Consumer sentiment plummets and yet, Trump's approval is staying where it is. Not particularly high, but at a relatively high point for him: https://www.economist.com/interactive/trump-approval-tracker
I know it's incredibly hard to connect the dots between the economy crashing and the orange guy waving a neon sign that says "it was me! I crashed the economy! Tariffs!" but at least some of the most astute GOP voters should have had that a-ha moment by now, shouldn't they?
no, no, no, RFK, it was this freaking "fascism epidemic" you were supposed to research
Remember when jokes were supposed to make people laugh? This is a horror movie. And we're all the happy young girl you see in the first scene that you know is going to be gored within the first 10 minutes
The thought of Kanye and Elon in a work camp, though....
seems like he learned his negotiation skills from the scene in Blazing Saddles where the black sheriff points a gun to his own head. "Do what he says! Do what he says!"
Apple is going to become a US company? This is yuuge!
So about those brown people, Mr GOP congressman... Do you see any now? Do they say something to you when you see them?
No, don't worry Mr. Congressman, there are no brown people here, see? These guys are completely dressed in white and they are only here to help you. They will take you to a place with nice soft walls, where you can't accidentally get hurt if one of those brown.... how did you call them.... "immigrants" pushes you. It's going to be all right!
Brain damage,just moves hands and can barely speak coherently.... Wait, did he acrually have a stroke?
More likely, they have been discussing about maybe starting official talks about what it would take to prepare, hypothetically.
But that doesn't mean there aren't alternatives to most big tech services that could be setup quickly. I personally ditched Amazon (shop and video... AWS doesn't depend on me personally) Meta and most of Google without sweating too much. Also, while convenient, none of their consumer tech is critical; we've lived without any of it until recently enough, so we could probably adapt to do without it for a while if we had to.
The parts I think (and I'm not an expert by any means) where Europe is completely vulnerable are payment/banking systems and advanced electronics.
On electronics, there's also China, which isn't a great alternative to depend on... But if Trump decided to weaponize SWIFT or the major credit cards, could he switch most of our banking system off?
Haven't you heard? China are already on the phone with Trump saying they are going to move the production of terbium to the US. Basically they'll use these very big drills to mine Chinese minerals right from Wyoming.
Thank you! As confusing and scary as it is for us in the rest of the world, it must be positively terrifying for someone who's not a hardcore MAGA to see this happening to your country.
And with the rise of the far right, following much of the same playbook in many of our countries, this is unfortunately less about Trump being personally unhinged and more about all of us trying to rediscover why our grandfather fought to defend our democracy, before it's too late.