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Comment by JumpCrisscross | Hacker News Reader

> Trump is extremely vindictive

He’s cultivated an aura of vindictiveness. I’m not recalling any great examples of him being unpragmatically vindictive.

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Isn't Facebook's investors the same as the VP? I suspect FB & Whitehouse are closer in ties in 2024 than 2020 or 2016 based on that and less about the red vs blue theatrics of politics.

yep, he could have done a number on hillary but didn't.

Not against businesses, but he did destroy several political dynasties by now: Romneys, Clintons, Bushes, some argue even Obama's minions are dead in the water. In Zuck's case there are plenty of 100% legitimate issues the Trump administration could (and IMO should) legitimately bring up against Meta. Indeed, they could bring up the exact same issues that the Biden administration was already bringing up, but ratchet things up a notch or two. If Zuck insufficiently bends the knee, that's what's going to happen. So far I see his efforts as half-hearted, and I'm not even Trump. Trump would see them as laughable at best, or even insulting.

> he did destroy several political dynasties by now: Romneys, Clintons, Bushes, some argue even Obama's minions are dead in the water

This isn’t vindictive, though. In some cases it was straight-up competition.

> If Zuck insufficiently bends the knee, that's what's going to happen

This is transactional, possibly corruptly so. But it’s not really revenge as much as exerting control. If there were nothing Zuckerberg could reasonably do to avoid Trump’s wrath on account of what Zuck did in 2020, that would be vindictiveness.

Those dynasties - problematic as they inherently are - have survived presidencies in both parties over the decades. I would argue its destruction and I'm pretty sure folks like Ted Cruz, Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham when they think no one is listening, would agree. They've bent so far and so deeply to stay afloat.

Cruz and Graham know all too well that they will politically outlive Trump and whoever comes next. They look at each occupant of the White House like it is a future ex-wife, get good prenups, milk it for the good times and wait out for the next one. They could generally care less who is there and they know it, suck up a bit and ride it out :)

Cruz might. Graham won't take the wind-down of the "forever wars" well, and will therefore be ostracized.

One can hope @ein0p!!

the forever wars are not winding down :)

and if graham is pissed all he has to do is wait for 2028 :)

We'll see I guess. Trump at least got us out of Afghanistan. There are early signs that he managed some kind of a (temporary) settlement in Gaza also, even before inauguration. Will he wind down everything? Probably not. But by god, someone should at least try. We can't keep spending trillions we don't have on killing millions of people halfway across globe for no good reason.

you mean Biden got us out of Afghanistan, right? :)

Trump negotiated getting out of Afghanistan, withdrew most of the troops but left Biden with getting the last presence out without any manpower for an orderly exit, which was a very stable genius move on his part. Biden was in a lose lose situation: he could either bring back troops to cover the exit and get everything out (unpopular), or just leave in a messy uncovered exit (also unpopular). It was pretty much lose-lose for him at that point.

Absolutely. Wild, isn't it?

Michael Cohen has a story about the DOJ -

on July 9, 2020, was taken back into federal custody after refusing to agree to conditions of home confinement that included a prohibition on communicating with the media. Cohen filed suit complaining that his re-arrest was an attempt to prevent him from releasing a tell-all book about Trump titled Disloyal: A Memoir. On July 23, a judge found in his favor and ordered that he be returned to home confinement.

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