Who’s winning?
Domestic US automobile manufacturers are subject to a 50% tariff on steel - resulting in the highest steel prices on the planet, a 25% tariff on parts imported from Mexico and Canada along with a 65%+ tariff on Chinese LCDs and electronics.
The European Union can manufacture cars with zero steel tariffs, 4% Chinese tariffs, and zero tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada.
EU auto exports to the US are subject to a 15% tariff.
The Art of the Deal.......
Last Friday's Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky was ostensibly intended to discuss peace negotiations concerning the Russia-Ukraine conflict and to finalize a natural resources agreement. However the meeting devolved into a heated exchange with Trump accusing Zelensky of being ungrateful and risking global conflict by not pursuing peace with Russia. Vice President JD Vance criticized Zelensky for discussing policy matter publicly, leading to an abrupt end to the meeting without a signed agreement.
Naturally, the incident drew significant attention both here and abroad with numerous world leaders expressing support for Zelensky and criticizing President Trump's approach. Leaders from countries such as Canada, Norway, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Moldova condemned Trump's remarks and reaffirmed their commitment to supporting Ukraine against Russia's invasion.
Given the contentious nature of the meeting, the choreographed timing of Vance's entry into the fray gives the appearance of not merely a theatrical performance, but a planned public setup. The first thing that came to mind was the boardroom scene of the Final Episode following another lame season of The Apprentice. I digress.
The lack of any substantive outcomes and subsequent international reaction seems to imply that the meeting had significant implications beyond just the political theater. Precisely what they are remains to be revealed. Is Trump ten moves ahead in a three dimensional chess match; or is he simply chaotic? You pick.
Nonetheless, I sort of saw it coming; like a slow moving train wreck. There were earlier signals from Secretary Hegseth, the US joining both North Korea and Russia in the vote at the United Nations (China abstained), along with Trump's parroting of Kremlin talking points. I shared with a couple of pals that I figured Trump was going to orchestrate things in a way that Putin would get the whole shebang in the end. Time will tell.
Does this suggest we've signaled to the world that we're done with 70+ years of transatlantic alliances; trading all of it for an alliance with a ruthless blood-soaked gangster like Vladimir Putin and his rapidly failing Russian state?
Or was this a garden-variety Mafiosi protection racket? Listen-up youse. Give us your raw earth minerals, or your dry-cleaning shop, izza gonna burn down, see.
Why does Trump have a hard-on for Putin?
Why isn't Putin being held to account?
Does Zelensky understand a bad deal is better than a good war?
Judging from the reaction in the cesspool called Face Book, the base is loving the red meat. Of course the base has also turned a blind eye, or loves, (you pick) the forcible abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia. Similarly, supporters of Ukraine were quick to post their own collection of cut and paste unoriginal memes. Although I didn't note anyone volunteering to send their children or grandchildren over there to join the fight.
It's too soon and uncertain to know where this takes us. Although for the first time this year I watched all the Sunday morning talking heads on both sides as White House spokespeople twisted them selves in convoluted knots in an attempt to explain this is ten moves ahead three dimensional chess and not simply chaos.
What I've learned over the years is that Trump means what he says and he closed the Friday drama with this:
This is going to be great television. I will say that.
Thanks for reading and stay-tuned. Hardly a dull moment nowadays.
In the aftermath of the inauguration of Donald Trump we've witnessed the exiling of DOGE Bro Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk's waffling on his promise of $2 trillion of government spending cuts.
I have two DOGE updates: Privacy and Theatrics.
Last week we learned that a federal judge halted access to the US Treasury's payment systems by Elon Musk's team of DOGE apparatchiks. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by 19 state attorneys general accusing the president of failing to faithfully execute the nation's laws when he granted DOGE unfettered access to the federal payments system.
The White House had previously defended the DOGE's access as READ-ONLY, yet in the ruling the judge specifically invoked the Watergate Era Privacy Act of 1974, which states: no agency shall disclose any record which is contained in a system of records by any means of communication to any person or to another agency.
Let me begin by making abundantly clear I'm all about rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. I embrace audits that adhere to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. I believe in accountability. I place a high value on transparency. I hold close Reagan's admonition to Trust, But Verify. Privacy is at the top of my list; which happens to be why I applaud the court ruling.
I would not voluntarily release my tax returns, charitable contributions, investment account and banking information, social security records, medicare details (including health records) or any other personal identifiers or privileged information to anyone without my prior written consent and assurance this information would be safeguarded.
Rooting out fraud while simultaneously erecting appropriate firewalls to protect the integrity of a citizen's privileged personalty are not mutually exclusive. In my previous life my employer guarded this same information on behalf of their clients as if it were the Crown Jewels. A security breach was always on the short list of of existential risks facing any financial services firm.
To-wit, a couple of my MAGA pals think I'm nuts. I'm overreacting. Between you and me, for a couple of guys who howl at every opportunity about their impeccable conservative credentials; privacy ranks close to the bottom of priorities.
Go figure.
Considering that Mr. Musk hasn't passed senate review or approval, has not received a security clearance, issued written ethics guidelines, or defined for anybody what he and his team intend to do with this data; naturally many of us have concerns. Will they safeguard your identity? Share it with whomever they please? Retain it indefinitely? Sell it? Blackmail people with it?
The question to you, dear readers, is the defense of personal information unreasonable?
Would YOU voluntarily release the foregoing to Elon Musk without reservation?
Ponder that.
Meanwhile, DOGE has dismantled a Federal agency - USAID. I've substituted a WIKI web link as the official .Gov website has been disappeared. Meanwhile the name of the agency has been stricken from the building.
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| Image - NBC |
Meanwhile, I want to highlight the messaging power of what is known in political vernacular as a Play to the Base*
Both Democrats and Republicans engage in these dramatic flourishes; and in this instance Elon Musk is championed for slaying the Great White Whale of foreign aid corruption. Apologies for the Herman Melville metaphor but Trump is a master of this sort of theater.
Consider this:
As crazy as it sounds opinion polling suggests that a plurality of Americans believe anywhere from 25 to 31 percent of the entire federal budget is foreign aid. Wasteful fraud and abuse. Every last damn dollar going to ungrateful heathens. Naturally, that belief is fallacious because it is opinion and not fact. US foreign aid (economic, nutrition, health and military) has historically hovered around 1% of the entire US budget; with USAID a small part of that total. I've blogged about this before.
2023 aid managed by USAID totaled about $40 billion. You and I would likely agree that this sounds like a king's ransom to an average American; correct? Yet in the grand scheme of our federal budget it is pocket change in the government's couch cushions.
If you unpack the numbers in the context of the entirety of the federal budget the savings amounts to 2% of Elon Musk's $2 trillion savings boast.
Considering the context of erasing an entire agency; and assuming Washington never feeds another hungry Sub-Saharan child, vaccinates any heathens suffering an epidemic or offers any similar disaster aid these savings become basically permanent. I take no issue that they are savings. They are permanently exceedingly small.
Even so, in the eyes of Trump supporters Musk is a Giant Killer.
The melodrama of sweeping furloughs of slothful and ungrateful government workers, the erasure of an entire agency along with the trope of chiseling the name from the facade of the empty building is as close as you can get to modern-day angry Jesus giving the money changers the heave-ho from the temple.
The theatrics are priceless.
So, let's agree this scalp in Musk's belt in only the first three weeks of the administration is yeoman's work. Or is it like the Battle of the Greasy Grass? Spoiler Alert: The plains Indians took many scalps and still lost the war.
Ask yourself this:
Is the DOGE willing to hunt and scalp the prize 800 pound gorilla?
Or the administration to settle on collecting some small scalps for Reality TV* and forfeit the war?
Only time will tell.
Pro Tip Alert! Be sure to stock-up on popcorn and adult beverages. Both a Budget Reconciliation and the Debt Ceiling are in the on-deck circle. I'm told it's gonna be easy peasy as Trump controls both Houses of Congress.
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