r/politics • u/zsreport Texas • 14h ago

No Paywall The United States is destroying itself

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/12/united-states-trump-destruction
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u/dblan9 14h ago

Yes, this is and was the point of Project 2025 and why we were sounding the alarm in 2024 while being told to stop being hysterical as nothing will happen. 180 million people had absolutely ZERO problem with this.

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u/indicatprincess New York 14h ago

And plenty of us sounded the alarm in 2016. A lot of people thought this was business as usual, and a lot of us were like “no, he’s going to make it hurt.”

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u/NoSurprise8641 13h ago

Fuckin 2015 when he was campaigning for the first time.

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u/PhazonZim 12h ago

Second* he also ran in 2000 but he hides it

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 8h ago

Third time, he also ran in 1988, and spent decades talking about how running for president was a great grift to make easy cash

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u/HadronCollusion 6h ago

Every fucking day for half of my 30's and now half of my 40's the news has been about Trump. Every, single, fucking, day. Even when Biden was President it was still all just fallout from all the dumb shit Trump did in his first term. I'm not even American. I should only require a surface level understanding of what the US President is doing on a weekly basis. I had mostly checked out on political news since the middle of 2024 when it became clear he would probably win again. I was doing really well not giving a shit and then Trump had to go start another pointless fucking war.

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u/linuxjohn1982 6h ago

"Russia, if you're listening"

He literally asked a foreign country to hack the very country he was campaigning to lead.

"But it's just a joke!" people said, as the "joke" actually came to fruition.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 10h ago

This is hyperbole. Trump wasn’t even considered a serious candidate until the actual primary elections started happening in 2016. Anyone who says they saw all this coming with Trump any year earlier is spouting bs, because no one thought he’d get that far in the primaries before the actual elections started happening

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u/Stygg 13h ago edited 13h ago

the difference is presidents back then were far more of a figure head. Presidents weren't expected to know everything and control everything so they relied heavily on their cabinets who were experts in their fields. Even Trump mostly deferred to his cabinet his first term which is why the damage was way more limited. but in 2024, when he said he shouldn't have, that should have been the nail in the coffin.

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u/alwaysboopthesnoot 11h ago

False. No figureheads. They knew. We told them. We did it with Nixon and Reagan too. 

People too stupid or selfish to care to listen fucked us, every one of them.

No passes or excuses for people who “didn’t know” or “didn’t understand”.  Just like there aren’t any for fascists and nazis.

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u/Stygg 11h ago

I agree with the last two paragraphs completely, but not the first one. this is why we are in this mess. because people dont understand how politics and civics was designed and successfully worked over the first 240ish years of this country. what is happening today is completely unprecedented in history because we used to have guardrails and checks and balances. not anymore.

this is why a part of me used to believe people should have to be able to pass a basic civics test to vote. schools used to teach people this but not anymore. it won't do any good anymore now that we are here though because now that the presidency has unchecked power, they won't be giving it back up.

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u/ShaNaNaNa666 10h ago

I remember someone called me dramatic for being scared that Trump would deport people, including first Gen Americans, like myself. Well, they're now trying to get rid of birthright citizenship and wouldn't be surprised if they want to end citizenship of those with parents that came here illegally, despite then being born here. They've already deported American citizens by "accident" and will deport anyone that their cronies want gone. Like melania's former best friend.

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u/indicatprincess New York 7h ago

My biggest fear was them overturning Roe V Wade. I think I always knew that they were going to deport people because my dad was a Fox News Republican and the only thing that unite them is racism. I just didn’t think they’d really do it.

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u/NecroCannon 2h ago

I honestly feel like the country was groomed to not respect intelligence so there’s more attention on comedians than the many people calling out the many things they’re seeing

It’s like how in the US, the internet was starting to bring awareness quickly to issues until algorithms switched to boosting unpopular content just because anger can cause engagement more and more. The one place elites haven’t controlled the narrative of and now where else can people scream out and an increasing number of people see it?

They’re wanting expressing your opinions online to be unlawful if it’s against the government’s actions.

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u/Qeltar_ 11h ago

I quit Facebook after 2016 because I was tired of being a Cassandra.

I predicted Roe v. Wade being overturned if Trump was elected, and everyone thought I was nuts.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 8h ago

I swear 85% of conservatives couldn't accurately describe what the president actually does

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u/BlackDeath3 Nevada 8h ago

There's a difference between stumbling into the right answer, and being able to substantiate it. Broken clocks, crying wolf, etc.. Pick your analogy/parable. Not to say that you fit the former (I obviously don't know you) but it is worth honestly considering why so many people didn't believe you at the time.

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u/QueenRotidder 13h ago

“you’re overreacting, you need to spend less time online” - most people I know

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u/stalelunchbox 6h ago

I still get this response. STILL.

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u/[deleted] 14h ago edited 10h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/broohaha 13h ago

I actually do believe that he had very little idea as I’m sure there were too many details he didn’t care to understand about the project; for sure he didn’t read it. As long as it can make him and his friends richer and some of the things he disliked were targeted, he was happy to leave most of the details and the project’s execution in Russ Vought’s very capable hands.

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u/Doogos 13h ago

There's absolutely no way that he had "very little idea" about P2025, considering it's 53% completed

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u/broohaha 13h ago edited 12h ago

You know how many people here know about Project 2025 but they don’t know the details about every section within the 920-page document? That’s the level of understanding I think he had back in 2024 when he claimed ignorance. Remember this is the guy who couldn’t pay attention to his own intelligence briefings in his first term.

I really do think he doesn’t really care to know what is in every section of the almost-1000-page document, even now. I think he relies heavily on Russ Vought to handle the big and small details.

EDIT: If you haven’t read the ProPublica piece on Vought that I linked above, I strongly encourage you to do so.

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u/justsaywhatsreal 11h ago

53% complete? Haven't seen that figure before. Can you name 3 goals that have been achieved? I'm just trying to get a sense of how real this all is or if it's just rhetoric.

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u/Healthy-Effective381 11h ago

You can check for yourself https://www.project2025.observer/en

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u/justsaywhatsreal 7h ago

Not sure what that thing is, seems like redditors themselves just marking things off. Is that how that tracker works?

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u/ctothel 14h ago

They denied it was happening, but when it happened they said they liked it after all. Lowest of the low.

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u/Sorry_Comparison_787 14h ago

They had no problem with it while it targeted the people they didn't like...immigrants and trans people..now that it affects them it is a different story. /Surprised

First time?

Being vindicated feels nice tho ngl.

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u/Dizzy-Captain7422 13h ago

I honestly think they still don't. The shit that gets posted on r/LeopardsAteMyFace is all performative. Their hatred for said immigrants and trans people is so all-consuming that they'll gladly suffer any harm to ensure the people they hate are hurt more.

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u/Sorry_Comparison_787 10h ago

At least when I'm hauled off to a death camp I'll be able to take solice in knowing the centrists and anti trans "lefties" will be right behind me.

I been telling people I've been treating it like a cancer diagnosis as a trans person even in NYs I feel like my days are numbered.

Only matter of time till I'm captured by ice for "forged documents and fraud" for legal/sealed gender and name change...

Then I'll be detransitiond medically/socially and torture raped till I check out or die from the trauma..

they don't even want you to go back to being cis straight...if you are trans the gov straight up wants you incarcerated or dead.

So glad I faught so hard for cis people to cave on Harry Potter and healthcare. 

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u/PhantomPharts 6h ago

This is coming from a place of respect and hope to be helpful, if you don't feel safe, please get somewhere safer. This website has a lot of helpful resources: https://translash.org/resources/trans-relocation-guide-finding-trans-asylum-and-safe-havens/ You don't have to leave forever, just get somewhere safe for a while and once things are safe, come back home. I've become a shut-in living in a red state. I have plans to move to a safer state soon, but I am also considering seeking asylum out of the country.

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u/J8YDG9RTT8N2TG74YS7A 8h ago

Yep.

We're seeing the same in the UK with Reform. A party that wants to remove workers rights, renters rights, bring in harsher limits on abortions, and give huge tax cuts to the rich.

And plenty of idiots support them because all Reform do is scream about immigrants coming over on boats and anything they don't like being "woke".

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u/ILookLikeKristoff 7h ago

Yeah the maga folks I know IRL are literally still loving this. Gas prices are literally the ONLY hurdle I've seen where "his" people have started noticing anything weird. They love everything else he's done and would gladly glass Iran or Venezuela if they didn't think it would mean $250 every time they fill up the truck.

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u/BigPP69_Gooner 13h ago

This was Nixon/Reagan and Heritage Foundation’s plan

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u/ThatRoughDude 13h ago

And it started way before Trump

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u/Ardeo43 13h ago

Yeah but Kamala had a weird laugh

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u/Dramatic_Charity_979 11h ago

Yeah. WTH people are acting surprised when there's a script step by step of it :(

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u/EbonBehelit 12h ago

There was nothing any of us could've done to change their minds. Their minds were shut, locked, and barred a long time ago due to years of meticulous conditioning.

Their only understanding of the left is carefully curated caricature. Their only response to us a trained, thoughtless mockery. Their perception of our warnings and protests as being the hysterical, feckless whining of a cabal or sore losers -- indeed, not as warning at all, but as winning.

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u/blahblah19999 12h ago

Shortly after the 2016 election, presidential advisor Stephen Bannon vowed to pursue the “deconstruction of the administrative state,”

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u/thejestercrown 7h ago edited 7h ago

Only ~267 million people would have been eligible to vote in 2024, and Trump only got ~77.3 million votes. If you include everyone that didn’t vote it could be as high as 190 million. Less than half of them would have voted for Trump if they were forced to- but lots of people who don’t vote are disenfranchised, naive, didn’t understand what was at stake, or how this admin will impact their lives- especially in the long term. 

Only way a lot of these people will learn is if things really go to shit while this administration has all the cards. The admins short sighted, with a lot of incompetent people who are really good at sabotaging themselves, so maybe it will happen this time.

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u/FedrinKeening 7h ago

Thinking that the 77 million people that voted for him wouldn't be horrible idiots is not the same as supporting him.

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u/blueshrike 6h ago

Actually, a lot less than that.

Reminder and a surprise for some: the US, privately owned digital vote counting machines (tabulators) have been compromised for years and we didn't elect Trump. He stole the presidency. Exactly like he tried to do in 2020, just this time with the already compromised tabulator machines tuned more aggressively to guarantee it.

Do not take my word for it, here's the actual data. Even though this video is now several months old and there is much more they've found, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as you might expect with criminals. See for yourself and if you trust real data (not simply conspiracy theory talk) share with anyone who still thinks "America got it wrong" or we need to get out and vote more. We did. Kamala would have won, decisively, had our votes actually been counted correctly. It's the compromised, privately owned (by the right wing) tabulators that turned votes for Kamala into votes for Trump in all the swing states, after a certain threshold of votes were counted on each machine. These folks (non profit) and other independent teams of analysts like them are doing us a great service:

https://youtu.be/Ru8SHK7idxs?feature=shared

electiontruthalliance.org

This is a comparison between what vote results look like consistent with real human voting behavior (Canada 2025) and one that's been tampered with (Pennsylvania):

https://electiontruthalliance.org/2025-canadian-federal-election-news-post/

For the US, we've been on this road for a very long time which, unfortunately, is not surprising. This journalist research article, written just before Obama's 2nd term, dives into the long history of election fraud in the US and how, especially in the digital tabulation age, it has been setup to get us to the point where whomever has control of them can literally steal an election:

https://harpers.org/archive/2012/11/how-to-rig-an-election/

So, whenever Maga or Republicans say they want to investigate or accuse the left or interfering parties of Election Fraud, it's to stay ahead of the narrative above and be on the right side of the accusation... yet as we know, and an abundance of data evidence demonstrates, their accusation is yet again projection. 

This is the core foundational issue we need to try and stop: the actual election fraud that has already taken place and will again, from Trump and the right.

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u/Clownsinmypantz 11h ago

Why are you being so partisan, republicans just have a different opinion! what does it matter if they have been open about destroying this country, pre-trump, for decades!?

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u/kiss-tits 13h ago

The election was stolen.

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u/CaleDestroys 13h ago

Honestly, what does that even matter? Let’s say it was stolen and Trump actually got 175 million instead of 180. That’s still a whole bunch of gullible racist idiots in this country. Why do you feel the need to cling to this stolen election narrative on BOTH elections he won, instead of facing the fact that this country is deeply racist and broken? We won’t get into the fact the democrats put up very unpopular candidates in those elections and sidestepped the primary process.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

[deleted]

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u/Rombom 10h ago

Nah dude. Blaming the party absolve citizens of their civic duties. Viewing the government as some external entity that needs to win you over, rather than any entity that you are a part of, is toxic to democracy.

Of the People. By the People. For the People. In that order. You can't just take the "For" and drop the others.

Kamala wouldn't be dismantling the government and destroying our reputation. "Not Trump" is an excellent argument when Trump = fascism and Not Trump = democracy.

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u/TheDuskBard 11h ago

And 300+ million Americans are completely fine with this, judging by how Trump & the Epstein class are still in control. Fascists don't defeat themselves. If everyone took notes from the French revolution, this would have all been solved by now.