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The Trumpification of America

by Frank Schnittger Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 05:12:21 PM EST


Many Americans I meet in Europe are embarrassed by Trump and say that he doesn't represent the real America. When you consider that he has always had negative approval ratings, including throughout his entire first term and during the 2024 election campaign, they may have had a point. Gerrymandering, voter suppression,  and the preponderance of smaller states with Republican majorities have enabled Republicans to gain control of the Presidency for his first term, and Congress, the Senate, and consequently the Supreme Court despite being behind in the popular vote.


But something changed in the last few weeks of the last Presential election campaign. Having been behind Kamala Harris in the opinion polls ever since she replaced President Biden on the Democratic ticket, Trump gradually caught up and eventually won the Presidential election by 1.5% of the popular vote (49.8% to 48.3%). This is not quite the landslide he likes to portray it as, but it is still a considerable improvement on his 2016 win against Hillary Clinton, where he won the Electoral College 304 to 227 despite losing the popular vote by over 2% (46.1% to 48.2%). (seven faithless electors - five Democratic and two Republican - had reduced the electoral college from 538 to 531)

And now even the opinion polls have turned in his favour, with his Real Clear Politics net favourability rating in marginally positive territory at +0.2% (48.1 approve, 47.9% disapprove) and with small majorities approving his cabinet nominations and much larger majorities approving his policy of arresting and deporting millions of illegal immigrants (53% - 38%) and funding a border wall (50% - 39%). Even his Executive Order ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in schools and government has 45% approval to 40% opposition and has now been followed by big companies like Facebook ending their equality and diversity programmes. Apparently, what the world needs, is more masculine energy.

The winners of Presidential elections almost always get a post-election bounce which dies once the reality of day to day governance kicks in - many Americans seem to idolize winners - but here we are seeing significant majorities even for some of his most controversial cabinet picks and policies. It can also be asserted that such favourability ratings are often essentially meaningless. For instance, Congress currently has a net unfavourability rating of -40% even just after the elections. So why the hell didn't they elect a different a different Congress more to their liking?

Perhaps many Americans are libertarians and anarchists on principle and regard all government as a conspiracy against the people. But they sure seem to like what they are getting from Trump right now and the image he is portraying of an all action President. He has even signed an Executive Order denying the right to citizenship of those born in the USA - something explicitly protected by the constitution. No doubt his Supreme Court nominees will find a way to "reinterpret" the constitution to make this legal.

Of course, having the USA elite supporting you also helps. Elon Musk, who spent $250 million on Trump's election campaign has been joined by a veritable queue of billionaires paying millions for a place at Trump's inauguration and falling over each other, to promote initiatives that will presumably attract billions in Federal funding in due course. Trump's promise to reduce Corporation and income taxes and introduce tariffs on competing foreign imports is no doubt music to their ears.

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp owner Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) is joining Musk's X in getting rid of moderation and fact checking teams and Trump has signed an Executive Order giving Tik Tok a reprieve despite the fact he does not have the power to overturn legislation passed by Congress and approved by the Supreme Court. Perhaps Tik Tok made a substantial contribution to his campaign or inauguration funds as well.

But the larger point is perhaps that none of this really matters in Trumpworld. Big money trumps all. The law, and even the Constitution can be bent to his will, and serious law breakers pardoned at his whim. His own Supreme Court has ruled that all actions committed by a President in office are effectively above the law. The USA, which grew out of a massive immigration of citizens escaping the tyranny of Kings, despotic rulers, and religious persecution, now has a King of its own.

I drew some flak from Trump apologists in the comments for arguing that Trump 2.0 will be nothing like Trump 1.0. So far, I don't think I have been proved too far wrong. Those Americans who claim he doesn't represent the real USA have some work to do if he is not to remake the USA in his own image. Hopefully, they can do so before he does a lot of damage to the real world outside the USA as well. Dictatorial regimes have a tendency to end in tears.

 

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Please accept a not so strange request. I use Euro Trib as my home page, because it doesn't have much, if any, online digital baggage attached to it. So every time you post a picture of the dangerous insane dictator i must continually look at the con man currently destroying the world.

On a related note, so few people actually know the details of the level of legal and other grift that being imposes. I highly recommend a powerful political and legal analyst of the highest order, Dr. Marcy Wheeler, who lives in Ireland! You can find her brilliance, coupled with an erudite community at Emptywheel (MT Wheeler).

She has studied the court cases revolving around the grifter-in-chief in a detail that no one in the legacy media does, and tries to keep the press in line from false understandings of the cases. Very worth a look.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 06:17:36 PM EST
According to her blog, she lives in Grand Rapids, MI?

Index of Frank's Diaries
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 07:13:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
No, she actually lives south of Dublin with her husband. she comes from Michigan. I've been following her for nearly two decades.

but thank you for checking. i trust you'll find her work very strong. She gets cited in much media and legal blogs, especially as she showed in detail that Merrick garland didn't slow the Jan 6 case as so many claim.

She also has debunked much of the BS regarding the Hunter Biden "laptop" and how it was weaponized.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 08:05:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
i wonder if she keeps her whereabouts hard to find, as trumpers have it out for her.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 08:06:08 PM EST
[ Parent ]
The website "About" says she lives in Limerick

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 08:09:54 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I haven't heard of her speaking publicly in Ireland or having a media presence here. To be honest, I don't think Trumpers care about facts or legality anymore. They want power, and now they've got it. Nothing else matters much.

Index of Frank's Diaries
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 08:36:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
i doubt she does speak there publicly, and she's mostly speaking about the politics of the status of the US court cases trying to have trumpf paying for his criming. in great detail. she is also a part of regular professional podcasts.

it's just she happens to live there. Her value is to people trying to understand what's actually happening in the maga world.

she's a valuable resource, as are your writings. i was only making a pointer.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin

by Crazy Horse on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 10:45:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
She was part of our private group when we worked on the Niger Yellowcake Hoax. Some of the work was published here, most with eRiposte on the Left Coaster.
by de Gondi (publiobestia aaaatttthotmaildaughtusual) on Sat Jan 25th, 2025 at 01:20:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I second the request ...

So every time you post a picture of the dangerous insane dictator i must continually look at the con man currently destroying the world.

It will be a tough four years and the Trumpistas are a,ready vying for a 3rd term for the "savior" protected by their gods.

I will not read, write or post material about domestic issues of the bandit states of the "New World". Many citizens are striking old glory signaling the end of democracy. The dictator and his Jan 6th storm troopers will be extremely unpredictable.

VDL, Rutte and Wilders are very supportive of Der Trumpf ... Europe will suffer after four years of Joe ... a continuation of Super MAGA.

How We Fight: Crusades, Quagmires, and the American Way of War | Swarthmore College |

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 10:26:14 PM EST
It's not your mother's Ireland anymore | 17 March 2024 |

And so, this year, rather than use Ireland's privileged face time with the American President in advance of St. Patricks Day to discuss peace in Ireland or the fate of Ireland's children in America, the Taoiseach pushed proud Irish-American Joe Biden to do something about his Gaza policy. Even the Irish, who take great pleasure in the long line of American Presidents it can claim, is peeved by America's failures to do more about the Gaza crisis.

This time, Ireland is trying to teach America, not vice versa.

Genocide Joe ... proud Irish-American-Zionist

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 11:46:21 PM EST
[ Parent ]
We're not leaving to get away from America. But having made the decision to move, it offers some distance to realize all the things that have become part of an increasingly dysfunctional America -- of which Trump is as much symptom as cause -- that we'll leave behind.

Emptywheel Fridays On the Nicole Sandler Show

Don't disseminate the issues created by Trump and Musk.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Jan 24th, 2025 at 11:58:16 PM EST
[ Parent ]


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