The Official "Damned Trump" Thread: Phase II

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Trump has claimed - loudly - that his policies have lowered the US trade deficit by 78%.  The actual number is 0.2%.

Boru

[awty]

Trump has claimed - loudly - that his policies have lowered the US trade deficit by 78%.  The actual number is 0.2%.

Boru

Details, schmetails.

It's a number.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Trump has claimed - loudly - that his policies have lowered the US trade deficit by 78%.  The actual number is 0.2%.

Boru

Details, schmetails.

It's a number.

But not just any old number. It’s a beautiful number. No one has ever seen a number like this before. People are coming up to him and saying, ‘Sir, where can I get a number like that?’ It’s the best number in the history of America. He’s going to trademark it as ‘The Trump Number.’

Boru

[Nanny]

Trump has claimed - loudly - that his policies have lowered the US trade deficit by 78%.  The actual number is 0.2%.

Boru

That scales with his perceived and actual cock size.

[Fake Messiah]

Of course, babies with impaired brain development = future Trump voters.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans this week to loosen restrictions on coal-burning power plants, allowing them to emit more hazardous pollutants including mercury, a powerful neurotoxin that can impair babies’ brain development, internal agency documents show.

The move is one of many efforts by the Trump administration to make it easier and cheaper to produce and use fossil fuels, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that pollution from burning oil, gas and coal is harming public health and dangerously warming the planet.

Over the past nine months, the Energy Department has taken the extraordinary step of ordering eight coal-burning units that had been headed for retirement to stay open and keep running. Administration officials say they plan to stop the closure of as many additional coal plants as possible over the next three years.

In loosening the mercury limits, the E.P.A. is arguing that it would reduce “unwarranted costs” for utilities that own and operate coal plants across the country, according to the documents reviewed by The Times. The E.P.A. estimates that the change would save companies as much as $670 million between 2028 and 2037, the documents show. It was not immediately clear how the agency arrived at that number.

The E.P.A. has already exempted 47 companies from regulations to curb mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal plants for two years.

When coal is burned, it releases mercury into Earth’s atmosphere. Rain, snow and fog can carry the mercury to the ground, where it can settle in soil as well as in lakes and streams and can accumulate in fish.

Most people are exposed to mercury pollution by eating contaminated fish and shellfish. High levels of exposure can cause severe damage to the nervous system, brain and kidneys and can threaten the development of fetuses, babies and young children.

Coal plants are responsible for nearly half of all mercury emissions in the United States, according to the E.P.A.

Besides mercury, the move this week would relax limits on other pollutants released by burning coal, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and nickel. Lead in particular is another potent neurotoxin linked to developmental delays in children.

In addition, the move this week would repeal a requirement that all coal plants continuously monitor the emissions from their smokestacks, according to the internal agency documents. That requirement was intended to reduce releases of fine particulate matter, which is tied to asthma, heart and lung disease and premature death.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/clima...lants.html

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

The Douchenozzle-in-Chief is returning to his prior claim that he deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor for visiting a US air base in Iraq. 'I was extremely brave,'

Joking or not, this is absolutely repugnant.

https://people.com/trump-says-he-deserve...q-11910389

Boru

[Angrboda]

Trump’s plan B to impose new tariffs is also illegal because a balance-of-payments deficit doesn’t exist, trade experts say

Just hours after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs on Friday, he signed an order to impose another package of levies under a different law that wasn’t affected by the court’s decision.

But economists and trade experts were quick to point out that Trump’s plan B for his tariff regime also has no legal basis.

For the first time ever, the U.S. is invoking Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows tariffs of up to 15% for as long as 150 days to quickly address international payments problems.

On Saturday, Trump hiked his new tariffs to 15%, less than 24 hours after setting them at 10% in an executive order. That’s after the Supreme Court ruled the president has no authority to apply tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

In a briefing with reporters Friday, Trump claimed the court endorsed his ability to use other means to carry out his trade agenda.

“The good news is that there are methods, practices, statutes and authorities as recognized by the entire court in this terrible decision and also is recognized by Congress which they refer to that are even stronger than the IEEPA tariffs available to me as president of the United States,” he said.

But the actual language of the Trade Act lists requirements that don’t exist today, including a “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficit.

While the U.S. has run a trade deficit for decades, it’s been offset by capital inflows as foreign investors pour billions into financial markets, resulting in a net balance of zero.

“Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, on which Trump’s 10% tariff is based, does not apply in the current macro environment,” said Peter Berezin, chief global strategist at BCA Research, in post on X on Friday. “A balance of payments deficit is not the same thing as a trade deficit. You cannot have a balance of payments [deficit] if you have a flexible exchange rate, as the US currently does.”

Similarly, economist Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, pointed out that the trade deficit is fully funded by the capital account surplus, adding that there is no overall balance-of-payments deficit to justify Trump’s newest tax on imports.

Bryan Riley, director of the National Taxpayers Union’s Free Trade Initiative, wrote in a blog post last month that Section 122 only makes sense under a fixed exchange rate, which hasn’t existed in the U.S. in more than 50 years.

Back then, when the dollar was pegged to gold, there was still a risk that the U.S. could suffer from shortages of reserves needed to cover international obligations.

But by the time the Trade Act was introduced in late 1973, the U.S. had already adopted a floating exchange rate system that was self-adjusting, eliminating the need for reserves to maintain a fixed dollar value. The bottom line is that “Section 122 was effectively rendered obsolete,” Riley explained.

“Section 122 only authorizes tariffs in the presence of a fundamental international payments problem,” he added. “Because the United States does not face such a problem, Section 122 cannot legally be used by President Trump to impose new tariffs.”

[Fake Messiah]

Florida man now feels "pain of regret" voting for Trump—after ICE detains his fiancée to deport her back to Cuba.

They were both staunch MAGA supporters—he voted and she "prayed for him" to win.

"We didn't think that he'd ever deport someone back to Cuba," he cries.

"I mean, people say I voted for this... but I didn't vote for THIS!"

Her fiancée and life partner of 20 years, Wayne DeMario, is now left alone to run their guitar store in Miami, Florida.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Florida man now feels "pain of regret" voting for Trump—after ICE detains his fiancée to deport her back to Cuba.

They were both staunch MAGA supporters—he voted and she "prayed for him" to win.

"We didn't think that he'd ever deport someone back to Cuba," he cries.

"I mean, people say I voted for this... but I didn't vote for THIS!"

Her fiancée and life partner of 20 years, Wayne DeMario, is now left alone to run their guitar store in Miami, Florida.

OMG, more leopards. I'll wait for their closeout sale to perhaps buy the upgraded Strat I'm thinking of grabbing.

Or not.

[AFTT47]

Gee, what a fucking shame.

I wish nothing but pain, sorrow and misery on both of these fucking idiots. Karma is a bitch.