There was once a time when a new U.S. presidential administration would be granted a "honeymoon period" to set an agenda and establish new policies — not so for President Donald J. Trump, now our nation's (returning) commander in chief.
Instead, the knives were being drawn even before his first inauguration in January of 2017.
Guns were drawn before his second term electoral victory on Nov. 5, 2024.
Yet, the nation can take comfort, that behind these battle lines, Trump's enemies are losing this war.
Amping up street protests marketed under the catchphrase "Hands Off!," a movement against Elon Musk and Donald Trump reveal the false and disingenuous nature of this protest movement.
Consider the protest's two main focal points:
- The ability of the Department of Government Efficiency [DOGE] to effectively identify, eliminate, and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in government.
- Trump's prioritization of deporting criminal elements among illegal immigrants.
Even counting the addition of illegal aliens over the past four years, it's safe to say that an appreciable number of American residents support these two policy objectives.
With respect to protest movements, let's differentiate between ringleaders, who aggressively seek radical change and destruction, and the rank-and-file sign-carriers, who get used by the ringleaders to project numbers and the image of popular support.
Russia's Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) called the foot soldier sign-carriers "useful idiots" — people driven by emotion and easily manipulated.
But you can be sure that among the leaders of Hands Off! are shrewd America-hating radicals, revolutionaries, and subversives whose goal is not reforming America, but rather keeping America on the trajectory of destruction that was the legacy of the power-brokers behind the Obama and Biden administrations.
On April 5, more than 1,400 Hands Off! supposed grassroots mass-action protests against Trump, Musk, Tesla Dealerships, and DOGE were held at state capitols, federal buildings, congressional offices, Social Security's headquarters, parks, and city halls throughout the entire country — "anywhere we can make sure they hear us," organizers said.
But again, exercise extreme caution in taking things at face value.
Ask, are the Hands Off! protests, which runs under monickers such as "The Tesla Takedown" and "Ending the Billionaire Power Grab," grassroots, organic, or spontaneous?
Are these protesters paid and or financially supported in any way for what they do?
Probing this question further could lead to most compelling results.
And we must ask, who and/or what organizations could be sponsoring the protest groups involved in "Hands Off!" demonstration campaigns.
Big data analyst Tony Seruga, a CIA and National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower, asserted in a post on X: "We have also identified 11 additional groups paying for protests, demonstrations and riots, many are linked to foreign bad actors in countries funding terrorism."
Additionally, these protests decrying Trump and Musk's investigatory audit initiatives, and the resultant federal government worker layoffs and deportations, come on the heels of seemingly liberal federal judges attempting to issue injunctions against Trump's actions.
We also know that the mass protests over the April 5 weekend were organized and not spontaneous. If protesters were provided food, who fed them?!
Again, who or what is serving as the financial bedrock for this if you will?
Because DOGE has the uncanny ability to follow the digital trails of money and fraud, protest organizers and funders might know that their individual and collective jigs may finally be up.
Regardless, average Americans' tolerance for protests that lead to riots and property destruction — the pattern of the George Floyd riots that ended up destroying over $2 billion in property, for example — is gone.
Americans want law and order, and jail and/or prison time for law-breaking destroyers.
In assessing President Trump's initiatives including DOGE's, it's essential to have context to understand the merit of the prescriptions and policies.
The fact is that President Barack H. Obama increased the national debt more than any prior administration, adding $9.5 trillion in eight years, sending the U.S. on a path to bankruptcy.
That trajectory continued and was further accelerated by massive stimulus and bailout spending driven by the COVID-19 shutdown of the economy, in 2020-21.
On an annual basis, no one poured more gas on the debt growth fire than the Biden administration, which added $8.5 trillion to the national debt in just four years.
The credit worthiness of a nation is driven by the ratio of debt to gross domestic product [GDP]. The "AAA" rating median ratio is 39.3% and the "AA" rating median is 44.7%.
Today, the combined U.S. state and federal debt-to-GDP ratio is 133%, a level that's approaching Greece's condition in 2012, when it experienced a sovereign debt crisis requiring a $173 billion bailout from the European Union (EU).
Now, there's no one to bail out the United States.
The bottom line is that Trump's second term began with a beyond cogent recognition that America has limited time and policy choices with its very solvency now at risk.
Let's applaud Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk, not foolishly vilify them.
We no longer have the luxuries of wasting time — and money.
Scott S. Powell is senior fellow at Discovery Institute and a member of the Committee on the Present Danger-China. His timeless book is, "Rediscovering America," He may be reached at: scottp@discovery.org. Read Scott S. Powell's Reports — More Here.