I was wrong about Trump
 

Batlord posed the question: am I still on Trump's dick?

The answer is no. As DJ and WWWP and others who have known me can confirm, after Trump became prez I eventually became disillusioned with him and frankly tired of the constant stream of needless controversies he stirred. So maybe a year or so after he was elected, I jumped ship. Call me a fair weather fan.

At the time I was rooting for him, I basically liked the way he posed as a sort of dictator and I wanted him to trample over the institutions that separate presidents from dictators. He's tried his best, but ultimately failed in that regard. I now think that's a good thing and that I was crazy to once think I wanted such a dictator.

I also didn't believe that he had any intention on fulfilling his various campaign promises. From deporting 12 million immigrants to starting a trade war with China to building a wall to banning Muslims...I was just sure his promises were too outlandish to be sincere.

I didn't vote for Trump. I never vote. But if I had voted it would've been for Trump. I wasn't trolling.
Every single thing I said, I meant.

Touching

Thank you. I aspire to touch

I don't think they were sincere promises tbh. I think his base just pumped up his ego to the point that they became sincere cause otherwise his supporters would go somewhere else and stop inflating that ego. I imagine to someone like Trump that amount of public support is like heroin literally.

It's hard to say. The one thing most people close to Trump agree with is that he's obsessed with "the base."

So there is definitely a certain level of opportunism there. But regardless of what the reasons for fulfilling these promises are, the fact that he sought to at least try to fulfill them is undeniable.

I mean on a base level I think he was truer to his campaign than Obama, Bush, Bill Clinton, etc.

Absolute truth. He gives no ****s about the rest of the electorate so long as it doesn't cross some extreme threshold of unelectability (and even then often after the fact). He clearly has no barriers to his actions besides whether he thinks his base will approve. I imagine even Bill felt gross about going to that brain damaged guy's execution just to show he was tough on crime. Trump wouldn't have given it a second thought.

It’s a paradox that Trump is simultaneously the most lyingest and most honest modern president.

Trump wouldn’t even go. He’d tweet something about the brave men and women working in the penal system and it would be a thousand times more effective and offensive.

That's true. He doesn't go anywhere he doesn't have to that doesn't have a golf course.

really? i feel like he would go and ask to flip the switch just to feel important

Do you have any examples of him doing anything like that?

Other presidents got their jollies sitting in a room with a general watching battles unfold in real time. I think Trump thinks that **** is boring af.

no, he just reminds me of like ed kemper buddying up to police and the way other serial killers insert themselves into investigations and ****. i think he's addicted to feeling powerful and authoritative and in the know. but idfk i'm two 25oz malt liquors deep bruh

lol props

congrats on getting jwb back btw

You’ve actually done something with your modship

it was a campaign promise and i made good on it

suck it, ori

Yabut

I think he was in it for the fun there

that's what i'm saying executions are about

Well ja, he got schmoozed. Anyone who tries to lay that fake nice guy BS on so thick to get a deal has to be a schmuck on some level.

Personally I think his bromance with Kim is actually a good thing

Knock it all you want but feel free to give me an example of a president who had a better idea for dealing with little rocket man. If we can't prevent them from continuing their nuclear program (which we can't) then we might as well try to make nice.

Yeah. I kind of just lost two arguments to you in one minute.

(Thanks to frown)

Bush, Obama, and Clinton were all thinking they would be the ones to change NK's trajectory by being chummy.

I think Trump has done the most to keep him from using nukes

@Frownland

You're not hearing me.

Trump won't change the trajectory. Nothing will.

So it's better to try to be on their good side... Since truth be told we don't want war. None of the above mentioned actually tried this. They slightly deescalated tensions. That's about all.

There's a good reason Trump was the first prez to walk across the DMZ. Cause no other president would.

This is gonna make it look like I still support Trump but this is really one of the very few issues where I do. And it's cause frankly it's a situation that no president has improved and which grows scarier by the year. So yes I support trying to be friendly with little rocket man cause I frankly don't see what alternative we have open to us.

Trump just made a bigger show of it.

In NK, everything is a big show. They live and die by their propaganda narrative.

Yeah. Once a country has nukes all the bluster and sanctions and power from other countries are either worthless or vastly less valuable. They can turn cities into craters. Congrats. Diplomacy just became 90% less effective. NK just getting nuclear weapons was a loogie in our eye we can't counteract that makes us rightfully look weak.

And this is why his dealings with Iran are so pitiful.

good luck stopping nuclear proliferation

Don't think about the dumb **** he did 5 minutes ago, Q3 just started. It's basically a clean slate.

Say what you will about the guy, but he's definitely the sharpest crayon in the box of crayon.

What if Obama had said that grab her by the pussy line.

It would’ve been hot. That’s what.

That’s funny but one thing people who get indignant about trump saying America has killers same as Russia can’t really be serious. That’s like the truest thing any politician has ever said.

I know but I heard left centrists say oh how could he say that about America

PUTIN IS A MURDEROUS DICTATOR THUG

meh

Having nukes is the best way to guarantee the US won't invade and topple the regime. So they simply won't give that up, regardless of what we do. Sanction all you want, China will continue to prop them up. China needs NK as a buffer state between them and SK. The fall of NK would mean American troops on or near the Chinese border, not to mention millions of refugees that China and SK would be forced to absorb.

And I agree about Iran. The nuclear deal wasn't perfect. But it was better than escalating towards a possible war.

Iran will become a nuclear power, assuming we don't invade. This might lead to a middle eastern arms race. There is no really positive way out of the current situation. There's only bad and worse outcomes. Same with NK.

Yes I know he called him little rocket man (best international Trump diss ever) but the important part is he made up for it by calling him a "smart cookie."

I loved that moment. He also said snitching should be a crime. He really has the swagger of a NY mob boss at times.

No, they don’t.

South Korea would absorb the entire lot. China don’t play that ****. They just more or less genocided those pesky Uighurs and the world shrugged.

Yes they do. Or at the very least they definitely want them to stay in power. You could say Russia also doesn't "need" Crimea. But they weren't willing to watch it fall into NATO hands. And China will similarly protect their interests in NK, regardless of what they say to us.
I disagree.

Turkey also has a record of genocide but they weren't able to stop the millions of Syrian refugees from flooding their country.

...

Russia is always spreading out tentacles. No cultural parallel.

And Turkey? They’re just a Muslim ****hole cluster ****. China has got **** on lock.

It's not a cultural comparison. It's a geopolitical comparison. In that regard you could argue Crimea is a more vital asset to the Russians than NK is to the Chinese... But they still benefit from having a buffer state between them and US forces. That's just basic common sense.

And the latter point is pure conjecture any way. What's certain is there would be a refugee crisis and neither China nor SK is actually interested in watching the NK state fail.

Culture is relevant. You compared China to Russia and Turkey. I compared China to China.

That’s fine but those refugees would have three choices: stay put and hope SK and the UN save them, try to head south, or **** with China and end up dead.

Korea still has big reunification dreams btw. How SK would react isn’t certain.

Culture has nothing to do with the fact that China doesn't want a bunch of US troops on their border, lol

And Beijing is apparently concerned with the prospect of a refugee crisis, despite your vote of confidence.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chi...a-relationship