The Donald Trump Score Card

Trump’s biggest power grab just reached the Supreme Court

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"The second reason is that, in a document Trump’s Justice Department recently filed in the Supreme Court, Trump’s legal team seems to reveal how they plan to get around the Impoundment Control Act and similar rules requiring the president to obey federal spending laws.

Significantly, the Trump administration does not argue — at least not yet — that the president has the inherent constitutional authority to impound funds. Indeed, the DOJ’s recent filing does not even argue that Trump’s decision to halt USAID spending is legal. Instead, the Trump administration suggests that federal courts lack the authority to issue broad orders reinstating whole swaths of government spending canceled by the administration, and that these cases must instead be resolved on a piecemeal basis."

 

Trump creates chaos by immediately cutting off billion of dollars of money and then says the payments can't be restarted because the chaos created a situation of not being sure if the recipients are the proper recipients.


Trump’s biggest power grab just reached the Supreme Court

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'Think of it this way: Suppose that the Trump administration issues an illegal order forbidding the government to pay any contractor named “Susan.” Now suppose that 10,000 Susans who are owed money by the federal government seek a single court order declaring this anti-Susan policy illegal. The Trump administration’s legal arguments suggest that such a court order is not allowed, and each Susan may need to bring their own individual legal proceeding to get paid.

Needless to say, this tactic could significantly hinder efforts to make the Trump administration comply with federal spending laws. If the Supreme Court embraces the administration’s arguments, Trump and his subordinates would remain free to issue blanket orders canceling entire categories of federal spending. Meanwhile, anyone impacted by these cancellations would potentially need to retain their own legal counsel, determine which court or federal agency has jurisdiction over their claim, and then bring a proceeding that could take months or years to resolve. Many of these potential litigants may simply give up. Others could go out of business while waiting for the government to pay what it owes."

 

Justice Roberts of the Supreme Court has sided with Trump on two points.

One is that he agrees with Trump that the money can't be restarted quickly because of not knowing if the recipients are fraudulently receiving the money.

Roberts also said that the USAID money is foreign aid which connected to a president's power of being able to implement foreign policy without interference.

 

Supreme Court temporarily pauses judge's order on releasing frozen foreign aid funding

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"The filing puts the total number of the awards that were reviewed at over 12,000, and said that over 10,000 of them had been terminated.

The plaintiffs called the claim that Rubio reviewed all those awards far-fetched.

It "would be impossible for one person or even a group of people to meaningfully review all of these contracts and awards in such a short period," they said. They've asked to call Rubio as a witness at a hearing in the case next week, a request the government says should be rejected.

“[T]op executive department officials should not, absent extraordinary circumstances, be called to testify regarding their reasons for taking official actions,” the government said."

 

Trump delays tariffs on Mexico and Canada again until April.


Mexico Peso, Canada Dollar Get Boost as Trump Delays Tariffs

 

Trump says no reason to spend $1 trillion on military each year.


'There's No Reason To Spend $1 Trillion On The Military'—Trump's Statement Sends US Defense Stocks Spiraling While Europe's Surge

 

Trump says inflation is back but blames it on what he calls BIden's 'Green New Scam'.


https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/19/economy/trump-inflation-is-back/index.html

 

Tariffs, the Dollar, and the Fed

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"A stronger dollar has pros and cons for the US. On the one hand, it means imports are less expensive to US businesses and consumers, effectively offsetting some of the cost of the tariff. Economic evidence is that—again, in cases where the US imposes a tariff without retaliation—dollar appreciation can offset between 30-50% of the cost of the tariff for consumers, a meaningful amount, but far from the entire cost. On the other hand, a stronger dollar means that US goods and services are more expensive to foreigners, which means less foreign demand for US products. So even if other countries do not retaliate against American tariffs with their own, US exporters are still indirectly hurt by the stronger dollar. Another way to think of this is that dollar appreciation “shifts” some of the cost of the tariff from US consumers onto US exporters & manufacturers. This hurts US exporters and can lead to layoffs and cuts in investment.

Thus far, all of this has assumed no retaliation from other countries. What about when other countries do retaliate, as is likely? Foreign demand for US exports, and therefore the US dollar, is now being directly affected. If the retaliatory tariffs are perfectly proportional to those imposed by the US, then the net effect on the US dollar is neutral and there’s no dollar appreciation. That’s better news for US exporters—while they now face retaliatory tariffs from certain countries, they are no longer disadvantaged in all foreign markets by a stronger US dollar—but it’s worse news for US consumers who now have less purchasing power for imports to offset the cost of the tariff."

 

Tariffs, the Dollar, and the Fed

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"A further complication arises if the economy is significantly weaker in the wake of a tariff. Lower demand means less price pressure and generally calls for easier monetary policy (that is, lower interest rates). So, after taking into account every economic interaction and dynamic, it’s possible tariffs could lead to a US outlook with lower prices and interest rates in the short-to-medium run after all is said and done. But it’s worth emphasizing that even if this happened, this outcome would be borne of economic weakness, not strength. As an extreme example, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 enacted the second highest tariff in US history, yet there was still deflation (lower price levels) in the years immediately following its enactment. Today, economic historians broadly agree that the Smoot-Hawley tariff accelerated the damage to demand from the Great Depression and that these effects dominated the mechanical upward price level effects from the tariffs themselves."

 

How Trump's sweeping new policies could change travel

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This already appears to be playing out with the US's northerly neighbour. As Trump continues to threaten tariffs against Canada, even proposing annexing the entire nation, some Canadians have started boycotting US travel. The US Travel Association has warned that a 10% reduction in Canadian visits could result in more than $2bn in lost spending and 14,000 job losses.

Yet, the new administration remains confident that its policy shifts will benefit travellers. "President Trump has entrusted this team to work tirelessly to reaffirm American's [sic] complete confidence in the safety of our transportation systems," newly appointed US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. "Our focus remains on ushering in a golden age of transportation while prioritizing the Department's core mission of safety and delivering innovative projects that move America."

 

Duffy mis-wrote American's. He meant to say Americans'.

 

Trump's media people like to use the word 'tirelessly'. Trump did a photo-op at the hospital when he was recovering from Covid that showed him signing blank sheets of paper. They said Trump was working tirelessy for the American people at the hospital.

They forgot to remove the exif data from the pic. It showed that the photo was taken about ten minutes before he did his joy ride around the hospital. They figured that since they had him all dressed up for the joy ride that they might as well do a photo-op of him signing blank sheets of paper.

 

Opinion | The Disturbing Question at the Heart of the Trump-Zelensky Drama

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"Consider this stunning paragraph from a Wall Street Journal article about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s recent meeting in Kyiv with Zelensky. Bessent presented Zelensky with an offer he couldn’t refuse — to sign over Ukrainian mineral rights to America, worth hundreds of billions of dollars, to compensate for U.S. aid.

It was a scene right out of “The Godfather”: “Bessent pushed the paper across the table, demanding that Zelensky sign it …. Zelensky took a quick look and said he would discuss it with his team. Bessent then pushed the paper closer to Zelensky. ‘You really need to sign this,’ the Treasury secretary said. Zelensky said he was told ‘people back in Washington’ would be very upset if he didn’t. The Ukrainian leader said he took the document but didn’t commit to signing.”

This whole story shows you again what happens when Trump is no longer surrounded by buffers but only by amplifiers. Bessent, a savvy investor, surely knew that the president of Ukraine could not just sign a piece of paper turning over hundreds of billions in mineral rights without checking with his lawyers, his Parliament or his people. But the Treasury secretary felt he had to do Trump’s bidding, no matter how foul or absurd. If the president wants to empty Gaza and make it a casino, then that’s what you sell. Extort Ukraine in the middle of war? That’s what you do."

 

Musk's truther narratives.


How Elon Musk boosted false USAID conspiracy theories to shut down global aid

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"Most of Musk’s more than 160 posts about USAID have been responses to a handful of small but influential verified accounts, many of them using pseudonyms. The most popular — including posts from Wall Street Apes, Kanekoa the Great, Chief Nerd and Autism Capital — have been viewed hundreds of millions of times, amplified by Musk and his 216 million followers, according to X metrics. As the theories spread, they are repackaged, and in many cases added upon, to further the claims.

A review of the accounts’ profiles reveals how a lengthy crusade to paint USAID as a malevolent force built up in recent years in relatively fringe internet circles, only to be suddenly elevated and acted upon by Musk. The pattern is similar to one that played out with the so-called Twitter Files in 2022, when selectively framed narratives and out-of-context internal documents were weaponized to fuel allegations of a grand government censorship conspiracy. And it is one likely to continue under Trump and Musk, who have histories of trafficking in falsehoods."

 

USAID instructions for fired employees gives them 15 minutes to gather belongings from shuttered DC building

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"The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has posted detailed instructions on its website for the thousands of employees seeking to retrieve personal belongings from their offices inside the Ronald Reagan Building after being fired or placed on administrative leave.

The agency is giving employees two days – Thursday, Feb. 27, and Friday, Feb. 28 – to enter the building during designated time slots if they have items they would like to bring home. While the slots range from 60 minutes to 90 minutes overall, employees will have approximately 15 minutes to collect personal belongings from their work spaces."

 

Twenty-one Doge workers resign.


21 U.S. DOGE Service staffers resign over a refusal to 'jeopardize Americans' sensitive data,' letter says

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Twenty-one civil service employees resigned en masse from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, according to a letter posted online and shared with media outlets Tuesday. The letter said they refused to use their technical expertise to "compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans’ sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services."

"We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations," wrote the staffers, who joined when the agency was known as the United States Digital Service (USDS). "However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments at the United States DOGE Service."

 

Karoline Leavitt is double-talking.

Leavitt says that the rescission of the memo that ordered the federal funding freeze isn't a rescission of the federal funding freeze.

So, the memo has been rescinded but not the funding freeze that it started.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/27/fired-federal-worker-trump-voter/

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"Trump, at a campaign stop an hour and a half south of her, had promised to make IVF free. She knew that from a video clip she saw on TikTok. And she had believed him.

She also believed him when he said that Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican administration that suggested mass cuts to the federal workforce, was not his plan."

 

Trump-Zelenski meeting ends abruptly.

Trump says Zelensky isn't ready for peace.

Press conference canceled.


https://www.moneycontrol.com/world/...y-after-heated-exchange-article-12953635.html

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/28/trump-vance-zelenskyy-oval-office-exchange-00206727

lol

I dont blame Zelensky........he either gives his shit to Putin or Trump........not much of a choice.

Also lol about the EU atm....maybe time for a EU army...........never was a fan(nl) but we are one financially(banks)/economical(industry) and one in making up bs rules...........but a pussycat without teeth.

If the US/RU/China...........run there own course, f them (sry).............so should we atm

Mzzls