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:
- Samsung
- Apple
- Xiaomi
- Vivo
- 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.