Donald Trump has this annoying habit of continually blaming ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden and his administration for his own administration’s woes. Daily, we hear him blame something on Joe Biden. We know that’s not true; he lacks respect, ownership, and accountability.
Aim: improve economic conditions for all
He now has an approved economic plan for all Americans implemented through his “Big Beautiful Bill” Act. He aims to prevent the largest tax rate hike in history by delivering the largest tax cut for working and middle-class Americans in history.
1) In addition to his tax relief plan, he plans to rely on applying tariffs to each country, mainly to stem the flow of illegal drugs entering the U.S., to prevent illegal immigration, and finally to punish those with unfair trade practices. 2) He wanted to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. In his first term, he says we have a trade deficit of $45 billion with Mexico, and that by building a wall, we can stem this trade deficit with Mexico. He says to keep the deficit alive, Mexicans will gladly pay for the wall. (I’m not sure how that’ll happen, wall or no wall, since the cost of manufacturing goods in Mexico will still likely be cheaper than in America. So, will a wall affect the trade balance issue? I doubt it. I am pretty sure Mexicans still won’t pay for a wall either.
Key details are missing on how to apply the tariffs. He didn’t exactly say who, when, how much, or even how it would benefit us if the targeted countries would, in turn, do something similar to us. He also did not mention how the lower and middle classes would benefit from these tariffs in the long run, which increases the prices of affected goods. Affordability after tariffs could then become a critical issue. Finally, he did not say how using tariffs would improve our long-term relationships with foreign countries. The Constitution grants only Congress the power to use tariffs; however, the president can apply it in a wartime emergency. This explains why Mr. Trump calls this tariff a “war on drugs”, even though Canada has very few illegal drugs. So why punish merchants and traders who have nothing to do with any illegal drug flow when we’re only trying to curb the flow? If illegal immigration, on the other hand, is the real issue, then would a tariff really stop this illegal immigrant flow?
His idea to send ICE out to key cities within just the blue states to deport illegal immigrants (or legal immigrants who committed fraud) also threatens any potential economic gain we may get through the tariffs. ICE, in its current form, represents a real disappointment and a big mistake. Why do they even need a single weapon to do their job? Their lack of transparency and formalized training scares cities with their huge deployment, crude methods, and invasive swarming manners. What’s the economic loss in this climate? Unknown and unknowable. Who’s going to pay for this? It seems that a severe lack of thinking and planning is the consequence.
He also mentioned reducing bureaucratic waste as a key way to improve the economy. While the aim is noble, the real question is how the administration determines what’s the ‘waste’ and how it can wisely eliminate the ‘waste’ without corrupting the government? This process requires a significant amount of thinking about the details needed to carry it out. Would this effort differ from previous administrations’ efforts to find and remove waste?
Finally, Trump seems to be banking on a futuristic idea in which Elon Musk claims society will eventually accrue a high universal basic income, eliminating poverty. This seemed out of reach for most people now. The details on how to achieve this idea were also missing.
Many members of Congress often commit transactions that violate the STOCK Act while serving in government. I think we should NOT allow any congressional representative to harbor any conflict of interest with stock ownership while working as a congressional employee.
Trump’s support of ICE’s racial profiling and their lack of a clear agenda on who to deport before going to the city in question raises many big questions.
Greater equality is definitely needed everywhere in the world. More equality promotes teamwork (not the other way around), which in turn leads to greater levels of harmony. Simply making the whole pie bigger for us isn’t enough. If we each get a bigger slice of the pie but still with the same dividing fractions, then there could be even more inequality issues. Those with the widest slices would have even more pie matter than others, increasing the weight differences. So, when the whole pie gets bigger (or smaller), what’s also needed is to ensure the pie slices also evolve to be more similar.
Characteristics of a good leader
A good leader should be transparent – one who helps people understand the prevailing theory of each change, well before doing it. The candidate explains what outcome(s) should, in theory, be expected. He/she listens to what the data might be trying to tell us whenever an unexpected event occurs. He/she then tries to figure out the best response. Unfortunately, today we live in an impatient age where we become suspicious of men who try to think and admire machines that think. This is also the golden age of silent discrimination.
A good candidate should also have clear inspirational visions on how the country can consistently develop better foreign policy relationships that can contribute to building long-term harmony within the United Nations Assembly.
