Trump adjusts

Unfortunately, Obama adjusted as well

Imagine what President Trump could do if instead of a bare 7-seat majority in the House he had a 47-seat advantage.

No need to imagine it. His first presidency began with a 47-seat majority and Republicans dragged their feet. They refused to fund the wall. Just before Christmas 2017, they passed his tax cut because Republicans like cutting taxes.

Sadly, they turn into Democrats when it comes to cutting spending. Hello, ginormous national debt.

This time, Trump got Republicans to cut spending by $2 trillion over the next 10 years. The Big Beautiful Bill made the 2017 tax cuts permanent, which gives the illusion of increasing the debt because what the CBO said was a $1.8 trillion tax cut over 8 years the CBO said is now a $4.3 trillion tax cut over the next 10 years.

The new number reflects the Laffer Curve which holds that reducing the tax rates increases tax revenues by growing the economy.

Trump did not have to wait until Christmas this time. He signed the bill into law on the Fourth of July—much to the surprise of Ted Cruz.

Looks like he’ll get to sign the rescissions bill before the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Sayonara PBS, NPR and foreign aid.

Making permanent the destruction of the Department of Education and other bureaucracies would make a good Halloween treat.

For Christmas, how about adding Reagan to Mount Rushmore? Trump has to show a little modesty. President Vance can add him later.

By the way, in January, NPR said, “On average, NPR receives about 1% of its funding directly from the federal government each year, according to publicly available materials. PBS receives 16%.”

Here’s an idea: sell ads.

Trump is doing what Republicans said they wanted to do for decades.

The difference in Trump’s two presidencies is best explained in football parlance. When I was a lad, they said football was a game of inches. As I grew older, I realized that it is a game of adjustments. The Head Coach takes the field with a game plan, a back-up plan, a third-string plan and sheer guile to counter the game plans of the Other Head Coach.

If you think of the Biden interlude as halftime for President Trump, then halftime must be hell for head coaches because they would have their homes raided, get arrested, stand trial on trumped up charges, and have a bullet clip their ear before the second half of the game began.

But Trump has adjusted his game. In 2017, he assumed the Republican Establishment would have his back. They stabbed him in the back instead. This time he has his own Republican Establishment.

John Cornyn was next in line to replace Mitch McConnell as Senate Majority Leader. Cornyn was no ally of Trump. John Thune got the job instead. Cornyn now faces being primaried next year.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy faced the worst battle in House history to succeed Nancy Pelosi as Speaker in 2023. Trump loyalists refused to vote for him in the final vote. For the first time in 100 years, the Speaker’s election took more than one ballot—in fact McCarthy endured 15 ballots before finally getting in.

McCarthy had blamed Trump for the January 6 actually peaceful protest inside the Capitol, so his victory did not last.

In October, Matt Gaetz forced a vote on removing him as speaker using a Ukraine funding bill as an excuse. Gaetz and fellow Republicans Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Nancy Mace, and Matt Rosendale joined Democrats in voting McCarthy out—making him the only speaker ever removed by Congress.

It took four ballots among Republicans to select Mike Johnson as his successor but with Trump’s backing, he made it in. Johnson had served on Trump’s defense team in both impeachments.

Both Thune and Johnson frustrate Trump supporters but the results speak for themselves. Trump is kicking butt in Congress with a smaller majority at lightning speed (well, by DC standards).

Obama needed huge majorities in the House and Senate to pass Obamacare and that was in the 15th month of his presidency. I blame the day on his laziness. Not having a bill on Day One and then tasking a senator to write it wasted a whole year of his presidency, so oddly enough I am grateful for BO’s sloth.

Part of the reason for the speed of Trump’s legislative success is his energy. He has executed 170 Executive Orders so far. This is only Day 178 of his second term.

In 1,461 days as president, Biden signed only 162 Executive Orders. That’s right, folks. Donald Trump is faster than an auto pen.

It’s an adjustment. In his first term, Trump signed 220 Executive Orders. Now he works the pen and the phone to the advantage of the republic.

The speed also reflects preparation. Many of those executive orders were researched and written before he assumed office.

Early on, Trump deflected attention to Elon Musk, who served as Robin to Trump’s Batman. In the comic book, Batman lurks in the shadows in the dark while Robin flits around in a cardinal red top and canary yellow cape.

So while the Jokers and Diddlers in the media went after Musk, they took their eye off Trump. Musk really did good work and it is terrible that liberals tried to ruin Tesla in retaliation.

Trump adjusted to that quickly by threatening to go after the financiers of the mostly peaceful torching of car dealerships.

I have already opined about the Cabinet he hand-picked. Cabinet members are hard-working and loyal because their boss works hard and is loyal to them. He handled that dust-up among Patel, Bongino and Bondi well, at least publicly.

RINOs did not stick him with another Cabinet of Leakers.

But as deft as Trump has been at 78—now 79—Obama has made one adjustment that could cost Trump his presidency.

Oh, it wasn’t the fake scandal of the week that Democrats have run against Trump for a decade now. The Qatar plane and the military parade bounced off his ear like a bullet.

Lawfare is wearing them down because it is so stupid. Trump appointed one-third of the justices on the Supreme Court. They know what is going on. They are not going to allow Obama and his merry he/she/thems run out the clock by litigating this presidency.

As frustrating as Amy and the boys are at times, they put the republic first. They are not going to give the judicial branch the power to veto presidential actions.

No, Obama did something more. He left Trump an Epstein list. Pamela Bondi fell for it, but Trump knew Democrats had too much time to alter it. Verification of the list seems impossible. Epstein’s lawyer said Epstein did not leave a list.

But rightwing influencers are going bananas over the list. It is a sudden and seemingly orchestrated revolt. I am pretty sure taxpayer money is somehow involved.

Trump’s base is melting like that old green cake in MacArthur Park. Few are thinking this through. Look, everyone wants pedophiles fed into the woodchipper but that ain’t gonna happen.

What will happen is the crippling of his presidency that will lead to a Nixonian departure from the White House next August. The sacrifices by those arrested and incarcerated over J6 will be for naught.

We don’t have equal justice in America. The way to get that is not by going after the beneficiaries of the inequality but by going after the gentlemen who enable it: Brennan, Clapper, Comey and a pack of others.

I cannot tell people what to think. I do try to understand what they think. It does bothers me that wealthy monsters and a former president will not be imprisoned for violating underage people.

The Verse of the Day on Wednesday was Proverbs 20:22:

Do not say, “I'll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.

Trump is doing many things, far more than any other president since LBJ.

Just don’t expect Trump to do everything.