Almost all of the reasons Trump won in November 2024 were the economy..and the stand-in for high prices and inflation was the cost of eggs. So far, not only has Trump ignored the issue, but his administration has warned consumers it will get worse, so it will somehow get better (for whom and how?) "You'll like the result". https://fortune.com/2025/03/04/target-fortune-500-ceo-trump-tariff-price-increase.
"Chaos" is the term often applied to describe these first 6 weeks. Federal workers fired, oops, some were called back; tariff were levied, then paused, then carveouts, but not ended. Ukraine's policies to kneecap the country's ability to fight off a Russia grab have unexpectedly motivated Europe to take over what the US has abandoned. Every threat issued by Trump against Europe has been met with Europe going its own way. Saying chaos is a good thing is a strategy, but it is also a cover for blunders and backtracking, and incompetence. Both the intent of causing chaos and backfires, backtracking, and stupid mistakes, have been in abundance in these first 6 weeks.
I am beginning to see Trump critics calling him a mad king as analogies to characters in the Game of Thrones or the Harry Potter books. It is way over the top..but he does seem obsessed with tariffs and Zelensky hatred and getting revenge on any challenger to his power..as he feels he is always being treated unfairly.
Trump has been obsessed with issues other than the impact on consumers and on his own voters. Trump is looking more and more like a mad King gone rogue, obsessed with his own power and agendas that have nothing to do with the everyday lives of even those who voted for him. He is acting like a king, issuing one edict after another, whether it is illegal or unconstitutional, or assuming that all of the court suits against his illegal edicts would end up in "his Supreme Court," which would be more loyal to him than to the rule of law. This last week, thanks to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joining with the three liberals, the court majority has not been ruling as Trump had hoped.https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/takeaways-supreme-court-trump/index.html
The pain has not yet been felt by his own voters, but it is not if but when. Trump seems not to care. Trump is suffering the illusion that he is a lame duck, never having to face voters again, and empowered by the immunity from criminal prosecution by the Supreme Court. Now, he even claims he is immune from breaking any laws, "no laws are broken because he is saving theww country" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/15/us/politics/trump-saves-country-quote.html and has the mandate to do what he is doing. Yes, he won the electoral college vote in 2024, but he only won the popular vote by less than 1.5 percent. While he has whipped Congress into being his lap dog, he still does not control the courts. He has yet to consolidate total power of all three branches, just two out of three, but he is acting like he has. Democracy is nearly dead, but there is still some life left in democracy for now. Congress can be changed and get a spine in the 2026 midterms. The Supreme Court has even shown some independence, as lower courts keep on ruling against. This is what happens in dictatorships: the leader sets the agenda, and those who benefit and those they rule, their populace, have no power to change the course of a leader even if the pain of unpopular policies is felt. Trump may think he can act like a dictator, but he is not quite there yet. https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/02/what-those-who-support-rule-of-law.html
"Why" is Trump so obsessed with destroying Ukraine and tariffs and American imperialism, expanding US control to Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal , and implementing tariffs instead of making good on the promises he made about the economy. Why is he obsessed with kissing up to Putin? None of those issues were at the top of the list of his voters in 2024. That is a question that only therapists can answer, as one critic suggested on TV, but it has nothing to do with catering to the needs of the American people. Trump is looking more and more like a mad King gone rogue, obsessed with his own power and agendas that have nothing to do with the everyday lives of even those who voted for him. That is what happens in dictatorships: the leader sets the agenda, and those who benefit and those they rule, their populace, have no power to change the course of a leader if the pain of unpopular policies is felt. The loudest wakeup call for voters may be soon if social security checks fail to arrive on time because of Musk's cuts in personnel. The rest of the impacts will be a slow burn affecting segments of voters./www.yahoo.com/news/social-security-payments-could-suffer-172129159.html
Is what Musk and his DOGE boys doing the same as what Project 2025 planned? Sort of with the same result,it but a lot more and done differently. Project 2025 proposed to change the civil service status classification to political appointees based on their loyalty pledge to Trump. Firing first, then asking questions later was the Musk chainsaw's contribution to accomplishing that...plus eliminating all of the personnel occupying the positions to cripple the ability of the government to provide their services. Project 2025 had focused on crippling and eliminating the Department of Education and any government agency that could report on climate change. What Musk did was attack all government agencies..
The question is why. To speculate: The obvious one is also the result: It consolidates Trump's power in the executive branch. The other is implementing the white nationalist agenda with a war on DEI. Why cripple all of the various agencies by firing their personnel so the agency could not function? Trump and Musk used the pretext of ending waste fraud and abuse, not so secretly inferring it would be creating savings that would reduce the deficit. In so doing, as the budget debate begins, these "savings" will be used to offset giving tax breaks to the rich. It may also have been to clear the way to contract their functions to the private sector and turn the various departments and agencies to a profit center for the billionaires/
Except for the made-for-TV raids to find and deport criminal elements and announcements of going after immigrant families beginning now, almost everything else Trump has done polls badly, and he doesn't care. He has applauded chainsaw Musk's task destroying services American's like and depend upon.Why? His wealthy treasury secretary said the American dream is not about access to cheap goods. .https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/06/treasury-secretary-bessent-says-the-american-dream-is-not-about-access-to-cheap-goods.html. and start saving money becau se your social security check will be late. it is not about cheap prices or better governmental services, but other issues are more important in a classic "let them eat cake" opinion. There are two obvious reasons: He is a lame duck and will not have to face an election in 2028, and he thinks he has immunity from being held accountable by judicial action and constraint not only when engaged in official acts but not.
Trump has been obsessed with issues other than the impact on consumers and on his own voters. He fancies himself as a king issuing one edict after another, whether it was illegal or unconstitutional or not, assuming that all of the courts suits against his illegal edicts would end up in "his Supreme Court," which would be more loyal to him than to the rule of law. This last week, thanks to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Barret, joining with the three liberals, the Court majority has not been ruling as Trump had hoped for.
"Why" is Trump he so obsessed with destroying Ukraine and tariffs and American imperialism, expanding US control to Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal instead of making good on the promises he made about the economy. Why is he obsessed with kissing up to Putin? None of those issues were at the top of the list of his voters. That is a question that only therapists can answer, as one critic suggested on TV , but it has nothing to do with catering to the needs of the American people. That is what happens in dictatorships: the leader sets the agenda, and those who benefit and those they rule, their populace, have no power to change the course of a leader if the pain of unpopular policies is felt. The pain has not yet been felt by his own voters, but it is not if but when.
The mad king analogy:
A thoughtful piece: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5177996-trump-congress-speech-policy-mandate/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/fact-checking-trump-and-musks-claims-that-they-are-cutting-government-fraud-and-abuse
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/03/trumps-epic-miscalculation-on-ukraine.html
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/02/trumps-art-of-no-deal-on-ukraine-as-he.html
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/02/keeping-tabs-on-unintended-consequences.html
No comments:
Post a Comment