Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Trump 2.0

Welp, Trump was sworn in as the 47th POTUS. This time, Trump comes with the dubious honor of being America’s first convicted felon AND adjudicated sexual assaulter POTUS.

In a flurry of Executive Orders signed among them, 50 Intelligence Officers lost their security clearances because the signed a Memorandum stating the “Hunter Biden laptop” was Russian propaganda. Trump also released 1500 J6 rioters out of jail or prison.

These EOs show who Donald Trump is: an incredibly insane sociopath. A vindictive old man with small d-energy, with the emotional maturity of a middle school kid.

We are so screwed as a country.

I totally agree, Trump is a very vindictive man with revenge in his heart and will use the power of government to extract that revenge. I’ve said many times Trump has the mentality of a spoiled 4-year-old brat with his name calling and throwing of temper tantrums along with his 3rd grade schoolyard bullying tactics.

Yes, Trump pardoned the 1-6 participants, renamed the Gulf of Mexico and that mountain in Alaska. Has done pretty much so far what he campaigned on. But what he has done so far isn’t what got him elected or why approximately half of those who voted for him wanted him to do. Sure, half were MAGA, avid Trumpers, approximately around a quarter of the electorate. The other half were people voting for Trump because they thought he would do better job with the economy, inflation, rising prices, especially illegal immigration etc. than what the Biden administration had done. They voted for Trump hoping their own lives would be better, their personal situation would change, their standard of living improve. An example of this, among those voters who said they were better off 4 years ago than today, Trump won those voters 76-23 over Harris. 58% of all Americans said the economy was poor, not good, Trump won these voters 78-20 over Harris. 73% of all Americans were dissatisfied or angry with the way things were going in this country Trump won them 62-35. None of these voters gave the vindictiveness of Trump a thought. These non-MAGA, non-Trumpers, half of those who voted for Trump thought Biden and his administration failed in their job of handling or addressing inflation, rising prices, the economy as a whole, illegal immigration etc. They didn’t vote for Trump, their vote was against Biden, his replacement, Harris, against the democratic party, those in charge. Looking over the exit polling this is easily discernable.

https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-results/general/president/0

The bottom line, if Trump improves the economy, gets rid of inflation, stops rising prices, secures the border, their standard of living improves, these people, the non-MAGA won’t care what Trump does in other areas such as pardons, renaming, taking revenge on political opponents, or anything else. It seems our democracy has evolved into what have you done for me lately.

However, if he doesn't, I don't expect a massive abandonment of him as he will lie about it being the Left's fault - the same propaganda strategy he used to get elected.

We have spread some blame on the Democrats for not running an effective campaign or platform, but how do you compete with a master of lies and a gullible electorate? Looks like Dems are not as good at lying as Reeps are.

Hmm, if he doesn’t cure those main problems, he’ll lose support among the non-MAGA and drop back down to the level of support Trump had during his first term. Lies or not, a lot of those folks will be looking at their wallet. No matter how many lies, they all become irrelevant to a thinning wallet. If Trump doesn’t solve the inflation, rising prices, border problem, the democrats will have a banner year come 2026. The democrats gained 38 house seats in the 2018 election; they could very well repeat that performance if Trump doesn’t take care of those issues that he was elected to take care of.

The democrats failed to see or understand how dissatisfied most folks were with the Biden administration. Harris, the democrats thought they would win the election because she wasn’t Trump. They didn’t consider that most Americans looked on the Biden administration as either governing very poorly or as a failure to cure the problems the masses thought most important to them. Yet, by running Trump, the republicans gave the democrats, Harris a very good chance of winning whereas some other republican probably would have won in a landslide. Most Americans still dislike Trump, only this time around they disliked the job performance of Biden and company more than they disliked Trump. Look for Trump to lose a lot of support from those who voted against Biden and the democrats, but not for Trump. Who opposed Harris and the democrats last year didn’t matter much to them. When a sitting president’s overall job approval is at 40%, his disapproval at 57%, when Biden and company’s handling of most issues are disapproved at somewhere between 55-65% of all Americans, it’s a wonder, simply amazing Harris came as close as she did. The democrats ended up gaining 2 house seats while the GOP gained but 4 senate seats. As sitting presidents, Carter and Biden had roughly the same approval/disapproval among all Americans. But in 1980, Reagan won by 10 points, not 1.5. The republicans gained 35 house seats, not losing 2 and gained 12 senate seats, not 4.

Trump will lose support; he’ll lose the support of a large portion of the non-MAGA voters who voted for him. You can write this down in stone. Just like in 2018, republicans were defending Trump and what they did over those first two years of Trump when the GOP lost 35 house seats. In 2026 the republicans will once again be defending Trump and what they had done over the next two years. Wait, watch and see.

I heard that there was a vast number of voters who just didn't vote. Thought that was pretty interesting. He has lost the police support. Virtually all religion that are not white christian are hammering him. Taking away the jobs of the infirm is not helping him. The list just keeps on going down. I also suspect that there are more than just 3 senators that don't support him. If he keeps it up it gonna get VERY interesting. They are currently getting ready to pass a law restricting female rights which is also not going to help. He has now turned on the Canadian and Mexico 25% tariffs which means everything from those places go up by 25%. I suspect that he also has a lot more as well!

Yep - INTERESTING TIMES!

I’m not certain I didn’t cover this on another subject. You’re correct about those not voting this time. 2020 63% voter turnout, 159 million. 2024 59% voter turnout using VAP, 156 million. 3 million less folks voted in 2024 than 2020 although those eligible to vote rose by 7 million. Along with less voters turnout out, in 2020 37% of those who voted were democrats, 35% republicans. In 2024 31% were democrats, republicans maintain their 35% of those who actually voted.

https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/exit-polls/president/national-results

https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-results/general/president/0

Why the 6-point drop in democratic voter turnout is something I’ve been researching, but I can’t find any definitive cause. As for the religious, Trump won the protestant vote 63-36 over Harris, Trump also won the Catholic vote 59-39, lost the Jewish vote to Harris 78-22 and lost the no religion folks to Harris 71-27.

There were several role reversals, for the first time since 1984 Trump became the first republican to win the working class, blue collar workers 51-47 over Harris while Harris won the college grads 56-42. College grads had gone republican from 1972 through 2008 when Obama won them. Romney took them back in 2012, Clinton won them in 2016, Biden in 2020 and Harris in 2024. Blue collar workers used to be a democratic party staple while college grads were steadily republican in the past. Trump came within 5 points of winning union households. Other groups, Trump won 46% of the Hispanic vote, the most ever by a republican. He won 13% of the black vote, the most for a republican since Gerald Ford won 15% back in 1976. Trump won first time voters 55-44 over Harris, the first time a republican had done that since 1988. There’s more on role reversals or long-time groups of voters who had a habit in the past of voting republican and or democrat, switched this year to voting for the opposite party they had in the past.

It is confusing. As far as I can tell the Republics did their work and the Democrats didn't. I know - 'maybe' but that, I think is is what happened. The Dems just didn't do a great job and win. I think that happened because they had a plan that didn't seem to have a lot to say about the other side. I tend to believe that the Democrats are a kindly group that toot their own horns but, pretty much, ignore the other side. Hopefully, this time around, the Dems can wake up, smell the roses (and other, not particularly desirable stenches). Mr Trump has done his best to do this and it would be nice if the Dems point some of that out to the voting public. Lord knows the Right is doing enough to, pretty much, disgust most humans.

Some might be the current system of sale based on 'gifts' from a variate of sources. Another is the on-going lies. (the Dems could put up a half hour should on tv simply noting the day's lies, including existing facts).

Just a thought. Right now, as far as I can see, the Dems seem to be not real interested.

I totally agree. It has been pretty obvious that Trump's main strategy has always been to blame the Democrats in particular and liberals in general for everything bad while taking credit for anything good that happens anywhere in the world.

Someone on Substack had the idea of Democrats daily identifying everything and anything that goes wrong anywhere in the world and demand to know why Trump let it happen and when he is going to fix it. Every. Single. Day. Non-stop. Never let any of the problems fade from the news, keep hammering at it. For example: "Mr. President, when will you fix your mess? You promised to end the Ukraine war on day one. It is now day X and the war rages on! The price of eggs is $9. $9!!!! You need to fix this mess you've gotten us into now! The fires are still burning in LA. When will you put them out? Why haven't the burned down neighborhoods been rebuilt? When will you do something to fix this disaster you are presiding over?"

It doesn't matter if none of the things are his fault. That sort of thing has never stopped him nor Republicans in general from using this tactic. And the great part about it is, it works on the American public.

Years and years of hard-fought advances to make America better for EVERYONE are being erased in one stroke of the pen: Trump signed an EO repealing President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 executive order banning racial discrimination in hiring for the federal government.

Another EO Trump signed this week proclaims that our sex identity begins at “fertilization” when, in fact, sexual development doesn’t begin to start until at least the sixth week after fertilization. While the EO is a direct attack on transgender individuals and setting them up for rank persecution – the intent of the EO – this EO also a way of laying the groundwork for fetal personhood, a doctrine that will ultimately lead to a total ban on abortion and several methods of birth control.

Benjamin Franklin, ever the optimist even at the age of 81, gave what was for him a remarkably restrained assessment in his final speech before the Constitutional Convention: “…when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views.” He thought it impossible to expect a “perfect production” from such a gathering, but he believed that the Constitution they had just drafted, “with all its faults,” was better than any alternative that was likely to emerge.

Upon exiting the Constitutional Convention Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Who knew our Republic’s hard fought advances could all be destroyed in one week.

I place blame for Kamala Harris not defending the Palestinians against their massacre by the Israeli government. Yes, October 6th was horrible, but the extent of the risraeli government's retribution is un-called for. Harris could had distanced herself from the Biden Administration in this regard. But, perhaps at the end of the day, she agreed with Biden on this.

Harris lost a lot of votes by this decision from both Palestinian and non-Palestinian voters. We KNOW voters stayed home because of this issue.

Otherwise, Harris ran a great campaign.