The Second Term of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America
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Shiftless2
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Trump lies again (hard to imagine isn't it)
A real analysis shows that Trump is incorrect; AGAIN.
As Bloomberg wrote today, based on Commerce Dept data, "US Trade Deficit Widens, Capping One of Biggest Since 1960"
"The US trade deficit widened in December, capping a turbulent year of erratic tariff policy....The goods and services trade gap expanded from the prior month to $70.3 billion, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. The shortfall culminated in a full-year deficit of $901.5 billion, still one of the largest in data back to 1960."
Even though the US v China deficit declined, China had a $1.2 trillion trade SURPLUS.
Trump actually achieved the exact opposite of what he promised as he collected ~$300B in his tariff tax on US citizens and companies.
"The December deficit reflected a 3.6% increase in the value of imports. Exports of goods and services declined 1.7%. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a $55.5 billion overall shortfall....The trade data were notably volatile in 2025 on a month-to-month basis as US importers reacted to a persistent drumbeat of tariff announcements from President Donald Trump. Gold and pharmaceutical imports were particularly choppy as companies raced to beat higher duties."
A real analysis shows that Trump is incorrect; AGAIN.
As Bloomberg wrote today, based on Commerce Dept data, "US Trade Deficit Widens, Capping One of Biggest Since 1960"
"The US trade deficit widened in December, capping a turbulent year of erratic tariff policy....The goods and services trade gap expanded from the prior month to $70.3 billion, Commerce Department data showed Thursday. The shortfall culminated in a full-year deficit of $901.5 billion, still one of the largest in data back to 1960."
Even though the US v China deficit declined, China had a $1.2 trillion trade SURPLUS.
Trump actually achieved the exact opposite of what he promised as he collected ~$300B in his tariff tax on US citizens and companies.
"The December deficit reflected a 3.6% increase in the value of imports. Exports of goods and services declined 1.7%. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a $55.5 billion overall shortfall....The trade data were notably volatile in 2025 on a month-to-month basis as US importers reacted to a persistent drumbeat of tariff announcements from President Donald Trump. Gold and pharmaceutical imports were particularly choppy as companies raced to beat higher duties."
US trade deficit swells in December as imports surge
The second straight monthly deterioration in the United States’ trade deficit occurred as US firms boosted imports of computer chips and other tech goods.The United States trade deficit has widened sharply in December amid a surge in imports, and the goods shortfall in 2025 was the highest on record despite US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign-manufactured merchandise.
The second straight monthly deterioration in the trade deficit reported by the US Commerce Department on Thursday suggested that trade made little or no contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) in the fourth quarter.
US trade deficit swells in December as imports surge
The US trade deficit deteriorated even though President Trump unleashed a barrage of tariffs to close trade imbalances.
Enumerating Trump ideological inconsistencies is akin to shooting pickles from a barrel. - but - here we go
Trump's trade tariffs are taxes, lavished upon U.S. consumers.
President Trump has boasted that federal revenues from his tariffs would be so plentiful, instead of paying federal income tax, former tax payers could expect $thousands from government.
Next Tuesday Feb. 24 9
M/ET Trump is likely to boast in superlative terms about the U.S. economy. Do you suppose Trump will mention his trade deficit?Shiftless2
Well-known member
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Washington is quietly checking its own homework.
The U.S. International Trade Commission just launched another review of auto rules under CUSMA. On paper that sounds routine. In reality it exposes a policy contradiction nobody wants to say out loud.
CUSMA was built to keep car production inside North America. Higher regional content. Higher wage requirements. North American steel and aluminum. The whole point was simple. Build here, sell here, avoid tariffs.
Then the same government slapped a 25 percent tariff on vehicles and separate duties on steel and aluminum.
You can't encourage integration and punish integration at the same time.
A modern car isn't made in one country.
An Ontario assembly plant depends on American engines and Mexican components. Parts cross the border over and over before a vehicle exists. That system only works if crossing the border stays predictable.
Tariffs destroy predictability.
Now Washington wants to measure the economic impact. But what they're really asking is whether ....
MORE>
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Supreme Court strikes down most of Trump's tariffs in a major blow to the president
The decision does not affect all of Trump's tariffs but invalidates those implemented using an emergency law.
Supreme Court strikes down most of Trump's tariffs in a major blow to the president
The decision does not affect all of Trump's tariffs but invalidates those implemented using an emergency law.
www.nbcnews.com
Shiftless2
Well-known member
BREAKING: The U.S. born Olympian who J.D. Vance attacked for competing for another country dismantles our loser vice president with ease: "I’m flattered. Thanks, JD! That’s sweet."
Absolutely no one respects this MAGA oaf...
“So many athletes compete for a different country. … People only have a problem with me doing it because they kind of lump China into this monolithic entity, and they just hate China. So it’s not really about what they think it’s about,” said skier Eileen Gu, who was born in the United States. She has been competing on behalf of China in Italy.
“And also, because I win,” she added. “Like if I wasn’t doing well, I think that they probably wouldn’t care as much, and that’s OK for me. People are entitled to their opinions.”
Gu has won two silver medals this year and previously won two gold and a silver in 2022 in Beijing. She is widely considered one of the greatest Olympians in the world.
Vance's remarks were of the petulant sort we've come to expect from him.
“I certainly think that somebody who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope that they want to compete with the United States of America,” Vance said on Fox News.
There is, of course, a long history of athletes competing at the Olympics on behalf of the nation their forebears came from. It's not a betrayal of the United States, it's an honoring of where they came from. Getting angry about such a thing, as Vance and other MAGA figures have, is pathetic. It's ironic that right-wingers obsess over the idea of "traditional masculinity" but display none of the stereotypical traits associated with it. All they do is whine.
The Olympics are not a matter of national security, they're not gravely important. They're a fun opportunity for the countries of the world to come together for healthy competition. Why sully that with angry remarks?
More to the point, can anyone blame Eileen Gu for not wanting to be associated with the United States right now? Our president is a demented pedophile who spent the first year of his second term killing innocent people in our streets, destroying the economy, and pushing us towards new and pointless wars.
SOURCE with comments
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On that topic, thinking back to my grad student days I used to train nearby and a number of the guys I trained with were foreign grad students attending a nearby university. And a couple of them ended up competing in the Olympics for their home country - yes they had to fly home for their national trials but other than that most of them lived here year round except for family visits (Xmas etc).
The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs. Now comes the hard work of issuing refunds
By PAUL WISEMAN / Updated 12:08 AM GMT-5, February 21, 2026WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Donald Trump’s biggest and boldest tariffs. But the justices left a $133 billion question unanswered: What’s going to happen to the money the government has already collected in import taxes now declared unlawful?
Trump signs off on 10% global tariff, criticizes Supreme Court justices after ruling
President Donald Trump to pursue 'alternatives' to tariffs under emergency law after Supreme Court ruling
By Alexandra Koch , Alex Nitzberg , Jacqui Heinrich Fox News / Published February 20, 2026 12:28pm EST | Updated February 20, 2026 7:07pm ESTPresident Donald Trump on Friday signed an order imposing a 10% "global tariff" following the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision that he does not have the authority to levy sweeping tariffs under a specific emergency powers law.
"It is my Great Honor to have just signed, from the Oval Office, a Global 10% Tariff on all Countries, which will be effective almost immediately," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Friday evening.
The order was issued under Section 122 and applies in addition to the standard tariffs that are already in place, the president announced during a White House press briefing Friday afternoon.
Trump responds to Supreme Court ruling rejecting sweeping tariffs powers: 'A disgrace'
President Donald Trump reportedly slammed the Supreme Court's ruling that he does not have the authority to impose tariffs under the IEEPA.
www.foxnews.com
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Pope Leo XIV has REJECTED Donald Trump’s invitation to take part in the United States's 250th anniversary celebrations this July 4. And his alternative plans send a clear message.
The Vatican confirmed Leo will not attend any U.S. anniversary events, just days after also rejecting Trump’s invitation to participate in his so-called “Board of Peace” event.
Instead of joining Trump’s “Freedom 250” festivities in Washington, the American-born pope will spend Independence Day on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, one of the world’s most symbolic migrant gateways. Leo has chosen to mark the day in solidarity with migrants risking their lives in search of freedom.
via Letters from Leo
www.thelettersfromleo.com
The Vatican confirmed Leo will not attend any U.S. anniversary events, just days after also rejecting Trump’s invitation to participate in his so-called “Board of Peace” event.
Instead of joining Trump’s “Freedom 250” festivities in Washington, the American-born pope will spend Independence Day on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, one of the world’s most symbolic migrant gateways. Leo has chosen to mark the day in solidarity with migrants risking their lives in search of freedom.
via Letters from Leo
In Another Break With Trump, Pope Leo Skips U.S. 250th Celebration for Migrant Island
As Trump builds his presidency around America’s 250th anniversary, the pope heads to Europe’s most symbolic migrant crossing — days after rejecting the president’s “Board of Peace.”
www.thelettersfromleo.com
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by incompetence.
Incompetence doesn't adequately explain this though.
BREAKING: Trump administration strips Social Security benefits from a Black American cancer patient by claiming that she is “not lawfully present in the U.S.”
This is what Trump’s intentional cruelty looks like in 2026.
Ramona Rakestraw, 59, was born at Parkland Hospital in Dallas in 1966. She has never left Dallas County — not for vacation, not for work, not for anything. And yet somehow, the federal government has decided she is “not lawfully present in the U.S.”
Her crime? Existing while sick.
Rakestraw has battled kidney disease for decades. She endured a transplant. She returned to dialysis. In 2024, she was diagnosed with cancer. Through it all, she survived on Supplemental Security Income — her only source of income — and Medicare Part B.
Then in October, the payments stopped. Why? Because her “immigration status” was suddenly under review.
“I’m not an immigrant,” she said. “I’ve never even left Dallas County — let alone the country.”
Let that sink in. A lifelong Texan. Born in an American hospital. Fighting cancer. Forced to march down to a Social Security office with her birth certificate in hand to prove she belongs in the country where she was born.
And still, she received a letter stating: “We cannot pay you benefits because you are not lawfully present in the U.S.”
This is the human cost of a system so obsessed with rooting out “illegals” that it can’t tell the difference between a Dallas native and a border crossing.
Her Medicare was eventually restored. Her SSI — her only income — was not.
Now she’s appealing, drowning in paperwork while undergoing dialysis and cancer treatment. Sixty days to fight a bureaucratic accusation that should never have happened.
This isn’t about paperwork errors. It’s about a government climate that treats citizenship as suspect and vulnerable Americans as disposable.
Ramona Rakestraw isn’t asking for special treatment. She’s asking for the benefits she’s legally entitled to — the benefits she paid into with a lifetime of perfectly legal existence in this country.
Born in Dallas. Fighting for her life. And now forced to fight her own government just to survive. That’s not just incompetence. That’s a system that’s lost its humanity.
SOURCE
It's clear - this goes far beyond incompetence - it's intentional
Incompetence doesn't adequately explain this though.
BREAKING: Trump administration strips Social Security benefits from a Black American cancer patient by claiming that she is “not lawfully present in the U.S.”
This is what Trump’s intentional cruelty looks like in 2026.
Ramona Rakestraw, 59, was born at Parkland Hospital in Dallas in 1966. She has never left Dallas County — not for vacation, not for work, not for anything. And yet somehow, the federal government has decided she is “not lawfully present in the U.S.”
Her crime? Existing while sick.
Rakestraw has battled kidney disease for decades. She endured a transplant. She returned to dialysis. In 2024, she was diagnosed with cancer. Through it all, she survived on Supplemental Security Income — her only source of income — and Medicare Part B.
Then in October, the payments stopped. Why? Because her “immigration status” was suddenly under review.
“I’m not an immigrant,” she said. “I’ve never even left Dallas County — let alone the country.”
Let that sink in. A lifelong Texan. Born in an American hospital. Fighting cancer. Forced to march down to a Social Security office with her birth certificate in hand to prove she belongs in the country where she was born.
And still, she received a letter stating: “We cannot pay you benefits because you are not lawfully present in the U.S.”
This is the human cost of a system so obsessed with rooting out “illegals” that it can’t tell the difference between a Dallas native and a border crossing.
Her Medicare was eventually restored. Her SSI — her only income — was not.
Now she’s appealing, drowning in paperwork while undergoing dialysis and cancer treatment. Sixty days to fight a bureaucratic accusation that should never have happened.
This isn’t about paperwork errors. It’s about a government climate that treats citizenship as suspect and vulnerable Americans as disposable.
Ramona Rakestraw isn’t asking for special treatment. She’s asking for the benefits she’s legally entitled to — the benefits she paid into with a lifetime of perfectly legal existence in this country.
Born in Dallas. Fighting for her life. And now forced to fight her own government just to survive. That’s not just incompetence. That’s a system that’s lost its humanity.
SOURCE
It's clear - this goes far beyond incompetence - it's intentional
Bizarre to even bring up immigration over a social security issue, since social security is your own money being paid back to you.
Immigration status should have nothing to do with it.
But it also should not be hard to verify that she was born in the US?