Trump 2.0 official thread

Lethe

Lethe

Captain
From Edward Luce over at the
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a few days back:

Donald Trump's state of mind is a global risk

A cabinet of sycophants makes an already erratic US president a greater threat

US psychiatrists have been discouraged from commenting on the mental health of public figures since the so-called Goldwater rule in the 1970s. To the uncredentialed, however, the American president’s hold on reality seems to be erratic. The dwindling universe of respectable Donald Trump apologists attribute his daily flights of fancy to trolling. He is just winding liberals up, they say. That Pavlovian excuse is wearing thin. As Trump readies a US armada for a Middle Eastern war whose aims he cannot articulate, an honest reckoning of geopolitical risks would place his wayward psychology high up.

That Trump often lies is, in itself, not proof of irrationality. That he is encouraged to believe his own lies is more serious. Many of the US president’s foreign counterparts deal with the Trump challenge by trying to stoke his vanity. Nato’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, depicts Trump as a “Daddy” who is doing the manly things necessary to keep the family safe. Assuming Rutte does not believe his flattery, the aim is to boost Trump’s ego so as to steer his actions. The risk is that such honeyed words only push him deeper into fantasyland. When a leader has an outsized estimate of his own powers, truth-tellers are indispensable. Who are Trump’s truth-tellers?

With Trump’s cabinet, that question is rhetorical. His top appointees outdo each other in praise for their leader. Trump is the greatest president in US history (Pam Bondi, attorney-general); he has created an American golden age (Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary); he has pulled off the most powerful military raid “I would say in world history” (Pete Hegseth, defence secretary, after the Venezuela operation); and so on. These are one notch below saying that Trump can turn back the waves. A good public servant is supposed to give the commander-in-chief a realistic appraisal of his options. Can America be confident of Hegseth’s advice to Trump on Iran?

It goes without saying that liberals are fantasising when they call for the 25th amendment — the constitutional tool that allows for removal of a president who is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office”. That can only be triggered by the vice-president with a majority vote of the cabinet. It is impossible to imagine JD Vance playing Brutus to Trump’s Caesar. The vice-president’s basis for succeeding Trump rests on his unimpeachable loyalty.

[....] For all the talk of Trump as a madman, my colleague’s Taco rule (Trump always chickens out) generally holds. He can reasonably be described as a bully and a narcissist. But he backs off when he is outgunned. Taco only works, however, when Trump knows what is at risk. Whether foreign or American, people who tell him what he wants to hear, not what he needs to know, are playing a dangerous game. The road to Trumpian recklessness is paved with flattery.
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S

Serb

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Epstein files are turning into background noise, and now this absolute circus of a UFC card is practically staged at the center of government power.

It’s embarrassing and absurd.

Imagine this nonsense happening anywhere else in the world?

A literal gladiator fights for wealthy and influential elites right next to the president’s office.

At this pace, the U.S. doesn’t have another one or two years of this before something gives.

I predict a 2027 collapse officially for the record.

...

The US is very close to being officially the first “meme country” in history, not just a failing empire.

Some kind of one-off phenomenon that will be studied forever.

I mean, a president openly shilling his own and his family’s "crypto coin" pump-and-dump scams like it’s just another product drop.

Making foreign policy statements in full Caps Lock straight from his social media account.

Posting AI-generated images of himself chilling in some imagined “Gaza Resort” after everything there was supposedly leveled.

Announcing meme-tier sanctions for everyone, then changing tone or direction with the same speed it takes him to fire off another status update.

Markets going crazy almost daily because of a post, a rumor, a vibe. There were so many more examples. I can barely even remember them all.
 
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