Copy of Sentinel V22 #29-Thoughts On Spring Politics
- Steve Dittmer
- Jul 22
- 4 min read
Trump’s First 100 Days Have Mostly Ups, Some Downs
Steve Dittmer | AFF Sentinel
Colorado Springs, CO
Originally sent to subscribers 04/18/25
President Trump has been confident China will eventually have to come to the negotiating table. Although President Xi has tried to shift China from an exporting nation to a domestic consumption economy, that shift hasn’t worked out as well as he’d hoped. The Chinese economy is not healthy and the reduced value of real estate has been a big drag.
One thing well-known China expert Gordon Chang has noted in his discussions of Chinese politics and its military has involved Xi’s control of both by pretty tough tactics, by our standards. That has meant, in the past, the selection of the harshest solutions to problems as the way to keep people in line and put off adversaries to his political power, Chang said just days ago.
That evidently was the official Chinese thought, too. Word has just been received in the last few days that China has replaced its lead trade negotiator and sent a replacement over. The interpretation is that the original negotiator was too harsh, too confrontational and they’ve replaced him with a more moderate official.
We shall see if this means substantive negotiations will ensue soon.
Trump has been different from old-line Republicans from the beginning in that he doesn’t believe for a minute that he needs to, or can, please the media or the Democrat party. Some Republicans have been paralyzed or reluctant to do things boldly because they wanted to be loved by the media. Donald Trump’s early popularity before the 2016 election was his refusal to abide by Politically Correct prescriptions, which eventually morphed into the Woke culture. He also coined the term Fake Media, which has infuriated the media but has pilloried them as the general public caught up to Trump’s perception.
One of the most pervasive lies of the Democrat Party has been that tax cuts would only benefit the “rich,” that lower tax rates automatically meant lower revenue for the federal government and thus, less money for them to redistribute to causes they favor and constituencies they depend on for votes.
That the way to increase government revenue is to lower tax rates is something Democrats and, alas, some thick-headed Republicans, have never been able to grasp. We’ve printed the actual factual revenue increase figures here in the past.
But there are evidently some vestige Republicans somewhere on Trump’s team that don’t get it that 1) Republicans can never please the liberal media; 2) increasing tax rates will decrease the federal government’s revenue 3) increasing the top tax bracket will not be enough to quiet the savage beast that is the media and 4) the top tax bracket is where small businesses organized as LLCs or Subchapter S corporations file. Raising tax rates on that bracket would squish the 40 percent of GDP and the 50 percent of the labor force that small business contributes to the economy and growth.
So, in their quest for intelligent (political) life in D.C., Trump’s team -- someone like fabulous, ferocious and on-point attack dog Stephen Miller -- must find out what stupid team members have been mooting a tax rate increase on the top bracket and banish them far, far, away.
Among solid traits Trump possesses, one is promises made and promises kept. Another is loyalty to him and the cause. Some D.C. folks just don’t seem to learn. He has never said nor do we believe he would countenance a tax increase on any bracket.
Members of Congress are in their home districts until reconvening the 28th after a two-week Easter recess. That makes it a good time contact them and establish or renew contact with their staff on several issues. Those issues include priorities in the reconciliation bill (tax cuts, border security, energy permitting, deregulation, etc.), the SAVE Act (ID required to vote) and the Rogue judges bill (prohibits district judges from issuing nationwide injunctions).
A contact of mine sent a cartoon drawing that made a great point: If a NGO shuts down because government funding was cut, then it is not, and never was, a Non-Governmental-Organization.
A smart thought on trade. We have lots of good friends in the cattle business in Canada and do not want to see them suffer. We were glad to see our beef and cattle trade go back under the USMCA rules that have contributed to robust trade in both directions. We both need that trade. We don’t know many folks in Mexico but many of U.S. feedyards have fed Mexican cattle for years and need that supply.
But Judge Jeanine Pirro brought up a point that we hadn’t thought of the other day and it’s worth sharing with you.
“When President Trump first started going after Canada and Mexico, everybody was like, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re our neighbors, they’re wonderful people, why are we doing this? We love the Canadians,’” Pirro began.
Trump campaigned on standing up to Communist China on trade and that meant getting tough with countries that enabled their cheating.
“Well, the truth is China is making cars in Mexico and Canada and not paying a tariff on them and selling them in the United States while they are putting a tariff on our cars. Look, you are going to tariff my goods, but I’m going to lay down and let you roll all over me and sell your stuff with virtually no tariff on it? Enough. And this is what Donald Trump ran on and he’s delivering,” Pirro added, on Fox News (rightnewswire.com).
Whether they realized it was happening at first or not, both countries have become launching pads for China’s efforts to cannibalize America’s economy, go around our labor force, attack our population with fentanyl and take the cash back to China. Now that the Mexican border is nearly shut down, the cartels ore concentrating on the northern border.
Eventually, that was either going to end, whether by destroying us completely or by putting a stop to it before that happened. It is high time us three get together and fix this before we all get taken advantage of and then destroyed.
Our address: Agribusiness Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 88179, Colorado Springs, CO. 80908.
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