RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.city-journal.org/article/trump-tariffs-trade-consumption-production

Behind all the drama of President Donald Trump’s tariffs lies the hope that they serve some clear purpose for American and global trade. But Trump’s signature inscrutability makes it hard to discern what that purpose is—or whether one even exists.

Either way, his actions threaten to unravel the global trading system that has been in place for the past 80 years. That unraveling would bring economic and financial pain—but also potential upside, given that the current system is ultimately unsustainable.

The current system emerged from a set of relatively narrow foreign policy priorities in the years following World War II. Washington focused on rebuilding Europe and Japan after the war’s devastation. Part of that motivation was humanitarian—but more importantly, it was a strategic effort to use rising prosperity in those regions to counter the spread of Communism.

As part of this effort, the U.S. directed massive aid flows overseas, most famously through the Marshall Plan. To support industrial recovery abroad, Washington also allowed goods from Europe and Japan to enter the U.S. market with minimal restrictions, while permitting those nations to maintain tariffs and other protections for their fragile domestic industries. The dollar’s role as the world’s dominant trading currency—the so-called global reserve—further aided this arrangement by keeping the dollar strong. That, in turn, made foreign goods cheap for American consumers and U.S. exports more expensive abroad.

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/04/21/voters-align-with-trump-on-dei-transgender-bans-ii-tipp-poll/

President Donald Trump’s executive orders forbidding transgender athletes from competing against females and eliminating so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government have been met with political opposition, outrage, and angry ridicule. But who’s winning the debate? Trump is, as the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows.

In the most recent national online I&I/TIPP poll, taken from Mar. 26-Mar. 28, 1,452 adults were asked: “Do you support or oppose President Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sports?”

It wasn’t close. Among those responding, 64% said they either “support strongly” (48%) or “support somewhat” (16%) the move, compared to the 24% who said they either “oppose strongly” (15%) or “oppose somewhat” (9%) Trump’s order.

Only 4% said they were “not familiar” with the order, while 7% answered they were “not sure.” The poll has a margin of error of +/-2.6 percentage points.

Of 36 major demographic groups followed each month by I&I/TIPP Poll, only two showed less than 50% support: Democrats (46% support, 43% oppose) and self-described “liberals” (39% support, 50% oppose).

By comparison, Republicans (88% support, 6% oppose) and independents (61% support, 25% oppose) showed overwhelming backing, as did every other major demographic category.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/18/trumps-courage-to-fight/

When the White House invoked the “Immortal Chaplains” to illustrate the history between the United States and Greenland, it touched on a theme emerging in the second Trump administration: the importance of courage.

On February 3, 1943, the American steamship SS Dorchester embarked with 902 souls – soldiers, merchant seamen, and civilians – bound for a U.S. Army base in southern Greenland to support the buildup of military personnel during World War II. The ship’s captain ordered those on board to sleep in their uniforms and life jackets in case of an attack by German submarines, but many disregarded the order because of heat from the ship’s engine.

Just after midnight, a U-boat’s torpedo slammed into the Dorchester’s starboard side below the water line. Four Navy chaplains — a rabbi, a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest, and a Protestant reverend — gave up their own life vests and guided panicked crewmembers to the lifeboats. The Dorchester sank in 20 minutes. One of the 230 survivors later recalled what he saw as he swam away from the ship: “The bow came up high and she slid under. The last thing I saw, the Four Chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could.”

Courage means feeling fear but behaving in a way that is noble and good, as the chaplains did when they acted on their deepest convictions aboard the Dorchester. Donald Trump once wrote that courage is not the absence of fear but “the ability to act effectively, in spite of fear.”

In 2016, Trump showed moral courage when he spoke the truth to American voters: a parasitic “establishment” of political and corporate interests had been exploiting our workers, farmers, and soldiers. When Trump challenged 16 opponents in the Republican primary, he exposed untruths in a conservative orthodoxy passed down from Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush. Establishment foes hounded him with investigations and impeachment proceedings throughout the four years of his presidency, but Trump refused to compromise his principles or check his ambition to “make America great again.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/mississippi-musk-finds-400-million-in-state-government-waste/

“When the sun goes down, the tide goes out, the people gather ’round and they all begin to shout, ‘Hey, hey, in the dusk, it’s a lift to beat the left with ol’ Mississippi Musk!’” Okay, okay, so it’s not as catchy as the actual song, but one thing that is catching is the Trumpian quest to cut the fat from government spending and make more efficient, and saner, use of the taxpayers’ money. In Mississippi, state auditor Shad White, also known as “Mississippi Musk,” has been hard at work against state government bloat, and what he has found is enlightening.

Ol’ Shad, as I imagine the folks down there in Clarkdale an’ Natchez call him, has found that Mississippi has wasted a staggering amount of money, and he would be the first one to tell you that it is extremely unlikely that Elvis’ home state is alone in this. Fox News reported Monday that White is releasing “a compilation of audits conducted by his office that tabulated a collective $400 million in waste over the course of his tenure.”

That compilation is as sure to be as big a hit as “Heartbreak Hotel,” at least among patriots who are tired of seeing the fruits of their labors devoured among the corrupt, incompetent, and undeserving. (By the way, that wasn’t just an Oxford comma there, folks; that was an Oxford, Mississippi comma.)

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-4-15-trying-to-figure-out-how-much-of-the-government-grants-goes-to-left-wing-causes-and-propaganda

Back on February 14, I had a post titled “How Much Of This Has Been Paid For By The U.S. Taxpayer?” The post asked that question about a sample of issues held dear by the Left: migrant caravans, services in the U.S. to illegal aliens, DEI and climate alarm.

Over the intervening weeks it has become clear that the general answer is “a lot of it,” but the details will be slow to emerge. For example, you can go to the website of DOGE and get an endless list of hundreds of contracts and grants that have been reduced or canceled. But they all seem to have legitimate headlines or titles, even if they were wasteful. How much of this money was getting diverted to an NGO, and from there to another NGO and then another until it ended up funding migrant caravans or pro-Palestinian propaganda or some other such cause. There is very little indication.

Certainly, you can count on the biggest left-wing grant recipients to be less than honest in defending their fiefdoms. Consider, for example, Harvard University. It’s been big news the past couple of days that Harvard has refused to knuckle under to President Trump’s demands that it rein in anti-semitism, in order to retain its many hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars of annual federal funding. Harvard President Alan Garber defended the university’s position in an email addressed to the “Harvard Community” that is publicly available here. Here’s how it starts out:

For three-quarters of a century, the federal government has awarded grants and contracts to Harvard and other universities to help pay for work that, along with investments by the universities themselves, has led to groundbreaking innovations across a wide range of medical, engineering, and scientific fields. These innovations have made countless people in our country and throughout the world healthier and safer. . . . These partnerships are among the most productive and beneficial in American history. New frontiers beckon us with the prospect of life-changing advances—from treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and diabetes, to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, quantum science and engineering, and numerous other areas of possibility. For the government to retreat from these partnerships now risks not only the health and well-being of millions of individuals but also the economic security and vitality of our nation.

It all looks like mis-direction to me. How much of Harvard’s federal funding goes to the widely-supported subjects that Garber lists — Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, diabetes, AI, quantum science and engineering? Clearly a small minority.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/liz-peek-cory-bookers-latest-stunt-could-embarrass-democrats

Cory Booker, fresh off demonstrating that he is capable of going 25 hours without a bathroom break, is “demanding” an investigation into alleged insider trading at the Trump White House. 

Booker contends that when the president announced a reprieve from the imposition of draconian tariffs, which set stocks soaring by record amounts, Trump or his White House colleagues likely traded on the news, illicitly reaping gains from the markets’ big moves.

The New Jersey senator has not one iota of proof that anyone in the Trump camp bought stocks ahead of the big announcement, but Booker, rapidly morphing into the P. T. Barnum of Democrat politics, is searching for showstoppers – facts be damned.

Asked on NBC News’ Meet the Press if Democrats had any evidence of wrongdoing, Booker first dodged the question and then said, “There is enough of an offense here, there’s enough smoke here that should demand congressional hearings.” So, actually no. 

Let’s be honest: Booker and his Democrat compatriots were furious that markets boomed in response to the temporary tariff hiatus. They and their media allies have worked overtime to scare voters, predicting that Trump’s trade moves will torpedo our economy; plunging markets fed their narrative. Not only has Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer et al promised that Trump will drive us into recession, they also suggest that his efforts to make global trading more favorable to U.S. firms will undermine the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency.

Democrats are not afraid that Trump will fail; they are panicked that he might actually succeed.

Booker most recently made headlines by breaking a fellow Democrat’s record for staging the longest-ever senate filibuster.

https://pjmedia.com/paula-bolyard/2025/04/15/boom-feds-refer-letitia-james-to-doj-for-prosecution-n4938940

In a Monday night letter, William J. Pulter, director of the U.S. Federal Housing Agency (FHFA), referred New York Attorney General Letitia James to the Department of Justice for prosecution of mortgage fraud. 

My colleague Athena Thorne wrote over the weekend: 

We’re talking about Letitia “No one is above the law” James, a poster child for the weaponized justice system that tried to sandbag and impoverish Donald Trump and put him away for the rest of his life. As they say, if you’re going to take a shot at the king, you better not miss. Or, in this case, you better not have an apparent pattern of fraudulent real estate transactions.

Now, it appears, James’s chickens are coming home to roost. 

“Pursuant to my authority as Director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (“U.S.Federal Housing” or “FHFA”), I am referring the matter below,” Pulter wrote. “As regulator of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, we take very seriously allegations of mortgage fraud or other criminal activity. Such misconduct jeopardizes the safety and soundness of FHFA’s regulated entities and the security and stability of the U.S. mortgage market.” 

Pulter said the agency has “identified matters that are appropriate for referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for consideration of criminal prosecution.”

https://www.city-journal.org/article/trump-harvard-funding-freeze-anti-semitism-race-dei

“The administration is growing ever bolder in its crusade against the institutions responsible for left-wing ideology—whether elite law firms or universities. That crusade is unquestionably justified. Its targets deserve little sympathy. But a question arises: Is the administration more interested in maximal disruption or in achieving its long-term goals? The two aims may not be compatible.”

The Trump administration’s war on higher education has entered its hottest phase yet. On April 14, the administration froze $2.26 billion in federal funding for Harvard University, in response to Harvard’s rejection of administration demands for reform. News of the university’s defiance ricocheted around the globe. The fate of the White House’s academic reform efforts depends heavily on how the coming showdown concludes.

The present conflict began in on April 11, when representatives of the Trump administration’s Joint Anti-Semitism Task Force sent a demand letter to the Harvard president and the head of the Harvard Corporation (the university’s equivalent of a board of trustees). The April 11 mandate is much more sweeping and detailed than the task force’s March 13 demand letter to Columbia University.