What exactly do Americans want the President to be efficacious at? More generally, what overall goal or goals do we want the President and the whole government to aim for?

1)        Maximize mean/median happiness

2)        Maximize mean/median wealth

3)        Minimize wealth disparity

4)        Maximize freedom from government coercion

5)        Maximize freedom from private coercion

6)        Maximize protection from domestic and foreign threats

If maximization or minimization of something is the goal, do we want to maximize that something for:

1)        the current U.S. population

2)        the U.S population 25/50/100 years from now

3)        current American citizens

4)        the current heritage-American population

5)        me

My choice would be to maximize median happiness for the US population 50 years from now. I think focusing on a long-term goal would encourage positive expectations and reduce voters’ selfishness in choosing who to vote for.

Any thoughts?

First, a disclaimer. I am not seeking to insult or label people. My goal is to start a dialogue about a development that deeply concerns me. This development is not US-specific, but is occurring in Russia, Israel, Europe and undoubtedly other countries as well. However, since the US seems to be drawing a lot of attention lately, it seems logical to focus on the Trump administration.

Let’s start with the question in the title. During a previous discussion with TSZ-residents dazz and Erik, I initially resisted the “fascism” label for the Trump adminstration. In my opinion, that label is often applied too eagerly and I wanted to preserve the term for movements that objectively fit the term. The fascists from beginning of the 20th century were militarist and resorted to violence, for example through paramilitary forces such as the infamous Sturmabteilung in Germany. This is way more radical than their modern far-right counterparts, such as the German Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) or the French Rassemblement National, which mostly seek political influence through democratic and parliamentary means. But what then makes a political party or movement a fascist one? The characteristics of fascism I had to memorize for history class in high school were:

American photographer Carol Suzy won the 2026 World Press Photo Contest. The winning image shows girls desperately holding on to their father, a migrant from Ecuador, while agents of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest him following a hearing over his immigration status in New York.

Image credit: Foto Carol Guzy, ZUMA Press / iWitness, voor Miami Herald

Presidents are often blindly praised (or claim credit for themselves) when good things happen during their terms. They’re also often blindly criticized by their opponents and the public when things go wrong. Presidents do have a big impact, of course, and it’s fair to credit or blame them for the things they actually do. However, it’s perverse to blame or credit them for things they had little or no influence over.

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The Untruth Social thread focuses on the dishonesty of Trump and his administration, and the Trump and mental illness thread covers his psychopathology, but I think we also need a thread focusing on his stupidity.

No better place to start than with the 2018 Twitter quote that inspired the OP title:

Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star, to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!

That quote is its own best refutation, because no one who was truly a stable genius would be stupid enough to say that he was “a very stable genius” and “like, really smart.” Trump is neither, and this thread will soon be full of examples proving it.

Dishonesty is the defining characteristics of Trump and his administration, and lies are a daily occurrence. While there are far too many lies to track, I thought a thread dedicated to the worst and most notable lies would be useful. There’s a lot of material to choose from.

(I could have tapped into a rich vein of lies simply by linking to Trump’s Truth Social account — hence the OP title.)