ICE’s Menacing Roundups Rachet Up

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

The Trump Administration wants to arrest a minimum of 3,000 immigrants a day, a senior advisor told Fox News this week. That, according to The New York Times is nearly five times the average of 660 people arrested (and in many cases abducted) in the administration’s first 100 days.

The news, announced by Trump anti-immigration guru Stephen Miller, came as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this week underwent its third major change in top management and the day before the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to evoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

It also came in a week marked by dozens of arrests of working immigrants and parents on Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, a boat ride from our Cape Cod home. And it came as ICE agents across the country attempted to gather records of school-age children and began arresting immigrants as they enter or leave immigration hearings, the NYT reported.

When Donald Trump took office, his administration initially said it would focus on arresting and deporting immigrants with criminal records. But the overwhelming share of arrests in my area appear to be of hard-working, peaceful family members picked up at job sites or on their way to and from work. I suspect the same is true elsewhere.

A couple of weeks ago, a young man who co-owned a painting company, who lived in this country for years and who reportedly had no criminal past was abducted in his own apartment in West Falmouth, Massachusetts. The arresting agents did not identify themselves and showed no warrant. Earlier this week, after federal agents fanned out over Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, the owner of a Rhode Island electrical contractor told The Boston Globe that workers, including two of his, had been stopped and intimidated at a random Vineyard roadblock.

“They treat the guys like criminals,” Thiago Alves told the Globe. “It was terrible because my guys got stopped for no reason … They had one car behind my guys and one in front.”

Alves’ men have pending green card applications, but were nonetheless among the lucky ones. They were released in a dragnet that sent some 40 immigrants in handcuffs to the mainland.

Stories like these will only increase as the Trump administration pressures ICE and other federal agents to meet rising arrest quotas. Among those picked up in my area likely will be farm workers, painters, home builders, masons, landscapers, waiters, cooks, housekeepers and elder-care providers. Together, they provide much of the backbone of Cape Cod. They also are our neighbors and their indiscriminate arrests have sent a ripple of fear not only through immigrant communities but also through the community at large.

I’ve heard stories of immigrant families with green cards who do nothing beyond go to work and return home. Some students are staying home from school. Some employees are too afraid to appear at their jobs. The New York Times reported May 8 that undocumented immigrants who’ve been assaulted or have diabetes or high-risk pregnancies are not going to the doctor because they are afraid of being arrested.

Nationwide, a handful of high-profile cases have captured public attention. Best known, perhaps, is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father mistakenly arrested and deported to El Salvador, where months later he remains in a notorious prison-of-no-return despite the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling that the US should “facilitate” his return. The Trump Administration has ignored this decision.

Equally high-profile are the cases of Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder and Columbia University graduate student detained for months in a Louisiana ICE Detention Center because of his role in peaceful pro-Palestinian protests on that campus and of Russian-born, Harvard University researcher Kseniia Petrova, arrested at Logan Airport when she brought undeclared frog embryos from France in her luggage. She, too, remains in Louisiana.

Less high-profile cases surface and disappear or don’t crack the news at all.

Take Fabian Schmitt. On March 7, the 34-year-old German national, who has lived in the United States for nearly 20 years, was detained and then vanished at Logan Airport in Boston after returning from a visit to his parents. A week or two later, news organizations covered his allegations that he had been subjected to severe interrogation, strip-searched and thrown into a cold shower at the airport. But the story of Schmitt then vanished although Schmitt was only released from a Rhode Island prison May 8 after 62 days behind bars. He apparently had pleaded guilty in California a decade ago to a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance.

In at least two cases in Massachusetts, videos have shown ICE agents smashing the car windows of immigrants to arrest them instead of providing signed warrants. Yet despite this drumbeat of abusive and often masked abductions, elected Democrats, in my state and others, have too often stood by mute or limited themselves to sporadic statements of disapproval.

Let’s hope that is beginning to change.

In Virginia, US Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner released a press release May 23 demanding that ICE agents follow Homeland Security regulations “requiring law enforcement to properly identify themselves and limit use of face-coverings during official operations.”

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called the Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard raids earlier this week “disturbing,” according to The Boston Globe. She added that, “there have been real questions raised about due process and whether or not ICE and immigration officials are following, complying with due process here and in other states.”

Julian Cyr, a state senator representing part of the Cape and Islands, added in a statement, “This kind of sweeping action has serious consequences. It has left families in fear, disrupted businesses of all kinds and sent a chilling message to many residents who have lived, worked and contributed to island life for years.”

Let us hope we can consider this a good start, albeit a late one. I would urge both chambers of our Massachusetts State Legislature, Gov. Healey, and the state’s entire congressional delegation to condemn ICE’s methods formally and in tandem and to demand adherence to the rule of law going forward.

As my hometown newspaper, The Enterprise of Falmouth, Massachusetts, wrote in an editorial published Friday, May 30: “Something must be done expeditiously to protect the residents of the commonwealth from a summer of ever-present panic and repeated raids, and we are calling on our elected officials to act now and protect their constituents.”

Now and every day going forward.

This column originally appeared in Lanson’s From the Grassroots Substack. Reposted by permission of the author.

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MONDAY 6/2/25

Abominable Bill?

Elon Musk and President Trump in happier times -- last Friday, Musk's last day as DOGE chief (White House photo).

•Contributing Pundit Jerry Lanson writes about ICE’s “menacing” immigrant arrests in the left column, as Pundit-at-Large Stephan Macaulay reconsiders Bidenomics in the right column.

•Whether you are pro-Trump or anti-Trump, we welcome your reaction to these commentaries. Email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Can Musk Kill Bill? – World’s Richest Lifeform/ex-DOGE chief/MAGA Bad Boy Elon Musk has called the House’s Big Beautiful Bill Act an “abomination” on his X-Twitter, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. X-Twitter is decidedly not President Trump’s Truth Social. 

Meanwhile, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office scores the bill passed by the House and working its way through the Senate as adding $2.4 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years. 

Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) wants to get the Senate’s version out by the Fourth of July, but all it will take is four of these five; Senate budget hawks Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY) along with moderates Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) to sink BBB Act in the upper chamber.

The Travel Ban 12 – The Trump White House has issued a travel ban for 12 countries, a sort of repeat of the first Trump administration’s first big action. The Banned Dozen are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, The Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. 

It was not immediately known why these 12 were called out, The New York Times reports. And nothing about South Africa, from which at least 49 white Afrikaners have immigrated to the US in recent weeks.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 6/4/25

Steely Plan – While you were sleeping tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum doubled to 50%. This comes hot on the heels of President Trump’s approval and credit-taking last Friday for a deal in which Japan’s Nippon Steel purchased the US’s premier producer, U.S. Steel. 
 
Appearing in Pittsburgh last week, Trump drew cheers from United Steelworkers members when he announced the doubled tariffs. 
 
There is one exemption to the 50% tariffs: The United Kingdom, which has a tentative deal with the Trump administration to exempt steel, cars and other goods from tariffs, though as Marketplace notes the vaguely detailed, tentative deal still could fall apart. Meanwhile, the European Union is already preparing retaliatory tariffs on the US.
 
•••
 
Recission Package Goes to the Hill – The White House has handed over a $9.4 billion recission package of DOGE cuts to Congress to claw back $8.3 billion in foreign aid and $1.1 billion for NPR and PBS already voted into law. Congress can pass the package with a simple majority, though some Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns, The Wall Street Journal reports.
 
Under a 1974 law, Congress has 45 days to review or overturn spending already approved. Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget has suggested “pocket recissions” could come at the end of the fiscal year, September 30.
 
Musk, Meanwhile … Recently dearly departed DOGE chief Elon Musk has “thrown a wrench” into Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-SD) plans to get the Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by the House last month through the Senate relatively in-tact by July 4, The Hill reports. Musk, who has returned his attention to Tesla, SpaceX and X-Twitter (beyond posting constantly on it), called the deficit-building bill “pork-filled” and “disgusting.” He already has the backing of Senate budget hawks Ron Johnson (R-WI), Mike Lee (R-UT) and Rand Paul (R-KY).
 
•••
 
Where in the World is Secretary Hegseth? – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not in the NATO capital of Brussels, where nearly 50 nations have gathered for what is known as the “Ramstein Format” now in its third year, a group of NATO nations organized to discuss military aid for Ukraine. The Associated Press reports that Hegseth would only arrive in Brussels after the Ramstein Format is done.
--TL

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Ukraine Defends Without US

TUESDAY 6/3/25

Another Ukrainian Battlefield Victory -- As talks of new ceasefire talks between Ukraine, Russia and the US continue, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out its third attack since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale war begain in 2022, on the Crimea Bridge used by the Russian military to bring weapons into Ukraine (SBU photo via The Kyiv Independent).

‘Dear Leader: Why I Want This Job’ – The spoils system has returned, with new civil service applicants now required to describe how they would “help advance” President Trump’s policy priorities, Newsweek reports. White House domestic policy chief Vince Haley issued a memorandum May 29 via the Office of Personnel Management that requires job recruits to answer essays on their work ethics, skills and experience, commitment to the Constitution and plans to “advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities,” according to the magazine. 

Newsweek reports it has emailed the OPM for comment outside normal working hours.

•••

Boulder Attacks – Mohamed Sabry Soliman, the Egyptian citizen suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, at marchers protesting in support of Jewish hostages of Hamas in Gaza, has been charged with 16 counts of attempted first degree murder and of a hate crime, NPR reports. Soliman remains in custody with a $10 million bond, The New York Times reports. Authorities have identified four additional victims suffering minor burns in addition to the eight victims identified Sunday including a Holocaust survivor and two people in critical condition.

Authorities say Soliman had been planning the attack for a year and disguised himself as a gardener to avoid suspicion at the rally. He allegedly shouted “free Palestine!” as he was taken into custody – a protest meant to support a Palestinian homeland next to Israel but which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has equated with “heil Hitler” after a suspect in the fatal shooting of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, at a reception by the American Jewish Committee for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., last month also shouted “free Palestine.”  

Authorities say Soliman brought 16 additional incendiary devices to the Boulder rally. His immigration status is murky; Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin says Soliman has overstayed a 2022 tourist visa. 

--TL

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The State of Trumpism

MONDAY 6/2/25

Buried in the Big Beautiful Bill – A provision buried in the House’s Big Beautiful Bill Act budget for the coming fiscal year would give presidents, including the current one obviously, protection against judges from enforcing their orders unless litigants post a bond that could match the amounts at stake in lawsuits. Court orders so far have ruled Trump administration policies as unlawful in 180 cases so far, USA Today reports, and the bill’s provision would remove courts’ ability to enforce the rulings. 

Including tariffs … After the US Court of International Trade struck down Trump’s tariffs, the president took to his Truth Social to attack Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society, which have for decades been working to install an über-conservative federal judiciary (the US Court of Appeals has put temporary hold on the trade court’s ruling blocking tariffs). Trump was miffed that Leo gave him “bad advice” on “numerous judicial nominations, according to Politico, including his appointee to the trade court, Judge Timothy Reif, who voted with the two other judges on the panel – one a Reagan appointee and the other an Obama appointee – in blocking his tariffs.

On Truth Social, Trump called Leo, who has been working since at least the 1980s to strike down Roe v. Wade and to make the federal courts friendlier to corporations, a “sleazebag” who “probably hates America.”

“He openly brags about how he controls Judges, and even Justices of the United States Supreme Court – I hope that is not so, and don’t believe it is!”

Leo released this brief statement, according to Politico: “I’m very grateful for President Trump transferring the federal courts, and it was a privilege being involved. There’s more work to be done, for sure, but the Federal Judiciary is better than it’s ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trump’s most important legacy.”

Read … Trump’s SCOTUS picks, not tariffs.

PS, U.S. Steel … Trump used his appearance endorsing the deal by Japan’s Nippon Steel to purchase Pittsburgh’s U.S. Steel to announce he is doubling tariffs on import steel and aluminum to 50%. Now his reversal on the deal makes sense.

•••

No Ceasefire Deal – Ukraine and Russia ended their second round of peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, Monday with no ceasefire deal, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced according to The Kyiv Independent, which had noted that there was little chance for a breakthrough after President Trump refused to impose sanctions on Moscow.

Ukraine played its cards … Kyiv precluded this second round of talks much in the same way the Kremlin has – with major attacks on the opposition. Ukraine on Sunday set off a series of attacks inside Russia Sunday. Key was an SBU security service attack on a Russian airbase in which first-person-view drones (FPV) destroyed 41 heavy bombers. The operation was called “Spider Web.”

The SBU started planning the operation a year and a half ago, a source told the Independent, and smuggled the FPVs deep inside Russia, huddled inside cabins placed on trucks. 

“The SBU first transported FPV drones to Russia, and later, on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the source said. “At the right moment, the roofs of the cabins were opened remotely, and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers.”

No Spider Web for Trump … President Trump, who had something of a falling out with Russian President/dictator Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s missile/drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians during the last “ceasefire” suggested by the Kremlin, was not informed ahead of time of the SBU’s plans, according to The Hill, citing confirmation of the report by its sister network, NewsNation.

•••

Trump Win in Polish Election – Trump-backed conservative Karol Nawrocki narrowly beat liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski in Poland’s presidential elections Sunday, with 50.89% to 49.11% of the vote, according to The Associated Press. As president, Nawrocki will have more power than most parliamentary system presidents, Polityka Managing Director Andrzej Bobinski told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition Monday. 

President Nawrocki has veto rights and oversees foreign policy and defense and security, Bobinski said. Since 2023, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has led a centrist coalition government working to reverse the illiberal revolution the previous conservative leadership imposed on the country’s press and courts, Bobinski said. Nawrocki will have little opportunity to stop the coalition government’s slow progress, he said, but will be able to help conservatives retake control of the government in future elections.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 6/2/25

Maybe Bidenomics Wasn’t So Bad After All

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

The US economy was doing fairly well until the COVID pandemic in 2020. Then things went to, well, think of a four-letter word that rhymes with “hit.”

Unemployment hit nearly 15%. Real GDP decreased at an annual rate of -2.21%.

As you may recall, President Trump tended to announce in public that the virus would just go away when it got warm or that bizarre medical interventions would do the trick.

According to Bob Woodward, Trump told him on March 19, 2020, “I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I don’t want to create panic.”

In addition to which, it was off-brand.

In March 2020 Trump signed the CARES Act. It was the largest economic relief package ever in the US: more than $2 trillion. (This is the legislation that created things like the Paycheck Protection Program.)

Then in December 2020 he signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act. This was some $900 billion.

So we’re looking at about $2.3 trillion.

Also COVID-related was the American Rescue Plan of 2021. That was signed by Joe Biden.

Its approximate cost was $1.9 trillion.

In other words, Trump spent $400,000,000,000 more than Biden.

Remember when Republicans used to accuse the Democrats as being the party of “tax and spend”?

Seems like the Republicans have become the party of “don’t tax and do spend.”

In 2021 the GDP grew by 5.8%. Unemployment fell to 5.35%. Inflation increased to 4.7% --because unlike the previous year, more people were buying stuff.

During the rest of the Biden administration unemployment remained low. Inflation was high in 2022 — 8% -- but in 2023 it was down to 4.1% and lower in 2024: 2.9%.

It was 2.3% in the 12 months through April. Somehow that 0.6% difference isn’t what Trump in campaign mode led us to believe it would be.

What’s more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, grocery prices were up 2% in April 2025 but up 1.1% in April 2024.

Food in restaurants was up 3.9% in April 2025 but only up 0.3% in April 2024.

The “Big, Beautiful Bill” that the House passed is expected to add $2.4 trillion to the national debt between 2025 and 2034.

Tariffs? Well, despite the Trump administration’s claims that other countries foot the bill, that is simply not the case as anyone who has taken even Econ 101 knows.

The Budget Lab at Yale — and this will probably put the university in the crosshairs of the Administration — estimates that in 2025 the tariffs will cost the average American household $2,800 in 2024 dollars.

Then there are projected job losses from the tariffs.

The Budget Lab projects a loss of some 590,000 jobs by the end of the year.

The center-right Tax Foundation estimates that there will be a job loss of between 250,000 to 309,000

The average of those numbers: 383,000 job losses.

What this means is that US consumers are going to be paying more and rather than some sort of massive job creation, it will result in job destruction.

And then there is that bigger hole in the economy as a result of the Budget Bill as it stands.

Somehow it doesn’t seem like Team Trump is bothered by the financial impacts on regular Americans.

Its Golden Age is what Golden Ages always tend to be: Advantageous to the wealthy.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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MONDAY 6/2/25

Behind the Headlines

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

My wife grew up in a St. Louis suburb. When we were in our mid-20s, we lived in her parent’s home there for a summer before enrolling in masters’ degree programs at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

At my summer job, bell hopping at the St. Louis Holiday Inn downtown, I learned the art of hustling tips and got ticketed for driving too fast shuttling baseball fans to Busch Stadium. The old guys I worked for, George and Jim, regaled me with tales of their years working as porters on the railways and selling bootleg liquor during Prohibition to the sheriff of Denver. Having witnessed their techniques for hustling tips, I never doubted them.

In Columbia, studying journalism, I got assigned to cover a hotly contested campaign over whether to institute countrywide planning and zoning. My reporting took me to nearby farms, where I learned to take my time, listen, and talk about the weather and crops before asking any questions. I figured I was getting a handle on the culture when two farmers offered me work in the fields.

Although I don’t believe the term “Purple State” was used in politics in the mid-1970s, Missouri surely was one. Stuart Symington served as a Democratic Senator from 1953 to 1976. And as late as 2018, Missouri had one Democratic Senator. But today the state is solidly red. Republicans have controlled both houses of the state legislature since 2003. In 2024, Donald Trump took 58.5 percent of the vote.

Nonetheless, as the massive House bill heads to the Senate that would make tax cuts for the rich permanent and carve deeply into Medicaid and food stamps, one of the most outspoken opponents of the Medicaid cuts has been Missouri’s populist Republican Sen. Josh Hawley. Writing in The New York Times a couple of weeks ago, he noted Medicaid provides health insurance to 1 million people in his state alone.

“If Congress cuts funding for Medicaid benefits, Missouri workers and their children will lose their health care,” he wrote. “And hospitals will close. It’s that simple. And that pattern will be replicated in states across the country.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill, if it becomes law, will end the health care of 10.3 million lower-income Americans in the next decade. Other estimates are higher.

The question now is whether the conservative senator from the Show Me State will have the gumption to stick to his guns and bring other Republican senators with him.

Donald Trump has proven adept at strong-arming Republicans in Congress many times before, threatening to back an opponent against anyone who gets out of line. But Hawley was just re-elected in 2024 and may have presidential ambitions of his own.

I decided to visit some of Missouri’s newspaper sites to see what they’re saying about the Republican mega-bill. Google lists 46 newspapers in the state, from the Boonville Daily News, covering Cooper and Howard counties in central Missouri since 1919, to the Washington Missourian, founded in 1860 in Franklin County. The Daily News last Saturday featured a photo gallery of the graduating class, a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Pleasant Green United Methodist Church and an announcement of writing scholarship award recipients. The Washington Missourian web site featured breaking news of a crash, council approval of a street grade variance and a photo gallery of recent graduates. Neither had anything to say in news or columns about the House mega-tax bill nor the Medicaid and food stamp cuts it will trigger.

Urban papers in the state, however, did. The lead editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, founded in 1878 by Joseph Pulitzer, offered the headline, “The GOP’s latest reverse-Robin Hood tax scheme will test its populist rhetoric.” The Kansas City Star, published since 1880, asked, “Can Josh Hawley out Trump Trump with the working person?” It began like this: “If you offered me half of Elon Musk’s holdings to tell you what Josh Hawley truly believes, I would not be able to cash the check.”

A second commentary ran under the headline, “Missouri, Kansas GOP claim Trump tax plan saves money. How?”

Even in Red States, the largest cities tend to lean Democratic. So, I looked at the papers in two smaller cities, Jefferson City, the state capitol, and Springfield in the Ozarks.

The Jefferson City News Tribune, founded in 1865, didn’t write about Medicaid but did offer a grim assessment of federal food assistance would be as a result of the House bill.

“Missouri could lose around $400 million in federal funding for food assistance under a plan approved by Congressional Republicans on Thursday – which would strain the state budget and likely strip thousands of low-income families of food aid across the state. The cost shifts could put pressure on the legislature to slash the state’s SNAP program or fill in federal funding gaps by cutting other state services.”

And though residents of Springfield cast 60% of their ballots for Donald Trump last November, the Springfield News-Leader ran the same story. The paper, founded in 1867, also published a guest op-ed calling on the Trump Administration to restore a planned $1.2 billion cut to the National Park Service nationwide.

Hawley and any other GOP Senators who say they want to preserve Medicaid will face a dilemma. Even with these cuts, the bill already balloons the deficit by trillions. Will they dare stand up for constituents who are not mega-donors in the face of pressure to make the rich richer?

Writing in The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait noted that the legislation “might, if enacted, carry out the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history. “

And if that happens, that transfer will be built on the backs of basic health care stripped from Hawley’s Missouri constituents and those of Republican senators elsewhere.

This column originally appeared in Lanson’s From the Grassroots Substack. Reposted by permission of the author.

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Budget Bill, Tariffs and Crypto Dinners

Headline from The Onion on last week’s 214-213 House vote on the president’s Big, Beautiful (budget) bill: “Republican Infighting Erupts Over Whether Trump Bill Beautiful or Handsome.” 

The Senate still has its say on the Big Beautiful Bill Act, and markups begin next Monday, June 2, with hopes a reconciliation package will land on President Trump’s Resolute Desk before Congress’ August break (though there’s still all of September before the next fiscal year). 

Pundits expect a major rewrite of the bill in the Senate, where only a majority is needed for passage. 

This gives us lots of time to fill the right and left columns with your comments on the bill. And on Trump’s tariff roller-coaster. And on the mix of the Trump presidency with the Trump Organization’s business dealings.

Email your COMMENTS on any or all of these issues to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings – left or right whether centrist, progressive or pro-MAGA – in the subject line.

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TUESDAY 5/27/25

Steel Deal

President Trump at Arlington National Cemetery Monday.

Art of the Flip – As president-elect last December, Donald J. Trump opposed a deal by Japan’s Nippon Steel to purchase the American industrial icon United States Steel. On January 3, then-President Biden blocked the deal. 

On Friday, President Trump visits U.S. Steel’s Irvin Works plant in Pittsburgh to announce a “merger” deal between Nippon and U.S. Steel that appears more like the original purchase by the Japanese company, according to NPR.

The US will get what Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) describes as a “golden share” that gives the federal government a controlling roll in the company, CQ Roll Call reports. U.S. Steel will maintain its Pittsburgh headquarters and be run by an American CEO. The deal is said to save 10,000 US jobs and add 10,000 more for a new steel furnace in Pennsylvania, location TBD. 

But we can’t ignore the fact that while the “golden share” might indeed be straight out of The Art of the Deal it does not seem very laissez-faire Republican.

--TL

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Tariffs On or Off?

THURSDAY 5/29/25

UPDATE: The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a brief order Thursday issuing an administrative stay that put temporary hold on the Court of International Trade's ruling that blocked President Trump's tariffs, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Trump administration said it will take the matter to the US Supreme Court, possibly before the end of the week. The federal appeals court stay immediately followed a ruling by District of Columbia District Judge Rudolph Contreras' issue of a preliminary injunction on collection of duties in Learning Resources Inc. et.al. v. Donald J. Trump et.al., reports The Hill.

Justice Department attorneys had urged Contreras not to approve the stay, saying it would act like a "magnet" in attracting thousands of other companies to challenge the duty. Following the federal appeals court ruling, Contreras said his injunction would not go into effect for two weeks from Thursday -- to June 12 -- to allow time for the administration to appeal to the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (per WSJ).

Wine Imports Win – New York-based wine importer V.O.S. Selections and four other small businesses won the day late Wednesday when the Court of International Trade blocked President Trump’s assertion of executive power in imposing sweeping tariffs, according to The Wall Street Journal. The three-judge panel ruled in V.O.S. Selections Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Powers Act of 1977 does not give the president such power. Trump administration attorneys plan to appeal.

“The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imported thereunder,” the judges wrote in their decision, which takes effect immediately. 

The court’s three judges were appointed by Presidents Reagan, Obama and Trump.

Their ruling does not affect Trump’s tariffs on cars, car parts, steel and aluminum, and soon likely pharmaceuticals, which the president imposed under a separate statute, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. 

•••

Is Trump Catching Up? – Or, catching on? It has been three months since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned President Trump, in person, during the infamous Oval Office ambush, not to trust Russia’s president-dictator, Vladimir Putin. Trump appears to finally be catching up. 

Trump is growing very tired of Moscow’s continued attacks on Ukraine when Putin is supposed to be negotiating a ceasefire.

"They seem to want to do something,” Trump told reporters in a White House briefing Wednesday. “But until the document is signed, I can't tell you... I'm very disappointed at what happened. A couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation." 

Trump, reports The Kyiv Independent, did not identify the documents to which he was referring.

In any event, Trump said “We’ll know in two weeks” whether Putin is serious about reaching a peace deal, artful or otherwise. Meanwhile, Moscow continues to pound Ukraine and is pushing further into its northeastern corner so there is more occupied territory to hold on to after the deal is struck.

•••

Art of Student Deportation – The US will begin revoking visas for Chinese students, including those “with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Wednesday. A senior Trump administration official noted to Axios that Rubio’s announcement coincides with trade negotiations between the Trump administration and China.

“Everything is connected,” the official said.

•••

Musk Up and Out – Department Of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk is leaving Washington to return to running SpaceX and Tesla, the latter of which’s board wants him to put in at least 40 hours of work per week. 

“As my scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would like to thank President for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending,” Musk wrote on his X-Twitter, according to Politico. “The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

As of Thursday morning, doge-tracker.com claims DOGE has saved $170 billion. So it is of course far short of the $2 trillion Musk said his federal baby would save when it launched just after President Trump’s inauguration. 

Most independent calculations put the actual savings much lower. The non-profit Partnership for Public Service says DOGE’s efforts actually have cost an extra $135 billion to pay for leave for laid-off federal employees, Marketplace reports.

House passage of the Big Beautiful Bill Act last week doesn’t help. Interviewed for the June 1 edition of CBS News Sunday Morning, Musk told Jane Pauley; “I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it and undermines the work the DOGE team is doing.”

Tune in Sunday to see whether Pauley asks The World’s Richest Lifeform what he thinks about the huge tax cut he will receive if the Senate passes the House bill in-tact.

--TL

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Constitution Lives!

WEDNESDAY 5/28/25

Not for Retribution – District of Columbia Federal District Judge Richard T. Leon ruled Tuesday ruled that a Trump White House executive order banning WilmerHale from federal buildings and stripping the white shoe law firm of security clearances is unconstitutional. 

President Trump has gone after several such law firms associated with the Democratic Party, including firms associated with investigating Moscow’s involvement in Trump’s 2016 presidential election win. Robert S. Mueller III, who as special counsel investigated the Russia-Trump connection during Trump’s first term, has long been associated with WilmerHale. Mueller returned to the firm after releasing his report and retired in 2021.

“The cornerstone of the American system of justice is an independent judiciary and an independent bar willing to tackle unpopular cases, however daunting. The founding fathers knew this!” Judge Leon wrote in a 73-page opinion The New York Times reports is “laced with more than two-dozen exclamation points.”

Jenner & Block and Susman Godfrey sued the Trump administration alongside WilmerHale, asking the judge to proceed to a decision without trial, as the EO was the only issue to be considered. Other firms, including Paul Weiss and Latham & Watkins have capitulated to Trump’s orders, agreeing to perform pro-bono work on behalf of the president’s favorite causes. 

Judge Leon in his decision said that targeted law firms already have been damaged because they lost clients, and that the Trump administration was trying to intimidate other law firms in a way that would damage the legal profession as a whole (per the NYTreport).

“The order shouts through a bullhorn: If you take on causes disfavored by President Trump, you will be punished!” Leon wrote.

•••

No Relief in Gaza – Israeli troops killed at least one civilian Palestinian and wounded 48 when they opened fire at a food distribution center Wednesday, The Guardian reports. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GDF), chosen by the Israeli government to ship food into the region had lost control when starving Palestinians stormed the distribution point, according to reports. 

Casualties were reported by Gaza’s health ministry. 

Israeli war crimes … Meanwhile, Ehud Olmert, prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, said in an op-ed in Haaretz that the current government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is guilty of war crimes.

“The government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without clear goals or clear planning and with no chance of success,” Olmert wrote. “Never since its establishment has the State of Israel waged such a war. The criminal gang headed by Benjamin Netanyahu has set a precedent without equal in Israel’s history in this area too.”

•••

NPR vs. Trump – NPR and three Colorado public radio stations are suing President Trump and others within his administration over his efforts to ban any federal funds for the public radio network or PBS. The stations involved in the suit are Colorado Public Radio, a statewide network, plus largely rural Aspen Public Radio and KSUT, which was founded by the Native American Ute tribe. 

NPR CEO Katherine Maher told All Things Considered host Marie Louise Kelly that freedom to make editorial decisions, but not “politics,” is behind the suit.

“We are choosing to do this as a matter of necessity and principle,” Maher said. “All of our rights that we enjoy in this democracy flow from the First Amendment – freedom of speech, association, freedom of the press. When we see those rights infringed upon, we have an obligation to challenge them, and that’s what’s at stake here.”

--TL

_____________________________________________

Another Tariff Pause

TUESDAY 5/27/25

Brace for another rally on Wall Street, boosting President Trump’s confidence in his tariff-forward Art of economic policy Tuesday. By 11 am Wall Street time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up nearly 500 points, or +1.2%. 

On Wall Street, a burst of good news from the Trump White House trumps the roller-coaster uncertainty of the president’s tariff policy. Trump on Sunday agreed to a delay to July his 50% tariff on European imports after a phoner with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Trump last week had announced a 50% tariff on the EU, same day he announced a 25% tariff on Apple iPhones. 

Don’t miss … Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s column on Trump’s black-tie dinner for crypto currency moguls and the iPhone tariff, in the right column.

•••

How Was Your Memorial Day Weekend? – President Trump’s was “weird,” according to Politico, beginning Saturday with his commencement address to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he wore a red MAGA hat and gave a campaign rally-style speech attacking “drag shows” and critical race theory, and complaining about his treatment by law enforcement. He wrapped up with musings on “trophy” wives.

Then on Sunday … Politico continues, Trump suspended his 50% tariffs on the European Union and called Russian President Vladimir Putin “crazy” on his Truth Social for continuing to kill Ukrainian civilians, which the dictator has done for three years. 

And on Memorial Day Monday … Trump gave a solemn tribute to fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery, while posting on Truth Social: HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY. (Author’s caps.) Trump singled out MENTALLY INSANE immigrants, WARPED RADICAL Democrats and USA HATING judges.

•••

Three and Two-Thirds More Years – The Hill helpfully offers this list of “seven most likely successors” to President Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028: Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Donald J. Trump Jr., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. 

Notes … We’d give Rubio, second on the list, primacy over Vance even as Rubio has moved to the right to comply with Trump’s MAGA vision of international relations. The next 43+ months will tell whether or not Noem has to learn the true meaning of habeas corpus.

Meanwhile … Kemp, first and foremost, and Youngkin are the only two of the list after shape-shifting Rubio who might be considered “moderate” Republicans. Any more out there?

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
TUESDAY 5/27/25

Great This Ain’t

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

On May 22 Donald Trump hosted a black-tie dinner at the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, for the top 220 investors in $TRUMP coin. The event raised about $148 million in the crypto currency.

Here’s something to consider: on May 22 the MAGA Trump USD “coin” was trading at $0.21. Yes, 21 cents. The market cap was $8.89 million.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin USD, on the same day, was trading at $111,722.53. Bitcoin’s market cap is $2.15 trillion.

So one can only conclude that the investors in $TRUMP coin were more interested in currying favor with the President than they were in, as they say, making coin.

During the dinner the 78-year-old reportedly danced to “YMCA.”

“YMCA” is the hit of The Village People, which was named after Greenwich Village in Manhattan. When the band was formed in the late 1970s the Village was known for having a strong gay community. Members of the band dressed as a cop, a Native American, a soldier or sailor, a construction worker, a leatherman, and cowboy. This was all about DEI, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Why Donald Trump is so fascinated by the 48-year-old band that seems to represent something that he is doing everything his Sharpie will let him act against is a mystery.

As is what he is doing to great American institutions, including Harvard and Apple.

On May 22 Homeland Security Secretary Krisi Noem — the woman who testified to a Congressional committee that “habeas corpus” is “a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country -- ordered the agency to terminate Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification. Noem claimed in a post on X, “This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”

And she added, “Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”

In the letter she sent to Harvard, appended to the X post, she writes that she wanted “Any and all records, whether official or informal, in the possession of Harvard University, including electronic records and audio or video footage” of bad behavior of “a nonimmigrant student enrolled in Harvard University in the last five years.” The initial request was made on April 16. Harvard didn’t comply.

Consequently, the Student and Exchange visitor Program at Harvard is being decertified.

Approximately 27% of Harvard’s student come from outside the US. That’s because Harvard has a reputation for educational excellence, a reputation that extends around the world.

But now — regardless of what the courts do — international students are unlikely to look at Harvard from afar with interest, not knowing how they will be treated as, as put in the Noem letter, “the Trump Administration will enforce the law and root out the evils of anti-Americanism and antisemitism in society and campuses.”

Consider this: Harvard is one of the most difficult universities in the world to get into. Only about 4% of applicants are accepted.

Which means that really smart people from abroad are likely to opt for Oxford, INSEAD, Tsinghua University, or other academic institutions that don’t have people enforcing the law who don’t know what the law is.

Then on the morning of May 23 Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else. If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!”

Errors in grammar notwithstanding, this is clearly a case where the president of the United States is working to penalize one of America’s corporate crown jewels.

The top five smartphone manufacturers in the world are:

  1. Samsung
  2. Apple
  3. Xiaomi
  4. Vivo
  5. OPPO

Or, one headquartered in South Korea, one headquartered in California, and three headquartered in China.

So why isn’t Trump doing his best to ensure that Apple maintains its competitiveness rather than hobbling it?

(The same question can be asked in the context of what his tariffs will do to General Motors and Ford.)

In the minds of the Administration the ability to sell products in one’s own market is the carrot; the tariffs are the stick.

So let’s make going to Harvard unappealing. Let’s make Apple products unaffordable to Americans.

And somehow that will Make America Great Again?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____
TUESDAY 5/27/25

Who Will Stand? Who Will Lead?

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

Progress toward freedom and equality came at an enormous price in the 1960s for the courageous leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. Some, like Martin Luther King, gave their lives to the struggle. Others endured jail, beatings and threats to carry on the fight.

On March 7, 1965, Alabama state police pummeled and fractured the skull of John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on a day that became known as Bloody Sunday. Lewis went on to become a highly respected congressman from Georgia. He fought for social justice and civil rights throughout his career, using the term “Good Trouble” to describe the kind of courageous, nonviolent protest that defined his life and career.

Today, we are seeing too little “good trouble” from our leaders and, quite honestly, ourselves as the Trump Administration works to obliterate the progress of the civil rights movement and much more. Voting rights and equal rights are being dismantled. Due process, a foundational right under the Constitution forall people, is disappearing, as immigrants, documented and undocumented, are grabbed from streets and homes by masked federal agents who show no identification, produce no signed warrants, allow no due process and pay no consequences. Our free press is under assault. Judges, lawyers, state officials, business leaders and even musicians who stand up to the Trump administration are pilloried and sometimes threatened. Tens of thousands of federal workers have been fired. Medicaid and Social Security are under assault.

And yet our streets are largely quiet as people go about their lives as if little has changed.

Will anyone, I wonder, have the strength to stand tall and lead a sustained resistance? And will they get widespread support from my children’s and grandchildren’s generations in their efforts to push back against an administration that increasingly seems hellbent on replacing our democracy with a reality built on misinformation, grift, greed and fear?

Last week, I opened the homepage of The New York Times online to find the headline: “We Study Fascism, and We’re leaving the US,” a podcast by three Yale University professors.

Speaking of the self-delusion of too many US citizens today, Marci Shore, an historian specializing on totalitarianism, said, “We’re like people on the Titanic saying our ship can’t sink… What you know as an historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.”

Or country.

Or people.

Similar podcasts and essays have sounded warnings on the pages ofThe Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Substackand other outlets. I tip my hat to these publications, but know their freedom, too, is not assured.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger recently delivered a speech at Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, that was reprinted in the paper. “The role of a free and independent press in a healthy democracy is under direct attack, with increasingly aggressive efforts to curtail and punish independent journalism,” he warned. “A free people need a free press.”

His speech detailed five ways in which the administration has tried to muzzle our free press, from filing lawsuits and using other forms of intimidation to attempting to end all public funding of public media.

But Sulzberger said his biggest fears -- “the signs that have troubled me most” – are centered on the retreat of “other public- and private-sector leaders too worried about the administration to stand up for their own rights and principles. …Leaders and academics who have long fiercely defended the rule of law now pull opinion pieces, less their arguments attract the administration’s attention.”

So who will lead? When and where will a new generation of heroes rise up? And will we, the people, give them enough support and enough fortitude to sustain their efforts? As I stand at local rallies most weekends, holding signs, I can’t help but wonder where the protesters of my children’s and grandchildren’s generation are. Like me, most of those at these rallies are retired. When will we as a nation realize that our Constitution is quickly heading the way of the dodo bird – toward extinction? When will those honking their horns in support get out of their cars and swell the ranks of those demanding a change of course?

Said Trump adviser Steve Bannon last week, “What happens between now and Labor Day really defines – more than even the first 100 days – not just Trump’s second term, but Trump’s legacy.”

Are we listening?

People needn’t put their lives on the line, though leaders of the civil rights movement surely did just that. But people do need to stop rationalizing – that things aren’t so bad, that they are too busy to protest, that protesting doesn’t really make a difference. 

It has changed history. It can help preserve our freedom.

In the podcast of the three Yale professors who’ve left the country, historian and author Timothy Snyder, put it this way: “People say, oh, the Democrats should be doing more, they should be fixing things. But, if you want the Democrats to do things, you have to create the platform for them. You have to create the spectacle, the pageantry, the positive energy, the physical place where they can come to you.”

That means frequent, geographically widespread and sizable rallies. It means each of us participating ourselves, not leaving it to others to do the hard work. It means not being “too busy” or “too bored.”

The Trump administration has just begun remaking this country, disregarding the norms of our democracy and ignoring the words of our Constitution. Only two other options exist to pushing back harder. One is to submit to repression. The other is to leave the country.

“The lesson of 1933,” said historian on totalitarianism Marci Shore, “is that you get out sooner rather than later.”

Or we can stay – and work harder to make our voices and beliefs heard.

Lanson’s Substack page is From the Grass Roots.

_____
WEDNESDAY 5/21/25

Tariff-o-Rama

Evidence of 'white genocide' in South Africa that President Trump showed to its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, contained images from Democratic Republic of Congo, and other images that were false or misleading (per The Guardian).

•ALSO: Read the full 1,082-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act HERE.

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2025

UPDATE: Federal Judge Allison D. Burroughs, in Boston, has issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration edict that revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students (scroll down for story with the trackbar to the right). The judge agreed with Harvard's lawsuit filed Friday morning that the edict's implementation would cause "immediate and irreparable injury" to the university (per The New York Times).

•••

Tariff Watch – President Trump Friday morning threatened a blanket 50% tariff on the 27 countries of the European Union, saying they have been difficult to deal with and negotiations have gone nowhere, The Hill reports.

On Truth Social … “The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable.”

On Truth Social Too … Trump also threatened Friday morning to apply a 25% tariff on Apple if CEO Tim Cook does not move manufacturing to the US.

“I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone’s that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,” Trump wrote, with the usual number of (sic)s. “If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

•••

Harvard v. Trump – Thursday there were reports of Harvard’s international students and faculty scrambling to figure out how to stay in the US, after the Trump White House revoked the university’s eligibility to enroll foreign students. 

Friday, Harvard University sued the Trump administration, saying the move was retaliation for its refusal to give in to the president’s other policy demands. Harvard registered more than 6,700 international students last fall, about 27% of its student body, according to Politico.

The university released this statement by its president, Alan Garber: “It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams.”

•••

This President for Hire – Inside the ballroom of Trump National Golf Course in suburban Washington, D.C., crypto billionaire Justin Sun led the president’s VIP as the largest holder of $TRUMP coins. Retired Los Angeles Laker and Keeping Up With the Kardashians star Lamar Odom, who recently launched his own memecoin, was in the VIP line, too. 

Trump -- and presumably his sons, who got the president to flip his position on crypto between terms – invited the 220 largest $TRUMP coin holders to the baldfaced pay-to-play black-tie dinner on behalf of the Trump Organization in April. The 25 biggest coin holders got to line up for a short VIP reception with Donald J. Trump before sitting down to dine, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Austin, Texas-based crypto currency investor Kendall Davis told ABC News that he “came here to advocate for things to be done right in the crypto space.”

Does doing crypto right mean replacing the US dollar with the Ponziesque high-tech coins as the new global currency?

Outside the Trump National Golf Course ballroom, protesters including Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) chanted that the dinner was “the Mount Everest of Corruption,” WSJ reports, citing video clips on X-Twitter. 

WSJ also cites blockchain analytics firm Inca Digital as reporting that investors purchased approximately $148 million worth of $TRUMP in order to win spots at the dinner.

•••

No Charter for Catholic School – The US Supreme Court upheld the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision blocking St. Isadore of Seville, a Catholic virtual charter school, from becoming the first publicly funded religious school in the US, by 4-4 vote, per SCOTUSblog. Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the decision and did not cite a reason. Though the order didn’t indicate how the eight SCOTUS justices voted, it would be a good guess that Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three Democratic appointees in voting to uphold the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____________________________________________

House Passes Bx3

THURSDAY 5/22/25

Early Thursday morning … The House passed, 215-214 with one Republican voting “present” President Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill of a budget that extends Trump 45’s approximately $3.8 trillion in tax cuts from 2017, no taxes on tips or overtime, work requirements for Medicaid and reforms for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The 1,000-page+ legislation also lifts the cap on the state and local tax deduction (SALT) to $40,000 for married couples with incomes up to $500,000. 

And, perhaps most importantly, it lifts the federal debt ceiling by $4 trillion. 

“Today the House has passed generational, truly nation-shaping legislation to reduce spending and permanently lower taxes for families and job creators, secure the border, unleash American energy dominance, restore peace through strength and make government work more efficiently and effectively for all Americans,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said after the vote. “House Democrats voted against all of that.”

Bx3 faces some Republican skepticism, if not all-out opposition, in the Senate, where the GOP holds a 53-47 majority and can pass the bill without Democratic filibuster.

•••

D.C. Embassy Shooting – A gunman shot and killed Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, at a reception for young diplomats being held by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum about 9 p.m. Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Lischinsky had just purchased an engagement ring for Milgrim, The New York Times reports. 

Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was identified by the Washington Metropolitan Police Department as the only suspect, and chanted, “free, free Palestine” as he was taken into custody, Chief Pamela Smith said.

•••

It Is Happening Again -- Fans of the late director David Lynch will recognize context for the words a very tall character actor named Cavel Struycken repeated in an apparition to FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle McLaughlin) in Twin Peaks: “It is happening again.”

President Trump’s Zelenskyyesque treatment of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office Wednesday isn’t so much something that happened but more something that is happening. It’s an ongoing rewriting of foreign relations rules as the administration bounces from receiving pull-out-all-the-stops red carpet treatment of Trump on his Arab Gulf tour (replete with the gift from Qatar of a $400 million Boeing 747) to ambushes of and confrontations with the leaders of countries who need our help. 

In a scene worthy of The Apprentice (the television show, not the 2024 movie), Trump called for a television to be wheeled into the Oval Office as Ramaphosa looks on. The US president showed video of a purported burial site along an open road, said to contain “a thousand” white farmers. The soft-spoken Ramaphosa attempts to disabuse Trump of the conspiracy theories he is repeating and questions the location in the video, to no avail. 

Like Trump, Ramaphosa was obviously ready for this, and brought along white South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, two men Trump ought to relate to, if not outright admire. 

“It didn’t work,” The New York Times reports.

Unlike Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Oval Office Ambush I, Ramaphosa kept an Agent Cooper-style cool and stuck around for lunch. And, in preparation for OOAII, he was wearing a tailored suit.

NPR’s Mara Liason tells All Things Considered Trump has argued for years that white Afrikaners are the victims of reverse discrimination, even genocide. Never mind that South Africa is 7% white and 72% of commercially farmable land is owned by white South Africans.

The whole affair is reminiscent of Trump 45’s lament that the US doesn’t get more immigrants from countries like Norway rather than “shitholes” like Haiti and the African continent.

But don’t forget that Elon Musk, who is said to be retrenching from DOGE and his work in Washington, was in the Oval Office with Trump and Ramaphosa Wednesday. A native of Pretoria, Musk has been even more vocal about the so-called plight of the white minority in South Africa. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 5/21/25

One Party Under Trump

By Todd Lassa

Let us all now praise the vinyl record album-style revival of print magazines. President Trump’s recent surprise, pop-up interview with The Atlantic the other week, having been swamped newswise first by his Arab Gulf trip and then by his stiff-arm lobbying for his Big, Beautiful Bill, has been preserved for history in the magazine's June 2025 print issue.

The print version of The Atlantic never went away, but now it could revive the Monthly part of its name, because it’s back up from 10 issues a year. And the June 2025 issue reminds us that in the pop-up interview, Trump said this: “I run the country and the world.”  

All that work running the globe and our own patch of it between the Atlantic and the Pacific hasn’t diminished Trump’s ability to sweat the details. On Tuesday Trump took to the House of Representatives in the Capitol to lobby Republicans to get his Big, Beautiful budget reconciliation Bill passed through Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wants it passed and out of his chamber by Memorial Day weekend. 

Bollocksing up the House GOP’s three-vote margin is Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX, pictured), who leads a group of budget hawks who do not want to encourage Trump’s propensity for multiplying the deficit. 

Speaker Johnson has a three-Republican margin for passing the Trump budget reconciliation bill along party lines. Roy leads a group of four Freedom Caucus members who do not want to add the $3.8 trillion to $5.3 trillion the Council of Economic Advisors say Bx3 will add to the federal deficit in the next decade.

After his visit to the Hill, Trump is now threatening to primary Roy for his intransigence on his budget, per The Hill. Trump will have to wait a while. Roy was re-elected just last year, which means he’s next up in 2030.

_____
WEDNESDAY 5/21/25

Born in the U.S.A.

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Back in March 2003 on a concert stage in London, lead singer Natalie Maines said to the audience: “Just so you know, we do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”

Maines was referring to the impending US invasion of Iraq. The president in question was George W. Bush.

And with that statement Maines pretty much put a stake through the heart of the Dixie Chicks’ career among the country crowd.

In 2006 they released an album titled Taking the Long Way that includes a track, “Not Ready to Make Nice,” which took on the controversy. The album was to win five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year.

(No, the band didn’t drop the “Dixie” from its name in order to, perhaps, disguise themselves from the controversy. The name change didn’t occur until 2020.)

Last week while on stage in Manchester, England, Bruce Springsteen, during his “Land of Hope and Dreams” tour, said to the audience:

“In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”

Odds are anyone who was a Springsteen fan is not going to have the reaction that some Dixie Chicks fans had over two decades ago.

But then there was one reaction that on the one hand should have been anticipated but, on the other, really is quite pathetic.

Donald Trump posted on his social site (which I won’t name because while it is social, it certainly doesn’t carry much in the way of veracity):

“I see that Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country. If I wasn’t elected, it would have been GONE by now! Sleepy Joe didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is “dumb as a rock,” and couldn’t see what was going on, or could he (which is even worse!)? This dried out “prune” of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just “standard fare.” Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”

Odds are the fact that Trump doesn’t like his music doesn’t concern Springsteen. As for the “not a talented guy,” well, as Springsteen has sold over 150 million records, reality seems to be in disagreement.

As for the “This dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!),” Mr. Trump ought to look in a mirror before criticizing the skin-care regime of anyone else, especially someone who is three years younger than he is.

The pathetic part about this is the fact that the President of the United States is thin-skinned enough such that he has to react to Springsteen’s comments.

Shouldn’t Trump be bigger than that? 

And while I am unaware of any cognitive tests that Springsteen may have taken (and we “know” that Trump has, as he noted after his recent physical, "I took a cognitive test. And I don't know what to tell you, other than I got every answer right”) is it really Leader of the Free World-worthy to call someone “dumb as a rock”? Isn’t that elementary school-caliber trash talk?

But perhaps there is method to this malarky.

This takes away attention from issues like Walmart CEO Doug McMillon saying last week: "We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible. But given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels, we cannot absorb all the pressure.”

Yes, let’s not forget the destructive tariff regime that the Trump Administration has in place.

Although the tariffs imposed on China has been reduced from a completely absurd 145% to 30%, think about that for a moment: This is a 30% tax that the American public is going to pay on things that companies like Walmart sell, such as electronics and toys. Walmart chief financial officer John David Rainey said prices are going to be noticeably increased by the end of the month and especially in June.

While Trump supporters may like the attack on Springsteen (although given that he wrote the lyric “I’m a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A. now” they may experience a bit of cognitive dissonance), they are not going to like the prices of essentially everything going up, at Walmart or anywhere else.

Odds are we are going to be seeing more, not fewer, bizarre rants from the President of the United States.

Macaulay, pundit-at-large for The Hustings, is also a contributor to the online music publication, Glorious Noise.

_____
WEDNESDAY 5/21/25

This Should Be Fake News

Commentary by Sharon Lintner

This cannot be real, it has to be "fake news," but it's not fake. The New York Times, CNN and other news outlets are reporting that the Department of Homeland Security is entertaining the idea of an immigrant reality TV show where contestants compete for citizenship.

The first word that comes to mind is "sick."  It's a cheap and disgusting idea. 

For our government to exploit human beings for the purpose of entertainment is beyond comprehension, truly unimaginable.

For those not born here, the path to American citizenship has to be earned. For some, it's sacred. To mock it, and those seeking it, is deplorable. It's trashing the very idea of what it means to be an American citizen. 

The DHS is comprised of professional staff members who serve the greatest country in the world. How is it that they would even for a moment consider the thought of this?  

There are some very deeply depraved people in charge of our country right now and it's bone chilling. Every time I think they've reached the lowest point possible, they go even lower. How far will our country fall?

_____
MONDAY 5/19/25

…meanwhile…

<<<<<<This week’s commentaries lead off with contributing pundit Sharon Lintner (Left) on a report that the Department of Homeland Security is considering a pitch for a reality competition show in which the prize is US citizenship (scroll down this column for details) and a review and commentary by contributing pundit Rich Corbett (Right) of President Trump’s Arab Gulf trip last week.>>>>>

TUESDAY 5/20/25

UPDATE: The UK and the European Union have responded to results, or lack thereof, of Monday’s Trump-Putin call with a new round of sanctions, The Guardian reports. 

Sanctions will target dozens of institutions, the UK Foreign Office said in a statement, including those “supporting Russia’s military machine, energy exports and information war, as well as financial institutions helping to fund Putin’s war in Ukraine.”

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kalla said the EU has approved sanctions to target Russia’s shadow fleet, with more sanctions in the pipeline. 

“The longer Russia wages war, the tougher our response,” Kalla said.

“Putin so far has not put in place the full, unconditional ceasefire that President Trump has called for,” the UK’s Foreign Office said, “and President Zelenskyy endorsed more than two months ago.”

Putin’s Choice – After a two-hour phone call between President Trump and Russian President/dictator Vladimir Putin Monday afternoon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy apparently is left with two possible outcomes. Either Ukraine cedes territory already lost to Russia and hopes Russia lets it alone. Or there is no ceasefire deal and Russia continues to burrow into Ukraine as it tries to rebuild its empire. 

The Trump-Putin call “yielded no breakthroughs” on a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reports, though apparently the White House now thinks the two countries will work something out by themselves. Maybe if they meet at the Vatican, as Pope Leo XIV has offered. 

And it was just last Friday when Trump said Putin did not show up for talks with Zelenskyy in Turkey because Trump didn’t show up there. But perhaps Trump might have showed up in Istanbul if only Putin had shown up. 

That’s the recipe for peace in Ukraine.

•••

Deficit Decption – Monday morning, after the Budget Committee moved the Trump-backed Big, Beautiful Bill to the full House by 17-16 vote, a reporter asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (above) whether President Trump is “okay” with the budget reconciliation bill adding to the deficit?

Not going to happen, Leavitt replied, citing a Council of Economic Advisors’ estimate it will bring in $1.6 trillion in savings against the current deficit of $36.8 trillion. 

“That’s the largest savings for any legislation that has ever passed Capitol Hill in our nation’s history,” Leavitt said. 

Not true, says The New Republic and just about every other publication with a firm grasp of economics. Final price tag is TBD, but according to the left-leaning publication, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates it is expected to add $3.8 trillion to $5.3 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years.

--TL

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Committee Advances Reconciliation Package

MONDAY 5/19/25

‘Big, Beautiful’ and Passed by Committee – Four Freedom Caucus members voted “present” in order to get the Trump-backed reconciliation package, the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” out of committee and on to the full House late Sunday evening, CQ Roll Call reports. The Budget Committee passed B3, 17-16, with Republican Reps. Chip Roy (TX), Andrew Clyde (GA), Ralph Norman (SC) and Josh Brecheen (OK) voting “present” after they were sufficiently satisfied with changes that committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said will be outlined later this week in the manager’s amendment. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) plans to bring the bill before the full House before Memorial Day.

Meanwhile ... The investment service Moody's became the last of three major agencies to downgrade the credit rating for the US, Reuters reports. On Friday, it dropped the rating from AAA to Aa1.

•••

Biden Has Cancer – Former President Joe Biden, 82, has an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer, his office said Sunday (per The Associate Press). 

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” the statement says. “The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physician.”

This comes hot… on the heels of release of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson hitting store bookshelves Tuesday, chronicling the cover-up of the 46th president’s cognitive decline by his family and closest advisors. 

For Trump supporters and never-Trumpers alike, the book appears to raise the question of how fatal a blow to a.) the Democratic Party and b.) our democracy it was that Biden didn’t stick with his promise to make that single term his one and only term, that it would serve as a transition to a more progressive – not more populist, and certainly not authoritarian – America. 

•••

About That Reality Show – (See Sharon Lintner’s commentary in the left column) … No, it’s not an Onion headline. Rather, according to the ǔber-tabloid Daily Mail, “ICE Barbie,” better known as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “is backing an insane reality TV show online where immigrants compete for fast-tracked citizenship.”

For losers on the show, does that mean, “Your Deported!”?

Apparently, no.

The increasingly indispensable conspiracy theory/urban myth-busting website Snopes reported that DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said that the show is “in the very beginning stages” of the department’s vetting process and not only has not received approval, but also that Noem has not “backed” or is even aware of the pitch of any scripted or reality show. 

The pitcher, incidentally, is Rob Worsoff, 49, a Canadian-American producer responsible for Duck Dynasty and Dating Naked. 

The New York Times was a bit more assertive than Snopes, reporting that Worsoff described the show, to be called The American, as a competition among immigrants, in trivia and in challenges in certain states. The winner would be sworn in as a US citizen but no runners-up would be penalized or deported. 

The assistant secretary, McLaughlin, said that DHS is happy to review “out of the box pitches,” according to the NYT’s report, particularly those that celebrate “what it means to be an American.”

•••

The Reality of Tariffs – Even during the Trump administration’s 90-day suspension of 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, there remains a 30% tariff on said goods. That’s not unsubstantial, and on a first-quarter earnings call last Thursday, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon warned investors the world’s biggest retailer will have to raise prices on groceries and merchandise, despite a 2.5% increase in the company’s net income. 

That set off President Trump, who took to his social media platform to respond: “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 5/19/25

Commerce Over Conflict

Commentary by Rich Corbett

President Donald Trump’s trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates marked a major moment for American business, leadership and the potential for world peace abroad. As the first big international visit of his second term, the tour emphasized economic cooperation, strategic partnerships and a shared interest in stability across the Middle East. It also reflected Trump’s broader goal: leading through strength, smart deals and mutual respect.

At the heart of this visit were enormous investment pledges from Gulf countries that could have a big impact back home. Saudi Arabia announced plans to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, while the UAE committed to $1.4 trillion over the next decade. These deals touch key areas like artificial intelligence, energy, infrastructure and manufacturing -- sectors vital to keeping America competitive and creating jobs. The presence of high-profile business leaders like Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Larry Fink at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum in Riyadh added weight and confidence for global investors in Trump’s economic vision. These investments aren’t just headlines, they signal a deeper relationship built on shared interests and mutual trust. In fact, the agreements made this time far exceed the $400 billion pledged during Trump’s 2017 trip. A growing partnership between the US and Gulf nations illustrates what is possible when the private sector and government work together.

Trump’s reception in the region also highlighted the strong ties he’s built with Middle Eastern leaders. In Saudi Arabia, he was welcomed with a rare display of respect as Air Force One was escorted by F-15 fighter jets as it landed. Trump’s personal rapport with figures like Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was on full display, showing how diplomacy can also be about personal connection and mutual goals.

At the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, Trump gave a speech focused on replacing conflict with commerce. He praised the rapid modernization of cities like Riyadh and Abu Dhabi and spoke positively about the “Arabian way” of progress -- one that values national identity while embracing innovation. One of the trip’s boldest moves was meeting with Syria’s new president, Ahmad al-Sharaa and the announcement of the lifting of US sanctions. This is a controversial yet strategic decision aimed at giving Syria “a chance at greatness” and shows a bold willingness to try diplomacy over isolation. With the support of Gulf leaders, this move could help stabilize a country long torn by war.

The trip clearly touched on security and peace in the Middle East. President Trump’s team helped broker a ceasefire with the Houthis to protect Red Sea shipping routes, which is an important step toward regional safety. His administration desiring talks with Iran is aimed at curbing the county's nuclear ambitions. Trump suggests we focus on diplomacy first, while holding firm on national security as "Iran must never be permitted nuclear weapons." He made it clear that military force remains an option, but only as a last resort.

Another major theme was expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements began in Trump's first term, with hopes to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab countries. While full normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel still depends on progress for the Palestinians, Trump’s team, including envoy Steve Witkoff, expressed optimism that new agreements could be coming soon.

In short, this trip wasn’t just about handshakes and headlines. It laid out a vision for how America can lead globally—not just through power, but through partnership. The warm welcomes and major deals show that many in the Middle East see America as a trusted partner again. As Trump ended his speech in Riyadh to the upbeat tune of “YMCA,” a familiar song from his rallies, the tone was clear: President Trump is a leader who brings energy, optimism, and a results-driven mindset to the world stage. His administration will focus on economic growth, strategic diplomacy and peace. The president's Middle East visit points toward a more stable and prosperous future and one where American leadership is respected ... and where opportunity can replace conflict.

Corbett writes My Desultory Blog.

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MONDAY 5/19/25

Welcome, Left & Right

Comments by those leaning right are posted in the column on the other side and comments by those leaning left are posted in this column. All are welcome, so long as they are expressed with civility and adhere to the facts as we all know them. 

Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line, so they make it into the proper column.

Also be sure to take a look at the prototype of our imminent website redesign at the “about” tab above. It will be much easier to navigate and read comments from various perspectives, and it will land you on our center column full of political news/aggregate/analysis when looking us up on your smartphone.

Don’t miss our Substack newsletter HERE.

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FRIDAY 5/16/25

Big, Beautiful Budget Blow’d Up

Scroll down with the near-right trackbar for our wrap-up of President Trump's tour of the Arab Gulf. See the left column for info on how to comment.

FRIDAY 5/16/25

Committee Fail – Fiscal conservatives blocked the Trump-based Big Beautiful Bill from making it out of the House Budget Committee, 16-21, over their push for more Medicaid cuts and faster wind-down of clean energy tax incentives, The Wall Street Journal reports. Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said lawmakers were close to agreement on changes that would win over the necessary votes.

Republican Reps. Chip Roy (TX), Ralph Norman (SC), Josh Brescheen (OK) and Andrew Clyde (GA) joined Democrats on the committee who want neither Medicaid cuts nor a clean energy incentive wind-down. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) also joined in on the committee’s procedural defeat.

Smucker supports B3 but said he voted “no” for his own procedural reasons, so he can call for a revote later, according to the WSJ. 

The committee is scheduled to return to session 10 pm Sunday and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) hopes to pass the bill on to the Senate by Memorial Day, which with Friday’s committee vote has become a bit less likely than before.

•••

Trump Returns – Israel has killed nearly 100 residents of Gaza during the huge military offensive Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised if Hamas did not hand over remaining October 7 hostages before President Trump returned from his trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, the BBC reports.

The president’s trip was all about business deals, and at a business roundtable in Doha Trump reiterated his interest in taking over Gaza, perhaps paving the way for a Trump hotel or two.

“I think I’d be proud to have the United States have it,” he said. “Take it. Make it a freedom zone. Let some good things happen. Put people in houses where they can be safe. And, uh, Hamas is going to have to be dealt with.”

It’s an idea that Arab nations, including his hosts this week, “strongly oppose” NPR’s Franco Ordonez told Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition.

Qatar’s offer of a $400 million luxury Boeing 747-8 and Qatar Airways’ contract to purchase 210 wide-bodied jets from Boeing come amidst Donald Jr. and Eric Trump’s recent tour of the region to build up business for The Trump Organization. As the president returned from the tour to see his daughter, Tiffany’s, new baby, he made another pitch for Qatar’s “gift” of a 747 (TANSTAAFLA – There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Luxury Airplane, the late economist Milton Friedman would have said).

“I’ve been doing this for four days. I leave now and get into a 42-year-old … Boeing. But new ones are coming. New ones are coming,” he told reporters at his departure.

No Turkey stop … Trump did not divert Air Force One from Qatar to Turkey because Russian President Vladimir Putin did not drop in for peace talks with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, because Trump was not there, if you can follow the president’s logic. Trump said he will meet with Putin as soon as a time can be set up, NPR reports. 

Zelenskyy left Ankara Airport Thursday and sent a lower-level contingent to the talks in Istanbul, matching the not-senior officials Putin sent to the conference, with the result that Russia and Ukraine have agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war from each side, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile… Pope Leo XIV says he wants to host Ukrainian war peace talks at the Vatican, after the Istanbul summit failure, Politico reports.

•••

Not So Fast, Birthright Citizenship – Supreme Court justices centered on the issue of “universal” injunctions hearing oral arguments Thursday on Trump v. CASA, rather than challenges to the Trump White House’s executive order ending birthright citizenship established by the 14th Amendment. In other words, should an injunction against the Trump EO by federal judges in single districts apply to the nation as a whole?

There was “no clear decision” signaled by the justices, according to SCOTUSblog, though there was some pointed questioning of Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer by Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Together with Chief Justice John Roberts they constitute the current swing votes in SCOTUS, with justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito very likely siding with Trump and justices Elena Kagen, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson almost guaranteed to side with SACA. Trump’s third appointee, Neil Gorsuch, is typically one of the more vocal opponents of universal injunctions, according to SCOTUSblog. 

A ruling is expected in June.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 5/16/25

Smokes Like Teen Spirit

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Back in February 2020, the Food and Drug Administration, which was still a robust agency that had serious people thinking about what we should and shouldn’t be putting in our bodies based on science not conspiratorial folklore, banned flavored cartridge-based e-cigarettes.

Vapes.

Not all flavorings. Just things like mint and fruit. Flavors that kids find appealing.

And it was far from being any sort of jack-booted ban on vapes because (1) other flavors were still available and (2) the devices targeted by the ban were cartridges and pre-filled pods, meaning things like refillable and open-tank systems are still available.

While this might have been considered some sort of liberal overreach meant to keep the freedom of absorbing nicotine in flavorful ways, it is interesting to note that this past March Utah — no one’s idea of a liberal haven — essentially banned vapes, period.

According to reporting in The Salt Lake Tribune, vape shop owners challenged a state law passed in 2024 that “banned popular flavored vape juices — like watermelon and bubblegum — as well as those with more than 4% nicotine content and any products that have not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.”

A US District judge upheld the ban.

So it seems that those in Utah who are looking for a watermelon fix without eating watermelon will have to have a Jolly Rancher or Sour Patch flavored candy. Those whose tastes turn to bubblegum can have, well, bubblegum.

Vaping is sometimes argued to be a means through which people who smoke cigarettes can quit. Not only is there the oral substitution, but there’s nicotine in vapes. Less than in a Marlboro, but not zero.

Of course, most people who need to quit smoking and have a difficult time kicking nicotine probably haven’t been smoking bubblegum-flavored cigarettes.

According to the UK’s National Health Service, “Switching to vaping reduces your exposure to toxins that can cause cancer, lung disease, and diseases of the heart and circulation like heart attack and stroke.”

Note “reduces.” It doesn’t eliminate the toxins, just provides fewer of them.

And while the NHS acknowledges that vaping can help smokers quit, it also acknowledges, “Vaping has not been around for long enough to know the risks of long-term use. While vaping is less harmful than smoking, it is unlikely to be totally harmless.”

A text ad in a Politico newsletter sponsored by The Vapor Technology Association reads:

“The US vaping industry and the thousands of small businesses it supports were crushed by the Biden Administration, which used broken policies and regulations to keep flavored vapes out of the country and hands of American consumers.

“But President Trump and his administration can save flavored vapes – and the Americans who depend on them to quit smoking.

“President Trump, American vapers and small businesses nationwide are counting on you.”

The rhetoric is great.

“Thousands of small businesses.”

“Crushed by the Biden Administration.” 

“Broken policies and regulations.”

You can just picture the cabal of political hacks finding the ways to underhandedly “keep flavored vapes out of the country and hands of American consumers.”

Bastards!

But, of course, Trump can “save flavored vapes.” 

All of the vapers who enjoy a good mango or strawberry puff are counting on the president to save them from extinction.

But there could be a fly in the vape juice.

According to the website VapeBreaker, “Your go-to source for the latest vaping news, expert reviews, and comprehensive guides,” the “Father of Modern Vaping” is “Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist and smoker who wanted to quit cigarettes after his father passed away from lung cancer. Desperate for a better solution than nicotine patches or gum, Hon Lik developed a device that used a piezoelectric ultrasound element to vaporize a nicotine-infused liquid.”

That’s right: the vape is a Chinese invention.

China, China, China.

Somehow, if Trump finds out he may not be particularly interested in promulgating a Chinese technology.

Still, perhaps The Vapor Technology Association has a few bucks in its coffers that they can donate to assure America Will Be Made Great Again through devices that expose people to fewer toxins.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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FRIDAY 5/16/25