BTRTN: It's Mourning in America
Born To Run The Numbers provides its assessment of the first 11 days of Trump II, and articulates the purpose it intends to serve during the course of Trump's administration:
https://borntorunthenumbers.com/2025/02/01/btrtn-its-mourning-in-america/
Excerpts: "The second Trump Administration is underway, and the president seems to be having a jolly good time taking a wrecking ball to the hopes and dreams of millions. Where to begin? Pardoning violent January 6 criminals; ramming through woefully underqualified Cabinet nominees; unlawfully firing inspector generals; vengefully firing federal prosecutors for simply prosecuting cases to which they were assigned; using a military plane to deport undocumented Colombians; canceling legitimate interviews for asylum; attempting to eliminate birthright citizenship; freezing federal aid and domestic spending programs (and badly botching that effort); giving a DEI screed in the wake of an air tragedy... The war is underway. The casualties will mount. It’s mourning in America...
"I have been debating for months how I intend to cover the second Trump administration, and have decided the best approach is to focus on a single question: will the American public buy it? I also have a hypothesis: no...
"There is overreach, and there is this. A rational politician would have examined the election results and focused first, foremost and single-mindedly on taking visible actions to lower prices. Never mind that Trump’s signature proposals – tariffs, mass deportations, and lower interest rates – are all inflationary. He won on the promise of helping average Americans pay their bills, so one might think that would be his first priority. But instead, Trump has decided to take a sledgehammer to the U.S. government...
"I am skeptical that Trump’s presidency will be successful. He is certainly better organized than in his first term, has fewer guardrails and more of a game plan. But on top of the poor execution, the product he is pushing is an unpopular one. On issue after issue, his extreme views are in the minority, and on the main issue upon which he was elected – the economy – he has yet to make any pronouncement that is designed to lower prices..."