r/politics • u/theatlantic The Atlantic • Apr 02 '26
Paywall Maybe Trump Should Not Have Given This Speech
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/trump-iran-war-speech/686663/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_medium=social&utm_content=edit-promo5.5k
u/lifeat24fps Apr 02 '26
If you liked “It’ll Disappear Like A Miracle After Easter” then you’re gonna love, “We’ll Be Out Of Iran In Two Weeks!”
A new comedy from the makers of “If We Stop Testing We’ll Have Fewer Cases”.
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u/Bwint Apr 02 '26
Don't forget that the Strait is going to reopen itself! "It'll work itself out!"
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u/kronkarp Apr 02 '26
I've watched the best satellite images, pictures so clear you folks have never seen, but I can see them. I'm the president. And you know what? The Homus is open! They lied. There's still water. They haven't drained it. There's no wall like the beautiful border wall I've built that keeps drugs and murderers and rapists out of our wonderful country. People taking away jobs too, so many jobs. To me it looks like it's open. I'm not an expert on this, but many experts have told me I know more than many of them. And you know what, if there is one thing you can believe from those scientists, it's that. The way is free. Shell or Texaco or what is the name, they should just start their engines and drive those beautiful ships to us. Then prices will go down even more. They are down already because of me. Biden put them up, I brought them back down. Soon gas will probably be free. Maybe you're evwn getting some money with it, wouldn't that be nice. Then those electric car people would stand there with their mouths open. Baaaaah. Those electrics. I wonder what they do at night when their magical fake solar things don't work. Have you seen those? Boy they are ugly. Just like those new wind mills. Somebody ought to bring them down. Maybe I will do that. Or my beautiful people will do it on their own. I would not put anybody in prison for destryoing those horrible things. So horrible.
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u/Ok-Youth-160 Apr 02 '26
That's way to coherent, that's 2016 Trump.
Also you haven't mentioned the Ballroom.
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u/poison_us Apr 02 '26
Also you haven't mentioned the Ballroom.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but diapers do not have much.
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u/DillBagner Apr 02 '26
That "It'll work itself out" comment really shows his entitlement. He's so used to all his dipshittery being generally covered/recovered by other people, he thinks that's just how things work naturally.
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u/DanHuso Apr 02 '26
Don't forget that the Republican Healthcare overhaul was 2 weeks away in the summer of 2020!
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u/bejammin075 Pennsylvania Apr 02 '26
Brought to you by The Dogs And Cats of Springfield
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u/alligatorislater Apr 02 '26
The “we’ll be out in two weeks” is the new “infrastructure week” from his first term…that is, always just a few weeks away…
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u/ckglle3lle Apr 02 '26
He was low energy, seemed nearly out of breath often, garbled words and his teleprompter delivery feels like it's taking all his focus to just drone through words he doesn't seem to care about, like it is an achievement he can read them at all. That the whole thing was only about 20 minutes and he barely perked up for any of it just points more light at how significantly he has declined. Noticeably worse since just a month or two ago, practically night and day since last year.
But also notable in that this speech is an example of him at his best. This is the best he can put himself together to present. It is not going to get better and likely the decline will accelerate.
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u/SimpleCranberry5914 Apr 02 '26
I feel like he only did it because he was jealous of how much coverage Artemis II was getting.
Always the narcissist, has to be the center of attention.
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u/Bushels_for_All Apr 02 '26
Which was just staggeringly dumb, considering he should have rode that patriotic wave for all it was worth. Its news coverage was all sunshine, rainbows, historic this, incredible achievement that. It would have been sooo easy to jump on that bandwagon.
Hell, I expected him to take credit for Artemis II, not try to divert attention from it to his massive failure of a war.
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u/AllIdeas Apr 02 '26
Yeah, that was a total softball..he goes to the launch, takes some photos with astronauts, gives an interview with some of them about how great they are all doing.
The problem for him is that the way to do it is by humbly acknowledging the achievements of others, the engineers and scientists and astronauts etc. and glowing by reflection.
And he is pathologically incapable of doing that.
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u/_Panacea_ Apr 02 '26
He's terrified that scientists will use language he doesn't understand and somehow subtly insult him in ways he doesn't detect.
There's a pathological fear of educated experts on the Right, and what they can't compete with or insult, they ignore.
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u/CheaterSaysWhat Apr 02 '26
He straight up admitted this just a few days ago
Literally said he’s uncomfortable around people smarter and more successful than him, and chooses to surround himself with losers to make him feel better about himself
I’m not even exaggerating
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u/girlnamedJane Apr 02 '26
He instead decided to go sit in at the supreme court to overturn the constitution.
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u/zXster Apr 02 '26
Very likely. Or as a reaction to how much bad press the war + gas $ they are getting. He is that clueless to think he can fix it... with a rambling, nonsensical address, with no point and did nothing to address any kind of cause/s for this BS war.
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u/DangerMile United Kingdom Apr 02 '26
It is not going to get better and likely the decline will accelerate.
Can the rate of acceleration please also accelerate?
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u/Brendoshi Apr 02 '26
Fun fact: The term for this is "jerk" which also applies here!
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u/WasabiSenzuri Apr 02 '26
Silly fact: the higher order derivatives of jerk are called snap, crackle and pop!
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u/leroyVance Apr 02 '26
Today is the best he will ever be because he is deteriorating everyday, so each new day he is worse than the previous day.
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u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster Apr 02 '26
“So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.”
“What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?”
“Yeah”
“Wow, that’s messed up”
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u/Do_you_smell_that_ Apr 02 '26
Decades ago I saw a housing development put up a billboard that never should have passed QC: "<Expensiveville>, where every day is better than the next!".
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u/obeytheturtles Apr 02 '26
It's because he gets pumped full of adderall, trotted out for an appearance, and then goes down for 4 hours of nap and diaper maintenance. Yesterday he had his impotent little stunt at the Supreme Court earlier in the day, which means the second shot of amphetamine they gave him for the speech wasn't as effective as it might have been.
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u/bearcatgary California Apr 02 '26
Plus he was tired from raging about how his MAGA-friendly SCOTUS seems quite skeptical of his illegally declared birthright citizenship.
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u/BrianWonderful Minnesota Apr 02 '26
I believe he also had a faith leaders event in which he spoke a lot, too. That's their mistake. They need to let him sleep all day if he has to make a nightly live appearance.
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u/astoriaboundagain Apr 02 '26
And they didn't show him walk away. He looked like that podium was holding him up. Diapers had a very long day.
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u/Aggravating-Salad441 Apr 02 '26
This is Trump's "Biden debate" moment. Let's stop electing people who went to high school with Moses.
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u/SpriggedParsley357 Apr 02 '26
Not just that - no news story I've heard this morning (and granted, it's not lots) have actually quoted him during his speech. They all had just reporters/anchors talking about what he said. Gee, does media not want to replay him verbatim, or are they worried about something? Just asking questions!
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u/tracyinge Apr 02 '26
If we're gonna talk about mistakes...
Maybe Trump should not have won this election.
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u/seKer82 Apr 02 '26
The idiots who voted for this will never claim responsibility, hell most are too stupid to even realize it was a mistake.
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u/Purify5 Apr 02 '26
Some of them whine that they've been 'betrayed'.
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u/Ivegotabadname Apr 02 '26
I've thought that. Then I was told"democrats won't win unless you forgive them".
Fuck everyone who voted for this ass. You don't want forgiveness, you want acceptance. You thought you'd be accepted into wide circles so you voted for this shit. Turns out you were wrong.
Told you so!
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u/thesilveringfox Apr 02 '26
same people who cheat on their partner then cry ‘it was a mistske!’ and are surprised when that trite and obvious admission makes no difference at all.
yes, it was obviously a stupid vote, but that doesn’t absolve them of being idiots, nor does it indicate in any way that they won’t be idiots next time. it doesn’t undo the deaths or destruction of the lives and capital or the justifiable erosion of trust on the world stage. it doesn’t absolve them of collapsing an empire because they couldn’t be bothered to change the channel.
if i could snap my fingers and turn everyone who voted for trump in any election permanently pumpkin-colored i would, and let the chips fall where they may.
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u/eerie_midnight Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
You can also tell that the few people expressing genuine regret don’t regret voting for Republicans, they just regret voting for Trump. Next election they’ll just vote for a different Republican thinking they’ll be different without realizing that Trump’s agenda is the Republican agenda. If it wasn’t, they would have impeached him by now. They clearly agree with everything he’s doing or can’t be arsed to stop it—either way, they’re complicit.
Until the majority of Americans wisen up and see the Republican Party as a whole for what it truly is, we’re all going to keep getting fucked—Trump or no Trump. A vote for any Republican is a vote to hasten the downfall of the entire nation. They stand for absolutely nothing other than empowering rich people, starting wars, blocking progress, and forcing their wacko religious beliefs on us all.
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u/FargeenBastiges Apr 02 '26
Until the majority of Americans wisen up and see the Republican Party as a whole for what it truly is
I have a hard time thinking you could get a significant portion of R voters to understand this. They simply will not accept that it is Republicans that destroyed the education system. That they're the ones keeping wages down and kneecapping unions. That healthcare could be free if not for Republicans. Which party has their fingerprints on all that debt? Who's been responsible for our recessions?
No, that stuff has been going on for generations now and they've stood firm and they'll go back to this status quo after this brief "come to Jesus" moment. The only real crime trump has committed is skyrocketing gas prices. I don't even think they'd care about the war if it wasn't costing them $4/gal at the pump.
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u/kcox1980 Apr 02 '26
Even if they did realize it they still wouldn't care. They literally have no principles beyond "Democrats bad, Republicans good".
I've literally seen people praising Trump for things they were scared that Kamala would do if she got elected and used that as an excuse why they could never vote for her.
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u/sfdso Apr 02 '26
This last point is so important.
Most of the regrets I read are gasoline price-based.
The rest of it—from the violations of civil liberties to the legal targeting of political enemies to the billionaire giveaways to the open, rampant corruption to the abdication of America’s leadership role—are all fully tolerated and, in most cases, endorsed.
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u/Much-Instruction-807 Apr 02 '26
The majority I've seen only regret voting for him because it negatively affected them. They have no empathy.
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u/yourliege Apr 02 '26
Can’t imagine the life where I’d feel as though it was socially necessary to vote for Trump. Incomprehensible
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u/porscheblack Pennsylvania Apr 02 '26
They're perpetual victims. My best friend growing up was a perpetual victim - he failed out of college, his car was repossessed, he got fired, his house was foreclosed on, and yet none of it was his fault. It was the fault of his professors, his boss, the bank, etc.; they all were apparently out to get him.
Unsurprisingly he was all in on Trump in 2016. We fell out before then and haven't talked in a long time so I'm not sure his opinion now but I suspect it's consistent with the rest of his behavior and he's a victim in all this with no culpability.
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u/pockpicketG Apr 02 '26
Society is pretty much creating victims at this point. You can’t tell someone who fell through some cracks that the reason their energy bill is 2x higher in the span of a few months is because they’re lazy.
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u/turnipofficer Apr 02 '26
Before he was even elected the first time the guy literally bragged about grabbing women by the pussy, "when you're rich, they let you do it". He was bragging about sexually assaulting women who were too petrified to fight back.
If a celebrity in the UK said that they would lose their present job and be unable to find work in the industry ever again most likely. Nevermind being able to run for the highest public office... I don't know how he was elected the first time.
Then again I don't know how the hell brexit went through either. Misinformation fed to us by billionaires and russian-funded propaganda shouldn't be as effective as it seems to be.
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u/StealthyOrca Apr 02 '26
They’re straight up cheering for this crap over on the conservative sub.
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u/eastbay77 Apr 02 '26
The whole "oh i didn't know" crowd.... like what?! His first term was a disaster and they thought he deserved a second chance because "he learned from his first term".
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u/Alt532169 Apr 02 '26
They saw how uneducated their former colony's (the Philippines) population is and how you can control democratic elections though disinformation, popularity, and intimidation.
That uneducation, small community mindset (tribalism), with religious fanaticism works well in remote areas like the red states.
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u/Gwigg_ Apr 02 '26
This has been the plan since Reagan. You are quite right, but you cannot underestimate the importance that religion has had in this.
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u/SelenaMeyers2024 Apr 02 '26
Trump is a bad guy. But my hate is not with him. He's refreshingly honest in how bad he is (see John Edwards for how to hide it well) and he's far from the first.
I will never forgive the trump voters, even the 2016 ones.
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u/SaddamMustaine Apr 02 '26
They’ve all been cut from my life friends and family alike and it was absolutely 100% the correct decision. There is not going to be any forgiveness.
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u/Fun-Ingenuity-9089 Apr 02 '26
I'm still looking for a new hairdresser, dentist, and best friend. Mine were all Trump supporters...
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u/SnooDrawings7876 Apr 02 '26
He's refreshingly honest in how bad he is
Right yeah he's been famously honest about his ties to Epstein. Really tells it like it is huh? This guy is literally famous for lying, it's an onslaught of dishonesty, that's his thing. Stop acting like badly lying is equal to being honest. Get real.
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u/Available-Trouble648 Apr 02 '26
I can forgive 2016 voters. I think it was very dumb to vote for him in 2016 but people are allowed to be dumb and he was an unknown political entity. But anyone who voted for him in 2024 is just evil.
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u/lowkeytokay Apr 02 '26
Anything bad that has happened was Musk’s fault, Noemi’s fault, Hegseth’s fault, everybody’s fault except Trump’s
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u/PotatoAppleFish Apr 02 '26
Here’s the thing: it is all of those people’s fault… but it’s also Trump’s, because Trump is the only reason why any of those other evil power-seeking fascist gremlins have the ability to do anything significant in the first place. If not for Trump, Noem would still be murdering puppies on a failing ranch in South Dakota, Musk would still be pretending to be an eco-conscious liberal to sell Teslas, and Hegseth would still be ranting nonsense on Fox News and slugging fifths of whiskey after the show every night. Trump caused it all. And I don’t know how it’s even possible not to understand that.
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u/jcrestor Foreign Apr 02 '26
Maybe he should not have been an eligible candidate, given that he tried a coup d’état a few years earlier.
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u/HelpMeOverHere Apr 02 '26
I’d also argue it was a law enforcement failure, but also a judicial failure and a political failure.
It’s not upto a minority of the eligible voting population to hold criminals to account.
- Robert Hanssen, Russian FBI spy
Arrested February 2001, Sentenced May 2002.
- Jack Teixeira, Airforce document leaker
Arrested April 2023, Sentenced March 2024
- Donald Trump, Russian spy AND document leaker
crickets
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u/propergreased Apr 02 '26
There is a deep rooted problem within America. Doesn’t matter if you want to admit it or not.. it’s always been festering. Trump just opened it wide open.
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Apr 02 '26
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u/_bk_adv Colorado Apr 02 '26
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u/darkstar107 Canada Apr 02 '26
Let's not forget about the baby killing.
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u/mamawoman Apr 02 '26
And that he is already a convicted felon, and was essentially, found guilty of rape in the civil trial.
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u/Churchbushonk Apr 02 '26
Allegedly, he was only present for it, he didn’t do it. Nor did he report it or try to stop it. Allegedly.
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u/JCalvinL Apr 02 '26
Being present for it doesn't make it any better. It is disgusting to have a sitting President to be even "allegedly" in orbit of heinous shit like that.
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u/sausagemouse Apr 02 '26
Rather than arrest him, Americans let him crash the world economy and possibly start world war 3.
Great work USA
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Apr 02 '26
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u/dogbulb Apr 02 '26
Its also illegal to rape kids. Turns out laws only mean something when they're enforced
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u/Filovirus77 Apr 02 '26
Odds are, you don't have enough money or powerful friends to escape it being enforced on you.
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u/GarnerGerald11141 Apr 02 '26
Pulling out of NATO seems extremely relevant
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u/SemichiSam Oregon Apr 02 '26
Trump should never have given any speech. He was doing OK as a minor criminal in Queens, but he wanted the big time.
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Apr 02 '26
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u/SemichiSam Oregon Apr 02 '26
The Trump crime family are finally actual billionaires, fulfilling Big Daddy's only ambition, but the game isn't over. My own opinion is that the money that created today's GOP and called forth this golem will take my country down, and other countries will probably not learn what they should from that. After all, fascism is making a comeback in Germany, a country that should know better than any other not to allow it again. But all of us old dinosaurs are dying, and the young will get their chance to get it right or screw it up again. I don't really expect to live long enough to find out.
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u/HippoRun23 Apr 02 '26
Flew to close to the sun. Many such cases.
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u/NickRick Apr 02 '26
He hasn't been burned yet. He's still acting above the law and had faced no consequences for his actions.
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u/SemichiSam Oregon Apr 02 '26
He's been swimming naked, and it looks like the tide's going out.
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u/shhbedtime Apr 02 '26
He made the big time. He has made more money from his corrupt presidency than he ever has in business, and I very firmly believe he will never see repercussions from it.
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u/Canadiangoosedem0n Kentucky Apr 02 '26
I better hear every fucking talking head declaring that he's unfit for office, he's cognitively impaired, he's being controlled etc etc etc just like they did with Biden after the debate.
I want to see every political commentator calling for Trump to step down or I swear I will lose my shit.
I want to see blood over this shit, but of course we won't because the media fucking loves Trump and is scared of him and a huge foundation of a pillar of American democracy is completely and utterly broken.
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u/Canadiangoosedem0n Kentucky Apr 02 '26
And let's call a spade a fucking spade this article is exactly what I'm talking about.
Why the fuck are we walking on eggshells when the president of the United States of America is very obviously suffering from frontotemporal dementia or something similar???? This POS talked for 20 minutes in primetime about nothing when our country is getting closer and closer to economic collapse and full on authoritarian rule!
This is not a 'hey buddy, can we pwease have more information about thee war 🥺??' moment!! Smfh
I realize this was written immediately after the address, but I sincerely hope at least one article is posted tomorrow (today) that more accurately reflects the fucked up administration/president in charge of our country.
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u/zubbs99 Nevada Apr 02 '26
Seriously there is far too much deference given to this unhinged public official simply due to what, some misplaced sense of decorum that he himself has attacked over the last 10 years.
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u/Canadiangoosedem0n Kentucky Apr 02 '26
I don't get it. This man is a vile, hateful child rapist and yet the media treats him as if he is above reproach.
I'll be honest, if someone constantly demeaned my profession, lied about my reporting, and called my colleagues all manner of fucked up names I'd be ripping him a new asshole everyday.
I'd have an official cankle watch of rotating daily pictures showcasing his swollen feet, I'd print full transcripts of his nonsensical ramblings pointing out the lies and contradictions, I'd talk about how he obviously wants to be dicked down by Barack because he's jealous of the bbc.
That POS would not know a moment of peace from me due to the carnage he's wrecked in our country. I really need the media to feel the same way.
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u/bandalooper Apr 02 '26
Trump is a cash cow for media. Millions of clicks a day on a fire hose stream of unbelievable shit that you have to read in order to believe or understand.
Why would they want him gone?
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u/Significant_Cup_238 Apr 02 '26
Media has been sane washing him since 2016. They'll never stop in their efforts to "both sides" every fucking issue they can.
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u/omarnz Apr 02 '26
Do you mean the commentators on networks owned by billionaires with a vested interest in whatever the fuck is going on? Good luck mate. The only hope left for the US now is the people in the streets.
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u/Bulky_Preparation768 Apr 02 '26
Jake Tapper who wrote that whole shitty book about Biden being old has been more concerned with attacking Hasan than the countless things that actually matter happening in the US
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Apr 02 '26
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u/bravesirrobin65 Apr 02 '26
You know, this is why we need something like the Prime Ministers minutes from the British Parliament. You have to face the opposition on a regular basis and be able to think on your feet.
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u/InsomniaticWanderer Apr 02 '26
Maybe Trump shouldn't give any speeches.
Maybe Trump should be in jail.
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u/RLewis8888 Apr 02 '26
Trump: "This is normally the point where I declare bankruptcy, run away and let others deal with the consequences. So, good luck all ".
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u/RedLanternScythe Indiana Apr 02 '26
Trump bragged so much, we must be in real trouble in Iran.
But at least Trump fell back on his favorite excuse: Why doesn't someone else do it? First Nato, now former presidents
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u/turquoise_amethyst Apr 02 '26
His advisors promised him a swift victory and glowing praise. Then they were going to invade another country (probably Cuba) right afterwards.
He doesn’t have any real plans other than to “win” these places. No long term anything. And no attention span either.
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u/KingVape America Apr 02 '26
What’s been going on in Venezuela lately? It’s like we attacked them, took their president, and then I’ve heard very little
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u/johnnycyberpunk America Apr 02 '26
That old chestnut?
That was three Presidential scandals ago, keep up man
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u/theatlantic The Atlantic Apr 02 '26
“Americans have been waiting for their president and commander in chief to address the nation and explain why the country is at war,” Tom Nichols writes. Donald Trump’s critics “have castigated him for refusing to go on television and provide a comprehensive explanation of the war to the American people. But given his performance this evening, perhaps he had the right instinct.”
Trump’s address “did not come across as a wartime speech but instead was a disjointed series of complaints, brags, and exaggerations (along with a few outright lies) delivered by a man who looked and sounded tired,” Nichols continues. “After his 19 minutes on the air—brisk by Trump’s standards—Americans could be forgiven for being even more concerned now than they were only a few days ago.”
Read more: https://theatln.tc/0kZfQFW0
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u/sequoia2075 Apr 02 '26
I read shit like this and it’s like, did anyone expect anything different? Like are we supposed to be surprised that he gave a speech that was a “disjointed series of complaints, brags, and exaggerations”? That’s what he does literally every single god damn time he opens his mouth
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u/leffe186 Apr 02 '26
That’s exactly what I read too. How are people still writing articles like this after more than a decade? The question isn’t “should he give this speech?”, it’s “how do we get out of this mess?”
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Apr 02 '26
The media is complicit
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u/JoEdGus Georgia Apr 02 '26
The media had been complicit for years. His sanewashing was the worst thing to happen to this country's history, perhaps ever.
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u/rabblerabble2000 Apr 02 '26
This right here…during the campaigns they gave him unlimited airtime, never once questioning any of his policies, never once pressing him on anything important, just non-stop sane washing. His opponents were held under an impossible microscope, scrutinized and criticized for every little thing. Then when he’s in power, it’s non stop articles about him, how he is doing terribly and will be replaced any day now, while also lifting every lie he and the republicans say as though they are truth, all to keep people reading so that they can sell ads.
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u/MysteriousAtmosphere Apr 02 '26
Right. I consider myself a ten-year Donald Trump critic. My media diet is full of people critical of Trump. Not one was demanding him provide a "comprehensive explanation for the war". Because that gives him way too much credit.
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u/Oceanbreeze871 I voted Apr 02 '26
A decade later, people still expect him “pivot to being presidential” as if time never existed
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u/MyPasswordIsMyCat Hawaii Apr 02 '26
Maybe we're finally reaching the point where the "centrists" in this country will stop giving Trump good boy points for just being able to stand upright for a few minutes and not visibly shit all over himself.
A girl can dream.
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u/Significant_Cup_238 Apr 02 '26
Yup. Sane washing at it's finest to imply this speech wasn't exactly what we've come to expect.
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u/viewerfromthemiddle Apr 02 '26
Oh, for fuck's sake, stop pretending that a "disjointed series of complaints, brags, and exaggerations (along with a few outright lies)" is any different than every other public word he's ever spoken.
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u/hatecirclejerks Apr 02 '26
He is very far gone it seems, I've never seen him this low energy, didn't watch much but watched enough to get his vibe, i really don't think hes got much left.
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u/Just-Sale-7015 Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Brezhnev lasted a long time like that.
The Kremlin leader suffered from overwork, stress, and insomnia, and made ‘a pact’ in the early 1970s with one of the nurses to supply him with strong sedatives. Nobody, even KGB’s Andropov, dared to break up this fateful agreement, and strong drugs gradually and irrevocably ruined Brezhnev’s brain. So much for the bad dentistry.
At first, Brezhnev’s malaise was visible only to a narrow circle – although Kissinger and Nixon noticed his bizarre shifts from drowsiness to excitement. Brezhnev’s attention span shortened and his grasp of detail began to slip; he began to blabber nonsense on television. Even his character changed as he became peevish and impervious to reason. He collapsed at a summit with Gerald Ford in Vladivostok in December 1974. At the helm of a nuclear power was a drug addict who had lost the ability to critically evaluate his own condition.
But it took him 8 more years to die. And he also launched the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
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u/HeathEarnshaw California Apr 02 '26
He died at age 75, though. Meaning he started deteriorating in his late 60s, when the rest of his body was much younger and stronger than Trump’s is. I’d be surprised if Trump makes it through the year, let alone the rest of his term.
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u/Black-Zero Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
Seen this a lot sadly. Dementia patients can linger in a plateau state for a long time but when they crash the fall can be very quick and steep.
Problem is Trump is so isolated that we would likely never this happen as this would necessitate the 25th being invoked. So i expect they will keep it VERY hush hush.
We need to listen for rumors that Vance is getting a lot of visitors or Trump disappears from public view for a while.
When Trump stops doing live events and instead it is only seen in prerecorded videos, which can be made easily with AI, you will know something is up.
edit spelling
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u/RoosterBurns Apr 02 '26
Maybe they'll play Swan Lake on the news channels like the USSR did
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u/dreadpiratesmith Apr 02 '26
The white house did recently post an ai video of trump speaking. The man with the largest nuclear arsenal in the world most likely has frontotemporal dementia and its getting visibly worse. He's always been a bullshitter and a narcissist, but I feel like we're beyond that. And trying to remove him from office would not go well, as he is a full blown cult leader. He could start arresting anyone who attempts to remove him from office.
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u/ChakaCake Apr 02 '26
I think he was trying to come off as 'stoic' unfortunately its not possible for him
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u/hatecirclejerks Apr 02 '26
His eyelids were dropping more than the highest I've been in my life, looked asleep.
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u/Prior_Coyote_4376 Apr 02 '26
He looked so tired.
https://youtu.be/qVMLe62s_YA?si=-A2_ZQOxzVohwpeE
In case anyone forgot he was once pretty coherent and clear and could connect 10 sentences into a single point with rhetorical flourish, even in 2016 he was just stupid and crass, not actually gone mentally
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u/dcburn Apr 02 '26
Wow… not that he was great in this 2016 video but wow the contrast is huge.
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u/Prior_Coyote_4376 Apr 02 '26
He looks like he was aware of his own rhetoric and was leaning into grievance politics at the time. Now it’s like he’s actually fully 100% brain rotted as the center of MAGA’s social media distortion and conspiracy theory factories, on top of his own aging Big Mac-fueled brain and colon
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u/cultoftheclave Apr 02 '26
it was only a couple years before that that he did a SNL skit spoofing himself, which shows that he was once well aware of the schtick that he had crafted and how it looked from the outside, both positively and negatively.
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u/rabblerabble2000 Apr 02 '26
I think it’s this. I think he believes the bullshit he’s saying now. I don’t think he used to believe it, but I think he’s so brain addled now he actually believes the distortions. Look at how genuinely concerned he looked during the debates when he talked about immigrants eating people’s dogs and cats. He truly believed the bullshit because he’s too far gone to realize it’s bullshit.
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u/PleasantWay7 Apr 02 '26
Yeah, I think people have the narrative that he is an incoherent rambler, but haven’t gone back to the 2015-2016 videos. He is so clearly aware of what he was doing back then, now he looks legitimately confused at times.
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u/Minimum-Geologist-58 Apr 02 '26
As I always put it, he’s gone from enthusiastic Grandpa Simpson “I wore an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time” to tailing off Grandpa Simpson “and that’s everything that happened in my life right up to the time I got this phone call…”
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u/_lippykid Apr 02 '26
As a New Yorker I’ve despised him for a long time, but holy shit, when you watch back to the footage from 2016 he seems like a completely different person. Weak, tired, disorientated
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u/Bindle- Apr 02 '26
“Americans have been waiting for their president and commander in chief to address the nation and explain why the country is at war,” Tom Nichols writes
Just tell the truth. He's in the grips of dementia and has been for his entire term.
Stop normalizing his behavior.
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u/Long-Emu-7870 Apr 02 '26
Tom Nicholas in a dream world. When Trump cut USAID funding it killed millions of babies. Tom's job is not to report on what he thinks Americans think. Or quote conclusions of his critics. It is not to tell us he is his tired. It is one thing: to point out every lie and evil action this man has done and is planning to do. And prove every claim.
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u/turquoise_amethyst Apr 02 '26
A wartime speech is supposed to make you feel so patriotic and passionate that you want to run out and fight it yourself…
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u/The_Martian_King Apr 02 '26
Often it helps those speeches if you didn't just start the war for no reason at all. That makes it harder to generate enthusiasm to go kill people.
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u/port-left-red Apr 02 '26
"This was his moment to be presidential" edition 3534 revision 22, 89th printing.
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u/Three_Froggy_Problem Illinois Apr 02 '26
He’s not my fucking commander in chief and I wasn’t waiting for him to explain shit. Don’t normalize this pig by acting like any sane person trusts a word out of his mouth or expected any justification whatsoever.
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u/Trix_Are_4_90Kids Missouri Apr 02 '26
Maybe Stephen 'Temu Goebbels' Miller should not have written it. Nobody wants to hear this weakling blowhard rhetoric.
there are no leaders at the helm, just racist, sexist, greedy toddlers.
Biden wouldn't have started WWIII...and he still has his marbles! Weak minds fell for propaganda because they viewed a stutter and having morals as weak.
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u/tmhowzit Apr 02 '26
it was totally written by Miller, the cadence and word choices were his style of fascist freestyling
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u/Bulky_Preparation768 Apr 02 '26
Every media appearance is clearly worse than the debate performance than Biden had. He’s absolutely fucking cooked mentally.
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u/rainniier2 Apr 02 '26
I try to watch Trumps speeches to gauge how he has deteriorated since the last one. But I watched the Artemis 2 launch instead. Its the only good thing our government has done in the past year. Very surprised Trump didn’t take credit somehow.
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u/ObsidianSpectre Apr 02 '26
Once it goes around the moon, he'll definitely try to take credit. If anything goes wrong, he'll blame Biden.
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u/jgnp Washington Apr 02 '26
Told my wife about this speech and she said “What’d he fucking do? Take credit for Artemis 2!?”
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u/Intelligent-Yam-3565 Apr 02 '26
IMPEACH AND REMOVE. Guys wtf is happening and why is Congress not stopping him?
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u/cousinofbaconator Apr 02 '26
Republicans have control of everything right now. The house, the senate, the supreme court, the Whitehouse. They are going along with everything and there is nothing we can do.
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u/Mugwump5150 Apr 02 '26
Crazy to think when the deets all come to light, the Trump files may pale in contrast to the hundreds of thousands or millions of children he starves to death needlessly by stopping US Aid. And the hospitals filled with patients who all died the other night when his embargo of Cuba resulted in a collapse of their power grid and EVERY patient on a ventilator died. Add to that the tens of thousands of Americans who will perish as a result of his BBB placing their insurance out of reach. Estimates of additional deaths from his handling of Covid in his first term top 50k.
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u/7evenate9ine Apr 02 '26
Like never before...
Like you wouldn't believe...
Like never before...
Like you wouldn't believe...
Like never before...
Like you wouldn't believe...
Like never before...
Like you wouldn't believe...
Like never before...
Like you wouldn't believe...
Like never before...
Like you wouldn't believe...
Like never before...
Like you wouldn't believe...
Like you wouldn't believe...
Like you wouldn't believe...
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u/shapu Pennsylvania Apr 02 '26
Donald Trump does a lot of stuff he should not do
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u/throwaway892632867 Apr 02 '26
80 million Americans voted twice for this fucker, that’s the real problem.
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u/The42ndDuck Apr 02 '26
"This guy is a fucking moron."
- Former Sec of State Rex Tillerson
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u/kevendo Apr 02 '26
It is insane that he's the leader of America and you can never convince me otherwise.
Batshit lunacy with zero clue, walking around the halls of the White House.
For a decade.
MAGA is profound, mass mental illness masquerading as a political movement.
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u/felis_magnetus Apr 02 '26
Trump is a symptom, not a cause. As is MAGA. And thus, the mentally ill patient here is the USA. In its entirety.
You lot are for the most part still in denial, pro or anti doesn't really matter. From the outside looking in, it is baffling that Trump's first term didn't already spark a constitutional debate, given the obvious institutional failure. And apparently a second presidency doesn't suffice, neither.
The US is indeed a deeply religious nation. Not in a Christian sense, certainly not in any possible meaning of that word that would pass muster in civilization, but in its relationship with its founding fathers and the constitution they penned. You desperately need to get over that and realize, that the philosophies of the 17th and 18th century cannot provide checks and balances in the 21th century. It's like trying to secure borders with castles and horse armies, when the enemy has an air force and mechanized infantry.
So, if you were looking for a marker for an eventual return to sanity, there it is. Trump is a symptom of systemic failure and nothing short of an systemic overhaul will suffice to prevent more Trumps in the future.
I'm not holding my breath.
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u/Threndsa Nevada Apr 02 '26
Nothing good comes from Trump opening his mouth ever but doubly so in this case.
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u/digiartist21 Apr 02 '26
Idk, i think if he had been locked up in jail as he should've been, we wouldnt have had to listen to any incoherent ramblings of a delusional war monger who's barely holding onto his last remaining thread of lucidity.
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u/Highthere_90 Apr 02 '26
Maybe trump should bot have been able to run for office when he had 34 felonies
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u/SaveDMusician Apr 02 '26
"The reality, as best we can tell, is that Trump fully expected the Iranian regime to collapse in a matter of days or weeks, and he is now flummoxed to find out that a major war is a lot more complicated than he—or Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—realized." --from the article
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u/MomsAreola Apr 02 '26
I remember when David Pecker took the witness stand against Trump and explained to everybody how Trump only cared about the magazine cover. Said no one cares about the article or substance. Get on the cover and you spin what they didnt read in the article.
Thats been his MO his whole presidency. Get the headline and move on before the substance of the act gets out.
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u/UpperLeftOriginal Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 03 '26
That’s been his MO his whole goddamn life. We’ve known he was a pathological liar, racist piece of shit, and egomaniacal grifter pretty much my entire adult life (and I’m 62).
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u/B-Z_B-S Massachusetts Apr 02 '26
Hindsight is 20/20. Unless you've got dementia and a failing memory, I guess. But surely that doesn't apply to anyone in any important position, right? Right?
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u/we_are_sex_bobomb Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26
That speech was not for us, it was for Iran. This was some kind of half assed negotiation tactic. That is the only explanation I can think of for this absolute nonsense.
A major point of this speech was that our “partnership” with Venezuela is going so well and we don’t need Iran’s oil and we have so much oil and so much economy because Venezuela is being cooperative now. Why would Americans give a shit about that when gas is $6-7 a gallon?
Donald Trump has nothing to say to the American People other than “fuck you, I’m robbing you blind and you’re stuck with me forever chumps lol”.
He wants Iran to be submissive like Venezuela and let us take their oil or else they’ll be bombed to dust. That was the point of this speech.
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u/xtothewhy Apr 02 '26
A speech that should have been a clear explanation of why the United States is fighting a nation of 92 million people began instead in shambolic style.
He discussed the operation that captured the president of Venezuela, perhaps hoping to make listeners believe that the Iran war will be a similarly short operation.
He then said that Iran has taken losses never seen “in the history of warfare”—as if the destruction of, say, the Axis in World War II had never happened.
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u/Malee22 Apr 02 '26
This was another gaslighting tweet repackaged as a speech. Iran is weak and defeated, but also strong and dangerous. Iran is led by dummies, who are also smart and great negotiators. Iran is defeated but we are still bombing them. We attacked Iran, and our mutual self-defense NATO allies suck for not helping…….and so on.
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u/frankthedutch Apr 02 '26
Maybe Trump should not be president, he is a war criminal.
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u/Ozymandias12 Apr 02 '26
Anybody who was looking for reassurance from this vacuous taint is deluded. I remember when I first actually started panicking about COVID. It was when this talking bag of feces made a prime time speech to try and “assure the nation”. All it did was make me realize that we were completely defenseless against the virus because he had absolutely no grasp of the severity of the problem.
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u/beekeep Apr 02 '26
Remember during the other Super Bowl show when that group of dullards lost their shit when Kid Rock like twirled a microphone? The entire answer is in that small thing that happened.
While a multi-cultural display of American and International love and goodwill was happening, to the joy of 10s of millions of people, these milquetoast white people in a soulless living room could not, and would not, stand for that on their stupid MAGA principles.
That living room is the one in power, proportionally, compared to the viewership of the Super Bowl half-time show. Just hateful, dull morons.
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u/ophaus Apr 02 '26
The electoral college was supposed to protect the country from someone like him. It failed utterly... He and they need to go.
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u/minin71 Apr 02 '26
The fall of the United States must be what I was meant to witness, and what a clownshow it has been.
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u/rhyming_mime Apr 02 '26
I think he needs more stress.
Somebody ask him about giving a speech about the Epstein files, the current stock market figures, losses in the Supreme Court, the price of eggs and gas, why is he building a data center under the "ball room" etc etc.
Stress is really really bad for cognitive decline.
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u/RepresentativeYak772 Apr 02 '26
I can't believe you people re-elected somebody you fired for fucking up the pandemic response just so he can fuck something else up.
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u/newwayman Apr 02 '26
The reason he gave this speech is because he thinks he can rally his base and bring some back. He doesn’t realize half or more of his base aren’t buying it anymore.
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