Posts on Thursday, April 10, 2025
Trump’s Long Game With Tariffs
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Donald Trump is playing the long game with tariffs. His goal is to restore our industrial base by revolutionizing the way the United States trades with the rest of the world. We no longer make antibiotics, and import much of our steel, computer chips, and cars. We must even import titanium sponge--a key component for weapons systems--from producers in China, Russia, and Kazakhstan. [Snip] ...that’s what “liberation day” is all about. Do we see ourselves as slaves to distant masters who control our wealth and our destiny? Or as free men and women in charge of our own destiny? Freedom always has a cost. And it’s worth it.
A billionaire Palestinian-American developer accused by Oct. 7 victims’ families of “aiding and abetting” Hamas has resigned from his position on the dean’s council at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, The Post can reveal, with the school acknowledging the civil complaint “raises serious allegations.” Bashar Masri stepped down from his post at the Ivy League university days after nearly 200 family members of victims of the deadly attack in Israel sued him in Washington, DC, federal court for allegedly aiding the construction of tunnels and rocket launchers at Gaza-based properties. Masri, who had reportedly been advising President Trump’s hostage envoy, (snip) took millions of dollars US government funding for
Christian nationalism” is the bad penny that keeps turning up in media propaganda. It’s an obvious trope that often conflates fascism with a very natural love of homeland. ...many have felt like displaced persons adrift in a sea of wokeness. [Snip] Christian nationalism, properly interpreted, is about a renewed ache for the profound sense of belonging Americans once had in America, including the longing for Christian values of forgiveness and redemption and real love--all of which are woven into America’s heritage and founding. [Snip] ...People yearn for freedom because we know in our hearts that it is our birthright, and that right is inalienable.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that aims to strengthen America’s depleted shipbuilding industry and restore U.S. maritime dominance throughout the world. “The commercial shipbuilding capacity and maritime workforce of the United States has been weakened by decades of Government neglect, leading to the decline of a once strong industrial base while simultaneously empowering our adversaries and eroding United States national security,” the president wrote. “It is the policy of the United States to revitalize and rebuild domestic maritime industries and workforce to promote national security and economic prosperity.”
Big media and big finance insisted the financial sky was falling this week, but with President Donald Trump, you never know exactly where you are in any deal-making process. Weighing in too soon can make you look stupid.
On Wednesday, the deal-maker in chief announced a 90-day pause on sky-high tariffs directed at 75 nations which did not retaliate against his measures and have asked the administration for a reprieve and time to negotiate.Democrats, and a fair number of free-marketeer conservatives to boot, celebrated Trump "caving" to the pressure of the financial markets. But when the smoke settled, it was clear that, far from
CNN host Anderson Cooper was hoisted by his own left-wing petard after being schooled by an audience member for misgendering her.
The farcical irony unfolded Tuesday night during a town hall Cooper hosted with Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
At one point, Cooper called on a woman in the audience and got scolded on live TV for assuming the lady was female. “I want to introduce Grace Thomas,” Cooper said. “She’s a local civil rights attorney. She’s a Democrat, right?”
An annoyed Thomas shot back: “It’s ‘they/them’ pronouns, actually. Thank you.” An apologetic Cooper stammered in shock, “Oh.” This ridiculous exchange perfectly encapsulates the left’s frivolous obsession with triviality, as the
Our government is broken. It’s not working. Only a Cervantean Greater Fool with the zenith combination of imagination, courage, and strength to stand up and tilt at this windmill will give us a fighting chance(snip)
We also need to trust the people we put into office; trust them to navigate this terrain effectively and to appoint people who will navigate this terrain effectively. RFK Jr. is in the lions’ den right now – not us.a(snip)
Senator Cassidy has the power to unilaterally block RFK Jr.’s picks for deputy, chief counsel, and other critical roles where he needs his generals.
Walmart’s shares soared nearly 10 percent during the April 9 trading session after the company maintained its sales outlook and pledged to keep prices low for customers amid economic uncertainty.
In its Investment Community Meeting on April 9, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant reaffirmed its previous guidance of 3 to 4 percent sales growth for the first quarter of 2025 while keeping annual sales and operating income growth targets unchanged.
Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Walmart Inc., expressed confidence in the company’s strategy for driving sales growth and enhancing shareholder value.
Hours before Trump announced his pause on tariffs, he posted a clear signal to everybody that it was a great time to buy stocks.
The market was way down and didn't pop for hours, and when he dropped his official announcement that he would be pausing tariffs on all countries but China, the market went nuts, and a lot of money was made.
Out of this set of facts the Democrats have concocted the most bizarre conspiracy theory in the world so far. It is so convoluted, so bizarre, and so implausible that "NASA faked the moon landing with Stanley Kubrick" sounds pretty rational and easy to accomplish.
Komisar von der Leyen informs the union members that she has decided to pause the retaliation tariffs against the USA, based on the 90-day pause announced by President Trump. However, in actuality there’s not much difference even within the pause as the German/EU autos are still tariffed (25%) and the steel and Aluminum tariffs’ (25%) still apply.
The only gain from yesterday’s modification in the global tariff regime for the EU was a switch from 20% EU tariff to a baseline 10% tariff during the pause.
The total EU relief is 10% for 90-days; but that was enough for Komrade Ursula to mount her high-horse and claim magnanimity status.
A prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington
frees Ksenia Karelina, a US-Russia dual national replies
frees Ksenia Karelina, a US-Russia dual national replies
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Moscow freed a Russian American convicted of treason in exchange for a Russian German man jailed on smuggling charges in the U.S., a prisoner swap that was completed Thursday as the two countries met to repair ties.
Ksenia Karelina is “on a plane back home to the United States,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on social media platform X. She was arrested in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg in February 2024 and convicted of treason on charges stemming from a donation of about $52 to a charity aiding Ukraine. U.S. authorities have called the case “absolutely ludicrous.”
Time to play The Dog That Didn't Bark. In this version of the media game, we try to find that strangely silent and altogether unmentioned dog, who had been barking plenty until yesterday.
The Wall Street Journal did a deep dive last night into Donald Trump's decision to pause 'reciprocal' tariffs against 75 trading partners yesterday while escalating the trade war with China. Trump himself attributed his change to the reaction in the bond markets, which had turned dangerously sour by Tuesday. However, the WSJ credits Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent with convincing Trump to take some wins and focusing on building a trade coalition to marginalize China:
The FBI certainly has come a long way from surrounding pro-life activists with a dozen armed agents in dawn raids over a sidewalk dispute, eh? All it took for a renewed focus on real law enforcement was a new president ... and a new crop of psychotic morons rage-posting on social media.
Last night, Bill Melugin reported on the arraignment of Robert King, whom FBI agents arrested after a tip. King allegedly threatened to assassinate Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and attempted to recruit others to the cause. King didn't have much luck influencing friends, keeping family on his side, or amusing the Department of Justice (via Twitchy):
The 2024 presidential election is just five months in the rearview, but the country is already trudging toward the 2026 midterms — at least at the annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference.
In a straw poll of 267 conference participants from eight states, including Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania state Treasurer Stacy Garrity was the clear favorite to win the Republican primary for its 2026 gubernatorial election. She received 41% of the vote, as Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Penn., came in a distant second at 9%.
While 2026 is still long down the road, and neither Pennsylvania politician has formally announced a run, both Republicans embraced the opportunity to tease their potential bids.
The fraud within the United States government is so rampant that it is leaving Elon Musk shocked.
On Wednesday, The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) announced its findings from an initial survey of unemployment insurance claims since 2020 and uncovered three stunning discoveries regarding unemployment fraud.
There is one that even the Babylon Bee would find far-fetched.
What they found will leave you livid:
Fact Check: Whoopi Goldberg Falsely Claims
Egg Prices Have Not Come Down Since Trump
Took Office replies
Egg Prices Have Not Come Down Since Trump
Took Office replies
Egg prices have not fallen by “one cent” since President Donald Trump took office, “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg gushed Wednesday.
She’s wrong. Egg prices have fallen 44 percent since the start of 2025 after prices had soared to record levels under former President Joe Biden’s administration, according to Trade Economics.
Despite the significant fall in egg prices, Goldberg claimed she has not seen these prices fall in any way, shape or form. (X) “[Trump] did promise to lower the price of groceries, I have not seen an egg fall one cent since this man got in,” Goldberg said, prompting co-host Sunny Hostin to falsely say they are going up.
New inflation numbers are in and down more than predicted in March. (X) The numbers are cause for celebration at the White House, starting with President Donald Trump.
"Just out: 'INFLATION IS DOWN!!!'" Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday morning. (X)
"Today’s new Consumer Price Index reveals inflation fell to 2.4% in March, smashing expectations for the second straight month — and the first drop in consumer prices in several years. Under President Trump, America is back — but inflation is not,"
A former Meta executive turned whistleblower just dropped a political nuke that has rocked Capitol Hill and should terrify every American who values freedom, privacy, and national sovereignty.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, once Facebook’s director of global public policy (now Meta), appeared before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism on Wednesday and leveled jaw-dropping allegations against her former employer.
That Meta knowingly briefed the Chinese Communist Party on advanced U.S. technologies, including artificial intelligence,
Promises Made, Promises Kept: Consumer
Prices Fell In March, Defying Predictions
of Tarifflation replies
Prices Fell In March, Defying Predictions
of Tarifflation replies
U.S. consumer prices fell in March, pushed down by a decline in the price of goods and defying predictions that President Trump’s tariff plans would push up prices. This was the first drop in consumer prices in nearly three years and only the second decline since inflation accelerated under Joe Biden to the worst rates in decades.
The consumer price index fell by 0.1 percent compared with the previous month after climbing each month since July 2022. Economists had forecast prices would rise by 0.1 percent.
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) revealed in a bombshell finding that millions of dollars in unemployment claims have been going to “fake people” who haven’t even been born yet — some not even in this century.
DOGE claimed it reviewed an initial survey of unemployment claims since 2020 that found that 9,700 people whose birth dates aren’t for another 15 years have claimed $69 million in benefits.
In one absurd case, a person whose birthday was listed in the year 2154 claimed $41,000, according to an X post by the department.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ordering a review of all defense acquisition programs, slating over-budget and behind schedule expenditures for termination.
The order, titled “Modernizing Defense acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base,” gives Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 90 days to review and consider the cancellation of major defense acquisition programs (MDAPs) that are 15% or more over-budget or behind schedule. Alongside Trump’s goal to increase the defense budget to a whopping $1 trillion next year, waste at the Pentagon has been a prime target for the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
“Unfortunately, after years of misplaced priorities and poor management,
Wednesday’s CBS Mornings Plus showed its thoughts on whether borders and citizenship actually mean anything as they dedicated a segment to a Columbia University Law professor informing illegal immigrants to cheer up and not as fearful because everyone enjoys the same rights under the Constitution, no matter whether you immigrated legally, we’re born in this country, or came illegally at anytime under any pretense.
“Recent deportations have fueled fear, uncertainty, and misinformation around traveling. We’ll talk to an expert so you know the facts and your rights,” featured co-host Vladimir Duthiers boasted in the “Eye Opener,” making it seem like CBS is concerned with giving safe harbor to illegal immigrants.
The Trump administration has tightly restricted the number of people who have access to President Donald Trump’s highly classified daily intelligence report, five sources familiar with the move told CNN.
Administration officials planned from the earliest days of Trump’s second term to cut access to the so-called President’s Daily Brief, or PDB — in part because during his first term, details from the report were sometimes leaked to the press, which contributed to the president’s sense that the intelligence community was trying to undermine him.
Initially, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was personally approving who had access, one of the sources said. Now Tulsi Gabbard,
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced that he had paused his global tariff regime for 90 days. That sent stocks soaring, but there was one notable exception: China.
Instead of relief, the communist nation was slapped with an even higher 125 percent tariff. How much has that rattled the CCP? By Thursday morning, their embassy was posting insane videos of Mao Zedong, if that gives you any indication.
For laughs, here is Mao Ning's title: Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of ChinaDG of Department of Press, Communication and Public Diplomacy.
If that's not a lesson in the inefficiencies of communism, I'm not sure what is.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a sweeping executive order launching a federal investigation and crackdown on the law firm Susman Godfrey LLP, the legal powerhouse behind Dominion Voting Systems’ highly publicized 2020 election defamation lawsuits—including its $787.5 million settlement from Fox News.
The firm is also pursuing defamation cases against other Trump allies, including Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell.
The new directive orders the Department of Justice, the Office of Management and Budget, and intelligence agencies to immediately initiate a full-scale investigation into Susman Godfrey, citing a pattern of “egregious conduct, racial discrimination, and weaponization of the legal system” against political opponents and the American public.
A legislative battle has been taking place recently in Little Rock, Arkansas, between two organizations in the same industry over an issue that has ramifications for all of North America, and President Donald Trump’s commitment to Make America Great Again.
On one side are representatives of small- and medium-sized trucking companies and the drivers they employ, and on the other, a state-level affiliate of one of America’s most powerful lobbying organizations, whose name doesn’t really tell the full tale of whose interests they represent. Though the fight in Little Rock is over a piece of state legislation, the issue being fought over has international ramifications
Roger Penske Extends Indianapolis 500
Invite To President Trump During Team
Penske White House Visit replies
Invite To President Trump During Team
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There was a lot of horsepower on display at the White House on Wednesday as President Donald Trump welcomed legendary team owner Roger Penske and a slate of drivers and team personnel from Team Penske across NASCAR, IndyCar, and IMSA.
Penske is one of the biggest names in racing and has been for decades. While Team Penske is usually competitive regardless of the category, the last few seasons have been massive for The Captain.
Team Penske has won back-to-back NASCAR Cup Series championships with Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano, back-to-back Indianapolis 500 wins courtesy of Josef Newgarden, and a Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona win for its factory Porsche team.
For the past week, President Trump has been urging calm — and with good reason. Far from chaos, the financial reaction to his tariff announcement has revealed something far more profound: the world still wants to do business with America, and Trump is calling the shots.
“I know what the hell I’m doing,” the president told Republicans on Tuesday, shrugging off media doomsaying and elite panic. “BE COOL!” he posted on Truth Social the next morning. “Everything is going to work out well.”
The treacherous Darien Gap migrant route to the United States has become a complete ghost town in the wake of the Trump administration’s fierce crackdown on illegal immigration, before-and-after-photos show.
Recently snapped images show the small Panamanian river port of Lajas Blancas — overrun with a crush of migrants just a year ago — now essentially empty.
Huge tents that were once packed with asylum-seeking families are now vacant, while a stretch of river where more than a thousand migrants would try and cross each day is also bare, according to the photos.
The boats that once pulled up to the side of the river in droves are now few and far between,
The European Union will pause its first countermeasures against U.S. tariffs after President Donald Trump temporarily lowered the hefty duties he had just imposed on dozens of countries, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.
The bloc was due to launch counter-tariffs on about 21 billion euros ($23.25 billion) of U.S. imports from next Tuesday in response to Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium. It is still assessing how to respond to U.S. car tariffs and the broader 10% levies still in place.
“We want to give negotiations a chance,” von der Leyen said on X. “While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) account on X shared eyebrow-raising findings from a survey of unemployment insurance claims.
The "initial survey of Unemployment Insurance claims since 2020" found that thousands of people with future birthdates claimed benefits.
The survey also indicated that thousands of supposedly very young and very old people had claimed benefits.
The DOGE post states that the survey found, "24.5k people over 115 years old claimed $59M in benefits," "28k people between 1 and 5 years old claimed $254M in benefits," and "9.7k people with birth dates over 15 years in the future claimed $69M in benefits."
"In one case, someone with a birthday in 2154 claimed $41k,"
The United States Postal Service said on Wednesday it wants to raise the price of first-class mail stamps to 78 cents from 73 cents effective July 13.
The proposal, which must be approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission, would raise overall mailing services product prices bUSPS in January opted not to hike prices for the first time since 2022 after a series of price hikes in recent years. Stamp prices are up 46% since early 2019 when they were 50 cents.
In March, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who led efforts to restructure the money-losing U.S. Postal Service for nearly five years, resigned effective immediately.
DeJoy had pushed for aggressive price hikes in part
House Dem in Ohio Swing District Turns
to Liberal Firebrand Jasmine Crockett
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to Liberal Firebrand Jasmine Crockett
for Fundraising Help replies
Rep. Emilia Sykes, a vulnerable Ohio Democrat, is seeking a fundraising boost from Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas), the left-wing firebrand whose insults directed at Republicans consistently stir controversy.
Sykes and Crockett formed a joint fundraising committee, the Crockett Sykes Victory Fund, on April 2, roughly two weeks after Crockett called Texas’s wheelchair-bound Greg Abbott (R.) "Governor Hot Wheels," a Federal Election Commission filing shows. The arrangement will allow Democrats to piggyback off each other’s shared fundraising efforts, potentially collecting larger checks as a result.
Sykes's decision to pair with an increasingly controversial, left-wing figure may help bring in cash, but it could also scare off the moderate voters
GOP Rep Introduces Bill After Discovering
Chinese Communist-Owned Stores on US Military Base replies
Chinese Communist-Owned Stores on US Military Base replies
Sometimes the mantra grows exhausting, and the conclusion that flows from it appears to conflict with other objectives.
Still, this one seems pretty cut and dried.
In a 45-second clip posted Sunday to the social media platform X, Republican Rep. Pat Harrigan of North Carolina, who last week introduced legislation designed to tighten security on military installations, took viewers on a short-and-spliced video tour of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he identified four retail stores owned by the Chinese Communist Party.
The retail stores in question belong to a company with which readers might have some familiarity — GNC, which sells vitamins, protein, supplements, and other health-related products geared toward fitness-conscious customers.
Chris Cillizza has been a bit more willing to bash his side of the aisle now that he’s been released from the shackles at CNN. But some of those bad habits bubble up again, and that’s what happened this week. The ex-CNN politics editor and Washington Post writer claimed that the media did not act in bad faith when reporting on Joe Biden’s accelerating decrepitude.
Cillizza was replying to Emma Jo-Morris’ tweet, where she wrote, “ [The] Media effort to conceal Biden being demented was not ‘herd mentality’ — although that’s its own unforgivable sin — it was intentional activism.”
First, at least the man admits he screwed up.
President Donald Trump will undergo his first physical examination of his second administration on Friday, and questions about cognitive testing hang in the balance.
“I am pleased to report that my long scheduled Annual Physical Examination will be done at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on Friday of this week,” the president wrote on Truth Social this week. “I have never felt better, but nevertheless, these things must be done!”
At 78 years old, Trump was the oldest person ever sworn into office in January but, unlike his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, has not faced major questioning about his mental acuity. The White House has not said whether Trump’s exam
It is remarkable how little we know about the two 2024 attempts on President Donald Trump’s life. We don’t know much about Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old who shot Trump in the ear during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Nor do we know much about Ryan Routh, the 59-year-old former construction worker who lay in wait allegedly hoping to shoot Trump at Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, golf course just a couple of months later on Sept. 15.
But we learned something big about Routh in a court filing from prosecutors Tuesday. What we learned was that Routh allegedly hoped to obtain a shoulder-fired rocket from Ukraine with which
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spoke at a rally for military veterans on Wednesday at the Capital Rotunda and was interrupted by hecklers who showered him with insults as he tried to make remarks.
Several veterans holding American flags and signs that read "Take Action" stood in the audience and disrupted the former vice presidential candidate's speech.
One veteran could be heard shouting that Walz is a "coward," while another suggested he sympathizes “with the Chinese.”
KSTP-TV in Saint Paul, Minnesota, reports that "some are still angry about his military record, that was amplified during his vice presidential campaign."
One particularly passionate defender of the governor tried to
What if I told you that when federal district judges issue injunctions blocking President Donald Trump’s policies in a judicial insurrection, they were the ones breaking the law?
No, it’s not just because these judges are effectively usurping the authority of the president over the executive branch. It’s more clear-cut than that.
When Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., issued an order demanding the Trump administration return reputed members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to the U.S., he wasn’t just making immigration policy—he was violating a black-and-white rule laid down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
When the Justice Department announced a criminal investigation into rampant waste and fraud in California’s multi-billion-dollar homelessness boondoggle, our first question was, why stop there? The state has poured hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars into a bullet train, water reservoirs, COVID relief, free health care, public schools, and has nothing to show for any of it.
Why should anyone outside California care? Because the state wasn’t just wasting its own taxpayers’ money – a lot of it came from Uncle Sam. And because the state’s current governor desperately wants to succeed Donald Trump in the White House.
Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa appeared on the FOX Business Network this week to talk about the work she is doing with DOGE.
In one segment that defies parody, Ernst said that some federal employees have showed up at the office to protest having to show up at the office. If federal workers are trying to get sympathy from the public over losing their jobs, this is not the way to do it.
Millions of Americans have not had the luxury of working from home over the last few years. They get up and travel to work every single day.
The United States and Panama have officially signed a new defense and security pact aimed at reinforcing control over the Panama Canal, a move that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claims is critical to pushing back against China’s growing grip in the region.
In a press release posted Wednesday night on X, the Panama Canal Authority confirmed that Panama’s Minister for Canal Affairs and Hegseth signed a joint declaration that reaffirms Panamanian sovereignty and outlines new military cooperation.
The deal "reaffirms respect for, and the recognition of, Panamanian sovereignty over the interoceanic waterway," the Canal Authority stated.
The Baltimore city council has proposed a bill that would put menstrual products in all men’s public restrooms.
Baltimore Councilman Paris Gray sponsored the bill and introduced it at the city council’s bi-monthly meeting, saying it reflects the city’s desire for menstrual equity. “Access to menstrual products should be as fundamental as access to soap or toilet paper,” Gray said. “It is an essential part of personal hygiene, and yet, for far too many people, these products remain out of reach. Menstrual products are not a luxury. They are a necessity,
A majority have an unfavorable view of Democrats in Congress, a weekly survey from the Economist/YouGov found.
The survey asked respondents if they have a favorable or unfavorable view of Democrats in Congress.
Across the board, 60 percent said they have an unfavorable view, and of those, 37 percent have a “very” unfavorable view. Just 31 percent have a favorable view, but of those, only 10 percent have a “very” favorable view of Democrats.
Predictably, most Democrats, 71 percent, have a favorable view of Democrats in Congress, while the vast majority of Republicans, 93 percent, have an unfavorable view. Most independents, 62 percent, also have an unfavorable view of Democrats in Congress.
We all are aware of how badly Joe Biden did in his disastrous debate in June 2024.
His people tried to save him by arranging an interview shortly thereafter with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.
But it didn't go well for Biden, as he continued to show he was completely out of it during the interview. Not only did it do nothing to calm the nerves of jittery Democrats, but Biden made bizarre comments about how he would win because he got bigger crowds than Donald Trump (he didn't), and that he was distracted by Trump shouting at him