President Donald Trump

Toss up a few examples you'd be comparing against.

I think it will be impossibly hard to ever be as corrupt as Cheney-Halliburton and Iraq reconstruction.

justifying a war by inventing a casus belli, plausibly also killing a few people in other countries to avoid the lie to be exposed in the immediate aftermath, prolonging said war with trillions in costs and thousands of American death for completely useless reasons all to get the company the VP was CEO of billions and billions in contracts.

that's actual, true, direct corruption. a disaster for the blood and treasure of the country for personal benefit.

as for now, trump personally (and familistic/friends) benefiting from the presidency has been mostly stuff like crypto, which doesn't subtract from taxpayers/the nation so it's not even comparable.

even if you want to claim the Qatari jet will become trump personal property that doesn't directly damage taxpayers massively.

American companies getting favourable treatment for tariffs/ regulation isn't even necessarily corruption. unlike the Iraq war which was pareto-deficient and a pure waste of blood and treasure, it's easy to justify a narrative where society (and not only Nike stockholders) is better off with Nike being able to import from Vietnam tariff free.

actual, true, worst-possible corruption is the sell out of the nation. is using political power to the actual, definitive detriment of society for personal gain.

like when you close schools for 1+ years because teacher unions vote democrat.

Why isn't Cheney even close to being a billionaire? It's fine to put him in the list of corrupt if you want. trump has made multiple billions just since being in office this time--he's still got plenty of time to run up the totals. And if we're going to start including friendly contracts the numbers get pretty stupid pretty quick with trump too btw. We also have no idea where lots of that money is even coming from or what's being given in return.

Trump asking for a foreign government to announce an investigation of a US citizen and political rival as a favor would have been a big deal prior to the Trump degradation of conservatives.

So tariffs are a plus huh ….

And yeah trump family grift with probably inside trading on crypto and the markets making profits on prices .
And yes if American wants to enter the market afterward they just have to pay much higher prices -> no cost …..lol.

Well as u previously said many times , u don’t believe fraud and stuff like this should be so not surprise by your post …

I personally love it .
Just shows how easy it is to copy trump and that it doesn’t mean competency.

FWIW once u get the only weapon trump got (trolling) out of his hands , what’s left for him to do ?

Arguing on the merits of his actions ? lol.

I am dismayed by this response.

First, I don't think Trump is the main target of Newsom's trolling. I think the main targets are Newsom's Democratic rivals. He is trying to deprive them of oxygen by making his trolling a topic of conversation. In other words, he is co-opting the strategy that Trump used against his Republican rivals. That strategy was beneficial for Trump personally, but not for the party he leads or the country generally. I don't see any reason to be more hopeful about Newsom's trolling.

Second, even if Trump is the actual target, Newsom's trolling doesn't "take the weapon out of Trump's hands." I would sooner say that it plays into Trump's hands. If the strategy is to lower expectations to zero and test who is willing to say the craziest **** on social media, well, that's a game Trump will win the overwhelming majority of the time.

People think it’s so clever but all Newsom has done is give up the moral high ground and trivialize serious harm. It’s ****ing stupid.

The moral high ground lost the Dems the 2024 election and has seen them get victim blamed by every centrist for 2 years straight

The Republican party as a culture is gone. There is nothing connecting the current party to pre-2012. Y'all are drinking the koolaid if you think the Dems can just stay the course and stay relevant

I'd love for someone like Pete Buttigieg just talk common sense back into the country but I don't think that is going to happen

Agree 100%

And why do we have to pretend like there is a binary choice between running campaigns like it is 1992 and imitating Trump?

You voted for democrats in 2024? I’m surprised.

It isn't, and no one is stopping everyone else campaigning in a way he thinks is proper. They aren't though, so Newsom is trying things.

I do expect he will try a lot of other things as well, including long form "serious "interviews discussing policy positions for a completly different target.

He is serios and hellbent on being the candidate and in pole position for now, and has all the time in the world to try things, assess how they work, and change.

Quite strange to see him criticized by his own natural voters tbh.

But at the end we know you would all vote for him anyway vs a Vance or Rubio or any other "actual rightwing" candidate on the other side. And he knows that as well. Which is why... he doesn't have to satisfy you with his methods, do you get that?

I wrote this nearly two years ago, before Trump won his second term. Sadly, I think I was 100% correct.

I think doing this definitely sets him out front against his rivals to win the presidency, so for him, it isn't exactly stupid. And he's also made a several bad moves in the past that can be interpreted as "performative" or to boost attention for himself at the cost of others. He at least gave up the moral high ground years ago or never had it. He's just going all in or bust right now.

Obvious point is obvious. I was responding to coordi, not attempting to describe the actual state of the world.

This attitude pretty much encapsulates the problem. I'm supposed to say "great job Gavin Newsom" or just stfu because I historically have voted for Democrats in presidential elections? That's political nihilism at its finest.

The people who love the trolling are even less likely to vote for someone like J.D. Vance than I am.

I'd love to see a world where the Dems beat Trump with decorum and class, but if that ain't happening I'll settle someone who beats Trump with trolling and snarky Tweets. We tried the whole "they go low, we go high" thing. It didn't work.

I voted for not Trump. Notably, I got crucified by family and friends for saying about a year before everyone else got on board that Biden was cognitively finished. I’m beyond frustrated with liberals and their willingness to indulge in the same stupid games when we’re already in the find out stage of things.

That's why I said his main target was his Democratic rivals, not Trump. Doing whatever increases your chances to win, no matter the consequences, shouldn't be your lodestar as a candidate. I of course realize that it is the lodestar for the overwhelming majority of candidates.

I don’t care about decorum or class. I care about ethics, and how to balance one’s ethics while recognizing we can’t continue to “play fair”.

Nah you aren't supposed to love Newsom but you are supposed to evaluate him basically ONLY on his chance to win against the 2028 republican candidate, that's what i suggest you guys start doing. Nothing else matters in comparison to that, "electability" is far more important *than everything else combined*. You need a democrat president in 2028 or judges are gone more or less forever. And if agencies get gutted and disemboweled in 2025-28, and you can't rebuild them in 2028, those are gone for good as well.

It's weird you describe trumpism and current republicans as a threat and so on and then don't go into a mentality of "winning at all cost for the survival of the nation" , which is what the right did, after they got convinced democrats were inimical to their core basic values.

So it's more than fine to comment on the trolling, but the only analysis should be "does it increase or decrease our chances to win in 2028", again nothing else matters at all comparatively, if you lose again everything leftist care about is canceled for decades.

You should only like or dislike something politically depending on how it helps you win (or otherwise). The rest comes AFTER YOU WIN.

This isn't nihilism just the normal endgame of a 2 party system btw.

With sincere respect, we've already reached the "Round up undesirables and deport them to death camps in El Salvador" phase of America's descent into fascism, and the opposition should absolutely be doing whatever it takes to stop this ****, even if it means being sarcastic on social media.

My views have nothing to do with decorum or "going high."

I don't think my post insinuated that we have a binary choice to make but at least Newsome is doing *something* other than ineffectively pointing out that things aren't great

I'm also not convinced that lampooning the administration isn't effective in making fringe maga take a step back if even for just a moment

Instead IT SHOULD because that's exactly what you need to win back the house in 2026, and the rest in 2028.

You need the whole party hellbent on winning at all costs, with no other ethics other than winning, with winning as the absolute moral imperative. Because believe me, that's how the other side won.