Trump

[mik]

I’ve seen many comments about the miraculous healing of his ear that apparently had a hole blown though it, despite cartilage not growing back etc etc etc - but this is the first time I have seen this angle.

[Rich B]

i said from the beginning, it was 100% staged.

[Gavster]

I've worked very closely with quite a few PR people over the last few years and they are so ferociously ruthless and Machiavellian at ensuring their client has the maximum press exposure that if one of his team had NOT done this, Trump would have fired them on Monday. Of all the things Trump does, his way of using press and media is unprecedented, he would probably be asking why they didn't have photos of the actual shot.

And don't forget, those photographers were utterly complicit in that, they were probably asking for better access, because the moment they heard a gunshot their cameras would have been out quicker than the secret service, imagining the how they could retire from the payday of being the photograher who got a photo of a dying president. Immortalised in photojournalism.

Someone tried to shoot Trump, they did a bad job and killed someone in the audience instead, and Trump happened to graze his ear in the process so hammed it up to appear as a hero. It's not that deep.

[Explosive Newt]

I'm with Gavster on this - it's a canny staffer exploiting a photo op.

Also - you can graft cartilage to reconstruct tissue from other areas of the body. I'm guessing Trump knows a good cosmetic surgeon...

[Gavster]

One of the most common sayings in photo/video journalism in America is "If it bleeds, it leads", meaning that if you get a shot of the bloodied mess on the stage, you've guaranteed yourself a headline story. Trump knows this, the team knew this, and the photographers know it better than anyone else, because it's the difference between a front page image and being buried further down the news, and that can make the difference between earning a few hundred dollars vs many thousands of dollars.

[Gavster]

Also re: the flag lowering, has anyone seen that from another angle, because the camera is panning up at the same time which would explain it.

[Beany]

So, to be clear, we're thinking it's fine because his PR people overruled the Secret Service when there was at least one active shooter on site that they knew of, because there was a good photo op?

I mean in fairness it'd be on brand for Trump to be that stupid and vain, and to surround himself with people who'd enable that I suppose.

[Gavster]

That is precisely on-brand for PR people, they don't give a fuck about what anyone else says, thinks or does when there's an opportunity for press coverage. Worst case, they get a slap on the wrist from the Secret Service for ignoring their orders. Best case they get photo of the year, which would crown their career and result in a vast payrise. It's a no-brainer.

It's not stupid or vain of Trump either, because if one of those photographers who was ushered around the stage took the photo of him with the raised fist, which MAGA were getting stiff over, then that PR person just aced their job. It means Trump hired a really fucking good PR person.

I've got borderline PTSD from working closely with a lifetime campaign PR person, it was only when I read 48 Laws of Power that I finally understood how they operated. Truly scary experience. Had to distance myself totally and block them in the end. Even then they still messaged me recently trying to get money or exposure out of me, it's really fucked up.

[V8Granite]

Aaaaaaand the Evo forum just jumped the shark

Dave!

[DaveE]

In a reception with members of Congress on Tuesday, Trump spoke about lowering drug prices for Americans at a time when cuts to programs like Medicaid are on the horizon.

In doing so, Trump promised some truly staggering figures.

“We will have reduced drug prices by 1000%, by 1,100%, 1,200%, 1,300%, 1,400%, 700%, 600%. Not 30% or 40% or 50%. But numbers likes of which you’ve never even dreamed of.”

“We’re gonna get the drug prices down,” Trump said. “Not 30% or 40%, which would be great. Not 50% or 60%. No, we’re gonna get them down 1,000%, 600%, 500%, 1,500%. Numbers that are not even thought to be achievable.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/tru ... 21750.html

1,100%, 1,200%, 1,300%, 1,400%, 700%, 600% - that's numberwang!

[Jobbo]

Not even thought to be achievable.

Dang right

[V8Granite]

Isn’t that in-line with what Mark Cuban is doing though ? Drugs at thousands of percent cheaper price ?

Probably a reactionary thing to the popularity of it.

https://www.costplusdrugs.com/

I’m surprised Trump didn’t say and a free cuddly toy and badge with each prescription while throwing out numbers though

Dave!

[Jobbo]

What is thousands of percent cheaper? If you reduce the price by 100% it's free. It's not possible to reduce the price by more than 100%.

[V8Granite]

You hear this all the time, in Aus you’d hear a 200% reduction which to them meant in half the time.

From Google….

The statement "1000% cheaper medication" likely refers to the significant price difference between brand-name and generic drugs, or the potential for large price increases for certain medications. Generic drugs, which are equivalent to their brand-name counterparts in terms of active ingredients, are often much cheaper, sometimes by 1000% or more. However, some generic drugs have also experienced dramatic price increases, sometimes exceeding 1000%

Don’t pick on trump for technicalities, far bigger fish to fry

Dave!

[Delphi]

What is thousands of percent cheaper? If you reduce the price by 100% it's free. It's not possible to reduce the price by more than 100%.

And yet the other day he was banging on about Harvard students doing remedial maths!

[mik]

You hear this all the time, in Aus you’d hear a 200% reduction which to them meant in half the time.

From Google….

The statement "1000% cheaper medication" likely refers to the significant price difference between brand-name and generic drugs, or the potential for large price increases for certain medications. Generic drugs, which are equivalent to their brand-name counterparts in terms of active ingredients, are often much cheaper, sometimes by 1000% or more. However, some generic drugs have also experienced dramatic price increases, sometimes exceeding 1000%

Don’t pick on trump for technicalities, far bigger fish to fry

Dave!

I’m struggling to see a justification for Trump spouting nonsensical numbers based on the fact that other idiots also spout nonsensical numbers.

[DaveE]

Not sure if we already discussed his little story his Uncle and the Unabomber?

Basically he made up a conversation he claimed to have with his Uncle who was a professor at MIT where they spoke about his Uncle teaching Ted Kaczynski who went on to become the Unabomber (fuck knows how that came up)

Anyway...

•⁠ ⁠Claimed his Uncle was the longest serving prof at MIT (he did serve 51 years, but not the longest)
•⁠ ⁠Claimed his Uncle had three degrees in "in nuclear, chemical, and math" - he had two, one in electrical engineering, one in physics)
•⁠ ⁠Kaczynski never went to MIT (so his Uncle couldn't have taught him)
•⁠ ⁠His Uncle died in 1985, Kaczynski wasn't known to be the Unabomber until 1996 - so there's no way they could have spoken about the Unabomber before his uncle died in 1985

But it's the detail he "recounts"

He went on to tell a story about having asked his uncle about what Kaczynski was like. “‘I said, ‘What kind of a student was he, Uncle John?’ Dr. John Trump. I said, ‘What kind of a student?’ And then he said, ‘Seriously, good.’ He said, ‘He’d correct – he’d go around correcting everybody.’ But it didn’t work out too well for him.”

I mean, what kind of adult makes up a story?

And one that's so clearly disprovable

It's genuinely child-like behaviour

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/16/poli ... -unabomber

[DeskJockey]

When you're fully divorced from reality and surrounded by idiots of equal abilities, then it doesn't matter. He's a like a bungalow (brill insult I heard the other day).

[mik]

I’m dying here

One of several SouthPark items popping up today

[dinny_g]