Trump 2.0 seems to be mighty completely different from Trump 1.0 however there are just a few essential areas of overlap. His penchant for tariffs is a kind of issues, as lined yesterday. His fixation on projecting power on the border is one other. However now it is trying like President Donald Trump may also be reviving one other first-term relic that threw individuals into chaos and instability and ignited among the earliest #resistance actions: journey bans.
“A draft suggestion circulating inside the manager department proposes a ‘crimson’ record of nations whose residents Mr. Trump may bar from getting into the US,” a number of White Home officers tell The New York Instances. That crimson record will most have a resemblance to the first-term journey ban record, presumably together with Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. It is possible the record might be launched throughout the subsequent two weeks.
Afghans who’ve been touring outdoors the nation, who’re on legitimate visas, have been urged to return again instantly lest they get shut in a foreign country, reports Reuters. And the tens of 1000’s of Afghans cleared for refugee resettlement or Particular Immigrant Visas due to their roles in aiding the U.S. army throughout the warfare (in addition to their professional fears of Taliban retribution for his or her roles), imagine their standing to be jeopardized.
The draft suggestion additionally lists an “orange” group of nations, the place visa entry could also be restricted, presumably restricted solely to individuals touring for enterprise (not tourism), and shortened. Candidates from these nations may also be required to have in-person interviews, all in an effort to weed out poorer and extra determined individuals from coming and overstaying their visas.
“In one of many many government orders he issued on Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump ordered the State Division to start out figuring out nations ‘for which vetting and screening data is so poor as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from these nations,'” reports the Instances.
Bessent is confused: “Entry to low cost items just isn’t the essence of the American dream,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday throughout a speech to the Financial Membership of New York. “The American Dream is rooted within the idea that any citizen can obtain prosperity, upward mobility, and financial safety. For too lengthy, the designers of multilateral commerce offers have overlooked this.”
Trump Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent immediately in NYC: “Entry to low cost items just isn’t the essence of the American Dream”
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) March 6, 2025
I am undecided what Bessent thinks upward mobility means if not with the ability to extra simply afford issues that make individuals’s lives higher, stuffed with much less labor and exertion, to have the ability to springboard oneself into the next stage of fabric consolation than earlier than, and to not be certain by the category or circumstances into which one was born. It is easy to decry “low cost items” and conjure up photographs of random silly crap bought on Amazon—a materialism that appears hole and pointless. However “low cost items” means washing machines and dishwashers that free us from the drudgery of family chores; it means “the infinite supply of everyday items,” all of the toothbrushes and nail clippers and pens and tennis balls and low mugs that preserve our households working; it means automobiles and iPhones for individuals to have the ability to journey and talk and keep linked extra seamlessly than ever earlier than. It is the dearth of “low cost items”—lumber, steel, aluminum parts, and nails—that has pushed our housing costs as much as such an untenable diploma (amongst different issues).
Entry to low cost items is very a lot the essence of the American dream; it ought to by no means be taken with no consideration that we reside in a time of extraordinary materials abundance, that our issues contain overnourishment, not undernourishment; how a lot work new applied sciences like synthetic intelligence save us (and what is going to occur to individuals whose jobs get changed); non secular crises and atomization and fertility-rate woes that stem from individuals having a lot freedom over easy methods to reside their lives. You can make the case that our materials abundance has introduced new issues, however it’s not clear to me that a budget items are actually the problem right here, or that our new issues can be solved if a budget items had been performed away with. That is kind of simply what occurs whenever you transfer up the hierarchy of wants, when a society turns into extra subtle and sophisticated.
We reside in an period of an excessive amount of—an excessive amount of noise, too many sources, too many issues to which we’re requested to provide our consideration—not an period of too little, for nearly the primary time in human historical past. Joseph Schumpeter was proper; now all the factory girls have gotten their stockings and we’re dealing with large questions of what to do subsequent. Bessent seems to be promoting quick this contemporary miracle in service of selling tariffs which is able to, actually, make the American dream more durable to attain.
“Wall Avenue’s performed nice, Wall Avenue can proceed doing properly. However this administration is about Predominant Avenue,” Bessent stated later in his speech. No, it is not. The insurance policies this administration is pursuing will vastly hurt the poorest People, and all for what?
Scenes from New York: Curious what different individuals have seen. My decrease Manhattan parish was completely packed for the 6:30 p.m. service.
A query for Catholic X followers: At my native parish in Princeton, there was an infinite end up of individuals to obtain ashes for Ash Wednesday (regardless of a soaking rainstorm). I’ve by no means seen something prefer it. What was the turnout at your parish? Is one thing taking place?
— Robert P. George (@McCormickProf) March 6, 2025
QUICK HITS
- Presumably the worst instance of malicious compliance I’ve seen but: “The Air Pressure briefly eliminated new recruit coaching programs that included movies of the Tuskegee Airmen quickly after Trump’s [diversity, equity, and inclusion] order,” reports the Related Press.
- A follow-up to one thing I famous earlier within the week: Apparently, no offensive cyber operations directed at Russia have been halted, and no such order was given.
TO BE CLEAR: @SecDef has neither canceled nor delayed any cyber operations directed towards malicious Russian targets and there was no stand-down order in any respect from that precedence. https://t.co/OxGK0aQXN1
— DOD Fast Response (@DODResponse) March 4, 2025
- “DOGE in its Elon [Musk] iteration is rather more targeted on two metrics: variety of federal workers and {dollars} saved,” writes Statecraft‘s Santi Ruiz (who additionally occurs to be one in all my good pals), stapling his 50 theses to the digital door. “I’ve been informed that given the political pressures on it, DOGE is focusing staffers on tasks which have a determine related to them, both headcount or greenback spend. These are brute metrics which might be fairly weak to Goodhart’s legislation: ‘When a measure turns into a goal, it ceases to be a great measure.’ I do assume there’s loads of wasteful spending within the federal authorities, and one of many upsides of DOGE is clearly the potential of making a federal tradition that’s extra conscious of the way it spends taxpayer {dollars} (extra on this shortly).”
- “This will likely shock some individuals who assume that Trump is tremendous callous, however these guys are actually disturbed by seeing our bodies within the streets,” says Self-importance Honest author James Pogue on the latest Simply Asking Questions. “There’s one thing you’ll be able to’t actually perceive about MAGA, just like the hardcore of MAGA, with out understanding that. They really feel the viscerality and actuality of loss of life and warfare in a method that lots of neoliberal technocrats typically do not.” I actually assume that this Pogue episode, and the Matt Taibbi episode before it, are consultant of what we’re making an attempt to do with this present: Eschew simple/boring mainstream media narratives and really ask robust inquiries to people who find themselves deeply sourced, have insider information, and are dissatisfied with the everyday simplistic explanations.
