The Official "Damned Trump" Thread: Phase II

[Deesse23]

This is France
France just locked up its former president (Sarkozy) for up to 5 years
Be like France

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Fuck Those Hungry People

The US Department of Agriculture says it will not tap into its $6 billion contingency fund to cover food stamp benefits next month if the shutdown continues, according to an agency memo obtained by CNN. That means that roughly 42 million Americans will not receive critical food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in November, unless the agency shifts its position.

However, when asked whether he would direct USDA to fund food stamps next month, President Donald Trump told reporters late Friday, “Yeah, everybody is going to be in good shape, yep.” The president did not provide specific details.

Trump’s comments appear to conflict with the agency’s memo, which stated that “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.”

“SNAP contingency funds are only available to supplement regular monthly benefits when amounts have been appropriated for, but are insufficient to cover, benefits,” the memo says. “The contingency fund is not available to support FY 2026 regular benefits, because the appropriation for regular benefits no longer exists.”

(Bold mine)

'Look, guys - we found a loophole to avoid feeding people!!' - Some cunt at the USDA who is in no danger of missing meals.

Boru

[Angrboda]

I thought that I would follow up on this because it appears that Democrats and the mainstream media quoted Leavitt out of context.  I think a couple of questions are important.  Number one, how often does this happen where it goes unnoticed, possibly justifying the right's distrust of MSM and belief that they lie all the time.  The other is whether the fact that it was the MSM who noted the out of context quote and followed up on it, whether that doesn't in some sense rebut the notion that this is happening all the time, there's just no reporting on it.  In a sense it's similar to science skeptics who point out that science has been wrong in the past, but don't mention that it was scientists who caught the errors and corrected itself.  Maybe MSM does as well, it's basically impossible to know as it's largely an argument based on the absence of something rather than its presence.

Fact check: Democratic leaders misleadingly snip White House press secretary’s ‘main priority’ quote out of context

Top Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives have taken a Thursday quote from the White House press secretary out of context to deliver a misleading attack on President Donald Trump.

A reporter asked press secretary Karoline Leavitt at a Thursday briefing: “In addition to the ballroom and the Rose Garden patio, is the president looking at any other renovations or significant kind of projects here at the White House?”

Leavitt responded: “Not to my knowledge, no. But he’s a builder at heart, clearly. And so his heart and his mind is always churning about how to improve things here on the White House grounds. But at this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority.”

So Leavitt was clearly referring to the planned new ballroom as Trump’s main priority for White House renovations. But on social media, various Democratic members of Congress have cut out the first part of the exchange to make it sound like she was saying the ballroom was Trump’s overall main priority.

The House Democratic Caucus’s official account on the social media platform X posted a five-second clip of Leavitt saying only, “At this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president’s main priority.” The Democrats wrote in the Thursday post: “So, Trump’s MAIN priority is a $300 MILLION ballroom? Not lowering costs. Not saving health care. Not reopening the government. Got it.”

By clipping out the question Leavitt was asked about White House renovations, the Democrats created a misleading impression about her response.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Trump is now making noise about a potential land war in Venezuela. The parallels with Vietnam are unmistakable.

Boru

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Trump says he will have secured $20 trillion in foreign investments by the end of the year. Since this would virtually double the size of the US economy, you’d think someone would have noticed by now.

Boru

[Thumpalumpacus]

Trump is now making noise about a potential land war in Venezuela. The parallels with Vietnam are unmistakable.

Boru

I don't think his base will let him. I think this chatter is more along the lines of a trial balloon.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Trump is now making noise about a potential land war in Venezuela. The parallels with Vietnam are unmistakable.

Boru

I don't think his base will let him. I think this chatter is more along the lines of a trial balloon.

Well, he fooled them into thinking that blowing up speedboats would lessen the drug trade, I’d say he’s got a fair shot at fooling them into thinking that getting involved in an winnable jungle war will MAGA.

Boru

[Paraselene]

They don't have to be convinced. They're blind and deaf followers.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I don't think his base will let him. I think this chatter is more along the lines of a trial balloon.

Well, he fooled them into thinking that blowing up speedboats would lessen the drug trade, I’d say he’s got a fair shot at fooling them into thinking that getting involved in an winnable jungle war will MAGA.

Boru

The truth is a lot easier to hide than body-bags. A key signature of his base, and a pillar of MAGA thinking (such as it is), is the rejection of neocon interventionism that sees GIs dying in countries whose names they can't even pronounce.

[Thumpalumpacus]

To follow up on that last post, Trump's already irritating his followers with other issues as well:

President Trump is breaking from his “America First” trade agenda and feuding with some of his most loyal supporters in a fight over U.S. beef prices.

Trump has centered his economic agenda around reducing the U.S.’s reliance on cheaper foreign products and boosting domestic production of goods and food.

But the president’s plan to boost imports of Argentinian beef while urging American suppliers to lower their prices marks a sharp departure from his platform.

The dispute is threatening Trump’s long-standing support from agriculture groups and workers, who stood by the president during his first term despite the backlash they faced from his trade agenda.

“I have no idea who is telling our great president — our ‘America First’ president — that this is a good idea,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a staunch Trump ally, in an appearance on The Tucker Carlson show this week. “Because, honestly, it’s a punch in the gut to all of our American cattle ranchers, and they are furious and rightfully so.”

[...]

“We love you and support you — but your suggestion to buy beef from Argentina to stabilize beef prices would be an absolute betrayal to the American cattle rancher,” Wyoming-based Meriwether Farms wrote in a post on X, addressing Trump.

https://thehill.com/business/5572249-arg...ntroversy/

Lukewarm support may translate into lower GOP turnout in 2026, perhaps.