So now the world learns

[Suff]

It's all true. Trump is going to sign executive orders to seriously restrict immigration and to start building the wall with Mexico.

It's funny really. All those EU mandarins who are going to look like total fools over their Brexit statements. Now we have people who are going to look like fools over the wall and immigration in the US. I wonder when Trump will sign an executive order to strip Mexico of aid payments? Essentially forcing Mexico to build the wall by not giving them any more money. Rather using that money to build the wall. Also slapping 35% taxes on imports from Mexico will bring in much more revenue for building the wall. Essentially forcing Mexico to take some of the cost by cutting the profit it gets from the goods it sells to the US.

When are people going to learn? Trump is a billionaire, he's used to costing proposals and funding them and making them happen. He's going about the office of the presidency as if he doesn't want to be there 4 years from now. That has been a long, long, time in coming. But it is how it should be. I think we're about to find out just how much power the office of the president of the USA really has when the incumbent doesn't care about getting votes from the people for a second term.

The EPA has also just been ordered to take down its website page on Climate Change and staff are under threat of losing their jobs if they talk about it.

It is quite interesting really because there really is only one parallel with these actions in the modern world. I happened on January 30th 1933. But nobody in the press is talking about it. I wonder when it will start??

[Workingman]

It is quite interesting really because there really is only one parallel with these actions in the modern world. I happened on January 30th 1933. But nobody in the press is talking about it. I wonder when it will start??

It has already started. The Pope got in first, as I mentioned the other day, but be careful with the parallels.

Hitler v Trump, Germany then v USA today.

America has not just come out of a deep depression following a war that ruined its economy. It does not see itself as a victim of a treaty (Versailles) that stole its lands and penned it in. It does not have rampant unemployment coupled to hyper-inflation. Most importantly, it has not just passed an Enabling Act alowing its leader to become, effectively, a dictator. All of these things, and more, drove Hitler and the situation in Germany.

If anything the opposite is true of the USA today, and there is one other thing to note. Trump might be firing off excutive orders, but they can be challenged (see Gina Miller and A50 here in the UK) and if they are they can go to a judicial review where they can be struck down if they are found to be not supported by statute or are unconstitutional. That will/could happen to many of them.

That is not to diminish the fact that Trump is going stir things up, and in a way that will not be dangerous or to everybody's taste.

[Suff]

Not quite what I was saying, but, yes, I do need to be clearer.

What I was talking about was that when Hitler came into power he started carrying out immediate executive orders to the limit and sometimes beyond, of his power. Hitler cracked down on the press, controlled what was being said and essentially, re-wrote the truth to suit himself.

Today Trump is carrying out immediate executive orders to the limit of his power and, in his crack down on the reality of climate change and the Government's visible acceptance of it, he is re-writing the truth to suit himself.

The rest of it? No not really. The pope was going on about Trump's lack of "compassion" and aggressive approach to minority groups and "immigrants". I'm going on about how Trump is approaching the exercise of power.

Note quite the same but easy to confuse. I'll try and be clearer.

[AliasAggers]

It's certainly becoming an interesting situation.

It's anyone's guess how it will all turn out.

I won't be surprised at anything - Even if G.B. becomes the 51st state of America? (That would be a laugh, eh?)

[cromwell]

The pope was going on about Trump's lack of "compassion"

I saw that. Unfortunately for the Pope, we need a bit more than compassion these days. If I'm in charge of a lifeboat that holds 100 people after a ship has sunk, and I compassionately try to get 300 people on board, the odds are that the lifeboat will sink as well and everybody will drown, as opposed to 100 people being saved.

Europe and the west in general is in exactly the same position. If we "compassionately" let in everyone who wants to come, our societies will crash. The numbers who want to get here are way higher than our ability to take, even if everybody wanted to take them.

Trump realises this and is trying to appeal to that way of thinking.

Whether he suceeds in all of his aims? I can't see it. Legalities and the fact that he may well be grandstanding in other areas just to please his supporters will mean he doesn't.

It will be an interesting few years though, no question.

[Suff]

Trump is now saying that the US does not need new laws, it just needs to implement the laws it already has. This, fairly simply, circumvents both houses and allows him to use “their” laws via executive order.

It’s quite interesting the way the US works. The house and the senate vote in bills which hare not always implemented by the executive. Or not fully. Mainly for political reasons such as the President is afraid that he will not win the next election. Trump? He could give a damn, so long as he is able to do what he promised fast enough. Trump is quite aware that if you tell people that you will do something and don’t do it, your approval rating will fall. Tell people you will do something, even if it is outrageous to 40% of the population and your rating will rise.

There is no way Gitmo will close now and it might even get a lot more aggressive.

I’m sure I know what the Pope would say about Trump now… He’s a BAD man. The funny thing is that in the old Wild West a BAD man could be your very best friend but a BAD man to tangle with in a fight.

Interesting to think about.

I believe we’re going to get some more revelations over the next few weeks. If the Mexican President does not go through with his visit to the US, he could find the President even harder on his country.

During the Brexit campaign I was quite vocal about the UK being the 5th largest economy in the world. I could not conceive of going head to head with the largest economy on the planet and willingly place myself on the Anvil and await the falling of the hammer.

They will all learn, sooner or later, that they can’t treat Trump as a politician. Because he isn’t.

[Workingman]

They will all learn, sooner or later, that they can’t treat Trump as a politician. Because he isn’t.

That might be true, but as President he is bound by US political considerations and the Law.

Unlike Hitler, via the Enabling Act of 1933, he cannot do what the hell he likes - there are checks and balances. The Senate, HoR and Supreme Court are all hurdles he has to overcome (persuade) before his wishes (orders) come into force.

They way things are being presented is that if he signs an EO that's it: job done. It is not the case. Any American citizen can challenge an EO and if it is found to be unsupported by statute or unconstitutional it can be stricken out.

Trump can say what he likes, and given that it appears he only wants one term, it looks like that is what he is going to do - via Twitter. That does not mean he will get his own way. There are enough anti-Trump people out there to ensure that plenty of his 'policies' become bogged down in red tape, and he will not be the first President to become tied up in that way.

The world is going to have to put up with Trump for four years, and things could get quite dangerous, but he is going to learn that being President of the US does not make him President of the World.

Whether he suceeds in all of his aims? I can't see it. Legalities and the fact that he may well be grandstanding in other areas just to please his supporters will mean he doesn't.

Quite.

[Suff]

Well the state department are in no doubt.

Oh and they moved the doomsday clock 30 seconds closer to Midnight. Is this a record for a US president??

[Workingman]

Stand and fight or run away. Cowards!

Mutiny: No! A mutiny is the underlings hoping to take power, see HMS Bounty for details. Capitulation is when they give in. This is capitulation. Nothing wrong with that, per se, but it now allows Trump to install his own people. Great move. Not!

Doomsday clock: It got to 3 min when I was in the RAF, but it was based on the real world political conditions at the time and not on what some scientists thought might happen due to the election of a politician - anywhere.

This Trump thing is getting so out of hand it has become a comedy. He is now a POTUS with 'mad as hatter' ideas. The 1st one ever? Please!
Get over yourselves, you will find it a lot more relaxing.

[Suff]

This Trump thing is getting so out of hand it has become a comedy. He is now a POTUS with 'mad as hatter' ideas. The 1st one ever? Please!
Get over yourselves, you will find it a lot more relaxing.

Personally I find it quite amusing. Esepcially as I was in little doubt that he would be a wysiwig POTUS.

The more interesting thing is trying to calculate exactly when the Elitist Democrats and Eletist Democratic leaning Republicans will move to evict him.

That is a very interesting passtime. He won't go without a fight and, as we have seen, he fights dirty. All good "clean" fun in the world of politics.