The Donald Trump Score Card

Musk and DOGE try to slash government by cutting out those who answer to voters

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Now, President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to make major cuts in government through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, run by billionaire Elon Musk — an initiative led by an unelected businessman who’s unlikely to ever run for office and was appointed by a termed-out president who no longer needs to face voters again.

The dynamic of cutting government while also cutting out those who answer to voters has alarmed even some fiscal conservatives who have long pushed for Congress to reduce spending through the means laid out in the Constitution: a system of checks and balances that includes lawmakers elected across the country working with the president.

“Some members of the Trump administration got frustrated that Congress won’t cut spending and decided to go around them,” said Jessica Reidl of the conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute. Now, she said, “no one who has to face voters again is determining spending levels.”

 

Ya ever seen his condo? Dictator chic. Good god that man has no taste whatsoever. No brains whatsoever, No morals whatsoever, and on, and on...

 

The U.S. House passed a budget this week that increases spending for the military and deportations and cuts everything else.

 

Newsom takes friendlier tack with Trump in sign of new political reality
by Julia Manchester
02/09/25 11:53 AM ET

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...nia-governor-gavin-newsom-trump-relationship/

 

California Governor Gavin Newsom Says Transgender Athletes Playing In Women’s Sports Is “Deeply Unfair”

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"According to Charlie Baker, the president of the NCAA, there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes he is aware of who currently compete in college sports, and nationally, just around 1 percent of adults identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law. This statistically small group of Americans has continued to receive an outsized level of attention from those on the right and Trump’s new administration."

 

Trump went from promising grocery prices going down just after he takes office to telling people to shut up about egg prices.


Trump's Latest Repost On Truth Social, Called "Shut Up About Egg Prices," Is Going Viral, And It NEEDS To Be Hung At Grocery Stores Nationwide

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And after he became the president-elect, he said: "When you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that. We’re going to bring those prices way down."

 

Trump's Latest Repost On Truth Social, Called "Shut Up About Egg Prices," Is Going Viral, And It NEEDS To Be Hung At Grocery Stores Nationwide

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Well, it's been approximately six weeks since Trump took office, and he's most recently gone to Truth Social to seemingly tell Americans to stop complaining about the price of eggs.

Trump reposted an article on his Truth Social account called "Shut Up About Egg Prices — Trump Is Saving Consumers Millions."

 

Trump downplays inflation and risk of recession but praises interest rates dropping.


‘I hate to predict things’: Trump doesn’t rule out US recession amid trade tariffs

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Donald Trump on Sunday refused to rule out the possibility that the US economy will head into recession this year and that inflation will rise, as his chaotic trade tariffs policy cause uncertainty and market turbulence.

The US president predicted that his economic goals would take time and a period of transition to bear fruit. But when asked in an interview with the Fox News show Sunday Morning Futures “are you expecting a recession this year?” he demurred.

“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of, it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us,” Trump said.

When asked whether he thought his tariffs on US imports would fuel inflation, he said: “You may get it. In the meantime, guess what? Interest rates are down.”

 

Social Security doesn't have to be explicitly cut in order for 'cuts' to appear.

Checks may be issued late or not at all due to disruptions caused by Musk.

Musk's chaos also invites nefarious actors (in addition to Musk) to infiltrate the system and take advantage of it, similar to how a criminal in Florida, whom Trump pardoned, siphoned a billion dollars from Medicare..


‘A disruptive effect’: How slashing staff at the Social Security Administration is sparking fears the system could collapse

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"Millions of Americans could soon feel the impact of the deep staffing cuts being planned at the Social Security Administration, which is undergoing a massive reorganization that the acting commissioner has acknowledged is being steered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The loss of experienced employees who manage Social Security’s fragile and interdependent web of computer systems will likely leave the agency vulnerable to technical outages and, potentially, interrupt the benefit payments that are sent to more than 73 million retirees, people with disabilities and others, Martin O’Malley, who served as commissioner under the Biden administration, told CNN."

 

Musk and DOGE try to slash government by cutting out those who answer to voters

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A corporate-style approach to government has long been the goal of conservatives, especially one segment that has recently called for a more CEO-style leader who is less tied down by democratic commitments to voters. Musk has embodied that, bringing the same disruptive, cost-cutting zeal he brought to his private companies. Some of his DOGE moves mirrored steps he took to slash the social media site Twitter, including the email offering buyouts, both times called “Fork in the Road.”

Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, said the effort seems more destructive than just an attempt to shrink government in ways conservatives have long advocated.

“It is usurping the role of Congress on spending and program design, using cuts as a backdoor way to impound and close agencies created by Congress,” Moynihan said. “It is implementing an unprecedented scale of disruption.”

 

With Congress on the sidelines, judges and world leaders defy Trump

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“Frankly he has had enough,” the official said of Trudeau.

“The Prime Minister spoke quite honestly and was saying the very least that he needed to say in order to deal directly with the level of contempt that has been shown by the president toward him as a person” and toward Canada, the official added.

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said in an interview: “We know Americans love Canadians and Canadians love Americans. This is one person. President Trump has created a total mess. He’s created uncertainty.”

“This isn’t the way you trade with your closest ally and your closest friend in the entire world.”

Both President Emmanuel Macron of France and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stepped in to correct Trump after he claimed Europeans were being paid back for the aid they’ve sent to Ukraine and that U.S. taxpayers had gotten stiffed.

Putting his hand on Trump’s arm in the Oval Office, Macron said without hesitation on Feb. 24, “No, in fact, to be frank, we pay. We paid 60% of the total effort.”

 

With Congress on the sidelines, judges and world leaders defy Trump

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In slapping down the Trump administration’s attempt to fire a member of the National Labor Relations Board, a federal judge saw fit to issue a stark reminder of the limits of presidential power.

“A President who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell wrote last week. (Trump said during the campaign he’d be a “dictator” on the first day of his presidency. After scuttling New York City’s congestion pricing system last month, he proclaimed in capital letters on his social media site, “Long live the king!”)

Another judge, William Alsup, in the Northern District of California, ruled in a case involving the Trump administration’s firing of probationary federal workers: “The ongoing, en masse termination of probationary employees across the federal government’s agencies has sown significant chaos.”

 

Europe is running out of hope Trump is still open to persuasion over Ukraine

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The New Zealand high commissioner, Phil Goff, recalls Winston Churchill famously denouncing Neville Chamberlain, saying: “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, and you will have war.” Goff then added: “Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office, but do you think he really understands history?”

 

China learned from Trump's first trade war and changed its tactics when tariffs came again

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“Beijing has seen enough to know that appeasing Trump doesn’t work,” Russel said. In the first go-around, Trudeau and Sheinbaum “bought a little time, but the pressure only came roaring back stronger.”

Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump in December after the president-elect threatened tariffs. But in announcing retaliatory tariffs Tuesday, Trudeau sternly warned: “This is a time to hit back hard and to demonstrate that a fight with Canada will have no winners.”

 

China learned from Trump's first trade war and changed its tactics when tariffs came again

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"China’s economy has slowed but is still growing at nearly a 5% annual pace, and under Xi, the party is investing heavily in advanced technology, education and other areas. It has stronger trade ties with many other countries than during Trump’s first term and has diversified where it gets key products, for example, buying most of its soybeans from Brazil and Argentina instead of the U.S.

In turn, the percentage of Chinese goods sold to the U.S. has fallen.

“They are better prepared to absorb the effect of the shocks, compared to several years ago,” Kennedy said.

Meanwhile, more than 80% of Mexico’s exports go to the U.S., and Canada sends 75% of its exports here."

 

During his first term, Trump apparently was upset that China was seeking relations with Brazil and Argentina to import more soybeans from them instead of the U.S. because of Trump's tariffs. He reinstated steel and aluminum tariffs on Brazil and Argentina.

It shows how trade wars expand and become endless tit-for-tat retaliation games.


Article from 2019.


Trump Says U.S. Will Impose Metal Tariffs on Brazil and Argentina (Published 2019)

 

Side-effects of Trump's trade wars.


How Trump's threats revived Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party in Canada

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"If you had asked Canadians a few months ago who would win the country's next general election, most would have predicted a decisive victory for the Conservative Party.

That outcome does not look so certain now.

In the wake of US President Donald Trump's threats against Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party has surged in the polls, shrinking the double-digit lead their Conservative rivals had held steadily since mid-2023.

The dramatic change in the country's political landscape reflects how Trump's tariffs and his repeated calls to make Canada "the 51st state" have fundamentally altered Canadian voters' priorities.

Trump's rhetoric has "pushed away all of the other issues" that were top of mind for Canadians before his inauguration on 20 January, notes Luc Turgeon, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa."

 

Trump continues to try to whitewash Putin.


US vetoes G7 proposal to combat Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers

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In negotiations to agree a joint statement on maritime issues, the US is pushing to strengthen language about China while watering down wording on Russia, the reports said.

The “shadow fleet” refers to ageing oil tankers, the identities of which are hidden to help circumvent western economic sanctions imposed on Moscow since it launched its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine at the start of 2022.

As well as vetoing Canada’s proposal to establish a task force to monitor sanctions breaches, the draft G7 statement seen by Bloomberg News shows the US pushed to remove the word “sanctions” as well as wording citing Russia’s “ability to maintain its war” in Ukraine by replacing it with “earn revenue”.

G7 communiqués are not final until they are published through consensus. Further talks could still result in changes to the end-of-summit statement.

 

Commerce Secretary Lutnick defends Trump's tariffs.


https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5184699-commerce-sec-lutnick-defends-trump-tariffs/

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“It’s important for the president to talk to the leaders of both Canada and Mexico, get them to shut the border, shut the fentanyl coming into the country,” Lutnick said.

“And of course he’s going to be on the phone with them, and of course he’s going to talk to them. And he is a dealmaker, the greatest dealmaker in the world. So he makes better deals. He’s gotten the border closed. He’s gotten fentanyl to be shut down. He put tariffs on China, who makes the precursors,” he said.