Fox News: Trump blasts Powell, says any replacement would be better for refinancing $9T debt

Former president vows to appoint someone who will slash interest rates to help refinance $9T in national debt

President Donald Trump said he would welcome anyone but Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to lower interest rates as the U.S. is faced with having to refinance about $9 trillion in debt.

Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo sat down with Trump for an interview that aired Sunday, when she asked the president how he was going to deal with the $9 trillion in debt that is due this year.

Trump said he was going to refinance the $9 trillion as short-term debt because “we have a stupid person” at the Federal Reserve.

The president explained his desire for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates so the U.S. does not have to pay for 10 years of debt at a higher rate.

Our root problem is that we have an extremely stupid child in the White House.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/trump-blasts-powell-says-any-replacement-would-better-refinancing-9t-debt

Daily Beast: Trump Sends Dollar Plunging With Plan to Turn Federal Reserve MAGA

The president is looking for a new Fed chair who is “unstintingly loyal.”

The U.S. dollar plunged Thursday to a three-year low after word got out that President Donald Trump is plotting to announce a MAGA-friendly Federal Reserve chair as early as this summer.

Peeved at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s refusal to slash interest rates, Trump has unleashed blistering attacks against the banker, calling him the “WORST” and a “dummy” who is “costing America $Billions.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-sends-dollar-plunging-with-plan-to-turn-federal-reserve-maga

Fox Business: Bessent condemns Newsom’s ‘dangerous’ threat to withhold $80B in federal taxes amid trans athlete controversy

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has accused California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom of threatening to commit tax evasion after he threatened to stop paying the “over $80 BILLION” in taxes the state pays to the federal government.

Bessent is a f*ck*ng overreacting drama queen. Gavin Newsom simply made a joke:

“Californians pay the bills for the federal government,” Newsom said on X. “We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it’s time to cut that off, @realDonaldTrump.”

Give that such taxes are paid by businesses and individuals directly to the federal government, there’s no way for California to stop the payments.

Fox must be desperate for real news to report.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/bessent-condemns-newsoms-dangerous-threat-withhold-80b-federal-taxes-amid-trans-athlete-controversy

Associated Press: Trump’s big plans on trade and more run up against laws of political gravity, separation of powers

On Wednesday, an obscure but powerful court in New York rejected the legal foundation of Trump’s most sweeping tariffs, finding that Trump could not use a 1977 law to declare a national emergency on trade imbalances and fentanyl smuggling to justify a series of import taxes that have unsettled the world. Reordering the global economy by executive fiat was an unconstitutional end-run around Congress’ powers, the three-judge panel of Trump, Obama and Reagan appointees ruled in a scathing rebuke of Trump’s action.

The setbacks fit a broader pattern for a president who has advanced an extraordinarily expansive view of executive power. Federal courts have called out the lack of due process in some of Trump’s deportation efforts. His proposed income tax cuts, now working their way through Congress, are so costly that some of them can’t be made permanent, as Trump had wished. His efforts to humble Harvard University and cut the federal workforce have encountered legal obstacles. And he’s running up against reality as his pledges to quickly end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have turned into slogs.

By unilaterally ordering tariffs, deportations and other actions through the White House, Trump is bypassing both Congress and the broader public, which could have given more popular legitimacy to his policy choices, said Princeton University history professor Julian Zelizer.

“The president is trying to achieve his goals outside normal legal processes and without focusing on public buy-in,” Zelizer said. “The problem is that we do have a constitutional system and there are many things a president can’t do. The courts are simply saying no. The reality is that many of his boldest decisions stand on an incredibly fragile foundation.”

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-judges-courts-setbacks-1864c944c8142f18fd3075d5643bdefc

India Today: So much for being Mr Nice Guy: Trump slams China for violating trade deal with US

Trump claimed that by sealing a trade deal with Beijing in order to save China from what was going to be a very bad situation after he imposed unprecedented 145 per cent tariffs on imports from Asia’s largest economy.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “Two weeks ago China was in grave economic danger! The very high Tariffs I set made it virtually impossible for China to TRADE into the United States marketplace which is, by far, number one in the World. We went, in effect, COLD TURKEY with China, and it was devastating for them. Many factories closed and there was, to put it mildly, “civil unrest.” I saw what was happening and didn’t like it, for them, not for us. I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn’t want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”

Executive summary: I was an *ssh*l*, but now I’m a good guy because I saved you from myself when I was being a really big *ssh*l*.

https://www.indiatoday.in/world/us-news/story/so-much-for-being-mr-nice-guy-us-president-donald-trump-claims-china-violated-trade-deal-with-us-2733300-2025-05-30

Variety: NPR Sues Trump Over Executive Order to Cut Funding: ‘Clear Violation of the Constitution’

National Public Radio is suing President Trump, alleging his executive order seeking to cease all federal funding to NPR and PBS is a “clear violation” of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Trump on May 1 issued an executive order seeking to cut all federal funding to NPR and PBS, alleging they have engaged with “biased and partisan news coverage.” The order instructs the board of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting to “cease direct funding to NPR and PBS” to the “maximum extent allowed by law.”

Trump’s order “is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press,” NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement. “It is an affront to the rights of NPR and NPR’s 246 Member stations, which are locally owned, nonprofit, noncommercial media organizations serving all 50 states and territories. Today, we challenge its constitutionality in the nation’s independent courts.”

She noted that the executive order “is directly counter to Congress’s long standing intent, as expressed in the Public Broadcasting Act, to foster vibrant institutions that achieve that mission, serving all Americans independent of political influence. The Order threatens the existence of the public broadcasting system, upon which tens of millions of Americans rely for vital news, information, and emergency alerts.”

https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/npr-sues-trump-cut-funding-violation-of-the-constitution-1236410731

Rolling Stone: Scott Bessent Compares Trump’s Qatari Jet Gift to the Statue of Liberty

It’s not the same

No, Qatar‘s royal family gifting a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet known as a “flying palace” to the government that will reportedly then go to Donald Trump‘s presidential library is not the same as France giving the Statue of Liberty to the American people. But that is what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to claim on Sunday.

“Even if Qatar isn’t asking for anything in return now for the jet, I mean, that’s a bill that could come due,” Jake Tapper, host of CNN’s State of the Union said to Bessent. “Nobody… just gives a $400 million jet just to be nice.”

“Well, I don’t know, Jake,” Bessent said. “The French gave us the Statue of Liberty. The British gave us the Resolute Desk. I’m not sure they asked for anything in advance.”

Trump’s bozos are just too dense to get it!

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bessent-trump-qatar-statue-of-liberty-1235342112

Politico: ‘Glaring red flag’: Treasury DOGE team discloses bank stock holdings

The Trump administration official overseeing the Treasury Department’s massive financial operations reported owning stock in many of the large banks and companies that do business with the department, according to disclosures obtained by POLITICO.

Tom Krause, who is also the lead official for Treasury’s DOGE team, reported hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of shares in a wide range of financial companies, including those that provide services to the unit Krause oversees.

He and two other Treasury DOGE team members — Todd Newnam and Linda Whitridge— also reported owning shares of Intuit, the parent company of TurboTax, which has lobbied heavily against IRS Direct File, a program targeted for elimination by Elon Musk and DOGE.

&c.

Who cares about a little conflict of interest when you’re working for the Grifter-in-Chief?

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/14/treasury-doge-disclosures-bank-stocks-00347972

Raw Story: ‘Not true!’ Trump hands gift to fact-checkers with wildly inaccurate brag

President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday that gas prices were down to $1.98 a gallon — and it triggered hilarity.

Fact-checkers and online commenters immediately reacted as Trump added that gas prices are $1.88 in three states. “Can you believe it?” he asked.

According to the American Automobile Association, which charts national gas prices, the lowest price comes closer to $2.61 a gallon for E85 gas. Regular unleaded gasoline is $3.18, AAA’s data shows.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/not-true-trump-hands-gift-to-fact-checkers-with-wildly-inaccurate-brag/ar-AA1E4p5B

Huffington Post: The Trump Administration Thinks You Should Be OK With Being Poor

But even as the bad news piles up, the Trump administration has decided to reassure panicked consumers with a chilling talking point: Poverty is good, actually.

Last month, as economists warned of the harm Trump’s tariff policies could cause, including drastically increasing the price of goods, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent attempted to dismiss those concerns by insinuating that being able to afford things is not important to Americans.

“Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,” Bessent said to a crowd of economists

It turns out this assertion was only the beginning of the Trump administration’s vision for a new American dream.

From Trump telling reporters that he’s not worried about empty stores to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying during an interview that in his version of America, multiple generations will work in the same factories, it sure seems like the Trump administration is trying to prime Americans for accepting and even enjoying a drastically lower standard of living.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-trump-administration-thinks-you-should-be-ok-with-being-poor/ar-AA1E4kNp