February 3, 2025

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

Fork in the Road: Trump’s Swamp Draining

By Rick Manning 

President Donald Trump is moving at the speed of Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C.’s establishment which is used to three-day congressional work weeks is being overrun. 

In his first term, Trump was conventional in his approach to change, assuming that bureaucrats and even some of his own appointees would enact his policies. Instead, except on trade and immigration, he faced non-stop resistance, leaving the “swamp” intact after four years of battle. 

During his four years outside of the Oval Office, President Trump put his freedom, fortune and life on the line as he faced unprecedented political lawfare and at least two assassination attempts. 

If there are any doubts, President Trump is demonstrating that he is not going to waste a moment of his second term. 

The number of very significant actions taken by the Trump administration over the past two week has been breathtaking from ending Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies that violate the Civil Rights Act to an aggressive defense of the borders including imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico and day-one deportations of criminals illegally in the United States. 

But Feb. 3 is the fork in the road day for the swamp. The day when federal bureaucrats will have to decide if they want to keep their high-paying, low-pressure jobs by returning to their offices or not. 

Unbeknownst to most of America, federal workers and some contractors have largely been working from home or remotely since March of 2020. Yes, that’s right, one month shy of five years after the Wuhan virus shut down America, the federal government largely remains out of the office. 

Many federal workers have never worked full-time in the office as they were hired in the past five years, many others have been coming in a couple of times a month to check-in but working from home the rest of the time. But on Monday, February 3, they will all be required to be in the office. 

This is going to be beyond messy. 

Government managers naturally adapted to the remote workforce by shrinking their office footprint, getting rid of phone lines and internet connections, and having workers share cubicle areas with others who were in the office on different days. Needless to say, the Washington Post will be filled with stories about the “waste” as workers show up into chaos with no desk or phone. 

Some of these federal employees will decide not to return to the office and accept the offer to pay them until Sept. 30, 2025 and then terminate their employment. Others have moved out of the D.C. area during the five-year period and will quit as a result. There will be areas of government where the voluntary culling of the workforce will be disproportionately affected. 

After all the complaining, in a couple of months, the situation will settle, the logistics will be resolved and things will “work” again. 

But they will work in a new and different way, with a workforce who has chosen to be there, and an increased sense of urgency. 

In 2016, I was part of the Trump transition team which urged a “shock and awe” strategy which was rejected by President Trump at the advice of his largely establishment White House staff.  

Two weeks into his second term, we are seeing sweeping changes with resister bureaucrats finding themselves sidelined, pending replacement.  

The swamp is being brutally drained by a President facing an almost $2 trillion projected deficit and a prior administration that used the administrative state as a tool to institute former President Barack Obama’s “fundamental change of America”. 

Trump tried playing the Washington, D.C. game by the establishment’s rules in his first term and all it bought him were two impeachments and an eight-year witch hunt attempting to take away his freedom and fortune.     

Now, he is using Washington’s incapacity to move quickly against it in a bold attempt to save America from decline.   

It is going to be painful for some, traumatic for others, but for most of America, this is what they expected to happen. For the President they elected to grab D.C. by the throat and make it work for the people. 

After all, the real fork in the road is not Feb. 3, 2025 it was on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 when America voted for real change, not just the kind that gets printed on bumper strips and forgotten. 

Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/02/fork-in-the-road-trumps-swamp-draining/

Trump Hits Mexico, Canada and China With Big Tariffs, Demands Cooperation On Trade, Illegal Immigration, Border and Fentanyl—All Three Weaken Currencies In Response

UPDATE: Trump Pauses Tariff On Mexico As It Sends 10,000 Troops To Border

By Robert Romano

President Donald Trump has pulled the trigger on tariffs against Mexico, Canada and China to incentivize cooperation to stop the flow of both illegal immigrants and fentanyl drug trafficking crossing the U.S. border and has said he will only lift them when trade is rebalanced and the human and drug trafficking stops.

The tariffs, issued by Trump on Feb. 1, include 25 percent tariffs for Canadian goods, and also 10 percent tariff on energy products including “crude oil, natural gas, lease condensates, natural gas liquids, refined petroleum products, uranium, coal, biofuels, geothermal heat, the kinetic movement of flowing water, and critical minerals”, and 25 percent tariff on Mexican goods, and to increase the tariffs on Chinese goods by another 10 percent, coming atop 25 percent on $250 billion of goods and 17.5 percent on the remaining $300 billion of goods that were established by Trump in 2019 that President Joe Biden never rescinded.

The U.S. has balance of trade deficits with all three countries. In 2024, in China it was roughly $290 billion, in Canada it was $60 billion and in Mexico it was $170 billion, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

In a negotiation over trade, the combined $520 billion of trade deficits could give President Trump the leverage he needs over the trade surplus countries who depend on the U.S. as a customer for their goods. It comes down to who has more to lose?

Already, Mexico has come to the table to negotiate as Trump put a one-month pause on the tariffs there after Mexico said it would immediately provide 10,000 troops to help secure the U.S-Mexican border.

When asked by reporters on Feb. 2 what it might take to lower the tariffs, Trump reiterated he is seeking cooperation with all three countries on balance of trade, the border and drug trafficking, stating, “They have to balance out their trade, number one. They've got to stop people from pouring into our country — and we've stopped it, they haven't stopped it, we've stopped it. They have to stop people from pouring in and we have to stop Fentanyl and that includes China.”

Trump added, warning that he will increase the tariffs if cooperation is not reached, saying, “Fentanyl has killed this year at least 200,000 people. It's pouring in from China through Mexico and Canada and they've got to stop it and if they don't stop it the tariffs are going to get worse, a lot worse.”

In each of the tariff executive orders by Trump, it warns should any of the counties “retaliate against the United States in response to this action through import duties on United States exports… or similar measures, the President may increase or expand in scope the duties imposed under this Executive Order to ensure the efficacy of this action.”

Well, that’s already happening. Canada has promised a 25 percent tariff in return, with Mexico expected to follow suit. And Mexico, Canada and China’s currencies were immediately weakened — down 2.2 percent, 1.9 percent and 0.4 percent respectively — likely by dumping domestic currency to buy dollar denominated assets, thereby strengthening the dollar, in an apparent bid to cheapen exports to the U.S. and offset the tariffs.

None of this should come as little surprise to anyone. After winning the election, in a post on Truth Social on Nov. 26, Trump levied the tariff threat against China, writing, “I have had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail. Representatives of China told me that they would institute their maximum penalty, that of death, for any drug dealers caught doing this but, unfortunately, they never followed through, and drugs are pouring into our Country, mostly through Mexico, at levels never seen before. Until such time as they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America.”

And in a separate post, Trump also warned Mexico and Canada of the same, writing, “As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before. Right now a Caravan coming from Mexico, composed of thousands of people, seems to be unstoppable in its quest to come through our currently Open Border. On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders. This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country! Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!”

And as for immediate actions to weaken their currencies by Mexico, Canada and China besides tariffs, with the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, intervention into currency markets has been a go-to measure by foreign central banks to achieve trade surpluses for decades. Usually, the U.S. wouldn’t do anything in response, but now Trump is getting tough.

As a result the dollar has already strengthened the dollar by 1.3 percent, which will have the impact of making U.S. exports more expensive in receiving countries, and could prompt Trump and the new Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to look at currency manipulation, something Trump has warned about repeatedly.

While the tariff threats had prompted discussions with all three countries’ leaders prior to taking office, Trump was apparently not satisfied with the progress, telling reporters, “we subsidize Canada by the tune of about $200 billion dollar a year and for what? What do we get out of it? We don't get anything out of it. I love the people of Canada. I disagree with the leadership of Canada and something's going to happen there but if they want to play the game, I don't mind, we can play the game all they want.”

Trump added, “Mexico, we've had very good talks with them and… this is retaliatory to a certain extent. Millions of people float into our country through Mexico and Canada and we're not going to allow that.”

And it might extend to other countries including the European Union and the United Kingdom, Trump warned. He also told the American people to expect “pain”, stating, “we may have short term some — a little pain, and people understand that, but long term the United States has been ripped off by virtually every country in the world. We have deficits with almost every country not every country but almost and we're going to change it, it's been unfair.”

So, Trump’s art of the deal continues. No longer a threat, Trump has imposed the reality of tariffs on Mexico and Canada, and as for China, he has increased those already in place. Mexico is coming to terms and now the ball is in Canada and Mexico’s court. Trump isn’t messing around.

Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/02/trump-hits-mexico-canada-and-china-with-big-tariffs-demands-cooperation-on-trade-illegal-immigration-border-and-fentanyl-all-three-weaken-currencies-in-response/

Shipwreckedcrew: The Scorecard After the Friday Night Massacre -- Who Still Works At DOJ And the FBI?

By Shipwreckedcrew

The second full week of the Trump Administration resulted in long-awaited news from the Department of Justice and the FBI. Attorneys were fired, senior FBI managers were forced to retire or face possible termination, January 6 prosecutors had their tenure cut shot, the FBI was directed to create is list of EVERY employee — Special Agent and otherwise — who had any role in the investigation of the events of January 6, 2021.

This news comes before three of the most crucial Trump Administration political appointees have been confirmed — Pam Bondi is not yet Attorney General, Todd Blanche is not yet Deputy Attorney General, and Kash Patel is not yet Director of the FBI. Given that, how is it that Donald Trump is already having a significant impact on the operations of the DOJ and FBI?

But, the news is not exactly what has been reported by various “sources” in social media and elsewhere. The “firings” are not quite as extensive as some outrage peddlers screamed from their electronic perches, and the forced retirements really aren’t surprising and tend to occur at the top of the FBI every time there is a new Director named.

So, here is a scorecard concerning what actually did happen this past week — based on either widespread reporting crossing partisan lines, and/or documentation put out by DOJ and/or the FBI themselves.

THE JACK SMITH SPECIAL COUNSEL’S OFFICE.

Smith himself had resigned from the Department of Justice back on January 11, 2025. The team of attorneys with Smith at the Special Counsel’s Office were a mix of Public Integrity Section attorneys who were handling the investigation prior to Smith’s appointment, as well as a handful of attorneys Smith brought in specially to be part of the two cases he ended up bringing. Many of these attorneys followed Smith out the door during the final days of the Biden Administration, with the remainder heading back to their prior positions with DOJ.

Of those who remained, several were terminated on Monday of this past week. A list of individuals in this category has not been released, but various social media outlets have mentioned Molly Gaston, Thomas Windom, James Pearce, JP Cooney, and David Harbach as being among the group.

In addition to the firings, several members of DOJ’s upper management who are “career” officials — they have remained in place in one position or another through at least one change in administration — have been reassigned. While not directly involved with Jack Smith’s SCO work, it should be recalled that the investigation into Pres. Trump — both the classified documents case and the D.C. case involving January 6 — stated prior to Jack Smith being hired. The senior “career” officials were likely involved in the decision-making to start those investigations.

The primary landing spot reported has been a new office within DOJ created to give legal assistance to the immigration/deportation efforts by Border Czar Tom Holman and the Department of Homeland Security. While crucial work, it is likely to be much busier work than these individuals are accustomed to and not at the same level of national importance. This is the time-tested method of pushing managers out of DOJ — assign them to do work they have no interest in doing. All of these individuals have jobs waiting for them with big law firms, so none will be unemployed when they leave. All they need is the motivation to leave and the Trump Administration is doing that now.

FBI SQUADS ASSIGNED TO WORK WITH JACK SMITH’S SCO

On Friday news broke that approximately 40 agents in the Washington Field Office had been escorted from the building. Reports on social media by some who would be in a position to know confirmed that the two squads involved were had been working on the two Trump prosecutions — including having executed the search warrant at Mar A Lago.

The description does not sound like termination — that is a process for an FBI Agent that takes much more time — but rather a situation where the agents were put on Administrative Leave and not allowed to take anything with them when they left. This would be the typical approach if the squad’s work is going to be scrutinized for misconduct. Since the communications between FBI and the Smith SCO is going to be crucial in evaluating the legality of Smith’s work, securing all those communications and other supporting paperwork is a critical first step.

FBI SENIOR MANAGERS TOLD TO RETIRE OR FACE TERMINATION

FBI Director Christopher Wray resigned his position on January 19, 2025. Deputy Director Paul Abbate resigned his position on January 20, 2025. Acting Attorney General James McHenry the appointed an Special Agent In Charge of the New York Counterterrorism Section to the position of Acting Director.

It has been reported that at the same time McHenry took these steps he also communicated to eight of the most senior FBI managers — presumably those hold the position of “Assistant Directors” — that they should retire or face termination by a specific date. The Assistant Director who oversaw the Washington Field Office, David Sundberg, was one of the eight forced out.

In addition to those eight, it has been rumored that approximately one-half of all the Special-Agents-in-Charge of the FBI’s 54 Field Offices will also be forced to retire or face termination.

Because of the way promotions work in the FBI at the upper management level, each of these individuals is likely associated with Wray in some way. The Director has a personal hand in picking who should fill these senior management positions in specific offices. Personal and professional relationships play a big role in determining who is promoted into each position. Each of the individuals now facing forced retirement came into management during either Jim Comey’s tenure as Director or Christopher Wray’s tenure. Pres. Trump as been in open conflict with FBI management going back to early 2016, and it is not surprising at all that he wants to start his second 4 year term not having to look over his shoulder, and the easiest way to do that is with all new personnel in the upper levels of FBI management.

FIRING OF PROSECUTORS WHO HANDLED JANUARY 6 CASES.

This move has been the most mis-reported over the past 48 hours. To understand what steps were taken on Friday afternoon (January 31) it is necessary to understand the changes made to the staffing of January 6 prosecutions going back to the beginning.

When the prosecutions began in early 2021, the cases numbered in the dozens and were handled by parceling them out among the AUSAs who worked full-time in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. As the number of cases climbed past 100 and then 200, that was beyond the ability of D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office to handle alone and still handle the other cases that existed prior to January 6.

That led DOJ to “detail” AUSAs from other offices around the country to handle January 6 cases. When I first became involved as a defense attorney I had prosecutors assigned to cases from California, New Mexico, New York, Florida, Massachusetts, etc. This arrangement lasted for about 14-18 months, and then another group of prosecutors from around the country started being assigned to cases, with the first group of detailees being released back to their home districts to return to the work they were doing before.

All of that largely ended in early 2024, and I began to encounter new faces among prosecutors assigned to the “Capitol Siege Unit” — a group of prosecutors in the D.C. U.S Attorney’s Office who did only January 6 cases. I learned from talking to some of them that they were “term hires” — meaning they were hired under a 2 year contract to do one thing, prosecute January 6 cases.

The announcement this past Friday regarding the firing January 6 prosecutors only concerned this relatively small number of “term hires” estimated to be 25-30. There was one interesting aspect of the letter that was made public — it referenced the fact that since the election, some unspecified number of these term employees were moved into permanent positions that came open because of resignations by regular AUSAs after the victory by Pres. Trump.

This is not unusual — many U.S. Attorney’s Offices use term positions as a “audition” period for applicants who want a permanent position. If the U.S. Attorney is satisfied with the person’s job performance, they can be moved to an open permanent position, and a new “term” hire can be made — another person auditioning for a permanent slot.

But, according to the letter, what the Biden DOJ did after the election was move the “term hires” into permanent positions opened by resignations, and this will greatly inhibit the ability of the new U.S. Attorney for D.C. to staff his/her office with prosecutors of his/her choosing. So the Acting U.S. Attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, asked for all the term positions to be ended, and anyone moved from a term position to a permanent position be terminated.

So, contrary to the popular reporting by the engagement farmers in social media, this was not a firing of “all” the January 6 prosecutors.

IDENTIFICATION OF FBI PERSONNEL WHO WORKED ON JANUARY 6 CASES.

This is the move that is the most puzzling — the FBI has been directed to provide a comprehensive list of EVERY FBI employee who worked on any January 6 case. This list is going to number in the thousands when complete.

It may be a way to divide the FBI workforce up into “teams” — those who worked on Jan 6 cases and those who did not. It might be for the purpose of immediately narrowing the field of inquiry — only those who worked on January 6 cases are going to come under additional scrutiny.

On a person-by-person basis, I’m not certain where this might go. A different question involves who, among those on the list, had decision-making authority as a matter of policy, and who had decision-making authority on a case-by-case basis as a practical matter.

I suspect that the isolation of FBI personnel for interviews — a likely first step — is going to be part of a move to force out more of the career AUSAs who handled the January 6 cases for the first 36 months. Interviews beginning with FBI personnel involved will likely focus on instructions given by prosecutors to FBI personnel in building the cases. This may be where the first wave of “whistleblowers” might begin to emerge.

I expect it is going to be a significantly longer period before we see more major personnel shakeups. Bondi and Patel should be in place within 10 days, and the further examination of DOJ and the FBI will fall to them. Bondi’s DOJ requires many more political appointees in the upper levels of DOJ management so it will take longer for her full team to be in place. Patel, being the only Presidential appointee in the FBI, can begin immediately in surrounding himself with a trusted staff, and promote individuals he has confidence in to the upper management levels that are being emptied out now.

To view online: https://shipwreckedcrew.substack.com/p/the-scorecard-after-the-friday-night