- Trump’s 100 days, with charts;
- Even the conservative Wall Street Journal considers Trump’s a “failed presidency”;
- Now the administration is looking to jail journalists;
- How MAGA loves public meltdowns;
- How Hegseth boasts of axing a program as “woke” that was created during Trump’s first administration;
- And how Trump believes taxing billionaires would hurt poor people’s feelings.
- And my recollection of the reason poor people don’t want to tax the rich — because they secretly hope they too will become rich one day.
Many such pieces today.
Washington Post, 29 Apr 2025: Trump’s first 100 days, in 10 charts, subtitled “Executive orders are up, while the S&P 500 and Trump’s approval rating are down.”
As President Donald Trump passes his 100th day back in office, some key features of this presidency are already coming into focus: the colossal amount of money he raised to celebrate his inauguration; his historic use of executive orders from Day 1 to quickly reshape government; the market slump in reaction to his tariff policies; and his 100-day approval rating, lower than any seen in nearly a century.
The charts are about executive orders, how these are aimed at federal bureaucracy, how he’s historically unpopular at the 100-day mark, how the markets are reeling from his tariffs, how the Senate has moved quickly to confirm his nominees, his huge inauguration fund, how much Trump is posting on Truth Social, Trump’s ideas for an expanded US footprint, how international visits to the US are down, and how Trump has visited a golf club nearly every weekend.
I’ll copy and post a couple of them.
And
Of course the question would be, if Trump is so unpopular now, how did he get elected? Well, I would say, mostly by promising things he must have known he couldn’t deliver, ordinary issues like reducing the cost of eggs. And took his win (a “mandate” despite the slim margin of his win) as a license to do whatever he wanted to do, including his decades-long obsession with tariffs. And enable conservatives to tear down a government they don’t understand.
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Remember, the Wall Street Journal — beholden of course to business interests — is the most conservative of the respectable national newspapers.
Wall Street Journal, editorial board, 29 Apr 2025 (via JMG and Mediaite): The Wall Street Journal Rings in Trump’s 100th Day in Office With Dire Warning of Failed Presidency
Presidential second terms are rarely successful, and on the evidence of his first 100 days Donald Trump’s won’t be different. The President needs a major reset if he wants to rescue his final years from the economic and foreign-policy shocks he has unleashed.
(I don’t subscribe and so can’t see the full WSJ piece.)
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Yet again, here’s another item on the authoritarian checklist: put journalists in jail.
Salon, Austin Sarat, 29 Apr 2025: Looking to Trump’s next 100 days: DOJ tees up process for jailing journalists
While no journalists are presently in jail in this country for doing their jobs, prosecuting and punishing them is a regular part of the arsenal of repressive regimes around the world. And the atmosphere for the American press is by no means friendly.
April alone saw a dramatic escalation of threats.
With many examples.
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Short items.
Salon, Amanda Marcotte, 28 Apr 2025: MAGA loves a tantrum: How public meltdowns became the preferred method of GOP communication, subtitled “Why Nancy Mace, Pete Hegseth and Stephen Miller keep throwing fits on camera”
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They can’t keep their story, their policies, straight.
JMG, from The Daily Beast, 29 Apr 2025: Hegseth Boasts Of Axing “Woke” Program Created During First Trump Administration By Noem And Rubio
To make the headline clear: Hegseth now thinks a program that was installed by Noem and Rubio during Trump’s first administration is now woke and must be cancelled. Do these people have any consistent values? Apparently not.
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It’s hard to believe what rationale he could possibly have for this. It’s easy to believe that as a Republican he’s always on the side of billionaires.
Boing Boing, Ellsworth Toohey, 25 Apr 2025: Trump claims taxing billionaires would hurt poor people’s feelings
Sleep tight, minimum wage workers! Your benevolent billionaire overlords are simply protecting you from the trauma of watching them pay their fair share. Truly, Dear Leader Trump’s generosity knows no bounds.
But here’s something else, I remember from reading somewhere, years ago. There’s something in the American psyche about unlimited potential. The Horatio Alger story. That anyone who works hard enough can succeed, and become a billionaire. In reality, that’s not how it works; all the current billionaires had advantages growing up, mostly inheritances. But the base idea is why the poor in America do not want to tax the very rich. Because they like to imagine that someday *they* might become rich. And wouldn’t want to be taxed.
