The Donald Trump Score Card

Curious if Trump associate Brian Lanza would make the same remark if a country like Russia or Mexico stole land from the U.S. and said they wouldn't return it to the U.S. because it's gone from the U.S. and damaged anyway, and peace after stealing it is what's important.

 

Dallas-Fort Worth man arrested for assaulting police officers at Capitol riot.


Texas man arrested, accused of assaulting police in Capitol riot – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

 

Trump's quest for massive deportations expected to be slowed by already massive backlog in courts.


Massive Courts Backlog Could Slow Trump Deportation Plan

 

Russia rejects Trump's Ukraine deal (that was supposed to stop the war in 24 hours).


Russia rejects Trump Ukraine peace proposals

 

Musk's proposed cuts are worth about $2 billion. He's targeting CPB, Planned Parenthood, and international organizations.

He says he wants to cut as much as $2 trillion per year (2,000 billion dollars).

That leaves another 1,998 billion dollars in cuts to be found.


Musk and Ramaswamy say DOGE will target $500 billion in spending. Here's where they say they'll cut.

excerpt:

"The biggest source of expired authorizations sits with health care for veterans, which cost $119 billion in fiscal 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

However, Musk and Ramaswamy didn't single out veterans' health care as a place where they'd seek to cut. Instead, they listed the following areas:

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which receives $535 million a year

International organizations that receive $1.5 billion in grants

Planned Parenthood and what they describe as "progressive groups" that receive almost $300 million per year"

 

Giuliani loses bid to move New York court off Florida condo suit


Giuliani Loses Bid to Move New York Court Off Florida Condo Suit

 

Musk's proposal to cut funding to Planned Parenthood isn't going to solve the fiscal problem.


https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/30/debt-limit-dividing-republicans-trump-00195913

excerpt:

“Listen, this is the gift that keeps on giving,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said. “This is the absolute worst case for the country — a massive tax cut for the richest of the rich, paid for by slashing, to the bone, health care for seniors and poor kids.”

Raising the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, even with corresponding funding cuts, would not keep the nation from hitting the borrowing cap for long. The U.S. budget deficit, the gap between how much comes in from revenue like taxes and how much is spent, was $1.8 trillion in the fiscal year that ended in September. Congress’ nonpartisan budget scorekeeper projects that interest payments on the national debt will total almost $900 billion next year.

 

Trump says he's planning to attend the funeral of Jimmy Carter.


https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/31/trump-mike-johnson-jimmy-carter-00196182

excerpt:

Trump also said he would attend former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral. Trump had previously called Carter a “forgotten president” and a “terrible president,” but more recently changed his tune on his late predecessor. In a post on Truth Social after news broke of Carter’s death on Sunday, Trump wrote, “[H]e did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.”

 

Danica Patrick is known for inviting conspiracy truthers on her podcast, including one who proffers that space aliens modified the DNA of humans near the start of the era of civilization to limit their lifespan to 120 years.


Danica Patrick Can’t Stop Inviting Alien Conspiracy Idiots On Her Podcast

excerpt:

"The discussion with Khan isn’t an outlier. Patrick has invited guests to talk about aliens secretly living among us, how the truth about UFOs being kept from the public, and weird ideas about the pyramids. You know, normal stuff from someone who should probably also stay off the racing commentary circuit."

 

The U.S. has become an extreme oligarchy.


Trump calls it the 'center of the universe.' Mar-a-Lago is a magnet for those seeking influence

excerpt:

At a news conference Trump held recently at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect noted the changed mood compared with his first term, saying, “Everybody wants to be my friend.”

Besides Zuckerberg, Trump has hosted other Silicon Valley executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

“The top executives, the top bankers, they’re all calling,” Trump said. “It’s like a complete opposite.”

Actor Russell Brand traveled this month to the club to speak at an event, where he sat with actor Mel Gibson, former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson and others. Later in the evening, he stood by a palm tree on the lawn, listening to a bagpiper in a kilt.

Brand later posted a video to X about his experience.

“Pretty amazing,” he said. “Is this real life, or am I in a dream?”

 

Trump and his elite billionaires make dictators like Ferdinand Marcos of decades past look poor.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/31/climate/trump-greenland-panama-canal-climate-change.html

excerpt:

Chris Field, director of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, said Trump’s interest in both the Panama Canal and Greenland were “kind of an indirect acknowledgment” that climate change is real and creating new global challenges.

“It’s interesting that the narrative from Trump is that if we control these places, it would be better somehow. But the challenge is the climate change component doesn’t go away,” he said.

Trump’s aspirations face some big hurdles. President José Raúl Mulino of Panama has ruled out discussing control of the canal with Trump. And the prime minister of Greenland, Mute Egede, has said control of the island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark, is “not for sale and will never be for sale.”

 

Trump blamed foreigners for terror attack. The truth may not matter

excerpt:

It may seem crass for Donald Trump to be using the New Orleans terrorist attack to score political points – but he knows, like every successful politician, that you should never let a good crisis go to waste.

No sooner had Fox News claimed that Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, the suspect, had entered the country through the Texas border two days ago, Donald Trump Jr tweeted: “Biden’s parting gift to America – migrant terrorists.”

Over on Truth Social, the platform favoured by the president-elect, Mr Trump repeated his previous claim that “the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country”, which he said had been denied by “the fake news media” but had “turned out to be true”.

 

The initial claim by Fox that the bomber came through the U.S.-Mexico border turned out to be false.

But Trump rashly jumped on what Fox said and blamed immigrants.

The latest news says that the truck used in the bombing had come through the border in November but the bomber didn't.

 

New Orleans attack updates: Suspect 'inspired by ISIS,' was military veteran

excerpt:

Biden also said that the suspect was "an American citizen, born in Texas. He served in the United States Army on active duty for many years. He also served in the Army Reserve, until a few years ago."

 

New Orleans attack updates: Suspect 'inspired by ISIS,' was military veteran

excerpt:

"In a YouTube video posted in 2020, the suspected attacker said he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and spent a decade working in the U.S. military before becoming a realtor in the Houston area. His years in the military, he said in the video that has since been removed from YouTube, were spent working as a human resources and IT specialist."

 

Trump blamed foreigners for terror attack. The truth may not matter

excerpt:

"By talking about an “act of pure evil” in New Orleans and telling the American public that “the crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before”, Mr Trump has made himself the hero of his own story, a crime-fighting crusader who will rid the country of bad guys.

It may be simplistic, and it may be as fake as Mr Trump’s skin tone, but it is also a clear, concise message that the American people will be able to instantly understand.

The Democrats – and Kamala Harris in particular – discovered to their cost that wordy, worthy explanations of policies are no substitute for punchy, straight-to-the-point slogans that even a child could understand. Mr Trump told the American people that he would make food cheaper, and they backed him.

When he says he will stop terrorist attacks by deporting illegal migrants, they will doubtless back him again, and potentially JD Vance as his successor when the next elections come around."

 

Trump Voters Are in for a Rude Awakening | The New Republic

excerpt:

"In other words, for many, Trump was whoever they wanted him to be—a choose-your-own-candidate. Voters projected their wishes onto his candidacy, regardless of his stated policy program. They remembered positive aspects of his presidency and either memory-holed the negative parts (his deadly mishandling of the pandemic, say, or his nomination of Supreme Court justices who eliminated abortion rights) or simply didn’t blame him for them. But Trump’s rhetorical slipperiness made this possible. His relentless lying, flip-flopping, and vagueness about his plans made it difficult to pin him down, thereby attracting voters from both sides of certain issues."

 

Trump Voters Are in for a Rude Awakening | The New Republic

excerpt:

And Trump’s hyperbolic promises as a candidate could also undermine his presidency. Take his improbable vow to end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, which he recently walked back in a Time interview, acknowledging that “this is trickier than he let on.” In the same interview, he also managed expectations about lowering the cost of groceries, saying doing so will be “hard” and, if he fails, he would not consider his presidency a failure. It’s a stark pivot from his September pledge: “Vote Trump, and your … grocery prices will come tumbling down.”

 

Trump Voters Are in for a Rude Awakening | The New Republic

excerpt:

"Trump may finally be exposed to his newfound supporters as the huckster we’ve long known him to be."