Trump admin reveals extent of planned USAID cuts — which will save America a fortune



The U.S. State Department confirmed Wednesday that the Trump administration is eliminating thousands of foreign assistance awards and grants at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Peter Marocco, brought in by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to help run USAID, said in a statement to the federal district court presiding over two consolidated lawsuits brought against the administration by aid organizations that following a review, Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided to cut roughly 92% of the agency's grants, reported NPR.

According to a State Department memo reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, the 92% figure reflects 5,800 grants valued at $54 billion at USAID that Trump administration officials are set to terminate. Auditors scrutinized over 9,100 more grants at the State Department, 4,100 of which — valued at $4.4 billion — are slated for elimination.

'Continuing this program is not in the national interest.'

"USAID evaluated 6,200 multi-year awards with $58.2 billion in value remaining," a State Department spokesman said in a statement to Axios. "Nearly 5,800 awards with $54 billion in value remaining were identified for elimination as part of the America First agenda."

In terms of awards that survived the cuts, roughly 500 at USAID and 2,700 at the State Department will remain.

Contractors learned of the award and grant terminations in a memo from USAID's office of acquisition and assistance. A copy of the memo obtained by NPR stated that Rubio and Marocco "have determined your award is not aligned with Agency priorities and made a determination that continuing this program is not in the national interest."

President Donald Trump noted in an aid-freezing executive order on his first day in office that the "foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values."

He further indicated that it would be the "policy of United States that no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States."

In turn, the State Department ordered a freeze on new funding for virtually all U.S. foreign assistance on Jan. 24.

Following a pair of lawsuits by aid organizations, a Biden judge issued a restraining order, requiring that the funding be released.

The U.S. Supreme Court temporarily blocked U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali's restraining order Wednesday evening.

In addition to eliminating awards and grants to wasteful programs — for instance, USAID previously blew $45 million on DEI scholarships in Burma, $2 million on sex-change activism in Guatemala, and $20 million for a "Sesame Street" show in Iraq — the Trump administration has placed all personnel at USAID "with the exception of designated personnel responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and/or specially designated programs" on administrative leave and is firing 1,600 positions at the agency that are presently occupied.

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Trump won, but Dems still control the bureaucracy — for now



Have the Democrats dug a hole for themselves? The answer is an unequivocal yes.

Although Donald Trump won the presidential race by about two million votes and the GOP retook the Senate by a majority of three, the Democrats were hardly crushed in the November election. Three of their outspoken feminist candidates won senatorial races in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada, partly by outspending very solid Republican opponents. Thanks to coastal elites, the Democrats enjoyed a sizable ad advantage over Republicans by Election Day last year; and a less-than-impressive Democratic presidential candidate spent her way through more than $1 billion that Democratic donors showered on her.

Today’s woke Democrats belong to a party that directly serves their interests. The question is whether that party can build a broad enough coalition to reclaim a national majority.

The legacy media, most educational institutions, and a majority of government bureaucrats stand solidly behind the Democratic Party. Trump’s decision to slim down the size of our managerial state has caused panic among Democrats, precisely because public administration has been an inexhaustible source of employment and financial benefit for their loyalists. But the Democrats continue to occupy almost all of this empire.

Unfortunately, Democratic politicians have not been able to accept the loss of the presidency with equanimity. They’ve gone berserk and for understandable reasons. They’ve waged war on the current president for the last eight years and have thrown so much ammunition at him that it must have dawned on them that Trump would not leave his enemies in charge if he won.

Democrats have used every tool at their disposal to undermine the current president. They have engaged in lawfare, weaponized the FBI and the Department of Justice against him, tried to remove his name from ballots, attempted to imprison him, and even incited would-be assassins. After such relentless attacks, expecting Trump not to retaliate in some way would require near-saintly restraint.

To their detriment, Democrats continue waging old battles in ways that have damaged their own standing. They have obstructed efforts to deport criminal illegal immigrants, defended sex-change surgeries for minors, fought to preserve costly government bureaucracies that align with their ideological interests, and tacitly encouraged anti-Trump riots. None of these actions have won them new supporters. At this point, their public approval has shrunk to 31%.

Democrats have also resorted to clumsy, staged demonstrations, with their most prominent figures decrying Elon Musk’s influence over the Republican administration. They claim Trump is acting “unconstitutionally” by laying off overwhelmingly Democratic government workers while supposedly taking orders from Musk. Yet, it remains unclear why Trump must seek approval from Chuck Schumer and Maxine Waters before following the advice of his own people. And why is it acceptable for Democratic presidents — but not Republican ones — to rely on unelected advisers?

Let’s try to make sense of what the Democrats are doing. In blue states, voters consistently elect leftist governments. Governors such as J.B. Pritzker in Illinois, Gavin Newsom in California, Kathy Hochul in New York, Phil Murphy in New Jersey, Maura Healey in Massachusetts, Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, and Tim Walz in Minnesota win with little difficulty, often while relying on anti-Trump rhetoric.

The Democrats’ base also includes wealthy donors who align with the party’s radical core. Meanwhile, legacy media eagerly amplifies the party’s anti-Trump messaging, adding its own attacks. Since 2016, mainstream outlets have built an audience around cultivating anti-Trump sentiment.

But this strategy does not seem to resonate with most Americans. Many are increasingly alarmed by the millions of illegal aliens the Democrats have welcomed into the country, now widely seen as both a safety risk and a financial burden. Pritzker, Healey, and other left-wing governors have further weakened their party’s standing by openly supporting illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes.

Democrats and their media allies have also doubled down on unpopular policies like DEI mandates, “gender-affirming” surgeries for minors, and the costly Green New Deal. These stances have driven down the party’s appeal nationally, and even in deep-blue regions, support for these policies appears to be waning — though not yet enough to break the Democrats’ grip on those areas.

Perhaps most importantly, Democrats have reshaped themselves over the past generation into a culturally leftist party. Their core constituency now consists of racial minorities, college-educated women, government employees, and nonprofit organizations. Calls for the party to return to its working-class roots are unlikely to succeed.

Across the Western world, non-public-sector workers have aligned with the populist right, while the cultural left has gained support from global financial elites, government bureaucrats, Third World migrants, and activists opposed to traditional gender roles and the nuclear family.

Today’s woke Democrats belong to a party that directly serves their interests. The real question is whether that party can build a broad enough coalition to reclaim a national majority.

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Dems cling to power with swamp cash, woke votes, and media muscle



Donald Trump has reached his highest favorability rating in seven years. His approval now sits at 50%, the highest since March 2017. This marks a significant rebound from earlier points in his political career when his numbers hovered in the low 40s.

Republican commentators have celebrated these numbers as a major comeback, but I’m not as impressed as others may be. Democratic Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both entered and left office with far higher approval ratings. Comparing Trump’s numbers to Joe Biden’s offers little insight. Biden, who often appears inept and disengaged, maintains approval ratings in the low 40s. What’s surprising is not that Biden’s numbers are bad but that they’re not far worse.

With Republicans frequently retreating on social issues, Democrats largely benefit from catering to their substantial woke constituency.

The broader point is one I’ve made before: Democrats don’t seem to be hurting themselves with their divisive focus on intersectional politics. While this despicable strategy sows hate between races and genders, it successfully appeals to a base of angry, culturally radicalized voters.

Democrats have easily retained control of blue states. Even in the last presidential election, when they were supposedly blown out of the water, Kamala Harris lost to Trump by only two percentage points. This suggests that Democrats don’t need to abandon their current approach to remain competitive in future elections.

The Democrats achieved their results despite running a verbally challenged, tactically inept candidate who had to defend Joe Biden’s largely indefensible record. Harris, the giggling wonder who never won a single primary vote, was pushed onto voters once party leaders abandoned their hopelessly senile incumbent.

This isn’t even to mention her opponent: a vigorous populist candidate who campaigned tirelessly, holding multiple rallies each day with roaring energy. What stood out about the election is how well the Democrats performed despite holding what seemed like a disastrous hand — a failed presidency, a weak candidate, and a driven, dynamic opponent. Still, they managed to win close Senate races in Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin.

To their credit, the Democrats held certain advantages that should not be underestimated. They had the backing of corporate and Hollywood money, the unwavering support of the servile legacy media, and a partisan educational establishment and government employees. Meanwhile, Republicans, led by Trump, had to work tirelessly with fewer funds against these forces. Yet they still emerged with hard-won victories in the presidential and congressional races.

On social issues, the Democrats hold a significant advantage, as shown by their success on abortion despite taking the most extreme stance possible. Kamala Harris advocated unrestricted abortion rights nationwide for all nine months of pregnancy. She also supported punishing physicians who refused to perform abortions for moral reasons. Remarkably, Kamala led Trump by double digits on the abortion question even though Trump took the weakest stance on abortion of any Republican presidential candidate since the 1970s.

Clearly, a woke, feminist vote exists, and the Democrats control it entirely. They can escalate social issues and often expect Republicans to anxiously follow suit. Since the 1990s, over 60% of American women have identified as Democratic, and these voters, often defined by grievance politics, align with the left on most social issues.

Occasionally, the Democrats overreach, such as they did in allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports or access women’s locker rooms and showers. However, this rarely costs them elections, particularly in blue states, where being “too progressive” is rarely a political liability. Instead, with Republicans frequently retreating on social issues, Democrats largely benefit from catering to their substantial woke constituency.

The more culturally left-leaning of America’s two major political parties may be exactly where it needs to be for electoral success. While Democrats have abandoned their roots as a working-class party, that shift no longer seems to matter. They have consolidated support among key voter blocs, including government workers, most black adults, teachers’ unions, and a majority of women voters.

The right can counter this advantage and strike back. The new administration should abolish the Department of Education, disperse federal swamp creatures, and eliminate subsidies to educational institutions, except for scientifically beneficial programs. This strategy would weaken the Democrats' reliance on a bloated public sector.

Defunding and depopulating the deep state would further erode the left’s influence. For decades, the Democrats have acted as the “state party,” with much of their power tied to a growing public sector. Reducing that advantage would critically weaken their financial resources and disrupt their infrastructure.

Above all, the new administration must ignore the inevitable media outrage and accusations of “fascism” while pursuing this necessary counteroffensive. Let the left fund its own operations and personnel without the support of taxpayer dollars.

EU signals desperation to avoid trade war with Trump, desire to buy American gas



President-elect Donald Trump is still months away from taking office, yet the European Union already appears desperate to cut a deal with him.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, addressed members of the European Council in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, signaling a desire to avoid a trade war with the United States and to switch from Russian to American gas.

When asked how she intends to negotiate with Trump on trade, Leyen answered, "I think first of all: Engage. Very important what we have started yesterday."

Leyen was referencing her phone call with Trump Thursday, where she apparently congratulated him on his landslide electoral victory. The German politician noted on X that they discussed defense, Ukraine, trade, and energy.

"Secondly, discuss about common interests. And there are common interests that we have," continued Leyen. "Then go into negotiations."

'They are going to have to pay a big price.'

Leyen said that liquid natural gas was among the common interests she briefly discussed with Trump this week, noting that Europe still gets "a lot of LNG via Russia, from Russia."

According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, in the first half of 2024, Europe sourced 48% of its LNG imports from U.S., 16% from Russia, 11% from Algeria, 10% from Qatar, and 4% from Nigeria and Norway.

"Why not replace it by American LNG, which is cheaper for us and brings down our energy prices?" said Leyen. "It's something where we can get into a discussion, also [where] our trade deficit is concerned."

The U.S. Census Bureau indicated Tuesday that the trade deficit with the EU in September was $23.8 billion, contributing to the year-to-date trade deficit of $173 billion.

Trump indicated in October that the EU would have to "pay a big price" for not buying enough American exports, reported Reuters.

"I'll tell you what, the European Union sounds so nice, so lovely, right? All the nice European little countries that get together," said Trump. "They don't take our cars. They don't take our farm products. They sell millions and millions of cars in the United States. No, no, no, they are going to have to pay a big price."

Politico noted that Leyen's maneuver to dodge the steep tariffs of 10% or more that Trump has threatened by promising to buy LNG is largely political theater granted the European Commission is virtually powerless when it comes to dictating European companies' purchases of gas.

"The EU doesn't buy LNG — there's a global LNG market and LNG buyers have their own contract," Laurent Ruseckas, executive director for gas markets at commodities giant S&P Global, told Politico. "It's certainly possible to do a memorandum of understanding to talk about increasing purchases but ultimately in the past that's been a way to put a political wrapper around something that was delivered by the market. And the EU is buying as much LNG currently as the market needs."

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Frenchman who saw through pollsters' failure and media's skew makes fortune betting on Trump



A mystery trader identifying himself only as Thèo secured an estimated $48 million in profits betting that the 45th president would be elected the 47th president.

The trader, a Frenchman with a financial services background who has been dubbed the "Trump whale," reportedly used four anonymous accounts — Theo4, Fredi9999, PrincessCaro and Michieon — on the crypto-based betting site Polymarket to bet on President Donald Trump to win the popular vote as well as most battleground states.

Thèo suspected that establishment pollsters and the mainstream media had overestimated support for Kamala Harris and once again underestimated Trump's support.

Thèo told Visegrád 24 prior to Election Day, "The polls are really different from the predictive odds in the predictive markets. It calculates something totally different. One is calculating what are the intentions of the people to vote. The other are bets made by real people with real money about who they believe the winner will be."

The Frenchman noted in August, he began to realize that "media outlets are making the same mistakes they made in 2016 and 2020 underestimating the Trump vote. Why? Because, again, it's underestimating the shy Trump vote effect."

The Princeton Election Consortium indicated, for example, in November 2016 that Hillary Clinton had a 99% chance of beating Trump, projecting her to take 312 electoral votes. FiveThirtyEight, then Nate Silver's polling outfit, suggested that Clinton's had a 71.4% chance of winning. Polls conducted that year by the Washington Post, ABC News, Google Consumer Surveys, Ipsos, YouGov, Fox News, Selzer & Company, and other outfits were similarly way off the mark, all putting Clinton ahead by several points.

Thèo indicated that this time around, the New York Times/Siena College polls and others were making the same mistakes, noting that in one instance, a poll showing Harris ahead by 2 percentage points in North Carolina was actually "un-representative by 9.3 percentage points."

'Don't trust the mainstream media.'

Prior to Election Day, Thèo told a reporter at the Wall Street Journal who had taken an interest in the trader's enormous bets that RealClearPolitics polling averages showed Trump outdoing his swing-state polling numbers in the previous presidential election, which was particularly close.

Recognizing that the races would again be close in swing states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and factoring in the "shy Trump voter effect" — which the mainstream polling outfits apparently neglected to account for — the trader realized the Republican had upwards of a 90% chance of winning the day and a 65% chance of winning the popular vote.

The Frenchman took the addition step of commissioning a major pollster to conduct surveys to measure the "neighbor effect" stateside. Thèo noted that while the shy voter effect undermined the reliability of normal polls, neighbor polls — where respondents are asked which candidates their neighbors would likely support — would provide a better indication of voter preferences.

Thèo told the Journal that the results "were mind blowing to the favor of Trump!"

"Public opinion would have been better prepared if the latest polls had measured that neighbor effect," he added.

Bloomberg indicated that Polymarket bets on which candidate would become the 47th president produced almost $3.7 billion in volume this cycle.

Polymarket released a statement Wednesday morning, noting, "Last night, Polymarket proved the wisdom of markets over the polls, the media, and the pundits. Polymarket consistently and accurately forecasted outcomes well ahead of all three, demonstrating the power of high volume, deeply liquid prediction markets like those pioneered by Polymarket."

The company later shared a screenshot of an Oct. 22 Time magazine headline that read, "Don't Trust the Political Prediction Markets," commenting, "Don't trust the mainstream media."

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Markets surge to record highs, dollar jumps following Trump victory



President Donald Trump promised to usher in the "golden age of America" in his victory speech early Wednesday morning. At the open of trading hours later, the Dow gained over 1,320 points (in excess of 3%) while the S&P 500 index increased by 1.9% and the Nasdaq rose by 2.2%.

CNN indicated that this is the first time the Dow has jumped over 1,000 points in a single day since November 2022.

While some analysts suspect the decisiveness of the win may have put some investors at ease, others figure Trump's policy proposals — especially those pertaining to deregulation and taxes — have investors excited.

Michael Block, COO at AgentSmyth, told CNN, "There is this huge perception of [a] business friendly, tax-friendly regime coming into place, especially with them winning the Senate."

'Business animal spirits could be rekindled once again.'

Republicans have secured a majority in the U.S. Senate and are poised to keep the House.

"Assuming the House goes Republican, we expect that a Red Sweep outcome will play out in a similar fashion to the 2016 playbook but to a lesser degree given a more mature economic backdrop and higher equity valuations," Jeff Schulze at ClearBridge Investments told Bloomberg. "Business animal spirits could be rekindled once again from Trump's pro-business approach."

As it became clear Trump was going to win in a landslide, the price of Bitcoin rocketed from south of $70,000 to over $75,000 overnight, zigzagging around $74,400 Wednesday morning. This jump was energized by Trump's embrace of crypto on the campaign trail.

In July, Trump told crypto boosters at a Bitcoin conference in Tennessee that he would make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet."

Not only did the U.S. dollar rise against the euro, the peso, the Japanese yen, and the Chinese yuan in response to Trump's landslide win — the biggest rise since March 2020 — the New York Times indicated that yields on U.S. government bonds also climbed sharply. Treasury 10-year yields reportedly advanced 18 basis points to 4.45%.

While the American market was ostensibly made great again, European stocks took a tumble Wednesday afternoon. CNBC noted that the pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.68% by 4 p.m. London time.

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