<<<<<<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 46^th 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

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 14^th 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

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

THURSDAY 5/15/25

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

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

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

•••

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

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

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

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

--TL

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...meanwhile...

WEDNESDAY 5/14/25

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

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

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

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

--TL

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Flying High

TUESDAY 5/13/25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

•••

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

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Another Tariff Pause

MONDAY 5/12/25

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

•••

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 5/12/25

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

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

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

•••

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

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

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

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

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

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 5/9/25

THURSDAY 5/8/25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

•••

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

•••

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

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

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

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 5/8/25