ESSA NEWS reveals,
"The current approval rating of Donald Trump is one of the lowest in
the history of U.S. presidents at the start of a second term, indicating
strong public opinion polarization and growing dissatisfaction with his
policies. Americans criticize him for various issues, including
disputes with universities, battles with the courts, and a trade war."
It is because he is so awful.
I
did not vote for him in 2016 (or 2020 or 2024) but you can go back and
read what I wrote in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. I tried to be as fair
as I could. He is no longer an unknown and he is reminding a lot of
people -- who never should have forgotten to begin with -- just how
awful he truly is.
And he
is awful for all of us right now just in this moment. But he is so much
worse for our grandchildren and generations that will come after them.
ABC NEWS reports:
The
actions of President Donald Trump's administration will significantly
decelerate the race to decarbonize economies around the world, according
to energy and climate change experts.
Since
taking office in January, Trump has signed several executive orders
aiming to dismantle climate action in the U.S. While these actions have
spurred uncertainty in the environmental community, they won't cause
global efforts to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions to come to
a screeching halt, the experts said.
This
is how these policies will affect America's international standing in
the climate fight and the collective aim to reach a carbon net-zero
economy, according to the experts:
Major anti-environment policies by the Trump administration, so far
In
the four months since Trump took office for his second term, he has
declared an energy crisis in the U.S.; removed the U.S. from the Paris
Agreement for the second time; increased timber production in national
forests and expanded the mining and use of coal in the U.S.
Trump's
administration has rolled back dozens of U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency regulations aimed at protecting the environment; laid off
hundreds of employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration and removed mentions of climate change from public
websites.
Last week,
Trump issued executive orders to protect "American energy from state
overreach." These orders contain language that could block enforcement
of state and local laws that are obstacles to production or use of coal,
oil, natural gas, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel and nuclear energy
and potentially withdraw regulations that affect energy projects and the
environment.
He
is destroying our planet and he is so awful that he does not even
care. He is not going to have to wait for history to rebuke him.
Unless he suffers a stroke and passes away in office, he will have many
years to watch as he is ripped apart and called out for his criminal
behavior. The world will not forget this and he will be mocked and
ridiculed and burned in effigy while still on this earth.
Rep.
Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is asking for an FBI investigation into Ed Martin
after President Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney in D.C. failed to
disclose more than 150 appearances from social media in his confirmation
disclosures.
Ed Martin appeared on RT,
formerly Russia Today, and Sputnik more than 150 times between 2016 and
2024, but he failed to detail those appearances as required on paperwork
to vet his nomination, which asks for a detailed breakdown of all media
commentary.
Raskin noted
that both networks were required to register as foreign agents under
the first Trump administration in asking FBI Director Kash Patel to
“investigate whether Mr. Martin’s omissions were inadvertent or part of a
deliberate attempt to conceal his extensive ties to Russian media and
intelligence operations.”
“The Congress of the
United States and the American people deserve a full picture of Mr.
Martin, his relationships to Russia, and his political loyalties,”
Raskin wrote.
“RT and Sputnik have been
‘critical elements’ in Moscow’s propaganda and disinformation efforts,
which have been addressed by both Democratic and Republican
administrations. Since 2017 and 2018, the Department of Justice (DOJ)
‘has required RT and Sputnik to register as foreign agents, reflecting
Russian government control over their operations,’” he wrote, noting
that last year the U.S., Canada and Britain all sanctioned the networks
due to their “disinformation campaigns” targeting U.S. elections.
I
want to suggest today that what we are seeing on Wall Street and in
markets around the world is the sudden realization that the president is
mentally unstable – that he has dementia, probably – and as a result of
that realization, investors no longer have any faith in Donald Trump.
Yes, I know.
The
conventional explanation for why markets have been tanking is the
realization that Trump really meant what he said on the campaign trail,
and that his position on tariffs wasn’t just rhetorical but firmer,
stronger and more ideological than investors were willing to believe.
But
if Trump’s position were a matter of conviction, markets might be able
to adjust, as conviction would beget a clear explanation and a coherent
plan of action, which in time would beget some kind of stable order that
investors might not like in the end, but could come to trust.
That’s
not what’s happening. Trust is long gone. On Monday, the S&P 500
fell 2.4 percent “in another wipeout,” according to the AP. The Dow
Jones fell 2.5 percent, the Nasdaq 2.6 percent. More worryingly, the AP
said, is that US government bonds and the value of the dollar also fell.
Wednesday, April 23, 2025. Chump continues to drop in the polls,
Walmart and Target and Home Depot warn him higher prices likely in two
weeks and/or empty shelves if he doesn't change course, he continues his
attempt to fire the chair of the Federal Reserve while refusing to fire
Pete Hegseth, his refusal to take action with regards to a security
risk is a dereliction of duty which is an impeachable crime, and much
more.
According
to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, 42 percent of voters
approve of Trump’s performance in office, down from 43 percent three
weeks earlier, and from 47 percent shortly after January’s inauguration.
The
poll results, Reuters said in its analysis, “suggest many Americans are
uncomfortable with his moves to punish universities he sees as too
liberal and to install himself as the board chair of the Kennedy
Center.”
Several weeks of bad
polling for U.S. President Donald Trump led to a new poll featuring
what, in that poll, is the lowest approval rating of Trump’s second
presidency.
Heath Brown, an associate professor of public policy at City University of New York, told Newsweek:
"The president's signature policy in his first 100 days—introduction of
large new tariffs—is unpopular with many Americans, including nearly
half of Republicans who think it will harm the U.S. economy in the near
term. It then is not surprising that the president's popularity has
dipped to the low levels shown in recent polls."
Yesterday
Home Depot CEO Ted Decker, Target CEO Brian Cornell and Walmart CEO
Doug McMillon went to the White House and met with Chump to explain the
uncertainties that Chump is creating in the markets and that, in two
weeks, if Chump continues down this road, you're going to see an
increase in prices and you're going to see empty shelves in the stores.
CNBC notes, "For retailers, tariffs are the latest threat to an already challenging
economic landscape, where consumers are looking for low prices after
years of high inflation."
Didn't
have to be this way but Chump only knows The Politics of Destruction
and the crazy fool took a hammer to our economy and pulverized it. At THE NEW REPUBLIC, Alex Shephard explains:
Sometime in the next year, the United States will almost certainly slide
into a recession, if not something altogether worse. Last week, Federal
Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned
that “there isn’t a modern experience of how to think about” the
current economic situation: an unprecedented trade war, anemic growth,
rising unemployment, and ballooning inflation—a recipe for potentially
catastrophic stagnation. On Tuesday, The Wall Journal found that, nearly two weeks after President Trump had paused much of his trade war, the stock market was still on pace for the worst April since 1932.
And what might Trump’s answer be to this economic havoc? To fire Powell. His attacks on the Fed chair have been growing
over the past week—on Monday, he wrote on Truth Social that “there can
be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers
interest rates, NOW”—and National Economic Council Director Kevin
Hassett has confirmed
that Trump is considering firing him. Should Trump do so, it may not be
as catastrophic as his tariffs. But it nevertheless shows that Trump
has learned nothing from his disastrous trade war, and that he is
determined to enact maximum economic destruction on America.
If and when a recession comes, it will have a clear author: Trump, who has embarked on a path that can only be described as economic suicide.
Despite being warned of the economic consequences, he slapped
gargantuan tariffs on the entire world—minus North Korea and Russia, of
all places—based on the quixotic belief that these would enrich the
U.S., bringing about a prosperous age in which American workers labor in
factories, producing pretty much everything. It’s a simply delusional
vision, and one that would take decades to see through.
When Trump backed down on the trade war on April 10, pausing tariffs on most of the world except China, markets breathed a sigh of relief.
There was a hope that he had learned his lesson and would ultimately
return to the laissez-faire economic management that defined most of his
first term. That was a ridiculous conclusion to draw then, and it’s
even more absurd now that Trump might fire Powell—the very possibility
of which has sent the markets spiraling further.
It is tempting to shrug off Trump’s desire to fire Powell. Trump
has been complaining, with increasing regularity and viciousness, about
the performance of the Fed chair more or less since he appointed him in
late 2017. Trump despises the administrative state generally, but it’s
easy to understand why he detests the Federal Reserve in particular:
It wields vast power—its decisions to raise or lower interest rates
move global markets in the short term and shape the economy in the long
term—with more or less total independence. Trump wants that power, like
he wants all power, for himself.
Last night on THE 11TH HOUR WITH STEPHANIE RUHLE, they discussed the economy, tariffs, China and more.
Lawrence O'Donnell noted last night that Chump backed down from China.
"Economic policy dementia" is what Lawrence labeled Chump's so-called "plan" and he's exactly right.
Chump has no legal power to fire Powell. Nils Pratley (GUARDIAN) notes, that "the
first effect of firing Powell should be obvious. Financial markets
would tank, possibly to the extent of making the current upset over
tariffs look like a mild tantrum. You do not mess with central bank
independence lightly – especially not in today’s circumstances. If loose
monetary policy were thrown into an already unstable inflationary and
tariff mix, the dollar would fall further, the flight from US assets
would accelerate and long-term borrowing costs for the US would
increase." Despite the harm it's doing to the economy, Chump continues to attack Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Theron Mohamed (BUSINESS INSIDER) reports on some reactions:
Removing
Powell before his term ends in May 2026 "could call into question the
ability of the central bank to set interest rates without political
interference, and hence the outlook for price stability," Mark Haefele,
the chief investment officer of global wealth management at UBS, said in
a Tuesday note.
Haefele and his team said
markets are "likely to be sensitive" to any signs that the White House
intends to expel Powell or "replace him with a more 'malleable'
candidate" once his term ends.
Ousting Powell and
installing a more compliant Fed chief would undermine the central bank's
vital independence, Liz Ann Sonders, the chief investment strategist at
Charles Schwab, said on "Market on Close" on the Schwab Network on
Monday.
In that scenario, "any move by the
Fed to preemptively start easing policy aggressively" that doesn't fit
its mandate "might not have the intended effect of boosting growth or
boosting confidence," Sonders said.
It could even push long-term bond yields higher, "defeating the purpose of a lot of this," she cautioned.
Chump's
stupidity and erratic behavior is creating this panic and this
impending recession. It's effecting big businesses and small
businesses. Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following
yesterday:
Seattle, WA— Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray
(D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, met with
small business owners in Seattle’s University District to hear how
Trump’s chaotic trade war is impacting them. Trump is currently taxing
goods from every country—including close allies like Canada—at a minimum
10 percent tariff rate across-the-board. He has also significantly
escalated his trade war with China, with 145 percent tariffs on Chinese
goods—meaning higher prices
and serious pain for families and small businesses across Washington
state and the country. Even with his 90-day “pause” on reciprocal
tariffs, Trump’s new tariffs are still the highest tariff rates in
decades, and are estimated to cost American families more than $4,000 each year—the largest tax increase since 1968.
During the visit, Senator Murray heard from small business owners
about how the Trump administration’s reckless trade war is leading to
serious uncertainty for businesses and consumers in Seattle. Businesses
are worried that tariffs will push them to raise prices—potentially
driving customers away—and lay off workers to cut costs. Participating
in the discussion with Senator Murray, held at Café Allegro, were:
Yasuaki Saito, Owner of Saint Bread; Miles Richardson, General Manager
of University Volkswagen/Audi Seattle; Trevor Peterson, CEO of the
University Book Store; Efrem Fesaha, CEO of Boon Boona coffee; Jennifer
Antos, Executive Director of Seattle Neighborhood Farmers’ Markets;
Chris Peterson, Owner of Cafe Allegro since 1985; Lois Ko, Owner of
Sweet Alchemy ice cream shops in the U District, Ballard, and Capitol
Hill, and Anson Lin, Owner of Astora Construction.
“These small businesses are at the heart of the U District
community, and it was important to hear from them about how Trump’s
tariffs and his pointless trade war are affecting their bottom
lines—it’s something I’m hearing about everywhere I go across Washington
state,” said Senator Murray. “Trump’s ham-fisted trade
war is threatening livelihoods here in Washington state—small
businesses are worrying about whether they can keep their doors open
without laying people off, families that are already scrambling to pay
the bills are worried about rising costs at the grocery store, and our
farmers are deeply concerned about retaliatory tariffs from other
nations in response to Trump’s tariffs. Trump’s tariffs are an enormous
new tax on hardworking Americans and businesses. I will continue to
share the stories and raise the voices of the people in Washington state
who are being affected by Trump’s thoughtless trade war. There
is no good reason for us to be picking fights with our trading partners
and close allies like Canada—it’s time for Republicans in Congress to
stand up and vote with us to end this chaos.”
Washington state has one of the most trade-dependent economies of any state in the country, with 40 percent of
jobs tied to international commerce. Washington state is the top U.S.
producer of apples, blueberries, hops, pears, spearmint oil, and sweet
cherries—all of which risk losing vital export markets due to
retaliatory tariffs from key trading partners including Canada.
Additionally, more than 12,000 small and medium-sized companies in
Washington state export goods and will struggle to absorb the impact of
retaliatory tariffs. Canada is Washington’s largest trading partner,
accounting for nearly $20 billion in imports and $10 billion in exports.
China is the world’s second-largest economy and Washington state
exported over $12 billion in goods to China last year—making China Washington state’s top export partner—and imported $11.2 billion in
goods, the most in imports from any country aside from Canada. Trump’s
tariffs during his first term were extremely costly for Washington
state—for example, India imposed a 20 percent retaliatory tariff on U.S.
apples, causing Washington apple shipments to India to fall by 99
percent and growers to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in exports.
Senator Murray has been a vocal opponent of Trump’s chaotic trade war and has been lifting up
the voices of people in Washington state harmed by this
administration’s approach to trade and calling on Republicans to end
Trump’s trade war—which Congress has the power to do—and take back
Congress’ Constitutionally-granted power to impose tariffs. Earlier this
month, Senator Murray brought together leaders across Washington state
who highlighted
how Trump’s ongoing trade war is already a devastating hit to
Washington state’s economy, businesses, and our agriculture sector.
Senator Murray also took to the Senate floor
to lay out how Trump’s chaotic trade war is seriously threatening our
economy, American businesses, families’ retirement savings, and so much
else. Last week, Senator Murray joined her colleagues in pressing
U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer on how the Trump
administration’s tariffs are affecting farmers across the country. Last
week, Senator Murray also held a roundtable discussion in Tacoma with local businesses and ports, toured local businesses in downtown Vancouver, and held a roundtable discussion in Vancouver
with local businesses and ports, to highlight how Trump’s chaotic trade
war and senseless tariffs are harming the overall economy in Washington
state.
###
Drunken and insane Chump
denied yesterday, on camera, that he was attempting to force Powell out
as Feed Chair -- this despite Chump's earlier public statements on
camera as well as his many late night/early morning social media posts.
While Chump angles to oust Powell -- again, he does not have the legal
authority to do so, he refuses to fire someone that he actually can fire
and should fire: Pete Hegseth.
Reports
trickling out of the Pentagon have painted a picture of disorder and
infighting under the leadership of the former Fox News host and National
Guard officer, who was an eyebrow-raising pick for the country's top
defense official in November. Hegseth was heavily criticized by
Democrats and a handful of Republicans for what opponents termed a lack
of experience and expertise.
The
White House has started searching for Hegseth's replacement as Defense
Secretary, NPR reported on Monday, citing an anonymous official not
authorized to speak publicly.
White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called the report "total FAKE NEWS."
Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth, might be in a whirlwind of controversy, but his
biggest problems are coming from “inside the house,” according to a
Column from Salon.
“Unfortunately, it does
appear that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,%2010%20second(s)) is not
living up to what the president and the entire Republican Party
apparently believed was his vast potential based upon his 'central
casting' good looks and white supremacist tattoos,” Heather Digby Parton
wrote..
She
added, “[Hegseth] appears to be obsessed with his Fox News culture war
issues, particularly DEI, and spends an awful lot of time worrying about
things like physical fitness rather than the big picture.”
The
biggest problem Digby Parton has, however, is “that he's so
ridiculously underqualified for the real job of running the Pentagon
that the whole place is starting to come apart — and it's happening at
the hands of Hegseth's own closest allies who are apparently at each
other's throats.”
Heather?
Good looks? He's got boobs. Bitch tits is what weight lifters used to
call it. He's got nasty hands -- he brags he hasn't washed those
filthy in years. He's got boils on his forehead and cheeks. He's got a
deviated septum and a nose with something weird going on between the
brows and a bottom half that can't figure out what angle it's wanting to
jut out on. But worst of all is the stringy, greasy hair with its 80s
RAVE PERM bumps. There are things I can go along with but saying
Hegseth has good looks? Only if you're grading on the FOX Steve Doocy
scale. Sorry, can't join you walking off that cliff.
UPI reminds, "Defense
Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday blamed media and former 'disgruntled'
employees for reports that he shared military war plans via a second
Signal group chat involving his wife and brother, but did not deny the
accusations." Is he that stupid or does he just hope the rest of us
are? This is news. It's news because it happened, it's news because of
what he did. And he wants to blame the media and disgruntled
employees? This is a manchild who has never learned to take
accountability for his own actions. No wonder his mother's embarrassed
by him.
Courtney Kube (NBC NEWS) reports on Hegseth in the video below and also in text:
Minutes before U.S. fighter jets took off to begin
strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last month, Army
Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, used a secure
U.S. government system to send detailed information about the operation
to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The
material Kurilla sent included details about when U.S. fighters would
take off and when they would hit their targets — details that could, if
they fell into the wrong hands, put the pilots of those fighters in
grave danger. But he was doing exactly what he was supposed to:
providing Hegseth, his superior, with information he needed to know and
using a system specifically designed to safely transmit sensitive and
classified information.
But then Hegseth used
his personal phone to send some of the same information Kurilla had
given him to at least two group text chats on the Signal messaging app,
three U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the exchanges told NBC
News.
The sequence of events, which has not
previously been reported, could raise new questions about Hegseth’s
handling of the information, which he and the government have denied was
classified. In all, according to the two sources, less than 10 minutes
elapsed between Kurilla’s giving Hegseth the information and Hegseth’s
sending it to the two group chats, one of which included other
Cabinet-level officials and their designees — and, inadvertently, the
editor of The Atlantic magazine. One of them was composed of Hegseth’s
wife, brother and attorney and some of his aides.
Three days ago, Kube, Gordon Lubold and Raquel Coronell Uribe (NBC NEWS) had reported,
"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used his personal phone to send
information about U.S. military operations in Yemen to a 13-person
Signal group chat, including his wife and his brother, two sources with
knowledge of the matter confirmed to NBC News. He did so after an aide
had warned him to be careful not to share sensitive information on an
unsecure communications system before the Yemen operation, the sources
said."
Repeating from
earlier this week, Pete Hegseth is the title character in THE CW show
GOSSIP GIRL. He was told not to do it but he did. He gets the
information and immediately feels the need to share with his wife and
brother and who knows who else. Did he sign out of the chat with, "XOXO
Gossip Girl"?
Retired
U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis slammed Defense Secretary Pete
Hegseth on Monday for his reported use of Signal to share highly
sensitive military plans with Trump officials as well as family members
and his attorney.
“There is absolutely no
reason on the planet earth he should be doing that and he knows it,”
said the former NATO Supreme Allied Commander of Hegseth’s use of the
third-party messaging app in an interview with CNN’s Boris Sanchez.
“He’s
a former major in the U.S. Army, he was trained throughout his time as a
junior officer to protect and guard the nation’s secrets. He’s got to
know that he has failed to do that.”
Hegseth —
who shared details of upcoming attacks in Yemen in a Signal chat with
senior Trump officials (and a journalist) — is reportedly close to being
replaced in his post after The New York Times reported Sunday that he
shared nearly identical details in a separate chat with his wife,
brother and lawyer.
Stavridis argued that
“Signalgate 2.0,” compared to the first chat involving high-ranking
officials only to be “leaked inadvertently” to a member of the press,
now involves “unclassified individuals who lack the need to know any of
this.”
“So it’s gone from outrageous to truly egregious and it’s conduct that, frankly, is indefensible,” Stavridis said.
Like the old joke says, "Telephone, Telegram, Tell-a-Hegseth."
According to a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly, after
CENTCOM commander General Erik Kurilla sent Hegseth details over secure
communications about impending military operations on March 15th,
Hegseth shared that information, verbatim, with two separate chat groups
on Signal. One was made up of top Trump administration officials
— and inadvertently included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg. But the other
chat group included people with no clear reason for receiving the
sensitive information.
"The last time he was wrongly using an
insecure communications device, and he mistakenly thought he was
speaking only to security clearance holders," said Kevin Carroll, who
served 30 years in the Army, then in the CIA and then the Department of
Homeland Security in the first Trump administration. Security breaches
like what happened in the Signal group chat are called "spillage" by the
military, but this is more, says Carroll.
"Here he's knowingly
using an insecure communication device and he's knowingly giving
classified information to people who are not security clearance holders
so it's really more than a spill," Carroll said. "It really gets more to
the sort of willfulness that is typically prosecuted by the Department
of Justice."
Repeating,
Chump has no authority to fire the Fed Chair but he's trying to. He
has the ability to fire the Secretary of Defense but he refuses to do
so.
Hegseth's actions cannot be defended or excused.
Grasp that.
Now
grasp the reality that the dereliction of duty right now is on the part
of Donald Chump who refuses to fire Hegseth. Two big security breaches
that we know of -- that we know of -- and Chump does nothing.
He
refuses to protect this country. He refuses to fire this idiot who
keeps going on non-secure devices in non-secure apps sharing classified
information -- and with people who shouldn't be hearing it -- true of
both group chats we know of. The second one that just emerged? Yes,
it's obvious that his wife and brother and attorney did not have the
clearance for him to share security secrets. But that's also true of
the first chat where Jeffery Goldberg was included.
This
is impacting what other countries feel comfortable sharing with us. It
also put the lives of those carrying out the Yemen mission -- a mission
he ordered -- at risk.
And Chump won't fire Hegseth.
That's dereliction of duty. He can be removed from office on a charge like that.
Critics
of Trump point out that the president sang a different tune when he
called for America’s first Black Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin,
appointed by President Joe Biden in 2021, to resign after he failed to
disclose that he had undergone a surgical operation to treat his
prostate cancer. Trump and several Republicans at the time said that
Austin’s actions were similarly a threat to the nation’s national
defense. Trump said Austin “should be fired immediately for improper
professional conduct and dereliction of duty.”
“Trump
promised to bring the most qualified to the helm of the American
military — instead, he’s appointed a rudderless degenerate to replace a
four-star general whom he called a ‘DEI hire.’ It’d be funny if it
wasn’t so damned scary,” said Markus Batchelor, political director at
People For the American Way.
Batchelor told
theGrio, “Less than 100 days in office, and the dangerous incompetence
of Pete Hegseth is blatantly clear to everyone but Donald Trump. Former
friends in the White House, the Pentagon, and on the Hill are ready to
throw him out while the president plays bodyguard to his Fox News
friend.”
U.S. Rep. Sydney
Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., who sits on the House Foreign Affairs
Committee, told theGrio, “Secretary Lloyd Austin, a four-star general,
and Pete Hegseth, an incompetent and unqualified Fox News host, are not
the same.”
“It is appalling but not surprising
that the same Republicans who called for Secretary Austin to resign
after a medical procedure are dismissing Pete Hegseth’s repeated
national security failures,” said Kamlager-Dove. She added, “Republicans
prioritize mediocrity over competency, and it shows. For the safety of
the nearly 350 million people who call the U.S. home, Pete Hegseth must
be fired—immediately.”
