President Shit’s First 100 Days: Day 91…

April 22, 2025 12:18 pm EDT Tiff Editorial (Open Thread) 1
Philosophy!? Digital Art 12/11/2018. Image by Rant 73.

It’s Tuesday…

President Shitshow’s public schedule for…

Tuesday, April 22 2025
9:00 AM
In-Town Pool Call Time
In-Town Pool
1:00 PM
Press Briefing by the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room 
On Camera
4:00 PM
The President participates in a Swearing-In Ceremony for the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission
Oval Office 
Closed Press

Economy…

Yesterday, the stock market had a down day; the Dow at one point was about 1300 points down. That’s not all that uncommon these days because of our unstable genius President who has far too much power over the economy. What was weird yesterday was it falling so quickly without some “bad” news being reported at the time of the dip.

I didn’t realize that on Friday, that National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett (asshat as I like to call him) told reporters that the Shitshow’s admin was looking at ways to fire Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

This was the day after President Shitshow said “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”, on “Lies Social”…

He wasn’t finished in attacking Powell; that’s not new, he hasn’t really liked Powell, since he hired him during the first term of Stupid, but this time is different because that first time while we had tariffs we did not have “blanket tariffs”…

Yesterday, I shared this…

The above has even rattled the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board enough they wrote “The Fire Jerome Powell Market Rout” (gift link):

If the White House wanted a test of how firing Jerome Powell would go over in the markets, it succeeded on Monday. U.S. stocks and the dollar plunged while yields on long-term Treasurys climbed after President Trump renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve Chairman.

[it was this opinion piece by the WSJ Editorial Board that I discovered Asshats comments from Friday]

Monday was the first full trading day for markets to absorb National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett’s comments Friday that the White House is studying if Mr. Powell can legally be fired. On Monday Mr. Trump demanded again that Mr. Powell make “pre-emptive” interest rate cuts to avoid a slowdown. Cue the meltdown in stocks, bonds and the dollar, a trifecta of declining confidence.

[snip]

Markets fear Mr. Trump really might fire Mr. Powell, not that it would do the President any good. He’d have to remove more than the Chairman to change the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates and tries to satisfy the central bank’s dual mandate of maximum employment and stable prices.

Mr. Trump can’t fire the regional Fed bank presidents on the committee, and all 12 voting members of the FOMC seem to agree with the Fed’s recent policy moves. A Powell replacement would also have a harder time establishing credibility with markets.

The same goes if Mr. Trump were to name a “shadow” Fed Chairman who would be expected to comment on the central bank’s every move between now and May 2026 when Mr. Powell’s term expires. This is a recipe for more market uncertainty. Whose forward guidance should investors follow, Mr. Powell’s or his replacement’s?

[snip]

Mr. Trump thinks he can bully everyone into submission, but he can’t bully Adam Smith, who deals in reality. Markets know tariffs are taxes, and taxes are anti-growth. The Trump tariffs are the biggest economic policy mistake in decades, and extending the 2017 tax reform and deregulation may not compensate for all the damage.

There are also fears that if tariffs fail to reorder the global trading system, Mr. Trump might impose a fee on Treasury debt as chief White House economist Stephen Miran has proposed. This would amount to a partial U.S. default since it would cut the rate of return. Think Treasury yields are rising now? Watch what happens if a Miran fee is imposed.

[snip–this is the end of their opinion piece and it’s money, because it’s 100 percent true]

But markets are spooked because they don’t know if Mr. Trump listens to anyone but his own impulses.

“The Fire Jerome Powell Market Rout” (gift link). 04/21/2025.

Today, the market is up.

I went and looked up “how come” and found this from the Wall Street Journal (live market watch):

Still, relative quiet from the White House helped shore up investor sentiment. “There’s no news, good or bad, on trade deals, so that allows the market to recover a little bit,” said Jim Lebenthal, chief equity strategist at Cerity Partners.

Gold, meanwhile, cemented its status as the undisputed winner from this month’s tariff-fueled market turmoil. The precious metal, coveted in times of uncertainty and stress, surged again early Tuesday to set a new record high above $3,500 a troy ounce.

Investors’ concerns over President Trump’s trade war and his threats of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell had stirred up market volatility Monday. Trump reiterated his demand the Fed cut interest rates, and blasted Powell.

Wall Street Journal (live market watch): 04/22/2025.

In more economic news…

The U.S. and global economies will likely slow significantly in the wake of President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the uncertainty they have created, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday.

The IMF said that the global economy will grow just 2.8% this year, down from its forecast in January of 3.3%, according to its latest World Economic Outlook. And in 2026, global growth will be 3%, the fund predicts, also below its previous 3.3% estimate.

And the Fund sees the world’s two largest economies, China and the United States, weakening: U.S. economic growth will come in at just 1.8% this year, down sharply from its previous forecast of 2.7% and a full percentage point below its 2024 expansion. The IMF doesn’t expect a U.S. recession, though it has raised its odds of one this year from 25% to about 40%.

China is now projected to expand 4% this year and next, down roughly half a point from its previous forecasts.

AP News. 04/22/2025.

Signal Chat update…

In the latest installment of #SignalGate NBC News reported this morning:

Minutes before U.S. fighter jets took off to begin strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last month, Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, used a secure U.S. government system to send detailed information about the operation to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The material Kurilla sent included details about when U.S. fighters would take off and when they would hit their targets — details that could, if they fell into the wrong hands, put the pilots of those fighters in grave danger. But he was doing exactly what he was supposed to: providing Hegseth, his superior, with information he needed to know and using a system specifically designed to safely transmit sensitive and classified information.

But then Hegseth used his personal phone to send some of the same information Kurilla had given himto at least two group text chats on the Signal messaging app, three U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the exchanges told NBC News.

The sequence of events, which has not been previously reported, could raise new questions about Hegseth’s handling of the information, which he and the government have denied was classified. In all, according to the two sources, less than 10 minutes elapsed between Kurilla’s giving Hegseth the information and Hegseth’s sending it to the two group chats, one of which included other Cabinet-level officials and their designees — and, inadvertently, the editor of The Atlantic magazine. The other group included Hegseth’s wife, his brother, his attorney and some of his aides.

NBC News. 04/22/2025.

Defense Sec. Pete Hegshit went on Fox Entertainment this morning to offer his defense of using signal, and blaming everything on “disgruntled employees”.

“New Cocktail sipping crowd.”

“Once a leaker, always a leaker, often a leaker”

Foreshadowing?

This is an open thread

P.S.

I just saw this, but doesn’t this just sum up where we currently are in Trump2.0…

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About Tiff 3084 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.

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