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Donald Trump and the aftermath of his presidency

hwl

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Having finished them I can confidently predict that my above comments will be the tip of the iceberg once he's out of office.
Congressional inquiries for years to come. The only question is whether they start in 2021 or 2025!
 
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SteveP29

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He’s a rich bloke.

Not from his business acumen he's not
https://www.thoughtco.com/donald-trump-business-bankruptcies-4152019

6 Corporate Bankruptcies
Trump has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy for his companies six times. Three of the casino bankruptcies came during the recession of the early 1990s and the Gulf War, both of which contributed to hard times in Atlantic City, New Jersey's gambling facilities.

He also entered a Manhattan hotel and two casino holding companies into bankruptcy.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows companies to restructure or wipe away much of their debt to other companies, creditors, and shareholders while remaining in business but under the supervision of a bankruptcy court.

Chapter 11 is often called "reorganization" because it allows the business to emerge from the process more efficient and on good terms with its creditors.


You do have to ask, who does keep funding him if his businesses keep going under?
 
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SteveP29

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Not paying his suppliers is one his favourite routes pre-bankruptcy.

So that's who Mike Ashley learned his tricks from then (apart from the bankruptcy bit)
Speaking of which, nice to see him (Ashley) reviled as much as he is nationwide now, not just in Newcastle, see, we weren't all just deluded, demanding Geordies, we sussed him years ago.
 

najaB

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You do have to ask, who does keep funding him if his businesses keep going under?
People who have money the origin of which they wish to keep confidential. So they lend Trump money that they then recover in a clean state. You might say that he operates as a kind of "money laundry".
 

krus_aragon

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You know I really wish someone would have ensured that the legislation, in whatever form, was the same amongst the four nations to avoid even further confusion like this! Thanks for pointing that out as I wasn't aware of this difference between England and Wales.
Hey, look on the bright side: at least we're not an amalgamation of fifty different states each with their own laws, jostling against a federal government led by a contorversial business tycoon! :D
 

Bletchleyite

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Hey, look on the bright side: at least we're not an amalgamation of fifty different states each with their own laws, jostling against a federal government led by a contorversial business tycoon! :D

Well, there is that...our fake-tan-coloured "friend" in Leftpondia is continuing to show his true colours, isn't he? :)
 

bramling

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Well, there is that...our fake-tan-coloured "friend" in Leftpondia is continuing to show his true colours, isn't he? :)

He does appear to have a point about the WHO, in particular that for some time they were propagating the line that there was no evidence of person to person transmission.

The situation in America, Trump’s influence, and how it might affect his forthcoming election, might well be worthy of a whole thread of its own!
 

baz962

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He does appear to have a point about the WHO, in particular that for some time they were propagating the line that there was no evidence of person to person transmission.

The situation in America, Trump’s influence, and how it might affect his forthcoming election, might well be worthy of a whole thread of its own!
Funny you should mention that . After reading the post above you , I did wonder if he might get re elected. My youngest son lives in the us and I have some of their news linked to my social media and as much as some are slating Trump , many still support him.
 

bramling

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Funny you should mention that . After reading the post above you , I did wonder if he might get re elected. My youngest son lives in the us and I have some of their news linked to my social media and as much as some are slating Trump , many still support him.

I find it difficult to analyse what’s going on over there as we only see snippets, and of course the federal structure appears to be placing much more responsibility on the individual states.

I’m not sure Trump has necessarily done any worse than most of the European countries, however their death rate isn’t good when you have an election coming. Trump is already appearing to be in the defensive, but then again this is his normal strategy so it may serve him well again who knows.

Trump did get a travel ban in quite early, that’s one area I feel Britain fell short in.
 

Esker-pades

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I find it difficult to analyse what’s going on over there as we only see snippets, and of course the federal structure appears to be placing much more responsibility on the individual states.

I’m not sure Trump has necessarily done any worse than most of the European countries, however their death rate isn’t good when you have an election coming. Trump is already appearing to be in the defensive, but then again this is his normal strategy so it may serve him well again who knows.

Trump did get a travel ban in quite early, that’s one area I feel Britain fell short in.
The question is, what's Trump, what's the individual states, and what's just luck of the draw? It'll take a while for that to filter through.

Re. travel bans, that's not really the problem. It's more actually getting people tested on arrival, or forcing everyone coming in to quarantine for X weeks. The UK did neither. I'm still not sure what we're doing in that reguard.
 

nlogax

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Funny you should mention that . After reading the post above you , I did wonder if he might get re elected. My youngest son lives in the us and I have some of their news linked to my social media and as much as some are slating Trump , many still support him.

November will be a close race but I'm not convinced by Biden's chances. Trump's base are committed to him in spite of his dire record and Biden himself has admitted he'll unlikely turn them. A lot depends upon whom Biden picks as his running mate, and Obama's support out on the stump (once that's finally allowed) - these may help swing things but I wouldn't count on anything right now.
 

Typhoon

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November will be a close race but I'm not convinced by Biden's chances. Trump's base are committed to him in spite of his dire record and Biden himself has admitted he'll unlikely turn them. A lot depends upon whom Biden picks as his running mate, and Obama's support out on the stump (once that's finally allowed) - these may help swing things but I wouldn't count on anything right now.
I certainly wouldn't bet against Trump - 'You can fool some of the people all of the time, ...' - that's all he has to do.

Trump needs to reward whoever came up with 'Sleepy Joe', it sums him up. I really can't see many people voting for Biden, his votes will be votes against Trump. Next time the Democrats need to come up with a small group of credible candidates, not the massive list that appeared to include everyone from the Mayor of Willow Springs, Missouri, to the Representative for Wisconsin's Twelfth District and member of the House's Cheese Committee.
 

ainsworth74

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I’m not sure Trump has necessarily done any worse than most of the European countries, however their death rate isn’t good when you have an election coming. Trump is already appearing to be in the defensive, but then again this is his normal strategy so it may serve him well again who knows.

I think it's his usual issue of just lying through his teeth (or perhaps his childlike "I want the world to be like this so I'll say it is and then it will be" rather than deliberate attempt to lie) that has made his handling of the situation so awful. As others have said the nitty gritty business it's hard to differentiate between State and Federal level who was supposed to do what and when.

But you have Trump saying in January/February that it was no big deal or that the few cases they would have would soon be zero before flipping to it clearly is a big issue and it always has been a big issue by March/April. You have Trump (or it might have be Kushner his son-in-law) basically saying that New York state is lying about the number of ventilators that they'll need. Trump not using available legislation to ramp up production of ventilators (after giving the impression that he was) and then when he does only using it a narrow scope. We have the latest "I have total power to decide with the lock down ends" before coming out this morning with the truth that he doesn't and it's up to the states. Or we have the US Pandemic Response Team having several important staffers leaving in May 2018 without replacement. Or there's the $2tn stimulus spending which has had the main watchdog replaced after comments from Trump about not wanting too much oversight of the spending.

Plenty of Western leaders have made plenty of mistakes but I'm not sure any of them have the same record of denial and lying and maleficence or just general misdirection incompetence that Trump has shown. Whether or not it was up to the States or the Federal Goverment to do anything is almost by the by considering what he himself has said and done. Plenty of people have been critical of Boris and I'm sure there's plenty who have been critical of Macron in France or Conti in Italy or Modi in India but I don't think any of them have a record like Trumps when it comes to this crisis.
 

nlogax

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I think it's his usual issue of just lying through his teeth (or perhaps his childlike "I want the world to be like this so I'll say it is and then it will be" rather than deliberate attempt to lie) that has made his handling of the situation so awful. As others have said the nitty gritty business it's hard to differentiate between State and Federal level who was supposed to do what and when.

The ever growing list of misdeeds, screw-ups, lies and failures from Trump don't mean anything to so many of those who voted for him in 2016 and who intend to do so again this November. For many in flyover country Trump would have to personally come to their homes, kick them square in the nethers and insult their families before they'd consider voting for Joe Biden. Right now the US economy maybe headed south but many believe that China did this on purpose and Trump's saving the country by sending everyone cheques..cheques with his name printed on them.
 

ainsworth74

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For many in flyover country Trump would have to personally come to their homes, kick them square in the nethers and insult their families before they'd consider voting for Joe Biden.

I'm not even sure it would make a difference then to some of them. They'd probably internalise it as being their fault and then double down on their efforts to support him to make up for their mistakes...

But yes I certainly agree with you on the general point. I think even a cursory glance at various media outlets and twitter feeds shows that very clearly. I lurk in a Facebook group which is predominantly Republicans (long story which I won't get into) and there's plenty who don't like Trump and think he's awful but can't bring themselves to vote for a Democrat in that group (and there's plenty who think he's a breath of fresh air and doing what needs to be done).
 

RichT54

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The one thing that Trump has been highly successful at is convincing a large proportion of americans that most of the media is lying to them. This will become increasingly important during the election as whenever the media will try to highlight Trump's many faults and failures a substantial number of voters will simply dismiss it as "fake news". Another four years of Trump will be even more of a catastrophe than what has already happened, yet it wouldn't surprise me if he gets voted in again.
 

DynamicSpirit

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He does appear to have a point about the WHO, in particular that for some time they were propagating the line that there was no evidence of person to person transmission.

As far as I can work out, that was back in December/January, at a time when that statement was broadly correct - there was at that time no evidence of person to person transmission (At least, no evidence that was available to them. I guess we can't rule out that the authorities in Wuhan might have had evidence and were suppressing it). You can slightly criticise the WHO in this regard to the extent that in mid-late January, when evidence of person-to-person transmission started to emerge from Wuhan, the WHO appeared to be giving ambiguous messages - but only for about a week. But their failings appear to be tiny compared to Trump's failings in how he all but ignored the virus for about a month when it was starting to spread in the US.

I think there are legitimate criticisms of the WHO that ought to be addressed - but nothing that justifies Trump's actions in stopping funding and making out that they are some kind of awful organisation.
 

Wivenswold

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I watch most of his daily briefings (well, listen while playing Train Simulator and Football Manager) and I fear for the American people. He's going totally of the rails, last night was a peach. Referring to China's economy "Mainlining", getting huffy went repeatedly asked what he got up to in February (playing golf and MAGA rallies) and then lashing out at an individual reporters calling one of them "stupid".

There was an interesting excerpt from former Australian PM Malcolm Turnball in yesterday's Grauniad where he highlights Trump's act of repeating what little he knows on a subject like it's a script and also confirms how bad the Orangatrump is at negotiation, easily rolling him on tariffs for Australian metals. There will much more of this sort of thing as time goes on, he'll be looked back on as a clown. For the time being, it's like a soap opera for me.

I'm reassured by the levels of knowledge and intelligence on this forum. I've learned a lot about the world on here, the views are balanced and thoughtful and admins do a superb job. I've been meaning to say that for a while but finally breaking away from just train talk has been a revelation for me. We really are a special group.
 

najaB

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My youngest son lives in the us and I have some of their news linked to my social media and as much as some are slating Trump , many still support him.
His base will always support him. Many because they truly believe, some because they don't know how to quit him. But, as I said to someone else recently, he cannot win on his base (c. 35% of the electorate) alone. For that matter, neither can a Democratic candidate (c. 40% of the electorate). Whoever wins will do so by bringing over swing voters.
 

baz962

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His base will always support him. Many because they truly believe, some because they don't know how to quit him. But, as I said to someone else recently, he cannot win on his base (c. 35% of the electorate) alone. For that matter, neither can a Democratic candidate (c. 40% of the electorate). Whoever wins will do so by bringing over swing voters.
I can't call it , do you have a prediction. Just for fun
 

Typhoon

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His base will always support him. Many because they truly believe, some because they don't know how to quit him. But, as I said to someone else recently, he cannot win on his base (c. 35% of the electorate) alone. For that matter, neither can a Democratic candidate (c. 40% of the electorate). Whoever wins will do so by bringing over swing voters.
I suspect that the Democrats may have a problem bringing over all of the Bernie Sanders vote. I would have thought that the likes of Ocasio-Cortez, other members of 'The Squad' and their supporters might want to wait for someone rather more sympathetic to their cause and offer no more than token support. This would bring party support rather closer to parity, meaning the swing vote will be even more significant

Interesting article at https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/...nces-joe-biden-centrist-democrats/2825829001/

I've extracted a few quotes (it does rather go on)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the party can be "too big of a tent," and distanced herself ideologically from 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, saying they would not be part of the same political party in another country. ...

She said members of the Democratic majority in Congress are too focused on the concerns of voters in districts that have historically been Republican and are currently represented by moderate Democrats. ...

“For so long, when I first got in, people were like, ‘Oh, are you going to basically be a tea party of the left?’ And what people don’t realize is that there is a tea party of the left, but it’s on the right edges, the most conservative parts of the Democratic Party," Ocasio-Cortez said. ...

When asked how she would fit into Congress during a potential Biden presidency, Ocasio-Cortez replied with a groan, "Oh, God." “In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America, we are," she said. ...
 

najaB

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I can't call it , do you have a prediction.
I think it depends on two things: the final impact of the pandemic on the USA, and who Biden chooses as his VP.

The idea of appointing Republicans to his cabinet is interesting.
 

RichT54

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In the past when people have said "Trump's an idiot" others have defended him saying "No, he's actually quite smart."

However, his latest ravings about injecting disinfectant to cure coivd19 have proved conclusively that he is an idiot.

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?

"So it'd be interesting to check that."

Pointing to his head, Mr Trump went on: "I'm not a doctor. But I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what."


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52407177
 

najaB

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In the past when people have said "Trump's an idiot" others have defended him saying "No, he's actually quite smart."
I saw this a couple hours ago and have just about managed to pick my jaw up from the floor.
 

37424

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I saw this a couple hours ago and have just about managed to pick my jaw up from the floor.

I don't which is worse really the fact that this man is the president or the likely hood that the many Americans will vote him in for a second term.
 

najaB

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I don't which is worse really the fact that this man is the president or the likely hood that the many Americans will vote him in for a second term.
The problem is that many Americans will vote for anyone who isn't the Democratic Party candidate (and many others will vote for anyone who isn't the Republican's).
 

JohnMcL7

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Funny you should mention that . After reading the post above you , I did wonder if he might get re elected. My youngest son lives in the us and I have some of their news linked to my social media and as much as some are slating Trump , many still support him.

There's a series on Netflix called 'Dirty Money' which is a set of documentaries about different subjects one of which in the first series is focused on Donald Trump and showing how he's a total fraud and terrible at business. His Dad is essentially who Trumps makes himself out to be and it features the Apprentice producers horrified at his presidency and feel they are partially to blame as they made out he was a great business person despite the fact even when they were filming showing successful Trump projects worth huge amounts of money had already gone bust. In the second series they take an episode to focus on Jared Kushner and his property company which seem a good match for Trump, they were showing these properties built on the outskirts of towns that were a very poor standard not even meeting basic safety regulations.

On top of that tenants were subject to a destructive penalty fee system that would mean a payment being late even by a day was subject to fees and costs they weren't expecting so they'd then unintentionally 'miss' the next payment even though they had paid the normal amount on time. This would quickly snowball until the tenants couldn't afford it and were hammered even more so for it. The person speaking with them for the program had difficulty hiding their shock when some of these tenants made it clear they were ardent Trump supporters because 'he knows business' even though that business is totally screwing them over. I knew Trump initially had a lot of supporters in these rust belt communities but you'd have thought he would have lost many of them now as they realised he didn't give a toss about them but that doesn't seem the case.
 

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