The Donald Trump Score Card

Boeing is lucky they found a مصاصة to buy one of their planes.

 

China's standing up to Trump caused Trump to fold.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...off-as-trump-meets-most-chinese-trade-demands

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/trump-trade-war-scam/682780/

excerpt:

"The six weeks since Trump’s “Liberation Day,” on April 2, have seen some of the most extreme financial volatility since the global financial crisis of 2008–09. Back then, markets were tossed around by objective financial realities. This time, they are convulsed by one man’s whims. Reporting strongly suggests that some market participants had advance access to that man’s whims, and scored hundreds of billions of dollars of speculative profits from knowing when to buy and when to sell.

Non-speculators have also bought and sold influence. CEOs who Trump thinks are “nice” gain extra consideration for their companies: See the way Apple secured a special exemption for iPhone sales. But small businesses that lack the resources and contacts to win Trump’s favor are crushed and ruined."

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/05/trump-trade-war-scam/682780/

excerpt:

"First, a tariff is a tax that can be imposed by the president acting unilaterally. The normal constitutional rule is that only Congress can impose taxes. With tariffs, however, Congress has delegated much of its authority to the president. Theoretically, this deference is for emergency purposes, but because the president has the sole power to determine whether a trade emergency prevails, tariffs provide a means of raising revenue that he can impose all on his own.

Second, a tariff is a tax that the president can waive unilaterally. A president could never, say, exempt a company from corporate income tax on the condition that the company donate to the president’s inauguration committee; nor can he forgive a taxpayer’s obligation to pay capital-gains tax if that taxpayer buys the first lady’s lifetime rights for a documentary that never gets made. But a president can create tariff exemptions in those ways and for those reasons.

Third, a tariff is a uniquely regressive tax, one that falls most heavily on the least affluent people in society. Imagine a low-income family eating a meal at home. The table is tariffed, the chairs are tariffed, the plates are tariffed, the knives and forks are tariffed, the Canadian wheat in the pasta is tariffed. Now imagine a wealthy family eating a meal in a restaurant. Their tables, chairs, and so on might be tariffed too. But the most important costs in their restaurant meal are the wages of the chef and the servers, the rent the restaurant pays to occupy its premises, and other overheads. Those costs are not tariffed. Basically, the more of your income you spend on services, the less you pay in tariffs. Income that is saved and invested pays no tariff at all, so the richer you are, the more of your income you can save and invest."

 

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s...turk-ordered-freed-from-immigration-detention

excerpt:

"Ozturk's release is the latest legal setback for the Trump administration as it seeks to carry out the president's promise to deport noncitizens who've engaged in what the White House calls antisemitic campus activism. Last week, another federal judge ordered the government to release Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student protest leader at Columbia University who it is also trying to deport, despite his status as a lawful permanent resident."

 

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/13/alien-enemies-act-trump-ruling-00346312

excerpt:

"But Haines, deferring to Trump’s authority on matters of national security, noted that Trump has designated the gang as a terrorist organization, and she described the group as “bent on destabilizing the United States” and “flooding the United States with illegal narcotics” — and using those narcotics as “weapons” against American citizens.

Trump’s purpose in invoking the Alien Enemies Act — which has been applied only three other times in American history — was to sidestep many of the legal protections that can often slow down the deportation process. Haines’ requirement of a 21-day window for challenges — matching the requirement embraced by other federal judges who have rejected Trump’s assertion of the Alien Enemies Act — undercuts that goal.

Other judges in Texas and Washington are eyeing similar questions about the proper invocation of the law."

 

It's another avenue Trump is using to consolidate his power.

 

Trump expected to issue ultimatum.


Donald Trump to give LIV Golf ultimatum to Saudi Arabia Prime Minister

excerpt:

President Donald Trump is poised to tell Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that any agreement between the PGA Tour and PIF will spell the end for LIV Golf.

Trump landed in the Middle East on Tuesday with plans to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. One key item on his agenda is LIV Golf, the contentious circuit that has emerged as a rival to the PGA Tour in recent years.

 

Trump is indulging in plans to accept a jumbo jet from Qatar. He has already landed a deal for a new Trump luxury golf course in wealthy Qatar. He's also protecting his golf interest in LIV by melding it again with international politics. LIV was political from the start with the wealthy Saudis. He will also be visiting wealthy UAE to carve out more money for himself.

 

Trump's down-and-outers can take solace in knowing that perhaps one day they will be able to ride on Qatar Air Force One and visit his luxury golf resorts in the Mideast.

 

Yet more avenues Trump is using as president to consolidate his power and enrich himself.

 

Or perhaps take a zoo trip to El Salvador and observe the inmates Trump deported to take joy in it to compensate for their financial plight caused by Trump's whimsical trade wars.

A number of GOP from Congress and Trump officials have already done photo-ops in El Salvador.

 

Top buyers of Trump-sponsored crypto win exclusive dinner with president
Contest for $TRUMP meme coin has prompted accusations of president boosting family business and foreign influence
Nick Robins-Early
Mon 12 May 2025 20.01 EDT

Top buyers of Trump-sponsored crypto win exclusive dinner with president

 

Trump's apologists will apologize for his behavior yet again.

 

Another big money self-enrichment deal overseas for Trump that his left-behinders can dream that they might one day be able to enjoy.


https://www.npr.org/2025/05/13/nx-s1-5395863/trump-saudi-arabia-qatar-uae-business-syria

excerpt:

"Just weeks ago, his son, Eric Trump, who runs the Trump Organization, was in the region for the launch of two new projects with a Saudi developer: A high-rise Trump hotel tower that will have the world's highest pool, and a sprawling Trump golf course with villas in Doha, Qatar. That's in addition to other Trump towers and projects underway in Saudi Arabia and Oman."

 

Project 2025 author, Vought, reportedly will replace Musk to run DOGE.


Who is Russell Vought? Trump’s Project 2025 author reportedly tapped to take over DOGE from Elon Musk - Times of India