Let Them Eat Cake

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

The Trump family has increased its holdings by nearly $3 billion in the last six months due to the president’s investments in crypto products, CBS News reported last week. At the same time, his administration continues to loosen controls on the digital currency industry.

(Scroll down this column for reader comments regarding a constitutional crisis.)

Last weekend, the administration announced plans to accept a “donation” from Qatar of a $400 million Boeing 747-8 luxury plane that will become the new Air Force One, the presidential plane.

As The New York Times subhead noted: “the plane raises substantial ethical issues, given the immense value of the lavishly appointed plane and that Mr. Trump intends to take ownership of it after he leaves office.”

The paper also noted that the plane would be “one of the biggest foreign gifts ever received by the U.S. government.”

But then the art of the deal (or should I say steal) has defined Donald Trump’s life and career.

In this second term in office, finding greater profits is standard operating procedure for him and his billionaire friends as headlines mount weekly if not daily. This week, he’s in the Middle East on a trip in which he hopes to make more deals – for the country and himself.

Ironically, the announcement of the Qatari plane came just a day or two before Republicans in Congress released more outlines of the president’s “big beautiful bill,” which will extend the tax cuts for his buddies, paying for them to significant degree on the backs of the poor and the lower-middle class. In its current form, the bill would eliminate the health care coverage of what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said would be 8.6 million people over the next decade, ABC News reported.

“Hospitals will close, seniors will not be able to access the care they need, and premiums will rise for millions of people if this bill passes,” warned Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the on the Energy and Commerce Committee, which is reviewing health care spending.

Republicans intend to race the bill to the finish line by Memorial Day, though some divisions within the GOP make its passage in the current form somewhat uncertain.

Trump, meanwhile, has begun a four-day tour to the Middle East monarchies.

“Trump loves this stuff – really loves it,” writes Politico. “White House aides say these grand regal ceremonies are a key part of the appeal of Middle Eastern trips, along with the chance to unveil some big-ticket investment deals. …

“Don’t forget, this is a president who, rather than rejecting accusations that he wants to run America as an all-powerful king, chose to lean into them instead. And it’s not just about ignoring constitutional norms, but the trappings of regal power. Trump has installed gilded edging throughout his Oval Office.”

His personal version of the street-corner shell game, Three-card Monte, helps fog public perception.

This week he’s distracted the public from paying attention to the health care cuts by announcing vague plans to lower drug pricing. And, after essentially freezing imports from China and grinding West Coast ports to a halt with his massive tariffs on China, he is now temporarily easing these tariffs enough to make it appear everything is getting better.

As the drumbeat of royal grift pounds on, only time will reveal whether the MAGA faithful even notices. In the meantime, sharp cuts in healthcare are drawing nearer.

Lanson’s Substack page is @fromthegrassroots.

Posted Wednesday, 5/14/25

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Reader: Yes, It's a Constitutional Crisis

Count the Lawsuits -- I think we are. Well over 300 lawsuits have been filed in response to Trump's actions. In addition, Courts have halted the administrative action in over 100 of those lawsuits. 

Trump has issued executive orders that blatantly defy the Constitution. The order revoking birthright citizenship is a case in point. He has invoked the Alien Enemies Act which courts have also put a temporary halt to.

He has flippantly dismissed and violated due process for undocumented immigrants. He has withheld constitutionally appropriated funds, he has also abused his power in targeting his political opponents with baseless investigations. 

There is more, but that's just off the top of my head. 

We have an administration that has substituted the rule of law with rule by law, the hallmark of authoritarian systems. And sadly, Congress is providing zero oversight or interest in restraining Trump's authority, making it all the more imperative that the Democrats take control of the House in the 2026 mid-terms.

--Andrew Boufford

Via email

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Comments from the Left or Right

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MONDAY 5/12/25

Constitution Watch

CPI is Jake -- Inflation rose 0.2% in April for an annual Consumer Price Index of 2.3%, a tick down from March’s CPI of 2.4%, the Labor Department reported. All CPI items less food and energy also rose 0.2% in April for an annual rate of 2.8%. Importers had rushed to ship goods ahead of April 2’s “ Liberation Day,” so price increases from the tariffs are not likely to show up for at least another month, however. CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics.

About Amendment XIV– The Supreme Court hears what SCOTUSblog notes are rare May arguments in Trump v. CASA, a dispute over White House efforts to end birthright citizenship that came to the court in an emergency docket. SCOTUSblog begins live coverage at 9:30 am Eastern, and NPR begins live coverage at 10 am ET, Thursday.

Habeas who? … Asked if conditions are right for suspension of habeas corpus, last ordered by President Lincoln during the Civil War, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem responded to lawmakers on Capitol Hill; “I’m not a constitutional lawyer, but I believe it does.” (Per The Hill.)

Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who also is homeland security advisor to President Trump, first floated the possibility last Friday afternoon as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown. Habeas corpus, which guarantees due process by requiring a suspected criminal must be brought before a court for charges may be suspended when “in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

•••

Putin Off Peace – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has landed at Turkey’s Ankara Airport to find that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not show up for peace talks he initiated, The Kyiv Independent reports. Zelenskyy, who showed up with what he called a Ukrainian delegation of “the highest level,” including Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, military representatives, the president’s office and “all intelligence agencies” called the Russians who showed up a “sham delegation.” 

“We need to understand what the level of the Russian delegation is, what their mandate is, and whether they are capable of making decisions on their own,” Zelenskyy said. “Because we all know who makes decisions in Russia.”

Meanwhile, in Qatar … President Trump, who lately has swung support a bit away from Putin and toward Ukraine, if not so much toward Zelenskyy, and who on Wednesday sounded like he might take a side trip to Turkey to sit in on the peace talks, will now definitely maybe not show up, The Hill reports.

Trump seems to have been playing a game of chicken with Putin:

“I actually said, ‘Why would he go if I’m not going?’ I would go, but I wasn’t planning to go, and I said ‘I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go,” Trump told reporters in Qatar.

But then, again … “If something happened I would go on Friday if it was appropriate,” he added. 

Then, on Air Force One … “Nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together.” (Note: This was what Trump said on the real Air Force One, the Boeing 747 built with all the security equipment necessary to transport the US president, not Qatar’s luxury 747-8.)

•••

Big, Beautiful, Bollocks? – Never mind the perils of House Republican’s wafer-thin three-vote cushion. Republicans, both in the House and the Senate are endangering President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” budget bill, which Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wants to pass by Memorial Day weekend. The bill serves up $1.5 trillion in spending cuts in order to pay for renewal of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, with temporary tax exemptions on tips and overtime, NPR’s Deirdre Walsh reports. 

Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called the Big, Beautiful Bill “wimpy” and “anemic” and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), for much of a decade a leading MAGA champion, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the Congressional Budget Office projects $7.03 trillion in federal outlays for 2025, up from $4.95 trillion for 2019.

Much of that increase can be attributed to the COVID pandemic, he writes, but the pandemic is over, and the CBO’s estimate for 2026-35 total outlays is $89.3 trillion.

“There’s nothing now to justify this abnormal level of government spending,” Johnson continues. “Pathetically, Congress is having a hard time agreeing on a reduction of even $1.5 trillion from that 10-year amount. That’s a 1.68% cut – a little more than a rounding order.”

As Democratic congress members watch the Republican majorities in both chambers implode on each other, they are certainly calculating their chances of clawing back the Trump 45 tax cuts to save some of the severe Bx3 budget cuts. 

--TL

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...meanwhile...

WEDNESDAY 5/14/25

Qatar Hero – With President Trump in Doha during his tour of the Middle East Wednesday, Qatar Airways will announce it has secured an agreement to purchase 150 Boeing aircraft, a source has confirmed to NewsNation, per the media outlet’s partner, The Hill. Trump continues to tout Qatar’s gift of a 747-8 luxury jet to become Air Force One, even though the airplane does not have the security systems necessary for presidential aircraft, AeroDynamic Advisory Managing Director Richard Aboulafia tells A Martinez on NPR’s Morning Edition.

In addition to fears of very tiny recording devices the Boeing 747 likely contain to pick up communication from Trump and his team, the aircraft does not have the systems that could withstand “the worst eventuality,” Aboulafia said. Boeing does have an official Air Force One for the White House in the factory, but it has been delayed and the president has to settle for the 747 in service since the Reagan administration.

Talking Turkey … Meanwhile, we’re waiting to see whether Trump might drop in for peace talks tentatively set for Turkey Thursday, between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin (per The Kyiv Independent). Trump, as is his style, did not give away whether he will definitely show up, and seemed to indicate it depends on whether Putin will show up.

“He’d like me to be there, and that’s a possibility … I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out,” Trump said.

--TL

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Flying High

TUESDAY 5/13/25

Flying High – Is a $400 million Boeing 747 “Palace in the Sky” from Qatar a Sky Mile too far? BuzzFeed blared this headline for its top story Monday: “Donald Trump Just Made a Move So Wild That Even His Most Loyal Followers Are Upset.” 

That might be a stretch, willful thinking for never-Trumpers, given it was Trump’s most loyal MAGA followers who led the charge to get him back in the White House. Remember, about a year ago, Trumpists were concerned about how he could raise the $454 million+ to pay fines levied in the New York v. Trump fraud case. That 747 would have gone a long way. As if to further highlight this turnaround, Trump on Monday named his attorney from that case, Todd Blanche, as the new librarian of Congress, replacing the first Black person and first woman in that role, Carla Hayden, fired last week just short of the close of her 10-year appointment, for being too DEI.

Tuesday, Trump arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to a “lavish welcome” according to NPR. The president’s four-day Middle East visit will include Qatar – of course – and the United Arab Emirates, which with Saudi Arabia will “invest great sums of cash into the US economy and get a more engaged Washington in return,” according to The Wall Street Journal. 

The trip skips a stop in Israel, a “glaring miss” according to the WSJ, but a slight that New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman lauded Sunday under the headline, “This Israeli Government is Not Our Ally.”

Back to Air Force One; Fox News über-host Sean Hannity accompanied President Trump on his trip to the Middle East. Elon Musk is there as well. 

Laura Loomer? Probably not. Back in the US Trump’s racist, far-right confidant of late said this about the Qatar 747 (which is to go to the Trump presidential library after he leaves office, presumably in 2029): “How are we supposed to ever see the US under the Trump administration designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, if the US is now going to accept a $400 million jet from Qatar to fly the US President and his staff around on?”

Her objection was reported by Fox News Media Buzz host Howard Kurtz, who concluded; “If you’ve lost Loomer, you’re losing the argument.”

•••

Correction – There were 59 Afrikaners aboard the chartered jet that carried them from South Africa to Washington, where they were the first immigrants granted protected status by the Trump administration, 10 more than we reported on Monday.

•••

And Apology – Also on Monday, we noted that the Chinese are “not importing much in terms of vital goods from the US,” and that’s plain incorrect. American farmers continue to count on exporting crops to China as a significant part of their business, so the freeze on China’s 125% tariff on US goods (cut back to 10% for 90 days) is indeed significant. But our point stands that it is Xi Jinping and not the Trump administration that is winning the deal, so far.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Another Tariff Pause

MONDAY 5/12/25

Drugs -- President Trump signed an executive order Monday he says will cut the price of prescription drugs in the United States by 30% to 80%. Calling it a ‘most-favored nation’ policy, he told a press conference “whoever’s paying the lowest price, that’s what we’re going to pay.”

•••

Chinese Tariffs Cut to 30%, For Now -- The White House announced a 90-day pause in its trade war with China overnight after what it calls successful negotiations between Commerce Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese trade officials in Geneva, Switzerland, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Beginning Wednesday the US tariff of 145% on Chinese imports will be 30% for at least the next 90 days, while Chinese tariffs will be cut from about 125% on US imports down to 10%.

Bessent promises more US-China trade meetings likely in the “next few weeks,” according to The Wall Street Journal.

But where negotiations will go from there are unclear. China simply is not importing much in terms of vital goods from the US, while Trump administration tariffs on Chinese imports have already contributed to a reported 35% drop in shipments into US ports, on everything from Walmart and Amazon shipments on down. 

Small businesses dependent on Chinese-produced imports are laying off employees and dipping into savings to ride out the tariff roller-coaster, according to a WSJ business feature. One example according to the newspaper is the US company Think Tank, which markets watches, watch bands and medical jewelry and had a recent UPS shipment from China with tariffs as high as 161% per item, adding $8,752 to a $5,649 order.

The Trump White House will have a good day on Wall Street Monday, however, as stock futures were up sharply ahead of the New York Stock Exchange’s opening bell. 

•••

Trump Travels to Gulf States – No, not the Gulf of Mexico – or America – but to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates where he will work deals on oil and trade, investment into the US, the conflicts in Gaza (Trump is not stopping in Israel), and negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program, The Guardian reports. This, his second trip as Trump 47 (after Pope Francis’ funeral in Vatican City) is a repeat of his first foreign trip as Trump 45 in 2017.

“He wants a big, successful visit, and those are countries where he’ll be received in grand style,” an ex-US official told Politico in exchange for anonymity. “It’ll be carefully choreographed, there won’t be any public protests.”

Plane deal … Meanwhile, Qatar is set to give Trump a luxury Boeing 747 for use as Air Force One, and then for his personal use when he leaves the White House, The New York Times and ABC News scooped Sunday. 

Democrats say such a gift must be approved by Congress, NPR reports, and of course Trump Truth Socialed about it thusly Sunday night: “So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane. Anybody can do that! The Dems are World Class Losers!!!”

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who has lately taken on the role of Trump-style Democratic attack dog, responded on X-Twitter: “This isn’t a good idea even if the plane was being donated to the US government. But Trump GET TO KEEP THE PLANE??? It’s simply a cash payment to Trump in exchange for favors. Just wildly illegal.”

•••

Right Kind of Immigrants? – The Trump administration’s immigration policy has kept out virtually all Black immigrants, the South African author and founder of progressive Afrikans publication Vrye Weekblad, Max Dupreez, told the BBC Monday as 49 white Afrikaners were about to land in Washington under protective immigration stays. The Afrikaners getting special treatment by the Trump White House are claiming discrimination by the post-apartheid South African government, even as white people own more than half the nation’s land and make up just 7.3% of the population. 

Dupreez said that white South African native Elon Musk – who says he is not an Afrikaner but is of British/English lineage – has his hands all over the protective immigration stay.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 5/12/25

Deal or No Deal

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

If you can’t believe the White House, who can you believe, right?

So maybe little girls will have a few more Barbies than were in their future before Monday. 

The president, as a somewhat Scrooge-like grandpa, said last week; “I don't think that a beautiful baby girl that's 11 years old needs to have 30 dolls. I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of dollars with China.”

I don’t think a whole lot of sixth-graders are all that concerned with trade deficits. The sizes of their allowances, perhaps, but not Sino-American relations.

But things must be better.

That’s because the headline on a piece published Sunday on the official White House website reads:

“US Announces China Trade Deal in Geneva”

Huzzah! Pencils for everyone!

But here’s the thing.

Most of the people who write articles for the Fake Media went to journalism school. 

One of the things they learned was how to write a lede.

A lede generally contains the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How.

Read that and you get the gist of the thing.

Of course, you can’t believe any of that.

Or, as Donald Trump put it in a speech in 2018:

“Just remember, what you are seeing and what you are reading is not what's happening. Just stick with us, don't believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news."

But what’s the deal with China?

Well, that’s not clear, headline notwithstanding.

The announcement consists of two quotes. One is from Scott Bessent. The other US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer.

No ledes, presumably because that’s the approach of the “dishonest,” “corrupt” and “crazed lunatics” that are generally considered the press corps.

Rather, just the facts. Except there are none.

Bessent’s quote opens: “I’m happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks.”

Umm. . .isn’t “substantial progress” a little shy of a “Trade Deal”?

Bessent went on to say, “I can tell you that the talks were very productive.”

Again, where’s the deal?

However, Greer said, “It’s important to understand how quickly we were able to come to an agreement” and that “were confident that the deal we struck with our Chinese partners will help us to work toward that national emergency.”

“National emergency?” you wonder. That’s the “massive $1.2 trillion trade deficit” that Greer mentions. “What about the ‘hundreds of billions’ that Trump mentioned?” you wonder. Well, he was just describing the gist of things.

C’mon. He’s a busy man. You don’t want him to get all bolloxed up in the numbers. He has people for that.

Perhaps by the time you’ve read this the Agreement will be explained and the reason there wasn’t any more clarity in the White House piece was because it came out on a Sunday and people had clocked off for the weekend.

Those golf games aren’t going to play themselves.

Addendum

There was good news on the US-China trade front announced Monday:

“We have reached an agreement on a 90-day pause and substantially move down the tariff levels. Both sides on the reciprocal tariffs will move their tariffs down 115%,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a news conference.

Again: is a “pause” a “deal”?

In the joint statement released by the two government it says: “After taking the aforementioned actions,” — the rate reductions — "the Parties will establish a mechanism to continue discussions about economic and trade relations.”

Which essentially says things are still in play. 

In other words, this is not a “done deal.”

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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MONDAY 5/12/25

Constitutional Crisis?

It Is -- I would agree with (Michigan Gov. Gretchen) Whitmer considering the number of sucka--s running Washington at the moment. Let's not forget that Trump dressed up (via photoshop) as a pope last week, said he didn't know the Constitution of the government he is supposedly running and is running his office to increase his bank account. I have not heard from the opposition anything so far that can stop him. 

--Kate McLeod

Doesn't Matter -- Are we in a Constitutional Crisis? I’ll leave that to experts to decide.

But the actions of the Trump Administration’s actions are clear.

It has denied Due Process to immigrants, documented and not, who’ve been arrested, jailed, held, and sometimes flown out of the country without warrants, charges filed or court hearings.  This, even though the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution says that “no person shall be … deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law,” and the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, reaffirms the due process clause and applies it to states.

It has ignored a unanimous Supreme Court ruling that it “facilitate” the release of 

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran immigrant father of three who the Trump Administration initially acknowledged was wrongly arrested yet remains in a horrendous prison for terrorists in El Salvador, where the US sent him.

It has issued Executive Orders that in essence legislate government action, closing or significantly diminishing agencies and programs despite their prior funding allocated by Congress.

It has allowed the Department of Government Efficiency to begin compiling dossiers on all citizens, combining private information from agencies across the government.

It has cut billions of dollars in grants for research and other purposes to private universities until and unless they allow prior federal review of their curricula and hiring.

It has made masked arrests by federal agents the norm, in essence hiding the identity of those carrying them out.

It has issued an executive order saying no federal funds should be used for PBS or NPR.

And this list is just a start.

Are these normal or acceptable practicing in our constitutional democracy?

I would say definitely not.

--Jerry Lanson

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FRIDAY 5/9/25

Are We Being Repressed?

<<<American democracy is either a.) deeply into a constitutional crisis and losing out to authoritarianism; b.) on the brink; or c.) US kids are alright, and in fact digging our way under the Trump administration out of scolding, ‘woke’ authoritarianism. As the pro-democratic news/aggregate Center Column, we want to know: Where do you stand? Join the discussion, left and right, by emailing your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news.>>>

Pirro In, Martin Out, Sort Of – Hot on the heels of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s star turn as Defense secretary, President Trump on his Truth Social has appointed the right-wing news outlet’s Jeanine Pirro to be interim US attorney for Washington, D.C. Trump did not indicate whether he would nominate Pirro, former district attorney for Westchester County, New York and up to now co-host of Fox News’ The Five, for Senate confirmation, USA Today reports.

Trump has pulled Ed Martin’s nomination to the role from the Senate after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), said he would not support Martin because as US attorney for the District of Columbia, he prosecuted January 6 rioters over the attack on the US Capitol. Trump later made Martin, via Truth Social, director of the Weaponizing Working Group and associate deputy attorney general for the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.

•••

Gates Keeping – In a worldwide media tour touting the acceleration of his plan to give away his fortune as co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates told The New York Times Magazine and Financial Times that Department of Government chief Elon Musk bears responsibility for the ravages of gutting the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and its decades of fighting such diseases as measles, HIV and polio.

“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates said of Musk. 

Gates, who says he will give away his $200 billion to such causes over the next 20 years (with his hope that at 70, he will live to see it all given away), questioned Musk’s 2012 commitment to a non-binding Giving Pledge, in which the Tesla/SpaceX/Starlink CEO and X-Twitter owner would shed at least half his fortune.

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Harrison Fields defended Musk’s work with DOGE, saying “Elon Musk is a patriot working to fulfill President Trump’s mission to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse.” 

Jessica Riedl writes in The Atlantic that Musk, whose initial promise to cut $2 trillion out of the federal budget has been recalculated to a still “highly improbable” $150 billion, argues convincingly that DOGE was never about saving taxpayer money. Rather, it was about giving the White House cover to “purge and intimidate” the civil service and return the federal government under President Trump to the Spoils system.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 5/9/25

Right Response

No Crisis Here -- Fears of a constitutional crisis under a Trump administration are largely overblown, driven more by partisan rhetoric than evidence. The US Constitution is a robust framework, designed with checks and balances that have endured for over two centuries. The judiciary, Congress, and state governments remain independent, with no credible indication that Trump could dismantle these institutions. His previous term saw controversial policies and legal challenges, but the system held firm — courts blocked overreaches, and elections proceeded without disruption. Claims of an impending crisis often rely on speculative scenarios rather than concrete actions, ignoring the resilience of American governance.

Critics point to Trump’s rhetoric and past behavior, like his election fraud claims, as harbingers of authoritarianism. Yet, rhetoric is not action, and the 2020 election process demonstrated institutional strength. The Supreme Court, even with its conservative lean, has shown no appetite for undermining constitutional norms, as seen in its rejection of election-related lawsuits. Congress, too, remains a counterweight, with divided loyalties and self-interest ensuring neither branch dominates. The decentralized nature of US elections, managed by states, further limits any potential for centralized abuse. These structural realities undercut narratives of imminent collapse.

This is not to dismiss legitimate concerns about political polarization or executive overreach, which warrant vigilance. But hyperbolizing a constitutional crisis risks diluting the term’s gravity and sowing unnecessary panic. The Constitution’s endurance lies in its adaptability and the civic engagement it inspires. Citizens, media, and institutions must hold leaders accountable, as they have before. Rather than fearmongering, we should trust in the system’s proven ability to weather challenges, focusing on practical reforms to strengthen democracy rather than imagining its demise.

--Rich Corbett

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FRIDAY 5/9/25

Are We Being Repressed?

Many liberals and never-Trumper conservatives say the US has gone down the rabbit-hole of authoritarianism, as the president defies court orders on his immigrant deportation actions and executive orders that undercut Congress’ spending authority. The only issue for politicians and pundits who argue we are in a constitutional crisis is how far in we are, and what it would take to get the US out of the authoritarian rabbit-hole. 

Last week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, considered a frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, drew heavy criticism from her side when she appeared with President Trump at Macomb Community College for a campaign-style rally in which the president promoted his tariff policy to a friendly crowd. Whitmer explained she appeared with Trump at that rally in support of the president’s announcement of a new fighter jet mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County, Michigan. 

Then last Friday, Whitmer appeared on a left-leaning podcast to warn about the condition of the Constitution.

“We are indeed in a constitutional crisis,” Whitmer said on Pod Save America. “The thought that we’ve got an administration that is just blatantly violating court orders should, I think, scare everybody … This is very serious moment.”

Beginning this Friday we are hosting a weekend debate on the question of whether we are in a constitutional crisis, and whether it matters, in the left and right columns. Enter your COMMENTS in this column or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean left or right (irrespective of your opinion on the question) in the subject line.

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THURSDAY 5/8/25

Trump Deal With UK

THURSDAY 5/8/25

Much Ado About UK Deal – President Trump announced a trade deal with the UK Thursday that eliminates tariffs on steel and aluminum and cuts the tariffs on British cars from 27.5% to 10%. 

“Timing couldn’t be more apt,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said phoning in to the Oval Office for Trump’s announcement, where the US president was flanked by cabinet members and staffers. Trump said the two countries have been working in futility on a trade deal for 25 years.

“This is why Donald Trump produced Liberation Day,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. “People don’t understand he gets deals done.”

(The deal will not be finalized for another couple of weeks, NPR notes.)

“If we’re going to rehabilitate and rebuild international trade, we’re better off doing that together,” the UK’s ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson, said from the Oval Office. The deal, he said, also provides a “springboard” for the two nations to create a “tech partnership.”

The deal includes opening of beef and chicken exports to the UK and trade involving commercial aircraft. Rolls-Royce aerospace engines (a company long ago split from Rolls-Royce motorcars, which is now part of BMW Group) will sell aircraft engines in the US tariff-free, while a British airline carrier Trump declined to name will buy $10 billion worth of Boeing airframes.

That’s an obvious kind of deal, because all Rolls-Royce aerospace engines are built in the UK and all Boeing airframes, powered by those engines, are built in the US.

As for the auto tariff deal, sale of US vehicles sold to the UK is negligible – chiefly US-built Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Volvo SUVs – while the US with its 16-million auto market purchases about 125,000 BMW Minis, Jaguars, Land Rovers, Bentleys, Rolls-Royces and Aston Martins per year.

Trump said he expects to make a deal with the European Union on tariffs, separately because of the UK’s Brexit, and with China. He said that the US’ 145% tariff on Chinese goods will have to be reduced because it already is at its maximum, but tariffs on China will not be cut like they were with the UK. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, along with US trade representative Jamieson Greer are to meet with China’s top economic official, Vice Premier He Lifeng, in Geneva Saturday and Sunday to discuss a trade deal.

•••

The Fed Stands – Interest rates hold steady at 4¼% to 4½% after the Federal Reserve Board of Governors this week met for the second time since President Trump took office. Chairman Jerome Powell cited swings in net exports, but stable low unemployment and “somewhat elevated” inflation.

•••

Libyan Prisons for Migrants? – President Trump wants to send migrants to a Libyan prison or prisons as early as this week, according to Morning Edition, which reports that US officials have been in negotiations with other countries to take in allegedly undocumented immigrants from the US. 

•••

Accepting Afrikaner 'Refugees' – The Trump administration’s anti-DEI campaign is not just about ending anti-discrimination policy; It’s also about fixing so-called reverse discrimination. Case in point is a plan by the administration’s Department of Health and Human Services to use funds from its Office of Refugee Resettlement to resettle an estimated 20,000 white Afrikaner “refugees” in the US from post-apartheid South Africa, according to a report in The Lever, which cites an internal memo obtained from government sources. 

The Trump administration cut off US aid to South Africa in February over Afrikaners’ claims of post-apartheid discrimination at the prompting of DOGE chief Elon Musk, a native of the country who has tweeted he is not of Dutch-Afrikaans heritage, but rather of British/English heritage, yet has championed the reverse-discrimination claims. 

Apartheid in South Africa ended in 1994 when the Black majority were given the vote, leading to election of Nelson Mandela as president. White South Africans still hold about 72% of the nation’s farms and agricultural holdings despite making up just 7.3% of the population, according to Action for Southern Africa, a land reform advocacy organization. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 5/8/25

Health Check on the Constitution

Actions of the Trump White House after the first 100 days of the president’s second administration have many conservative never-Trumpers as well as liberals warning of a “constitutional crisis.” Pro-MAGA populists and conservatives would disagree, even argue that Trump is saving the Constitution from the “woke” constraints imposed by Presidents Biden and Obama.

“Claims of a constitutional crisis are overblown, if not completely imaginary,” conservative Berkeley Law Prof. John Yoo wrote for the Civitas Institute of the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a visiting scholar. “Critics would have a better claim to credibility if they were not so obviously partisan. These same authority figures did not warn of a constitutional crash when President Joseph Biden, without congressional authorization, forgave an estimated $400 billion in federal student debt – a constitutional ‘power grab’ if there ever was one, and a far cry from anything Elon Musk’s efficiency drive will find in cuts.”

Beginning this Friday we are hosting a weekend debate on the question of whether we are in a constitutional crisis, and whether it matters, in the left and right columns. Enter your COMMENTS in this column or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean left or right (irrespective of your opinion on the question) in the subject line.

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THURSDAY 5/8/25

Watch for Our Redesign

The Editorial We here at The Hustings are all too aware of the clunkiness and limitations of this website, especially when trying to access us on your smartphone (where the page opens on this, the left column – it’s not supposed to do that). Look for an all-new website/format designed to alleviate these issues, coming soon.

Go to about thehustings.news to see a preview of the new website.

But please do not wait for our redesign to engage with our echo chamber-free civil media. 

To comment on our summary of Kristen Welker’s interview with President Trump on Meet the Press, on Israel’s latest plan to contain Hamas in Gaza, on Trump’s Pope The Donald post on Truth Social or any other relevant news/news aggregate you’ve read here (or even political news you haven’t read here), email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

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MONDAY 5/5/25

…meanwhile…

The Conclave begins Wednesday to choose a new pope has begun in Vatican City. Despite telling The Atlantic last week that “I run the country and I run the world” President Trump is not in the running … nor will he make Canada our 51st state.

WEDNESDAY 5/7/25

India and Pakistan Fight Over Kashmir – India attacked Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir, killing at least 26 – including children – and injuring at least 46 people Wednesday in what The Guardian calls “the worst fighting between the two for decades.” Pakistan claims it shot down five Indian planes, not confirmed by Indian defense military officials.

In the wake of the late-April attack on the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir killed 26 tourists, mostly Hindu, India claims it has nine targets defined as “terrorist infrastructure.” Two Indian military spokespersons told a New Delhi briefing that Islamist militant groups Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were the targets. Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Miski said “pre-emptive, precautionary” strikes were necessary when intelligence warned of further terrorist attacks.

•••

No Canada, Mr. President, Sir – Here’s the Art of the Deal: Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney, became the latest Western leader to own President Trump in the Oval Office this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pleas not to trust Russia’s Vladimir Putin notwithstanding. Carney buttered up Trump, calling him a “transformational president” after Trump opened the Oval Office presser by suggesting Carney’s win last month was “one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics, maybe even greater than mine.”

Trump did not credit that great comeback to the fact that Carney overturned a 27-point poll deficit largely because his Conservative Party opponent, Pierre Poilievre was cast as a sort of Great White North Trump. 

Trump did say this when asked about making Canada 51st state of the US: “I think that there are tremendous benefits to the Canadian citizens. Tremendously lower taxes, free military, which honestly we give you anyway, because we’re protecting Canada, if you ever had a problem. But I think you know it would really be a wonderful marriage because it’s two places that get along very well. They like each other a lot.”

Carney responded: “Well, if I may. As you know in real estate, there are some places that are never for sale.”

“It’s true,” Trump agreed.

“We’re sitting in one right now,” Carney continued. “Buckingham Palace that you visited as well, and having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign last several months, it’s not for sale, won’t be for sale, ever, but the opportunity is in the partnership and what we can build together.”

Carney went on about how Canada along with NATO is stepping up security (though unsaid; As the US under Trump steps back), which Trump acknowledged.

As for certain real estate never being for sale, Trump concluded, “but never say never.”

--TL

_____________________________________________

TUESDAY 5/6/25

Canada Day at the White House – Rather, it’s 51st State Day as far as President Trump is concerned when he meets with Canada’s new prime minister, Mark Carney. The Toronto Star warns that it will be a “perilous first few hours” for Carney, former central banker for Canada and the UK, as he faces a potential Volodymyr Zelenskyy-like cold reception, though likely without comments about owning a suit. 

President Trump appears to be treating Carney’s visit like other world leaders he imagines want to visit the White House on bended knee to negotiate a trade deal in the wake of his Liberation Day tariffs. Carney, according to NPR’s Morning Edition had dispensed with the new Canadian PM tradition of visiting Washington first, and instead travelled to Europe after his parliamentary election victory last month. 

Apparently unaware of this tradition Trump said; “I’m not sure what he wants to see me about, but I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does.” 

•••

German Parliament in Crisis – Christian Democratic party leader Fredrich Merz failed to win enough votes to become Germany’s next chancellor Tuesday morning, The New York Times reports, setting up another vote to be held Tuesday afternoon. Merz has been the leader-in-waiting since his party won national elections in February. 

Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, co-leaders of the far-right populist AfD (Alternative for Germany) party immediately after Tuesday morning’s vote demanded that Merz resign and call for fresh elections. 

Context … After Germany’s domestic intelligence agency listed the AfD as a “right-wing extremist” party, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President Vance last week blasted the intel agency. 

“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition,” Rubio wrote on X-Twitter. “That’s not democracy – it’s tyranny in disguise.”

•••

2025 Pulitzer Prizes Include – ProPublica earned a public service Pulitzer for its reporting about pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgently needed care over worries of vague “life of the mother” exceptions in states that ban abortions. The staff of The Washington Post won a breaking news Pulitzer for its coverage of the July 13 assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The staff of Reuters won an investigative reporting Pulitzer for coverage of lax laws on fentanyl distribution in the US and Europe. The New York Times won Pulitzers for explanatory reporting, local reporting, and for photographer Doug Mills’ photos of the July 13 Trump assassination attempt. The staff of The Wall Street Journal won a national reporting Pulitzer for a series on Elon Musk. Esquire contributor Mark Warren won a feature writing Pulitzer, and Bloomberg CityLab contributor Alexandra Lange won a Pulitzer for criticism. The Houston Chronicle won a Pulitzer for editorial writing, and The New Yorker won Pulitzers for commentary, feature photography and for audio reporting for its podcast, In the Dark. 

--TL

_____________________________________________

MONDAY 5/5/25

The President v. the Constitution – President Trump will say he was joking when he posted this photoshop of himself on his Truth Social as the potential successor to Pope Francis I, though days earlier in a surprise interview published in The Atlantic he did indeed say, “I run the country and the world.” Apparently that includes Vatican City?

Trump extended this sudden magnanimity to the left-of-Fox News media by appearing on Sunday’s NBC News Meet the Press. 

Highlights? We have got your highlights right here …

Host Kristen Walker asks Trump whether he has to “uphold the Constitution.” Trump replies; “I don’t know.”

Hint ... It's in his oath of office.

Context … Pressing on the Supreme Court’s 9-0 ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador, Welker says; “Your secretary of state says everyone who’s here, citizens and non-citizens deserves due process. Do you agree?”

Trump: “I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know.”

Welker: “Well, the Fifth Amendment says as much.”

Trump: “It seems … it seems, it might say that, but if you’re talking about that then you have to have a million or 2 million or 3 million trials. We have thousands of people who are, some murderers, and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth. Some of the worst, dangerous people on Earth. And I was elected to get them the hell out of here. Courts are holding me from doing it.”

Welker: “Even given the numbers you’re talking about, don’t you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, Mr. President?”

Trump: “I don’t know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that are working for me. And they are obviously going to follow what the Supreme Court said. That is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. I have a different interpretation.”

Whose economy? The “good parts” of the economy are Trump’s, the president said; “the bad parts are the Biden economy.”

When will he reach a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine? “Maybe it’s not possible.”

Do people have the right to criticize him without fear of retribution? “Absolutely.” Thanks, Mr. President.

On his call to Jeff Bezos over Amazon’s threat to post tariffs next to the price of imported goods: “I’ll always call people if I disagree with them.”

Expect more gold: Trump says he’ll build and self-fund a “world class” ballroom in the White House.

Sucession: Finally putting to rest the notion he would run for a third term in 2028, Trump instead names potential successors; Secretary of State (and now also national security advisor) Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance. 

•••

Send Them to Alcatraz? – President Trump said on his Truth Social over the weekend he is ordering the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reopen Alcatraz. Now a tourist trap, literally, on an island in San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz opened as a prison in 1934 to hold such notorious criminals as Al Capone, a favorite foil of Trump at campaign rallies last year, and it closed in 1963 because it was too expensive to operate, according to USA Today. 

But as Trump posted on Truth Social; “The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order and JUSTICE.”

•••

Israel Approves Gaza Plan – Israeli cabinet ministers approved a plan early Monday that involves “occupation of territory and sustain Israel’s presence,” Haaretz reports. The plan is to capture the entire Gaza strip and remain in the Palestinian territory for an unspecified amount of time, the AP reports, adding that if implemented in the face of likely international opposition, would vastly expand Israel’s operations on Gaza. 

The question of Israel’s endgame in Gaza has been an issue since shortly after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack.

•••

Hooray for Hollywood – Latest Trump Tariff ™ is a 100% tax on movies produced overseas, The Wall Street Journal reports, as the president has called use of incentives by countries to draw filmmakers away from the US a “national security threat.” According to NPR, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand have been particularly aggressive in using such incentives to bring productions to their neighborhoods.

No mention of how Georgia and other states east of the West Coast also has been aggressive in drawing movie and television production over from California, but Deadline notes that one of Trump’s special envoys to Hollywood, right-leaning actor Jon Voight, was said to be “devising a plan to save the entire industry.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 5/5/25

Donald’s Dickensian Future

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“Coketown, with its vast, smoke-belching mills and ceaseless clatter, stood as a monument to a system that traded fancy and feeling for raw, relentless production. Its factories loomed like giant, unfeeling engines—a world of brick, iron, and mechanical routine.”—Charles Dickens, Hard Times

One of the things that has been characteristic of Americans since the start of the republic is parents’ hope and belief that their children can do better than they did. It is always a forward striving.

But that’s not what the Trump Administration thinks should be the case.

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says that after all of those factories come rolling back into the US there will be jobs galore for blue-collar workers.

Those jobs will be there for, well, generation upon generation. And they won’t necessarily change.

As he told CNBC:

“This is the new model, where you work in these plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here, and your grandkids work here.”

That’s right: Get a job in a factory and don’t leave.

Maybe if you’re lucky there will be barracks that you and your offspring can live in.

Perhaps you will buy all of your products at the factory store. You’ll get married at the factory chapel. Your children will be born in the factory hospital. You’ll be buried in the factory cemetery.

MAGA!

To be sure, many factory jobs of today are far superior than they were in the time of Dark Satanic Mills.

But one of the reasons why these factory jobs are better is because of the work done by government agencies including OSHA and the EPA. They established regulations that help assure the health and safety of not only the people working in the factories, but the people who live in the vicinity of factories.

OSHA. . .EPA. . .regulations. . . Bah! Who needs them?

There is another reason why factories of today are different from those of yesterday: Automation. Things like robots. Not Elon’s Optimus, the humanoid robot that he claims will revolutionize everything. . .even though in his public demonstrations the robots were operated by humans behind the scenes, sort of like those little robots rolling around in amusement parks.

No, we are talking about industrial robots that have a robust design and are built to deal with the rigors of factory work.

These robots have what is known as a “mean time between failures” measured in tens of thousands of hours. If a factory is running a three-shift/five-days-a-week schedule, this would mean 6,240 hours per year. Industrial robots are likely not going to fail in that period of time.

Sure, there is a need for preventative maintenance. And there is a need for programming.

But there will be a need for robotics technicians.

According to RoboticsCareer.org, someone who wants to be a robotics technician will “benefit from some training in mechanics. You’ll want to spend time particularly focused on hydraulics, pneumatics, and electronics, as all of these will have a role in the continuing operation of the machines.”

What’s more: “Part of this material maintenance of robots is an understanding of basic engineering principles like physics and fluid mechanics. You’ll also benefit from more electronics-focused areas like working with microprocessors, circuit boards, networking technology, and other computer technology.”

Yes, there is a non-trivial amount of training required.

Funny: You hear Team Trump talk about bringing manufacturing jobs back but not about preparing the workforce to take those jobs. Have you heard a single word about what is going to be done to get people prepared to take these jobs?

According to The National Association of Manufacturers’ Q2 2024 Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey, 67.7% of those surveyed say their biggest business challenge is “Attracting and retaining a quality workforce.” And this is right now, when it seems as though the US has little if any manufacturing.

Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers have it that there are 482,000 job openings in manufacturing occupations right now. Seems that people aren’t in a big hurry to take them.

And let’s face it: the amount of automation that will need to be deployed in all of the factories that are allegedly going to come back will be tremendous because these factories will need to be as cost effective as possible. The number of jobs created will be a fraction of what they were in an earlier age that Trump certainly thinks about.

Once upon a time, Republicans, particularly those who consider themselves “conservatives,” cited Adam Smith’s economic approaches as being those that should be followed.

Smith wrote this about mercantilism, which is what Trump is pursuing with the tariffs:

“It is thus that every system which [tries], either by extraordinary encouragements to draw towards a particular industry a greater share of the capital of the society than what would naturally go to it, or, by extraordinary restraints, force from a particular industry some share of the capital which would otherwise be employed in it, is in reality [harmful to] the great purpose which it means to promote. It retards, instead of accelerating, the progress of the society towards real wealth and greatness; and diminishes, instead of increasing, the real value of the annual produce of its land and labor.”

Trump and Lutnick certainly wouldn’t like that last sentence.

Odds are Wealth of Nations won’t be available in the company library.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings. His columns also appear in Substack in the Hustings.

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MONDAY 5/5/25

Still Biden’s Economy?

When the Commerce Department reported an 0.3% drop in Real Gross Domestic Product for the first quarter of the year, the so-called gold standard of measuring the economy, President Trump blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden. GDP under Biden was up 2.8% for all of 2024. That’s a particularly healthy number, and in fact the last time the US economy shrunk was the first quarter of 2022, the beginning of Biden’s first full year in the White House.

As any pundit and most voters will tell you, we have been in Trump’s economy since at least January 20. President Trump has even claimed the bull market on Wall Street over the last year as his stock market because of stock traders’ anticipation of his laissez-faireattitude toward government regulation (though certainly not toward free trade).

What do you think? 

We are happy to take your remarks on which parts of the current economy belong to Trump and which still belong to Biden. If, for example, you can make the argument that the Biden administration is indeed responsible for the drop in GDP, we would be happy to run your comments in the right, probably, or left column, so long as your argument is civil and adheres to the facts. 

Email your civil COMMENTS on center column news & analysis, and/or any of the commentaries and opinions expressed in the right and left columns, to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings (regardless of your opinion on the given issue) in the subject line.

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FRIDAY 5/2/25

…meanwhile…

Unemployment Steady -- Employers added just 177,000 jobs in April, 51,000 jobs lower than the March report, but better than forecasts had predicted. The unemployment rate of 4.2% was unchanged from March, the Labor Department reports. On APM’s Marketplace Thursday host Kai Ryssdal noted that effects of the tariffs on unemployment won’t show up until the May report next month. In Friday’s report the Labor Department singled out a decline in federal government employment against gains in health care, transportation and warehousing and social assistance. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

•••

FRIDAY 5/2/25

Trump Wants Big Cuts – Presidents’ budget blueprints are considered to be symbolic ‘wish lists,’ but it may take a stronger Democratic opposition to hold back more of President Trump’s priorities than of any his predecessors. The Trump budget blueprint for fiscal year 2026 calls for slashing non-defense discretionary spending by more than $160 billion, a 22.6% cut from projected fiscal year 2025, The Wall Street Journal reports. His “political priorities” would feature serious cuts to federal environmental, renewable energy, education and foreign aid programs.

And then there’s this … Trump on his Truth Social Friday morning, according to the WSJ: “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!”

Not to mention public radio, TV … Trump issued an executive order overnight Thursday-Friday that would remove federal funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds approximately 1% of NPR (though local radio stations, especially in small, rural markets depend on the federal funding) and 15% of PBS. This has been an issue for hard-right Republicans for many decades.

“Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse and innovative news options,” the EO reads. 

The Trump White House also seeks to claw back about $1.1 billion in funding already approved for the CPB for two years.

Perhaps savings could pay for this … During his first term, President Trump was dazzled by a military parade he attended on the Champs-Elysees with French President Emmanual Macron on Bastille Day, July 14, 2017. Trump has yearned to duplicate the military pomp & circumstance ever since. Well, it turns out that Trump’s birthday coincides with the US Army’s 250thanniversary.

The Associated Press reports it has obtained detailed US Army plans for a “potential” military parade for June 14, 2025, when Trump turns 79. It calls for “more than 6,000 soldiers, at least 150 vehicles, 50 helicopters, seven bands and possibly a couple thousand civilians” along the National Mall in Washington, according to planning documents dated April 29 and 30 obtained by The AP. 

These plans, it must be noted, have not been approved. But we will hear more over the next couple of months.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 5/2/25

Did He Skip High School Civics?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Remember civility?

That was the social behavior that is respectful of others. Patient. Open and engaged. Disagreeing without being disagreeable.

You know, everything Donald Trump isn’t, especially when dealing with people who aren’t likely to kiss his ring and then shave his back.

Trump sat down with ABC News’s Terry Moran, anchor and senior national correspondent.

One of the things that is always good is the truth.

Something that Trump seems to have a difficult time with.

Take, for example, his statement: “I’ve taken the trade deficit down to a number that’s very, very — starting to get really good.”

In January 2025, still considered “Biden’s economy,” the U.S. trade deficit was $131.4 billion, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Credit to him, because in February 2025 the deficit decreased to $122.7 billion.

But then there is the difficult part because the trade deficit in March 2025 — solidly in the Trump zone — was $162 billion.

It doesn’t take a degree from the Wharton School to know that 162 is a whole lot larger than 131.

And in the context of deficits, it’s not “really good.”

Or there’s the claim that sounds good to, presumably, the base that China “were making from us a trillion dollars a year. They were ripping us off like nobody’s every ripped us off.”  And according to Trump, essentially every country that the United States has trade with is “ripping us off.”

Were that claim about “trillions of dollars a year” anywhere close to the truth would get him a pass for rhetorical effect, but here’s the thing:

Assuming that “ripping us off” means that they have sold us goods that we imported, US imports from China were:

  • 2018: $538.51 billion
  • 2019: $449.11 billion
  • 2020: $432.55 billion
  • 2021: $506.29 billion
  • 2022: $427.23 billion
  • 2023: $438.95 billion
  • 2024: $462.62 billion

No evidence of a trillion.

And while not denying that there is an imbalance in the amounts of trade between the two countries, during this period here is the value of the US exports to China, or presumably the amounts that US businesses were “ripping off” China:

  • 2018: $120.28 billion
  • 2019: $106.48 billion
  • 2020: $124.58 billion
  • 2021: $151.43 billion
  • 2022: $154.12 billion
  • 2023: $147.77 billion
  • 2024: $143.54 billion

Trump tends to imply that trade is all one way: That the Chinese, and essentially every other country on Earth, are forcing their stuff on the US with the US being a naif among thieves.

(A digression: Here’s a way to think about trade. Let’s say you go to Starbucks and order a grande iced caramel macchiato with extra caramel drizzle and two pumps of vanilla syrup. This could set you back about $6.75. Odds are you could buy the ingredients — the espresso beans, milk, caramel syrup, vanilla syrup — and the equipment to make your own grande iced caramel macchiato with extra caramel drizzle and two pumps of vanilla syrup. But the thing is, there would be not only the cost of the equipment — an espresso maker can easily set you back $250 — and the ingredients, but there is the time necessary to make the beverage and then do all of the subsequent cleanup. It is likely that you find it more cost-effective to buy the drink from Starbucks. Is it expensive? That depends on your point of view of crafted coffee beverages. Is Starbucks “ripping you off” when you deliberately go in and buy one? In Trump’s World that is evidently the case.)

Well into the interview, Moran asked about the handling of the immigrants — illegal or otherwise — by the Administration.

Which led, among other things, for Trump to say, “Well, lemme ask you. Do they get hearings when — when Biden allowed 21 million — ‘cause I think the number’s 21, 20 million — people to flow into our country? He had 21 million people that came into our country through a stupid open border.”

That darn Biden.

But here’s something of interest: 

In October 2024 the House Committee on Homeland Security put out a press release titled “Startling Stats Factsheet: Fiscal Year 2024 Ends With Nearly 3 Million Inadmissible Encounters, 10.8 Million Total Encounters since FY2021.”

The Committee chastised the Biden Administration. The Committee Chair Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN), issued a statement saying, in part, “There are countless examples of those aliens going on to commit crimes against innocent Americans, and many of them create financial burdens for state and local governments who are already struggling to provide resources to their citizens. We simply cannot go on like this as a country. These open-borders policies have devastated our safety, security, and sovereignty. It’s time to return to policies that secured our border and our nation.”

In other words, Biden is to blame.

But here’s the curious part: It found 10.8 million. Where does Trump’s 20 million come from?

Again, the truth seems to be optional.

To return to the subject of civility.

In a spirited exchange as to whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia has “MS 13” tattoos on his fingers — Trump insists he does; Moran said it was Photoshopped — an exchange deep into the interview, 

Trump said:

“I’m giving you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you’re doing the interview, I picked you because — frankly I never heard of you, but that’s okay.”

And there you have it.

Because Trump is finding someone who is not agreeing with him, he has to push back in a way that tries to diminish his interlocutor, tries to throw him off his game.

“You, Mr. Nobody, are getting a big chance because of Me. And don’t you dare forget it.”

And, of course, after Moran politely said, “Fair enough, he did have tattoos that can be interpreted that way. I'm not an expert on them. I want to turn to Ukraine, sir,” this occurred:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No, no. Terry --

TERRY MORAN: I -- I want to get to Ukraine --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Terry, no, no. No, no. He had MS as clear as you can be. Not "interpreted." This is why people --

TERRY MORAN: Alright.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: -- no longer believe --

TERRY MORAN: Well.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: -- the news, because it's fake news –

And it goes on and on to the point where Trump says:

“Why don’t you just say, ‘Yes, he does,’ and, you know, go on to something else.”

Of course. Because there is disagreement with what Trump thinks, it can’t be real.

And Moran should just wither under Trump’s claims and admit something that Moran politely described by saying “It’s contested.”

The interview moves on to Ukraine (“And this is Biden’s war”).

Moran asks Trump whether he trusts Putin.

And then there’s this response:

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I don't trust you. I don't trust -- I don't trust a lot of people. I don't trust you. Look at you. You come in all shootin' for bear. You're so happy to do the interview.

TERRY MORAN: I am happy --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And then you start hitting me with fake questions. You start tellin' me that a guy -- whose hand is covered with a tattoo --

TERRY MORAN: Alright. We're back to that.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: -- doesn't have the tattoo, you know.

TERRY MORAN: Alright.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I mean, you're being dishonest.

This is not the behavior of a serious man.

And as the interview nears its close:

TERRY MORAN: I'm gonna ask -- if I may, do you think the reputation of the United States has gone down under your presidency?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I -- no, I think it's gone way up, and I think we're a respected country again. We were laughed at all over the world. We had -- a president that couldn't walk up a flight of stairs, couldn't walk down a flight of stairs, couldn't walk across a stage without falling. We had a president that was grossly incompetent. You knew it, I knew it, and everybody knew it. But you guys didn't want to write it because you're fake news.

TERRY MORAN: Alright. Thank you --

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And, by the way, ABC is one of the worst. I have to be honest with you …

So much for civility.

_____
FRIDAY 5/2/25