The author asks, Why is it that “Elon Musk gets to play Jack the Ripper with the federal bureaucracy without a peep of complaint from the public”?
Isn't it obvious? The public supports weeding out and ending wasteful spending and fraud. DOGE discovered that the VA signed a contract in which it pays an IT firm $380,000 a MONTH to manage it's web sites. The firm spends about 10 hours a week doing so.
Who allowed this to happen? Who thinks there were not huge kickbacks on several levels? Who wants this to continue? Not me.
You have to love the irony when a California man shows up with a Glock to kill Justice Kavanaugh because he thinks that the Justice is too lax on gun control! Where do we find these looney toons! California has some of the most strict gun control in the country, so maybe even strict gun control doesn't really work! But, of course, we should all know that the bad old NRA is the real culprit!
I'll preface this by saying I'm a former democrat turned independent and did not vote for either major party candidate. I would really like an article from The Free Press about how President Trump just ran circles around the media, academics, pundits, politicians, and pretty much everyone else regarding tariffs. He effectively engaged almost every country in the world and isolated China, which is necessary for this to work. In the future when he asks Americans to be patient while he's manuevering, I'm going to take that seriously. I hope others do as well.
The Trump, Trump, Trump complainers never seemed to mind the reckless spending under the corrupt Biden term which brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. You know what righted the financial ship? Japan threatening to dump our debt. Would the Japanese take Northern California for 36 trillion? Asking for a friend….
"Why is it that “Elon Musk gets to play Jack the Ripper with the federal bureaucracy without a peep of complaint from the public”?" Seriously, "not a peep"?? What about the "hands off" protests on the weekend? What about the bombings at Tesla dealerships? What about the 30% drop in Tesla stock YTD? I'd say there's been more than a "peep" in objections.
Having worked for several government agencies, the work ethic is lacking for many; they would never be hired in private industry. Trim away Elon! We need 36 trillion.😖
Our freedoms were taken away after 9/11 when the Department of Homeland Security was created. Many, like sheep, complied. Trained security at airports is much more effective than taking off our shoes. At SFO the DHS agents could not have been less interested in the passengers. They were much too interested in talking about what they did on their dates last night. Give us back our freedoms, but don't condone hate and insitement as practiced at our universities. Hate has always been around.
In Scotland, after WWII, banners said, "Poles go home."
Home, where? Poland had been stolen by the Soviets. Hate is the weapon of the ignorant.
"Trump told Republican senators that he’s open to raising taxes on the highest-earning Americans."
What Trunk should tell the senators is that he's open to eliminating the wage base limit for FICA withholding. That'd do wonders for funding the SS system.
Control of society has been ongoing for years. How does it happen? A crisis is created, sometimes out of laws already in place but not known by the public. An FBI neighbor created with the help of another neighbor a conflict in this neighborhood. We had 365 homes. The FBI neighbor had a legal petition drawn up. The neighborhood was filled with fear and scared. Only problem was it was all fictional and ended as fast as it began when the neighbors found out the truth. I always wondered if this was practice for what lay ahead as this man confided in me that Bush had established FBI spies in every neighborhood throughout the country. This was around 2000. Just be aware and question everything.
A US tariff is a new tax on Americans who buy foreign goods (which, face it, is most Americans). All other things equal, it makes sense for Americans to oppose it, for the same reason they would oppose doubling their income tax.
If our trading partners impose tariffs on American goods, that's a tax on their own people. As an American, it's no skin off my nose if those people don't rise up in fury at their governments' depredations.
Any tariff is a deadweight loss in economic terms -- as is any other tax. It interferes with the smooth and efficient course of commerce, and makes everybody poorer. But that's a second-order effect; the first-order effect is Who Pays? And for a US tariff, the answer is the US public.
I voted happily for Trump, but I'm mighty disappointed by all this. There are so many things that need doing more than arsing around trying to solve the non-problem of a "trade deficit", which the biggest economy is *always* going to see.
It would of course be better for everyone if nobody imposed tariffs. Trump’s actions *might* have that result, but it seems to me there’s an underpants-gnome step missing.
If Trump had actually laid reciprocal tariffs rather than the nutty computation he made based on “trade deficit” I’d have an order of magnitude more confidence that it would end the way you suggest.
When was the public going to learn about Stacey Abrams’ 2 billion dollar grant for her barely existing organization? I heard the only other donation her organization got was for $100. So two donations: $100 and, from our government, 2 billion with no transparency. Stop acting like looking into all this grift has no upside for the country.
I apologize. I mistakenly thought you were criticizing TFP for not covering it when they have been one outlet that has.
In these comments sections, partisans of both sides quite frequently complain that TFP criticizes one of their side's politicians or sacred ideological shibboleths, unhappy that the site is not a fully partisan mouthpiece for their side.
Concerning Charles Lane’s article on Congress not being able to stop Trump’s tariffs:
I’m looking at the quoted WSJ article and opinion polls. The article is titled: “Americans Were Souring on Trump’s Economic Plans Even Before Tariff Bloodbath”. The opinion poll was taken between March 27- April 1, so just as the title states, BEFORE the stock market debacle, now followed, more worryingly, by drops in Treasury bonds prices. So nobody has yet measured the impact on public opinion of the current turmoil, which started after April 1.
On top of that, the WSJ article compares the April 2025 opinion poll with another from January 2025, to find that support for Trump’s tariffs has dropped by 6%, while opposition to tariffs has increased by 8%, to a majority of 54%. For anybody who can use a little math and logic, which excludes Trump’s indiscriminate supporters, that strongly contradicts the conclusions of this article. The public opinion is shifting and Republicans in Congress, as much as they fear Trump’s threats of being “primaried” if they disagree with the King, will also have to fear now their own voters.
The author asks, Why is it that “Elon Musk gets to play Jack the Ripper with the federal bureaucracy without a peep of complaint from the public”?
Isn't it obvious? The public supports weeding out and ending wasteful spending and fraud. DOGE discovered that the VA signed a contract in which it pays an IT firm $380,000 a MONTH to manage it's web sites. The firm spends about 10 hours a week doing so.
Who allowed this to happen? Who thinks there were not huge kickbacks on several levels? Who wants this to continue? Not me.
You have to love the irony when a California man shows up with a Glock to kill Justice Kavanaugh because he thinks that the Justice is too lax on gun control! Where do we find these looney toons! California has some of the most strict gun control in the country, so maybe even strict gun control doesn't really work! But, of course, we should all know that the bad old NRA is the real culprit!
Lefty logic
I'll preface this by saying I'm a former democrat turned independent and did not vote for either major party candidate. I would really like an article from The Free Press about how President Trump just ran circles around the media, academics, pundits, politicians, and pretty much everyone else regarding tariffs. He effectively engaged almost every country in the world and isolated China, which is necessary for this to work. In the future when he asks Americans to be patient while he's manuevering, I'm going to take that seriously. I hope others do as well.
The Trump, Trump, Trump complainers never seemed to mind the reckless spending under the corrupt Biden term which brought us to the brink of bankruptcy. You know what righted the financial ship? Japan threatening to dump our debt. Would the Japanese take Northern California for 36 trillion? Asking for a friend….
"Why is it that “Elon Musk gets to play Jack the Ripper with the federal bureaucracy without a peep of complaint from the public”?" Seriously, "not a peep"?? What about the "hands off" protests on the weekend? What about the bombings at Tesla dealerships? What about the 30% drop in Tesla stock YTD? I'd say there's been more than a "peep" in objections.
Having worked for several government agencies, the work ethic is lacking for many; they would never be hired in private industry. Trim away Elon! We need 36 trillion.😖
I agree. I was objecting to the editor's suggestion that there hadn't been "a peep" in complaints from the public. That's completely inaccurate.
Our freedoms were taken away after 9/11 when the Department of Homeland Security was created. Many, like sheep, complied. Trained security at airports is much more effective than taking off our shoes. At SFO the DHS agents could not have been less interested in the passengers. They were much too interested in talking about what they did on their dates last night. Give us back our freedoms, but don't condone hate and insitement as practiced at our universities. Hate has always been around.
In Scotland, after WWII, banners said, "Poles go home."
Home, where? Poland had been stolen by the Soviets. Hate is the weapon of the ignorant.
The TSA agents in MIA are on their phones.
"Trump told Republican senators that he’s open to raising taxes on the highest-earning Americans."
What Trunk should tell the senators is that he's open to eliminating the wage base limit for FICA withholding. That'd do wonders for funding the SS system.
Won’t come close to funding the program. Change retirement age as well and you’ll get close.
Go over to Noahpinion and read more about Japanese urbanism. If you want Americans to live in and support cities, make them livable.
Control of society has been ongoing for years. How does it happen? A crisis is created, sometimes out of laws already in place but not known by the public. An FBI neighbor created with the help of another neighbor a conflict in this neighborhood. We had 365 homes. The FBI neighbor had a legal petition drawn up. The neighborhood was filled with fear and scared. Only problem was it was all fictional and ended as fast as it began when the neighbors found out the truth. I always wondered if this was practice for what lay ahead as this man confided in me that Bush had established FBI spies in every neighborhood throughout the country. This was around 2000. Just be aware and question everything.
Who is Will Rahn? I went to the "Who We Are" page on The FP and he wasn't listed there.
He’s Peggy Noonan’s son. Twisted, huh?
I’m rolling my eyes!!
- M Gurri is close. Covid was the straw that broke... Distrust started much earlier.
- Buy gold now? At close to an all-time high?
- Will congress...? Worthless pieces of...
- Trump ...paused $210 million in funding to... anti-semites. Why no cheering, TFP?
Because they hate Trump more than they hate anti-semitism.
On the antisemitism at Princeton, I say, "Support Hamas and antisemitism. Vote Democrat/Socialist in the next election."
On the question of tariffs, why is it bad for the US to implement tariffs but OK for our trading partners to have tariffs on US goods?
Maybe a DEM/Soc can answer the question.
The question is: Who are each of those bad for?
A US tariff is a new tax on Americans who buy foreign goods (which, face it, is most Americans). All other things equal, it makes sense for Americans to oppose it, for the same reason they would oppose doubling their income tax.
If our trading partners impose tariffs on American goods, that's a tax on their own people. As an American, it's no skin off my nose if those people don't rise up in fury at their governments' depredations.
Any tariff is a deadweight loss in economic terms -- as is any other tax. It interferes with the smooth and efficient course of commerce, and makes everybody poorer. But that's a second-order effect; the first-order effect is Who Pays? And for a US tariff, the answer is the US public.
I voted happily for Trump, but I'm mighty disappointed by all this. There are so many things that need doing more than arsing around trying to solve the non-problem of a "trade deficit", which the biggest economy is *always* going to see.
You make it sound like it is okay for our trading partners to tariff our goods but bad for us to tariff their goods.
If our threat of tariffing their goods makes them stop tariffing our goods, isn't that a good thing?
It would of course be better for everyone if nobody imposed tariffs. Trump’s actions *might* have that result, but it seems to me there’s an underpants-gnome step missing.
If Trump had actually laid reciprocal tariffs rather than the nutty computation he made based on “trade deficit” I’d have an order of magnitude more confidence that it would end the way you suggest.
Only time will tell.
“Elon Musk gets to play Jack the Ripper with the federal bureaucracy without a peep of complaint from the public.”
Maybe the public is tired of government bloat and unproductive government employees.
The real question is, "What took so long to cut government's waste, fraud, and abuse?"
Musk should be haled as a hero.
Are mistakes going to be made? Yes, but the overall task is noble.
Keep up the good work, Elan.
When was the public going to learn about Stacey Abrams’ 2 billion dollar grant for her barely existing organization? I heard the only other donation her organization got was for $100. So two donations: $100 and, from our government, 2 billion with no transparency. Stop acting like looking into all this grift has no upside for the country.
TFP has reported on the grant to Stacey Abrams' phony org.
Right but it seems like none of my friends who read legacy media has ever heard of it—meanwhile media spends unlimited time decrying DOGE.
I apologize. I mistakenly thought you were criticizing TFP for not covering it when they have been one outlet that has.
In these comments sections, partisans of both sides quite frequently complain that TFP criticizes one of their side's politicians or sacred ideological shibboleths, unhappy that the site is not a fully partisan mouthpiece for their side.
What too so long???? C'mon
Is that your best Biden impression?
er, proof reading, I must do. What took, TOOK so long?
Answer, DC is grifter capital
Concerning Charles Lane’s article on Congress not being able to stop Trump’s tariffs:
I’m looking at the quoted WSJ article and opinion polls. The article is titled: “Americans Were Souring on Trump’s Economic Plans Even Before Tariff Bloodbath”. The opinion poll was taken between March 27- April 1, so just as the title states, BEFORE the stock market debacle, now followed, more worryingly, by drops in Treasury bonds prices. So nobody has yet measured the impact on public opinion of the current turmoil, which started after April 1.
On top of that, the WSJ article compares the April 2025 opinion poll with another from January 2025, to find that support for Trump’s tariffs has dropped by 6%, while opposition to tariffs has increased by 8%, to a majority of 54%. For anybody who can use a little math and logic, which excludes Trump’s indiscriminate supporters, that strongly contradicts the conclusions of this article. The public opinion is shifting and Republicans in Congress, as much as they fear Trump’s threats of being “primaried” if they disagree with the King, will also have to fear now their own voters.
Whatever the “viable plan” is, there is only one goal that matters: winning elections.
Once again, the left is drunk on “protest.”
Politics is a dirty game. The winners run our society. Protest is just complaining about losing. Let’s get in the game and play to win.