As you know, it takes me a little while to think before I respond to an event. In my previous narrative post, I referred briefly to the Comedy Central production that was Trump’s address to the Joint Session of Congress last night.
There can be little doubt, it was yet another self congratulatory litany of lies and deliberately misleading statements. Trump is now in a position where he knows the wheels are about to come off the bus. He needed a made for TV moment to create yet another false narrative for his base, who he knows are about to be hit by a fiscal baseball bat.
The markets had tanked prior to his comedy hour and today we can see that according to ADP, just 77,000 jobs were added in February. A significant slump from January and also far below economist expectations. The Bureau of Labor numbers are sill to follow, so I will adjust this post once those numbers are in.
In December, he was claiming credit for good numbers under Biden, saying it was because he’d soon be in the White House. Now the faltering numbers are Biden’s fault. To be fair though, it was a comedy performance, so we should expect jokes, right?
For all the bloviating, the truth is, this is a man who needed to read his cult a bedtime story. Because his enemy, the truth, exposes him as the naked emperor he is. He wasn’t messing around, he told lies like they were going out of fashion. But the cynical deception was for me the infamous highlight.
He proudly boasted he was delivering no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security. These measures have been carefully choreographed by Republican lawmakers, to pass the bills for no other reason than to display them in the candy shop window. However, they’ve been sure to keep the door to the shop firmly locked and bolted.
Neither bill made it into the budget, but he failed to mention that. Just like he never mentioned cuts to SNAP payments and the total removal of Medicaid, as required in the budget targeted savings of $880 billion. To be clear, The Energy and Commerce Committee tasked with finding the savings, have no option but to cut Medicaid to meet the savings target.
At a time when Russia is attempting to seize Ukraine, Trump unashamedly bragged of his own imperial ambitions in relation to the annexation of Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal. He celebrated his humiliation of Zelenskyy, while halting military aid shipments to prove just what a big man he is. All while knowing he was also about to cease the sharing of intelligence to Ukrainian commanders in the field.
To be clear. This evening, Ukraine will face drone attacks as it does every night, but tonight they will take on a new significance, as drone and missile defense systems will have no intelligence warning of possible targets. Given Russia’s primary targets are often civilian. The President of the United States, today signed the death warrants of innocent Ukrainian civilians.
In his usual way, he claimed a mandate for “bold and profound change”, though with a 1.5 point margin in the popular vote, it was in fact historically narrow and three points less than Joe Biden’s four years earlier. This is a criminal who knows no bounds when selling a false narrative.
Just hours earlier he had launched the first salvos of his trade war, with 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, along with additional tariffs on China. He falsely claimed “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again,” Both claims are entirely false and in the next few days, America will start to feel it, as retaliatory tariffs are imposed.
Today, he has already had to roll back part of the tariffs on Canada relating to the auto industry. I’m sure because of pressure from auto Manufacturing CEOs. Trump is a fiscal policy arsonist, who holds the keys to the treasury. He spent an hour and 40 minutes weaving a tapestry of lies to the American people, hoping he can convince the uneducated to punch themselves in the face, while he empties their pockets and hands the spoils to the rich.
It’s the biggest criminal heist on the American people in modern history.