The Daily Trump

Though you get the feeling it’s more No Headroom.

 

Can't see the people in the FBI who actually know what they're doing actually going with cybertrucks. Feel a bit sorry for the low-level officials who'll be inevitably forced into them.

Then again, who knows at this point? Wouldn't actually be surprised to see somebody important taken out because DOGE has decreed that security checks don't count now.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/13/eu-failed-trump-proof-europe-humiliation-ukraine

Things are that bad with the EU that even left wing Guardian are going at them about Trump.

 

Ane people were joking about Tesla's being called Swasticars!

 

The Guardian is owned by the Scott Trust which has (well, had, not sure if it's changed in the last few years) a significant amount owned by Apax Partners, a venture capital firm. The Scott Trust have a position of journalist independence and there are right wing influencers within the Scott Trust. There is a broad range of views, despite the sweeping generalisation it leans left. Obviously it's repeatedly attacked by the right to try and shift the Overton window further still.

As an example, Katy Balls has done numerous articles for them, yet is more at home on the pages of the right wing Spectator.

So the article you referenced isn't a view of the Guardian, but a view from that particular journalist.

 

Given that VAT on exports is zero-rated, I'm not sure that this is was quite the win he was aiming for.

Also, what does he think the state sales taxes that are applied at varying rates in the USA are?

 

My feeling is that daily, we're going to see a raft of announcements that become ever increasingly absurd to give the illusion he's doing something, yet in the cold light of day just don't materialise, are inconsistently applied, or even get overruled by a future executive order.

Sadly, what clearly is going to happen is that Palestinians and Ukrainians are getting royally done over to pander to his ego.

 

Trump is making the world a more dangerous place. Simple as that. His supporters and acolytes might lap it up but there's a serious, destabilising shift in global politics going on here which is weakening what remains of the post 1945 status quo. The ramifications are potentially very dangerous. I suspect people in the Kremlin are jumping up and down with glee, the Israeli cabinet are having a party and the Chinese hierarchy are getting their Taiwan maps out of the drawer.

 

Tesla manual gearbox.

 

Farage is polishing his jackboots.

 

Whilst I'm no fan of the EU in many ways, I'm not sure the article really hits the mark...much of the current crisis falls at the door of individual countries within the EU, rather than the EU itself, in particular Angela Merkel and her various coalition partners in the German Govt who fell over themselves to base the German economy almost exclusively on cheap Russian energy whilst at the same time abrogating it's NATO obligations by hollowing out the largest European military into a pale shadow of it's former self. Many other European nations followed suit... to one degree or another giving Putin the impression that he had Europe by the balls with the energy strategy, and that Europe had no will politically nor the military capability to stop him.
He made a massive miscalculation, particularly around the strength of Russia's own forces, but the seeds were planted in his mind largely and to be fair unknowingly, or perhaps naively by Berlin.

 

Then we voted for Brexit which was the final green light for Putin.

 

Brilliant

 

We may disagree, but I can see no serious correlation between the events...Putin had taken Crimea and invaded Donbass in 2014 whilst we were in the EU. Europe has had no credible alliance or military capability that is based around The Union, any collective military strategy is based only on NATO....that's why the quoted article misses the mark, it suggests fault with the EU, when the blame falls at the door of individual nations who have failed to prepare for all eventualities, not only failed in that respect but also by doing everything possible to make themselves reliant on Russia

 

Just coincidence then that the invasion came just 2 years after we left?

I don't disagree that the primary reason was down to Germany's energy policy, but Brexit and the implicit weakening of the EU was the cherry on the top.

 

Does anyone think that Eggy Trumps death will mark a return to sanity? I don’t mean for him to be assassinated or anything, just to lose his grip and fade away in time. He’s not a young man.

I don’t see his followers getting behind anyone else. Not Musk, not JD Vance, not Steve Bannon, not Trumps kids. They are only respected because they blow smoke up Trumps arse.

I think that once Trump goes, it’s possible his base will lose interest, simply because they are a personality cult.

 

Again, we may disagree..but the EU did nothing after the invasion of Crimea and Donbass in 2014..to be fair it wasn't in the EU's power to do much...with or without UK membership, in my view the biggest single factor was that Germany fell over themselves to sign up for Nordstream 2, if ever there was a signal of tacit acceptance that Putin could get away with anything, it was continuing, after the Crimean invasion to make the EU's biggest single economy and driving force (also military force) dependent on Russian energy.
Had the UK pulled out of NATO I would accept the argument without question, but the EU didn't have the power to stop Putin..as was demonstrated after Crimea..after accepting Nordstream 2 Putin would have had the capacity to put the lights out on the most significant part of continental Europe...one of his miscalculations was going too early, had he waited until Nordstream 2 was fully on stream he really would have had Europe by the short and curlies.

 

I think it's more that he knew Sleepy Joe was going to do nothing.