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ACCORDING TO LIZ - The July jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a significant slowdown in job growth, an indicator of the accelerating and debilitating impact of the Trump tariffs.
Actualization of hirings in May and June saw those numbers drop precipitously, bellwether figures screaming out that the economic policies of the Would-be-All-Powerful Potentate are driving the country into a recession with sluggish growth and ever-rising inflation.
Trump promptly called the report calculating and rigged to deny him the economic boom he fantasizes having created. He promptly fired Erika McEntarfer.
To generate more flattering “facts” for his royally-outsized ego, the Careening Prez anointed E.J. Antoni, a Heritage Foundation hack who has criticized Bureau of Labor Statistics methodology as producing “phony baloney” data as the new commissioner, deliberately opting out of reality and dooming American consumers to a far more perilous fiscal future.
In another TACO move, the Dithering Despot extended China’s tariff truce yet another three months while slapping 50% levies on Brazil with for censuring his criminal buddy ex-prez Jair Bolsonaro.
Endangering economies from Syria to Switzerland, the Crown Prince of Bankruptcies is initiating a domino effect that threatens to remove the United States from the center of the world’s economy, with trading partners major and minor now seeking to avoid America altogether by opting for deals with China and Russia in those countries’ currency.
This remaking of the global economic order and other policies of the Tango administration are imperiling the lives of those who elected him, exacerbating everything from health costs to consumer prices to climate change, driving up insurance losses, escalating the national debt while tumbling revenues, and increasing disparities between the rich and poor.
Intervention in overseas conflicts is sucking up tax dollars and further contributing to a loss of national prestige, as accelerated inflation, continued meddling in education, the lack of needed skilled and unskilled labor, evisceration of social programs and government support structures propel mounting anger at a lack of a perceivable sustainable future, further roiling the domestic scene.
When faced with uncomfortable facts and obdurate opposition, Toddler Trump’s responses are tantrums and bullying and outright denial.
Under his mandate, the government continues to rewrite the country’s history by replacing “divisive or ideologically driven language with unifying, historically accurate and constructive descriptions” at monuments and in museums.
His trade policies on globalization are a half-century behind reality. Trade barriers won’t reopen factories or revive middle class prosperity for a majority of Americans.
Meantime, tensions are mounting due to differing understandings of the proliferating seat-of -pants deals.
Tokyo’s interpretation of the trade deal Trump crowed over last month was that items already subject to higher tariffs would be exempt. However, the executive order issued from Washington implies the agreed-upon 15% tariff would be in addition to existing levies, lofting those for Japanese beef to 26.4%.
Having announced his art-of-the-steal deal after raising tariffs on Japanese vehicles from 2.5% to 27.5% in April,implementation of the new 15% tariff has failed to materialize, as Japanese carmakers lose an estimated 3 billion yen ($20.3 million) every day.
Trump touted as his signature success the $550 billion investment plan that Japan pledged in exchange for lower tariffs: “I got a signing bonus from Japan of $550 billion — that’s our money. It’s our money to invest, as we like.”
While Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba agrees that the figure of $550 billion was floated he maintains that it was for up to that amount and only for domestic equity investments, loans and loan guarantees, led by Japanese companies and financial institutions. His mandate does not allow him to compel Japanese companies to provide funds willy-nilly to the Trump administration.
The American president’s unilateral approach and arrogance in all matters, but especially in international security alliances and trade relationships, when his mind is a-whir with deals on too many fronts as well as his highly publicized personal problems is increasingly frustrating global and domestic leaders alike.
In this case, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News that if the president is unhappy, he will renege on the deal catapulting tariffs on Japanese goods into the stratosphere. And further punishing American consumers.
In removing qualified advisors, from scientists to Inspectors General, and packing his administration with loyalist know-nothings, far fewer guardrails remain to prevent the rise of this American Hitler.
In an about-face on lawlessness in the nation’s capital after reveling in it post-Jan. 6, Trump took over control of D.C. policing claiming ‘bloodthirsty criminals’ were overrunning the city despite the inconvenient fact that violent crime has dropped significantly.
The proclamation placing himself in charge of the Washington Metro Police was an extraordinary exertion of personal power over an American city.
And pre-emptively threatening to fire the man Trump deputized to oversee this effort – “If you’re soft, weak and pathetic, I will fire you so fast” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the population or its leaders.
Does this fixation on sanitizing cities along with his quest to win a Nobel Peace Prize bring into question if the Bloviating Bandit retains sufficient sanity to continue in the now overly ostentatious Oval Office?
After all, armed F.B.I. agents and 800 National Guard troops – with additional call-ups if the opportunity arises – patrolling the streets of D.C. are more likely to engender violence from both protesters and professional agitators than keep the peace. Boys with guns will always create more problems than they solve.
Trump recently authorized the military to take over the war against Latin American drug cartels from traditional law enforcement agencies, raising the ire of south-of-the-border President Claudia Sheinbaum who, while agreeing her government will collaborate on taking down drug lords, says U.S. forces are not welcome on sovereign Mexican soil.
Although the Central California appeals court upheld a lower court’s order to temporarily block federal immigration agents from conducting immigration-related arrests in Los Angeles without probable cause, determining race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish, having an accent, location and type of work to be “profiling” and insufficient reason to stop people, the president’s pogrom marches on.
Now, as the school year begins putting targeted families at greater risk and as arrests of those documenting ICE raids in Los Angeles become increasingly violent, Trump’s war on immigrants continues and is spreading across the country.
Thousands upon thousands, including increasing numbers of legal residents a majority with no criminal record are being incarcerated on the people’s dime. Over 60,000 people are in U.S. immigration detention today, many in appalling conditions.
People protesting military action on American soil are being charged with offenses such as calling masked men names or throwing sub sandwiches at National Guard personnel glutting a court system that should be addressing serious crimes. Again, on the taxpayer dollar.
The Larcenous Leader has thrown out traditional governmental operations in favor of outright coercion and extortion. Fines on law firms and universities – over a billion from UCLA alone, hello! – obviously aren’t padding his public purse sufficiently.
Now to obtain the necessary export licenses, companies dependent on trade such as tech giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices are being required to cough up 15% of profits for selling A.I. chips to China. Endangering those companies’ survival in an increasingly challenging economic environment.
And as a diversion from the president’s own enmeshment in the Jeffrey Epstein saga directed reporters to investigate Obama’s connection to the Russian interference in the 2016 election that first catapulted him into office. What?!
The sensationalist allegation at such a late date that “Obama was trying to lead a coup” is diametrically revisionist history and demonstrates complete irrationality.
Each of Trump’s whims is costing taxpayers money that should be going to benefit the populace of the United States. Restoring reality will cost even more.
Trump, in trying to vaunt his American exceptionalism, is not just in over his head, he has lost his mind entirely.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno now living in Vermont and a regular CityWatch contributor. She writes on issues she’s passionate about, including social justice, government accountability, and community empowerment. Liz brings a sharp, activist voice to her commentary and continues to engage with Los Angeles civic affairs from afar. She can be reached at [email protected].)
