Nick Pope
Contributor
The Trump administration moved Wednesday to terminate New York City’s new climate toll system, commonly known as congestion pricing.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote to Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday to inform her that his agency and the Trump administration are going to end New York City’s congestion pricing program, which charged drivers a fee to enter the area south of 60th street in Manhattan. President Donald Trump campaigned against the program, and Duffy told Hochul that the federal government will soon be in touch with the state to “discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations” in his letter. (RELATED: New York Activists Choose Dumbest Hill To Die On — And Also Want To Force YouOnto Dangerous, Dirty Subways)
Cars drive under E-ZPass readers and license plate-scanning cameras on Columbus Circle as congestion pricing takes effect in New York City on January 5, 2024. (Photo by KENA BETANCUR/AFP via Getty Images)
Duffy argued that congestion pricing hits working- and middle-class people hardest and that New York City’s program is too broad and aggressive relative to the federal law that allowed for its creation in his letter. The correspondence did not include any specific date or timeline for ending the program, and the Trump administration’s intervention to end congestion pricing will likely attract legal challenges, according to The New York Times.
Many environmentalists and liberals hailed the program as a means of raising tax revenues while decreasing pollution by changing incentives around for commuters and would-be drivers, but opponents — including Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy — have railed against the plan as regressive. Congestion pricing has been adopted in foreign cities, but New York City was the first city in the U.S. to roll out a version of the policy.
Notably, Hochul delayed the rollout of the program in June 2024, reportedly because she feared that it could hurt Democrats in the November elections that year. The program was subsequently reinstated the congestion pricing scheme just days after election day.
Hochul’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
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Raising taxes….
Drivers face £160 charges as Sadiq Khan gives green light to parking fine rises
Sadiq Kahn has pressed ahead with plans to increase parking penalty charges for motorists across the capital. – Daily Express
The war on private transport goes on.
As much as i hate cities like London and New York’s congestion and other charges the President has no business controlling their actions. It’s up to the voters in those cities to decide and/ or the state they’re in.That is the democratic way of the USA.
Federal should influence federal matters. It secures independence. I dont like Trump’s or any other powergrab. And Trump is a hypocrite. It was fine to let the states decide in regards to the abortion issue. And now it’s NOT fine about this one?
Autocrats like powergrabs and justify their actions in any way they can. Those supporting this were often the same ones against Biden dictats. You cant have it both ways! The shoe WILL be on the other foot over time and use the same mechanism..
Yes, indeed. New Yorkers have to live with it, not Trump.
The purposes of the scheme are to reduce congestion, and to improve air quality. Things that NY folk might reasonably care about.
The purposes of the scheme are to make transport unaffordable.
No, they were trying to reduce congestion in specific areas, there are no car Bannings in the works.
They reduce congestion by making personal transport unaffordable.
Nobody said anything about banning cars. Yet.
This is an indirect car banning.
And to soak the populace with even more taxes.
I don’t care what they care about and am not making an argument one way or the other about what NY should do. I am making an appeal for freedom and democracy, ironically two words Trump constantly uses except of course in cases where he opposes a certain policy. To be clear: i am happy w Trump’s winn ing the presidential election. Mainly because of the constant hammering on about climate change under Obama and Biden, topped by the Ukraine conflict. But it doesnt mean we should simply gloss over the contradictions and caveats now. I dont do binary thinking..
Conservatives who hated Biden when he acted like a dictator … LOVE it when Trump acts like a dictator. They refuted Biden and Harris BS, but fall for Trump and Musk BS.
Conservatives are hypocrites, or just too dumb to understand the Trump and Musk BS.
They always distrusted the government when the President was a Democrat, but now trust the government when a Republican is President?
Politicians lie very frequently
Politicians of both parties
Conservatives don’t get that fact.
Yes, we do get it.
However, the masses, the population, have been trained to not think and will believe any headline put up by NYT, MSM, etc.
As with every President going back to JFK (my earliest awareness), I agree with some things and disagree with others.
In order to affect real change, one has to disrupt the status quo. That is the essence of what is currently ongoing.
My concern is one of unanticipated consequences.
While the rush is needed, there is nothing in place to course correct, if needed.
According to the NY Times, the southern border now is quiet. Nobody is coming across. How’s that for getting things done?
The hook is that NYC (and NYS) receive Federal transportation dollars. I suspect the Left is mostly unhappy that Trump 2.0 has figured out how to control their 800 lb. gorilla.
Approximately 2/3 of the $7 trillion of government spending is transfer payments.
About $1 trillion to state and local governments.
Government finances are supposed to be handled by Congress through budgets, never impounded illegally by dictator presidents.
Maybe someday King Trump will read the Constitution but he will still ignore it. Based on his constant BS and conspiracy theories, Trump does not do much reading.
My point, Richard, is that the ideal of a limited, Constitutional Federal government left the station long, long before Trump was even a gleam in his daddy’s eye.
Re. Trump’s belated realization that he can actually direct the Executive Branch, I think the worst case is that he undoes some of the Left’s worst excesses, with some upside being that maybe it begins to dawn on the Left that unchecked power can cut both ways, and that maybe it might be in their own best interest to reign in their beloved deep state.
As for your claim that Trump is ‘illegally impounding’ authorized expenditures, I’d like to know where any of the specific expenditures by USAID were actually budgeted by Congress.
As I’ve pointed out before, congress passes budgets that merely shovels cash to agencies. Rarely, if ever does congress specify exactly what office within that agency is to receive.
That is determined by the secretary of the department and the people who work for him/her. And who is the boss of those department secretaires?
The president.
There is nothing wrong with the president telling a department how to spend the money that congress has given to it.
The problem is with congress shirking its responsibility. However, Richard’s hatred of Trump won’t allow him to see that.
‘As I’ve pointed out before, congress passes budgets that merely shovels cash to agencies.’
Full disclosure, I’ve never read an entire appropriations bill, but then, neither have most, if any, of our Senators or Representatives. I’m willing to bet, however, that there are sufficient specifics in any such bill to allow our political masters in DC to claim credit with the ‘folks back home’ (and their major campaign contributors) for that dandy new bridge, weapons system, etc.
But you are absolutely correct that way too much crap flies under the radar in the form of unspecified block grants to Federal agencies, and that these are fully within the purview of the President to direct. I asked Richard to provide details as to specifically ‘appropriated’ funds within, say, USAID, but am willing to bet there are none given that even the absolute morons who represent CT would not want to have their names attached to many of these ‘programs’.
Going back to Clinton and the Dems controlling the House and Senate, the “Deep State” has carefully loaded their apple cart with taxpayer dollars for wasteful and unneeded causes and programs.
Trump is upsetting that apple cart finding and them calling out.
Most things like bridges etc. are handled with a letter to the head of whatever department is in charge, letting him/her know that if they don’t want next year’s budget to be cut, they will authorize whatever it is the politician wants.
He who pays the piper, calls the tune.
The courts have ruled time and again that there is no right to these federal transfer payments. They can and often are used to control the behavior of cities and states that are recipients of those dollars.
If you weren’t blinded by your hatred of Trump, you would realize that the enemy are these transfer payments.
Wrong.
We will soon find out how much of those transfer payments are legitimate.
Exactly.
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2025/02/20/trump-causes-liberal-heads-to-explode-by-shutting-down-nyc-congestion-pricing-declaring-himself-king-n2185781
[…]
Agree with you here it was how the founding fathers envisioned was to spread out governmental power into their respective places.
This is a city ordinance thus outside of the purview of the feds.
Unless it involves Fed. funds on Fed. highways, or interstate commerce.
In other words, anything. That’s the tragedy of Constitutional Law, as ‘revealed’ by our Judicial Branch, vs. the Constitution itself.
It’s not unconstitutional since there is no constitutional right to receive such transfer funds. As long as you are receiving federal money, you dance to the feds tune. That’s the way the world, and constitutional law work.
The solution is to get rid of these transfer funds. Let the people keep their money and decide for themselves what it should be spent on.
As long as the money flows through DC, the federal government has the right to decide how it will be spent.
Pursuant to the 10th Amendment, most of what the Federal government does is unconstitutional. I don’t know what you mean re. ‘constitutional right to receive such transfer funds’. The actual problem is not one of ‘rights’ but the fact that the Federal government has wormed itself into far too many aspects of our economic and personal lives based on the Judicial Branch’s interpretation of terms like ‘commerce’, ‘welfare’, etc.
Ironically, since the article refers to transportation, both Jefferson and Madison thought it would be a good idea for the Federales to provide roads, provided, of course, that the Constitution was first amended to permit its doing so.
This is a city ordinance thus outside of the purview of the feds.
It required DOT approval in the first place, therefore DOT is able to revoke the approval. See my previous post quoting Bloomberg.
You can disagree whether it should have been something requiring federal approval (I would agree with you that it shouldn’t), but the fact is that it did, therefore there is no new federal power being exercised.
I’m strongly in favor of improving air quality, and also other collateral benefits of traffic reduction, quieter safer streets for purposes other than driving through them.
But if you look at London, you don’t get either congestion reduction or better air quality from the schemes. What you get is the pretty much same level of traffic. There has been a reduction in pollution, but not because of traffic reduction, because of regulation of car and truck tailpipe emissions at a national level.
[After a brief excursus into trying to save the planet by incenting people to drive diesel, and thereby raise emissions!]
The real effect is to stop the poor from driving. And to raise money, its actually just a tax. And if the scheme is ever implemented at charge levels large enough to lower traffic, what you’d really have created is the ability of the rich to drive through uncongested streets which the less well off cannot afford.
It is possible to lower pollution and reclaim cities for non-car uses by everyone – walking, cycling, sitting outside. But you will not do it by congestion charging, because driving is not price elastic. The only levels which will deter it will be far higher than any elected regime can survive imposing.
If you really want to do it, you have to radically rethink how city travel works, and you have to close a lot of streets to cars, or to through car traffic.
Not going to happen in London or New York.
Oddly enough, cars produce little to no pollution. In fact, with modern motor controls and catalytic converters, in most large cities, the air coming out of cars is often cleaner than the air going in.
MarkW, you forgot the dreaded impacts of CO2 and H2O!
/s
Hochul is protecting the public employee unions and pet contractors who squander funding for New York transit. New Jersey clearly objects, so it is properly a Federal issue.
The purpose is to raise a billion dollars a year to allow the city to borrow 20 billion dollars to bail out the subway system.
Agreed, the US Federal government should have no say over how New York manages its roads and highways as long as they return the $45 Billion in federal funds allocated for 2024-2026. Of course if they want to keep the money they might have to abide by any conditions that may be imposed.
You are assuming that the USA is a democracy.
It has ceased to be that since you voted in a person who believes their right to rule comes from themselves, and not the will of the people.
You had the warning when his thugs attacked the Capitol Building.
He is even admitting that he claims the right to overrule the city of NY because he sees himself as a King and not a President.
The White House on X: “”CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” –President Donald J. Trump https://t.co/IMr4tq0sMB” / X
Now Ukraine, who are paying for their freedoms in their own blood, is a democracy. But the serfs who cravenly cower before Trump will deny their betrayal of America.
“…assuming that the USA is a democracy. It has ceased to be that since you voted…”
Shurely shome mishtake?
Mr. Courtney is railing against democracy which, in a democracy, is his right.
I am willing to bet good money that a large portion of the funds sent to Ukraine have come straight back to the US as bribes and slush money.
Any evidence or just your imagination?
Ever wondered how Nancy Pelosi (net worth estimated at $114m) and other US politicians become multimillionaires so quickly on their modest salaries?
That Biden boy and the Ukrainian bribes were-finally-in the Media. Look that up-and don’t forget the 10% for the “big guy”.
You must be dreading the revelations from DOGE of how the Federal Government actually funded Black Lives Matter and other treacherous and subversive organizations.
You Democrats are so ####ed.
Any evidence or just your imagination?
The US government did not directly fund the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGN), but the organization did receive donations and grants from other sources.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation (BLMGN) has received donations from corporations, celebrities, and foundations.
Corporations:
Amazon: Donated part of $10 million
Coca-Cola: Donated $500,000
Microsoft: Donated $250,000
Airbnb: Donated $500,000
Intel: Donated part of $1 million
Google: Donated part of $2.35 million
JPMorgan Chase: Committed $30 billion to racial equity
Celebrities
BTS: Donated $1 million, and fans matched with another $1.2 million
The Weeknd: Donated $250,000 in 2016 and $200,000 in 2020
Foundations
Ford Foundation: Donated $100 million to the M4BL Movement for Black Lives
Open Society Foundations: Donated $33 million to the M4BL Movement for Black Lives
The BLMGN has also received donations from individual supporters. The foundation has used donations to:
Create a fund to support local chapters and grassroots organizations
Purchase real estate
Disburse grants to Black-led organizations
Operate a PAC to elect progressive candidates
The BLMGN has faced criticism over its finances, including from participants in the Black Lives Matter movement.
Nice try. George Soros’ Open Society is partially funded by USAID:
Janus Greene go for yet another highjack of a comments thread.
And this is so right, Soros doesn’t donate his own cash.
More grotesque corruption, this time at the EPA:
A: i didnt vote. I am from Holland. B:if you think anti democracy started under Trump you really need to take yr head out of the sand. C: there are a great many things wrong w the USA but different states making their independent decisions outside federal interference has always been the hallmark of US democracy, for bad or good. Now, most politicians/ legislators are bought so corruptions runs high. Money swears and rules.
And about Ukraine: one of the highest listed countries on the corruption scale even before Russia invaded.To say it’s a democracy is a level of wishful thinking only a totally propagandised person will ever dare to utter. This war could have been avoided. The US doubled down on aggression. Over a million people died. The US doesnt care. It’s a win against an enemy with a low cost factor. No US body bags.Hoorah!.
Even if Ukraine is not a democracy, it shouldn’t have been invaded with that loss of a million or so. It’s all due to Putin- who has no right to call Zelensky a dictator, since Putin’s election didn’t allow people who might have defeated him to run against him.
Putin and Trump called him a dictator. I still haven’t stopped laughing at the irony of that. And Putin a murderous one.
You’re certainly entitled to maintain the belief that no threat to a nation’s sovereignty can ever be used to justify that nation’s use of force against another nation – as long as you’re consistent in the application of that belief.
There was no threat to Russia’s sovereignty, a nuclear nation, especially from a very weak at the time Ukraine. But it’s clear that Putin wants to rebuild the Soviet Union. And yes, America has invaded nations too sometimes without due cause- which was wrong.
‘[A] very weak at the time Ukraine’ is a strawman argument. The issue for Russia was, and still is, a bordering state, whose elected government was overthrown in a 2014 coup, orchestrated, at least in part, by a belligerent CIA and US Department of State, with the specific intention of bringing Ukraine into NATO.
We’d have gone nuclear had the Soviets attempted to pull that stunt in Canada during the Cold War.
By your logic, if Soviet Union orchestrated a coup in weak Mexico bringing a puppet government with the clear stated goal of joining Warsaw Pact, that would not bother USA at all. No threat to US, a nuclear nation.
Ukraine is under martial law since February 24, 2022, with no elections and no free press allowed. Massive corruption suspected. How is that a democracy?
Zelensky has sacrificed at least 500,000 men to lose a war that he had no chance of winning. He should be arrested and executed for the benefit of Ukraine.
The Ukrainians were faced with an unprovoked invasion from a country bent on abolishing them as an independent nation. One which has already once committed genocide in Ukraine, and its a reasonable bet would do so again in spades given the chance.
You know nothing about Europe or European history or Russia.
Russia is a country that murdered 10-15 million of its own people for no particular reason over a twenty year period. That’s in addition to the 5+ million of Ukrainians. The current regime is the successor of the regime that did that. This is not a country or a regime you can make deals with. As Trump is about to find out.
Any more than Chamberlain could make a deal with Nazi Germany. Russia is comparable to Nazi Germany, but to a Germany that had never come to terms with its historical atrocities and is trying to resurrect its old Greater German Empire.
Read some history. Get acquainted with what you are talking about. Reed Conquest, and look up holodomor. Could also read Bloodlands. And Anne Applebaum. Its not like the facts are at all hard to find.
But you have to be interested in knowing the truth. Are you?
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/holomodor-HzSofqBRRgOdmmGzskqLNw
My wife is Ukrainian. Holodomor had 9 million killed. Current reports are attempting to minimize that.
Sorry, michel, it is you either know nothing about history of spread deliberate lies. Ukranians were in top governing positions in Soviet Union and are fully responsible for executing holodomor policies on Ukrainian territory.
On January 13, 2010, the Kyiv Court of Appeal found Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Pavel Postyshev, Stanislav Kosior, Vlas Chubar, and Mendel Khataevich guilty of genocide against the Ukrainian people during 1932-19331. This court decision officially recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide committed by the Soviet leadership against Ukrainians.
Kaganovich was born in Ukraine of Jewish descent but was squarely a Soviet politician all his career. Kosior was a significant politician in Ukraine, but was ethnically Polish. None of the others had any connexion with Ukraine.
Those are the facts.
But set that aside. The question for today’s Ukrainians is not just the Holodomor. It is also why would you want to be governed by, or incorporated into, a foreign country which a generation ago ran its own version of the Holocaust in its own territory, but on a much greater scale and over a much longer period? Which, on all the evidence from the recent past, is itching to start up again?
Of course they resist.
It is no accident that as soon as the Soviet satellites got a glimmer of a chance, they were off. And they have none of them ever proposed going back. Gulags, secret police, rationing, censorship, bans on foreign travel, all that sauced with mass murder. They needed a wall, barbed wire and machine guns to keep people in. Why would you not resist being taken over again by that lot?
You will be claiming next that the Katyn massacre was managed and executed by Poles!
The U.S. is NOT a “democracy.” It is a republic. Quite a difference.
The US was a Republic
King Trump has created a monarchy by ignoring the US Constitution and Congress
Shuttup, Janus Greene-Troll.
Maybe you should try actually reading the constitution, specifically Article II, before you go spouting off stupid sh*t. Everything he is doing is constitutional and it’s Congress that is acting unconstitutionally by trying to exercise authority over the executive branch that it wasn’t provided in the constitution.
Not even close to being accurate.
JezusHke-rist-you are truly a severely biased, truly ignorant of the Constitution with terminal TDS. As for Congress…mostly bought and paid for with too much deep state tendencies.
Wrong. Maybe if you were President doing what is being done, your motivations would as you stated.
Trump is a deal maker. He is not ignoring the Constitution or Congress. It is well within the Executive definitions of the Constitution for him to be doing what he is doing.
I heard this BS many times. Democracy is rule by the people. Republic is a form of government by a representative democracy. The word “republic” literally means “entity that concerns public”, clearly meaning that a republic is a form of government where the sovereign is the people as opposed to a monarch or emperor.
I agree the NYC and NY State should be allowed to commit suicide if they want to. That being said, President Trump should be honored by everyone who values a free and open government that is actually responsible to the tax payers and not special interest groups. At the present time we have a Deep State government that answers to no one except a select few. Many times government money goes to agendas that destroy the very people who pay the taxes and employ the workers.
A case of MSLSD-On-The-Brain … sad, really.
Incorrect. The USA is not a democracy. It is a Constitutional Federal Republic.
How many bills passed by Congress were submitted to the American electorate for voting?
None? Not a democracy.
This is called representative democracy.
Wow, a socialist whining about the will of the people being ignored. Will wonders never cease.
And a socialist willing to spread the lies he’s been given to spread.
Who attacked the Capital Building? From the investigations, it turns out that most of the people who turned violent, were being paid by the FBI.
“Who attacked the Capital Building? From the investigations, it turns out that most of the people who turned violent, were being paid by the FBI.”
Utter garbage. Little “Miss Information” is here to spread lies again. The fact you have zero evidence for such and outrageous claim will go unchallenged by the faithful here. Very sad….
There is more and more coming out that shows how much we were lied to about the riot.
Garbage. There is more and more nothing. You guys really live in la la land. The riots were the work of Trump and the disciples who followed him. If was a poorly organised attempt to steal an election that went horribly wrong. You (and Trump) don’t even have the guts to own the mistake. Of well that is typical Trump…..Sad….
Well, friend, since Kash Patel just cleared the Senate, I think we’re about to learn a lot more about January 6th, and a few more of your favorite talking points.
Ah yes, anything that doesn’t come from the DNC is misinformation.
“Ah yes, anything that doesn’t come from the DNC is misinformation.”
In your world it is really that simple isn’t it. From the right good… from the left bad. Except your statement is clearly 100% BS and that you can’t back it up with any evidence just highlights that. I wonder sometimes whether you really believe your own BS, or if you just say outrageous stuff to feel important.
Elections in Ukraine have been suspended for over 2 years now our of public safety concerns. They live under martial law. The Ukrainian constitution stipulates that if elections are not held, Duma remains until the elections occur. The Ukrainian constitution stipulates that the President remains until the next President is sworn in. Calendar plays no part.
While I would not call it a dictatorship, at present it is not a democracy until elections resume. Technically, Ukraine has a representative parliamentary form of government, not a democracy.
How many years has it been since Russia has had an honest election?
Beyond that, how exactly do you run elections in a war zone?
You clearly are in sympathy with the premise of the first Trump impeachment that the bureaucracy is the real, legitimate government, and that merely winning an election should have no effect on the experts policy dictats.
That’s funny – I always believed Trump was from Queens, New York.
Trump did an illegal quid pro quo with Mayor Adams — agree with everything King Trump says or get prosecuted. The prosecution is on hold, not permanently eliminated.
7 US attorneys resigned to protest this illegal, political act by Trump. Four of Adam’s aides resigned, Governor Hochul should immediately remove Adams from his office. He is a crook and Trump has him by the short hairs.
You are always demanding that other people provide evidence, yet you fail to provide any yourself.
There is loads of evidence that Adams is a crook and Trump helped get him off as he does a lot with people who support him.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/02/14/new-york-city-mayor-eric-adams-corruption-charges-dropped/78409879007/
I, and most others, could care less what happens in NY. If illegal-so what? Not my problem-it’s theirs. As for US attorneys resigning-you do know that they serve at the pleasure of the Executive branch and they all got fired today anyways-an old but useful tradition. And legal, BTW. And further, welcome to politics-I think the metaphor has something to do with sausage making.
So, hypothetically, it was quid pro quo. What was the “what” Trump got from it?
You thew out the Latin, so let’s see what you have to back it up.
This issue crosses State borders, so it falls under the Commerce Amendment.
It’s not a power grab. Trump isn’t doing anything here that the Federal government hasn’t already been involved in.
Per Bloomberg:
The Trump administration is moving to block New York City’s congestion pricing program, reversing a federal approval granted last year and setting up a legal showdown over the tolling initiative.
Since this initially required federal approval to proceed, it is within the power of the federal government to revoke it.
Power mad dictator Trump does yet another illegal
act after bypassing Congress, ignoring courts and now trying to rule individual states.
Trump and DODGEY must be stopped as they trample the US Constitution. A document that mattered to Republicans when Biden was president but just gets in the way of Trump’s absolute power now. It took Hitler just over a month after his election to become a dictator — that did not take years.
Congress has the responsibility to control and hopefully reduce government spending and to change taxes. Tariffs ARE taxes. Trump has seized their power.
People should not be fired with a sledgehammer by the advice of a team of young outsiders with no government knowledge or experience. They are repeatedly making false BS claims and breaking into private databases with no Congressional oversight. They have never been vetted. Trump ad Musk are epic serial liars — far worse than Biden, who had an excuse of a mental decline:
Conservatives who could not be fooled by leftist lies about climate, net zero, solar panels and windmills, are completely fooled by the Trump and Musk BS.
DOGE is Careless in Operation and Reckless in Reporting – MishTalk
The number of SS recipients over age 100 was a lie
The claim of huge Medicare/Medicaid fraud was a lie.
The $8.2 million “handout” to Politico was not a handout. It was for nine years of subscriptions for all government agencies, not just for USAID for one year.
Politico “fraud” was the usual Musk BS.
The claim to reduce government spending by $1 trillion is total BS. All the big spending programs like defense have been ignored.
USAID is less than 0.5% of total government spending
Total labor expense for civilian employees (2 MILLION) is only 8% of total government spending. Cutting even 200,000 employees (10% of 2,000,000) would save less than 0.8% of total government spending
The claim of DODGEY already saving may tens of billions is BS and there are NEVER any details presented by blowhard Musk. Musk knows dumb conservatives will never ask for details.
Collusion with Russia or Trump’s Delusion?
Now deluded Trump is claiming Ukraine started the war with Russia, and he and dingbat Hegseth started negotiations by saying Russia can keep the 20% of Ukraine they control. Trump claimed Zelensky was a dictator, which could be true, but falsely claimed a popular approval rating of 4% (the correct number is over 50%). In contrast, Trump’s approval rating is 44%
Fact-checking Donald Trump’s claims about war in Ukraine
And that delusion was just after Trump’s deranged “plan” to seize Gaza, ethic cleanse, and build a Trump resort.
The next question is whether power mad Trump will start a war with Mexico to attack the cartels or join Israel inin attacking Iran.
Trump is the worst US president in modern times, seizing far more power than any prior president since Lincoln. He must be stopped. He recently posted a photo of himself looking like a king for those who don’t understand what is happening. He proclaimed himself “THE KING” and posted a photo of himself as a king. That is exactly how Trump is acting
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/4GukgcJgU5hDz2pWBrDOFg–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTEyNDQ-/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_new_republic_521/2f4a4a0760fd166d3d0574049ee5e363
Trump continues to ignore Congress and courts, the only constitutional limits on executive powers, with his unprecedented power grab. This precedent is far more important to our freedom and the future of the United States than money wasted on Net Zero!
A sad reflection on the state of the union. Each side swears the other is lying and/or spewing propaganda. Very difficult to find authoritative info as major press outlets have all self-identified as partisan.
For the above, one “fact check” regarding defense – yesterdays news reports claim DOD has been told to plan on 8% annual cuts for the next 5 years
When you claim that President Trump is trying to be king you are totally disregarding is the fact that Biden was senile from the first day he took office. The Democrats insured that our country was run by a few unelected powerful people hidden from view. President Trump is trying to return control of the government to its rightful owners the people. He is showing the people who elected him where their tax money is going and why we are in serious debt.
A nice example of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
And saying people have TDS is just a very weak excuse by the weak minded, for not addressing the issues raised.
And getting their “opinions” from MSNBC !
I have been following your lines of reasoning for a while now and have come to the conclusion that that you a self centered individual who swings to and fro to make a point. You appear to ignore what you want to ignore and support a narrative half cocked. The founding fathers were smarter than we are and there are lots of checks and balances built into the constitution. They can be ignored at will as was the case when Biden was president and some of that is happening now. I contend that will will all be better off with this iteration than the last one.
Janus Greene is a clickbait artist who thrives on highjacking comments.
Yet we, all of us, continue to feed the troll.
You are correct, I try not to do so. I shall strive to increase my ignore level.
True, but feeding the pinwit can be fun and amusing-besides, dealing with his incredible ignorence keeps us all sharp-if baffled and annoyed.
A sad reflection on R.G.’s understanding of the constitution and the limits of Congress (the legislative branch) and the courts (the judicial branch). Trump is the head of the executive branch and does not need the approval of congress or the courts to to make executive decisions, whether R.G. approves of them or not.
Was Jiminy Carter violating the constitution when he told the states that any state that didn’t pass the 55mph speed limit would no longer get any federal highway funds?
When congress gives a department X billion dollars to spend, Trump is perfectly within his rights to tell that department how that money is to be divided.
That was Nixon, not Carter. The law was passed in Jan 1974:
“The Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act[16] was a bill in the U.S. Congress that included the National Maximum Speed Limit.[17] States had to agree to the limit if they desired to receive federal funding for highway repair. The uniform speed limit was signed into law by Nixon on January 2, 1974, and became effective 60 days later,[18] by requiring the limit as a condition of each state receiving highway funds, a use of the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.[19]”
Here is the law.
Hey RG:
> The Trump administration is moving to block New York City’s congestion pricing program, reversing a federal approval granted last year and setting up a legal showdown over the tolling initiative.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-19/trump-to-halt-ny-congestion-pricing-by-pulling-federal-approval
Nothing unprecedented here. Feds can unapprove something that they had to approve in the first place. Where was the whining when the federal approval was required in the first place?
Your sources are absolutely first rate!
/high sarcasm
Trump is doing exactly what the people elected him to do..
To cut corrupt and wasteful spending
He has the absolute right.. no.. the absolute OBLIGATION to do so.
He has not ignored any court orders, he waited for them to be rescinded, as they have been.
He as not taken any power from congress and has not gone against the constitution.
Only people listening to far-left whingers like “The View” think that.
He is doing exactly what the people of America ELECTED him to do.
And doing a pretty good job of it so far.
DOGE has the actual screens of everything they are EXPOSING.
The far-leftists are yelling and screeching because they know their trough is being emptied.
This is what the MAJORITY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE VOTED FOR.
Musk and his band of geniuses have EXPOSED all the leftist corruption and abuse of taxpayer’s money..
… and the caterwauling and DENIAL from those with deep-seated TDS and MDS is totally hilarious to watch. 🙂
Rational thinking conservatives are enjoying their manic melt-down immensely !
As an aside, DOGE people examining systems only have “read only” access to the data. They can’t change anything they find, just report it.
Political insanity.
The solution chosen by the New York Communists to restore their cash cow?
Head to court and judge-shop for yet another TRO…
Just FYI, I was not commenting on Trump’s action, but on all the bullshit that led up to it and all the responses that are fouling the airwaves with excessive noise.
One can like or dislike the NY congestion toll pricing scheme, but the Federal government has no authority or power to prohibit toll collections by individual states and their local jurisdictions.
Trump seriously needs Constitutional legal advice, not wrongheaded yes men who like trained seals are clapping his every utterance. He is pissing away his mandate from the voters to fix inflation, end DEI and woke, get American energy off the net zero schtick, and end the Dem overspending.
Mucking around in state affairs like this over which he has no authority, or issuing executive orders banning birthright citizenship, a Constitutional right, or closing down Congressionally authorized agencies without a legal basis is just making him look like a tyrant and a despot, instead of the elected President whose only authority lies in his Article II powers under the Constitution. He cannot continue to assert that Federal courts have no authority over him – that is precisely a declaration of a dictatorship.
Put Biden or Obama in the same position doing the same things and what would commenters here say about it? Did they overstep their authorities? Yes, and they were shut down by the courts, the same courts that Trump and Vance declare have no authority to stop him.
Trump seems to actually believe that his every wish is the American people’s command. We did not elect a dictator. We have Constitutional limits on powers that must be respected. Our Constitution is infinitely more important than any specific President or his policies.
I support many of his policies, but certainly not all. But in this environment anyone especially Republicans who dare disagree are being treated like political outcasts and beyond rational discussion.
Put Biden or Obama in the same position doing the same things
Like when the Biden admin approved the very thing that Trump just unapproved?
This is a Federal issue. DoT Approved the tax. It is interstate (Fed/Commerce).
You are swinging and missing on several points.
Did Congress approve funding via USAID to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars for Afghanistan to develop agriculture to grow opium poppies?
Curious minds want to know.
“Congestion pricing” is foremost a subsidy scheme for New York transit. Rather than dealing with the mismanagement of the system, Hochul is just pouring in more funding.