The Donald Trump Score Card

A federal judge has ordered Trump to use emergency funds to continue food assistance payments.


https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10/31/us/trump-news

 

Trump sent tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer money to Argentina. He can help the American farmers and the public with food assistance.

 

Trump was also given the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, the nation's highest civilian award

According to the list of recipients in the Wiki article, Trump appears to be the first person in the U.S. to have received the award.


Grand Order of Mugunghwa - Wikipedia

 

Trump is the type who would tear down the Lincoln Memorial and replace it with a giant golden statue of him sitting on his throne wearing the golden crown South Korea gave him this week.

 

Senate defies Trump on global tariffs as Republicans join Democrats in rare bipartisan vote

excerpt:

"Lawmakers in the upper chamber went three for three with resolutions meant to terminate Trump’s use of emergency powers to enact steep tariffs on foreign countries. While the previous two were geared toward specific tariffs on Brazil and Canada, the latest would end tariffs on countries around the world.

Earlier this year, Trump declared through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act that he would enact a base 10% tariff on countries across the world. He argued in his executive order at the time that "national emergency arising from conditions reflected in large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits" as a reason to pull the trigger on the tariffs."

 

Trump’s ‘absurd’ DoJ compensation bid would be rejected if he were anyone else, experts say

excerpt:

The New York Times published the form Trump used to make the claim about the Mar-a-Lago raid – the only claim that has become public so far. Trump requested the government pay him $100m in compensation. Additionally, a memo attached to the claim requested $100m in punitive damages and says the president suffered $15m in actual harm due to legal costs connected to the case. It is not clear why the claim cover sheet seeks $100m in damages while the memo outlines $115m in requested damages.

Trump’s legal costs in the case were covered by his Super Pac, Save America. Trump retained six lawyers for himself in the classified documents case, including Todd Blanche, who is now the deputy attorney general.

Trump told reporters last week he would donate any money from a possible settlement to charity. The president has a history of making charitable promises that never materialize.

 

Netanyahu orders strikes on Gaza.

There goes Trump's Nobel Peace Prize.


Israel carries out airstrikes in Gaza, casting doubt on fragile ceasefire

 

There goes Kushner's Gaza beachfront property, too..

 

The big tech CEO's, particularly on the progressive-minded west coast, were supposedly the last line of defense against the corruption of Trump. They were supposed to be for human rights and freedom of information.

During the 2024 campaign, most stayed quiet and didn't issue any endorsement or statements against Trump, a sign of events to come.

They were standing in two lines behind Trump during his inauguration for his second term.

Since then, they have blatantly sold out to Trump.

 

YouTube sold out to Trump after suspending him from its site after his Jan. 6 insurrection. It gave Trump $24.5 million in a settlement that Trump is using to build his White House vanity ballroom.

Even the Village People sold out to Trump, claiming he's the only one left to rally around to unite the country.

 

Bovino is seen in a video throwing a tear gas canister during an ICE raid.

Bovino gave a shadowy response to the accusation and said that what happened will be worked out in court.

 

'We have to be good or ICE will get us': Takeaways from Chicago children caught in immigration raids

excerpt:

Molly Kucich, whose 2-year-old and 14-month old sons were at Luna y Cielo, was grocery shopping. Her husband called. She heard “immigration raid” and then: “tear gas.” She abandoned her grocery cart and drove as fast as she could and pulled up onto the curb outside, so frantic to get to her boys that she didn’t care if her car might be towed.

The 2-year-old was so frightened that he stuttered.

“Mommy, mommy, mommy,” he repeated, clinging to her.

In the weeks since, he’s fixated on his nanny, a U.S. citizen from Guatemala. He asks where she is and when she’s coming. He jumps at the sound of sirens. His mother called their pediatrician for a referral to see a therapist.

Since the incident, Andrea Soria, whose 6-year-old plays at Luna y Cielo, has overheard her whisper to her dolls: “We have to be good or ICE will get us,” referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“These kids are traumatized,” Aguirre-Ávalos said. “Even if ICE stops doing what they’re doing right now, people are going to be traumatized. The damage is already done.”

 

Trump's trade wars have some limit because of retaliatory tactics other countries can use, such as China not buying soy from U.S. farmers for five months. Trump felt the pressure from China and relented at least partially this week.

Trump still needs his rural support for the 2026 midterm elections, even with the potential eight extra House seats from the latest gerrymandering campaign Trump and the GOP have pursued.

The one-year truce with China that Trump says he has made will take him to the 2026 midterm elections in November 2026.

 

Trump's domestic wars, such his deportation crusade, are more difficult to stop than the ones he directs on foreign countries like his tariff wars that China just impeded. They can be fought in the U.S. courts but it may take months or years.

When courts rule against him, he has the six conservatives on the Supreme Court to give him the benefit of doubt until the issue is resolved later.

 

Congress needs to be able to invoke an emergency to stop the injury by Trump and his abuse with his emergency declarations.

Unlike Trump who can easily invoke emergencies, Congress doesn't have an easy way of doing it. The U.S. Senate voted this week successfully to stop him but the GOP in the House won't approve it. Even if it did, the measure would go to Trump who would need to sign it. Overriding Trump in the Senate is unlikely due to the nearly even split in party seats and GOP members who fear going against Trump.

 

One could argue that this is a point that that the conservatives on the Supreme Court would use as a reason to not give Trump the benefit of the doubt nearly every time, especially on his actions that involve crucial, fundamental, national issues such as birthright citizenship and deporting people without due process. Trump can easily invoke emergencies but Congress can't easily stop him.

In spite of that, the conservatives on the Supreme Court in the presidential immunity ruling ascribed special attributes to the presidency, such as being preclusive, conclusive, and exclusive as a reason for giving it the benefit of doubt compared to the legislative and judicial branches without justifying those attributes.

 

Congress is faced with having to revise various acts so that they can't be abused by people like Trump, such as putting time limits on emergencies that a president declares that would give Congress immediate powers to intervene after the time expires. Emergencies are generally thought of as being sudden, short-term, crucial situations needing immediate remedies. If emergencies are somehow construed as long-term, general domestic and foreign policy, then why not give Congress some benefit of the doubt instead of most of it going to the president.

In December 2022, Congress revised the Electoral Count Act of 1887 by raising the bar needed to mount a challenge to the results of a presidential election and by defining the VP as having only a ceremonial role in counting electoral votes. It will help prevent people like Trump from abusing it in the future like he did in the 2020 election.

 

Trump claims to be the great dealmaker.

He hasn't yet become seriously involved in trying to end the government shutdown which has reached the one-month point.

If the shutdown continues a few more days, it will break Trump's shutdown which lasted 34 days (the longest in U.S. history) until he finally relented and ended it. He was upset that Congress wouldn't give him U.S. taxpayer money to build his border wall. Congress never gave it to him.


As the shutdown grinds on, Trump isn't sticking around to negotiate