Donald Trump’s (DT) March 4, 2025, rant-speech is an excellent opportunity to examine this assertion.
Note, also, that most of what DT said in this speech was first said in his inaugural.
1) What’s it all about? Dominance: ‘America is back’ [or is it that DT is back?]
When DT uses the word ‘unfair’ he means that America is not world-dominant over something, and he means that it should be. Toward the end of the speech, he makes this statement:
“Now it is our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty. And it’s our turn to take America’s destiny into our own hands and begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country. This will be our greatest [golden] era; with God’s help over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher, and we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this Earth.”
While DT’s talk is punctuated with simplistic exaggeration and self-referential hero-worship, this statement is a rare moment of clarity (perhaps it was written by someone else). Its evidentiary value will be demonstrated in what follows, but first, something about the statement itself.
It echoes the claims of other, past Americans; that American liberty is different from other kinds of liberty; that that liberty is righteous (God is on America’s side); that liberty will produce a golden era of dynamic superiority, absolute freedom (of the individual), and technologically and morally the most advanced and therefore dominant nation ever. These claims can and should be challenged, but I will not do that here. Instead, the opportunity referenced above about what is below will indicate suggestions about whether the claims made in this paragraph are realistic (and what that means) or mere verbal fluff.
DT would give citizenship for cash to the highest bidders*. He values people according to how much money they have. His policies aim to give the largest single tax break (targeted socialism) to millionaires and billionaires in the history of the US. Those same policies aim to create a vast underclass of serfs. To him, words like ‘liberty‘, ‘free’, ‘destiny’ and ‘dominant’ reference some citizens; the same multi$$$$aires, not the rest.
*Will they in truth pay taxes? How much tax did Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and the other 3Bs (billionaire bully boys) pay in the last 10 years? We don’t know, but Musk thinks it’s ok for he and his puppy doge tactical team to wander through other citizen’s personal data and rip up the American social contract so that some continue to win and most lose.
2) Fantasy world
’The most successful presidency (‘our’ presidency) of ‘our’ nation.’ He compares himself to George Washington and places Washington at #2. How does he calculate that? He doesn’t; which is to say that the claim to ‘most successful’ is defined by the kinds of non-reality-based beliefs below, and most of those reference wealth. Washington’s presidency was much more than just about money. And really? It is numbingly non-historical and narcissistic to claim a DT supremacy over George Washington. With respect to DT’s core belief, which defines his policies, how does his emphasis on managing American money compare with his immediate predecessors? Trump is the tyrant Washington feared.
a) The Manhattan Institute gives this summation: “During President Trump’s four years in office, he signed legislation (and issued executive orders) that cumulatively added $7,787 billion to 10-year deficits. His policies reduced tax revenues by $2,098 billion, increased spending by $4,912 billion, and added $777 billion in interest costs,” and “Under President Trump’s watch, budget deficits reached a peacetime-record 15% of the economy and pushed the debt held by the public past 100% of the economy for the first time since World War II. In nominal dollars, the debt jumped from $14 trillion to $21 trillion and was projected to reach $29 trillion by 2027.”
When taxes are reduced by any amount, let alone $2,098 billion, it must be paid for somehow. In this case, it landed on the nation’s financial statements. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows how this tax theft from the majority of citizens went to the richest people in the nation. And the rest continue to pay for it as national (that is, taxpayer) debt. And then, in good libertarian/conservative/republican manner tell the nation its debt and deficit are too high and so hard decisions need to be made to ‘preserve our way of life’. Guess who pays a high price so that others’ way of life can continue.
b) ’My very successful first term set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations’. And this time he wants to have a policy of chopping 10 rules or regulations for every one created. This is nonsensical. Rules and regulations should be created to perform an explicit purpose, regardless of how many are created.
There is, however, nothing inherently wrong with eliminating rules and regulations that are out of date, counter-efficient for the use of resources, or harmful in some way to human beings. But this activity is the work of a trained, objective (one of those always ongoing human balancing acts) bureaucracy. Their role in working through regulations can be compared to rigorous, knowledgeable pruning by an agriculturalist. DT and company’s approach is to take axes to the growth of regulations regardless to rules, mandates or the dismissal of persons who know what they are doing. Instead, DEI hires have invaded federal offices with axes in their hands and a gleam in their eyes. In addition, alongside the numerous lawsuits against this blunt force hacking at so-called and unproven ‘waste, corruption and incompetence,’ The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out how these actions are against US law. But DT and buddies do not care if even whole agencies disappear.
c) ‘Will create a balanced budget, not seen in the past 24 years.’ This is a reference to Bill Clinton (2001). Clinton’s accomplishment is, “attributed to a combination of factors, including raising taxes, cutting military spending, and favorable economic conditions.”
Every presidency since Clinton has run a deficit. Clinton’s accomplishment points to facts about which DT and republicans do not wish to be reminded; that one man’s whim cannot make some things happen simply because he wishes it. There are always multiple realities in the real world that cannot be factored into a financial equation or even wishful thinking, let alone known beforehand. And if DT and company do balance the budget, it will create health, wealth and safety crises for millions of Americans, while others reap massive windfalls. The folks who voted to hire DT based on fake promises will become disillusioned. There is evidence that many of them are beginning to realize that when DT spoke about what he was going to do, he was telling them that they were the targets.
For a clear website that explains debt/deficit, see https://shorturl.at/aZ4fy
d) ‘Tax cuts for everybody.’
It seems his first-term tax cut did benefit most persons in America, but disproportionately the top 5% or so did much better. And if that 2017 tax cut is continued in 2025, the wealthiest will save even more tax than the rest. And the wealthiest persons have numerous ways to reduce their taxes payable that is not available to mere average citizens. As well, when taxes are cut, the immediate question must be: unless one wants to live in fantasy land, ‘how is this going to be paid for?’ Republicans don’t like that question.
e) ‘We will provide 100% expensing’. What is this and how is he going to do it? It’s not clear what he means. Expensing, and its related concept, capitalizing, is an accountancy decision. Capitalization provides long-term value of an asset while expensing is a short-term placement on the books that reduces income for that period.
Expensing in accounting does not seem to be what he means. The way he phrases the statement seems to have something to do with taxes. Either way, he means that somehow the federal government will take on the debt of anyone who, “In addition, as part of our tax cuts, we want to cut taxes on domestic production and all manufacturing. And just as we did before, we will provide 100 percent expensing. It will be retroactive to Jan. 20, 2025.” How will he (the federal government) take on expensing for the vast domestic production and manufacturing of the US and reduce taxes for ‘everyone’? The federal government cannot do this. It is a throw-away, feel-good statement to get republicans off their seats and clap; a show; a circus to keep everyone entertained.
3) Wash, rinse, repeat.
a) Persecution: he has ‘ended weaponized government’: a, “sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent like me.”
And ever since, he’s been wanting to give back to others what he imagines they have done to him. It seems that little more than half of the 62.8% of eligible citizens who voted in 2024 (roughly 1/3 or less of those eligible) voted for DT and believed him when he said the entire federal infrastructure was ‘weaponized’ against him, which led to the claim that a ‘deep state’ was wielding that weapon. For his lifetime achievement, see: https://tinyurl.com/2vp6kkws
Ponder the following. Dozens of trials, millions of dollars and thousands of hours were spent on the numerous cases in which DT was the defendant. This means governments were giving DT extraordinary opportunity to defend himself, much more than any other citizen would get. His government (in fact, he) is not giving the same respect to others whom he blames for his ‘persecution’.
This leads to a question: if the proper respect of the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ is applied to the cases in which DT was the defendant are compared to those he is ‘going after’ now, which regime (Biden or Trump) most clearly respects the principle? Since DT is giving no due process to his perceived ‘enemies’, the answer seems to be that the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ was given to him, but he has not accorded that democratic privilege to ‘enemies’.
If so, then the bitter complaint that he was persecuted, that the state ‘weaponized’ the entire federal infrastructure against him,’ and that there was a ‘deep state’ or a ‘hidden cabal’ within the state, is false.
These words; ‘deep state’, ‘persecution’, ‘weaponization’, were imaginary constructs whose only reality was between DT’s ears. Once DT and fans re-gained power, they then created the actual persecution through weaponization of the state against his personal enemies. These include most republicans and MAGA true believers. Half the persons who voted in the election are, then, under a psychotic fantasy of gigantic and transferential proportions.
On a related note. Election 2024 was significant for what happened, but it is also significant for what did not happen. No democrats or their supporters stormed the WH to stop the ratification of the next president. If they were able to win the WH in 2020, why couldn’t they have done it in 2024? It didn’t happen because Biden did not steal the election in 2020, and democrats followed in 2024 the procedures from the Constitution and all the legal trailings that are bound to that venerable document. DT lied. His immediate supporters among the republicans lied. And less than a third of American eligible voters believed the lie. And now they must hang on to the first lie because if they admit to themselves that that first lie was a lie, then so were DT’s claims about all the subsequent trials, accusations, convictions and other cases awaiting DT’s attention.
b) ‘The previous administration created an economic catastrophe by driving up prices and caused the worst inflation in 48 years’. It is incendiary, and incorrect, to claim that a government creates an economic ‘catastrophe’ by ‘driving up prices.’ No one person, country, or government controls prices and inflation; they have tools by which to tweak what is happening, but they do not control it. If anything, since DT’s election, inflation has been going up. He uses statistics simplistically, so in terms of his own method: inflation has been dropping since January 2022 (9.1%). On June 1, 2023, it was 3.0 and in October 2024 it was 2.6%. It rose in January 2025 to 3%. For a month-by-month calendar of the swings of inflation, see https://tinyurl.com/2j7ptwba
c) ‘Today [March 4, 2025], interest rates took a beautiful drop’. It is not clear to which rate he refers. There is no specific interest rate drop on that day. Whichever interest rate, if any, an appropriate answer is, ‘so what’? Interest rates rise and fall for many reasons and, like inflation, no one person, government or country controls them. The US Federal Funds Effective Rate has been hovering around 4.33% for months, while the bank prime rate has been 7.5%.
d) ‘Drain the swamp’: ‘unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats’. For 100 years the bureaucracy has, “crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits, and held back America’s potential in every possible way.”
Think of that 100-year period and all that has happened. Besides history’s deep complexity, the achievements of the country as whole, as well as its failures (e.g. contributory to the Great Depression of the 30s, the 2018-19 crash, to say nothing of extra-territorial military intervention to keep the world secure for American business-fake capitalism), an objective bureaucracy for any democratic government is almost as important as the rule of law and the separation of powers (executive, legislative, judiciary, enforcement), none of which is perfect and each needs to counter-balance the others so that there is a maximum check on each.
Did the ‘bureaucracy’ over decades do all that he claims? Of course not; in fact, it is a nonsense statement. Bureaucrats are accountable to multiple levels of managers, executives and politicians. Of course they are not elected! If bureaucrats were elected, one would not have any chance the most competent and knowledgeable people in thousands of bureaucratic positions, people who go through a rule-based process for ability, training and knowledge. The claim that DT is focused on merit is a verbal sleight of hand. It has been pointed out by many observers that the people whom DT has appointed were not appointed through merit but by whim based on loyalty to DT, not to the constitution or rules or laws or merit-based hiring. In fact, most of these recent appointees by DT are DEI hires, a fact which points up the hypocrisy and irrational hatred of DEI policies among republicans in the agencies of government.
What is really going on in that statement about the ‘bureaucracy’? From whom must DT and fans ‘reclaim’ a lost set of powers? Of course, as usual, one must name DT first, and then ask: who then does he serve? Despite what he said in both this speech and in his inaugural about the millions of little people who voted for him, the bent of his entire life, his motives and his intent are only about getting more money. The persons from whom he wants to ‘reclaim power’ are people who he cannot turn, twist or move to obey him. He prefers fans, followers and fools. His ‘reclaim power’ reflects -not that he has likely even heard of it- the fact that the unelected, unaccountable persons who are running the world are the millionaires and billionaires around the world. These persons are the real cabal against which a third of America voted. They did not understand who the real alligators in the swamp were, behind and alongside each president and administration since Reagan. They misunderstood the target of their wrath.
Three books that speak to this identification are, in order of publication, John Pilger’s The New Rulers of the World (2016), Noam Chomsky‘s Who Rules the World?, Jane Mayer‘s Dark Money (2017) and Moises Naim’s The Revenge of Power (2022). DT incarnates the title of the last book.
3) What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.
Greenland, “We strongly support your right to determine your own future,”…but…”One way or another, we’re going to get it.” A naked threat from a weak man.
b) ‘Canada, Mexico and all other countries have been ‘unfair’ to the US’.
Let’s use Canada as an example.
Tariffs are for revenue or protection of industries. His uninformed opinion is simpler than knows. For example, Canada sells its oil and gas to the US at a cut rate which enables America to sell its products made with oil/gas to other countries at a higher rate, making a profit. In fact, if oil/gas from Canada to the US is removed from the calculation of deficits, the US has a surplus of $58 billion against Canada. Similar arguments can be made with or about other countries and the US in terms of trade deficits. If any seem ‘unfair’ to DT, that word needs to be defined from the context of how it works and then in a world where agreements are made at a table, rather than on an economic battlefield. But not for DT. Anything he sees as ‘unfair’ means America is not dominant.
c) ‘I love farmers.’ What do farmers say? They have had significant increase in costs and fewer markets. ‘Trust me’ DT says as ‘we’ (meaning, you) go through a ‘little bit of an adjustment period’. He will not bear the results and if it (likely) doesn’t work; he will come up with an excuse and blame it on someone else.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture says, with data, this:
“The U.S. only has a trade deficit with Canada when you include energy exports. While the US had a $41 billion trade deficit with Canada last year, a third of what Canada sells into the US are energy exports where prices have been high. If we remove oil from the equation, the U.S. consistently runs a steady trade surplus with Canada. In 2023, Canadians spent on average 6 times more per person on U.S. agricultural products compared to what Americans spent on Canadian products. The recent Canada-U.S. agricultural trade imbalance in Canada’s favour is due to higher import values, not increased volumes. Notably, agricultural trade includes inputs like pesticides and equipment, where the U.S. holds a trade surplus.”
d) China and $50 billion purchases. The great deal maker didn’t make a deal with China that worked. In 2019 a Reuters writer pointed out the dead end that was this ‘deal’. And then, true to form, he blamed someone else for this failed deal, Biden
e) Panama Canal. History. 1st attempt at a build was in the 1880s, by the French. In 1904-14, 6,000 West Indian or Barbadian and 300 Americans died. The latter were paid $125.00/month and Barbadians between 10 and 32 cents/hr. In 1997, a Hong Kong consortium out-bid for the two ports at each end of the canal. The US and Taiwan also have ports.
4) One datum = an argument, or reality; example of a logical fallacy.
Austin Killips– Arizona race -men and women does it in 5 hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman’.
‘The American steel worker’. Making us rich again ‘will be a slight disturbance but we’re [as in DT, not you] ok with that’. When the economy gets rocky because of his policies, he and his billionaire friends will weather it nicely; for them, yes, it will be a ‘slight disturbance’. But for everyone else, it will be a nasty roller-coaster that threatens to run off the tracks, or out over a washed-out bridge into a ravine.
c) Deportation order. He brought into the gathering for the speech) a courageous border patrol agent, Roberto Ortiz. This was used to segue into justifying kicking thousands of people out of the US. He mentions Eisenhower in this regard, who booted 300,000 people who had families, jobs and some of whom were citizens, by the racist term, ‘Operation Wetback’. And in the 1930s 1 million people, 60% who were citizens were given the boot. People then, like DT now, didn’t want them to share in Roosevelt’s New Deal- a better version of making America great again (And in fact, did).
5) –Mendacious, cynical use of other’s tragedies as segues for set pieces in the speech.
The acts of enormous harm that happened to the people listed below who were invited as props to his speech, are harrowing. But they were used as means of justifying government assault on whole populations of people.
’Poison of critical race theory’. Payton Mcnabb. DT used this to attack the 0.6% of trans persons in the US. A side note: DT claimed that millions were being spent on creating transgender mice. This is incorrect; the HHS gave $8 million for hormone therapy experiments (transgenic), experiments that may help create better human health outcomes. So much for his and Musk’s claim about waste and corruption. Unlike the White House statement that said ‘Trump was right as usual’; no NPDs; he was wrong.
In 2016-17 approximately 1.6 million (18 yrs and older) citizens in America identify as trans, 0.6% of the entire population. In 2021 42,167 had general dysphoria-children: in 2017, 2021. 6-17. 121,882. Puberty blockers, 2017: 633, 2018: 759, 2019: 897, 2020: 1,101, 2021: 1,390. So, for what is the hard-on hatred against 0.6% of the population? The hate, like all hate, is irrational and reveals more about the persons who speak and act out of hate than it does their target.
‘Toxic ideologies.’ January Littlejohn, a mom who had emails with a teacher of her child regarding the new names of her daughter and being identified as they/them. The family seems to have disagreed with the school District Support Guide regarding not outing a child in this kind of situation.
DT used a complicated personal situation to damn a very small minority of persons. He said, “And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.” If in fact you are a christian and believe that each child is ‘made’ by God in the womb, then did the Divine dude make replication errors in DNA?
c) Two cases of murder: Laken Riley (February 2024) and Jocelyn Nungaray (June 2024) . DT ties these two brutal crimes to the, alleged, ‘millions of murderers and drug killers and rapists’ from Mexico. DT used these horrific crimes to build fear about immigration, as if all immigrants are the kind of people who do these crimes. But in fact the truth is that a very small number of immigrants, illegal or legal commit horrific crimes like these above.
Jonathan Diller. DT used the killing of this police officer to decry a ‘catch and release’ justice system; letting out people who had many priors. He used this incident to stoke fear about crime, when in fact violent crime is going down in America. See https://tinyurl.com/5n7dtvb2 and https://tinyurl.com/ms7aa9ce.
e) Segue on a segue. D.J. Daniel is a young boy who wanted to become police officer. He developed brain cancer. DT used this boy’s story of courage and resilience (and his family’s) to state that DT’s administration will ‘make America healthy again’ by doing something about chemicals and poisons in American air, land and water. He specifically mentioned autism and that the health department must find solutions to diseases like cancer and autism. Yet, like most agencies, DT and his faithful (for the moment) fan, Musk is gutting the American health department. So, any promise about studying and eradicating diseases like cancer and autism is in one word, fluff; airy, floating away as soon as the words are blown into the air. And the new head of the health department (Kennedy), denies the importance of vaccines and has exhibited a distrust of science-based research. What other research would he choose? The benefits of bloodletting?
The story of young D.J. Daniel was used to point to the necessity of stopping all these chemicals and dangerous pollutants going into the air, land and and water. DT has taken this promise so seriously that he has pulled back all of Biden’s orders and regulations about stopping companies from continuing to let these poisons escape into the air, water and land, to do what DT lies about doing.
Another example of how serious DT is about the Dept of Health is that he, under Lee Zeldin, is gutting the EPA. DT doesn’t care about these people and their stories, except as props to hide his intentions.
f) ’We have to take care of our law enforcement.’
DT and his fans and followers considered the people who attacked the WH to be ‘political prisoners’, part of the false narrative about weaponization and his ‘persecution’ and then he forgave them their crimes. Many of their crimes were against police officers. Many officers were injured, some died that day and others committed suicide (4) after the insurrection. “Participants in the civil disorder and responders had been injured in the struggle. There were 138 officers (73 Capitol Police and 65 Metropolitan Police) injured, of whom 15 were hospitalized, some with severe injuries.” So, why should anyone listening to his speeches believe he cares ‘about our law enforcement’?
g) Russia-caused war against Ukraine. ‘The US has spent $350 billion in aid. Europe spent $100 billion’ and ‘Europe has spent more money buying Russia oil and gas than they have on defense.’
Ah, no.
-Since DT splits the $$ figures into US and Europe, so do we here. combine military, humanitarian and financial aid end of dec, 2024. The Kiel Institute put together data that can be verified and certified and reviewed by anyone, where DT and his fans simply bluster or exaggerate or lie; he and the cannot produce data or facts that cannot be verified by a 3rd party.
-The US has given $114.12 billions for military aid. Of this figure, the US has given $46.6. As of January 1, 2025 the US has no support to disburse to Ukraine.
-Europe has given $135.83 billions in military aid. Of this, financial aid was $71.9 billion. As of January 1, 2025, Europe has $115.1 billion to be dispersed.
-GDP. Of 28 countries who support Ukraine with military, humanitarian and/or financial aid, the US is tied, with Croatia and Czechia. The other 15 countries are within .01%-.02% of spot #13.
-Canada’s contribution per GDP is the highest of G& countries (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the US).
h) “I was saved by God to make America great again.” Cory Comparatore was the man behind DT when he was shot in Butler. Comparatore threw himself in front of his family to save them.
The phrase is in both this speech and his inaugural and repeated by MAGA and DT’s acolytes. If one believes in a divine power who intervenes in the doings of the world, this explanation by Trump is both dubious and dangerous; rather than sheer luck. Claiming God’s intervention is another manipulative ploy to raise himself up and justify what he is now doing, and of course pandering to the right-wing Christians who see him as both a proto-martyr and messiah. But in doing so, they bring the one they say they believe in and follow, Jesus Christ, down to DT’s level. Jesus’ message had nothing to do with money, human short-term power, greed or policies or actions levelled against whole populations.
In addition, that same divine intervention that ‘saved him to save America’ was not extended to Mr. Comparator or others who were wounded. The logic is: ‘God saved me…’ and these others who died or were wounded did so, so that God could save me and reveal my important, divine calling. Think of the moral, to say nothing of theological, implication of that belief. It is like arguing that a child was saved by God because a fresh heart was found for a transplant, which implies God must take the life, or take advantage of, the death of one child to save another. This is a logic framed by the very worst of anti-Christian theology; a Calvinist hell to which God directs many and from which the divine power rescues a few. And we know who those few would be.
Further about that: the politico-Christian right’s current big name, Paula White-Cain, who now inhabits the new ‘White House Faith Office’ represents no greater example of the lie that America keeps religion out of its politics and the state. There has been legitimate critique of her portrayal of Christianity as a thorough-going ‘prosperity Gospel’ preacher, for which she has been called a ‘heretic’ by other Christians. I agree with that assessment, but there is a more trenchant critique. She believes DT was raised up by God to lead the nation forward. However, the right-wing evangelicals raising up DT from proto-martyr to messiah brings the true Lord, Jesus Christ down to DT’s level. And since the latter is more ‘present’ to them, he becomes a new messiah. This is, to use an old term, idolatry. But more than that, those who espouse this view have become apostates. An apostate is one who turns from following one master or lord to another. There’s no reason that right-wing persons like White-Cain hold and state these views: please just stop calling yourselves Christians.
6) Verbose, improbable declarations.
a) ’Gold under our feet’. Globally-1.6 trillion barrels. The US is at 74,000 44.4 billion barrels, 11th in the world for reserves, 2.1% globally. Proven reserves: Canada is at #5 with 170,000 and the US is at #9 with 74,000.
b) ‘Thanks to our America first policies, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in the past few weeks.’ It’s not clear to what he is referring. It could be the projection of ‘Black and African American buying power by 2030’. It could be the Biden 2022 spending bill for federal agencies. It is most likely the Biden investments in AI. Oddly the deficit is also at that number. Perhaps he meant that and was confused. It’s hard to tell, because his talk is chaotic.
7) Theft (of other’s achievements)
a) ’My administration: gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska’ and ‘Japan and South Korea want to partner with millions’. This project was started by Biden, but it is not yet built. The money has not even been settled. No agreements yet.
b) ‘Expand production of critical minerals and rare earths in the US.’ Again, this was a process started by Biden. Order 14017, ‘America’s Supply chains. $120 billion. AI. Biden. 2021 bill. CHIP act to increase American semiconductor production. DT says the CHIP act is horrible, only because it’s Biden’s, but he’s willing to take credit for it.
c) ’Vehicle plants are opening ‘all over the place’. Domestic production by Ford, Rivian, Hyundai, Stelantis, in EV vehicles. All at the initiative of Biden. And yet Trump calls this the ‘green scam’. Gas vehicle plants, expensive dream.
d) ’A new Honda plant in Indiana’ has ‘taken place since our great victory.’ No. Nothing is signed. Maybe by 2028, just in time for a different administration.
e) US army recruitment. Hegseth, “In January we had the best recruiting month in 15 years. And all armed services are having the best recruiting result ever in the history of our services.” Nope: “The surge started a year before, culminating in years of work.” In 2024; 13,200 men and women chiefly for the economic and educational opportunities. Both Trump and Hegseth didn’t say how many for January.
f) Attacking federal; government agencies for alleged waste, fraud and incompetence. On May 15, 2024, the Duplication & Cost Savings GAO’s annual report on the federal government’s opportunities to reduce fragmentation, overlap, and duplication (under Biden) as well as reduce costs and increase revenue. $667 billion in financial benefits were found. Not fraud or incompetence. Didn’t need a new, private one-man axe swinger to come in and falsify what needed, and was being, done.
Social security for example. 1 person at 360-years-old. In a 2023 report, 18.9 million, 100 years old and living but not collecting $$$. More to do with computers and getting rid of defunct accounts; not fraud. Something so mundane as boring administrative trivia just doesn’t quite have the same fireworks as Theft. Waste, and fraud
9) Kingly grandiosity.
’We’. 131 times meaning ‘I’ and ‘I’ 104 times. ‘Our’…. his inaugural: ‘We’ – 74. ‘I’- 29. ‘Our’ – 67
b) Swaggering rhetoric, bellicose boasting. ‘I was saved…’ then mentions famous patriotic exemplar events and persons: Lexington, Concord, heroes of Gettysburg and Normandy, warriors who crossed the Delaware. Then DT leaped to non-war achievements; trailblazers over the Rockies, legends who soared at Kitty Hawk and astronauts who went to the moon. Ties his proto martyrdom to their bravery and achievements.
c) Ties his touted best (golden) age ever to the financial achievements of others in the past.
“American industry, massive building projects, vanquished communists, fascists and Marxists, our rights and freedoms, now its our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty, destiny. The most dominant…country on this earth. Create the wealthiest, healthiest, conquer science, gods help. From protomartyr to king. The most advanced, most dynamic most dominant….unstoppable power, fight, fight, fight….” And the republicans shouted and clapped like they were at a football game, or a real fight. Are they children?
10) “Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change…A mandate like you’ve not seen in decades.”
-The most ignored stat is that apathy was the largest voter in the election. almost 40% of eligible Americans did not vote.
-DT was able to get more of his fans out than Harris’ citizens.
-DT’s take of the popular vote was the 4th smallest since 1960 and 5th smallest since 1900. Popular vote: 72.4 million for Harris (48.3%), 75.6 million for Trump(51.3%) – not a landslide and not a mandate.
-The electoral vote: Electoral college: 6 More than Biden. Reagan-523, Johnson 523, Nixon 520 and Reagan 525. DT’s was 312 while Harris’ was 226. But this number does not tell the full story, like so many of DT’s statements. Harris lost in key swing states by a total of 1 million. E.g. Michigan, by 1.4% (80,000), Wisconsin by 30,000.
And DT’s popularity is shrinking.
11) Childishness
-English as official language of US. What else would it be? What is the fear he is here stoking?
-Renaming the Gulf and Mount Mckinley. Chest puffing. As soon as he’s gone, it will go back to what it was.
-Official policy: there are only 2 genders. Again, encouraging hatred again minorities. Are people with this reaction threatened by someone else’s sexuality they don’t understand?
12) ‘Common sense revolution, because of us around the world’; example of one trope.
‘Immigrants. Invasion, Thousands’ (last 4 years): ‘murderers, drug dealers, gang members, mental people, insane asylum escapees’.
Since 2023 the hill??, since January 2021, 8 million, since January 2022, 11 million- 1/5 the Of these came since 2010, before going back to 1980 the rest. Under Biden and Harris, a cross-aisle bill was cobbled together to tighten border entries-Trump, through his Republican acolytes, arranged to have it killed.
Law stats: 15,608 ‘encounters.’ 9,545 illegal entry, 2,545 DUI/drug possession, traffic of drugs, 1,414. DOJ report that violent crime is down over time.
77% of immigrants are legal. 89.5% pass the citizenship test on the first try. Non-citizen ‘encounters’: 2022-33% versus 2017- 2023 27% less sentenced 2018-2023- 37% immigration crimes. Homeland Security says the number is 10 million.
Biden flew illegal alines over borders to ‘overwhelm schools, hospitals and communities’ (Aurora, Colorado, Springfield). In fact, immigrants benefit the country they have come to, especially the US.
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It seems DT was correct about 2 (minor) facts. If the reader is interested, he or she or they/them can see if them/they can find them. Two other points need to be noted.
First, DT was wrong about 95% of everything he said that speech.
Second, the Republicans and MAGA acolytes gave rounding applause for each of these, alternatively, over-heated, manipulative, factually incorrect and bellicose statements. It was applause for the destruction of democracy, due process and disingenuity.