Civil Disagreements Welcome

Email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line. Please note: We do not expect you to follow right/left or red/blue party lines with your comments, which is why we ask you to indicate whether you are left or right in the subject line.

Contributors for our right column include Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay, a never-Trumper conservative, and Rich Corbett, a pro-MAGA conservative.

Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read Macaulay’s “Trump Wants a Putin Victory” and “This is How to Make America Great Again?” commentaries. Contributor Sharon Lintner’s commentary, “About Those Tariffs” is in the left column, opposite a Macaulay column. Scroll further down for a variety of comments, including by Corbett, Macaulay and by Joe Lintner, on President Trump’s recent address to a joint session of Congress.

For more civil political news and discussion, please be sure to visit our Substack page.

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MONDAY 3/17/25

Another ‘Perfect Call’?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy contacts President Trump Wednesday to learn details of Trump’s two-and-a-half-hour phone call with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin (above, in a Voice of America file photo with Trump) Tuesday. “Today, I will contact President Trump,” Zelenskyy said in a joint press conference with Finnish President Alexander Stubb (per The Kyiv Independent). “We will discuss the details of the next step.”

WEDNESDAY 3/19/25

Can This Democracy be Saved? – Justice John Roberts rebuked President Trump’s call for impeachment of US District Judge James Boasberg Tuesday with a statement released by the Supreme Court’s public information office (via SCOTUSblog), that “(f)or more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Trump had reacted predictably to Boasberg’s order of a two-week hold on the White House’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to remove Venezuelan migrants, without due process (scroll down this column to see ‘Oopsie’ in Monday’s ‘…meanwhile…’), by calling for the justice’s impeachment and telling Fox News’ The Ingraham Angle host Laura it is “not for a local judge to be making that determination.”

Upshot … Roberts’ rebuke gives some hope to our democracy that SCOTUS will maintain its equal power and independence from the executive branch when myriad court cases springing from the Trump White House’s and DOGE chief Elon Musk’s dismantling of federal departments and agencies reach the nation’s top court on appeal. Smart money says SCOTUS Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump 45 appointee, could join Roberts in siding with Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Kentanji Brown Jackson in upholding such lower court rulings.

However, this hope is countered by last year’s 6-3 decision in Trump v. United States in which the court’s conservative supermajority gave the president absolute immunity for anything he does while acting as president.

--TL

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TUESDAY 3/18/25

UPDATE: Maybe Not So ‘Perfect’ – Vladimir Putin has agreed to a 30-day pause of Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, following a 90-some minute call with President Trump, The Kyiv Independent reports.

“During the conversation, Donald Trump proposed a mutual refusal to strike for 30 days on energy infrastructure,” the newspaper reports, citing a Kremlin readout of the call.

“Vladimir Putin responded positively to this initiative and immediately gave the appropriate command to the Russian military,” the readout says. The Kremlin also demanded a complete cessation of foreign military aid and intelligence to Ukraine as a “key condition” for escalation.

Ukraine has had some recent success with counter-strikes on Russian infrastructure, the Independent notes, citing a recent drone strike on fossil fuel infrastructure in Moscow.

An artsy deal for Putin, at least.

•••

This Ceasefire is Over – At least 404 Gazans have been killed, including four Hamas government officials and hundreds injured after Israeli forces broke the increasingly shaky “30-day” ceasefire begun in mid-January, The Guardian reports. It appears unlikely, according to the news outlet, that a deal to end Israeli attacks on Gaza can be achieved soon. Plans for a second phase to the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas were not negotiated.

Israel has threatened for weeks to launch an offensive, according to the report, with the country’s leadership saying it would force Hamas leadership to release more hostages. Many of Israel’s hostage families have disputed this.

•••

Constitutional Clash – In the latest example of the Trump White House flexing its constitutional authority over the judiciary, the Justice Department “stonewalled” federal Judge James E. Boasberg in court Monday as the judge tried to determine whether President Trump had violated his order, The New York Times reports, when it deported more than 260 immigrants to El Salvador over the weekend. The White House invoked the obscure wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport what it claims are gang members, including 23 members of the Salvatorian MS-13 and members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.

Justice Department attorney Abhishek Kambli argued that the Alien Enemies Act gives the president the broad authority to remove immigrants with little or no due process and he refused to answer detailed questions about the flights to El Salvador, according to the NYT. Kambli is due back in Boasberg’s court noon Tuesday to certify in writing that no immigrants were removed after the judge’s written order prohibiting said removal went into effect.

Meanwhile … Trump border czar Tom Homan took to Fox News Monday to defy judicial authority.

“We’re not stopping. I don’t care what the judges think,” Homan told Fox & Friends. “I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”

•••

GOP Sees Opportunities – Twenty-six of them. The National Republican Congressional Committee on Monday released its list of 26 House Democrats it plans to target in the 2026 mid-term elections, Roll Call reports, including the 13 Democrats who won districts President Trump carried in the 2024 elections. The GOP currently has a one-vote margin in the House.

“House Republicans are in the majority,” said NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson (R-NC). “Meanwhile, vulnerable House Democrats have been hard at work demonstrating they are painfully out of touch with hard-working Americans. Republicans are taking the fight straight to these House Democrats in their districts, and we will unseat them next fall.”

Meanwhile, in America … The Wall Street Journal Tuesday catalogued “The Collateral Damage of Trump’s Firing Spree,” reporting that staff cuts in Veterans Affairs facilities in Detroit and Denver have cancelled health programs because homeless vets are without dedicated housing coordinators, that Education Department job cuts have slowed the ability to get disabled children to classrooms in Alabama and that “staffing uncertainty” in California’s Yosemite National Park have paused new reservations for more than 500 campsites in the coming peak summer season.

No mention … of President Trump’s scapegoat-in-waiting, Elon Musk, in any of this.

--TL

______________________________________________

...meanwhile...

MONDAY 3/17/25

Another Victory for Authoritarianism – The Trump White House has placed most of the Voice of America’s staff on “indefinite leave,” locking them out of their offices. An English-language daily newspaper in China calls the shutdown “excellent news,” Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told NPR’s Morning Edition. The VoA along with Radio Liberty, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia reaches about 350 million people broadcasting in nearly 50 languages to people in countries that repress independent press, such as Russia, Belarus and Cuba, according to the report.

Funding for the VoA and affiliates comes from the US Agency for Global Media, run since the beginning of the Trump administration by the president’s acolyte, failed Arizona gubernatorial and Senate candidate Kari Lake. The White House in a statement said VoA, RFE, RFA and Radio Liberty were shut down for “radical propaganda” and “left-wing bias.”

“I think that demonstrates this is not a cost-saving measure,” CPJ’s Ginsberg told NPR’s Leila Fadel. “It’s politically motivated.”

•••

‘Oopsie’ – It’s no mistake; The Trump White House has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to “swiftly” deport 238 Venezuelan immigrants accused of being members of criminal gang TdA. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Sunday that President Trump had accused TdA members of being a “terrorist organization,” and that it is “undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela,” according to the Miami Herald.

The Alien Enemies Act was previously used for the War of 1812, World War I and most recently, World War II, where it was used for detentions, expulsions and restrictions of Japanese, German and Italian immigrants, based on their ancestry, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

But the Venezuelan immigrants, who were not processed legally, were not deported back to Venezuela and to the hostile government of President Nicholás Maduro but instead to El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele reportedly has an agreed to imprisoning the migrants for low cost, at his Terrorist Confinement Center, a mega-prison built to crack down on organized crime.

This, despite a restraining order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C. to block the deportation for at least two weeks while the case continues, issued hours before Rubio and Bukele announced them. Rubio repeated a social media post by Bukele after the order, which the judge issued orally, with the words, “Oopsie … too late,” accompanied by a laughing emoji.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 3/17/25

It’s the Economy. . .

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Remember the bad old days of Sleepy Joe Biden, the man who with his woke, communist, fascist, radical bunch created the worst economy in American history, the worst conditions in WORLD HISTORY — though we don’t care about the World outside our borders, which are now very, very strong borders--?! Horrible economy. Terrible.

Unthinkable. That’s what everyone says.

Well it seems as though people — regular people who buy things like groceries and cars that aren’t Teslas (“I’m president. I want to pay full price.”) — are beginning to think maybe things weren’t so bad.

That is evident in numbers from the Survey of Consumers conducted by the University of Michigan.

The surveyed are asked about three categories:

Index of Consumer Sentiment
Current Economic Conditions
Index of Consumer Expectations

So it is basically how they are feeling, how they are spending and how they anticipate things will be working out, economically speaking.

According to the preliminary numbers for March 2025, here’s how things look:

Index of Consumer Sentiment: 57.9%
Current Economic Conditions: 63.5%
Index of Consumer Expectations: 54.2%

Now looking at those numbers you might be thinking: “Looks pretty good. All of them are above 50%.”

But then we go back in time to the numbers in March 2024, back in the days of the Biden debacle:

Index of Consumer Sentiment: 79.4%
Current Economic Conditions: 82.5%
Index of Consumer Expectations: 77.4%

That’s right, declines of 27.1%, 23% and 30% from then until now — and we haven’t even started feeling the brunt of the tariffs. Is Trump ushering in an economic miracle or an economic debacle?

Joanne Hsu, Survey of Consumers Director, pointed out:

“Consumer sentiment slid another 11% this month, with declines seen consistently across all groups by age, education, income, wealth, political affiliations, and geographic regions.”

Yes, pretty much sounds like everyone.

Now some people might think that this is a distorted bad, very bad, twisted liberal agenda at play, Hsu pointed out:

“Despite their greater confidence following the election, Republicans posted a sizable 10% decline in their expectations index in March. For Independents and Democrats, the expectations index declined an even steeper 12 and 24%, respectively.”

One factor that is concerning all participants: Inflation.

The most recent number has an expected rate of inflation of 4.9%, “the highest reading since November 2022 and marking three consecutive months of unusually large increases of 0.5 percentage points or more.”

What’s more, looking at inflation expectations in the long run, it was 3.5% in February and is 3.9% in March, “the largest month-over-month increase seen since 1993.”

That’s during the days of Clinton.

The so-called “Golden Age” is apparently, so far as consumers are concerned, a Lead Balloon.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings. Read more of his commentaries on our Substack page.

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MONDAY 3/17/25

About Those Tariffs

Trump instigates

What does the United States stand to gain by picking a fight with our neighbors? It seems like I've lived my entire life barely aware that Canada even exists. They're quiet, well-mannered neighbors who don't cause any trouble.

It seems the United States has everything to gain by keeping it that way.

Then enter Trump who instigates, starts poking a sleeping bear. From berating the Prime Minister to starting a tariff war, Trump has quickly managed to make an enemy.

We are at the mercy of a madman and

unfortunately, the American people will pay for Trump's political stunts.

--Sharon Lintner

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Pi Day 2025

Senate Passes Budget Bill, 62-38

FRIDAY, Π Day 2025

UPDATE: Budget is a Go – Democratic senators helped Republicans pass cloture, 62-38, to advance the GOP budget to fund the federal government through September 30 early Friday evening, per The Hill. Senate Republicans needed a total of 60 votes to prevent a filibuster that would sink the budget bill. It's headed to President Trump's Resolute Desk for his signature.

Sen. Angus King (I-ME) joined nine Democrats in supporting the GOP-led Senate, consisting of Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) – who changed his mind about trying to shut down the government Thursday – Democratic Whip Dick Durban (IL), Catherine Cortez Masto (NV), John Fetterman (PA), Kristen Gillibrand (NY), Maggie Hassan (NH), Gary Peters (MI), Brian Schatz (HI) and Jeanne Shaheen (NH). Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican who voted no.

Question of whether it was smart or weak for Democrats to cede its remaining smidgen of power to the GOP, and thus to Trump, had kept Democratic leadership awake at-night for at least the past week.

Between Schumer’s 180-turn and the cloture vote, The Onion ran this (satirical, if you’re not familiar) headline: “Chuck Schumer Helps Pull Democrats Back from the Brink of Courage.” (Scroll down for details on Schumer's change of heart.)

•••

Awaiting a Ceasefire – Russia sent “additional signals” Friday to President Trump regarding a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine after special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to finalize the agreement already reached with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to The Kyiv Independent, which cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. In today’s Right Column Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay outlines latest evidence of Trump’s total devotion to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. In the Left Column contributing pundit Sharon Lintner decries Trump’s diminishing relationship with traditional allies via his tariff policy.

•••

No 'Schumer Shutdown' – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) did a “180” overnight and said he will vote in favor of the House bill to fund the government for six more months, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Until late Thursday, Schumer was unified with progressive Democrats to down the House bill in the Senate. Republicans need eight Democratic supporters to avoid a filibuster, as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will not vote with the GOP.

“I will vote to keep the government open, and not shut it down,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday.

Bad as the bill is, Schumer said, a government shutdown would be worse, giving President Trump the chance to ravage the federal government even more than he has since January 20.

What happened to the Senate Democrat plan to push a 30-day continuing resolution to force Republicans to give them seats at the table to renegotiate a funding bill the Democrats hate (it passed the House 217-213, with only one representative per side defecting)?

What happened to Congressional Democrats taking a stand against President Trump’s thorough deconstruction of the federal government?

“I think there’s a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). The prog-Democrat called a 30-day clean CR proposal a “meaningless gesture,” and called on Senate Democratic negotiators to “fight.”

For better or worse, the spending bill reflects the inherent difference between MAGA-unified Republicans and perpetually disorganized Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are calling for a vote against the spending bill, The Hill reports. Centrists Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) are caught between Schumer and the hard-left who wanted them to vote against the bill Friday.

If Schumer can’t find three more Senate Democrats along with the three centrists, himself and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who has said previously he will vote for the bill, we will quickly find out the difference between a government shutdown and Trump’s second term.

•••

To the Court – Trump administration Acting Solicitor Gen. Sarah Harris has petitioned the US Supreme Court to allow the administration to enforce the president’s executive order ending birthright citizenship (per SCOTUSblog). Three federal courts have issued orders to put a stop on Trump’s EO ending birthright citizenship, on constitutional grounds.

Harris in her brief argued the orders “transgress constitutional limits on courts’ powers” and “compromise the Executive Branch’s ability to carry out its functions.”

•••

Back to Work – Calling mass firings of probationary federal employees by the Office of Personnel Management a “sham,” US District Judge William Alsop ordered the departments of Defense, Treasury, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs to “immediately” offer them their jobs back, per Politico. (Many of the probationary employees were not new hires, but longtime employees who had just received promotions, according to NPR’s Morning Edition). Alsop is San Francisco district federal judge appointed by President Clinton.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Pi Day 2025

Trump Wants a Putin Victory

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

The following was written before the Ukrainian government agreed to a cease-fire and the US allowed the Ukrainian military resumed access to intelligence assets. But for all that, the following still stands. What did the Russian government do in response to the proposed cease fire? Well, for one thing, Putin got dressed up in military fatigues and visited some of the troops. For another, the attacks on Ukraine amped up.

So how will the thesis in the headline be realized?

Putin will remain recalcitrant. There will be no going back. Trump will claim that Putin has “all the cards” and consequently what he wants — including the ceding of the territory the Russians have taken, the prohibition of Ukraine becoming a member of NATO, no peace keeping troops in Ukraine, etc. — is what will be agreed to.

There should be little doubt that at the end of the day, Donald Trump wants Russia, the country that invaded a democracy — the sort of place Americans used to defend -- to win the conflict in Ukraine.

Why? Probably because he likes the style of the Russian leader.

Never mind that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is charged by the International Criminal Court as being “Allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation (under articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute).”

The charge continues:

“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes, (i) for having committed the acts directly, jointly with others and/or through others (article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute), and (ii) for his failure to exercise control properly over civilian and military subordinates who committed the acts, or allowed for their commission, and who were under his effective authority and control, pursuant to superior responsibility (article 28(b) of the Rome Statute).”

Oh, but the International Criminal Court is an international organization and we want nothing to do with the rest of the world unless it is in the financial interest of America.

Deporting children? Who cares?

What’s more, Jack Smith, that “deranged” “Trump hater” “crooked individual” (but just a few of the things Trump has called him), worked at the International Criminal Court, so that place must be rife with bad, bad hombres. Everyone says so.

The Russians have amped up their attacks on Ukraine.

What has the reaction of the Trump Administration been?

It stopped military aid and stopped intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

Why?

Because Trump wants Volodymyr Zelenskyy to lose face and his idol Vladimir Putin to gain land.

Just consider this, from the official White House transcript of a press gaggle on Air Force One, March 9, 2025:

Q Sir, on Russia. Have you made a final decision about what sanctions or tariffs you might impose on Russia and when that might be?

THE PRESIDENT: We’re looking at a lot of things. We have big meetings coming up, as you know, in Saudi Arabia. That’s going to include Russia. It’ll be Ukraine. We’ll see if we can get something done. I’d like to get something done.

A lot of people died this week, as you know, in Ukraine. Not only Ukrainians, but Russians. So, I think everybody wants to see it get done. We’re going to make a lot of progress, I believe, this week.

Q Mr. President, is Putin disrespecting you by attacking Ukraine when you’re trying to make peace there?

THE PRESIDENT: Who? Who?

Q Is President Putin disrespecting you by attacking Ukraine when you’re trying to make peace there?

THE PRESIDENT: What did he do?

Q Well, he’s attacked Ukraine.

THE PRESIDENT: Is he disrespecting me?

Q Yeah.

THE PRESIDENT: Who are you with?

Q I’m Michael Birnbaum, with The Washington Post.

THE PRESIDENT: You’ve lost a lot of credibility. Go ahead. What else?

Notice how Trump deflects any potential criticism of Putin and then minimizes, in his own mind, the reporter. How has the reporter, or the Post, lost credibility by asking a simple question that deserves an answer?

Later, questions from others:

Q Are you going to resume aid to Ukraine if they sign the minerals deal with you?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think they will sign the minerals deal. But we want them to —

I want them to want peace. Right now.

Q How do they show that? How do they show that?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, right now, they haven’t shown it to the extent that they should. I think, right now, they haven’t, but I think they will be, and I think it’s going to become evident over the next two or three days. I think eventually, look, we have to have peace.

And I’m doing this — money is one thing. We’re going to lose — we spent $350 billion on this. But the big thing: human life. Thousands of people — this week — thousands of young soldiers died this week. Hundreds of people died in cities in Ukraine. And we got to get it stopped.

It would have never happened if I was president. And it didn’t happen. This was not going to happen.

Trump wants Ukraine to give up rights to its minerals to pay the US back for the military and other assistance provided to the country still under attack.

Why doesn’t he stipulate that Putin should have to pay for rebuilding the cities he’s wrecked in Ukraine?

The Ukrainians haven’t shown their interest in peace “to the extent that they should”?

Might the missiles raining down on their land from Russian have something to do with this?

“It would have never happened if I was president.”

What would have never happened? That the Ukrainians wouldn’t have defended themselves? That they would have been invaded and then thanked Putin for the invasion?

“Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said during the exchange with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on March 3. He was referring to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Zelenskyy and the citizens of Ukraine are going through literal hell.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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Pi Day 2025

Civil Disagreements Welcome

Don't miss our Substack page where Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay's latest right-column commentary is "Trump Wants a Putin Victory." While there, be sure to check out "How About an AmeriCon?"

Contributors for our right column include Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay, a never-Trumper conservative, and Rich Corbett, a pro-MAGA conservative. Macaulay’s comments may align much more often with left-column contributors like Sharon Lintner and Hugh Hansen, but that’s what The Hustings is all about and it is why we ask you to list your political leanings in the subject line for comments via email. We want to post your comments in the column with which you regularly identify; not necessarily the column that aligns with your comments on a single, particular subject. Help us grow into a news & commentary site that exposes readers to a variety of political thought and ideas.

For more civil political news and discussion, please be sure to visit our Substack page.

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WEDNESDAY 3/12/25

…meanwhile…

Month-over-month inflation came in at 0.2% (better than forecasts of +0.3%) in February, for an annual Consumer Price Index of 2.8%, according to the Labor Department. That compares with January’s +0.5% increase and 3% annual CPI, an indication that Trump Tariffs had not taken hold yet last month. Scroll down for details. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

THURSDAY 3/13/25

In Moscow – White House special envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow to negotiate the 30-day ceasefire reached earlier this week with Ukraine, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Details of the Kremlin’s initial rejection below. …

In Washington – Ontario Premier Doug Ford meets with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Thursday after Ford agreed to back down on tariffs and potential cutoffs of his province’s sales of hydro-electric power to Minnesota, Michigan and New York State. Read our trade-war counterproposal here.

•••

‘Nyet’ to 30 Day Ceasefire – Senior Putin aid and Russian negotiator Yuri Ushkov has rejected the peace deal negotiated in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between the US and Ukraine ahead of special envoy Steve Witkoff’s Kremlin visit, saying it would give Ukraine time to reboot, according to The Wall Street Journal. Russian forces are on the verge of taking back its own Kursk Oblast invaded by Ukrainian forces last summer.

“This is nothing other than a temporary time-out for Ukrainian soldiers, nothing more,” Ushkov said. “Our goal is about peaceful resolution. Steps that imitate peaceful actions are not needed.

•••

EPA -the-P – The Environmental Protection Agency plans to target more than two-dozen rules and practices in the “most consequential day of deregulation in US history,” NPR’s All Things Considered reported Wednesday. Most rules the EPA is reconsidering involves climate pollution from motor vehicles and power plants, wastewater from coal plants and air pollution from the energy and manufacturing industries.

•••

DOGEed – After Elon Musk’s Department Of Government Efficiency posted error-filled data of its early successes in weeding out federal government inefficiency and corruption, DOGE is claiming newfound transparency in its reports. DOGE’s website on March 2 claims it cut 3,489 grants worth $10 billion. But a new investigation by The New York Times finds these latest DOGE claims do not have previously disclosed identifying details for cuts for which it takes credit.

Meanwhile … As a trade war rages, Canada is investigating potential privacy violations by Musk’s largely pro-Trump social media platform, X/Twitter following a complaint lodged in February, the Financial Post reports. Canadian privacy minister Phillippe Dufresne has announced an investigation into “whether X is meeting its obligations” to meet the nation’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

•••

CPI Details -- The Labor Department reported a 4% month-over-month drop in air fares and a 1% drop in gas prices, offsetting +0.3% for shelter, +0.2% for energy and +0.4% for food away from home. Despite notorious egg price hikes, food at home was unchanged.

--TL

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Inflation Continues to Cool

WEDNESDAY 3/12/25

UPDATE: We Take That Back – The continuing resolution passed by the House Tuesday that would fund the government through September 30 will not get a vote in the Senate this week, as Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will not let seven of his fellow Democrats get the bill to the floor without filibuster, The New York Times reports. Schumer clearly sees reluctance by Republicans to let the government shut down this weekend: He and his fellow Democrats instead back a 30-day stopgap bill forcing the two sides of the aisle to reach a bipartisan solution in the coming month.

Come back, House GOP … House Republicans purposely left Washington after their 217-213 passage of the CR Tuesday.

Not a Shutdown in Sight – Democratic senators are coming around to the idea it would be “too risky” to block the continuing resolution passed by the House, 217-213, Tuesday and force a government shutdown at the end of the week, The Hill reports, even though the bill increases defense spending by $6 billion while cutting non-defense by $13 billion.

“For me, if the Democrats think that they want to burn the village down to save it, that’s terrible optics and that’s going to have serious impacts for millions and millions of people,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) told The Hill. “I’m never going to vote for that kind of chaos.”

While Fetterman has vowed to vote for the CR, he is offset by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a spending hawk/defense libertarian who has vowed to vote against it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) still needs cooperation from seven more Democrats (and all of his party) to pass the bill without a filibuster.

Tuesday’s House vote had one defector from each side of the aisle. Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) voted for the CR, while Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted against.

•••

This Means Trade War! – The European Union imposed 50% tariffs on Kentucky bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorcycles Wednesday as Trump Tariffs™ of 25% on steel and aluminum took hold overnight, The Wall Street Journal reports. The EU tariffs were designed to maximize the political and economic costs for the US of the tariffs, while minimizing harm to European businesses and consumers, according to officials.

Also, maybe good for Scotch whiskey and Beemers.*

The counter-measures are expected to cover about $24.5 billion of US goods.

[*BMW motorcycles, as distinguished from the German brand's autos, known among cognoscenti as “Bimmers.”]

Meanwhile … As Europe braces for President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs April 2, the EU is planning a second tranche of tariffs on US goods by mid-April, including chewing gum, poultry, white chocolate, soybeans, carpets and watermelon, according to the WSJ.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 3/12/25

This Is How to Make America Great Again?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Brooke Rollins, US Secretary of Agriculture, when asked about egg shortages during a Fox & Friends Weekend segment, suggested that people might think, “Wow, maybe I could get a chicken in my backyard!”

That’s right, people can dodge the high price of eggs at the supermarket by raising chickens.

Isn’t it a sign of an advanced economy that people don’t need to raise their own poultry, livestock, grains, and vegetables?

Is this what Trump means about our going to a new Golden Age, one that is more analogous to 2^nd century Rome than 21^st century Shanghai?

During the first Trump administration Rollins served as the head of the White House Office of American Innovation.

And there you have it: the innovative approach to dealing with the consequences of Bird Flu as well as an overall economic decline is to raise chickens.

Yes, this is how Team Trump is going to make America great.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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WEDNESDAY 3/12/25

Open for Discussion

About Trump’s Address to Congress

Contrary to what President Trump claimed in his address to Congress, America is not back. In fact, it's farther from itself than it's ever been because of him: alliances with adversaries, attacks on allies, broken promises, and endless lies and distortions. Instead of presenting a sober speech on issues concerning the nation, Trump ran in full campaign mode, spewing false claims about his predecessor and even calling a member of Congress a derogatory nickname.

The message of Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico summed things up accurately when she held a sign reading, “This is not normal.”
--Joe Lintner
Via Email

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For more civil political news and discussion, please be sure to visit our Substack page.

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MONDAY 3/10/25

Ukraine Agrees to Ceasefire

Moosehead Brewery's Presidential Pack offers 1,461 cans of beer for every remaining day of the Trump presidency, "because every day we deal with the uncertainty of this presidential term deserves a beer," but only in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario, for $2,467 Canadian, or US$1,708.87.

TUESDAY 3/11/25

UPDATE: Kyiv is ready to accept the Trump White House proposal of an immediate 30-day ceasefire contingent on the Kremlin’s acceptance of the terms, according to Ukraine’s Presidential Office, The Kyiv Independent reports. Under the terms negotiated in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between the US and Ukraine, the ceasefire could be extended by mutual agreement, according to the report. But Kyiv is ready to take such steps only if Russia adheres to the ceasefire in the same manner.

Andriy Yermak, who as head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office participated in the talks in Jeddah stressed the need for security guarantees.

“Ukrainian proposal for this meeting with the Americans was three things: Ceasefire in the sky – missiles, bombs, long-range drones – and ceasefire at sea, as well as measures to establish trust to this process, first of all – the release of prisoners,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after the meeting. “The American side understands our arguments, accepts our proposals, I want to thank President Trump for the constructiveness of our teams’ conversation.”

•••

READ: Nobel Peace Prize laureate Łech Wałęsa’s letter warning President Trump about Vladimir Putin in reaction to the infamous White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in The Gray Area.

As Ukrainian, US Officials Meet – Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces hit a Moscow oil refinery and a Druzhba oil pipeline facility in Oryol Oblast overnight Tuesday, The Kyiv Independent reports, citing the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces. It was Ukraines’ biggest offensive strike since the war began more than three years ago, according to the BBC.

Russia claims to have downed more than 330 Ukrainian drones in Moscow, Oryol and eight other oblasts.

Meanwhile … Ukrainian officials held their first high-level meeting with US officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to discuss a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine (per The New York Times). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was in Jeddah but did not attend the meetings has proposed a partial ceasefire and would give up some territory already lost to Russia but wants security support by the US.

•••

CR Today? – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) plans a House vote Tuesday on the one, big, beautiful bill that would fund the federal government through September 30. He will need all 217 of Republican House members on board to pass it.

“It is not something we could support,” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. “House Democrats will not be compliant in something that could hurt the American people.”

But Senate Democrats are wary of how the politics of a potential government shutdown have changed, what with the budget shoe being put on his party’s foot. Democrats fear President Trump and Elon Musk could run roughshod while federal offices are officially closed due to a shutdown, according to The Hill. Some might say we’re already there.

•••

Is the Economy Stupid? – President Trump took a rare day off from the media spotlight as Wall Street reacted to his tariff roller-coaster Monday, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average has erased over the last couple of weeks all its post-election enthusiasm for his victory. The Dow fell 890.01 points, or -2.08%, to 41,911.71 points. Elon Musk may have lost his status as World’s Richest Lifeform, with Tesla stock falling 15.43%, or 40.52 points, to $222.15 per share, about half of where it was at the beginning of 2025.

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), the shell company set up to make Truth Social Trump’s way to pay off the roughly half-billion dollars in civil penalties he faces from last year’s fraud case (remember?) is off more than 40%, or 14.10 points per share since January 1, to $19.92 per share.

•••

Crackdown, or Cracks in Free Speech? – Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil became the first to be arrested by Homeland Security agents last weekend for participating in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Legally in the US with a green card, Khalil was transferred by ICE from New York to detention in Louisiana following his arrest, without immediate notification of his attorneys, The Wall Street Journal reports.

When Khalil’s attorneys tried to schedule a meeting to speak with their client, authorities in Louisiana offered a date 10 days away, a far-longer time period than they would get in Manhattan, according to the WSJ.

Meanwhile … The Education Department proved it is still alive and kicking, announcing Monday it sent letters to 60 schools, including Ivys, state universities and small liberal arts colleges, to warn of potential enforcement actions if they don’t “fulfill obligations to protect Jewish students.”

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” the president said on social media, “and the Trump administration will not tolerate it.”

--TL

_____________________________________________

Don't Call Carney 'Governor'

MONDAY 3/10/25

Canada Gets New PM – Canada’s leading Liberal Party Sunday elected Mark Carney its leader, expected to take over as the nation’s prime minister from Justin Trudeau in the next few days. Carney is now required by Canadian parliament rules to call for elections to take place by October 20, but the Toronto Star reports that “questions loom” whether he’ll call an early election, and how he will handle President Trump’s tariff threats.

Carney, 59, who had served as central banker for both Canada and, during Brexit, the UK, captured 86% of Canada’s Liberal vote, according to the BBC. He has not held public office before.

Early elections would seem to be in the Liberal Party’s interests in that it was far behind Canada’s Conservative Party in the polls last year as Trudeau’s popularity, after 10 years at PM, fell to record lows. But the Liberals have caught the Conservatives largely by connecting its likely PM candidate, Pierre Poilievre, 45, with Trump. This, even though Trump and Poilievre have indicated they do not like each other.

“A person who worships at the altar of Donald Trump will kneel before him, not stand up to him,” Carney said at a victory speech Sunday night.

What’s more… “America is not Canada, and Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form,” Carney continued. “Look, we didn’t ask for this fight. We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves” (hockey slang for starting a fight). “In trade as in hockey, Canada will win.”

Meanwhile … Canadian-born actor Mike Meyers, who is perfecting his impression of Elon Musk on his former show Saturday Night Live put his “elbows up,” another hockey reference last Saturday, during his second consecutive appearance on the show.

•••

CR Soon? – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) needs to get all 217 House Republicans on-board, while Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) needs six Democrats to join Republicans in passing a continuing resolution to fund the federal government to September 30 – or face shutdown by the end of the week. So far, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) appears to be the only member of his party on board. President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One; “I think the CR is going to get passed. We’ll see. But it could happen,” CQ Roll Call reports.

•••

Whose Recession? – President Trump would not rule out an economic recession as a short-term necessity in an interview with Fox News Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo. Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay discusses Trump’s remarks in the right-column commentary, “Lies, Damn Lies, Trump.”

Likely MAGA spin … At least two days before the interview, Bartiromo had begun calling this increasingly likely economic downturn under Trump “Joe Biden’s recession,” according to The Daily Beast.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 3/10/25

Lies, Damn Lies, Trump

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“American families and businesses are struggling with high costs. It’s one of the top issues that they want policymakers to address.”

That’s Neil Bradley, Chief Policy Officer at the US Chamber of Commerce.

The US Chamber of Commerce has never been accused of being anything but pro-business since it was established in April 1912. It has quite a track record of being, well, non-liberal.

Bradley was reacting to the 25% tariffs that were and possibly will go on to most goods from Canada and Mexico.

Evidently it seems that the Chamber is not seeing a whole lot of addressing of the high-cost issue going on in Washington.

Rather, what’s being seen is a mean sideshow of people getting thrown out of their jobs, in some cases simply because they were doing what they were told to do.

Some guy who runs a car company is suddenly not only a human resources genius, but he knows all about everything from social aid programs to criminal investigations.

“Look at what DOGE is doing! Ignore everything else, like our throwing Ukraine under the treads of a T-90A to the fact that eggs are still expensive. Isn’t Elon swell!”

The Chamber points out the trade with Canada and Mexico supports 13 million American jobs.

If jobs are a concern of the Trump Administration, then what about these jobs?

Trump said in his address to Congress last week:

“We pay subsidies to Canada and to Mexico of hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Which is simply untrue.

The trade deficit, for example, with Canada, according to the US Census Bureau (hope those people have cardboard boxes handy to clear out their desks), is $64.26 billion.

What does that mean?

Simply: Americans buy stuff that Canadians have for sale in greater quantities than Canadians buy American stuff. That is not a subsidy. When you go to McDonalds and buy a burger, are you subsidizing the company? Apparently you are in Trump World.

The trade deficit with Mexico is higher: $179 billion.

But again, this is not a subsidy, this is something based on what we buy from Mexico.

And this is not all vegetables. The US buys things from electrical machinery to surgical instruments from Mexico. The next time you need a medical procedure you might be happy there’s equipment in that OR from Mexico.

Again: no one is making us buy stuff from Canada or Mexico. But because of something once revered by Republicans known as the “free market” we had the opportunity to make those purchases.

But the Trump Administration doesn’t even abide by a free-trade agreement that Donald Trump negotiated during his first term (USMCA).

Getting back to the Chamber’s Bradley:

“We also want to work together to keep costs down, but tariffs will only raise prices and increase the economic pain being felt by everyday Americans across the country. We urge reconsideration of this policy and a swift end to these tariffs.”

Raise prices.

Increase the economic pain.

Now the Chamber is in favor of things that make liberal’s blood run cold:

“The Chamber supports the administration’s efforts to advance pro-growth policies like fewer regulations and less taxation that will grow our economy and expand opportunity.”

But it knows that tariffs do little to help the economy.

And because the President rolls out people to make his point, when the Chamber made its announcement, it did so, as well.

Like Traci Tapani, co-president of Wyoming Machine, a sheet metal fabricator in Minnesota that processes aluminum (another Trump Tariff Target).

Tapani:

“My company will feel an immediate, detrimental impact as a result of these tariffs.”

That’s a nice way of saying they’re going to be gut-punched and will probably have to make adjustments to every aspect of their business.

Trump has been making it sound like we are now in the Golden Age. . .but now he shifts.

In an interview on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo, when asked about the possibility of a recession this year, he responded:

“I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of, it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us.”

There is “a period of transition, because what we are doing is very big.”

What they are doing is big: Destroying supply chains that have been reinforced since the COVID debacle that he is not inculpable for. (“You know, a lot of people think that it goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go away in April.” —President Trump, February 10, 2020)

“We’re bringing wealth back to America.”

No, what tariffs will do is take money out of people’s pockets in America. Prices will go up for essentially everything for people whether they are running a fab shop or trying to buy fabric to sew a Communion dress.

“And there are always periods of” — why didn’t he come out and say it: Periods when people are going to suffer economically — and largely without reason.

Now-retired Professor Michael Porter developed a theory of the Competitive Advantage of Nations. There are four elements involved (which you don’t need to know). Suffice it to say that some places do thing better than other places. (e.g., Silicon Valley is what it is because of the conditions on the ground there, something that other parts of the US haven’t been able to replicate. And if it was easy, there would be Silicon Valleys across the globe. But some places have the right factors and others don’t.)

That’s pretty much how the world works.

In addition to making it more expensive for people in the US, tariffs also have the consequence of “protecting” the market from competitors — competitors that may have more advanced or clever products to sell. But by making those products prohibitively expensive, they are kept out of the market and domestic products that are less advanced continue because there is little incentive for companies to improve those products.

On the homepage of the White House website it says:

America Is Back

“Every single day I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body. I will not rest

until we have delivered the strong, safe and prosperous America that our children deserve and that you deserve. This will truly be the golden age of America.”

If the Trump Administration continues what it is doing — attacking our allies, throwing scientists and researchers at federal labs out of their jobs, putting unnecessary taxes on American consumers, the headline will read:

America Is Behind

And we will be less strong, less safe, less prosperous, and our children will be inheriting a less robust America.

But he can’t admit that.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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MONDAY 3/10/25

An Open Letter to Trump Supporters

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

I’m a Democrat, and a liberal to boot. But I bet we can agree on some things: That our country needs a stable economy. That it needs decent medical care and coverage. That we need to treat our veterans with respect. And that we need at least enough of a government to keep us safe, warn us of approaching storms, and help care for our kids and aging parents.

There’s mounting evidence the Trump Administration is breaking down safeguards in all these areas – and fast. So I’m writing to ask for help in convincing your GOP representatives to tap the brakes even as they (and you) press forward with the perceived need to shake things up.

Let me ask some questions to make my point:

• 1) Do you believe tariffs are going to lower prices?

The Trump administration this week imposed and then lifted 25% tariffs on most products arriving from our two strongest trading partners, Mexico and Canada. At least for four weeks. These chaotic actions have caused a stock market rollercoaster ride that’s mostly pointed sharply downhill. Here’s why. First, after the big three American auto manufacturers warned that car prices would quickly spike thousands of dollars, the administration ordered a 30-day hold on tariffs for cars and trucks. Then, the administration must have realized food and energy prices would continue to climb. It postponed most tariffs until April 2, first on Mexico and then later for Canada.

This helter-skelter approach has done little to bolster consumer or business confidence.

Consumers are spending less of their discretionary money. They see inflation continue to tick up at 3% or more annually. Gas prices climbed about 20 cents a gallon this week in my Cape Cod town. And the price of eggs? They are high and keep going up.

Wrote The Economist magazine: “Trump’s tariff turbulence is worse than anyone imagined.”

2) Do veterans deserve to be singled out for hurt by government cuts?

It may not be intentional, but they have been. About 30% of the federal government’s more than 3 million employees are veterans. And tens of thousands of federal workers already have been fired. Half live outside Washington, D.C.

Now, the Veterans Affairs Administration is planning for deep cuts in serving our veterans. An internal memo, sent this Tuesday to top officials and obtained by CBS News, says that by August, “The department’s goal is to … cut more than 70,000 workers.”

That’s one hell of a thank you to the men and women who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. They deserve our help with physical and psychological health issues, jobs and more.

3) Do you want to know when the next big storm is going to hit?

Big storms are a given. Hurricanes slammed Florida and the Carolinas this season, floods and tornados pummeled the South, and fires, whipped by high winds, tore through parts of the West Coast.

Predicting big storms is the work of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Its information is essential in preparing for storms. NOAA forecasts, issued in the billions each year, reach 96% of US households, The Associated Press reports.

The Trump Administration’s job cuts are crippling this weather forecasting.

In the latest round of cuts Monday, it fired 1,300 NOAA employees, the AP reported. AP noted that the American Meteorological Society is warning these cuts have put the country at greater risk.

“The consequences to the American people will be large and wide-ranging, including increased vulnerability to hazardous weather,” the meteorological society wrote in a statement.

Rallies across the country were scheduled for Friday, March 7 in support of science and against deep cuts to this and other agencies.

4) Do you think government spending cuts are being carried out with planning and care?

They aren’t.

President Trump says he’s proud of Elon Musk’s DOGE boys for getting rid of waste. But the cuts Musk is making don’t reflect worker performance reviews or the importance of particular jobs. They’ve been deep, arbitrary, and often as chaotic as the on-off tariffs.

For example, Musk cut the medical detectives in the Centers for Disease Control just as scientists were saying bird flu could jump from birds to humans. On Thursday, 180 CDC workers fired two weeks ago received emails asking them to return immediately, the AP reports.

It's not clear where they worked. But we know DOGE’s cuts have focused disproportionately on so-called “probationary employees,” a anyone who has been hired, changed jobs or been promoted in the last year or two. Musk’s team fired just about all probationary workers because they have fewer protections.

The CDC situation is no aberration either. The New York Times noted as much in an article titled, “Fired, then Rehired by the Trump Administration.”

“Even as the Trump Administration continues to slash federal jobs, a number of federal agencies have begun to reverse course – reinstating some workers and pausing plans to dismiss others,” the authors wrote.

On February 13, the Administration laid off more than 300 employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains and secures the country’s nuclear warheads. A day later, it recalled some. It fired and then rehired workers who review food safety, respond to the bird flu and protect forests. DOGE, it seems, operates a little like a drunken driver weaving back and forth over a double-yellow line.

5) What’s next?

By Thursday, President Trump had issued 117 executive orders. Soon, he will eliminate the Department of Education, which dispenses grants to college students from less affluent families and supports K-12 programs for kids with a wide range of disabilities. Deep cuts in Medicaid could drive many thousands of elderly from nursing homes. In April, the administration plans to deport 240,000 Ukrainians who were given temporary legal status under the Biden administration..

Only pushback from the Congress, the Supreme Court or “we, the people” -- including you, the president’s supporters – can slow or limit these actions.

If anything I’ve touched on bothers you, speak up. Don’t leave it to libs like me. The Republican National Committee has told Republican members of Congress to stop holding public forums. But they still have voicemail and email. Please consider using both.

Lanson writes From the Grassroots at Substack.

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SAT-SUN 3/8-9/25

To Trump or Not to Trump

SATURDAY-SUNDAY 3/8-9/2025

If there is one thing the pro-MAGA and never-Trumpers can agree on, it’s that President Trump is on a tear to remake our federal government. While his avid supporters will say he is doing this for the 77.3-million voters who filled in the ballot’s oval for him last November, his detractors will tell you he is building authoritarian rule to whatever degree he can reach.

Last Tuesday night, Trump reached 36.6 million television viewers with his address to the joint session of Congress, USA Todayreports, citing the Nielsen TV ratings research firm.

It was not a State of the Union address, as they do not take place in an inauguration year. Trump gave a one-hour, 39-minute address to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, in the House chambers, that was more about his accomplishments so far, than of his agenda for the coming year … which, after all, should be rather apparent by now to anyone from full-on political animals to the politically curious.

The political discourse to the right and left of this column is not so much a traditional Hustings debate as it is a discussion about what the Trump White House is and what it wants to get accomplished.

Specifically, contributing pundit Rich Corbett does discuss Trump’s agenda and how he has made progress on it to-date, in the right column, while guest pundit Jerry Lanson’s left column commentary is an appeal to Trump’s supporters to consider how they could be adversely affected by the reality of that agenda.

You can find more of Lanson’s writing here, at From the Grass Roots. More of Corbett’s work can be found here, at My Desultory Blog.

While you are here, scroll down the page with the trackbar on the far right to read our center-column coverage of Tuesday’s joint-session address, with a column by Stephen Macaulay, our right-leaning never-Trumper pundit-at-large in the right column, and quick-take comments by contributing pundits Sharon Lintner and Jim McCraw in the left column.

As always, we welcome reader comments on all this. EMAIL editors@thehustings.news and please list your political leanings in the subject line, irrespective of your position on the issue in question, so that we post your comments in the proper column.

•••

Reuters Wrong? – Constant readers will notice that guest pundit Jerry Lanson repeats in his left column a Reuters report that President Trump intends to reverse a Biden administration policy that granted temporary legal status to about 240,000 Ukrainians\ who fled their country after Russia’s 2022 invasion. We repeated the Reuters report in this column Thursday.

You would have to leave this civil media site for the social media site, X/Twitter, to read contributing pundit Rich Corbett’s tweet that reposts a response by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that calls the Reuters report “false.”

Specifically, Leavitt said that the Trump White House has made “no decision” on deportations of Ukrainian refugees “at this time.”

Of course, the Reuters report cites unnamed sources, including a “senior White House official,” for the report. In an update later Thursday, the news organization says that Trump said Thursday “he would soon decide whether to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians.”

If Trump decides to let the Ukrainians stay, the question that probably will remain eternally unanswered is; Did Reuters get it wrong, or did it speak with sources who wanted to see Trump’s plans surface amidst his flood of executive orders and actions, so that it would be reversed?

CORRECTION: Earlier versions of this center column and of Jerry Lanson's "An Open Letter to Trump Supporters" in the left column incorrectly characterized the 240,000 Ukrainians granted temporary legal status by the Biden administration that Reuters has reported President Trump is considering for deportation.

--Todd Lassa

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SAT-SUN 3/8-9/25

America is Back!

Commentary by Rich Corbett

On March 4, 2025, President Donald J. Trump stood before Congress and the American people to deliver a forceful, unapologetic vision for America’s future. Unwavering in his commitment to economic prosperity, national security, and restoring law and order, the President laid out a blueprint for a stronger and more prosperous nation — despite the predictable and ever-present resistance from the Democratic side of the aisle.

One of the most striking moments of the evening came when President Trump openly addressed the partisan divide that continues to define Washington D.C. “Once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud,” he stated. “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, announce the greatest economy in history, or bring crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won’t do it no matter what.” His words resonated with millions of Americans who have witnessed firsthand the political obstruction and unwillingness of his opponents to acknowledge progress.

The speech was not without drama. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) was removed from the chamber, a symbol of the deep-seated opposition Trump continues to face. Yet, despite the partisan theatrics, the president pressed forward with his ambitious agenda.

At the heart of Trump’s speech was a robust economic plan designed to put more money back into the pockets of American citizens. He announced sweeping tax cuts for all Americans, emphasizing a pro-worker, pro-business agenda that includes making these tax reductions permanent. Among the key components:

No taxes on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits.
Tax-deductible interest on American-made car loans.
Retroactive expensing for businesses, ensuring companies can reinvest and grow.

Additionally, President Trump highlighted the importance of fair trade, pointing out that for decades, other nations have imposed tariffs on American goods while enjoying free access to US markets. “Other countries have used tariffs against us for years, it’s very unfair. Some countries don’t even permit US products in their markets.” He announced that, beginning April 2nd, the US will implement reciprocal tariffs —whatever foreign nations tax us, we will tax them.

Trump also recognized companies that are investing in US manufacturing, reinforcing his “America First” economic policies.

In response to the rising crime epidemic in many American cities, President Trump vowed to bring back law and order, reinforcing his commitment to protecting law enforcement officers. One of his most significant proposals was a mandatory death penalty for anyone who kills a police officer, a policy aimed at ensuring the safety and respect that law enforcement officers deserve.

Addressing illegal immigration, President Trump celebrated his administration’s sweeping border crackdown, which has already resulted in the lowest number of illegal crossings in recent history. “The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation, we must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.”

A poignant moment in the speech came when Trump recognized the family of Laken Riley, whose tragic story became a rallying cry for stronger immigration enforcement. Even Democrats, often reluctant to acknowledge the consequences of their open-border policies, were seen clapping politely as Trump highlighted the Laken Riley Act.

President Trump took a moment to honor foster families, calling them “heroes” and recognizing their selfless contributions to society. He also reiterated his commitment to shipbuilding in the United States and reclaiming America’s influence over the Panama Canal, emphasizing the need for strategic economic and military independence.

As expected, after the speech an old-school media personality, Brit Hume of Fox News, pointed out that the speech was “partisan.” However, former Rep. Harold Ford (D-TN), provided a more measured response, acknowledging that Democrats “need to win on ideas,” that they are resisting without offering policy alternatives.

President Trump’s speech made one thing clear: He remains steadfast in his mission to restore prosperity, security, and fairness to the American people. With bold economic policies, a firm stance on law and order, and a commitment to putting America first, he is proving that leadership isn’t about appeasement — it’s about action. While his opponents may refuse to acknowledge his achievements, millions of Americans are standing with him as he fights to reclaim the greatness of the United States.

Corbett is a contributing pundit, who writes about a variety of subjects at My Desultory Blog.

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SAT-SUN 3/8-9/25