It will go down in history as the “Bah! Humbug!” address.

But this was not an address by a self-confident man dishing out Christmas presents to the nation. It smacked of desperation from one who can feel the December windchill of opinion polls – a Reuters/ Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed just 33% of US adults approve of how Trump has handled the economy – dissent in his own Republican ranks and the Jeffrey Epstein files looming on Friday.

The speech also revealed Trump’s need for a reliable foil. Over the years Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been useful nemeses for a man and movement defined less by what they are for than what they are against.

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[–] 167 points 10 months ago (4 children)

“Eleven months ago, I inherited a mess, and I’m fixing it,” Trump said, starting as he meant to go on by telling a lie: he claimed that inflation was the worst in 48 years when he took office, when in fact it had come back down to 3%.

He went on to place blame at the feet of Biden, previous trade deals, immigrants and what he described as a corrupt system.

Fascists can't actually solve problems, even though they will tell you they're the only ones who can. They don't have problem solving skills, that's why they're fascists. They blame, deflect and scapegoat, and do it very aggressively and forcefully. Unfortunately, many people mistake that for strength. But fascists are not strong, they're weak, and they try to compensate for their weakness by acting very strong, in very superficial ways. That's why they are so focused on hyper masculine performance.

REAL strength is not an over inflated ego, it's not threats and cruelty, it's not being ignorant and proud of it, it's not unnecessary aggression and violence. Real strength is accountability. Weak people think it shows strength to never admit when you're wrong, but that's completely false. Real strength is owning up to your mistakes, but not so you can crumble into self loathing, it's so you can learn from them and become better. Real strength is learning, it's knowledge and understanding.

You can't fix a problem that you don't understand, and you can't understand a problem if you are unwilling to look at it honestly and critically, without bias. But that takes humility and weak people think humility is weakness, and they think arrogance is strength. The opposite is true. Humility is STRENGTH. That's why fascists can never lead, because leadership takes real strength and they don't have it.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago*

    That's a great comment.

    Gone is the age of the gentleman - literally a gentle man. The best definition I've heard of that is that 'a gentleman puts the needs of others above his own.'

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  • [–] 69 points 10 months ago (18 children)
  • [–] 38 points 10 months ago (12 children)

    God this would be ideal for this dumb fuck. That way he doesn't die, but he lives as an idiotic vegetable for the rest of his life suffering. Also coincidentally did you know that Donald j Trump who is best friends with Jeffrey r Epstein is a child rapist? We've seen pictures and evidence in the releases so far and this is a well-known fact.

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  • [–] 24 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    The best/worst case scenario is he has a massive stroke live on TV but somehow survives but is wheelchair bound and has to use a Stephen Hawking style speaker in order to talk. It would be hilarious to have him wheel out on stage and with his robot voice say “the deep state did this to me!”

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  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    My friend had a large stroke. He can barely talk, he's confined to a wheel chair, his hands are mostly useless, and he slumps over and drools on himself. The kicker is his brain it like he was before the stroke. Hes a prisoner in broken skin suit.

    That's the life I want for Trump.

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  • [–] 6 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    i feel like it'd be better if he died in some embarrassing accident due to his own incompetence, tripping down the stairs of AF1 for example.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    It would be something seeing the republicans having to remove him. I'm sure they'd make it into a giant show about how great he's been.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    It would be hilarious to see the GOP and his family constantly saying he is in perfect healthy condition while he is drooling and unable to form full words while shitting this pants in a wheelchair on life support.

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  • [–] 69 points 10 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 62 points 10 months ago (10 children)

    Trump also announced that he would send a “warrior dividend” of $1,776 to 1.45 million US service members in the coming week. He said it had been made possible by revenue from tariffs, failing to mention those same tariffs have driven prices up.

    First, it won't happen because he talks out his ass by default. A more important second though, how insulting is it that he thinks a token payment is going to buy him the loyalty of the military? I'm strikingly reminded of Caligula in the movie promising '10 gold pieces to every man'.

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  • [+] 52 points 10 months ago (6 children)
  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago* (2 children)

    Maybe someone explained to him that there wasn't enough money for the previous plan. Or maybe he doesn't remember there was a previous plan.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Last I understood as of like a week ago, they are no longer sending a straight check for $2k but instead the money will be given to you in the form of a tax refund. Which sounds to me like just a perfect way to do nothing and then say you sent it to everyone. Then when no one sees any difference just tell them they owed more taxes than they thought or filed wrong or whatever. But call me a negative Nancy I guess 🤷

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  • [–] 37 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    That was some strange deranged rant. WTF even was that?

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  • [–] 36 points 10 months ago (12 children)

    apparently this was a sugar high: just before the remarks started, according to a White House pool report, an usher brought in three Diet Cokes and ice.

    But… that’s the sugar free one… he must have been on something else.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

    I mean, 3 diet cokes is a lot of caffeine.

    Edit: I've been corrected that 3 diet cokes is, in fact, not a lot of caffeine. Guess he's micro-dosing amphetamines. My bad, y'all.

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  • [–] 19 points 10 months ago

    From someone who has been on the caffeine pony - caffeine withdrawal is no joke. If he's been deprived of his diet cokes for medical reasons, it makes total sense that they'd give him some right before a televised address read from a teleprompter that he wasn't supposed to deviate from.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    As a regular consumer of caffeine, let me assure you it is not. As someone else said, he had the equivalent of a cup of coffee. I personally don't start suffering any significant withdrawal symptoms until I have more than 100 mg per day, and fairly significant withdrawal symptoms if I regularly have over 400 mg per day. But even as a single dose of caffeine, 150 mg is pretty typical. That said, caffeine can give a temporary boost to cognitive function, even for dementia patients.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    There's no such thing as a "sugar high". This is just Trump being Trump. He's been an idiot for ever.

    Remember his speech to the boy scouts in his first term?

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I don't remember the speech, but I'm guessing he was complimenting how hot their younger sisters were.

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  • [–] 35 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    100% of all jobs created since I took office have been in the private sector.

    Even Trump has forgotten all about DOGE.

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  • [–] 33 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    Blows my mind that even a third of people still support this putz - I knew the human race had plenty of assholes, but that's absurd. Wonder just how many die-hards will be left at the peak of the massive recession Trump has set up to happen next year.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago

    the peak of the massive recession Trump has set up to happen next year.

    The recession is already happening, Trump just cancelled the reports to hide it. It will become more obvious once corporations report less profits than anticipated over the holiday season.

    As usual in America, nothing will done until it starts hurting the Corpos.

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    [–] 20 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Trump desperately hoping the mindset in the military is like "I would never follow illegal orders for only $1,775 dollars! Show me the money!". Trump mistakenly believing he can buy and sell honour because he does not have any and cannot recognize it. He doesn't understand how standing up for a principle doesn't make you an automatic sucker or loser.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago*

    Haha, stupid donald, ikr? The US military servicemembers will follow illegal genocidal orders for free, as long as there are brown people getting maimed or killed. The cheque would be a nice bonus at most.

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  • [–] 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    More like “Why don’t you like me?” rant. What an absolute baby

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    So, 33% of Americans are terminally stupid.

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    [–] 18 points 10 months ago

    Oh if only he'd feel the chill of the grave.

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  • [–] 18 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    I didn't watch it but I was hoping for a Budd Dwyer moment.

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  • [–] 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

    He’s not feeling shit. He’s just successfully distracting idiots with short attention spans.

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago

    Excellent analysis by Jim Stewartson here:

    Trump’s Colonized Mind: The Cognitive Dysfunction Destabilizing the Planet

    The neurological, psychological, and political breakdown of the American president—and the people taking full advantage of it.


    "Trump is experiencing a rapid decline in cognitive function. – He is alone and angry on a deserted mental island. – It’s impossible to watch him at this point and ignore his dysfunction. – It’s as if his shrinking mind has been colonized by his advisors and donors. – Donald Trump is less the leader of a nation and more of a glitchy, reprogrammable weapon of mass destruction—being wielded by a constellation of America’s enemies, foreign and domestic."

    https://www.mind-war.com/p/trumps-colonized-mind-the-cognitive

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  • [–] 15 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    I mean it's his 2nd term, he's almost dead, and it's not like the treasonous Republican party is going to oust him.

    So all we're going to get out of this is maybe some raised blood pressure because he's a narcissist and narcissists don't like knowing how many people don't like them. Doesn't really help us though.

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  • [–] 14 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    A speech like that killed Carter's presidency. What are the odds that will happen to Trump?

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  • [–] 9 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    33% approval rating is more than the amount of votes he received. It looks like a win to me.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    All these "news" about him going down, any moment now, are super annoying. All just for the clicks and people, even here on Lemmy, gobble it up.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    That's not really what the article says

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago (1 child)

    There have been so many such articles in the past few weeks, who cares? Nobody knows what he is feeling or how well he is really doing, this is all make pretend to feel good on the consumer(!) side and money making headlines for the media.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Any discomfort he’s feeling, I’m good with.

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  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago* (3 children)

    🙏🏼🪦 praying for a Christmas miracle

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