Consumer confidence down
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index has fallen in April for the fifth consecutive month to levels not seen since the Covid-19 pandemic set in. The drop in April was 7.9 points. The expectations index, which monitors what consumers expect to happen, dropped 12.5 points to the lowest level since October 2011. It indicates that people fear a recession likely lies ahead. Stephanie Guichard, a senior economist at The Conference Board said that people have become quite pessimistic about future business conditions, employment prospects, and future income. The share of consumers expecting fewer jobs in the next six months was nearly as high as in April 2009, in the middle of the last major recession in the U.S.
Report that Trump Administration agents raided home of U.S. citizens in Oklahoma City
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show last night broadcast a report by NBC affiliate KFOR in Oklahoma City about a family of U.S. citizens that had recently moved to Oklahoma City and had their house raided during the middle of the night by armed men wearing insignias of the U.S. Marshal’s Service, FBI and Homeland Security. According to the report, the U.S. citizens were forced at gunpoint to go out of their home into the rain wearing only their underwear while the men ransacked the house and took electronic devices, phones and cash. Maddow also reported that the Trump Administration has sent threatening letters to a number of U.S. citizens, mainly immigration attorneys and educators, warning them to immediately get out of the country.
Trump Administration shuts down climate report operation
As part of its campaign to deny the scientific evidence that climate change exists and poses a threat to the planet, the Trump Administration has shut down the group of scientists preparing the latest update in the National Climate Assessment. The assessment is a report mandated by Congress that was being updated for release in 2027. The most recent update in the series of reports came out in 2023. It found that the country is being transformed by more intense and more frequent weather events due to climate change. About 400 scientists have been involved in preparing the assessment.
Trump marks 100th day in office by blasting polls
With a series of national polls showing that his approval ratings at the 100-day mark in his second term are lower than any other U.S. president in about 70 years, Donald Trump took to social media to blast polls as fake. Trump said the major polling organizations should be investigated for election fraud, even though the next election isn’t until late next year. Trump’s criticism included the conservative media outlet Fox News. Democrats in the Senate marked Trump’s 100th day by holding the floor in an all-night session into Wednesday morning. Their speeches focused on what they termed his corruption that their said includes selling presidential access and running personal profit-making business from the White House.
Trump spends more despite promises to cut
CBS News reports that its analysis shows that in the first 100 days of his second term Donald Trump has pushed up federal spending by $220 billion in spite of promises to cut spending and Elon Musk’s drastic chainsaw cuts to federal departments. CBS reported that the government now is spending more each day than it has in the last nine out of 10 years. In 2021, government spending was dramatically increased to combat the Covid pandemic. CBS reported that a major factor in the increased spending is the increased cost of paying interest on the growing national debt.
Trump makes speech to mark 100th day
President Trump went to Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, for a rally and speech marking the 100th day of his second term. Trump emphasized what he believed to be the highlights of his return to the White House. He repeated claims that the immigrants being arrested, denied due process and deported are all criminals and gang members. He claimed that he is responsible for the drop in inflation, even though it came down sharply during the Biden Administration. Trump praised Elon Musk for rooting out fraud and waste in government, even though Musk’s efforts haven’t produced anywhere near the promised trillion dollars in savings.
