Trump Eyes Axing These Key Programs to Help His Friends Get Richer

Extending Donald Trump’s 2017 tax plan—as his MAGA acolytes want to—could raise the national deficit by as much as $5 trillion. In response, Republicans are floating some rather extreme options to offset the cost, including raising tariffs on foreign goods, repealing clean energy programs, and axing some of the nation’s largest federal agencies, such as the Department of Education.

Trump’s tax plan, which overwhelmingly benefits corporations, would balloon the national debt, which currently sits at $36.2 trillion. Nonpartisan groups that have assessed the president-elect’s agenda predict that Trump’s second term could cost the nation much more, possibly increasing it by as much as $15 trillion, reported The Washington Post.

At the top of the list of options to offset costs is a broad tariff plan, which could spare the nation some $2.7 trillion over 10 years by adding levies on goods from China, Mexico, and Canada. (The plan has sent the latter of the trio into a tailspin, with Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s former deputy prime minister and minister of finance, resigning just hours before releasing the nation’s first economic plan in response to Trump’s “America First” policies.)

But what’s good for Trump isn’t necessarily good for Americans: In a joint letter released before the election, nearly two dozen Nobel Prize–winning economists formally warned against Trump’s economic plan, arguing that the MAGA leader’s stiff tariff increases and tax cuts would spell disaster for the average American.

Republicans have also proposed nixing the nation’s clean energy programs, including dismantling the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022—one of President Joe Biden’s chief legislative victories—saving some $700 billion from the federal deficit. Doing so, however, would kill tax credits for electric vehicles and spur fossil fuel production on federally protected land.

A different path forward to scrimp and save includes cutting “unauthorized” spending, or money that Congress has not explicitly authorized. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the assumed co-chairs of the Department of Government Efficiency (which does not yet exist), have claimed that slashing this category would save $516 billion. But it would also come with major cuts to veterans’ health care, the State and Justice Departments, and NASA.

Another cashflow could come from eliminating the Department of Education, which would save some $200 billion from the deficit—while simultaneously dismantling the nation’s education system, which locally relies on billions from the federal government to support low-income and low-performing schools.

The man who allegedly detonated fireworks inside a Tesla Cybertruck in front of Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, was reportedly a supporter of the president-elect.

Law enforcement officials identified Matthew Alan Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret, as the deceased driver of the Cybertruck in Wednesday’s incident, according to CNN.

A senior law enforcement official told The Daily Beast Thursday that Livelsberger was a “big” Donald Trump supporter, a fact that had been uncovered through conversations with Livelsberger’s family and loved ones.

Dean Livelsberger, the uncle of the deceased, told The Independent Thursday that his nephew “loved” Trump.

“He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country,” said Dean Livelsberger.

“He loved Trump. He was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. It’s one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasn’t just one tour of duty,” he added. Livelsberger had served as an operations master sergeant in the Army Special Forces, on active duty in Germany, but was on leave at the time of his death, three officials told CNN.

Online, Livelsberger once criticized John Bolton, Trump’s ex-national security adviser, who wrote a scathing rebuke of his former boss in his memoir.

“Bet Bolton got a hefty chunk from the DNC and other slimy donors to put the book out,” Livelsberger wrote in a Facebook comment under an article about Bolton, according to The Daily Beast.

While the symbolic nature of the incident appears to refer to the partnership between the president-elect and Elon Musk, Livelsberger’s motive is still unknown. Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill suggested Thursday that the incident, which injured seven people, was likely a suicide.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts echoed Donald Trump while hitting back at critics who’ve suggested that federal judges may have political biases.

In his 2024 Year End report on the federal judiciary, published Tuesday, Roberts conflated violence and intimidation with genuine criticism of the courts’ decisions. He listed suggestions of political bias among doxxing and disinformation as some of the “illegitimate activity” that threatens independent judges.

“Public officials, too, regrettably have engaged in recent attempts to intimidate judges—for example, suggesting political bias in the judge’s adverse rulings without a credible basis for such allegations,” Roberts wrote.

“Within the past year we have also seen the need for state and federal bar associations to come to the defense of a federal district judge whose decisions in a high-profile case prompted an elected official to call for her impeachment,” Roberts continued, likely referring to Judge Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who tossed out the classified documents case against the president-elect last year.

At every turn of that case, Cannon slowed proceedings, and ultimately defied precedent. Her shocking final decision resulted in the dissolution of charges against a political candidate who then reportedly put her on the short list for attorney general (he would later find even worse candidates).

“Attempts to intimidate judges for their rulings in cases are inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed,” Roberts continued. “Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others.”

Last year, Trump was so persistent in “suggesting” that New York state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who oversaw his hush-money trial, and his family were politically biased that he was landed with a hefty gag order. This, however, earned no mention from Roberts, but probably only because it had to do with a state case, not a federal one. No other reason.

Roberts’s remarks echo those of Trump, who, impossibly, complained about publicly criticizing judges and has suggested it should be illegal to do so.

“They play the ref, they start screaming about ‘The judge is no good,’ and ‘This one’s no good,’ and ‘They’re slow’ and ‘They’re lousy judges’ and ‘The judge should be impeached,’ and all of this crap, when you have a brilliant judge that’s doing the right thing,” Trump ranted during an 11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting in Concord, North Carolina, in October.

“I really believe it’s illegal what they do, and I know there’s some great lawyers in there who are gonna look at it, because what they do is so obvious, what they’ve done to the Supreme Court, even with the protection of their houses, you’re not supposed to be allowed to march in front. They didn’t stop it,” he continued.

Trump has also claimed that judges would often “give a bad ruling” in an attempt to silence critics, but unsurprisingly gave no evidence to support that claim.

In any case, it’s difficult to imagine how Roberts, terrified of suggestions of political bias, will weather the coming four years under Trump, who intends to utilize the highest court in the land to make sweeping changes to the schema of rights and continue to deregulate the federal government. Trump will likely get away with everything he wants—in many such cases, he already has.

Last year, Roberts found himself behind the steering wheel of the most conservative court in a century for the decision in Trump’s presidential immunity case. The Supreme Court’s ruling in that case single-handedly opened the door for Trump’s return to the White House and cemented this court’s conservative lean for decades to come.

Elon Musk’s recent increase in political activity coincides with further troubles for his struggling car company. Shares of the billionaire’s Tesla Inc. fell after the company experienced its first annual decline in deliveries this week, causing it to miss multiple quarterly delivery goals in 2024.

There seems to be a drop in demand for Musk’s product—Tesla registrations across Europe dropped 24 percent in October. Slashed European subsidies and more electronic vehicle competition from the United States and Chinese developer BYD may have also contributed to the uninspiring quarterly earnings, The Guardian reported Thursday.

But Musk’s close relationship with President-elect Donald Trump has Tesla investors remaining hopeful. The richest man on earth donated millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign and, in return, may be the beneficiary of Trump ending the Biden-era tax credit for E.V. buyers. That may cause E.V. companies who aren’t leading the domestic market like Tesla to fall back, making more room for Musk to reap the benefits.

Musk will have much to think about as he attempts to balance co-leading DOGE and interfering in European politics with being the CEO of a major E.V. company.

Conservatives are somehow blaming the horrific New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans on DEI, or “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives. On Wednesday, an attacker drove an ISIS flag–decorated truck into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, killing 15 people before exchanging fire with law enforcement. The suspect has now been identified as U.S. Army veteran Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar.

“The priority of the last four years has been DEI, not IEDs,” New York Republican Representative Dan Meuser told Fox News on Thursday. “You talk to anyone who’s willing to speak within these agencies, that’s what their focus has been.… President Trump’s a serious guy, he’s bringing in serious people. It’s not about DEI; it’s about the safety and security of the American people.”

Conservative commentator Robby Starbuck, who’s been railing against diversity and inclusion for months on X, likewise blamed DEI for the attack: “6 months ago the New Orleans FBI office was doing DEI hiring events. Maybe they should have been more focused on hiring the best people who are good at catching terrorists instead? Hiring solely to ‘increase diversity’ is a threat to national security for everyone. DEI must end.”

Right-wing YouTuber Benny Johnson also piled on. “An FBI Agent with a nose ring who can barely speak coherent English sentences told the media that a terrorist driving a truck with an ISIS flag killing 10 Americans is NOT a terrorist attack!?!” Johnson wrote on X. “Seriously. Listen to this. We need Kash Patel NOW!”

The video in question is of FBI Special Agent Alethea Duncan, who happens to be a Black woman with a nose ring, speaking perfect English as she simply debriefs reporters in New Orleans, noting that the FBI had not classified the attack as a terrorist act yet. The agency did so later as more information came out.

These commentators are talking as though “DEI hires” were the ones to drive a truck through a busy crowd. There’s a clear pattern in the racist dog whistling: delegitimizing and attacking any Black person working in a professional capacity.