 |
|
|
| Shared Idea |
 |
| TACO 2
|
| In an editorial note in the 5 October 2025 issue of The Week, Susan Caskie noted that in Middle East negotiations "it isn't American that profits: It's the Trump family. Thanks partly to the crypto grift and multiple Middle East deals, Trump and his children have nearly doubled their net worth, to some $10 billion, in the months since the election. That's not a faint whiff of corruption. It's a reeking stench." Later in that issue an article by Casey Michel that appeared in the Houston Chronicle is noted. "For Donald Trump, there is no such thing as a conflict of interest, only exciting new opportunities to profit from the presidency. Take the curious sequence of recent events in which World Liberty Financial--a crypto-currency firm co-founded by the Trump family--successfully negotiated a $2 billion investment from a firm backed by the rulers of the United Arab Emirates at the same time the UAE successfully negotiated a deal with the White House to buy powerful artificial intelligence chips."
|
| Other articles are also cited in this journal. In Bloomberg, Lisa Jarvis noted that the "White House is peddling 'junk science'" as "a few 'early studies' suggested acetaminophen might slightly raise autism risk, but more recent 'recent, robust' surveys out of Japan and Sweden found 'no link.'" In Frankfurter Rundschau, Valerie Eiseler pointed out that "Donald Trump is turning the 'land of the free' into the 'land of censorship.'" In La Nouvelle Republique, Matthieu Le Gall noted that, eight months earlier, JD Vance had said: "Under the leadership of Donald Trump, we may disagree with your opinions, but we will fight to defend your right to express them in the public square." However, Le Gall went on to point out that "his administration is abusing the power of the state to silence its enemies." In The Irish Times, Hugh Linehan noted that the "First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution enshrines freedom of speech 'as a fundamental right, in a way that even protects open Nazi propaganda' that would be banned in Europe. For a U.S. government to flout it so blatantly would once have been unthinkable."
|
| On 17 October 2025, Lisa Friedman reported in The New York Times how "more that 700,000 federal employees have been sidelined and thousands more are at risk of being fired as the government shutdown drags on . . . But the workers responsible for carrying out the president's plans for more fossil fuels and less wind and solar power are still hard at work. Some are approving permits for companies that want to extract metals, coal, oil and gas from public lands and federal waters. Others are rolling back limits on the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change."
|
| H. Holden Thorp notes in an editorial in the 16 October 2025 issue of Science that "within campuses, the tactics are creating even more conflict. Although the primary lever of the Trump administration is withholding funds for research, most of the compact's conditions involve other aspects such as admissions or teaching in humanities and social science departments . . . As they vie for rankings, grant dollars, and tuition-paying applicants, larger concerns such as the future of higher education go unaddressed."
|
| In an interview in the fall 2025 issue of Catalyst, the newsletter of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Jennifer Jones points out that "under both Trump administrations, and especially during this second term, scientific integrity is scarce. The administration is firing scientists, elevating political appointees as arbiters of science, and telling scientists they cannot speak to the media or publish their research in peer-reviewed journals. Unqualifies political appointees are spouting lies and disinformation, and turning conspiracy theories into policy." An editorial by Gretchen Goldman, the president of UCS, noted how Erica Chenoweth of Harvard identified Trump's second term as a "slide into authoritarianism," including: elevating loyalists; consolidating power; targeting scientists, intellectuals, and truth-tellers; and trying to silence any voice that challenges the president.
|
| In a 3 December 2025 response to a letter I had sent him, Richard Blumenthal stated that "in an effort to eliminate funding related to climate change, the Trump Administration has frozen various federal grants, including those already approved by Congress and signed into law from the Inflation Reduction Act. I am deeply troubled by these efforts. I have long shared your passion for conservation and have prioritized environmental protection throughout my time in public office. I will continue to fight the freeze and oppose any effort to roll back or weaken sensible regulations that ensure our environment is safeguarded and Americans can enjoy clean water and clean air for generations to come."
|
| H. Holden Thorp noted in an editorial in Science that "while the rest of the world is buying China's cheap renewable technology, the United States is doubling down on fossil fuels. On Inauguration Day, President Trump signed an executive order to exploit US natural resources . . . At the same time, incentives for manufacturing and purchasing electrical vehicles were withdrawn in favor of cars that burn gasoline . . . Despite the regressive energy policy adopted by the Trump administration, the world's overall progress on renewable energy is already having encouraging environmental consequences."
|
| On 22 December 2025, Sam Sifton noted in "The Morning" of The New York Times how, "for most second-term presidents, fund-raising tapers after inauguration. Not so for Trump, who has raised nearly $2 billion since being re-elected . . . The Times traced more than half a billion dollars' worth of those donations back to 346 donors. We found that most of them had benefited from the Trump administration's actions since he retook office." The following day, Sifton went into detail regarding Trump's inappropriate actions. "Trump has given many reasons to dislike wind farms, but so far none are backed by agreed-upon facts." He noted how Trump stated in 2019: "If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer." Trump continued "If you love birds, you'd never want to walk under a windmill because it's a very sad, sad sight. It's like a cemetery. In California, if you shoot a bald eagle, they put you in jail for five years. And yet the windmills, they wipe them all out." In January 2025, Trump said "the windmills are driving the whales crazy."
|
| Sifton went on to state that "in stating a range of new policies, the president has pointed to grounds that don't draw from evidence, or at least not evidence the public can see." Some illegal immigrants "have been selected for deportation because the government has said they belong to a gang -- without proving it." Regarding boat strikes, "the government says the nearly 100 boats destroyed off South America were running drugs to the United States. It hasn't released any evidence for that claim." On refugees, "Trump has shut down most refugee admissions but is letting in white Afrikaners based on a claim of genocide against them that is not backed by evidence, says my colleague Zolan Kanno-Youngs, who covers the White House." Sifton notes more points, but winds up saying "it all adds up to what you might call a governance of assertion. That is: Trust, but don't verify." Elsewhere that morning, it noted "Trump appointed a special envoy to Greenland, part of his efforts to take over the Danish territory. Officials in Denmark and Greenland were furious."
|
| To be continued next month....
|
|
|
