Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

He's not running *cough* I'm running.

america isn't ready for a music critic president

a Negroni drinking president

Soto/(Nude) Gyllenhaal '24

Well, yeah.

I had a vivid dream about two weeks ago... Jerry Orbach-era L&O, with Det Briscoe on the trail of some shirtless, leather-jacket wearing cat burglar. When he finally catches up with the perp and his associates, they're wearing "Stipe/Biles '24" lapel badges. "Good luck with that," says Briscoe.

So, there are options.

Wow.

michael stipe and simone biles the gymnast?

Briscoe didn’t clarify. But it was my brain so I guess so!

amazing dream

that is one hell of a dream/post

https://i.imgur.com/5ykPh6e.png

The Lion, The Bitch & The Wardrobe

nailed it

RealDonaldTrump meets a lion he is 100% getting mauled

AI art has gone too far

https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/donald-trump-2016-election-biography-photos-24.jpg?resize=2048,1336

Donald probably thinks its name is Assland

or Asian

the hands in that lion painting seem a little.. small

Even in those worshipful paintings he still has the bearing and posture of someone who has freshly shit themselves.

He should be in a goregrind band

does the artist know how big a lion actually is? and why is Trump dressed like a hotel doorman

lol this nerd is going to get booted off mainstream social media again faster than Kanye*.

2 days after saying he still believes Putin more than the US Intel Community, the current Republican front runner for President reposts a message encouraging people to be “locked and LOADED” to “physically fight for him this time.”

Normal signs of a well-functioning democracy. pic.twitter.com/sH9iE3C5Z3

— Pete Strzok (@petestrzok) February 1, 2023

*Though probably not, sigh ...

People my age and old

the 15 millionth ilx post is coming up in only 14K posts...what if we let bygones be bygones and invite him to the The 200,000th Thread Anticipation, Celebration, & Physical Fights Thread and contain his physical fighting challenges in there

he'd get to 51 so fast

This is pretty snarky, even by Chotiner standards:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/are-republicans-ready-to-move-on-from-donald-trump

There was really no need to include his own little pissy asides

Fitting that "They got my 6" tweet came from Texas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwXkKDiNI4U

There's no need to interview people who speak of themselves in the third person. ("Here's what Jim Rinacci thinks, okay?")

There was really no need to include his own little pissy asides

― Tracer Hand,

oh there absolutely was -- I wish fucking NYT reporters did it.

In your initial responses to my questions, you expressed concern that other people would have qualms about Trump. But it seems like you have some qualms, too.

Renacci: Well, I do. But, as I said, I have qualms that could be changed with him coming out and just saying, “This isn’t about me. This isn’t about the 2020 election anymore. This isn’t about January 6th. This is about me getting back and changing the country and representing the people.” Do I think there were problems in the 2020 election? Yes, I do. But I also believe in the Constitution, and I believe that the Constitution tells us that once the House and the Senate vote, the election’s over.

what's kind of amazing is that if Trump could somehow force himself to say those things, even though it would be very obvious that he didn't mean any of those things at all, he would win the GOP nomination (and he might anyway, imo). even after everything that has happened. all he has to do is say the things he very obviously doesn't believe, and his base would understand that he was just saying the things he was being forced to say (like when he told the proud boys to stand down and stand by), and he wins. he could even do some bullshit like say "i know that i won the 2020 election, and i know that all of you know that and i am a proud boy for all of you who fought so hard for me, but the time has come to focus on 2024 bla bla bla" and that would be enough, if he actually just focus. but he can't.

that new yorker convo with Renacci is really funny, though. "congressman, you're a smart guy", lol

"Maybe he has a thing against talking in the third person."

Isaac Chotiner is a real one there. I don't understand how he continues to get these interviews, but I'm here for it

I see these two statements repeated constantly:

1. Trump remains, arguably, the most powerful Republican in the country.
2. Aside from his most blinkered loyalists, virtually everyone in the party agrees: It’s time to move on from Trump.

Honest question here. Why does #2 not negate #1?

here's the key part, nothing to see here

So you would still support him if he won the nomination?

I would support him as a Republican, because the Democratic Party has gone so far away from the ideals and principles of where we should be going. Absolutely I would support him if he was the nominee.

"everyone in the party" apparently doesn't include the party's voters

Honest question here. Why does #2 not negate #1?

2, translated: Trump is kind of a shitty candidate.
1, translated: the party's even shittier.

to answer Dan's question, obviously a lot of these guys are gonna talk about Jan. 6 and election denial and all the legal problems he has but the real reason is that he's a loser. despite there being generally favorable conditions for Republicans, they've now underperformed in 3 straight elections and a lot of Republicans are starting to suspect it's because Trump is not only motivating a lot of turnout for the Dems (lets face it, there's no reason Joe freakin' Biden should've gotten more votes than any Democrat in history) but also because he's strongarming them into running a lot of genuine weirdos like Dr. Oz and Blake Masters. it's not a stretch to say he's singlehandedly cost them both houses of Congress.

in other words its like saying Aaron Rodgers is the best QB on the Packers' roster, but it's still time to move on, because you aren't winning shit with him anymore.

Part of is that moving on from Trump, or running against him, means making an enemy of someone who will never shut up and has the blind loyalty of many millions of people

yea Liz Cheney's seat was really safe until she was brave enough to uhhhh point out what we all saw on video

He said You’re Fired on tv and earned about 30 million permanent votes

lol this nerd is going to get booted off mainstream social media again faster than Kanye

yeah I doubt it this time. musk isn't going to kick him off twitter (not that he's using it...yet). meta reinstating him despite everything seems to indicate they feel it's too risky to be anything but totally hands off on this going forward.

He's not even the best drummer in the Beatles.

someone who will never shut up and has the blind loyalty of many millions of people

Perhaps just as importantly, someone who will never shut up and has the not-so-blind loyalty of every influential media company which eagerly monetize both his many millions of blindly loyal followers and his many millions of vehement detractors. it's a self-supporting ecosystem.

sure but it still seems like even FOX doesn't wanna touch the guy anymore. surely that'll change as primaries come up but the guy is just a shell of his former self. he has none of the energy he had in 2016 and if anything has gotten tremendously weirder. feels a bit like the Herschel Walker thing, even the people who support him think it's probably a bad idea to have him on TV right now

We all said this in 2016 and look what happened

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPNwJAcMH5U

meatball ron there you go so much better

Trump has been mocking DeSantis in casual conversations, calling him “Meatball Ron” and “Shutdown Ron,” a reference to coronavirus closures that Trump’s team believes cast DeSantis as a fake https://t.co/54t0ZE5FWG

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 12, 2023