Extra

The Trump Administration has been unrelentingly awful. Each day brings a fresh batch of Trump bad news. It would be easy to get discouraged and imagine that Trump is winning, but that is not true. The Trump juggernaut is slowing down. Trump initiatives are stalling because a) many of them are unpopular; b) a great number are being challenged in court; and c) they are being managed by Trump loyalists who are incompetent. 

1.Polls: With every day in office, Donald Trump becomes less popular. Polls indicate that his initiatives slashing the size of government agencies do not have support. 51.3 percent of Americans feel the US is headed in the wrong direction (vs. 43 percent who feel it is headed in the right direction.) According to the recent Gallup poll, 53 percent of Americans do not approve of Trump’s job performance (vs. 43 percent who approve). 

2.Trump’s economy is failing. The Federal Reserve’s core inflation measure has increased to 2.8 Percent. Consumer confidence has fallen to a low not reached since January 2021. The stock market is down. The Atlanta Federal Reserve predicts US GDP will contract 2.8 percent in the first quarter. ( https://www.atlantafed.org/cqer/research/gdpnow ) 

3.National security: The big news this past week was that Trump national security advisers used insecure chat software, “Signal,” to discuss bombing Yemen and inadvertently included a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, in the chat. Rather than admit the mistake, Trump, Defense secretary Hegseth, and others blasted Goldberg and the press. This was another indication that Trump and his national security team are incompetent. 

4.Tariffs: Despite evidence they are not working, Trump dogmatically sticks to his trade-war tactics. On Thursday he announced 25 percent tariffs on automobiles manufactured outside the US. As a result, the stock market collapsed: the S&P 500 dropped 2 percent; the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost1.7prcent of its value; and the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.7 percent. On April 2, Trump promises more tariffs. 

5.Immigration: Recently, Trump signed an order using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as the legal basis for his deportation of alleged “Tren de Aragua” gang members. The Federal District Court has blocked this tactic, but Trump persists and has appealed to the US Supreme Court. Trump’s ICE continues to arrest student activists such as Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent US resident with a green card, who led pro-Palestinian protests or spoke out against Israeli genocide. 

6.DOGE: Each week features some new outrage perpetrated by Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency.” This past week indicated that Musk and Trump have set their sights on Social Security. However, on Friday, a federal judge blocked Trump and Musk from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau  

7.Canada: Trump continues to threaten to annex Canada and make it the “51^st state.” As a result, Canadians are fearful of travelling to the US and overall tourism from Canada has dropped 20 percent. (Tourist visits from the EU countries are also down.) 

8. Health & Human Services: This past week Robert Kennedy Jr., Secretary of HHS, announced 10,000 employees would be cut. Meanwhile, FDA’s top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, resigned: “It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary [Kennedy], but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” There have been 483 confirmed cases of measles in the US. 

9. Ukraine: The US and Russia are negotiating a truce in the Russia-Ukraine war. Russia demands trade concessions that affect the EU, but they are not involved in the talks. Meanwhile, the US is trying to force Ukraine to sign a deal giving US exclusive access to Ukraine’s minerals. On Friday Ukraine President Zelensky said: “[Ukraine] would only agree to a minerals deal that could give his country security guarantees against Russian aggression, but these have not been forthcoming and an agreement that could compromise EU membership adds a further snag.” ( https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-trump-zelensky-minerals-2052495 ) 

10. War on Universities: Trump has targeted American universities by stating that if they do not change policies that he dislikes, he will withhold their federal grants – often worth millions of dollars. Trump accused Columbia of “antisemitic” activities and threatened to withhold $400 million unless nine demands were met; Columbia acquiesced. 

Summary: While Trump’s power is waning, he has increased his meddling in all facets of American life. His dictums are mean-spirited and, often, stupid. For example, given the other problems facing the US, why pick a fight with Canada? 

The stupidest Trump event of the week was also the most disturbing: the Signal chat regarding Yemen. There were 17 known participants in this chat. They did not meet in the White House situation room – as has been the custom—but in other offices. Most were in Washington DC, but three were abroad: Secretary of State Rubio was in Canada, Director of National Intelligence Gabbard was in Tokyo and Bangkok, and Special Envoy Witkoff was in Moscow. The participants took the call on their private phones – another violation of the security protocol. All used “Signal” an application that was not authorized for this purpose.  

The Signal chat suggests that Trump’s national security team either doesn’t understand the US secure communication protocol or doesn’t care. This disdain for traditional security operating procedure represents a grave threat to US national security.