Economy

EAT THE TARIFFS? Trump Admits that His Tariffs Will Raise Prices, But Blames it on Walmart

Posted by on May 17, 2025 at 2:00 pm. 0 Comments :

On April 2, Donald Trump declared that it was “Liberation Day” as he imposed a broad set of devastating tariffs on virtually every country around the world. Ever since then he has staggered like a drunken toddler between clawing back his ill-considered economic scheme and doubling down when it suited some indiscernible purpose that resided only in his twisted imagination.

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Donald Trump, Stock Market

The stock market responded with a certainty that it rarely exhibits by proceeding to crash more than it had in five years. It has since regained some of that decline due to Trump’s wavering and caving on alleged deals with the UK and China that don’t really resolve the problem, but generate some positive press. Although even his Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News, has not been sold on his tariffs/taxes…

SEE THIS: UH-OH: Fox News Trump-Fluffer Admits that Trump’s Tariffs Will Fuel Higher Prices and Recession

For the most part, Trump has been insisting that everything he does is golden and that he is incapable of making a mistake. But that seems to have hit a speed bump on Saturday morning when he posted a comment on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, wherein he actually admitted – although likely inadvertently – that he is indeed responsible for the rising prices that the American people are all too familiar with, and the likelihood that the worst is yet to come. He wrote that…

“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. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”

Trump’s threat aimed at Walmart to “EAT THE TARIFFS” is an outright admission that the tariffs he is imposing would be paid by American businesses and the consumers who patronize them. That’s a complete contradiction of his prior claims that the foreign governments would pay the tariffs. And his accusation that Walmart is “trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices” is actually Trump trying to blame Walmart.

Trump is clinging to a kernel of truth when it notes that Walmart makes billions of dollars. However, he is ignoring that they make that money on narrow profit margins that will be erased if tariffs are implemented. He’s also ignoring the fact that consumers are already holding back on spending due to the economic strife that Trump has caused, and that will only continue to decline going forward.

Trump’s solution is to coerce Walmart to set prices lower at his demand. How is that different from the communist price-fixing of totalitarian regimes where the state decides what companies can charge for their products? Apparently Trump is abandoning capitalism in favor of the economic model employed by his hero, Vladimir Putin. And the CFO of Walmart recently acknowledged as much in an interview on CNBC…

Trump cranked up tariffs against China to 145%. Then, to "fix" the problem he created, he walks it back to 30%.But according to Walmart's CFO, even that is too high. A $300 microwave oven would cost $390.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T16:01:41.532Z

Trump sees – or has had it explained to him – that his policies will cause serious harm and likely a recession or worse. So he wants to force Walmart to rescue him from his own economic incompetence. That’s not gonna happen. But even if Walmart were to nibble on some of Trump’s tariffs, rather than eat them whole, it wouldn’t solve the problem. Walmart isn’t the only retailer in America that would suffer the consequences of his tariffs. Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Costco, and others would also have to comply. And then there are the thousands of small stores that don’t have the pricing power of the big box stores, and would probably have to shut down.

Trump’s attempt to bully Walmart is a desperation move on his part. It can’t possibly work. It will only create more problems for retailers of all sizes across the country. And those are problems that will result in bankruptcies, job losses, and forced austerity for the American people, who are already complaining that that is not what they voted for. And it’s why Trump’s approval rating is at a record low.

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Trump Watches MSNBC? Yep! And It’s Driving Him Crazy. So He Threatens to Tax and Penalize Them

Posted by on May 9, 2025 at 1:17 pm. 0 Comments :

Donald Trump’s television diet is ordinarily filled with the junk food and empty calories of Fox News, or OAN, or other devoted purveyors of MAGA propaganda. He feels secure in the bunker he has built that is populated by friendly pundits whose perpetual outpouring of praise feeds his massive, yet fragile ego.

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Donald Trump

Trump’s fear of honest reporting keeps him in a state of constant anxiety and debilitating dread. However, on occasion he manages to stiffen his noodly spine sufficiently to hate-watch news programs that are something less than worshipful. In the meantime he barricades himself behind a wall of disciples who are ordered to sing his divine praises…

SEE THIS: Trump Gathers His Cabinet Members to Conduct Another Festival of Feckless Trump-Fluffing

On Friday morning Trump took to his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, to express his outrage at a segment he had watched on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. The segment featured an interview of Stephanie Ruhle, a financial expert and host of an MSNBC primetime show. Ruhle’s analysis of Trump’s recessionary tariffs triggered another one of Trump’s tormented tantrums. He wrote that…

“I just watched an exhausted, highly neurotic Stephanie Ruhle spew LIES about Tariffs, as do many others, in order not to give me the Victory that they all see coming.”

As usual, Trump is delusional. Ruhle’s reporting (video below), unlike Trump’s rant, was calm, reasonable, and rooted in facts. It was in line with what most reputable economists have concluded about Trump’s disastrous tax attacks on America’s international trading partners.

Trump went on to call his alleged “deal” with the UK “AMAZING,” and claimed, contrary to reality, that “We’re going to make a fortune with Tariffs [but that] only smart people understand that.” He still hasn’t explained how there will be any revenue from tariffs after he’s made all the deals he has promised in order to remove them.

Continuing in his infamously infantile fashion, Trump insulted Ruhle as “Never known as a ‘High IQ” person.'” And in closing he accused MSNBC of engaging in a “Major Campaign Violation,” and raged that…

“MSDNC has become the Voice of the Democrat Party, and they should be treated as a Political Advocate with all of the Taxes and Penalties therefrom. Their Ratings are terrible, but Brian Roberts and his crew should be forced to TELL THE TRUTH.”

Trump’s tunnel-blindness in asserting that MSNBC is “the Voice of the Democrat Party,” while ignoring how Fox News is literally aligned with his administration, is the purest form of hypocrisy. MSNBC has numerous Republicans on their roster, including Joe Scarborough, whose show he was actually watching as he unleashed this screed. Trump, meanwhile has recruited at least 21 Fox News hacks to serve in his White House.

MORE HERE: Trump’s Nominees Are Largely Fox News Alum, Mar-a-Lago Patrons, and Billionaires

What’s more, Trump is again demanding that the free press protections in the Constitution be discarded so that he can impose “Taxes and Penalties” on the network, and “force” it to tell whatever bullpucky he regards as the truth.

For the record, the segment that is apparently the cause of Trump’s concern included the following discourse by Ruhle who warned that Trump “needs to get off this crazy tariff train, and he knows it.” [Because] unless he turns this around…we’re going to have a COVID-like supply chain crisis.”

“Donald Trump is backed into a corner. His grand plan of tariffs, tariffs, tariffs, aren’t working. You’re seeing, day in and day out, more business leaders – whether it’s Warren Buffett or Jamie Dimon or Ken Griffin – on big global stages saying ‘This is going to crush us economically.’ And then you’ve got congressmen, senators, saying to this White House ‘our small businesses are strangling, are dying here.'”

"Unless he turns this around, three weeks from now, you walk into a store and we're going to have a covid-like supply chain crisis, and Trump is looking for an exit" — here's the @stephruhle.bsky.social commentary that triggered a Trump Truth Social meltdown

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-05-09T16:31:48.237Z

Everything that Ruhle said was true and verifiable. Conversely, everything that Trump said was fantasy and preposterous. Not to mention un-American and inspired by the authoritarian practices of Trump’s heroes, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Kim Jong Un. But then, what do you expect from a wannabe dictator who doom-scrolls cable TV networks that he despises?

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Trump’s Brain is MUSH! He Struggles to Hype His Weak UK Deal as His Minions Go Full Cult Mode

Posted by on May 8, 2025 at 11:21 am. 1 Comments :

When Donald Trump announced his bizarrely named “Liberation Day” plan to impose his Trump taxes – aka tariffs – on the world, he promised that it would produce billions of dollars in revenue as the deals he would make would be signed at an impossibly accelerated rate, at one point saying that there would be “90 deals in 90 days.”

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Donald Trump

Needless to say, that was just more of the hollow hyperbole that Trump disgorges in place of actual substance or facts. Forty-six days later, Trump has announced only one deal, so he’s 45 deals short. Nevertheless, he has spent the last few days boasting about his failure to fulfill his trade deal promises. Only Trump can brag about failing.

SEE THIS: Trump Brags that He Failed to Sign a Single Trade Deal Since His ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Began

On Thursday morning Trump finally announced a trade deal. It was with the United Kingdom. And in Trump’s mind it was a monumentally historic achievement. He called it a “full and comprehensive,” deal, but also contradicted himself, saying that the details will be “written up in the coming weeks.” When asked about specifics such as beef and movies, he said they would be negotiated separately.

Trump also claimed that “America will raise $6 BILLION DOLLARS in External Revenue from 10% Tariffs.” What he isn’t saying is that that money will be “raised” by Americans paying more for the tariffed products that Trump’s policy has created. What’s more, he isn’t being honest about the benefits of the UK deal. As economics professor Justin Wolfers notes…

Trump's "big" trade deal is with the UK:- It's a framework not a deal- They're our 11th largest trading partner- They're only 3% of US trade (97% to go)- They *already* charge average tariffs of only 1% (limited upside)It's a photo op, not a macroeconomically significant moment.

— Justin Wolfers (@justinwolfers.bsky.social) 2025-05-08T11:35:11.717Z

Despite these facts, Trump’s cult devotees are drooling over him as if he were the second coming of their lord. Leading the pack of Trump apostles is his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, who is infamous for his callous insensitivity toward America’s moms and other Social Security recipients. During Trump’s announcement of the UK deal, Lutnick gushed that…

“I want to make this clear. This was the president’s deal. People think, ‘Oh, that’s not the way it works.’ I have the best dealmaker to my left. If you don’t think that we take advantage of him calling the Prime Minister and getting that deal done, you don’t understand who’s the president of the United States. So he’s the closer. He gets deals done that we could never get done because he understands business, he understands deals, and that’s why we’re here today.”

Lutnick: "I want to make this clear. This was the president's deal. People think, 'Oh, that's not the way it works.' I have the best dealmaker to my left. If you don't think that we take advantage of him calling the PM & getting that deal done, you don't understand who's president. He's the closer."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-05-08T15:07:19.152Z

REALLY? Trump’s understanding of business and deals is limited to his experience of having declared six bankruptcies, and his having been found guilty of 34 felonies related to his financial malfeasance. As for being the “best dealmaker,” he still hasn’t resolved the Israeli/Gaza war or the Russian/Ukrainian war that he said he would end within 24 hours if he was elected.

Another example of Trump’s business acumen came during the UK deal announcement when he said that toy maker Mattel – who said that they will have to raise prices due to Trump’s tariffs – is “the only country I’ve heard that said, ‘we’re gonna try going someplace else.’ Let ’em go and we’ll put a 100% tariff on their Barbies.” That’s right, he said that Mattel is a country. And for his apologists who would dismiss it as a trivial verbal gaffe, he also said he would slap a tariff on them. Which is not something you do to companies, but only to countries.

Trump is utterly INSANE!He calls Mattel a country, and threatens to impose a 100% tariff on it, which would be illegal (you can't tariff a single company).

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-05-08T16:32:18.804Z

This is the level of competence that Trump has brought to the presidency. And it is evident in everything from trade, to economics, to immigration, to foreign policy, to the climate crisis, and more. He has an incomparable way of misunderstanding everything, and then lying about what he failed to grasp. And his embarrassing performance at this trade deal press conference is just the latest affirmation of his flaming incompetence.

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Trump Brags that He Failed to Sign a Single Trade Deal Since His ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Began

Posted by on May 6, 2025 at 1:24 pm. 1 Comments :

The execrable egomania of Donald Trump is on constant full blast. He is congenitally incapable of acknowledging any weakness or failure on his part. In his malignant mind he is infallible and the model of human superiority on a scale that approaches divinity.

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Donald Trump

Consequently, Trump believes that everything he ever does or says is drenched in the purity of perfection. He never makes a mistake, or a bad decision, or misspeaks, or causes any harm, expect when purposely directed at his enemies who deserve it. He has even declared that, unlike everyone else in his faith, he is exempt from asking his god for forgiveness because he never does anything to be forgiven for. No, really!

SEE THIS: Trump Says ‘I Am the Chosen One’ After Tweeting that He’s ‘The Second Coming of God’

On Tuesday Trump met with the new Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. During this meeting Trump disgorged his typical torrent of tantrums, litany of lies, and pitifully ignorant perceptions of the world. For instance, he repeated his preposterous desire to annex Canada as America’s 51st state, which Carney forcefully rejected. And he veered off into his ludicrous claim that he saved California from wildfires. He even gave himself credit for Carney’s election, evidently oblivious to that fact that Canadians, in part, voted for Carney out of disgust for his Trumpy opponent.

Among Trump’s self-serving ramblings (that went on for an interminable 40 minutes), were his outlandish observations on trade and his recessionary tariffs. And naturally, his narcissistic analysis was that they were brilliant and beneficial, despite the harshness of reality. Virtually every reputable economist is predicting increased prices, higher inflation, and impending recession.

Nevertheless, Trump remains delusionally confident, even though he has failed to secure any of the trade deals that he insisted would be made by countries desperate to ingratiate themselves to Trump and/or America. He literally bragged about his utter failure to get any deals signed, saying that “We don’t have to sign deals … they have to sign deals with us.”

TRUMP: We don't have to sign deals … they have to sign deals with us.SHEESH! Trade deals are signed by BOTH parties, not one. And all Trump is doing is pointing out that he has been unable to negotiate a single deal with any of 190+ countries that he's put his idiotic #TrumpTariffs (Taxes) on.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-05-06T18:47:16.266Z

Apparently Trump is unaware that trade deals are agreed to and signed by both parties to the deal. But after a month since he declared that it was “Liberation Day,” no other country has expressed any interest in complying with Trump’s bullying tactics. Including Canada, whose Prime Minister was sitting next to him as he made these asinine remarks.

However, Trump was only just getting started. He went on to boast that he has virtually halted all trade with China, and that that was good because “By not trading, we’re losing nothing. So we’re saving a trillion dollars. That’s a lot.”

TRANSLATING TRUMP: We're not buying groceries or clothes. So we're saving a lot of money.You're also starving and naked, you moron.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-05-06T17:06:23.451Z

Seriously? Trump believes that by cutting off all trade between the U.S. and China that the money that wasn’t spent was therefore saved. Well, maybe so. But we are also deprived of the goods that weren’t purchased. Which could include necessities like food and medicine and energy and building supplies. Just think how much money you could save by not buying your heart medications.

That’s the depth with which Trump understands trade and economics. And the ignorance that he embraces is going to cause some significant misfortune for millions of Americans. In the meantime, he is humiliating himself and America in the eyes of the world. Hopefully they know that he doesn’t represent the majority of us, and that we’re doing everything we can to mitigate his harm and to get rid of him.

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Trump is OUTRAGED at Fox News for Revealing How Unpopular He Is, So He Attacks Rupert Murdoch

Posted by on April 24, 2025 at 10:51 am. 1 Comments :

The American people are increasingly dissatisfied with Donald Trump as he approaches the 100th day of his second occupation of the White House. And that is not the just the opinion of some random “radical left lunatic,” as Trump likes to call all of his critics. It’s the results of a new poll by Fox News.

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Donald Trump, Snowflakes

After several weeks of epically abhorrent fiascos, Trump’s approval rating has descended to new lows. His attacks on lawyers, universities, and of course, the media, only serve to expose his desperation. He is now getting failing grades on virtually every issue that he campaigned on. Although, it’s not as if he hasn’t been scraping the bottom of that barrel for some time.

SEE THIS: Trump 2.0 Begins with Approval Ratings that Rank Below Every Other President Dating Back to 1953

A new Fox News poll confirms the crash of the Corruptor-in-Chief. Overall, Trump’s job approval clocks in at 44%.” His disapproval is at 55%. These numbers are notably worse than Presidents Biden, Obama, Bush, and even himself in his first term. The Fox News reporting on its poll led off on a positive note, but then quickly slid off a cliff…

“President Trump receives his best marks on border security, as a 55% majority approves. That’s the only issue where his ratings are in positive territory. On immigration, a record high of 47% approve of Trump (48% disapprove), while a new low of 38% approve on the economy (56% disapprove). His worst ratings are on inflation (33% approve, 59% disapprove), followed by tariffs (33-58%), foreign policy (40-54%), taxes (38-53%), and guns (41-44%).”

To no one’s surprise, this survey triggered a predictable tantrum from Trump on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social. He lashed out petulantly at his longtime media benefactor, Rupert Murdoch, saying that…

“Rupert Murdoch has told me for years that he is going to get rid of his FoxNews, Trump Hating, Fake Pollster, but he has never done so. This ‘pollster’ has gotten me, and MAGA, wrong for years. Also, and while he’s at it, he should start making changes at the China Loving Wall Street Journal. It sucks!!!”

So Trump is not only blasting Fox News as a disseminator of “fake news,” he’s accusing Murdoch of lying to him “for years” about ditching the pollster that has actually been surprisingly accurate. And he threw in a shot at Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal for kicks. Probably because the Journal’s Editorial Board recently wrote that Trump was waging “The Dumbest Trade War in History.”

Making matters worse, was what Steve Doocy said on Fox and Friends. He began by saying that Trump is “softening his stance on China.” While he characterized that weakness as positive, he elaborated by giving the Fox News viewers some information that was likely to cause them some emotional distress…

“Tariffs are unpopular with the American public. 72% say that the tariffs are making things more expensive. 55% say that they are hurting the economy. And 44% say they are hurting jobs. And when it comes to one other number, when you look at the S&P 500, it has gotten off to the worst start of any presidency going back to 1928, which is when they started keeping records.”

But not to worry, co-host Ainsley Earhardt (Sean Hannity’s girlfriend), chimed in to salve the wounds caused by Doocy’s brief detour into reality, saying that…

“The administration is saying that these projections are fluid, there are several options on the table. The president yesterday, he was out on the White House lawn, he was out there to find a good location to erect this new huge American flag.”

See? Everything is gonna be okay. The cost of living is rising to new heights. Everything from groceries, to gas, to rent, to appliances, to cars, and more, will be more expensive, for no reason other than Trump’s ego and ignorance. But at least we’ll have a giant, useless flag decorating the White House (which already has one on its roof) to wave at and salute on the way to the poorhouse. Good times! And so much winning.

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THE TRUMP INDEX: While Trump Tanks the US Economy, What’s Going on With the Trump Cult Economy?

Posted by on April 13, 2025 at 1:45 pm. 1 Comments :

On what Donald Trump called “Liberation Day” (April 2, 2025) – the day that he liberated most Americans from the funds in their savings and retirement accounts – he promised to revitalize the U.S. economy and bring millions of jobs back from foreign countries that he said were ripping off America by selling way too much of what they produce to American buyers eager for bargains.

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Trump Baby on Cash Pile

Yes, that complaint makes no sense whatsoever to anyone with a 6th grade grasp of economics. Which eliminates Trump. But it is what Trump and his MAGA minions are insisting is the brilliant plan that is elevating the United States to new heights of wealth and is working precisely as it was intended, despite his having reversed course several times and capitulated meekly to foreign adversaries.

SEE THIS: Trump Cult Priestess, Karoline Leavitt, Preaches to ‘Trust in Trump’ to Bring Economic Salvation

In the two weeks that have transpired since being “liberated,” the stock market has gyrated wildly and ended up about 2,000 points lower than where it was before Trump’s tariff blunders, and 4,000 points below where it was when he inherited it from President Biden.

So while the nation – and the world – is suffering the dreadful consequences of Trump’s purposeful incompetence, it seems like a good time to see how all of this has affected what could be called the “Trump Index” a bundle of investments affiliated with the confounder-in chief.

Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT):
The natural place to begin is with Trump’s own business that is the parent of his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social. Investors in this dog have lost about 50% from its price on Trump’s inauguration day twelve weeks ago. And it’s down a whopping 89% from its all time high.

Trump Meme Coin:
This is Trump’s entry into cryptocurrency that he launched on the day before his inauguration. And its performance since then has been a dismal decline of about 90%.

Newsmax (NMAX):
This notoriously pro-Trump MAGA media outlet went public about two weeks ago. Since then it has dropped 91% from its trading highs, making early investors significantly poorer, while simultaneously making them significantly more ignorant.

Rumble (RUM):
This is the MAGA world answer to YouTube. They record and post virtually every public appearance by Trump with unabashedly biased commentary from their Trump-fluffing correspondents. It has declined 43% since Trump’s inauguration.

Tesla (TSLA):
The automaker headed up by Trump’s billionaire oligarch, co-president, and director of the phony Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, has suffered a sever decline of 41% since Trump was sworn into office in January.

But not to worry. Trump and his cabal of billionaires will be just fine. They may have lost a small portion of their wealth, but only their loyal cult followers will feel the brunt of these abysmal investments. The the real targets of their economic assault – the American people – will be the most seriously wounded victims of this class war. And of course, it is, as Trump and his cohorts insist, all going according to their plan. Comforting, isn’t it?

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Trump Cult Priestess, Karoline Leavitt, Preaches to ‘Trust in Trump’ to Bring Economic Salvation

Posted by on April 10, 2025 at 3:14 pm. 1 Comments :

The tendency for the MAGA faithful to sink into despair would be completely understandable after the past couple of weeks of economic decline and the continuing dismantling of the U.S. government. That RUD (“rapid unscheduled disassembly”) has been overseen by an ephemeral agency preposterously dubbed the “Department of Government Efficiency,” and led by an unelected billionaire pal of Donald Trump.

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Donald Trump and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

Trump’s “governing by chaos” method of mismanagement is producing precisely the sort of results that virtually every credible economist predicted way in advance. Both the stock market and the bond market took severe hits, depleting $6 trillion in assets, decimating the savings of millions of Americans, while setting up the uppercrusters to further enrich themselves.

SEE THIS: Did Trump Commit Illegal Stock Manipulation and Insider Trading Prior to His Tariff Cave-In?

in response to this fiscal fiasco, the Trump administration gathered their most reliable apostles and dispatched them to the MAGA media to spread their gospel. Leading the pack was Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who has made more appearances on Fox News than in the White House press room. On Thursday Leavitt sat for a friendly conversation with Fox’s Martha MacCallum. And she read solemnly from the Trump hymnal saying that…

“There’s great reason to be optimistic about America’s economy. Trust in President Trump. Look at what he did in his first term. Companies would be best served doing business right here in the United States.”

Leavitt: "Trust in President Trump. Look at what he did in his first term. Companies would be best served doing business right here in the United States."

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-04-10T19:42:31.602Z

And there you have it. All you need in order to be bathed in the glow of illusory optimism is to place your trust in Dear Leader, who is divine and infallible. And the evidence of his divinity is observed in his miracles of the past.

Just in case you’ve forgotten, During Trump’s first term he presided over the deaths of more than a million Americans due to the COVID pandemic that he grossly mismanaged. The economy was in tatters, and far worse off than every other industrialized nation. More businesses were shuttered than at any time in generations. And Trump was the first president in decades to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he began.

What’s more, Trump tried to extort the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to pressure him to dig up dirt on Joe Biden prior to the 2020 election that Trump still says (aka lies) was “rigged and stolen” from him. And Trump incited a violent and deadly riot by insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to undermine democracy and prevent the certification of Biden’s election. Both of those incidents resulted in his unprecedented two impeachments.

That’s the resume upon which Leavitt is asking you all to rely for confidence going forward in Trump’s second occupation of the White House. And her simplistic suggestion that every company would be better off doing business in the U.S. ignores all of the rational arguments for taking advantage of the many benefits of diversifying production internationally, including labor, real estate, transport, and natural resources.

Leavitt’s plea to the nation to “trust in Trump” is more of the sort of adoration that sets the Trump cult apart from other political movements. This subservient demand for blind devotion is a hallmark of the Trump cabal. It was further affirmed during another one of his adulatory Cabinet meetings where all of his Pharisees are required to demonstrate their veneration of the Master. And venerate they did. For instance…

  • Attorney Genuflect Pam Bondi lied that Trump was “overwhelmingly elected by the biggest majority.” [Trump’s margin was one of the lowest ever]
  • Treasury Sycophantry Scott Bessent celebrated the stock market being “Up two [days], down one is not a bad ratio.” [The stock market has been down five of the last six days]
  • Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins gushed that “What you have assembled in your vision is a turning point in American history.” [That’s actually true, but for all negative reasons]
  • Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler drooled “Mr President, on behalf of America’s manufacturers, I want to thank you…main street is grateful for you.” [Main Street in Moscow]

This is a typical Cabinet meeting for the Trump regime. There is virtually nothing done that advances the interests of the American people. It’s sole purpose is to inflate Trump’s massive yet fragile ego. Like most other cult leaders, he demands to be worshipped. And while his flock will obey, it’s increasingly clear that the American public will not.

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Did Trump Commit Illegal Stock Manipulation and Insider Trading Prior to His Tariff Cave-In?

Posted by on April 9, 2025 at 12:49 pm. NO Comments :

On April 2, 2025, Donald Trump declared that it is “Liberation Day,” in America due to his imposition of punitive tariffs on most of the world that were widely predicted to result in inflation, recession, and unprecedented deliberate harm to the American people and American businesses.

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Donald Trump, Prison

Immediately after Trump’s announcement, the stock market went into free fall, wiping out about $6 trillion in assets and depleting the savings of millions of investors and private citizens, especially seniors who would need those funds as they prepare for retirement. But not to worry, as Fox News warned their glassy-eyed viewers to clam up, because any criticism of Dear Leader and his disastrous economic policies were unpatriotic.

SEE THIS: Fox News to Retirees: STFU About the Huge Losses Due to Tariffs, Because It’s Just Like Wartime

On Wednesday morning Trump did what he swore he would never do: Reverse course and rescind his tariffs. Despite the fact that he adamantly objected to any reports that he was considering to pause his plans, he has now paused his plans for 90 days. And he got absolutely nothing in return for doing so. He posted a rambling comment on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social that said “I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period.”

However, there is another decidedly troubling component to this situation. At 6:37am ET, Trump posted a comment saying that “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!” Then a few hours later he caved on his tariffs that he previously insisted were “here to stay.” So by announcing that it was a great time to buy, when he knew that he would shortly be pausing the tariffs, was he in violation of stock manipulation and/or insider trading laws?

CRIMINAL STOCK MANIPULATION AND INSIDER TRADING?Trump posted a message saying that "THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!" Then a few hours later caved on his tariffs that he previously insisted were "here to stay."Why isn't he in prison? #TrumpRecession

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-04-09T18:18:57.742Z

Trump cannot pretend that his buying advice was unrelated to to his tariff pause, or that he didn’t know about it at the time. His Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, had already tweeted that he and Trump discussed it on the previous Sunday. Bessent wrote that…

“Trump and I had a long talk on Sunday and this was his strategy all along. You might even say that he goaded China into a bad position.”

Clearly Trump knew that he intended to pause his tariffs days before he did so. And he knew how that would affect the market, because on Tuesday a rumor to that effect caused the market to take a sharp upward spike briefly, until the White House shot it down. Also, note that Bessent’s comment included his opinion that Trump never intended to resolve the trade issue with China. Instead, he was hoping to inflame it by “goad[ing] China into a bad position.” How is that in the best interests of the U.S. or the American people?

Furthermore, since Trump’s pause did not include America’s biggest trading partner, China, on whom he actually increased tariffs to 125%, the detrimental impact of the tariffs would remain in tact. What’s more, there are no details of how other countries would be impacted by the pause, or which ones were included. Since Europe, Canada, Mexico, and other countries with significant trading volume did not capitulate to Trump, it would be fair to assume that they were not included in the pause.

Consequently, this pause would have little effect. Pausing the tariffs on tiny nation-states like Lesotho, and an island inhabited only by penguins, isn’t likely to increase America’s trade prospects. However, the advance notice that Trump gave to his MAGA minions could reap them substantial profits. And perhaps for himself as well, since Trump has his own investment portfolio that will likely rise due to his potentially unlawful machinations. Imagine if President Biden had done this. Republicans would be reassembling the guillotine they built on January 6, 2021.

UPDATE: Democratic senators call for probe into possible insider trading over Trump tariff reversal

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Jon Stewart Obliterates Trump’s Abysmal Economic Crapulence: Trump Released the Contagion

Posted by on April 8, 2025 at 11:43 am. NO Comments :

The devastation that millions of Americans have suffered due to Donald Trump imposing his profoundly ignorant torrent of tariffs on nearly every country across the globe (except of course for Russia), has produced results that can and were predicted by knowledgeable economists and trade experts.

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Jon Stewart, Donald Trump

Now, after the stock market has wiped out some $6 trillion in assets, even some of Trump’s biggest backers and donors are starting to call him out for upending America’s relationships with the world, and for needlessly harming so many innocent people, including many of those who voted for him because he promised to lower the cost of living and improve the state of the nation’s economy. Which was already booming when he inherited it from President Biden. Even Fox News is beginning to wobble…

SEE THIS: UH-OH: Fox News Trump-Fluffer Admits that Trump’s Tariffs Will Fuel Higher Prices and Recession

Naturally, the knee-jerk response by the faithful devotees of the Trump cult is to stiffen their noodly spines and lie that everything is fine and is going precisely according to plan. Consequently, we have people like…

Peter Navarro (Trump’s senior counselor for trade) celebrating that “There’s going to be plenty of jobs for robots” as Trump’s policies pan out.

And there’s GOP House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson begging everyone to “give him space,” to let his strategy work. But rest assured that when it fails Johnson will be calling it Biden’s strategy.

And the Trump-fluffers on Fox & Friends are consoling their viewers to relax because “If it doesn’t work, [Trump] can always go back to the way it used to be.” Right! But after all the damage has already been done, who’s gonna reimburse those who lost their life savings? Trump? Fox News?

Another example of a Trumpist pitching a blatantly dishonest perspective on Trump’s still unfolding catastrophe was the Director of his National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, who rushed off to Fox News (where else?) to praise Trump for being a master dealmaker and author of “The Art of the Deal,” In reality, Trump is neither.

While it may seem that there is nothing funny about any of this, Jon Stewart of the Daily Show tackled this subject Monday night and found a way to be both educational and hilarious. He hit on a variety of critical components of the Trump economic fiasco, such as…

  • On Tarriffs: They are both a negotiation and not a negotiation – both temporary and permanent.
  • On Job Creation: Millions of people screwing in little screws – We are robot fluffers.
  • On the Stock Market Crash: We should be impressed by how smoothly it went.
  • On Trusting Great Negotiator Trump: His own book cites his “successes” – Like his casinos that went bankrupt.

As is often the case, comedy is proving to be a better vehicle for informing the public than much of the mainstream news. It not only delivers complex facts in a digestible and understandable format, it offers the emotional release that most people can relate to when confronted by such disturbing facts. Conventional journalists should be watching and taking notes.

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UH-OH: Fox News Trump-Fluffer Admits that Trump’s Tariffs Will Fuel Higher Prices and Recession

Posted by on April 7, 2025 at 1:41 pm. NO Comments :

The legacy of how Donald Trump presided over the fastest reversal of America’s economic fortunes in modern times is already engraved in historical stone. He took a nation with the strongest financial profile in the world, and has led it into a debacle that is dragging the rest of world down with it.

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Fox News, Maria Bartiromo, Donald Trump

This fiasco was 100% generated by the ignorance, arrogance, and ego of Trump, and was completely unnecessary. His boneheaded blanketing of tariffs on nearly every country across the globe (except, of course, for Russia), has resulted in the worst stock market crash since March of 2020, in the midst of a deadly pandemic that he also mismanaged with deadly consequences. And he has no idea whatsoever what to do about any of it.

SEE THIS: TRUST IN TRUMP? That’s the Only Solution Offered By the Trump Cult to Counter His Disastrous Tariffs

On Monday morning, Fox News Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo, hosted a segment of her program to discuss Trump’s deliberate destruction of the American economy. And her commentary was somewhat out of character for someone who is such a reliable devotee of the Trump cult. But that just reinforces how extraordinarily ghastly Trump’s bungling of the business of America has been. When asked about what the impact of Trump’s tariffs will be, she said…

“Well, it is going to have an effect on Main Street. Some things will become higher priced. We will see some products actually be raised in price because companies will pass on the cost of tariffs to consumers. I would expect that.

“That’s why you have some people saying that we could see a recession. We’ll see a growth slowdown. […] U.S. real GDP is on track to decline about one percent in the second quarter, and in the third quarter with unemployment rising.”

You don’t say? This is what credible economists have saying for months. It is a complete repudiation of Trump’s preposterous lies that foreign countries are the ones who pay the tariffs. Bartiromo is acknowledging that it is the domestic importers who pay, and then pass those costs on to consumers. How long will it be before Trump denounces her as a radical left lunatic spreading fake news?

Bartiromo went even further to acknowledge that a recession is a probable outcome of Trump’s idiocy. Although she doesn’t put it in terms quite as stark and accurate as that. In fact, Bartiromo actually appears to have chickened out at the end of her remarks, saying…

“But look, President Trump told us that we were going to see a disruption. We are in that disruption right now. The bottom line is when you’re looking at this situation from 30,000 feet above, he’s trying to rejigger the economy so that the U.S. is not reliant on China for prescription drugs, or Taiwan for advanced semiconductor chips, to try to get manufacturing here. So yes, I do expect this to hit the Main Street and hit prices that will go higher.”

See? It’s all part of Trump’s grand plan. He isn’t throwing the nation into an economic sinkhole. He’s just “rejiggering” it to increase domestic manufacturing. Never mind that tariffs would have the opposite effect because no manufacturer would invest billions of dollars, and several years, to build new factories when Trump’s policies are so unstable, unpredictable, and detrimental to growth.

What’s more, President Biden already got semiconductor, and other tech companies, to commit to domestic production without imposing devastating tariffs. See the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022.

Bartiromo isn’t the only MAGA maven to concede that Trump is sabotaging the U.S. economy. CNN is reporting that a gaggle of billionaire Trump supporters are hammering his economic policies. They are warning of an “economic nuclear winter,” and using terms like “recession,” “stupid, wrong, [and] arrogantly extreme.”

Trump has done a lot of dumb and dangerous things in the few weeks since his reoccupation of the White House. Including shuttering critical government services that will cost lives, firing independent inspectors general, threatening Social Security and Medicare, deporting citizens and legal residents to El Salvadorian gulags, and attacking and suppressing the free press.

But with his appalling economic policies Trump may have angered the one group that he actually cares anything about – his fellow wealthy, uppercrust elitists and greedy oligarchs. Or as he will shortly start to refer to the: radical left lunatics.

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