The Conversation -- April 28, 2025
Donald, You're No FDR. Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post: “Since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s earthshaking first 100 days in office, no president has matched the sheer drama and disruption of that 15-week sprint in 1933, which rewrote the relationship between Americans and their government. At least until now.... Donald Trump’s opening barrage has similarly upended government operations, disturbed traditions and even raised new questions about what it means to be American.... Trump has repeatedly cited Roosevelt as a model when it comes to his impact and place in history. But as Trump’s 100-day mark arrives Tuesday, the differences are at least as stark as the similarities. Roosevelt’s onslaught ... was aimed at expanding the federal government’s presence in Americans’ lives. Trump’s crusade is aimed largely at dismantling it. Perhaps more crucially, Congress came together to pass more than a dozen major laws in Roosevelt’s first 100 days, reflecting the wide national eagerness for his revolution. Trump, in contrast, has governed largely by unilateral executive action, which enables to him to ignore his opponents but avoids a broad political consensus — and leaves his actions more vulnerable to reversal.”
And now, time out for Reality Chex' Special Home Décor Edition. ~~~
~~~ The “Golden Age” of Trump. Carolina Miranda of the Washington Post: “When ... Donald Trump gave Fox News host Laura Ingraham a tour of the Oval Office last month..., the camera panned the room to ... reveal a row of gilded vases and baskets on the mantel, golden floral moldings adhered to the fireplace and walls, and golden angels tucked into neoclassical pediments above the doors.... Trump has gone golden, taking the office into baroque and rococo realms typical of 17th- and 18th-century French monarchs. An analysis in the Cut called the decoration 'An Interior Designer’s Nightmare.' But the sparkle conveys something more insidious about how Trump views himself. Behold the new Sun King, a wannabe emperor who views his powers as absolute — who governs by executive order, and has been recorded giggling in his gilded chamber with Salvadoran autocrat Nayib Bukele as his administration defies a unanimous Supreme Court ruling that he facilitate the return of a Salvadoran immigrant who was wrongly deported. God save us from the king....
“In the presidential memorandum on 'Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,' the Trump administration describes the need to honor the 'traditional' architectural heritage of the United States. But in his taste for the gloss of French kings, Trump does no such thing — instead, he rejects the traditions of the Founding Fathers in favor an aesthetic that connotes absolute rule.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: The link to the article is a gift link. The overall article is worth reading, and the details are fun. In his conversation with Ingraham, Trump implied that all the golden geegaws he had plastered on the Oval Office walls were gilded with gen-you-wine gold. “I'll tell you a little secret,” he said. “People have tried to come up with a gold paint that looked like gold and they've never been able to do it.” But reading Miranda's report, we learn that might not be true: “Enterprising tech reporter John Keegan of Sherwood News, however, may have tracked down the source of the trim, which bears an uncanny resemblance to decorative pieces sold on Alibaba for $1 to $5 apiece — made in China.” Alibaba, huh? Years ago, contributor Patrick, who once worked in the Middle East, said humorists there called that gold-slathered Trumpy style -- also popular among the region's potentates -- “Louis Farouk.”
Back to the Nuts & Bolts: ~~~
~~~ Katrina Northrop of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump’s effort to revitalize U.S. manufacturing with sweeping tariffs on Chinese goods may hit a snag: American factories depend on machines and components from China.... Trump claims that his trade policies are necessary to seed a 'golden age' of U.S. manufacturing, but trade experts and companies say the broad tariffs may actually complicate bringing back some industries.... The surging price of industrial machines because of tariffs is just one example of the rippling economic chaos and uncertainty unleashed by the trade war, highlighting both the interdependence of the U.S. and Chinese economies and the difficulty of reshoring supply chains that have grown increasingly globalized in recent decades.... Over the past decade, China’s machinery industry has risen to global dominance.... China is the largest machine exporter in the world, and the United States is the largest machine importer.... [And] achines may be made with Chinese parts even when imported from other places.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Dear Trump Voters: This is just one of the many unintended consequences of stupidly and impulsively picking a stupid, impulsive autocrat to run the country into the ground. ~~~
~~~ David Lynch & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “... even as Trump signaled a willingness to ease his steepest tariffs, there were signs that his change of tone came too late: The economy has been damaged.... Evidence is mounting that tariffs have curtailed economic activity and will soon push prices higher, even if the effects will take time to be broadly felt.... In the three weeks since the tariffs took effect, ocean-container bookings from China to the U.S. are down by more than 60 percent.... The consequence will be 'empty shelves in U.S. stores in a few weeks and covid-like shortages for consumers and for firms using Chinese products as intermediate goods,' said Torsten Slok, chief economist for Apollo Global Management. Fewer goods reaching American shores will mean higher prices on the goods that are in stores — as well as less work for dockworkers and truck drivers. 'Significant' layoffs in trucking, logistics and retail are likely as soon as May, Slok said.... There also appear to be no easy solutions to Trump’s tariffs on goods from the European Union and Japan, two of the United States’ biggest trading partners.”
“Damn the People! Full Steam Ahead!” Dan Balz of the Washington Post: “Though his poll numbers have declined..., [Donald Trump] has continued his zeal to pursue controversial policies by bulldozing whatever checks lie in his path.”
Life in the Trump Bubble. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: “When you hear [Trump's] supporters praise his straightforwardness, this is what they are referring to: He says the false things with which they agree.... His second term has already been hobbled by a predictable side effect of a political movement existing in an informational bubble: There isn’t any accountability for being wrong or inept.... Part of the reason that Trump’s second administration is filled with loyalists and unqualified nominees is that he disliked the accountability and disagreement he saw during his first four years at the White House, when his administration was staffed with a far larger number of qualified officials. The last thing Trump needs to worry about from a Hegseth or an Attorney General Pam Bondi or an adviser like Peter Navarro is effective pushback. It’s an administration of the bubble-fluent and the bubble-approved.... Trump’s aides have seeded the press pool with allies from the bubble. Any source of objective information, from universities to traditional media outlets to Wikipedia, has come under attack.”
Marie: Of course it is not only Donald Trump who is giving the United States a bad name in the rest of the world. The story below is a week old, but it's illustrative of why other people don't like us -- and with good reason: ~~~
~~~ The Ugly Americans. Peter Conrad of the (London) Sunday Times (April 19): “... JD Vance ... turned up at the Vatican on Saturday aboard a traffic-clogging motorcade of 40 black 4x4s.... He was accompanied to the Vatican by his wife, Usha, and their three young children. The second family was then given a private tour of the Sistine Chapel.... Later Usha enjoyed an evening visit to the Colosseum — which her husband had also been scheduled to attend before a last-minute change of plan — where she was given a personal tour of the arena ... by Alfonsina Russo, the director. Lesser mortals unlucky enough to have booked their own visit had to make do with a refund.... Some chanted 'shame' or anti-American slogans when they learnt the reason for the closure.... Among the disappointed was Stephen Fishler, 58, a businessman from New York who arrived with his family in good time for his 6pm slot, but was turned away without explanation. 'What does he think he is, special?' complained Fishler, himself a Trump voter. 'JD should have waited until the Americans who had tickets had their visit and then gone in.'” Thanks to RAS for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ As Scott Lemieux says of Fishler, “'He screwed us when we thought he would screw other people!' is a complaint we’re going to hearing more and more from MAGAworld.'” MB: You see, it isn't only JayDee & Usha and Donald who don't know how to behave abroad & don't care about anybody else; it's so many of the Little MAGAts, too. Self-absorption/indifference-to-others is an essential piece of the MAGA psychological composition. (Also linked yesterday.)
Alex Isenstadt of Axios: "Trump administration officials late Sunday began placing dozens of posters of arrested unauthorized immigrants along the White House driveway.... The posters — which read 'ARRESTED' — specify various crimes linked to the pictured immigrants and have the White House's official logo at the bottom. The "roughly 100" posters were being placed strategically along 'Pebble Beach,' where TV news crews do live shots in front of the mansion. A White House official told Axios the intent is for the posters to be visible behind TV journalists reporting from those positions." MB: Apparently the new décor inside the White House was not tacky enough. In any event, I'm sorry the lawn ornaments don't include a poster that says "CONVICTED" and features a Trump mugshot.
Rachel Nostrant of the New York Times: “A 4-year-old and a 7-year-old with U.S. citizenship were deported alongside their mother to Honduras last week, the family’s lawyer said.... The children and their mother were put on a flight to Honduras on Friday, the same day another child with U.S. citizenship, a 2-year-old girl, was sent to that country with her undocumented mother. Lawyers for both families said the mothers were not given an option to leave their children in the United States before they were deported.... But ... [Donald] Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, denied that any American child was deported.... Mr. Homan said that federal immigration agents gave her mother a choice of whether to be deported with or without her child, and that she had left the country with her daughter at her discretion.... The mother of the 2-year-old is pregnant, and the 4-year-old, a boy, has a rare form of late-stage cancer, the families’ lawyers said. They said the boy had no access to his medications or his doctors while he was in custody.... 'Having a U.S. citizen child after you enter this country illegally is not a get-out-of-jail free card,' Mr. Homan said.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Homan is just bursting with contempt for these American children and their parents, isn't he?
Ian Bogost & Charlie Warzel of the Atlantic: “The Trump administration is pooling data on Americans. Experts fear what comes next.... The federal government is a veritable cosmos of information, made up of constellations of databases.... A fragile combination of decades-old laws, norms, and jungly bureaucracy has so far prevented repositories such as these from assembling into a centralized American surveillance state. But that appears to be changing. Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency have systematically gained access to sensitive data across the federal government, and in ways that people in several agencies have described to us as both dangerous and disturbing.... In March, President Trump issued an executive order aiming to eliminate the data silos that keep everything separate.... As a society, we produce unfathomable quantities of information, and that information is easier to collect than ever before.... Advancements in artificial intelligence promise to turn this unwieldy mass of data and metadata into something easily searchable, politically weaponizable, and maybe even profitable.... America already has all the technology it needs to build a draconian surveillance society—the conditions for such a dystopia have been falling into place slowly over time, waiting for the right authoritarian to come along and use it to crack down on American privacy and freedom.” Thanks to laura h. for this gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: “Two weeks ago, a three-judge panel from the federal appeals court in Washington lifted a freeze on firing employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, with some conditions. The judges, ruling on a Friday night, said that workers could be fired if agency leaders determined, after a careful assessment, that they were not needed to carry out the bureau’s legally required responsibilities. Within hours, Trump administration officials — working closely with Elon Musk’s associates at the Department of Government Efficiency — scurried to fire nearly all the agency’s employees.... Judge [Amy Berman] Jackson halted the planned firings less than a day after the notices went out, saying that they went far beyond what the appeals court had allowed....
Judge Jackson has asked for the testimony of Gavin Kliger, a 25-year-old associate of Mr. Musk’s who carried out the terminations. Mr. Kliger, a former Twitter summer intern who had no experience in government work before this year, joined the Office of Personnel Management in January as a senior adviser. He has carried out assignments for Mr. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, in at least nine agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, where he is said to have been recently ousted from.... In legal declarations totaling more than 100 pages, department heads — who said they were not consulted by the Trump officials before the firings — and other workers depicted the terminations as reckless and riddled with errors.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't know who made the decision to fire most of the staff at CPFB -- the boy Gavin or Elon or Old McDonald -- but it clear the intent was to flout the appeals court's ruling.
Stephanie Saul & Alan Blinder of the New York Times: “... after weeks of witnessing the administration freeze billions in federal funding, demand changes to policies and begin investigations, a broad coalition of university leaders publicly opposing those moves is taking root. The most visible evidence yet was a statement last week signed by more than 400 campus leaders opposing what they saw as the administration’s assault on academia. Although organizations of colleges and administrators regularly conduct meetings on a wide range of issues, the statement by the American Association of Colleges and Universities was an unusual show of unity considering the wide cross-section of interests it included: Ivy League institutions and community colleges, public flagship schools and Jesuit universities, regional schools and historically Black colleges.” (Also linked yesterday.)
(Alleged!) Master Thief Arrested. Derek Hawkins, et al., of the Washington Post: “Authorities have arrested a person in the theft of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem’s purse — which contained $3,000 cash, her passport and her department badge among other items — from a downtown restaurant last week, law enforcement officials familiar with the matter said Sunday. The suspect could face charges in the theft from Noem and possibly two other thefts in the District, according to two D.C. police officials.... 'This individual is a career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years,' Noem said in statement provided to The Washington Post through a spokeswoman. 'Unfortunately, so many families in this country have been made victims by crime, and that’s why President Trump is working every single day to make America safe and get these criminal aliens off of our streets.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The story has been updated: “On Sunday, authorities announced they had arrested an undocumented immigrant [-- Mario Bustamante Leiva, 49 --] in Washington in connection with [the] alleged crime against ... Noem.... The Post cannot independently confirm that Bustamante Leiva is an undocumented immigrant.... A second suspect was arrested in Florida and is being held on an immigration detainer as charges are finalized, the Secret Service announced Sunday evening.... In a statement, the agency described the person as a 'co-conspirator' who was 'linked to a pattern of robberies and thefts in Washington, D.C.'”
~~~ Minho Kim of the New York Times: “Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington, said the suspect had entered the United States illegally and that law enforcement officials were seeking more people connected to the theft.” MB: That's too bad. I was hoping the thief was one of those “homegrowns” Trump hopes to deposit in foreign gulags.
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Pelley Takes a Stand. Michael Grynbaum & Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: “In an extraordinary on-air rebuke, one of the top journalists at '60 Minutes' directly criticized the program’s parent company in the final moments of its Sunday night CBS telecast, its first episode since the program’s executive producer, Bill Owens, announced his intention to resign. 'Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,' the correspondent, Scott Pelley, told viewers. 'None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.'... 'He did it for us and you,' Mr. Pelley told viewers of the show, which began airing in 1968. 'Stories we pursued for 57 years are often controversial — lately, the Israel-Gaza War and the Trump administration.... But our parent company, Paramount, is trying to complete a merger. The Trump administration must approve it.' After '60 Minutes' ran a segment in January about the war between Israel and Hamas, [Paramount's controlling stockholder Shari] Redstone complained to CBS executives about what she considered the segment’s unfair slant. A day later, CBS appointed a veteran producer to a new role involving journalistic standards. She reviewed certain '60 Minutes' segments that were deemed sensitive.” Politico's story is here. ~~~
Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: “In a fiery address to New Hampshire Democrats on Sunday night, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker condemned what he described as ... Donald Trump’s 'authoritarian power grabs' while also blasting the “do-nothing” Democrats in his party — stating it is 'time to fight everywhere, all at once.' The billionaire Democratic governor repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet with acidic attacks on the morals and ethics of the president, adviser and top donor Elon Musk, as well as members of the president’s Cabinet. He slammed their efforts to dismantle government programs that the most vulnerable Americans rely on and said the Democratic Party must 'abandon the culture of incrementalism that has led us to swallow their cruelty.' It is time for his party, he said, to 'knock the rust off poll-tested language' that has obscured 'our better instincts.'” The AP's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Presidential candidate or not, Pritzker could not have come to a better state to slam do-nothing Democrats. I continually slam my do-nothing representatives, and their response is to have their aides send me fund-raising emails. Both of my senators & my representative are useless, smiling ladies.
~~~~~~~~~~
Canada. Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: Canadians go to the polls today. “Many Canadians believe Monday’s election is the most important of their lifetime. It will determine who will take on a stagnant economy and deal with ... [Donald] Trump.”
Ukraine/Russia, et al. Nataliya Vasilyeva of the New York Times: “President Vladimir VMany Canadians believe Monday’s election is the most important of their lifetime. It will determine who will take on a stagnant economy and deal with President Trump.. Putin of Russia said on Monday that he had ordered a three-day cease-fire in Ukraine next month as a good-will gesture. Mr. Putin said in a statement posted on the Kremlin’s website that Russian forces would stop fighting on May 8 for 72 hours for 'humanitarian reasons.' There was no immediate comment from Ukraine about the announcement.... It came just days after ... [Donald] Trump urged the Russian leader, in a social media post, to 'STOP!' bombarding Ukraine amid U.S.-backed efforts to broker a truce.” MB: This is one of the ways Putin is toying with Trump. (And yes, it's more about Trump than Zelensky, whom Putin likely does not consider a worthy adversary.) Then, look, there's this: ~~~
~~~ Choe Sang-Hun of the New York Times: “... in back-to-back statements, the leaders of [Russia and North Korea] confirmed that North Korean troops have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with Russia’s, saying they had helped liberate the Kursk border region from Ukrainian forces. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, said he had sent troops to Russia to boost its military alliance, praising their 'heroism and bravery,' the country’s state media said Monday. Mr. Kim ordered a monument be built for soldiers slain in Russia, as if to remind President Vladimir V. Putin of the debt he owed. Mr. Putin said Monday ... in a statement published on the Kremlin website..., 'We will always honor the Korean heroes who gave their lives for Russia, for our common freedom, on par with their Russian brothers in arms.'...”
4 Comments
Reader Comments (4)
Just makes it up…
Fatty sez “We’re negotiating with 200 countries!”
That’s great.
There are only 193 (not counting Vatican City and the Palestinian State, neither of which have trade relations that are “screwing” TrumpLand).
The CIA has a listing of 206 countries (including the above mentioned), but a number of those are disputed regions or factional non-sovereign political entities with no trade relations to speak of.
The UN lists 193 sovereign countries.
I guess Fatty is working so hard he’s got it up to 200.
Just like that bullshit about how he won 56% of the Catholic vote (how the hell does he know that?), everything this asshole says is a lie, mostly just made up on the spot. And he uses the same worn out, moth-eaten bullshit intensifiers he’s been spouting for 60 years or more. Go back and listen hi to his risible bragging from the 70’s. Everything is “Greatest ever”, “never been seen anywhere”, “biggest deal”, and anything he doesn’t like is the “a scandal like no one has ever heard of in history” and “incredibly unfaaaair to Trump!”
No wonder he’s been a laughing stock for years.
But when anyone asks him which countries he’s doing all this bullet speed negotiatin’ with, he can’t say.”
Authoritarian Playbook
Let’s see…okay here it is.
P. 5, para 4. If officials try to tell you to obey the law, pull out phony documents you wrote yourself and try to bullshit them.
So this morning on NPR a Wisconsin state rep, Ryan Clancy, brought up something I hadn’t heard before. The Trump ICE goons who showed up at the courthouse in Milwaukee to grab that guy had no official warrant. The judge recognized that the only paper they had was one they wrote themselves. An official warrant must be signed by a judge. A piece of paper that says “We can get this guy”, signed, Joe Blow, isn’t an actual warrant. So the judge was completely within her rights (not only that, she was following the law) to not allow these jamokes to cuff someone in her courtroom and drag him out.
The whole thing is yet another attempt to bulldoze laws they don’t like. Fat Hitler’s Nazi AG aside, no one, especially a judge, has to bend over and take it because they say so.
And cuffing and perp walking the judge who upheld laws they don’t like is on the very next page of the Authoritarian Playbook.
Imagine that!
At least there are some regs they obey.
@Akhilleus: Yes. There's a headline at Rolling Stone -- firewalled -- that reads, "Trump claims he made 200 deals on tariffs. His Cabinet members can't name one." It's almost as if he's lying.
Funny graphic I can’t seem to load it, but here’s what says.
Four pictures with captions:
Jimmy Carter
Naval Academy grad, studied nuclear physics
Bill Clinton
Yale grad, Rhodes Scholar at Oxford
Barack Obama
Editor of Harvard Law Review
Fatty
Can pick out an elephant from a sketch