President Trump 2.0

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by Damien

One thing that isn't getting enough coverage is Trump is just doing things even if the court says No and they happen anyway. All the checks and balances fall apart when the authorities just ignore them and do what Trump says.

Here an immigrant was in the US on a valid visa. The Trump administration wanted to deport her and the judge said No, so they deported her anyway: https://eu.providencejournal.com/sto...r/82441360007/

And that's that. The judge can't magic her back or use force to stop it. What do you do?

It's the same thing as anything else. What if the Supreme Court stops him from doing something and he orders it done anyway? They don't have an army to stop him and the authorities seem to be content to report to him over any court.

He can summon the official of the government dept involved, or not depending on your view . And charge them

[Pierre]

I missed this when it was reported, and don’t recall seeing anything here about it.

But the Donald is taking his personal security seriously, hiring SAS operative Obi Wan Nairobi

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...ump-bodyguard/


Not paywalled

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...bodyguard.html

[Hom3r]

Wow Tesla has had its value reduced by over 50%.


People Short selling that Tesla shares falling are making a killing to roughly $16b.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Wow Tesla has had its value reduced by over 50%.


People Short selling that Tesla shares falling are making a killing to roughly $16b.

Don’t think for a minute any of that is politically motivated !

https://apnews.com/article/usaid-fed...a32fdfe2f147d#

The dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency likely violated the Constitution, a federal judge ruled Tuesday as he indefinitely blocked DOGE from making further cuts to the agency.

The order requires the Trump administration to restore email and computer access to all employees of USAID, including those put on administrative leave, though it appears to stops short of reversing firings or fully resurrecting the agency.

In one of the first DOGE lawsuits against Musk himself, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland rejected the Trump administration’s position that Musk is merely President Donald Trump’s advisor.

Musk’s public statements and social media posts demonstrate that he has “firm control over DOGE,” the judge found pointing to an online post where Musk said he had “fed USAID into the wood chipper.”

The judge acknowledged that it’s likely that USAID is no longer capable of performing some of its statutorily required functions.

“Taken together, these facts support the conclusion that USAID has been effectively eliminated,” Chuang wrote in the preliminary injunction.

The lawsuit filed by USAID employees and contractors argued that Musk and DOGE are wielding power the Constitution reserves only for those who win elections or are confirmed by the Senate. Their attorneys said the ruling “effectively halts or reverses” many of the steps taken to dismantle the agency.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...293.75.0_1.pdf

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Hugh

https://apnews.com/article/usaid-fed...a32fdfe2f147d#





https://storage.courtlistener.com/re...293.75.0_1.pdf

Upfront, i and by extension we, don’t really know what’s going on.

That said, if , and I know it’s if. Some of the stuff on the expenditure of USAID is accurate………take it all down.

Or….

Investigate it properly, and stop the things that are proven to be wrong (using experienced auditors and forensic accountants, rather than a bunch of hackers who don’t like the look of something they don’t understand and don’t try to understand), doing an impact assessment of what that "stop" means, and then proceed with appropriate actions.

https://wapo.st/4idSeP3 (gifted article, not behind paywall)

The White House’s wildly inaccurate claims about USAID spending

Eleven out of 12 claims about the agency’s work are misleading, wrong or lack context.

Anyhoo, speaking of things that may or may not be accurate…

Originally Posted by Pierre

Don’t think for a minute any of that is politically motivated !

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=119889047

As Tesla stock has fallen in recent weeks, members of the board and an executive at Elon Musk's company have been selling off millions of dollars in stock, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Together, four top officers at the company have offloaded over $100 million in shares since early February.

Last week, longtime Musk ally James Murdoch -- the estranged son of Fox boss Rupert Murdoch and a board member since 2017 -- became the latest to do so, exercising a stock option and selling shares worth approximately $13 million, according to an SEC filing. The sale took place on March 10, coinciding with the stock's largest single-day decline in five years.

According to one filing, the shares were sold "to cover the exercise price relating to the exercise of stock options to purchase 531,787 shares, which are scheduled to expire in 2025."

Elon Musk's brother, Kimbal Musk, who also sits on the board, unloaded 75,000 shares worth approximately $27 million last month, according to a filing.

The chairman of the board, Robyn Denholm, has offloaded more than $75 million dollars worth of shares in two transactions in the past five weeks, federal filings show. The selloffs made by Denholm came as part of a predetermined sales plan.

Perhaps they were watching the markets?

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...-crashing.html

Chinese 'Tesla killer' cars can charge in just five minutes - sending shares in Musk's firm crashing

It has been dubbed ‘the Tesla killer’. And shares in Chinese electric car champion BYD soared to a record high yesterday after it claimed it can charge its vehicles as quickly as it takes to fill up with petrol.

That suggests BYD, which includes Warren Buffett among its backers, has overtaken Tesla and others in developing fast-charging technology for EVs – giving it a crucial edge over its rivals.

The surge in the BYD share price – taking gains this year to 55 per cent – came as Tesla fell another 5 per cent to take its losses for 2025 to almost 41 per cent.

The contrasting fortunes underline the threat posed to Tesla – run by Donald Trump’s ally Elon Musk – from Chinese rivals.

‘BYD is surpassing its competitor,’ said Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

Tesla has lost more than half its value since the shares peaked in mid-December – wiping £630billion off its value and £120billion off Musk’s fortune.

Hedge funds that took out short positions against the electric car maker – betting the stock price would fall – have made an estimated £12.5billion over the past three months.

I doubt all the messing with tariffs by his "pal" is helping, its made the markets very jittery, certainly not doing any good for pension funds.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Paul

I doubt all the messing with tariffs by his "pal" is helping, its made the markets very jittery, certainly not doing any good for pension funds.

Definitely. It's the reason that the OECD downgraded growth forecasts last week.

Originally Posted by Hugh

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=119889047



Perhaps they were watching the markets?

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...-crashing.html

… but, to charge a long-range EV in five minutes without just clipping a pair of jump leads straight onto the nearest pylon will take some serious hardware. The infrastructure requirements for that would be … challenging.

I can see why news like that would hit swasticar shares but the reality is, no cars will be getting a 5-minute charge for quite some time yet.

Agreed - much like Deepseek, probably vapourware, but the news release does its job by making the markets nervous.

However, tbf, BYD did start out as a battery company…

Update - a bit more detail here

Tesla can already charge 172 miles worth in 15 minutes, and XPeng and Zeekr can add about 280 miles and 342 miles of range in 10 minutes, so it may not be too fanciful.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...lon-musk-tesla

The thing with the cars, or AI, from China is that they're good enough at a much lower production cost to spook investors in these American companies. A lot of the value they were seeing in OpenAI or Telsa was the perception of an advantage these companies had in the market that had a high barrier to entry.

Also, Tesla's P/E ratio is insane at 110 (it's been up around 220).

For comparison, Apple is 33, Google is 31, and Microsoft is 33, with Apple and Google revenue 4 times that of Tesla, and MS 3 times.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Or….

Investigate it properly, and stop the things that are proven to be wrong (using experienced auditors and forensic accountants, rather than a bunch of hackers who don’t like the look of something they don’t understand and don’t try to understand), doing an impact assessment of what that "stop" means, and then proceed with appropriate actions.

https://wapo.st/4idSeP3 (gifted article, not behind paywall)

That WP article, as expected, is not the take down you may think it is. It claims to debunk 11 out of 12 claims of wasteful US government spending.

I'm happy to go through them

1. “$1.5 million to ‘advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities’”

This is mostly accurate. USAID provided $1.5 million to a group called Grupa Izadji, which focuses on creating opportunities for young LGBTQ people.

I would call that totally accurate, not mostly.

2. “$70,000 for production of a ‘DEI musical’ in Ireland”

This is wrong. This was a State Department grant, not USAID.

whether or not it was State Dept or USAID it's still the government. DOGE is not the department of USAID efficiency.

3. “$2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam”

This is wrong. This was for more than electric vehicles. USAID launched a $2.5 million fund that provided awards up to $100,000 to organizations with promising new products, business models, or financing models in Danang or Ho Chi Minh cities.

It's still £2.5M to Vietnam, If I was a US taxpayer I be thinking about $100,000 grants to US small businesses with promising new products.

4. “$47,000 for a ‘transgender opera’ in Colombia”

This is wrong. USAID did not fund this. The White House appears to be referring to a $25,000 State Department grant to Universidad De Los Andes in Bogotá to stage an opera,

Still government money.

5. “$2 million for sex changes and ‘LGBT activism’ in Guatemala”

This is misleading, as it suggests USAID arranged for sex changes. The three-year grant to Asociación Lambda, a Guatemala LGBTIQ+ organization, was to “strengthen trans-led organizations to deliver gender-affirming health care

Still £2M given to Guatemala LGBTIQ+

6. “$6 million to fund tourism in Egypt”


This is wrong. This initiative was launched in the first Trump administration to “increase educational opportunities and strengthen the livelihoods of the people of North Sinai,” according to the citation provided by the White House. The money would “provide access to transportation for rural communities and economic livelihood programming for families.” There is no mention of funding tourism.

Fair , this one appears incorrect.

7. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars for a nonprofit linked to designated terrorist organizations — even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation”

This is dubious. Allegations of links to Pakistani terror groups have never been proved and have been denied as “baseless and defamatory” by the organization, known as Helping Hand for Relief and Development. Some GOP members of Congress for years have claimed the group has terrorism links

Not proven either way.

8. “Millions to EcoHealth Alliance — which was involved in research at the Wuhan lab”

This lacks context. Before the pandemic, up until 2019, USAID provided $1.1 million to EcoHealth Alliance, an environmental health nonprofit, via a subagreement on virus research. USAID initially awarded a grant to the University of California at Davis to improve monitoring of zoonotic viruses with pandemic potential in African and Asian countries. UC-Davis then hired EcoHealth, which in turn contracted with Wuhan University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, to collect biological samples from roughly 1,500 individuals in the Yunnan province with exposure to bats, other wildlife and domestic animals, according to the Government Accountability Office. The origin of the covid virus has still not been determined. In 2022, USAID awarded EcoHealth $4.7 million for a conservation project to improve farming practices in southwest Liberia — completely unrelated to virus research.

Regardless of context $4.7M to improve farming in South West Liberia? yes. I'm sure the farmers got that.

9. “Hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al-Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria”

This is highly misleading. As the article cited by the White House makes clear, investigators, including the USAID inspector general, discovered that the head of a nongovernmental organization diverted $9 million intended for Syrian civilians to combatant groups. He was charged in a 12-count indictment unsealed in November

So $9M US taxpayers money was fraudulently embezzled by an NGO, this what DOGE is there for, to ensure better oversight.

10. “Funding to print ‘personalized’ contraceptives birth control devices in developing countries”

This is misleading. USAID gave a grant to the University of Texas at Austin to develop personalized 3D-printed nonhormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs). The grant was part of a program managed by Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University and USAID to improve reproductive health by researching low-cost, safe and noninvasive HIV prevention methods as well as contraceptives.

That's not misleading, that's accurate.

11. “Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund ‘irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,’ benefiting the Taliban”

This is false. USAID never intended to support opium poppy cultivation or the Taliban, and in fact the United States sought to stem it. The White House cites a right-wing news site’s account of a 2018 report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)

correct, this one is wrong

So out of the 11, it's actually only debunked 2. with 1 unclear either way.

Great objective reporting.