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Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of April 7
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
Florida teacher loses job for calling student by ‘preferred’ name
I really miss when following politics required a monthly check in to catch all the big events. We can see the impacts this uncertainty is having on financial markets, but it also has large impacts on people’s personal life decisions. We already have enough uncertainty and change with the impending AI revolution, I really don’t need an unstable government to add to the mix.
Climate change, too... Across the Atlantic we're already getting tired of this. I can't imagine what it must be like living there right now. <_<; Take care, I hope you guys can put breaks on the situation and fast.
As an American living "across the Atlantic," thank you for considering us and not just telling us that we don't understand how scared Europeans are, as if it's not our country that's falling apart. That's all I ever get in real life.
I’m hopeful that things will turn around over here. Trumps tariffs have already started increasing public opposition to him with the latest nationwide protests on April 5th having 5 million total participants. The counter tariffs from the rest of the world will hopefully snap even more people out of their bubble. The next round of protests on April 19th will bring even more people out.
Please don’t take it easy on us. It’s easy for the rest of the world to identify that Trump is the problem when it’s one guy upending the global economy, but people in the US don’t blame each individual ally (former ally?) for what’s going on. We recognize the source of the pain, but we need to feel it to do something.
Maybe I would regret it, but I sometimes wish I could somehow “read” Trumps mind to figure out why he’s blowing up the world economy. I wouldn’t be surprised if he becomes some sort of case study for decades or centuries to come in the field of psychology, because almost nothing that he ever does seems to have a clear intention behind it. People throw around terms like “insanity”, “selfishness”, or say that he’s trying to benefit the people who put him in power, but never back up those claims. I think that the most likely scenario is that multiple of these theories are true at one. However, I’ll throw in my equally unfounded opinion into the mix: I think that he’s primarily retaliating. It’s an ego thing. He identified every country around the globe whose leadership is not fond of him (which is almost everyone), and then he started tariff wars with them, just to try to punish them. This punishes the US too, of course, but he’s just laser focused on antagonizing the people who dislike or hate him. I don’t think that he’s trying to get them to make any deals (that’s probably a secondary objective). Rather, it’s literally personal. You have to keep in mind that he’s 78 years old. I don’t know a lot of 78-year-old who can think straight, let alone lead the most influential nation on the planet. I hope I never become this type of angry, vindictive old person when (if) I get to that age.
Side note: The US needs to stop enabling “politics as a career”. You get to hold one type of office for two terms in your life, and that’s it. Then you go back to being a regular civilian and doing something else. And people above the age of 52 shouldn’t be allowed to run for the presidency.
While I generally agree that career politicians are an issue you do need the ability to plan long term and execute.
I’m not against portions of the political sphere allowing for longer terms but at the same time im 100% for age limits. If you can’t fly an airliner at 65 you sure as shit shouldn’t have influence over a nuclear arsenal
Why does everyone insist on using false equivalences like that to justify age limits, etc? None of the factors that force pilots to retire at 65 have any impact on a president. In fact, any president who relies on snap decisions and quick reflexes to do the job must be doing a really shitty job. If anything, that provides an argument it should only be old people who are allowed to be president. It would be a really bad argument, but given the Venn diagram of skill requirements for the two jobs, that's where the chain logically leads, even if it's stupid and wrong.
There are better examples.
Because both people are responsible for the lives of others and sound judgment is absolutely a portion of the job, and a reason they have the limit at 65. Most commercial airline pilots don't need snap reflexes but they do need to be able to function and reason soundly in stressful situations.
I'm sorry if the stance offends you but as someone who knows several pilots I don't think you're right at all in your claims.
It's absolutely in large part because of the snap decision making. That's a major part of human factors engineering for aviation. Everything in aviation is about those extreme edge cases and closing the holes in the Swiss Cheese Model. So they usually don't need to make quick decisions, but when an engine goes out during landing, they might have less than five seconds to decide what to do with 300 lives on the line.
I'm really not sure why you think that "knowing several pilots" would be a trump card. I would suspect I know many more than you, but that's not really relevant to the logic here.
Because their argument pointed to this document(pdf download link, sorry i can't find others), which I assumed was something well known?:
https://www.easa.europa.eu/en/downloads/138024/en
Which is a 2019 study by the EASA about why they recommended against raising the retirement age to 67, and it specifically talks only about cognitive ability, not reactions/physical abilities. Most specifically the effects of long term drug use and things like dementia.
I've been saying similar since he was first just a nominee. I am not qualified to diagnose people in any way, but he hits all the check boxes for narcissistic personality disorder. At the time of his nomination I was binging drama on reddit about people dealing with narcisstic parents, and again, while that doesn't qualify me to make diagnoses, I was astounded to realize how he matched every single hallmark. Like, every single one. Genuine textbook example.
I feel like his political career is basically a grand scale case study for psychologists and sociologists on how clinical narcissists operate and can convince people to believe their warped perception of the world. Seeing him through that lens for his entire presidency also made every action of his more... Well, not "logical" because there's no logic, but they weren't as shocking or unexpected to me. I'm also just now realizing that that probably gave me a unique perspective on his presidency since not everyone would be looking at it from that angle, but would be trying to find sincere motivations and reasons behind his actions.
So basically: yeah, you're almost definitely right. He's willing to burn the world out of spite for not bending to fit his twisted, ecogentric perception of it. Losing support and popularity will only make him more bitter and spiteful. Combine that with his likely senility, and it's even worse.
The thing is, will we really talk about this or analyze it or do any meaningful reflection ?
People act like the USA hasn’t been on a speedrun to elect incompetence for at least thirty years. We have known for a long time Regan literally had dementia- what was the fallout or action from that realization ? Nothing. It only sort of gets brought up as an aside. Like “oh well. Guess he got us. Moving on.” We got no reform - nothing like adding the lockable doors on a plane, to prevent this from happening again. So here we are.
I’m pessimistic and I feel even if we do weather this storm (however long that takes) it’s not like we are going to flip a switch and change who we are fundamentally as a country. It’s not like 70million people will just disappear off the earth. It’s not like all the enablers or the SCOTUS will just be upended and go away. Trump is a cult leader, but he’s only one man. What about all the followers?
I know most of what I said isn’t what you were talking about lol but I just don’t think anything remotely —preventive will come from us understanding how we got to where we are - including if someone literally diagnosed him as a narcissist or demented. In fact, in this timeline, I bet they would use the fact that Regan ruled while demented as a gotcha and point to the studies of how surgeons and ceos have non-negligible numbers of narcissists as reasons to be narcissistic.
EU slaps tariffs on US trucks, cigarettes and ice cream to target Trump’s red states (Politico)
Been trying to find the full list/document but haven't been able to. Is it not published yet? Pretty curious what it'll be like in full.
It's all still an "internal document" right now but this article was linked from the other and has more
Brussels eyes 25 percent tariffs in response to Trump
Space Force Commander in Greenland Sent Out Email Breaking with Vance After His Visit (Military.com)
Greenland Base Commander Removed After Reported Email About JD Vance (Newsweek)
More like "loss of confidence in her ability to blindly follow orders". Come January 20th 2029 and the next coup attempt, they'll need loyalists in charge of every military branch and major military base.
Good thing you have all those well-regulated militias, ready to take on any authoritarian leader!
edit:
typo
To be fair, military leaders are not supposed to publicly oppose the executive branch no matter what they say. They are supposed to refuse unlawful orders, but keep quiet until an unlawful order is made.
Military leadership showing any sign of “disobedience” can embolden other countries to take offensive actions because they assume the US won’t respond quickly or efficiently in a crisis.
I don’t like Trump either, but firing this commander would be a standard move for any administration. Military leaders who are willing to refuse unlawful orders should keep quiet until unlawful orders come their way. Otherwise we will end up with a bunch of sycophants who will stand by if Trump tries a coup in 2029.
APNews liveblog: S&P 500 soars 7% after Trump announces 90-day pause on tariffs, raises taxes on China
For the record, everyone still got hit by a 10% tariff it seems. Which is still very damaging. And the insane tariff war with China also.
Imo it is now only more likely for the US to lose the most here.
From ‘Be Cool!’ to ‘Getting Yippy’: Inside Trump’s Reversal on Tariffs
Trump has been acting on gut instinct, reacting erratically to market turmoil, and making major policy decisions — then reversing them — without a clear strategy or communication plan.
While the immediate threat of tariffs are gone, the economic uncertainty, and inability for companies to plan for future investments is completely destroyed. I am already seeing corporations hesitate with making new investments.
Once consumers see the effect of the current tariffs, I imagine everyone will be spending less, which is by definition stagflation.
The Ways & Means Committee was in the middle of questioning U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at a public hearing when Trump made his announcement.
It seems like the only one who can explain Trumps strategy is Trump.
All the while we're eyeing reindustrializarion more and more every day here across the Atlantic. Especially for defense, which will need something to recover here.
The chaos and market uncertainty is one thing, supply chains shuttering, Chinese goods being more expensive another. As well as the dollar not being the unquestionable champion on the world stage.
And now some of them are maybe coming back! Who knows what the plan is.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/commerce-secretary-lutnick-tariff-exemptions-electronics-temporary/story?id=120752319
As others pointed out to me, and you most likely know as well, it's highly probable there is no real plan and the fermented mandarin is an idiot.
His entire cabinet reminds me of my bullies in middle school. Same vibe, same attitude, same intelligence.
I really wonder how many will get killed by an angry mob one day.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-makes-americas-showers-great-again/
Somehow #nottheonion
The tone and writing style are yelling at my brain that this is satire. How is this official White House communication? Though I guess it’s much better than the social media posts…
the SAVE act - The U.S. House on Thursday approved legislation requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for anyone registering to vote. People have already pointed out how this would disenfranchise trans people (no one cares ofc), but also married women or anyone who changed their names for various reasons. Your maiden name is on your birth certificate, and your ID and birth certificate must match. So either you can change back to your maiden name or undergo the lengthy and costly process of getting your birth certificate amended (?) I’m not sure, since it makes no sense to amend your birth certificate in this manner. Basically it’s a poll tax, if you’re wondering. And anti-trans for good measure.
Sidenote. Is the USA the most egregious of naming things so stupidly you can’t have a normal conversation about it ? Pro-life, any of the save the children named acts, I know it’s intentional I just want to know if other countries do it like we do.
Trump acknowledged he could cause a recession, but just didn’t want a depression, according to WSJ
"We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture," the vice-president said
A timeline of tariffs in the second Trump administration so far. In case you've been as lost by the whole mess like me.
Trump administration says it will exclude some electronics from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs - APNews.
I'm not surprised he's crawling back on some things, but really it's difficult to use any word but 'pathetic' when he keeps doubling down and not admitting he got in a fight he's not gonna win.
It's already questionable whether he'll be able to prevent a recession. Supply chain disturbances, federal workers massively being laid off, stock markets tanking, the dollar weakening, so many signs are red it's something.