The Trump Card...

Ragman

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
What Sense Does This Make?


Then he backs down and looks like a weak fool.
Looks like? .... He is a fool.

Trump has taken several policy actions designed to slow or reverse the oil price hike his war has produced. The immediate effect of his ultimatum was to shock the oil markets and spike the futures prices even higher.

How does any of this make sense?
He is heavily invested in oil futures.
 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Can You Explain This Trump Flip-Flop?

On Jan 29, 2026, Trump explicitly warned that any country selling oil to Cuba would face "massive US tariffs" on their own goods.

On March 30, 2026, after a Russian oil tanker arrived at the port of Matanzas, Cuba, Trump said, "If a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem, whether it’s Russia or not."
Trump being flexible. Grok:IMG_6457.jpegIMG_6458.jpegIMG_6459.jpeg
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
How does any of this make sense?
It makes perfect sense if you presume Trump suffers from Frontotemporal Dementia and Malignant Narcissism, and he now operates on emotional impulse instead of reasoned acts. If you presume that Trump is a mentally healthy and rational man, his contradictory and dangerous actions make no sense at all.

Trump supporter who desperately want or need to maintain their belief in a strong and stable Trump do so by relying on the four-dimensional chess invention. That allows them to believe Trump is secretly brilliant and in full control of his faculties.
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
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ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Grok On Trump Polling and MAGA

I asked Grok: "Explain briefly, the current Trump approval polling and the MAGA component."

Grok's Response:

Trump's national approval rating as of late March 2026 is at or near record lows for his second term, typically in the 36–41% approve range with 55–62% disapprove (net around -18 to -26 points). [Sources and details deleted by me for brevity]

The decline has been driven mainly by independents and some softening among non-core Republicans, with the Iran war and economic fallout as key factors.
The MAGA Component: Core MAGA support remains extremely strong and has not shown meaningful shrinkage:

Self-identification as MAGA: Reached a new high of 27% of all Americans in the latest Economist/YouGov poll (March 20–23), up slightly from 25% earlier. Among Republicans, it hit a record 65% (up from prior waves).

[Trump] Approval among MAGA supporters: Consistently 91–98% (often near 97%), with virtually unanimous loyalty in most surveys. For example, Fox News recently showed 97% approval among MAGA Republicans.

Broader Republicans: Approval has slipped modestly to the low-to-mid 80s% (e.g., 84% in Fox News), with the drop concentrated among non-MAGA Republicans (down to around 52–59% in some polls).

In short: National approval is low due to deep polarization—Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove and independents have weakened. The hardcore MAGA base (about 1/4 to 1/3 of the country, and a clear majority of Republicans) stays highly loyal and has even grown slightly by self-ID. Minor erosion is visible mainly among swing 2024 Trump voters and non-MAGA GOP identifiers, not the committed core.


My Conclusion: Republicans are going to be DESTROYED in the mid-term elections. Except in deep-red districts, the MAGA segment is not large enough to carry an election, and Trump has deeply angered everyone else.

My Challenge: It's a continuing challenge for me to understand why MAGA people are as loyal to Trump as they are. I know they remain loyal but I struggle to understand why. Out of basic respect for my fellow human beings, I try to see things from their point of view, but that does not come easy. Their logic and mine seem miles apart, and in some cases planets apart.
 
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ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Gas Price Update

For the first time since 2022, the U.S. national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has topped $4.02. This is a jump of over a dollar since the war began a month ago.

Trump did that.
 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Gas Price Update

For the first time since 2022, the U.S. national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has topped $4.02. This is a jump of over a dollar since the war began a month ago.

Trump did that.
Wait, what? I thought the Lefties said (when there were high and higher gas prices under Biden) that presidents have little to do with the gas prices. The twisting into a pretzel some on the Left have to do to blame Trump.IMG_6460.jpeg
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Wait, what? I thought the Lefties said (when there were high and higher gas prices under Biden) that presidents have little to do with the gas prices. The twisting into a pretzel some on the Left have to do to blame Trump.View attachment 24700
My answer to you here is the same as when you made a similar comment before. When I spoke in the past about the economy and gas prices being more powerful than any president (or words to that effect) I did not have a presidential unilateral act of war in mind. No president in history has unilaterally started a major war. There was no reason to have such a thing in mind before Trump.

Trump's unilateral act of war is different. It had a clear and direct impact on US gas prices.

The reason Americans are paying over $1 a gallon more for gas than they were a month ago is Donald Trump and only Donald Trump. Had he not illegally and unconstitutionally started this war, gas prices would have likely stayed low or even moved lower.
 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Grok On Trump Polling and MAGA

I asked Grok: "Explain briefly, the current Trump approval polling and the MAGA component."

Grok's Response:

Trump's national approval rating as of late March 2026 is at or near record lows for his second term, typically in the 36–41% approve range with 55–62% disapprove (net around -18 to -26 points). [Sources and details deleted by me for brevity]

The decline has been driven mainly by independents and some softening among non-core Republicans, with the Iran war and economic fallout as key factors.
The MAGA Component: Core MAGA support remains extremely strong and has not shown meaningful shrinkage:

Self-identification as MAGA: Reached a new high of 27% of all Americans in the latest Economist/YouGov poll (March 20–23), up slightly from 25% earlier. Among Republicans, it hit a record 65% (up from prior waves).

[Trump] Approval among MAGA supporters: Consistently 91–98% (often near 97%), with virtually unanimous loyalty in most surveys. For example, Fox News recently showed 97% approval among MAGA Republicans.

Broader Republicans: Approval has slipped modestly to the low-to-mid 80s% (e.g., 84% in Fox News), with the drop concentrated among non-MAGA Republicans (down to around 52–59% in some polls).

In short: National approval is low due to deep polarization—Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove and independents have weakened. The hardcore MAGA base (about 1/4 to 1/3 of the country, and a clear majority of Republicans) stays highly loyal and has even grown slightly by self-ID. Minor erosion is visible mainly among swing 2024 Trump voters and non-MAGA GOP identifiers, not the committed core.


My Conclusion: Republicans are going to be DESTROYED in the mid-term elections. Except in deep-red districts, the MAGA segment is not large enough to carry an election, and Trump has deeply angered everyone else.

My Challenge: It's a continuing challenge for me to understand why MAGA people are as loyal to Trump as they are. I know they remain loyal but I struggle to understand why. Out of basic respect for my fellow human beings, I try to see things from their point of view, but that does not come easy. Their logic and mine seem miles apart, and in some cases planets apart.
Grok :
IMG_3887.jpeg
 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
My answer to you here is the same as when you made a similar comment before. When I spoke in the past about the economy and gas prices being more powerful than any president (or words to that effect) I did not have a presidential unilateral act of war in mind. No president in history has unilaterally started a major war. There was no reason to have such a thing in mind before Trump.

Trump's unilateral act of war is different. It had a clear and direct impact on US gas prices.

The reason Americans are paying over $1 a gallon more for gas than they were a month ago is Donald Trump and only Donald Trump. Had he not illegally and unconstitutionally started this war, gas prices would have likely stayed low or even moved lower.
Why do you GAF about gas prices anyway? You said you walk to work.
 
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ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
Why do you GAF about gas prices anyway? You said you walk to work.
I said I CAN walk to work. I did not say I do walk to work.

I care about fuel prices because my wife and I buy gas. So do the customers we serve in our business. When their money gets tight, our sales are affected, as are those of every other business Americans patronize. In other words, the Trump recession is coming soon. (Our business will be fine. We have ample reserves and we've been through hard times before. We'll pick up new customers from the competitors near us that go under.)

I also care because the obscene and totally unnecessary gas price hike can be attributed squarely to Trump and the Republicans who utterly failed to restrain him. They are going to pay a steep price for this in the mid-term elections, and they fully deserve the drubbing they are set to receive. Before the war that Trump illegally and unconstitutionally started, I was hoping for a strong anti-Republican mid-term turnout. The Trump/Republican war and gas-price-hike have supercharged that.
 
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ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
This is Perfect!

Trump will deliver a prime-time Address to the Nation tomorrow night, at 9:00 PM ET. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the speech via X (formerly Twitter), noting that it will provide a major update on the war in Iran.

Tomorrow is April Fools Day. I can think of no more appropriate time for the nation's top fool to speak. I don't think it will take long for the TV talking heads and headline writers to pick up this theme.
 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
I said I CAN walk to work. I did not say I do walk to work.

I care about fuel prices because my wife and I buy gas. So do the customers we serve in our business. When their money gets tight, our sales are affected, as are those of every other business Americans patronize. In other words, the Trump recession is coming soon. (Our business will be fine. We have ample reserves and we've been through hard times before. We'll pick up new customers from the competitors near us that go under.)

I also care because the obscene and totally unnecessary gas price hike can be attributed squarely to Trump and the Republicans who utterly failed to restrain him. They are going to pay a steep price for this in the mid-term elections, and they fully deserve the drubbing they are set to receive. Before the war that Trump illegally and unconstitutionally started, I was hoping for a strong anti-Republican mid-term turnout. The Trump/Republican war and gas-price-hike have supercharged that.
Thank you for your concession about the reality that high gas prices affect people and their “pocket books”. In the past when gas prices were high under Biden and Obama we mostly heard from the Left that this was necessary and good to suppress people’s driving habits to help with global warming and as a nudge to use electric vehicles instead. They discounted the real effect that higher energy prices had on a multitude of aspects within an economy.

This temporary blip in gas prices will be a dwarf of what we saw with the repetitive and debilitating roughly 4 year high gas prices we saw under Biden.
 
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muttly

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
"The shift appears to be driven by ..."

In other words, Grok cannot explain it either. It can only speculate. The fact remains that Trump's actions are fully contradictory. These are not the kind of reasoned actions stable and mentally healthy world leaders make. They are the actions of a madman and a fool.
Likelihood analysis is correct: (Grok)
IMG_3889.jpegIMG_3890.jpeg
 
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