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Once you realize he's stupid, it all makes sense.
When he built Trump Tower back in the 1980s, Jackie Kennedy was New York City's most beloved resident. She was famous for her efforts to save Grand Central Station and her love of great old buildings.
Trump personally promised the head of the biggest museum in New York that he'd preserve the façade of the building he was demolishing to put up his Tower. He lied and razed the place to the ground.
The most desperate ass kisser on the planet threw away a chance to get in good with America's living Queen because he was greedy and stupid.
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That was a pretty stupid maneuver, agreed.
It’s also worth noting that one of Trump’s 6 bankruptcies was from a Casino in Atlantic City. You have to be especially stupid to go bankrupt running a casino (on borrowed money of course). They’re literally rigged for profiting the owners.
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I bet he got a change order from the contractor, and upon seeing that saving the facade would coat more than zero dollars, said fuck that noise. Being greedy in petty ways is surprisingly common for people who already live a hyper-privileged post-scarcity existence.
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Here's the entire story. Spoiler = John Barron makes a cameo
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yup. this is one of the conspiracy theories I whole hardheartedly believe. There is no specific, smoking gun, proof that I know of for this but although he sometimes talk tough in his back and forth things, his actions are always super favorable for putin specifically. defund ukraine, stop russian sanctions, the general fucking up of us systems.
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Agent Krasnov don’t need no proof, he just is - like the sweet kiss of preteen piss.
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He doesn't work for America or Russia, he works for himself and the billionaire class.
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pootin is a billionaire, I think. so it makes sense.
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He's serving the American bourgeoisie moreso than Russia.
Which, to be clear, is worse than if he was serving Russia. The American bourgeoisie are the most direct enemy to the American people, they suppress our wages (Putin doesn't), they shift the tax burden onto us (Putin doesn't), they bust our unions (Putin doesn't), etc. Anything that makes them stronger makes us weaker, and if we could burn their wealth and power we would be better off even if we didn't get a penny of it, just because their boot would be removed from our neck. That's not to suggest that Putin is in any way a friend to everyday Americans, but he is a more distant and removed enemy compared to our direct, primary enemy, the rich of our own country. I don't know why there's this need to treat Trump as secretly in league with an external entity, as if being what he actually is wasn't the worst thing he could possibly be.
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Once you realize America was always sliding toward Fascism, it makes even more sense
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Was it though?
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See Hitler's American Model (2017) which talks about how Nazi lawyers were attracted to how the US built itself on the tradition of common law as opposed to the more European and relatively inflexible tradition of civil law. Government under common law may change rapidly as judges overturn precedent, opening a window for demagogues such as Trump a way to quickly reform government in their favor before a majority of the populace, with their often passive consequence-centered de facto method of understanding political decisions, can oppose the changes.
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Yes.
Remember, Mussolini described fascism as the union of corporate and state power.
In the U.S., corporatism is undeniable:
Regulatory Capture: Agencies like the FDA, FCC and the FED are often staffed by former industry execs who later return to high-paying corporate jobs.
Bailouts & Subsidies: Wall Street, Big Oil, and defense contractors get billions in government aid.
Lobbying & Dark Money: Corporations spend billions influencing elections and policy, ensuring laws serve their interests, not the people’s.
Surveillance & Control: Tech giants work hand-in-hand with intelligence agencies to monitor citizens.
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Billionaires do not work for anyone but themselves. Billionaires, the parasites that they are, will attach themselves to whoever they can suck off, and then abandon the host to die off when they've taken all they can. He is looting what he can from the US and selling out the rest to Russia and anyone else who is willing to pay him. There is no such thing as enough for billionaires, this is their mental illness.
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Bill Burr said it best. “They need to be put down like fucking rabid dogs.”
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"Trump is unAmerican! He's sold us out to the evil foreigners!" is the lie we need to keep telling ourselves in order to ignore the extremely All-American Thiels and Adelsons and Mercers who really are pulling his strings.
The end result of this Putin-fixation is a modern opposition Democrat party that clings to neocons in the Bush/Cheney cartel and plutocrats like Bloomberg, Gates, and Buffet in defiance of popular politics. Mass media keeps trying to make Communist Russia the boogeyman behind a very Capitalist, very American brand of corporate fascism.
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Remind me what the historical punishment for traitor to the USA?
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Reelection
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I dunno. Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were allowed to live, so
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Everyone on Lemmy knows this... The GOP are so fucking stupid, though.
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I believe the truth is far simpler than the conspiracy theories presented today.
Trump, as groomed child with little incentive to succede in the world (as he was born and groomed with silver spoon in his mouth), simply generated debt that paid for his lavish life. Indeed, the man went BANKRUPT 4 TIMES. Let that sink in as a clear indication of his incompetence.
At certain point, he lended money from the russians and now is the payback time.
This is, of course, simplified version, because it is all happening on very high level and russians are probably to smart to demand money, but they do demand other services like dissolving NATO (so that they can expand), destroying the US commercial reputation and ties with it's allies and so on and so forth... and this guy is delivering. This all removes the US from the world power-picture and leaves the US and EU markets at the plate for russian and chinese taking.
How would that world look and what horrors loom in the darkness... well... we do live in interresting times.
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Indeed, the man went BANKRUPT 4 TIMES. Let that sink in as a clear indication of his incompetence.
If you can go bankrupt to the tune of a billion dollars, walk across the street to another bank, take out a new billion dollar line of credit, and keep shitting in your gold plated toilets, then I'm not clear how you are the incompetent one.
Trump highlights the real dividing line between Rich and Poor in America, and its the proximity to cheap, easy lines of credit. If you can discharge a billion dollars of debt time and time again, while I'm stuck on the hook for a few grand in credit card debts or a tens of thousands in student loans for the rest of my life, its trivial for you to remain rich while it remains onerous for me to escape poverty.
they do demand other services like dissolving NATO
This isn't a demand from the Russians, its a demand from the paleocons and the libertarians. Long before Putin was mayor of St. Petersburg, guys like Ron Paul and Pat Buchanan were lobbying to remove the US from every international organization. And their ideas were well-received, in the same way Brexit and Yugoslavian balkinization and the parsing out of micro-states like Hong Kong and Singapore and Israel were well-received.
Building these ultra-wealthy megapolises, surrounded by high walls and armed to the teeth against working class dissidents, has been the project of the western ultra-right wing for decades. Ayn Rand lionized it in the form of Galt's Gulch. Heinlein romanticized it in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress". Friedman and the Chicago Boys forced it onto Central America and the Caribbean states during the Reagan Era. Now Trump is making this vision manifest in the beating heart of the Republic.
American balkinization is a plutocrat final solution to federal regulations authored by elected authority. It is the mirror side of Lincoln's dire warning against A House Divided. For the class of American revanchists who revile a democratic state, this is a deliberate end game.
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Exactly what i was thinking. As much as i'd like EU and its countries to be independent and have a better sense of unity, i feel like this is still benefitting Russia immensly in the end by severing ties with US the entire west will be vulnerable; with all these political tensions within EU countries themselves already it wont get any better...
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I tried for like 30 seconds to poke holes in this and nothing.
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I got one for ya: How does no tax on tips help Russia? lol
Also maybe his stance and outlook on oil and his “drill baby drill” shit. I don’t see how the United States producing more oil helps Russia.
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You don't see how keeping the US dependent on oil helps a place where 2/3 of exports are oil?
No tax on tips was just a cheap campaign promise that can distract people from the real issues. Most tipped workers hardly pay anything in tax, if they really cared about helping tipped workers they'd remove the federal regulation that allows tipped workers to be paid $2.13/hr; removing tips from taxes also lowers their social security in retirement.
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Let's see the bill.
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I really don't think he works for "Russia" per se, he works for his clique of grifters and is genuinely deluded into believing Russia and Putin are stronger and more capable than they are - and better suited to benefit him personally. In the end, he works for himself and his close circle of capitalists, already speculating on a recession.
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Yes, first and foremost he's in it for himself and his buddies. Russia and the Zionist Regime know how to do business with Trump, and provide a great way to help Trump dismantle the government and loot the USA, just like the capitalist looting that happened after the fall of the USSR. Look at what happened to Russia after shock therapy. That's what Trump and Co. want to do, and Russia's history is what lies ahead for the USA if they succeed. You may think (correctly) that Russia under Putin is a hellscape, but remember, part of the reason Russians largely support the bastard is that he was seen as lifting them out of the 90s, which was characterized by a six year drop in life expectancy, child prostitution, 'mail-order brides' and other human trafficking, rampant alcoholism, privatization and the rise of oligarchs.
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Thank you. Putin is liked because he is benefiting Russia. The propaganda that if only we force them into a war, Russians will overthrow him, is crackhead thinking that led to the Ukraine failure, because Russians understand the need to defend Russia from the demonic evil that promoted this war.
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How can his supporters not see this?
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By not looking, not caring.
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THE WHOLE PARTY
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Krasnov approves this post.
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Complete disservice to world to claim Russia is behind everything, because it makes you hate Russia instead of the AH fking you up the ass for US empire reasons. Ending a losing war against Russia is smart and helpful to world. Fucking you up the ass doesn't need gaslighting that it is for the enhancement of Russia, no matter how rational/devoted your hatred for Russia is.
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It's not that Russia is behind everything, it's just that Russia is a key part of their plan to establish a global kleptocracy ruled by the ultra wealthy
They feel like their plan can be more easily accomplished with a Russian empire than with a free Ukraine
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establish a global kleptocracy ruled by the ultra wealthy
That is not serious. US kelptocracy does better with Russophobia propaganda. The actual angle for ending a losing war, is that Trump has asked Putin to "mediate" Iran nuclear deal, which can be code for Russia abandoning Iran.
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Just going to repost some translated analytics here. To add another angle
Trump cannot exert economic pressure on Ukraine, and halting military supplies does not have an immediate effect. However, in my opinion, his most significant leverage is political. This factor could play a key role in forcing Ukraine into a peace agreement.
It’s important for understanding the context of why the U.S. needs this. For those who don’t want to read the full post, I’ll briefly summarize: The U.S. needs to contain China, which means preventing a China-Russia alliance. However, the U.S. lacks the financial resources, and due to this, Trump wants to scale back historical support for Europe.
Trump's declared foreign policy goals extend far beyond Ukraine. His aim is to restructure the entire global order and dismantle the foundational principles established during the Yalta Conference, which are now completely outdated.
Accordingly, a warming of U.S.-Russia relations is a completely natural and logical process from the standpoint of U.S. interests. And this should happen independently of Ukraine. However, as long as the war continues, Trump wants to link these processes together—essentially trading concessions and a war freeze in exchange for lifting sanctions and resetting relations. But this is not a strict prerequisite.
This is directly evident from Trump's rhetoric—he does not tie improved relations to specific actions from Russia, such as admitting guilt or paying reparations. On the contrary, Reuters has already reported that Trump has instructed the State Department and the Treasury to prepare a list of sanctions that could be lifted soon. While this likely won’t involve anything major at first, certain individuals could see sanctions removed. However, this in itself is an important signal: Ukraine is being separated from U.S.-Russia relations. For now, Trump does not want to make concessions in advance while negotiations are ongoing.
Yet, if the deal collapses due to Ukraine, then U.S.-Russia relations will develop without considering Ukraine at all, solely based on American interests. It seems that this mechanism was already set in motion after a White House dispute—CNN reports that preparations for a Putin-Trump meeting have been accelerated. Additionally, a second round of talks in Saudi Arabia is expected soon, where the focus is likely to be more on U.S.-Russia economic cooperation rather than Ukraine.
Any real steps in this direction will effectively lead to the EU lifting its own sanctions. Even now, secondary sanctions are more problematic than the primary ones. Countries like Turkey were willing to bypass restrictions, but Biden tightened the screws. Trump, however, doesn't even need to formally lift sanctions—he can just turn a blind eye to violations by third countries.
At the same time, if the U.S. officially lifts sanctions, Europe will have little choice but to follow suit. Many companies left the Russian market voluntarily, as a gesture of goodwill, without being legally required to do so. As a result, they could begin returning once their governments give a quiet green light—publicly condemning the move, but privately claiming they can't interfere because private companies are free to act in a democracy and capitalist system.
Right now, the only hope for hawks in Ukraine and the EU is to prolong the war, expecting that Russia will collapse under economic pressure, forcing Putin to negotiate from a position of weakness. However, if sanctions are lifted, this already uncertain scenario will become highly unlikely, making further war pointless for Ukraine. This would force Kyiv to either accept a far worse peace deal than what’s currently on the table or continue fighting alone, without any realistic hope of achieving what could be called a victory.
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This statement is a nothing burger. Like yeah, and?
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A nothing burger is a claim with no substance.
There's tons of substance to this one, just look at the press conference with Zalensky, look at aid being halted to Ukraine, look at the yachts given to oligarchs, the deference to Putin, the extortion of Ukraine, the lifting of sanctions, the meeting in Helsinki, the disinformation campaigns and propaganda.
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I know, I've been looking at it 24/7.
The thing is, there is no "realisation". Those are the most telegraphed moves in history.
Project 2025 was revealed way before the election campaign began. The "Mein Kampf" of our time. We all knew, it was gonna be this bad. Some hoped, they would hold back, once the election was lost. But it was a fools hope.
His actions also don't "make sense". They're just shit overall.
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