Economy

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.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

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?

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

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.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

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.

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

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. 0 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.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

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

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

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

Posted by on April 8, 2025 at 11:43 am. 0 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.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

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.

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

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. 0 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.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

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.

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

The Daily Show Hysterically Skewers Trump and Republicans for Blatantly Lying About Tariffs

Posted by on April 4, 2025 at 1:36 pm. 1 Comments :

Two days after “Liberation Day” (as Donald Trump likes to call the day he imposed his disastrous tariffs on the world), the stock market is once again in a tailspin, erasing much of the gains from the past few months and depleting the savings of millions of investors and especially retirees. It’s the worst decline since March of 2020, during COVID. And it’s a wholly self-inflicted economic apocalypse that Trump somehow regards as proof that everything is – in his own words – “going well.”

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

Donald Trump Circling the Drain

Sure it is. It’s going to be just fine if you happen to have a few billion dollars and can spend your days playing golf and sailing on your superyacht. The rest of us need to just STFU and put our blind faith behind Dear Leader Trump who, despite having bankrupted four casinos, and presided over the last stock market crash, and has embraced the world’s wealthiest robber barons (Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Putin, etc.), is hailed by the MAGA cult as an infallible messiah.

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

As is often the case, the truth about many of America’s most prominent catastrophes has been summed up in the insightful political satire of The Daily Show. Host Michael Kosta did a better analysis of Trump’s tariff fiasco than much of the mainstream media. He began by putting the blame for the nation’s ills where it belongs… On all of us.

“Whether you like it or not, Republicans don’t want to hear your bitching, because we all knew this was coming.”

[Plays clip of MAGA media hacks saying that everyone knew prices would go up]

“That’s right voters. You can bellyache all you want, but we all knew what we were voting for. Trump was very honest during the campaign that tariffs would drive prices higher, right? Right? RIGHT?”

[Plays clip of Trump promising that tariffs would not drive prices higher]

“Okay, technically he said prices wouldn’t go up, but in his defense, he was lying. And you should have known that, so that’s on you.”

See? It’s the fault of voters for not knowing that everything Trump says is a lie. And sadly, in this regard, Kosta is actually making a good point. The people who voted for Trump had mountains of evidence, compiled over dozens of years, that he couldn’t be trusted to tell the truth about anything. And yet, they voted for him hoping that this time he would come through and fulfill the promises that he made, despite having no idea how to do so, or any record of having done it in the past.

The question going forward is whether those voters will believe anything that Trump is saying now. He continues to defend his horrendously harmful policies, even insisting in an all-caps post on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.”

That declaration is wrong on so many levels. First of all, he has already said that he would change his tariff policies for any country that agrees to make concessions. Secondly, never changing the policies, if he held to that, would mean permanent tariffs and permanent higher costs for American consumers. Third, this comment was meant to assuage the concerns of potential investors, who already don’t trust him and regard him as unreliable and unstable. For good reason.

So Trump’s declaration that his policies will never change is not only another lie, it would be devastating if it happened to be a rare instance of him telling the truth. Which, to be fair, he has done on occasion. For instance, on Friday morning he posted a comment on Truth Social that was surprisingly honest, saying that “Trump is Purposely Crashing The Market.” Of course he is. Because…because…be…oh f*ck it!

Trump actually posted this on his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that "Trump is Purposely Crashing The Market."There…Feel better now?

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-04-04T17:10:53.997Z

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

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

Posted by on April 3, 2025 at 1:34 pm. 1 Comments :

Now that “Liberation Day” – as Donald Trump calls the day he imposed his recessionary Trump Tax/tariffs – has come and gone, the consequences of his glaring ignorance and greed are being seen in the stock market, where investors are voting with their wallets to get out of the U.S. economy before it slides into recession or worse.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

Donald Trump, Stock Market

Even before Trump’s tariffs, the economy that he has mismanaged so terribly was crashing like a SpaceX rocket. March was the worst month for the stock market since December of 2022. Job creation has slowed. And consumer confidence has nose-dived. Not that Trump cares anything about any of that. His only interests are in what benefits him and his wealthy benefactors.

Meanwhile, his MAGA media propagandists have been struggling to put a happy face on his failures. And anyone who disagrees needs to keep their mouths shut and accept that it’s their lot to suffer so that Trump et al can prosper.

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

In the midst of the market meltdown, Trump dispatched his cult proselytizers to paper over the catastrophe that he has created. It is a full-on blitz of bullsh*t aimed at convincing his gullible followers that everything is hunky-dory. Pay no attention to that crater in your 401K. In fact, it’s all going according his divine plan that cannot fail, but that he cannot disclose.

For example, Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, told CNN that everyone just needs to stop worrying and be happy. Dear Leader has everything under control. Y’all are too stupid to comprehend his plans. So…

“Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He’s knows what he’s doing. He’s been talking about it for 35 years. You gotta trust Donald Trump in the White House. That’s why they put him there. Let him fix it. It’s broken. Let him fix it. Thirty-six trillion dollar deficit is gonna ruin our children’s lives and our grandchildren’s lives. Let Donald Trump fix the American economy.”

Cult Pastor, Howard Lutnick, delivers today's sermon exalting Dear Leader Trump:"Let Dear Leader do whatever he wants. He has already bankrupted 6 companies & led many other failures. You must trust him & obey him. Let him "fix" the economy on behalf of his oligarch apostles."

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T16:48:22.264Z

Got that? Just let Dear Leader fix everything with his magic thumbs up sign. He knows what he’s doing. After all, he only has six bankruptcies and dozens of other failed enterprises, from board games to vodka to universities, and more. And he only killed a few hundred thousand people by mishandling a deadly pandemic. And he only presided over the worst era of American diplomacy, alienating our allies and embracing our enemies. So just let him fix it. Okay?

For another example, on Thursday morning’s episode of “Outnumbered,” Fox News co-host Kayleigh McEnany (and former Trump press secretary) gushed adoringly that – as noted above – Trump has everything under control. Just follow him blindly.

“You heard the White House there saying this is not part of a negotiation. This is here to stay. I firmly believe that is posturing. This is the great dealmaker, the great negotiator, and he’s someone who understands how to get to a good end result […] We’ll see what happens, But I would not be surprised if the great negotiator has an end game in mind.”

See? He “has an end game in mind.” So don’t be surprised, dammit. How dare anyone question his plans that he won’t reveal. But you do have to wonder by what measure these people believe that Trump is a “great negotiator”? What great negotiation has he ever concluded? Virtually every one of his business ventures have failed or underperformed. His idea of negotiating is threatening people and refusing to pay. His alleged deal-making prowess is limited to his name being on the cover of a book called “The Art of the Deal” that somebody else wrote.

Therefore, why should anyone trust Trump about anything? Particularly anything related to economic matters. If you really want to know what people think of Trump’s tariffs, listen to what some of his current cult apostles said before they drank the Kool Aid…

Everyone of these MAGA GOP hypocrites are now kowtowing to Trump and supporting the Trump Tax – aka Tariffs – despite the fact that they know they hurt American consumers and will result in higher inflation and recession.Because they are cowards and/or cultists.

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-04-03T18:20:42.486Z

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

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

Posted by on April 1, 2025 at 1:57 pm. 1 Comments :

Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump made a plethora of promises that he said would be fulfilled on “day one” of his term if he were reelected. Chief among these was his pledge to reduce the prices of everything from groceries to automobiles, all while cutting taxes and protecting Social Security and Medicare.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

Go Fox Yourself

However, in just the first two months of his reoccupation of the White House, Trump has managed to renege on his promises and, even worse, he has presided over increases in the prices of most consumer goods. And those increases are only going to get worse as he escalates his boneheaded trade war, imposing his Trump Tax – aka tariffs – on America’s allies that will be paid for by American shoppers.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Press Secretary Visits Fox News to Contradict Her Boss’s Lies About the Cost of Tariffs

The Trump economic agenda is, according to most economists, barreling headlong into recession or worse. So naturally, Fox News is rushing to the rescue with sycophantic propaganda that would make North Korea’s happy talk media puppets blush. Case in point, Harris Faulkner, co-host of Fox’s Outnumbered, addressed the sacrifices that we all must endure if we hope to MAGA (Make America Grovel Again)…

“The ‘401K people – those retirees, all of that – Just talk in ‘plain speak’ with them. Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with their materials at home and making things for weaponry and all that. We’ve gotta do 100% buy in over this bumpy period. Just communicate.”

Harris Faulkner on how Trump should talk to "401k people" worried about tariffs hurting them: "Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with their materials at home and making things for weaponry. We have to do 100% buy in over this bumpy period"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-04-01T16:52:05.162Z

That’s right! Those greedy, selfish “401K people” should STFU and accept their burden in order to force America’s enemies – Canada, Mexico, Europe, etc., – into submission. After all, we’re at war, aren’t we? Maybe they should start raising their own chickens for eggs, and crocheting car seat upholstery. Because how else will America be able to afford all of those tax cuts for Trump and Elon Musk and the rest of the billionaire oligarchy?

Faulkner is advising the Trump regime to communicate in “plain talk.” Which in Trumpese translates to “lies” and “hollow platitudes” and other rhetorical means of deceit and deflection. That would explain Trump’s plain talking Commerce Secretary, billionaire Howard Lutnick, who gleefully disclosed that his mother-in-law wouldn’t mind if her Social Security check didn’t arrive for a few months. Surely your family can say the same, right?

Faulkner may not be aware that most of the “401K people” are not retirees. They are working people who are saving for retirement that may be decades away. However, the ones who are already retired are the the most at risk, because they don’t have the timeline to earn back any losses incurred by Trump’s financial foolishness. They are just what professional economists say are “sh*t outta luck.” Too bad for them.

Meanwhile, everyone else just bears with the downturn, that for the month of March, has already seen the stock market suffer its worst decline since December 2022. Well, almost everyone else. You will be relieved to know that the wealthy class that Trump serves will be just fine. They will retain their riches, pay less taxes on them, and make their own purchases through international channels that avoid Trump’s tariffs.

But they ought not to get too comfortable. There is an expiration date on their free ride on the backs of the peasants that they abhor. Because the monarchs and their aristocracy do not generally fair well when the people rise up to claim what is rightfully theirs. And that day is coming.

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

PHEW! Trump’s Billionaire Commerce Secretary is Cool If His Mom’s Social Security Doesn’t Come

Posted by on March 21, 2025 at 3:25 pm. 4 Comments :

Are you better off than you were four – or eight – weeks ago? That paraphrase of the famous question once asked by Ronald Reagan has a distinctly more ominous ring to it today as Donald Trump reprises his occupation of the White House. In the short time that he has presided over the nation he has exceeded the worst predictions of the harm that his ignorant and incompetent stewardship would provide.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

Social Security Hands

Ever since Trump’s inauguration, the prospects for the financial well being of America and the American people have declined precipitously. Most economists are predicting a recession. Prices for many common consumers goods (gas, groceries, housing, etc.) have risen. And Trump’s punitive, inflationary tariffs promise to make things even worse.

SEE THIS: Trump’s Press Secretary Visits Fox News to Contradict Her Boss’s Lies About the Cost of Tariffs

But not to worry. Trump himself is going to be just fine. He is fully engaged in a White House based grifting operation that is keeping him flush with corrupt endeavors such as his floundering media company, and his crypto coin, both of which have lost billions of dollars for most investors not tied to the immediate Trump family. However, they provide a neat vehicle to make contributions (e.g. bribes) to Trump.

What’s more, the oligarch class to which Trump has pledged fidelity is also going to be just fine. As evidence of that, Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, made an appearance on the All-In podcast, whose hosts are right-wing venture capitalists, including Trump’s AI and Crypto Czar, David Sacks.

During the discussion with this mutual adoration society, the subject of Social Security came up. Specifically, there were questions about the viability of the program in the wake of the efforts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Elimination (DOGE) to undermine and eventually terminate it. With regard to that, Lutnick offered a little parable…

“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law – who’s 94 – she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d just think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling, and complaining.”

Oh Cool… This billionaire (Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick) is cool with his mother not getting her Social Security check on time.Is your mother cool with that? Are you?

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-03-21T18:54:25.485Z

See? No problem. Except for one small detail. Not everyone’s family is fortunate enough to have a billionaire like Lutnick in it. While his mother-in-law could comfortably skip a month or thirty, most families can’t. Missing a month to the average Social Security recipient could mean missing a rent payment, missing meals, skipping medications and doctor’s visits, forfeiting child care services, and so many more financial obligations being unmet.

And if that’s not bad enough, Lutnick mocks anyone who might have reasonable complaints about the suffering that Trump is causing, and accuses them of being “fraudsters.”

The prospect of Social Security failing to send out benefit checks on schedule has never been as imminent as it is today. That is solely due to DOGE seeking to cut staff, end telephone access, appoint hostile administrators, and require in-person servicing, while simultaneously closing offices.

It is the clear intent of the Trump regime to sabotage the program that Musk has preposterously called “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” A characterization that is utterly absurd since it is funded by the contributions of the recipients throughout their working lives. And if funding were an issue due to the fluctuations of population, it could easily be resolved by removing the arbitrary salary cap that allows wealthy earners like Trump, Musk, and Lutnick, to avoid paying into the Social Security trust fund at the same rate as working class Americans.

Lutnick’s flaming insensitivity to the financial burdens of ordinary people is typical of the ultra-elitist mindset of the Trump administration. They can’t comprehend that there are people living check-to-check because they are so wrapped up in their excess. But that selfish blindness will not go unnoticed by Americans living on Social Security, or who will be, or their children, or other family members and caregivers. And Trump and Company will pay the price for their callous “let them eat cake” indifference to the realities that most people endure.

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.

Trump’s Press Secretary Visits Fox News to Contradict Her Boss’s Lies About the Cost of Tariffs

Posted by on March 13, 2025 at 12:45 pm. 1 Comments :

The utterly unnecessary trade war that was started by Donald Trump continues to escalate wildly as the targets of his wrath – mainly historical allies of the U.S. – attempt to deal with his incomprehensibly reckless and childish behavior. Trump’s latest attack is on the European Union and their alcohol products, and was triggered by the E.U. having the gall to defend their markets from Trump’s inbred hostility.

Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky

Donald Trump and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

From the inception of this economic battle, Trump has steadfastly clung to a justification that has no basis in reality. But despite that absence of any rational foundation, Trump knows that he can rely on his Ministry of Propaganda – aka Fox News – to run cover for him.

SEE THIS: Fox News Trump-Fluffer Insists that the Coming Trump Recession Has Nothing To Do With Trump

Trump’s erstwhile Anti-Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made yet another visit to Fox News to spin her web of lies for the network’s cult viewers. She actually spends more time on Fox News than she does in the White Press Briefing room. And on this occasion she came prepared to unleash a particularly egregious falsehood concerning the Trump Tax (aka tariffs)…

“The president will continue to effectively utilize tariffs while again driving down the cost-of-living in this country. Both things can happen at the same time. Just look at president Trump’s first term as an example. When he left office inflation was a low 1.4 percent.”

There’s a lot of wrong in that brief bit of babble. Let’s begin with the fact that interests rates were low at the end of Trump’s first term because the nation was still recovering from the catastrophic effects of the deadly COVID pandemic that Trump so horribly mismanaged. That is not a scenario that any sane person wants to repeat.

More to the point, Leavitt’s claim that Trump can impose tariff’s and drive down the cost-of-living at the same time is preposterous. Trump himself “has recently acknowledged that tariffs will cause a ‘disturbance.’ [and he] declined to predict that America would avoid a recession as a result of his trade policies.” So Leavitt is straight-up contradicting her boss.

For the record, Trump’s tariff policy is grossly incoherent. On one hand he says that “tariffs” is a “beautiful word” and that they will will raise billions of dollars and greatly improve the economy. On the other hand he says that he will remove the tariffs if his bullying tactics result in our trading partners reciprocating. So he is pledging to revoke the very thing that he said will make America wealthy and boost the economy. Also, he continues to lie that other countries pay the tariffs when, in fact, they are paid by U.S. importers who generally pass the costs on to American consumers.

Even Trump’s argument that the tariffs will cause U.S. consumers to buy American is nonsense. First of all, if we buy American, we don’t get the funds that Trump lies are generated by the tariffs. What’s more, the reason so many products are imported is because they are made cheaper overseas. If we have to buy American, we will be paying more for those products. Unless American companies slash salaries and jobs in order to compete.

So with Trump’s policies we’re paying more if we buy domestic. But we’ll also pay more if we buy imported. And as a bonus he’s hurting American workers. It’s a lose-lose-lose proposition for Americans across the board, and a recipe for economic turmoil. He appears to be determined to spark either a recession or inflation. Do you think that Trump cares? (You don’t have to answer that).

RELATED STORIES:

Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse
on Twitter and Facebook and Bluesky and Threads.

And check out my books on Amazon:

Fox Nation vs. Reality:
The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.

Thanks so much for your support.