Want to understand what Trump is doing? Part 3

I have no idea what tariffs are off or on right now. Trumpnsays one thing, his staff says another. I cant keep up.

Small update on the Trukish PHD student that was deported. A State Dept report said they found no evidence of any public support for HAMAS and could find nothing to indicate antisemitic activities.

The were told there was no reason to deport her and they did it anyhow under the discretion of Marco Rubio.

"Days before masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk to deport her, the State Department determined that the Trump administration had not produced any evidence showing that she engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, as the government has alleged."

www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/13/tufts-student-rumeysa-ozturk-rubio-trump/

Aely

I see that he has realised that people won't be happy paying a small fortune for an I-phone or computer and has exempted them from the China Tariffs. Perhaps China could refuse to supply them while the other tariff increases are in place?

Oh imaround. The hypocrisy when Musk lectured us in the UK about freedom of speech.

Aely just read he has change his mind again on techie stuff.

He's totally off his trolley!

From CNN

"rom the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick told ABC News’ “This Week” anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday.

Tariffs targeting specific business sectors will be imposed in the next couple of months on certain products key to national security, which will be “not available for negotiation,” Lutnick said.

On Sunday afternoon, President Donald Trump sought to clarify the status of US tariffs on high-tech products from China.

“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances, and Non Monetary Tariff Barriers, that other Countries have used against us, especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

That is absolutely true Macadia. They are already using AI to monitor employees. It won't take long until they start using it on the rest of us.

You will find shortly, that any GN's in the US will not be commenting with written, recordable, traceable words on these subjects on GN or anywhere. Not in email text or phone calls either.

"One FEMA official, who declined to be identified out of fear of retribution, said: “They’re going after rank-and-file employees and ^instilling this culture of fear^”

From the article, says it all.

"The Department of Homeland Security has administered lie detector tests to about 50 staffers in recent weeks, including FEMA’s acting administrator and roughly a dozen officials at the disaster relief agency, as part of an intensifying effort to root out what the department alleges are leaks of national security information."

www.cnn.com/2025/04/12/politics/dhs-fema-lie-detector-tests-leaks/index.html

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Just meritocracy all the way for me.
Cream always rises to the top. If someone’s good enough, it’ll show.
Stop meddling with stats, figures and percentages. Often sowing division where none exists. These quangos have to justify their existence (and salaries).
Enough already.

A wise teacher at my school pointed out that cream rises to the top because it’s thicker than the rest of the milk. I think the current US administration may be a confirmation of that…

I see that he has realised that people won't be happy paying a small fortune for an I-phone or computer and has exempted them from the China Tariffs. Perhaps China could refuse to supply them while the other tariff increases are in place?

Oh imaround - it's never ending. He's ripping a what was a complex but tolerant culture - in that it included breadth of thought and beliefs - into a regimented tyranny of restricted thought and speech.

I'm sure the resistance is strong in hearts and minds.

"The Trump administration has ordered State Department employees to report on any instances of coworkers displaying “anti-Christian bias” as part of its effort to implement a sweeping new executive order on supporting employees of Christian faith working in the federal government.

The department, according to a copy of an internal cable obtained by POLITICO, will work with an administration-wide task force to collect information “involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration” and will collect examples of anti-Christian bias through anonymous employee report forms."

www.politico.com/news/2025/04/11/state-report-anti-christian-bias-033535

The military just take over the southern border.

This is not good.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/military-mission-for-sealing-the-southern-border-of-the-united-states-and-repelling-invasions/

Social Security will now only release statements on X.

How professional.

thehill.com/homenews/administration/5245029-social-security-administration-social-platform-x-releases/

He will destroy the Endangered Species in the US. Bird migration. Sea mammals. All gone.

The bald eagle goes to far. This is a desecration of the symbol of our freedom.

I have no good words that are safe for public over today. He is destroying our planet.

It permits a horrifying change in a huge number of environmental protections (cancelling stuff like changes in the landscape for example to allow for open fracking which destroys whole environments). I didnt understand the bits why it includes regulations around atomic energy.

We have a new EO. This one destroys any environmental protection for animals. He is even going to sunset the Bald Eagle Protection Act.

The Bald Eagle is our national bird. It is illegal to harm them. Or it was. He doesn't care.

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/zero-based-regulatory-budgeting-to-unleash-american-energy/

Hoping those laws dont see the light of day.

We don't tall much about abortion rights here, probably best. But I had to post this article so you can see the hypocrisy of it.

Red states all over the country are trying to pass laws to make a fetus a person and charge women who have had abortions with murder.

Then along comes the Catholic Church arguing that a fetus isn't a person.

They don't want to pay out excess damages to a woman who post her baby after 30 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. They kept sending her home.

Healthcare in American os a whole different thread though.

iowacapitaldispatch.com/2025/04/09/aiming-to-limit-damages-catholic-hospital-argues-a-fetus-isnt-the-same-as-a-person/

Wyllow3

You are conflating two things FGT.

1. Access to work and education (one debate)

2. The Trump attempt to crush the many and varied and colourful and rich histories of different groups and backgrounds in a whole society of immigrants (anther issue, and the one akin to "burning books" and restricting access to knowledge and life's meanings.

Exactly! Trump’s DEI is also diminishing women’s struggles for equality.

DEI is far, far wider than who gets a job and who doesn’t. Surely no-one views it so simplistically.

FGT have you looked at the list of banned books in this thread? Many relate to feminism and women’s rights. Do you support the banning of thinking in this way?

I can just imaging how he come up with that idea. In the shower probably.

"I'm the most powerful man in the world! I hate this shower head, let's cut all water saving technology. Who cares what the future generations drink. Whee!"

Risky, Norah, risky. The hair glue might come unstuck.

Does POTUS not have anything important to worry over?

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/us/politics/trump-showers-water-pressure.html

You are conflating two things FGT.

1. Access to work and education (one debate)

2. The Trump attempt to crush the many and varied and colourful and rich histories of different groups and backgrounds in a whole society of immigrants (anther issue, and the one akin to "burning books" and restricting access to knowledge and life's meanings.

You think it is DEI and indoctrination to learn about the first woman in space? Or the Underground Railroad? Was Harriet Tubman DEI?

How do you explain Trump firing qualified people at all levels and hiring white men with no experience to replace them. That isnt meteocracy is it?

Just meritocracy all the way for me.
Cream always rises to the top. If someone’s good enough, it’ll show.
Stop meddling with stats, figures and percentages. Often sowing division where none exists. These quangos have to justify their existence (and salaries).
Enough already.

FriedGreenTomatoes2

Well not in my opinion, as Government data about the UK's different ethnic groups. 82% of people in England and Wales are white, and 18% belong to a black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic group (2021 Census data).

So 82% of us are white, here. No wonder employment data supports this figure.

I wish DEI would stop trying to manipulate the obvious (innocent) bias.

It seems female and non-heterosexual are of no consequence?

You only spoke to white, black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic group. In my opinion DEI is much more that that.