To mark his first 100 days in office — “100 Days of Greatness,” he called it — President Donald Trump threw himself a celebration rally in the swing state of Michigan on Tuesday, declaring he has returned America to a “golden age.”

“The arena was surrounded by banners that read, ‘Investing in America,’ ‘Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!,’ ‘The Golden Age,’ ‘Buy American, Hire American’ and ‘The American Dream is Back,'” The Guardian reported. “Trump’s supporters held signs with slogans such as: ‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘Golden Age of America.'”

On Wednesday, the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported that the American economy shrank in the first three months of 2025, the first time it has done so in nearly three years.

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“Real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2025 (January, February, and March), according to the advance estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2024, real GDP increased 2.4 percent.”

Get details about how the U.S. economy performed in the first quarter of 2025:https://t.co/qHGf5n47pp pic.twitter.com/figOjv6N86

— BEA News (@BEA_News) April 30, 2025

Economic experts had predicted 3% GDP growth for the first quarter, (some more, some less, but in that neighborhood) before Trump’s tariffs.

Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo breaks the news to her viewers that GDP contracted in the first quarter:pic.twitter.com/LiGaS92x4l

— David Badash (@davidbadash) April 30, 2025

Economists and financial experts are pointing to President Donald Trump’s policies, including his tariff war, as the reason for the contraction.

“Real GDP down. Consumption down. Prices up. It’s very easy to criticize what is happening right in front of your eyes when you’re not in a woke cult,” observed Spencer Hakimian, founder and chief investment officer of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management.

Hakimian pinned the blame for the economy contracting directly on Trump’s policies.

And pointing to the BEA’s numbers, Hakimian added, “Welcome to the recession.”

While the official “we are in a recession” declaration has not yet been made, some are doing so already, given the multiple forecasts predicting a recession, and some saying a recession is the current best possible outcome America (and possibly the global economy) will see this year.

Conservative commentator David Frum of The Atlantic responded to the economic news.

“Trump pushed the US economy into decline by his ignorance and malice, enabled and abetted by advisers who were variously obnoxious, stupid, cowardly, and/or crazy,” said Frum, a former George W. Bush speechwriter.

Despite the declarations of experts, President Trump quickly denied responsibility for any economic pain, and, appeared to not understand the issue.

Forty-three  minutes after the economic news — a contraction of gross domestic product — had been announced, Trump declared the “stock market” problem was not his but his predecessor’s.

“This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s,” the President claimed on Truth Social. “I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden ‘Overhang.’ This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!”

The issue is not the stock market—although the markets tanked upon news of an economic contraction—but the actual economy.

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“CEOs of major retail giants warned last week that prices would rise and shelves would soon fall empty if the president didn’t reverse course,” The Daily Beast reported Thursday. “The S&P 500 is down 8 percent since Trump’s inauguration—its worst run during a president’s first 100 days in office in more than 50 years. Some financial analysts worry the U.S. is heading toward recession.”

The President appears to be in denial.

During his first 100 days interview with ABC News, which aired Tuesday evening, senior national correspondent Terry Moran told Trump tourism is down.

Trump refused to believe him, despite the facts that prove this have been freely available for weeks.

Economist Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy, posted charts showing tourism “cratering,” along with video of Trump insisting tourism is up.

https://t.co/VFn7LMWtaR pic.twitter.com/Ee9QfjByfs

— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) April 30, 2025

Despite all the economic data and expert predictions, despite what we now see as an economic contraction, and some say a looming recession, President Trump is steadfast in his position.

ABC’s Moran told the President, “with the economy, the number one issue for so many people, for just about everybody. It — it’s one of the main reasons that you’re back in this office. And now we have this trade war with China that — that Moody’s and other analysts say is gonna cost American families thousands of more dollars per year. And there is a lot of concern out there. People are worried, even some people who voted for you, sayin’, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ So how do you answer those concerns?”

“Well,” Trump replied, “they did sign up for it, actually.”

MORAN: Even some people who voted for you are saying, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ So how do you answer those concerns?

TRUMP: Well, they did sign up for it actually pic.twitter.com/PqfmqlmSeJ

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2025

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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Image via Reuters

In the realm of foreign policy, Vice President JD Vance has drawn sharp criticism, with critics branding him as “extremist,” the “Malicious American,” and the “Brutal American“—labels sparked by what they describe as his “naked hostility,” his “morally wrong” and “strategically disastrous” posturing, and a demand to interchange “truth for trade.” If alienating allies is the objective, critics say, he’s well on his way to achieving it.

During the first Trump administration, the President repeatedly came under fire for promoting a brand of foreign relations that was seen as entirely transactional. Turning a blind eye to decades of presidents promoting democracy and human rights as critical components of their foreign policy, Trump forged friendships with authoritarian dictators, invited terrorists to Camp David, and delivered “extensive damage” to “the United States’ international interests and global security.”

In this new, second Trump administration, the President appears to have gone all in on that transactional approach. In what is seen as an effort to upend the world order, Trump is on the offensive, attacking friend and foe alike, distancing America from the rest of the world on the premise that the rest of the world needs America more than America needs the rest of the world.

But Vice President JD Vance appears to have taken Trump’s foreign policy to a far different place: an attempt to create a political and cultural reshaping of foreign nations into the far-right realm. Where Trump wanted trade and military deals, Vance seeks to promote the far right and encourage attacks on minorities.

His efforts, to some, were first noticed during the infamous Oval Office meeting with the President of Ukraine. When Vance took the lead in publicly berating Volodymyr Zelenskyy on live television, many saw it as the moment the United States pivoted—from supporting Ukraine to effectively siding with Russia.

The Vice President is now fully engaged in the role of President Trump’s attack dog.

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But the costs are high.

Vance’s assault on a world leader seen as a hero to Western democracies effectively killed what was billed as a wildly lucrative rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine, and with it, a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia that President Trump campaigned on—stating that he could bring peace in just one day.

The Greenland imbroglio was another embarrassing event—not only for Vance, but for the Second Lady, and for America. What was supposed to be a week-long charm offensive turned into a few offensive hours.

Now that Trump has imposed his worldwide tariffs, Vance appears to be the one attempting to negotiate country by country.

It is not going well.

Last week, Vance told Fox News that America is borrowing money from “Chinese peasants” to “buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture.”

“We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things that Chinese peasants manufacture.” – JD Vance

Yeah. I’m sure the Politburo is going to take that comment very well.

pic.twitter.com/D0NuLIb0df

— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) April 9, 2025

Robyn Dixon, Moscow Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, reports that the “JD Vance comment about ‘Chinese peasants’ was taken in China as deeply offensive, and it is now a hurdle to trade talks. Trump administration’s approach appears tone deaf on this.”

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Spencer Hakimian, the founder and chief investment officer of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, one week after the Vance “peasants” comment, posted that “Chinese purchases of American oil are down -90% Y/Y, while Chinese purchases of Canadian oil are up +700% Y/Y.

“That’s a $20B annual loss for the United States at $60/barrel.”

Chinese purchases of American oil are down -90% Y/Y, while Chinese purchases of Canadian oil are up +700% Y/Y.

That’s a $20B annual loss for the United States at $60/barrel. pic.twitter.com/Q4N1jzHWCF

— Spencer Hakimian (@SpencerHakimian) April 16, 2025

Bloomberg News reports that “China wants to see a number of steps from President Donald Trump’s administration before it will agree to trade talks, including showing more respect by reining in disparaging remarks by members of his cabinet, according to a person familiar with the Chinese government’s thinking.”

It’s not just China, Greenland, Ukraine, or Germany that have had to experience the American Vice President.

According to The Independent, Vance wants the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to repeal hate speech laws “in order to get a trade deal over the line.”

The UK-based news outlet adds that “a senior Washington figure, who has provided advice for the administration, claimed he is ‘obsessed by the fall of Western civilisation’ – including his view that free speech is being eroded in Britain – and that he will demand the Labour government rolls back laws against hateful comments, including abuse targeting LGBT+ groups or other minorities, as a condition of any deal.”

“’No free speech, no deal. It is as simple as that,’ the Washington source said.”

That may come as a surprise to some, but taking a walk back to just a few months ago, it shouldn’t.

In February, Vance traveled to Germany to declare support for its growing neo-Nazi party.

“After berating European allies, Vance met with the leader of the far-right AfD party, Alice Weidel,” The Washington Post’s European Affairs columnist Lee Hockstader wrote.

“That Vance took up the cause of the AfD, a party polling at around 20 percent which many Germans regard as beyond the pale, is heedless of history and contemptuous of the transatlantic alliance,” Hockstader said. “In doing so, he managed to transform Europe’s old stereotype of the Ugly American into something more grotesque: the Malicious American.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

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In his 2023 State of the Union Address, then-President Joe Biden vowed, “Make no mistake: if Republicans try to raise the cost of prescription drugs, I will veto it.” Democrats cheered and applauded, while Republicans remained mostly silent.

But Republicans cheered and applauded as President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday night he would impose “major” tariffs on pharmaceuticals—prescription drugs, some life-saving, taken by nearly two out of every three Americans, including nine out of every ten seniors aged 65 or older. Over-the-counter medications like pain relievers such as Advil and Tylenol, and allergy medications, for example, could also be included.

“We’re gonna tariff our pharmaceuticals, and once we do that, they’re gonna come rushing back into our country, because we’re a big market,” Trump declared in remarks (video below) at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner, a black tie event for the NRCC, which works to elect Republicans to the House of Representatives.

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The contrasts were striking: one President pledging to keep prescription costs down; the other, in black tie, announcing major tariffs on medications—many of them used daily by Americans, including seniors and low-income individuals who depend on them to manage serious conditions or even to stay alive.

“The advantage we have over everybody is that we’re the big market,” President Trump went on to say, “so we’re gonna be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals, and when you and when they hear that, they will leave China, they will leave other places, because they have to sell most of their product to [be] sold here, and they’re going to be opening up their plants all over the place in our country.”

According to NBC News, “Pharmaceutical imports were initially exempt from Trump’s first set of reciprocal tariffs last week,” but upon hearing the President’s announcement, global pharmaceutical manufacturers’ stocks took a tumble.

Late last month, the Brookings Institution warned that tariffs on pharmaceuticals will not provide incentive for U.S manufacturing of “off-patent generic drugs, which represent over 90% of the volume” of prescriptions dispensed. It also warned that tariffs on pharmaceuticals could lead to “product discontinuations or cost cutting that erodes quality.”

“Any production disruptions in the already fragile generic injectable markets are likely to result in shortages,” Brookings added.

Backlash to Trump’s announcement was swift, as many Americans, already under stress from the President’s massive tariff program, have seen markets in the U.S. and across the globe decimated.

Critics warn the tariffs could lead to deadly consequences

“Donald Trump wants to slap tariffs on pharmaceuticals, most of which are made outside the States, including the raw ingredients that go into almost every pill we take? That’s not being tough on China—that’s playing politics with people’s lives,” commented political strategist Shea Jordan Smith.

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“Make no mistake—this will kill Americans,” warned 314 Action, which says it is “the only organization in the nation focused on recruiting, training, and electing Democrats with a background in science to public office.” “Trump is gambling with people’s lives through his tariffs. This is why we need more doctors in Congress—to be able to stand up to Trump and protect our health care from weak spined Republicans.”

Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, lamented: “President Trump wants to tax low-income families’ and seniors’ prescription drugs at accelerating rates until they can no longer afford the medications they need to survive and function. Sadistic. And Congress does nothing about it.”

Middlebury College political science professor Gary Winslett, who focuses on politics around trade and global business writes, “This has got to be one of the absolute dumbest product classes you could ever tariff.”

Robert Tyler, a senior policy advisor at a conservative European think tank, observed: “It’s one thing to disrupt global supply chains for the auto industry (because frankly people just aren’t buying that many cars at the moment anyway) but pharmaceuticals is dangerous. A lot of the world don’t have the capacity to fill a shortfall.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

President Trump: “We’re going to tariff our pharmaceuticals and once we do that they’re going to come rushing back into our country because we’re the big market…So, we’re going to be announcing very shortly a major tariff on pharmaceuticals.” pic.twitter.com/rdBOewo7MW

— CSPAN (@cspan) April 9, 2025

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Image via Reuters