(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Trump has no plan [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-06
“The great lesson of history for us is that strength and resolve bring peace and order, and weakness and vacillation invite chaos and conflict” — Rick Perry (Proving the occasional correctness of a broken clock)
What is Trump’s tariff plan? Pick an answer. Any you choose will eventually be right — if only for five minutes. In two days, the man has gone from no tariffs on Canada and Mexico. To tariffs on both Canada and Mexico. To tariffs only on Canada . To tariffs on neither*. That’s March. In February, he had already postponed tariffs on our neighbors. Now, he promises to revisit the mess in April.
(*Author’s note: Technically, there are still some tariffs. But those are minor. And I am painting in broad strokes.)
Domestically, it is more of the same unmoored vacillation. On Tuesday, Trump praised Elon Musk in Congress. But that was a check valid for three minutes. The man is more capricious than a drunk teenager. On Thursday, he informed his cabinet secretaries that they, not DOGE, were responsible for hiring and firing in their departments. And he told Elon to put down his sledgehammer and pick up a scalpel. God only knows what Friday will bring. Trump doesn’t.
The administration is floundering. Trump has already had to flip-flop on some DOGE terminations. Essential workers maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal were fired and then begged to return to work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had to ask key ex-workers to return to work. Musk has asked retired air traffic controllers to unretire.
The situation will not get better.
We know Friday’s job numbers will be bad . The stock markets are already tanking . The Atlanta Fed predicts negative GDP growth in Q1 (-2.8%). Most Presidents would do something constructive about it. However, that is not how Trump rolls. The citizen should not expect a professional response to burgeoning economic disaster. Instead, the dismal news will cause bonehead, his administration, GOP politicians, and the MAGA media to create yet more distraction and blame Biden.
Then, when Trump hopes no one is looking, he will jettison another campaign promise, go back on his word, and do something he said he wouldn’t do. Not that what he will do will solve the problem. Take his commitment to balanced budgets and deficit reduction. We already know that was bullshit. His tax breaks for oligarchs and capitalists will blow up the national debt.
But the piss poor news, a rapid decline in consumer confidence, and his cratering approval ratings led him to say he would send ‘DOGE checks’ to taxpayers. That will be a fleeting feel-good for some . But it is not the act of a sober-minded fiscal conservative. It is a desperate and shameless bribe by a man, twisting in the winds of poor public opinion, to pump up his favorability.
It won’t even calm the waters for long. The MAGAs, now cheering with anticipation, will not react well when they discover that the DOGE checks are not going to low earners. But those silly people will not connect the dots. Although all is not lost for them. Regardless of what he said today, Trump could reverse course and expand the beneficiary pool tomorrow.
Because he has no plan.
Trump has only achieved destruction in his first 45 days. It is all he will achieve. Vandalism requires no talent. Drunk teenagers (see above) are capable of it. Vandalism is what people who cannot create value do to prove to themselves they are relevant. The only people who appreciate it are those who mistake action for accomplishment.
The willingness to change your mind is a strength for talented people trying to solve a problem. In Trump’s case, it points to a man out of his depth, without a plan, throwing spaghetti against the wall, hoping some will stick. America is now in the hands of a dumbass gambler, sitting at a roulette table, who has staked the rent money on a single number hoping that, against all the odds, he can recoup his losses.
Jesus weeps.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/6/2308447/-Trump-has-no-plan?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
