Watch What He Does

Morning Dispatch

“Peace Deal?” Very funny.

Donald Trump, as we all know, is constantly starved for attention. This weekend he gave two almost identical interviews, both airing on Fox, during which he spouted the same nonsensical false propagandist talking points that are easy easy for him as breathing. It’s difficult to keep track of everything the madman utters (yesterday, while his Stock Market was crashing, he posted on his failing social media platform 100 times—that’s one hundred times—in six hours). So I want to juxtapose Donald's rhetoric, which is completely divorced from reality and facts, with what actually is happening in the world.

During his interview with Maria Bartiromo, he attempted to defend his disastrous budget plan:

Donald: When you look at where the spending is, 76% of the spending going to the mandatory programs, you have to really cut into those mandatory programs in order to really make a dent. You say you're going to balance the budget.

Bartiromo: You can't balance the budget just by Doge cuts, right?

Donald: We’re going to have growth like you've never seen before. Yeah. You said that we're going to have growth. I'm not going to touch Social security, Medicare, Medicaid. No. We're going to get fraud out of there. You see where I talk about it all the time, where you have people 250 years old and all tremendous fraud, but that has nothing to do with that. We're going to get the fraud out and everybody wants us to get the fraud out and therefore you'll make it better.

Yes, like nobody's ever seen before. And in such a way, he doesn’t feel that he has to explain himself or provide any details of an actual plan. Donald claims he won't touch Social Security, healthcare, or retirement savings, but none of the moves he and others in the Executive Branch have been making support those contentions. Experts warn that eligibility complexities and benefit reductions are already impacting retirees, especially for surviving spouses, divorced individuals, and those who need early benefits due to medical issues. Sometimes we need to take Republicans at their word. I know that's hard to wrap our heads around because they're almost always lying, but if you know anything about Project 2025, we know they’re coming after Social Security, Medicare, SNAP, and any programs that benefit the American people; especially those who may be struggling.

For decades, Republicans have referred to the social security program, the most successful social program in American history, as an “entitlement” even though it's our money. We earned it throughout our lifetimes by working, which is something that Elon Musk and Donald Trump have never done a day in their lives. They call it an entitlement program in order to soften the ground and, ultimately, convince people, especially those who depend on it, that it does not belong to them. They want to make it easier to steal from us and a perfect storm for doing so—between Donald and Elon Musk’s DOGE (“Department of Government Efficiency”), the wholesale abdication of the Republican Party, and the fact that the fascist Republicans control everything—has finally presented itself.

Donald is finally admitting that some financial inconveniences may result from his tariffs—the so-called disruptions—but that, in my view, isn’t an admission of having made a mistake. It is yet another softening of the ground.

Companies like Target, Walmart, and Chipotle have warned that they will pass these costs on to consumers. Did we seriously think that those companies in particular were going to take the hit for us?

Yale's budget lab estimates a 2% rise in the United States consumer prices in 2025 alone. That would end up approximately $3,000 per household, which is a lot of money for the average wage-earning American.

Canada, one of the countries leading the fight against Donald’s unprovoked, unilateral trade war, plans to impose 25% tariffs on a hundred billion dollars of US goods in waves, specifically targeting alcohol, clothing, and household appliances.

China is set to increase tariffs by 15 to 25% on American agricultural products like chicken, wheat, pork, corn, and dairy, which I believe are staples of many Americans' diets. This will further squeeze U.S. farmers, whom the Trump regime has already been throwing under the bus. Experts warn that tariffs will lead to job losses, a sluggish economy, and a possible recession. After what's been going on the last few days, we can say the likelihood of a recession is probable.

Donald unsurprisingly refuses to accept any responsibility or blame.

Bartiromo: There are rising worries about a slowdown. You've got the Atlanta Federal Reserve saying,” We're going to have a contraction in the first quarter.” Look, I know that you inherited a mess and I've only been here too. Are you expecting a recession this year?

Donald: I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America. That's a big thing, and there are always periods of it takes a little time. It takes a little time, but I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great.

His delusions aside, it hasn't taken him much time at all to destroy almost everything that was good about this country. The stock market is falling off a cliff right now. Yesterday it dropped 1150 points before ending with an over 890 points. As I write, it has fallen another 430 points.

The combination of rising consumer prices, economic slowdown, and trade disruptions could trigger stagflation, a situation in which a stagnant economy coexists with persistent inflation. This creates long-term economic instability, which will create the perfect conditions for China to move in on our territory, economically speaking. On March 4th, Donald doubled tariffs on Chinese imports to 20% claiming it would strengthen the US economy. China swiftly retaliated.

Donald has claimed the stock market crash is merely a “disruption” in the service of building a “great foundation” for this country. But because the stock market is one of the few metrics that Donald Trump cares about and pays attention to, I find it alarming that he is dismissing these terrifying numbers out of hand.

So the question for me remains, will it affect him? Because if isn’t not going to, he will not care. And then the question is, in what has he positioned himself either to be immune from the volatility in the market or how is he benefitting from it. That's what I'm wondering.

So while Donald is undermining global alliances and eroding US credibility, China is positioning itself to replace the United States as a stable global leader. During the National People's Congress, Chinese leaders signaled their intention of fill the void left by America's declining influence on the world stage.

In response to Donald's tariffs, China is expanding its trade alliances and focusing on multilateral cooperation and free trade agreements to counterbalance this new wave of American protectionism. Chinese officials stated that they are ready to work with the international community to maintain economic stability while Donald continues to antagonize key economic partners and countries that used to be our allies.

It's not only that China is taking advantage of our missteps, which I believe are intentional, and exploiting the void we've left to become the sole global economic powerhouse, one that is more stable than the United States. China is also taking advantage of the void we've left by abandoning our obligations to other countries. The dismantling of U-S-A-I-D, for example, was one of the most tragic things to happen in this century. Why? First of all, because it is a horrific betrayal of people to whom we promised aid—people who are sick, who are poor, who are starving, who are under siege. All of that help is gone now. But there's another reason. Even if you don't care about helping other people, there is still a benefit to the United States in the form of soft power. If you help other countries, particularly developing nations, they become loyal to you. They become, by virtue of our aid, spokespeople for America. That is soft power. We don't have that anymore. China is going after that as well. The Trump regime is weakening us on every single front.

Donald also spent the weekend attempting to spin the untold damage he’s doing to Ukraine and our European and NATO alliances even though last week he halted military aid to and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, significantly weakening the embattled country's position on the battlefield.

This decision, of course, has emboldened Russia, our former enemy, and the aggressor in this illegal fight during which they have committed horrific crimes against humanity. Russia has since launched an increased number of missile attacks, attempting to surround thousands of Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region. Donald has made it clear that he's willing to abandon Ukraine altogether. He even Donald downplayed Ukraine's ability to withstand the Russian assault (without U.S. aid), saying, “Well, it may not survive anyway.”

Everything Donald continues to do is destructive to a degree that leaves even those of us who saw it all coming reeling. Seeing it all unfold in real-time is a gut punch.

Why does anybody think for a second that Donald Trump is not a complete and total asset of Vladimir Putin's? That he is not completely and totally aligned with the malign purposes of a country that is, or used to be, our enemy under administrations both Republican and Democratic. But Donald Trump is certainly Russia’s greatest ally, and it has its sights set on the rest of Europe. Donald has been cozying up to Putin for decades—and he has also been beholden to his handler and puppet master,

Of course looks at it differently because he doesn't want to get in trouble with the boss. Well, Donald's admiration of Putin has been evident for decades now. So when he says the following, it makes it difficult to believe he is grounded in any reality:

Well, I've been much tougher [on Russia than Hamas]. . . . I think I've been very tough to Russia, tougher than anybody's ever been to Russia. If you think about it, first of all, we had the Russia, Russia, Russia hooks, which was a very bad thing. It could have led to a war, and that was started by Schiff and all these low lives. I know it did total low lives, and it was a fake deal. The 51 intelligence agencies, I took all their passes away. They can't participate anymore. These guys know it came from Hunter Biden's laptop from hell, which came from his bathroom and or his bedroom. Okay? Not a pretty sight.

The fact that this moron, this prepubescent creep has been allowed anywhere near the levers of power is something that should fill us in with shame. The fact that people like Maria Bartiromo exist to allow him to spout this grotesque nonsense is just unforgivable. It's unforgivable that so many people thought that this was a good idea.