The Apprentice Season 2 - The Second Presidency of Donald Trump

[hepcat]

I'm afraid of tanning this summer, thanks to these shitheels.

[raydude]

The fact that Columbia so quickly caved to the tariffs means Trump is going to be emboldened to use them more...give me Greenland or tariffs, become the 51st state or tariffs, etc

The rest of the Americas, particularly South American nations, are going to snuggle up with China to fight off Trump's "dealmaking." Bullies eventually run into resistance.

It will shock Trump/admin but when you wipe out your diplomatic corps and purge anyone who knows anything, everything comes as a surprise.

Installing an incompetent drunk and sex fiend as Secretary of Defense; one who promises to purge the military (aka Stalin style), wiping out your diplomatic corps, withdrawing all foreign aid (creating a vacuum for other countries to influence them), and installing a "yes" man to be Director of National Intelligence? China must be salivating at our incompetence.

[Zaxxon]

The fact that Columbia so quickly caved to the tariffs means Trump is going to be emboldened to use them more...give me Greenland or tariffs, become the 51st state or tariffs, etc

Common mistake (Trump made it, too, natch!): Columbia generally refers to areas or things named after Christopher Columbus, that rascally waif. Colombia is the correct spelling our our South American neighbor.

[IceBear]

Sorry, I trusted spell check /autocorrect too much. Thanks

[Enough]

It's starting to have splash damage here now. NSF grant review panels now frozen just like NIH. A 5-year BLM contract that included important funding for multiple co-workers canceled (that the local BLM office really needs). Emails from uni admin letting us know they have received stop-work orders from the Department of the Interior, NASA, Department of Labor and of course are expecting more to come. We also have two staff members that are here legally but we now are greatly concerned if they will be able to renew paperwork when the time comes, or worse. We're not that important in the grand scheme of things, but this still impacts real people that have worked hard to contribute to society and it's just so damn sad.

[Skinypupy]

Emails from uni admin letting us know they have received stop-work orders from the Department of the Interior, NASA, Department of Labor and of course are expecting more to come.

In the past week, I've had around 80% of my leadership training programs for FY2025 either canceled outright or put on "indefinite hold". This includes work with USAID, FEMA, DOI bureaus (BLM, Fish & Wildlife, USGS, Park Service, etc.), HUD, SBA, IRS, and NASA. The only thing that has survived the cut so far was a bit of the work with SBA and HUD that was contracted last fall.

Today was an especially fun morning when my boss asked, "With all of these challenges, what's your strategy to still hit your growth numbers?"

[Zaxxon]

Sorry, guys. This is going to be a shitty [4 - infinity] years…

[hepcat]

My hope is a repeat of his last term where he eventually got bored and went back to golfing 6 out every 7 days. Of course, he will have left the couch screwer and Elon Muskanov in charge, so we’ll need to learn Russian before too long…

[Smoove_B]

Things are evolving fast:

President Donald Trump, speaking at the House Republican Retreat in Doral, Florida, suggested Monday that he wanted to fly American criminals to other countries who will incarcerate them for "a small fee."

"I don't want these violent repeat offenders in our country anymore. If they've been arrested many, many times, I want them out of our country," Trump said. Let them be brought to a foreign land and maintained by others for a very small fee as opposed to be maintained in our jails for massive amounts of money including the private prison companies that charge us a fortune. Let them be brought out of our country and let them live there for a while and see how they like it. You'll see crime all over the country dry up."

Sure hope you don't end up being declared a criminal, citizen.

[Enough]

Things are evolving fast:

President Donald Trump, speaking at the House Republican Retreat in Doral, Florida, suggested Monday that he wanted to fly American criminals to other countries who will incarcerate them for "a small fee."

"I don't want these violent repeat offenders in our country anymore. If they've been arrested many, many times, I want them out of our country," Trump said. Let them be brought to a foreign land and maintained by others for a very small fee as opposed to be maintained in our jails for massive amounts of money including the private prison companies that charge us a fortune. Let them be brought out of our country and let them live there for a while and see how they like it. You'll see crime all over the country dry up."

Sure hope you don't end up being declared a criminal, citizen.

Comply or Siberia?

[Zarathud]

The problem is that the Supreme Court found the President to be immune. Any other President would have hesitated over the potential liability from making such unconstitutional statements, if not the indecency.

[Smoove_B]

All disbursements of grants and loans has ceased:

President Donald Trump’s budget office on Monday ordered all federal agencies to temporarily block disbursement of grants and loans — other than for Social Security, Medicare and other programs providing direct aid to individuals.

The memo says the temporary pause, effective starting at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, is intended to ensure agencies are complying with Trump’s executive orders to root out “Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies” from programs within their purview.

It’s not immediately clear how wide-ranging the pause will be in practice, due to the Office of Management and Budget’s ability to grant exceptions on a “case-by-case basis,” language exempting direct aid to individuals and a clause that states the pause is subject to what’s “permissible under applicable law.”

Note:

At face value, the memo represents a major halt to the flow of funds from programs that could equal around 20 percent of all federal spending, not including interest on the debt. The memo said total spending on programs meeting the definition of “federal financial assistance” that could be impacted reached $3 trillion in fiscal 2024, though exemptions are likely to reduce that figure.

Still, as written the pause could affect a big swath of programs that aid lower-income households, including: Medicaid; school breakfast and lunch programs; Section 8 rental assistance; Title I education grants; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; state grants for child care; Head Start; and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program and EPA grants to states and localities for clean water infrastructure — both of which fund a large chunk of congressional earmarks each year — could also be impacted.

Foreign aid grants are likely to be put on hold as well as clean energy projects, as those are specifically named in earlier executive orders.

State highway reimbursements, while technically part of the federal financial assistance category, could get an early exemption based on the reaction last week to Trump’s executive order halting outlays from the 2021 infrastructure package.

Reports from each agency on all accounts subject to the pause are due back to OMB on Feb. 10.

But yeah, just keep those confirmation hearings rolling.

[Max Peck]

I'm old enough to remember when federal government shut-downs were the purview of a congress at odds with the executive branch, but it appears to work a lot better when they're both on the same page.

[Octavious]

Ya well I'm pretty sure if college don't immediately pull any DEI programs they won't be getting any aid. I want to puke...This is insane.

[Smoove_B]

And he's not done yet - another set of EOs were signed tonight doing all kinds of awful things:

President Trump signed multiple executive orders Monday night that could reshape the management and composition of the military, with provisions addressing diversity measures, transgender service members, and troops who were discharged for refusing COVID vaccinations.

He also signed an executive order to establish a process to develop what the administration is calling an American Iron Dome — a missile defense shield for the homeland. (Iron Dome is the name often used for Israel's system for intercepting rockets, which was developed with U.S. support.)

Mr. Trump signed the four orders aboard Air Force One as he flew back to Washington from a stop in Florida.

One of the orders would reinstate members of the military who were discharged for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine. About 8,200 service members were discharged for refusing to comply with the Pentagon's COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to data provided by the service branches. However, the mandate was rescinded in January 2023 by the Biden administration, and since then, about 110 service members have rejoined the military.

The president also signed an executive order directing the Pentagon to determine a policy for transgender service members based on readiness, a White House official said. The action does not immediately ban transgender service members.

...

Another order addresses diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the military, banning the use of race- or sex-based preferences in the armed forces, the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department.

"I ordered the end to all of the lawless diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense policies across the government and all across the private sector and the military," Mr. Trump said at the House GOP retreat. "We're getting it out and we've gotten it out pretty much. We did that in one week, and it wasn't that easy, but everybody wanted it."

I'm assuming they'll all be on the White House page later this evening or early tomorrow morning after the Gorilla Channel stops broadcasting.

[Octavious]

All I want at this point is my daughter to make it through college and at least have some hope that someone will scrape some kind of country back together. My father can fuck off I'm done with people that support this asshole.

[Smoove_B]

I am honestly not sure how we survive as a nation when he just "paused" a significant amount of money - funds that likely impact quite a few Americans more than they realize. I'm still trying to process just ordering something north of a trillion dollars to just stop.

I guess we'll see what starts happening tomorrow when news media catches up and starts to (hopefully) detail out all the impacts - both intentional and unintentional he just kicked off.

Realistically it's going to likely lead to lawsuits that will presumably end up in front of the Supreme Court. How long that takes and how long they take to decide...I'm not hopeful we survive it.

Right now I'm guessing there are colleges and universities around the nation looking at their budgets and scrambling to see if they can keep academic staff on or they're just going to need to let them go.

[Victoria Raverna]

So Trump is likely to destroy the economy and that'll affect everyone including his Maga supporters?

[Max Peck]

Yes, but all good Magamericans will blame Biden and the Deep State (dibs on Biden and the Deep State as a band name).

[Zarathud]

No rails.

This is what not Great.
This is not how you run a country, let alone America.
This is how a terrible businessman with a reputation for not paying the bills operates.

[hepcat]

So Trump is likely to destroy the economy and that'll affect everyone including his Maga supporters?

Not if you use his brand new Trump crypto currency! It can be exchanged for goods at all Trump stores!

[Blackhawk]

We are approaching a point at which the nation itself could become a liability to individual states. That could lead to... interesting tomorrows.

[Rumpy]

Our local university declared insolvency several years ago, and it pretty much went exactly as you described. It was very messy and very public. They had to cut staff, programs, reorganize the deck chairs, etc. The cause? The answer is twofold: Mismanagement ran it into the ground, and the government had announced financial aid during Covid for learning institutions that needed it, and while they were expecting to receive it, they didn't make the cut. We even have an Olympic grade swimming pool, but it can't be used because the university doesn't have the money to repair and maintain it. The university as of last year was just starting to get back on its feet.

[Kraken]

Realistically it's going to likely lead to lawsuits that will presumably end up in front of the Supreme Court. How long that takes and how long they take to decide...I'm not hopeful we survive it.

If there's one thing trump has mastered, it's using legal time to his advantage. By the time the wheels of justice can grind fine, the recipe doesn't need that ingredient any more.

So Trump is likely to destroy the economy and that'll affect everyone including his Maga supporters?

No, the economy will perform just fine for the capitalists. Those who are worst-off now will be even worse off; those who are rich now will get fabulously richer.

[waitingtoconnect]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... r-AA1xYjnD

Trump has suspended all grants.

It’s insane

And project 2025 and musk employees are running around the OPM offices identifying people not loyal enough to trump. Data on them is supposedly being copied and sent to unknown locations by these people.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1 ... Management

So much for project 2025 being a myth. On the associated reddit thread many non political workers are being told by their families to be loyal to trump or to write him a letters begging for their jobs.

One can only assume everything else was a distraction while they did this.

[Zarathud]

In the meantime, China and Putin are no doubt making their move against Elon’s unsecured servers. Because it’s not efficient to have security.

[waitingtoconnect]

It’s worse than that. With opm records they can go through every major contractor and’s their sub contractors and ban companies with “dei” policies as per project 2025. It’s why Amazon and meta dropped their dei.

The stories from staff is hard to read.



Remember as someone in this forum once said, “The path to hell is paved with people telling you to quit overreacting.”

[Victoria Raverna]

So they voted for Trump because they think Trump was lying and not going to do what he said he is going to do?

[LordMortis]

My father can fuck off I'm done with people that support this asshole.

I hit that point at the election. I was just starting to cool off and then day 1 happened last week and I went from cool to cold. They're still family. I'll still come running if they come calling but there is no social aspect left. As late in life as we all are, I'm not sure it will ever come back.

[waitingtoconnect]

Sing them the song perhaps

[LawBeefaroni]

This sure smells like the end stages of wealth extraction. Run up unimagable debt to keep everything humming along. Lower taxes to encourage spending which is all trickled up. Leave a bankrupt husk.

They not only found a demagogue willing to do this, they found one with a solid history of doing so already. He built the 'Trump Empire" and brand on bankruptcy and bombast. It's the perfect storm.


All the social stuff is a smokescreen. Anti-trans laws, ICE roundups, Musk constantly clowning....endless distractions while they loot to palace.

[LordMortis]

All the social stuff is a smokescreen. Anti-trans laws, ICE roundups, Musk constantly clowning....endless distractions while they loot to palace.

Loot the palace but also concentrate power. When you have generational wealth from a seemingly never ending stream, the next step I'd think is demonstrating power over people.

[Enough]

I am honestly not sure how we survive as a nation when he just "paused" a significant amount of money - funds that likely impact quite a few Americans more than they realize. I'm still trying to process just ordering something north of a trillion dollars to just stop.

I guess we'll see what starts happening tomorrow when news media catches up and starts to (hopefully) detail out all the impacts - both intentional and unintentional he just kicked off.

Realistically it's going to likely lead to lawsuits that will presumably end up in front of the Supreme Court. How long that takes and how long they take to decide...I'm not hopeful we survive it.

Right now I'm guessing there are colleges and universities around the nation looking at their budgets and scrambling to see if they can keep academic staff on or they're just going to need to let them go.

Welp, depending how it's interpreted he's going to potentially cause a stupid amount of harm to me and my coworkers for awards we won from competitive RFPs that we invested a lot time and funds in applying to get. During the summers we get upwards of 100 people and collapse down after field season to maybe 35-50. We and the uni are running around like chickens with our heads cut off this week trying to figure out how to prepare, what it means, etc., instead of you know doing our normal jobs. It's already having significant ripples on our productivity. But if this edict is what it seems to be, we might be seriously boned.

[Skinypupy]

Welp, depending how it's interpreted he's going to potentially cause a stupid amount of harm to me and my coworkers for awards we won from competitive RFPs that we invested a lot time and funds in applying to get. During the summers we get upwards of 100 people and collapse down after field season to maybe 35-50. We and the uni are running around like chickens with our heads cut off this week trying to figure out how to prepare, what it means, etc., instead of you know doing our normal jobs. It's already having significant ripples on our productivity. But if this edict is what it seems to be, we might be seriously boned.

I'm so sorry man. Nothing worse than being force to be completely reactive like that. Same boat here.

Will be interesting to see if/how much of an unemployment spike we see from all of this. I know MAGA views all these actions as only affecting those damn liberals, but it's going to leave a pretty massive economic wake for everyone.

Not that Trump and MAGA actually give a shit about whether it causes people to suffer, of course. I'm sure they're actively rooting for it so they can say they were STIGGINIT.

[Enough]

Welp, depending how it's interpreted he's going to potentially cause a stupid amount of harm to me and my coworkers for awards we won from competitive RFPs that we invested a lot time and funds in applying to get. During the summers we get upwards of 100 people and collapse down after field season to maybe 35-50. We and the uni are running around like chickens with our heads cut off this week trying to figure out how to prepare, what it means, etc., instead of you know doing our normal jobs. It's already having significant ripples on our productivity. But if this edict is what it seems to be, we might be seriously boned.

I'm so sorry man. Nothing worse than being force to be completely reactive like that. Same boat here.

Will be interesting to see if/how much of an unemployment spike we see from all of this. I know MAGA views all these actions as only affecting those damn liberals, but it's going to leave a pretty massive economic wake for everyone.

Not that Trump and MAGA actually give a shit about whether it causes people to suffer, of course. I'm sure they're actively rooting for it so they can say they were STIGGINIT.

Thanks, still hoping for the best as we wait to see the stop-work orders show up. I will keep this thread updated.

[Zaxxon]

Sorry, Enough!

Related, John Green with a reminder that we all here know, but which a lot of folks are going to realize (or mindlessly not) Real Soon Now...

[LordMortis]

Will be interesting to see if/how much of an unemployment spike we see from all of this.

You mean an excuse to lower interest rates to allow more capital to flow to "founders" while concurrently giving them more power over labor markets? Just don't call it QE when this GOP administration has all of the rei(g)n(s).

[baelthazar]

It's week 2 and we have two blatantly unconstitutional actions from the executive branch. I guess we get to see if Republicans in Congress believe we live in a democracy with constitutional rules (one of which is that the congress holds the power of the purse) or if they should all just go home because we live in an autocracy where a surprise memo has the power to change the very political landscape of federal funding by fiat.

[IceBear]

Unfortunately, it'll be #2

[Lassr]

Wish I could retire. Although NASA shouldn't be harmed too much, it will not be untouched. Already lost a few contractors due to DEIA cut. Lost 199 new hires due to hiring freeze, so short staffed and expect to continue the mission. I just feel icky working under this administration. I have to refocus and think that we are still performing a mission for the betterment of the human race, put my head down, and do my job. But I'm not immensely satisfied or happy with my job right now. Hopefully it is just 4 years of misery before a slow return to some normalcy...