# The president has gone full terrorist, and he's actively holding the government hostage. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 6, 2019, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306 "2019-01-06T19:23:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/61 "2019-01-10T18:25:29Z")
Trump yesterday tweeted that he was ordering FEMA to stop giving money to California to fight forest fires. This is clearly a tactic he is hoping will put pressure on Pelosi and the Democrats to give him his wall. So he’s using the threat of the destruction of property and possibly the death of civilians by fire in order to achieve his political goals. Yeah, that would be terrorism. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/62 "2019-01-10T18:29:58Z")
The phrase “dereliction of duty” comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/63 "2019-01-10T19:18:03Z")
Trump is the first president to straight up admit that he is only the president of red state America and is actively hostile to the blue states. The Trump voter in that NY Times article put it best: > [@](#): > > “I voted for him, and he’s the one doing this,” Crystal Minton told the New York Times in an article published Monday. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” 424263-trump-supporter-complains-shutdown-is-not-hurting-the-people-he Sounds a lot like a bunch of terrorists to me. ---
**Author:** ![Toxgoddess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Toxgoddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxgoddess)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/64 "2019-01-10T19:38:09Z")
Hillary was wrong only in that she understated. “Deplorables” is too mild a word. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/65 "2019-01-10T19:41:15Z")
“Republicans” should cover it at this point. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/66 "2019-01-10T20:21:11Z")
> [@Dacien](#): > > I’m not saying they were “for the wall”, I _am_ saying they were in favor of border barriers in the past on multiple occasions. I just linked one example. So here comes the latest border barrier (fence/wall, whatever you want to call it), but this time it’s coming from Trump. And Democrats cannot be seen agreeing to his request, their base would crucify them. Which is to say nothing of how they personally do not want to give him any wins. So the government gets shut down over $5 billion. Not to absolve Trump of course, digging in his heels over such a ridiculous issue. Trump probably doesn’t need to shut down the government to get what he wants if he really wants it that badly, but Trump is the one who wanted to shut it down anyway. He had 2 years with his own party in power to fund the construction of a wall, but he couldn’t get it done. Maybe he spent too much time trying to score a symbolic political touchdown in finding a way to claim that Mexico’s paying for the wall. The Democrats would probably go with a partial wall, where it is warranted and makes sense. But they’re not going to vote to waste $5 billion on a boondoggle to give Trump a symbolic political touchdown - you’re right about that part. The question is, now that Trump has decided to shut down the government and make 800,000 employees and their millions of other family members pawns, should the Democrats simply let them get stiffed the way that Trump stiffed his contractors all those years. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/67 "2019-01-10T20:22:15Z")
> [@](#): > > “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said in an interview with the New York Times’s Trip Gabriel published Thursday morning. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?” [Rep. Steve King: how did being “white supremacist” become “offensive?” - Vox](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/10/18176928/steve-king-white-supremacist-offensive) The GOP is an authoritarian, white nationalist movement that is willing to use the threat of violence to get its way. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/68 "2019-01-10T22:04:19Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Fuck Trump, and fuck his damn “base”. I for one am sick and tired of this country having to pander to those toothless inbred stupid nasty subsidy sucking motherfuckers. > [@Toxgoddess](#): > > Hillary was wrong only in that she understated. “Deplorables” is too mild a word. You’ll love this article, then: \*\*[“He’s not hurting the people he needs to be”: a Trump voter says the quiet part out loud](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida) A Trump voter hurt by the shutdown reveals the real reason the president attracts hardcore supporters.\*\* > [@](#): > > Most Marianna residents support Trump’s border wall, his key demand in the shutdown fight, and don’t blame him for the fight. But Crystal Minton, a secretary at the prison who is also a single mother caring for disabled parents, had a somewhat different reaction — one that reveals an essential truth about the core Trump’s political appeal. > > “I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” Minton told Mazzei. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.” > > … > > This is not an accident. Trump’s political victory and continuing appeal depend on a brand of politics that marginalizes and targets groups disliked by his supporters. Trump supporters don’t so much love the Republican party as they hate Democrats, a phenomenon political scientists call “negative partisanship.” They like Trump not because he sells them on the GOP, but because they believe he’ll stick it to the Democrats harder than anyone else. > > The president’s particular brand of identity politics — the racist attacks on blacks and Latinos, the Muslim ban, his cruel treatment of women — similarly depends on negative rather than positive appeals. Antoine Banks, a political psychologist at the University of Maryland, wrote a book on the connection between anger as an emotion and racial politics. When politicians gin up anger, an emotion that necessarily has a negative target, voters tend to think about the world in more racial (and racist) terms. Trump makes his voters angry, he centers that anger on hated targets, and that makes them want to take his side. I didn’t realize there was an actual term “negative partisanship”, but I was making this same argument a few weeks ago in a Facebook post. I said there are some Trump supporters that would let him shit in their mouths if it fucked over a liberal. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/69 "2019-01-10T22:38:08Z")
They’re fucking monsters and I’m tired of Blue state America subsidizing their crapulence. ---
**Author:** ![Dacien](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dacien/32/5663_2.png) [@Dacien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dacien)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/70 "2019-01-10T23:19:11Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > That was for improved border security, including fencing. That’s not a wall. You’ve fallen victim to the both sides do it durp that lead to the election of Trump in the first place. “That’s a fence, not a wall” is probably the weakest of all the retorts on this that I’m familiar with. Heavily reliant on semantics, and I think an average person would roll their eyes. Still should have said “border barrier” in my original statement. On topic, Rich Lowry had the most incisive take of the day in my opinion: Using emergency powers isn’t a way for Trump to get the wall, it’s a way to shift blame for not getting a wall to the courts. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/71 "2019-01-10T23:26:26Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I didn’t realize there was an actual term “negative partisanship”, but I was making this same argument a few weeks ago in a Facebook post. I said there are some Trump supporters that would let him shit in their mouths if it fucked over a liberal. As Davis X Machina put it, somewhere in the blogosphere (first appearance no longer traceable): > [@](#): > > The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of who will _volunteer_ to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/72 "2019-01-10T23:27:06Z")
> [@Dacien](#): > > On topic, Rich Lowry had the most incisive take of the day in my opinion: Using emergency powers isn’t a way for Trump to get the wall, it’s a way to shift blame for not getting a wall to the courts. Well, yeah, that’s painfully obvious. It would serve him right if he used that strategem only for Anne of Green Goebbels, Flush Limpballs, Spawn Inanity, and the rest to explain to the MAGA Morans that he’s just trying to squirm out of his promise. The catch is that the damage would be compounded if they started working the rubes before the budget deal got nailed down, signed, sealed, and delivered… ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/73 "2019-01-10T23:30:34Z")
> [@Dacien](#): > > “That’s a fence, not a wall” is probably the weakest of all the retorts on this that I’m familiar with. Heavily reliant on semantics, and I think an average person would roll their eyes. Still should have said “border barrier” in my original statement. > > On topic, Rich Lowry had the most incisive take of the day in my opinion: Using emergency powers isn’t a way for Trump to get the wall, it’s a way to shift blame for not getting a wall to the courts. Trump has called for a wall that stretches the entire length of the border, made of concrete and paid for by Mexico. The Democats supported improved border security. If you don’t see the difference, it’s because you’re a fucking moron. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/74 "2019-01-10T23:33:10Z")
In fifth grade, someone in my class won the student council presidency by promising Coke in the water fountains. When he won, we didn’t get Coke in the water fountains. Because it’s idiotic. This wall was never intended to be a real thing. It was intended as a [mnemonic device](https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2019/01/04/where-the-idea-for-donald-trumps-wall-came-from/#6508bd004415) because the idiot candidate couldn’t remember to keep yelling about brown people enough. The only problem is that now that the idiot candidate is the idiot leader of their party, the idiot party now needs to pretend to be behind this idiotic Coke in the water fountain idea. I don’t blame Trump. It’s like blaming a puppy for peeing on the rug. He’s an idiot, and it’s what he does. I blame the idiot GOP for idiotically going along with this idiot and his idiotic idea. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/75 "2019-01-10T23:59:20Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > In fifth grade, someone in my class won the student council presidency by promising Coke in the water fountains. When he won, we didn’t get Coke in the water fountains. Because it’s idiotic. > > This wall was never intended to be a real thing. It was intended as a [mnemonic device](https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2019/01/04/where-the-idea-for-donald-trumps-wall-came-from/#6508bd004415) because the idiot candidate couldn’t remember to keep yelling about brown people enough. The only problem is that now that the idiot candidate is the idiot leader of their party, the idiot party now needs to pretend to be behind this idiotic Coke in the water fountain idea. > > I don’t blame Trump. It’s like blaming a puppy for peeing on the rug. He’s an idiot, and it’s what he does. I blame the idiot GOP for idiotically going along with this idiot and his idiotic idea. But the GOP is the party of idiots, so it’s still a case of blaming idiots for doing what idiots do. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/76 "2019-01-10T23:59:47Z")
And now, they are finding alternative funding for this idiotic wall. By[taking money](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-could-take-billions-disaster-areas-fund-wall-n957281) from storm damaged areas of Puerto Rico and flood prevention in California. Because he hasn’t been hurting the people he was supposed to hurt enough. > [@kaylasdad99](#): > > But the GOP is the party of idiots, so it’s still a case of blaming idiots for doing what idiots do. I don’t think most of the party leaders think this is anything other than idiotic. Well, most of them anyway. Like the principal in my elementary school, they are supposed to serve as a check on putting Coke in the water fountain. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/77 "2019-01-11T00:04:38Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > I hate Trump as much as the next totally reasonable purpose, but this is not terrorism. It’s not extortion, either. > > Congress can and should be doing its job, which is passing either a real budget or a CR. If Trump vetoes it, they have the votes (even in the Senate) to override the veto. And if he simply refuses to either sign or veto, it will become law in 10 days after landing on his desk anyway. Thanks so much for saying this. For a minute, I thought I was going to have to agree with Mitch McConnell for the first time in fucking forever, who just said it would be a waste of time for the Senate to pass something Trump isn’t going to sign. You of course, are right (assuming they have the votes to override, which I didn’t know). ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/78 "2019-01-11T00:10:52Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > Thanks so much for saying this. For a minute, I thought I was going to have to agree with Mitch McConnell for the first time in fucking forever, **who just said it would be a waste of time for the Senate to pass something Trump isn’t going to sign.** You of course, are right (assuming they have the votes to override, which I didn’t know). 😕 And doing nothing at all is somehow wasting LESS time? How’s that work? ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/79 "2019-01-11T00:13:19Z")
> [@Dacien](#): > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wjbil4MAfM Clinton wasn’t in office, and the first video is from 2006. I really fucking hate it when people pretend that just because one member of a group said something, no matter how fucking long ago it was in the past, that it still has relevance today. God, how I hate it! ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306/80 "2019-01-11T00:21:11Z")
> [@Dacien](#): > > Which is to say nothing of how they personally do not want to give him any wins. While I can’t say for sure, I’d think there were many issues that the Democrats would love to discuss with Trump, if they thought they could reach some sort of compromise, and achieve “wins” for both sides. To my knowledge, the Democrats have never, since Trump was elected, made any sort of statements that they want to do as you say. You are obviously confusing the Democrats of today with the Republicans of 2010. Right? RIGHT??? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-president-has-gone-full-terrorist-and-hes-actively-holding-the-government-hostage/827306.md?page=5)