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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Donald J., media personality and bad businessman, squeaked to power promising a better economy for all Americans. To rein in both government bureaucracy and inflation as well as goosing the American economy back to good health.
And has utterly failed. Grocery prices keep climbing, inflation is increasing, healthcare costs are soaring. A congressional report reveals the average American family shelled out $1,625 more last year.
In a New York Times/Siena College poll, 49% of respondents believe the country is generally worse off today than a year ago. Only 32% think the nation better off. A majority disapprove of how Trump is handling the cost of living (64%) and the economy (58%).
Under Donnie’s direction, Elon Musk’s chainsaws were unleashed against the political infrastructure of this great nation that has protected ordinary people for generations. Promises delivered? Only on tax cuts pushed through for billionaires.
Government spending rose this past year despite Musk’s cuts. Cuts which created chaos in multiple departments including hamstringing the ability of the IRS to effectively collect the taxes which fund the operation of government; the so-called savings pretty paper tigers with lots of bang but little buck.
Gutting the EPA in the face of impending global warming was the falsest saving of all. Climate change is now impacting more Americans harder and harder each year – from SoCal to Texas, from Alaska to Tornado Alley, from Michigan to Southeast – with floods, fires, droughts, hurricanes, heat waves, mudslides, blizzards, tornadoes and more.
Twenty-three of these exceeding $1 billion in losses. All aggravated by the lack of federal expertise and support.
And, facing the growing anger of their voters as prices continued to spin upwards, Congress has quietly cancelled many of the Trump budget cuts from the early months of his reign.
More recently, after a post on Truth Social on January 9th stated Trump “will no longer let the American Public be 'ripped off' by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%” with a subsequent call for a one-year, 10% cap on card rates, effective on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration… nada.
January 20 is in everyone’s rear mirror and the silence is deafening.
As for his cynical and ever fluctuating tariffs, not only have they alienated trading partners, but the added costs are being shouldered almost exclusively by American consumers and small businesses.
An extensive examination by Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, an economic think tank, found foreign exporters paid about 4% of the $200 billion in Trump tariffs collected, with American importers and their customers – you and me – bearing the brunt of the other 96%.
Making tariffs a consumption tax extracted from U.S. household budgets and U.S. businesses’ bottom lines.
The consequences of Trump’s other quite questionable revenue-raising policies have yet to come home to roost.
✔️Promises from trading partners to invest in America, extracted in return for lower tariffs on exports. While tariffs can be applied unilaterally and without delay, markets for goods produced based on American specifications will have difficulty finding replacement markets. Again, the question of legitimacy arises along with how much leverage exists to actually force those countries such as Japan and South Korea to fulfill these pledges.
✔️Proposed $100,000 annual fees for skilled-worker visas which would outrageously impact small businesses that can’t find qualified employees in the United States. And can’t afford such extortion.
✔️Million-dollar plus *fees “Gold Card” expedited residency visas, “Corporate Gold Card” visas for companies wealthy enough to pony up $2 million plus $15,000 per proposed employee non-refundable processing and miscellaneous *fees, and a proposed $5 million plus applicable *fees “Platinum Card” which allows the purchaser to spend up to 270 days in the United States without being subject to U.S. taxes on non-U.S. income.
✔️The hundred million dollars in shakedowns of endowment funds from Columbia, Northwestern, Cornell and other universities to stop trumped-up federal investigations into the schools’ protection of the rights of professors and student activists and reactivate government financing.
✔️Gouging a 25% cut of sales of artificial intelligence chips to China. Which exposes American technology to further hacking and theft.Income from Venezuelan oil stolen in the illegal war to oust a legitimately-elected if somewhat unsavory leader, in violation of international law and without approval by Congress.
✔️A cool billion American dollars or more in cash for permanent membership on Trump’s “Board of Peace” to oversee the exploitation of Gaza in what appears to be a deliberate attempt to create a parallel United Nations solidly under his teeny, tiny, twisting thumb.
However brazen, Trump’s moneymaking initiatives are but modest countermeasures in the larger scheme of things.
As profitable as these may sound, how much of a dent do they actually put in the astronomical losses from his tax giveaways in the Big Bastard Bill that will reduce government revenue by $5 trillion over the next decade.
What about Dictator Don’s desire to boost the Pentagon budget by 50% to $1.5 trillion a projected $6 trillion over the next decade?
What about the half a billion dollars already incurred in the American Führer’s military incursions on American cities to date as documented by the Congressional Budget Office?
What about its projection that such operations, continued, will cost the American taxpayer over $1 billion by the end of the year?
What about the lawsuits over wrongful deaths by ICE?
What about the legal costs and penalties when the administration is forced to return assets stolen from Venezuela and pay compensation for those murdered and infrastructure destroyed. And reimburse the losses from strong-arming tax-slashing for Dirty Don’s foreign-oil friends.
And other potentially horrific expenses arising from his maniacal foreign policy exploits and withdrawals from legal commitments? The billions in unauthorized weapons exports to aid Netanyahu’s bloody-handed authoritarianism?
What about the costs and damages from those thousands of multiple lawsuits that are overwhelming many court dockets at the expense of more legitimate justice needs?
Filed by and against Donnie-boy, those resulting from the actions of those appointed by him or at his behest, yo-yoing from the local level to the Supreme Court?
What about his most recent escapade, suing the IRS for the leak of his tax returns during his first campaign? Especially since every other presidential candidate delivered theirs for the American public’s review as a matter of course?
With an aghast Senator Ron Wyden, top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, seething: “Donald Trump is a cheat and a grifter to his core, and for him to abuse his office in an attempt to steal $10 billion from the American taxpayer is a shameless, disgusting act of corruption.”
What about the $75 billion showered on ICE as additional funding in the Grifter’s signature domestic policy bill?
What about the $75 billion purchase price for Greenland Trump may whack U.S. taxpayers with, purportedly in response to his being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize.
A prize that he certainly didn’t deserve in any conceivable universe other than Fantasyland. And an action certain to divest the United States of its European and Commonwealth allies.
And while $75 billion is no elephant, it isn’t peanuts either; in fact, it’s more than twice the cost of the Obamacare policies that Trump says his government can no longer afford to pay on behalf of the people.
U.S. media, in thrall to Trump, may toe the American Hitler’s party-line claiming tariffs on any country opposing the land grab will bring them to heel. But, again, it will be the U.S. consumers and businesses that stand to suffer, not France, not the United Kingdom, not Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.
Meanwhile, representatives from fascist and authoritarian countries including Argentina, Hungary, Israel, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam seemed eager to jump on the bandwagon of the “Board of Peace” and the overt business opportunities it offers on the Mediterranean coast.
Trump might “feel” better “psychologically” with unfettered access to Greenland, comparing it to the difference between owning and renting. But that ignores the fact that fewer and fewer Americans can afford to buy property in Trump’s America and won’t self-identify. Insofar as the president has a psychological need to own and control things, that may be an issue best addressed through therapy, not military action and threats.
And the main beneficiary of the president’s new policies?
Trump himself.
The New York Times estimates that the Profit-in-Chief has made more than $1,408,500,000 in dirty dollars.
And that’s what’s documented.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
