Trump marks ‘Liberation Day’ with bizarre rant, conspiracies—and lame props

President Donald Trump displays a chart listing every country with increased tariffs, during what he called "Liberation Day."

Evil, corrupt and stupid: Thanks, MAGA.  Enjoy the higher prices for a grocery "bag of different things."

 

By Oliver Willis

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday, April 02, 2025 at 5:30:03p MDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

President Donald Trump wanted the entire world to know about his self-branded “Liberation Day” on Wednesday, during which he announced—in a 48-minute rambling speech, no less—a slew of new tariffs on imported goods.

During his rant, Trump used props, pushed debunked conspiracy theories, and even engaged in a bit of antisemitic dog whistling.

Perhaps most notably, Trump chose to ignore a reporter’s question about families worried about the impact his tariffs will have on their lives. Trump has previously falsely claimed that tariffs are paid by foreign nations, but historically they’ve been passed on as additional costs to U.S. consumers.

Consumer sentiment dramatically fell 12% in March as Americans have growing concerns that the economy will worsen thanks to Trump’s policies like these new tariffs.

Touting his tariff decision, which will purportedly impose reciprocal tariffs on several nations (Trump endlessly repeated the term “reciprocal”), Trump then turned to props to sell his message.

President Donald Trump is seen holding a giant chart listing every country on which he has placed a tariff (regardless of whether it's inhabited).

Holding a printed-out report showing the alleged necessity of increased tariffs, Trump was handed a large chart, which listed many countries—but not Russia—and the reciprocal tariffs they will be charged. The full list included several odd choices like the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands, located in the southern Indian Ocean near Antarctica.

To almost complete silence from the audience, Trump then read most of the chart, offering up commentary on each country (including complaining about the South African government, which has tried to address the effects of racist apartheid policies, and the consternation of Elon Musk).

And in true salesman fashion, Trump paused the proceeding to throw a red MAGA hat into the audience.

Trump stressed the purported necessity of tariffs against Canada, citing Canadian tariffs on milk imports. But those tariffs are mostly a figment of Trump’s imagination, since the transportation of milk does not meet the threshold, which was imposed during Trump’s first term.

“In practice, these tariffs are not actually paid by anyone,” Al Mussell, an expert on Canadian trade issues, explained to CNN in March.

Trying to preempt criticism of his tariff plan, Trump said that “globalists” would be among the many groups objecting to his actions. This term has long been used by the right, including Trump, as an antisemitic dog whistle to imply conspiracies led by Jewish people.

Then, deviating from his tariff messaging, Trump rehashed long-debunked conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen by President Joe Biden. He also bizarrely took credit for supposedly re-popularizing the term “groceries.”

“Groceries, I used it on the campaign. It’s such an old-fashioned term, but a beautiful term. Groceries. It’s a bag with different things in it,” he said.

Trump pushed a trade war against China during his first term, and it was a massive failure that led to billions spent to bail out farmers. Now with his new tariffs, Trump is set to increase costs for millions of Americans.

So, “Liberation Day” for who exactly?

HANDS OFF! RALLY: Saturday, April 5 is destined to be the largest day of protest in many years with massive peaceful marches in Washington DC and big cities around our nation and throughout the world.  Find one and join in the festivities.  You have nothing to lose but your freedom.

Sen. Cory Booker Makes a Stand Against Trump – and Doesn’t Stop for 25 Hours

  Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) speaks to reporters in the Senate Reception room after holding the floor for 25 hours and 5 minutes for a filibuster on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (photo: Greg Nash/The Hill)  

 

David Smith / Guardian UK 02 April 25

 

His was a primal scream of resistance: "We all must do more to stand against them."

“Would the senator yield for a question?” asked Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.

Senator Cory Booker, who on a long day’s journey into night had turned himself into the fighter that many Democrats were yearning for, replied with a wry smile: “Chuck Schumer, it’s the only time in my life I can tell you no.”

But Schumer wasn’t taking no for an answer. “I just wanted to tell you, a question, do you know you have just broken the record? Do you know how proud this caucus is of you? Do you know how proud America is of you?”

New Jersey’s first Black senator had just shattered the record for the longest speech in Senate history, delivered by South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond, an arch segregationist who filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes against the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

In the normally sombre Senate chamber, around 40 Democrats rose to their feet in effusive applause. A few hundred people in the public gallery, where the busts of 20 former vice-presidents gazed down from marble plinths, erupted in clapping and cheering and whooping. The senator took a tissue and mopped perspiration from his forehead.

Since Booker’s obstruction did not occur during voting on any bill it was not technically a filibuster. But it marked the first time during Donald Trump’s second term that Democrats have deliberately clogged up Senate business.

Indeed, after 72 days in which Democrats have appeared lame and leaderless, Booker stood up and did something. He said his constituents had challenged him to think differently and take risks and so he did. In an attention economy so often dominated by the forces of Maga, his all-nighter offered a ray of hope in the darkness.

Some Democrats have desperately tried to be authentic with cringeworthy TikTok videos such as a “Choose Your Fighter” parody. Booker, by contrast, went old school: one man standing and talking for hour after hour on the Senate floor in a display of endurance reminiscent of a famous scene in the 1939 film Mr Smith Goes to Washington starring Jimmy Stewart.

It had all begun at 7pm on Monday when, wearing a US flag pin on a dark suit, white shirt and black tie as if dressed for the funeral of the republic, Booker vowed: “I rise tonight with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.

“I rise tonight because I believe sincerely that our country is in crisis … These are not normal times in America and they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent, and we all must do more to stand against them.”

What followed was a tour de force of physical stamina. The 55-year-old, who played tight end for Stanford University’s American football team, asked a Senate page to take away his chair so he was not tempted to sit down, which is barred by the Senate rules. The chair could be seen pushed back against a wall.

Above Booker the words “Novus Ordo Seclorum” – a Latin phrase meaning “a new order of the ages” or “a new order of the centuries” – were inscribed in the Senate chamber above a relief depicting a bare chested hero wrestling a snake.

Booker leaned on his desk and sipped from a glass of water. He shifted from foot to foot or paced to keep the blood circulating in his legs. He wiped away sweat with a white handkerchief. He plucked a tissue from a blue-grey tissue box, blew his nose and dropped it into a bin. He persisted.

Alexandra De Luca, vice president of communications at the liberal group American Bridge, tweeted: “I worked for Cory Booker on the campaign trail and (and I say this with love) that man drinks enough caffeine on a normal day to stay up 72 hours. This could go a while.”

Booker may also be a great advert for veganism. He could be jocular, bantering with old friends in the Senate about sport and state rivalries. He could be emotional, his voice cracking and his eyes on the verge of tears, especially when a letter from the family of a person with Parkinson’s disease reminded him of his late father.

He could also be angry, channeling the fury of those who feel their beloved country slipping away. Yet to the end his mind was clear and his voice was strong. This was also a masterclass in political rhetoric, which Schumer rightly praised for its “crystalline brilliance”.

There were recurring themes: Trump’s economic chaos and rising prices; billionaires exerting ever greater influence; Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, slashing entire government programmes without consent from Congress and inflicting pain on children, military veterans and other vulnerable groups.

Booker read dozens and dozens of letters from what he called “terrified people” with “heartbreaking” stories. As the day wore on, he quoted from a fired USAid employee who told a devastating story of broken dreams and warned: “The beacon of our democracy grows dim across the globe.”

The senator also warned of tyranny: Trump disappearing people from the streets without due process; bullying the media and trying to create press corps like Vladimir Putin or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; seizing more executive power and putting democracy itself in grave peril.

A few times he inverted former president John F Kennedy’s famous phrase to warn that today it’s no longer “ask not what your country can do for you. It’s what you can do for Donald Trump.”

He acknowledged that the public want Democrats to do more. But he insisted that can only go so far and, as during the civil rights movement, the American people must rise up. He frequently referred to a “moral moment” and invoked the late congressman John Lewis, famed for causing “good trouble”.

“This is not who we are or how we do things in America,” Booker said. “How much more can we endure before we, as a collective voice, say enough is enough? Enough is enough. You’re not going to get away with this.”

The Senate chamber contains 100 wooden desks and brown leather chairs on a tiered semicircular platform. For most of the marathon nearly all the seats were empty and only a handful of reporters were in the press gallery.

But Democrat Chris Murphy accompanied Booker throughout his speech. “We’ve passed the 15-hour mark,” Booker observed. “I want to thank Senator Murphy because he’s been here at my side the entire time.”

Other Democrats took turns to show up in solidarity, asking if Booker would accept a question. He agreed, reading from a note to ensure he got the wording right: “I yield for a question while retaining the floor.”

Occasionally he would quip: “I have the floor. So much power, it’s going to my head!”

Just after 10.30am Schumer, the minority leader, told Booker: “Your strength, your fortitude, your clarity has just been nothing short of amazing and all of America is paying attention to what you’re saying. All of America needs to know there’s so many problems, the disastrous actions of this administration.”

They discussed Medicaid cuts before Booker responded: “You heaped so many kind things on me. But never before in the history of America has a man from Brooklyn said so many complimentary things about a man in Newark.”

Angela Alsobrooks, the first Black senator from Maryland, entered the chamber, caught Booker’s eye and raised a clenched fist in a shared act of resistance.

As Booker approached the 24-hour mark, most Senate Democrats took their seats and Democrats from the House of Representatives, including minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, sat or stood in the chamber. The public and press galleries swelled.

Booker once again channelled Lewis, the civil rights hero. “I don’t know what John Lewis would say, but John Lewis would do something. He would say something. What we will have to repent for is not the words and violent actions for bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of good people. This is our moral moment.”

As Booker closed in on Thurmond’s record, Murphy noted that this speech was very different. “Today you are standing not in the way of progress but of retreat,” he told his friend.

Booker commented: “I could break this record of the man who tried to stop the rights upon which I stand. I’m not here, though, because of his speech; I’m here despite his speech. I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people were more powerful.”

Even when the record was beaten he carried on. “I want to go a little bit past this and then I’m going to deal with some of the biological urgencies I’m feeling,” he said.

Finally, after 25 hours and four minutes, Booker declared: “This is a moral moment. It’s not left or right. It’s right or wrong. Madam President, I yield the floor.”

Again the chamber erupted in cheers and Democrats mobbed their new unofficial leader. No one who was there will ever forget it. Booker had delivered a vivid portrait of a great nation breaking promises to its people, betraying overseas allies and sliding off a cliff towards authoritarianism. He had also made a persuasive case that an inability to do everything should not undermine an attempt to do something.

His was a primal scream of resistance.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer Goes Nuclear on Trump Over Stock Market — Hits Him With Worst Insult Possible

"He knocks down the stock market simply by opening his mouth."

 

Story by Tommy Christopher

3 min read

Mediaite

April 1, 2025 

CNBC host Jim Cramer went nuclear on President Donald Trump over the cratering stock market as the commander in chief’s tariff deadline approaches, dishing out one of the worst insults Trump can think of.

The biggest round of Trump tariffs yet is set to hit on April 2 — what Trump calls “Liberation Day,” but the stock market appears to view more as Judgment Day. Although the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered somewhat on Monday, the index lost nearly 1200 points in March, and futures were headed south again overnight.

On Monday night’s edition of CNBC’s Mad Money, the host delivered a devastating assessment of Trump as the “one man standing in the way of a great economy” and finished with what Trump would surely consider a deeply insulting kill shot — comparing him to the late President Jimmy Carter:

We have declining inflation, except the president’s putting on inflationary tariffs.

We have incredibly low unemployment, except where it’s caused by the Trump administration.

We have a market that was doing extremely well last year, until the Trump Administration sowed the level of uncertainty that I can’t recall any time since — Are you ready, Ski Daddy? — Jimmy Carter.

Which is the last time people were really worried about inflation, about stagflation, okay? Back then, stagflation was real.

Now, Jimmy Carter, curious benchmark, break out the cardigan sweater. I know it’s a brutal comparison. You think I did it idly?

I cannot think of another president in my lifetime who could knock down the stock market simply by opening his mouth than Jimmy Carter. Eureka! I have found him!

So let’s look at it this way: Everything about this economy is good. Everything, everything, except one thing. We have a president who’s very angry at everyone, except Vladimir Putin. Oh, no, maybe even Vladimir Putin.

And his wrath has made investors so downcast and so negative that people have just given up. They want nothing to do with stocks, nothing to with this world, because they’re sure the White House will keep laying on the tariffs that seem to be wiping out your wealth and my wealth.

In this environment, it’s a wonder anyone’s buying anything, unless they think that the one person who’s standing in the way of a great economy, one that could have incredible growth with lowered inflation, lower oil prices, less regulation, more confidence, will finally change the stripes.

If Trump can lose the anger, drop the scowl, stop diminishing our friends and rivals while making common cause with our enemies, and generally start acting like he did in his first term, well, that would be huge for the stock market!

As far as the stock markets are concerned, though, we need less Jimmy Carter, more Ronald Reagan. Bottom line, maybe Wednesday isn’t de-liberation day.

It’s just the day when American investors may be finally liberated from the president’s not-so-pro-business attitude, once he gets the tariffs out of the way.

"The index lost nearly 1200 points in March"

Why Republicans Keep Trying to Murder Big Bird

 The bird, the myth, the legend.

From Nixon to Trump, Warbler of Kindness has been despised by GOP for decades

 

By Oliver Willis 

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 5:00:13p MDT

  

REPUBLISHED BY: 

Blue Country Gazette Blog 

Rim Country Gazette Blog

Congressional Republicans held a hearing on Wednesday to direct their ire at a familiar target: public broadcasting. Led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, the Delivering on Government Efficiency Committee questioned the heads of NPR and PBS, lobbing complaints of purported political bias and using “taxpayer funds to push some of the most radical left positions.”

A day later, President Donald Trump chimed in with a post on his Truth Social platform, writing, “NPR and PBS, two horrible and completely biased platforms (Networks!), should be DEFUNDED by Congress, IMMEDIATELY. Republicans, don’t miss this opportunity to rid our Country of this giant SCAM, both being arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party. JUST SAY NO AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

Attacking NPR and PBS, home to “Sesame Street,” is not new ground for the right. It’s not even MAGA-specific. In fact, the war on public broadcasting goes back decades and has been passed down from Republican to Republican.

The headquarters for NPR in Washington, D.C.

PBS and NPR are funded in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit funded by taxpayers. Programming on the networks is also funded by underwriters, which are sometimes private corporations but also individuals, other nonprofits, or trusts.

Back in the 1970s, President Richard Nixon opposed funding PBS and even vetoed congressional legislation that included money to keep the network going. Coincidentally, PBS led the way in airing uninterrupted coverage of the Watergate hearings, which would eventually lead to him resigning from the presidency. 

At the time, viewers of the commercial networks complained that hearing coverage interrupted regular programming, while networks like C-SPAN did not yet exist. PBS was a noncommercial venue for educating the public about the most serious issue of the moment.

In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan tried to cut public broadcasting funding even though the Democratic-led Congress had voted for money to be appropriated for that cause. Both George W. Bush and Trump (in his first term) attempted to defund the broadcasters as well.

During the 2012 presidential election, Republican nominee Mitt Romney joined the crusade against public media, only to be mocked in an ad from then-President Barack Obama. The ad noted that despite the crimes of Wall Street during the Great Recession, Romney had singled out Big Bird—complaining that taxpayers were funding “Sesame Street.”

Romney lost, and Big Bird remains.

But why are Republicans so focused on attacking PBS and NPR, to the point that the ire transcends the ideological differences within the Republican Party over decades?

A big part of the reason is trust. Public media in the United States has been a resounding success. Both on the radio and on television (and now online), PBS and NPR provide content trusted by a wide swath of Americans, and both services have a very good track record of providing information without corporate or political influence.

For over 22 years of polling, PBS has been ranked as the most trusted institution in the United States. A January poll from YouGov found that PBS was more highly regarded than courts of law, commercial television and print publications, and above even the federal government and Congress. 

Similarly, according to Harris Interactive in late 2024, NPR was ranked as the most trustworthy news media brand in America.

PBS Kids, which is the programming bloc where “Sesame Street” resides, is trusted by the vast majority of parents (88%), according to a YouGov poll. And 90% of parents agreed that PBS Kids helps to prepare children for educational success. Parents also ranked it as far and away the most educational media brand.

“Sesame Street” has long tackled important topics like racism, making it clear to children that this kind of bigotry is “wrong and unfair.”

In short, public broadcasting represents the opposite of many conservative beliefs. The networks support accessible information, prioritize education, and strive to produce content opposing bigotry.

Conservatives see more utility in divisive, bigoted figures—like Greene and Trump—than in Big Bird, who promotes kindness and friendship.

But the right’s leadership is out of touch with America on this topic. A March poll from the Pew Research Center revealed that more Americans support continued funding for PBS and NPR (43%) than want to eliminate its federal funding (24%).

A February poll from YouGov showed that even Trump voters value the network, with 65% saying the PBS is underfunded or adequately funded, and 72% saying they value PBS’ educational content.

Americans, as they have since the character first emerged, are firmly in Big Bird’s corner. Republicans have yet to learn how to get to Sesame Street.

If Big Bird represents Democratic values, Republicans most certainly rally around Oscar the (Self-Serving) Grouch. And my god, are Bert and Ernie really gay?

Protests Hit Tesla Dealerships Across the World to Repudiate Elon Musk

  From Australia to Europe and the US, demonstrators rallied against carmaker’s dismantling of US federal government. (photo: NBC News)

“Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.”

 

Dara Kerr and Edward Helmore / Guardian UK 

 29 March 25

 

Thousands of people worldwide on Saturday protested Elon Musk and his efforts with Donald Trump to dismantle the US federal government, with rallies held in front of nearly every Tesla showroom in the US and many around the world – a concerted effort to go after the billionaire’s deep pockets as the CEO of the electric vehicle maker.

Protest organizers asked people to do three things: don’t buy a Tesla, sell off Tesla stock and join the “Tesla Takedown” movement.

“Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk,” reads one of the group’s taglines. “Stopping Musk will help save lives and our democracy.”

On Saturday, with more than 200 events planned worldwide, protests kicked off midday in front of Tesla showrooms in Australia and New Zealand and then rippled across Europe in countries including Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the UK. Each rally was locally organized with original themes. In Ireland, it was “Smash the Fash”, and Switzerland had “Down with Doge”. 

Photos posted to Bluesky by Tesla Takedown showed demonstrators in San Jose, California, close to where Tesla was previously headquartered, and Austin, Texas, where its headquarters are now.

Musk, the world’s richest person, heads the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), which he’s tasked with slashing federal budgets in the US, including laying off thousands of workers, though he said in an interview Thursday: “Almost no one has gotten fired.” 

He’s gone after the Social Security Administration, the Department of Education, the National Park Service and several more departments and agencies, causing widespread backlash and criticism. Musk and Tesla did not return requests for comment.

In San Francisco, a crowd of around 200 people gathered in front of the Tesla showroom. Protesters spilled into the busy street and onto the median, confusing the self-driving Waymos trying to get around people darting back and forth.

A boombox blasted "We’re Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister and cars drove by honking enthusiastically. Even passing postal trucks, public buses and fire engines honked in support. People propped up signs with slogans like “Burn your swastikar before it burns you” and “No Doge bags”. Others flew massive American flags mounted upside down.

The block-long Tesla showroom was emptied of all cars, and only a few security guards stood inside, with some San Francisco police outside. At one point, a group of four men wearing red Maga hats and black Doge shirts walked through the crowd, but everything remained calm.

“I’m out here protesting because what I see is a hostile takeover of our country,” said Myra Levy, who was holding a sign that said “Pinche Ladrón” (“fucking thief”). “That is not OK for me. That is not OK for all of us.”

Her friend, Karen Heisler, emphatically added: “We did not vote for this.”

In Berkeley, California, the Tesla showroom has shut down every Saturday for the last month because of the weekly protests, according to salespeople from neighboring retailers. Only security guards have stayed on to guard the building. It’s been the scene of lively demonstrations that have included a mariachi band and a 10-foot cardboard Cybertruck for people to spray-paint. Earlier this month, the showroom’s front door was splattered with red paint. The showroom manager declined to comment.

In New York City, several hundred anti-Tesla protesters gathered outside the EV company’s Manhattan showroom on Saturday. Sophie Shepherd, 23, an organizer with Planet Over Profit, explained that the rally was not about protesting electric cars.

“We’re here to protest Musk, who has essentially held a Tesla car show on the White House lawn,” she said. “We want to disrupt his business as much as possible, so that includes all Teslas, and not just the Cybertruck.”

Marty, 82, said he was attending the New York City rally “because I’m worried about my country”. In the 1960s, he protested the Vietnam war. “Now, it’s the overthrow of our country by oligarchs,” he said. The rally, he went on, was a message to “this guy Elon who is buying our government”.

On Friday, the New York police department said its officers were searching for two suspects who allegedly carved the word “Nazis” and a swastika on the doors of a Tesla Cybertruck in Brooklyn this week, part of an uptick in attacks on Tesla vehicles and facilities across the US since Trump took office.

In Washington DC, organizers planned a rally in front of a new Tesla showroom in Georgetown, making the theme “Tesla Takedown Dance Party”. “Dump the meme stock, join dance lines,” read the flyer. “The stakes couldn’t be higher but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!”

“The hypocrisy is so deep,” said Manissa Maharawal, an assistant professor at American University who has studied anti-tech protests and points out that Tesla has received billions in government funding. “It’s this company that’s been subsidized in a lot of ways by the government, but now the CEO is trying to dismantle the government because he thinks he knows better than everyone, because he comes from the tech industry.”

In the US, protests happened in nearly every state, across the north-east, south and midwest through to the west coast. States with the most planned rallies included Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Texas, Washington and California, totaling more than 100. Several protests also took place throughout Canada.

In London, dozens of demonstrators gathered at a Tesla showroom along the three-lane A40 in West London.

“Musk is hugely abhorrent. He is funding the far right, and meaning that any Republicans who speak out end up not being funded in their next election,” said gay rights campaigner Nigel Warner.

“It’s too overwhelming to do nothing,” said Louise Cobbett-Witten, who has family in the US and was protesting at the Tesla dealership in west London. “There is real solace in coming together like this. Everyone has to do something. We haven’t got a big strategy besides just standing on the side of the street, holding signs and screaming.”

Tesla Takedown organizers reiterated the need for people to continue to speak out and protest against Musk, Trump and Doge. The stakes are high and “no one is coming to save us”, they say on their website.

Maharawal, from American University, said she was struck by that sentiment, saying: “For there to be a nationwide and global protest saying ‘no one’s coming to save us’ just speaks to the level of anger and desperation right now.”

Organizers have also been careful to distance themselves from the violent vandalism that has been carried out against Tesla showrooms. Dozens of Tesla facilities have been attacked in the middle of the night with molotov cocktails, gunshots or graffiti saying things like “Fuck Elon” and “Tesla Is Fascist”.

Trump has vowed to designate any violence against Tesla dealerships as domestic terrorism.

Tesla Takedown organizers condemn the vandalism. “We are a non-violent grassroots protest movement,” the group says. “We oppose violence and destruction of property. Peaceful protest on public property is not domestic terrorism.”

Despite campaign promise, it only took two months for Trump and Musk to break Social Security

President Donald Trump lies to America as Elon Musk nods approval in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 11, 2025.

Seems tax cuts for billionaires "Trump" a self-funded retirement program

 

By Emily Singer

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 3:00:01p MDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY: 

Blue Country Gazette Blog 

Rim Country Gazette Blog

President Donald Trump and co-President Elon Musk's cuts to the Social Security Administration's workforce and operations have caused massive problems for the popular social safety net program that 73 million Americans depend on to afford their basic cost of living.

The Washington Post published a bombshell report on Tuesday, detailing the problems Musk has caused at the Social Security Administration through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency.

From the report:

The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.

[…]

The turmoil is leaving many retirees, disabled claimants and legal immigrants who need Social Security cards with less access or shut out of the system altogether, according to those familiar with the problems.

The problems are thanks to a myriad of choices Musk has made to how the agency runs.

The Social Security Administration plans to cut roughly 7,000 employees—or 12% of its workforce—which current and former Social Security officials say could make it impossible for the program to keep up with the needs of the tens of millions of Americans who receive and apply for benefits annually.

“Everything they have done so far is breaking the agency’s ability to serve the public,” Martin O’Malley, who served as Social Security commissioner under former President Joe Biden, told The New York Times.

Musk and his DOGE bros also changed the way recipients can verify their identities to the agency, nixing the ability to do so over the phone and requiring the elderly and disabled people who receive benefits to do it either online or in-person. That’s an incredible burden for a population that is not as computer literate as others. It could also burden recipients who live in rural areas or areas with poor internet access. Going in person would be even more of a burden since many elderly and disabled recipients cannot travel to offices—if they could even get an appointment.

Demonstrators gather outside of the Edward A. Garmatz United States District Courthouse in Baltimore, on March 14, 2025, before a hearing regarding the Department of Government Efficiency's access to Social Security data.

A memo obtained by the newsletter Popular Information said the new identity-verification procedure would lead an additional 75,000 to 85,000 weekly visits to agency offices. In turn, that would lead to “longer wait times and processing times,” the memo said. Already, wait times for appointments can be more than a month.

Musk has had it out for Social Security since his buddy Trump put him in charge of finding waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government.

Musk criticized the social safety net program as a “Ponzi scheme.” He lied that the program is rife with fraud—lies that have led eligible people to lose benefits. He also helped force out the acting Social Security administrator and replace him Leland Dudek, an unqualified hothead who has acted vindictively since taking over.

For example, Dudek canceled a contract that allowed new parents in Maine to apply for Social Security numbers for their newborn infants at the hospital—a move that would have forced those parents to travel to a Social Security office to obtain. He seemingly did it to punish Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who stood up to Trump at a meeting with governors.

Dudek also threatened to shut the entire Social Security Administration down because he was mad that a judge blocked DOGE officials from accessing Americans’ sensitive personal information as they sought to prove Musk’s baseless lies that the agency is rife with fraud.

Musk isn’t the only Trump administration official attacking Social Security.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick disparaged the program and accused anyone who has had problems receiving benefits as being "fraudsters."

"Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain. She just wouldn't. She thinks something got messed up and she'll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise screaming, yelling, and complaining. And all the guys who did PayPal, like Elon knows this by heart, right? Anybody who's been in the payment system and the process system knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen,” Lutnick—who is a billionaire and could easily ensure his mother-in-law wouldn’t face financial ruin if her Social Security check went missing—said on a podcast.

Musk’s attacks on the overwhelmingly popular social safety net program goes against Trump’s claim that he would protect Social Security if elected.

And breaking Social Security is politically moronic. It is one of the most popular programs in the country. 

Eighty-seven percent of Americans ages 25 and older believe that Social Security should be a priority for the nation, regardless of governmental budget deficits, according to an October 2023 poll from Greenwald Research for the National Institute on Retirement Security, a nonpartisan research organization. And a more recent poll, conducted by Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that 67% of Americans believed the government spends too little on Social Security. Only 6% said too much is spent on the program.

What’s more, older voters who receive Social Security benefits are among the most reliable voting blocs in the country. That means a backlash from those voters could sink Republicans chances in the 2026 midterm elections. In 2024, Trump won voters ages 65 and older by just 1 percentage point, according to exit polls, so even a modest backlash from that voting group could heavily damage Republicans next November.

And the signs that the backlash is coming are already showing up. Older voters are packing into Republican lawmakers’ town halls to demand they stand up to Musk’s DOGE cuts.

Time to take to the streets, Seniors.  You have nothing to lose but the food on your table.

GAFFE CENTRAL: Who exactly is running the White House? It's sure not Trump

 No, France, you can't have the Statue of Liberty back.  Trump is not done with her yet.

"Trump is both notorious liar and moron, so you never know whether he is playing dumb, or really doesn’t get what is going on."

 

By Emily Singer 

Daily Kos Staff 

Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 12:00:14p MDT 

 

REPUBLISHED BY: 

Blue Country Gazette Blog 

Rim Country Gazette Blog

President Donald Trump’s incoherent response to his senior military and intelligence officials compromising national security by sharing the details of an impending military strike on an unsecure text messaging app raises a terrifying question: Who is even running things around here?

Trump has repeatedly said that he’s either not been briefed on the massive security lapse, or has shown he doesn’t understand what happened—neither of which is reassuring.

For example, the day that Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg reported that he was apparently inadvertently added to a Signal chat with Vice President JD Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and other top national security officials where they were discussing an imminent attack on a rebel group in Yemen, Trump said he didn’t know that happened.

"I don't know anything about it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I'm not a big fan of The Atlantic. To me it's a magazine that's going out of business. But I know nothing about it. You're saying that they had what?"

The question was posed to him hours after the article was published, giving him ample time to have had a response prepared. What’s more, since Goldberg had reached out to the White House for comment before the article was published, Trump should have known for even longer that the story was coming. The fact that he said he didn’t know about it means he was either lying or hadn’t been kept in the loop by his own staff—which again are both terrible scenarios.

Then on Wednesday, days after the story broke, Trump gave an interview to right-wing podcaster Vince Coglianese in which he suggested he didn’t even know what the Signal messaging app was.

“But somebody in my group, either screwed up or it’s a bad signal. It’s a bad signal, happens too,” Trump said, apparently thinking that this scandal revolves around a literal signal and not the Signal messaging app.

Additionally on Wednesday, when The Atlantic released yet more texts showing that Hegseth had shared classified information in the thread about the exact timing of the attacks and what weapons systems would be used, Trump falsely claimed to reporters that Hegseth wasn’t involved.

"Hegseth is doing a great job. He had nothing to do with this. How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it,” Trump said while sitting in the Oval Office.

Trump then went on to make more nonsensical comments about Signal, giving an answer that ultimately makes what his top administration officials did look even worse.

“You want to ask about whether or not Signal works? I don’t know that Signal works. I think Signal could be defective to be honest with you. And I think that’s what we have to do, because you use Signal and we use Signal and everybody uses Signal, but it could be a defective platform and we’re going to have to figure that out.”

That response certainly doesn’t help Trump’s argument that this is all a hoax, given that we know his aides used Signal to share classified information—which Trump described as a “defective platform.”

Of course, Trump is both a notorious liar and a moron, so you never know whether he is lying by playing dumb, or really doesn’t understand what is going on.

In this instance, it’s likely both, as the technologically illiterate Trump—who thinks his own son is some sort of genius because he can turn on a laptop computer—probably doesn’t understand what Signal is.

Nevertheless, we should have faith that our president has a grasp of what is going on and will hold his administration accountable for putting lives on the line by discussing classified information that could have gotten American troops killed.

But given that Trump is refusing to take responsibility for the security lapse, defending the bad behavior of his inept Cabinet officials, and lying about the scandal itself being a “hoax,” we are not holding our breath that any accountability is on the way.

Maybe Trump was too busy giving Ukraine away to Putin to pay attention to a major security gaffe pulled by several of his appointees.