sweden is a terrible country

[Kaios]

Name one instance where he bucked the deep state.

What do you mean exactly by deep state though? Because there is a large majority in the United States that believes the "deep state" is out to discredit and remove Trump from office rather than manipulate the policies themselves that he has proposed. I honestly don't know what anyone in any position of the government is supposed to do about that except what he has already done and that is fire those officials he has deemed to be working against him and replace them with people that share his views and goals. I think it's much more complicated than any conspiracy theorist would be able to justify.

[Potjeh]

The lobbies that own your representatives. It's the swamp as Trump would call it. And he appointed Goldman Sachs to treasury, Exxon Mobil to State Department, charter school lobbyist to Education, and the list goes on and on. Also, his EPA is banning scientists who ever received government funding, but scientists with corporate funding are A-OK (ie the kind of scientists that were telling you smoking is good for you back in the day). All that's needed to drain the swamp is to put an end to Citizens United. When I see him doing *anything* in that direction I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Kaios]

But the question is, at least from my perspective, has he chosen these people for these positions because he is an idiot? He is corrupt? He is keeping his friends close and his enemies closer? Does he control them or do they control him?

One thing to note is that the White House has had an incredibly high turn-over rate and to me that indicates Trump while perhaps rather foolishly putting these people in to positions of power in the first place still manages to maintain some amount of authority and stands by the decisions he makes himself. The Goldman Sachs guy Steve Mnuchin appointed as Treasury Secretary is actually the last remaining appointed Goldman Sachs employee in the White House, it wasn't the only one he appointed and it looks like Mnuchin is on the way out too.

It's hard to say whether he is intentionally defying his promise to drain the swamp or it's simply his lack of the necessary experience required to run a country or maybe both.

[Potjeh]

I'd say it's idiocy. With him it's all about his ego. I think he genuinely wants to be the greatest president ever, not because he actually cares about the country but because he wants his name to feature prominently in history books. The problem is, he has no clue how government works, and he's in a bubble. He mostly talks with lobbyists, and with a bit of flattery they can convince him to believe whatever they want. And his other source of information is TV (mostly FOX News), and those TV stations are owned by many of the same corporations that are sending those lobbyists. Those corporate overlords are not a unified entity, so yeah there's going to be some firings when TV lynches a member of administration (mostly for very real corruption, but they're selective who they reveal), but it's just one lobby's pieces being replaced with another lobby's pieces. He's not playing chess, he's the board.

Plus the staff turnover rate isn't really to credit to a guy that claimed he knows the best people.

[MagicManICT]

I'd say it's idiocy. With him it's all about his ego.

Don't confuse the two. Trump isn't a strong political leader, but he's good at getting media attention. That can go a long way to swaying those that are stronger political leaders to bow to him. Piss off their own voters, and they'll be out of office next election. He is a good strategist. Despite blowing up billions of dollars of investment funds, he still didn't get completely ruined, and instead just got a small demotion while running businesses. That was his "hedge" in investing. I'm sure he's got some sort of exit strategy planned for this whole presidency thing, too.

He's no idiot. He's cold, calculating, and very much in control. The question is whether his vices will come to bite him in the ass hard this time and ruin him, or if he can somehow dodge the bullet from the loaded gun that is the current FBI investigation.

(My hunch, not necessarily based on any facts currently present: Putin or the Russian government wasn't involved, but other Russian interests were. Not sure if Trump was actually knowledgeable of such goings-on. Add in a lot of 3rd party actors looking to make a quick buck in impoverished Eastern Europe looking to ride on the tails of the wave, and you ran into the "fake news" problem that was the cluster fuck of the 2016 election.)

[Kaios]

I guess something that's actually Sweden related in this thread would be appropriate and I came across these interesting interviews with Ivar Arpi that I watched previously but had forgotten about until now:

Swedes want to know....

Swedes want to know: take 2: Ivar Arpi interviews me again

[Karede]

I look at this here to see how his progress is going. Mexico is never going to pay for the wall, that one I know.

All that would be required to make Mexico "pay" for the wall is a heavy tax on remittances, but that almost certainly won't get done.

[Potjeh]

Wall is still a retarded idea. A mine field would be cheaper and faster to build, and far more effective at stopping people.

[sMartins]

Wall is still a retarded idea. A mine field would be cheaper and faster to build, and far more effective at stopping people.

Lol ... teach something to those barbarians.

[Karede]

Wall is still a retarded idea. A mine field would be cheaper and faster to build, and far more effective at stopping people.

I'd take it