President Shitshow’s First 100 Days; Day 50

March 12, 2025 12:15 pm EDT Tiff Editorial (Open Thread) Comments Off on President Shitshow’s First 100 Days; Day 50

It’s Wednesday…

President Shitshow’s public schedule for…

Wednesday, March 12 2025
9:00 AM
In-Town Pool Call Time
In-Town Pool
10:45 AM
The President greets the Taoiseach of Ireland
Stakeout Location 
Open Press
10:50 AM
The President participates in a bilateral meeting with the Taoiseach of Ireland
Oval Office White House
Press Pool
11:50 AM
The President departs The White House en route The Capitol
South Portico 
In-Town Travel Pool
12:00 PM
The President arrives The Capitol
In-Town Travel Pool
12:05 PM
The President participates in the Friends of Ireland Luncheon
In-Town Travel Pool
1:30 PM
The President departs The Capitol en route The White House
In-Town Travel Pool
1:40 PM
The President arrives The White House
South Portico 
In-Town Travel Pool
5:00 PM
The President participates in a St. Patrick’s Day Reception with the Taoiseach of Ireland
East Room 
Pre-Credentialed Media

We’ve made it to the half-way point of the first 100 days of this imaginable and unimaginable President Shitshow…

CPI Data

This morning the CPI data for February was released by BLS.gov:

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in February, after rising 0.5 percent in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.8 percent before seasonal adjustment.

The index for shelter rose 0.3 percent in February, accounting for nearly half of the monthly all items increase. The shelter increase was partially offset by a 4.0-percent decrease in the index for airline fares and a 1.0-percent decline in the index for gasoline. Despite the decrease in the gasoline index, the energy index rose 0.2 percent over the month as the indexes for electricity and natural gas increased. The index for food also increased in February, rising 0.2 percent as the index for food away from home increased 0.4 percent. The food at home index was unchanged over the month.

The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in February, following a 0.4-percent increase in January. Indexes that increased over the month include medical care, used cars and trucks, household furnishings and operations, recreation, apparel, and personal care. The indexes for airline fares and new vehicles were among the few major indexes that decreased in February.

The all items index rose 2.8 percent for the 12 months ending February, after rising 3.0 percent over the 12 months ending January. The all items less food and energy index rose 3.1 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index decreased 0.2 percent for the 12 months ending February. The food index increased 2.6 percent over the last year.

BLS.gov. 03/12/2025.

Ben Casselman from the New York Times posted the charts via Bluesky…

Charts! Inflation cooled slightly in February: Consumer prices were up 0.2 percent from January, which is better than forecasters expected. On a year-over-year basis, inflation fell back below 3 percent. #NumbersDay

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— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 5:59 AM

The monthly numbers are volatile, and the 12-month numbers incorporate a lot of outdated information. So it's often helpful to look at prices over three months. By that measure, overall prices have been rising at an annual rate of 4.3 percent; core rising 3.6 percent.

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— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 5:59 AM

Egg prices continued to soar in February, hitting a record $5.90/doz. (The CPI index for eggs was up 10% in February alone, and nearly 60% over the past year.) But overall grocery prices were flat in Feb. and are up less than 2% over the past year.

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— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 6:06 AM

Rental growth continues to trend down on a year-over-year basis, though it's still running hotter than consumer prices overall. On a three-month annualized basis, rent increases have picked up a bit, but the trend still seems to be solidly downward.

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— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 6:13 AM

Similar story on "owner's equivalent rent," the BLS's (hard-to-grasp) measure of housing costs for homeowners. That has been a particularly stubborn category, but it is finally making progress.

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— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 6:13 AM

Over the past year, hourly earnings have risen faster than prices, on average. Inflation-adjusted pay is up 1.2 percent over the past year. But over the past three months, inflation-adjusted wages are flat or even slightly down.

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— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 6:28 AM

Airline fares fell 4 percent in February after big gains in December and January. Excluding airfares, both headline and core CPI would have risen 0.3 percent month-over-month — which matters because the CPI measure of airfares doesn't feed directly into the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, PCE.

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— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 6:56 AM

The White House responded this way…

Show more =’s This inflation report, much like last week’s jobs report, is far better than the media predicted and the so-called ‘experts’ expected. When will they learn to stop doubting President Trump? As he successfully did in his first term, President Trump is driving down costs through massive deregulation and energy dominance. The entire Trump Administration will continue to focus on fixing the economic and inflation nightmare created by the Biden-Harris Administration to unlock the Golden Age of America.

I really hate it here…

Speaking of our head President Shitshow cheerleader, yesterday during the press briefing Leavitt said that the tariffs are a “tax cut to the American people”.

And this got me thinking about something I neglected to say yesterday when I shared the Fact check: What Trump doesn’t mention about Canada’s dairy tariffs (03/10/2025), on President Shitshow’s statement that Canada charges 250 percent to 390 percent tariffs on our farm products.

We don’t pay those tariffs, Canadian’s do.

Tariffs are not “tax cuts” to anyone, they drive up prices. They slow demand for products. In general targeted tariffs can work. They have worked before. President Reagan put a tariff on Japanese motorcycles.

From the New York Time posted on April 2nd, 1983:

I’m not gonna share the whole article, though it’s amazing to read the past reporting like this…

The action was exceptional for protecting a single American company, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company of Milwaukee, the sole surviving American maker of motorcycles.

The only comparable trade action by this Administration, the President’s decision last May to impose quotas on sugar imports for the first time since 1974, was aimed at an entire industry.

[snip]

The action, which becomes effective in 15 days, affects large highway motorcycles with an engine displacement of more than 700 cubic inches,the only market in which Harley-Davidson now manufactures. It would raise the current tariff of 4.4 percent to 49.4 percent in the first year of the five-year program.

[snip]

In a message to Congress appended to today’s order, the President said the relief was ”consistent with our national economic interests.” He added: ”I have maintained that I would enforce our trade laws where necessary and where such actions are consistent with our international obligations.”

The domestic auto industry had failed in 1980 to get relief under the same Escape Clause provision of the trade law used today, although the Administration did prevail on the Japanese to accept voluntary limitations on car shipments to the United States. Declining Tariffs Set

Under the plan, tariffs will rise by 45 percentage points, to 49.4 percent, in the first year. But the rate will be scaled back to 39.4 percent in the second year; to 24.4 percent in the third year; to 19.4 percent in the fourth year, and to 14.4 percent in the fifth year, according to the order. After the fifth year the tariff returns to 4.4 percent.

[snip]

The order, however, permits 5,000 motorcycles to come in without duty increases from West Germany, and provides for increases to 6,000, 7,000, 8,500 and 10,000 in the four subsequent years.

Also, it exempts from the higher duties Triumph bikes from Britain and Ducati bikes from Italy; up to 4,000 units from these countries are permitted to come in at the old rate (increasing by 1,000 units yearly for five years).

In addition, Japan would be permitted to bring in 6,000 units (increasing by 1,000 units annually) at the old duty. As a result of today’s action, some Japanese trade specialists reported, Suzuki and Yamaha may now be induced to build plants here. Honda and Kawasaki together produce more than 50,000 units a year in the United States.

New York Time posted on April 2nd, 1983

That was a wild trip back in time…

But see, I hate them, whatever they are, but it shows that a measured response with clarity doesn’t have to create chaos. Chaos of course is the point of President Shitshow’s actions and words. So, here we are.

Speaking of tariffs

President Shitshow’s 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum went into effect today. Not the announced yesterday 50 percent on Canada’s steel and aluminum, but the originally announced 25 percent steel and aluminum tariffs.

In response…

Canada on Wednesday announced new trade duties on some $21 billion worth of U.S. goods in response to President Donald Trump implementing universal steel and aluminum tariffs.

America’s northern neighbor is the largest foreign supplier of steel and aluminum to the U.S., and experts have warned Trump’s duties would be passed on to consumers.

[snip]

Canada’s retaliatory measures follow ones announced by the European Union targeting a range of U.S. goods worth $28 billion, including beef, motorcycles and whiskey alongside American-made steel and aluminum. China, too, signaled it was readying a response.

NBC News. 03/12/2025.

The Stock Market is having mixed results on the better than expected CPI report and the fear over trade wars and recession…

That’s it folks, kind of got into the tariffs weeds, again.

I’m hoping to cover the Tesla ad campaign shot from the White House tomorrow; I got rabbit holed yesterday with other things…

This is an open thread

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About Tiff 3036 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.