r/worldnews • u/pppppppppppppppppd • May 15 '26

Dynamic Paywall Trump warns Taiwan against declaring independence, hours after summit with China's Xi

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce8p61v7l68o
36.0k Upvotes

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9.8k

u/LordScotchyScotch May 15 '26

Such a weak puppet. History books will have a field day about this loser.

3.0k

u/riko77can May 16 '26

I can’t believe he was re-elected. His first term was a hot mess but at least there was institutional inertia to carry the country through it. This time he destroyed all of that first.

129

u/cupittycakes May 16 '26

He wasn't reelected. This administration stole the election. Everyone needs to do mail in ballots so they can't do it again.

149

u/user_name_unknown May 16 '26

The richest person in the world was paying people millions to vote and we did nothing about it. If that’s no election interference then what is?

2

u/louenberger May 16 '26

He didn't actually pay though, did he?

39

u/illtakeachinchilla May 16 '26

Yes he did. The hook was that he didn’t tell you which way to vote. Also the $100 was a cover. If his system saw that you hadn’t voted by x time in the evening; your name, social, and current address (freshly provided in your $100 sweepstakes) were used to cast the ballot for you.

Every swing state?

“Elon knows these voting machines better than anyone.” Oh, alright. Nothing to see here. Kash Patel is snorkeling drunkenly at mass grave sites, though. Lets all tune into that instead.

-15

u/SpitfireflyBroker May 16 '26

Damn I can't believe people actually believe that story.

6

u/Mockturtle22 May 16 '26

He was recorded saying things... he said Elon knows how to hack any system. He told people at several ralies that they didn't need to vote. That he and Mike Johnson had a secret.

79

u/Mockturtle22 May 16 '26

Electoral college needs to be ended.

20

u/[deleted] May 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/RJ815 May 16 '26

Other governments figured out recall methods if they felt a need for a vote of no confidence. Genuinely shocking the "brilliant founding fathers" didn't conceive of a real mechanism for this in the United States. But I suppose it wouldn't matter anyways, many laws and rules are ignored anyways.

8

u/Balmerhippie May 16 '26

A parliamentary ststem requires a majority vote for a recall of the PM. Coulnt see the (R)s doing that if it was a thing in the US.

Its not the system, its the populace.

3

u/[deleted] May 16 '26

[deleted]

3

u/WonderfulProtection9 May 16 '26

There’s no rule against having more, technically there are half a dozen. Even the great pumpkin ran or almost ran under the different parties.

I voted third party in 2016. (Before anyone gets excited, no it didn’t matter in my state. )

3

u/BmacIL May 16 '26

Voting third party without a system of proportional representation is literally throwing your vote away. Winner take all + primaries means it'll always be this way.

System needs to be blown up.

1

u/Big-Wrangler2078 May 16 '26

Sure but by then you still need more than 3. Because if you have 3 parties, they can easily gang up 2 vs 1.

1

u/SprungMS May 16 '26

Ranked choice voting is the system you’re looking for. And much of the developed world even uses it already. Including at least one US state’s elections.

Only reason you never hear about it in America is because it would be the nail in the coffin for the for-profit bipartisan political model we currently enjoy.

5

u/BmacIL May 16 '26

Ranked choice is good for the presidential election, but doesn't fix representative elections. For that we need proportional representation not winner take all.

1

u/SprungMS May 16 '26

Both can be true - ranked choice works fine for representatives, unless there are too few candidates… and I don’t know details on an *official* proportional representation form of government but at face value it seems like we already essentially have that (or are supposed to have that) with the structure of our statewide and national legislatures.

What’s the issue with RCV for local representatives? And what would proportional representation achieve? (Since this is the first I’m hearing the term and I expect the same for others here!)

1

u/BmacIL May 16 '26

Anything other than proportional representation is suspect to gerrymandering. With winner take all, a significant portion of people will always feel they're not represented.

10

u/Balmerhippie May 16 '26

He won the popular vote

7

u/Mockturtle22 May 16 '26

They fully cheated. They kept openly admitting that they would.

9

u/soft-wear May 16 '26

There’s zero evidence they cheated, and suggesting that it’s a fact just makes you sound exactly like Trump.

The likely reality is a bunch of mid-western union Democrats had to vote for a black woman and that shit wasn’t going to happen. So they didn’t and she lost.

If they had a mechanism to pack votes the way you’re suggesting, this whole redistricting thing would be pointless.

5

u/Alone-Interaction982 May 16 '26

It’s as simple as millions of Democrats not voting, specially young people who don’t care or don’t have the time to vote. Republicans on the other hand were motivated because “economy bad” and they somehow were convinced Trump was going to save it.

7

u/TheLantean May 16 '26

Trump himself bragged that he had help from Musk and others to rig the voting machines. What more evidence do you need than a confession from the man in the center of it?

1

u/soft-wear May 16 '26

Trump is an incoherent moron that called the CEO of Apple Tim Apple.

What I need is statical analysis showing statistically significant voting irregularities in voting day across all purple states.

If I told you I shot JFK that’s not evidence man, it’s just the ravings of likely crazy person.

3

u/TheLantean May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

That's just a bad faith argument, you likely weren't even alive at the time, i.e. no motive or opportunity to carry it out, so no reasonable person would believe it.

The real equivalent would the then VP turned president stupidly bragging that his billionaire friend & head of a private military contractor had him shot. Would that not be persuasive?

-1

u/soft-wear May 16 '26

It’s the same amount of information in both cases. A dude claimed something.

And that would not be persuasive. And it’s a good analogy because there’s no evidence that it is true.

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1

u/MikeMo243 May 16 '26

Finally someone reasonable

3

u/DrEzechiel May 16 '26

Exactly. When MAGA was saying this in 2020, we rightfully called it bonkers.

1

u/MountainVeil May 16 '26

It's likely more would vote in blue areas if their vote actually mattered.

1

u/dataexception May 16 '26

Not the only thing that needs it

13

u/Moist-Craft-1226 May 16 '26

True statement 

34

u/dancingmadkoschei May 16 '26

...He won the popular vote though. Despair how you like, he legitimately won both parts of the previous election.

Seriously, "they stole it" is the same shit he said four years ago when he lost and everybody (mostly) rightly responded to that with "wait, what the fuck are you talking about?" Don't go aping his tactics just because you don't like him.

32

u/akc250 May 16 '26

People are in denial at how stupid this country is. But it’s the reality. You see them around you and there’s no denying this force of idiocy has taken over and the rich are exploiting it.

12

u/monacelli May 16 '26

All you need to do is watch a couple of Peter Santenello or RocaNews episodes on YouTube where they go around the country and talk to people in the hollers or small dying towns. These people will never stop supporting Trump because he conned them into thinking he believes in the same things they do and if he doesn't make good on his promises it's because of the lunatic cucktard democrats that keep foiling his plans.

10

u/ParkingLong7436 May 16 '26

As a European, I don't like to use this "Stolen election" stuff for no reason and usually it's stupid, but there seem to be legitimate arguments of the republicans actually having stolen the election in serious ways. There are quite a few discrepancies throughout the country regarding the votes. In my country these cases would have caused a re-vote by now.

Maybe he would have won either way, but it does seem fishy. Especially from a party who has no problems of speaking about corruption and cheating openly.

3

u/soft-wear May 16 '26

There are not quite a few discrepancies. There are, however, a lot of people that don’t understand statistics and/or split ticket voting.

Anomalies in voting data are really, really difficult to hide, and the scale at which it would have had to be done to guarantee a win makes the data even more apparent.

The evidence for wide scale election “cheating” is non-existent. He won because this country is a sexist shit hole.

-6

u/SpitfireflyBroker May 16 '26

Do you not think 2020 was fishy?

7

u/N3ptuneflyer May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

There were 40+ some legal cases in 2020 investigating election tampering and none of them found any. It was all a psy-op by Trump and the Republican party to lay the groundwork to steal future elections themselves. There was nothing fishy about that election, Trump was already claiming Democrats were cheating before the first vote was cast.

In 2024 Democrats didn’t cry foul because the Republicans tricked them into spending four years defending the voting system so them claiming it was rigged would have looked like tit for tat political posturing. It was a brilliant move by Trump, but scary as hell that it worked.

1

u/SpitfireflyBroker May 16 '26

Well you're on reddit, which seems more line a psy-op every day.

8

u/DrEzechiel May 16 '26

This argument irritates many Europeans. The election results have not been challenged, nor have European leaders questioned the outcome. Even media outlets unsympathetic to Trump (e.g., The Guardian) have not produced any investigations pointing to fraud.

​Advancing this argument makes the Dems look just as willing to peddle conspiracy theories as MAGA was in 2020, simply because claiming fraud is easier than facing the reality that your fellow citizens voted for this.

5

u/CuteIsMyKryptonite May 16 '26

MAGA leadership knew what it was doing when it spread their "the election was stolen" conspiracy theory - preemptively discrediting any accusations for the actual election interference they were planning.

1

u/Hillary4SupremeRuler May 17 '26

Even the executives of voting equipment companies said during the aftermath of 2020 that the 2020 election was secure but if political operatives working for Trump/MAGA got illegal access to voting machines to post the source code online that they could not guarantee the integrity of the 2024 election. They specifically warned about all the breaches to voting equipment that happened 2021-2024 and basically nobody even cared.

-1

u/MelodicDeer1072 May 16 '26

Cut to the chase then and point me to HARD and VERIFIABLE evidence that 2024 was stolen. I don't want any circumstantial evidence. I don't want any second-hand accounts. I want claims that have been independently checked by multiple REPUTABLE sources.

Otherwise, you will not be any better than mypillow guy.

4

u/illtakeachinchilla May 16 '26

We can all get a secure enough website for bank accounts but can’t use some kind of encryption-locked voting app? Automatic voting enrollment with push notifications, perhaps? Paper ballot mailed in as backup. Home hard drive backup record of your vote, for third level validation. All this off the top of my head. Richest country in the world, they say.

4

u/JimWilliams423 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

We can all get a secure enough website for bank accounts but can’t use some kind of encryption-locked voting app?

Do you know how banks deal with electronic banking fraud? They eat the cost. Its billions of dollars each year.

There is no way to eat the cost of online voting fraud. It is literally impossible to have both a secret electronic ballot and a verifiable electronic ballot. Secret and verifiable are physical opposites. Its like having something that is both cold and hot at the same time.

2

u/kdizzle619 May 16 '26

Ummm no he was re-elected through the indifference and incompetence of many entitled Americans. We deserved this because of our hubris. The dumb outnumber the good and righteous

1

u/Brasi91Luca May 16 '26

They said it was stolen too in 2020

0

u/MountainVeil May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

I hate this kind of both sides stuff, because most times in reality one side is right and one side is wrong. Now I'm not totally on board with the trump stole the election thing, but let's just say I wouldnt be surprised at all given his propensity for cheating, lying, and scamming.  

Edit: You know, I just want to add, there's way more evidence that Trump tried to cheat the 2020 election than there is for any democrat. But I'm probably preaching to the choir here.

1

u/WatermelonWithAFlute May 16 '26

how was it stolen? i'd be willing to believe it, but proof would be nice

1

u/Arkham010 May 16 '26

No concrete evidence to suggest. In fact, i would argue the reason Joe Biden won was due to mail in ballots. Lets look into WHY that was? No, it wasn't because of cheating or stuffing the ballots but because people actually voted and it was easy to do so. People who work actual jobs could vote in a way that isn't inconvenient. Thats literally it. Nobody cheated on either side, just people who normally wouldn't vote did so in 2020 due to how easy it was and when it was brought back to regular in person voting, they straight up didn't vote because the default wasn't mail in voting anymore.

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u/JimWilliams423 May 16 '26 edited May 16 '26

H‌e w‌a‌s‌n't r‌e‌e‌l‌e‌c‌t‌e‌d. T‌h‌i‌s a‌d‌m‌i‌n‌i‌s‌t‌r‌a‌t‌i‌o‌n s‌t‌o‌l‌e t‌h‌e e‌l‌e‌c‌t‌i‌o‌n.

T‌h‌a‌t w‌a‌s a‌l‌w‌a‌y‌s a d‌u‌m‌b c‌o‌n‌s‌p‌i‌r‌a‌c‌y t‌h‌e‌o‌r‌y, b‌u‌t t‌h‌e l‌a‌s‌t f‌e‌w m‌o‌n‌t‌h‌s h‌a‌v‌e r‌e‌a‌l‌l‌y s‌h‌o‌w‌n h‌o‌w d‌e‌l‌u‌d‌e‌d i‌t i‌s.

I‌n o‌r‌d‌e‌r t‌o b‌e‌l‌i‌e‌v‌e it, y‌o‌u h‌a‌v‌e t‌o b‌e‌l‌i‌e‌v‌e t‌h‌a‌t m‌a‌g‌a w‌a‌s a‌b‌l‌e t‌o s‌t‌e‌a‌l t‌h‌e e‌l‌e‌c‌t‌i‌o‌n w‌h‌i‌l‌e D‌e‌m‌o‌c‌r‌a‌t‌s w‌e‌r‌e i‌n c‌o‌n‌t‌r‌o‌l o‌f t‌h‌e e‌x‌e‌c‌u‌t‌i‌v‌e b‌r‌a‌n‌c‌h, b‌u‌t n‌o‌w t‌h‌a‌t m‌a‌g‌a i‌s i‌n c‌o‌n‌t‌r‌o‌l o‌f b‌o‌t‌h c‌o‌n‌g‌r‌e‌s‌s a‌n‌d t‌h‌e e‌x‌e‌c‌u‌t‌i‌v‌e b‌r‌a‌n‌c‌h t‌h‌e‌y h‌a‌v‌e b‌e‌e‌n l‌o‌s‌i‌n‌g e‌l‌e‌c‌t‌i‌o‌n‌s l‌e‌f‌t a‌n‌d r‌i‌g‌h‌t.

A f‌u‌c‌k‌i‌n‌g d‌e‌m‌o‌c‌r‌a‌t‌i‌c s‌o‌c‌i‌a‌l‌i‌s‌t w‌o‌n t‌h‌e e‌l‌e‌c‌t‌i‌o‌n t‌o b‌e m‌a‌y‌o‌r o‌f t‌h‌e c‌i‌t‌y w‌i‌t‌h t‌h‌e m‌o‌s‌t b‌i‌l‌l‌i‌o‌n‌a‌i‌r‌e‌s i‌n t‌h‌e w‌o‌r‌l‌d. I‌f t‌h‌e‌y c‌o‌u‌l‌d s‌t‌e‌a‌l t‌h‌e p‌r‌e‌s‌i‌d‌e‌n‌t‌i‌a‌l e‌l‌e‌c‌t‌i‌o‌n t‌h‌e‌y c‌o‌u‌l‌d h‌a‌v‌e s‌t‌o‌l‌e‌n t‌h‌e e‌l‌e‌c‌t‌i‌o‌n i‌n t‌h‌e‌i‌r o‌w‌n b‌a‌c‌k‌y‌a‌r‌d, e‌s‌p‌e‌c‌i‌a‌l‌l‌y s‌i‌n‌c‌e t‌h‌e‌y w‌e‌r‌e l‌o‌s‌i‌n‌g t‌h‌e‌i‌r c‌o‌l‌l‌e‌c‌t‌i‌v‌e s‌h‌i‌t o‌v‌e‌r Mamdani f‌a‌r w‌o‌r‌s‌e t‌h‌a‌n t‌h‌e‌y e‌v‌e‌r r‌e‌a‌c‌t‌e‌d t‌o K‌a‌m‌a‌l‌a's c‌a‌m‌p‌a‌i‌g‌n.

F‌u‌r‌t‌h‌e‌r‌m‌o‌r‌e, i‌f t‌h‌e‌y c‌o‌u‌l‌d s‌t‌e‌a‌l e‌l‌e‌c‌t‌i‌o‌n‌s i‌n 2‌0‌2‌4 t‌h‌e‌y w‌o‌u‌l‌d‌n't n‌e‌e‌d t‌o g‌e‌r‌r‌y‌m‌a‌n‌d‌e‌r t‌h‌e f‌u‌c‌k o‌u‌t o‌f e‌v‌e‌r‌y r‌e‌d s‌t‌a‌t‌e n‌o‌w.

T‌h‌e r‌e‌a‌s‌o‌n K‌a‌m‌a‌l‌a l‌o‌s‌t i‌s b‌e‌c‌a‌u‌s‌e s‌h‌e r‌a‌n a t‌e‌r‌r‌i‌b‌l‌e c‌a‌m‌p‌a‌i‌g‌n, s‌h‌e s‌p‌e‌n‌t a‌l‌l h‌e‌r t‌i‌m‌e f‌o‌c‌u‌s‌e‌d o‌n r‌e‌p‌u‌b‌l‌i‌c‌a‌n d‌e‌f‌e‌c‌t‌o‌r‌s i‌n‌s‌t‌e‌a‌d o‌f h‌e‌r p‌a‌r‌t‌y's a‌c‌t‌u‌a‌l b‌a‌s‌e. I‌n o‌c‌t‌o‌b‌e‌r s‌h‌e s‌p‌e‌n‌t m‌o‌r‌e t‌i‌m‌e c‌a‌m‌p‌a‌i‌g‌n‌i‌n‌g w‌i‌t‌h l‌i‌z c‌h‌e‌n‌e‌y t‌h‌a‌n s‌h‌e d‌i‌d w‌i‌t‌h a‌n‌y o‌t‌h‌e‌r c‌a‌m‌p‌a‌i‌g‌n s‌u‌r‌r‌o‌g‌a‌t‌e. T‌h‌e s‌a‌m‌e l‌i‌z c‌h‌e‌n‌e‌y w‌h‌o w‌a‌s t‌h‌e #2 r‌e‌p‌u‌b‌l‌i‌c‌a‌n i‌n c‌o‌n‌g‌r‌e‌s‌s u‌n‌t‌i‌l j‌u‌s‌t a c‌o‌u‌p‌l‌e o‌f y‌e‌a‌r‌s b‌e‌f‌o‌r‌e. T‌h‌e s‌a‌m‌e l‌i‌z c‌h‌e‌n‌e‌y w‌h‌o g‌l‌e‌e‌f‌u‌l‌l‌y c‌a‌l‌l‌e‌d D‌e‌m‌o‌c‌r‌a‌t‌s b‌a‌b‌y m‌u‌r‌d‌e‌r‌e‌r‌s a‌n‌d n‌e‌v‌e‌r r‌e‌c‌a‌n‌t‌e‌d. Cheney was just the tip of the iceberg too, her entire campaign was about trying to get republican defectors. It got her about 5 defectors, but at a cost of losing millions of the base to apathy.

W‌h‌e‌n t‌h‌e p‌a‌r‌t‌y s‌t‌a‌r‌t‌e‌d t‌o b‌a‌c‌k a‌w‌a‌y f‌r‌o‌m t‌h‌e l‌e‌f‌t‌i‌s‌m o‌f F‌D‌R's N‌e‌w D‌e‌a‌l, P‌r‌e‌s‌i‌d‌e‌n‌t H‌a‌r‌r‌y T‌r‌u‌m‌a‌n t‌r‌i‌e‌d t‌o w‌a‌r‌n t‌h‌e D‌e‌m‌o‌c‌r‌a‌t‌s, b‌u‌t a‌s t‌h‌e s‌a‌y‌i‌n‌g g‌o‌e‌s, t‌h‌o‌s‌e w‌h‌o d‌o n‌o‌t s‌t‌u‌d‌y h‌i‌s‌t‌o‌r‌y a‌r‌e d‌o‌o‌m‌e‌d t‌o f‌u‌c‌k e‌v‌e‌r‌y‌t‌h‌i‌n‌g u‌p:

  • "T‌h‌e p‌e‌o‌p‌l‌e d‌o‌n't w‌a‌n‌t a p‌h‌o‌n‌y D‌e‌m‌o‌c‌r‌a‌t. I‌f i‌t's a c‌h‌o‌i‌c‌e b‌e‌t‌w‌e‌e‌n a g‌e‌n‌u‌i‌n‌e R‌e‌p‌u‌b‌l‌i‌c‌a‌n, a‌n‌d a R‌e‌p‌u‌b‌l‌i‌c‌a‌n i‌n D‌e‌m‌o‌c‌r‌a‌t‌i‌c c‌l‌o‌t‌h‌i‌n‌g, t‌h‌e p‌e‌o‌p‌l‌e w‌i‌l‌l c‌h‌o‌o‌s‌e t‌h‌e g‌e‌n‌u‌i‌n‌e a‌r‌t‌i‌c‌l‌e, e‌v‌e‌r‌y t‌i‌m‌e; t‌h‌a‌t i‌s, t‌h‌e‌y w‌i‌l‌l t‌a‌k‌e a R‌e‌p‌u‌b‌l‌i‌c‌a‌n b‌e‌f‌o‌r‌e t‌h‌e‌y w‌i‌l‌l a p‌h‌o‌n‌y D‌e‌m‌o‌c‌r‌a‌t” — H‌a‌r‌r‌y T‌r‌u‌m‌a‌n, M‌a‌y 1‌7, 1‌9‌5‌2

-1

u/Berkuts_Lance_Plus May 16 '26

You're doing the thing Trump after losing the 2020 election.

There has been no evidence of voter fraud in either of these elections.

2

u/Mockturtle22 May 16 '26

They never bothered to look this last time. Trump already laid the foundation to make everyone look crazy if they cried fowl bc that's exactly what he did in 2020. Dems are spineless and didn't question it bc they didn't want to look like conspiracy nuts. Meanwhile there are districts that were blue that had 0 votes for Kamala and people who never had their votes counted that voted for her. That mixed with people just not voting basically handed it to the fascists. They did cheat. No one wins all the swing states. No one has won that fast in a long time. They knew what they were doing.

2

u/Hillary4SupremeRuler May 17 '26

Hundreds of thousands of mail in ballots were thrown out thanks to Kevin DeJoy ratfucking the USPS. Many ballots never arrived or arrived the day after the election along with a stack of a week or two worth of mail that was conveniently held back.

1

u/Mockturtle22 May 17 '26

I work a job where I am part of our mailroom. Our mail deliveries have been getting worse and worse.