Commentary by Sharon Lintner

Until now, there has never been a moment when I believed the United States could slip into tyranny. 

At this point, we can't make this right, we can't change this. Our power and ability to prevent this from happening ended on November 5, 2024 and for the first time, I fear my own government. 

Rapid fire chaos is creating a new level of anxiety for the working class. The tariffs will cripple our economy and cause an unnecessary loss of money for those who need it most. I fear this will be life-changing for the vast majority of people. 

It's no longer "of the people, by the people, for the people," it's against the people.

_______________________________________________

Read our Substack newsletter here.

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

_____
MONDAY 2/3/25

MONDAY 2/3/25

UPDATE -- Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday morning she has reached a deal with the Trump administration to delay tariffs against her country, The New York Times reports. The 25% tariff on Canada and the 10% tariff on China are still on, so far.

Son of Smoot-Hawley – Tariffs threatened, tariffs delivered. They will be delivered on Tuesday and it looks like they are not to be dismissed as negotiable. Nor is President Trump about to be talked out of them by the more rational of his aides. 

“This will be the Golden Age of America! Will there be some pain? Yes and maybe (maybe not). But we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social (per The Hill) Sunday. “We are a country that is now being run with common sense – and the results will be spectacular!”

Tariff Tuesday will impose a 25% tax on goods from Mexico and Canada, including, for example, auto parts and components that typically cross borders several times before being put together in US-assembled cars and trucks. 

Chinese goods face a 10% tariff Tuesday.

Except… The tariff on sour, heavy crude oil from Canada, refined primarily in the Midwest, will be 10%. Trump certainly doesn’t want to turn off Michigan and Wisconsin’s swing voters who swung for MAGA last November. 

Canadian retribution … Our northern neighbor will impose a 25% tariff Tuesday on US orange juice, peanut butter, wines, spirits, beer, coffee, appliances, apparel, footwear, motorcycles, cosmetics, pulp and paper, Finance and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joy announced Saturday.

“A detailed list of these goods will be made available shortly,” according to the Government of Canada -- as if the above list is lacking in detail.

Mexican retribution … Our southern neighbor will impose tariffs of 5% to 20% on pork, cheese, fresh produce, manufactured steel and aluminum,” The Guardian reports, citing various sources.

Chamber of doom … US Chamber of Commerce Senior Vice President and Head of International (his full title) John Murphy said in part in a release: “The President is right to focus on major problems like our broken border and the scourge of fentanyl, but the imposition of tariffs under IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act) is unprecedented, won’t solve these problems, and will only raise prices for American families and upend supply chains.”

Bipartisan oppo … In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), a non-resident senior fellow at The American Enterprise Institute, and Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, now a Harvard University professor and president-emeritus, called out what they see as the folly of the Trump tariffs and compared it with the Smoot-Hawley Tariffs of 1930, which most economists then – and now – blame for triggering the Great Depression. 

Gramm and Summers wrote that “tariffs don’t have a predictable effect of reducing trade deficits, and trade deficits aren’t necessarily an adverse economic development. Indeed, trade deficits often arise as foreign investors choose the US as a preferred destination for their capital.”

DOGE grabs purse strings … While everyone’s attention was focused on the impending tariffs, Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent late Friday handed over full access of the federal payment system to lieutenants of the quasi-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief/SpaceX/Tesla CEO/X-Twitter-owner and World’s Richest Man Elon Musk. This hands Musk and DOGE a “powerful tool” to monitor and potentially limit government, according to The New York Times.

Before Bessent handed Treasury’s combination code to Musk, top Treasury official and career civil servant David Lebryk had resisted handing access over to DOGE. Lebryk was put on leave, and then suddenly retired last Friday, sources told the NYT.

So, yes, this does appear to be a significant maneuver by the Trump White House in trying to fulfill its quest of replacing non-partisan career civil servants with acolytes of the president. 

But wait, there’s more … If nothing else, the Trump White House earns kudos for its efficiency in making its grab for maximum power with minimum checks and balances. Also on Friday evening, the new administration forced out “dozens” of FBI officials, including chiefs of several field offices as well as agents who worked on the investigations of Trump’s federal criminal cases, according to The Hill, which reported earlier Friday that five executive assistant FBI directors were told they were being demoted. 

“It is deeply alarming that the Trump administration appears to be purging the most experienced agents who are our nation’s first line of defense,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 2/3/25

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

In the runup to the 2016 presidential election, one of the things Donald Trump repeatedly railed against was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

It was awful. Horrendous. The worst-ever.

Also, NAFTA was signed by Crooked Hillary’s husband, so that may have had something to do with it.

Trump assured everyone that when he made it to the Oval Office he would create a better deal. A fantastic deal. A deal the likes of which no one ever, in the history of mankind, had ever witnessed.

He negotiated the USMCA, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

There was a clue in the name that has been overlooked.

The North American trade bloc was a wonder of the world, economically speaking. By facilitating the movement of goods across the borders, there were levels of availability and efficiency the likes of which no one ever, in the history of mankind, had ever witnessed.

Still, it was a bad, bad deal, Trump told us. He’d do better. Much, much better.

In the new deal Trump, the man who brought back a phrase from 1940, “America First,” insisted that the name of the treaty put the United States first. 

Forget “North America.” It is literally “America First.”

Suddenly there was a fracture in what had been somewhat seamless.

So here’s a question for all those who think Donald Trump is a businessman par excellence: If he is the Best Dealmaker of All Time, why is a deal he made and that went into effect in July 2020 a bad deal, at least so far as Donald Trump is concerned?

Trump is applying the tariffs to goods coming into the US from Canada and Mexico because of a trumped-up “national emergency.”

The claim is that there are fentanyl and illegal aliens pouring over the borders.

So the US is ignoring a trade agreement crafted under Donald Trump. It is simply applying 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico.

That’ll show ‘em!

According to Trump, this will also have the effect of bringing in all manner of revenues into the coffers of the government.

What he doesn’t say is that those revenues are going to come out of the pockets of Americans who buy everything from avocados to Chevy Silverado pickup trucks.

Americans will be First when it comes to paying for the breaking of the seamless trade between the three countries.

Remember when Trump claimed that he was going to lower prices for consumers, something that the criminal Biden organization was incapable of doing?

According to the Yale Budget Lab, (including the 10% increase in China tariffs) the prices of imported natural gas will increase 9.8% (did any one mention that it is winter in the US?), motor and vehicles and parts by 6.9% (analysis from Kelley Blue Book has it: “New-vehicle prices increased for the fourth straight month in December and, at $49,740, were near the all-time record set in December 2022” — yes, let’s increase that!), electricity by 4.7% (this might trouble Elon a bit), cereal grains by 4.2% (eggs are still increasing in price; now cereal). . .and on it goes.

According to the non-profit Tax Foundation, which was founded in 1937 by a group of corporate executives from the likes of General Motors and Standard Oil, so certainly not some sort of left-wing group, the consequences of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico amounts “to an average tax increase of more than $670 per US household in 2025.”

In addition to which, the tariffs will have the effect of reducing full-time employment of 286,000 US jobs because of the alleged “national emergency” that Canada and Mexico represent for the U.S.

Donald Trump is going to raise prices for Americans. His actions will increase inflation. Gas prices will go up. Food prices, up. Want to build a new garage? You might want to skip it because the wood will be more expensive, as will the car that goes in it. And on it goes.

This is a deal for the American people?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large.

_______________________________________________

Read our Substack newsletter here.

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

_____
MONDAY 2/3/25

Here at The Hustings we are looking to promote civil, echo chamber-free commentary and discussion of current political news and issues. Our center column is devoted to factual news and news aggregate, and we call ourselves out whenever we publish a mistake or a factual error. 

You can do your part in moving on past “news” on social media to news on civil media, by submitting your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Lately, we are very interested in your opinions about Senate confirmation hearings for Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., President Trump’s nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, as well as Trump’s since-rescinded freeze on federal funding assistance on myriad programs already approved by Congress, and his buyout offer to federal government employees. Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right (no political pun intended) to read these center-column news items.

There also is much to be discussed about Trump’s firing of 17 inspectors general last week, as well as his pardon of more than 1,500 January 6th Capitol rioters, including several convicted for violent acts against police during the insurrection.

As you move south on this page, be sure to check out “Shocking FOP Support for Trump” and “Inauguration to Avoid” in the left column, and “Our Leader at Davos (Virtually)”, “Pardons, Promises and Presidential Powers” and “The Return of the Gilded Age?” in the right column.

_____
WEDNESDAY 1/29/25

Bipartisan Pushback – Physician and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) joined Democrats in heavy grilling over anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (pictured) on the second day of confirmation hearings for President Trump's nominee for HHS secretary (NYT). Cassidy, who could provide a crucial fourth Republican vote against RFK Jr.'s nomination, did not indicate how he would vote. Senate hearings also were held for controversial nominees Tulsi Gabbard, for director of National Intelligence and Kash Patel, for FBI director.

FRIDAY 1/31/25

President’s Favorite Word – On Saturday we could find out just how beautiful President Trump’s favorite word, tariff, is. That’s when the White House will, or maybe will not, impose tariffs of 25% on goods crossing the border from Canada and Mexico (per NPR’s Morning Edition). 

These tariffs may very well turn out to be yet another The Art of the Deal-style negotiating tactic Trump is using to call out what he says is unfair trade, as well as illegal drugs and immigrants crossing the border, even after his first administration negotiated the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) from the 1990s. 

That's what US businesses are hoping. Describing negotiations as a “fluid” situation, Trump aides are working on “several offramps” to avoid enacting such tariffs, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed sources.

If the tariffs are triggered, they will raise prices on everything from guacamole to gasoline, NPR notes. Automobiles, even if built in US plants have parts and components that come from Mexico and Canada, and typically cross the borders several times before final assembly, also will be hard-hit. Speaking to Wall Street analysts Tuesday for General Motors’ fourth-quarter and full year earnings report, CEO Mary Barra said that plant flexibility allows the automaker to shift production of its highly profitable full-size trucks between Mexican, Canadian and US plants.

“What we won’t do is spend large amounts of capital without clarity,” Barra told analysts. 

If nothing else, we should get some clarity on tariffs this weekend.

--TL

__________________________________________

THURSDAY 1/30/25

Trump Blames DEI for Crash – Less than 15 hours after an American Airlines flight carrying 64 passengers and crew from Wichita, Kansas, collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River as it approached Reagan National Airport, President Trump was ready to call out cause of the tragic accident. 

“We don’t know what caused this crash, but we have some pretty strong opinions,” he told reporters in his first appearance in the White House briefing room since his return to office.

“I changed the Obama standards from mediocre at best, to extraordinary,” during his first administration, Trump said, referring to standards for hiring air traffic controllers. After Trump left office in 2021, “Biden changed them back to lower than before.” But among Trump’s myriad executive orders since returning to the White House last week was an EO that would once again raise those standards, he said.

How?

Trump was referring to diversity, equity and inclusion programs for all federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration “eliminated” by one of his first EOs. Such DEI policies, Trump suggested, allowed the FAA to hire air traffic controllers with hearing, vision and even psychological disabilities. 

New administrator … Meanwhile, Trump has named Chris Rocheleau as interim FAA administrator, according to The Wall Street Journal, filling a vacancy opened when Mike Whitaker, who had served in the position for less than a year, stepped down just prior to Trump’s inauguration.

History lesson … The FAA has dealt with air traffic control staffing issues for over 43 years. Barely half a year into his first term, the president for whom Reagan National Airport is named fired air traffic controllers en masse over a dispute with their labor union. Prior to the dispute, air traffic controllers in the US were hired in staggered years. But with the need to hire replacements for 11,345 striking Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization members all at once in August 1981 came the end of the staggered retirements. 

•••

More Hearings – Two more Trump White House nominees, like RFK Jr., face perhaps the toughest Senate hearings since Pete Hegseth was confirmed as Defense secretary last week. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is nominated to become President Trump’s National Intelligence director, so she appears before the Senate Intelligence Committee Thursday, while Kash Patel, nominee to become FBI director, answers to the Judiciary Committee.

•••

Chaos is Working – The Trump White House’s executive order that would have clawed back up to $2 trillion in funding for programs the administration does not like, since rescinded following a federal judge’s temporary suspension issued Tuesday, has set Washington back on its heels. But the Democratic Party appears to be on top of Trump’s unconstitutional executive order, despite all the ensuing chaos. 

“It’s called impoundment, and it is illegal,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition Thursday. The president cannot single out certain allocations passed by Congress, though it has been tried in the past, she said. But instead of fighting it in court, the Trump administration is trying to stoke confusion.

“His administration has made it clear they don’t think the (impoundment) law should be there,” Murray said. “So instead of fighting it in court, what they’re doing is saying ‘we’re just going to – we don’t believe it’s a good law, so we’re not going to do it.’”

•••

Menendez Gets 11 Years – Bob Menendez, Democratic senator for New Jersey from 2006 to 2024, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his conviction last year on bribery, fraud and illegal foreign-agent charges, The Wall Street Journal reports. The 71-year-old career politician told a packed New York federal courtroom Wednesday; “I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions, but I believe in my half-century of public service I have done far more good than bad.” --TL

_______________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 1/29/25

UPDATE – President Trump has reversed his controversial order that froze federal funding assistance for programs already approved by Congress in a memo released Wednesday, signed by acting Office of Management and Budget Director Matthew Vaeth. The reversal came after behind-the-scenes pushback from congressional Republicans, according to The Hill. (Scroll down to "Frozen funds.")

Trump Offers Federal Employees Buyouts – The Trump White House offered a buyout for nearly all federal employees, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The art of this deal is that career bureaucrats will get paid through September if they resign now. President Trump is looking to replace non-partisan federal bureaucrats, many with years to decades of experience, with workers who agree with his vision for the country. 

Frozen funds … The buyout offer comes hours after Judge Loren AliKhan, a Washington-based federal judge appointed by President Biden, issued an emergency administrative stay to block President Trump’s temporary freeze of about $3 trillion worth of federal funds, grants and loan disbursements that was to take effect at 5 pm Eastern time Tuesday. The judge’s order blocks the freeze until Monday, February 3. The Democracy Fund had filed a lawsuit to stop the executive order.

As with the federal buyouts, the president appears to lack the authority for such moves.

Trump’s federal funding freeze was aimed specifically at DEI programs, “woke gender identity” and the Green New Deal according to The New York Times, though opponents feared it would block state health agencies from Medicaid reimbursement. State officials believed pre-school community health centers, food for low-income families, housing assistance and disaster relief were at-risk, according to the report.

Just prior to Judge AliKhan’s ruling, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller appeared on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper and said the order would not affect any government services, entitlements or individual benefits, but was directed at left-wing chiefs of non-governmental agencies (NGOs) who were funneling such funds into immigration and “child trafficking.” 

“Either Donald Trump gets political control over this government and ends waste, abuse and fraud on the American people,” Miller told Tapper, “or, we let bureaucrats autopilot federal spending.”

What does this mean? … Every Republican and Democrat knew going into last November’s presidential election that a second Trump term would mean 1.) A better-organized White House full of cabinet secretaries and aids happy to carry out whatever policies Trump thought reasonable; and 2.) Far greater presidential authority at the expense of the legislative and judiciary branches. 

All anyone can remember from the weeks after Trump’s first inauguration in 2017 is his “Muslim ban” of travel into the US by certain foreign nationals. 

In The Atlantic, Jonathan Lemire writes that the strategy for a flurry of Trump EOs was determined at an early January gathering at Mar-a-Lago, where incoming Chief of Staff Susie Wiles suggested staggering the orders out over the first few weeks in office. 

A unanimous source who had attended the meeting said Trump responded: “No. I want to sign as many as possible as soon as we show up. Day One.”

Trump was a very green political novice when he became president eight years ago, but he learned a lot about the way the federal government runs from his first administration’s seasoned Washington aides, advisors and cabinet secretaries – the ones who were to keep Trump’s authoritarian tendencies in-check. 

Last year, he won his non-consecutive re-election by promising to blow up the federal government, and now with a flailing, leaderless Democratic Party warning of a constitutional crisis, Trump prevails. His political victory is certain even if just a couple of these executive orders survive federal courts.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
WEDNESDAY 1/29/25

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

In the multiple times Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has been on Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, he has rolled over her like a rolling pin making the crust for a pecan pie. She asks a question. He provides an answer, more often than not, an answer that is not even remotely associated with the question.

Any attempt on her part to follow up is dismissed with a combination of annoyance and contempt.

Somewhere, Tim Russert is rolling in his grave.

Despite Graham’s hard line of supporting whatever Donald Trump says — a line without a bit of deviation — he keeps getting booked on the show. Wash, rinse, repeat.

He says whatever it is he wants to say, which is generally what he presumably thinks Donald Trump wants him to say.

She asks questions that get unanswered.

And then she thanks him for being on the show with enthusiasm that borders on gushing.

But to her credit, on January 26 she asked Graham a question and got an unexpected answer. Not simply unexpected in that the answer had something to do with the question, but because what he said.

Welker: “Do you believe that President Trump was wrong to issue these blanket pardons to the January 6th defendants?”

First Graham makes a bit of a swerve: “Number one, he had the legal authority to do it.” 

Note she didn’t ask if it was legal but whether it was right, a difference with distinction. 

Here is where not only where Graham answers the question, but where he shows that he has a spine: “But I fear that you will get more violence. Pardoning the people who went into the Capitol and beat up a police officer violently I think was a mistake, because it seems to suggest that's an okay thing to do.”

He knows that beating up police officers in the Capitol is wrong, and he said it.

Then the spine collapses: “Kamala Harris wanted to raise bail money for people burning down Minneapolis. You know, Biden pardoned half his family going out the door.”

Banged them both! The boss would be pleased about that. (And to be clear, notice he said Harris “wanted to,” not that she did. As for the Biden pardons, there were five pardons to siblings and spouses for "ANY NONVIOLENT OFFENSES against the United States which they may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon." Which can’t be said about those who took part in the January 6th attack on the Capitol were convicted of.)

Graham concluded his answer by repeating: “But as to pardoning violent people who beat up cops, I think that's a mistake.”

The final question Welker posed was about the Trump Administration’s firing of 18 inspectors general. Legally there is supposed to be 30 days’ notice.

Welker: “Do you think he violated the law?”

Graham: “Well, technically yeah. But he has the authority to do it. So, I’m not, you know, losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change the personnel out. I just want to make sure that he gets off to a good start. I think he has. I’m very supportive of what he wants to do with America …”

So let’s see.

Trump violated the law.

But he has the authority? Um, in what country would that be?

Section 3, Article II of the U.S. Constitution has it that the president must “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

It is the president’s job to make sure that the laws are upheld, not violate them.

And so the spine collapses again.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_______________________________________________

Voice your COMMENTS on President Trump’s attempt to freeze funding approved by Congress. 

Let us know what you think about Trump’s buyout offer for most federal employees. 

EMAIL editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

_____
WEDNESDAY 1/29/25

Commentary by Sharon Lintner

Looks like Trump's daily agenda will be nauseating me for some time to come. The latest gut wrenching move that has me terrified of what the future holds is the pardoning of people convicted in the US Capitol attack.

In September 2024, the Fraternal Order of Police announced that their members voted to endorse Donald J. Trump for president. 

I was shocked by their decision to endorse a man who is a convicted felon, a man who vowed to pardon those who engaged in assaults on fellow officers January 6, 2021. 

In an attempt to find out if our local police force participated in the decision or vote to endorse Trump, I contacted the FOP, but I received no answer. 

The police are public servants and should remain politically neutral. In our small town, taxpayers finance a $4-million per year police force that's paid for by people from all political parties, not just Republicans. 

It not only angers me, it scares me that my money is funding a force which could openly support a man who has repeatedly encouraged violence. 

_____
FRIDAY 1/24/25

Democrats are taking a hard line on President Trump’s near-blanket pardon of more than 1,500 rioters convicted for the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol, including Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes. Republican reactions are mixed, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) asserting that it’s the president’s right to sign clemencies and deflecting toward former President Biden’s last-minute pardons of family members The Hill reports.

In this edition, contributors Sharon Lintner and Rich Corbett offer their opinions on this controversial issue, in the left and right columns, respectively. To submit your COMMENTS email editors@thehustings.news and please use the subject line to indicate whether you lean left or right, so we may post those comments in the proper column.

Polls on the pardons … Latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll finds 62% disapprove of Trump’s pardons of January 6th rioters, though 64% of Republicans in the poll approve. A Fabrizio, Lee & Associates/GBAO poll for The Wall Street Journal reports that 57% are opposed to the pardons.

While Trump’s actions have a substantial list of Republican supporters in the House, it’s far from unanimous. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) said he does not agree “with the pardons of people that committed violence or even damage to property. If you climbed in through a window, I think probably you knew what you were doing was against the law. And I don’t think it was appropriate to pardon them.” (Per The Hill.)

NPR interviewed Pamela Hemphill, 71, who was an ardent Trump supporter in 2020 when she participated in the insurrection. But she has turned down clemency for her conviction in storming the halls of Congress that day. 

“I broke the law that day, period,” she told All Things Considered. “Black and white. I’m not a victim. I’m a volunteer.” Hemphill added that accepting Trump’s pardon “would be a slap in the face to Capitol police officers, to the rule of law and to our whole nation.”

•••

It’s the Constitution, Stupid – In other Week 1 Trump 47 news, Federal District Judge John C. Coughenour signed a restraining order to block for 14 days President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for babies born on US soil. Ruling by the judge, who was appointed to the bench by President Reagan, sides with a lawsuit by Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon to block the EO (per The New York Times). 

“This is blatantly an unconstitutional order,” Coughenour said in his ruling. Directed to Trump administration attorneys, the judge continued; “Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a Constitutional order. It just boggles the mind.”

•••

Hegseth Rising – Former Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth appears headed for confirmation as President Trump’s pick for defense secretary after the Senate voted 51-49 Thursday to end debate on his nomination, according to The Hill. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Susan Collins (ME) joined all Democrats in voting against the procedural move, and Murkowski, at least, has vowed to oppose Hegseth in the full Senate vote.

Trump can afford to lose three Republicans in the vote, expected Friday.

The canary will live … Hegseth was considered the test-case among Trump’s most controversial cabinet member choices, meaning that if he can win Senate confirmation, pretty much anyone else can. But hold on -- both Republicans and Democrats appear skeptical about the president’s nomination of former Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to be Health and Human Services secretary, The Hill reports. 

Some Republicans are concerned about RFK Jr.’s support of abortion rights, while Democrats do not want an anti-vax, anti-fluoride HHS secretary (per The Hill). Meanwhile, there is some bi-partisan opposition to Trump’s nomination of former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) to become director of national intelligence, Semafor reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
FRIDAY 1/24/25

Commentary by Rich Corbett

Presidential pardons serve as a profound exercise of executive clemency, often reflecting the incumbent’s values and political commitments. Both President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden have utilized this power in ways that caused most law-abiding citizens to question, “where does the power to pardon end?”

During his 2024 campaign, President Trump pledged openly that he would pardon individuals convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Fulfilling this promise, on January 20, 2025, he issued pardons for approximately 1,500 individuals involved in the events of that day. Many were peaceful protestors who likely merely trespassed the Capitol grounds, while others were convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers. The latter receiving the pardons were met with significant criticism from both political parties. 

In contrast, President-elect Biden made a point when talking with CNN’s Jake Tapper about the possibility of then-President Trump making preemptive pardons for his adult children; “You’re not going to see our administration take that kind of approach to pardons.”

However, following the 2024 election, Biden issued a pardon for his son Hunter, after previously stating that he would not, and then in his final hours in office he issued preemptive pardons to several family members, including his siblings and their spouses, along with preemptive pardons for several high profile public figures who might be targets of prosecution. 

President Trump’s mass pardons of January 6 participants underscored his allegiance to his supporter base, but attracted criticism from law enforcement and judicial figures. President Biden’s preemptive pardons of family members raise ethical questions about the appropriate use of executive clemency. Both presidents have many Americans, and hopefully their representatives, wondering if the pardon power is abuse of power, if broad preemptive pardons are even legal, or just how far-reaching a president’s power to pardon extends.

_____
FRIDAY 1/24/25

Contributor Comment: Going Indy

In the aftermath of this election, I find myself questioning the integrity of my own party. Why did I align with the Democrats to begin with? 

Beliefs which are important to me, such as serving the people through transparency, ethical actions and equality led me to register as a Democrat. 

Also, since Pennsylvania holds a closed primary, I felt forced into selecting a political party in order to completely participate in the voting process. 

Because of my recent disappointments with the Democrats, I'm contemplating changing my party affiliation to "independent" which means giving up my ability to vote in primary elections. 

In a most sickening turn, some of the politicians I voted for have now bowed to Trump. Their loyalty no longer lies with those who put them in office. Instead, they seek to gain favor from a convicted felon who has undermined the justice system. 

This country is very sick, I just hope it doesn't die. 

--Sharon Lintner 

_____
WEDNESDAY 1/22/25

Whatever DOGE chief Elon Musk intended with his ‘salute’ at a speech Monday at the Capital One Arena, right-wing extremists are embracing it, The Associated Press reports. Musk gave the “straight-arm gesture” after telling the crowd, “I just want to say ‘thank you’ for making it happen,” referring to Donald J. Trump’s election as president.

‘Golden Age’ Without Musk? – DOGE chief/Tesla/SpaceX/Starlink CEO Elon Musk reacted Wednesday to his snub as not being part of the announcement of a “$500 billion” investment in “artificial superintelligence” in US factories that would create 100,000 jobs for Americans by posting on his $44-billion X/Twitter investment, “They don’t actually have the money.”

Fair enough: The announcement took place at the White House with President Trump along with Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son – he of the “artificial superintelligence” quip – with Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Open AI’s Sam Altman. Politico’s afternoon newsletter, Digital Future Daily sorted out this story of how the technoligopoly has decided AI (and not coincidentally, crypto currency) is so very good for our future. 

It’s that Altman appearance that must have Musk most vexed. 

Musk was an early investor in OpenAI and alleges in a suit filed last summer that he had secured an agreement with the company and founders Altman and Greg Brockman, also named in the suit, that the company would remain a non-profit with an open code. Musk pulled out of OpenAI in 2018 claiming potential conflict-of-interest with Tesla and its self-driving technology. OpenAI last month announced a new structure to become a for-profit company, according to The Verge.

Early in the last administration, Musk was said to break from the Democratic Party because then-President Biden held an electric vehicle “summit” with new EVs from General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Stellantis (ex-Fiat Chrysler), but not Tesla. 

But Musk’s skepticism about the $500-billion AI deal is not unfounded. Shortly after Trump 45 took office in 2017, he touted a Foxconn plan to build an LCD screen-making plant in Racine County, Wisconsin that would create 50,000 jobs. Accompanied by then-Gov. Scott Walker (R) and then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Trump called it “the eighth wonder of the world.” (Foxconn had promised a $10-billion investment and 10,000 jobs.) 

Five years on, Wisconsin incentives have been cut to $80 million from an initial $2.85 billion, and it produces no phone screens, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

But tech/internet-business journalist Kara Swisher said on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Wednesday that Musk lashed out against the half-trillion-dollar announcement (coincidentally, just a few billion bucks more than his personal wealth) because “he is not part of it” and said the technoligopolists who appeared at the White House without him could raise that cash “in about four seconds.”

•••

Forty-six House Democrats joined Republicans Wednesday to pass the Laken Riley Act, 263-156, to impose more severe penalties on undocumented immigrants who commit crimes in the US. It is the first bill to come up for President Trump’s signature, CQ Roll Call reports. The Senate passed the bill last week.

The bill is named for Laken Riley, who at 22 was murdered last year by an undocumented immigrant who had been released after an arrest. After it is signed by the president, the bill will require the secretary of Homeland Security to issue detention for undocumented immigrants arrested or convicted for burglary, theft or shoplifting. An amendment by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) added assault of a police officer to that list of crimes.

--TL

_______________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 1/22/25

Keeping Up With Trump 47 – President Trump issued 26 executive orders in the first 24 hours according to Marketplace, in launching his agenda and reversing Biden administration policies as quickly as possible. Yes, it is difficult to keep up, but we will try as we remind you that you are invited to comment, whether as a conservative for the right column, or a liberal for the left column, with an email to editors@thehustings.news.

First up … Trump’s EO ending birthright citizenship has drawn lawsuits from Democratic attorneys general in 18 states, plus San Francisco and Washington, D.C., according to NPR’s Morning Edition

The AGs site Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

“We’re the only country in the world that does it, you know,” Trump has countered. “And it’s just absolutely ridiculous. We’ll see. We think we have very good grounds.”

Not on Trump’s assertion that we’re the only country that does it. World Population Review cites 33 countries including the US, plus two territories that have jus soli, or birthright citizenship. Another 32 nations have some form of restricted birthright citizenship, the website says.

Ending DEI … Trump issued a memo placing employees in federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs on paid leave until 5 pm Wednesday, per NPR’s Morning Edition. Agencies have to noon Thursday Eastern time to report on their compliance to the Office of Personnel Management. Agencies must develop a “reduction-in-force action” against the employees, according to Trump’s memo.

Wait for the tariffs … Not so fast, but quickly enough for the president’s favorite word.

“We’re talking about a tariff of 10% on China based on the fact that they’re sending fentanyl to Mexico and Canada. Probably February 1 is the date we’re looking at. For Mexico and China we’re talking about approximately, approximately, 25%,” Trump told a press conference Tuesday, Politico reports.

•••

WHO’s Out First – About eight hours after President Trump was sworn in, he issued an executive order to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization, which will make it harder to fight the pandemic and undermine US standing as a global health leader, critics of Trump’s move told The New York Times

Trump cited WHO’s “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the “failure to adopt urgently needed reforms” and a expensive membership payments, higher than what China pays. 

The withdrawal will leave the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention without access to global data such as the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus China handed over to WHO in 2020. 

The upshot … So, continue to blame Trump 45’s problems dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which certainly helped him lose re-election that year, on the WHO, which Trump 47 will likely need if/when there is another pandemic in the next four years?

•••

Meanwhile, in the Boardrooms – Business leaders are “scrambling” to sort out sweeping changes to tax, immigration, trade and energy policies brought on by President Trump’s flurry of executive orders, The Wall Street Journal reports. Among the scramble, JPMorganChase has set up a war room, law firm Fisher Phillips has created an immigration hotline to help its clients deal with potential workplace immigration raids and manufacturers and retailers have teams working to mitigate potential new tariffs. 

•••

Meanwhile, on the Pulpit – The inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral is not normally a political event. But on Tuesday morning, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, leader of the Episcopal Diocese in Washington said, “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

As President Trump, Vice President Vance and family members looked on, Budde said, “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some of who fear for their lives.”

Per The New York Times Budde continued that “the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”

Later, from the White House, Trump told reporters, “I didn’t think it was a good service, no.”

•••

Replacing Vance – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has appointed Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to replace Sen. JD Vance now that he is vice president, The Columbus Dispatch reports. Elon Musk’s junior partner in the non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was reportedly interested in the appointment, but dropped out of contention and will run for Ohio governor in 2026, instead. 

Husted is expected to run for the Senate seat in the November 2026 elections, winner of which would serve the rest of Vance’s term, to 2028.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
WEDNESDAY 1/22/25

Is President Trump running roughshod over the Constitution while scaring the bejesus out of businesses and corporations with impending tariffs and threats of factory, warehouse and farm immigration raids, or is he simply keeping the promises he made that earned him the popular vote and Electoral College victory last November?

You may have heard this before, but at The Hustings we welcome civil discourse from readers of all political stripes. 

Pro-MAGA as well as never-Trumper conservatives’ comments go in the right column. Moderate-left to Bernie Sanders-style democratic socialists’ comments got in the left column.

You read it all in one place – no echo chambers where you’re exposed only to pundits and writers with whom you agree.

Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

And don’t forget to subscribe for free to Substack on The Hustings.

Meanwhile, scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read …

Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s comments on Trump’s inauguration, “The Return of the Gilded Age?”, with comments by Hugh Hansen in the left column, lauding Michelle Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for skipping the event.

Scroll down further to read Macaulay’s comments on the inauguration balls’ musical acts, “That’s Entertainment,” with a counterpoint by Kate McLeod in the left column.

Scroll down yet further to Rich Corbett’s right-column commentary from before the inauguration on how this is a chance for political animals to “start with a clean slate” with the second Trump term. Sharon Lintner’s counterpoint is in the left column.

_____
WEDNESDAY 1/22/25

Commentary by Hugh Hansen

I salute Ms Obama and Ms Pelosi for following my lead and not attending.

I was sorry to end my Washington Post subscription, as prior to owner Jeff Bezos's capitulation I kind of preferred it to The New York Times.

Donald John’s verbal pronouncements seem so, so, so randomly connected to his next-day pronouncements that I haven’t the heart for tea leaf reading them anymore.

Wait until it’s on some sort of document necessarily shared with Congress, or particular federal bureaus/departments, then vomit, then fight or ameliorate it.

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

_____
TUESDAY 1/21/25

President Trump after his inauguration Monday pardoned 1,500 defendants of the January 6th attack of the US capitol, including rioters who attacked police. This included members of Oath Keepers and of Proud Boys, among them former national chair Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years for helping plot the insurrection, the AP reports.

By Todd Lassa

Donald J. Trump’s second official inauguration speech seemed a slight bit less-dark than it was eight years earlier, perhaps because it was held inside the Capitol Rotunda and thus no outdoor crowd for the new president to point to and declare the biggest ever in the history of inaugurations. Perhaps like the youngest of voters who have known little more than of Trump as the central political figure in their lives, we’re becoming accustomed to his style. Perhaps it was because Hilary Clinton laughed visibly when Trump declared he is renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” 

No mention so far of Greenland.

“The Golden Age of America begins right now,” Trump said, adding that the United States will “flourish and be respected all over the world. … I will, simply put, put America first.”

The US, he said, “will be far more exceptional than ever before.”

The new president said he would immediately remove the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change and end the “EV mandate” and allow you to buy whatever car you want to buy – including the internal combustion-powered ones that accounted for about 92% of the US market last year.

Like former Secretary of State Clinton, President Joe Biden stood behind Trump during the inauguration. He appeared alternately tired and bemused as Trump took the opportunity to paint the last four years under Biden’s leadership as having fallen so far it can’t get up – if not for its new, resurgent savior. 

“From this moment on, America’s decline is over,” Trump said. 

And there was the airing of grievances, as Trump claimed that “Over the past eight years, I’ve been tested and challenged more than any other president in history.” 

Adding “They tried to take my freedom and my life,” Trump concluded that the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania,* pretty much assured his victory last November.

“I was saved by God to make America great again.”

In the closest Trump could come to JFK’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s, he said the nation would strive to “plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars …” a nod to his biggest benefactor, SpaceX/Tesla/Starlink CEO and X/Twitter owner Elon Musk’s favorite cause. 

After Joe and Jill Biden copter’d out, Trump visited the Capitol Visitor Center where he addressed the citizens who could not watch his inauguration from outside – this included Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), on whom the president spent an inordinate amount of his 36 minutes there talking about plans for completing The Wall. 

The border is Trump’s number one issue, he said, not inflation.

“How many times can you say the price of an apple has doubled?” 

Though in later appearances Trump reiterated his promise to bring down prices, this seemed like another admission that slowing the rise of inflation, let alone reversing it, despite arguably being the major reason for his November victory, is a very difficult task best left to the Federal Reserve. 

The border will not be quite so problematic. Minutes after his inauguration, Trump’s officials shut down the mobile app CPB One that had allowed migrants to make appointments in order to enter the US through legal points of entry, The Hill reports.

*CORRECTION: This article initially misidentified the Pennsylvania town where there was an assassination attempt on Trump at one of his campaign rallies.

_____
TUESDAY 1/21/25

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Management consultant Tom Peters, co-author of In Search of Excellence, is credited with a phrase that is important in all walks of life:

“Under promise and over deliver.”

The book was published in 1989. It was, and is, one of the most influential business books of all time.

Consequently, it is a bit surprising that legendary business maven, and now president, Donald Trump seems to have missed it.

Or maybe he doesn’t believe it.

He opened his inaugural address:

“The Golden Age of America begins right now.”

Now maybe he is simply stating that he is going to bring back the Gilded Age, a period in the late 19th century that generated great wealth — for industrialists and entrepreneurs, like many of the tech bros that surrounded him on inauguration day.

There was, it should go without saying, rife corruption during the Gilded Age.

The poster boy was Boss Tweed, a political operative (and a Democrat) who was convicted to stealing millions of dollars from the people of New York City, who could ill afford it.

And there were abuses in terms of patronage. This means that government jobs 

weren’t given to those most qualified to hold them (i.e., people who could actually do the work), but to political supporters and friends. Sound familiar?

But there was another characteristic of the Gilded Age: Regular people didn’t prosper.

It is largely thought that there were two key issues that led to Trump’s election:

  1. The economy
  2. The southern border

The latter is being addressed — at least visually — pronto.

But the former is the tricky bit.

People voted because they think he can bring down prices of everyday items like eggs.

People as in the “regular people.”

The MAGA base.

I recently went to a local diner for breakfast. There was a sticker on the front of the menu stating that the price for all egg dishes are increased by $1 due to the hike of the price of eggs. And that wasn’t a trivial hike because that place had offered a $3 breakfast special.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of eggs has increased by 38% over the last 12 months.

And here is a bit of irony: a major cause was a pandemic. Bird flu.

Can we have much in the way of confidence that there will be a concerted effort to wipe out bird flu, or will it “just go away”?

One thing that Trump said that may come back to bite him was his description of the fires in California:

“Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense.

“They’re raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now. They don’t have a home any longer. That’s interesting, but we can’t let this happen. Everyone is unable to do anything about it. That’s going to change.”

Anybody who has watched the fires on a newscast has seen nothing but women and men busting their asses, spraying and digging and doing all possible activities to put out the horrendous fires.

“Without even a token of defense”? “Everyone is unable to do anything about it”? What about those brave first responders? Are they doing nothing?

People know that’s not the case. They probably have friends or relatives who put their lives on the line every day just like the fire service personnel in California.

And the comment about “some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country. . . .don’t have a home any longer.”

What about the regular people who have had their insurance canceled? 

Why doesn’t he care about them? Because they didn’t donate millions to him?

If the price of eggs doesn’t go down, if there are tariffs applied across the board that raise prices at everywhere from the Home Depot to Kroger, if mom starts having trouble getting heath care coverage, if. . . .

Well, those regular folks helped put him on that podium, and he’s not going to leave.

But unless he does something to address their day-to-day existence, he’s going to find the love he basks in gone.

_____
TUESDAY 1/21/25