What has Trump done now?

[facthunter]

He HAS made America GRATE.  He turns on all former allies who followed them into Unwinnable wars and lost good People in so doing,. He Makes up the Stories to suit Himself. He doesn't have the support of the Majority of the American people, either and stacks the Courts with judges who favour Him. Unilaterally Tears UP deals and Treaties. Lies constantly and betrays NATO. HE can't be trusted, by any Measure. Nev

[old man emu]

You'd think that if any one of us would be rabidly anti-American it would be GON. Afterall, if Holt hadn't been wooed by President Johnson. Holt met with President Johnson on a visit to Washington in July 1966, en route to England. At that meeting, Holt picked up the Democratic Party’s campaign slogan ‘All the way with LBJ’. His impromptu addition of the slogan to the text of his remarks on the White House lawn immediately intensified Australian opposition to the war in Vietnam. Tensions were increasing between North and South Vietnam by May 1965. The United States supported South Vietnam. As an ally of the US, Australia agreed to allow national servicemen to be sent overseas to Vietnam.

[facthunter]

Facts won't help Here OME. . Nev

[Jerry_Atrick]

On 05/04/2026 at 7:59 AM, Kyle Communications said:

Well all I see is people losing their minds over a guy who only wants for his country to be the best. How you get there of course is the methods you use.

Why dont you point all your agression and comments and pontifications to the dickheads who lead our country down into the shi#t chute we are heading into. We are a Island..we dont have nutjobs on any of our borders than can just walk in. We have done our best over the past 30 plus years ( thanks to keatings globalization push) to defang and deindustrialize to a point now where we are a joke. We used to be self sufficient in power and oil and manufacturing pretty much anything we wanted. Exported all around the world and had a balance of trade far in excess of the  situation we have in this country currently. Now we are a weak pissy shadow of our former selves. Both political parties are responsible for this terrible decline the problem is they are still in that mindset. We need someone to come in and reshape us. I am not saying thats Trump but we need someone with a big set of khunas or boobies..I dont care who it is just someone with the conviction that Trump seems to have. Not his runaway mouth but his drive and vision for a better country.

If that makes me a racist or a woke hater in your eyes then so be it.Thats your opinion !...I have a thick skin and sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Oh and I am aloowed to still have a opinion dont I...I mean if I offend you with what I have said..then good...its not illegal to offend anyone...yet. well the current govt seems to want to try to even take that away from us.

What ever happened to common sense and critical thinking to run your country. We have the resources here to be one of the wealthies countrys in the world and give the population here a lifestyle that could rival anywhere in the world. Wether you are born here or immigrated here I dont care. If you have immigrated here dont bring your shit here or try to convert what we are or the way we want to live. We are Australians..well we used to be...sometimes I really wonder who or what we will become in the future as I can not currently see any path forward to a better country under our current and ever former numbskulls

 

Now you have a opinion in my view and I ont or probably wont be offended by whatyou say. I will listen and make up my own mind of what I keep on board what you say or discard it into the rubbish bin of ideas..be they sane or insane

 

 

Welcome to the dark side if the forums! 

 

Others have dealt with Chump wanting the best for his country, which, I guess will depend on what perspective one takes. I don't like the left.right description as it is too rigit; I prefer to consider myself a progressive capitalist.. You can take that as centre right or left - on some things I am definitely left of centre; on others I am right of centre - but to me, some of them are so contradicting, I would prefer not to get drawn into left or right. On that basis, let's look at his policvies and promises - whether or not heis successful on them. 

 

• Drill baby, Drill - i.e. regress to further reliance on fossil fuels. This may provide some very short term pain relief, except for the war that has been started. But mid and long term, it is bad for the US. First, it locks the US consumer and industry into a fuel source that is subject to the vagaries of the internation markets. Secondly, it locks the US out of international trade in renewables, which is growing compared to fossil fuel. There will always be a need for fossil fuel - at least for the imaginable future, but it will reduce. In addition, the side effects of health and environmental issues (yes, Lithium batteries manufacture cause a lot of CO2, but the improvements in manufacturing are seeing those levels drop and other battery technology is far cleaner - e.g. sodium, etc). What he is doing is handing the international market to the Chinese and the Dutch and creating a reliance on the Middle East, Northern Europe and Russia. West Textas light sweet crude is now largely in shale, which means fracking and a lot of ecological damage, drinking water pollution, etc. 
• Tariffs: The policy of tariffs can be positive, if targeted to support local induustry and there are plans in place to grow and modernise those sectors so they can compete on the international stage, or at least bring domestic prices down. In some sectors, they are setting up plants in the USA to avoid the tariffs. This is sort of good, because it basically means domestic market production will come form the US. So, it will reduce imports and provide some short term boost to employment, and a smaller longer term boost to employment. So, on one hand, it is positive.  But, the fliup side is they are inflationary - right at the cost of living crisis. Guess short term pain for long term gain, maybe. Of course, his erratic implementation of them, and using them as "bargaining" or threatening chip brings into question his intention to use them to only improve domestic production.
• On the other hand, his appoach has been also negative. He has directly hit USA exporters as countries started boycotting goods - so too did consumers in other countries. In addition, his antics have resulted in reduced travel demand to the USA - which is a big export earner. He has incentivised his trading partners to look elsewhere, and they have. The BRICS countries have had some benefit - though not universal. China and India have been the bigger winners in that order. The USD as a reserve currency is now under threat. This will mean it will be more susceptible to devaluations and that will increase prices enormously. 
• His reduction of taxes for the wealthy, which have been opposed by a suprising number of wealthy people, and the enormous additional debt he is generating for no prodcutivity gains, The long term debt, increase,coupled with other factors such as an ageing population, etc, will see debt rise to up to 200% of GDP by 2050. This is clearly unsustainable and not very good for the country. 
• His policy of dissolving the federal education department, whcih provides funds and oversees education to poorer demographics (ironically those most likely to vote for him) without a replacement that does it better is in no way good for the country. It widens the social gap in a country that already has a mass murder issue with ubuiuitous distribution of firearms. It holds the poorer back, and as such, holds ociety back. Taking a chainsaw to something may save some cash in the very short term - but this is definitely a short term gain, long term excrutiating pain policy. 
• The dismantling of medicaid and replacement of a much better, but unspecified public health initative... well, it is just hot air. In the mean time, more and more people fall through the safety net, and a sicker population = a sicker and less productive workforce.. not very good for the country as productivity is hit. 
• This reduction of illegal immigrants and the reprartriation of thosein the USA, I think is short term pain for longer term gain. The problem is that the US economy is built on the use of cheap, non-documented labour. You can pay them next to nothing (slavery); they have no access to publoc resources, so the government doesn't need to look after them . Win-Win. Do they take jobs of the locals? Most people say no, because the locals aren't willing to do the work. I would add, for the rate of pay that the illegal immigrants are willing to work. So, there would be short term food shortages and/or food inflation, but, in theory, as the wages rose to attract staff, so would local workers arrive. That wold decrease unemployment, increase salaries, and yeah, increase prices. This may impact their agrciltural exports longer term, but things would eventually normalise, and the farms would modernise as well. Maybe they may even start producing uality beef to compete? Again, the execution is shambolic, and deporting those that havce been in the country for a long time, settled with families, and contributing positively to the community and economy may be a bit of an own goal. Bit generally, yeah, should be better for the country.

I agree we have gone too far in the push for globalisation. There are structral reasons why we have done so, but i think we were sold out in the globalisation push. . But I take umbrage on the claim the current government are taking us down the shit chute. On your own measure, this government seems to be doing OK. Australia has never had a consistent surplus in the balance of trade. Our exports are largely primary goods supplimented with secondary goods (machinery, for example). We have lately had some isolated successes with tertiary goods - bottled wine, some foods (Tim Tams - yay!), and the odd gadget (Rode audio being one such thing). Of course, can't forget Gippland Aviation and Jabiru. But these are , unfortunatley, small fry compared to what our agriculture was and our resources are. Our car exports were heavily subsidsed by local pricing, so I would hardly call that a success story - and how many mass car manufacturers does Australia have now, and how many were local owned?  The chart below shows our balance of trade historically has been small and oscillated between positive and negative, and it being consistently negative since the Fraser years. The second resources boom started in 2015 and didn't pick up export steam until 2019. But since Albo took over and repaired relations with our biggest trading partner, China, our exports have boomed far more than under the Morrison and Turnbull government (and whoever was before Turbull): 

 

That is not to say the current people are doing a great job, but I think they are doing OK-ish. Which is probably why I give Shump a bigger roasting than Albo, but Albo is not spared. 

 

Of course, there is more that can be done, and should be done,. For example, they should have pulled the pin on Aukus or mandated the subs and the tech are built here under licence. Better still, we could take that $38bn, which doesn't guarantee one sub, and start a domestic owned defence contractor here. We have (or had) the uality engineering education to drive graduates, and there are many Aussie engineers employed with forieng companies in foreign places that are experienced enough to lead a new government sponsored startup. Yes, we do have a handful of Aussie owned defence contractors/manufacturers, but most og the big stuff goes to foreign owned countries. I would still liekto see a real buy Australian policy; the Foreign Investment Review Commission do a proper job, and maybe have a policy where foreign companies wishing to start up offices in Australia need to partner with local business or provide for new local owned euity in that business. 

 

I am sure I could thing of many more things.. 

 

The point is, yep agree with your general sentiment, but the biot about Chump wanting the best for his country doesn't entirely wash. 

 

[old man emu]

Amongst others, Trump has taken a shot at Australia for not getting involved in his folly. You'd have to agree that in this instance, Albo done good.