TOM negotiates with....TOM

 

Apr 25, 2025 (95/1461)

Closing in on Day 100 and boy is TOM (and the press) ever going to have a lot to talk about in the first 100 days. Though the number of times that a flipflop has occurred may end up negating the actual number of things that have been accomplished. There are two things for sure that were on his within 24 hours list that show no signs of change. Grocery prices and Ukraine.

For the guy who claims to have perfected the art of the deal, it would seem the only person TOM can negotiate with is himself. That’s all we’ve seen happen on the tariff front. Faced with outrageous tariffs on imports to the US, countries haven’t given in. TOM’s clam claims countries are lining up to make deals, but have you heard of any deals yet? The deals being made are between Europe, Canada, Mexico, China and the rest of the world. Yup, they’re lining up to make deals all right. Adding onto the list of walk backs by TOM’s admin has done an about face on cancelling international student visas. “After weeks of courtroom battles, student protests, and escalating pressure from universities and federal judges, the Trump Administration has reversed a sweeping effort that jeopardized the legal status of thousands of international students in the United States. The Department of Justice announced Friday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will reinstate the immigration records of international students whose student visa data had been abruptly terminated, often due to minor or dismissed legal infractions. The decision marks yet another retreat by an Administration that has made hardline immigration enforcement a centerpiece of its second term.” I wonder how TOM looks in the mirror every morning, since he hates losers. Because in the “war on immigration” he is an utter and complete LOSER. Retreating once again from the battle (mind you a battle that should never have been waged, but a battle nonetheless).

With a perfect quote, “I believe I have done all I can to advance the critical mission of the agency and feel that it is time for me to pass the baton to new leadership,” TOM’s first term pick to run the NSF has tapped out. “The head of the US National Science Foundation, a $9 billion agency charged with advancing discoveries across the scientific spectrum, resigned Thursday amid sweeping changes spearheaded by the current Trump administration.

NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan has led the agency since he was selected by President Donald Trump during his first term and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in June 2020.” I think the key here is get out while the gettin’s good. Panchanathan has seen the decimation in other departments and made the decision to let someone else wage the war for survival. A war he likely knows is futile.

And on the academic war front, Harvard is following TOM’s lead and digging back through the list of laws that long ago died (but that are still in effect) to use a little known 1946 law. “While citing the Bill of Rights’ best-known guarantee is an attention-grabber – both for judges and the general public – a more arcane issue is the focus of many of the lawsuit’s 51 pages: Harvard’s claim Trump’s executive branch isn’t following federal rules for changing key government policies. In particular, the Administrative Procedure Act “requires this Court to hold unlawful and set aside any final agency action that is ‘arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law,’” Harvard says in its lawsuit.” “Congress passed the APA to guard against irrational, emotional, unfounded decision-making,” Super said. “Its purpose is not to push any particular agenda substantively but to make sure that the executive branch is following the law and considering the facts before it acts.” As Vice Principal Vernon says in The Breakfast Club, “Don’t mess with the bull son, you’ll get the horns.” You go, Harvard.