Trump47 Cabinet Picks & First 100 Days Agenda

[nycfan]

11/25/24 ☀️ AM:

PRESENTED BY IN THIS EDITION Spending wars heat up with Trump pick of VoughtTrump’s Labor pick sparks rare GOP backlashLabor Dems seek new party message

punchbowl.news

Trump’s Labor pick sparks rare GOP backlash​

"... President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks have largely enjoyed public deference from Senate Republicans and from conservatives generally. Not Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.).

Trump picked the Oregon Republican, who lost her reelection bid on Nov. 5, to be his Labor secretary. It immediately prompted criticism from conservatives who see Chavez-DeRemer as too close to labor unions.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who’s set to chair the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the next Congress, had this to say about Chavez-DeRemer, citing her support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act:

“I will need to get a better understanding of her support for Democrat legislation in Congress that would strip Louisiana’s ability to be a right to work state, and if that will be her position going forward.”

It’s a rare case of Senate Republicans — and conservatives more broadly — openly questioning a Trump Cabinet pick. And not because of poor qualifications or alleged personal indiscretions, a la former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

Instead, Chavez-DeRemer is coming under scrutiny because of her support for a key Democratic agenda item and concerns that she’d undermine GOP efforts to undo the Biden administration’s labor regulations. ..."

 

[heelinhell]

150 year old Chuck Grassley has thrown down the gauntlet when it comes to purging inspector generals. Let's hope he lives long enough to man the barricades...

'I intend to defend them': Senate Republican warns Trump against government purge

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), despite being a staunch Donald Trump ally, is warning the president-elect against any plan to go on a mass firing spree of government inspectors general.In an interview with Politico, Grassley was asked whether Trump should do as some of his allies suggest and conduct...

www.rawstory.com

 

[superrific]

150 year old Chuck Grassley has thrown down the gauntlet when it comes to purging inspector generals. Let's hope he lives long enough to man the barricades...

'I intend to defend them': Senate Republican warns Trump against government purge

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), despite being a staunch Donald Trump ally, is warning the president-elect against any plan to go on a mass firing spree of government inspectors general.In an interview with Politico, Grassley was asked whether Trump should do as some of his allies suggest and conduct...

www.rawstory.com

1. he's a liar
2. He might have no idea what's actually going on.
3. How many other votes does he have?

 

[ZenMode]

Bessent is a tariff guy. Good.

Seems pretty reasonable.

Where does Bessent stand on tariffs?​

Analysts picked up such signals from Bessent after he made comments comparing tariffs to a loaded gun.

Per a note published earlier this year and seen by The Wall Street Journal, Bessent reportedly wrote that the “tariff gun will always be loaded and on the table but rarely discharged.”

 

[BlooVooDoo]

Seems pretty reasonable.

Where does Bessent stand on tariffs?​

Analysts picked up such signals from Bessent after he made comments comparing tariffs to a loaded gun.

Per a note published earlier this year and seen by The Wall Street Journal, Bessent reportedly wrote that the “tariff gun will always be loaded and on the table but rarely discharged.”

I don’t think his new boss shares that perspective.

 

[superrific]

Seems pretty reasonable.

Where does Bessent stand on tariffs?​

Analysts picked up such signals from Bessent after he made comments comparing tariffs to a loaded gun.

Per a note published earlier this year and seen by The Wall Street Journal, Bessent reportedly wrote that the “tariff gun will always be loaded and on the table but rarely discharged.”

1. He said that before Trump launched onto his love of tariffs and even the word itself. His view has shifted, unsurprisingly. His Fox News op-ed piece published after the election under his own byline is probably a better reflection of his views that a WSJ article reviewing a "note"

2. Having loaded guns on the table is how firefights start. The entire point of GATT and our international trading system is to take the guns off the table. Because nothing good happens when you have loaded guns on a table.

3. What event is sufficient for "discharge"? Such a stupid comment. The US is not a victim of global trade. It is the beneficiary of global trade.

Trump talks about how Europe has a tariff on passenger cars from the United States. That's true. IIRC, it's 10%. Meanwhile, the US has a bigger tariff on light-duty trucks, which I think are about 25%. Ever wonder why there are no light-duty trucks from European manufacturers? That's why. I don't know how crossovers and/or SUVs are treated, but probably not as trucks for purposes of tariffs.

So why are the tariffs organized like that? Because the EU and the US made a deal. US agreed to drop its passenger car tariff while retaining the truck tariff. The EU agreed to drop its truck tariff and reduce its passenger car tariff. I am certain that the numbers were chosen to make this a roughly equal trade in terms of dollar volume, or it was at the time. To clarify: I'm not sure that the dollar value of these specific tariffs were fully offsetting; they were negotiated as part of a huge tariff reduction agreement. The US did not give up money in terms of tariff concessions.

And one result of these tariff policies is that trucks in the US are expensive. There are no Civics around driving down prices.

4. Consider also that the global market is much bigger than the domestic market. Putting tariffs so that American companies (in theory; it doesn't happen in practice) can compete more easily in the domestic market, matched by tariffs abroad to impede competition elsewhere, is a bad trade.

 

[ZenMode]

1. He said that before Trump launched onto his love of tariffs and even the word itself. His view has shifted, unsurprisingly. His Fox News op-ed piece published after the election under his own byline is probably a better reflection of his views that a WSJ article reviewing a "note"

2. Having loaded guns on the table is how firefights start. The entire point of GATT and our international trading system is to take the guns off the table. Because nothing good happens when you have loaded guns on a table.

3. What event is sufficient for "discharge"? Such a stupid comment. The US is not a victim of global trade. It is the beneficiary of global trade.

Trump talks about how Europe has a tariff on passenger cars from the United States. That's true. IIRC, it's 10%. Meanwhile, the US has a bigger tariff on light-duty trucks, which I think are about 25%. Ever wonder why there are no light-duty trucks from European manufacturers? That's why. I don't know how crossovers and/or SUVs are treated, but probably not as trucks for purposes of tariffs.

So why are the tariffs organized like that? Because the EU and the US made a deal. US agreed to drop its passenger car tariff while retaining the truck tariff. The EU agreed to drop its truck tariff and reduce its passenger car tariff. I am certain that the numbers were chosen to make this a roughly equal trade in terms of dollar volume, or it was at the time. To clarify: I'm not sure that the dollar value of these specific tariffs were fully offsetting; they were negotiated as part of a huge tariff reduction agreement. The US did not give up money in terms of tariff concessions.

And one result of these tariff policies is that trucks in the US are expensive. There are no Civics around driving down prices.

4. Consider also that the global market is much bigger than the domestic market. Putting tariffs so that American companies (in theory; it doesn't happen in practice) can compete more easily in the domestic market, matched by tariffs abroad to impede competition elsewhere, is a bad trade.

I'll say this.....

For as much time as people on this site spend obsessing about Trump, it's pretty amazing that you still have no idea how he tends to operate.

Equally amazing is that you will oppose basically anything that he supports and does, while protecting Democrats. I don't doubt for a second that you believe everything that you say. At this point it's just how your mind operates.

Tariffs are a useful tool that gun should be on the table and there is absolutely nothing wrong with letting people know that you are willing to use it. Portraying yourself as weak is the true danger.

 

[lawtig02]

I'll say this.....

For as much time as people on this site spend obsessing about Trump, it's pretty amazing that you still have no idea how he tends to operate.

Equally amazing is that you will oppose basically anything that he supports and does, while protecting Democrats. I don't doubt for a second that you believe everything that you say. At this point it's just how your mind operates.

Tariffs are a useful tool that gun should be on the table and there is absolutely nothing wrong with letting people know that you are willing to use it. Portraying yourself as weak is the true danger.

Have you ever wondered how Trump apologists in the US are able to know when Trump is just bluffing, while simultaneously believing the rest of the world can be manipulated by his machinations?

 

[rodoheel]

I'll say this.....

For as much time as people on this site spend obsessing about Trump, it's pretty amazing that you still have no idea how he tends to operate.

Equally amazing is that you will oppose basically anything that he supports and does, while protecting Democrats. I don't doubt for a second that you believe everything that you say. At this point it's just how your mind operates.

Tariffs are a useful tool that gun should be on the table and there is absolutely nothing wrong with letting people know that you are willing to use it. Portraying yourself as weak is the true danger.

lol chalk another one up in the "Trump is secretly a calculating genius pretending to be a chaotic moron as a strategy" camp

 

[ZenMode]

Have you ever wondered how Trump apologists in the US are able to know when Trump is just bluffing, while simultaneously believing the rest of the world can be manipulated by his machinations?

While it really doesn't matter, Trump apologists are Trump apologists for a reason. They don't think things through,they just blindly apologize. The rest of the world has actual skin in the game that apologists don't...or at least perceive that they don't. They can't afford to hope he's just saying dumb shit.

 

[ZenMode]

lol chalk another one up in the "Trump is secretly a calculating genius pretending to be a chaotic moron as a strategy" camp

Chalk another one up to not even buying the straw man dinner before you force yourself on him.

The next time I say or believe Trump is a genius will be the first.

 

[superrific]

They can't afford to hope he's just saying dumb shit.

Right. That's the problem.

If you think Trump can strongarm other countries into doing his bidding, you are mistaken. He threatened the EU with stuff in 2018; they responded by giving him a deal to buy more US LNG. Problem: EU doesn't have anything to do with LNG purposes. So the US got nothing. Nothing. Trump got duped. Our allies got antagonized for no reason.

 

[rodoheel]

Chalk another one up to not even buying the straw man dinner before you force yourself on him.

The next time I say or believe Trump is a genius will be the first.

Please feel free to enlighten us, then, on what you believe we're missing when it comes to Trump and how he "tends to operate" with respect to his repeated statements about tariffs

 

[superrific]

I'll say this.....

For as much time as people on this site spend obsessing about Trump, it's pretty amazing that you still have no idea how he tends to operate.

Equally amazing is that you will oppose basically anything that he supports and does, while protecting Democrats. I don't doubt for a second that you believe everything that you say. At this point it's just how your mind operates.

Tariffs are a useful tool that gun should be on the table and there is absolutely nothing wrong with letting people know that you are willing to use it. Portraying yourself as weak is the true danger.

1. Step back a little and look at what you've written. Tariffs concern trade. Trade is voluntary. We trade because it improves everyone's welfare, because specialized production is most efficient. It isn't war. It isn't plunder. It is not a zero sum game.

So when you're talking about tariffs as a "gun," you're thinking about it wrong. When you talk about "portraying yourself as weak," you're thinking about it wrong. Tariff negotiations are not about strength. They aren't competitions.

2. In general, US tariffs are bad for the US. In the 1980s, conservative economists used to call for unilateral reductions in tariffs, because they do more harm than good. That was not the policy chosen; rather, the US pursued multilateral tariff reductions. But how are you going to get other countries to give you concessions when your "leverage" is shooting yourself in the foot?

And letting people know that you're willing to use the tariffs puts all discussions on a hostile, aggressive footing. It lets the other countries prepare for their own retaliatory tariffs, which will be considerably more effective because they know what they are doing. Trump just wants to keep out imports. The EU targets important US industries.

3. There's a reason why there is such a powerful overlap between "things that Trump wants to do that no prior presidents have done," and "stupid things to do." In general, when you see Obama, Bush, Clinton and Reagan administrations agreeing on a policy, that's probably because it's a good policy. When no president in history has done what Trump wants to do, that's not a sign of Trump's genius or out-of-the-box thinking. The reason those things weren't done is that they are stupid.

 

[ZenMode]

Right. That's the problem.

If you think Trump can strongarm other countries into doing his bidding, you are mistaken. He threatened the EU with stuff in 2018; they responded by giving him a deal to buy more US LNG. Problem: EU doesn't have anything to do with LNG purposes. So the US got nothing. Nothing. Trump got duped. Our allies got antagonized for no reason.

Are you talking about this deal?

EU-U.S. Joint Statement: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports from the U.S. continue to rise, up by 181%

EU-U.S. Joint Statement: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports from the U.S. continue to rise, up by 181%

ec.europa.eu

 

[Kingpin]

However, Gorka is a hideous human being.

Yes, as bad as Bolton is, Gorka is much worse

 

[superrific]

Are you talking about this deal?

EU-U.S. Joint Statement: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports from the U.S. continue to rise, up by 181%

EU-U.S. Joint Statement: Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) imports from the U.S. continue to rise, up by 181%

ec.europa.eu

I am. And they snookered Trump and fools like you, because that's how much LNG would have been exported to EU anyway. Maybe a few countries bought a little more for a couple of years , but it was basically of zero effect.

 

[CFordUNC]

Trump supporters chafe at being called stupid dumbfucks but I’m honestly not sure what other terminology can be applied to people who voted for this kind of stupidity.

 

[CFordUNC]

 

[CFordUNC]