Tag: donald trump

Inflation Reaches 4.2% as Prices Outpace Paychecks

There is a lot of political discourse about “affordability,” but the meaning of the term can be difficult to pin down.

Is it just a jargony way of talking about high nominal prices? Is it really all about housing? Could it be, as President Donald Trump has suggested, a “con job” invented by Democrats to make his administration look bad? Different people will have different answers, and I suspect we will continue to debate those questions through the midterms and into the 2028 presidential cycle.

But probably the most straightforward way to think about the “affordability” question is the relationship between two figures published monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): average hourly earnings and the consumer price index. When the former is rising at a faster rate than the latter, the pay for the average worker is rising faster than prices. For that worker, life is getting more affordable.

When inflation is rising faster than wages, however, the opposite is true. And that’s what is happening now.

Wages grew by 3.4 percent over the past year, the BLS reported last week. On Wednesday morning, the BLS reported that inflation has climbed by 4.2 percent over the past 12 months, thanks in large part to a sharp increase in prices (fuel prices, in particular) since the start of the Iran war in March.

With prices rising faster than wages, the BLS also reported on Wednesday that “real average hourly earnings”—that is, wage growth once you account for inflation—were down by 0.3 percent in May.

Averages only get you so far, of course. Some Americans are feeling the sting of inflation more than others, depending on their purchasing habits and lifestyles, and wages are never rising for all workers equally. Still, there’s no getting around it: Life is less affordable now than it was a few months ago—before the Trump administration steered the country into a war of choice in the Middle East.

And, yes, the runaway inflation that America experienced during the first part of President Joe Biden’s term in office was a lot worse than what the country is seeing now. But since early 2023, wage growth had consistently outpaced inflation even as inflation remained above the Federal Reserve’s target annual rate of 2 percent.

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US To Withdraw a THIRD of NATO Fighter Jets, Other Deep Strike Capabilities From Europe: REPORT

Europeans will have to put their money and effort where their big mouths are.

After years of working to counter almost every move by US President Donald J. Trump, the loud-mouth European leaders will have to pick up the slack and fend off for themselves in the defense of their troubled continent.

Reports are arising today of US’ plans to diminish access to military capabilities for NATO ‘allies’, part of its plan to withdraw from the European security architecture.

According to  Euronews, “everything linked to deep strike capabilities will be cut, Euronews has learned. Specifically, this includes US long-range bombers such as the B2 and B-52. Naval assets, including missile-launching submarine and aircraft carriers, will also be withdrawn and re-directed to other theatres.”

The New York Times reported:

“The United States plans to significantly reduce the aircraft and warships that it makes available for NATO operations in Europe, according to two senior European officials, accelerating America’s effort to scale down the protection it has offered to European allies for eight decades.”

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Biden Judge Orders Trump Administration to Restore Slavery, Climate Change Displays at National Parks

A left-wing activist federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to restore propagandistic signs and exhibits related to slavery, climate change, and other contentious historical topics at America’s national parks and monuments across the country.

U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley, a Joe Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction requiring the Interior Department to reinstall the displays within 21 days after ruling that the removals likely violated federal law.

The lawsuit was brought by a coalition of conservation, historical, and scientific organizations, including the National Parks Conservation Association and the American Association for State and Local History.

In her ruling, Kelley said the administration had removed materials that “do not align with its preferred narrative,” and claimed that doing so undermined the integrity of the national park system.

“Removing these signs not only undermines the integrity of the National Parks; it sets a dangerous precedent of censorship and sanitization,” Kelley wrote.

The dispute stems from a March 2025 executive order signed by President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to eliminate what the administration described as “false revision of history” in parks, monuments, and memorials.

The White House pointed out that the exhibits portrayed the United States as “inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed” and ordered a review of educational materials displayed at federal sites.

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Trump Develops Plan to Get His First Term Impeachments Expunged: ‘I Did Nothing Wrong’

President Donald Trump is reportedly seeking to have the two impeachments from his first term expunged from the congressional record through a resolution.

“It should be done because I did nothing wrong,” Trump said when asked about the resolution in a phone call, The Wall Street Journal reported. “It was a rigged deal—it was a whole rigged situation.”

The Democrat-led House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump in December 2019, saying he had wrongfully tried to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by delaying aid money, into investigating Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for alleged corruption involving millions of dollars.

Zelenskyy said at the time he felt no pressure from Trump, and he opened no investigation into the Bidens, and the aid money was delivered on time before the end of the 2019 fiscal year.

In January 2021, the Democrat-led House impeached Trump again, claiming he incited the January 6 Capitol incursion.

At a “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on January 6, the president stated, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

The Senate voted not to convict Trump following both House impeachments.

The Wall Street Journal reported, “The effort to ‘expunge’ Trump’s impeachments fits with a wider campaign to erase black marks on his record. His lawyers are trying to overturn his criminal conviction for falsifying records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star, and they are seeking to reverse unfavorable civil rulings.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson told the news outlet that he has discussed the resolution with Trump.

“I think it makes a lot of sense the more the evidence comes out, the more we know they really were sham impeachments,” Johnson said, noting that the conversations about the resolution picked up about a month ago. “We were saying it at the time, now we know. And they make a very compelling case that it should be expunged from the record, because it was a hyperpartisan attack job.”

Just the News reported in April that Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz argued that Trump does have grounds to have the 2019 impeachment expunged based on documents recently released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

“It’s never been done. I don’t see any reason why it couldn’t be done,” said Dershowitz, who represented Trump during the Senate impeachment trial in early 2020.

“But I have to tell you one thing, history will expunge it already based on your work, because what you’ve done is you’ve created so much doubt about the credibility of the main accuser that it’s hard for anybody to sit back now and say that was a just, a just impeachment, but I don’t know that there’s going to be any remedy,” he added. “Maybe we should try to create one.”

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Oil Execs Warn Trump Gas Prices Are About to Get Hell of a Lot Worse

Gas prices could climb even higher in the coming months.

Industry officials have already warned the White House that the prices could spike yet again due to rapidly diminishing inventories, reported The Washington Post Thursday.

Since the beginning of the Iran war, commercial and government inventories have supplemented gas consumption across the U.S. The reserves have allowed prices to hover around $4.50 per gallon for the last four months—but that could change very quickly, according to oil and gas executives, who are often loath to make such alarming predictions.

“We’re sounding the alarm on these inventories going to record lows,” American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers told Fox Business. “We have to solve this problem in the Strait of Hormuz.”

Some inventories could be wiped out in a matter of weeks, according to the Post—just in time for summer holidays.

“I have absolutely no doubt the White House—from the president on down—is fully aware of the nearly universal alarm among oil companies and analysts about the direction of travel for oil prices this summer,” Bob McNally, a former Bush administration energy adviser, told the Post.

Yet Trump has been remarkably cavalier about the rising costs. With inflation at a three-year high, Trump stunned reporters, lawmakers, and voters alike on Wednesday with just four words: “I love the inflation,” he said.

“I love it,” he insisted, pledging that oil prices will drop “like a rock” when the war ends.

But the end of the war seems to be nowhere in sight. U.S. forces bombed Iran through two nights this week, part of the White House’s latest strategy to force Tehran to make a deal, despite the obvious risks of escalation.

“If we need to negotiate with bombs, we will negotiate with bombs,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday. “We will strike them hard tonight and hopefully Iran makes a good decision.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s allies aren’t so sure that their political movement will weather the brewing economic storm. The far-right populist rode the 2024 campaign on vehement promises of affordability; through his presidency, he swore that Americans would see lower utility bills, cheaper groceries, and more American-based jobs. But that hasn’t been the case.

Instead, as millions of Americans struggle with the rising cost of living and companies contend with rattled supply chains, the president’s inner circle fear that it might be too late to fix the problem for Trump’s midterm-dependent acolytes.

“Whether it’s peak inflation or not, it doesn’t matter,” one former Trump administration official told Politico. “The die has been cast in terms of how people are looking at the economy.”

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America the Unfree—Home of the Policed, Surveilled and Occupied

“I love the inflation.”—Donald Trump (June 2026)

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”—Donald Trump (May 2026)

America has become an occupied nation.

Not by one invading army, but by many occupying powers: the police state, the surveillance state, the war state, the corporate state, the foreign influence machine, and a ruling class that treats the American people as little more than collateral damage in its pursuit of power, profit and control.

We have been policed, surveilled, taxed, indebted, manipulated, censored, tracked, searched, silenced and sold out.

Foreign powers are buying up our farmland, buying favor with the Trump family, weaseling their way into the White House, dictating national policy, and now—with the backing of the Trump administration and bipartisan support in Congress—one of America’s closest partners-in-crime may soon gain even greater access to U.S. intelligence and surveillance capabilities.

This is what we have come to.

The swamp under President Trump has taken on a decidedly foreign flavor: any nation with enough money, leverage or strategic value to enrich the Trump family can now get its hands on a piece of the American pie—all the while, the American people continue to struggle to survive Trump’s self-enrichment schemes, broken promises, endless wars, militarized streets and vanity projects.

We’re being sold to the highest bidders, and still nothing is being done to protect us.

Ordinary Americans are told there is not enough money to honor the government’s promises to them. Social Security’s retirement trust fund is now projected to run short in late 2032, at which point retirees could face an automatic 22 percent cut in scheduled benefits if Congress fails to act. Medicare’s hospital insurance fund is projected to run short the following year. Seniors, the disabled, working families and the poor are told to brace for sacrifice.

But there is always money for war.

There is always money for surveillance.

There is always money for police-state crackdowns, border militarization, private contractors, foreign aid, weapons systems, tax breaks for the wealthy, slush funds for political allies, and spectacles of imperial excess.

While Americans worry about groceries, rent, medical bills, job security, retirement and whether their children will inherit anything resembling freedom, the White House is being turned into a playground for power and celebrity. Trump’s June 14 birthday celebration is reportedly set to include a UFC fight on the White House lawn, with weigh-ins at the Lincoln Memorial, transforming public symbols of sacrifice, liberty and national memory into props for one man’s vanity show.

This, too, is occupation.

Not merely the occupation of land, but the occupation of the public imagination. The occupation of the people’s institutions. The occupation of the Constitution itself.

The contrast could not be more obscene.

On June 8, 1789, James Madison rose in the House of Representatives to introduce amendments to the Constitution that would become the Bill of Rights. Madison and the founding generation fought to bind the government down. They understood that written limits on government power were not optional. They were essential.

Today’s rulers are fighting to free the government from those restraints.

They want fewer limits on surveillance, police power, presidential immunity, war-making, foreign entanglements, secrecy, corruption, and the ability of the rich and powerful to buy their way into the machinery of government.

That is how far we have fallen.

From a Bill of Rights, we have descended into a bill of sale.

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Trump’s ‘narco‑terrorism’ war in Latin America evokes Reagan – then as now, it’s more about fighting leftists than drug runners

More than any other U.S. president in decades, Donald Trump has aggressively pursued military interventions in Latin America.

On Jan. 3, 2026, U.S. special forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on charges of narco-terrorism. In the months before the operation, U.S. Southern Command began targeting small, fast-moving boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The death toll from the continuing war on these alleged narco-terrorists has risen to over 200 people.

At the heart of these events is the Trump administration’s stated goal of combating drug trafficking organizations. The White House and State Department have designated a plethora of guerrilla groups, drug cartels, gangs and criminal enterprises as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

Washington has also expanded security ties with Ecuador and El Salvador, which are led by right-wing Trump allies. At the same time, the administration has pressured left-wing governments in Colombia, Guatemala, Brazil and Mexico to join the U.S. war on drugs or else risk Trump’s wrath.

When it comes to opening legal avenues for the application of armed force, the narco-terrorism label is useful. Indeed, it is how the Trump administration justified Operation Absolute Resolve to capture and indict Maduro. Yet Trump’s decision to pardon a right-wing ally – former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández – who was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison for drug trafficking and related weapons offenses, appeared to some observers to be “at odds with Trump’s war on drugs.”

The history of that war on drugs, however, especially during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, shows that the narco-terrorism label has always been politicized. My research on Reagan and the drug war suggests that the nebulousness of the concept aided U.S. policymakers in achieving fundamentally anti-communist and anti-leftist political objectives.

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US Investigating Iran War Critic Trita Parsi, Co-Founder Of Non-Interventionist Think Tank

The Trump administration has launched an investigation into prominent Iran war critic Trita Parsi, according to a report in the Free Press.

According to US officials and documents reviewed by the pro-Trump outlet, officials are looking into the possibility of deporting Parsi, who holds both Iranian and Swedish citizenship.

Parsi, who is co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and co-founded the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC), has been a vocal opponent of the ongoing US attacks on Iran.

A Trump official told the Free Press that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been “very clear” in his intentions to tackle “people who support adversaries of ours and whose work furthers their agenda and undermines our security.

“Anyone who seeks to undermine the US, we’re taking a hard look at,” the official said.

Since the beginning of the US-Israeli attack on Iran in February, the Trump administration has increasingly targeted figures of Iranian descent in the US.

In April, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter Sarina were detained and had their residency permits rescinded after they were – incorrectly – identified as relatives of former Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani by far-right influencer Laura Loomer.

Despite denying their links to Soleimani, the pair remain in custody in Texas.

The US also detained and revoked the green cards of relatives of former Iranian minister Masoumeh Ebtekar in April.

Parsi is a critic of the Islamic Republic whose family fled to Sweden to escape persecution in Iran. He has faced attacks from Iranian monarchists and pro-Trump figures over his opposition to the conflict.

He has also been highly critical of US backing for what many call Israel’s genocide in Gaza and its attacks on Lebanon.

Speaking to Middle East Eye in May, Parsi warned that the US’s ability to secure a deal with Iran would ultimately come down to its ability to restrain Israeli attacks in the region.

“If Trump either cannot or will not do so, then the value of any agreement with Washington comes sharply into question,” he said.

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TRUMP ADMIN CRACKS DOWN: Indian-American CEO Neeraj Sharma to Lose U.S. Citizenship Over Massive H-1B Visa Fraud Scheme Involving 11 Fake Bank Job Petitions

New Jersey staffing firm owner exploited the system for profit by filing fraudulent petitions with forged documents for nonexistent jobs, lied under oath to become a citizen anyway.

The Department of Justice, under President Trump’s leadership, has filed a civil complaint to revoke the naturalized U.S. citizenship of Neeraj Sharma, the former CEO and owner of Magnavision LLC, an IT staffing and consulting company based in Somerset, New Jersey.

Sharma, 50, an Indian-born national, is one of 17 naturalized citizens targeted in a sweeping denaturalization effort against fraudsters, sex offenders, drug dealers, and other criminals who lied their way into American citizenship.

According to the DOJ complaint and press release, between April 25, 2015, and April 27, 2017, Sharma, as CEO of Magnavision, signed and filed eleven fraudulent H-1B visa petitions with USCIS under penalty of perjury.

Each petition falsely claimed that the foreign IT workers had secured full-time positions at a major national bank. The filings included forged letters on the bank’s official letterhead complete with forged signatures of bank executives.

Sharma knew the documents were fake. He had never actually secured real jobs for the beneficiaries at the bank. Instead, he leveraged his own role as a contracted business analyst at the bank to manufacture the fraudulent sponsorship claims.

This was a classic exploitation of the H-1B program, intended for genuine specialty occupations and skilled talent, turned into a profit-driven scam. Sharma profited by recruiting foreign nationals desperate for U.S. visas and selling them the illusion of legitimate sponsorship through his staffing firm.

Sharma became a U.S. permanent resident in 2012. In April 2017, right in the middle of his fraudulent H-1B scheme, he filed his Application for Naturalization. Under penalty of perjury, and later in sworn testimony during his naturalization interview, he answered “NO” to key questions:

  • Had he ever committed a crime or offense for which he was not arrested?
  • Had he ever given false, fraudulent, or misleading information or documentation to U.S. government officials?
  • Had he ever lied to U.S. government officials to gain immigration benefits?

All lies. USCIS approved his application, and he took the oath of allegiance and became a U.S. citizen on December 7, 2017.

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Trump Threatens to Invoke DC Home Rule and “Take Back Washington” if Socialist Mayoral Candidate Wins – “We Won’t Put Up With It”

President Trump threatened to invoke the DC Home Rule Act on Thursday and “take back Washington” again if DC elects a Socialist mayor in the upcoming election. 

Democratic Socialist DC Councilmember Janeese Lewis George is widely considered the frontrunner in next week’s election.

Asked about how he would feel if she won, Trump told reporters, “I wouldn’t like it.” He continued, “Maybe we’ll take back Washington, run it on a federal basis. We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses.”

Previously, signed an executive order declaring a “crime emergency” and invoking powers under section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act to federalize the police. He also deployed hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops across the capital.

Section 740 allows the President to take control of the Metropolitan Police Department under “special conditions of an emergency nature.”

“By the way, Washington, now, is a safe, beautiful place,” Trump said, touting the success of his DC crime crackdown last Summer and his efforts to restore national parks and monuments across the city.

Decker: One of the two leading candidates, Janice Lewis George, is running a Zohran Mamdani campaign, focused on socialist policies. How would you feel if she emerges victorious in next Tuesday’s primary?

Trump: Well, I wouldn’t like it, and maybe we’ll take back Washington, run it on the federal basis. We won’t put up with it. We’re not going to lose our businesses. By the way, Washington, now, is a safe, beautiful place. We had 22 fountains, Doug, that are all working, not one of them worked for years, for 25 years, 40 years, 58 years. Actually, the pool didn’t work from 19— it was 1928 it was built, it always leaked because it was done in stone. Now it’s done properly. It’s not gonna leak at all.

But this is a beautiful place. People are coming, restaurants are thriving. The restaurants were all closing, closed. Nobody wanted, now, you can’t get restaurant space, you can’t get into them. We have a thriving community. We got rid of the crime. We’re 92% down on crime. Think of it, and we’re going to be close to 100% pretty soon. You always have some whack job someplace, but we’re going to be close to 100%.

So, Washington is thriving, Memphis is— the people came in from Memphis, 74% reduction in crime. New Orleans, think of that, 78% reduction in crime. They had the safest Mardi Gras that they’ve ever had. You know why? Because we sent in people that take care of crime. Chicago should do it, New York should do it. Los Angeles should do it. We’ll make them safe places.

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