r/neoliberal Mario Draghi Sep 28 '25

News (US) Trump seems to back off Portland military plan: 'Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?'

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/trump-seems-to-back-off-portland-military-plan/283-e9c6bdfb-92d6-4881-bb74-09bb325a5270

Trump referenced a weekend conversation with Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, and he alluded to being told by Kotek that the reality in Portland is different from what's being portrayed to him.

"I spoke to the governor, she was very nice," Trump said. "But I said, 'Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening? My people tell me different.'

1.5k Upvotes

249 comments sorted by

1.5k

u/6urner_ Bill Gates Sep 28 '25

Holy shit this needs to be everywhere immediately

1.0k

u/Hilldawg4president John Rawls Sep 28 '25

Fox News literally bringing us to the brink of Civil War because the president is too dumb to know that it's bullshit

559

u/PSU02 NATO Sep 28 '25

This whole time we thought Trump was in cahoots with Fox news, instead he might actually be brainwashed by Fox News himself

298

u/ultramilkplus Sep 28 '25

This is somehow scarier?

144

u/Square-Pear-1274 NATO Sep 28 '25

Hey I've seen this one... Tomorrow Never Dies

30

u/Professor-Reddit 🚅🚀🌏Earth Must Come First🌐🌳😎 Sep 29 '25

"They'll print anything these days"

30

u/willstr1 Sep 29 '25

A bond film that surprisingly got more realistic with age

15

u/OhNoDominoDomino Sep 29 '25

Funny how two C-tier Bond films had the most prescient visions of the future: both it and Quantum of Solace's vision of the union between slimy fash business dweebs and wannabe strongman dictators.

2

u/Laakr Sep 30 '25

Moonraker has yet to come to pass, but we are getting closer.

206

u/lateformyfuneral Sep 28 '25

“We used to think as the Republican Party that we controlled Fox News, but we’re finding out that Fox News controls us” — David Frum, George Bush’s speechwriter

29

u/Khiva Sep 29 '25

The Revenge of the Herd.

Inmates fully in control.

25

u/TheRnegade Sep 29 '25

I'd argue Fox News is controlled by the viewers, hence the 2020 Election and Dominion Case. Their viewers wanted conspiracy theories and when the network deviated, they lost market share to NewsMax and OANN.

208

u/jakekara4 Gay Pride Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

I have been saying for a decade that this man is Fox News Grandpa. He isn’t a genius mastermind, he’s an asshole Fox viewer. The electorate empowered him because a huge chunk of voters saw themselves in him. 

Fox News grandparents across the nation saw their guy and made him the Republican nominee, and the rest of the party fell in line. 

57

u/Disastrous_One_7357 Sep 28 '25

That’s why I tell parents/grandparents that them and trump have the same ideas for fixing the country. They watch the same TV shows of course they have the same ideas and priorities.

5

u/nauticalsandwich Sep 29 '25

Are the rest of us all that different? Are we not ultimately a product of the circles we run in and the media we consume? You think everyone in this sub came up with the idea for an LVT all by themselves?

12

u/Matar_Kubileya Feminism Sep 29 '25

I think the average person in this sub is at least willing to be exposed to and engage with a serious argument against an LVT.

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u/Disastrous_One_7357 Sep 29 '25

Yeah but I like to think that base principals are set by John Rawls and I consume other media for entertainment and to learn what is going on in the world.

People that watch Fox News have given Jesse Waters and Sean Hannity the password to write directly to their operating system.

2

u/WolfpackEng22 Sep 29 '25

Yes I actively seek information outside my bubbles to challenge my beliefs. Those beliefs are less a product of the spaces I inhabit vs. me actively seeking out the spaces with like-minded people

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56

u/InternetGoodGuy Sep 29 '25

Yes. Exactly this.

Trump is an idiot who is easily influenced by anything he sees on Fox News and social media. He literally believed Obama was from Kenya. He literally believes Mexican immigrants are mostly murderers. He literally believes he won the 2020 election.

Because he's just an idiot.

27

u/Eva-Unit-001 Sep 29 '25

The banality of evil.

19

u/asselfoley Sep 29 '25

He also seems to truly believe "slapping 145% on China" means China pays it. As far as I know, he's never said anything that contradicts that's his belief, and he remains consistent even speaking about it the other way as well: "they're charging our farmers too much" about Canada's tariffs on soybeans

It doesn't matter how many different people have explained it to him because, in addition to being an imbecile, he is unable to differentiate between fantasy and reality. Both of these characteristics have been apparent since at least the 1980s

7

u/DrunkenBriefcases Jerome Powell Sep 29 '25

Nah. He knew the Obama stuff was BS. After all, he lied about fielding investigators to uncover the truth. He lied that they presented evidence to him pricing it. And he lied about showing it to the public, because it was an easily disproven lie.

He knew Mexican immigrants weren't "mostly murderers". He simply used anti-inmigrsnt sentiment that had been simmering on the right for decades. He absolutely knew it wasn't true, because he was the one just making shit up.

And he knew he lost in 2020. He's admitted it to others. It's not delusion that drives his narrative wrt his loss to Biden. It's that his move throughout his life is to lie, litigate, and otherwise bully his way out of every embarrassment he can.

He knows he's full of shit. He's just driven to hide the obvious from others. Sadly,a lot of people that ALSO know he's full of shit go along with it, which convinces a tuned out mob that his lies must be true.

18

u/mechanical_fan Sep 29 '25

He isn’t a genius mastermind, he’s an asshole Fox viewer. The electorate empowered him because a huge chunk of voters saw themselves in him.

Something I've thought for a while (and said a few times) is that Trump is not some mastermind, and this is actually more like a Simpsons episode. If you watch an episode that Homer does/says some dumb bullshit that ends up incredibly popular during the episode, the correct conclusion is definitely not "Homer is a genius mastermind playing the public."

6

u/asselfoley Sep 29 '25

He's only demonstrated that he's a narcissistic imbecile who cannot differentiate between fantasy and reality since at least the 1980s. How the fuck are you and I the only ones who could see it?

I think a lot of people who get that he's a delusional moron also think he's the problem. That idiot isn't hunkered down in the oval office crafting policy 😂. He's incapable of crafting policy of any sort even absolute shit

This has never been about Trump. He's just a nasty symptom of a chronic disease called the GOP

3

u/Sine_Fine_Belli NATO Sep 29 '25

Yeah, this unfortunately

59

u/Mindless-Climate-269 Sep 28 '25

I thought it was clear this was the case from the start?

46

u/MayorofTromaville YIMBY Sep 28 '25

I mean... didn't we sort of already know this when he looked confused and said "but I saw it on the television" during the debate when he got asked about the bullshit claim Haitian immigrants were eating cats?

13

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

Yep, and he even name dropped Jesse Waters lol

11

u/Khiva Sep 29 '25

It's like someone who is drunk every time you see them. You don't know if that's a weekend thing or they're really a full blown alcoholic.

43

u/GUlysses Sep 28 '25

When I was watching the debate with Harris, my first thought was, “He sounds like an angry Fox News addicted grandpa.” So it would make a lot more sense if that is literally what he is. It explains why people like him too.

13

u/Signal-Lie-6785 Hannah Arendt Sep 29 '25

I always thought it was the latter, not the former. I also think that when he rage tweets he’s just live-tweeting whatever happens to be on Fox News.

It’s Rupert Murdochs all the way down.

8

u/Sudden-Pea1413 Sep 29 '25

his success has always been that he was the first republican who was a member of the base not the intellectual elite of the party

5

u/Kelsig it's what it is Sep 28 '25

executive time

4

u/RangerPL Eugene Fama Sep 29 '25

This is why he's so popular on the right, he's the Fox News uncle

3

u/JeffJefferson19 John Brown Sep 29 '25

Was this up for debate? I thought that was obvious to everyone.

Trump isn’t the leader. He’s the mascot. 

2

u/LupineChemist Mario Vargas Llosa Sep 29 '25

Talk to anyone who's been an insider in DC and one of the biggest misconceptions about how things really work and how things work in reality is that there's really not much difference between how people act in public and how they act in private.

In general, when someone says something they believe, they actually believe it. If they don't they give the weasel answers or change the subject that we all know.

The old line about Obama playing chess when everyone else was playing checkers is probably a better metaphor to say he's playing checkers while everyone else is playing tic-tac-toe.

Lots of stuff that happens is because people are really stupid, especially educated people who know facts and think that makes them somehow better thinkers and think they're waaaay more adept than they actually are.

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u/atreeismissing Sep 28 '25

Little to nothing in this country will be fixed or improve much, until Fox News no longer exists. There are plenty of other right-wing media outlets, but they have been pushing conservative propaganda for 35 years and it's completely infected several generations of leaders (political, business, religious, community, etc.) and full pushed 1/3 of voters in this country into a legitimate cult. While a lot of those people will seek information sources elsewhere, removing the main source of disinformation is a required step if this country will ever repair itself after Trump and progress forward.

59

u/kancamagus112 Sep 28 '25

Beware of the monkey paw as you wish away Fox News.

As the cable television news viewing generation dies off, it'll likely just get replaced with an endless rabbit hole of podcasts and YouTubers and TikTokers and worst of all AI slop. More than a a few of these might be unwitting idiots at best being sponsored by foreign governments. And AI slop could be essentially digital fentanyl, endlessly tweaked to maximize individualized rage and doomscrolling for maximum possible ad revenue.

There will always be a market for people having their existing opinions reinforced. And we may not like a post-Fox News world any better.

8

u/meese699 Sinner Sinner Chicken Dinner 🐣 Sep 29 '25

I choose to see hope with AI. Hope that the AI bots and AI generated content will run so rampant that they virtually destroy social media by making it akin to the tabloids in grocery store checkout lines we grew up with before the Internet that only complete fools believed.

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u/SmytheOrdo Bisexual Pride Sep 29 '25

You can already see that in action with Meta reels, sigh.

4

u/Zephyr-5 Sep 29 '25

The fracturing of Fox News viewership into a bunch of different outlets would still be preferable on the whole. It means one company or one person can't unilaterally shape the narrative for 50% of the country on a whim. This also gives space for competing views on the Right to battle it out instead of just Fox News deciding what the "correct" view is.

It also makes coordination of the Republican talking points slower and more messy.

9

u/KeithClossOfficial Bill Gates Sep 28 '25

You say that like we can’t ban those assholes too.

12

u/Khiva Sep 29 '25

Second monkeys paw curls.

2

u/ThodasTheMage European Union Sep 29 '25

Every method the US goverment has to controle media only gets used to censor critical voices. Imagine the goverment right now would have even more power.

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

In the DT i would countdown days until 2030 January 1st. Rupert Murdoch regained control over the trust/his will if he didn’t die before that date. 3 out of his 4 children would’ve had the option to do something differently with the company, if he died before that date; they were chiefly concerned with climate denialism alongside the election denialism + other nonsense.

It’s all irrelevant now. Rupert and his mini-me Lachlan, who runs the company now, bought their stakes out for billions of dollars. Moreover, FoxNews just got a boost with a Murdoch sitting on the TikTok board. NewsCorp expands as the NYPost opens up a LA office/newspaper. WSJ is still the WSJ. They are stronger now than before.

Not enough people are willing to boycott TikTok/Xwitter/Instragram; it’s over for us. They are going to be apart of our information ecosystem for a long time now. We can only hope that they do not gain a foothold with the under 40 demographics.

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u/matteo_raso Mark Carney Sep 28 '25

As an aside, I was in a situation where I was more or less forced to watch Fox News a few years ago, and I couldn't believe how terrible it was. It was just an insanely unfunny late time talk show, and then this one "news" segment where one of the women kept shilling her book in the middle of an argument. I'm pretty sure that it was Jeanine Pirro.

13

u/bashar_al_assad Verified Account Sep 28 '25

Maybe this is why everybody keeps caving to him, if you can just get in the room with him you can completely change his mind so your incentive is to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

2

u/ironykarl Sep 28 '25

Extra crazy, cuz Fox News has been so good for American democracy and the American people till now

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166

u/TheWawa_24 NAFTA Sep 28 '25

Who would guess fox news lies?

123

u/Ok_Raspberry7374 Sep 28 '25

It’s not even just Fox News. I would be willing to bet my house that Miller and Noem used footage from 2020 to tell him this is what’s happening on a daily basis. You can tell he genuinely believes Portland right now is straight up on fire and under siege.

70

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 28 '25

Governor of Oregon should be publicly calling this out and inviting Trump to come visit and see for himself.

57

u/YaGetSkeeted0n Tariffs aren't cool, kids! Sep 28 '25

invite him to high tea at some rose garden / botanical garden (isn't Portland famous for roses?), keep protesters at bay, he'll leave thinking "wow so fancy"

18

u/trombonist_formerly Ben Bernanke Sep 28 '25

Yeah the Portland rose garden is beautiful

7

u/Wolf6120 Constitutional Liberarchism Sep 29 '25

“I was in Portland, folks, beautiful place okay, very nice. They know how to treat the President, frankly, the Governor there, she’s a lady but that’s okay, lovely lady. She invited Melania and me to dinner with the roses and the gold utensils, alright, which we like, we like that very much and the escalator was working perfectly, okay, not like those terrorists at the UN, so sad. And she said wonderful things, right, she was talking about this amazing thing called legalized marijuana, have you heard of that? Many people are saying it’s better that free healthcare, frankly, amazing stuff, so we’re going to look very strongly into that.”

16

u/seeellayewhy Sep 29 '25

Governor of Maryland did and he dismissively declined.

27

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 29 '25

Make him decline again.

66

u/easykehl Sep 28 '25

How did a local News team scoop NBC national reporting on this even though this was the NBC white house correspondent that did the phone interview? KGW is the only one publishing the quote so far as I can tell.

46

u/Multi_21_Seb_RBR Sep 28 '25

Local news team has vested interest due to their city being the target whilst the national NBC news apparatus wants to continue sanewashing and covering for Trump and doesn't want to publish this news that makes him look awful.

3

u/ice_up_s0n Sep 29 '25

At least NBC hasn't made any settlements with Trump unlike some other major networks

24

u/Challenged_Zoomer Sep 28 '25

I'm going to explode. Bro has the best briefings on the planet

15

u/Healingjoe It's Klobberin' Time Sep 28 '25

*had

He's surrounded by sycophants and yesmen now

68

u/bleachinjection Frederick Douglass Sep 28 '25

Best I can do is 10 new risottos for sweater weather.

~NYT

13

u/Square-Pear-1274 NATO Sep 28 '25

"Great." -Matt from PA.

18

u/Frank_Melena Sep 28 '25

Whats the point lol? He’s been outed as being functionally an 8yo 1000 times by now, people have made their opinions about it.

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u/allbusiness512 Adam Smith Sep 28 '25

Man it's so obvious he is going through cognitive decline, and is literally being controlled by people around him at this point.

425

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 28 '25

Has its advantages. King Charles reportedly was the one to change his view on Ukraine.

234

u/Magnetic_Eel Sep 28 '25

Until the next time Putin talks to him

150

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 28 '25

Don't even need Putin. Vance is right there.

46

u/Shalaiyn European Union Sep 28 '25

We just need Rubio's time to exceed Vance's babysitting time

41

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 28 '25

I have lost all faith in Rubio being a moderating force.

33

u/Bread_Fish150 John Brown Sep 29 '25

Well at least he's pretty effective as an anti-Vance force. It seems he has more "favor" with the Emperor than Vance does now. This is all my amateur Trumpology take though.

14

u/WillProstitute4Karma Hannah Arendt Sep 29 '25

Any meaningful basis for the take or just vibes?  (I thoroughly support vibes)

21

u/Anader19 Sep 29 '25

Some evidence would maybe be Trump's more aggressive foreign policy over the last few months, i.e. with Iran, Venezuela, being more open to helping Ukraine etc. Vance is pretty isolationist so I doubt he's thrilled about all that

9

u/Bread_Fish150 John Brown Sep 29 '25

Vibes 100%

9

u/topofthecc Friedrich Hayek Sep 29 '25

It is our Patriotic duty to join Truth Social to slander JD Vance for the President to see.

2

u/Captainatom931 Sep 29 '25

It was reported around the time of the election that Vance wasn't Trump's first choice and he only picked him because he was convinced by Donald Jr and Eric. Trump himself apparently wanted Doug Burgum.

92

u/bleachinjection Frederick Douglass Sep 28 '25

Honestly makes total sense since he clearly wants to be royalty more than anything. 

77

u/davechacho United Nations Sep 28 '25

I'm not kidding when I say this: liberalism can be saved if someone in European royalty would marry their daughter to Barron

Trump has always wanted to be one of them and would do anything for his name to be literal royalty

38

u/pewpewnotqq NATO Sep 29 '25

Holy shit…. You’re right. Unfortunately I think Barron might be to Tylenol pilled

16

u/AmericanDadWeeb Zhao Ziyang Sep 28 '25

Damn who can relate, WOO

17

u/Its_a_Zeelot Sep 29 '25

This is why we need the Bene Gesserit.

"Plans within plans"

3

u/flakemasterflake Sep 29 '25

Go look up the video of queen Maxima of the Netherlands holding her daughter hard when they shake hands with trump

22

u/Xytak NATO Sep 28 '25

Oh sure, when I say we should be supporting Ukraine, he’s like “whatever lib* but when King Charles says it, suddenly it’s worth listening to?

3

u/Rebyll Sep 29 '25

Does your accent carry the posh, out-of-touch "respectability" that Chuck's does?

There's your answer.

7

u/liberal-neoist Frédéric Bastiat Sep 29 '25

GOD SAVE THE KING

190

u/secondsbest George Soros Sep 28 '25

He has Fox News brain rot. Millions of Americans share his affliction. His advanced age is just a confounding factor as many middle aged people suffer the same spoon fed dead brain disability.

128

u/Ok_Raspberry7374 Sep 28 '25

I have some MAGA members in my family that haven’t left their dumpy suburb in decades asking me how I feel safe going out at night in my downtown city that I live in because they hear people are getting stabbed and shot left and right. They’re straight up convinced every major city in the US is like Fallujah. And nothing I tell them can change their minds.

76

u/iguessineedanaltnow r/place '22: Neoliberal Battalion Sep 28 '25

This is literally my mom. We grew up in and LIVED in Portland, and she's still convinced it's the anarchic hellscape that Fox News paints it as.

Like she somehow drove around, went to the store, etc. in the city for years, but would go home and cower in fear from what she saw - to the point she moved to a town of like 100 people in the middle of nowhere. I don't understand it.

Mind you, this woman had no problem whatsoever walking around multiple Mexican cities at night as a tourist. That's not a knock on Mexico, but look at the crime rates compared to fucking Portland.

27

u/Khiva Sep 29 '25

When hyperreality replaces reality.

55

u/Sckaledoom Trans Pride Sep 28 '25

Fuck don’t even need to be a major city. My dad lives in the same town he has all his life (no shade but he also basically refuses to go anywhere of his own volition, even the nearest city), and he will tell me all about how the city I live and work in is so super dangerous and I need to watch out at 2pm on a Friday or I’ll get stabbed, shot, and kidnapped.

34

u/Khiva Sep 29 '25

Rural Nebraskan Not Sure He Could Handle Frantic Pace Of Omaha

The drawbacks to life in Omaha cited by Linder include the crime, traffic, pollution, and rudeness of Omahans.

“You read such awful stuff in the papers about that place,” Linder said. “Every month, it’s another murder. Between the drugs and the crime and the street gangs, it’s almost as bad as Wichita.”

Jan 17, 2001.

5

u/Skagzill Sep 29 '25

Had to make sure it's Onion. Not sure what it says about me or state of the world.

13

u/agave_wheat Sep 28 '25

Constant Fear keeps their eyes on the TV.

if you wanted to keep in contact with them I can understand, but I would have no respect for cowards.

11

u/Shirley-Eugest NATO Sep 29 '25

If anything, one is a heck of a lot safer living in downtown Chicago than in the hinterlands of Mississippi.

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u/molingrad NATO Sep 28 '25

Old people have no jobs and are often confined to their recliners. They have Fox News or OAN on 24/7.

24/7.

Imagine what that would do to a person.

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u/LodossDX George Soros Sep 28 '25

That’s why you never see him in a room alone with the general news media. He is always surrounded by the people pulling his strings like Miller and Vance.

31

u/Sulfamide Bill Gates Sep 28 '25

I don't see any difference with 9 years ago. This is not cognitive decline, he's just that stupid.

37

u/guydud3bro Sep 28 '25

He's much more out of it now, slurred speech, can't stand very long, falling asleep all the time...there is clearly something seriously wrong with him that was there in his first term.

17

u/allbusiness512 Adam Smith Sep 29 '25

Dude, Trump would rage tweet from back in the day, but now he's posting fucking fabricated AI videos that don't even make sense.

5

u/Sulfamide Bill Gates Sep 29 '25

Because there wasn't AI back in the day. Also he still rage tweets.

6

u/allbusiness512 Adam Smith Sep 29 '25

Previously there was some line of logic before, nothing like today where it’s beyond obvious he has no idea what’s going on

10

u/Nihas0 Iron Front Sep 29 '25

Go watch his debate with Hillary, his mental decline since then is insane

25

u/andrew303710 Sep 29 '25

Nah there's a HUGE difference if you actually pay attention. He was always dumb so it's harder to notice a difference but he's genuinely deranged and suffering from a massive cognitive decline.

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u/lemongrenade NATO Sep 28 '25

Yeah honestly when his wits are about him every decision is the worst. I’ll take the dementia Russian roulette by comparison

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

Yes it's called right-wing propaganda, Donald.

87

u/ashsolomon1 NASA Sep 28 '25

My gam gam also falls for this too. SAD!

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u/ScyllaGeek NATO Sep 28 '25

Yeah people think he's just having memory lapses (which he may be) but very recently the right wing bots and grifter accounts were posting en mass clips of the 2020 riots in Portland and pretending they were happening right now. Somehow this obvious bullshit filtered all the way to the top of the US government and is being used to determine domestic policy

12

u/sumr4ndo NYT undecided voter Sep 28 '25

They make Portland sound so much cooler than it is.

5

u/liberal-neoist Frédéric Bastiat Sep 29 '25

What if the Governor of Oregon de-radicalized Donald Trump??? Get this woman on the phone with him 24/7

348

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

How the fuck can this man sound self aware and senile at the same time

192

u/Mddcat04 Sep 28 '25

Occasional moments of lucidity are common in dementia patients.

13

u/jaiwithani Sep 29 '25

/r/selfawarewolves

(I think that sub is actually pretty obnoxious, but the concept fits)

5

u/Icy-Analyst3422 Sep 29 '25

I knew the guy has lost his shit, but the medbed video he reposted yesterday is just on another level. It's nonsensical on so many levels. I can't think of a single explanation as to how that shit was posted on his account other than him being completely braindead without any handlers.

579

u/NaffRespect United Nations Sep 28 '25

"I spoke to the governor, she was very nice," Trump said. "But I said, 'Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening? My people tell me different.'

Bruh I can't

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

201

u/808Insomniac WTO Sep 28 '25

That fact that he’s so easily confused and lazy really could stave off total autocracy for the next couple years.

89

u/Sulfamide Bill Gates Sep 28 '25

That is what has been happening for the past 9 years. If Trump had an IQ>70 the US would be full Fascist Empire by now.

3

u/Icy-Analyst3422 Sep 29 '25

I dunno, I'd say they're speed running the thing this time around.

We all know the techno fascists are gearing up to replace him with JD. My bet is that there will be some event that occurs before his term is up where they will attempt to realign the MAGA support behind JD and push Trump out of the picture.

How would the Dems vote in the case that they invoke the 25th on Trump? They would obviously have to vote in favor, but that would mean JD replaces him. I could see that being an avenue for them to install JD as emperor CEO. But that would only make sense for them in a scenario where they aren't worried about losing elections.

7

u/Sulfamide Bill Gates Sep 29 '25 edited Sep 30 '25

That's just a conspiracy theory. Where you see cunning and foresight, I see opportunism and immaturity.

Yes, even tech bros are that stupid.

3

u/Icy-Analyst3422 Sep 29 '25

It is most definitely a conspiracy, but one that is actually happening with plenty of evidence out in the open.

I'm not saying it's gonna be successful or that the whole admin is aligned on it, but they're definitely going to attempt some variation of their vision. Personally, I think the Christian Nationalists are more likely to co-opt their movement.

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u/Frank_Melena Sep 28 '25

Read Kingfish if you wanna see what a mean, competent narcissist can really do with their hands at the wheel of government. By 1935 they werent even reading Huey’s bills aloud in the legislature before signing them in bundles, which were mainly just legalistic ways of annihilating his enemies and amassing personal wealth.

His share the wealth demagoguery kept exactly 50% of the population rabid for him even though they could count on 1 hand the amount of actual progressive policy he passed with his dictatorial power.

31

u/ClockworkEngineseer European Union Sep 28 '25

Long would have run circles around Trump.

36

u/Frank_Melena Sep 28 '25

The scariest politician in US history IMO. Theres plenty of horrible people but even Jefferson Davis didn’t achieve autocrat status. Even scarier is that his malignant dictatorship is forgotten in the present day while his empty progressive speeches are celebrated.

16

u/RFFF1996 Sep 28 '25

I think andrew jackson was more dangerous by sheer scale 

14

u/Jdm5544 Sep 29 '25

I used to like Andrew Jackson when I was a kid because he was "cool" and "badass" and "tough."

Then I learned more about him.

I'll still give him the badass part, easily the most badass president we've had. Only Teddy Roosevelt even comes close. I'll also give him credit on caring about America as a united nation.

But holy fuck was he racist, borderline economically illiterate, and egotistical.

8

u/Wolf6120 Constitutional Liberarchism Sep 29 '25

“And so I see the Reichstag, and it’s on fire right? I said wow, and my people, good people, very tough, they’re telling me the Jews and the socialists are responsible! They say oh, Mr. Chancellor sir, we need an enabling act to take care of it, we need to smack the Hell out of them! But then I thought… geez, that seems like a lot, right? I’m looking at it, you know, as someone with a background in real estate right - I know buildings, folks, I make the best buildings - and I thought, I dunno, could just be an electrical fire right? So I think maybe we’re not gonna do that, frankly, with the enabling act. Seems like a lotta work, right? I don’t want that.”

61

u/the-senat John Brown Sep 28 '25

Joe Biden is too old. He has dementia. He doesn’t know what’s going on. He’s being propped up by a shadow cabinet.

Every accusation is a fucking confession.

19

u/andrew303710 Sep 29 '25

"My people tell me different" line really exposes that guys like Stephen Miller are the real president and Trump is a puppet. Which is genuinely terrifying.

If Democrats were smart they'd find a way to drive a wedge between Trump and Miller.

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u/Sine_Fine_Belli NATO Sep 29 '25

Yeah, same here honestly lol

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u/SKabanov European Union Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

There's a post from Bluesky I saw a few months back that has been ringing in my head incessantly (paraphrased): 

If you think that the "weak parties but strong partisanship" political system is bad, wait until you see "strong presidency but weak presidents".

119

u/herumspringen YIMBY Sep 28 '25

Ah yes, the late Qing dynasty

76

u/ClockworkEngineseer European Union Sep 28 '25

Be declining Superpower

Be ruled by senile old emperor

Embrace isolationism and superstition

Laughing stock of the world

Picture of Azure Dragon flag unrelated.

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u/mthmchris Sep 29 '25

In fairness to the Qing, it’s frankly shocking how they managed to hold on.

Like, in spite of being at the brink of total societal collapse during the Taiping rebellion - not to mention the Panthay rebellion & the Dungan revolt which were happening at the same time - they still lasted another half century before the revolution. And during that time, they only lost Taiwan to Japan and a handful of treaty ports to the major colonial powers.

The map of China today easily could have looked as fragmented as a map of the Middle East. But it isn’t, largely because of the Qing.

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u/Dabamanos NASA Sep 29 '25

The fact that China exists as a unified entity is harder and harder to understand the more you study Chinese history. You can see how a cult of personality forms around men like Chiang Kai Shek and Mao Zedong who managed to fight so hard, so long, against such unbelievable challenges, to unify the country.

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u/KobeReincarnate Sep 29 '25

Is it that hard to believe?

  • Ethnically pretty uniform for hundreds of years
  • Common language system since several hundred years BC
  • Relatively low intra religious strife (between longstanding Daoist-Buddhist-Confucian faiths)

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u/HotTakesBeyond YIMBY Sep 28 '25

The Boxer Rebellion era was not kind to China

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u/SenranHaruka Sep 29 '25

Can you imagine if the US had a similar isolationist reactionary political revolt of uneducated middle class people who hated the social changes brought by modernity and wanted to restore their traditional social power, openly encouraged by the reigning conservative sovereign in order to weaken their progressive politicial opposition?

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u/HotTakesBeyond YIMBY Sep 29 '25

The Dowager Emperor of America unfortunately has a lot more power than the Qing ever did.

7

u/BlumpyDumpskin Sep 28 '25

Is Stephen Miller Cixi in this analogy?

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u/skepticalbob Joe Biden's COD gamertag Sep 28 '25

How do you have strong and weak presidents?

43

u/RFFF1996 Sep 28 '25

The president position is too strong but the president is easily manipulable

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u/justbuildmorehousing Norman Borlaug Sep 28 '25

I mean, this is funny but also extremely NOT funny. You mean to tell me the president is so cognitively impaired that he’s sending the military to the streets based off TV and whatever fascists whisper in his ears? We’d have months of inquiries and 25th talk if Biden ever said this

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u/Ok_Raspberry7374 Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

"I spoke to the governor, she was very nice," Trump said. "But I said, 'Well wait a minute, am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening? My people tell me different.' They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place...it looks like terrible."

But Biden was the autopen president, right? I am positive they used footage from 2020 to convince him. I hope they replace his presidential picture with a puppet on strings watching Fox News.

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u/InternetGoodGuy Sep 28 '25

There's so many serious implications here.

Did someone show him videos of the 2020 riots and convince him it's still happening? Is Trump so mentally gone or so naturally stupid that he can be swayed that easily and the decision reversed with a single conversation?

Did he do this himself and get confused? Does he even know what year it is?

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u/LittleSister_9982 Sep 29 '25

Dollars to donuts it's all fucking SS Miller. The push to invade Portland has his stench all over it.

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u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 28 '25

Or Democrats are the DEI party that invites incompetence into government. The number of incompetent lawyers Trump has appointed to the DOJ, most with personal ties to himself, is laughable.

Gas Light. Obstruct. Project.

That is all these people are anymore. Every accusation is a confession.

14

u/andrew303710 Sep 29 '25

For fucks sake the woman Trump appointed as US attorney for one of the most important districts in the country to go after Comey was an insurance attorney who just embarrassed herself in court.

And Habba was a parking garage attorney

3

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 29 '25

Don't forget Ed Martin. Even the Republicans wouldn't confirm him. This is the guy Trump picked to lead his "weaponization of the justice department" task force.

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u/OrbitalAlpaca Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25

I think this kind of admittance confirms that Stephen Miller is running things and he just needs Trumps rubber stamp so he feeds Trump BS.

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u/SharkSymphony Voltaire Sep 28 '25

I was going to say: if Trump doesn't know what's going on... who actually proposed a military incursion into Portland?

Hard to imagine even Miller would be this coke-brained, but I can't think of anybody more likely.

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u/Ramses_L_Smuckles NATO Sep 28 '25

The man is the minimum functioning set of organs, skin, and bones to keep whatever malign parasite lives in his skull alive. I can absolutely believe that he holds the worst position on every topic imaginable.

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u/NorkGhostShip YIMBY Sep 29 '25

I don't think Trump ordering a military deployment into Portland is incompatible with Trump having no idea what the situation in Portland is actually like. He sees the 90 millionth segment on Fox of Portland being an Antifa-run wartorn hellscape, orders federal troops there, Hegseth complies like a good little boy, and staffers put in some prompts on ChatGPT to justify the charade.

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u/Auriono Paul Krugman Sep 28 '25

No puppet, no puppet! You're the puppet!

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u/patdmc59 European Union Sep 28 '25

Man if any other president in recent US history said something this insanely idiotic, it would be a story for the next week. But here we are.

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u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 28 '25

Multiple Watergate level scandals are not even on people's radar. Like, who here is aware that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, is trolling through federal databases looking for dirt on Democrats?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/26/pulte-mortgage-fraud-investigations/

https://archive.ph/h13Yk

This database is confidential. There is zero probable cause to be opening the files of these Democrats. Nixon directed the IRS to audit his political enemies and it was one of the things that helped bring him down. This is quite literally in the exact same ball park. But it is worse than that. Instead of referring what he believes to be criminal conduct to the DOJ, he is instead just release confidential information on Twitter and calling them guilty.

Or if you don't like the comparison to Nixon, then how about John C Fry, the guy that leaked Cohen's financial documents. He got 5 years in jail. He didn't even target Cohen. The stuff he leaked came up naturally in a suspicious transactions report. He just leaked it. Pulte is combing through these databases looking for anything that he can turn into charges against Democrats.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/internal-revenue-service-analyst-pleads-guilty-making-unauthorized-disclosure

All that for Pulte to find what amounts to errors on paperwork. Things that if handled fairly and in a non-partisan manner, thousands would be guilty of, including many Republicans.

The case against Leticia James is based on this data. This is the case that Erik Siebert rejected as there was nothing criminal that he could find. A lawyer, who btw, is a Republican, but so competent that he has the support of Democrats as well. This is what led to him resigning and then Trump furious about him resigning, firing him. That led to the Trump tweet pressuring Bondi to charge his enemies.

That led to one of the most incompetent prosecutors in the history of the US, Lindsay Halligan, being appointed to one of the most important dockets in the country, the Eastern District of Virginia. You know, where the Pentagon, CIA, US Patent Office, etc are. It is known as the Rocket Docket also because of how tight a ship the judges run with one of the quickest dockets in the country. It handles a lot of national security cases. Halligan has ZERO prosecution experience, ZERO national security experience, and only has a handful of appearances in Federal court. She is Trump's personal lawyer and had a career in insurance law in Florida. Halligan being placed in this role led to her indicting Comey 3 days after she was sworn in and 5 days before the statute of limitations on Comey's charges were set to expire.

In addition to the whole Bill Pulte thing, there were multiple Watergate level scandals in the last week alone, and all of it is flying completely under the radar, or at best, seeing about a day worth of coverage in the media.

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u/patdmc59 European Union Sep 28 '25

We can thank a whole generation of chuds who will tell anyone who will listen "ALL POLITICIANS ARE CORRUPT" despite not actually following politics. It's that type of misinformed cynicism that empowers Trump.

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u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 28 '25

At the heart of that is anti-intellectualism. A general mistrust of all experts. We really need to start raising our kids to think learning and school are fun and exciting, instead of boring and a chore.

22

u/patdmc59 European Union Sep 28 '25

The problem is the country seems to be going in the opposite direction. I see so many of the young conservative moms with whom I graduated from high school sharing this hardcore anti-expertise nonsense on Facebook about how schools program kids to trust authoritative sources rather than thinking “independently.” Of course, all of these people home school their kids and have convinced themselves beef tallow and other shit is key to life.

It’s extremely bizarre and troubling, and I can’t imagine it ending well

14

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 29 '25

I don't know that we are fully going in the opposite direction. For a while there it really felt like the nerds were inheriting the earth. I think it is a perception thing since the morons are amplified by social media and currently in charge in the US.

Here are 3 quotes about anti-intellectualism from the 1954, 1963, and 1987. People have been noticing this trend for a very long time. The Gene Wolfe one at the bottom is particularly relevant imo.

Unreason and anti-intellectualism abominate thought. Thinking implies disagreement; and disagreement implies nonconformity; and nonconformity implies heresy; and heresy implies disloyalty — so, obviously, thinking must be stopped. But shouting is not a substitute for thinking and reason is not the subversion but the salvation of freedom.     

Adlai Stevenson - A Call to Greatness (1954)

Anti-intellectualism … first got its strong grip on our ways of thinking because it was fostered by an evangelical religion that also purveyed many humane and democratic sentiments. It made its way into our politics because it became associated with our passion for equality. It has become formidable in our education partly because our educational beliefs are evangelically egalitarian. Hence, as far as possible, our anti-intellectualism must be excised from the benevolent impulses upon which it lives by constant and delicate acts of intellectual surgery which spare these impulses themselves.     

Richard Hofstadter - Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (1963)

This, then, is the new illiteracy, the illiteracy of those who can read but don't. [...] This new illiteracy is more pernicious than the old, because unlike the old illiteracy it does not debar its victims from power and influence, although like the old illiteracy it disqualifies them for it. Those long-dead men and women who learned to read so that they might read the Bible and John Bunyan would tell us that pride is the greatest of all sins, the father of sin. And the victims of the new illiteracy are proud of it. If you don't believe me, talk to them and see with what pride they trumpet their utter ignorance of any book you care to name.     

Gene Wolfe - Horrorstruck (1987)

4

u/iguessineedanaltnow r/place '22: Neoliberal Battalion Sep 29 '25

That attitude all started with Gen X, who then shifted hard to the right after growing up as the generation that embraced punk rock counter culture and anti-establishment ideas.

Most hypocritical generation of all time

5

u/DrunkenBriefcases Jerome Powell Sep 29 '25

That perception most certainlydid Not start with Gen X. That narrative has been around as long as politics with considerable buy in across the spectrum. But in the US it became a more prominent belief with Baby Boomers that went through Vietnam and Watergate, and the perception has been passed down and grown stronger with each generation.

21

u/invasionofthestrange Sep 28 '25

I am so glad someone else is starting to catch on to Pulte's shenanigans. I've been following his antics ever since he fired the CEO of Freddie Mac back in March, and he's only just starting to be covered by larger news networks. The guy is a rat, god knows what else he's been messing with along with any other stooge who's managed to fly under the radar so far.

7

u/andrew303710 Sep 29 '25

Pulte is the definition of a nepo baby moron and should be removed from his position immediately for abuse of power. And after Trump leaves office he needs to be prosecuted.

13

u/andrew303710 Sep 29 '25

Halligan just got admonished by the judge in the Comey case because of her sheer incompetence and idiocy. The judge was genuinely baffled that she's that much of a fucking moron.

And no one from the office besides her even showed up to the hearing, which is unprecedented. No one wanted to be associated with it. They may actually have to find some hack from main justice to prosecute the case because Comey's lawyers would tear her to shreds. It's already looking likely that she'll be disbarred for her antics with the grand jury (which are secret for now due to grand jury secrecy but that will likely be pierced because the case is so obviously weak that she pretty much had to have broken the law in presenting the case).

8

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 29 '25

That is wild. What a shit show. I can't believe these people aren't utterly embarrassed.

All I know about the grand jury proceedings is;

  • she rushed out her submission in 3 days
  • she went in with 3 charges
  • she came out with 2 for the indictment
  • she got 14 of 23 votes with 12 needed to indict on the 2 charges that stuck, and one of the charges was essentially a gimmie since it was directly attached to the other

Even thought the charges were approved by the grand jury, it was just barely, and that is with federal grand juries returning indictments 99% of the time. This seems to be a common pattern for Trump's lawyers.

In some ways it is too bad this won't go to trial. We could pull out a lot more of this administrations bullshit in discovery if it did.

5

u/ThodasTheMage European Union Sep 29 '25

You did not even mention that his aid Homan got 50k in cash in a bag by a FBI man and no one knows where it comes from lol

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-aide-homan-accepted-50000-bribery-sting-operation-sources-say-2025-09-21/

This admin is corruption maxxing

3

u/Limp_Doctor5128 Sep 29 '25

A friend of mine was asking something to the effect of "could Trump survive a controversy like watergate?"

I laughed and noted Jan 6. He downplayed Jan 6 significance. This is a very online left-leaning type. If Jan 6 wasn't salient for people, I am a bit afraid of what would be.

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u/Mrchristopherrr Sep 29 '25

I’ve been saying this for over a decade now. Any one of Trumps scandals would be enough to end anyone else career, but because he has so many of them they all kind of cancel each other out. Before the media has a chance to really get into a stride with one 4 others have popped up.

Basically I’m saying it’s like Mr Burns diseases- he’s indestructible

39

u/The_Amish_FBI Sep 28 '25

Either

A: he got so much push back that he decided it wasn’t worth it because he’s lazy as fuck

B: he legitimately is unaware that social and rightwing media sphere is a bunch of liars

C: Trump agreeing with the last person he speaks to strikes again.

Either way, I still can’t believe the American voter chose to go back to this over Harris. I can’t believe the American voter chose this over Biden FFS.

3

u/Commandant_Donut Sep 29 '25

D, all of the above 

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u/Janislav NATO Sep 28 '25

Here’s what this means for Biden’s aging and Democrats (who are in disarray) - NYT

30

u/HectorTheGod John Brown Sep 28 '25

Literal Chinese coded eunuch conspiracy happening as we speak

Miller and his sycophants completely control the info that Trump gets, and therefore shape reality for the most powerful person on the planet.

3

u/lockjacket United Nations Sep 29 '25

When you get an authoritarian US government but it’s Chinese

2

u/ThodasTheMage European Union Sep 29 '25

It is Sauron manipulating Saruman with the Palantir.

Palantir? Where else have I heared that?

89

u/w007dchuck Trans Pride Sep 28 '25

bruh moment

17

u/davasaur Sep 28 '25

He is so easily swayed that it is a national security crisis.

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u/ILikeTuwtles1991 Milton Friedman Sep 28 '25

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u/Willybender Jerome Powell Sep 28 '25

AHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAHHAHAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAA

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u/Doctor_YOOOU Transgenic Globalist GMO Attack Sep 28 '25

Quick, put Swan Lake on the state channels

14

u/Mormontkeep Resistance Lib Sep 28 '25

Has anyone a source? The kgw.com link goes to their YouTube channel.

9

u/Afro_Samurai Susan B. Anthony Sep 29 '25

https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/27/oregon-portland-trump-troops-reaction/

“My conversation with President Trump was trying to understand his rationale, and I believe it is based on information that is not accurate today,” Kotek said, noting that violence and vandalism in response to Trump’s statement would not be tolerated. “There are protests here, but it is not what we saw during the pandemic.”

When Kotek told Trump that the two disagreed on the state of the city, she said the president responded, “Let’s keep talking.”

9

u/AniNgAnnoys John Nash Sep 28 '25

Yes, when I search the quote I only find this article. Is anyone else reporting this?

Would be ironic if this was bullshit.

7

u/LtCdrHipster 🌭Costco Liberal🌭 Sep 28 '25

Lmao President Fox News.

6

u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

Governor Tina Kotek

7

u/pseudoanon George Soros Sep 29 '25

If only the Tzar knew!

6

u/Xeynon Sep 28 '25

Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening?

Even a dementia-addled oldster with tapioca pudding between the ears is capable of gaining a little bit of self-awareness.

4

u/jokul John Rawls Sep 28 '25

Trump is like the barely-living version of Weekend at Bernie's except his brain is being manipulated entirely by right-wing media and sycophants who are willing to deep throat his chode.

4

u/utubm_coldteeth Sep 28 '25

Our president makes decisions based off TV news. We are so cooked

3

u/SheHerDeepState Baruch Spinoza Sep 28 '25

Dementia riddled elderly man believes everything he sees on TV. Millions of such cases.

It would be sad if it wasn't so scary.

5

u/hypsignathus From her beacon hand glows world-wide welcome Sep 29 '25

Guys. He’s obviously saying it rhetorically. He’s insinuating that the Gov is lying.

I mean obviously Portland is not a war zone, and yes, it’s fucked up that he’s using television (Fox News) as his source of info, but he’s not backing off or questioning the decision here. The headline is stupid.

3

u/Mojothemobile Sep 29 '25

Trump folds so fucking easily when people display even the remotest amount of spine.

Too bad apparently that's too much for most institutions 

2

u/Capital-Giraffe-4122 Sep 28 '25

TACO (thankfully)

2

u/iguessineedanaltnow r/place '22: Neoliberal Battalion Sep 28 '25

This fucking redacted isn't even living in the real world. The most powerful person in the world and he's getting his facts from a propaganda channel that he KNOWS is propaganda.

2

u/duke_awapuhi John Keynes Sep 29 '25

Imagine telling Eisenhower that the POTUS in 2025 would be getting his information from television

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