Trump gave his ‘State of the Union’ address to a joint session of Congress last night, described by the BBC as “raucous.” I didn’t stay up to watch it but what is clear from reports is that he was just as divisive as ever, perhaps even more so. Apparently, some Republicans didn’t cheer when he talked about America suffering a “little disturbance” as his trade war gets underway but apart from that they seemed to get behind him. Trump's Commerce Secretary had earlier claimed Trump would “sign a trade deal” with Canada and Mexico sometime today. He already had one (NAFTA) that he renegotiated last term that he is now violating! I should say this is typical Trump gobbledygook.
He seemed to soften his stance on Ukraine slightly but having ‘paused’ weapons deliveries there was no sign he would restart them. The minerals deal is still not signed.
It’s hard to see why anyone in Congress takes him seriously. Apart from being a felon and a con man, the entire post-war global order is being upended by a complete moron with no idea what he's doing. From security to trade, Trump is swinging a wrecking ball through everything we have known since 1945, but the backlash has already started.
It’s certainly not all going well. In fact, just six weeks into his second term just about every indicator on everything with the exception of inflation and the business uncertainty index, is turning downward. Still, polling shows 44% of Americans think he’s doing a good job, (51% say he’s not) which means I think they are yet to feel the impact of his kneejerk policies personally.
Scrolling through social media nowadays is to be force-fed a diet of Donald Trump's idiocies. It is not going well as I said.
YouTube show more and more videos of Trump voters now regretting having voted for him. Many wanted to see America made great again, but instead are seeing the whole nation and everything it stood for flushed down the pan. Some wanted to see waste, fraud, and abuse tackled only to find they were the very waste and fraud that Elon Musk and Donald Trump were talking about! They are going out of business or losing their jobs.
Nebraska farmers voted overwhelmingly for DJT but this woman (below) says on their family farm 70% of the employees were undocumented immigrants. After the inauguration and threats of being rounded up and deported, they stopped turning up for work! They now face bankruptcy. Amazing, eh.
Right-wing talk shows are taking calls from their MAGA listeners and viewers who support Trump, BUT are now desperately unhappy with some aspect or other of what Trump and Musk are doing. This is on the economy, Ukraine, Gaza, DOGE cuts, trade or something else. In normal times, this would be unthinkable but it gives an idea of the rising backlash.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has told its members not to organise town hall meetings with constituents for fear of their reaction. Think about that. Imagine the Tories telling their MPs not to meet voters. It's just not sustainable.
The FT has a piece about international investors abandoning the dollar as a reserve currency, something that would be a huge blow to the American financial system. The chief economist at the Bank of Singapore says if the EU could seize this moment, it would tap into a deep well of willing buyers keen to trim US exposure. “Plenty of reserve managers could shift very quickly, there would be huge take-up,” he said.
Markets are falling rapidly; the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, S&P500 are all down and back to the levels seen on the last day of Biden's term. All the Trump gains have simply evaporated.
Trump has tweeted (or truthed!) that protests at US universities will be dealt with much like Putin does. Protesters will be imprisoned or deported:
“Illegal protests?” He’s not a king. He doesn’t have the authority to stop protests. Or expel students. Or tell protestors not to wear masks. He’s not a king.👇— Joe Walsh (@walshfreedom.bsky.social) 4 March 2025 at 13:32
As the number of legal challenges to his Executive Orders reaches 96, with the Department of Justice having lost a serious chunk of staff and amid indications that Trump and his cohorts won't abide by the law, the American Bar Association has published a long statement including this:
"We reject efforts to undermine the courts and the profession. We will not stay silent in the face of efforts to remake the legal profession into something that rewards those who agree with the government and punishes those who do not. Words and actions matter. And the intimidating words and actions we have heard must end. They are designed to cow our country’s judges, our country’s courts and our legal profession. Consistent with the chief justice’s report, these efforts cannot be sanctioned or normalized."
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) employees who were needed to fight wildfires in North and south Carolina were unable to travel because the spending limit on their government credit cards had been reduced to $1. Federal employees who had been accidentally fired (I can’t believe I just typed that) were asked to return to offices without desks, Wi-Fi or electricity. This is in what used to be a functioning economy.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is now forecasting the US economy will shrink by a massive 2.8% in the first quarter of 2025. A month ago their prediction was for 3.9% growth!!
Atlanta Fed Q1 GDP tracker was -1.5% on Friday. Today it’s -2.8%. 🇺🇸 www.atlantafed.org/cqer/researc...— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 3 March 2025 at 16:22
The really crazy thing about Trump and the GOP is that they are pursuing the most unpopular agenda in US history and voters will eventually realise it. He isn't lining up the Republican party for success but for disaster, and he was cheered on last night for doing so.
None of this is even to mention the destruction of America's reputation abroad which is being not so much tarnished slightly but comprehensively trashed.
The EU has announced an €800billion boost in defence spending, telling EU leaders: “A new era is upon us. Europe faces a clear and present danger on a scale that none of us have seen in our adult lifetime. Some of our fundamental assumptions are being undermined to their very core. The pace of change is disconcerting and increasingly alarming.”
