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Comment by mostertoaster | Hacker News Reader

It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

It appears to me that Trump is doing phenomenal, and my I didn’t like the other side vote for him, is turning into I kind of like him and would more actively support him. He seems like a strong president, especially compared to his predecessor, and the promise to “make America great again”, seems like it might becoming more of a reality.

If he can negotiate an end to the Ukraine war, in a relatively soonish timeframe, I will be very happy. But it’s kind of a game of chicken, a high risk high reward type gamble, that could be very dangerous and lead to worse things, so I’ll just have to wait and see.

Ultimately I read comments here and I think the “other side” is blind, which they likely think of me.

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Well, I’m on the other side of the Atlantic, so probably not the other side you meant so take it for what it’s worth.

Your president has threatened war on Denmark, a close ally to my country (think your relationship with Canada until he started threatening them with war too). If I knew nothing else about him that would be enough.

I’ve been using American web hosts since the ’90s. I’m currently in the process of moving away from Digital Ocean to a European host. I’m cancelling as many other services (Netflix, Strava, etc) as possible. Not much, about $300-400 less per month from me to the US.

I’m happy I got to visit New York a few years ago.

Saw a big deal with a US supplier recently fall through because of US instability. It's all insane.

Yeah I don’t get the Greenland thing. I think it is all grandstanding.

But I appreciate dictator Trump. If they wanted to go to war with Denmark they would just crush them openly, rather than as they do today with countries who disagree with them, where we covertly undermine them to get what we want.

Though maybe I’m a bit of an enigma, I don’t think the US should’ve declared independence from Britain, and wish we still had a monarchy. Problem is kings need to be noble, which none of our politicians, including Trump, seem to be.

Oh well. Peace to you on the other side of the pond.

This has to be a joke

Because you found a person with opinions different to your own?

I think most of what Trump is attempting will work out poorly, for America, Trump, and the world in general. I can't prove that and there are so many presumptions in my world view, my estimation might be incorrect.

Trump was elected. I think a lot of that support came from people who had been voting for either Kang or Kodos for years and knew the outcome of that wasn't going to be what they wanted. I believe those people know exactly what kind of person Trump is, but that Trump acting in his own self interest might cause government action that is at least not-as-bad as the alternative of a perpetual status quo.

I don't think that is the case, but I think it would be unreasonable to declare that someone who believes something different is wrong simply because I think my opinion objectively carries more weight.

Disclaimer: not an US citizen.

I appreciate your post, and I think there is some truth to what you're saying. The problem is that... It's hard bordering on impossible for me to process what these people see good in what he's doing. I've tried, mind you, I've really truly tried. But this whole thing sounds insane to me. There is no way for me to erase the bigger picture from my mind that I get to the point... "yeah, he's doing a good job."

The second point is I feel a lot of these people are NOT arguing in good faith. If someone is not arguing in good faith, being "understanding" would just embolden them.

Honestly, this whole thing makes my head explode.

I have a hard time expressing why I like what Trump is doing. It might just be to see those squirm who put us through Covid lockdown hell, or just someone who is so willing to do whatever openly.

An example I like: they deport a bunch of Colombians here illegally, Socialist Colombian President refuses to let the plane land, Trump immediately says we are going to hammer them with tariffs and other things, Colombian President apologizes and says they won’t get in the way.

He is just exerting American dominance openly. He took us out of the WHO, ends the dumb climate accord. The idea that we should put our own people first.

Now it all might blow up in our face as the world gets sick of the American bully, and that will crush our empire, but I’m also ok with that, because it might be the only thing that will allow us to rebuild from the ground up.

Well, at least you're honest about it, it's somewhat refreshing. How do you feel about the way he is treating your traditional allies? Canada, the EU...

Well I don’t like Trudeau so I’ve enjoyed his trolling of him as “the governor of the great state of Canada”. For the most part I don’t mind, but we will come to regret it if war actually breaks out. I think for the most part it is all superficial, and yes tariffs (which are terrible for an economy), will not do well long term, but have already forced Mexico and Canada to act at least, and I think that was the intent. Essentially saying you need us more than we need you. If/When that is no longer true, it is going to come back to bite us if we’ve completely burned all the bridges with our allies.

As it is the United States military is so dominant around the world, NATO should just be considered an overseas American army for example, and Trump is essentially just exerting the us dominance in a blunt way, but it has always been wielded, but is always prettied up to not sound like what it is. A giant military empire of force. Trump is just showing us what has always been behind the curtain of the US government, and the US use of power.

I think long term it will weaken the American empire, but will also make us less reliant on globalization, but I think if all the individual EU countries took a mindset of “our citizens first” like Trump it will be a good thing.

Trump put us through Covid lockdown hell. Awfully strange to re-elect the guy responsible for the worst of Covid.

What happened with the Colombians was the President said "you cannot land them here in chains and handcuffs" and Trump threatened tariffs, then cancelled the tariffs, then caved into the Colombian President's demands and removed the handcuffs from the Colombian citizens. Fox News and conservative media spun this as a "win" because Trump made a threat and also because they misunderstood why Colombia refused the plane.

The rule of law is more important than your specific policy preferences. If leaders you like can do whatever they want without following the law, leaders you don't like can do the same thing. We have a solution to that problem in this country. We have a legislature that passes the laws that everyone is subject to. Whatever you like in the current administration is less important than their lawlessness.

Laws they’re subject to unless the president pardons them.

Mostly we pass as many laws as possible, then only enforce them when it is politically expedient.

The government in passing so many laws has made the law a joke. Maybe the right wing are the progressives now and they’re just going to tear everything down?

I’m enjoying the show. Can’t wait to see what Musk digs up.

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