Despite his denials last year, Trump's Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was friendly with Jeffrey Epstein in 2012 even though he claimed to have shunned him since 2005

 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/30/us/howard-lutnick-epstein-island.html

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Planned Trip to Epstein’s Island

 

Wouldn't it just be easier to pick up the phone and tell the Treasury Department to print him $10 billion?

Trump Sues IRS Over Leaked Taxes

Core producer price inflation in 2025 under Trump was actually higher than under Biden in either 2024 or 2023

2025: 3.26%

2024: 2.86%

2023: 2.89%

Way to go, Brownie!

 

2025

2H2025

December 2025

You talkin' to me?

 

The real reason Trump appointed Warsh to Fed Chair

 Trump needs cheaper gold for The Ballroom.

 

Gold and silver plunge after Trump picks more pragmatic Kevin Warsh to head the Fed over dove Kevin Hassett

 Gold and Silver tumble as Trump’s Fed Chair pick Warsh seen as preserving central bank independence

... Claudio Wewel, FX strategist at J. Safra Sarasin Sustainable Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Friday that a “perfect storm” of geopolitical tensions had helped precious metals move higher this year, pointing to the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Washington’s threats to use military force in Greenland and Iran.

More recently, he said, speculation over who would be nominated as the next Fed chair had been influencing metal markets.

“The market has clearly been pricing the risk of a much more dovish contender, that’s been largely helping the gold price along with other precious metal prices. Over the last 24 hours, the news flow has changed a little bit,” Wewel said, prior to Trump’s announcement. ...

The U.S. trade balance has worsened after one year of Trump tariffs lol

 

Trade balance soared 94% in November and was higher than a year ago, despite tariff efforts

 

... On a year-over-year basis, the deficit through November stood at $839.5 billion, or about 4% higher than the same period in 2024. 

The increase in the deficit counters Trump’s efforts to use tariffs to reduce imbalances around the globe. When announcing so-called reciprocal tariffs in April 2025, the White House used the level of trade deficits with varying countries as a baseline for determining the duties. ...

Last July's Big Beautiful Trump Bill was actually Trump's Big New Fascist Police State and Concentration Camp Bill

 

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller is the evil energy at the heart of Trump's death star, brain-dead Kristi Noem simply follows his orders, and soulless J. D. Vance retweets him

They all have to go.

 

The White House wants you to know that totalitarianism is the final solution to illegal immigration

 

The Supremes long ago ruled against the totalitarian state that Trump keeps demanding

Local authorities don't have to cooperate on immigration, or on anything else.

Based on Supreme Court precedents like Printz v. United States (1997), courts have held that the federal government cannot command state or local officials to administer or enforce federal regulatory programs, including immigration enforcement.

Real Clear Politics should know better than to repost this bullshit. 

Dems Must Cooperate With ICE, End Sanctuary Policies

President Trump, Truth Social

Everybody knows Trump, Vance, Noem, Bovino, and Patel are lying through their teeth to America about Alex Pretti

 

Videos of Alex Pretti shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis contradict Trump official claims

A more arrogant bunch has never occupied the White House

 

A more cruel bunch has never occupied the White House

 

A more stupid bunch has never occupied the White House

 

Today's GDP report indicates Trump GDP since 2017 is undershooting post-war performance up to Reagan 3Q1984 by 25%

 GDP since Reagan 3Q1984 (41 years) through the Trump present moment has grown at a compound annual rate 35% lower than for 3Q1947-3Q1984 (37 years): 5.076% vs. 7.847%.

Trump GDP CAGR since 3Q2017 (8 years): 5.878% (25% lower than the post-war to 3Q1984).

$4.08425 trillion GDP after 41-years at a compound annual growth rate of 7.847% would be $90.41555 trillion in 3Q2025 instead of $31.09802 trillion, 2.90 times more.

That's why you feel poorer. 

Reagan didn't make America great again, and neither has Trump.

 

 

Core pce inflation averaged 1.61% year over year under Trump 1.0, but through eleven months of 2025 it averages 2.79%, 73% higher

This higher inflation level, measured on a year over year basis, has persisted for 19-months from April 2024. We're just going sideways, not coming down. 

Next we'll hear from Trump that this is the new normal and that higher inflation is good akshully.

No, the Fed started cutting in September 2024 in error, obviously, and Trump wants the Fed to cut some more.

Meanwhile Jeff Cox for CNBC is just phoning in the story: 

Fed’s main gauge shows inflation at 2.8% in November, edging further away from target

... The personal savings rate rose in November to 3.5%, down 0.2 percentage point from the prior month. ...

How does the personal saving rate rise when it's down 0.2, Jeff? 

Yes, the personal saving rate fell from 3.7% the prior month to 3.5% in November.

People are paying for higher prices at the expense of saving. 

 

The case for stock market manipulation in the case of the proposed tariff penalties over Greenland is very weak

The tariff idea was floated before lunch on Friday, Jan 16.

Stocks closed down just 4-points that day.

The scale of the subsequent market reaction was comparatively minor in the event, and Trump pulled the trigger reversing himself very quickly unlike in April 2025.

Trump wants stock market winners, the rich, on his side, because he's losing the rest of us.

 

Trump can jerk everybody around about this and that, day in and day out, but he can't do anything about inflation

 Natural gas prices soar as cold snap blasts across the U.S.

Natural gas prices soar as Arctic cold to blast Upper Midwest and descend across U.S.

Trump always chickens out: Tariffs over Greenland canceled

SPX up 1.27%, long yields down 4 basis points, gold and silver cool off.

Same shit, different day.

 

So Witzig!

 

Trump tells room of German speakers 'you'd all be speaking German without us'