The Trump Presidency, Season 2

[Katheryne Helendale]

We already know what that would be like, Mr. President...

Wait! Wait! I've heard this song before!

 

[detrius]

Wait! Wait! I've heard this song before!

Play this while watching any of his speeches:

 

[Cristiano]

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Trump in his own mind - this is from Truth Lies Social Swamp.

 

[Noodles]

Trump in his own mind - this is from Truth Lies Social Swamp.

Trump literally has saluted foreign soldiers.

In real life. In not AI.

 

[Free]

Shouldn't the first one be "LEADERS GOLF" ?

 

[Free]

They're up to no good again.

Trump ballroom project security funding included in $72B GOP enforcement bill

Senate Republicans want to fund Secret Service security upgrades related to President Donald Trump’s ballroom project as part of a nearly $72 billion package that would shovel cash to immigration enforcement agencies.

The proposal Senate Judiciary Republicans unveiled late Monday night — a piece of the forthcoming party-line bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol — would direct $1 billion to the Secret Service for “security adjustments and upgrades,” including at the White House. This is on top of the almost $3.3 billion the agency received already under the fiscal 2026 DHS funding bill signed into law Thursday.

1 BILLION DOLLARS FOR THE BALLROOM. They certainly won't want to spend that money on anything else.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Trump’s Bankruptcies Were the Business Model

Bankruptcy was the cover. Extraction was always the business. The presidency is the seventh.

wendy664.substack.com

I admit I don't quite see how the ballroom and Arc de Trump projects exactly mirror the casino bankruptcies as engines for Trump's personal enrichment (unless his family-related business and trusts are involved in the construction?) but it's a good reminder that the jibe about how he managed to bankrupt a casino doesn't have quite the sting it's supposed to when you realise that bankruptcy was part of the business model for a fraud not unlike that in Mel Brooks' movie The Producers.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Not exactly the same, but no-bid contracts allow for insider dealing and kickbacks.

 

[Noodles]

They're up to no good again.

Trump ballroom project security funding included in $72B GOP enforcement bill


1 BILLION DOLLARS FOR THE BALLROOM. They certainly won't want to spend that money on anything else.

What the fuck, he said his friends were paging for it.

OH WAIT IT WAS JUST ANOTHER GRIFT

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

All joking aside, I think this is very interesting... a lot more Republicans probably actually think he's a healthy, strong man....

 

[Free]

I get the Republican side of the chart, but...wtf is wrong with independent women? Surely they know that all they need to do is trip him...

 

[Isabeau]

onion person (@junlper.beer)

funniest thing i’ve ever seen

bsky.app

CNN Data Guru Reveals More Americans Believe in Ghosts Than Trump Project

MAGA’s renewed push to get Trump’s ballroom built is not going over well with voters.

www.thedailybeast.com

 

[Free]

CNN Data Guru Reveals More Americans Believe in Ghosts Than Trump Project

MAGA’s renewed push to get Trump’s ballroom built is not going over well with voters.

www.thedailybeast.com

Those numbers don't speak well of us at any level.

 

[Free]

Spooked by Mythos, Trump suddenly realized AI safety testing might be good

Trump forced to admit Biden was right on AI safety testing.

arstechnica.com

This week, the Trump administration backpedaled and signed agreements with Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and xAI to run government safety checks on the firms’ frontier AI models before and after their release.

Previously, Donald Trump had stubbornly cast aside the Biden-era policy, dismissing the need for voluntary safety checks as overregulation blocking unbridled innovation. Soon after taking office, he took the extra step of rebranding the US AI Safety Institute to the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), removing “safety” from the name in a pointed jab at Joe Biden.

But after Anthropic announced that it would be too risky to release its latest Claude Mythos model—fearing that bad actors might exploit its advanced cybersecurity capabilities—Trump’s suddenly concerned about AI safety. According to White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Trump may soon issue an executive order mandating government testing of advanced AI systems prior to release, Fortune reported.

 

[Casey Pelous]

Trump admin to start revoking thousands of Americans' passports

I'm sure there's no racial or ethnic skew in the population that is delinquent on child support. And no possibility of selective enforcement, AMIRITE?

 

[Beebo Brink]

Trump admin to start revoking thousands of Americans' passports

I'm sure there's no racial or ethnic skew in the population that is delinquent on child support. And no possibility of selective enforcement, AMIRITE?

Is there a skew toward minorities? And if there is, how many of them have passports anyway?

My first thought was of white men of the business class who need to travel for their job, not a minimum-wage black guy who has fallen behind on child-support payments because he barely makes enough to live.

$2500 seems a very low threshold, but at higher levels, I'm not sure I have a problem with this. I'm open to hearing some discussion/debate on this because I'm not clear what exactly the Trump admin thinks this will accomplish.

 

[Free]

Kash Patel’s Personalized Bourbon Stash

The FBI director has been leaving an unusual calling card.

www.theatlantic.com

One of J. Edgar Hoover’s greatest reforms at the FBI was his embrace of fingerprinting. During the 1930s, visitors to the FBI offices in Washington, D.C., received souvenir fingerprint cards featuring his name. The men who succeeded him as FBI director were more discreet and judicious, mindful of the cult of personality that had developed around Hoover. They generally avoided giving out branded swag.

But then came Kash Patel.

President Trump’s FBI director has a great deal of affection for swag. Merchandise for sale on a website he co-founded—still operating, nearly 15 months into his term—includes beanies ($35), T-shirts ($35), orange camo hoodies ($65), trucker caps ($25), “government gangsters” playing cards (on sale for $10), and a Fight With Kash Punisher scarf ($25).

One thing not for sale is liquor, because liquor is something Patel gives away for free.

He hands out bottles of whiskey - personalized bottles branded with his name. And he's done it while on official FBI business. Not a particularly good look, considering recent news.

This administration is such a huge fucking joke but I can't even laugh at it. Case in point:

Kash Patel Lost It When Personalized Bourbon Bottle Went Missing

“It turned into a sh*tshow,” a former agent said of the scene.

newrepublic.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

The whole personalized bourbon bottle thang doesn't register very high, if at all, on my scandal meter. It's the context in which this gift item occurs that's bonkers.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

In Trump's first term, he selected serious people for his administration. ...they all turned against him eventually. He learned his lesson and selected a total clown show of loyalists this time. It's sickening to watch.