Nationalism and isolationism are all well and good (apart from being very stupid):-:everyone understands money.
"We made this a really sketchy place to visit... Why is nobody visiting?".
Not rocket science.
From my very anecdotal perspective, the only people I know who took a trip to the US in 2025 did so because they'd already sunk some money into flights and Disney tickets or whatever in 2024.
(Or "necessary' business trips).
I don't think anyone in their right mind should take the risk of being fucked off into a detention centre for X period of time...
Don't have to be Nostradamus to predict US tourism numbers in 2026 are going to be terrible.
Sane people don't fancy a trip to the new Fascist States of America.
Honestly, the entire reason my fiancé and I completely changed our wedding plans from Las Vegas to Mexico is because both of our friends groups are mostly non-white. ICE would think we're smuggling in whole troupes of illegal immigrants and I don't really want to spend my honeymoon in an El Salvadorean prison complex. I think my workplace will be mad about that.
I was assuming he was in prison too so I probably wouldn't hear too much about it if we're in different divisions. But he'd probably be pretty mad too.
The World Cup will disguise the drop in ‘normal’ tourism. But 2027 if the government is still acting the same … man the sudden realisation is going to hit hard.
FIFA greed is genuinely the only reason I’m not going, though we all agreed we’d only see the matches in Canada or Mexico. We don’t want to take the chance of going to the US and being turned away at the airport for our reddit history, or worse: being actually shot by the police.
We have more trust in the mexican cartels than US law enforcement
Even if I had to travel there, chances are I wouldn't be able to pass the border anyway. I contently make fun of the orange turd and his Barnum of an administration. Lol
It's okay, my fiancé had a similar experience with his sister. We told her not to go to the US for a stupid concert because she's both trans and not white passing in the slightest.
Like, hello, we might not like you but we would also prefer for you to be alive and not in prison too??
Tell your family to get burner phones for the visit. The new rules now state you are REQUIRED to hand in all social media accounts for border agents to check.
In case they aren’t solid Trumpers they‘ll need burner phones with „real“ looking accounts that either praise Trump or don’t politically comment at all.
This is insane. I keep reading it, understand it, and yeah, this is totally insane. It happened so fast and so easily.
All (and I mean really ALL) my friends would be detained as terrorist right away since we are all basically more or less active "antifa" in person and in social media.
Exactly. Most MAGA supporters don't live in places that are attractive to international tourists. Even at the best of times, you don't get many Europeans saying "let's go on holiday to the wonderful towns of Incestville, Mississipi, Lynching, Alabama, or Rustbelt, Indiana, this summer..."
Venusalien shows up at the border, hair bleached to a shocking white blond and wearing a pair of ice blue tinted contact lenses.
Border Goon: “Where’s that accent from? You looking’ a bit Venez…… Venusalien…. Foreign to me, boy.”
No señor. Entre mis antepasados se encuentran Erik the Red y Harald Bluetooth. Perdone el bronceado, pero he estado en Mallorca los últimos meses.
For those who don't speak Spanish and don't find it convenient to pop this into Google translate "No sir. My ancestors include Erik the Red and Harald Bluetooth. Forgive the tan, I've been in Mallorca for the past few months."
Border Goon: Oh, ok then, welcome to America, Land of Freedumb. Don't worry about that exit date, it only applies to brown people and people who come from shit holes.
My partner and I did a road trip through the southern states about a decade ago - almost three months, stopping in different small towns and visiting all these random tourist traps. It was awesome.
Caveat being, we’re both white and Aussie. But I wouldn’t do it again, not in this political climate.
Oh some do 100% understand it.
They just have to play act as a moron or MAGA will turn on them.
I have zero sympathy for them. Drinking the Kool aid and believing is one thing but it's a million times worse to me if you know it's wrong and are just doing it for power & money, that's just pure evil.
Americans - and understanding anything about economics, or empathy, or ..
Nope - most cannot - or are so brainwashed by their church, fox or whatever - they don`t want to - because 'reality' scares them or something
Heard about the “digital strip search”? Border agents in the US are now checking peoples phones for negative comments towards the USA or particularly Trump himself. Some people even have their phone connected to a device to download all the data for it to be analysed on the spot and for the data to be kept permanently on record.
"Damn pesky freeloaders of tourists, always saying shit like "bosses should pay their employees fair wages" to avoid having to tip. Why would employers do that, genius?! It's their job to take money, not to give it! Tourists are cheap bastards! "
The best kind of money too. It's foreign money, not money circling within an economy, but money taken from a foreign economy and injected into yours, rasing your relative and absolute wealth.
It’s honestly the best kind of money you can get as a country. They are spending and consuming thousands of dollars, asking for nothing in return other than visiting some sights.
Yeah, did he miss over $30 billion dollars? There are towns and states where that's their biggest industry. Hawaii and Nevada rely on tourism-related jobs, while large states like Florida, California, and New York see large tourism revenue from visitor numbers. States like Montana, Wyoming, and those such as North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia while not totally relying on tourism, see huge economic gains from visitors. There are going to be towns that will not be able to survive in four years.
And you have some Americans saying crap like "Domestic tourism will make up for it, they spend more anyway". And they say it with authority without actually looking anything up, like foreign visitors tend to spend more time at their destinations and spend more money per day. Plus there is the whole thing about the money coming from outside the country which is different for the economy, like if your friend gave you money that would be different than you just moving it from one pocket to the other.
The bid was made in 2016 and the US/Mexico/Canada bid was voted for in 2018. Yes, Trump was president at the time, but he wasn't mask-off fash-fuck to this extent at the time.
I think it's also his declining mental state. My gramma became a somewhat mean person when Alzheimer's started. Nowadays, her brain has become 100% porridge, but before she became non-verbal she had become kind of a cunt
I wouldn't be surprised if something similar has happened to Trump
A load of people who are smarter and more competent spent the 4 years he was out of office strategising about his return and their goals, project 2025 was part of that but basically he he fewer people holding him back and more people with extreme views around him.
I still can't believe that anyone seems to think it's totally ok for him to call anyone he doesn't like all sorts of names. Mainly women. Can you picture for example Starmer telling someone from the BBC "quiet, piggy?" or saying someone from ITV is a horrible, mean, stupid woman or whatever? It's beyond belief that people are just accepting it and that other journalists aren't standing up for their colleagues - and that other people in general aren't telling him to grow the f up and remind him it's not a school playground (I mean, he was shot at so he may be confused about if he's in one or not...).
I guess the level of tolerance comes from him assuming a persona for The Apprentice, people also talked about a level of behavioural acceptance being "baked in" when Boris was elected so I guess if can win everyone over when they already know you're a tosser you benefit from a level of impunity your peers could only dream of
What do you expect people to do? Everyone knows the guy is an asshole. Thats actually the reason why some americans like him. Hes still president of a country that accounts for around 25% of global gdp, so if you say anything he doesnt like, hes gonna tax your country and hurt it, even if he ends up self destroying his own country.
For sure, but what I mean to say is that he's so much personally worse than before. Like yes now he's surrounded by people who are far more competently evil, but I genuinely question if Original Trump would have made Mrs. Vince McMahon the Secretary of Education or whatever
I think he wasn't this incredibly stupid and crass the last time
Yeah those are good questions but I wonder if he's just high on his own supply. He was president first in 2016 and no one took him seriously and his now spent almost a decade with people blowing smoke up his ass, that has to go to your head?
Also they have more power over the branches this time than they did last time. And after seeing what they’ve been able to get away before this they just don’t care anymore.
Yes, but more than this: his first term had a lot of people who were not necessarily MAGA. Lots of civil servants, and other non-politician types, they weren't MAGA. They left a lot of postings unfilled too. Even those they appointed, there was more emphasis on skill rather than loyalty. General Mattis was a good example.
So the incompetent people didn't know how to properly mess up the system, and the competent people kept the morons in check, sort of.
Now it's like the USSR: they'll appoint a raging alcoholic, as long as they're compliant to the regime. They don't care what damage they cause, they're acting like there won't be a 2028 election.
they'll appoint a raging alcoholic, as long as they're compliant to the regime
Come on, things are bad enough as they are, no need to overexaggerate. They wouldn't really promote a raging alcoholic to a position of real power, would they?
Well, yeah, the fascist overtones were always there. The MAGA slogan is just another form of palingenetic ultranationalism, lots of newspeak (BIGLY SAD! COVFEFE! FAKE NEWS! BOWLING GREEN MASSACRE!), and the focus on a group designated as an "other" being recast as "the enemy," (e.g., Hispanic migrants), but the current administration has this turned up to 11.
At the very least, I don't remember seeing footage of Temu Gestapo running around trying to abduct "illegals."
There were also more people involved who probably did love their country. Or at least want to do some right by it. This time around, it just seems like a bunch of limp dicks overcompensating to act tough while they smash and grab what they can before the house burns down.
Last time there were adults in the administration to keep him in check. He's got a really short attention span so if you didn't want him to sign something you just hid it and he'd forget about it.
They had some at least semi sensible people in positions of influence then (many of whom left their jobs). Now they seem to be competing for who is the most batshit crazy.
The political climate globally is so different post-covid now too. Republicans were able to run on a "distrust the government" ticket to some degree because of actions taken by the Biden administration during covid. This has led to an acceptance by their own base of Trump stripping away rights under the guise of "dismantling government overreach". It's scary to watch.
If you look at it, this is pretty much the reason it exists. The authors felt they weren't prepared to effectively take over the administration the first time and achieve their goals, so they laid out detailed plans this tim.e
hosting isnt exactly a cash cow either. at least not for the cities that invest into building things. the only ones profiting are the companies doing the building part
Be interesting to see how full the US stadiums are for the World Cup matches next year compared to the ones in Canada and Mexico. The new 'show us your social media from the last 5 years' thing they're planning on for all ESTA visas isn't going to help either.
People are speculating FIFA did that stupid peace prize as a backroom deal to keep ICE away from the event since let's be honest the USA following leans heavily black and latino
The peace prize was definitely to affect something. That's how Trump works. Give him an expensive or otherwise valuable object to get a what you want. Money used to work too, but with his diminished memory and object permanence, baubles are better bet. What they got can't really be known, but spectator safety would be high on the request list.
FIFA officials are as corrupt as Trump. They didn’t buy fan safety. They bought a cut of funding going to private gulags when foreign fans are rounded up at the games.
This is ridiculous. Why would FIFA trade a few thousand slaves but basically become a criminal organization that is banned from the rest of the world? How would that ever be more profitable?
If people are really thinking that they're extremely wrong.
The peace prize was a joke trophy given to trump to make up for the Nobel peace prize.
Ice is directed by Miller and other Nazi wannabes in the trump regime. They will definitely use the opportunity to arrest brown people and send them to some middle American gulag.
There was also this case of Lopez and a TV station I don't know much about giving bribes to FIFA to buy broadcasting rights being dropped after the peace "prize". They were given bigger these instead of eg. ESPN and there was a conviction but something happened in the appeals.....
Tbh most football fans won't have this as any priority.
They didn't care about any ethics in Qatar in 2022 and won't think twice about any risk going to the US
The stadiums will be full for the World Cup. Even if half of the fans decide against travelling to the US, they will still sell out the stadiums. There are so many people who will pay insane prices for tickets and aren't politically active to this degree.
Yeah except the risk of having spent thousands on a trip like that and tickets and then being turned away at the border was quite low there... I'm European and I wouldn't go and I've been to the US over a dozen times and lived there for a year
They were very actively advertising that they wouldn't be harassing sports tourist. That the tourists would basically have their own safe bubble. US was openly contemplating to screen those coming to matches and setting extra visa fees.
And considering that each tourist dollar has over two dollars in economic output, this is really bad news for the US. But hey, they wanted isolationism, and we are only too happy to oblige.
This has completely wrecked border communities many of which rely heavily on tourism. Its not like Republicans give a fuck about anything but themselves so sacrificing millions of Americans for hatred is perfectly acceptable for them.
It’s been funny in a really sad way to see all the ads, and the bizarrely credible reporting from Canadian media, especially Global.
There was one for a guy in one of the Carolinas, talking about the decline in Canadian tourism. Except the in the background there’s a massive trump flag.
There's a couple good YouTubers who cover this. Guard the leaf covers this extensively. Tod Maffin covers way more topics, so he talks about tourism more occasionally.
Completely anecdotal I know but I (a Brit) booked a trip to New York last November before the election assuming trump wouldn't get back in. I took the trip in Feb cause I dint want to lose out and I really liked it would love to go back, but I wont while Maga are in charge.
Going to Toronto next year instead and I imagine I'm not the only one rerouting my North American trips from the US to Canada
Friendly reminder that while Trump is making US national parks more expensive for tourists, Canada is making them free. You don't even need to book anything, just show up.
A lot of ghe border towns count on cross-border commerce, and some of them are hurting real bad now that so many of us have stopped buying stuff through them.
Besides from the US potentially losing its status as one of the top international tourist destination which also means losing a boatload of money from international tourists...... uh I guess it isn't that bad....
I'm from South America and any lingering excitement I felt to see some U.S. landmarks vanished after seeing people being kidnapped off the streets for looking too brown or having too thick of an accent. It's not "just Trump", a large portion of the population is deeply hateful, they just needed Trump to validate them to act on that hatred. I'd never feel safe trying to be tourist-y there now.
As a European, I really hope this will remain true, but the memory of my country (and others) completely cucking out the moment Biden was voted in, does not make me all that confident.
Older Europeans still cling to this insane idea that the USA are genuinely our friend.
Canadian here.
I wish we had an ocean between us and the United States. We unfortunately share a really large border ....
The US as a country is hostile... The people maybe not so much.
I just shake my head and wonder " is this the bad place?". Are we in the upside down? Is the matrix glitching?
Which makes our older people here stupid.
We are some who been trying to get hold of our government for months to get a dialogue and pretty much beg them to not trust Donald around Greenland. Just yesterday it suddenly came as a surprise they can’t trust him. Our own governments live with their heads up their arses.
When we see our PMs visit Donald and just sit there, doing feck all, right next to him while he’s spewing one lie after another, and no one corrects him, and it gets broadcast in our homes,then it’s “surely he’s can’t be so bad, cause then they’d say something to him, right? “
That can only make some of our older people here think, they’re still our ally and friend.
No.
This Europe/Usa “relationship” will take decades to rectify, if ever possible. There needs to be harsh consequences for those who openly destroyed what was.
I’m only happy we’re now heading in a direction without America. And we got Canada instead 😁
Now those guys are awesome!
The thing is that Trump will be gone, but the lurch to the right will remain. So hostile immigration agents and the general racism will still be there for a long time to come.
It will require a long and concerted effort to repair this damage - if they want to.
After Trump is gone, the millions of Trump-supporting chuds will persist. And they will still vote for someone. Probably someone almost as bad as Trump. Maybe even someone worse.
This attitude also overlooks the fact that not all international travelers are "tourists." Some are traveling for business. To visit a relative. To shop for the day. All the regulations impacting international travel to the US affect all travelers, not just tourists.
Went to California as the election result was being determined last year. Went to 4 national parks. Won't do this while maga is around. Genuinely didn't think USians could be stupid enough to elect that clown twice.
The reasons I won't be visiting and spending money elsewhere:
that you'd have to pay $100 per day to visit national parks as a tourist
America being already expensive for food, drink and hotels - as a tourist I pay tax already.
the fascists in charge & the idiots who keep voting for them.
disregard for its allies, threatening Greenland, Canada, Venezuela.
the heavy handed border control with them now proposing access to 5 years of social media is an invasion of privacy and data farming exercise.
ICE (not the one some claim as a reason they won't visit Europe)
There's definitely more but it's a starter...
it’s really not bad, I mean, I loved going to the states, but I’m not going to put my hard earned pounds into an economy supporting the erosion of peace and goodwill. I’d rather go to Canada, which I haven’t done yet. so it’s a good thing. it’ll get me to a new place that I haven’t seen yet.
Like you, I loved going to the US & have some great memories; it's nothing like those who've never been "know" it is. However, I no longer feel that it's a country I want to visit.
Unlike you, I've been to Canada. Go - you won't regret it!
. . . & if you like chips with gravy you'll love poutine!
For a moment I forgot that you pay for the blue check mark now making it meaningless and wondered how the roadside strangler had come back to life and opened a twitter account
I don't even know my IP address right now, and I'm working in IT. How would anyone have the ones from the prior 5 years ready and how would they check whether the list is complete?
they probably feed it into some palantir AI they spend billions on, idk - but the key point is if you fail to disclose something, it's grounds for visa refusal/deportation
Yea I'm not sure they want IPs... no one has a spreadsheet somewhere with every IP they've been leased in the last 6 years. In some markets, that could be more than one per day. If we keep it simple at 1 per.day, that's >= 1825.IPs.
But the SM usernames they want for sure. And I have no doubt AI will be used to.judge sentiment. Not that AI prompts can be overridden to behave anyway they like -- or anything
My snark aside, I honestly think it's more about requiring your affirmative consent for them to look it up than anything. tracking IP addresses for folks in a practical sense over the past 5 years is an exercise in futility.
I guess Michael over here has the attention span of a toddler and simply forgot about the "down $30 billion in revenue" part by the time he reached the end of the sentence.
To be fair, it's mostly the Americans who will suffer. It's not "bad" for the Europeans staying at home and spending their money within Europe instead.
Also note the orange paedo has just announced he wants all visitors to show their last 5 years of social media posts plus passwords to get in the country. Months before the world cup. I'm sure it'll go well.
The USA is so capitalism-oriented that there is no news programme without massive stock market tickers. And yet this bloke doesn't understand "minus 30 billion dollars".
With an attitude like this and Border control which can arrest you even if you have your documents in order, it's worth reminding people to travel anywhere else.
There are lots of countries which are welcoming to tourists.
The recent news that they are planning to require many tourists to submit 5 years of their social media history as part of the entry requirements is really going to make it an even more attractive country to visit...
Not sure if you know this but most Europeans educated to degree level, like in America skew to the left, our left is more left though. The highest earning working individuals, with the most disposable income, going on more expensive holidays, tend to be degree educated. So if you wanted to affect foriegn tourism to America in a massive way without actually banning people this is how to do it.
Has a point! Please continue doing what your country is doing.
Never interrupt the enemy when they're making a mistake, and the USA is just one big mistake at this point. And has also revealed itself to be the only enemy Canada needed to worry about.
I'm German and I have worked in the US for a while. Also, I do have some family there. So while I'd love to visit all my friends and family members, it's currently a hard no unless there's an emergency.
With the new plans (announced yesterday?), that social media handles and emails of the last 5 years need to be provided for ESTA and such, I hope this trend will continue.
The new NP-ticket prices won't spark additional interests as well.
A very odd attitude. Across Europe there's a growing concern about uncontrolled illegal immigration and it's fair that to some extent people are concerned about it but this attitude in the US right now of "Fuck them . . we don't need anybody" is baffling. They are making it hard or unappealing for anybody. Students, migrants with desirable qualities and even tourists. Why would someone have a problem with tourists?? They come, they spend a lot of money for a few weeks and then they fuck off home . . .
news flash tourists bring in money regardless if you like it or not
And jobs for those working in the service industries in those tourist hot spots.
More local people working there brings also other jobs to cater to the everyday needs.
So less tourists -> less revenue -> loss of jobs and possibly closing of businesses link directly or indirectly to tourism.
More unemployment means less tax revenue means less investment in the local services and infrastructure.
It baffles me that some people don't understand this.
Nationalism and isolationism are all well and good (apart from being very stupid):-:everyone understands money.
"We made this a really sketchy place to visit... Why is nobody visiting?".
Not rocket science.
From my very anecdotal perspective, the only people I know who took a trip to the US in 2025 did so because they'd already sunk some money into flights and Disney tickets or whatever in 2024.
(Or "necessary' business trips).
I don't think anyone in their right mind should take the risk of being fucked off into a detention centre for X period of time...
Don't have to be Nostradamus to predict US tourism numbers in 2026 are going to be terrible.
Sane people don't fancy a trip to the new Fascist States of America.
I've a strong suspicion 2026 is going to be a massive year for international tourism.
Just not for the USA.
Honestly, the entire reason my fiancé and I completely changed our wedding plans from Las Vegas to Mexico is because both of our friends groups are mostly non-white. ICE would think we're smuggling in whole troupes of illegal immigrants and I don't really want to spend my honeymoon in an El Salvadorean prison complex. I think my workplace will be mad about that.
And possibly your newlywed spouse.
I was assuming he was in prison too so I probably wouldn't hear too much about it if we're in different divisions. But he'd probably be pretty mad too.
Mexico is a fantastic country. I have absolutely no doubt you will have an incredible time of it.
What the USA loses, other places gain.
The World Cup will disguise the drop in ‘normal’ tourism. But 2027 if the government is still acting the same … man the sudden realisation is going to hit hard.
Wouldn‘t be such a big impact as they want to - already overpriced as hell. So a LOT of people could and would decide to stay away
FIFA greed is genuinely the only reason I’m not going, though we all agreed we’d only see the matches in Canada or Mexico. We don’t want to take the chance of going to the US and being turned away at the airport for our reddit history, or worse: being actually shot by the police.
We have more trust in the mexican cartels than US law enforcement
At least the cartels love football
Even if I had to travel there, chances are I wouldn't be able to pass the border anyway. I contently make fun of the orange turd and his Barnum of an administration. Lol
https://i.redd.it/83okq86paj6g1.gif
I’ll anecdotally add family trips then.
I’m happy that my parents and siblings are coming over this and next year to meet their grandson/nephew. Won’t hold a candle to actual tourism tho.
I sincerely hope your parents and siblings don't run afoul of some power tripping immigration control agent.
This is the real concern for me. If I don’t delete my social media I would never get in to the USA.
I just told my sis & brother in law not to reference me if they get detained when they (still!!!) vacation in Palm Desert this Jan.
It would not help their cause.
My sis didn’t understand & asked why would they ask me about that, we’re flying there?
Omg we share the same dna!!
How does that happen?
You got the brains in the family, didn't you? 👀
It's okay, my fiancé had a similar experience with his sister. We told her not to go to the US for a stupid concert because she's both trans and not white passing in the slightest.
Like, hello, we might not like you but we would also prefer for you to be alive and not in prison too??
Tell your family to get burner phones for the visit. The new rules now state you are REQUIRED to hand in all social media accounts for border agents to check.
In case they aren’t solid Trumpers they‘ll need burner phones with „real“ looking accounts that either praise Trump or don’t politically comment at all.
This is insane. I keep reading it, understand it, and yeah, this is totally insane. It happened so fast and so easily.
All (and I mean really ALL) my friends would be detained as terrorist right away since we are all basically more or less active "antifa" in person and in social media.
And they’re talking about 5 years… this kind of precedent means you can’t even cater to whoever is in charge of the US it’s gotta be all about Trump.
Especially because they just saw it on a massive scale with Covid. Governments spent billions bailing out people and businesses due to the virus.
But that was a few years ago now and it was the gub'mints fault for shutting things down in the first place! /S
Wait a sec... who was the president of the US during covid? 🤔🤔
The billions printed to bail everyone out is the reason why inflation peaked for a few years afterwards
Because those people live in places no one wants to visit, for the most part. They don't have a baseline to even begin to understand.
Exactly. Most MAGA supporters don't live in places that are attractive to international tourists. Even at the best of times, you don't get many Europeans saying "let's go on holiday to the wonderful towns of Incestville, Mississipi, Lynching, Alabama, or Rustbelt, Indiana, this summer..."
Tbf I would like to drive through the South. Visiting small towns.
But there's no chance I'm going at the moment. My gf is brown and would be in a deportation camp before I'd picked up the car
“Where’s that accent from? You looking’ a bit Venez…… Venusalien…. Foreign to me, boy.”
Venusalien shows up at the border, hair bleached to a shocking white blond and wearing a pair of ice blue tinted contact lenses.
No señor. Entre mis antepasados se encuentran Erik the Red y Harald Bluetooth. Perdone el bronceado, pero he estado en Mallorca los últimos meses.
My partner and I did a road trip through the southern states about a decade ago - almost three months, stopping in different small towns and visiting all these random tourist traps. It was awesome.
Caveat being, we’re both white and Aussie. But I wouldn’t do it again, not in this political climate.
I've seen various documentaries already, like Deliverance
"Sqeal like a piggy boy"
Believe it or not, it's the type of vacation activities I'd prefer staying away from.
Oh, I believe you Ok!!!
Like, Las Vegas could completely stop existing as a city because this trend
Good
Plus more unemployment means that employers can set the wage to whatever they want.
Oh some do 100% understand it. They just have to play act as a moron or MAGA will turn on them.
I have zero sympathy for them. Drinking the Kool aid and believing is one thing but it's a million times worse to me if you know it's wrong and are just doing it for power & money, that's just pure evil.
Additional tourist money is mostly spent at locally owned business
That one might be hard to conceptualize if you're part of travel to another continent to eat at McDonalds crowd
Americans - and understanding anything about economics, or empathy, or ..
Nope - most cannot - or are so brainwashed by their church, fox or whatever - they don`t want to - because 'reality' scares them or something
They do understand. They just don’t care.
Heard about the “digital strip search”? Border agents in the US are now checking peoples phones for negative comments towards the USA or particularly Trump himself. Some people even have their phone connected to a device to download all the data for it to be analysed on the spot and for the data to be kept permanently on record.
But those foreigners don’t tip anyway /s
"Damn pesky freeloaders of tourists, always saying shit like "bosses should pay their employees fair wages" to avoid having to tip. Why would employers do that, genius?! It's their job to take money, not to give it! Tourists are cheap bastards! "
I mean there is all this but its literally in the tweet "down 30 billion" like how is that a good thing lol
In some countries it might be a comparatively negligible number because they’re not a big tourist destination and the damage stays localized.
30 billion is not that kind of negligible number, that’s a kind of magnitude you find in your household spending figures
30 billions of money.
The best kind of money too. It's foreign money, not money circling within an economy, but money taken from a foreign economy and injected into yours, rasing your relative and absolute wealth.
Money can be exchanged for goods and services.
It’s honestly the best kind of money you can get as a country. They are spending and consuming thousands of dollars, asking for nothing in return other than visiting some sights.
Even the racist and xenophobic Japanese figured this out. They hate foreigners, but love money. At least they pretend for the sake of tourism.
What a weird way to spell Swiss
Yeah, did he miss over $30 billion dollars? There are towns and states where that's their biggest industry. Hawaii and Nevada rely on tourism-related jobs, while large states like Florida, California, and New York see large tourism revenue from visitor numbers. States like Montana, Wyoming, and those such as North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia while not totally relying on tourism, see huge economic gains from visitors. There are going to be towns that will not be able to survive in four years.
And you have some Americans saying crap like "Domestic tourism will make up for it, they spend more anyway". And they say it with authority without actually looking anything up, like foreign visitors tend to spend more time at their destinations and spend more money per day. Plus there is the whole thing about the money coming from outside the country which is different for the economy, like if your friend gave you money that would be different than you just moving it from one pocket to the other.
Aren't they hosting the world cup? Why host that if you don't want tourists?
The bid was made in 2016 and the US/Mexico/Canada bid was voted for in 2018. Yes, Trump was president at the time, but he wasn't mask-off fash-fuck to this extent at the time.
The two Trump admins do feel quite different. He was a gross, petulant asshole the first time, but it's so much worse this time around
The first time he, and his admin, was too incompetent to do any "real" harm.
I think it's also his declining mental state. My gramma became a somewhat mean person when Alzheimer's started. Nowadays, her brain has become 100% porridge, but before she became non-verbal she had become kind of a cunt
I wouldn't be surprised if something similar has happened to Trump
A load of people who are smarter and more competent spent the 4 years he was out of office strategising about his return and their goals, project 2025 was part of that but basically he he fewer people holding him back and more people with extreme views around him.
I still can't believe that anyone seems to think it's totally ok for him to call anyone he doesn't like all sorts of names. Mainly women. Can you picture for example Starmer telling someone from the BBC "quiet, piggy?" or saying someone from ITV is a horrible, mean, stupid woman or whatever? It's beyond belief that people are just accepting it and that other journalists aren't standing up for their colleagues - and that other people in general aren't telling him to grow the f up and remind him it's not a school playground (I mean, he was shot at so he may be confused about if he's in one or not...).
I guess the level of tolerance comes from him assuming a persona for The Apprentice, people also talked about a level of behavioural acceptance being "baked in" when Boris was elected so I guess if can win everyone over when they already know you're a tosser you benefit from a level of impunity your peers could only dream of
What do you expect people to do? Everyone knows the guy is an asshole. Thats actually the reason why some americans like him. Hes still president of a country that accounts for around 25% of global gdp, so if you say anything he doesnt like, hes gonna tax your country and hurt it, even if he ends up self destroying his own country.
For sure, but what I mean to say is that he's so much personally worse than before. Like yes now he's surrounded by people who are far more competently evil, but I genuinely question if Original Trump would have made Mrs. Vince McMahon the Secretary of Education or whatever
I think he wasn't this incredibly stupid and crass the last time
Yeah those are good questions but I wonder if he's just high on his own supply. He was president first in 2016 and no one took him seriously and his now spent almost a decade with people blowing smoke up his ass, that has to go to your head?
I upvote any comment in which someone calls their grandma a cunt
Also they have more power over the branches this time than they did last time. And after seeing what they’ve been able to get away before this they just don’t care anymore.
Yes, but more than this: his first term had a lot of people who were not necessarily MAGA. Lots of civil servants, and other non-politician types, they weren't MAGA. They left a lot of postings unfilled too. Even those they appointed, there was more emphasis on skill rather than loyalty. General Mattis was a good example.
So the incompetent people didn't know how to properly mess up the system, and the competent people kept the morons in check, sort of.
Now it's like the USSR: they'll appoint a raging alcoholic, as long as they're compliant to the regime. They don't care what damage they cause, they're acting like there won't be a 2028 election.
Come on, things are bad enough as they are, no need to overexaggerate. They wouldn't really promote a raging alcoholic to a position of real power, would they?
https://preview.redd.it/qaroctq9mi6g1.jpeg?width=487&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17db5e0af816e32efc91dfba8cbbc425adb29741
Oh. I stand corrected. As you were...
I remember the separation policy and children in cages from 2018. It was always in plain view.
Well, yeah, the fascist overtones were always there. The MAGA slogan is just another form of palingenetic ultranationalism, lots of newspeak (BIGLY SAD! COVFEFE! FAKE NEWS! BOWLING GREEN MASSACRE!), and the focus on a group designated as an "other" being recast as "the enemy," (e.g., Hispanic migrants), but the current administration has this turned up to 11.
At the very least, I don't remember seeing footage of Temu Gestapo running around trying to abduct "illegals."
There were also more people involved who probably did love their country. Or at least want to do some right by it. This time around, it just seems like a bunch of limp dicks overcompensating to act tough while they smash and grab what they can before the house burns down.
They got three Judges in the SCOTUS. It was a lot of harm.
Last time there were adults in the administration to keep him in check. He's got a really short attention span so if you didn't want him to sign something you just hid it and he'd forget about it.
Now though the adults are gone.
They had some at least semi sensible people in positions of influence then (many of whom left their jobs). Now they seem to be competing for who is the most batshit crazy.
First time he had to worry about getting re-elected.
Now he doesn't.
The political climate globally is so different post-covid now too. Republicans were able to run on a "distrust the government" ticket to some degree because of actions taken by the Biden administration during covid. This has led to an acceptance by their own base of Trump stripping away rights under the guise of "dismantling government overreach". It's scary to watch.
Welcome to Project 2025.
If you look at it, this is pretty much the reason it exists. The authors felt they weren't prepared to effectively take over the administration the first time and achieve their goals, so they laid out detailed plans this tim.e
And they thought he'd be gone by then. Didn't expect US voters to fall for him again in 2024.
hosting isnt exactly a cash cow either. at least not for the cities that invest into building things. the only ones profiting are the companies doing the building part
Well, México and Canada are hosting it too. And those will have much higher international visitor rates than the USA.
Well they are used to having world cup where they are the only one participating
Be interesting to see how full the US stadiums are for the World Cup matches next year compared to the ones in Canada and Mexico. The new 'show us your social media from the last 5 years' thing they're planning on for all ESTA visas isn't going to help either.
It’s going to be a disaster. Anyone who has posted anything anti-Trump is just going to think that they will not risk it.
The stadiums will be filled (to the extent possible - difficult, particularly once the US is knocked out) with Americans on cut-price tickets.
People are speculating FIFA did that stupid peace prize as a backroom deal to keep ICE away from the event since let's be honest the USA following leans heavily black and latino
The peace prize was definitely to affect something. That's how Trump works. Give him an expensive or otherwise valuable object to get a what you want. Money used to work too, but with his diminished memory and object permanence, baubles are better bet. What they got can't really be known, but spectator safety would be high on the request list.
FIFA officials are as corrupt as Trump. They didn’t buy fan safety. They bought a cut of funding going to private gulags when foreign fans are rounded up at the games.
This is ridiculous. Why would FIFA trade a few thousand slaves but basically become a criminal organization that is banned from the rest of the world? How would that ever be more profitable?
If people are really thinking that they're extremely wrong.
The peace prize was a joke trophy given to trump to make up for the Nobel peace prize.
Ice is directed by Miller and other Nazi wannabes in the trump regime. They will definitely use the opportunity to arrest brown people and send them to some middle American gulag.
FIFA guys didn't give him a partificpation trophy for no Quid-pro-quo, they wanted something in exchange
There was also this case of Lopez and a TV station I don't know much about giving bribes to FIFA to buy broadcasting rights being dropped after the peace "prize". They were given bigger these instead of eg. ESPN and there was a conviction but something happened in the appeals.....
They will probably hire extras, just like they did for his parade
I'm expecting at least 5 players to be deported/refused entry.
To pre-quote Trump: 'It was an unbelievable, perhaps record-setting turnout'
Just like his first inauguration.
Tbh most football fans won't have this as any priority. They didn't care about any ethics in Qatar in 2022 and won't think twice about any risk going to the US
One was someone else's risk, this is theirs. Self interest still applies
The stadiums will be full for the World Cup. Even if half of the fans decide against travelling to the US, they will still sell out the stadiums. There are so many people who will pay insane prices for tickets and aren't politically active to this degree.
Well people went to Qatar and Russia, so I'm reckon the venues will still be full...
Yeah except the risk of having spent thousands on a trip like that and tickets and then being turned away at the border was quite low there... I'm European and I wouldn't go and I've been to the US over a dozen times and lived there for a year
Russia's "tourism police" accept your passport with a visa in it.
They don't then quiz you about Putin as a purity test.
They were very actively advertising that they wouldn't be harassing sports tourist. That the tourists would basically have their own safe bubble. US was openly contemplating to screen those coming to matches and setting extra visa fees.
I’d be interested to the drop off from Canadian tourists as well tbh.
It is estimated that the loss from the drop in Canadian travellers will be around US$ 5 to 6 billion for 2025.
CBC Source
And considering that each tourist dollar has over two dollars in economic output, this is really bad news for the US. But hey, they wanted isolationism, and we are only too happy to oblige.
Ya and a lot of that money is remaining in Canada with domestic tourism.
This has completely wrecked border communities many of which rely heavily on tourism. Its not like Republicans give a fuck about anything but themselves so sacrificing millions of Americans for hatred is perfectly acceptable for them.
Meanwhile, Montana, North Dakota, and Idaho are heavily red states. Wisconsin and Michigan voted for Trump as well in the last election.
They've all started advertising campaigns begging Canadians to come back.
"Keep the foreigners out!"
"Okay."
"No, wait..."
"We don't need you, Canada!"
"Okay, we'll go elsewhere"
"No, wait..."
It’s been funny in a really sad way to see all the ads, and the bizarrely credible reporting from Canadian media, especially Global.
There was one for a guy in one of the Carolinas, talking about the decline in Canadian tourism. Except the in the background there’s a massive trump flag.
I honestly couldn’t have shot it better myself.
Okay? It's not Canadians' responsibility to care more about American border cities than the people that live in them do
Almost like when you threaten to annex a country, then claim you "don't need them", they don't take to that too lightly...
Year over year border crossing by land have decreased every month by an average of around 25%.
There's a couple good YouTubers who cover this. Guard the leaf covers this extensively. Tod Maffin covers way more topics, so he talks about tourism more occasionally.
Our absence is being keenly felt and will continue apace as long as it can. This is damage it'll probably take decades to fix.
I think this US government has set their whole country back 80 years in terms of international good will, and soft power.
Definitely decades of work to undo the damage, if they even can.
I'd be interested in a correlation of visitors to canada
Completely anecdotal I know but I (a Brit) booked a trip to New York last November before the election assuming trump wouldn't get back in. I took the trip in Feb cause I dint want to lose out and I really liked it would love to go back, but I wont while Maga are in charge.
Going to Toronto next year instead and I imagine I'm not the only one rerouting my North American trips from the US to Canada
Anecdotal but I spent a week in Montreal as an alternative to where I would have usually have gone to NYC, NOLA or Vegas.
Friendly reminder that while Trump is making US national parks more expensive for tourists, Canada is making them free. You don't even need to book anything, just show up.
A lot of ghe border towns count on cross-border commerce, and some of them are hurting real bad now that so many of us have stopped buying stuff through them.
Do Americans not realise that tourists visiting your country is an export, bringing money into the country?
stoping you right there no they don't.
He'll probably try and slap tariffs on countries for not sending enough tourists lol.
We aren’t all this stupid. I mean, they even stuck a dollar figure on it! It’s bad because that’s $30 billion less in the economy, for starters…
Besides from the US potentially losing its status as one of the top international tourist destination which also means losing a boatload of money from international tourists...... uh I guess it isn't that bad....
They’ll just slap some more tariffs on stuff. The money just roll in like that. /s
"then I told them to check the tariff account and the money was there"
Yeah but it's only a boat load because it's worthless Eurodollars. I bet it would fit in the back of my Ford Megaraptor XXL.
And the boycott will stand when trump is long forgotten. We're done with US forcing shit and their way of life onto us.
I'm from South America and any lingering excitement I felt to see some U.S. landmarks vanished after seeing people being kidnapped off the streets for looking too brown or having too thick of an accent. It's not "just Trump", a large portion of the population is deeply hateful, they just needed Trump to validate them to act on that hatred. I'd never feel safe trying to be tourist-y there now.
As a European, I really hope this will remain true, but the memory of my country (and others) completely cucking out the moment Biden was voted in, does not make me all that confident.
Older Europeans still cling to this insane idea that the USA are genuinely our friend.
Canadian here. I wish we had an ocean between us and the United States. We unfortunately share a really large border .... The US as a country is hostile... The people maybe not so much. I just shake my head and wonder " is this the bad place?". Are we in the upside down? Is the matrix glitching?
Which makes our older people here stupid. We are some who been trying to get hold of our government for months to get a dialogue and pretty much beg them to not trust Donald around Greenland. Just yesterday it suddenly came as a surprise they can’t trust him. Our own governments live with their heads up their arses. When we see our PMs visit Donald and just sit there, doing feck all, right next to him while he’s spewing one lie after another, and no one corrects him, and it gets broadcast in our homes,then it’s “surely he’s can’t be so bad, cause then they’d say something to him, right? “ That can only make some of our older people here think, they’re still our ally and friend. No. This Europe/Usa “relationship” will take decades to rectify, if ever possible. There needs to be harsh consequences for those who openly destroyed what was. I’m only happy we’re now heading in a direction without America. And we got Canada instead 😁 Now those guys are awesome!
Tbf back then Trump was a lot more restrained. Building a stupid border fence is quite different from declaring war on NATO.
The thing is that Trump will be gone, but the lurch to the right will remain. So hostile immigration agents and the general racism will still be there for a long time to come.
It will require a long and concerted effort to repair this damage - if they want to.
Let's hope so.
After Trump is gone, the millions of Trump-supporting chuds will persist. And they will still vote for someone. Probably someone almost as bad as Trump. Maybe even someone worse.
Because tourism is worth more than $2 trillion to the US economy every year, and employs more than a million people.
It seems USA stands for Uneducated States of America.
One million people directly in guessing. Way more probably because of how much the service industry (and their suppliers) benefit from tourism
So POTUS will now stand for Pedophile of the Uneducated States. Love it.
lol he’s definitely not in the service industry.
This attitude also overlooks the fact that not all international travelers are "tourists." Some are traveling for business. To visit a relative. To shop for the day. All the regulations impacting international travel to the US affect all travelers, not just tourists.
Those numbers are also down because the KGBurgerKing are snatching anyone they vaguely suspect isn't Aryan enough off the street
Lol - make sure you say the Emperor has clothes at all costs
Tell me you don't know anything about basic economics without telling me you don't know anything about basic economics ...
Don't the tariffs - all of which are paid by evil foreign companies - make up for the loss of tourism dollars? /s
Ofc it does! He’ll just increase it to 200%! That’ll teach them to not tourist them.. /s
Brought to you by the same people who think tourists and overseas students are an ‘economic import’.
Went to California as the election result was being determined last year. Went to 4 national parks. Won't do this while maga is around. Genuinely didn't think USians could be stupid enough to elect that clown twice.
The reasons I won't be visiting and spending money elsewhere:
it’s really not bad, I mean, I loved going to the states, but I’m not going to put my hard earned pounds into an economy supporting the erosion of peace and goodwill. I’d rather go to Canada, which I haven’t done yet. so it’s a good thing. it’ll get me to a new place that I haven’t seen yet.
Like you, I loved going to the US & have some great memories; it's nothing like those who've never been "know" it is. However, I no longer feel that it's a country I want to visit.
Unlike you, I've been to Canada. Go - you won't regret it!
. . . & if you like chips with gravy you'll love poutine!
It's not. More tourism to other places, plenty of which have earned it far more.
Well it's bad for the US for obvious reasons (obvious if you're not a moron) but it's good for the tourists. They get to visit a sane country instead.
The dude doesn't know how the economy works. Why am I not surprised?
I mean it’s literally in the post “$30 billion”.
For a moment I forgot that you pay for the blue check mark now making it meaningless and wondered how the roadside strangler had come back to life and opened a twitter account
Michael is right -- it doesn't look bad. They're still higher than I expected, but there is still time to improve the numbers 😀
The new laws which forces tourists to show all social media they have and all IP-dresses since 5 years may help in improving the numbers.
I don't even know my IP address right now, and I'm working in IT. How would anyone have the ones from the prior 5 years ready and how would they check whether the list is complete?
they probably feed it into some palantir AI they spend billions on, idk - but the key point is if you fail to disclose something, it's grounds for visa refusal/deportation
Yea I'm not sure they want IPs... no one has a spreadsheet somewhere with every IP they've been leased in the last 6 years. In some markets, that could be more than one per day. If we keep it simple at 1 per.day, that's >= 1825.IPs.
But the SM usernames they want for sure. And I have no doubt AI will be used to.judge sentiment. Not that AI prompts can be overridden to behave anyway they like -- or anything
My snark aside, I honestly think it's more about requiring your affirmative consent for them to look it up than anything. tracking IP addresses for folks in a practical sense over the past 5 years is an exercise in futility.
The US wants to get “IP addresses and metadata from electronically submitted photos”.
"127.0.0.1? I think?"
I have no idea lol
I think it's email addresses.
Cool, tell the people in areas that rely on tourism for their economy that it doesn't look bad, and report back here to tell us how they responded.
He doesn’t work in tourism so he doesn’t care. Typical Seppo attitude.
He seems to underestimate how many Americans depend on tourism to survive
Trump just now in a press conference suggested the people should limit presents for Christmas.
30 billion dollars is 410 dollars per kid (some 73 million under-18s in the US).
That’s a lot of Christmas presents.
I guess Michael over here has the attention span of a toddler and simply forgot about the "down $30 billion in revenue" part by the time he reached the end of the sentence.
To be fair, it's mostly the Americans who will suffer. It's not "bad" for the Europeans staying at home and spending their money within Europe instead.
There are honestly posts which should disqualify people from voting for at least one election and Michael's post here fits the bill, LOL:)
Also note the orange paedo has just announced he wants all visitors to show their last 5 years of social media posts plus passwords to get in the country. Months before the world cup. I'm sure it'll go well.
The USA is so capitalism-oriented that there is no news programme without massive stock market tickers. And yet this bloke doesn't understand "minus 30 billion dollars".
With an attitude like this and Border control which can arrest you even if you have your documents in order, it's worth reminding people to travel anywhere else.
There are lots of countries which are welcoming to tourists.
The recent news that they are planning to require many tourists to submit 5 years of their social media history as part of the entry requirements is really going to make it an even more attractive country to visit...
I've previously gone to the US for businesses and conferences etc but there is zero chance of that now.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-11/white-house-plans-social-media-requirement-visa-exempt-countries/106128022
What a strange opinion to have. So actively losing money is acceptable to him ?
Why is this bad?
Not sure if you know this but most Europeans educated to degree level, like in America skew to the left, our left is more left though. The highest earning working individuals, with the most disposable income, going on more expensive holidays, tend to be degree educated. So if you wanted to affect foriegn tourism to America in a massive way without actually banning people this is how to do it.
Has a point! Please continue doing what your country is doing.
Never interrupt the enemy when they're making a mistake, and the USA is just one big mistake at this point. And has also revealed itself to be the only enemy Canada needed to worry about.
I'm German and I have worked in the US for a while. Also, I do have some family there. So while I'd love to visit all my friends and family members, it's currently a hard no unless there's an emergency.
Oh it’s not just because of trump.
It's bad for them, it's pretty good for the rest of the world. Therefore it's good. I agree with the guy.
Why is it bad?
Lol, is that a serious question?
You’re literally killing your entire tourism industry. That’s why it’s bad but I guess they’re too ignorant or wilfully ignorant to understand that.
No no, why IS this bad?? For the tourists, i mean. Going there is not worth the risk
Actually, that's a great question. They keep putting sanctions and embargoes on civilised countries-they deserve to find out how that feels.
Will citizens be forced to attend the World Cup and Olympics to make the crowds look good ?
If you think $30 billion in lost tourism revenue is not a bad thing then there is something fundamentaly wrong with you.
With the new plans (announced yesterday?), that social media handles and emails of the last 5 years need to be provided for ESTA and such, I hope this trend will continue.
The new NP-ticket prices won't spark additional interests as well.
To use it in terms this moron understands; The USpoor is bottom at tourism now.
I had no interest in visiting the US since long before Trump took control. Fast food and school shootings? Oh boy sign me up.
Someone lend him the brain cell 🤦♂️
Is that why they are trying out piracy?
So, the plan was.
Alienate the Europeans so they'd have to build up their own military....then whine when they didn't want to buy American military guff.
Alienate the Europeans so they'd not want to visit the US...then whine when the europeans stop coming to the US to spend money.
And now the US foreign strategy is far-reaching regime change in the EU.
Oh well, it's not like there aren't like 50 other countries to visit.
Imagine how the Russians are feeling it, we had a trip to Moscow and St Peterborough cancelled and I've no intention of going ever now.
A very odd attitude. Across Europe there's a growing concern about uncontrolled illegal immigration and it's fair that to some extent people are concerned about it but this attitude in the US right now of "Fuck them . . we don't need anybody" is baffling. They are making it hard or unappealing for anybody. Students, migrants with desirable qualities and even tourists. Why would someone have a problem with tourists?? They come, they spend a lot of money for a few weeks and then they fuck off home . . .