Mr. Trump’s announcement that the US would own Gaza and develop it as a resort was discussed recently with the King of Jordan who uncompromisingly rejected it. Mr. Trump’s threat to reduce aid to Jordan and Egypt, as he wants them to provide refuge for the Palestinians, including a permanent place to live, did not impact the King’s response. On the other hand, Hamas and Israel had a short blip in their cease fire, and Isreal continues to talk tough which means that the cease fire is at risk. But, in reality, if it fails it will be because of Mr. Trump and his announcement regarding the displacement of the Palestinians for the second time in the last hundred years.
The Gaza, Greenland, the Panama announcements all have one thing in common. Mr. Trump is trying to go back 100 years, or 150 years and focus on US territorial expansion, or this is just following the old movie Wag the Dog. He does not comprehend that the world has changed. The Canadian statehood play may be the most absurd.
As we noted previously in comments about promises made and promises kept, one of the biggest, of course, is Mr. Trump’s statements that on day 1 inflation and food prices would be decreased. In fact, they are both going in the opposite direction and still are, and according to most economists and even in Mr. Trump’s administration, it is clear these will persist for some period of time. For all who voted for Mr. Trump to bring down their food prices, they may want to understand how ridiculous this claim was. In fact, the likelihood when tariffs are imposed is that inflation will not only increase but will increase at a greater rate than it would absent the tariffs. Will this resonate with voters, I am not sure.
More on promises made and promises kept. Egg prices are soaring, and the Waffle House has imposed a surcharge. The Ukraine War? Some chatter but it’s not close to ending. Remember, day 1. Deportation seems to have dropped out of the headlines in recent weeks with little being reported, and thus, one assumes, little action. It has also been reported that deportations are below the levels that were ongoing in the Obama administration, much less the Biden administration. Greenland? No action other than chatter by Mr. Rubio.
A survey run by the National Federation of Independent Business, which is essentially small businesses, indicates that their confidence is quickly waning with Mr. Trump’s approach as they look at tariffs, continued inflation, and general chaos. This is a group that clearly supported Mr. Trump, and again, are disappointed in where he is going, and although they will not admit to this in the news media, their polling indicates the opposite of what they are saying.
The plight of federal workers is painful to observe as they try to figure out how to buy food, pay rent or mortgages, and generally care for their families. The callousness of Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk comes about because of their extraordinary wealth and bad character.
The Pope has criticized Mr. Vance’s position on immigrants in the United States in a letter which effectively scolds Mr. Vance for his positions. Even more interesting, is Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the New York Archdiocese who is a known conservative, and, he too said that Mr. Vance’s comments were scurrilous. This is fairly significant as Mr. Vance touts himself as a strong and devout Catholic, but he is only devout when it suits his political positions, at least it looks that way to me. Unfortunately, he is just another hypocrite.
A small number of GOP representatives, including the leader of the Senate, Mr. Thune, have urged the President to follow Judge’s rulings. Interestingly, Mr. Trump is quoted as saying, “That he will follow the law, but appeal.” If he does that, and he ultimately prevails, then I am satisfied both as a citizen and a lawyer with regard to the separation of powers involved as opposed to the substance.
Democrats continue, as led by Mr. Schumer, to pound largely irrelevant issues. They should be loudly complaining about the increase in inflation, and the failure of the Fed to be able to lower its rates due to that inflation. This can only be expressed in simple and direct statements, not in paragraphs spewed by Democrats. Just for the record, I am a Democrat. It is likely that Republicans and Trump supporters will excuse the increase in inflation by either blaming it on Mr. Biden, as Mr. Trump did on X recently, or by saying, look how long it took Joe Biden to get it done. Unfortunately, this is a piece of logic that doesn’t hold up because Joe Biden did not declare multiple times that he would have inflation under control day 1. It seems like Trump supporters do not want to hold him responsible for any of his misstatements.
Mr. Vance defends Mr. Trump’s actions and his attacks on the Courts by saying, in one example, that a Judge cannot direct a General how to run a war. Unfortunately, Mr. Vance may be bright, but not smart and certainly not informed. The issue here is that the injunctions Judges have issued focus on the fact that Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump are not conforming to existing law, including providing reasons which statutes require before terminating individuals, freezing funds that Congress has already appropriated, etc. Mr. Musk contributes to that with his general comments which he admits may not be accurate. If Mr. Trump is not violating statutes, the Courts would demurrer, even if they disagree.
A recent story in Politico addressed an area that I had substantial confusion on, and I suspect others, about the economy. It leads off with a caption that states, “Voters were right about the economy, the data was wrong.” It appears that the statistics being relied upon by those in Washington, which apparently transcends multiple administrations the author believes, were inaccurate and that this led to a disconnect between the public and government officials. It certainly seems logical to me that this could have been the issue.
Mr. Trump is now toying with reciprocal tariffs with another uninformed claim that this will not negatively impact the American consumer. It does not appear that no matter what is said by virtually any responsible economist or other businessperson that Mr. Trump is listening. The most striking issue to me is the treatment that Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance, and Mr. Musk are dumping on veterans. As you may have read, they fired 1,000 people at the VA, including many veterans, have withdrawn job offers to veterans, and don’t seem to understand the impact that they are having both on the VA services, but also on the individual veterans. We also know that when you look at January the 6th, that was a complete dissing of the Blue, yet Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance, both, as do most Republicans, stand up and say that they are for veterans and for the Blue. Their actions don’t support those claims.
Bill Owens is a former member of Congress representing the New York 21st, a partner in Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, Kelleher and Trombley in Plattsburgh, NY and a Strategic Advisor at Dentons to Washington, DC.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.