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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 26, 2025

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Trump could EO himself a billion dollars and as long as he stops immigration, deports all the migrants here and stops all funding for the foreign wars / foreign aide I'd still vote for him.

Well, hell, I'd at least think about voting for him if I thought he could or would carry out some of his grand promises. Every politician promises he will deliver incredible things, and if you vote for him and say "I don't care if he steals a billion dollar as long as he does all the things he promised to do" you are being taken for a rube.

Well, hell, I'd at least think about voting for him if I thought he could or would carry out some of his grand promises.

He did actually stop immigration, though...

Trump has temporarily gotten it back to the levels that Obama had. He's done almost nothing in regards to helping ensure that will continue long-term.

What you're saying is that it continuing long-term is entirely up to the next administration. If they want to return to open borders that will be their decision, not Trump's.

Trump could absolutely make the job of anyone seeking to explode immigration harder by changing the law, i.e. passing legislation, not just executive orders.

Under Article I, legislation must be passed by Congress. The President only has the power to veto or not.

The POTUS absolutely helps set legislative priorities. This is even more true for Trump, who's basically the God-King of the Republican Party at the moment.

"Helps" not really in any formal sense. Republican Congressmen are not actually in thrall to Trump to the degree you seem to think. He got very little from the Republican Congress his first term (not even border wall funding!) and seems likely to get little from them his second term either. Key members have interests more or less orthogonal to Trump's. He could possibly pound the table and demand legislation, but I'm skeptical how much it would move the needle - after all, Congressmen are not elected nationally.

Republican Congressmen are not actually in thrall to Trump to the degree you seem to think.

They kind of are though. Some House Freedom Caucus members wanted to block the current bill, then Trump told them to fuck off, and now they're supporting the bill.

The fact Trump doesn't get everything he wants has more to do with Trump just being a buffoon who doesn't know how to do politics very well. He can sometimes get his way when he has a ton of political capital, but otherwise his blunt-force trauma style oftentimes fails to work.

Obama was quite involved in passing the ACA, for example, which was a campaign promise of his. source 1 source 2 source 3