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marmar

(79,406 posts)
Fri Jan 30, 2026, 09:17 AM Yesterday

Even Republicans are asking what is wrong with Trump


Even Republicans are asking what is wrong with Trump
The president's ineptitude over Minneapolis has some in the GOP saying he's "falling apart"

By Brian Karem
White House columnist
Published January 30, 2026 9:00AM (EST)


(Salon) President Donald Trump’s first Cabinet meeting of the year on Thursday looked like a remake of the movie “Freaks,” the 1932 horror film about a group of carnival sideshow performers. High government officials sang his praises, chanted their version of “one of us, one of us” and buried him in needless and irrelevant praise.

Later that afternoon, as Trump signed yet another executive order in the White House, the chanting was repeated. In neither case did the president entertain questions from the press — though we still have many after the recent killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal officers. During the Cabinet meeting, Trump didn’t even allow Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem the opportunity to speak.

It is apparent we’ve reached the point of no return. Untethered by reality, the Trump circus can no longer surprise any of us. But it is a growing danger to all of us — and the Republicans know it.

....(snip)....

The craziness is accelerating as Trump and his regime continue to disintegrate before our eyes. On Jan. 28 the “totally independent FBI,” as he has routinely called it many times during the past year, searched a government building in Fulton County, Georgia, which has been at the center of the president’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The FBI sought “a number of records” related to the election Trump lost — including all “physical ballots from the 2020 general election” in the county, according to a copy of the warrant viewed by the New York Times. ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/01/30/even-republicans-are-asking-what-is-wrong-with-trump/




14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Even Republicans are asking what is wrong with Trump (Original Post) marmar Yesterday OP
His heart is beating... LakeVermilion Yesterday #1
The lights are on but no one's home. nt Dulcinea 17 hrs ago #13
He has ALWAYS been this way. tanyev Yesterday #2
That and the dementia. ShazzieB 22 hrs ago #12
Only when they're facing total electoral destruction do Republicans confront reality. sop Yesterday #3
As long as their draconian Project 2025 is being implemented dlk Yesterday #4
They have a fix for that. littlemissmartypants Yesterday #8
...There's even more: Trump renewed his threats against Iran, demanding that it enter nuclear talks or face potential at riversedge Yesterday #5
And what the FUCK are they doing about it??? niyad Yesterday #6
Exactly!!! Fuck the lazy cowards. littlemissmartypants Yesterday #9
Good morning! niyad 23 hrs ago #11
trump is PUBLIC ENEMY #1 Blue Owl Yesterday #7
Further down the Salon article in the OP link FakeNoose 23 hrs ago #10
Sorry to have to repost this (again) He's a chatbot. Probably programmed by ChatGOP. usonian 9 hrs ago #14

tanyev

(48,812 posts)
2. He has ALWAYS been this way.
Fri Jan 30, 2026, 09:31 AM
Yesterday

The only change is that there were people trying to rein him in during his first term. Now he’s surrounded by people egging him on.

sop

(17,810 posts)
3. Only when they're facing total electoral destruction do Republicans confront reality.
Fri Jan 30, 2026, 09:38 AM
Yesterday

dlk

(13,160 posts)
4. As long as their draconian Project 2025 is being implemented
Fri Jan 30, 2026, 09:49 AM
Yesterday

Republicans couldn’t care less about Trump’s dysfunction, unless, of course, it comes back to bite them in the upcoming elections.

riversedge

(79,926 posts)
5. ...There's even more: Trump renewed his threats against Iran, demanding that it enter nuclear talks or face potential at
Fri Jan 30, 2026, 09:51 AM
Yesterday


.............There’s even more: Trump renewed his threats against Iran, demanding that it enter nuclear talks or face potential attack by an “armada” of U.S. warships. During the Cabinet meeting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth added, “They have all the options to make a deal. They should not pursue nuclear capabilities. We will be prepared to deliver whatever this President expects.”

But none of that compares to the absolute cartoonish insanity of the president sending off an email to supporters on Wednesday encouraging them to take a “Citizens Only Survey.” While Trump has backed down in Minneapolis, he admonished his supporters to respond to a survey unless, “Don’t tell me you’re an illegal alien?” Trump claimed it could not be true; he wanted the recipient to fill out the survey. The message ended with “Are you a proud American Citizen or does ICE need to come and track you down?”

He’s like a Bond villain without the witty repartee.

“That’s just nuts,” a Republican senator told me. “He’s falling apart.”


https://www.salon.com/2026/01/30/even-republicans-are-asking-what-is-wrong-with-trump/

FakeNoose

(40,553 posts)
10. Further down the Salon article in the OP link
Fri Jan 30, 2026, 11:19 AM
23 hrs ago
Meanwhile, in response to the president’s declaration against guns, the National Rifle Association declared in a statement that “all law-abiding citizens have a right to keep and bear arms anywhere they have a legal right to be.” In fact, history shows that the Second Amendment was adopted to allow citizens to defend themselves against an abusive federal government — the very scenario that has been playing out in Minneapolis.

“I can’t believe I’m siding with the NRA,” more than one liberal Democrat has told me. And in the strange bedfellows political department, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., called the Pretti shooting “very troubling” and said an investigation of the Department of Homeland Security is necessary. Two of his staffers also said that Trump’s statement “is not consistent with someone who supports the Second Amendment.”
- more at link -

Yes ... please DO investigate DHS immediately!

usonian

(23,977 posts)
14. Sorry to have to repost this (again) He's a chatbot. Probably programmed by ChatGOP.
Sat Jan 31, 2026, 01:50 AM
9 hrs ago
https://www.techdirt.com/2025/04/29/the-hallucinating-chatgpt-presidency/

Judge for yourself.

Tue, Apr 29th 2025 09:34am - Mike Masnick

We generally understand how LLM hallucinations work. An AI model tries to generate what seems like a plausible response to whatever you ask it, drawing on its training data to construct something that sounds right. The actual truth of the response is, at best, a secondary consideration.

snip

But over the last few months, it has occurred to me that, for all the hype about generative AI systems “hallucinating,” we pay much less attention to the fact that the current President does the same thing, nearly every day. The more you look at the way Donald Trump spews utter nonsense answers to questions, the more you begin to recognize a clear pattern — he answers questions in a manner quite similar to early versions of ChatGPT. The facts don’t matter, the language choices are a mess, but they are all designed to present a plausible-sounding answer to the question, based on no actual knowledge, nor any concern for whether or not the underlying facts are accurate.

snip

This is not the response of someone working from actual knowledge or policy understanding. Instead, it’s precisely how an LLM operates: taking a prompt (the question about job losses) and generating text based on some core parameters (the “system prompt” that requires deflecting blame and asserting greatness).

The hallmarks of AI generation are all here:
• Confident assertions without factual backing
• Meandering diversions that maintain loose semantic connection to the topic
• Pattern-matching to previous responses (“ripped off,” “billions of dollars”)
• Optimization for what sounds good rather than what’s true




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