Trump / Musk (other than DOGE) Omnibus Thread

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Could trump legally buy Greenland through ex. order or would he have to have congressional approval. I would think congressional approval.
 
nycfan said:
From the Yahoo link above

“…
Edgar Da Silva Moura, a 31-year-old computer technician, was on the flight, after seven months in detention in the United States.

"On the plane they didn't give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn't even let us go to the bathroom," he told AFP.

"It was very hot, some people fainted."

Luis Antonio Rodrigues Santos, a 21-year-old freelancer, recounted the "nightmare" of people with "respiratory problems" during "four hours without air conditioning" due to technical issues on the plane. …”
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The cruelty is the point.
 
Callatoroy said:
I get that all of you TDS sufferers have to and desperately need to believe your narrative. Yall are like dyslexic people. See everything backwards. To the rest of the world trump got a FAFO win. It puts other countries on notice regarding some things. Who gives a shit if Trump said ok, no shackles. The world saw that with regard to this issue he wasn’t going to waste time dithering. It was a big world stage win by the press’s reporting and it just drives most of you bat shit crazy. Going to be a long 4 years for many of you. WINNING.
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I definitely think Trump is getting credit for a victory from MAGA and a lot of other Americans — a majority of Americans. And I think he did send a message received loud and clear by other countries. But celebrating this victory over Colombia is like the 2009 UNC basketball team crowing about a victory over UNC Asheville.

I think Trump is making it clear that he is going to use US economic might to bully our allies. So the dust-up with Colombia successfully sends that message. Whether becoming the schoolyard bully among allies is a good thing or not remains to be seen. I think “not” because I think the USA has profited for decades from soft power, which takes time to build and will take time to repair if Trump continues trashing that long term U.S. project, but time will tell.
 
"This weekend’s Colombia crisis is next week’s Honduras crisis.
BOZ (James Bosworth)
JAN 27, 2025

On the controversies over deportation flights this weekend, before Colombia, there was Brazil.

A US military flight with 88 Brazilian migrants who were being deported was scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte on Saturday, but made an emergency landing in Manaus due to some plane trouble. The migrants were seen walking off the plane in handcuffs. Statements to reporters suggest the conditions on the flight were terrible. The deportees could not use the bathroom. The climate control didn’t work, leading someone to faint due to the heat. Rumors of even worse are floating around in Brazilian social media.

Defenders of the US policy say that these sorts of flights happened regularly under the Biden administration, and the way that the deportees are treated remains the same. The truth is probably somewhere in between. I doubt previous deportation flights were first class accommodations and deported criminals are almost certainly restrained. But handcuffing non-violent deportees who were not convicted of other crimes and forcing them into a military aircraft that lacks proper ventilation is certainly far worse than typical.

The Brazilian government is furious. The Brazilian public is getting angrier as they learn more.

While that controversy with Brazil was swiftly overshadowed by the much larger noisier with Colombia, the Brazil one matters. It’s at the center of the critiques that Latin American governments have about the current policy including the use of US military assets in these deportations and the treatment of their citizens.

If Lula and others in his government are holding personal grudges over this, their response will be strategic and multilateral. They are thinking about how to get this right over the course of months and years, not simply take a stand this week. That’s not an easy task, but it is the only way Brazil can effectively respond. Itamaraty correctly understands that engaging in a 12 hour Twitter war with Trump would be the dumbest way to respond to this issue.

Turning to the dumbest way to respond to this issue, Gustavo Petro is a narcissistic career opposition politician who is a social media addict who happens to now be president. Petro probably thought he was winning the online battle yesterday because, in his mind, if the world is talking about Gustavo Petro, then it’s good for him. Other Latin American presidents have tried to carefully manage their responses in the Trump era, but Petro is too much like Trump in how he engages in public and courts political controversy. This time it backfired on him. The online attention feeding Petro’s ego is bad for Colombia and Colombians. The fight will do far more damage to his country than to the United States, which will move along to the next Trump controversy soon enough.

Petro revoked the permission for deportation flights on US military planes after those planes were in the air. Trump responded with a “maximum pressure” style threat. Trump said he would impose an immediate 25% tariff, a visa and travel ban on Colombian officials, the shutdown of all visa issuances in Colombia, and implement sanctions on the country and its top officials. Colombia responded with potential sanctions of its own as well as a cryptic threat from Petro to fix the fact over 15,000 US citizens are in Colombia without a proper visa.

Last night, only hours after those public threats were made, Colombia said they had come to an agreement that included some improvements on how deportation flights would occur, and Trump’s team said Petro had given in on all terms including using military flights. As of this morning, the sanctions won’t happen and visas will resume after a brief pause. But Trump is keeping his threats in reserve if Colombia backtracks.

Credit for the deal likely goes to Luis Murillo, Colombia’s foreign minister who leaves his post later this week. There is a real issue here. It’s only a small exaggeration to say that everything the Colombian government has gotten correct about foreign policy in the past year is because of Murillo and everything they have gotten wrong is because of Petro. Laura Sarabia, the new foreign minister, is young, savvy, and much closer to Petro but doesn’t have Murillo’s experience and connections on the foreign stage. This will be a different crisis in a week.

This is far from Petro’s only crisis. The violence in Colombia’s northeast continues and there is a real concern about how the ELN are using Venezuela to cause problems. Colombia’s success in fighting armed groups in the past has come with the help of the US military. Any US-Colombia dispute benefits the ELN, FARC and Clan del Golfo.


This weekend’s Colombia crisis is next week’s Honduras crisis. ~Bosworth"




​
​



​

 
Callatoroy said:
I get that all of you TDS sufferers have to and desperately need to believe your narrative. Yall are like dyslexic people. See everything backwards. To the rest of the world trump got a FAFO win. It puts other countries on notice regarding some things. Who gives a shit if Trump said ok, no shackles. The world saw that with regard to this issue he wasn’t going to waste time dithering. It was a big world stage win by the press’s reporting and it just drives most of you bat shit crazy. Going to be a long 4 years for many of you. WINNING.
Click to expand...
A little early in the morning to be drinking, isn’t it?
 
donbosco said:
"This weekend’s Colombia crisis is next week’s Honduras crisis.
BOZ (James Bosworth)
JAN 27, 2025

On the controversies over deportation flights this weekend, before Colombia, there was Brazil.

A US military flight with 88 Brazilian migrants who were being deported was scheduled to arrive in Belo Horizonte on Saturday, but made an emergency landing in Manaus due to some plane trouble. The migrants were seen walking off the plane in handcuffs. Statements to reporters suggest the conditions on the flight were terrible. The deportees could not use the bathroom. The climate control didn’t work, leading someone to faint due to the heat. Rumors of even worse are floating around in Brazilian social media.

Defenders of the US policy say that these sorts of flights happened regularly under the Biden administration, and the way that the deportees are treated remains the same. The truth is probably somewhere in between. I doubt previous deportation flights were first class accommodations and deported criminals are almost certainly restrained. But handcuffing non-violent deportees who were not convicted of other crimes and forcing them into a military aircraft that lacks proper ventilation is certainly far worse than typical.

The Brazilian government is furious. The Brazilian public is getting angrier as they learn more.

While that controversy with Brazil was swiftly overshadowed by the much larger noisier with Colombia, the Brazil one matters. It’s at the center of the critiques that Latin American governments have about the current policy including the use of US military assets in these deportations and the treatment of their citizens.

If Lula and others in his government are holding personal grudges over this, their response will be strategic and multilateral. They are thinking about how to get this right over the course of months and years, not simply take a stand this week. That’s not an easy task, but it is the only way Brazil can effectively respond. Itamaraty correctly understands that engaging in a 12 hour Twitter war with Trump would be the dumbest way to respond to this issue.

Turning to the dumbest way to respond to this issue, Gustavo Petro is a narcissistic career opposition politician who is a social media addict who happens to now be president. Petro probably thought he was winning the online battle yesterday because, in his mind, if the world is talking about Gustavo Petro, then it’s good for him. Other Latin American presidents have tried to carefully manage their responses in the Trump era, but Petro is too much like Trump in how he engages in public and courts political controversy. This time it backfired on him. The online attention feeding Petro’s ego is bad for Colombia and Colombians. The fight will do far more damage to his country than to the United States, which will move along to the next Trump controversy soon enough.

Petro revoked the permission for deportation flights on US military planes after those planes were in the air. Trump responded with a “maximum pressure” style threat. Trump said he would impose an immediate 25% tariff, a visa and travel ban on Colombian officials, the shutdown of all visa issuances in Colombia, and implement sanctions on the country and its top officials. Colombia responded with potential sanctions of its own as well as a cryptic threat from Petro to fix the fact over 15,000 US citizens are in Colombia without a proper visa.

Last night, only hours after those public threats were made, Colombia said they had come to an agreement that included some improvements on how deportation flights would occur, and Trump’s team said Petro had given in on all terms including using military flights. As of this morning, the sanctions won’t happen and visas will resume after a brief pause. But Trump is keeping his threats in reserve if Colombia backtracks.

Credit for the deal likely goes to Luis Murillo, Colombia’s foreign minister who leaves his post later this week. There is a real issue here. It’s only a small exaggeration to say that everything the Colombian government has gotten correct about foreign policy in the past year is because of Murillo and everything they have gotten wrong is because of Petro. Laura Sarabia, the new foreign minister, is young, savvy, and much closer to Petro but doesn’t have Murillo’s experience and connections on the foreign stage. This will be a different crisis in a week.

This is far from Petro’s only crisis. The violence in Colombia’s northeast continues and there is a real concern about how the ELN are using Venezuela to cause problems. Colombia’s success in fighting armed groups in the past has come with the help of the US military. Any US-Colombia dispute benefits the ELN, FARC and Clan del Golfo.


This weekend’s Colombia crisis is next week’s Honduras crisis. ~Bosworth"




​
​


​

Click to expand...
This has been Trump's approach for his entire adult life. Pick one fight after another. You win some, you lose some, but you always claim you won, and eventually people get tired of fighting with you. It makes you absolutely HATED and disrespected, which is how almost everyone who has ever done business with Trump has thought about him for years. And I am highly skeptical that approach can achieve anything positive when it comes to international relations. But that's what a plurality of the country, including about 80% of those who worship the guy who said "blessed are the peace makers," voted for, so we'll just have to see how it goes. Early returns are extremely concerning, though.
 
altmin said:
Media is saying Colombia backed down, but didn't the Trump admin basically agree to going back to how things were under Biden, with Colombia handling the flights?

That sure doesn't sound like Colombia backing down.
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The traditional media has no clue how to cover Trump, especially in this Flood the Zone stage. It's inexcusable they're in this place when he's been front and center for 10 years, but that's where we are. I'm having a hard time finding intelligent commentary on what's happening right now outside Substack.
 
chrissteel said:
The idea of any regime having the temerity to refuse to take back its citizens who are abroad illegally is not one that America can afford to countenance, well done
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How to say: "I don't understand everything that's gone on in the past, in this situation" with out actually saying: "I don't understand everything that's gone on in the past, in this situation"
 
Centerpiece said:
How to say: "I don't understand everything that's gone on in the past, in this situation" with out actually saying: "I don't understand everything that's gone on in the past, in this situation"
Click to expand...
Or, to put it a different way, this is what happened.

Trump: We're going to do things a new way.

Colombia: No, keep doing things how they've been done for years.

Trump: WE'RE GOING TO KILL YOUR ECONOMY!!!

Colombia: How about we just agree we'll do things how they've been done for years?

Trump: Ok, we'll do things how they've been done for years, and we won't kill your economy.

Colombia: Ok, thanks.

Trump: WHAT A BUNCH OF FUCKING PUSSIES!!!! WE'RE WINNING SO HARD I MIGHT NEED ANOTHER ADDERALL!!!
 
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Callatoroy said:
I get that all of you TDS sufferers have to and desperately need to believe your narrative. Yall are like dyslexic people. See everything backwards. To the rest of the world trump got a FAFO win. It puts other countries on notice regarding some things. Who gives a shit if Trump said ok, no shackles. The world saw that with regard to this issue he wasn’t going to waste time dithering. It was a big world stage win by the press’s reporting and it just drives most of you bat shit crazy. Going to be a long 4 years for many of you. WINNING.
Click to expand...
A few more victories like this and all we'll accomplish is Trump preening around on camera like the strongman he wants to be while his administration slowly but surely pushes the rest of the world into the arms of our enemies.

Again, Trump's "win every negotiation" style of international diplomacy is just so laughably shortsighted. He disdains the decades of soft power (treaties, trade agreements, foreign aid, etc) that cemented our country's place at the top of the world order, and in the process he's going to throw that place away, all because he wants every world leader to kiss the ring.
 
chrissteel said:
The idea of any regime having the temerity to refuse to take back its citizens who are abroad illegally is not one that America can afford to countenance, well done
Click to expand...
Have you read any of the thread? They have been accepting planes of migrants for years under Biden. The issue wasn’t about their refusal to accept them. It was about Trump bringing them into the country in military planes with no pre-authorization and in handcuffs.

You might want to sit this one out if you aren’t going to bother to understand the situation before commenting.
 
Callatoroy said:
Could trump legally buy Greenland through ex. order or would he have to have congressional approval. I would think congressional approval.
Click to expand...
If you use the purchase of Alaska as a template, first a treaty must be executed between the US and the current owner (Russia in the case of Alaska.) Then the US Senate must approve all treaties (which they did 37-2 in the case of Alaska.)
 
nycfan said:
I definitely think Trump is getting credit for a victory from MAGA and a lot of other Americans — a majority of Americans. And I think he did send a message received loud and clear by other countries. But celebrating this victory over Colombia is like the 2009 UNC basketball team crowing about a victory over UNC Asheville.

I think Trump is making it clear that he is going to use US economic might to bully our allies. So the dust-up with Colombia successfully sends that message. Whether becoming the schoolyard bully among allies is a good thing or not remains to be seen. I think “not” because I think the USA has profited for decades from soft power, which takes time to build and will take time to repair if Trump continues trashing that long term U.S. project, but time will tell.
Click to expand...
Agree with almost everything you posted. Only thing I would question is your judgement in using a UNC bball analogy. In most years that would be appropriate but in 2025 a UNC bball analogy might not represent the sentiment you are wanting to convey.

I’m not a fan of the stick before the carrot but that is his style. Very mafiaish and not allowing anyone to save face doesn’t promote good will but then maybe he felt it best to use that instance to send a FAFO message. I agree way more with his desired destination than his route to get there.
 
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