Jun 12 2025

The Duo Strike Again: Rubio Fires All Overseas USAID Staff – Gabbard Appears to Have Nabbed Another One

Posted originally on CTH on June 11, 2025 | Sundance

U.S. Secretary of State / National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, and Director of National Intelligence ODNI Tulsi Gabbard continue making background moves well worth noticing.

♦ Secretary Marco Rubio has moved forward with instructions to fire all overseas USAID staff.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered U.S. embassies around the world Tuesday to move ahead with a directive to fire all remaining staffers with the U.S. Agency for International Development. He said the State Department will take over USAID’s foreign assistance programs by Monday.

A federal judge had temporarily blocked an executive order by President Donald Trump for mass firings at multiple federal agencies, including the State Department, and plaintiffs say Rubio’s reorganization plan appears to violate that court injunction.

The Trump administration says the plan was already underway when the president issued the order, so there’s no possible violation. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has yet to make a determination. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that Rubio’s directive “wasn’t a surprise.”

“So this was a cable, telling our posts exactly what they were expecting to be told, which is that those positions were being eliminated. So it wasn’t a surprise. It’s nothing new,” she said. “And, it is exactly what we previewed, in February and March of this year.”

Rubio told embassies to stick to the department’s plan “to abolish all USAID overseas positions” by Sept. 30. (link)

Meanwhile, in an ancillary story that only begins to make sense in hindsight, we discover that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, a name very familiar to those who followed the Trump-Russia collusion nonsense, was removed from his DOJ-NSD oversight role and has been transferred to the Federal Reserve office.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz begins his new position on June 30th, with the announcement date noted as June 6th:

PRESS RELEASE – “Michael E. Horowitz has been appointed to lead the Federal Reserve Board’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) effective June 30, 2025. By statute, the Federal Reserve’s OIG also serves in that same role for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), an agency financed by, but autonomous from, the Federal Reserve. The OIG is tasked with making recommendations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the agencies, as well as preventing and detecting waste, fraud, and abuse.” (more)

♦ The press release date about Horowitz’s move becomes interesting when contrast against the timing of the Intelligence Community hit against DNI Tulsi Gabbard, also on June 6th.

WaPo …”Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard installed one of her top advisers to a position within the office of the inspector general of the intelligence community, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. […] The adviser, Dennis Kirk, was placed within the watchdog office on May 9, but reports to the DNI, according to one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity. […] In a statement to The Washington Post, Gabbard’s press secretary, Olivia Coleman, accused the intelligence community inspector general of failing to fulfill “the responsibility to be an independent organization unbeholden to partisan interests.” Coleman said that Kirk was assigned to the watchdog office as part of the transition team and found “evidence of overwhelming and intentional politicization by the current IC IG team.” (details here)

The timing here does not appear to be, well, coincidental. Remember, Horowitz is part of the ICIG system because he has IG oversight for the DOJ-National Security Division (DOJ-NSD). The departure of DOJ-NSD Inspector General Michael Horowitz is made simultaneous to the ICIG pushing leaks about DNI Tulsi Gabbard having put Dennis Kirk inside the ICIG to keep an eye on them.

[As an ancillary footnote, Inspector General Michael Horowitz was installed as the inspector general of the DOJ in April of 2012. The story that exploded in April 2012 was the IRS targeting of ‘conservative’ and ‘patriot’ groups, which originated from within…. wait for it…. the DOJ.]

Good job Tulsi and Marco!

Jun 12 2025

May Inflation Data Lower than Expected – May Tariff Revenue Reaches Record Highs

Posted originally on CTH on June 11, 2025 | Sundance

The headline is written to draw the contrast from what the professional economic pundits previously -and continuously- proclaim.

Two charts tell the story. The first is “Tariff Revenues”:

[SOURCE]

The Second Chart is USA Inflation:

[SOURCE]

Apparently, despite all the wailing, pearl-clutching and teeth gnashing from the multinationals, their economic punditry conscripts and the professional political apparatus, tariffs are not raising prices. Go figure.

The consumer price index (CPI) increased 0.1% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Excluding food and energy, core CPI came in respectively at 0.1% and 2.8%, compared with forecasts for 0.3% and 2.9%. [BLS DATA HERE]

(Via CNBC) Consumer prices rose less than expected in May as President Donald Trump’s tariffs had yet to show significant impact on inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.

The consumer price index, a broad-based measure of goods and services across the sprawling U.S. economy, increased 0.1% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for respective readings of 0.2% and 2.4%.

Excluding food and energy, the core CPI came in respectively at 0.1% and 2.8%, compared with forecasts for 0.3% and 2.9%. Federal Reserve officials consider core a better measure of long-term trends, with several expressing concerns recently over the impact that tariffs would have on inflation.

The all-items annual rate marked a 0.1 percentage point step up from April while core was the same.

[…] Energy slipped 1% on the month, while new and used vehicle prices posted respective declines of 0.3% and 0.5%. Within energy, gasoline posted a 2.6% drop that took the year-over-year decrease to 12%.

Food increased 0.3% as did shelter, which the BLS said was the “primary factor” in the otherwise modest CPI increase. Egg prices fell 2.7% but were still up 41.5% from a year ago. Apparel posted a 0.4% drop.

Though shelter prices rose on the month, the 3.9% annual increase is the lowest rate since late 2021.

With the modest inflation moves, real average hourly earnings increased 0.3% for the month and were up 1.4% from a year ago. (read more)

[Source]

What drove inflation before was energy prices, the Green New Deal (globally Build Back Better).

That era is over with Trump in charge of MAGAnomics.

[Source]

Jun 12 2025

Secretary Howard Lutnick Outlines U.S-China Trade Discussion Outcome

Posted originally on CTH on June 11, 2025 | Sundance

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appears on CNBC to outline some of the topline details behind the latest U.S-China trade agreement.

As Lutnick notes, with all the terms agreed over two long days of negotiation, the details now move to “the paper” where President Trump and Chairman Xi will review and approve. The agreement is ¹only between the USA and China and does not involve trade details with other nations who will not be pulled along by our U.S. position.

This facet is very interesting because it means ¹Canada, a nation entirely dependent on China for industrial raw materials, does not gain benefit from the outcome of the U.S-China trade agreement. Canada is openly, publicly, trying to develop their economic model with a relationship toward the U.K and EU, to the detriment of the USA. If China grants benefit to the USA that are not existent for Canada, the U.K and E.U, that puts their coalition of economic adversaries at a disadvantage.

Lutnicks’ throw-away line, “we tried to help them, but it didn’t work out”… moving on. lol

Jun 12 2025

President Trump Announces Successful U.S-China Trade Proposal, 55% Tariffs on Chinese Imports – There Will Be No Inflation from This Agreement

Posted originally on CTH on June 11, 2025 | Sundance

President Trump announces that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have successfully concluded three-days of topline trade negotiations with their Chinese counterparts.

President Trump and Chairman Xi will now evaluate the successfully negotiated details and institute the topline strategy as part of the overall future trade agreement. According to the Truth Social post, there will be a 55% tariff on Chinese imports and a 10% tariff on U.S. goods to China.

[SOURCE]

At a 55% tariff rate against Chinese finished-goods imports, there will be ZERO inflationary pressure to the U.S. consumer.

None. Zero. Zippo. Zilch.

I will explain why below.

Tariffs are paid by the importer based on the *wholesale price* of the product as delivered by the exporting country depending on the exporters’ tariff rate.

Tariffs are NOT LEVIED/PAID based on the retail price of the product as sold to the consumer.

Example: A pair of Denim Jeans made in China for Guess Brand. The Chinese manufacturer sells the jeans to Guess Brand for $10 a pair manufactured. Guess sells the jeans at retail in the USA for $100 (a $90 gross profit).

A 50% tariff on China means the jeans cost Guess Brand $15 instead of $10 (an $85 gross profit). A 50% tariff on Guess brand jeans, that retail for $100, changes the cost to the retail brand by $5.

Multinational corporations who have off shored their production and manufacturing to China are the ones screaming about tariffs. Ultimately in the final analysis, President Trump is exposing corporatism, multinational corporate vultures; he is not necessarily just exposing China.

In the example above the company makes $85 gross profit as opposed to $90 gross profit on the pair of jeans if they do not raise the retail price.

They don’t raise the price because their profit margins are already ridiculous, and that’s why consumer prices do not go up. A 50% direct tariff on Chinese goods only marginally hits the multinational corporation.

American consumers need to understand this dynamic better.

Unrelated yet enmeshed in the geopolitics of U.S-China trade, if these earnest details hold up it means the likelihood of China taking any aggressive or hostile action toward Tiawan is gone. If these earnest agreements are not adhered to, the opposite is true.

Lastly, on the issue of the Chinese students – Marco Rubio has control of the visa filtering and vetting process. It should not be a problem to target specific issues that may arise and yet adhere to the U.S. commitment.