President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[BlueK]

A massive store devoted to President Donald Trump gear and other MAGA merch is closing, and it's because even deep in a deep red state, fans are just not that into him anymore.

We're not busy anymore," one employee told Slate.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reported last month that the store was closing in part because its owner was moving to Florida. But owner Bill Hays laughed at that.

"The girl that reported that did not know what she was talking about," Hays told Slate, adding that he's not retiring or moving. "I don't think she wanted to say we were closing for lack of business, but that's why we're closing."

An employee named Dan was even more blunt, telling Slate that Trump "really is dwindling, dwindling, dwindling."

When asked whether he meant Trump's health or his popularity, Dan said the latter.

You can see more and more Republicans are not happy with their life situation," Dan said. "People really are saying, 'I don't know if I'm going to do a full load of groceries or I'm going to put my electric bill on a credit card this month.'"

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/were-not-busy-anymore-massive-060842165.html

there are other indicators like this out there that there is a level of discontent even in some deep red areas that wasn't there before.

[LVAllen]

Trump is backing away from South Korea to suck up to Kim Jong Un and punish ROK for not "helping" with Iran. He is single-handedly eroding American soft power and making us significantly less safe than any proceeding admin in our lifetime.


https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/16/middl...tary-exercises

It's entirely within the realm of possibility for Trump to do anything for the absolute worst reason. I will point out that this comes on the heels of S. Korea publicly calling for talks with Best Korea to formally end the war. Best Korea hasn't responded.

[BlueK]

Trump is backing away from South Korea to suck up to Kim Jong Un and punish ROK for not "helping" with Iran. He is single-handedly eroding American soft power and making us significantly less safe than any proceeding admin in our lifetime.


https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/16/middl...tary-exercises

Yeah, hard to overstate how incredibly stupid this is, but we're all used to it with Trump.

[frank ryan]

Trump is backing away from South Korea to suck up to Kim Jong Un and punish ROK for not "helping" with Iran. He is single-handedly eroding American soft power and making us significantly less safe than any proceeding admin in our lifetime.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/16/middleeast/trump-south-korea-military-exercises

[frank ryan]

Kushner is so shitty, he deserves his own thread. Trump is sending him and Steve Witkoff to Moscow to talk about ending that war.

Our country is so dumb these days.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...in-lavrov-says

[dabrockster]

Interesting to imagine what would have happened had they assassinated Trump.

Careful.. Some Govt. algorithm is reviewing your post as of now...

[Jeff Lebowski]

Interesting to imagine what would have happened had they assassinated Trump.

[tooblue]

None of us has the specifics on this, but regardless I’m totally fine with the press not being told until later. If the threat was really putting the press in severe danger I’m sure the plane wouldn’t have taken off. POTUS being removed was likely out of a severe abundance of caution.

We do not have the specifics except, the US is in a war with Iran, the president is a target for assassination by the Iranian regime and he is traveling in the region of said regime and if you work closely with or with the media who cover the president you must accept that you too are a target or at least in the line of fire.

If you don't want to be, at a minimum, in the line of fire, find another line of work—do something different. If you don't, you sure as hell better not whine about the secret service and security forces prioritizing the protection of the president. Like or dislike for him is irrelevant—he's the commander in chief. That's the way this works.

[Moliere]

None of us has the specifics on this, but regardless I’m totally fine with the press not being told until later. If the threat was really putting the press in severe danger I’m sure the plane wouldn’t have taken off. POTUS being removed was likely out of a severe abundance of caution.

[dabrockster]

I think Clinton did something similar to that once as president.

Yes, he did but did alert the press before hand through his press secretary. Trump. Not so much. I am even guessing he would not have any regret if the plane had been shot down and took the press with it. I am sure he saw benefits in that happening.

[BigPiney]

I think Clinton did something similar to that once as president.

[chrisrenrut]

For our Fox News aficionados who won’t get this without some context:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2g90vvy62o

Embedded Tweet

[BlueK]

Very cool that US-sanctioned extrajudicial killings might be inspiring rogue killers:



https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/world/americas/ecuador-fishing-boat-strikes.html?unlocked_article_code=1.41A.SSHa.VTw_ rNpk4PKB&smid=url-share

That's awful. But I'm sure Trump would think it's pretty cool even if he's not directly behind it.

[Northwestcoug]

Very cool that US-sanctioned extrajudicial killings might be inspiring rogue killers:

Far out in the Pacific Ocean, Ecuadorean fishermen have been attacked by unidentified “gringos” using drones, survivors say, spurring a mystery over whether the American military, the armed forces of another country or private military contractors were behind the strikes.

One fishing boat has been lost at sea since January, the U.N. says, with eight people still missing and presumed dead. The survivors of two other vessels said they came under attack in March by English-speaking assailants wearing matching uniforms with American flag patches, but without any clear insignia to link them to an official government force.

Some of the surviving fishermen said they had been hauled out of the water, questioned and then handed over to El Salvador’s navy before being released. The Pentagon has denied involvement, as has the U.S. Coast Guard.

Survivors have also said that a plane followed and seemingly surveilled them before the strikes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/12/w...smid=url-share

[BlueK]

Trump will do this shit unless someone stops him.

"The executive branch has no authority to regulate elections," according to this judge and the Constitution, anyway. Maybe we'll find out what the fake originalists Thomas and Alito will say, but I doubt Trump will have enough votes there to just usurp the authority to run elections.

He has in the past floated the idea of ICE showing up at polling places but they are so unpopular right now with swing voters that I can't see that resulting in anything other than more people not wanting to vote for the Republicans.


Htps://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/us--trump-elections-215246348.html