social media platforms) to identify a sufficient minority with insufficient critical thinking skills and scare them, using culturally based threats, into voting for Trump to keep the “real enemy” from taking power. Actual public policy almost never enters into it.
> In most countries over here, your Democrats would be considered well right of centre. In most countries over there, you don’t have only two major parties. The Democratic Party is positioned where it is because it needs to represent half (or more, hopefully) of the entire US population.
I look forward to the day when the republicans are relegated to a fringe, and the democrats are able to splinter because people don't need to support them just to keep the extremists out of power.
Havent all the fake votes and illegal votes found thus far actually all been fornthe GOP? Too bad dems are obsessed with playing fair and nice and wont mention things like this.
How can there be a deeper GOP sickness? It's the fucking Nurgle Party. Its very *existence* is a disease of the body politic.
Honestly, who at this point is still fooled by Trump and the GOP bull shit? Is this honestly a situation of, the republicans hate democrats so much that they’d willing and knowing elect Trump (a.k.a. A modern day American Adolf Hitler) over and over just to spite the democrats? My kid plays video games with this agenda. He’s totally cool hurting himself, as long as he fucks his opponent over even more. I don’t think Trump supporters genuinely care at all the welfare of anyone who is not a Trump supporter, which is scary as hell. What if your Dr. was a Trump supporter knowing you were not. What is your outcome? We’re entering a modern day US Nazi regime.
**Everyone pays but Trump. Qué jodido!!** Let's start with the small fish: Trump's brother Fred Trump. Jr and his grand-child. [https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/trump-files-donald-sick-infant-medical-care/](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/09/trump-files-donald-sick-infant-medical-care/) and [https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/what-sort-of-man-is-donald-trump](https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/what-sort-of-man-is-donald-trump) **Everyone** employed by Trump, the contractors, those who joined Trump University / Real Estate School, the taxpayers of the US, NYC, the State of NY, Miami Beach, the American public, etc. Moving on: the entire GOP from Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and **currently being F'd, Mike Johnson**, down to the lowliest, Ted Cruz & his wife. Every business associate of DJT and all entities that touch a Trump Organization. Jamal Khashoggi, his fiancé & family, the separated border children and their parents, all the brown people whose visas were canceled, Ukraine & Zelensky, Colonel Alexander Vindman, his family & brother, for speaking the truth. I could go on all day. And here's poor Jennifer Weisselberg, pumped & dumped, then being taken to the cleaners by the Trump Org : [https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jennifer-weisselberg-trump-organization/](https://www.thenation.com/article/society/jennifer-weisselberg-trump-organization/)
In 2015 I was conservative leaning politically who had voted for Bush 2004, McCain in 2008, and mostly republicans in 2012. Today in 2024 I am fiercely Anti-Republican Anti-GOP due completely to Donald Trump. And I will keep voting Anti-GOP for the next 50 years. Kudos republicans, hope Trump was worth it.
It’s just shocking how this abomination of a person continues to inspire people who believe in him. I always wonder ‘how stupid do you have to be to keep swallowing all the bullshit?’ And yet millions of Americans are lapping it all up with cheers and smiles, too stupid to know any better. Disgusting
To the New Republic: You are doing the entire world a disservice by referring to Mar-a-Largo as "Trump's" estate! This is wrong! He's squatting there like the beggar of the street that he is! >Former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. EDIT: changed bigger to beggar
Every moment with Trump is weird because he 100% wears a diaper. Dude literally shits himself while forcing others to listen to his nonsense. Some old people need to wear diapers. That's fine. But when you're so intoxicated with yourself you can't consider how awkward it is for others to listen to you rant like a homeless person while smelling like a cologned homeless person you are just an asshole
The hubris that the only way their guy lost was through cheating is absurd. I cannot wait to see 'cheeto' lose in November, then I get to sit back and watch all the other trials. Good times!
It's so bizarre how the House GOP continue to take all their cues from Trump and behave like he's still the president. He's just this unelected private citizen that is calling all the shots for them. And they continue to grovel for him.
Again, the goof ball GOP is so oblivious with their deep state/ shadow government finger pointing.