Want to understand what Trump is doing? Part 2

Lots of fighting back is happening all over the country.

Republicans in the House vote on their budget bill today, which completely cuts our Medicaid. Medicaid is what low income and disabled people use for health care. It will effect 77 million people if I remember correctly.

After this revolution, we better have universal health care.

The Democrats refuse to vote for it, so when it passes it is 100% the responsibility of Republicans.

Update on the budget bill.

Republicans did not have the votes to pass it, so they have withdrawn it for now. They will go back into negotiations.

I suspected this would happen, though I wasn't sure because they seemed so confident they had the votes.

We will keep encouraging voters in red states to push back and I, personally, will encourage my representative to not vote on the bill at all. Dems have vowed not to vote on it as a symbol of protest and I agree with them. Let those Republicans destroy themselves with voters when they take away healthcare coverage for low income people and those with disabilities. They can stand alone and walk the walk if they are so sure of it.

Tesla has lost 23% of its stock value in the last month.

Makes the petty part of my heart smile. I am not that knowledgeable in how billionaires pay no income taxes, but I do know they borrow money against the value of stocks to fund their lifestyle. When a stock drops, it may limit his ability to borrow money and the banks could call the loan if it is to big of a risk.

Just saw an update that the Republicans did vote on the budget today. I need to do research to see what happened, so disregard my former post.

He is censoring the media. This is the first time in a century that the White House controls what press corps have access to it.

This is very, very bad.

www.axios.com/2025/02/25/white-house-trump-press-pool

Yes I read about the censorship.

Be burning books next or at least restricting publication.

Happy to see that voting with our purses has brought consequences for Musk. My son always bought Tesla, until Musk went mad a couple of years ago, he now buys alternative EVs.

I have largely come off X - twitter and am on Bluesky instead, which is actually a much pleasanter platform, and growing by the day.

As an aside Bluesky has a blue butterfly as its logo. X has recently added a blue butterfly to the bar on my iPad - not sure if it is my iPad or a ploy by X?

I heard it reported on the world service. I think this is the start of trying to take control of the press and agree it's a very worrying step..
I'm pleased to see Tesla shares losing value, I hope shareholders start creating a move to get him out. Hedgefund managers are reportedly expecting a recession. Not good for the US economy.

According to today’s Tortoise News feed, Tesla sales in Europe have declined by 45%.

Good news✔️

Apparently the tax budget was passed imaround but no democrats voted for it?
Whitewave I am mainly on Blue sky too. I keep an eye on Twitter (will never call it x) but don't post and rarely reply

Trump saying the mineral deal gives Ukraine, 'the right to fight on' makes me think that he was never after peace. It was purely payment and profit he wanted.

Secondly that Putin and Trump are hand in glove.

Russia raped and America pillaged.

Churchview

Trump saying the mineral deal gives Ukraine, 'the right to fight on' makes me think that he was never after peace. It was purely payment and profit he wanted.

Secondly that Putin and Trump are hand in glove.

Russia raped and America pillaged.

Agreed

What we are thinking today is that Russia, China and the USA are all in the same mix to take over the world’s economy. Great Britain has lost its way.

What does he mean by the "right to fight on?".

I wondered whats happening to the deportations? So many headlines on CNN its hard to see anything but a hard line, punitive and confused actions. Seems to be sending people to Panama with uncertain plans.

"Reuters: Trump administration launches new effort to deport unaccompanied migrant children, according to internal memo
edition.cnn.com/2025/02/24/us/trump-administration-effort-deport-unaccompanied-minors/index.html

"‘We are in danger’: Migrants deported from US were locked in hotel and held at remote camp in Panama, lawyers say"
edition.cnn.com/2025/02/22/americas/migrants-deported-camp-panama-intl-latam/index.html

"New immigration enforcement operations underway in Los Angeles areahttps://www.cnn.com/2025/02/23/us/immigration-enforcement-operation-california/index.html

This article also describes resistance to ICE agents, though in the article is says that "ICE officers were expected to be assisted by agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; FBI and US Customs and Border Protection, sources said"

Los Angeles is one of a number of Democratic-led cities in California, Colorado and Illinois that have instituted sanctuary city policies restricting cooperation with federal immigration officials’ efforts to arrest, detain or gather information on migrants

This Forbes article documents: sacking the head of ICE Vitello as "Trump officials reportedly grow frustrated with the pace of arrests and deportations"
"Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning undocumented migrants from accessing “taxpayer-funded benefits,” directing all agencies to “identify all federally funded programs . . . that currently permit illegal aliens to obtain any cash or non-cash public benefit,” though it wasn’t immediately clear which programs would be impacted, and undocumented migrants are already denied most federal benefits."

www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2025/02/20/everything-to-know-about-trumps-mass-deportation-plans-as-president-bans-undocumented-immigrants-from-public-benefits/

The video Trump has put out about 'Trump Gaza' is vile. This man is insanely greedy

I prefer to call them 'Mump'

Sickofweddingcake

I prefer to call them 'Mump'

Mump and Trusk

Grandmabatty

The video Trump has put out about 'Trump Gaza' is vile. This man is insanely greedy

Just insane!

From Maths genius Donald Trump, speaking during the Cabinet meeting now showing -

The deal on Ukrainian rare earths has been increased from $100bn to $350bn – maybe 3 times as much as it was. Also illegal border crossings have decreased by an unprecedented amount in the past month, more than 100%!

No wonder he thinks he is a brilliant business man…

I will research Trump's Ukraine deal later. I am seeing opinions that it is no deal at all, but rather a way for Trump to do what he normally does, mess things up and make it look really horrible, then agree to a "deal", which was actually the original plan to begin with. He then claims it as a win for himself and his supporters eat it up.

As for deportations, his numbers are below both Biden and Obama last I saw. And yes, report have surfaced that he is sending people to countries they have never stepped foot in before and put them into "hotels" where they are guarded by armed guards and not allowed to leave.

www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-set-broaden-arrests-deportation-routes-expand-immigration-crackdown-2025-02-21/

"WASHINGTON, Feb 21 - U.S. President Donald Trump deported 37,660 people during his first month in office, previously unpublished U.S. Department of Homeland Security data show, far less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of Joe Biden's administration."

Willing to be corrected Imaround but claims are probably true many less are getting in via the Mexican border because of the huge US presence along the border -

I saw one picture of troops and barbed wire as opposed to border guards (whatever they are called)

But can they keep that presence up? (via the military?)

Also - is paying Panama to keep people in hotels actually "saving the problem?" whats the endgame?

I think the end game is just removing people with brown skin. So many theories though.

I am sure crossing have stopped. I wouldnt try at this point either to be honest.

The constitutionality of use of the military for law enforcement purposes on US soil is being debated.

There is also another thing to consider, what do we do with all the soldiers they may bring home from Europe? We may end up a military police state.

I'm not sure which thread to put this on. Jeff Bezos just drastically changed the Washington Post. And not in a good way.

"The Washington Post's billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos, announced a sweeping new libertarian vision for the paper's opinion sections on Wednesday, just four months after his decision to kill a presidential endorsement of Kamala Harris triggered hundreds of thousands of subscribers to cancel.

Post Opinions Editor David Shipley, whom Bezos recruited from Bloomberg Opinions in 2022, chose to resign rather than stay to oversee the paper's revamped sections.

"We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets," Bezos wrote in a memo to staffers announcing the changes. "We'll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others."

Reports of federal employees committing suicide after being fired.

Loss of Medicaid is already impacting parents of children with disabilities. They are reporting getting denials for essential services that have been covered for years.

Departments have been instructed to prepare for mass layoffs on March 14th.

I think this may escalate faster than I anticipated.

Oh my goodness. I’ve just seen that Andrew and Tristan Tate have been released in Romania, and are on their way to the USA.

Casdon

Oh my goodness. I’ve just seen that Andrew and Tristan Tate have been released in Romania, and are on their way to the USA.