“Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr Jones?” – Bob Dylan
It seems like just about every day, PINO (president in name only) comes up with something even more outrageous than the day before: defunding public broadcasting, an executive order that will disrupt voter registration, repealing the 22nd Amendment so he can run for a third term, denying he’d signed an order with his signature on it. These in addition to the Gulf of America, buying Greenland, reoccupying the Panama Canal, Canada as the 51st state.
Okay, he’s a buffoon. Words spill out of his mouth unencumbered by the thought process. However, as Polonius observed: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” Something is happening. The question: what is it?
On the surface, PINO has an insatiable need to bask in the spotlight. It’s all about ‘me’ all the time. But it’s also the old abracadabra. Professor Scott Galloway describes Trump chaos as “a weapon of mass distraction”. PINO keeps the media busy reporting his administration’s latest fiasco so that much of the public doesn’t realize how badly they’re getting screwed.
Trump’s presidential campaign was a money-making scheme
To understand what’s happening now, we have to start with that day of infamy, 16 June 2015, when Donald Trump descended on the golden escalator in Trump Tower to announce he planned to run for president. Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, testified before Congress in 2019 as follows: “Donald Trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great. He had no desire or intention to lead this nation – only to market himself and to build his wealth and power… He never expected to win the primary. He never expected to win the general election. The campaign – for him – was always a marketing opportunity.”
Forget Trump’s yippity yap. Actually, according to Puff Daddy, “it’s all about the Benjamins”.
In his 2017 inaugural speech, PINO stated: “The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer”. He then promptly forgot them. His signature achievement during his first term was tax cuts. He called it “the greatest tax reform plan in history”. Reality: Trump tax cuts added $1.4tn to the national debt by 2019. The top one-tenth of 1% got an average $220,000 tax break. Those forgotten men and women earning less than $30,000 a year wound up paying more taxes.
Ordinary people struggle as billionaires get richer
In 2017, Forbes estimated Trump’s net worth at $3.1bn. By 2024 it had risen to $6.4bn. Meanwhile his 800 or so fellow billionaires were doing quite nicely, thank you. In 2024, their collective wealth stood at a near record high of $6.2tn, up a whopping 77% since Trump and the Republicans gave them all those generous tax breaks in 2017.
To extend the expiring tax cuts in 2025 would cost $4.2tn over the decade 2026-2035, and roughly half of the benefits would go to people with incomes in the top 5%, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The upper one-tenth of 1% would get an average tax break of $2mn, compared to only about $400 for households with incomes under $90,000 – that’s less than $1.10 a day according to the Center for American Progress. In addition, Forbes writes that the breaks will mainly benefit the dozen richest companies which include Amazon (Jeff Bezos), Meta (Mark Zuckerberg) and … drumroll … Tesla (you-know-who).
Maybe that’s the reason PINO and Elon Musk created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk gave a video interview on 8 January: “I think we try for $2 trillion [in tax cuts], we’ve got a good shot at getting $1[trillion]”. The FY 2024/25 budget totals $6.8tn, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Discretionary budgets come to $1.7tn, which include defense, health, veterans’ benefits, transportation, infrastructure, education, etc.
The total number of federal employees is just over three million with an annual payroll of approximately $336bn, according to Pew Research. Cutting 10% of all jobs gives PINO $33.6bn to play with. Slashing 25% of the federal workforce saves $84bn and Musk’s your uncle.
DOGE cutbacks benefit wealthy corporations
Going deeper, who benefits from job cuts? AP reports that the IRS plans to fire 50% of its 90,000 staff. They’ve already eliminated approximately 7,000, many involved in audits. Who gets audited? DOGE seems particularly focused on jobs dealing with oversight and regulations: Inspectors General, the Office of Public Integrity, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission, and so on. Who benefits from less oversight and regulation?
But wait, there’s more. PINO says the most beautiful word in the dictionary is “tariff”. According to Trading Economics the US imports $2.0tn of goods from Canada, Mexico, China and the EU. (Trump says, “The EU was formed to screw over the US”.) Let’s say he demands a 25% tariff on all their exports. That could mean an extra cost to American households of $1,200–2,000 – chump change for Trump and Musk. More to the point, it would add another $500bn to the government coffers to offset tax breaks for the fat cats. Even 10% tariffs add $200bn.
A bit of trivia: The Harvard Law Review found that over half of all court injunctions filed 1963–2023 were against one individual – Donald J Trump. Professor Steve Vladek says Trump has always tested the boundaries of what he can get away with. The illegal search and seizure of the Africa Development Foundation and the Institute of Peace. Crippling social security. Even testing the supreme court. Can PINO and DOGE get away with it? So far, so good.
Human rights are in jeopardy – and so is the rule of law
The most troubling matter at the moment is the justice department’s refusal to comply with US District Judge James Boasberg’s order and explain why they defied his court order to return 238 Venezuelans snatched off the streets and flown to a maximum security prison in El Salvador without due process. PINO used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 which has been invoked three times but only during war – the War of 1812, WWI and WWII. (US officials admitted just 137 were actually “enemy aliens”.)
The justice department has continued to defy Judge Boasberg’s order and the case went to the DC court of appeals; they supported Judge Boasberg’s deportation ban without due process. If the case winds up in the supreme court and if SCOTUS finds in favor of the justice department, say bye-bye to the rule of law, bye-bye to the Bill of Rights, maybe bye-bye to the constitution.
As long as we’re turning and turning in the widening gyre, let’s consider the worst-case scenario. It began in February when PINO not only got rid of two members of the joint chiefs of staff he didn’t like but also all three top judge advocates general (JAGs). We are witnessing an increasing number of demonstrations in the US against PINO/DOGE skullduggery.
Suppose a million Americans march to the White House to peacefully protest the subversion of democracy and PINO invokes the Insurrection Act of 1807. As the commander-in-chief he declares martial law and orders the military to quash all protests and demonstrations nationwide. According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military must not obey an unlawful order. The joint chiefs ask the three Trump-appointed JAGs to determine whether PINO’s order is lawful or unlawful.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump said he would be a dictator on day one. It’s not day one but will this be another “promise made, promise kept?” Stay tuned.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
