Social Security

Grifter Trump is Hawking His Stock and Crypto that Have Lost Gullible Rubes Billions of Dollars

Posted by on March 23, 2025 at 1:21 pm. 1 Comments :

Does the magnitude and shamelessness of Donald Trump’s corruption really surprise anyone anymore? Who could have guessed that the convicted felon responsible for bankrupting four casinos, stealing from his own charity, operating a phony university, and shuttering numerous hoaxes hawking everything from steaks, to air travel, to vodka, to magazines, to board games, would now be running money-losing hustles whose sole mission appears to be raking in cash for himself?

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Donald Trump, Stock Market

The audacity with which Trump executes his scams is extraordinary. Most con men are generally conscious of the lawless risks they are taking and strive to disguise the nefarious nature of their scams. But not Trump. In recent days he has transformed the White House into a Tesla showroom to bolster the flagging business of his co-president and oligarch bro, Elon Musk.

Trump also dispatched his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, to Fox News to pump up Tesla’s “unbelievably cheap” stock. Lutnick, who like Trump and much of his Cabinet is a billionaire, also assured Fox News that his mother-in-law wouldn’t mind if her Social Security check didn’t arrive, and anyone who did mind was a “fraudster.” You know, like all those fraudsters who rely on Social Security to pay for rent, groceries, medicine, doctor’s visits, child care, and so many more critical financial obligations.

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

What’s more, Trump is now trying to turn the White House itself into vehicle for bribes. He’s soliciting corporate sponsors for this year’s annual Easter Egg Hunt. Which is, of course, illegal.

In addition to all of the above, Trump just posted on Truth Social a couple of comments whose sole purpose is to enrich himself. Just two minutes apart, Trump bragged that…

“I LOVE $TRUMP — SO COOL!!! The Greatest of them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

[And…]

“TRUTH (Social) is on ‘FIRE’ (in a positive way, of course!). It is my Voice, and the Real Voice of America. Sign up TODAY, I have never let you down!”

This is what Trump is fixated on this morning.[Note: It aint grocery prices or national security or anything that the American people care about. It's just himself]

— News Corpse (@newscorpse.bsky.social) 2025-03-23T19:56:45.109Z

For the record, Trump’s crypto coin is down a whopping 84% from it’s launch a couple of days before his inauguration just two months ago. And Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT), the parent company of Truth Social, is down 50% from his inauguration, 68% year-over-year, and 88% from its all-time high. Suffice to say that those who were gullible enough to invest in those ventures lost billions of dollars.

Trump’s media company has been a disaster from the start. Here is a brief summation of its abysmal history…

Truth Social, Trump’s Pathetic Personal Propaganda Platform, Continues to Bleed Cash
In what may be the least surprising news of the year so far, Donald Trump’s flagship social media enterprise, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) – the parent holding company of his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social – released its annual report on Friday that revealed just how big a failure it is.

Trump Wants to Run America Like his Businesses – Trump Media and Crypto – That are Crashing
Some analysts predicted that Trump’s businesses would enjoy a surge in value after his reelection. That has not been the case. Trump Media has declined 25% just since his inauguration. What’s more, Trump introduced a crypto coin just days before his inauguration. That has crashed 75% since then.”

Trump’s Truth Social is Shedding Users Like a Miserable Childless Woman’s Mangy Cat
The Donald Trump-controlled Truth Social platform recorded its third straight month of declining traffic. Truth Social attracted 2,112,000 unique visitors, down 38% compared to June 2023 when the site generated 3,407,000 unique visitors. It was the platform’s second worst traffic performance since June 2022 when Truth Social had only 1,891,000 unique visitors.

Trump Crime Syndicate: Investors Arrested for Insider Trading in Failing Truth Social Scam
Trump’s associates in his truthless, anti-social media venture were arrested and charged with insider trading. Reports indicate that “the three individuals together made more than $22 million in illegal profits.”

Truth Social Disease: Ads on Trump’s Twitter Ripoff are Mostly Scams and Trump-Fluffing Merch
Advertisers are afraid of their ads being juxtaposed with hate speech and other noxious content. Consequently, the only advertisers who are willing to shell out are sketchy scammers, conspiracy theorists, and junk peddlers.

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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.

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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.

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Trump’s Anti-Press Secretary Talks More to Fox News than to Reporters in the White House

Posted by on February 21, 2025 at 1:26 pm. 2 Comments :

From the earliest days of his public life, Donald Trump has had a love-hate relationship with the media. He whines incessantly anytime he is portrayed in a negative light (e.g. honestly), but craves the constant attention that satiates his massive, yet fragile, ego. It’s a perverse dichotomy that adds fuel to his flaming malignant narcissism.

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Donald Trump and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt

This acutely psychotic ambivalence is evident in Trump’s frequent references to the media as “the enemy of the people,” while simultaneously demanding perpetual, round-the-clock coverage of whatever he is doing or saying regardless of how utterly devoid of newsworthiness or coherence. For instance…

SEE THIS: Trump Bashes the Media as ‘The Enemy’ While Being Fluffed on Fox News By Sean Hannity

The dysfunctional relationship between Trump and the press is all too painfully observable in the behavior of his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. She views her job as one where she acts as the official White House Trump-Fluffer, rather than as a servant of the people tasked with informing the public about critical presidential activities.

To that end, Leavitt has spent most of her time during the first month of Trump’s occupation of the White House visiting with Trump’s Ministry of Propaganda, Fox News. Media Matters reports that she has already made twelve appearances (nearly every other day) on the MAGA-friendly network, along with her White House colleagues who similarly camp out on Fox.

“Top Trump administration officials have appeared on Fox News 124 times since President Donald Trump was sworn in. At least one key nominated or appointed official appeared nearly every day of the past month.”

Leavitt’s tally for Fox News hits comes in third, after Trump’s “border czar,” Thomas Homan (20 visits), and his Counselor to the president, Alina Habba (15 visits). Furthermore, Leavitt’s twelve appearances on Fox is nine more than she has made to the White House Press Briefing Room, where in the past month she has only held three of what used to be called “daily” press briefings.

This is pretty solid evidence that the Trump regime regards Fox News as its certified media dispensary for approved propaganda. Even more so than the White House itself. And it has the advantage of being a safe space where they will encounter only Fox fluffers, and none of those other pesky journalists who ask real and challenging questions with appropriate follow ups. How much more Trumpy can a network get than by actually giving the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, her own primetime show?

SEE ALSO: Trump’s Nepo-Baby-In-Law, Lara Trump, Hired to Host Primetime Trump-Fluffing Hour on Fox News

As an example of the sort of discourse that the Trump team hopes to avoid, watch this exchange between Leavitt and Peter Alexander of NBC News Friday morning, when Alexander attempted to get her to comment on allegations by Trump of fraud in the Social Security system…

ALEXANDER: Fraud, of course, is a crime. So have you turned over evidence of fraud to the Justice Department, and when should we expect to see those indictments?
LEAVITT: It’s a clever question…There has been extensive fraud. If you look at Social Security. In fact, according to an IG report, from the Social Security Administration, there was $71 billion worth of fraud in one single fiscal year that we know about.
ALEXANDER: To be clear that $71 billion was from 2015 to 2022. So it wasn’t in just one year.

ALEXANDER: Fraud is a crime. Have you turned over evidence of fraud to the Justice Department, and when should we expect to see those indictments?LEAVITT: It's a clever question

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-02-21T17:07:50.845Z

That retort by Alexander was as far as he would get with Leavitt. She repeatedly refused to accept reality, and eventually cut him off with a personal insult saying “Why is the media so against cutting waste, fraud, and abuse? [and] We will not be deterred by people like you.” For the record, Alexander was right. The alleged “fraud” did occur between 2015 and 2022, mostly during Trump’s term. And they knew that, as revealed in their own tweet (below). As previously reported…

To begin with, the improper payments were discovered by the Inspector General during Biden’s term. There was no fraud associated with them. Most were overpayments to eligible recipients that were likely recovered. The total amount was only 0.84% of all Social Security payments. Which is evidence that the system is pretty darn efficient.

When the White House press secretary is on Fox News more than in the White House Press Briefing Room, there is a serious problem that reeks of an administration that is determined to deceive, distort, and disseminate propaganda. At this point there is no rational reason why any news organization should tolerate the Trump regime’s lies and disrespect for the free speech that is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. It is long past time to cease their capitulation to the aspiring monarch of Mar-a-Lago.

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FANTASYLAND: Fox News Lies That DOGE Savings (That Don’t Exist) Will Go Back to the People

Posted by on February 18, 2025 at 12:32 pm. 0 Comments :

The task of serving aspiring authoritarian, Donald Trump, as his official Ministry of Propaganda is one that Fox News has eagerly undertaken and performed devotedly for nearly a decade. It’s a sweet gig because all it requires is the willingness to invent and disseminate half-baked fiction suited for kindergartners without the bothersome need to cling to pesky and unnecessary facts.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, Lies

The revolving door between Fox News and the Trump regime that currently occupies the White House spins at a rapid pace. Not only does Trump reserve the majority of media appearances for his fluffers on Fox, he has used the network as his recruiting agency for his Cabinet and other staff, plucking 19 Foxers, so far, to join his administration.

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

On Tuesday morning’s episode of “Outnumbered” on Fox News, co-host Kennedy offered her take on the work being done by Trump’s co-president, Elon Musk, for his bogus Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a wholly contrived agency whose purpose appears to be dismantling the legitimate functions of government in order for Trump to assume unchallenged levels of power, with the side benefit of allowing oligarchs like Musk to steal from the public treasury without any oversight or consequences. To that end, Kennedy rattled off this nonsense…

When you are finding all of this money, when you are taking it back, when you are cutting off future streams of funding, give that back to the American people. Then you will see the economy absolutely explode. And people will once again be able to take out new loans, start new businesses, and will the wonderful things that follow when they have more of their own money.”

That is, in a word, BULLSHIT! First of all, Kennedy’s imagination is running wild about “all of this money” she says is being found. There is, so far, no actual documentation a single penny of waste, fraud, or abuse, found by Musk’s DOGE team of StormTrumpers. Their claims include easily debunked assertions, without evidence, such as that “tens of millions” of Social Security payments have been made to people more than 150 years old. Or that $50 million worth of condoms were sent to Gaza for Hamas.

Secondly, the funds that they falsely claim are being recovered would have been spent on products and services in the performance of the duties of those agencies. That includes infrastructure construction, healthcare, housing, education, agricultural goods, citizen outreach, and more. The loss of that funding would not only harm the Americans for whom it was intended, it would actually be a drag on the economy, as those funds fail to circulate.

Finally, the Trump regime has never even suggested that any savings would go “back to the America people.” To the contrary, they have promised to give it all to the wealthy and to corporations in the form of more tax cuts for the rich that never get redistributed to benefit local economies. Anyone expecting to get a check from DOGE is terminally naïve, and would be better off buying a lottery ticket from that dude outside the corner liquor store swigging whiskey from a discarded Starbucks cup.

As an example of the alleged savings discovered by DOGE, here’s one that Trump’s Rapid Response team posted on Twitter that claimed that about $72 billion in “improper” Social Security payments were found during an audit by the agency’s Inspector General. The Trumpists were all giddy because they thought this proved there was rampant, undetected fraud going on.

However, let’s break this down, shall we? To begin with, the improper payments were discovered by the Inspector General during Biden’s term. There was no fraud associated with them. Most were overpayments to eligible recipients that were likely recovered. The total amount was only 0.84% of all Social Security payments. Which is evidence that the system is pretty darn efficient.

Most notable is the fact that the overpayments were found in the course of a routine audit, which suggests that DOGE is completely unnecessary. And they were found by an Inspector General that Trump later fired, along with 17 others who were doing their jobs admirably.

Now Trump, Musk, and their DOGEbros want to congratulate themselves for sabotaging agencies that the American people rely upon, and they pretend to find savings that they never prove were actually found. That’s par for the course with Trump. His entire existence is a like a reality TV show that is scripted by con artists for a cult base of whining toddlers. At least he knows his audience.

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Kamala Harris Presents: The Creature from the Orange Lagoon

Posted by on October 31, 2024 at 1:06 pm. 1 Comments :

The arrival of Halloween this year precedes another day that may bear some measure of horror for America and the world. Next Tuesday marks the end of the 2024 election season. And with the polls indicating a historically close finish, the nation awaits the frightful possibility of another four years of Donald Trump steering the country toward doom.

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Donald Trump, Fox News, Halloween

The fear that is produced by Trump and his MAGA movement is wholly justified considering the harm that he did the last time he occupied the White House. More than a million Americans died due to his gross mismanagement of a deadly pandemic. And the economic catastrophe that ensued, the loss of jobs, the racial division, the reversal of constitutional rights, the ridicule from international allies, and so many more monstrous consequences of the Trump years, make it understandable why he is too scared to face any scrutiny.

SEE THIS: Scaredy Trump Cowers Behind Sean Hannity – Still Too Afraid of Non-MAGA Media and Kamala Harris

As a warning about the wretchedness that would result in the wake of a Trump victory, Kamala Harris released a video that should scare the bejeebus out of rational, patriotic Americans: “The Creature from the Orange Lagoon.”

Holy Smokes! That’s petrifying. And voters need to heed this warning and do everything possible to prevent the plague of Trumpism from taking hold.

For his part, Trump is lashing out at Harris in the the most typically Trumpian manner. He posted a comment to his failing Twitter ripoff, Truth Social that raged…

“Just watched Kamala’s Fake News Conference – ALL LIES! She is desperate but, more importantly, she looks totally EXHAUSTED! She should rest now, and leave the Campaigning to me!”

That tirade was another festival of psychotic projection by Trump. He is notorious for his pathological lying, his persistent and whiny desperation, and his physical feebleness. So he’s accusing Harris of suffering from the maladies that afflict him. In a previous posting, Trump was more elaborate, saying that…

“Lyin’ Kamala is giving a News Conference now, saying that I want to end the Affordable Care Act. I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about such a thing. She also said I want to end Social Security. Likewise, never mentioned it, or thought of it. She is the one that wants to end Social Security and, she will do it, by putting the millions of Migrants coming into our Country into it. Kamala is a LIAR! Everything that comes out of her mouth is a LIE. It’s MADE UP FICTION, and she’s doing it because she’s losing, and losing BIG!”

For the record, Trump and the Republican Congress tried dozens of times to repeal the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). And MAGA Mike Johnson recently said that he is still planning to try again. When Sen. John McCain famously gave a thumbs down on one of those attempts. Trump went ballistic on him. And in December of 2023, he promised to get rid of Obamacare and replace it with his own plan that he never actually produced, despite repeatedly claiming that it would be revealed in “two weeks.”

“Obamacare is too expensive, and otherwise, not good healthcare. I will come up with a much better, and less expensive, alternative! People will be happy, not sad!”

As for Social Security, Trump’s budget contained cuts to the beloved program every year that he was in office. And a recent analysis of his plans should he be reelected were decidedly gloomy. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget…

“[E]very one of Trump’s favorite ideas in this campaign would accelerate Social Security’s time to insolvency and increase the resulting cuts to benefits.”

Just the thought of Trump returning to any position of power is terrifying. His blueprint for his neo-fascist regime, Project 2025, is ghastly. And his aspirations of authoritarianism are spine-chilling. But these are not Halloween pranks. They are the manifestation of a Trump nightmare administration that even his closest associates fear. Which makes it all the more imperative that we spend the next few days making certain that he will never again step his bone-spurred feet into the White House.

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MAGA: Make American’s Golden-Years Awful – Trump Advocates Cutting Social Security – Again

Posted by on March 11, 2024 at 1:19 pm. 1 Comments :

The debate over entitlements has a long history that reveals one of the most defining differences between the Democratic and Republican parties. Democrats were responsible for implementing broadly popular programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And they still support them. Most Republicans staunchly opposed them from the beginning, and still seek to diminish or terminate them.

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Donald Trump has been all over the map on this issue, generally based on whether his variable positions benefit him at the time. More often than not he has sided with right-wingers who are against these programs. But occasionally – when it suits his interests – he will claim to be a supporter.

For instance, Trump criticized Ron DeSantis for proposing cuts to entitlements. Even though they were some of the very same cuts that Trump has proposed. To be clear, Trump was not supporting entitlements. He was attacking DeSantis. And his opposition goes all the way back to his first campaign…

SEE THIS: GOP Insider Leaks Donald Trump’s Secret Plan To Slash Social Security

On Monday morning Trump was interviewed by rightist shill, Joe Kernan, on CNBC. Kernan raised the subject of entitlements with a blatantly leading question and attempted to get a coherent response from Trump. Which is always a loser’s mission. The exchange confirmed Trump’s commitment to undermining the programs that ensure quality of life for America’s seniors.

Kernan: Have you changed your outlook on how to handle entitlements? Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. It seems like something has to be done. Or else we’re gonna be stuck at 120% of debt to GDP forever.
Trump: So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting. And in terms of, also, the theft and bad management of entitlements. Tremendous bad management of entitlements.

Kernan’s question has his bias built into it. He is more concerned about deficits than human lives. As for Trump, his answer is his latest embrace of a policy aimed at cutting benefits for entitlement programs. Then he adds that he would also address waste, something he obviously had no interest in doing for the four years that he previously occupied the White House.

This would be a good time to point out that entitlement programs are not welfare. They are paid into by the eventual recipients, and they are not included in budget deficit calculations. Although, their funds are often used to offset those deficits.

It is also important to note that – as both Kernan and Trump agree – there are things that can and should be done. But cutting isn’t among them. Neither of them mention that contributions to the Social Security Trust Fund are capped for high income taxpayers. If that cap were raised it would eliminate any threat of underfunding for decades to come.

It would be foolish to ignore Trump’s knee-jerk reaction to inquiries about entitlements. Despite what he might say in certain venues in order to pander to voters, he is squarely opposed to them and yearns to slash them. He has tried before, and his GOP confederates in Congress are determined to send him legislation to do so, if given the opportunity. And this is not just an issue for seniors. It is an issue for anyone who hopes to someday be a senior, and to anyone with elderly parents or other family.

This interview is just the most recent affirmation of Trump’s anti-entitlement crusade. And along with cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy, it will be a core part of the Trump/MAGA agenda.

It’s comforting to note that President Biden, in his State of the Union address last week, vowed to stop anyone in Congress who tries to cut these programs. Which is just another of the many reasons to work furiously for his reelection. And to that end, his campaign just released a video showing the past attempts by Trump to rob America’s seniors and future seniors…

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