Trump's Slash And Burn Continues

Will it stop?

Today, Trump announced a spending freeze to Federal Government aid programs. These programs, such as Medicaid, Head Start, work-study, title one programs, school meals, meals-on-wheels are all scrambling to understand how it will affect the funds they recieve. There’s an enormous amount of uncertainty and its unclear if this move is legal. The administration had its first press conference today, and Karoline Leavitt (with a cross around her neck prominently displayed) defended what she described as a “review of federal spending and promised that direct aid to individuals would not be affected by the freeze.” However, a lot of federal money goes to states and other organizations that provide individuals with aid, and it’s not clear whether that would be suspended.

I admit I don’t understand it. Jake Tapper on CNN had a guest on moments ago who suggested that Trump may have bit off more than he intended. But Steven Miller, White House Chief of Staff for Policy, followed on CNN and stated that these cuts will “not affect individuals.” He continued to explain that we need to “get control of government spending, and stop left-wing NGO’s from funding pet projects.” In a combatative exchange with Jake Tapper, Miller kept asserting the reasons for the freeze, attacking liberals and avoiding effort to clear up the confusion. Here are some snippets:

“The American people voted for dramatic change in government.”

“Most of government employees voted for Kamala Harris”

“This pause will be to get control of descretionary spending on pet projects.”

“Left wing news outlets are publishing false stories that are causing confusion.”

Wouldn’t it be great if this was a huge miscalculation of Trump and his men? Last night on CNN, Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that in these early moves, he saw “the seeds of Trump’s discontent,” that what he is doing now will come back to hurt him. I don’t know enough to know if this could be true, but the seemingly reckless abondon of his actions make one wonder.

From The Guardian, we learned that Trump fired a senior official at the top US labor watchdog, triggering criticism from a number of unions. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the US, representing 61 national and international unions, said: “President Trump’s firing of NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox, the first Black woman to serve on the board, is illegal and will have immediate consequences for working people.” Trump’s decision “has effectively shut down” the NLRB’s operations, Shuler said, “leaving the workers it defends on their own in the face of union-busting and retaliation.”

The slash and burn of the caring government we have known continues.

Former Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John Kennedy, today wrote a scathing letter to Senators asking them not to confirm her cousin Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as HHS Secretary. “I have known Bobby my whole life; we grew up together. It’s no surprise that he keeps birds of prey as pets because he himself is a predator,” she wrote, before going on to say that his victims have included family members and the parents of sick children. Here is her letter as she reads it in a social media post. The confirmation hearing for RFK, Jr. is scheduled for tomorrow.

We started watching the movie The Apprentice last night. It’s well done, and as someone who lived in NYC in the 1970’s and 80’s, I think it portrays that time in the city well. It’s also very good at showing viewers how Trump became who he is today, in part because of the influence of Roy Cohn, the corrupt lawyer who is known as the attorney in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s office, and assisted him in tracking down and targeting communists. The film is making it clear that Cohn’s distorted world view towards government and democracy had a heavy influence on young, ambitious, malleable Donald Trump. We haven’t finished it yet, but I am curious to know how far it goes to the present day.

Hope your Tuesday has been a good one. See you tomorrow, thanks for being here!