“Americans must learn to adjust to a lower standard of living,” he told the crowd before suggesting a specific solution to prices hiked by his tariffs, which he continues to insist are a success. “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils…You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice.”

  • yarr@feddit.nl
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    19 hours ago

    Trump marched onstage insisting he was ready to make America “affordable again,” a line crafted to evoke Reagan-era economic populism that instead conjured Jimmy Carter calling for personal austerity. Trump declared he had “no higher priority” before launching into his usual misdirection by blaming the rising cost of living on his predecessor, Joe Biden.

    Keep blaming Biden! Despite assurances things would be fixed as early as the first day, the USA is still not in that great of a shape. How many people will allow Trump to quit taking accountability? Every day that we get more into a Trump presidency it should be harder and harder to blame your predecessor.

    If Biden left this country in such a shambles that even the almighty Trump is unable to right the ship, then why the heck did the Donald say he could?

    Our gullible countrymen ate it right up and a good amount continue to do so. Mortgaging your future to own the libs.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      Keep blaming Biden!

      They ALL fucking do it. I just saw that stupid bitch Noem start off one of her non-answering “answers” with some bullshit about Biden. Thankfully the piece of shit got immediately called on it.

      Q: Why are you breaking the law when it comes to immigration enforcement? A: Well, President Biden…

      That stupid SpokesBarbie Karoline does it, too. Same with Mikey Johnson, and on and on.

      And I only wish it was confined to Republicans, but it doesn’t stop there, sadly. Lots of so called independents, centrists and leftists, do it too.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      19 hours ago

      He said the stupid pencil thing again, too.

      I mean, FFS. Does he have any idea what pencils even cost? And has he been told people are just using a crazy amount of them in school?

      This is like the “boomer math” thing with large screen TVs, avocado toast, lattes, and Netflix dialed up to eleven. I just looked on Amazon, and you can buy a box of 576 of them for $35.99. That’s about 6 cents a pencil. Enough pencils for one child to use 37 of them per year for ten years and still have some left over.

      Does he think people are coming up short on things like health care because they chose to buy more pencils (and dolls) for their kids?

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      2 days ago

      Oh, so that wasn’t them quoting him from earlier in the year, he’s literally rehashing the weird number of dolls thing?

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    2 days ago

    I’m not going to say he’s particularly wrong, but a) populists can’t get away with telling people to cut back, they’ve already demanded you trade your morals, freedom, and touch with reality for greed, and b) greed isn’t why people are mad, yes consumer goods are getting more expensive, but housing, food, and transportation along with raw materials have become unaffordable.

    Panem et circenses. People will cheer for oppression if you ensure their needs are met and they aren’t bored. No amount of circuses will replace the bread. And this clown doesn’t really have the vigor he used to.

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    2 days ago

    “Why is it we only take people from s**thole countries? Why can’t we have some people from Norway, Sweden, just a few?”

    Maybe because people from civilised countries can see that America is the real shithole?

    But I’m sure bullying and betraying your EU allies and shitting on them is gonna make all the smart people emigrate to the USA.

    What a moron. Just unbelievable.

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      “Why can’t we get any Swedes?” Because Sweden is functional and we aren’t right now. The Norwegians feel the same.

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      Yeah, they come over here to buy jeans at a 1/3 the price and gun parts. Otherwise, everything else we sell here is cheap quality and tastes terrible compared to European options.

  • RotatingParts@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    If (as he says) the economy is doing so well, why would people need to " learn to adjust to a lower standard of living"? Yet MAGA supporters just eat this stuff up without questioning.

    • MuskyMelon@lemmy.worldOP
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      The MAGA supporters are probably thinking the avocado toast eaters need to lower their standards of living, not themselves.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        I still find it hilarious that something like avocado toast (and arugula, lol. And Dijon mustard) has ended up as a shorthand for snobbish effete youngsters who probably also drink their tea with a pinky in the air, but are unable to afford housing and healthcare and childcare, because they are just bad at managing their money and blew it all on these luxury items etc…

        I mean, avocados spread on toast. Soooo elitist.

  • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Even his devoted were getting bored to tears by them while there was an actual campaign going on. Personally I hope he just keeps doing it for the rest of his life, and the crowds keep getting smaller and smaller.

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    2 days ago

    Americans must learn to adjust to a lower standard of living, he told the crowd before suggesting a specific solution to prices hiked by his tariffs, which he continues to insist are a success. “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils…You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter. Two or three is nice.”

    Trump thinks the economic problem is pencil addicts and spoiled little girls. The guy is a mental ruin.

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        The problem is that even if at some level they realize this, self-deceit and denial is an easier way to deal with the feeling that maybe their whole world view has been a bad mistake, than admitting their whole world view has been a bad mistake and changing it.

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      The guy is a mental ruin.

      The guy is horribly detached from the reality of normal people, like everyone who’s born into wealth (or has been rich long enough to forget what it was like before). Remember that “how much does milk cost” thing?

      The guy is a mental ruin too, of course, which doesn’t help.

    • NatakuNox@lemmy.world
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      In his defense I do think little girls are spending way too much money on K Pop Demon Hunter stuff… But that definitely isn’t the issue with the economy. It’s just everywhere. (I’m a teacher. Can we ban Six Seven and Bro as well?)

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    2 days ago

    According to a new POLITICO poll, half of all Americans are finding it difficult to afford food. Even more damaging for Trump, a majority (55%) blames his administration. So Democrats were quick to pounce on his absurd advice. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona posted on X, “Trump needs private jets and an Oval Office covered in gold but your kid only needs one pencil.”

    And because the president is nothing if not predictable, his speech eventually strayed from the economic gaslighting, quickly devolving into angry tangents about alternative energy, immigrants and other odd grievances.

    In a particularly baffling moment, Trump attacked the concept of energy storage despite Pennsylvania having recently secured hundreds of jobs with a new zinc battery factory. “They want us to go to batteries!” he jeered. “We don’t have battery content. So let’s go to batteries according to these morons that were in our country.”

      • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Are we sure about that? They keep refusing to release the economic reports, and us having lost 30% of our economy sounds reasonable.

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      2 days ago

      Yeah we are great now.

      Can’t you tell, we have less pencils in our home and umm… pencils are made with lead, and that is bad for us.

      Oh, they are also made with wood and that can catch fire. So our homes are safer.

      Umm and uhh… You know, I could slip and fall on a pencil.

      So, yeah, We are great again.

      /s < if it wasn’t obvious.

      Also I know pencils are not made of lead, they are made of graphite.

  • Lasherz@lemmy.worldM
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    This is some how more out of touch than Dr Oz and his charcuterie board shopping trip. Yes, you don’t need pencils, the suddenly luxury good in my economy.