To be fair, he is only the future junior assistant deputy backup president.
I actually only just realized this implies Trump thinks the USA was allied with the Axis and the Nazis lmao
Look at the funny fascist over there, isn’t he hilarious? Fun fact: a lot of people also made fun of Hitler.
You know, I fucking hate Trump but I prefer to save my outrage about things he actually said and did. If you really wanna dunk on him, this ain’t the time. Look at the actual quote:
“The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome.”
I mean, I can’t really disagree with that. I’m fucking SICK of journalists converting everything into clickbait. You want some things to be angry about? Here’s some ACTUAL shit he did the same week:
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October 16, 2019: During a meeting with congressional leaders about the situation in Syria, President Trump reportedly referred to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a “third-grade politician,” leading to Pelosi and other Democratic leaders walking out of the meeting.
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October 17, 2019: At a campaign rally in Dallas, Texas, President Trump criticized the ongoing impeachment inquiry, labeling it a “witch hunt” and attacking political opponents, which some viewed as inflammatory rhetoric.
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October 18, 2019: President Trump announced a “permanent” ceasefire in Syria and lifted sanctions on Turkey. Critics argued that his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from northern Syria had enabled Turkish military actions against Kurdish forces, leading to regional instability.
If you want to be annoyed about Trump, there’s plenty of actual shit he does. No need to make up shit just to get clicks. Fuck you lazy journalists!
“The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years to Ancient Rome.”
Yeah that’s not actually incorrect too badly. Well perhaps the “bound together” bit but like history for the massive systems, yeah, it is somewhat shared. Common law and whatnot. Although Italy definitely doesn’tuse common law anymore so Trump would be better of comparing US to brits in that sense.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Why promote inaccurate bullshit and ignore the actual shit he does?
Oh wait, right, propaganda and shit “journalists”.
Thanks for the info on those happenings, btw.
Yeah that’s not actually incorrect too badly. Well perhaps the “bound together” bit but like history for the massive systems, yeah, it is somewhat shared. Common law and whatnot. Although Italy definitely doesn’tuse common law anymore so Trump would be better of comparing US to brits in that sense.
I doubt Italy ever used common law as that originated in Medieval England. It’s civil law that descents from Roman law (specifically Justinian’s codification of it). Since civil law is way more common around the world most countries have more in common with Rome than the US (or other Anglo countries) do.
You are right however that trying to portray the US as a modern ‘Rome’ is not a Trump thing but common American propaganda.
I may have been aware of the fact that that’s sort of what I was trying to say, but I didn’t have enough knowledge to distinguish “common law” from “civil law”, despite having the ability to actually define common law as it is. I didn’t have the term “civil law” is what I’m saying. Thank you for that. There was a gap in my knowledge and you patched (at least some of) it.
I wasn’t specifically aware of when common law started. I looked it up just now, and apparently “in the courts of English kings in the centuries following the Norman conquest”. So… perhaps it’d be more accurate to imply common law is Nordic as opposed to Roman? In a very indirect way.
I mean, I can’t really disagree with that.
You can’t? Just bookending two countries based on an elementary school student’s understanding of world history doesn’t bother you even a little bit? Nevermind the implicit neo-fascist context of the observation. It’s straight out of the Mussolini speech catalog to invoke Ancient Rome and Modern Italy in the same sentence, despite the only meaningful relationship between them being geographic. Might as well compare modern Macedonia to the Persian Empire or the Yucatan Peninsula to the old kingdom of the Mayans or to call Germany a nation of Huns.
Even setting aside the fascist undertones, It’s pure shameless empty-headed pandering. Shit I’d expect out of Eric Adams or George Bush Jr, just being spouted as route pablum regardless of context or historical accuracy. Holding Trump up as uniquely annoying and stupid on this front is what’s obnoxious. Lots of politicians just say airhead nothingburgers like this regularly.
If you want to be annoyed about Trump, there’s plenty of actual shit he does.
You’re allowed to be annoyed from time to time by the neo-fascist ramblings of a racist dipshit, as a treat.
To keep this in context, this was a softball discussion with Trump from 2019 where he made some stupid throwaway comment about some supposed commonalities between the USA and Italy. If this annoys you THIS BADLY I don’t know what to say. Pick like any of the 50 things Trump did this week and they are more relevant than this trashy article.
A wise man once told me “you must choose your battles” and for me, this is one of those times. This is such low stakes stuff compared to all the other crap he is doing. Don’t let some lazy journalist distract you with this crap today. Look at some ACTUAL nasty things going on, like Trump talking about reducing Social Security. Save your rage for when it matters. If you let every lazy article that misquotes Trump rustle your jimmies like this, it’s going to be wildly unproductive.
If this annoys you THIS BADLY I don’t know what to say.
If you know the history of fascist propaganda in the 1930s, this dog whistle will blow your eardrums out.
A wise man once told me “you must choose your battles” and for me, this is one of those times.
There’s no battle. It’s just another news cycle reiterating what everyone already knows. Trump’s a fascist who is steeped in the revanchist mythology of the movement.
If you let every lazy article that misquotes Trump rustle your jimmies like this, it’s going to be wildly unproductive.
If you ignore every instance of Trump playing footsie with European fascists, half his foreign policy becomes a topic you’re not allowed to talk about.
What Trump actually said, in his opening remarks during the press conference, was as follows: “The United States and Italy are bound together by a shared cultural and political heritage dating back thousands of years, to ancient Rome …”
Edit: Even after reading this quote twice, I can’t really understand what Trump wanted to say.
Edit: Even after reading this quote twice, I can’t really understand what Trump wanted to say.
Can anyone ever?
My take is that he sees himself as Julius Caesar reincarnate, who spelled the end of the Republic, and wants to be the first emperor of the USA. If you read about the last days of the Republic there are so many historically rhyming events that with the current state of America, a repeat of history seems almost inevitable. A spate of military wins means Rome becomes very rich very quickly, disband rival military power which leads to pirates and banditry, widespread extremes of wealth and poverty, politicians riling the public up into a frenzy with populist talking points, using corrupt judiciary system to punish their political opponents, plebs forcing themselves in on senate discussions, Krassus was a mega oligarch banker who bankrolled politicians and held debts as favours to call on, the Bona Dea scandal, Clodius being unceremoniously taken to court for sneaking into a women-only festival, who is betrayed by another political rival Sicero only to then be equitted (jury was bribed), and the subsequent crossing of the Rubicon by Caesar, leading to insurrection, more political assassinations, and the fall of the Republic.
I would say he is as spiteful and vengeful as Clodius (and feels wronged in the same way he did by the court cases against him), is as ambitious as Caesar, has Musk as his Krassus-figure backing him, craves attention and celebration of himself like Pompey, and thinks he is as important and catalytic to political change as the Gracchus brothers were.
Trump aspires to be as awful and as “great” as the conniving ruling class of ancient Rome, because he us just as morally bankrupt as many of them.
However all of these observations seem at odds with the way he presents himself - seemingly senile, lexicon of a five-year-old, and lacks any of the charisma and knack for timing that the great orators of the Senate had. In comparison, Trump as an isolated figure is but a skidmark compared to the intellectual brilliance of the Roman elite.
Isn’t it some white nationalist shit about real whites being descendent of Rome?
He said what he wanted to say. He’s a fucking idiot that’s got progressive dementia.
I think he meant culture and politics has been similar since the time of ancient Rome, maybe thinking the United States existed that long ago.
It did not.
To play the ultimate Devil’s Advocate, the Romans did leave a lasting cultural impact on Brittain. So in a way we have a cultural bloodline that is distantly connected to Rome.
The American system is a direct descendant of Enlightenment Classicism, which includes a respect for the Classical Republics. Athens, Rome, Thebes, etc.
American federal government and arguably as a result liberalism is quite literally an imitation and attempt at modernization of the Roman Republic, which is, among other things, why we adopted the eagle as a national symbol and have a fasces in the House of Representatives.
I think he’s talking about the influence of Roman ideas on western culture.
It doesn’t look like something that he wrote himself, and it does make sense. Wikipedia even has an article about it.
Trump says a lot of nonsense, but something isn’t nonsense just because Trump said it.
It’s diplomacy, what you don’t say is more important then what you do say.