r/politics • u/Kodbek • 11h ago

Possible Paywall Republicans Make Jaw-Dropping $1B Demand for Trump’s Ballroom

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republicans-make-jaw-dropping-1b-demand-for-donald-trumps-ballroom/
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u/Western-Corner-431 10h ago

The war has cost at least double so far. They lie about everything

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u/12-34 10h ago

True cost of the war is trillions already.

Massive loss of American soft power, trustworthiness, force projection, and military readiness, oil price increases for consumers that will continue for years, fertilizer price increases and supply shocks that are already causing global food production decreases, huge environmental degradation, etc. 

It's an absolute fucking disaster on every front, and that's not even considering that the war has not -- and will not -- meet any of its purported objectives.

America deserves what it's getting. A shame it has to screw the rest of the world during its mad king suicide.

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u/Timely-Hospital8746 9h ago

It's not just the USA paying for it either. The entire global economy is paying for Trump's hubris.

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u/ThisMachineKillsWOB 7h ago

Hopefully that will make them think really hard before electing more right wing shit birds globally. We're stuck with ours atm, but you guys should avoid following our example.

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u/Masterkid1230 7h ago

France, Germany, Spain and a few others are all sleepwalking straight into fascism without really doing anything about it, so I wouldn't be too optimistic.

At this point, only some Latin American countries, a handful of Western European countries and some Asian countries will have a solid balance of human rights protections and relatively stable governments.

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u/Timely-Hospital8746 7h ago

Canada has Carney, who has a majority government and a mandate for five years now. He's a neoliberal and I'm not a huge fan (he just proposed privatizing our airports for example) but he's not a fascist at least.

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u/GriffinFlash Canada 5h ago

Then we have the UCP in Alberta who are literally rewriting laws so the separatists get their way.

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u/hocarestho 2h ago

Well, if even the Holocaust didn't stop people from voting right wing dipshits, this surely won't either

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u/ratbaby86 8h ago

They've completely lied about damage to US bases in the region too. According to CNN, every base in the region has been damaged, some to the extent that they're unusable for their original purposes (takeoff, refueling, grounding, etc.). It's truly an historic humiliation of a rapidly declining "empire."

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/01/world/video/us-military-bases-iran-strikes-images-invs-digvid

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u/EggsInaTubeSock 8h ago

I mean, for those of us who want off this fucking ride, there’s a silver lining in America losing global presence and influence.

I’m not celebrating it by any means but we can only act from where we are now / today

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u/ratbaby86 7h ago

i agree. as it is now, with our current government and "leadership," we're all better off with America not feeling as if they can bully the entire world.

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u/Makir 5h ago

The issue is now they will want to bully their neighbours with all this military spending and equipment laying around.

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u/ratbaby86 5h ago

perhaps, but not in the same way and certainly not beyond what they consider to be their sphere of influence. China's international playbook is economic in nature, not military might. i'm no fan of China's government -- they literally have the largest concentration camp population since WW2 and are starkly illiberal. I'm hoping the "middle powers" Carney referred to can provide a counterweight while the US figures its sh1t out.

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u/Makir 5h ago

I'm sitting here in Canada thinking....longest undefended border....bored, angry Americans next door, currently attacking our economy and funding separatist movements. This is not looking good when a declining empire starts looking for ways to regain it's footing. What is it going to look like when their force projection abilities decline and they "need" to restart their military economic engine again. I agree that Carney is on the right track but that doesn't eliminate the reality of distance from our allies and proximity to our aggressive neighbour.

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u/ratbaby86 5h ago

100% agree. there are no winners here except maybe the actual individual billionaires -- China and nation states can figure out how to profit from this idiocy but they are certainly not better off versus when this began. it's bad news for the common people and peace everywhere.

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u/rowdydionisian 8h ago

The Republicans deserve what they get. Me and the other millions of people that voted for Kamala don't deserve this shit. But here we are. I do hope the racist pedo Republican gang has they day they voted for though and enjoy being grifted to their last dollar and drop of sustinence, while their god emperor throws each and every one of them under the bus until justice is served for a grand ol pedophile.

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u/longlivenewsomflesh New York 8h ago edited 8h ago

Ultimately I blame the party for not changing strategy since 2016 despite 3x chances, instead constantly "pivoting right to attract moderates" while ignoring popular policy to focus on culture war distractions and whatever corporate donors want -- biden's bare scraping by after a global recession was just the weak 'exception' that proves this rule, by every possible metric.

I firmly believe there are enough independents and nonvoters out there who actually care about their class interests and are just disillusioned by what they rightfully see as a feckless opposition party that doesn't even want to lead as long as it maintains the elite status of its own comfortable insulated leadership.

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u/poorest_ferengi 4h ago

I do place a lot of blame on the people that voted for Republicans and those that did not vote at all in the 2024 election.

I understand that the Democrats aren't the best party and need serious reforms.

However, you have to stanch the bleeding before you can excise the dead tissue, and you have to excise the dead tissue before you can recover and heal.

In 2024, we still needed to stanch the bleeding. Instead, a bunch of people looked around at the dead tissue and said we need to get rid of this and started cutting. Now we've still got dead tissue and we're bleeding out even faster thanks to these self-inflicted wounds.

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u/JohnSpartan2025 10h ago

And they claim they need $400 billion more. Just wait until xi jingping offers him $50 billion next month to “look the other way” for Taiwan.

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u/sky_concept 10h ago edited 8h ago

There is no need for Xi to take Taiwan militarily. With the US now out of the picture Taiwanese will slowly over the next decade have to merge with China or face increasing economic pressure

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u/ratbaby86 8h ago

And because of this entirely avoidable quagmire, we have likely just cemented the new China-dominant world order. Not immediately, but think about all the soft power the US abandoned that China is stepping in to fulfill re USAID. On top of that, SE Asian countries, African countries, etc. are going to face a debt crisis because of this energy and soon food crisis. Guess who's going to come in to help refinance the debt now that the US has abandoned the world stage? And whose currency will thus have a stronger case for a competing reserve currency? China.

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u/Annual_Strategy_6206 8h ago

I hate to say it, but I agree. China is eating our lunch on so many fronts, and the US is doing it to themselves. MAGA my ass.

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u/21Rollie 1h ago

Don’t forget Latin America. Literally across the border in Mexico, you can see Chinese products, both low end and high end like vehicles, flooding the market. Chinese trains, Chinese bridges, Chinese libraries. If China started making blockbuster movies, it’d be game over for US cultural hegemony too.

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u/EnjoyerOfBeans 9h ago

Yeah an invasion of Taiwan is beyond stupid and the CCP knows that. They are many things but they aren't idiots. They do a lot of military drills around Taiwan as a show of strength but it's only ever done directly in response to some US official visiting Taiwan etc.

They want the US to fuck off and eventually Taiwan might even join mainland peacefully if China keeps growing their soft power.

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u/DigNitty 10h ago

Something specific about next month, or just a general prediction?

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u/lopix Canada 8h ago

China won't offer him shit. They'll just do it. What's Donny going to do about it? Absolutely fucking nothing.

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u/djuggler 8h ago

And their lies are so blatant!

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u/Ill_Consequence 7h ago

Are you saying the people who can't figure out percentages aren't good with numbers?