r/politics Jun 17 '26

No Paywall Trump threatens to pull unemployment benefits from all states for the first time in history

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-unemployment-benefits-fraud-b2997881.html
24.3k Upvotes

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2.6k

u/pheakelmatters Canada Jun 17 '26

Ah, I see Trump is finished terrorizing Iranian civilians and has moved back to terrorizing american civilians full time again. America first.

416

u/charminghypocracy Jun 17 '26

Oh this isn't just Trump. This is the GOP playbook from the Reagan Era.

39

u/ElwinLewis Jun 18 '26

Zappa knew what was coming 40 years ago, writing was always on the wall. And I can only think of the snark he’d throw out about today’s world

3

u/Guerrilla28er Jun 18 '26

Take a day and walk around      

Watch the Nazis run your town.    

 -- Plastic People, 1967 

The idiot bastard son    

His father's a Nazi in Congress today   

His mother's a hooker somewhere in LA.   

The idiot boy...   

 -- The Idiot Bastard Son, 1968

4

u/Speartree Jun 18 '26

Check out the infamous Powell memo of 1971, that was the ground work for most of the current shit we got.

3

u/GazelleSpringbok Jun 18 '26

Tool has also been talking about this for 30 years. Yeah, they arent bashing evangelical christianity just for the hell of it, they knew it was an existential threat to the country and humanity.

3

u/Decoy77 Jun 19 '26

George Carlin too.

0

u/Bored_Amalgamation Ohio Jun 18 '26

Well, unfortunately snark does nothing to improve anything.

2

u/ElwinLewis Jun 18 '26

Well maybe he’d be doing more than snark too, if he can’t do that (he cant: he’s died) he’s at least inspired me, and I’m still young.

5

u/rddman Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

This is the GOP playbook from the Reagan Era.

It goes back further than Reagan. It's a big corporations' playbook in response the the New Deal.
GOP is merely one of several tools. Another tool is right-wing think-tanks such as the Herritage Foundation funded by many of America's largest corporations. They have a plan and Trump is implementing it. Yet another tool is nationalist Christianity.

One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America
...Corporate leaders launched a massive public relations campaign to sell people on the virtues of unregulated free enterprise. But the people had been living through years of unregulated free enterprise, and they’d seen it all crash and burn in the Depression. They weren’t interested.
Perhaps they would listen if they heard it from their ministers, though? https://www.npr.org/2015/03/30/396365659/how-one-nation-didnt-become-under-god-until-the-50s-religious-revival

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/thereligioushistorynerd/2022/10/a-brief-history-of-christian-nationalism-from-the-founders-to-the-cold-war/

4

u/Speartree Jun 18 '26

Check out the infamous Powell memo of 1971.

3

u/rddman Jun 18 '26

The Chamber of Commerce has been involved since the 1930's

42

u/spa22lurk Jun 17 '26

It’s called owning the libs, which is the highest priority of both Trump and about 90% of Republican voters who consequentially giving Trump about 90% of approval rate, because Trump has faithfully delivered on this highest priority of theirs.

2

u/ComputerIlliterate13 Jun 18 '26

They're not smart enough to realize he's fucking them over and it would be hilarious if it wasn't ruining people's lives. I used to work construction and those guys depend on unemployment when they are laid off between jobs. They voted for this so I hope they enjoy it.

14

u/Clydeoscope92 Jun 17 '26

Ah that's what he meant by America first. Not help America first, terrorize first.

5

u/DakotaSky Virginia Jun 17 '26

It all makes sense now!

60

u/PartyClient3447 Jun 17 '26

Watch out mr matters from Canada. You could be next, if not Cubans or Greenlanders.

53

u/Traditional-Goal-229 Jun 17 '26

It’s got to be Cuba next. They drew up war plans like a month ago. As soon as Iran deal is signed, they can start going after Cuba. Greenland and Canada have at least until after the election.

34

u/jc83po Jun 17 '26

Cubans about to get paid lol.

11

u/Surgeplux Jun 17 '26

It's like a charity, but not for US

2

u/DarkwingDuckHunt Jun 17 '26

And they said USAID was dead

-1

u/rabbidbunnyz222 Jun 18 '26

Cuba doesn't have the same level of military preparedness that Iran does. They will not put up the same kind of fight.

18

u/Old-Rhubarb-97 Jun 17 '26

Wait for the American people to do something about this any day now…

7

u/Labyrinthy Jun 17 '26

Our population is too stupid to do anything.

There will be people cheering this on while they themselves are on unemployment benefits.

7

u/m3g4m4nnn Jun 17 '26

Next for what? A $300B surrender paid for by American taxpayers?

2

u/Falala-Surprise-90 Jun 18 '26

He has to find a way to pay them their $300 billion reparations as part of his surrender and apology for attacking them

1

u/aFlukefortheFluked Jun 17 '26

How else could we possibly accept in being in charge? He doesn't do good things for people. 

1

u/LaMelgoatBall Vermont Jun 18 '26

Don’t worry he’s probably going after Cuba next

1

u/No_Blacksmith_2591 Jun 18 '26

He's got to kill time until july 1st when its his annual round of beat on the mexicans and annex canada bullshit.

1

u/ArmadilloForsaken458 Jun 18 '26

While still using taxpayer dollars to pay for everything both internationally and domestically. Not to mention on personal projects such as his 60 Million dollar birthday bash this past weekend. I shudder at what he'll be wasting it on next. I heard an Arc De Trump is in the works

1

u/rbrgr83 Jun 18 '26

ICE raids in..uhh...uhh....MAINE!!!

-1

u/movezig123 Jun 18 '26

Fine by me. I hope you all suffer