Elon Musk Makes Himself Proud

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

A few days ago, he announced that in just two weeks he’ll be close to cutting $1 trillion from the federal government. It’s a dubious claim. Musk lies a good bit, and the courts are slowing his most egregious moves.

What’s more, cutting jobs doesn’t always mean saving money. Crippling reductions in the Internal Revenue staff, for example, could cause the government to collect 10% less in taxes in 2025, The Washington Post reports. That translates to $500 billion.

But for the moment, let’s grant Musk his not-so-little lie. Let’s instead focus on the fact that his slash-and-burn tactics could hurt the country for decades.

The timing of this assessment matters because Musk blanketed Wisconsin with money and braggadocio for days in advance of Tuesday’s vote for a new Supreme Court justice there. He himself became a central campaign issue.

So what has DOGE – his infamous Department of Government Efficiency – actually done?

I would argue that its record is not pretty, though it can be hard to parse where DOGE ends and agency-inspired reshuffling starts. What’s clear, however, is that parts of the American government are beginning to look like the rubble of the Myanmar earthquake.

Social Security

Musk’s DOGE wants to reduce the agency’s workforce by 7,000 workers. It is already at its lowest level in 50 years. Former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley warns that the odds of a “system collapse” are high. More cuts may yet come.

The Brookings Institute writes that individual retirement accounts could be targeted, an ominous warning.

“Earnings records could be erased or altered – either maliciously or by accident,” it writes. “A president intent on retribution, for example, could manipulate the earnings records of a political opponent.”

Nearly 70 million people receive some form of Social Security. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested recently that only “fraudsters” would complain about a late check. Yet 40% of recipients rely exclusively on their Social Security checks to survive. Fraudsters?

Health Care

The Trump administration announced plans last Thursday to cut 20,000 workers in the Department of Health and Human Services, just shy of a quarter of its employees nationwide, NPR reported. The agency, headed by vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., oversees Medicare and Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and more.

The cuts could devastate essential public health treatment and prevention programs, among other things. Last week the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official resigned under pressure, The Wall Street Journal reports. A measles epidemic continues to spread through parts of Texas and New Mexico. And some patients have become seriously ill after consuming large quantities of Vitamin A in cod liver oil at Kennedy’s recommendation. Kennedy has not urged people to get the measles vaccine, which is 97% effective.

Science and Research

Broad-based cuts in scientific and health research at universities and specialized institutions could undermine American progress and our ability to compete in areas such as AI and medical research for many years.

Nature magazine reported that a survey of more than 1,600 American scientists and researchers found that three-quarters are considering leaving the United States, most to work in Canada or Europe.

“Ask economists which of the administration’s policies they are most concerned about and many point to cuts to federal support for scientific research,” The New York Times reported Monday. “The Trump administration in recent weeks has canceled or frozen billions of dollars in federal grants made to researchers through the NIH and has moved to sharply curtail funding for academic medical centers and other institutions. It has also tried to fire hundreds of workers at the National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency. And it has revoked visas of hundreds of foreign-born students. To economists, the policies threaten to undermine US competitiveness … and to leave Americans as a whole, poorer, less healthy and less productive in the decades ahead.”

Education

The Trump administration wants to shutter the Department of Education, censor books in schools and clamp down on university curricula.

“One day they are dismantling the department [of Education], the next day they are weaponizing it,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said on Boston’s WGBH radio Tuesday.

The Department of Education, which began in 1979, has a budget of about $100 billion. When it shuts down, services at risk will include Pell Grants that help support lower-income college students; assistance in applying for federal loans; support for students with disabilities in grades K-12; and programs intended to help school districts with disproportionate numbers of low-income students.

“This is about dismantling and abolishing what gives kids opportunity,” Weingarten said.

Veterans Affairs

Joy Marver spent 22 years serving the US government. Until a week ago, the disabled veteran was working at the Veterans Administration near Minneapolis helping retrain soldiers for civilian work and coordinating veteran burials. Then, abruptly, she got fired.

The New York Times told Marver’s story Sunday in a touching narrative titled, “She Devoted Her Life to Serving the US. Then DOGE targeted her.” Marver is one of 80,000 employees, many of them veterans, the agency plans to fire this year. The NYT noted that she suffered traumatic brain injury in Iraq. Helping others has helped her on her long road to recovery. She won an employee of the month award and was hailed as a “great employee” in October.

But Musk and his DOGE boys don’t look at people. They look at numbers, revel as they slash the bureaucracy and often demean those they’ve fired without knowing anything about them. Marver’s firing shook her to the core.

Other veterans are losing jobs, losing access to much-needed care and losing the respect they’ve clearly earned. CNN reports that the agency is considering automating call centers that veterans use to set up appointments.

“Veterans in need of life-saving care and compassion should be met with a person who understands their needs and can provide them the information and resources they seek, not a lifeless machine, a Democratic congressional staff member told CNN.

USAID

The overwhelming majority of employees at the United States Agency for International Development will have lost their jobs by this summer, CBS News reports. The agency for six decades has had bipartisan support in fighting disease and supporting development in poorer countries around the world. Its assistance also spreads good will for the United States.

Its elimination (it’s officially being absorbed by the State Department) already has had catastrophic results. Writes CNN: “More than 11,000 additional TB (tuberculosis) patients are estimated to have died in the two months since almost all USAID funding froze on January 24.” TB infections are expected to rise roundly 30% this year as a result of the cuts. That’s a single disease.

The program’s demise also has hurt American farmers – heavily Trump voters – who sold surplus grains to USAID.

Looking Ahead

If you are a numbers person and remain unmoved by these bullet points, consider the economic impact of both DOGE cuts and Trump’s tariffs.

Economists increasingly are talking about stagflation – rising prices and rising unemployment. The CNBC Rapid Update, an average of economists’ forecasts, projects a sickly 0.3% increase in growth in the first quarter of 2025. It was 2.3% in the last quarter of last year.

“Economic growth has flatlined so far this year,” writes Axios. “Inflation has picked up. And consumers expect both to get worse.”

The Washington Post quotes economists who said the sweeping tariffs Donald Trump promises to impose this week will amount to the largest peacetime tax hike in US history.
The stock market remains shaky.
Donald Trump regularly praises Hungary and its autocratic leader. An interesting article in The Atlantic notes the country has become one of the poorest countries in the European Union. Productivity is dropping. Unemployment is climbing. And two-thirds of citizens describe the national education system as “bad.”

Maybe our “co-bros,” Trump and Musk, need a new model of good government.

My thanks to Taegan Goddard and his excellent website, politicalwire.com, which brought many of the articles referenced here to my attention.

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Commentary Fodder

Are you taking President Trump’s comments seriously on his potentially running for a third term?

Are you watching Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election, which pits an Elon Musk-backed candidate against a George Soros-backed candidate?

What about Wednesday, which President Trump calls “liberation day” because he is imposing a 25% tariff on all imported autos? Good or bad for the economy?

This potentially is a big week for reader comments. But first, you have to comment after reading.

Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line, so we may post them in the proper column.

And be sure to read our Substack newsletter here.

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MONDAY 3/31/25

Liberals Keep Wis Court Majority

Booker Sets New Record – Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) set a new record for a Senate speech, taking 25 hours, four minutes, with the “intention of disrupting the normal business of the US Senate” to protest President Trump’s actions (per Politico). Booker beats Sen. Strom Thurmond’s (D-SC) 1957 filibuster against civil rights by about 50 minutes.

Wisconsin Maintains Liberal-Majority Supreme Court – All of Elon Musk’s millions poured into Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court election didn’t work for conservative former state attorney general and current Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel, who lost to Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford, maintaining a 4-3 liberal majority, The Associated Press reports. Crawford beat Schimel by a decisive 54.7% to 45.3% of the vote, in a state where such races typically are decided by wafer-thin margins.

Republican Florida Men win … The liberal majority in the Wisconsin Supreme Court is likely to result in two additional Democratic-majority congressional districts among the state’s eight, in 2026. But for now, the Republican Party holds the House majority with 218 out of 435 seats.

In a special election in Florida’s 6^th District, Republican Randy Fine defeated Democrat Josh Weil, 56.7% to 42.3%, Tuesday, the AP reports. Fine will replace Mike Waltz, whom President Trump tapped to become his national security advisor in January.

This was considered the better chance for a Democratic candidate upset, but the huge GOP margin is about equal to the 1^st District race, where Republican Jimmy Patronis beat Democrat Gay Valimont, 56.9% to 42.3% (per AP). Patronis fills the seat vacated when Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) stepped down to become Trump’s only failed nominee, in this case for US attorney general.

--TL

...meanwhile...

TUESDAY 4/1/25

No April Fool – DOGE chief Elon Musk tops Forbes magazine’s 39^th Annual World’s Billioinaires List released Tuesday, with an estimated $342 billion in the bank. He tops No. 2 Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and its parent Meta, at $216 billion, and edging out No. 3 Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Washington Post-ownership fame, at $215 billion. Oracle’s Larry Ellison is worth $192 billion, according to the list.

•••

Election Day – Tuesday is special election day in Florida, where special elections will replace ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was President Trump’s first choice for attorney general until his nomination was withdrawn, and ex-Rep. Mike Waltz, the president’s national security advisor now enmeshed in the Signalgate controversy. (The Trump White House, with help from Fox News, has been working to ensure Signalgate does not become a scandal.)

On, Wisconsin … Meanwhile, it’s Trump and Elon Musk-backed Judge Brad Schimel versus George Soros-backed Judge Susan Crawford for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Tuesday.

The Florida special elections have implications for the US House majority in the short term, while the Wisconsin election has implications for the 2026 mid-terms.

Scroll down … center column for details. Email YOUR COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line, so we can post your comments in the proper column.

•••

Gold Standard is Back – We are one day away from the Trump White House’s “Liberation Day” of 25% taxes on imported autos, plus other tariffs. Wall Street has just finished its worst quarter in three years, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, while gold as a commodity has topped $3,000 per ounce.

Still, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1% Monday to 42,001.76 points, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ was off 0.14% to 17,299.29. Elon Musk’s Tesla was off 1.67%, to 259.16. Share price for the automaker is way down from its Trump-bump after election day, in which it hit 488.54 to boost Musk’s wealth to nearly a half-trillion dollars.

--TL

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This Big Week

MONDAY 3/31/25

Such a Tease – President Trump often has spoken about running for a third term, then quickly dismissed the notion as a “joke” that the “fake news media” will pick up and run with.

On Sunday morning, Trump called NBC News Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker to “tease” yet again.

“A lot of people want me to do it,” he said. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”

One-time advisor Steve Bannon already has told News Nation he believes Trump will “run and win again in 2028,” (when, by the way, the president will be 82).

A number of ways to get around the 22^nd Amendment, passed by Congress in 1951 to limit the US president to two terms, have been floated by the MAGA faithful, including having Trump run as JD Vance’s running mate and Vance resigns after taking office. There’s also the vagueness of 22A as to whether the two-term limit only applies to two consecutive terms. But we digress.

Meanwhile … A White House post on X-Twitter quotes Trump’s previous comments on Truth Social, according to NBC News: “LONG LIVE THE KING.”

But first … Trump must get past Tuesday’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race pitting liberal Dane County Judge Susan Crawford against conservative Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel, which could affect redistricting in the state, as well as abortion laws, separation of powers and the legality of Act 10, a law that cut back public employees’ collective bargaining power.

Even more pertinent, the race is yet another potential sign of how the voting public, especially those in the middle, are taking Trump’s authoritarian executive orders and actions.

The Wisconsin race is expected to break the $56 million national spending record for a state court race set in 2023, when liberal Janet Protasiewicz won to flip conservatives’ 5-4 majority.

That’s right – a Schimel win would flip it back. Crawford’s war chest includes serious backing by liberal billionaire and Fox News bogeyman George Soros, while DOGE chief Elon Musk’s backing of Schimel includes two $1 million checks he handed out to Wisconsinites who signed an America PAC petition opposing “partisan” judges, at a rally in Green Bay Sunday.

That liberal-majority state Supreme Court declined to block Musk’s giveaway, according to Politico, which reports about 2,000 attended his event at the KI Convention Center, with hundreds of protesters lined up across the street, a couple of miles from Lambeau Field.

Tuesday’s contest might affect “the entire destiny of humanity” in part because of ripple effects on the 2026 midterms, Musk told his crowd. A proposal for redistricting reportedly could flip two of Wisconsin’s eight House seats to majority-Democratic.

And then there’s Florida … A special election for Florida’s 6^th congressional district Tuesday could affect the GOP’s already wafer-thin House majority. An internal poll by the GOP firm of Fabrizio Ward shows Democratic candidate Josh Weil +3 points to Republican state Sen. Randy Fine, according to The Hill, in the race to replace Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz. While maybe not as apocalyptic in Elon Musk’s mind as the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, his America PAC has poured an additional $76,200 into Fine’s campaign in just the last week.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 3/31/25

Feel Better Yet?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

So how has Trump made things better for the average American?

Wasn’t that the reason why many people voted for him, because he promised them a Golden Age?

It was that and his deporting illegal aliens, a cadre of people whom, if you listen to him, are all murders, rapists and drug-addicts/peddlers.

As Adrian Carrasquillo reports in the Huddled Masses newsletter, on March 26 representatives of the American Business Immigration Council had meetings with members of Congress. Carrasquillo quotes Matt Teagarden, CEO of the 5,600-member Kansas Livestock Association, which is likely not some radical group, saying, “We either import workers or we import our food.”

What seems to be overlooked in the discussion of undocumented people is that according to information from the American Immigration Council, a large percentage of them work in agriculture. And based on Teagarden’s comment, they work in meat-processing, too.

While it might seem from the rhetoric of Team Trump that these people are “taking Americans’ jobs,” according to the most-recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in the US is 4.1%, which is essentially full employment.

Arguably there aren’t a whole lot of Americans available to take those jobs and the real question is how many of them would be willing to do that work.

When Trump was elected in November 2024 the Consumer Price Index — a gauge based on “a basket” of products people regularly buy — was at 2.7%. In February 2025, the CPI is 2.8%. Yes, a 0.1% increase, but not a 0.1% decrease.

This week there are supposed to be 25% tariffs on all vehicles imported to the US. Imports accounted for approximately 50% of all cars and trucks purchased by Americans in 2024.

So if 50% have an increased price (likely some percentage of 25%) and people suddenly buy the vehicles that aren’t imported, don’t the laws of supply and demand have it that those domestic products are going to get more expensive, too? After all, a car dealer who sees increased interest in the non-tariffed cars isn’t going to simply sell them at sticker, as we saw during the COVID crisis.

Another thing that isn’t typically thought about — but will be — are those 25% tariffs that are applied to imported steel and aluminum. About 47% of the aluminum used in the US was imported. So given that, this means that things like beer cans are going to be getting more expensive.

And so will beer. According to the Beer Institute, about 18% of the beer consumed in the US is imported. Add tariff costs to that and. . . .

(Beer, incidentally, is an excellent case of why, despite what Team Trump says, other countries aren’t ripping off America. People just like the taste of Modelo, Heineken, Guinness, etc. So they buy it. No one is forcing them to drink it. Will making it more expensive make it taste any less good to them — or will it serve to drive up inflation?)

And then there are all of those DOGE activities that are (1) increasing the number of people unemployed (how is that good?) and (2) knee-capping the services that regular Americans depend on — like having someone at Social Security answer the phone.

Elon Musk may claim “waste, fraud and abuse” are rife.

But consider this: if you worked in an office, there was probably “that guy” who pilfered supplies. It wasn’t the whole staff. Just that guy. And you can pretty much be certain that whether it is a grocery store or any other product-based business you can think of, it is “that guy” who is doing dubious things, not everyone.

So why is it that literally thousands of people at various agencies are losing their jobs rather than “that guy”? Because it seems that Musk et. al. fail to understand that the US government is a service business and cutting services will reduce the amount of money spent but it will also reduce the purpose of the enterprise.

Isn’t answering a phone in a Social Security office “mission critical” when the mission is serving the people on the other end of the line?

Trump has intimated that before the wonders of tariffs kick in that Americans may “feel some pain.” The pain will be real. The wonders will be fanciful.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, writing primarily for the right column.

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MONDAY 3/31/25

Wanted: Your Comments on Signalgate

Is there any defense for the use of the Signal app to discuss war plans for the US military attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen March 15? The Trump White House so far has reacted primarily by attacking Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic for accepting an invite on Signal from national security advisor Mike Waltz to tune in for the planning on the messaging app, instead of holding the meeting in a sensitive compartmentalized information facility (SCIF) as is required for military actions that place our troops in harm’s way.

Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay has something to say about Signalgate in the right column. Whether you agree or disagree, whether from the right or left, we want to further this discussion.

Join the debate by emailing your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news, and please, indicate your political leanings (which do not have to align with your opinion) in the subject line (e.g., “I lean left” or “I lean right”).

For more analysis and commentary, please visit our Substack page.

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THURSDAY 3/27/25

…meanwhile…

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says he will cut about one-third his department’s full-time jobs as part of President Trump’s wider federal government overhaul (per USA Today). HHS oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as Medicare and Medicaid services.

FRIDAY 3/28/25

Teaming Up – President Trump participates in the swearing in ceremony of Alina Habba, his White House counselor and often described as his favorite attorney, to be US attorney for New Jersey, The Wall Street Journal reports. The president then flies on Air Force One to spend the weekend at the Southern White House at Mar-a-Lago.

Habba began working for Trump after the January 6^th Capitol insurrection, most prominently representing him in E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump in which the president-to-be was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation. (Carroll was awarded $83.3 million in damages, but the case is under appeal.)

•••

Taking One for the Team – President Trump has pulled his nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as his United Nations ambassador in order to maintain the GOP’s wafer-thin majority of between one and two votes in the House (per NPR’s Morning Edition). Of two special elections in Florida one, the seat of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Trump’s withdrawn pick for US attorney general, is reliably red. The second, to replace national security advisor Mike Waltz is in a dead heat between Republican Randy Fine and Democrat Josh Weil, according to a survey of polls by St. Johns Polls, for Florida International University’s Florida Politics.

The Great Democratic Hope … All politics is local, and this is a local story. Specifically, it is the story of a special election for the 36^th state senate district for Pennsylvania serving suburban and farming sections of Lancaster County, in the south-central portion of the commonwealth.

The Democratic mayor of East Petersburg, James Malone, beat Republican Josh Parsons, chairman of the Lancaster County board of commissioners, Tuesday, by 482 votes, LNP/Lancaster Online reports. When Christa Miller, chief county elections clerk, said just 146 more provisional ballots were yet to be counted, Parsons conceded to Malone, who becomes the first Democrat elected to the seat since … 1889.

Canary in a clean-coal mine?

The special election was called after Republican state Sen. Ryan Aument (R) stepped down after last November’s elections to take a job as state office director for US Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA), who beat incumbent Democrat Bob Casey November 5.

•••

How Greenland is Not Our Valley – Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance were on their way to Greenland Friday, to visit the Pittufik US Space Force base in Thule, on the northwest coast of the world’s largest island. Original plans for Usha Vance to tour cultural attractions and attend the audience of the National Dog Sled Race, described by visitgreenland.com as the country’s most prestigious such event, were called off when Greenland’s leaders called it a “provocative and unwelcome” visit, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

--TL

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THURSDAY 3/27/25

[President Trump continues to defend Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth regarding Signalgate, while accepting his national security advisor, Mike Waltz acceptance of responsibility, Politico reports. “Mike Waltz, I guess he said, he claimed responsibility,” Trump said. Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay discusses the security breach in the right column.]

‘Liberation Day’ Means 25% Tariffs on Foreign Autos – President Trump announced in the Oval Office he will impose tariffs on all import autos beginning next week, The Wall Street Journal reports. While Trump has long referred to Tuesday, April 2 as “Liberation Day,” threatened tariffs have been on, off and delayed since he took office in January. This time, he appears to be serious.

“What we’re going to be doing is a 25% tariff on all cars not made in the US,” Trump said.

•••

Europe to Coordinate Military Aid for Ukraine – Leaders from 31 countries are meeting Thursday in Paris to coordinate military aid for Ukraine, The Kyiv Independent reports, where they will discuss steps toward a “just and lasting peace” and prospects for a truce with Russia. French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer are at the center of efforts to sustain military aid to Ukraine.

Starmer told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “you have our full support as long as it takes.”

Zelenskyy once again warned that “Russia doesn’t want any kind of peace.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 3/27/25

This Is How They Keep Us Safe?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

In case you missed this from the official White House website:

“Democrats and their media allies have seemingly forgotten that President Donald J. Trump and his National Security team successfully killed terrorists who have targeted US troops and disrupted one of the most consequential shipping routes in the world. This is a coordinated effort to distract from the successful actions taken by President Trump and his administration to make America’s enemies pay and keep Americans safe.” (Emphasis not added by The Hustings. The White House evidently thinks you might miss it without it being put in bold face.)

Regarding what is now being called “Signalgate” there is no coordinated effort to distract anyone from anything. Well, maybe there’s the Team Trump attempts to distract at how horrible this situation is.

Never mind the administration officials’ use of a free, open-source app that you can get for your Apple or Android phone, was used for a group chat said to be including:

Michael Waltz, national security advisor
Pete Hegseth, secretary of defense
Marco Rubio, secretary of state
John Ratcliffe, CIA director
JD Vance, vice president
Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence
Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff
Stephen Miller, deputy White House chief of staff
Steve Witkoff, special envoy for the Middle East and Ukraine

Yes, we’re talking the Full Monty.

Oh, and of course, also in the group chat:

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic

Goldberg was a class act, hesitating to take the lid off this rancid mess.

But then Team Trump being Team Trump, what did they do?

Smear Goldberg.

Today, Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, called Goldberg an “anti-Trump hater” and that it is simply the “Signal hoax.”

That’s right: Providing information before the fact about an attack on “terrorists who have targeted U.S. troops” on an app is Goldberg’s fault.

Michael Waltz, who created the group for the chat and who included Goldberg, called the journalist “scum.”

Pete Hegseth typed in information prior to the attack not only about the equipment, but even the weather.

Yet he sluffs off any responsibility for doing something wrong.

The level of incompetence of these people is breathtaking.

And let’s not forget that US Attorney General Pam Bondi says that people who are vandalizing Teslas, Tesla chargers, or Tesla stores are committing acts of “domestic terrorism.”

Not only does this trivialize the charge of “terrorism,” but it is done for one reason only: Elon Musk.

Press Secretary Leavitt said on Fox News of Trump: “He will ensure that the harshest penalties are pursued for those who are engaging in this vicious violence.”

Do you think if someone took a crowbar to every windshield of vehicles parked in your local Ford dealer’s lot it would garner the attention of the president of the United States?

Clearly, being “mission critical” isn’t something that applies to Team Trump.

How is it they “keep Americans safe” by holding a group chat that provides specifics about an attack on real terrorists before the fact? Aren’t they putting the servicepeople who were flying the planes in danger by providing operational detail on the app?

Nobody is distracting anyone from this absolute cluster that occurred among most of the highest-ranking officials in the U.S. government.

Trump called Waltz “a very good man.”

Perhaps he is. Perhaps he brushes twice daily, flosses, and goes to church every Sunday.

But Waltz is evidently a man who is in well over his head. And Hegseth preens and postures even though this whole situation is, to borrow a military term, FUBAR.

Which may be qualifications for serving on Team Trump.

Just imagine if this happened on Biden’s watch.

Trump would have broken the “caps lock” function on his phone banging out screeds on Truth Social.

On January 27 Trump signed an Executive Order related to the US military that reads, in part:

“Success in this existential mission requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos, and the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion.”

The “pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas.”

If all of the denials, obfuscations, coverups, and out-right lies being told about the Signal fiasco isn’t a political agenda that has consequences regarding our military excellence, then it is hard to know what is.

By the way, there is something called the “Federal Records Act,” which is codified in Title 44 of the United States Code. It is a law.

It is a law for the perseveration of federal records.

According to the National Archives, “Federal records have value by protecting the rights and interests of the public, holding officials accountable for their actions, and documenting our nation's history.”

“Holding officials accountable for their actions.”

One of the features of the Signal messaging app? “Disappearing messages.”

After a set time, all messages on the app can be automatically deleted.

Poof!

So do you think that group of individuals was using Signal rather than, say, WhatsApp because they think it sounds more serious?

Or because they’d like their messages to disappear?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings. His columns also appear on our Substack.

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THURSDAY 3/27/25

Defending Democracy is Not a Partisan Issue

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

I went to New York City this week for a few days’ vacation. By the time I got back, Donald Trump’s Defense Department had stripped articles about the Holocaust and 9/11 from its website. His acting head of Social Security was threatening to shut down the agency that provides me and some 73 million others with monthly checks. And Trump had moved to dismantle the Department of Education, the source of programs ranging from educational support for public school students with disabilities to loans and grants for college students.

There’s much more cutting and outright obliteration to come, of course. It seems to be the only certainty in American politics today.

That’s why we all need to put aside the imprecise political definitions that too often serve to separate us from one another. Instead, we need to work together to restore the very foundations of our democracy. I’m not interested in whether you define yourself as a liberal, a conservative or a libertarian. I don’t care whether you are a progressive, a moderate, or something else. I do care whether you are serious about being pro-American – the kind of pro-American who believes in the constitutional, democratic form of government that has allowed the United States, with all its imperfections, to be a model for the world for many decades.

Do Not Ignore

If you embrace the Constitution, there’s no honest way to shrug as the Trump administration attempts to obliterate or rewrite history. There’s no way to ignore the potential theft of Social Security benefits from recipients who saved them throughout a lifetime of work. There’s no way to stand silent as the government strips agency after agency of the capacity to provide basic national support, from predicting deadly storms to tracking the spread of disease.

It's true. There’s a difference between a threat and an action. When CNN reports that “articles about the Holocaust, September 11, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands either removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites,” the network is reporting on an action.

When, as The Washington Post reports, the acting head of the Social Security Administration is “consulting with the … Justice Department as he threatens to shut down the agency …. A dramatic move [that]… would immediately begin halting benefit payments to millions of Americans,” it is reporting on a threat. A very sizable threat.

The pace of both actions and threats in the first two months of the Trump Administration is unprecedented. Judges threatened with impeachment for doing their jobs in a co-equal branch of government, universities threatened with the loss of hundreds of millions in federal funds, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris stripped of their security clearances.

Is this the democracy you learned about in American history classes? Is it the kind of America you want to live in?

“The president of the United States has essentially declared war on the rule of law in America,” former federal judge J. Michael Luttig told MSNBC (he’s a conservative if you insist on embracing labels). “In the past few weeks… the president himself has led a full-frontal assault on the Constitution.”

Steven Levitsky, a Harvard University political science professor and the co-author of How Democracies Die, put it this way in an interview with The New York Times. “I’ve never seen anything like it…. These first two months have been much more aggressively authoritarian than almost any other comparable case I know of democratic backsliding.”

That is why in today’s United States there is only one political fault-line that carries overriding importance. On one side are those who believe in democracy and the Constitution in this country. On the other are those who actively or passively support their destruction.

None of us individually can stop what’s happening. Collectively, we stand a chance. I urge you to attend public forums, show up at congressional town hall meetings, find your way to one of the mass protests being planned across the country on April 5.

And I urge you to speak out, not hide behind the illusory safety of silence. That just allows things to slide further and faster toward the abyss of unchallenged authoritarianism.

Contributing Pundit Jerry Lanson writes Jerry’s Substack.

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MONDAY 3/24/25

…meanwhile…

Vice President Vance will join wife Usha in Greenland Friday to check out security of the US Space Force base there, NPR reports. “Speaking for President Trump, we want to reinvigorate the security of the people of Greenland because we think it’s important to protecting the security of the entire world,” Vance said in a video (AP). (Scroll down center column for details of trip.)

Right-column Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett has something to say about left-column Contributing Pundit Jerry Lanson’s “Defending Democracy is Not a Partisan Issue.” Read both in the appropriate columns and add your COMMENTs in an email to editors@thehustings.news -- please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

WEDNESDAY 3/26/25

Waltz Takes the Blame and Downplays Text Message Importance – Trump White House national security advisor Mike Waltz said that he, and not an underling, is responsible for the “embarrassing” use of Signal to hold a principles committee (PC) discussion of the US military attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen on March 15, in which a magazine editor was asked to participate.

National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe said at a Senate hearing Tuesday that no classified material was shared with the Signal group.

Waltz later Tuesday “confirmed” to host Laura on Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle that “no classified information” was disclosed in the texts in the PC group that included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic.

On Wednesday morning, The Atlantic published the attack plans that White House advisors shared on Signal. The magazine’s initial story Monday “withheld specific information related to weapons and to the timing of attacks that we found in certain texts,” Goldberg and Shane Harris write in Wednesday’s follow-up. “As a general rule, we do not publish information about military operations if that information could possibly jeopardize the lives of US personnel.”

But statements by Gabbard, Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump, and other administration officials who say magazine staff are lying about the Signals texts’ content “have lead us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions.”

--TL

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TUESDAY 3/25/25

MAGA-Yanks Go Home – Greenland’s outgoing Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede called Second Lady Usha Vance’s trip to his country this week “highly aggressive” and accused the Trump White House of using diplomatic engagements as a smokescreen to cover up the US president’s goal of taking over his country, per Time magazine. Vance announced on Instagram Sunday she will attend a dogsled race and other cultural events in Greenland this week along with one of her sons, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

The second lady wrote that her visit was “to express hope” that the relationship between the US and Greenland “will only grow stronger in the coming years.”

President Trump wants Greenland for its abundance of industrially important minerals and its strategic location on the global map. But neither Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, nor Denmark, want any of it.

“Greenlanders have tried to be diplomatic,” Bourup said, “but it simply bounces off Donald Trump and his administration in their mission to own and control Greenland.”

•••

Smoked Signals – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted over Signal the US military’s plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen March 15 to Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic two hours before the attack on the Iranian-backed terrorist organization. Goldberg writes that four days earlier, he received a connection request from a Signal user “identified as Michael Waltz.’

“I assumed that the Michael Walz in question was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser,” Goldberg writes. “I did not assume, however, that the request was from the actual Michael Waltz. I have met him in the past, and though I didn’t find it particularly strange that he might be reaching out to me, I did think it somewhat unusual, given the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with journalists – and Trump’s periodic fixation on me specifically. It immediately crossed my mind that someone could be masquerading as Waltz in order to somehow entrap me.”

Instead, Goldberg was tapped in to a “Houthi small PC group” – “PC” for principles committee – that included Waltz, Hegseth, Middle East and Ukraine negotiator Steve Witkoff, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, “S M” (whom the editor assumed was White House advisor Stephen Miller) and likely, representatives for Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard.

Democratic leadership is once again flailing at how to make something of this breach of security – unfavorable comparisons to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s release of emails when she was running against Trump in 2016 come up a lot. It goes without saying that the breach potentially put US troops at risk.

Trump says Waltz has “learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” according to Politico.

But Goldberg writes; “I have never seen a breach quite like this. It is not uncommon for national-security officials to communicate on Signal. But the app is used primarily for meeting planning and other logistical matters – not for detailed and highly confidential discussions of a pending military action.”

--TL

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MONDAY 3/24/25

Israel Considers Ground Invasion of Gaza – Israel is considering a plan for a full-scale military ground invasion of Gaza to establish military rule for Palestinians there, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, citing unnamed sources, noting that it is unknown at this point whether the plans will be carried out. Meanwhile, Palestinians have updated their death count to more than 50,000 in Gaza since Israel resumed its war on Hamas there.

•••

Peace Talks? – Russia continues to strike Ukraine as peace talks between US and Ukrainian delegations have begun in Saudi Arabia, The Guardian reports. What’s more, Trump White House special envoy Steve Witkoff has claimed that some Russian-speaking Ukrainians in Russian-held parts of Ukraine want to remain part of Russia, the BBC reports. Still, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said ahead of negotiations Sunday the talks will be “constructive and beneficial,” according to The Kyiv Independent.

•••

Easing Trump Tariffs, Again – The White House is dropping tariffs for the industrial sector most recently set for April 2, though major trading partners still will be hit with President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, The Wall Street Journal reports. It appears to be working for the Trump White House – stock futures have “jumped” in early Monday trading on the news. Expect a rally when the New York Stock Exchange opens just before 10 a.m. Eastern.

•••

Former Rep Mia Love Has Died – Former Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), first Black Republican woman in Congress, has died at the age of 49 Politico reports. Love served in the US House from 2015-19. Born in New York City, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, had recently undergone treatment for brain cancer and had received immunotherapy as part of a clinical trial at Duke University.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 3/24/25

A Partisan Weapon in Disguise

Commentary by Rich Corbett

The pitch that defending democracy is a noble, non-partisan cause is a comforting tale, but it’s not the last word on the matter. Instead of uniting us, this slogan has become a partisan bludgeon, swung by one side to hammer the other. Look at the hysteria over Social Security: warnings of an "assault" on this retiree lifeline get paraded as evidence of democracy in peril. It’s a scare tactic, not a shared mission, showing how the concept gets twisted into a political weapon.

Take that claim head-on. Proposals to tweak Social Security—like adjusting eligibility or benefits—are spun as full-scale attacks, proof of democratic sabotage. Yet these ideas often aim to keep the program viable amid real pressures, like an aging workforce. If defending democracy were truly bipartisan, wouldn’t we debate fixes instead of shouting betrayal? The one-sided outrage betrays the game: it’s a rallying cry to energize one faction while branding opponents as threats, not a call for common ground.

The hypocrisy stretches further. When one camp decries election security laws as voter suppression, it’s a crisis of democratic values. When the other side calls out Big Tech censorship or executive overreach—like rules shoved through without Congress—the same voices shrug. If this were a neutral fight, both concerns would matter. Instead, "defending democracy" amplifies selective fears—Social Security today, something else tomorrow—to let one side play savior while painting rivals as villains.

The bias runs deep. The argument props up a "free" press and "independent" judiciary as democratic cornerstones, but a press skewed one way, as bias studies show, isn’t free—it’s a mouthpiece. A judiciary’s independence is a partisan tug-of-war, too, with every appointment a battle. When these institutions echo certain alarms, they’re not safeguarding democracy—they’re picking winners.

The "defend democracy" line assumes we all see it the same way. We don’t. Some view entitlements like Social Security as untouchable; others see reform as survival. Some push majority rule; others guard minority rights. These gaps don’t unite us—they fuel the fight. Democracy isn’t a holy grail to protect; it’s a ring where partisan armies, armed with overblown claims, slug it out.

This vision of a bipartisan defense of democracy is a delusion. It’s a catchphrase hijacked by those who gain from fearmongering, whether over cherished programs or other hot buttons. Unity starts with owning the messiness of democracy—not pretending it’s a saintly ideal we all agree to save.

Corbett writes on a variety of subjects at My Desultory Blog.

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Has the US already descended into authoritarianism after barely more than two months of President Trump’s (and Elon Musk’s) rule? In the left column, contributing pundit Jerry Lanson makes the case for how we are now under authoritarian rule and why you should care – and fight back – no matter how you identify politically.

As always, we invite you to submit your civil comments on the issue, whether you are a pro-MAGA or anti-Trump conservative, a moderate or progressive liberal, a libertarian or populist, or anywhere in-between.

We are also interested in your comments if you have attended a town hall meeting with Republican elected leaders and/or a rally with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

Please submit your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and indicate your political leanings in the subject line so that we may post those comments in the proper column.

Also be sure to read our free Substack here.

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MONDAY 3/24/25

‘Detoxing’ Will Not Sooth

Commentary by Hugh Hansen

How does one even consider Bidenomics vs. Trumponomics? There has not been much time for the new administration's actions to yield numbers, except numbers around sentiment and expectations (bad and down, primarily). It's unreasonable to use 45's results, since 47's personnel and stated goals (with the exception, natch, of extending his huge tax cut expiring later this year) are so different.

Forty-six -- President Biden -- was right to pick essential, strategic American interests for both protection and investment (e.g. the Chips program and green energy). He was wrong? Slow? Short-sighted? Allied with impractical people? Not to mate that with vigorous, targeted deregulation of both techie stuff like what it takes to make changes to the electrical grid, and maddening rules around new housing. Biden and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell rolled boxcars, maybe twice in a row, to bring inflation down without a recession.

Forty-seven and his people are now making noises about "detoxing" as a way to pre-gaslight the pain and damage, that there's a good chance their wild lurches of firings and tariffs will cause.

I've known a lot of New Age sorts who would proclaim the body's wisdom and that anything that felt bad, was bad -- unless it was a sanctioned thing that felt bad, which could only mean that the bad feeling was necessary "detoxing". No toxins were found in, say, the sweat or urine or exhalations of the people feeling bad. Perhaps a Tesla pickup truck and a $Trump coin will protect the detoxing (former) recipients of Medicaid like crystals and algae powder did their ‘90s counterparts.

Contributing Pundit Hugh Hansen is a retired physics and math teacher, living in Northern Michigan.

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FRIDAY 3/21/25

Stagflation Ahoy?

William McKinley, 25^th president (1897-1901).

By Todd Lassa

Right and left have plenty to argue over after just 60+ days of the Trump 47 administration, not the least of which is existential fear about our democracy. But for voters who swung the 2020 election for Democratic candidate Joe Biden and then four years later for Republican candidate Donald J. Trump, it comes back to that famous quote by Bill Clinton’s campaign chief, James Carville: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Thirty-three years later, President Trump’s infatuation with Gilded Age president Number 25, William McKinley and his tariff policy, have Number 45/47’s staunch MAGA supporters on the defensive (if that’s possible) as swing voters wonder what happened to cutting inflation on Day One.

McKinley “made our country very rich through tariffs,” Trump has said (per Fortune).

The Gilded Age, roughly 1870 to the end of World War I, 1918, brought great wealth and power to the Rockefellers, Carnegies, Vanderbilts and Mellons, just as Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and Gates stand to expand their political and economic power under a Trump Gilded Age. And just like current times, the original Gilded Age was a time of a deepening gulf between the 0.01% and the poor and lower classes in America.

America’s billionaires are now worth $6 trillion-plus, more than twice the wealth they held prior to President Trump’s tax cuts from his first administration in 2017, USA Today reported last July, quoting Americans for Tax Fairness. Approximately 800 billionaires hold more wealth than half the nation, while the bottom-half of the US holds just 2.5%.

Tariffs will prompt global corporations to build more factories in the US, Trump claims, and extended tax cuts will trickle down to the masses.

Let’s connect the economic dots. “Trickle-down” is the argument President Biden repeatedly rejected, as his policies were designed to reverse President Reagan’s supply-side economics, which in turn was a reversal of LBJ’s Great Society and FDR’s New Deal. The New Deal was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s response to The Great Depression, which was triggered by the Wall Street crash of 1929, which came off the laissez-faire capitalism that followed the Gilded Age.

A recession is defined as lower gross domestic product, versus depression, which is negative GDP. In this week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee, its members projected a GDP growth-range for the year between 1% and 2.4% (growth last year was 2.5%). The median projection for Fed Market Committee members is +1.7%, which clearly would be a recession, far from anything starting with a ‘d.’

But some economists have revived a word from the Ford and Carter administrations that spilled into the first couple of years of the Reagan administration: Stagflation. This is defined as the painful combination of high inflation and high unemployment.

We’re not anywhere near that now, and in fact the Fed’s projections for the coming year are for a slight increase in inflation, but still historically low unemployment.

In this page’s debate, Rich Corbett, in the right column, and Hugh Hansen, in the left column, have very different opinions of where all this is heading.

Read left and right and then send your own COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news or submit them in the appropriate columns. For emailed comments please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Don’t miss our Substack page for more political analysis and commentary.

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FRIDAY 3/21/25

Real Economy v. Fake Economy

Commentary by Rich Corbett

The economic visions of Donald Trump and Joe Biden stand in sharp contrast: Trump’s “Real Economy” emphasizes deregulation, energy independence, and tariffs to bolster American jobs, while Biden’s “Fake Economy” is roundly criticized for government expansion, deficit spending, and inflated metrics. As America awakens to month three of President Trump’s second term, stark differences between the two presidents highlight a pivotal debate over America’s economic future.

Trump 1.0 delivered the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, slashing corporate taxes from 35% to 21%, driving investment and pushing unemployment to a 50-year low of 3.5% as of February 2020.

Energy policies fueled manufacturing and kept costs low. Trump 2.0 is doubling down with tariffs — proposing significant tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, China, and the European Union — aimed at leveling the playing field for US companies. This strategy incentivizes domestic hiring by making foreign goods costlier, with Trump claiming it will “bring back millions of American jobs” and shift revenue from foreign producers to the US Treasury.

This is a “Real Economy” that makes its priority American workers, without wasting a single taxpayer dollar on DEI or green energy boondoggles.

The Biden administration pumped $1.9 trillion into the American Rescue Plan, driving inflation to 9.1% in June 2022 and swelling the national debt from $27.8 trillion in January 2021 to $36.2 trillion by January 2025 — an $8.4 trillion increase. Foreign aid soared and government jobs ballooned, including $80 billion to hire up to 87,000 IRS employees by 2031. By early 2025, the IRS workforce grew from 80,000 to over 100,000. The result of all this government spending: Inflation. It hit 9.1% in June 2022, eroding wages, while green energy mandates raised energy costs, creating a “Fake Economy” that gave away much of our economic strength.

Trump’s tariffs aim to reverse this by encouraging companies to expand and hire domestically. Biden’s defenders point to stock market gains and low unemployment, but skeptics see a mirage — sustained by borrowed billions and government bloat rather than private-sector strength. With economic pressures mounting, the clash between these diametrically opposed philosophies will be enlightening over the next couple of years.

Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett writes about a variety of subjects at My Desultory Blog.

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FRIDAY 3/21/25

Is the Economy Stupid?

Join the debate on the US economy under President Trump and his tariff policy by emailing your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news, and please, indicate your political leanings (which do not have to align with your opinion) in the subject line (e.g., “I lean left” or “I lean right”).

In Friday’s edition of The Hustings pro-Trump contributor Rich Corbett comments on never-Trumper Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s right-side columns on the Trump economy. Contributor Hugh Hansen comments in Friday’s left column.

Macaulay’s two recent commentaries are ‘It’s the Economy…” and “This is How to Make America Great Again?”

For more analysis and commentary, please visit our Substack page.

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THURSDAY 3/20/25

Harder Landing

Federal Reserve officials predict weaker growth, higher unemployment and higher inflation than they did last November. Scroll down for details.

THURSDAY 3/20/25

Dropping Out – President Trump is expected to order Education Secretary Linda McMahon, to shut down her new department Thursday, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Trump is to announce closing of the federal department “and return educational authority to the States” in a White House ceremony Thursday with the Republican governors of Texas, Indiana, Florida and Ohio.

•••

Un-Softening the Landing? – Citing concerns over President Trump’s tariff policy, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee in its meeting Tuesday and Wednesday lowered gross domestic product projections for 2025 to a median of +1.7%, which is significantly lower than the 2.5% GDP growth the US enjoyed in 2024.

The range projected by the committee range from just +1% GDP to 2.4%.

“Federal projections see the economy dramatically reset by Trump’s election,” The Wall Street Journal reports, after Fed officials previously expected a “soft landing” when it carefully increased interest rates last year while trying to avoid triggering higher unemployment. Fed officials now project higher unemployment, higher inflation and weaker growth.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell (pictured) called the expected effect of tariffs on the inflation rate “transitory.”

“We now have inflation coming in the form of an exogenous source,” Powell said in his press conference Wednesday, “but the underlying inflationary picture before was basically 2½% inflation, 2% growth and 4% unemployment.”

Core inflation was 2.8% in 2024, and the Fed Open Market Committee projected a range of 2.5% to 3.5% in 2025, with a median expectation of +2.8%. The Fed did not cut interest rates this week but despite the tariff threat still plans two cuts later this year.

Trump said Wednesday that the Fed should cut interest rates “as the US tariffs start to transition (ease!) their way into the economy,” Reuters reports.

•••

Happy Happiness Day – Thursday is World Happiness Day, and the World Happiness Report, compiled with Gallup Analytics, again names Nordic countries among the happiest in the world.

Finland is number-one, according to the report, followed by 2.) Denmark, 3.) Iceland, 4.) Sweden, 5.) The Netherlands, 6.) Costa Rica, 7.) Norway, 8.) Israel, 9.) Luxembourg and 10.) Mexico.

Canada is number-18. The US is 24^th.

Number 66 is the Russian Federation and 68 is China.

Ukraine? It’s 111^th. Afghanistan is in last-place at number 147.

Semafor holds a World Happiness Day launch event on YouTube here.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 3/20/25

How to Become Great

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

No one who is an American, I think, doesn’t want America to be great. There may be some question about the “Again” part.

But the inspirational, exceptional, excellent — who could quibble? But getting there takes more than just adding the word, “again.”

One of the things that is being great — at a personal or a national level — is doing something extraordinary.

Let’s say that you become a great guitar player. It will be known that you are great because you are adding something to the history of guitar playing such that it is something that stands out in a way that is admirable.

From the point of view of a country, it is doing something that the populus can be proud of. This could be by creating systems that take care of the better part of the citizenry when it comes to health care and education.

Or it could be doing something that people are proud of, as in “We did that.”

Take the Hoover Dam, for example.

I don’t think you can see it and not feel impressed by the feat of engineering that went into it.

The dam was built during the Great Depression. The president at the time was Herbert Hoover.

He didn’t name it after himself like someone we are all familiar with probably would.

Rather, Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated it to Hoover.

Roosevelt was a Democrat. Hoover was a Republican.

Roosevelt didn’t spend time belittling and denigrating Hoover.

Imagine that.

On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy made a speech to Congress that started the efforts to land a man on the Moon.

On September 12, 1962, he made the speech at Rice University and said the words that still ring with greatness:

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

Becoming great isn’t easy. It takes effort, whether it is practicing that guitar or educating and taking care of people or building dams.

Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon July 20, 1969.

When he landed, Richard M. Nixon, a Republican, was president.

When speaking of the achievement Nixon didn’t denigrate Kennedy, a Democrat.

But to bring this to today:

What is the Trump Administration doing to Make America Great Again?

Greatness isn’t achieved by firing thousands of people.

Greatness isn’t achieved by setting the Department of Justice after people you feel slighted you.

Greatness isn’t achieved by creating economic conditions that will put less buying power in people’s pockets.

Greatness isn’t achieved by antagonizing allies and cozying up to enemies.

So where’s the plan?

Where’s the vision?

Where’s something that the American people can be proud of?

This is one of the manifold problems today.

There is no plan.

He doesn’t even talk about building the “big, beautiful Wall” anymore.

Breaking things doesn’t lead to greatness.

Building things does.

Funny thing: when Trump wants to get away from Washington he generally goes to Mar-a-Lago, an estate built by Marjorie Merriweather Post between 1924 and 1927.

You’d think if he was such a great builder he’d be at one of his facilities.

In 2016, when Trump was still running for president, an architect named Doug Staker wrote an opinion piece for the highly respected architecture and design magazine Dezeen.

Staker wrote about what he called “Trumpitecture.”

In part the essay says:

“Trump has built his name on his special combination of blandness and opulence, with complete blindness toward anything that makes architecture with a capital A. Architecture is like a revered founding father. It can rise above its time and leave a lasting legacy. It marks a city for generations, and has the power to affect its environment in positive, memorable ways, to create an identity reflecting the values of those who interact with the environment it shapes.”

In other words, there’s no Greatness there.

If there is a legacy, it is likely to be ruin.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings. Read more of his commentaries on our Substack page.

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THURSDAY 3/20/25