Trump pardons, Putin’s rope-a-dope and Hassett to the Fed?

Trump pardons, Putin’s rope-a-dope and Hassett to the Fed?

Cuellar gets a pardon

Trump is sure in a pardoning mood. He just pardoned former Texas democrat congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife who were indicted on bribery charges. Trump said that the Biden “Justice” Department had targeted Cuellar for supporting Trump’s border policies saying “Sleepy Joe went after the Congressman, and even the Congressman’s wonderful wife, Imelda, simply for speaking the TRUTH.” Although Trump didn’t mention it, Cuellar narrowly won reelection despite being targeted by the democrats for being the only openly pro-life democrat in the congress. Cuellar was primaried because of his views and barely beat a progressive activist by only one point. He was opposed to the party’s support of federal protections for abortion saying it should be up to the states. Cuellar easily won in the general election that saw two other incumbent prolife democrats lose in their races: Dan Lipinski of Illinois and Collin Peterson of Minnesota.

Ukraine peace talks, Fool me once

Putin continues to rope-a-dope Trump and his people. He is still bellicose and rejecting changes to his Ukrainian “peace” proposal that he wrote for Trump. Seriously, a Trump official admitted that he had consulted with a Russian representative in the drafting of the plan. Putin is now rattling his sword at Europe saying that if attacked Russia is ready to fight a war. Big whoop. Does anyone take this clown seriously? He cannot subdue Ukraine after four years of trench warfare and now he can take on all of Europe? What is this guy smoking? Russia is a poor third world country that can only be a bully because it has nukes. Well NATO has nukes too.

What is disturbing in the Ukraineless negotiations between Trump’s people and the Russians is the bribe given by the Russians of an economic alliance with the United States. I had mentioned earlier on why was Russia the only country on the planet not hit with Trump’s tariffs. DDE said I was stupid because I should know that Russia did not produce anything of value. Well tell that to Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. Putin’s man at the table Kirill Dmitriev gave the Americans a list of commercial opportunities that would come to America if and only if Washington would abandon Ukraine. The offer includes rare-earth mining, energy projects for U.S. investors in Russia’s Arctic and joint missions to Mars between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and the Russian space industry. I, DDE and others have noted that the inclusion of the Chinese in the World Trade Organization did not make them less belligerent and less aggressive simply because they became trading partners. The Russians have played the Americans for fools since the end of the Cold War and are doing it again. Does anyone think – other than Witkoff – that a trade deal with Russia will stop their aggressive behavior and stop them from threatening and attacking their neighbors? At the core, it is unseemly to actually help the Russians make money that they will use to continue to undermine our interests. BTW, I feel the same about the Chinese.

Hassett to the Fed?

I have previously said that I thought the president would pick Kevin Hassett, his national economics advisor, to be nominated to the Fed in January and then maybe nominated to replace Jerome Powell as chairman. Maybe because if Powell resigns as governor Trump will have another Fed seat to fill and could nominate that person as chairman. I said that including current board members Waller and Bowman in the interviews was for show – just to get them to vote for lowering the Fed funds rate. He also included former governor Keven Warsh who the press seemed to like but I warned that he was too independent to satisfy Trump. But Hassett is the type of person that the president would put in place. He is loyal, currently in the Trump White House and is a capable Trump translator. However, unlike Trump appointee Miran, Hassett will resign from his current position and once confirmed by the Senate may exert some independence from the president. Recall that Trump was the one who nominated Powell and praised him during his first term only to turn on him later. What would be interesting is if Hassett starts to go against Trump’s wishes will the president lash out at Treasury secretary Bessent who has been conducting the interviews much like he turned on Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin who recommended Powell.