There is no future in which those people admit to themselves or anyone that they have been wrong since the tea party started, that the news they trust has been lying to them, and that the people they hate don't deserve it. To admit even once that Trump is wrong risks causing their entire house of bullshit cards to come down, and they know it, so they don't.
they managed to get control of a number of strategic state legislatures that have gerrymandered their way into (a) job security and (b) a significant edge in getting and keeping control of the House of Representatives
they also control a lot of the voting mechanisms (precinct maps, voting apparatus) that make it easier for their desired demographics to vote, and make the hurdle higher for others
they appeal to voters who are willing to vote based on sound bites and low information
we have two parties in this country – one is far right and the other is center-right to centrist. Too many people to the left of both of them see them both as unacceptable, leaving a plurality to be able to pick the winner without an actual majority.
they’re willing to keep voting for what they see is the best of their bad options, while “we” keep losing people to bullshit like “the lesser of two evils is still evil.”
You are absolutely correct, and I'm not American so I'm definitely no expert here... But from the outside looking in, they are winning in so many ways. I respect that Democrats are often trying to "do the right thing" but at some point it's like, guys come on... You're doing the right thing at the expense of your country falling apart. They need to start playing hard ball. While "the left"/democrats/etc are busy complaining about republicans breaking the rules, the right is actually getting shit done. It's all terrible shit that is ruining the country, but they're getting it done.
They've been working on this for the last 50 years. They worked on making slow steady progress (regress?) in their goals since Nixon. Whenever they were in control the goal was more or less the same. Confirm as many conservative judges to the federal judiciary. Whenever they weren't in power, they'd block the Democrats as much as possible. All the while, they'd have activist groups come up with bogus lawsuits, so they could challenge established precedent in the supreme Court.
This is the culmination of all that. Every time people refused to vote Democrat because of whatever pet issue they had, the Republicans voted for their candidates. Every time. They never cared about not getting the perfect candidate, because they knew they'd still advance the agenda. That's the difference between the left and the right. So many of us on the left expect to get a perfect candidate, who'll radically reform the system overnight. When that doesn't happen they throw a tantrum and don't vote, which causes the Republicans to gain power, which they use to push things more right. Slow and steady wins the race.
Their goals may be abhorrent, but credit where it's due. They understood that it would take time to achieve them, and they actually voted. They didn't care about "being inspired" or whatever dumb bullshit some leftists complain about. This is what happens when a constituency actually fucking votes. Now it's too late. They did what they set out to do back in the 70s
The problem is the amount of people who do not vote at all, and the number of people who do vote but have absolutely no knowledge of what they're voting for.
Having the electoral college is civil rights for them. I'll never forgot when my father admitted the truth. He said they would never be in power without it. "They" being white, conservative, rural, Christian, etc.
I love when they argue against getting rid of the EC. "Oh so you want just 3 states picking the president!?" I mean, if that's where all the people live... then yeah. The Senate exists expressly for low population states.
As it stands, with the cap on house seats, low population states are over represented in the House, are over represented in the Senate, and with the EC are over represented with the President. On top of that, the Senate is who confirms judges, so they are even over represented in the Judiciary. It's fucking bullshit. We are in a country with minority rule.
The 30% doesn't include the "enlightened" independent voters that think both parties are the same and pick based off single issues and ignore the rest of the BS.
Well you see everything bad is the Dems fault and everything good is because of Trump. And the anger isn't a bug, it's a feature. It's their hate of Dems that solidifies them, and anything can be blamed on the Dems.
If you’re not aware, you should read up on Cambridge Analytica.
Basically, the Republican strategy going back to the 2010’s was to use social media data and target fringe voters in two ways.
turn voters away from voting at all
push leaning voters from Democrats
It cannot be stated how MASSIVE an advantage it is to be able to TARGET voters based on their online profiles, this is why having someone like Zuckerberg on stage with Trump is so dangerous.
All that data people give him…just so they can use the cesspool this is FB. GROSS.
On top of this, they use incendiary topics like abortion and DEI to rile their base, a little gerrymandering here, some questionable Elon Musk dabbling in voting machines in PA there, a bunch of changes to voters rights in swing states…
There is no see the light moment. There is not a reflection 15 years from now where Trump is unanimously considered to be the worst US president in history.
It’s unsatisfying and frustrating.
But these people are simply cucked and duped. They’re in an abusive relationship and to admit anything now would be devastating to their confidence and self worth.
They’re not “buying it”. It’s that they don’t care because they’re getting policy wins.
This to me is the biggest disconnect of dems misunderstanding conservative voters. They (conservatives) also find him unpolished, douchey, and most importantly the lesser of two evils. So long as he keeps getting his way and it aligns to their politics, they will hold the line.
There’s definitely conservatives that love “owning the libs”and are delighted when he pisses them off, but I think the majority would prefer he didn’t tweet or go on rants.
All of their historical pearl clutching about lack of decorum when dems did it was performative. It was political leverage to undercut them when they’re in power. They don’t ACTUALLY care—it’s just a “nice to have”
Outside of the very wealthy the GOP voters who think they're getting policy wins are just getting government changes that overall are going to hurt them.
The wins they currently enjoy are superficial. They like the deportations, they like DOGE for cutting federal jobs, they like the idea of tariffs, they like killing Venezuelans and the Gulf of America bullshit. They like the performative stuff, as long as it doesn't directly affect them.
What they don't like is the economy, and that's where the GOP is going to lose a lot of voters.
Yeah, usually the president has very limited abilities to impact the larger economy, but in this case he's actively making it significantly worse. His tariffs are starting to kick inflation back up. Health insurance might go through the roof and get completely fucked. There are so many executive orders and other changes being challenged in the courts that it's driving "uncertainty" in the larger economy which has led to hiring freezes. That's why people who are out of work are having a much more difficult time finding a new job than they did even just last year.
It's amazing that there was a significant recovery from the post-pandemic inflation well underway and if he had done nothing at all he'd be able to take credit for an improving economy today instead of lying about the state of it.
Trump can get away with it for a little while because his base doesn't understand how his policies are affecting the economy. They know it is bad because they see high prices, but they have no understanding of how to fix it. When Trump said he would fix it on day one, they believed him.
When we hit year two and things have only gotten worse, some of them will be waking up to the fact that they got duped. Hopefully enough of them stay home during the midterms to give up congress.
He's been immune to a lot of political norms, but this time he may become a more "mortal" politician.
Usually presidents have very limited impacts on the larger economy so most credit or blame is misplaced. In this case his policies are a very direct and obvious cause of problems in the economy and if the AI bubble pops we're going to quickly find ourselves in a bad recession of his making.
Policy wins for them don't need to always be for them. As another poster said "owning the libs" is a policy win for them, anything that rolls back LGBTQ+ rights is a win for them even if they lose rights as well. Some people don't need the government to benefit them as long as it is hurting other people more than them.
The thing is that they don't see the connection in how their vote causes the self-harm. The "aggrieved white voters" are especially adept at accepting the displaced blame for their situation and voting for the politicians who are not going to solve them and are more likely to make them worse.
It's not that difficult a trick to pull off with low information voters because they're paying attention to politics and not policy.
There's at least some people buying it, one of my long time friends did not start out as a republican, but he got himself a girlfriend who watched Joe Rogan, so he started watching and then boom, suddenly he's voting for Trump and thinks that everything else is a lie so on and so forth.
He fell for it completely and I doubt he'll ever realize it
And the thing is that there was never really a doubt that he wouldn’t fail. Tariffs doomed to fail. Deportations disgusting. No plan against inflation. The list goes on.
He tore down the East Wing of the White House after promising he wouldn't touch it and now there's a giant crater where it used to be with no actual plan to fix it because he actually has no clue what he's doing and he's corrupt and incompetent.
After 4 years (assuming he doesn't get impeached and convicted) and he's doing his last address he'll still be blaming Biden despite his campaign "promises"
I really didn't need to watch the whole video to know that Trump was going to spend his entire time addressing the nation to lie and tell us how great he is and how horrible his enemies are. It's really no different than any other speech that he gives.
I've heard that our military while out on orders gets steak and lobster (or some other good meal) right before they extend a deployment. I could only imagine what's coming after the military stimulus check.
Just to put how his bullshit gets legitimized let me give you a quote from an article about his speech last night comparing it to how previous presidents were treated:
in September 2022, networks declined to give the Biden White House a prime-time slot for a speech the then-president gave about democracy because it was viewed as too political
Former Presidents didn't weaponize the FCC and threaten networks. Trump is bullying corporations with the full support of the Republican party and the power of US Government. Sadly, it's not for the benefit of the American people, it's for his own personal gain.
The FCC governs the airwaves, so cable news channels shouldn't be worried about those threats. The networks don't actually have FCC licenses either so it would be difficult for the FCC to go after the license of affiliates all over the country.
During the election, I went to the NYTimes and looked at the headlines 8/10 we’re had that monster’s name in them.
They don’t have to do it. They want to do it.
AP news had their donations turned on during the live stream. Idiots (both supporters and haters) were donating to AP to get their comment seen. I saw one guy drop 50$ to promote his song.
The FCC is also the approving agency of acquisitions and mergers of licensed broadcasters. They can absolutely affect the business conducted by media conglomerates, which in turn puts pressure on the networks. Furthermore, the networks themselves also own some licensed stations.
And there are a LOT of people who are uninformed or outright stupid who will hear only snippets of the news and simply take it at face value because they're getting along well enough so surely the world isn't collapsing around them.
The rampant disinformation Trump spreads accumulates over time and our fallible human minds struggle to separate truth from lie. Plus it's much less effort to live with the assumption that you're not being lied to constantly.
In comments I've pointed out the "sanewashing" that goes on with Trump. A major media outlet will pull sentence fragments to quote in an article that makes the reporting seem like it was a normal presidential statement. However, I've quoted the full text of what he actually said that shows just how off the rails it was.
The media is failing by not portraying his behavior accurately because that makes it easier for people to think that he is a normal president and the "howling libs" are the ones who are out of line.
He just renamed it. It's not a bonus at all. "Congress has approved funding for military housing allowances (BAH) through the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with the Department of Defense (DoD) announcing an average 4.2% increase for 2026, taking effect January 1, 2026, plus a one-time $1,776 "Warrior Dividend" bonus, funded by earlier congressional approval of $2.9 billion for housing support. This increase aims to cover about 95% of housing costs (rent & utilities)."
It’s not a stimulus check, it’s a check they were already getting and Trump rebranded it. He’s a cheap f-, and would never give up his own money, or money that he could potentially still steal.
Yeah if there ever was someone that was afflicted with a Derangement Syndrome, it’s the guy who posted tirades about his predecessors on embossed plaques in the White House hallway so he can hate on them every day he walks past their pictures.
Obama salutes a marine while holding a cup of coffee and the right wing echo chamber howls about how "unpresidential" that behavior is. The current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave has lined a hallway with schoolyard level taunts and they remain silent about it.
So THAT'S what this prime time address from the President of the United States was about? Nothing substantive, just lying, whining, and trying to blame every bad thing on Biden? I'm only surprised he didn't bring up the Rob Reiner thing again.
I'll accept it. I was fully expecting him to announce an actual military operation against Venezuela, so I am happy that it is something as mundane and useless and a waste of everyone's time as this.
For real. He's already done enough damage. If he wants to yell at the clouds with the media's help, instead of working on taking away remaining rights, I say let him yell. 😆
This is the bit that surprised me the most - a full coverage primetime spot for him to say essentially nothing, and give his ego a little stroke. What a huge waste of what should be a very carefully managed resource.
How long until we get a daily storytime from Trump, waffling away about how evil Biden is?
Not an American so I have to ask if I understand it right: this was an impromptu speech, as in "okay all TV stations switch to me, I've got something to say"?
No, it was announced in advance. Typically the content of these "national address" speeches are provided to the news outlets a bit in advance of them. Exceptions are things like announcing the raid that killed Bin Ladin where they're just notified that the president has a "major announcement" and it's understood that it is big news. That latter situation is the type that comes with almost no warning.
The difference here is that this speech was extremely political in nature. It is not just something that no other modern president was petty enough to go with, but that the networks previously would not have aired it live. Here's an example from an AP article of the difference in how Trump is treated:
in September 2022, networks declined to give the Biden White House a prime-time slot for a speech the then-president gave about democracy because it was viewed as too political
That speech was also about the creeping facism in modern democracy. Which is all the sad-funny that they refused to air it. God forbid their viewers learn something.
When Joe Biden had a special address to discuss the serious threat to democracy in september 2022, he was censored, with (to my knowledge) no network broadcasting it besides MSNBC. Many didn't even know he held such a special event.
The senile orange idiot, clearly jacked up on drugs, rants incoherently to attack his usual targets, with his typical fixation on president Biden, and it gets widespread coverage. Not only that, but no one says this is not normal.
The bloody double standard is infuriating. The russian puppet could pull down his nappies, take a dump in front of the cameras and everyone who act as if this was OK. But Joe Biden has a stutter and OMG, he's senile!
No, I think this was different. This was read off a teleprompter, very quickly with none of his typical digressions. Like he was pissed. Very defensive.
There was a "word you can't say" anymore, he couldn't pronounce extracted, he's clearly reading from the pompter and even struggling to do so. He's losing his ability to comprehend what he's reading. You can tell when he knows what he's talking about when he does go impromptu "1,450,000...
you won't believe this number, 1,450,000"
Imagine if you started at a job, worked there for a year, and the entire time you just whined and bitched about how much of a mess the previous person who had your job made.
Do you fix the "problems" and clean up the mess? No. In fact you make the problems worse and then add additional problems that didn't exist before.
Then you continue to just whine and bitch, blaming the last guy on the problems you just caused. Constantly.
You'd be justifiably fired from said job.
This is Trump.
A good leader identifies the problem initially and then fixes the problem, a bad leader places blame (And that's it. Hardstop.)
In fact you make the problems worse and then add additional problems that didn't exist before.
This is the amazing part. If he had done nothing after the inauguration he would be sitting on a continuation of an improving economy that he could take credit for. The larger movements of the economy are usually very remote from any capabilities that a president has, but in this case he has been the driving force in fucking it up.
Ever since Trump lost to Biden, his entire existence has been about retribution for that, and it will be until the day he dies. Everything he does now is out of feelings of immasculation.
I will never understand how millions of Americans can listen to this and be like "Yep, that's my guy". He's not even putting any effort in his lies and they're still dumb enough to believe him.
I'm happy he did. There's a portion of his base that just got a live, unfiltered look in on their president for the first time that's going to be tough to square with the Fox News clean up job.
Of course he is, Trump 1.0 fumbled the ball regarding COVID, and lost the election against Biden because of his gross ineptitude. He can't forget his biggest failure. He has Biden Derangement Syndrome (plus senile dementia). Everybody is saying so. Even his chief of staff. so SAD. He's slipping so fast. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
The presidential plaques and Reiner death tweet both some how managed to surprise me enough to double check they were real. I remember when my grandfather slipped into full on dimentia. No matter who he was before, he was not the same person. I thinked he got kicked out of 3 separate care facilities for harassing female nurses.
lol wasn't even trying to make that comparison. Just an example of dimentia completely changing a man that at one point served as the flight surgeon for the US ambassador to Japan during part of the Korean war.
Your grandfather sounds like he was a great man. Sorry for your loss. Dementia is the slow killer and so horrible. The only positive thing about my dad dying to cancer was it was relatively fast and we didn't have to deal with him being here for years but not really being himself.
Also, his fingerprints are all over this economy. Much more directly than Biden.
His tariffs are driving up prices. His cancelling of billions of dollars in clean energy grants and IN PROCESS construction projects, plus his laissez faire attitude to AI, has driven up electricity prices. His layoffs across the federal government have led to unemployment spikes which will continue to ripple through the economy. Fuck him.
I won't watch this because I know it's stream of (barely) consciousness. My assumption is that he's going to tell us everything is great, and if it isn't, it's someone else's fault, and if it's not, you're wrong.
This guy continues to show signs of cognitive decline and dementia. If this man was laying in a hospital bed on my unit, I'd be asking for a surrogate decision making because he clearly lacks judgment or comprehension.
This country has been sold to the highest bidder, in everything.
For profit health care
For profit child care
For profit elder care
For profit prisons
All of these things should not have a profit motive with as much tax money as this government collects. The Nordic Model is the most efficient way of doing things. If I am going to get taxed for half of my income then make sure I am taken care of if I get sick or old.
He desperately needs to deflect and distract from his crashing of the dollar and mishandling of the economy to try and salvage the midterm elections which are not looking good for Republicans.
I can’t help but feel that that weird hand gesture he always does is some subconscious reflection of his tiny shriveled, obscured by 300 pounds of fat, penis.
So let me get this straight: the US is over a year into Trump's term, things are doing worse for most folks than at the peak of Biden's term (read: strongest post-pandemic economic recovery IN THE WORLD), and yet despite basically being given carte blanche by congress and the senate to do whatever he likes with the government, he still can't help but hemorrhage jobs left, right, and centre, and then blame it on his predecessor, who did better than he's doing?
The US should wish it was experiencing the Biden economy, because the Biden economy was doing quite well. This is firmly and unequivocally the Trump economy. You don't get to pull everyone's quality of life down for a year and still blame it on the last guy.
I can't even imagine a life where I watched something like this idiot talk, and was like, "wow... he's so smart, Presidential, normal and not completely batshit insane"
It has to be such a weird and scary world for Trump supporters.
A presidential address has always been must see TV in my house. From childhood to my own home now. I could give a single fuck what this guy has got to say. I'm just waiting for the expiration date on the front page of the newspaper.
Biden gonna live in trumps head rent free till the day he dies. I’ve never seen someone obsess so much over another human being, maybe trump just has feelings for old Joe.
If anybody else did this about him, it would be Trump Derangement Syndrome. He does it about anybody, and his base touts it as the greatest speech anybody has ever heard.
Really makes you wonder who the deranged ones actually are.
Trump is the weakest leader in American history.
You can remove the word 'leader'.
Weakest 'American' in history.
Emotional fortitude like single ply toilet paper.
I've seen thicker skin on custard
Physically, mentally, emotionally, intellectually weak. In every facet he is the weakest president of all-time.
Morally
Andrew Johnson, you are officially off the hook.
Sucks that they decided to give such a fragile toddler unchecked power.
Twice!
I mean Kamala laughs weird /s
He is a weak mans idea of a strong man, a stupid mans idea of a smart man and a poor mans idea of a rich man.
Trump is a fucking moron.
He's failing so bad that his narcissistic personality tries to blame everybody but himself. How pathetic.
The part the gets me is the 30% that keep buying it
There is no future in which those people admit to themselves or anyone that they have been wrong since the tea party started, that the news they trust has been lying to them, and that the people they hate don't deserve it. To admit even once that Trump is wrong risks causing their entire house of bullshit cards to come down, and they know it, so they don't.
That may be true, but I’m still trying to understand how they outnumber “us”?
Until “We” win multiple elections in a row, “I” need to assume “we’re” the minority. Which sadly, is even more terrifying. :/
“They” outnumber “us” because:
You are absolutely correct, and I'm not American so I'm definitely no expert here... But from the outside looking in, they are winning in so many ways. I respect that Democrats are often trying to "do the right thing" but at some point it's like, guys come on... You're doing the right thing at the expense of your country falling apart. They need to start playing hard ball. While "the left"/democrats/etc are busy complaining about republicans breaking the rules, the right is actually getting shit done. It's all terrible shit that is ruining the country, but they're getting it done.
They've been working on this for the last 50 years. They worked on making slow steady progress (regress?) in their goals since Nixon. Whenever they were in control the goal was more or less the same. Confirm as many conservative judges to the federal judiciary. Whenever they weren't in power, they'd block the Democrats as much as possible. All the while, they'd have activist groups come up with bogus lawsuits, so they could challenge established precedent in the supreme Court.
This is the culmination of all that. Every time people refused to vote Democrat because of whatever pet issue they had, the Republicans voted for their candidates. Every time. They never cared about not getting the perfect candidate, because they knew they'd still advance the agenda. That's the difference between the left and the right. So many of us on the left expect to get a perfect candidate, who'll radically reform the system overnight. When that doesn't happen they throw a tantrum and don't vote, which causes the Republicans to gain power, which they use to push things more right. Slow and steady wins the race.
Their goals may be abhorrent, but credit where it's due. They understood that it would take time to achieve them, and they actually voted. They didn't care about "being inspired" or whatever dumb bullshit some leftists complain about. This is what happens when a constituency actually fucking votes. Now it's too late. They did what they set out to do back in the 70s
The problem is the amount of people who do not vote at all, and the number of people who do vote but have absolutely no knowledge of what they're voting for.
The electoral college.
My aunt is not speaking to me right now.
She went on a DEI rant at thanksgiving and I asked her if she thought we should get rid of the electoral college. Apparently that was rude.
Having the electoral college is civil rights for them. I'll never forgot when my father admitted the truth. He said they would never be in power without it. "They" being white, conservative, rural, Christian, etc.
Yep 2016 would have been a distant memory of the time that reality TV star was close to becoming president.
I love when they argue against getting rid of the EC. "Oh so you want just 3 states picking the president!?" I mean, if that's where all the people live... then yeah. The Senate exists expressly for low population states.
The Senate is literally DEI for states. I'm all for getting rid of it and quadrupling the size of the House.
As it stands, with the cap on house seats, low population states are over represented in the House, are over represented in the Senate, and with the EC are over represented with the President. On top of that, the Senate is who confirms judges, so they are even over represented in the Judiciary. It's fucking bullshit. We are in a country with minority rule.
They got an outright majority last time didn't they?
The 30% doesn't include the "enlightened" independent voters that think both parties are the same and pick based off single issues and ignore the rest of the BS.
I bet they're really happy with how prices have come down lmao the fuckers
Well you see everything bad is the Dems fault and everything good is because of Trump. And the anger isn't a bug, it's a feature. It's their hate of Dems that solidifies them, and anything can be blamed on the Dems.
Non-voters outnumbered voters for either side.
They got a plurality, the majority was 84 million "neither" votes.
Propaganda
If you’re not aware, you should read up on Cambridge Analytica.
Basically, the Republican strategy going back to the 2010’s was to use social media data and target fringe voters in two ways.
It cannot be stated how MASSIVE an advantage it is to be able to TARGET voters based on their online profiles, this is why having someone like Zuckerberg on stage with Trump is so dangerous.
All that data people give him…just so they can use the cesspool this is FB. GROSS.
On top of this, they use incendiary topics like abortion and DEI to rile their base, a little gerrymandering here, some questionable Elon Musk dabbling in voting machines in PA there, a bunch of changes to voters rights in swing states…
That’s how you rig an election
They’ll just forget they ever supported him. My MAGA parents talk shit about Bush now but loved him when he was president.
I miss the days when Dubya seemed like the dumbest president in history.
They already know. They support him to spite the liberals, their sworn enemy, so sayith the talking heads.
100%
There is no see the light moment. There is not a reflection 15 years from now where Trump is unanimously considered to be the worst US president in history.
It’s unsatisfying and frustrating.
But these people are simply cucked and duped. They’re in an abusive relationship and to admit anything now would be devastating to their confidence and self worth.
Cult is gunna cult. It's going to be nuts when he inevitably passes. Serious mental health issues from it
They’re not “buying it”. It’s that they don’t care because they’re getting policy wins.
This to me is the biggest disconnect of dems misunderstanding conservative voters. They (conservatives) also find him unpolished, douchey, and most importantly the lesser of two evils. So long as he keeps getting his way and it aligns to their politics, they will hold the line.
There’s definitely conservatives that love “owning the libs”and are delighted when he pisses them off, but I think the majority would prefer he didn’t tweet or go on rants.
All of their historical pearl clutching about lack of decorum when dems did it was performative. It was political leverage to undercut them when they’re in power. They don’t ACTUALLY care—it’s just a “nice to have”
Outside of the very wealthy the GOP voters who think they're getting policy wins are just getting government changes that overall are going to hurt them.
Nobody accused them of being smart
The wins they currently enjoy are superficial. They like the deportations, they like DOGE for cutting federal jobs, they like the idea of tariffs, they like killing Venezuelans and the Gulf of America bullshit. They like the performative stuff, as long as it doesn't directly affect them.
What they don't like is the economy, and that's where the GOP is going to lose a lot of voters.
Yeah, usually the president has very limited abilities to impact the larger economy, but in this case he's actively making it significantly worse. His tariffs are starting to kick inflation back up. Health insurance might go through the roof and get completely fucked. There are so many executive orders and other changes being challenged in the courts that it's driving "uncertainty" in the larger economy which has led to hiring freezes. That's why people who are out of work are having a much more difficult time finding a new job than they did even just last year.
It's amazing that there was a significant recovery from the post-pandemic inflation well underway and if he had done nothing at all he'd be able to take credit for an improving economy today instead of lying about the state of it.
Trump can get away with it for a little while because his base doesn't understand how his policies are affecting the economy. They know it is bad because they see high prices, but they have no understanding of how to fix it. When Trump said he would fix it on day one, they believed him.
When we hit year two and things have only gotten worse, some of them will be waking up to the fact that they got duped. Hopefully enough of them stay home during the midterms to give up congress.
He's been immune to a lot of political norms, but this time he may become a more "mortal" politician.
Usually presidents have very limited impacts on the larger economy so most credit or blame is misplaced. In this case his policies are a very direct and obvious cause of problems in the economy and if the AI bubble pops we're going to quickly find ourselves in a bad recession of his making.
Policy wins for them don't need to always be for them. As another poster said "owning the libs" is a policy win for them, anything that rolls back LGBTQ+ rights is a win for them even if they lose rights as well. Some people don't need the government to benefit them as long as it is hurting other people more than them.
Wanting something that’s bad for you doesn’t change the fact that the wanting is real.
The thing is that they don't see the connection in how their vote causes the self-harm. The "aggrieved white voters" are especially adept at accepting the displaced blame for their situation and voting for the politicians who are not going to solve them and are more likely to make them worse.
It's not that difficult a trick to pull off with low information voters because they're paying attention to politics and not policy.
There's been a decades long push to conservative voters with 2 consistent messages:
Abortion is the only issue that matters when voting
Anyone who supports abortion is evil
That's conditioned them to view Democrats as evil and accept anything from Republicans as long as they clamp down on abortion.
“Policy wins” is a nice way of saying they’re getting their racism, bigotry, and misogyny assuaged.
There's at least some people buying it, one of my long time friends did not start out as a republican, but he got himself a girlfriend who watched Joe Rogan, so he started watching and then boom, suddenly he's voting for Trump and thinks that everything else is a lie so on and so forth.
He fell for it completely and I doubt he'll ever realize it
And the thing is that there was never really a doubt that he wouldn’t fail. Tariffs doomed to fail. Deportations disgusting. No plan against inflation. The list goes on.
He tore down the East Wing of the White House after promising he wouldn't touch it and now there's a giant crater where it used to be with no actual plan to fix it because he actually has no clue what he's doing and he's corrupt and incompetent.
Perfect symbolism for this entire administration.
After 4 years (assuming he doesn't get impeached and convicted) and he's doing his last address he'll still be blaming Biden despite his campaign "promises"
The buck stops literally anywhere else
I really didn't need to watch the whole video to know that Trump was going to spend his entire time addressing the nation to lie and tell us how great he is and how horrible his enemies are. It's really no different than any other speech that he gives.
I've heard that our military while out on orders gets steak and lobster (or some other good meal) right before they extend a deployment. I could only imagine what's coming after the military stimulus check.
Just to put how his bullshit gets legitimized let me give you a quote from an article about his speech last night comparing it to how previous presidents were treated:
Former Presidents didn't weaponize the FCC and threaten networks. Trump is bullying corporations with the full support of the Republican party and the power of US Government. Sadly, it's not for the benefit of the American people, it's for his own personal gain.
The FCC governs the airwaves, so cable news channels shouldn't be worried about those threats. The networks don't actually have FCC licenses either so it would be difficult for the FCC to go after the license of affiliates all over the country.
During the election, I went to the NYTimes and looked at the headlines 8/10 we’re had that monster’s name in them. They don’t have to do it. They want to do it.
Pearl clutching clicks are still clicks.
AP news had their donations turned on during the live stream. Idiots (both supporters and haters) were donating to AP to get their comment seen. I saw one guy drop 50$ to promote his song.
The FCC is also the approving agency of acquisitions and mergers of licensed broadcasters. They can absolutely affect the business conducted by media conglomerates, which in turn puts pressure on the networks. Furthermore, the networks themselves also own some licensed stations.
And there are a LOT of people who are uninformed or outright stupid who will hear only snippets of the news and simply take it at face value because they're getting along well enough so surely the world isn't collapsing around them.
The rampant disinformation Trump spreads accumulates over time and our fallible human minds struggle to separate truth from lie. Plus it's much less effort to live with the assumption that you're not being lied to constantly.
In comments I've pointed out the "sanewashing" that goes on with Trump. A major media outlet will pull sentence fragments to quote in an article that makes the reporting seem like it was a normal presidential statement. However, I've quoted the full text of what he actually said that shows just how off the rails it was.
The media is failing by not portraying his behavior accurately because that makes it easier for people to think that he is a normal president and the "howling libs" are the ones who are out of line.
He's attempting to buy military loyalty IMO
Yeah and he's invoking revolution with 1776 as a number. To bad, most of my military friends won't do treason for less than 2k!
Something tells me they will end up doing it for free.
He just renamed it. It's not a bonus at all. "Congress has approved funding for military housing allowances (BAH) through the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with the Department of Defense (DoD) announcing an average 4.2% increase for 2026, taking effect January 1, 2026, plus a one-time $1,776 "Warrior Dividend" bonus, funded by earlier congressional approval of $2.9 billion for housing support. This increase aims to cover about 95% of housing costs (rent & utilities)."
It’s not a stimulus check, it’s a check they were already getting and Trump rebranded it. He’s a cheap f-, and would never give up his own money, or money that he could potentially still steal.
For the record, steak and lobster isn’t bad news on a deployment. It happens almost monthly just to keep morale up.
"Pettysburg Address"
He claims to be a great real-estate developer, but lets Biden live in his head rent-free.
Perfect
Let's make it happen
Trump’s but a walking shadow...a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
What's this kid fucker going on about now?
The TL;DW was Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden
And immigrants!
I think there was something in there about sending active-duty a Christmas bonus for $1,776. That caught me off guard.
It's coming right along with the $2k tariff redistribution and the $5k DOGE checks!
So two weeks from whenever he's asked.
Are they STILL eating the cats and the dogs!? Lord have mercy!
Ay yo, no Venezuela declaration of war? I call that a win.
"Why are you so obsessed with me" --Biden, probably
Who knows he's too busy thinking of Bill Clinton's cock
Epstein files are apparently being released this week and he needed a distraction.
Also, he's apparently giving extra money to the military hoping they won't turn on him.
He complained about people in government that Bitch Bitch Bitch. Then goes on TV and spends 20min BITCHING!!
More BDS I guess?
Yeah if there ever was someone that was afflicted with a Derangement Syndrome, it’s the guy who posted tirades about his predecessors on embossed plaques in the White House hallway so he can hate on them every day he walks past their pictures.
Obama salutes a marine while holding a cup of coffee and the right wing echo chamber howls about how "unpresidential" that behavior is. The current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave has lined a hallway with schoolyard level taunts and they remain silent about it.
Never ever try to reason with bullies. It sucks but it's a losing game because the bully made the rules and will change them when it sees fit.
They're not silent. They love it
Yes well you forget the most important factor: Obama did it while being black.
I like calling it IBS. Makes it sound like they have Biden up their ass.
Irritable Biden Syndrome
So THAT'S what this prime time address from the President of the United States was about? Nothing substantive, just lying, whining, and trying to blame every bad thing on Biden? I'm only surprised he didn't bring up the Rob Reiner thing again.
Fucking loser
I'll accept it. I was fully expecting him to announce an actual military operation against Venezuela, so I am happy that it is something as mundane and useless and a waste of everyone's time as this.
For real. He's already done enough damage. If he wants to yell at the clouds with the media's help, instead of working on taking away remaining rights, I say let him yell. 😆
This is the bit that surprised me the most - a full coverage primetime spot for him to say essentially nothing, and give his ego a little stroke. What a huge waste of what should be a very carefully managed resource.
How long until we get a daily storytime from Trump, waffling away about how evil Biden is?
Not an American so I have to ask if I understand it right: this was an impromptu speech, as in "okay all TV stations switch to me, I've got something to say"?
Because that really has drunk call vibes
No, it was announced in advance. Typically the content of these "national address" speeches are provided to the news outlets a bit in advance of them. Exceptions are things like announcing the raid that killed Bin Ladin where they're just notified that the president has a "major announcement" and it's understood that it is big news. That latter situation is the type that comes with almost no warning.
The difference here is that this speech was extremely political in nature. It is not just something that no other modern president was petty enough to go with, but that the networks previously would not have aired it live. Here's an example from an AP article of the difference in how Trump is treated:
That speech was also about the creeping facism in modern democracy. Which is all the sad-funny that they refused to air it. God forbid their viewers learn something.
The oligarch owned media specifically does not want people to learn anything. Fluff, ads, hate, and paranoia is all they have to offer.
It was announced the day prior. But yes, it's said he has an "alcoholic's personality" so the drunk call vibes check out.
When Joe Biden had a special address to discuss the serious threat to democracy in september 2022, he was censored, with (to my knowledge) no network broadcasting it besides MSNBC. Many didn't even know he held such a special event.
The senile orange idiot, clearly jacked up on drugs, rants incoherently to attack his usual targets, with his typical fixation on president Biden, and it gets widespread coverage. Not only that, but no one says this is not normal.
The bloody double standard is infuriating. The russian puppet could pull down his nappies, take a dump in front of the cameras and everyone who act as if this was OK. But Joe Biden has a stutter and OMG, he's senile!
I guarantee he forgot to read the script and babbled for 20 mins and walked off. Not following any script. He was probably going to announce war lol
There was never a script. This was impromptu. I guarantee it.
EDIT: Comments below clearly show I was wrong and Trump is just an idiot lol
No, I think this was different. This was read off a teleprompter, very quickly with none of his typical digressions. Like he was pissed. Very defensive.
The economic numbers must be really bad.
More Epstein findings due out tomorrow.
That's why most people expected a "wag the dog" war announcement.
There was a "word you can't say" anymore, he couldn't pronounce extracted, he's clearly reading from the pompter and even struggling to do so. He's losing his ability to comprehend what he's reading. You can tell when he knows what he's talking about when he does go impromptu "1,450,000... you won't believe this number, 1,450,000"
Tomorrow is a pretty hard word. Can’t take the risk of that popping up on the prompter.
Been President for almost a year and he is still blaming anyone other than himself.
Been alive 79 years and he is still blaming anyone other than himself.
To be fair, that's because he doesn't actually know how to do anything himself, he just orders other people around.
Never forget, his most successful business ventures were managed by his first wife.
Party of personal responsibility.
Trump's advisors: "Try not to sound like a total piss baby"
Trump: waaaaahhh
Trump's advisors afterward: "Great job, sir! You really showed them!"
"I'll get the piss mop."
Dementia
It was essentially a massive televised sundowning session, complete with completely made up falsehoods and crossed memories typical of such incidents.
The man needs to be article 25ed.
Maybe? But most assuredly the most rampaging case of small dick energy, ever.
Nah that was 2019 Trump. 2025 Trump is that AND dementia.
Imagine if you started at a job, worked there for a year, and the entire time you just whined and bitched about how much of a mess the previous person who had your job made.
Do you fix the "problems" and clean up the mess? No. In fact you make the problems worse and then add additional problems that didn't exist before.
Then you continue to just whine and bitch, blaming the last guy on the problems you just caused. Constantly.
You'd be justifiably fired from said job.
This is Trump.
A good leader identifies the problem initially and then fixes the problem, a bad leader places blame (And that's it. Hardstop.)
This is the amazing part. If he had done nothing after the inauguration he would be sitting on a continuation of an improving economy that he could take credit for. The larger movements of the economy are usually very remote from any capabilities that a president has, but in this case he has been the driving force in fucking it up.
While true, he wouldn't have been able to short market sectors through his (eventual TACO) economic policies.
Every decision he makes is based on whether it flatters his ego or fattens his wallet. Those are part of the grift in the latter category.
You're exaggerating; he didn't just whine and bitch.
He also played a lot golf!
Hah! So there!
And even that, he managed to fuck up via cheating constantly lol
I've known guys like that, they don't usually get fired, I just get fed up enough with it that I quit.
I don't understand why he keeps saying the USA was "dead" a year ago. What did I miss?
He just doesn’t remember last year I think
Ever since Trump lost to Biden, his entire existence has been about retribution for that, and it will be until the day he dies. Everything he does now is out of feelings of immasculation.
Yet again, another case of Biden Derangement Syndrome.
I hope he's remembered by history as what he truly was.
I will never understand how millions of Americans can listen to this and be like "Yep, that's my guy". He's not even putting any effort in his lies and they're still dumb enough to believe him.
Biden will haunt Chump until the bitter end.
Him and Obama.
They live rent free in Trump’s head, criticizing every choice he makes à la Statler and Waldorf. Just roasting the shit out of him 24/7.
He can't stand the fact that he lost to Biden, it's honestly hilarious. What a whiny little bitch.
Ruined the Survivor finale fucking asshole
I'm happy he did. There's a portion of his base that just got a live, unfiltered look in on their president for the first time that's going to be tough to square with the Fox News clean up job.
Wait, did this rambling nonsense interrupt the show?
The show had to stop entirely for that propaganda nonsense
Yikes.
I wonder if they planned to interrupt the season finale because Survivor had better ratings than The Apprentice back in the day
Of course he is, Trump 1.0 fumbled the ball regarding COVID, and lost the election against Biden because of his gross ineptitude. He can't forget his biggest failure. He has Biden Derangement Syndrome (plus senile dementia). Everybody is saying so. Even his chief of staff. so SAD. He's slipping so fast. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
The presidential plaques and Reiner death tweet both some how managed to surprise me enough to double check they were real. I remember when my grandfather slipped into full on dimentia. No matter who he was before, he was not the same person. I thinked he got kicked out of 3 separate care facilities for harassing female nurses.
Trump was raping children long before the dementia kicked in. He’s always been a child rapist piece of shit.
lol wasn't even trying to make that comparison. Just an example of dimentia completely changing a man that at one point served as the flight surgeon for the US ambassador to Japan during part of the Korean war.
Your grandfather sounds like he was a great man. Sorry for your loss. Dementia is the slow killer and so horrible. The only positive thing about my dad dying to cancer was it was relatively fast and we didn't have to deal with him being here for years but not really being himself.
"Grab them by the pussy"
Trump, 2005
He's absolutely the same person.
Someone tell him his grave is going to be an international toilet pls
Make it clear … he did not “inherit” ANYTHING !
He signed up for this, and having been in office just 4 years prior, and making promises that all of his situations would be fixed in 24 hours…
It is 100% HIS problem.
Do not allow any chump supporters or apologists try to parrot this “inherit” bull shit. Call them out.
Also, his fingerprints are all over this economy. Much more directly than Biden.
His tariffs are driving up prices. His cancelling of billions of dollars in clean energy grants and IN PROCESS construction projects, plus his laissez faire attitude to AI, has driven up electricity prices. His layoffs across the federal government have led to unemployment spikes which will continue to ripple through the economy. Fuck him.
I won't watch this because I know it's stream of (barely) consciousness. My assumption is that he's going to tell us everything is great, and if it isn't, it's someone else's fault, and if it's not, you're wrong.
This guy continues to show signs of cognitive decline and dementia. If this man was laying in a hospital bed on my unit, I'd be asking for a surrogate decision making because he clearly lacks judgment or comprehension.
He is mentally unfit. Period.
Dude is crumbling in on himself. What a pathetic, sad, miserable, human being. Can't wait until the day I wake up to that headline.
There will be a party unlike any we have ever see.
Biden Derangement Syndrome
He’s learned that if you just keep repeating a lie, over and over and over again, the gullible will start repeating it to others as the truth.
To think that Americans sacrificed their morals their economy their country for a pedophile is just sad
A distraction. The Epstein files are due out tomorrow.
He has to keep blaming someone 🙄
"...fixated..."
Why so surprised? That is common with maladjusted toddlers
He needs another MRI to see where Biden is hiding in his head.
This country has been sold to the highest bidder, in everything.
For profit health care
For profit child care
For profit elder care
For profit prisons
All of these things should not have a profit motive with as much tax money as this government collects. The Nordic Model is the most efficient way of doing things. If I am going to get taxed for half of my income then make sure I am taken care of if I get sick or old.
There has never been a more pathetic leader then this guy
Get rid of this embarassing toddler holy shit
He desperately needs to deflect and distract from his crashing of the dollar and mishandling of the economy to try and salvage the midterm elections which are not looking good for Republicans.
I can’t help but feel that that weird hand gesture he always does is some subconscious reflection of his tiny shriveled, obscured by 300 pounds of fat, penis.
So let me get this straight: the US is over a year into Trump's term, things are doing worse for most folks than at the peak of Biden's term (read: strongest post-pandemic economic recovery IN THE WORLD), and yet despite basically being given carte blanche by congress and the senate to do whatever he likes with the government, he still can't help but hemorrhage jobs left, right, and centre, and then blame it on his predecessor, who did better than he's doing?
The US should wish it was experiencing the Biden economy, because the Biden economy was doing quite well. This is firmly and unequivocally the Trump economy. You don't get to pull everyone's quality of life down for a year and still blame it on the last guy.
well, to be fair, he did bankrupt casinos …
This from the guy that stated hundreds of times he would fix it all day 1.
Absolutely pathetic. So embarrassed for America
He mocks you as he impoverishes you and kills you and you do nothing about it.
He is a criminal through and through and has surrounded himself with criminals who enable him while they steal everything.
America is sick almost beyond healing. Americans are cowards.
I can't even imagine a life where I watched something like this idiot talk, and was like, "wow... he's so smart, Presidential, normal and not completely batshit insane"
It has to be such a weird and scary world for Trump supporters.
Biden, Biden, Biden...
Will Trump ever admit anything might be his fault??
Why do I even bother asking the question... It's not as if I don't know the answer already...
A presidential address has always been must see TV in my house. From childhood to my own home now. I could give a single fuck what this guy has got to say. I'm just waiting for the expiration date on the front page of the newspaper.
Sounds like someone has Biden Derangement Syndrome.
Is Biden still President?
Hope the wise Trump voters are proud of installing this pedophile maniac into power. Again.
He’s deranged. Somebody hit the emergency button.
Its wild that we allow a pedophile criminal to stand over us and talk to us like that
Just out here delivering talking points for divorced uncles and racist grandparents to ruin Christmas.
One thing that has been consistent with this fascist administration is they never take the blame. It's always someone else's fault.
Biden Derangement Syndrome
He's not a leader, he a blamer
Sounds like this guy has Biden Derangement Syndrome.
Nothing like a hateful asshole talking incessant shit about someone he doesn't like in front of a Christmas display.
As long as it continues to work with his base, he has no reason to change. Blame him, but also blame the millions of people who still support him.
Biden gonna live in trumps head rent free till the day he dies. I’ve never seen someone obsess so much over another human being, maybe trump just has feelings for old Joe.
"I've never seen him like this, and I have attended 42 of his rallies."
I think I speak for most people when I say after attending 42 rallies, your opinion on ANYTHING does not deserve to be taken seriously
He’s had Biden in his mouth more times than Jill has.
No wonder he failed in real estate with him letting people live rent free (in his head)
If anybody else did this about him, it would be Trump Derangement Syndrome. He does it about anybody, and his base touts it as the greatest speech anybody has ever heard.
Really makes you wonder who the deranged ones actually are.
Could someone please, just ask him loudly in public and on camera 'what the f*ck are you even talking about?'