Yesterday, I noted how US House Rep Nancy Mace had lied yet again. I also noted that I no longer believed her rape claim because she has lied about supposed 'attacks' and 'assaults' on her in the last months. She made her claims and the interactions were on camera and the recordings proved she was lying. Over and over. So, no, I don't believe her. When you lie over and over about 'assaults' that didn't take place, you're making clear that you will lie at the drop of a hat.
That doesn't mean she wasn't raped. It does mean that all I have is her word and her word means nothing because she's lied to many times. Now liars get raped as well. So she could have been raped.
But, no, I don't believe her. There are too many other tells that, were she a patient of mine, I wouldn't take a word out of her mouth seriously.
Coach D doesn't believe her either.
I will also note Brian Tyler Cohen's commentary on Mace.
She was not threatened by the man. She was not harassed by the man. Her distortions of reality go the fact that she lies and poses as a victim. She's not believable and she has brought the doubt on herself.
Olay brought on two men. Two White men -- Lance, host of THE SERF TIMES and Libertarian Billy Binion from REASON MAGAZINE.
This
was supposed to be an extensive discussion -- and it did go on for over
an hour and five minutes -- but the topics were not addressed. The
topic was in the title and explained by Olay at the start of the
episode, "Russell Brand Charged, The Bernie Bro to MAGA Pipeline." Two
minutes in, she even states, "I think we're constantly overlooking this,
like, Bernie Bros, like, to right-wing pipeline."
We would agree. And we looked forward to this needed conversation.
It did not take place.
We think it would have on her YOUTUBE program OLAY & FRIENDS. On that show, she teams up with multiple voices of color.
But here she was with two White men -- Lance a Socialist for Bernie and Billy a professional idiot.
Billy
immediately dismissed it saying confessional narratives are always
popular (such as "I have been saved!"). Yes, they are, Billy. And that
generic answer could have been made this year about anyone moving left
to right or right to left, or it could have been made last year, or the
year before, or ten years before, or twenty or . . .
It was as useless as everything else that comes out of Billy's mouth.
Lance started with "I didn't know what we'd be talking about today." And, no surprise, said not a word about Bernie.
He'd
be a heretic in White leftist media as well as on LEFTIST MEDIA --
where he and Olay both hail from, if had spoken honestly to the topic.
Knowing who butters his bread, he avoided the topic of Bernie completely.
There are Black Socialists.
We need to note that.
They
are not a big part of the Black population in general or the Black left
specifically. (Socialists also not a big part of the White population or
the White left specifically but they are much smaller in the Black
population.)
Olay, as a
Black woman, brought up an important issue that the Black community
talks about but that the White community pretends does not exist.
Extreme Bernie Bros bought into The Politics of Destruction.
AOC
is who the Socialists want to run for president in 2024 -- well, the
DSA Socialists. If they want to have any luck with that, they should
really pay attention to this piece.
Jimmy Dore, Cenk
Uygur, Ana Kasparian, Tulsi Gabbard, Bri-Bri Joy-less Gray, Jackson
Hinkle, Lee Camp and many others are examples of Bernie Bros who've
'gone to the other side' (nod to Tori Amos). Some people have expressed
shock but it's not at all shocking. These people were always about The
Politics Of Destruction. Always.
White
Bernie Bros (and White identifying Bernie Bros with Black skin) often
share that desire with MAGA which is why it's so easy for them to flip.
It's not so easy for Black people -- but then it never is, right? Black people aren't The Politics of Destruction.
For
every radical (fool?) like Symone D. Sanders Townsend or Nina Turner
snorting and mainlining The Politics of Destruction, there are 100,000
Blacks saying no way.
And that's why Symone and Nina do not, and never will, read Black.
To
White people they do. But they don't need to convince White people.
They exist to reassure White people. 'Hey,' they say, 'you're not
really racists and we're with you comrade.'
Black
people caught on to those human comforters long ago and tossed them off
the beds so that they could be used exclusively by White people.
Keith
Edwards is a White man. He's one we trusted and liked based on his
YOUTUBE program. Which is why it was so shocking to see him -- a White
man, but also a gay man -- suddenly do an attack on so-called 'identity
politics' in a SUBSTACK column.
"Identity
politics" is used by Socialists all the time. They have this insane
idea that the only problem is economics and that, if we all just focused
on economics exclusively, all the world's problems would end.
You
can tell yourself that if you're Anglo White. A lotto win for an Anglo
White in poverty is a huge thing. Suddenly, the boards are leveled.
A lotto win for a person of color or an LGBTQ+ person? Doesn't change everything.
A Black person may be able to, for example, pay more for health care as a result of
the lotto win; however, they still face the same racial discrimination
that is built into the healthcare system.
That discrimination is built into the entire system.
And that's why the Socialist zealots can't understand the Black community's refusal to rush over to Socialism.
They think it's an education issue, that Black brains just can't do the needed thought processing.
No, it's not a processing issue. It's a reality issue.
Socialists -- like MAGA -- want to tear down the system.
That
would be the system that Black people -- and other minority groups --
have had to battle for decades and centuries to get to what now passes
for equality.
You destroy that system?
What are you going to build? And how the hell are you going to ensure that everyone starts on equal footing?
When
Socialists attack so-called 'identity politics,' they don't really
reassure minority populations that the new system they're going to build
will be fair and equal. No, the more likely fear is it will be very
similar to what MAGA is attempting to build now -- a country of
exclusion.
It's a real
shame that Olay's topic wasn't discussed because Olay 'reads' Black.
She is of the Black community. She is a voice of the community. And
this is a serious topic.
It's one that may grow even more important in 2028.
Jim told me that in 24 hours, Ava and C.I.'s commentary above had set a record as Ava and C.I.'s most read piece ever. Ever. They have been doing this for twenty years now. It's a sign of how great they are, how strong their voices are, that their audience only continues to increase. They're tackling the topics that others ignore.
Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Pope Francis, the People's Pope, has passed
away and we recall his trip to Iraq, Hegseth hit the fan and splattered
all around as the world watches to see if Chump will clean up the mess;
however, he seems to busy working to destroy the economy -- both the
American economy and the world's economy.
As Trina noted yesterday, "Pope Francis has passed."
He was the people's Pope. He used his time to shine the spotlight on
those in need -- those often overlooked or forgotten.
That's him in March 2021, in Najaf, meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani..
"Historic." Francis was the first pope to
visit Iraq. The closest a pope has previously come? In 1999, Pope John
Paul II had planned to visit Iraq but had to postpone it. Pope Francis
arrived yesterday and Australia's ABC noted he declared, "May the clash of arms be silenced . . . may there be an end to acts of violence and extremism." Robin Gomes (VATICAN NEWS) noted a victim of violence, Yazidi Nadia Murad, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize
winner, signed "an open letter by several international NGOs and
Iraq’s civil society groups, welcoming the current visit of Pope Francis
to her native Iraq. The letter, signed by 34 organizations, calls for
adequate protection
for the minority communities of Iraq, which are being threatened by
terrorist groups and also by unjust laws."
It
was historic in so many ways. The last leader outside the Middle East
to travel to Iraq? Donald Trump. As president in 2018, the day after
Christmas, he snuck in on a surprise visit where he visited safe bases
-- safe US bases -- and then quickly fled the country.
Pope Francis did a three day visit. Pope Francis did an announced visit. From the December 7, 2020 snapshot:
The big Iraq news today? It's the Pope. CNN notes, "Pope Francis will travel to Iraq in March 2021, the Vatican press office announced on Monday." THE GUARDIAN adds,
"The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said the pontiff, who turns 84
next
week, would visit the capital, Baghdad, and Ur, a city linked to the
Old Testament figure of Abraham, as well as Erbil, Mosul and Qaraqosh in
the Nineveh plains, from 5-8 March. It will be his first trip in more
than a year after all his overseas visits were cancelled because of the
coronavirus pandemic." Francis became the Pope (and became Francis)
March 13, 2013. He was born, in Argentina, Jorge Mario Bergoglio and
took the name Francis in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Prior to the
pandemic outbreak, the Pope had visited many countries including Cuba,
Israel, the United States, Bosnia, Ireland and the United Arab
Emirates. The visit to Iraq would be the Pope's first international
visit in 15 months. Devin Watkins (VATICAN NEWS) explains:
The Pope’s visit will come as the realization of a dream of his
predecessor, Pope St. John Paul II. The Polish Pope had planned to
travel to Iraq at the end of 1999. That trip never came to be because
after lengthly negotiations, Saddam Hussein postponed it.
According to Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, the Patriarch of Babylon of
the Chaldeans, Pope Francis will receive an enthusiastic welcome to
Iraq.
He told SIR news agency a year ago that “everyone in Iraq, Christians
and Muslims, esteem him[Pope Francis] for his simplicity and nearness.
His words touch everyone’s hearts because they are those of a shepherd.
He is a man who brings peace.”
President Barham Saleh had officially invited Pope
Francis to visit Iraq in July 2019, hoping it would help the country
“heal” after years of strife.
About 100,000 Christians are left in Iraq following sectarian warfare
after the 2003 invasion led by the United States and ISIL’s (ISIS)
sweep through one-third of the country in 2014.
Maybe
the American press was worried about security? While the rest of the
world's press covered it as the historic visit that it was, the American
press hemmed and hawwed when not outright ignoring the visit. We
covered every day of the visit. Friday, March 5, 2021; Saturday, March 6, 2021; and Sunday March 7, 2021. On the last day of the visit we included this press critique:
The western press clearly was not up to the job -- a
reality made clear by one western outlet after another -- especially in
the US -- carping and and fretting while ignoring the true intent of the
visit. Once Pope Francis landed in Iraq, western outlets didn't get
much better as Martin Chulov (GUARDIAN) made clear, "The pope concluded his two-day trip to Iraq
with two highly symbolic stops in areas [. . .]" Huh? Do they no
longer teach basic math in the United Kingdom? Pope Francis landed in
Iraq on Friday (one day), he continued his visit Saturday (two days) and
he concluded his trip on Sunday (three days). Martin Chulov reduces a
three day visit to Iraq to a "two-day trip." And it's not just his
stupidity but the editors at THE GUARDIAN as well. By contrast, VATICAN
NEWS gets it right even in a headline "Highlights of Pope Francis' third day in Iraq."
The lack of care with basic facts taken by THE GUARDIAN is as telling as
any lengthy report that they could have filed (but didn't). THE GUARDIAN can get that it was a three day trip in a photo caption, at least.
Despite
an underlaying xenophoia to the western coverage ahead of the visit,
Pope Francis made it through Iraq without any attempt being made on his
life. The Iraqi people more than lived up to the spirit of the
pontiff's visit. And the United Nation's News Center explains, "Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
and Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth of the United Arab
Emirates, welcomed the historic papal visit to Al Tahera Church, one of
the sites of the UNESCO-led Revive the Spirit of Mosul initiative."
The Popes visit, as Philip Pullella and Michael Gregory (REUTERS) note, was about healing and peace. He had already defined himself ahead of the trip as "a pilgrim of peace."Alex Arger (THE DENVER CHANNEL) reports
that Pope Francis spoke of the importance of hope and of it being "more
powerful than hatred and peace more powerful than war." Francesco Bongarra (ARAB NEWS) quotes
Pope Francis declaring in his remarks at the Syriac Catholic al-Tahira
Church in Qaraqosh today, "Even amid the ravages of terrorism and war,
we can see, with the eyes
of faith, the triumph of life over death." SCRIPPS MEDIA notes "he called for unity and forgiveness for Muslim extremists, as he visited several churches destroyed by ISIS." Nicole Winfield and Samya Kullab (AP) observe, "Bells rang out in the town of Qaraqosh as the pope arrived. Speaking to a
packed Church of the Immaculate Conception, Francis said “forgiveness”
is a key word for Christians."
If you
need another example of the bias and disinterest in the Pope from the
American media, please note that Francis became Pope on March 13, 2013.
For twelve years he was the Pope. So US broadcast outlets must have
been all over him, right?
Wrong.
Norah O'Donnell interviewed the Pope in April of last year.
Norah was the first, the last and the only American broadcast journalist to interview Pope Francis.
His
visit to Iraq came at a turbulent time for that country -- COVID,
violence, protests, a rising rate of suicide. And to the Pope that was
all the more reason to visit. But the Pope visited and was warmly
received. At the end of the visit, Iraq's President Barham Salih Tweeted:
, our honoured guest who visited Baghdad, Najaf, Ur, Erbil, Nineva. His message of peace, human solidarity with #Iraq inspires us to persevere toward a better future for the people of Iraq and the wider region.
As that trip more than demonstrated he was the People's Pope and the Iraqi people greeted him warmly.
Pope Francis has passed but he will be remembered for putting people first, for being a defender of those in need.
He
might hold the title of Secretary of Defense but no one could accuse
him of attempting to defend anything these days other than his tattered
reputation.
Pete Hegseth was never qualified to serve as Secretary of Defense. The rumors of assault, the rumors of too many drunk nights and days -- and drunk on the clock at FOX "NEWS."
It was so bad that to be confirmed he had to promise he wouldn't drink
booze at all. But his actions of late just lead everyone to wonder, "Is
he drunk?" Confronted with rumors of assault at his confirmation
hearing, Hegseth whined "I'm not perfect."
And he's certainly made that clear as he's half-assed the job DoD
Secretary for months now. SignalGate may be the death of him
politically. Matt Richards (OK) notes, "Sources
noted to CNN Hegseth 'has grown increasingly concerned' about the
inspector general looking into his usage of Signal and that Caldwell,
Selnick and Carroll expect they will be interviewed as the controversial
situation is looked into." That's Chief of Staff to the Deputy
Secretary of Defense Colin Carroll, Deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick
and Hegseth advisor Dan Caldwell -- all three were fired this month.
Aaron Parnas (MTN) reports, "In
a dramatic development on Capitol Hill, Rep. Don Bacon, a prominent
Republican and former Air Force general, has become the first GOP
lawmaker to publicly call for the removal of Pete Hegseth, President
Donald Trump's nominee for Defense Secretary. According to Politico,
Bacon voiced his concerns about Hegseth’s qualifications and management
of the Pentagon on Monday, marking a notable shift in GOP sentiment
toward one of the most contentious figures in the Trump administration."
Bacon reached the rank of Brigadier General while serving in the Air
Force (1985 through 2014) and he is an Iraq War veteran. He's quoted
stating, "I had concerns from the get-go because Pete Hegseth didn’t have a lot of experience."
Pete Hegseth barely received enough votes to win confirmation
as Donald Trump's defense secretary. Three Republicans even bucked
their own party's president to oppose him. One of them, Sen. Lisa
Murkowski (R-Alaska), cited "accusations of financial mismanagement and
problems with the workplace culture he fostered." Another, Sen. Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.), said Hegseth had "failed to demonstrate" that he
could manage "nearly 3 million military and civilian personnel, an
annual budget of nearly $1 trillion."
It
hasn't taken long for Hegseth to prove them - along with every Senate
Democrat and the countless others who warned about him taking over the
Pentagon - right.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that Hegseth shared attack plans in a second unsecured Signal group chat, following the revelation last month
that he shared the plans to attack Houthi militants in Yemen in a
Signal chat group that included a journalist. The second chat included
Hegseth's wife, brother, and personal lawyer, underscoring the former
Fox News host's recklessness with highly sensitive information.
The
news came after a tumultuous week in the Pentagon that saw Hegseth fire
three senior officials - ostensibly because of an internal
investigation into leaking, although the officials seemed confused about
what happened. "We still have not been told what exactly we were
investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there
was even a real investigation of ‘leaks' to begin with," they wrote in a joint statement Friday night, adding that, although the experience was "unconscionable," they will continue to support Trump's plans for the Pentagon.
John Ullyot, who resigned as a spokesperson for the Pentagon last week, put a button on the turmoil in an op-ed for Politico
on Sunday. "It's been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon," the
piece began. "From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings,
the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president - who
deserves better from his senior leadership."
Josh Fiallo (DAILY BEAST) notes, "Hegseth,
44, was one of President Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet
appointments due to his lack of Pentagon experience, strong remarks
against women in the military, and an alleged history of alcoholism."
At what point does Chump say enough is enough and fire Hegseth?
In
a recent interview on Meet the Press, financier Ray Dalio, warned of
"something worse than a recession" if current financial, economic, and
trade issues are not "handled well." Later in the interview, he warned
that if current problems worsen, we could experience a "world order in
which there is great conflict." I agree on both counts—with the caveat
that this might be an understatement. Others have issued similar
warnings.
For me,
Dalio's comments triggered troubling thoughts on how the world would
handle a future financial crisis. During my long career on the
international stage—as economic advisor to Henry Kissinger in the
National Security Council in the 1970s, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs
(international) in the 1980s and 1990s, and then Undersecretary of State
in charge of U.S. geo-economic relations in the early part of this
century—I was at the epicenter of a number of such crises and of
negotiations to help resolve them. The key to success in such efforts
was not just the financial skills of the major players but also their
willingness to engage in trustful collaboration.
That
ingredient does not exist today. Never have I seen the world so deeply
riddled with mistrust on so many economic and political issues. And that
mistrust can be the Achilles’ heel of any future negotiation in the
event of a new financial crisis—unless we recognize it and figure out
how to overcome it before a crisis hits.
Those
in high-level positions and around the world must consider how they
would manage a new crisis—which is a growing risk with so many countries
facing slowing growth, growing debt, inflationary pressures, tariff
wars, and currency volatility—and operating under fraught and
confrontational political circumstances.
This will be an enormous challenge, and failure will affect all Americans and nearly every person on this planet.
During
the last crisis, there was impressive, trustful cooperation between the
U.S. and China. But with the intensifying trade war and various other
confrontations between the two, attaining that again is likely to be far
more problematic—if not impossible.
And
tariff-related frictions between the U.S. and its key allies—among the
world's largest market economies—have undermined and in some cases
virtually destroyed the mutual trust that has been so critical in
resolving issues in the past. Intense trade disputes will make
cooperation among them to deal with a new financial crisis far more
difficult.
Chump
is wrecking the economy both here and abroad. He is putting the people
of the planet at risk with his idiotic and uniformed actions.
Yesterday, Stan Choe (AP) reported,
"U.S. stocks are tumbling Monday as worries about President Donald
Trump’s trade war and his criticism of the Federal Reserve cause
investors to pull further from the United States. The S&P 500 was
2.8% lower in another wipeout, and the index at the center of many
401(k) accounts is more than 16% below its record set two months ago." Prabhjote Gill noted, "The
Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled more than 650 points in
Monday morning trade after President Donald Trump ramped up pressure on
Fed Chair Jerome Powell, warning the economy could stall without
immediate rate cuts." Yes, Chump continues to go after Powell
despite the fact that most economic experts say that getting rid of
Powell would be illegal and would also be the thing that really
destroyed faith in the US economy among investors. Matthew Chapman (RAW STORY) reminds, "Powell,
who was ironically first appointed to the post by Trump himself, has
repeatedly warned that Trump's tariffs are set to increase prices, and
has resisted pressure from Trump to try to offset the market contraction
induced by his own trade policies with interest rate cuts — which has
only enraged Trump further."
Speculation
about the legality of firing Powell has focused, in part, on concerns
about a pending Supreme Court case that challenges a precedent
prohibiting presidents from firing certain federal officials for
political motives. Still, some former Fed and government officials see a
different calculation at work.
“Trump does always want someone else to be the scapegoat,” said Former Federal Reserve vice chair Alan Blinder.
Jared
Bernstein, chief White House economist under President Joe Biden, wrote
in an essay Friday that “it’s entirely possible Trump’s setting up
Powell not to be replaced but to stick around as the fall guy
should…rising recession probabilities—purely a function of Trump’s
actions—prove correct.”
Should
Chump try to scapegoat Powell for his own failures, I think the
economic press will come out with knives to carve Chump up like he's
never been sliced before. The economy is his.
As Stephanie Ruhle pointed out last night on THE 11TH HOUR WITH
STEPHANIE RUHLE (MSNBC), there are people who don't even know the name
of the person who represents them in the House of Representatives.
Those people especially are not going to know who "J Powell" is. But
they know who the president is. They know his name. The economy is his.
Chump owns this economic nightmare because he's set tariffs when he lacks the Constitutional power to do so. Ankush Khardori (POLITICO) explains:
The
question is whether the courts -- including perhaps the Supreme Court
itself -- will agree, or whether they will blink in the face of the
economic and diplomatic turmoil that Trump has unleashed. In fact, Trump
may have unintentionally created his best legal argument by upending
the global economy: that the courts should be wary of interfering in the
president’s handling of international affairs given the complexity and
high stakes of the trade war now playing out.
Lawyers challenging the administration’s use of the IEEPA to impose tariffs say they are optimistic about their chances.
“This
is an enormous usurpation of legislative power by the executive and an
abuse of emergency powers,” Ilya Somin, a libertarian law professor at
George Mason University and one of the attorneys working on the Liberty
Justice Center’s case, told me.
Consider
tariffs. Constitutionally, Congress — not the president — has the power
to regulate trade, but Trump seized this power by declaring trade
deficits to be a “national emergency,” thus enacting tariffs via
executive order, sidestepping Congress.
All
of the self-generated disorder has caused Trump’s approval rating to
decline significantly since the inauguration, a gift for Democrats.
Despite still struggling to overcome their own poor ratings, they are being assisted by the chaos Trump is causing.
Having begun his second term with 51 percent approval versus 44 percent disapproval, those numbers have now reversed.
One-half
(50 percent) of Americans now disapprove of his job performance,
compared to 47 percent who approve — a net 10-point decline in less than
100 days, per RealClearPolitics polling aggregator.
He
may try to blame the economic collapse on Powell but the reality is
that he has acted erratically at best and crazed at worst and the
American people -- the entire planet -- has seen this unfold in real
time. These are his actions and these are his choices. And as they
took place, there was enormous pushback and he chose to ignore it. He
not only owns this mess, he created it.
Craig
Fuller, the CEO of FreightWaves, a freight-focused organization that
analyzes the freight and logistics market, has regretted
"enthusiastically" supporting President Donald Trump's victory in the
2024 election, warning that the administration's policies are likely to
"wipe out supply chains and small businesses within 100 days."
"I
did not vote for a neutron bomb to wipe out supply chains and small
businesses 100 days in," he wrote on the social platform X on Sunday.
"I
thought I was voting for pro-business policies and small, targeted, and
incremental tariffs that would encourage the production of strategic
industries to return to the Americas," Fuller said, adding that this is
what happened under Trump's previous term.
Last month,
investment adviser Steve Rattner, who served as a counselor in the
Treasury Department under former President Barack Obama, said many
businessmen who supported Trump may come to have buyer's remorse in the
months ahead.
We'll wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Over 45 lawmakers sound alarms about possible illicit payments, influence-peddling, insider trading
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren
(D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban
Affairs Committee, along with Representatives Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.),
Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, and
Judy Chu (D-Calif.), led a group of 44 Congressional Democrats in
writing to Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of
Commerce Howard Lutnick, and U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson
Greer with concerns over the potential for corruption in the
implementation of the administration’s tariff policy.
The Trump administration’s tariffs rollout is rife with opportunities
to unduly influence President Trump and other administration officials.
The chaotic nature of the tariffs, including announcing them and
pausing them shortly after they went into effect, provides ample
opportunity for private sector corporations or sovereign nationals to
corruptly seek exemptions.
“Corporations and sovereign nations facing existentially high stakes,
and knowing tariffs are controlled by a small circle in the White
House, can petition officials not to apply tariffs to them after the
90-day pause, to grant them exemptions, to decrease tariffs, or to
impose tariffs on competitors — and can quietly offer something in
return,” wrote the lawmakers.
President Trump’s record on tariffs in his first term illustrates his
willingness to give preference to donors and allies while punishing
enemies. Politically loyal companies that donated to Republican
candidates, as well as companies with financial or political ties to
President Trump, were more likely to
be granted tariff exemptions after President Trump imposed them in his
first administration. After auditing the Trump Administration’s tariff
exclusion practices in 2018 and 2019, the Commerce Department’s Office
of Inspector General found evidence of “off-record communications” and an “appearance of improper influence in decisionmaking for tariff exclusion requests.”
“We fear the Administration is once again turning its tariffs policy
into an underground market of exemptions in exchange for financial and
political favors,” said the lawmakers.
Trump’s ad-hoc process has started to bear fruit for special
interests. Last week, the White House exempted smartphones and certain
other high-end electronics from tariffs targeting China. Within hours,
Big Tech stock prices soared — particularly the value of Apple, which
makes the vast majority of its iPhones in China. Apple CEO Tim Cook donated to President Trump’s inauguration and cultivated a strong relationship with him in recent months, as he did during Trump’s first term to win tariff exemptions.
The on-and-off nature of President Trump’s tariffs also opens the
door to rampant insider trading. Administration officials — and their
families and friends — with early knowledge of changes in tariff policy
can buy positions they expect will rise and sell those that will fall.
On April 9, 2025, minutes before the administration announced a pause on
most tariffs, the trading market began to skyrocket —
suggesting that insiders acted on non-public information about the
coming pause. President Trump then posted on social media “THIS IS A
GREAT TIME TO BUY!!!,” still before any official announcement, causing
stocks to further spike.
Members of Congress, including Senator Warren,
have asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and ethics
officials to investigate whether any securities laws were violated with
this announcement.
At the same time, the top ethics watchdog who can hold the
administration accountable appears poorly positioned to tackle
tariff-related corruption. In late March 2025, USTR Ambassador Greer was
named Acting Director of the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and now
serves in both roles simultaneously. Therefore, a top tariff policy
official is responsible for ensuring that tariff policy decisions are
made free of financial conflicts.
“This dual appointment raises blatant conflicts that risk undermining
OGE’s ability to independently monitor trade officials’ conduct and
recommend investigations into misconduct when necessary,” concluded the lawmakers.
The lawmakers asked the officials to provide clarity on the Trump
administration’s exemption policy, if any official exemption request
processes exist, where exemptions will be reported, whether an appeals
process exists, the administration’s plans to ensure tariff exemptions
are not corrupted, and more, by April 29, 2025.
Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) joined in signing the letter.
The following Representatives joined in signing the letter: Gabe Amo
(D-R.I.), Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.), Salud
Carbajal (D-Calif.), Greg Casar (D-T.X.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Diana
DeGette (D-Colo.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas),
Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Cleo Fields (D-La.), Bill Foster (D-Ill.), Robert
Garcia (D-Calif.), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), Al Green (D-Texas), Steven
Horsford (D-Nev.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.),
Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), Timothy Kennedy (D-N.Y.), John Larson
(D-Conn.), Summer Lee, (D-Pa.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), LaMonica McIver
(D-N.J.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Jerry Nadler
(D-N.Y.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Ayanna
Pressley (D-Mass.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.), Jan
Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.),
Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Shri Thanedar
(D-Mich.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Nydia Velázquez
(D-NY), and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.).
