President Trump and US politics catchall

[Biffer]

Odd, especially as one of the things thus far about Trump's second term in office is his administration has been much more sensible about reporting of them they don't like. Sure they're still thin skinned, but they've been vastly better than the first term, and in many ways they've been doing better as a result

? the mess that is the DoD, the multiple firings and witch hunt is because of the leaks regards the Signal use and other stuff ups. I don't see the Trump admin liking the leaks at all.

I'm not saying they like it, just they've been somewhat more grown up about things this time around and the relationship with the media, not just Trump but the staff too, has been less fractious. Granted it was a low bar to clear, and by heavens this is a big step in the wrong direction, just it seems odd when they had seemed (a little) more relaxed. But then the orange one is just very odd, if being nice

They don't like it when it harms them.

If something similar had happened under Biden, it'd be a lot of 'freedom of speech' and '1st amendment rights' and other stuff.

Let's not pretend they have any genuine beliefs that aren't centered entirely in self interest.

[fishfoodie]

Talking about incompent asses. Here's Pete on a good day...

“This morning, I proudly ENDED the “Women, Peace & Security” (WPS) program inside the @DeptofDefense,” Secretary Hegseth bragged on Tuesday. “WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING.”

“WPS is a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it,” he claimed. “DoD will hereby executive [sic] the minimum of WPS required by statute, and fight to end the program for our next budget. GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!”

Trump signed that piece of legislation into law into 2017 after it being promoted by his team.

Yeah; "War Fighting" ... that's why this moron spent tens of thousands on putting in a Makeup room in the Pentagon

Because Pete knows that nothing undermines the fighting soldiers morale worse than seeing the Defense Secretary with a shiny forehead when he's explaining why sharing attack plans with his wife & Lawyer are perfectly normal

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pent ... up-studio/

[Flockwitt]

So much for Bezos telling the WP to back off pre-election. That displaying tariff cost is only fair to the consumer and the supplier. If it were the same tariffs everywhere, and the tariffs stayed the same, they could be simply lumped together, but the retail price needs to show why different articles that used to cost the same are now different, and have a mechanism to quickly identify why a price has changed as it changes. The Whitehouse needs to be told to shove it by the collective retail industry

It turns out what triggered the Whitehouse was fake news. A report that added a bit of poetic license to a discussion from a non-mainstream part of Amazon. Bezos out there denying that this was ever intended and certainly never happened.

Now being reported that Trump phoned Bezos this morning before Amazon said 'no, that's not happening, nothing to see here'.

Sounds more like Amazon backed down after Trump threatened them.

Seeing different takes on this all over the place now tbf but I'm not sure that Trump made Bezos back down isn't the Whitehouse spin side of it. Doesn't stop the admin throwing in a bit of disinformation though:

“Of course he was pissed,” one of the officials, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told CNN. “Why should a multibillion dollar company pass off costs to consumers?”

[Uncle fester]

I like how the tag "trump tariffs" is starting to stick.

[Kiwias]

I'm not saying they like it, just they've been somewhat more grown up about things this time around and the relationship with the media, not just Trump but the staff too, has been less fractious. Granted it was a low bar to clear, and by heavens this is a big step in the wrong direction, just it seems odd when they had seemed (a little) more relaxed. But then the orange one is just very odd, if being nice

He has openly threatened several media outlets with losing their licenses over their reporting, leading to some of them paying significant money to the administration, while the press office has revoked press clearances to the WH for some mainstream media (overturned by court order). I am not seeing how this administration has a less fractious relationship with the media.

[Guy Smiley]

I'm not saying they like it, just they've been somewhat more grown up about things this time around and the relationship with the media, not just Trump but the staff too, has been less fractious. Granted it was a low bar to clear, and by heavens this is a big step in the wrong direction, just it seems odd when they had seemed (a little) more relaxed. But then the orange one is just very odd, if being nice

He has openly threatened several media outlets with losing their licenses over their reporting, leading to some of them paying significant money to the administration, while the press office has revoked press clearances to the WH for some mainstream media (overturned by court order). I am not seeing how this administration has a less fractious relationship with the media.

Yeah... from the outside it looks to me as though this time around the gloves are completely off and the administration are openly hostile and vindictive. As for more grown up...? Yeah, about that Hegseth guy

[Flockwitt]

I'm not saying they like it, just they've been somewhat more grown up about things this time around and the relationship with the media, not just Trump but the staff too, has been less fractious. Granted it was a low bar to clear, and by heavens this is a big step in the wrong direction, just it seems odd when they had seemed (a little) more relaxed. But then the orange one is just very odd, if being nice

He has openly threatened several media outlets with losing their licenses over their reporting, leading to some of them paying significant money to the administration, while the press office has revoked press clearances to the WH for some mainstream media (overturned by court order). I am not seeing how this administration has a less fractious relationship with the media.

Yeah... from the outside it looks to me as though this time around the gloves are completely off and the administration are openly hostile and vindictive. As for more grown up...? Yeah, about that Hegseth guy

There was the fold by the 60 Minute owners. Open bullying of the media is the norm.

[tabascoboy]

In other news, a tech writer makes the humorous point that we have actually reached artificial general intelligence on the Trump level.
(basically his brain is a LLM at this point) https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the ... residency/

Techdirt
Mike Masnick

The Hallucinating ChatGPT Presidency

We generally understand how LLM hallucinations work. An AI model tries to generate what seems like a plausible response to whatever you ask it, drawing on its training data to construct something that sounds right. The actual truth of the response is, at best, a secondary consideration.

This is not the response of someone working from actual knowledge or policy understanding. Instead, it’s precisely how an LLM operates: taking a prompt (the question about job losses) and generating text based on some core parameters (the “system prompt” that requires deflecting blame and asserting greatness).

The hallmarks of AI generation are all here:

Confident assertions without factual backing
Meandering diversions that maintain loose semantic connection to the topic
Pattern-matching to previous responses (“ripped off,” “billions of dollars”)
Optimization for what sounds good rather than what’s true

Just as an LLM will confidently generate plausible-sounding text without any real understanding, Trump generates responses that sound like answers while avoiding any engagement with the actual substance of the questions.

He doesn’t answer the actual questions. He doesn’t address the actual points. He doesn’t understand what’s actually going on, so he crafts a rambling nonsensical answer based loosely on the question, while following the system prompt’s instructions to make sure the answer makes himself look good.

[Kiwias]

I'm not saying they like it, just they've been somewhat more grown up about things this time around and the relationship with the media, not just Trump but the staff too, has been less fractious. Granted it was a low bar to clear, and by heavens this is a big step in the wrong direction, just it seems odd when they had seemed (a little) more relaxed. But then the orange one is just very odd, if being nice

He has openly threatened several media outlets with losing their licenses over their reporting, leading to some of them paying significant money to the administration, while the press office has revoked press clearances to the WH for some mainstream media (overturned by court order). I am not seeing how this administration has a less fractious relationship with the media.

Yeah... from the outside it looks to me as though this time around the gloves are completely off and the administration are openly hostile and vindictive. As for more grown up...? Yeah, about that Hegseth guy

And Linda McMahon talking about A1.

[fishfoodie]

He has openly threatened several media outlets with losing their licenses over their reporting, leading to some of them paying significant money to the administration, while the press office has revoked press clearances to the WH for some mainstream media (overturned by court order). I am not seeing how this administration has a less fractious relationship with the media.

Yeah... from the outside it looks to me as though this time around the gloves are completely off and the administration are openly hostile and vindictive. As for more grown up...? Yeah, about that Hegseth guy

There was the fold by the 60 Minute owners. Open bullying of the media is the norm.

Has everyone forgotten MSNBC purging all their primetime hosts, who weren't milky skinned ?

[Rhubarb & Custard]

I'm not saying they like it, just they've been somewhat more grown up about things this time around and the relationship with the media, not just Trump but the staff too, has been less fractious. Granted it was a low bar to clear, and by heavens this is a big step in the wrong direction, just it seems odd when they had seemed (a little) more relaxed. But then the orange one is just very odd, if being nice

He has openly threatened several media outlets with losing their licenses over their reporting, leading to some of them paying significant money to the administration, while the press office has revoked press clearances to the WH for some mainstream media (overturned by court order). I am not seeing how this administration has a less fractious relationship with the media.

Again I'm not saying it's good, merely it's better than it was. Perhaps because they've better people in place, not perhaps good in terms of virtuosity but rather with some idea of what they want to do and how to do it, even it some regard it as evil/lunatic.

But it had been seeming the off the record chats between media and Trump staff were more cordial, more detailed, and wasn't as reactive to a bad news story but was more driven by Whitehouse initiatives, such as they are. And one does need to keep in mind Trump wants to be on CNN, MSNBC, featured in the New York Times and the like, if only because he daftly thinks if they validate him it'll make up for his parents hating him, when really any chance of him growing up has long since been removed from the board.

[TedMaul]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

[ScarfaceClaw]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

He’s in El Salvador.

[Uncle fester]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

Too busy winning and pwning libs.

[Niegs]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

Too busy winning and pwning libs.

Maybe, with continued Trump 'wins', and the recent anti-win by Canada's conservatives (incredibly rare for the likely PM to lose his own seat) broke him?

[TedMaul]

I think he's busy sending searing emails to the Complaints Department at Fleshlight Ltd. "I DID NOT ORDER MEDIUM, I ORDERED SMALL"

[fishfoodie]

If your dog appears disturbed, it's probably because of the incredibly high pitched whining emanating from the WH, where the tango traitor is trying to pretend that the economy shrinking is down to Biden, & not the cunt in charge since November !

[lemonhead]

If your dog appears disturbed, it's probably because of the incredibly high pitched whining emanating from the WH, where the tango traitor is trying to pretend that the economy shrinking is down to Biden, & not the cunt in charge since November !

Always wondered how people fell for this shit. At all times dominant, cruel and with an endless sense of whinge-laden grievance.

We both control everything and are at the same time victims of weak, incompetent yet highly sophisticated Deep State actors.

[Guy Smiley]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

Maybe he got laid and it cured him?

[ScarfaceClaw]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

Maybe he got laid and it cured him?

He’s probably not yet finished crying.

[sockwithaticket]

If your dog appears disturbed, it's probably because of the incredibly high pitched whining emanating from the WH, where the tango traitor is trying to pretend that the economy shrinking is down to Biden, & not the cunt in charge since November !

Always wondered how people fell for this shit. At all times dominant, cruel and with an endless sense of whinge-laden grievance.

We both control everything and are at the same time victims of weak, incompetent yet highly sophisticated Deep State actors.

It is estimated that somewhere around a fifth of American adults are illiterate and close to half read at a 6th grade (age 12 - 13) level. They are not well educated and capable of critical thinking.

[Guy Smiley]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

Maybe he got laid and it cured him?

He’s probably not yet finished crying.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

If your dog appears disturbed, it's probably because of the incredibly high pitched whining emanating from the WH, where the tango traitor is trying to pretend that the economy shrinking is down to Biden, & not the cunt in charge since November !

Always wondered how people fell for this shit. At all times dominant, cruel and with an endless sense of whinge-laden grievance.

We both control everything and are at the same time victims of weak, incompetent yet highly sophisticated Deep State actors.

Maybe it lacks the drive of an election campaign, but team orange traitor booked a much smaller venue than they've often used, and they still had a lot of empty seats, lots.

[Guy Smiley]

If your dog appears disturbed, it's probably because of the incredibly high pitched whining emanating from the WH, where the tango traitor is trying to pretend that the economy shrinking is down to Biden, & not the cunt in charge since November !

Always wondered how people fell for this shit. At all times dominant, cruel and with an endless sense of whinge-laden grievance.

We both control everything and are at the same time victims of weak, incompetent yet highly sophisticated Deep State actors.

Maybe it lacks the drive of an election campaign, but team orange traitor booked a much smaller venue than they've often used, and they still had a lot of empty seats, lots.

[Slick]

If your dog appears disturbed, it's probably because of the incredibly high pitched whining emanating from the WH, where the tango traitor is trying to pretend that the economy shrinking is down to Biden, & not the cunt in charge since November !

Perfect. It was an incredible bit of childish whining

[fishfoodie]

Bidens fault !, definitely not because of the Trump Tariff Sales Tax !!!!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tylerroush ... shipments/

Did you know that Walmart has ~1,000,000 employees ? ... but that's okay, the Waltons are salt of the Earth people, & I'm sure that their response to their profits disappearing will be to help out their employees thru the tough times ahead .....

[fishfoodie]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

Maybe he got laid and it cured him?

You think he found the sheep of his dreams ?

[lemonhead]

If your dog appears disturbed, it's probably because of the incredibly high pitched whining emanating from the WH, where the tango traitor is trying to pretend that the economy shrinking is down to Biden, & not the cunt in charge since November !

Always wondered how people fell for this shit. At all times dominant, cruel and with an endless sense of whinge-laden grievance.

We both control everything and are at the same time victims of weak, incompetent yet highly sophisticated Deep State actors.

It is estimated that somewhere around a fifth of American adults are illiterate and close to half read at a 6th grade (age 12 - 13) level. They are not well educated and capable of critical thinking.

Feels like something more than that.

They sure love hatin their government and burning them witches. Maybe someone purporting to do both, telling fables of greatness just hits that G(ullible) spot.

[Flockwitt]

Don’t forget draining that swamp so good white non-aborted children have lush green fields to grow up in as proper gun toting Christians (non-vaccinated).

[lemonhead]

Fiery, vivid green. Almost lymphoma-inducing.

[sockwithaticket]

Always wondered how people fell for this shit. At all times dominant, cruel and with an endless sense of whinge-laden grievance.

We both control everything and are at the same time victims of weak, incompetent yet highly sophisticated Deep State actors.

It is estimated that somewhere around a fifth of American adults are illiterate and close to half read at a 6th grade (age 12 - 13) level. They are not well educated and capable of critical thinking.

Feels like something more than that.

They sure love hatin their government and burning them witches. Maybe someone purporting to do both, telling fables of greatness just hits that G(ullible) spot.

With Trump there's clearly some sort of weird charisma that he and a few other populists have to really incite devotion from their flock (on these shores BoJo still has supporters despite everything), but Republicans have been voting for similar rhetoric and ideas contrary to their own interest for a long time.

At the root of their susceptibility is dismal education and the incapacity to parse ideas. Makes it very easy to propagandise them and seduce with simple solutions for complex problems or propose conflicting notions without anyone going 'hey, wait a minute...'

[TB63]

[Kiwias]

It is hard to know what a reporter should do in such a case. Moran did push back and say repeatedly that the MS-13 was photoshopped and is not real. In reality, I wonder what else he could have done.

[Flockwitt]

What do you do when Steven Miller does his getting angry and shouting makes me right routine?

[Kiwias]

What do you do when Steven Miller does his getting angry and shouting makes me right routine?

You can cut him off but I don't know that calling the President a fucking liar (as Mehdi suggests) is a feasible option. trump may be a total trainwreck of a human being and president but he is still the president.

[Guy Smiley]

It is hard to know what a reporter should do in such a case. Moran did push back and say repeatedly that the MS-13 was photoshopped and is not real. In reality, I wonder what else he could have done.

You hit him with his own shit and tell him he's spreading fake news.

[Gumboot]

What's happened to our pet incel - Convoluted?

Maybe he's exhausted from all the winning and needed a lie down.

[Kiwias]

It is hard to know what a reporter should do in such a case. Moran did push back and say repeatedly that the MS-13 was photoshopped and is not real. In reality, I wonder what else he could have done.

You hit him with his own shit and tell him he's spreading fake news.

Moran attempted to do that but Trump just kept on riding roughshod over anything he said.

[Guy Smiley]

It is hard to know what a reporter should do in such a case. Moran did push back and say repeatedly that the MS-13 was photoshopped and is not real. In reality, I wonder what else he could have done.

You hit him with his own shit and tell him he's spreading fake news.

Moran attempted to do that but Trump just kept on riding roughshod over anything he said.

He's a bully and a blowhard. You have to tough it out and stand right up to him. No-one has actually accused him outright yet, of spreading Fake News. Use it like a fire break and just keep niggling him with it. He'll eventually start to wobble.

being the President doesn't grant him immunity from being accused of being a liar.

[Gumboot]

Lying comes as naturally as breathing to the King. He didn't get where he is today without lying through his teeth about everything. His loyal subjects want to be lied to. They love it whenever he picks random facts and figures out of his arse with a straight face. Just goes to show all the libtards what an alpha edgelord he is, and that's what really counts, right?