Barack Obama Is Also Scared Shitless That Donald Trump Could Win Another Term: Report
Barack Obama Is Also Scared Shitless That Donald Trump Could Win Another Term: Report
The former president reportedly relayed his fears to Joe Biden in late June.
What scares me shitless is the idea that Trump is what the US is and what the US has earned. Who's ready for that conversation?
100% this. Im German and I feel so strange that americans are choosing this guy for president. Not to be offensive, but damn.
As an American I feel that a majority of Americans loathe him. The issue lies in not all those people vote.
What scares me is that any Americans vote for him. How can you be so blinded and not see what a lying, cheating grifter that he is. The man is not intelligent, doesn’t read, is petty to a fault, vindictive, spiteful, narcissistic, nepotistic and just generally not a good person. Why would you choose that for a leader? It’s because you share those traits. That’s what scares me.
You should be offensive, we deserve it.
We picked an absolute trash human as our leader, a sizeable portion of which chose him specifically because they wanted him to hurt people (see: "he's not hurting the right people" woman.) That same group will often cite their desired outcome for any given thing is "to see liberals cry/get mad."
Hillary Clinton made a mistake by saying it out loud, but she was 100% correct when she said a large portion of Trump supporters are "a basket of deplorables." They absolutely are and are deserving of scorn.
I just hate how well propaganda works and how much money a random grifting asshole can make by parroting bullshit on YouTube, they boost each other and perpetuate this garbage era we're going through...
Same here. I think this is what happens when education is underfundet. I'm happy we're back to G9 but we should definitely pay teachers more to counteract the lack of teachers and ensure every teacher has sufficient time to do their job well.
Otherwise people cannot be taught to think critical, question "why is he saying X?" instead of just weather it is true or not. Often understanding why somebody is saying sometimg at the time they do is much more important after all.
Americans aren't. A corrupt system is.
There are a lot of germans voting for idiots which just repeat a few Trump topics a few months later. :(
Yep. He is who the U.S. has become. We are an embarrassment.
No, Trump is the hail mary of the US ruling class. They are scared that the people just start ignoring the government and take power, so they give them demagogues
They're called representatives for a reason.
well yeah we have an attempted fascist overthrow of our government about once every 100 years or so because we like to stay just this side of fascism on a normal day
We all should be. But that won't happen if people go out there and vote, godamnit.
And don't just vote to keep Trump out.
Vote to keep him and his party out of office.
We don't get a vote of no confidence. There's no box to check that says "No Trump".
Also, Hillary got more votes than Trump did, so simply having more voters on your side doesn't necessarily mean that Trump will lose.
So .. don't vote? There absolutely is a No Trump voting option - only one - and it's voting for Biden. There are several Yes Trump voting options: vote for Trump specifically, vote for a third party candidate, or vote for no one. It's not that complicated.
Do the electoral map and electoral college make this difficult to achieve? Of course. But we can only win if we vote, and are guaranteed to lose if we don't.
The fascists love voter apathy. Don't do their job for them.
True, but remember "did not vote" was higher then either Hillary or Trump first time around.
I was apathetic in 2016, I didn't care enough to vote for her, or know enough to vote against Trump.
I voted against Trump on 2020, and now I've seen enough I will vote for Biden in 2024, assuming he is the nominee. Otherwise, it's another vote against Trump.
My point is, there was a real disconnect back in 2016, and a lot of people just couldn't be bothered.
Trumps base has only gotten smaller, but the people who know and want to keep him out has grown. I suspect we will see both significant turn out, and significant voter suppression in 2024.
""In a normal society, a former president—let’s call him Donald Trump—who’s been indicted three times in under four months, on charges ranging from obstruction of justice to conspiracy to defraud the United States, would have absolutely no chance of ever being president again. It straight up would not be a scenario anyone would have to even contemplate; even if this individual were not in prison, the idea that they would be able to run for and win higher office once more would not compute.
But unfortunately, we don’t live in a normal society; instead, we live in a place in which millions of people not only still support Donald Trump, but grow fonder of him with every new criminal charge. Which means that, despite the aforementioned indictments*, the twice-impeached, thrice-indicted ex-president is dominating every other candidate for the Republican nomination, and currently looks to be the most likely GOP nominee in the 2024 general election. That, of course, scares the shit out of a lot of people—including, apparently, one Barack Obama. Whose fear, it has to be said, is extremely unsettling!
The Washington Post reports that during a private lunch with Joe Biden in late June, the 44th president “voiced concern about Donald Trump’s political strengths—including an intensely loyal following, a Trump-friendly conservative media ecosystem, and a polarized country—underlining his worry that Trump could be a more formidable candidate than many Democrats realize.” According to people familiar with the conversation, “Obama made it clear his concerns were not about Biden’s political abilities, but rather a recognition of Trump’s iron grip on the Republican Party.”
Obama’s concerns are certainly warranted: In a New York Times/Siena poll released on Monday, Trump led his closest competition, Ron DeSantis, by a whopping 37 points. An even wilder data point that seems to validate Obama’s fears was that Trump beat DeSantis even among Republicans who believe he committed “serious federal crimes.” To be clear, that means these people believe Trump is a criminal, and want him to be president anyway.
As FiveThirtyEight optimistically notes, should Trump be convicted before November 5, 2024, voters might be less inclined to cast a ballot for him, and presumably they’d be even less so if he’s sentenced to time in prison. (In the case of the most recent indictment, two of the charges carry up to 20 years behind bars, and compared to her colleagues, the judge assigned to the case has imposed the toughest sentences for January 6 defendants.) Though, who knows!
As for a potential Trump-Biden rematch, another Times/Siena Poll poll published this week put the two in a tie, with each receiving 43% of the vote—which, for people who think democracy is worth preserving, is pretty pants-shittingly scary.
In somewhat happier news, Obama reportedly promised at the same June lunch “to do all he could to help the president get reelected.” And in a statement, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign told the Post: “President Biden is grateful for his unwavering support, and looks forward to once again campaigning side-by-side with President Obama to win in 2024 and finish the job for the American people.”
*And everything else!
Mike Pence giveth and Mike Pence taketh away
Yes, he tweeted yesterday that “anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President,” but then he basically suggested today that Trump was just listening to his lawyers’ advice when he tried to overturn the election—which, coincidentally, is a defense Trump is reportedly planning to use."
Honest question, how can we ever get out of this? Is it just human nature for most of the population to not have critical thinking skills? Is it possible to reach a world where the majority of people have even just a little empathy?
It's just so sad. It's so clear to anyone even kinda paying attention that we possess the technical capacity as a society to meet everyone's needs and eliminate so much human-caused suffering at the detriment to absolutely nobody. We could be working toward a society where everyone has community, safety, security, opportunity. We could do so much if all we did was kind of give a shit about each other.
But no. Let's elect the guy who mocked a disabled reporter, encourages white supremacy, committed treason, etc.
Donald Trump is just a guy. A shitty guy, but just a guy. He's not what is ruining the world, but the fact that so many Americans want to vote for that shitty guy as president shows that a massive portion of the population is also just some shitty person, and fuck if that doesn't just burn up all my hope for this world.
the fact that so many Americans want to vote for that shitty guy as president shows that a massive portion of the population is also just some shitty person
They are scared and have been convinced that he is the only one that can help them. They are not just "shitty people voting for a shitty person" they really believe that the deep state is out to get Donald and these charges are overblown and that Donald will really save America. They won't realize that Trump only cares about Trump; even if Trump gets another term and burns down the government and fucks everyone they still will think Donald is just one week away from unveiling his plan to fix it all.
Nationalism and nativism pops up every few generations. Always has. We beat it every time and it shuts up and the world dramatically improves for a while. As it improves, some people become nativists and nationalists, and the cycle repeats.
Google the "Know-Nothing Party." Trump isn't anything new at all.
Only problem is, just like a super hero, we have to win every time, and they only have to win once.
We shame them for being shitty. Don't engage them in debate, they are used to that. Don't try to use facts, because they don't care about facts. Don't try to convince them of shit.
Make them feel like outcasts and bad people. Brush off what they say when they say horrible shit. Make them have emotional responses to their shitty views. Conservative news targets these people by exploiting their emotions.
And vote. Vote for people who will fix our education system so that our next generation knows how to think for themselves.
I'm left of centre, and here's my take - the "left" is fucking up so badly that the right is going to win.
Ever play a sport and you just trounce your opponent, but the coach says "you weren't that good! They were just that bad tonight."
This is the same thing. Trump and the GOP aren't doing some amazing job of campaigning and manipulating, they're just up against the weakest opponent who can't stop scoring on their own fucking net.
David Brooks wrote a good article in the New York Times today that tries to help shift perspectives a bit to understand this. I'd highly recommend reading it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opinion/trump-meritocracy-educated.html
Too much of our democracy relies on good faith
100% true.
We also like to parrot shit like "no one is above the law" while requiring perfect situations before ever questioning elected leaders like the president when they blatantly break the law. The US has inverse responsibility, where we blame the poor for being poor and give the wealthy every possible chance to buy their way out of crimes.
They were coming to kill him, and the spinless fuck Pence can't even stand up for himself.
Mother must be getting tired of looking at his lack of balls when they get ready to shag.
@eurekaphoenix
Wonder how these self-same Republicans would react if Obama had operated like Trump and was being indicted for the same alleged crimes? 🤔
Can confirm
Hi. Big fan. Hope you are well.
Look, anyone with a working brain should be worried about the prospect, because if he wins, then that means we're in for the worst four years (and probably much longer than four years) of our lives here in the United States. I don't think we come back from that.
If Trump wins re-election, I think it's entirely non-hyperbolic to say that democracy in this country is over. Think of the things he tried to do with some, obviously-too-small, guard rails. He attempted a literal coup. Literally throw away votes. Literally has one of his chief advisors saying that if people protested said coup, they would use the insurrection act, or more directly, use the military to put down to put down those protesting the coup. There is a very small number of things that prevented this from happening, not the least of which is just a tiny handful of people being like "uh, we can't actually do this, right?"
I don't entirely disagree, but it's also true that Trump exposed some serious flaws in our political system, and that serious people have been working very hard since Jan 6th to make it much harder to do what he and his cohorts did. One example would be the supreme court victory that struck down a proposed law that would have allowed state congresses to ignore election results. Not saying everything's okay now, but maybe it's not quite so dire. Of course, most democratic coups happen when an individual or group just decides they won't follow the rules anymore, so there is that little problem with trying to litigate ourselves out of this mess.
Most distressingly, he learned that he has a literal mob/cult willing to stand behind him and do anything he tells them to, no matter how abhorrent.
Correct. Can't let it happen.
We haven't come back from his actual four years yet, and probably won't for a very long time. The prospect of him returning to finish the country off is a nightmare.
Not just for you guys but the world. The world as we know it is at stake as USA is currently the world's superpower.
And outside the US. With Trump, russia might even try to take a bite out of NATO
As should we all.
I'm more surprised that he's allowed to try for another term.
I'm not, USA politics is pure corruption wrapped up nice with a bow. It's a joke and that's been extremely apparent since 2016
Bush pretty much set the stage for all this shit with his stolen election, fear mongering, illegal wars....
We thought Obama could fix us, but we underestimated the amount of racism in this country.
So the rednecks lashed out at seeing a black, kind, educated, honest, funny man in power, so they decided to elect the exact opposite of him.
2016? Let me tell you about a little supreme court decision from 2000 called Bush v. Gore.
Innocent until proven guilty, and ongoing criminal trials, or even convictions can't bar someone from the presidency.
imagine a world where Donald could just eliminate political opponents by having them arrested and put on trial just before an election. Personally, I'm a fan of democracy
That's what's gonna end up happening anyway whether it's Trump or DeSantis, or anyone sufficiently power hungry. The idea that any system we build can protect us from people like that is a fucking joke and needs to be abandoned.
Obama has the resources to flee the country. The rest of us do not. What are we as individuals do when half of the country decides to abandon democracy and the rule of law? Asking for a friend…
America is the world’s only superpower. No matter where you run, global consequence will follow if Trump is re-elected.
Part of me, I guess the defeatist part, just kinda wants to get it over with.
I have no problem with allowing him to run (as of today) because (as of today) there's nothing prohibiting him. I do have a problem with more than a third of this country willing to vote for him. How stupid and/or bigoted can we possibly get?
The founding fathers of this country established rules that (as of today) both ensured and prevented what's currently transpiring. If it were the case that a subset of the government were trying to oust a political leader, The People should still have a say as to who represents them and bring "balance"(?) to the government. But also, if The People are being a bunch of idiots, the Electoral College can overrule their stupidity. It might be worth noting that the founding fathers also owned other humans as if they were livestock and didn't believe a woman had the same rights as a man. So, to say "some mistakes were made" would be understating it. RANKED. CHOICE. VOTING.
We gotta stop giving a fuck what the founding fathers did or wanted. They've been dead for centuries, they owned slaves and thought women couldn't vote. They couldn't even imagine drinking a baja blast or eating a pizza with fried chicken for a crust. The future is now, fuck em.
I don’t believe the constitution has worked for this country for the past 50 years (if ever) but without amending it we’re left with anarchy. I think the US is a failed experiment but I still respect its founding as a rejection of oppression. They took a big first step, every year we take more little steps, we may need to see a much bigger step in our lifetimes. They did know that things would take place that the could never imagine. This is why the federal government’s abilities are so restricted and more power is given to the states to legislate more freely. In such a connected world as we have now though, maybe states aren’t a viable solution. Or maybe they are and we just don’t know how to live in them anymore.
This needs to be on billboards across the country.
Seriously, I'll never fathom why we still even talk about the outside of history classes. They were humans, and not even particularly good ones. We're the ones who have to live with the US of today, we get to decide how it's run
It's good to be concerned. If that treasonous rapist trump got in again, it's game over for freedom and democracy globally.
We tossed all that out the window in a 5-4 SCOTUS case back on December 12, 2000. Zoomers aren't old enough to remember what living in a liberal democracy is like. And even then, I'm here to say it wasn't exactly sunshine and roses.
I think we should all be alarmed.
I hear the alarmism, but then I look at the rest of the field and... Idk, man. Am I supposed to be rooting for Ron "I'll Slit All Your Throats!" DeSantis? Should I be holding out for Mike "God Will Make Me
KingPresident Sooner or Later" Pence? Vivek Ramaswamy, author of Woke, Inc? Nikki "When Can We Bomb Iran" Haley?If I'm alarmed, its only because our best bet for 2024 appears to be the incumbent Democrat, a guy who is slightly to the left and marginally more cognizant than Ronald Reagan was in 1984.
Who isn't, except the dumb nutcases.
Let's get real for a second, Biden and Trump are both terrible choices.
Pretty much the only ray of hope I have is that Biden dies before the election so a new Obama-type can slip in there.
Like why haven't the Democrats been looking for someone else? They've had like 8 years to find someone that can beat Trump.
These "nut-cases" are not going to vote for Biden. And Biden hasn't exactly been a great President. His weakness in Afghanistan and Ukraine looks really bad. He's going to have a near-impossivle re-election.
I couldn't care less about what Obama thinks when he squandered all that hopeful energy in 2008.
Yes
we canyou could have!
I bet GWBush is scarred of it too. Even if he is a republican.
Yep, that’s the headline. Never change Vanity Fair.
If I could go back in time and either kill Hilter or convince Obama to lay off Trump at that White House Correspondents' Dinner, the Jews would have lived 3 out of 4 times, but that 4th time, it would have been Rubio vs. Clinton (the butch one).
I've always wondered what the world would be like if Hitler died or didn't come into power. A lot good things happened because of the horrible things that Hitler caused.
Yeah I'm one of those who wouldn't go back in time and kill Hitler as I'm not entirely sure it would have led to a better outcome. For starters Hitler didn't build the concept of fascism, he was just the first to take it to its end state. Kill Hitler and you could just end up with a situation where WW2 was a fight against Himmler.
I thought the young was gonna get out and vote for real this time
skimmed, pence is one braindead dude. 2016 all the media was saying Hillary would win. nobody bothered to vote. I did. remember talking to election volunteers about low turnout. rain or shine, vote
As a non-American it's crazy to me that there's so little movement to get away from the broken FPPTP voting system. It locks you into a two-party system where you vote against a candidate you fear/despise rather than voting for one you actually agree with. Any vote for someone else is a wasted vote. There are plenty of better voting systems widely used around the world.
Obviously the two parties empowered by this system aren't going to change it voluntarily. I don't understand how there aren't tons of petitions, protests, rioting, etc to try to force this to change.
It sounds tinfoilish but it's true - the news media that most Americans get their news from don't want to talk about (mainly because the broken system we have is to the benefit of the companies who own them).
Also, a depressingly lot of voters only have an issue with the two party system because it's one party too many, not too few. Each party (though one in particular imo) has spent the last few decades convincing their base that they're the only thing standing between them and chaos. I'd wager a lot of voters would be terrified at the notion of third parties actually gaining power
The American political system is extremely broken. Part of me wonders if making voting mandatory would help. I believe our biggest problem is not having enough younger people in public office, and that may be a result of not enough young adults voting. Not just for presidential elections, but for local/midterm elections as well. Obviously it's not something we can change right away, but I think we need to set ourselves on that path.
We have too many people in office who only care about the short-term goals because they're going to die soon anyway.
We need term limits and quite possibly age limits in every aspect of public office. Sadly, the people who have the ability to make those changes are the ones benefitting from the current broken system. So they won't make it happen.
Europe feels
People should decide to vote for a party they agree with rather than the faux two-sided coin we deal with today. We are multi-party system yet everyone treats it as bipartisan.
The two parties WANT you to think you are "wasting your vote" by voting for something other than them. The fact that you CAN vote for another party disproves this. Vote for a party you actually believe in, and keep voting, spread the message and you will see change.
All it takes is one vote, and maybe you won't be that vote, but you can tell someone else to do the same. Maybe they won't be that vote, but the next person can be, or the next person. You see where I'm getting at?
That's called a movement, and it starts with you.
Why are people downvoting this?
You know exactly why, it's because it is the truth and they didn't want to hear it. This is why I try to stay out of political discussions because it always boils down to "yeah well I'm X team and the Y team is bad because X said so!".
People say they want change yet here we are, restricting freedoms with each election, the only difference being the types of freedoms restricted change when the other party finally gets into office.
You can read the history books, these people are not your friends, all they care about is controlling the people, and they are so dick-brained that they can't even agree amongst themselves how they should do it.
US is two-party system. If you want to change it you need to get rid of FPTP first.
Downvote due to mysterious sensationalism
It's not gonna happen in this timeline
What timeline you living in?
You're all fired!!!
Good. Obama and every other american president should be in the hague
As a non American, I was pretty intrigued by the first Trump presidency. I'm actually kinda looking forward to Trump II: The Trumpening.
One man, one country, four indictments.
At the risk of worsening climate change? Because Trump and the GOP plan on undoing every commitment made by the Biden administration.
This is why humans will never solve big problems like climate change. We can't see past our own nose and it's fucking embarrassing.
Of course he is. He was an imperfect president, but he did mean well for his country.
Hitler was an imperfect leader, but he did mean well for his country....
...you see how ridiculous that sounds?
You're the one who sounds ridiculous by comparing Obama to Hitler.
I think you meant Obama in this comment, but most people seem to believe you’re referring to Trump
Definitely referring to Obama. Trump has never meant well in his life.
Many politicians are more corrupt than Trump but they're likeable and they mean well so it's ok.
In what way did he mean well for the country? Because as far as I can tell, most of his efforts were spent on making he and his cronies richer.
I won't argue against that. The corruption is rampant and even most of our better politicians engage in it.
Does Barack Obama give a shit about anything?
He can't anymore, he's shitless.
Biden doesn't have a chance on reelection. The guy needs to retire and the left knows it. Biden makes Carter look competent.
I mean yes, let’s all come together and shit on the one president that has accomplished more than the last 5 combined because he’s old and he fell that one time riding a bike.
At least biden isn't gonna brag about beating a cognition test.
Camera, chair , woman. See totally sane. He even drew a clock and identified a giraffe!
He bragged about being top of his class in law school, a lie. He bragged about being involved in the civil rights movements, also a lie. He plagiarized someone elses speeches. This list is endless
Carter? Why mention Carter? Not Nixon? Not Harding? Why not Trump? Bush? Fucking Taft? What’s the reason for the Carter comparison? I don’t know what you’re on about.
These are two separate things.
Yes, I agree that he should retire and pass the torch to whoever wins an open primary without interference by the DNC.
But that doesn't mean he can't win.
I'd vote for a cat with mange and one eye who lives in an IHOP dumpster over a Nazi sympathizer.
I would certainly prefer nearly anyone reasonable over that cat.
But I'll be damned if I'm going to not vote against the collapse of American democracy, irrespective of how enthused or not I am about who that vote is ultimately for.
Though really, it's the two party system that needs retirement.
I probably agree with ~80% of the US electorate on the issues that are actually most important to me. Which means we should have one party that represents that vast majority with aggressive open ranked choice primaries to see who controls it, with fringe groups like outspoken communists or fascists needing to run severely minority candidates rather than kidnapping half the nation by getting lucky during a fragmented closed primary process with a dozen candidates for only half the nation.
Nazi Germany could have been defeated with ranked choice voting well before WWII.
American democracy must be preserved or the world is fucked, but it should also probably get a bit of an update with the best features developed and vetted in democracies since 1776.
First of thank you for a well thought out rebuttle, I'm going to need a bit to support and counter some of your points. I didnt want to not reply and think I was just trolling/ghosting.
Refusing to allow their candidate be primaried, refusing debates, suing to keep other partys off the ballot doesn't sound that democratic. If democrats were truly concerned about keeping republicans out of office they need to make the moral choice and vote 3rd party. Because we will not support your neoliberal, corporate owned, warhawk. Doesnt matter if its red or blue in office, the working class and poor continue to get fucked over by them. And being told they are doing well, despite the evidence they are not, is not that convincing.
The guy needs to retire and the left knows it.
Unlike Trump, who is- checks notes- three years younger than Biden.
And uhm -checks notes- is an alledged criminal
Just because Trump’s almost as old doesn’t mean the left has to pick a fossil to run alongside him. Why give the GOP a handicap when we know the alternative is the death of democracy in America?
And who else has a better shot of beating Trump? If you reused the 2020 primary list, would any of them fare better? No.
Biden sucks but he’s the best they have still.
Kennedy, bringing a centrist Democrat will decimate the the right. I'm a Republican and I will vote for Kennedy if he gets the D nod. We all know he won't but thats the current state of affairs.
We need to get back to sanity, we need centrists. We need unity and a candidate like Kennedy will get us back on track.
EDIT:
I type faster than I think and left out a few bits.
“The left”. Who dat?
do you really want to see the poll numbers for a harris (the incumbent vp) vs trump matchup? that is, if harris could even make it through the democratic primaries?
Harris would never make it, that idiot giggle turns off everyone. Also is she Black or Indian? Seems to change with the breeze, and dumb as a box of hammers.
RFK is the only hope for the DNC.
And I don't think he would make it, I'm guessing Republicans will win. "Bidennomics" is enough to sink the DNC's chances.
Biden is starting to make Palin look competent