Skip navigation

Category Archives: Trumpedation

UPDATE: After sending billions to Kushner and Trump, Saudis lobby to escalate Iran War


Judd Legum Mar 25

President Trump met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on November 18, 2025.

“I’m not going to start a war,” President Trump pledged during his November 2024 victory speech. “I’m going to stop wars.”

Today, the United States has been at war with Iran for almost a month, with no clear objectives and no end in sight. Why is Trump, who promised to avoid foreign entanglements, allowing it to drag on?

On Tuesday, the New York Times published a bombshell report. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has been aggressively lobbying Trump not to end the fighting:

Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing President Trump to continue the war against Iran, arguing that the U.S.-Israeli military campaign presents a “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East, according to people briefed by American officials on the conversations.

In a series of conversations over the last week, Prince Mohammed has conveyed to Mr. Trump that he must press toward the destruction of Iran’s hard-line government, the people familiar with the conversations said.

Oddly, the New York Times story does not mention that Trump’s chief negotiator, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, is being paid tens of millions annually by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is controlled by MBS.

The PIF invested $2 billion in Kushner’s private equity firm, Affinity Partners. According to an investigation by the Democratic staff of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Oversight Committee released on March 19, “since 2021, Mr. Kushner has collected more than $110 million from the government of Saudi Arabia for investment management services that have reaped little to no return.”

Meanwhile, as Kushner purportedly represents the United States in negotiations with Iran, his private equity firm is seeking to raise an additional $5 billion from foreign sources. According to reports, “Affinity’s representatives have already met with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.”

Trump said that Kushner was one of a handful of top officials who convinced him to start the war. This was consistent with MBS’s petition. According to the Washington Post, in a series of calls in February, MBS privately lobbied Trump to attack Iran. (Now, Iran is refusing to meet with Kushner, having concluded that he is not participating in discussions in good faith.)

Also unmentioned in Tuesday’s New York Times report is that the Saudi government, through PIF, recently financed a $7 billion development deal in Saudi Arabia with the Trump Organization. Under the January 2026 agreement, Dar Global, a developer with close ties to the Saudi government, will build a “Trump-branded hotel and golf course,” along with “500 mansions, priced between $6.7 million and $24 million.” The project is part of Diriyah, a $63 billion development funded entirely by PIF.

When Trump visited Saudi Arabia in May 2025, MBS took him on a tour of Diriyah and showed him a model of the development. According to Jerry Inzerillo, who heads the Diriyah Company, a PIF subsidiary, Trump was “amazed“ with the quality and scale of the project.

Not only does MBS want Trump to continue the war, according to the New York Times report, but he has “pressed for attacks against Iran’s energy infrastructure” and “argued that the United States should consider putting troops in Iran.”

In recent days, Trump has threatened to attack Iranian power plants and moved thousands of troops to the region, heightening “the possibility that American servicemembers will go into Iran.”

The information landscape in the United States is busted. Billionaires are using the powerful social media platforms and media outlets they control to curry favor with Trump.

Google paid Trump $25 million to settle a bogus lawsuit.

Jeff Bezos purged Trump critics from the Washington Post opinion page.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg canceled fact-checking on Facebook.

A pro-Trump billionaire bought CBS News — and is now buying CNN.

In Case You Were Surprised


Trumpelstilskin sent J.D. Vance to the Middle East in an attempt to end the war in Iran. The talks did not go well. Please note that in the Obama era there was a deal struck where Iran was allowed to maintain a Nuclear sector geared to energy within the country and released Billions of dollars that was rightfully Iran’s funds. All of this in a (partially successful?) easing the tension in that area. “Trumpel” blew that deal up without researching the details. It is true that Iran has proxy groups who have been at odds with Israel for a lot of years and with the easing of the tensions during the Obama years, there was a possibility of peace or truce among the countries in the region. Since the advent of “Trumpel” and his childish ego we are now supporting and participating the unjust war waged by Israel (almost on a whim) on Palestinians due to an attack by HAMAS (an Iranian proxy?). Gaza is destroyed leaving the thousands of displaced Palestinians fleeing to other countries (not Israel) for safety. Trumpel and his compadre “BIBI” have devastated GAZA while speculating and outwardly offering a rebuilding of Gaza with no input from the Palestinians and other world leaders.

Now the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians that are displaced are in the same position as the Jews from 1939 through World War II, “Displaced” with no place to go. The Israeli right-wing settlers are busily confiscating as much of Gaza as they can get and taking whatever land Palestinians have through violence.

Bottom line here is that Trumpel began this attack on Iran (possibly at BIBI’s request) without consulting Congress or our European allies is now finding himself (and us, the voters) involved in another unwinnable, undeclared war. Trumpel has blasted our Allies for not joining in, because they took a hands-off position because they see no real objective or end in this action. Unless we (voters) make changes in the midterms we may be at war for a long-time while the cost of the War causes inflation at scale along with the ill-considered Tariffs!

As a side note: Iran fought back (which apparently surprised and angered “Trumpel”) has shown it is not just a small country unable to defend its self: example, taking control of the Strait of Hormuz and the attacks on its neighbors. Sending J.D. Vance with Jared Kushner and Amb. Wycoff to ease the tension and create terms of disengagement when they collectively “could not turn a knob to open a door”.

The Bill Came Due


Recently I looked back at events from the past 15 years and wondered how and/ or why we got to this point. It appears to me that over time and quietly the religious, political and radical right have been collectively and separately pursuing an agenda of “owning” America in their cause of authoritarian control. America has long been the champions of justice and freedom in the world, now these right groups have been working to control the Government by elections, payoffs and control of major companies. Our “High Court”: has been “bought”, the Congress appears to be in the pocket of big business.

At this time, we have a war started by a foreign ally and we jumped right in with no examination of the situation, without the benefit experienced military leaders and finally without notifying or conferring with our allies in the region. Currently we are at the beginning of a quagmire of our own making and cursing our allies because they did not jump right in.This the state of our union because of the ill-conceived aggression on what was perceived as a small and weak country. Our “leader” was possibly bullied or flattered into this incursion and now every nearby country we are on good terms with are being attacked by this “small and weak country.

This action has exacerbated the current high prices due of food, energy, farming and manufacturing because of ill-conceived) tariffs, and this poorly thought out and executed war. It is clear that this war benefits no one except the administration and their friends. The misaligned and mishandled administrative actions beg for voter action.

The Truth About Tariffs!


USA TODAY

Americans, not other countries, paid Trump’s tariffs in 2025

Daniel de Visé, USA TODAY

Sun, February 15, 2026 at 1:42 PM CST

American consumers and companies paid nearly 90% of the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs through late 2025, according to a new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The study adds to a growing body of evidence indicating American families pay a price for Trump’s import taxes, despite the president’s assertion that the financial burden falls entirely on other countries.

Trump’s tariffs equated to a tax increase of $1,000 per household in 2025, according to a Feb. 6 report from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation. Households are expected to pay another $1,300 in 2026.

The tariffs are the largest U.S. tax increase since 1993, according to the Tax Foundation analysis. Tariffs are a tax − but on whom?

On the campaign trail in September 2024, promoting tariffs, Trump told supporters, “It’s not going to be a cost to you, it’s going to be a cost to another country.”

Trump repeated the claim in a Jan. 30 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, writing, “The data shows that the burden, or ‘incidence,’ of the tariffs has fallen overwhelmingly on foreign producers and middlemen, including large corporations that are not from the U.S.”

The New York Fed study, published Feb. 12, suggests otherwise.

President Trump’s import tariffs are mostly a tax on Americans, a new report finds.

Through August 2025, 94% of the import taxes fell on American companies and consumers, according to the study. By November, the “pass-through” rate had dipped to 86%.

“In sum, U.S. firms and consumers continue to bear the bulk of the economic burden of the high tariffs imposed in 2025,” the researchers wrote.

“The study by the New York Fed confirms what most economists expected – U.S. consumers and businesses pay most of the costs from the Trump tariffs,” said Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow in economics at the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market think tank.

The Wall Street Journal seized on the report in a Feb. 13 editorial, opining, “No matter how often President Trump insists his tariffs are taxing foreigners to enrich the U.S., economic studies keep showing that Americans actually pay the bill.”

Through late 2025, tariffs added about 0.7 percentage points to the U.S. inflation rate, according to a November paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research. In other words, without tariffs, the inflation rate for September might have dropped from 3% to 2.3%.

Tariffs have elevated prices on many imported items

Trump’s tariffs have inflated prices across a host of imported items, an effect visible in the January inflation report. The price of household furnishings and supplies rose 3.8% from January 2025 to January 2026. Furniture and bedding prices rose 4%. Prices for dishes and flatware rose 5%.

Tariffs are complicated. The actual costs are typically split between exporters in one country and importers in another.

The New York Fed provided this example:

Imagine a foreign exporter charges $100 for a product, and the U.S. government imposes a 25% tariff. If the exporter doesn’t lower the price, the importer pays a $25 tariff, increasing the total price to $125. That means 100% of the tax falls on American consumers and companies.

In the same example, imagine the exporter responds to the tariff by lowering the price to $80. Now, the importer pays a $20 tariff, and the total import price remains $100. The exporter effectively absorbs all of the tax.

As it turned out, most exporters didn’t lower prices much in response to Trump’s tariffs. A 94% pass-through rate means the typical foreign exporter responded to a 10% tariff by reducing prices 0.6%, or 6 cents for every $10.

As exporters and importers absorbed the impact of Trump’s tariffs, their impact softened at every step. Some exporters trimmed prices. American companies found cheaper products from other countries or absorbed part of the tariff themselves.

In the end, roughly 20% of Trump’s tariffs reached actual consumers, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research paper.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Americans paid the tab for Trump’s tariffs in 2025

No Surprise Here>


Circa 1930’s or?


The same person 100 years apart? The division of the people according politics, religion or ethnicities in order to attack and subjugate those who are least able to fight back!

Governor Pritzker Had Perfect Response to Donald Trumps National Guard Threat


JB Pritzker; Charlie Sykes.

JB Pritzker; Charlie Sykes.

This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 26 episode of “Deadline: White House.”

On Monday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker fired back at Donald Trump after the president threatened to expand his federal takeover and send National Guard troops into Chicago, which he referred to as a “killing field.”

I urge people to read the transcript or watch the video of Pritzker’s speech, because frankly, that is the way it’s done.

Pritzker didn’t dismiss concerns about crime in the city. “Not one person here today will claim we have solved all crime in Chicago, nor can that be said of any major American metro area,” he said. Instead, the governor turned those concerns on Trump, listing the ways the president and his fellow Republicans have made Chicago less safe for its residents:

If Donald Trump was actually serious about fighting crime in cities like Chicago, he, along with his congressional Republicans, would not be cutting over $800 million in public safety and crime prevention grants nationally, including cutting $158 million in funding to Illinois for violence prevention programs that deploy trained outreach workers to de-escalate conflict on our streets; cutting $71 million in law enforcement grants to Illinois, direct money for police departments through programs like Project Safe Neighborhoods, the State and Local Antiterrorism Training Program, and the Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative; cutting $137 million in child protection measures in Illinois that protect our kids against abuse and neglect.

Pritzker put it succinctly: “Trump is defunding the police.”

Not only is that true, it’s great messaging — and Democrats should follow the governor’s lead. Democrats must make it clear to the American people that they take crime very seriously. But they also have to show voters what’s happening in Chicago and that what will likely happen in other Democratic-run cities across the country isn’t really about crime. It’s about the performative retribution of Trump — it’s about politics.

This is a president who is acting as if he has no limits. He is destroying constitutional guardrails and violating the norms of democracy almost daily. The question now is: How much damage can he do before he’s stopped?

One of the major problems that we’ve faced in dealing with Trump has been a failure of imagination. How far would he go? How bad could it get? What would he do with the unchecked powers of the presidency?

In real time, we are seeing what he is capable of doing. We’re seeing it play out in Washington, D.C., and we may soon see it in Chicago. Trump is giving us a brutal reality check about how fragile our constitutional republic really is.

Which brings me to another important line from Pritzker’s speech: “If it sounds to you like I am alarmist, that is because I am ringing an alarm, one that I hope every person listening will heed, both here in Illinois and across the country.”

We must understand the magnitude of the moment. All of this may feel like some sort of dystopian nightmare, but it is literally the times that we are living in, and every American must open their eyes and see what’s happening.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com

Trumplestilskin, Spinning Gold into Shit!


My Opinion: Michael Abrams

The “Resident” abetted by sycophantic Congress will personally be responsible for disease outbreaks and closing of rural hospitals while touting the “savings”. The “silent public” who will normally attack the facts have fully embraced the agenda of the current administration purposely or tacitly are upset over “the Epstein files”. The “Epstein files” are just another distraction from the real issues that should concern all voters. The Neer do well Congress has saddled the country with more debt that will be paid by the voters (and their progeny). It would interest the willing to read this bill and understand how the upper 1% are big winners in the “BBB”. The lower end of the income scale (earners under 50K annually) get zip. The ongoing idea that there is massive fraud in the safety net programs (Medicaid and others) which has been proven false. The idea appears to be that the people who are gaming the system are mostly people of color collectively as if there are no white Americans suffering and struggling. The choices we have is pay close attention to your representatives’ actions and statements, call or write to them if you are not happy with their decisions on your behalf. FORGET PARTY POLITICS, this is less important than the integrity of the person.

Nothing is more boring than watching paint dry or Congressional sessions or debates, both are dull subjects but the only one that can educate you in what your representatives are doing! Does anyone remember the statement of Oct 30, 2020? ” I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people,” the Republican said in August 2015. “We want top of the line professionals.” It’s a line that’s come back to haunt him, yet he is still surrounding himself with sycophants who are largely unsuited for the positions they are in. They amount to highly paid “yes men and women loyal to “Trumplestilskin”. This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Whether you chose to believe it or not, the power is in the hands of the voters if we chose to use it.

Extra Descriptive: “Trumplestealskin”

Big Beautiful Bill: Effects on Freedom and American Lives


This will be the fourth of July to remember- we have seen our(?) Congress gives us up to the demands of a child. That being said: pay attention to the results of the Big Beautiful Bill’s effect on the country as a whole and how it affects individual lives. This is not so much political as it is an attack on the freedoms that we have enjoyed for hundreds of years, the current actions of Congress and the administration is a perfect example of excessive government while ignoring the will of the people (us!). Our shining example is being tarnished and held up as maybe not so great.

The Grift That Keeps on Grifting


Trump just can’t resist bribes

Robert ReichMay 12
 My opinion: There was a chance to avoid this corrupt administration but too many people went for the: egress” and now find them selves outside! MA.
 

Friends,

Trump is overplaying his hand.

Not just by usurping the powers of Congress and ignoring Supreme Court rulings. Not just abducting people who are legally in the United States but have put their name to opinion pieces Trump doesn’t like and trucking them off to “detention” facilities. Not just using the Justice Department for personal vengeance. Not just unilaterally deciding how much tariff tax American consumers will have to pay on almost everything they buy.

Polls show all these are tanking Trump’s popularity.

But one thing almost all Americans are firmly against — even many loyal Trumpers — us bribery. And Trump is taking bigger and bigger bribes.

Yesterday it was reported that he’s accepting a luxury Boeing 747-8 plane worth at least $400 million from the Qatari royal family, for use during his presidency and for his personal use afterward.

Trump just can’t resist. He’s been salivating over the plane for months. It’s bigger and newer than Air Force One — and so opulently configured that it’s known as “a flying palace.” (No report on whether it contains a golden toilet.)

Apparently he’s been talking about the plane for months. In February, he toured it while it was parked at Palm Beach International Airport.

He’s tried to redecorate the White House into a palace but that’s not nearly as satisfying as flying around the world in one, especially once he’s left the White House (assuming he will).

Attorney General Pam Bondi said it’s perfectly legal for him to accept such a bribe, er, gift.

Hello?

The U.S. Constitution clearly forbids officers of the United States from taking gifts from foreign governments. It’s called the “emoluments clause.” (See Article I, Section 9.)

Anyone viewing Bondi as a neutral judge of what’s legal and what’s not when it comes to Trump can’t be trusted to be a neutral judge of Bondi. Recall that she represented Trump in a criminal proceeding. Presumably he appointed her attorney general because he knew she’d do and say anything he wanted.

Oh, and she used to lobby for Qatar.

So, what does Qatar get in return for the $400 million plane? What’s the quid for the quo?

This week Trump takes the first overseas trip of his second presidency. He’ll land in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, followed by a visit to Qatar, and then to the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E).

That’s a big boost for Qatar right there.

Trump also just did what Qatar has been wanting done for years — announcing that the Persian Gulf (as it’s been known since at least 550 B.C.) will henceforth be known as the Arabian Gulf.

Trump’s company has just announced a new golf resort in Qatar, reportedly partnering with a company owned by the royal family.

Qatar is also pushing the Trump regime to lift sanctions on Syria.

The payback could be any number of things. The only certainty is that you and I and other Americans won’t necessarily benefit.

This week’s trip to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E. is as much a personal business trip for Trump and his family businesses as a diplomatic trip.

Eric Trump, who officially runs the family business, has just announced plans for a Trump-branded hotel and tower in Dubai, part of the U.A.E.

The Trump family’s developments in the Middle East depend on a Saudi-based real estate company with close ties to the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia has a long list of pressing matters before the United States, including requests to buy F-35 fighter jets and gain access to nuclear power technology.

Trump’s family crypto firm, World Liberty Financial, announced that its so-called “stablecoin” — with Trump’s likeness all over it — will be used by the U.A.E. to make a $2 billion business deal with Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world. The deal will generate hundreds of millions of dollars more for the Trump family.

I had assumed that Trump’s undoing would be his unquenchable thirst for power. It may yet be, but I’m beginning to think his insatiable greed will do him in. America’s Grifter-in-Chief knows no bounds.