The Donald Trump Score Card

The disconnect between Trump's voter fraud claims and reality.


The GOP stoked fears of noncitizens voting. Cases in Ohio show how rhetoric and reality diverge

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He said the role of such immigrants and their potential to sway the election “was the most enduring false narrative that we saw throughout this election.” But he also said it served a purpose, to keep the country divided and sow distrust in the election system.

“If your guy doesn’t win or you’re a candidate that doesn’t win, you have an excuse that you can tell yourself to justify it,” he said.

 

Trump's followers are so devoted to him that he can do just about anything at a gathering and not lose their votes.

That includes turning a question-answer town-hall event into a 39-minute music fest and making his fans wait at a MI rally for a few hours while he did a 3-hour session with Joe Rogan.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...l/?itid=ap_philipbump&itid=lk_inline_manual_2

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"It appears that someone on Trump’s team attempted at some point to redirect his attention to the ostensible reason he was at that venue in Pennsylvania: to campaign. The Post’s Jabin Botsford captured an image of the teleprompter urging Trump to get back to taking questions.

But Trump didn’t. He has a room full of people who had invested time and/or money to be near him, and, as he does at Mar-a-Lago, he took advantage of the opportunity to play some of his favorite music for them. What were they going to do, not vote for him?"

 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/12/14/kash-patel-fbi-contraints-column-00194285

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The notion of weaponizing the FBI and DOJ in this way is not speculative. After all, Barr appointed special counsel John Durham to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation amid Trump’s incessant complaints — and came up with little to show for it.

Patel would also be empowered to punish agents who worked on cases that he disfavors on political grounds — like the Trump prosecutions and cases targeting far-right extremists.

“You could pull people’s clearances. You can reassign them. You could promote people you favor over people you don’t favor,” the former FBI official told me. “You have a lot more leverage over the personnel side of the house.”

 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/12/14/kash-patel-fbi-contraints-column-00194285

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“He’s absolutely unqualified for this job. He’s untrustworthy,” Charles Kupperman, Trump’s deputy national security adviser and Patel’s former supervisor, recently told The Wall Street Journal. “It’s an absolute disgrace to American citizens to even consider an individual of this nature,” he said.

During Trump’s first term, former Attorney General William Barr blocked Patel’s appointment by Trump to serve as deputy FBI director. “Patel had virtually no experience that would qualify him to serve at the highest level of the world’s preeminent law enforcement agency,” Barr wrote in his book.

Likewise, when Trump considered installing Patel as the deputy CIA director during his first term, Gina Haspel, who was then leading the agency, reportedly threatened to resign. Another former Trump DOJ official who worked with Patel recently described the prospect of him running the bureau as “terrifying.” Again, these aren’t liberal activists: They are Trump officials.

 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/12/14/kash-patel-fbi-contraints-column-00194285

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“It takes a year to learn the place, and then only at a surface level,” said a former senior FBI official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

“The truth is that even the most intelligent, thoughtful, engaged, diligent director can’t really bend that place to his will,” the former official told me. “It’s a hard culture and a good culture. Folks are law-abiding, and they’re process-oriented.”

The fear that Patel would use the FBI to go after Trump’s political opponents is also well-founded given Patel’s own public statements. Perhaps most notably, he has threatened to “go out and find the conspirators, not just in government but in the media … who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” He added, “Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out. But yeah, we’re putting you all on notice.”

 

Trump says that suspected mystery drones should be shot down if they can't be identified.


https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/13/trump-aircraft-new-jersey-drone-00194355

 

Trump accuses Manhattan DA Bragg of using thuggish tactics.


Trump's lawyers, seeking to dismiss hush money case, slam DA for 'thuggish tactics'

 

Trump's 13 billionaires holding posts in his second term are worth about a half-trillion dollars.


Trump has tapped an unprecedented 13 billionaires for his administration. Here's who they are

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"In total, the combined net worth of the wealthiest members of his administration could surpass $460 billion, including Department of Government Efficiency co-head Elon Musk -- whose net worth of more than $400 billion exceeds the GDP of mid-sized countries."


"The wealth of Trump's current cabinet rivals only that of his first-term cabinet -- which had a combined net worth of $3.2 billion -- and dwarfs the $118 million combined net worth of President Joe Biden's cabinet."

 

It's disturbing how quickly an oligarchy has formed in the U.S. It's on a fast-track to the autocratic governments of Russia and Hungary.

Musk is attempting to consolidate power by coercing members of Congress to conform to him or face the consequences of him using his money to 'primary' them out of existence in the next election.

Musk spent about $200 million of his money promoting Trump in the 2024 election and ran a daily million-dollar 'sweepstakes' ploy to selectively urge Trump followers to register to vote.

Trump is trying to gain control of the media by filing lawsuits against reporters. He could potentially use the FCC to give broadcast entities a difficult time.

Conspiracy truther Kari Lake will likely be controlling the Voice Of America network.

Trump says he plans to pardon his Jan. 6 rioters, undoing the hard work that was done to bring them to justice. It will make them available for more nefarious acts when needed by Trump.

Trump's three appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court have given him some consolidation of power in the judicial branch.

Trump will be using the DOJ and FBI via expected directors Pam Bondi and Kash Patel to prosecute and stymie law enforcement people in the executive branch who they don't like.

It's the playbook of dictators.

Who's going to stop it. The DOJ had difficulty bringing Trump to justice even before the presidential immunity that the Supreme Court granted him. Trump will be in charge of the DOJ.

 

The House voted on Thursday and has rejected Trump's version of a bill that does away with the debt ceiling.

 

Trump wants Republican Chip Roy out of the way and threatens to 'primary' him out of existence..

Roy said that he doesn't want to go along with doing away with the debt ceiling (what Trump is demanding) unless real spending cuts are attached to the bill.


Trump threatens primary against Texas conservative Chip Roy

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"President-elect Trump encouraged Republicans in Texas to consider a primary challenge to Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) on Thursday after he blamed the congressman for “getting in the way” of a push to raise the debt ceiling as part of government funding talks.

“The very unpopular ‘Congressman’ from Texas, Chip Roy, is getting in the way, as usual, of having yet another Great Republican Victory — All for the sake of some cheap publicity for himself. Republican obstructionists have to be done away with,” Trump posted on Truth Social."

 

Alberta's premier tells Trump that Alberta's export of oil to the U.S. helps make America wealthy.

Trump perceives Albert's oil as one of the factors that causes a U.S. trade deficit with Canada that he mistakenly thinks is a subsidy the U.S. pays Canada.


Alberta's premier responds to Trump's trolling by saying Canada's oil helps make America wealthy

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“Fair question on the trade deficit with Canada Mr. President @realDonaldTrump - the reason for this is because Canada (especially Alberta) sends billions of raw materials (oil, gas, minerals, grain, livestock, timber, etc) to your U.S. refineries and factories which your great American companies and workers upgrade and sell around the world, including back to Canada (we are your biggest customer by a mile),” Smith posted on X.

 

Trump should be able to understand what Alberta's premier has said.

Trump and his daughter run businesses that import clothing low-cost from other countries like China and sell it in the U.S. at a high price at luxury retail stores.

Trump's importing of clothing contributes to the trade deficit the U.S. has with China.

Using Trump's logic, his importing of clothing from China would mean that his clothing businesses are subsidizing China. Trump is simply buying goods inexpensive from countries like China and selling them at an inflated price elsewhere.

One could argue that the act of Chinese exporting goods at a low price to people like Trump is a subsidy being given to Trump from China, not the other way around. In effect, China is subsidizing the U.S. by selling it low-cost goods. It's like free money from China to the U.S.

If Trump had to pay a dollar to have a shirt manufactured in the U.S. compared to ten cents in China, the act of him importing from China is effectively giving him a subsidy of 90 cents.

Yet Trump says a U.S. trade deficit with another country is equivalent to the U.S. subsidizing that country.

 

Trump's words of opposition stop a bipartisan budget deal in its tracks with Musk's help

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"Trump’s joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance, which stopped the bill in its tracks, punctuated a daylong torrent of social media posts by Musk attacking the legislation for what he described as excessive spending.

“Stop the steal of your tax dollars!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X as he dangled primary challenges against anyone who voted for the budget deal, a threat Trump later echoed in a post of his own."

 

Government funding plan collapses as Trump makes new demands days before shutdown

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One lawmaker said office phone lines were flooded with calls from constituents

“My phone was ringing off the hook,” said Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky. “The people who elected us are listening to Elon Musk.”

 

Elon Musk doesn't like Elizabeth Warren's call for ethics standards.

Musk reverted to a posting a racist image of Warren.


Elon Musk Posts Racist Images In Response To Elizabeth Warren's Call For Ethics Standards

 

The stock market went down significantly on word that interest rate will probably not be cut as much as expected in 2025.

The feds cut the rate another quarter percent which is going in the direction the stock market would like.

The feds stated the uncertainty about inflation. Some of the uncertainty stems from not knowing what Trump might do with tariffs and deporting people.

Powell has chosen to reduce interest rates using a slower, wait-and-see approach.


US stocks fall sharply and Dow tumbles 1,100 points after the Fed hints at just 2 rate cuts for 2025

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/business/economy/trump-us-economy.html

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"After five years of uncertainty and turmoil, the U.S. economy is ending 2024 in arguably its most stable condition since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Inflation has cooled. Unemployment is low. The Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates. The recession that many forecasters once warned was inevitable hasn’t materialized.

Yet the economic outlook for 2025 is as murky as ever, for one major reason: President-elect Donald J. Trump.

On the campaign trail and in the weeks since his election, Mr. Trump has proposed sweeping policy changes that could have profound — and complicated — implications for the economy."

 

Trump sues Iowa pollster Ann Selzer and Des Moines Register newspaper

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“The odds of success here are slim to none, but winning in court is not likely the real goal of this lawsuit," said Clay Calvert, a media law expert and professor at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law. "The true motivation is to intimidate the press and journalists. I unfortunately suspect this lawsuit is just a harbinger of things to come.”

 

The Real Reason Why Americans Approve of Trump’s Disastrous Transition

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"So: Sure, your average American is ready to bid Biden hasta la vista. But that isn’t why people are relatively sanguine about the early days of a coming administration that has the makings of the most corrupt presidential administration ever. They’re sanguine because they just don’t know. They haven’t heard. Or if they’ve heard, they don’t believe it. They still think the checks and balances they learned about in school will sort things out and hold Trump at bay. They don’t realize that Trump & Co. have formulated specific plans to evade or trample those checks and balances, and if they’ve read that, they don’t believe it, either."