On Tariffs, It’s Good to Be “Tim Apple”

Tariffs are advertised in the name of helping American workers, but what do you know? They turn out to favor the powerful and politically connected. That’s the main message of President Trump’s decision to exempt smartphones and assorted electronic goods from his most onerous tariffs.

On Tariffs, It’s Good to Be Tim Cook

Related:

Tim Cook gifted Donald Trump a $6,000 Mac Pro after he lowered tariffs on parts Apple needed from China

At the time Apple and Cook were applying a charm offensive to persuade then-President Trump to remove tariffs on certain components that came from China. Cook asked Trump if he could meet him in person to make Apple’s case, a gesture the former president found “impressive,” he told Bloomberg. Trump was particularly pleased at the time that Cook reached out, especially considering his acrimonious relationship with other tech CEOs. 

[2019] Apple dodges iPhone tariff after Trump confirms trade deal agreement with China

Although the trade deal affects billions of dollars worth of goods, it’s a particular victory for Apple CEO Tim Cook, who has personally worked to keep communication open with the Trump administration. Cook’s charm offensive culminated last month when he gave Trump a tour of a Mac Pro assembly plant in Texas. That computer is assembled in the United States, and Apple was granted tariff waivers for several of its components.

Social Security rushing service cuts at White House request, sources say

The Social Security Administration is rushing cuts to phone services at the White House’s request, the agency’s acting commissioner told Social Security advocates in a meeting on Monday, two sources who attended tell Axios.

Social Security rushing service cuts at White House request, sources say

Previously:

Trump’s Billionaire Commerce Secretary: Only ‘Fraudsters’ Will Complain If Social Security Checks Don’t Arrive

No, 150-Year-Olds Aren’t Collecting Social Security Benefits

Trump’s Medicaid reversal should worry Social Security recipients.

Trump’s Billionaire Commerce Secretary: Only ‘Fraudsters’ Will Complain If Social Security Checks Don’t Arrive

One group noted who would actually complain: “Someone who depends on Social Security to buy groceries. Someone who depends on Social Security to pay rent. Someone who depends on Social Security to survive.”

Trump’s Billionaire Commerce Secretary: Only ‘Fraudsters’ Will Complain If Social Security Checks Don’t Arrive

Top Trump allies hold secret talks with Zelenskyy’s Ukrainian opponents

Poroshenko: ‘Donbas children will sit in cellars, ours’ will go to school’

Top Trump allies hold secret talks with Zelenskyy’s Ukrainian opponents

The senior Trump allies held talks with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a remorselessly ambitious former prime minister, and senior members of the party of Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s immediate predecessor as president, according to three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a U.S. Republican foreign policy expert.

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Trump 2.0: Prepare for the further dumbing down of America

No, it’s not Communism! It’s the privatization of education. “School choice” takes away from government spending for public schools!

Source

Trump Chooses Longtime Ally Linda McMahon to Run Education Dept.

President-elect Donald J. Trump on Tuesday tapped Linda McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive who ran the Small Business Administration for much of his first term, to lead the Education Department, an agency he has routinely singled out for elimination in his upcoming term.

In part because of her recent policy role and her experience as the small business administrator, Ms. McMahon had been discussed as a possible pick to lead the Commerce Department until the role was officially offered to Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street executive and a chairman of the Trump transition team, earlier in the day.

Ms. McMahon will be in charge of overseeing what is widely expected to be a thorough and determined dismantling of the department’s core functions, as Mr. Trump and many of those in his orbit have questioned the agency’s purpose and disparaged its work as overregulating schools on political and ideological terms.

Other than a brief appointment in 2009 to the Connecticut State Board of Education, where she served for just over a year, Ms. McMahon has no experience in overseeing education policy. She would assume the role at a time when school districts across the country are facing budget shortfalls, many students are not making up ground lost during the pandemic in reading and math, and many colleges and universities are shrinking and closing amid a larger loss of faith in the value of higher education.

While Mr. Trump has repeatedly called for an outright dissolution of the agency, any effort to shutter it would require congressional action and support from some Republican lawmakers whose districts depend on federal aid for public education.

But the America First Policy Institute has set out a more immediate list of changes it says could be achieved through vastly changing the department’s priorities. Those include stopping schools from “promoting inaccurate and unpatriotic concepts” about American history surrounding institutionalized racism, and expanding “school choice” programs that direct more public funds to parents to spend on home-schooling, online classes or at private and religious schools.

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Howard Lutnick, the Wall Street Billionaire Staffing Trump’s Cabinet, Hosted a Fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Bid in 2016

On Friday evening, August 2, Howard Lutnick, the Chairman and CEO of the Wall Street trading house, Cantor Fitzgerald, held a fundraiser populated by the super wealthy at his home in the Hamptons. The bash was to help presidential candidate Donald Trump shore up his sagging campaign coffers. Tickets went for $25,000 each or $50,000 if you wanted a photo with Trump. You could be listed on the program as a host for a mere $500,000. According to Lutnick, the event raised $15 million. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, Lutnick himself was responsible for a third of that amount. He wrote out a check for $5 million to the Trump campaign the Monday after the event.

Howard Lutnick, the Wall Street Billionaire Staffing Trump’s Cabinet, Hosted a Fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Bid in 2016

Previously:

Nothing will change under Trump:

Trump’s transition team has ties to the front organization Atlas Network through the America First Policy Institute.