Infinity facepalms.
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We traced the Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly known as TDS. It’s coming from inside the Trump.
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I keep hearing Trump and republicans complaining about how these tariffs are good because other countries are “ripping us off” but I have yet to hear any explanation of how they are “ripping us off”.
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“does Trump actually think…”
No, not about whether what he’s saying is correct, or true, or even remotely plausible. He’s got a knack for detecting what people want to hear and saying things that sound like that. I don’t believe he remotely cares about whether any of it is true; to care, for him, would be to miss the point. Sometimes what he says is true, sometimes it isn’t, and his only metric on whether to say it again or not is the crowd reaction.
These questions about “does he actually believe” are making some wrong assumptions - there is no “actual belief” going on, anywhere in the mix. I think his behaviour makes a lot more sense when I keep that point in mind.
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Well, first of all by manufacturing and selling products that aren’t made in the USA anymore.
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[…]
Politico, citing people who have been added to the group chats (no word on if they were added intentionally or not) says there are chats for officials to work out policy for places like Ukraine, China, and Gaza, as well as regions including the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The groups, which seemingly operate similarly to the Yemen group that got made public, involve officials and advisors sharing thoughts, including sensitive information, according to those who have seen the chats.
There have been hints that Waltz’s SignalGate situation was likely more far-reaching than it appeared. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Waltz had “created and hosted multiple other sensitive national-security conversations on Signal with cabinet members,” including chats centered around brokering a lasting peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
But Politico’s account adds more clarity to just how common these little chats are. One source speaking to the outlet said “Waltz built the entire [National Security Council] communications process on Signal.” This despite the fact that the Pentagon explicitly warning against using Signal, citing concerns that Russian hacking groups can access chats by exploiting a “linked devices” feature that allows users to access their messages on multiple devices.
[…]
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Jobs move off shore, prices go down, Americans can buy more. Trump loves to complain about a trade deficit without understanding that this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But in Trump’s world, everything is a zero sum game.
And in any event, those jobs are never coming back, tariffs or not. Nike isn’t going to start opening factories in Mississippi or Alabama so they can pay workers minimum wage to build shoes. They are just going to keep making them in Vietnam or Bangladesh and raise prices accordingly.
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Trump Didn’t Actually Say He Spoke To Long-Dead Lee Iacocca, But His Huge Tariffs Are Still Very Real
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Arias says he doesn’t know why his visa was revoked, but acknowledged that Washington may not have liked his comments on the war in Ukraine, the U.S. commercial conflict with China or the situation in Gaza.
Gee, ya think? The pattern is set, the precedent is there. You criticize the thin-skinned wannabe fuhrer, you get banned. This will start being applied to citizens soon, if it already hasn’t.
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Robert Reich with analysis and advice:
… Yesterday, the regime placed 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from all other nations. Some governments say they’ll retaliate. Others — Israel and Vietnam, for example — are responding by rolling back their own tariffs. Trump says he’ll continue to raise tariffs until other countries capitulate to various unspecified demands.
What do all these have in common? Trump’s unquenchable thirst for power, dominance, and intimidation.
Here are 10 rules for dealing with this.
- Stop treating Trump’s excuses as his real concerns. He says, for example, that he’s motivated by antisemitism at various universities. He isn’t. He and his goons have attacked other universities for entirely different reasons — allowing transgender women to play in women’s sports, or maintaining programs that encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion. They’ll use whatever pretext they can find to issue demands and get universities to capitulate.
- For the same reason, stop assuming that Trump is concerned about other nations’ “unfair” trade practices or illegal immigration. These, too, are pretexts. He is using tariffs, immigration, and every tool at his command to intimidate other nations, including our Canadian and Mexican allies and traditional allies in Europe, in order to get them to capitulate to various demands.
- Trump’s major interest is capitulation itself. Surrender is the whole point. He and those under him who are managing these extortionate initiatives want headlines that say “they” have surrendered to him — whether “they” is a country, a major university, a large law firm, a big nonprofit, even a Democratic state like California. Surrender is the point. Domination is his goal. (It always has been.)
- Each surrender feeds the public impression that Trump wants fed — that he is all-powerful, invincible, and able to get every person, institution, and country to cower to him. He knows intuitively that each capitulation feeds his power — because power is itself an impression; invincibility, the consequence of everyone’s capitulation.
- Each capitulation encourages him and his goons to engage in even more bullying of more institutions and countries. Trump’s need for dominance is insatiable. Every time he succeeds in gaining capitulation, he and his goons look for other opportunities to enlarge the impression that he has boundless power.
- Most of these institutions and countries will cave to Trump because their leaders are mainly concerned about their own institution’s or country’s survival. They are not concerned about the effects of their capitulations on other institutions or on the world as a whole. The costs of significant losses of funding, clients, or access are borne by them; the benefits of resistance are felt by all.
- It’s vitally important, therefore, that institutions and countries join together to fight this systemic intimidation.
- University faculties must join together under the umbrella of the American Association of University Professors to speak out against Trump’s assault on free speech and debate at universities, sue the Trump administration for violating their rights under the First Amendment, and develop a media strategy to alert the public to the dangers.
- Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the European Union must join together to create a special trade zone that excludes the United States. They should threaten to limit American banks’ access to their public procurement markets, limit the huge sums their citizens invest in American companies annually, and increase tax and regulatory pressure on American digital platforms.
- The media must not fan the flames of Trump’s madness. They should celebrate institutions that are standing up to Trump (such as the Jenner & Block law firm, Canada, and Mexico) and condemn those that are surrendering to him (such as Columbia University, the Paul Weiss law firm, and Israel and Vietnam on tariffs). They should help educate Americans about the costs of capitulating to Trump and its baleful consequences. This is all about power, and Trump’s thirst for power is all about converting the United States into a dictatorship.
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“(The appearance of) dominance is the only thing he cares about.” (Paraphrasing)
This is exactly the point. There is an old Wizard of Id cartoon that I cannot find now that summed it up:
(King speaking from his castle): “I am the King! You must do what I say! Or else I can’t be king anymore!”
And that is pretty much the thing. He absolutely cannot tolerate any defiance, resistance or correction. He must be dominant and unquestioned at all times, or he crumbles. That is his weakness, and what we must exploit. It’s not hard, he is a complete ignoramus and determined to remain so. This is why his minions are cracking down on anyone who criticizes him, especially if they do so using verifiable facts. As the markets crash and the economy crumbles, he will become even more panicked and determined to stifle any and all criticism. This is coming. We need to stand ready for it.
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This, 100%. Trump is doing things that make (dumb) people (including himself) think he’s tough and strong and powerful. Punching down. Throwing his weight around. He’s cosplaying a President without knowing or caring how to do the actual job.
“Trump is a poor person’s idea of a rich man, a weak person’s idea of a strong man, and a stupid person’s idea of a smart man.” (I can’t find who said it first – one attributed it to Michael Moore.)
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And every person’s idea of a man with dementia.
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At CMS—which will lose 300 employees, about 4 percent—laid-off employees were instructed to file any discrimination complaints they may have with Anita Pinder, identified as the director of CMS’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights. However, Pinder died last year, The Washington Post noted.
Intentional cruelty or incompetence? Probably both.
Meanwhile, NPR reports that at least 40 percent of the staff of the Administration for Community Living, or ACL, were laid off Tuesday. The ACL runs and funds various programs for older and disabled people, including Meals on Wheels.
Screwing over their own voters, also on par…
Tracking the effects of the cuts and the health of Americans will also get more difficult under the Trump administration and Kennedy. The majority of the teams handling communications, media relations, and Freedom of Information Act requests at the NIH, CDC, and FDA have also been cut, according to Stat.
Now this one is most certainly intentional. Transparency and accountability are the enemies of this administration, and must be stopped at all costs.
Good Lord, what a fucking mess!!
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Last quote meant to be a different one?
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One ‘little’ addition to your gob-smacking list of HHS horrors: (as heard on last evening’s Maddow) trump’s lackeys fired the physician/researcher who almost certainly saved his life with monoclonal treatment during his first term…
Donald Trump fired the man who likely saved his life: Former medical official
Dr. David Kessler, former FDA commissioner and chief science officer of the White House Covid-19 Task Force, talks with Rachel Maddow about the devastating effects of Donald Trump’s cuts to HHS, not only in dismantling important services, but compromising U.S. medical and scientific leadership to a degree that may not be recoverable for decades. April 2, 2025
Hayes and Maddow kept asking “Do you suppose he [trump] even knows this?” …doubtful he recalls any details of things not immediately in front of him, but @#$! i wish multiple media people would directly ask him “Do you know, sir, that you fired the very man who saved your (@#$!!!) life??” -sigh-
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It’s actually a stunningly simple calculation, and just as stunningly wrong. They are taking the difference in dollar value of imports vs exports with each nation, and that difference is how much each nation is ripping us off, and it’s also how they calculated the tariff for each country. So they think that tariff will make up the difference and bring us even with each country. It is mind numbingly stupid math.
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Indeed. My bad, fixed it.
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