Why Team Trump is struggling to close
face-saving trade deals
Posted By: Dreadnought, 4/24/2025 6:07:06 PM
Team Trump is looking for a face-saving off-ramp in its global trade war, and they’re ready to announce a deal-in-kind with at least one trading partner, On The Money has learned. How that manifests itself is unclear, but my sources are led to believe that actual deals — i.e. signed agreements even with the most friendly of trading partners caught up in the Trump maelstrom – are probably not happening anytime soon. What is more likely is a series of public announcements coming from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and possibly the president himself, indicating broad outlines of trade pacts that both sides can live with.
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Ashley Rindsberg, from whose stories I have riffed on before, has a great piece in Spectator Magazine about the COVID cover-up that adds a new twist.
Anthony Fauci, through a Harvard University intermediary, helped funnel money from the Chinese property company Evergrande to Harvard in February 2020. And that contribution was, quite surprisingly, part of a backdoor effort on the part of the Chinese to communicate with and influence Fauci and America's COVID response. On the morning of Sunday February 2, 2020, Anthony Fauci, then in the middle of putting together America’s pandemic response, received an unusual email with a highly unusual request.
President Trump continues to assail the once-unassailable status quo on civil rights. The behemoth of federal civil rights laws may originate with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but far too much of it has been invented by administrative agencies and courts. That should end — and it is a fight worth having.
The shift of a significant number of non-white voters into Trump’s coalition in 2024 can be read in many ways, but clearly one driver was the exhaustion of long-standing Democratic appeals to race-conscious remedies, premised as so many of them are on group identity and the notion that every disparity among groups in society reflects a deep conspiracy
New Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that Damascus seeks to normalize ties with Israel, US Congressman Cory Mills told Bloomberg on Thursday after a meeting with him last week in Syria.
Mills said he held talks with Sharaa about the conditions for removing US-imposed economic sanctions, as well as the possibility of peace with Israel, according to the report.
Sharaa told Mills during their meeting that Syria is interested “under the right conditions” in joining the Abraham Accords — the series of normalization agreements that US President Donald Trump’s previous administration negotiated between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.
Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order titled "Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy." The basic point of this is to undermine what is known as disparate-impact theory. Here's how the executive order describes it.
A bedrock principle of the United States is that all citizens are treated equally under the law. This principle guarantees equality of opportunity, not equal outcomes. It promises that people are treated as individuals, not components of a particular race or group. It encourages meritocracy and a colorblind society, not race- or sex-based favoritism. Adherence to this principle is essential to creating opportunity, encouraging achievement, and sustaining the American Dream.
The circle of top advisers in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s orbit has shrunk in recent days to little more than his wife, lawyer, and two lower-level officials — leaving the Pentagon’s lead office without longtime expertise or clear direction.
Hegseth’s decision to fire three senior aides last week and reassign his chief of staff has blown a hole in his leadership team, severing essential lines of communication across the department and leading to fears about dangerous slip-ups such as weapons program delays.
The wholesale turnover just 100 days into Hegseth’s tenure has been remarkable for its speed. And it has left the first-time government official without trusted staff who understand Washington
Hegseth had an unsecured internet line
set up in his office to connect to Signal,
AP sources say 18 replies
set up in his office to connect to Signal,
AP sources say 18 replies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols set up in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, two people familiar with the line told The Associated Press.
The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about Hegseth’s use of the unclassified app and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
Known as a “dirty” internet line by the IT industry, it connects directly to the public internet where the user’s information and the websites
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial chief of staff, who played a central role in a power struggle that gripped the Pentagon, will exit the agency today.
Joe Kasper was originally expected to transition to another role within the Defense Department, but is now planning to go back to government relations and consulting, he said in an interview.
He will continue to support and advise the Pentagon, he said, but as a special government employee. This will limit him to performing temporary jobs for just 130 days a year.
A former longtime chief of staff to indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter, Kasper was a leading figure in the firings
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth went off on the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff amid a search for a leaker at the Pentagon, according to a report published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.
The paper said Hegseth was “rattled” after word got out last month that the Pentagon was set to brief Elon Musk on China, where the Tesla CEO has three factories. President Donald Trump denied the report the next day. However, Axios later reported that Trump had canceled the briefing while asking, “What the * is Elon doing here?”
During his search for the leaker, Hegseth erupted at Admiral Christopher Grady
Team Trump is looking for a face-saving off-ramp in its global trade war, and they’re ready to announce a deal-in-kind with at least one trading partner, On The Money has learned.
How that manifests itself is unclear, but my sources are led to believe that actual deals — i.e. signed agreements even with the most friendly of trading partners caught up in the Trump maelstrom – are probably not happening anytime soon.
What is more likely is a series of public announcements coming from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and possibly the president himself, indicating broad outlines of trade pacts that both sides can live with.
The Biden era’s infamous “disinformation” czar is urging the European Union to resist the Trump administration’s agenda on online censorship and other key issues.Jankowicz testified before the European Parliament earlier this week at a hearing about Russian hybrid threats and painted a gloomy picture of the Trump administration’s opposition to online speech suppression and advocacy for U.S. tech companies.“The United States has now become the largest lobbyist for these multibillion dollar [tech] corporations and is harassing any nation or body that aims to conduct oversight or require transparency of them. Neither Washington nor the social media platforms it has captured are interested in preserving democracy.
CONCORD, N.H. — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s guidance forbidding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in K-12 public schools.
The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of violating teachers’ due process and First Amendment rights.
In February, the U.S. Education Department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race or they would risk losing their federal funding. Earlier this month, the department ordered states to gather signatures from local school systems certifying compliance with civil rights laws
Disney+’s acclaimed Andor has stretched the creative boundaries of Star Wars in countless ways, bringing a grown-up sensibility to a galaxy far, far away.
Yet even by Andor standards, a scene from the second season is leaving fans shocked: An Imperial officer tries to violently rape a Rebel fugitive, Bix Caleen (Adria Arjona), who is hiding out in a farming settlement while Imperial troops are rounding up “undocumented” citizens (read some sample reactions below). The sequence plays out over the course of the show’s third episode (the first three episodes were released all at once on Tuesday) with the officer’s flirtation with Bix turning growing increasingly persistent and eventually
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A woke California PhD student is going viral online after declining a coveted NASA internship she spent “years” seeking — and she’s blaming “the current administration” for her shocking decision.
Daniela Lucas, a 26-year-old bioengineering student at UC San Diego, recently uploaded a TikTok video showing her dramatically selecting “Decline Offer” for an internship in NASA’s Human Health and Performance program.
“No one tells you how hard it is to reject an offer from your dream internship at NASA because of the current administration,” Lucas, 26, wrote over the video.
“I worked years to receive this letter, just to have to decline,” she added, including a crying face and devil emoji.
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-FL) is calling for an “uprising” in the streets of the United States until President Donald Trump stops his agenda of increased interior immigration enforcement.
This week, Wilson joined other House Democrats in touring the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Krome Detention Center, which holds criminal illegal aliens while they await their deportations from the U.S. Following the tour, Wilson held a press conference where she told voters to call the offices of congressional Republicans and “threaten” them. She also called for an “uprising” in the streets until the Trump administration stops arresting and deporting illegal aliens.
Former President Joe Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, will attend Pope Francis‘s funeral this weekend in Rome.
“President Biden and Dr. Biden will attend Pope Francis’s funeral,” a Biden spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
Biden did not attend the funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in 2023, which occurred during his presidency. Benedict served as pope from 2005 through 2013, when he took the unusual step of becoming pope emeritus at 85.
Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will not attend the funeral.
The state of Washington, which does not officially recognize Easter or Yom Kippur as state holidays, became the first state in the nation to recognize the two Islamic holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as unpaid state-recognized holidays when Democrat Governor Bob Ferguson signed the legislation into law this month.
“Senate Bill 5106, sponsored by Sen. Yasmin Trudeau (D-Tacoma), adds both Eid holidays to a list of 20 other state holidays. Rep. Osman Salahuddin (D-Redmond) sponsored the companion bill,” Ferguson’s website stated. “The new law does not establish Eid holidays as paid holidays, but rather adds them to the state’s list of recognized observances,
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Chris Jansing Reports” that President Donald Trump’s actions against Harvard University are lawless, reckless, and vicious.
Jansing said, “As you know, Harvard University is suing the Trump Administration for freezing billions in funding to the school after it rejected a list of the administration’s demands. Is Harvard doing the right thing?
Schumer said, “Yes. In fact, today, a group of Jewish senators and myself sent a letter to the administration telling them that, look, going against anti-semitism is important, but what they’ve done goes way beyond that.
Longtime Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang received applause and laughter from The View co-hosts and the show’s audience after he called Vice President JD Vance “a pope killer.”
Co-host Sara Haines asked Yang playing Vance on the NBC sketch comedy show. “I just thought there would be better people for it,” Yang said. “It was my impostor syndrome. I was like, there are better people for this. I worked with an accent coach, I had to get it between Ohio and Appalachia with the accent. It’s hard, it’s very subtle!”
Whoopi Goldberg told Yang his Vance portrayal “was funny as hell.”
At a recent town hall in Georgia, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) made it clear that he believes President Donald Trump’s actions justify impeachment, even as Trump remains widely popular in the state Ossoff represents. The exchange took place during a tense back-and-forth with an unhinged Karen who demanded that Ossoff do more to remove Trump from office.
The woman, sounding like she was auditioning to be a co-host of "The View," railed against what she called “authoritative rule” and demanded drastic action. “I will not live in an authoritative country, and neither will any of these people,” she shouted. “He needs to be impeached. I will not live like this…
Kennedy Center events scheduled for LGBTQ+
pride celebration have been canceled,
organizers say 13 replies
pride celebration have been canceled,
organizers say 13 replies
Washington— Organizers and the Kennedy Center have canceled a week’s worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights for this summer’s World Pride festival in Washington, D.C., amid a shift in priorities and the ousting of leadership at one of the nation’s premier cultural institutions.
Multiple artists and producers involved in the center’s Tapestry of Pride schedule, which had been planned for June 5 to 8, told The Associated Press that their events had been quietly canceled or moved to other venues. And in the wake of the cancellations, Washington’s Capital Pride Alliance has disassociated itself from the Kennedy Center.
Top Democrat in the Florida state Senate
says his party is 'dead' and registers
as independent 12 replies
says his party is 'dead' and registers
as independent 12 replies
Florida state Senate Minority Leader Jason Pizzo announced Thursday that he is leaving the Democratic Party.
“Here’s the issue, the Democratic Party in Florida is dead,” Pizzo said in remarks on the Senate floor.
He said he had sent in a voter registration form to change his party affiliation to “no party affiliation."Pizzo said the state's political system resembled "the infighting, power struggles, corruption and decline of civic virtue that pervaded and eventually ushered in the fall of Rome."
"So, too, are we players, or perhaps props, in the mess that is bottom partisanship,” Pizzo said.
Not a day seems to go by without some activist lower court judge issuing an overreaching injunction blocking part of President Trump’s agenda.
Throughout Wednesday and Thursday alone, judges across multiple venues handed down decrees barring numerous executive actions taken by the president since returning to office. From DEI to election policy, these cases are but a few of the more than 170 lawsuits Democrats and left-wing political actors have filed to sabotage Trump and the 77 million Americans who voted for him.
Despite this clear effort to destroy American democracy via a judicial coup, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) seems to have no interest in stopping it
Procter & Gamble and other prominent corporations fund a "racial justice" group whose leader, a former Obama White House official, lashed out this week at what he called "white mediocrity" and urged a "woke" army of black youth "to wage war with whiteness."
David Johns, who led President Barack Obama’s White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, made the remarks at an event Tuesday to promote a boycott against Target for rolling back its DEI programs.
Johns is the executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, a black LGBT group that aims to fight "anti-Blackness." The nonprofit lists companies like Airbnb, Sephora, Sony, and Procter & Gamble as sponsors.
‘Lawlessness’: Washington Dem Gov
Signs Bill Giving Racial Preference In
Forgivable Housing Loans 11 replies
Signs Bill Giving Racial Preference In
Forgivable Housing Loans 11 replies
The Democrat governor of Washington state signed a bill this week that gave preference to “black, indigenous, and people of color” for forgivable loans, a proposal called “lawlessness” by a United States senator.
The bill, HB 1696, states:
As part of the covenant homeownership program, the department shall contract with the commission to design, develop, implement and evaluate one or more special purpose credit programs to reduce racial disparities in ownership in the state by providing down payment and closing cost assistance… The contract must authorize the commission to use up to