15 hours ago
As far as power grab politics go, this is a smart move, picking something so popular yet relatively low impact as far as real world issues go. It's a total Trojan Horse of course.
8 hours ago
No different than sanctuary cities or the de facto legalization of marijuana.
7 hours ago
It is different, because no one purported that those things made illegal immigrants or substances permanently legal.
They just decided not to prioritize enforcement.
15 hours ago
> Attorney General Pam Bondi told tech companies that they could lawfully violate a statute barring American companies from supporting TikTok based on a sweeping claim that President Trump has the constitutional power to set aside laws, newly disclosed documents show.
> Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his “constitutional duties,” so the law banning the social media app must give way to his “core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.”
> The letters ... portrayed Mr. Trump as having nullified the legal effects of a statute that Congress passed by large bipartisan majorities in 2024 and that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld.
14 hours ago
Of course, all that stuff about vetoes and overriding vetoes in the actual text of the Constitution were just a trap for the previous 250 years of presidents who weren't smart enough to find the secret hidden clause that lets them just arbitrarily decide that certain laws don't apply.
15 hours ago
Buckle up, here comes the attempt at a dictatorship. There's a reason our constitution has checks and balances... and no, LEGALLY the president can't just ignore laws. But in this timeline I guess anything goes.
15 hours ago
He hasn't abided by any checks nor balances so far. If you're not buckled up long ago, what exactly were you waiting for?
15 hours ago
Good luck America, good luck the rest of the world.
14 hours ago
The rest of the world will be OK since they spend more on education and the population is better off for it. The US is such a big fish in the pond though that its rapid slide into a dictatorship is very concerning.
an hour ago
Yeah, we're worried as fuck, I can tell you.
The US is sitting on a lot of fucking firepower. It has always been hawkish and trigger-happy, but with the current crop of lunatics in power anything could happen. "But Trump is against foreign wars!" -- yeah, right up until he gleefully shared a meme of the parody song "Bomb Iran".
Everybody hopes cooler heads will prevail than Trump and his batshit insane cronies.
14 hours ago
The checks and balances come after the Executive branch (or any of the three branches) oversteps. They can't come before. If all three other branches refuse to do anything about it, how is that not the system working as intended?
14 hours ago
I don't know why you were down voted this is exactly correct. The system is not working as intended though; it was designed to be adversarial with each branch expected to want to keep its own power. The whole system falls apart when the other branches of government simply abdicate all their power.
14 hours ago
Congress didn't _abdicate_ their power. Trump stole it. One of his first actions in office was to free the violent mob he sent after Congress last time they exercised power against him.
7 hours ago
There's a much stronger argument that Trump's personality cult in the current GOP legislature is doing the same.
Threatening primaries and social media tirades against his legislative opponents chases any Republican willing to check him out of the party.
I mean, Christ, only 2 fiscal conservative Republicans had an issue with deficit spending greater than what the House had passed? And a debt limit increase?
The real problem with Congressional GOP independence is that enough of them don't decide something is too much at the same time. Ones and twos are easily picked off.
4 hours ago
If we're being honest, the GOP never had a problem with deficit spending. It was under Republican administrations that the debt and deficits have grown the most, after all.
It just happens to be a useful cudgel to beat the Democrats over the head anytime they want to spend money, both because the debt really is something that will have to be addressed at some point and because most voters are too stupid (or willfully ignorant) to keep track of which party is really doing all the spending and what said spending has been for.
14 hours ago
We're way past that point. The Trump regime is currently prosecuting a Congressmember on fabricated charges in retaliation for opposing his immigration policy. We've seen the same dynamic on the tariffs; a substantial majority of Congress knows the tariffs are bad and does not support them, but the Trumpists would never permit it to come up for a vote.
15 hours ago
Things really are getting scary.
Tech people with bold ideas. Don’t go to America. Don’t build your companies there. Don’t employ Americans. Build it anywhere else.
America ain’t what it used to be. It’s slowly but surely becoming a dictatorship and it’ll be run by the dumbest American to ever live: Donald J Trump.
15 hours ago
> the dumbest American to ever live: Donald J Trump
While like many, I can't stand him, I'm not sure if that's an accurate statement. He (or his handlers) have done an amazing job of leveraging the anger and fear of tens of millions. He's built a "tribe" that those pitching all those podcasts and courses a few years ago could only dream about.
11 hours ago
Much of my anger is actually for the minds behind project 20205 and the decades long effort by a cabal of people to basically create a king and dunk on the libs at the expense of everything America used to stand for.
I also legit hate the orange idiot in office now. But that’s maybe a me thing.
Also the eroding of the rule of law is very very disconcerting.
14 hours ago
There was a viral post on this topic recently: https://old.reddit.com/r/thebulwark/comments/1ljbvtw/hottest...
8 hours ago
But ... the whole reason Trump got elected is the fact that the electorate has split into us-vs-them group identities, he works through polarization. And although this post captures how one group (let's call it the "internet generation") feels about the world, it's probably not helping with polarization.
You have to admire, in fact, how smart Trump is. Look at the central "problem" according to that post:
"But see, not everybody was thinking that Hillary Clinton was an alien, that global warming was a Chinese hoax and that what America needed most of all was a plywood wall stretching from Texas to California. Only the stupid people were"
Holy crap this is polarizing. AND WE DON'T EVEN DISAGREE ON THESE. These sort of statements are the exact opposite of what we need to defeat Trump. Because no, this is NOT a difference between "smart" and "dumb". If you abstract just a little bit ...
Hillary Clinton is an unpopular war hawk. Would you like her as president? I wouldn't, just about the only big positive I see in her is that it's long past time for a female president. But please: not her. She IS an alien in that I don't know who this woman represents. Not me, certainly, and I frankly don't see or know any group that she does represent. I'd MUCH prefer AOC, but frankly, I'd prefer Nikki Haley over her.
"Global warming is a Chinese hoax". This is the one I would most describe as "dumb". But ... not really global warming policy has not worked for 50 years. This is, of course, not a reason to give up on it, but it probably is time to change course bigtime. And, sorry, the protests about global warming ... are equally dumb as Trump's (made-in-china) MAGA caps.
"what America needs most ... wall stretching from Texas to California". Obviously "dumb" Americans like this because life has become ever more difficult and immigration (specifically pressure on the job market and housing market) is a huge and growing problem. Trump only gets points because he does something.
The ("our") internet generation is getting old. Perhaps not dying yet, but we are not young anymore. And the train has definitely left the station: nobody's growing up to be internet generation anymore. The only thing that is happening to the internet generation is that people are leaving it. Not in great numbers. Not yet. But we'll only be shrinking from 5 years ago forward. Yet another reason to find a way to agree with Trump's electorate.
I feel like these viewpoints (I hope) represent "the internet generation". My conclusion is Trump got elected because he convinced me and the "real Americans" that we disagree. We don't. These are superficial, not worth having a fight over and CERTAINLY not worth having a president like Trump over.
7 hours ago
maybe he's just the cancer and we're the ones who have been ingesting the poison all along (doing nothing about income inequality, social and financial mobility, a sense of civic duty, the courts not bringing him to justice, etc etc). That doesn't change the fact that you excise the cancer with extreme prejudice otherwise it kills you.
7 hours ago
You can't "excise the cancer" of Trump's voters, and that isn't the goal. My first point is that we shouldn't do that. These are normal people just like you and me. That they can live, have a job, and participate in discussing the future of America is a great thing. A good second point is if we try to just cut them out, we'll lose, because the "internet generation" shrinks while their generation grows. And a third point is that Trump is anything but a champion of "real Americans", so putting a wedge between those two is very doable.
2 hours ago
Yeah i literally said “maybe he’s the cancer”…
Some voters are unwilling to see truth. Some are so high on their own supply of confirmation bias they can’t be swayed. Every idiot praying their legislator votes for the big beautiful bill but is dependent on Medicaid is voting irrationally - but because Trump told them to they will.
6 hours ago
My excise comment was more about Trump and poor-exploiting-rich-people like him that feign care for structural ills but run and act in a hostile autocratic xenophobic and populist way.
I like to think that people voted for him despite his policies on immigration and others because they thought this idiot real estate mogul turned reality TV star was an actually competent business person and yet …
The man failed at selling steaks in America, casinos, ran fraudulent universities, stole from veterans in charity money … the list is nigh infinite.
4 hours ago
I honestly don't get this take. It treats US as special outlier. Right wing populists have won elections in many countries. While in other places RW populism is finding some foothold.
Truth is people all over the world are frustrated by how their lives are turning out.
On one hand they see politicians who want to keep the status quo and make promises which wouldn't change their lives. That is the Democrats in US. Too comfortable with their power.
On the other hand Right Wing populist promise simple answers to complex questions. Many of these populist leaders are seen as "outsider". Many places are seeing rise in anti-immigrant and anti-poor sentiments. Because that is the simplest answer - outsiders/freeloaders are to blame for all the issues.
By the time people realize that they have been fooled by the RW simplistic answer it is already too late. Either there is catastrophic damage (ex.. Brexit) or dictatorship (ex. Hungary).
Nearly every country thinks it is unique and can come out of this unscathed. But no one can escape the damage. Some people still think that Trump as a dictator is long shot. But that is what is happening. And people cheering him on have something to gain or they have fallen for the simple answer - "outsiders are to blame".
2 hours ago
Why is the answer right wing populists though? Look at the policies of Zadani in NYC. I’d take a liberal populist over a xenophobic autocrat every day and twice on Sunday.
2 hours ago
> Zadani in NYC Zadani? You mean Mamdani?
RW often promise one shot "obvious" fix - build the wall, deportation - which the unnamed "they" aren't doing because of vested interest. People don't want complex answers. Its the same as dieting - a magic pill is much better than a well laid out diet plan. Even if the magic pill is going to create long term damage.
The other side is branded as communism or socialism. Like Mamdani.
And many places have being pushing nationalistic pride and stories about the glorious past. This leads nicely into full on fascism. Its always ironic when American RWs like to call others fascist while being the picture perfect example of fascists themselves. Always harping on "MAGA" or "USA! USA!" slogans
15 hours ago
I think you mean his cronies and conspirators: Steven Miller, SCOTUS, Russel Voght, et al.
15 hours ago
Trump will eventually go away. What's really concerning is the replacement being someone much more intelligent and competent. Some of whom are already running the show behind the scenes.
14 hours ago
The people behind the scenes running the show rarely migrate to center stage. They just find the next performer to manipulate from behind the curtains.
14 hours ago
The fact that Trump will eventually go away is precisely why people should avoid the US until he does. At age 79, he probably doesn't have enough time left to massacre too many citizens, but he's got plenty of time to send immigrants who displease him to CECOT. I'm not saying people who already have a life in the US need to flee, but if you don't the US will still be here whenever he's not.
15 hours ago
Also, he’s pretty dumb but the real problem is his absolute and total lack of empathy. What a sociopath.
15 hours ago
LEGALLY:
the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Trump v. United States (2024) that all presidents have absolute criminal immunity for official acts under core constitutional powers, presumptive immunity for other official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts.
PRACTICALLY:
the current and former POTUS has demonstrated he can ignore laws and that either no one will attempt to bell the cat or, if attempted, succeed in any meaningful way.14 hours ago
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14 hours ago
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14 hours ago
Gosh, if Ted Cruz thought Obama was abusing his powers, and now Democrats think Trump is, Cruz must be lining up bi-partisan legislation to finally crack down on the ability of the President to abuse powers!
14 hours ago
If Congress and SCOTUS say to ban TikTok, the President needs to go ahead and ban TikTok.
14 hours ago
You know full well that this isn't the same thing, which is why you've created a new account so your fascist apologia won't be linked with your main. He's claiming the authority not just to selectively enforce laws, but to rewrite them. (Why do the companies care about this distinction? They're worried, correctly, that many of us will demand the next administration prosecute them for what's now been months of flagrant lawbreaking.)
14 hours ago
> In letters to companies like Apple and Google, Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his “constitutional duties,” so the law banning the social media app must give way to his “core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.”
This is like tariff negotiations with the whole world being about a fentanyl emergency. I can't wait to hear oral arguments on this in 2027 after this supposed power is temporarily upheld from the shadow docket.
15 hours ago
On the one hand, this is terrifying precedent for future behavior. On the other hand, the ban is stupid and shouldn't exist, so it's hard for me to get upset. Sometimes the right things happen in the wrong way.
14 hours ago
If he wants the ban gone, he should push for Congress to overturn it, with whatever veto threats or other political pressure he wants to offer as motivation. He shouldn’t claim a broad power to ignore the law. And he can’t credibly claim the TikTok ban is unconstitutional when it’s already been upheld by SCOTUS.
14 hours ago
This is the way. When you control all three branches of government, why not use that power to do things the right way? Not doing it the right way is the power grab, and that's the point.
14 hours ago
That's why this is the perfect issue for an autocratic power grab: there will be many who applaud it, even those who are young and vehemently opposed to him. Standing on principles can be difficult, as it often requires losing something you love.
14 hours ago
No - don’t fall for it
We have a system in place to undo congressional action
14 hours ago
That never justifies doing them the wrong way.
14 hours ago
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14 hours ago
Ridiculous that this got flagged. Do people think that Trump rewriting laws to suit his whim isn't going to become relevant to their own companies and projects?
3 hours ago
I don't think it's ridiculous that it got flagged - it's only superficially about technology, and is instead mostly about general US politics. Many people don't think HN is the place to discuss general US politics. (I wouldn't personally flag it since it doesn't seem like it's already all over multiple news sites.)
4 hours ago
Not so ridiculous when you realize who runs this site.
3 hours ago
I'd expect them to be especially interested! It's virtually certain that some number of YC companies over the next four years will find themselves in a similar position to TikTok over the next four years, wondering whether they can get away with bribing Trump to rewrite a law in their favor.
11 hours ago
They still believe they're in the in-group maybe? Or they're just that ideologically captive.
10 hours ago
Honestly, no, it's not the least bit surprising that this was flagged. It's a damn-near inevitable consequence of letting anyone on the internet flag things.
What's truly ridiculous (though not surprising [0]) is that it still hasn't been white listed by HN moderators. They're the ones who bear responsibility for this major story being suppressed.
0 - Growing list of recent falsely flagged stories here: https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=mandmandam
14 hours ago
Democrats should just declare they hold the law as valid and any tech company that ignores it will suffer the consequences it prescribes when they come back into power.
10 minutes ago
The Democrats are controlled opposition, they don't actually give a damn as long as they maintain power in the new regime.
11 hours ago
That's part of an obvious winning strategy, but the establishment is too stupid and weak to notice that hate and resentment are the main drivers of modern politics. Instead, they'll keep trying to "build bridges" and "seek bipartisanship" with a group of people that cheer on the murder of one of them [1].
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/17/melissa-hort...
10 hours ago
The establishment aren't stupid and weak when they're fighting progressive candidates, third parties, or peaceful anti-genocide protesters. Or when they're enabling a holocaust while pretending to 'work tirelessly for a ceasefire'. They're shockingly competent when they want to be.
And the 'bipartisan' 'reaching out across the isle' has been their go-to since Obama used his super-majority to pass a Republican health care plan and ignore his campaign promises around torture, abortion, etc. I'm amazed it's still working for them.
The other ones they love to use are 'they go low we go high', or, 'we're just following procedure'; like when they 'failed' [0] to prevent a rapist, racist insurrectionist from running for Presidency again.
0 - https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/servants-of-the-mafia-s...
7 hours ago
Indeed, you are very right. At this point they are nothing but controlled opposition.
14 hours ago
will suffer the consequences it prescribes if they come back into power.
I guess we'll see in the mid-terms, but there's no guarantee at this point. A few special elections is not a telling of things to come for the whole country regardless of how many news articles hoping it does. Do not count on a blue wave as much as you would like it to happen. The right is just that much better at getting their message out than the left will ever be. It's much easier when you can just make stuff up and lie about everything that is verifiably false and your base eats it up. You can't counter that, at least they have shown no concept of being able to yet.
11 hours ago
> The right is just that much better at getting their message out than the left will ever be.
Absolutely true of the democrats, not so much of the actual left. Look at Mamdani's meteoric rise in the NYC mayoral primaries. Granted, it was in a very progressive city but still.
14 hours ago
I am absolutely a single issue voter, for as long as Trump is alive, on who will promise the most punishment for him and everyone associated with him for their misdeeds.
14 hours ago
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9 hours ago
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