Trumpoline: The Trump 2.0 Experience

First, for the key headlines from the last 2 weeks (2/3-2/21)  click here Now... some topcis for deep dive:  1. Federal Lay-offs Despite all the legal blockades the mass firing of Federal employees continue at Washington DC and in other parts of the country. There's probably not a single person in the country who does not believe that there is fraud and waste in the Federal government, but putting a chainsaw through the 3 million strong Federal government does not seem to be a brilliant idea to anyone unless someone subscribes to the theory of retribution politics. What stands out about this massive wrecking ball attack on the Federal workforce is how timidly the Congress is watching and accepting this and how an un-elected individual is being given a carte blanche to do whatever he wants without any checks and balances. For example, the rest of the administration is so lazy that it even used the same memo title,  Fork in the road ,  that Musk used to fire bulk of th...

First, for the key headlines from the last 2 weeks (1/20-2/2)  click here Now...some topics for deep dive.. 1. Flood the zone with Executive Orders As it was expected Trump wasted no time in unleashing the flurry of Executive Orders from day-1 in office. Apart from rescinding previously established EOs by Biden administration, Trump added 45 new ones to send a message to the people who voted for him and also the people who were observing his agenda. Needless to say the plethora of EOs seemed promises made, promises kept to his followers where he went heavily after the favorite agenda items of the MAGA movement, from going after the illegal immigrants to re-defining gender as binary to axing federal programs that had anything to do with DEI.  Below is the summary of all the EOs from NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/01/28/nx-s1-5276293/trump-executive-orders Here are the actual PDFs of all the EOs. https://www.federalregister.gov/presidential-documents/executive-orders/donald-...

On this Day-1. It is important to document what did Trump promise during his 2024 Election Run. In the subsequent blogs through all four years I will look at how each of the campaign promises were kept, modified or ignored. But let's start with what we know. Here are the details from PBS: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/what-trump-has-promised-for-his-2nd-administration What Trump has promised for his 2nd administration Politics   Jan 19, 2025 1:23 PM EST WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has promised sweeping actions in his second administration. The president-elect has outlined a wide-ranging agenda that blends traditional conservative approaches to taxes, regulation and cultural issues with a more populist bent on trade and a shift in America’s international role. Trump’s agenda also would scale back federal government efforts on civil rights and expand presidential powers. Here’s a look at what Trump has proposed. Immigration “Build the wall!” from his 2016 campaign has beco...

 Last Post on Biden: Legacy of any President is tricky and is not set on cement before decades. But in case of Biden at this time it seems pretty certain that he is not going to remembered as one of the great presidents this country has ever produced despite some significant policy and foreign affairs victories. Aweful ratings Biden left white house with 38% approval rating and only 25% good/great president rating for any one term president. The numbers are dismal compared to other presidents. Here's Harry Enten's analysis Pardons On his last hours Biden pardoned several of his family members pre-emptive pardons. Though there are some precedence of presidents pardoning their family members, the sweeping pardons by Biden in last hours after pardoning his son in December is an unpordanable act in mind and leaves never want to talk about Biden again. Economy However, in the spirit of fairness we have to look at some of the positives of the Biden administration. One for sure was t...

Here is the baseline on various metrics to be able to measure the success of Trump 2.0's achivements in 4 years Since the mandate is all about the economy it is important to take a snapshot of the key indices of the market on this historic day.  Key Market Indicators Source: Marketwatch.com National Debt Source: Fox Business News  Per Capita income (available as of 2023) Source: World Bank Inflation as of December 2024. Inflation Data from Nerdwallet on 1/20. Unemployment Rate as of December, 2024 The rate is 4.2 at the end of December Source: BLS National Average Gas Prices: Source: AAA  30-Year National Average of Mortgage Rate Source: Bankrate.com Dollar to Euro today Dollar to INR today  

Capturing the bitter cold weather on this day and for the rest of the week in both the scales. It is so cold that the inaugrtion event has been moved to indoors.