Pundits are confused about what to make of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration.
Supporters talk of “flooding the zone,” believing Trump is making so many changes so quickly that his opposition is reduced to deer-in-the-headlights infancy.
They must be right when the nation suffers daily Democratic pottymouth videos, vandalism of Teslas, infantile meltdowns at congressional witnesses, rioting against federal agents to protect illegal alien felons, protesting on behalf of women beaters, M-13 gangbangers, human traffickers, and assaulters, and visa-holding violent students praising Hamas terrorists.
In contrast, opponents either claim that Trump’s first three months are either directionless chaos or a Hitlerian nightmare or both.
But what is really happening?
One, Trump is finally addressing the problems that proverbially “cannot go on forever, and so they won’t go on.”
When, if ever, would the left have closed the southern border? After 10, 30, 50 million illegal aliens?
How many more criminal illegal entrants was the Biden administration willing to allow into American neighborhoods—500,000? 1 million? 3 million?
How long was the world simply going to ignore the human destruction on the doorstep of Europe?
Would Biden or Harris have sought a ceasefire? Or would it have taken another 1.5, 3, or even 5 million more dead, wounded, and missing Ukrainians and Russians?
Nor did past administrations ever seek a solution to the massive national debt, much less the uncontrollable budget and trade deficits.
All prior presidents passed the day of judgment on to some vague future presidency, assured that their money printing would at least not blow up on their watch.
All moaned that China was piling up huge trade surpluses while denying its own population the usual modern safety net. They knew Beijing’s aim was to use the trillions of dollars in trade surpluses to build a new massive military, a greater arsenal of nuclear bombs, and a new imperial Belt and Road overseas empire.
Yet no administration did anything but greenlight American outsourcing and offshoring while ignoring Chinese trade cheating and technology theft.
Indeed, prior presidencies appeased and enriched China on the foolish belief that such indulgence would lead to Chinese prosperity, and with such Western-style affluence, soon a globalized, democratic, and supposedly friendly China.
In sum, we just witnessed all at once a 100-day, 360-degree effort to address all the existential challenges that we knew were unsustainable but were either afraid or incompetent to address.
Second, the administration apparently wants to confront the source of these crises and believes it is the progressive project.
The left maintains real political power not by grass-roots popularity, but rather by unelected institutional clout. The party of democracy uses anti-democratic means to achieve its ends of perpetual control.
It wages lawfare through the weaponization of the state, local, and federal courts.
It exercises executive power through cherry-picked federal district and circuit judges and their state and local counterparts.
The permanent bureaucracies and huge federal workforce are mostly left-wing, unionized, and weaponized by a progressive apparat. Their supreme directive is to amalgamate legislative, judicial, and executive power into the hands of the unelected Anthony Faucis, Jim Comeys, and Lois Lerners of the world—and thus to override or ignore both popular plebiscites and the work of the elected Congress.
Over ninety percent of the media—legacy, network, social, and state—are left-wing. Their mission is not objectivity but, admittedly, indoctrination.
Academia is the font of the progressive project. Ninety percent of the professoriate are left-wing and activist—explaining why campuses believe they are above the rules and laws of the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Congress.
Add into the mix the blue-chip Accela corridor law firms and the globalized corporate and revolving-door political elite.
The net result is clear: almost everything the vast majority of Americans and their elected representatives did not want—far-left higher education, a Pravda media, biological men destroying women’s sports, an open border, 30 million illegal aliens, massive debt, a weaponized legal system, and a politicized Pentagon—became the new culture of America.
So, Trump is not just confronting unaddressed existential crises but also the root causes of why, when, and how they become inevitable and nearly unsolvable.
His answer is a messy, knock-down-drag-out counterrevolution to reboot the country back to the middle where it once was and where the Founders believed it should remain.
His right and left opponents call such pushback chaotic, disruptive, and out of control.
But the counterrevolution appears disorderly and upsetting, mostly to those who originally birthed the chaos; it certainly does not to the majority of Americans who finally wanted an end to the madness.
What should be obvious is that the complainers and their Lamestreet media cohorts created the very problems whose obvious solutions they now vehemently oppose.
They want illegal voters and increased electoral numbers to maintain their anti-constitutional, anti-civilization agendas. Their actions are what matters. The Democratic Party is the Party supported by communists, fascists, socialists, MS-13 members, Tren de Aragua members, human and sex traffickers, drug cartel syndicates and most every other type of reprobate that can be imagined by a criminal mind.
The biggest hurdle Americans and their chosen President faces is illegal voting and a compromised anti-constitutional judiciary. America has been invaded and President Trump has the clear Constitutional Authority to remove the invaders and the judiciary is powerless to stop him.
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion.” Furthermore “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” Furthermore a state may engage and do what is needed as the Framers Constitutionally authorized if delay might cause irreparable harm. “…unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”
The judiciary needs to get out of the way. And they also need to be investigated just like every other elected and appointed member of federal, state and local governments to see if their actions comport with the oaths they took. In some cases they have given aid and comfort to Americas international enemies and those enemy proxies which have already invaded, which, clearly, represents the Constitutional definition of treason.
Exactly.
Now, if Christie Noem would quit mouthing useless pablum like platitudes about how the Democrats committed felonies and how that’s just terrible - shame on them, they’re gonna be sorry - milquetoast BS and arrest them? Put some teeth in her words. GROW a pair?
Maybe some of these despicable, traitors would sit up and actually be concerned about being held accountable.
Till then? She’s playing at being useless.
Only notable Republican and Conservatives have been jailed and only on vacuous charges entertained by kangaroo courts and/or fascist DA reprobates. There is low lying fruit everywhere. So far Bondi only talks while criminals continue to walk.
Rest assured, seniors don’t care much about the president lifting sanctions on Syria or preparing to give favorable business tax treatment to the Saudis and Qataris. But we do care that it looks like Trump and the Republicans are reneging on the promise to not tax Social Security. To replace it, they are peddling a $4000 deduction for seniors – for a whole four years. And the Senate will probably take that out. Even if it goes through, for the typical senior, the deduction will lower their taxes by around $600 per year, instead of $6000. This means, over their remaining years, seniors will pay several tens of thousands of dollars more in taxes than they were promised by Trump.
What’s particularly annoying is the sleazy, deceitful way they’re trying to put this over. For months, I’ve watched Republican congressmen and senators, including Johnson and Thune, mouth the same mantra: no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. Every one of them, every single time they came on TV. Now, starting yesterday, they’re leaving the last part out, and the pro-Trump media is letting it slide by and proclaiming the bill a ‘promise kept.’ Why aren’t you and the rest of the conservative media reporting on this? It’s disgraceful.
I never thought I’d say this, but if they break this promise, I’ll greatly look forward to the coming Democrat congress in ’26. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Republicans are in the minority in the House and the Senate for the next 20 years. And now there won’t be a Republican president in ’28, which means that in a matter of weeks the Democrats will undo everything Trump has done, just like ‘17. It’s a bad idea to make fools out of your voters.
So, I went to one of the most Left leaning sources I could think of to see their reporting on the subject. I figured I could count on them to loudly point out any broken promises. We both understand (I hope) that getting a House version, and a Senate version, and then getting both reconciled to be a near Herculean task.
What I found was that the number one priority was making the 2017 tax cut permanent. That will require heavy lifting and political capital. When it comes to “no tax” on overtime, Social Security, and tips, the writers of the Bill seem to be trying to nuance it so that the benefits fall largely on the middle and lower class tax payers while giving some benefit to higher earners.
What CNN reports dovetails what you found regarding Social Security tax cuts. For seniors with total earnings below $75,000, they would see an additional $4,000 added to their standard deduction. I ran the math on a typical senior receiving the maximum Social Security amount, calculated that at .85 taxable and then generated the tax owed for one in the 15% tax bracket. And found you right on the mark. You said it would be a reduction of about $600, and my numbers came out to $510. I think I’m close in estimating that one with a gross annual income of $75,000 would be in the 15% tax bracket. And yes, that is far short of the promise. For those who depend entirely on Social Security that already pay no taxes on it, it merely raises THAT bracket by the $4,000----IOWs from $25,000 to $29,000.
The no tax on tips , and no tax on overtime appears to be scaled in a progressive manner (old meaning of progressive when applied to tax brackets) where those below $165,000 would not pay a tax on tips or overtime. This one----I think—hits the promised mark.
As you say, the distance between the promise and the actuality is about the same as the span between the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon.
Edited: I forgot to address your point that (other than making the 2017 cut permanent) these cuts will be phased out after four years. Yeah, I guess it will be up to Vance or Rubio to tackle that one.