Tag: campaign promises

Inflation Jumps to 3-Year High as Critics Say Trump Economic Promises Have Turned to Dust

A key federal inflation measure released Thursday shows that US prices jumped to a three-year high last month as President Donald Trump’s illegal Iran war and tariffs continued to push up consumer costs at gas pumps and grocery stores across the country.

The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index, closely watched by the Federal Reserve, rose at an annualized clip of 3.8% in April, the fastest pace since May 2023. Even when food and energy prices were stripped out of the measurement, the index rose 3.3% last month compared to a year ago—the highest level since November 2023.

“Today’s numbers tell the story: Families are paying more for gas, food, and housing and utilities,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “Donald Trump promised to lower costs ‘on day one,’ but instead inflation is running ahead of wages as his failed economic agenda hollows out Americans’ paychecks.”

The US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) also found that Americans’ personal savings rate fell to its lowest level since June 2022, plummeting to 2.6% as higher prices force households to spend more on basic necessities.

“This is stunning,” Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote on social media, noting that the personal savings rate was 5.5% in April of last year. “That’s a sharp plunge. It underscores how squeezed Americans are right now with higher prices and incomes not keeping up.”

Consumer spending grew by $111.1 billion last month, according to BEA data, with “gasoline and other energy goods” making up the largest portion of the increase. Trump administration officials have attempted to spin rising consumer spending as evidence of broad optimism about the US economy, even with consumer sentiment at an all-time low.

“Prices remain stubbornly high because President Trump refuses to bring down the cost of living for working families,” said Breyon Williams, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative. “Trump is making Americans pay more, first via his tariffs and now because of his war in Iran, causing prices at the pump to skyrocket. At the same time, he remains fixated on his lavish billion-dollar ballroom that the taxpayers will fund and a $1.8 billion slush fund for his supporters.”

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The Great “Red Hat” Psyop: How the Establishment Co-Opted MAGA

The official narrative spoon-fed to the masses is that the MAGA movement is a grassroots, anti-establishment rebellion aimed at dismantling the uniparty, ending forever wars, and draining the swamp. We are told day in and day out that the system is terrified of this populist uprising, but when we strip away the partisan cheerleading, we are witnessing one of the most successful psychological operations in modern political history. The establishment didn’t defeat the populist uprising; they bought it, rebranded it with a red hat, and used it to manufacture consent for the exact neoconservative, state-expanding policies the movement initially swore to destroy.

If a Democrat had expanded the surveillance state, spiked the national debt, unilaterally banned firearms accessories, and filled their cabinet with Wall Street mega-donors and war hawks, the right would have revolted in the streets. Because there is an “R” next to the name, however, they cheer and beg for more. The state is not shrinking in the slightest. It is merely under new management, and the boot on your neck has simply been painted a different color.

If you want to understand how a purportedly anti-war movement was so easily hijacked by the establishment, look no further than the grifter class of MAGA influencers who actively manufactured consent for the pivot. Social media personalities like Catturd and Gunther Eagleman—alongside prominent digital operatives like Benny Johnson and Jack Posobiec—spent the entirety of the campaign posturing as staunch non-interventionists. They loudly decried the military-industrial complex and the endless funding of foreign proxy wars. Yet, the moment the administration changed hands and the military crosshairs shifted toward sovereign nations like Iran, these same influencers entirely abandoned their supposed principles. They are now openly salivating over the prospect of flattening a sovereign nation, cheering on the exact same neoconservative warmongering they built their alternative-media brands opposing. It raises a glaring, uncomfortable question: are these digital operatives simply spineless sycophants, or are they quietly being paid to parrot the uniparty’s new, blood-soaked marching orders?

The sheer hypocrisy of this digital vanguard is especially sickening when contrasted with those who actually held the line. Before his brutal assassination, Charlie Kirk was one of the most outspoken voices against the neoconservative push for a war with Iran. Regardless of where one stood on his broader politics, Kirk used his massive platform to fiercely oppose the very foreign entanglements the current administration is now aggressively pursuing. Had he not been killed, there is little doubt he would be standing firmly against this blatant betrayal of the anti-war platform today. Instead, the influencers who rushed to fill the void have chosen the path of least resistance. They now operate as state-sanctioned PR firms for an aggressive military agenda simply because the bombs are authorized by a president wearing a red tie. By transforming genuine anti-interventionist sentiment into rabid partisan cheerleading, these grifters provided the ideological cover necessary for the state to march the country right back into the endless wars the base initially voted to escape.

Consider the campaign promise to end the forever wars, pull out of foreign entanglements, and put “America First.” The empirical reality of the administration’s foreign policy is a direct continuation of the military-industrial complex’s most aggressive ambitions. The administration has stacked its ranks with hawkish neoconservatives and previous “never-Trumpers,” such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and even Lindsey Graham, all of whom prioritize regime change and unyielding military support for Israel over domestic liberty.

Dropping bombs and violently coercing the US taxpayer to fund a global military empire in the name of a foreign country is a blatant violation of human freedom and constitutional limits. The state continues to extort the working class to fund foreign militaries and interventions, regardless of the populist rhetoric spilling from Trump’s podium. This is not America First; it is the empire first, Israel first, Lockheed Martin first, and it is funded by the silent theft of the American citizen.

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Kathy Hochul Faces Backlash After Reversing Course on Taxes Amid NYC Proposal

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is facing criticism after backing a new tax proposal targeting wealthy property owners in New York City, a move that critics say contradicts her earlier pledge not to raise taxes, as reported by The New York Post.

The controversy centers on a proposed pied-à-terre tax that would apply to certain high-value secondary residences in the city.

The plan, which has been discussed in Albany for years, gained renewed attention after Hochul signaled support for it in recent days.

The proposal would target roughly 13,000 second homes in New York City valued at $5 million or more.

According to the governor’s office, the surcharge is expected to generate at least $500 million annually, with the revenue intended to help address the city’s estimated $5.4 billion budget deficit.

Hochul’s shift comes after months of pressure from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and members of the Democratic Socialists of America, who have pushed for higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations.

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10 Years Ago Today, Trump Promised To Eliminate the National Debt. Instead, It Has Doubled.

Ten years ago today, Donald Trump said he would pay off the national debt in the span of just eight years.

That did not happen. Instead, the gross national debt has doubled since that day—from about $19 trillion to over $39 trillion. Much of that additional borrowing has taken place during Trump’s five-plus years in the White House.

The gap between Trump’s outlandish promise and the brutal fiscal reality of the past decade is not just a political gotcha. It’s also an apt illustration of how far and how fast the debt has spiraled. And it’s a painful reminder of a missed opportunity that Americans will be facing for a long, long time. The bill for these 10 years of fiscal profligacy will be coming due long after Trump has finally departed from the political scene.

But it’s a story that starts, as everything in politics seems to these days, with Trump.

“We’re not a rich country. We’re a debtor nation,” is what then-candidate Trump told The Washington Post in an interview on March 31, 2016 (a full transcript was published two days later). “We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt.”

How long would it take to do that, asked the Post‘s Bob Woodward.

“Fairly quickly,” Trump replied. When pressed for a more specific answer, Trump provided a shocking timeline. “Well, I would say over a period of eight years.”

That was never going to happen. As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) pointed out shortly after Trump’s comments made headlines, “achieving this goal would be virtually impossible—particularly for a candidate who has proposed large tax cuts and ruled out significant entitlement reforms.”

Instead, the CRFB estimated that Trump’s proposals would cause the national debt to nearly double within 10 years. The group arrived at that figure by taking the existing baseline for the debt—which, as of early 2016, was expected to grow to about $28 trillion by 2026—and adding the estimated cost of Trump’s various campaign promises.

It’s worth appreciating how remarkably accurate that assessment turned out to be. The number-crunchers at the Congressional Budget Office and the CRFB didn’t know there would be a pandemic. They didn’t know the outcome of the major tax-and-spending bills that Trump and President Joe Biden would pass. Heck, they didn’t even know who would be president—remember, in April 2026, most of the political class didn’t believe Trump had much of a chance.

The accuracy of that prediction points to two things, Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the CRFB, said when asked about it this week. First, the extent to which rising debt was baked into the federal budget before Trump came on the scene. Social Security and Medicare are the largest federal programs, and both were on pace to borrow more during the 2020s.

Second, it’s due to Trump keeping many of his campaign promises. That’s not the compliment that it might sound like. Trump vowed not to touch the aforementioned entitlement programs that were driving borrowing to new heights, and he promised to both cut taxes and increase military spending. That was a recipe for higher deficits, and over his first four years in office, Trump added over $8 trillion to the national debt that he’d once sought to “get rid of.”

Biden picked up where Trump left off, adding another $4.7 trillion to the debt with various proposals. In his first year back in the White House, Trump has done nothing to address the growing pile of debt. The federal government borrowed $1.8 trillion during the fiscal year that ended in September and is on pace to borrow about the same amount this year.

What have Americans gotten from a decade of heavy borrowing that doubled the size of the debt? Higher inflation and higher interest rates, for starters.

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Zohran Mamdani Has Already Broken His Promise to Be Transparent

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has come under fire for using the encrypted messaging app Signal to communicate with elected officials while conducting government business.

On the campaign trail, Mamdani repeatedly promised his administration would be transparent. Yet, a Politico report revealed that the mayor used Signal from a personal phone number to communicate with elected officials and political strategists. In at least one of these exchanges, he discussed official city business.

Three people with knowledge of the matter told POLITICO that as mayor Mamdani has used the encrypted messaging app to communicate with fellow elected officials and political advisers. In at least one instance, he’s discussed government business over the app, according to one of those people, who like the others, was granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

POLITICO independently confirmed that Mamdani’s Signal account, registered to his personal cell phone number, remains active.

Norman Siegel, a veteran First Amendment lawyer who previously helmed the New York Civil Liberties Union, said mayors should never use Signal to communicate with other government officials as a rule of thumb — and that there’s another particularly important reason why Mamdani himself should avoid the app.

“With our new mayor, so much of what he’s articulating is a breath of fresh air,” Siegel said. ”I would urge him to not engage in Signal or similar kinds of applications that basically are meant to hide information and prevent the public from knowing the inner workings of government.”

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Panicked Soros DA who Mandated Grand Jury Investigations for Every Officer-Involved Shooting Denies That Police who Stopped Islamic Terrorist Will Face Grand Jury Proceedings Amid Public Pressure After Cops Lawyer Up

The Soros-backed Travis County, Texas, District Attorney is now walking back his post-George Floyd-era policy, which opened the officers involved in the fatal shooting of a terrorist on Sunday to a secret grand jury investigation.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, an Islamic Senegalese man, who obtained citizenship during Obama’s presidency, was shot dead by police after he opened fire on a bar in Austin, Texas, killing two and wounding 14.

Police reportedly also found a Quran in his car, and he was wearing a hoodie that said “Property of Allah” and a shirt that had Iranian representations on it.

The officers who stopped the attack were expected to face an investigation into potential misconduct due to the policy implemented by the Soros-backed DA.

Per the Texas Tribune, “Every shooting involving a police officer in Travis County for the past several years has gone before a grand jury — a policy that District Attorney José Garza has said ensures transparency.”

However, in a statement, Travis County District Attorney José Garza decried “false statements” by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, writing, “it should go without saying that my office is not seeking any charges and would not seek charges.” He further claimed that Republicans in Texas are using the lives lost in the shooting “to score political points.”

Texas State Representative Mitch Little had said in an X post on Monday, “I’m looking forward to hearing more about the [Austin Police] officers who heroically stopped the terrorist. We should be honoring them as a state, and they shouldn’t be going out wondering if they’re going to be indicted for doing their jobs. We need a cultural reset.”

And Texas attorney Doug O’Connell then revealed that the Austin Police Association had already asked his firm, O’Connell West, to represent the officers. O’Connell said in a comment, “Unfortunately they will face a Grand Jury hearing – as is the process directed to the Travis County DA by the Wren Collective. We will be with them every step of the way. Rep Little I’d be happy to visit with you about Grand Jury reform!”

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U.S. Strikes Iran in Unconstitutional Attack, Breaking Major Trump Campaign Promise of No More Foreign Wars

President Trump broke a key campaign vow today by ordering an attack on Iran.

American war planes hit targets across the nation, including the capital Tehran, because negotiations to stop Iran from developing atomic weapons were unsuccessful and, Trump said in short speech, to protect American “national security.”

Iran retaliated, striking the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, and poured missiles into Israel. Iran also hit targets across the Middle East.

Top Republicans rightly called the U.S. air raid unconstitutional.

The Attack

“In the initial wave, the U.S. carried out dozens of strikes with attack planes launched from bases around the Middle East and from one or more aircraft carriers, a U.S. official said, The New York Times reported:

The warplanes are part of the largest U.S. military buildup since the Iraq War in 2003, and the deployment includes two aircraft carriers, a number of naval destroyers and more than 50 fighter planes.

The focus of the American strikes for the moment is military targets in Iran, a U.S. official said. Besides its nuclear facilities, Iran is believed to have more than 2,000 missiles, primarily short- and medium-range ballistic missiles that threaten Israel and American forces across the region. Those missiles are scattered at launch sites across Iran and were among the first targets, U.S. military officials said.

Announcing “major combat operations” in an eight-minute speech, Trump called the Iranian regime “a vicious group of very hard, terrible people” whose “activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.”

Trump said that the regime has chanted “Death to America” for almost 50 years and “waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops and the innocent people in many, many countries.”

He also noted the attack on the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979; the taking of American hostages, who were held for 444 days; and the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.

“From Lebanon to Yemen and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts,” Trump said:

And it was Iran’s proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 innocent people, including 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage. It was brutal, something like the world has never seen before.

Iran is the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested. It has always been the policy of the United States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. I’ll say it again, they can never have a nuclear weapon. That is why in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime’s nuclear program at Fordo, Natanz, and Isfahan. After that attack, we warned them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal. We tried. They wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. Again they wanted to do it. They didn’t want to do it. They didn’t know what was happening. They just wanted to practice evil. But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades.

Trump said the regime has “rejected every opportunity” to end their “nuclear ambitions, and we can’t take it anymore.” 

“This regime will soon learn that no one should challenge the strength and might of the United States Armed Forces,” Trump said:

I built and rebuilt our military in my first administration and there is no military on earth even close to its power, strength or sophistication. My administration is taking every possible step to minimize the risk to U.S. personnel in the region. Even so, and I do not make this statement lightly, the Iranian regime seeks to kill. The lives of courageous American heroes may be lost, and we may have casualties. That often happens in war. But we’re doing this not for now. We’re doing this for the future.

“Take Over Your Government”

Trump also urged Iran’s army, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, to lay down their weapons or “face certain death,” and urged Iranians to overthrow their government.

“Your hour of freedom is at hand,” he said. And “when we are finished, take over your government,” he said:

It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.

In his state of the union speech, Trump promised to attack Iran because of its supposed intransigence on nuclear weapons.

The IRG comprises about 200,000 members, the Times reported:

Iran has a fleet of hundreds of fast boats that specialize in swarm attacks in the Persian Gulf. It has a massive arsenal of 3,000 to 6,000 naval mines that can enable it to temporarily close off the Strait of Hormuz.

Aside from striking Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and sending missiles at Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates, Iran closed the Straight of Hormuz, a vital seaway for the world’s oil supplies. One estimate said the price for a barrel could rocket to $250.

“We have closed the Strait of Hormuz until further notice,” the Iran Military Monitor wrote on X:

“Let the Orange Pig open it if he can!”

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World leaders respond to regime-change strikes on Iran: ‘Peacekeeper is at it again’

The joint American and Israeli military operation launched against Iran on Saturday — dubbed Operation Epic Fury — has prompted mixed responses abroad.

While Russian officials were among the most critical of the strikes, several European leaders similarly condemned the American-Israeli initiative.

Amid reports of massive explosions in numerous Iranian cities as well as retaliatory attacks on American bases in the region and Israel, a spokesman for the British government stated, “We do not want to see further escalation into a wider regional conflict.”

The British spokesman — whose government previously blocked a request from President Donald Trump to use U.K. air bases during a pre-emptive attack on Iran — added that “Iran must never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, and that is why we have continually supported efforts to reach a negotiated solution.”

Whereas the U.K. government under Prime Minister Keir Starmer appeared less than enthusiastic about the strikes, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch expressed solidarity with the U.S. and Israel “as they take on the threat of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its vile regime.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke critically of “Iran’s murderous regime and the Revolutionary Guards,” but claimed that the “developments in Iran are greatly concerning” and urged “all parties to exercise maximum restraint, to protect civilians, and to fully respect international law.”

Switzerland’s Federal Department of Foreign Affairs noted that it “is deeply alarmed by today’s strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran” and echoed von der Leyen’s request that warring parties “exercise maximum restraint, protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

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Zohran Mamdani Backtracks on Campaign Promise for Rental Assistance, Claiming it’s too Expensive

New York City’s new socialist mayor is already running out of other people’s money.

In addition to being unable to remove snow or get the trash picked up, Mamdani is now backtracking on a campaign promise to expand the city’s rental assistance program.

He just got grilled by New York lawmakers in Albany who are nervous about his ‘tax the rich’ policies and now this. How long before his base turns on him?

The Post Millennial reports:

Mamdani reverses campaign promise for rental assistance program—turns out it’s too expensive

Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has reversed on one of his campaign promises to expand a rental assistance program in the Big Apple. The expansion has turned out to be too costly.

As the mayor is confronting a steep fiscal situation in managing the city during his second month in office, Mamdani does not intend to back the growth of a $1 billion-plus initiative known as CityFHEPS, per the New York Times. The plan to initiate the expansion of the program was previously upheld in court after being proposed by the city council.

Mamdani, during his campaign, had promised to expand the voucher program, but in a news conference on Wednesday, he suggested that the expansion of the program is too costly as the city is facing a budget deficit over two years that is around $7 billion.

His administration is now negotiating with activists to settle a lawsuit that sought to force the expansion of the program. The move may stir tensions between himself and his base of support from those in the Democratic Socialists of America, the organization he is also a part of.

No one seems very surprised by this news.

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Pesticide Industry Infiltrates MAHA to Derail Reforms

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Donald Trump’s bid to return to the White House as the best chance to deliver his long-promised health revolution.

In the final weeks of the race, the former environmental attorney urged voters to back Trump in order to advance a reform agenda aimed at eliminating harmful substances from America’s agriculture and food supply, particularly the herbicides and insecticides sprayed on most fruits and vegetables.

“Don’t you want healthy children, and don’t you want the chemicals out of our food, and don’t you want the regulatory agencies to be free from corporate corruption?” Kennedy thundered at an October 2024 rally in Glendale, Arizona. Moments later, Trump promised to empower his ally to investigate the “toxins in our environment and pesticides in our food.”

“We’re going to ban the worst agricultural chemicals” and “remove conflicts of interest” from top farm and food safety agencies, Kennedy pledged days later.

Those promises have since fallen by the wayside.

The administration has reapproved the cancer-causing weedkiller dicamba, deleted references to pesticides from its “Make America Healthy Again” action plan, and delayed enforcement of limits on so-called “forever chemicals” in drinking water. There has been no meaningful action on controversial pesticides Kennedy previously warned about, including neonicotinoid insecticides and glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup—which he once called “one of the likely culprits in America’s chronic disease epidemic.”

Meanwhile, representatives of pesticide and chemical companies have flooded into key regulatory roles. Former lobbyists Douglas Troutman, Nancy Beck, Lynn Ann Dekleva, Scott Hutchins, Kelsey Barnes and Kyle Kunkler now occupy senior positions overseeing agriculture and environmental policy.

What happened?

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