What has Trump done now?

[rgmwa]

You're right. He's been a roaring success based on those measures.  I was thinking more about what might have been seen as good in terms of his official job, the one he never understood and still doesn't.

[Kyle Communications]

The border issue was good. Not tax on tips is good especially for a lot of workers. No extra tax on overtime. I am a big fan of DOGE we should have that here. Its rampant here. Tarriffs are a big issue but I understand what he wanted to do. We get fuc#ed over all the time here by especially this current govt just giving away our tax money to so many other places for just crap. Like 600 million to PNG for a football Stadium for gods sake. There are way too many more examples. Trump has been done over by cost of luving. It will be no different here with Mr Magoo

[rgmwa]

No tax on tips and overtime expire in December2028 but tax breaks for the rich don't expire. That's not good. 

Finding waste and fraud in government is a perennial aim of all parties but DOGE was a complete financial and moral failure.

What he wanted tariffs to do was punish countries he thought were taking advantage of the USA because he didn't understand how trade worked. By nature, he's pathologically opposed to cooperation for mutual gain.  

Edited Wednesday at 06:59 AM by rgmwa

[Kyle Communications]

I didnt know they finished after Trumps term...the Dems will for sure put it all back on again as they are spendriffs the same as Labor here. The Dems give money away to all sorts of worthy causes like Trans education in Somalia or other ridiculous things

 

Well if thats true then why is austrlia hit with tarriffs from the EU and many other countries despite us not charging them tarriffs..sort of a oxymoron there dont you think? We dont charge tarriffs on the incomming here although the USA thinks the GST is a tarriff but then again you have to remember they have always thought of themselves as the centre of the universe.

European Union
There is no FTA in force yet (negotiations concluded in March 2026, but the deal is still going through domestic ratification processes in Australia and the EU). As a result, many Australian agricultural products (especially beef, dairy, grains and some processed foods) face relatively high EU Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) tariffs or restrictive tariff-rate quotas.

And there are many others

China
Most goods enter at zero or low rates under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) and RCEP. However, China currently applies a 55% additional safeguard tariff on Australian beef that exceeds the annual country-specific quota (around 205,000 tonnes). The quota was filled in mid-June 2026, so the higher rate has applied for the rest of the year. It resets at the start of each calendar year.⁠

We dont charge them anything for their goods no matter what it is...is this fair?

 

 

No different here with the tax on the rich..they system is designed so that a lot escape them. Companies like Apple whose offices are based overseas for tax purposes..I think theirs is in Ireland and so are a lot of others.

Heaps rag on Gina Rhinehart but she and her companies pay her taxes at the correct rates

 

Hancock Prospecting (Gina Rinehart’s main company) paid about $2.3 billion in Commonwealth and state taxes for the financial year ended 30 June 2026.⁠Hancockprospecting

This figure comes from the company’s 2026 annual report and media release (around 31 October 2026). Key details include

Net profit after tax of $2.8 billion.
Total comprehensive income of $5.2 billion (including investment portfolio gains).

Over the past decade, Hancock’s total federal and state tax contributions reached $24.5 billion (plus additional taxes via employee salaries).
The core mining division, Hancock Iron Ore, accounted for roughly $1.59 billion of that (corporate tax, iron ore royalties, state payroll taxes, and Native Title contributions). The remaining ~$710 million related to other interests.

 

Apple Australia (primarily Apple Pty Ltd) paid approximately $188–200 million in corporate income tax to the ATO in the most recent reported period.

Apples income for last year was about 13.1 BILLION dollars where Hancock prospecting was only 5.2 Billion

 

 

 

 

[facthunter]

 Trump's ART of the deal is standover tactics. Tariffs CAUSED Inflation. Basic wrong assumption. Any fool could see that. . Nev

[rgmwa]

Tariffs are generally are intended to make imported goods more expensive to favour local manufacturers who are competing with those same goods. It's the country imposing the tariffs that pays them. Seems like a dumb idea to me except maybe in special circumstances.

 

Edited Wednesday at 09:13 AM by rgmwa

[old man emu]

16 minutes ago, rgmwa said:

Tariffs are generally are intended to make imported goods more expensive to favour local manufacturers who are competing with those same goods.

That's why we don't have them. We don't manufacture anything that the majority of consumers want. 

[kgwilson]

Closing the Southern border may have been a success but Trumps reliance on ICE which appears to be run as a total authoritarian outfit by its hierarchy has completely backfired. The only other thing he has been successful at it enriching himself and his family and lowering taxes for all of his billionaire cronies.

[old man emu]

I heard a couple of sound bites of Trump answwering questions after the election. He seemed very subdued, not his usual bombastic self. 

[rgmwa]

He said that four democrats had already called him after the election - two senators and three congressmen, and there were two more calls waiting. My guess is the actual number of calls was zero. 

[facthunter]

He says "he will work with them" IF they behave themselves?? 2 years to go. He might not live that Long. He certainly won't behave in a more rational way. He's a person where "everything is NOT Enough". They won't be installed for a couple of Months, but the results are astounding.  Nev

[rgmwa]

On a positive note, yesterday's election results showed that democracy is not completely dead in the US and that the electoral system works despite huge sums of money being spent and plenty of vicious politicking. That's encouraging. Even so, a lot of the vote was a widespread vote against Trump rather than a vote for the Democrats, even by the democrats themselves. But at least now there's an opportunity to stop the ship from sinking totally. It's going to be a hard road to get things back on track and sort out the many problems, so I hope the new Congress and Senate can show a bit of leadership. They've got three months to get themselves organised, set a sensible and balanced agenda and then implement it. Hopefully the cooler heads can keep things on track and the hotheads under control. There's plenty of potential for it all to come unstuck, but at least they're off to a good start.

 

[old man emu]

Amazing!

This thread was started on 10th November 2024 and today should reach 190 pages of comments. That's a lot. There are still two years of Trump to go. Those two years will be very, very interesting. Following the Democrat tsunami, I think that Trump will moderate his bullying. He's in a situation now similar to the  Leader of the Pack looking over his shoulder to see his Pack slinking away, leaving him standing  alone, face to face with the Good Guy.

 

The Democrats are also facing a hard battle. They really can't reverse Trump's Executive Orders until they get the Presidency themselves. Even then, the next presidential term will have to accept some of Trump's glorifying acts. The East Wing reconstruction will have to go on. Most likely the above-ground part will be modified to suit the architectural scale of the rest of the building. The below ground bit is probably a good idea, but one hopes that its uses can be mothballed under a less aggressive government.

[facthunter]

Trump can VETO everything and probably will. What a silly system they have there. Republicans will ARC up too. There's too much Power to a President.  SCARY.  Nev

[rgmwa]

I think the ballroom construction is probably too advanced to make it easy to change now, and certainly by time the Democrats would be able to do anything about. He will probably get his arch too unless the courts step in and stop it. The judge, Tanya Chutkin, is definitely not a Trump fan so that might happen. 

[rgmwa]

Trump has just declared the Oval Office and Cabinet Room to be national monuments which means they have to be preserved and can’t be altered. He obviously wants to make sure that no future president can get rid of his gold ornaments and chandeliers. There’s no end to this moron’s vanity. The document still has to be ratified by Congress but no doubt that will be a formality. 

Edited 9 hours ago by rgmwa

[rgmwa]

I wasn’t entirely right. Apparently a future president can still make internal changes so the ornaments and chandeliers can go. It mainly means the basic structure and historic character of the spaces needs to be preserved. His proclamation could also be challenged in court before it’s ratified. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

A lot of news seems to point to the Republicans finally realising that Chump is... a chump and the electorate have cottoned on. A lot of Republican congress people are apparently very concerned about what he will get up to over the next couple of years and how it could further erode their jobs come next election. 

 

Whilst it won't be easy, there is talk that he may well not make it for much longer.. The problem is, who will replace him?

 

 

[rgmwa]

Vance, unfortunately. At least until the end of the term.

[red750]

He kept saying "Imagine I'm on the ballot."

 

America did, and said "Up yours."

[red750]

Lame duck l'orange.

[old man emu]

4 hours ago, rgmwa said:

Apparently a future president can still make internal changes so the ornaments and chandeliers can go

There's a strong precedent for a future President to make changes to the White House. It's most recent user of that precedent was Donald J Trump. 

[rgmwa]

2 minutes ago, old man emu said:

There's a strong precedent for a future President to make changes to the White House. It's most recent user of that precedent was Donald J Trump. 

That's right. My initial understanding was that he was trying to prevent that in future and ensure that his execrable taste in fake Louis IV gold decorations lived on, but apparently he can't go that far. 

[old man emu]

2 minutes ago, rgmwa said:

That's right.

You missed the sarcasm of my post.

[rgmwa]

Too subtle for my TDS brain I'm afraid, OME. It's beyond recovery.