Trumponomics Already Taking Toll on U.S. Economy

Buck Banks

From the New York Times:

“The United States economy is starting to show signs of strain as President Trump’s abrupt moves to shrink federal spending, lay off government workers and impose tariffs on America’s largest trading partners rattle businesses and reverberate across states and cities.”

“Funding freezes and firings of federal workers combined with the prospect of costly trade wars are souring consumer sentiment, raising inflation expectations and stalling business investment plans, according to recent economic surveys.”

“Local economies are also bracing for a sudden withdrawal of fiscal support, forcing officials to contemplate tax increases or municipal bond offerings to stabilize their budgets. While Mr. Trump has acknowledged that his policies could bring some initial pain, the early warning signs suggest that his blunt approach could come with more ominous risks to the economy.”

What Federal Employee Marjorie Taylor Greene Did Last Week

Pensito Editors

Pensito Illustration
President Elon Musk sent out a not-human-resources-approved email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees last week:

“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” Musk wrote on X, which he owns. The post ends: “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”

Federal employee Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) provided the following bullet points to DOGE:

Dear Leader Musk, in the past week, acting in my capacity as a federal employee:

  • I trashed federal workers at a congressional hearing, stating that none of them “deserve” paychecks. I quote myself: “The bureaucracy is not a business. Those are not real jobs producing federal revenue. By the way, they’re consuming taxpayer dollars. Those jobs are paid for by the American tax people who work real jobs, earn real income, pay federal taxes, and then pay these federal employees. Federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks.”
  • I came under fire by my congressional colleagues after it emerged I purchased between $4,000 and $60,000 worth of Tesla stock on January 8 after I was selected to chair the House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee.
  • I defended President Trump after my Democratic colleague Rep. Melanie Stansbury referred to Donald Trump as a “king” Wednesday. Stansbury said, “Let me say this to you, Mr. Trump. Two hundred fifty years ago, the people of this great nation rejected a reckless, abusive king, and we won’t go back.” So I said, after recognizing myself for closing remarks, “Threats against the president of the United States will not be tolerated by anyone.”
  • I helpfully showed the Congressional calendar to constituents on X: “This is our House calendar for 2025. Yellow is our in session weeks. Thought it would be good to share for anyone planning trips to visit your Representative.” Of course, people took it the wrong way: “So you rake in $174K a year, get top-tier healthcare, and play the stock market with insider tips, all for working eight days a month? Not bad. Maybe if you lived on minimum wage for a year, you’d finally get why folks are drowning while you all cash in.”
  • I did not update the calendar on my congressional website, which shows the last entry as a Town Hall in Dade County, Georgia, October 3, 2024, at 6 p.m.

POLLS: Pres. Musk Is Very Unpopular

Americans don't like his drastic, haphazard chainsaw cuts to their government

Jon Ponder

Based on newly released survey results, MAGA party leader Donald Trump, who lives and breathes polling, has reason to regret selling his presidency to billionaire South African immigrant Elon Musk. A series of polls marking the first full month of the Musk presidency reveals widespread public disfavor with the drug-addled unelected president:

  • A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Feb. 20, 2025, found Pres. Musk with a -16 approval: 55 percent unfavorable, 39 percent favorable.
  • The Pew Poll released Feb. 19 found Musk’s approval at -12: 54 percent unfavorable, 42 favorable.
  • The Economist/YouGov poll released Feb. 19 showed Musk in better shape with just a -6 approval: 49 percent unfavorable, 46 percent favorable.
  • In the latest Quinnipiac University poll, Musk’s role in government had a -12 approval rating: 54 percent approve, 42 percent disapprove.

The Economist/YouGov poll found that Musk’s drastic, haphazard chainsaw approach to downsizing the U.S. government by firing hundreds of thousands of federal workers has -17 approval: 51 percent disapprove, 34 percent approve.

Black People Won Super Bowl LIX

Pensito Editors

It’s hard not to conclude that Kendrick Lamar “pwnd” Donald Trump (and Drake, too) during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show yesterday. The first U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl was treated to a full-on rap storm for 20 minutes, which must have rocked his white-supremacist soul to its rotten core.

The cultural fact is, the Black people have won. The spineless National Football League, by taking a metaphorical knee in anticipation of the arrival of the Racist-in-Chief and removing the “End Racism” message from the end zones and replacing it with “Choose Love,” joined the oligarchs and media companies in capitulating to Trump.

But it’s too late. In 2023, fully 53.1% of players in the NFL were Black, and if you want to see who owns Super Bowl halftime shows, just consider this from CBS Sports:

On Sunday, Kendrick Lamar took the stage in New Orleans. In 2024, Usher took the stage in Las Vegas. In 2023, Rihanna took the stage at State Farm Stadium during Super Bowl LVII. Before that, five performers took the stage for Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles, California: Eminem, Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige performed halfway through the Rams win over the Bengals.

Seven years ago, Trump mounted a campaign against Black NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. But what really galled him was when the Super Bowl–winning Philadelphia Eagles in 2018 declined his invitation for the traditional winner’s visit to the White House, so he “uninvited” them:

The Philadelphia Eagles defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, but the Super Bowl winners’ traditional White House visit is canceled after a host of players decline to attend.

“The Philadelphia Eagles Football Team was invited to the White House,” Trump says. “Unfortunately, only a small number of players decided to come, and we canceled the event. Staying in the Locker Room for the playing of our National Anthem is as disrespectful to our country as kneeling.”

Trump and his racist followers can bitch and complain about it all they want, but the fight is over: people of color are the true Super Bowl winners.

Who Was the Musk Rat Who Barred Members of Congress from Entering a Federal Building?

He should be identified and investigated for obstructing Congress

Pensito Editors
Unidentified Musk operative prevents members of the US House from entering a federal building

AP: Democratic members of Congress hold a news conference outside the Department of Education and oppose President Donald Trump’s plan to abolish it. They confronted security denying them access to the building.

This is outrageous. Who is this guy and on what authority can he prevent sitting members of Congress from access the federal headquarters of the Department of Education? This man needs to be identified and investigated for obstructing Congress.

Here’s a video of the incident:

[…]

Trumponomics Watch: Trump’s Tariffs Are Terrible

Buck Banks

“Stock futures fell and oil prices rose Sunday after the U.S. imposed sweeping tariffs on imports from major trading partners, jolting Wall Street’s outlook for the American economy,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Futures linked to the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led the declines, falling by more than 2%, while the S&P 500 slipped by 1.6%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures slid by about 1.1%, or around 500 points.”

CBS News:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 421 points, or 1%, to 44,123 in early morning trading. The broad-based S&P 500 lost 1.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index tumbled 1.8%.

On Saturday, Mr. Trump signed an executive order that imposes 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, while adding an additional 10% levy on goods from China. Hours later, Canada responded with retaliatory tariffs of its own, while Mexico said it was also planning to issue tariffs on the U.S. as well, adding to the potential fallout from a trade war with two of the U.S.’ closest trading partners.

Mr. Trump’s announcement prompted some economists to project that the stiff new tariffs could dampen U.S. economic growth and cause an increase in job losses.

“This development came sooner than we anticipated in our baseline forecast and will lead us to downgrade our 2025 global forecast,” Oxford Economics wrote in a Feb. 3 research note. “The latest set of tariffs will lead to weaker GDP growth, higher unemployment, higher interest rates, and higher inflation this year in Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. than in our January baseline forecast.”

Tennessee MAGA Rep. Proposes Amendment to Give Trump – But Not Pres. Obama – a Third Term

Jon Ponder
Tennesse Rep. Andy Ogle – R-MAGA

Salon.com: Rep. Andy Ogles, R.-Tenn., is the latest House Republican to make a splashy grab for President Donald Trump’s attention, introducing a proposal to amend the Constitution and allow the 78-year-old to try for a third term.

In a statement, Ogles claimed Trump “must be given the time necessary” to enact his legislation and praised the president as the “only figure in modern history” who could properly lead the country.

“This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs,” Ogles said.

Ogle specifically excludes Obama and any other presidents who successfully served two consecutive terms. However, in the extremely unlikely event that this amendment gets the required two-third votes in the House and Senat, this provision is so illogical that it would almost certainly be struck down, setting the stage for a 2028 match up between Trump, 82, and Barack Obama, 67.

Forget Pres. Musk – the Real President is Stephen Miller

Jon Ponder
Stephen Miller

“Turns out the President Musk thing was off base because Stephen Miller is really running the country,” Ron Filipkowski wrote recently on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “These are Miller’s ideas and Miller’s executive orders. Trump is just signing them and talking gibberish about what’s in them.”

No one who followed Trump’s claims during the election can be surprised by the firehose of ultra-right executive orders spewed by the new administration in its first few days. They were cribbed out of the Heritage Foundation’s anti-democracy “Project 2025” manifesto, which has been rebranded as “America First,” borrowing a name from a 1930s U.S. fascist movement associated with celebrity aviator Charles Lindbergh.

The only surprise is that the morbidly obese, 78-year-old Trump. the laziest president since Reagan, has had the energy to do it all. The suggestion by Filipkowski, an attorney associated with the Meidas Touch Network, that Miller is doing the heavy lifting makes sense.