News Briefs #4

There has been a lot happening in US politics in the last week. Time to catch up on a few of them.

Trump’s Address to Congress

I won’t add much to the commentary on Trump’s address to Congress last night. It was what we have come to expect from him – 100 minutes of lies, bragging, blaming, and sheer ignorance. I’ll give an example of each.

Lies – Trump said his highest priority is to rescue the economy and get “dramatic and immediate relief to working families”, and blamed Biden for “an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare”. Anyone who has been following the US economy knows that Biden left the economy in the best shape in decades, the envy of the world, and that the US weathered the global inflation better than most wealthy countries. In just over a month Trump has ripped the US economy in tatters.

Bragging – “...to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country. We have accomplished more in 43 days …and we are just getting started”. “We are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this Earth”.

Blaming – He blamed the price of eggs, which he promised to bring down on day one, on Joe Biden’s energy policy.

Ignorance – He proved he has learned nothing about economics, and either refuses to listen to his advisors or he just doesn’t get it, when he still refers to trade deficits as subsidies to countries like Canada. And he was apparently talking about himself when he referred to Lesotho as a country “nobody has ever heard of”.

Who is the Head of DOGE?

For weeks now Trump regime lawyers have been saying that Elon Musk is not the head of DOGE, though it is obvious that he is the one giving orders. In his speech last night, Trump gave it away “DOGE – perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight”.

Ukraine Aid and Intelligence Pauses

The day after Trump cut off all military aid to Ukraine, including much of what was passed by Congress under Biden, Trump has stuck it again to Ukraine. On Tuesday CIA Director John Ratcliiffe announced that the US has stopped sharing millitary targeting information with Ukraine. The rationale? To force Ukraine to accept Trump’s one-sided peace deal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/us/politics/cia-director-ukraine-intelligence.html

I suspect that former allies, like the Five Eyes Alliance, are now being more careful in what they share with the US, knowing that it is likely to be passed on to Russia. What really worries me is that Ukraine’s military is still highly dependent on Musk’s Starlink system and that Musk has previously threatened to turn it off.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/05/us-stops-sharing-intelligence-on-russia-with-ukraine

SCOTUS Ruling on Aid Contracts

The Supreme Court on Wednesday in an emergency hearing upheld a judge’s decision ordering the Trump regime to immediately release the $2 billion in foreign aid payments owed under existing contracts. Roberts and Barrett joined the liberal justices to make a 5-4 ruling. In keeping with Trump’s mindset of retribution, he reportedly greeted Chief Justice Roberts at the address last night with “I won’t forget”. Roberts didn’t, but should have, replied “You’d better not”.

https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/poking-around-in-the-aftermath-of

FBI Returns Stolen Boxes to Mar-a-Lago

Last Friday, February 28, the FBI returned to President Trump the boxes of files that were being held as evidence in the criminal case that was dropped on Trump’s election. These were the boxes that Trump had stolen when he left the White House and either returned voluntarily after being subpoenaed, or seized in the subsequent raid. What a travesty of justice!

Trump of course sees this move as vindication: “The Department of Justice has just returned the boxes that deranged Jack Smith made such a big deal about. I did absolutely nothing wrong.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/us/politics/trump-documents-maralago-fbi.html