Letters from an American – Heather Cox Richardson – March 8, 2025

Some excerpts from the Transcript:

March 8, 2025. Yesterday, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant made it clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to slash the federal government and to privatize its current services. As the stock market has dropped and economists have warned of a dramatic slowdown in the economy, he told CNBC, there’s going to be a natural adjustment as we move away from public spending to private spending. The market and the economy have just become hooked. We’ve become addicted to this government spending, and there’s going to be a detox period. Besson’s comments reveal that the White House is beginning to feel the pressure of the unpopularity of its policies. Trump’s rejection of 80 years of U.S. foreign policy in order to prop up Russia’s Vladimir Putin has left many Americans as well as allies aghast. Trump’s claims that Putin wants peace were belied when Russia launched massive strikes at Ukraine as soon as Trump stopped sharing intelligence with Ukrainian forces that enabled them to shoot down incoming fire.