I mean, no. There's a possibility of winning at a casino no matter how small. You can't win in USA because even if you bet on a factory, ICE is gonna come and rape your employees. So, no. Your odds are much much better in a casino. Hell, with what Trump is doing I'd say he makes a casino look like investing.

Look what Germany had to go through to purge the Nazis. And it didn't even take.

That's our future. Can't happen here? That's what the citizens of Berlin, Dresden, and a whole lot of other German cities said in 1939.

50 years? Try now today. That's how I see you guys.
A nazi regime with mostly a population that is either weak, stupid, or maliciously complacent. Or fully complicit and collaborative.

We're much closer to a Russian oligarchy than we are to Nazi Germany

That article is sobering. Bolding is mine.

...analytics company Tourism Economics... updated outlook now estimates an 8.2% decline, led by about one quarter fewer Canadians visiting the US from January to July, compared to the same period in 2024.

The World Travel and Tourism Council, a global tourism advocacy organization, projected in May that the United States will lose $12.5 billion in international visitor spending in 2025, the only country out of 184 economies the council analyzed that will see a decline this year.

Maybe his 'supporters' but not 'everyone that voted for him'.

Of the millions that voted, we don't really hear the voice one way or the other from most of those people.

For those that vocally supported him before, the thought of "I told you so" is so abhorrent they'd rather be all in than hear that sentiment.

if they supported this orange bastard before, they still do.

He's got no meaningful opposition. It's vote for the Republican who says they love Trump. Or vote for the Cuomo-crat who says he loves Trumpism but thinks Trump is doing it wrong.

We've got two right wing parties. Their only critique of one another is that the other guy isn't business friendly enough.

they have too many billions invested already. the question is how they are going to force koreans to come the states.

It's just teams at this point. Trump is just the quarterback that they're bitching about this season, they're not switching teams over it.

We have clients all over, and the tariffs have been a point of concern for many of them. It's gonna hit businesses hard, especially for shit that is only manufactured overseas.

i noticed our area, residential houses are bougie enough to use white american construction companies, they probably cost a ton more. and the only other POC that does construction usually caters to asian households only.

I'm pretty sure it's a brick and they just want to be rid of it.

It was a white elephant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant

You mean the defense contractor that suffered two data breaches that leaked weapons system capabilities and source code?

Under no measurement does it seem that America is first.

And by America first. They want to fall first and fastest.

There are three primary factors at play here.

1. Trump’s greed and need to line his own pockets. He will wreck entire economic sectors to add another billion (in bribe money) to his accounts.

2. Rich benefactors wanting more. They stay rich regardless of what the economy does, and have a ton of liquid. If it crashes, they can buy so much more of it up for themselves.

3. Foreign actors looking to upset US hegemony. They don’t have to go to war, they don’t have to fight economic battles…just incentivize the right people to do the wrong things at home in the US, and we destroy ourselves. It’s cheap and easy for them.

The rich can afford to take an economic hit and are willing to do so for more power and control.

1. Foreign powers are manipulating trump to weaken US for their own agendas
2. its only about Trump being avaricious and gaining more power. Like going into nice neighbors house and stealing all the gold fixtures and copper wiring. Plus pilfering any funds connected to the house. There isnt any long term planning here. He still has his own place an can bail to anywhere in the world
3. Using said power to manipulate/bully others into paying trump for favors engorging himself more

Take your pick

No, and the effects have not been as noticeable as they should be because too many cowardly CEOs are too afraid of being the first to enrage the Orange Turd by passing on costs to the consumer... but that won't last too long either

Only thing I can think of is if you liquidate funds or suppress them being impacted while taking bribes like that alleged $2 billion in crypto they got, they ride out everything dropping in price living the high life still, then buy up as much as they can on their way out so they own large portions of companies as they get built back up by the next generation. The laborers and will still exists, and they can build it back with these people owning more and having more say in what happens.

Otherwise... Just power. If no one can say shit about you doing anything you want whenever you want and you can treat everyone else like shit... Some people enjoy it greatly I guess.

You already have a lot of responses, but so far none have included: Trump and some of his top staff are just not that smart. He destroys soft power projection not because he has some thought-out theory about its value, but because he can't follow the effect chain through far enough to understand the benefits. He really believed Ukraine and Russia were continuing to fight because they hadn't talked to a skilled negotiator like him: the underlying geopolitics is completely beyond his grasp. He seems to genuinely believe that the spending cuts to Medicaid in his Big Bill will not make millions lose their health insurance.

There are grifters all through the administration and its outside support with the corrupt motives described by other commenters, and Trump himself is greedy and selfish, but I believe he genuinely lacks the intelligence to understand what he is destroying along the way.

I read Bill Browder's Red Notice about how he and others went in after the fall of the USSR. It explains very well how a former superpower was picked apart and the choice bits divvied up to make some future oligarchs very very incomprehensibly rich and powerful. Granted, it was a unique situation at the time since the USSR owned everything and they attempted to "give it back to the people."

It's scary. It's not dry nonfiction. And some of the rich people he learned from, met, and has some insight on, are quite interesting in hindsight. (Ghislaine's father, and Khashoggi family come to mind off the top of my head.)

But between the monopolies and current government trying to control things (like the Tiktok deal, and taking 10% of what was it, Intel?) There's a consolidation of wealth and power happening out in the open.

Is it so hard to believe that Musk and Putin, two foreign Sociopathic Oligarchs with no loyalty or patriotism, would team up with America's most massive psychopath, and treat America as a rich, fat, lazy, vulnerable target that DESERVES to be ruthlessly and mercilessly exploited and looted?

Without a strong government to defend our nation (thanks to relentless lobbying with a fraction of their massive fortunes), it was inevitable that this would happen, as more and more billionaires meant more and more of a chance of at least some of them using their influence to literally take over the world.

They are generating revenue from the tariffs but it is not enough to offset the tax cuts and will decrease over time as there are fewer imports.

is there any evidence at all of some gains?

Wall street seems to be doing okay. Slower growth, but line keeps going up

They don't need to run the world, they only need to run America. It's really that simple. Oh and also Krasnov is a foreign agent.

even though OP is highlighting some losses/tensions, NATO colonies are being conquered hard, and that buys the US empire a few more years of "appearances of existing in a dominant position". For political purposes, elections, you can point to the complete explicit subjugation of colonies as "winning". Job losses, interest rates, currency depreciation, inflation don't matter if you can point to Europe/Canada sycophants doing worse, and paying for entirety US war on Russia. Blame for everything bad goes to someone else, and success measured in relative pace of decline. Make sure no one else is allowed to speak, and third term is secured.

Seriously, I can respect someone having the opinion that you can run a country like a company, but then for their candidate to run the ‘company’ so badly

Americans are why America can’t have nice things.

It’s not like he stole the presidency. He got elected.

Gestures at 50+ years of imperialist, racist and anti-worker politics.

Maybe we can have a soy dictatorship the way others use cheap domestic oil to entice support /s

The military under Hegseth has gone hard on removing protections from harassment, and removing women from leadership. There are a lot of people happy about frat culture being OK again, and about having less chance of reporting to a woman.

Some people who make most of their incomes from tips will see a small tax break for a few years (the billionaire tax cuts are permanent, the tipped wages cuts are temporary).

Nothing broad-based helpful, no, but people who want to find a rationalization to support him have a few niche things to point to.