PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP on THE ECONOMY and OTHER MATTERS

President Donald Trump said this weekend:

• Is not joking about a third term.  Which is better for the U.S. than he unilaterally just becoming a dictator.

• 
  Will absolutely deliver on his massive reciprocal tariff plan on April 2.  He dubs it Liberation Day.

• 
  Reasserted that the U.S. would 100% annex Greenland.
• Will ban refugees....except for White South Africans.  Guess from where comes Elon Musk?  If so, how many refugees has so far expressed interest?  67,000.

• 
  Will approve Canadian firm, The Metals Company, to mine the deep seabed, circumventing international law, drawing denouncement from 40 countries.

• 
  Lethargic help to Myanmar recovering from the damage caused by a 7.7 earthquake.  USAID cuts reduces our ability to provide assistance worldwide.

• 
  Very angry and pissed off at Vladimir Putin for continuing the Ukraine-Russia War, a first for Trump, who has been giving the Ukraine house away.

From the New York Times this morning:

How much has DOGE pared back so far? Federal spending is actually higher this year than it was at this point in 2024, according to the Hamilton Project.

Where did this money go last year?

Trump has ruled out cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the military. Along with interest payments, that’s about 70 percent of what the government spends.  All of the other programs you hear about (schools, welfare payments, foreign aid, medical research) make up roughly 30 percent of the federal budget. Trump would have to eliminate all of those to balance the budget without touching the programs he has deemed untouchable.

Trump and Musk claim they can eliminate most of the deficit by downsizing the federal work force — the Times is tracking the firings here — and ending waste and fraud. This is the work DOGE says it’s doing. But these efforts, too, are likely to fall short.

Presidents and Congress have launched many initiatives over the past few decades to tackle waste and fraud. They did not find significant savings. Watchdogs also track improper payments, which include fraud, duplicate charges and payments to ineligible recipients. These made up $149 billion in the most recent fiscal year. Even if DOGE managed to root out all of these payments — a difficult task for many technical reasons, The Wall Street Journal reported — it would shrink the deficit by only 8 percent.

Similarly, shrinking the federal work force can do only so much. Even if Musk managed to fire every civilian employee and cut their benefits — an outlandish scenario — he would reduce the deficit by just 14 percent.

Or, using fiscal year 2022 as an example.

Some layoffs could even increase the deficit. The Biden administration wanted to hire more workers at the Internal Revenue Service to crack down on tax cheats. Experts said the plan would bring in $2.5 in tax revenue for every $1 spent. Trump wants to get rid of the new employees anyway.

In the end, the debt problem remains what it has long been: Republicans and Democrats refuse to cut popular but expensive federal programs and don’t want to raise taxes on most Americans. As long as that’s true, the federal government will remain in the red.

Also from the New York Times:

There is also that national debt problem.

Mind you, he is not sweating what the masses think about his foibles, for this is all relative.

In the Economist/YouGov poll, Trump's favorability stood at 48% versus 49% unfavorable. Meanwhile Vice President JD Vance's favorability polled at 43% versus 46% unfavorable and House Speaker Mike Johnson had a 30% favorability versus 37% unfavourability.  This poll included approval ratings on some high profile Democrats as well, such as Minority Leader Chuck Schumer with a 24% favorability compared to a whopping 50% unfavourability.

Plus:

The national NBC News poll shows Trump's approval rating at 47% with more registered voters seeing the US as heading in the right direction than at any point since early 2004.

Similarly:

RealClear Polling which encompasses 13 different pollsters, including those mentioned above, shows Trump's overall favorability at 47.9% versus 49.3% that disapprove, as of today.

However, what about Trump's job approval rating relative to other presidents and his first term?

• He was terrible in his first term.
• So he is actually looking better this second time....but still negative.  
• ALL OTHER RECENT PRESIDENTS WERE VERY POSITIVE!!!

Oh, one more economy measure, the non-partisan stock market,  The S&P 500 rose today, but suffered its worst quarter since 2022.  Future?  Looks worse, for tonight:

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 86 points, or 0.2%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.

Oh, one more indicator, product prices, what killed Kamala Harris in the presidential election.

• Gold today rose to a record high of $3,128.06/ounce.  This historically means that the stock market will continue to drop.  In other words, big investors go into gold or bonds if stocks show danger.

• 
  
  Coffee prices are also at all-time highs.  Wholesale arabica coffee broke a previous record of $4.30/pound, DOUBLE what it was a year ago.  The average price of ground roast coffee rose to a highest ever, $7.25/pound.
• Eggflation is continuing.  I shopped for eggs this weekend, and found a dozen for half the price of a month ago, but still double what it once was.

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TRAVEL ON YOUR MIND?

This is Sunday, so I'll avoid Donald Trump and his shenanigans.  We leave in two weeks for the Osaka Expo, then catch a cruise on the Oceania Riviera from Yokohama to Vancouver.  This is a test whether I can travel much anymore.  Our gargantuan Fall/Winter 2024 journey worried me because I had trouble sleeping on the road, especially on cruise ships.

So today, a potpourri of travel info:

• This is a matter that will keep changing, and then, maybe not, so keep up-to-date on travel advisories for those wanting to visit the USA.  Here are two examples.

Canadian citizen Jasmine Mooney had been traveling between her home country and the US on a work visa for years without issue—but a few weeks ago, she was detained by US border authorities after attempting to renew her documentation at the US-Mexico border. During a 12-day ordeal, she says she was held in cold and crowded jail cells and even put in chains at points.

Mooney is just one of several people who have attempted to travel to the US recently who have faced challenges at the border, including a researcher who French officials say was denied entry after his phone was searched and immigration officers found messages that were critical of the Trump administration.

• What is happening is that the Trump administration has tightened border policies to check immigration.
• But you got wonder if you are transgender, or a person known to be a Trump-hater.  And who isn't, these days?
• Some countries like Uruguay and Japan warn their citizens of hate crimes if they travel to America.
• France and many other European nations Denmark and Germany strongly recommend travelers to consult their embassy for the latest adjustments.  Transgenders have had problems entering the U.S.
• In 2024 20.4 million visitors came from Canada, generating $20.5 billion in spending.  One change is that Canadians staying for longer than 30 days are now required to register with the U.S. government, which is to file a Form G-325R or I-94.  You don't do this, you could be fined.
• All this brouhaha will means that tourists to the U.S. will most definitely drop this year, a pain for the travel industry.

How safe is flying today?

• From USA Today.

Statistically speaking, it is, but those statistics themselves can be a little confusing. A cursory glance at numbers from the National Transportation Safety Board will show 67 deaths in commercial plane crashes this year – a huge upward surge after zero deaths last year and very out of line with the 10-year trend in which commercial aviation deaths have generally been measured in the single digits.  However, it’s important to remember that flying remains safe, and there’s context to the number of accidents recorded by aviation professionals. 

This has been an anomalous year in the U.S.

Time magazine wrote about the 100 World's Greatest Places of 2025.  I've only been to a few of them.  I'll show some photos and the reference so you can get details.  

Mbano Manor Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Shebara Resort, Red Sea, Saudi Arabia.  Opened late last year.  I wrote about this location yesterday.

The Ghan, Adelaide and Darwin, Australia.  I mentioned this train three years ago.

QT, Singapore.  This is a boutique hotel that only costs $250/night.

Waldorf Astoria, New York.  This is a Hilton, where a room now costs $2,000/night.  Stayed there once for much less, a long ago.  Here is my story, and this photo to the left is one I think I took.  The photo below is from the article.

I stayed there once, and remember seeing a Broadway show.  It was 10:30PM when I began walking back to the hotel.  It was only a couple of blocks away.  I should have caught a cab anyway, for one block, it turned out, was dark, with strewn waste disposal containers, and no one but me.  I made it the hotel okay. 

The Waldorf Astoria closed in 2017, but after $1 billion of renovations, reopened in November of 2019.  It is now owned by an insurance company from China, which was taken over by the central government for insurmountable problems.

I just rechecked, and the Anbang Insurance Company of China purchased this hotel in 2014 for $1.95 billion, the most expensive hotel ever sold.  However, has had financial problems, and was taken over by the Chinese government.

Nintendo Museum, Uji, Japan.

Niue Blue, Tamakautoga, Niue.

Notre Dame, Paris, France.  I again have a story.  It was 15April2019. 

Lunch at Tour d'Argent was heavenly.  We got what we felt was the best table in the house. The view of the Seine (which is a river, 483 miles long, flowing into the English Channel at Le Havre) and Notre-Dame:

Had quite a wine list.  We had three bottles.

Anyway, the whole point to this story is that two months later, on 15April2019, the cathedral had a serious fire.  Took almost a billion dollars to repair.

I'll stop here, but next, the Ho Chi Minh City Metro.  Once known as Saigon, Vietnam, a city now of 9 million, this mass transit system finally opened last year.  I've been to this city several times, and there was always talk of something to ease the traffic of 7 million motorbikes.  After $1.7 billion mostly loans from Japan, the 12.2-mile line has 14 stops.  They hope to have six additional lines before 2025.  When I posted on this city 16 years ago, I indicated that the biggest freshwater fish was caught in the Mekong River, which wanders past.  The largest catfish in the U.S. is 121 pounds.

To close, Saturday Night Live last night opened with the hapless Hegseth, Vance and Rubio mistakenly involving three high school girls in a group chat.  Watch the video.

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THE GREATEST ARCHITECTS IN HISTORY

I was a junior at Stanford and not totally satisfied with my choice to become a chemical engineer.  I had at that point actually taken more art courses than those in ChE.  I always had an artistic flare, and when I graduated in ChE, I almost went to Sophia University in Tokyo to pursue my interest in art.  My more responsible self kept me on my path to become what I am today,

But going back to 1960, I looked into becoming an architect or architectural engineer.  To do so meant I had to spend a extra year and half making up courses.  But I've kept up with this field, which will lead today to an architect no one has ever heard of, Shaun Killa.

To begin, who designed those noteworthy structures of our historic past?

• A good place to start is the Great Pyramid of Giza, which dates back to 2560 BC, or 4585 years ago.
• Egyptian Prince Hemiunu is believed to have been the architect.
• Actually, Egyptian chancellor to King Djoser around 2625, Imhotep, built the first one, the Pyramid of Djoser, at a height of 200 feet.  The Great Pyramid is 451 feet tall.
• 2700 years ago with the Great Wall of China, which wasn't designed by a single person, for it evolved over centuries.  Credit is given to Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, for connecting the fortifications into a unified system, with completion in 220 BC.

• 
  Construction of Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican began in 1506 and was completed in 1626.  Principally designed by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo and Carlo Maderno.  St. Peter died around 65 AD, but his remains are supposedly buried here.

• 
  Around the same time came the Taj Mahal, built in Agra, India between 1631 and 1648 by order of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of this favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal.  He had at least for more.  The main architect was Ustad Ahmad Lahori.

• 
  More recently, Antoni Gaudi designed the Sagrada Família, where construction began in Barcelona, Spain in 1882.  Supposedly, it will be completed next year.  In 2025 dollars, the cost so far is $125 million.

I've been to all the above, save for  the Pyramid of Djoser.  Ten minutes of the 15 most famous buildings in the world.

Then there are these modern times, and the three acknowledged master architects in no particular order are:

Watch Mojo has the following ranking:

1. Antoni Gaudi
2. Frank Lloyd Wright
3. Frank Gehry
4. Ieoh Ming Pei
5. Zaha Hadid
6. Ludvig Mies Van der Rohe
7. Le Corbusier
8. Michelangelo
9. Renzo Piano
10. Buckminster Fuller.

Shaun Killa is from South Africa, whose stepfather was an architect. Shaun spent weekends at this office from the age of 12.  In 1998 he moved to Dubai to become Director of Architecture for Atkins.  He is careful with his background, and I can't find anything indicating his age.  However, this photo might have been taken around 6 years ago.

Killa spent 16 years at Atkins in different roles, including director of architecture, and describes the experience as “a great time”. His expertise grew as the business continued to win and deliver more projects across the region. The schemes completed during his time with Atkins included Burj Al Arab; the Dubai Opera House; Bahrain World Trade Centre; the Creek Harbour masterplan; and several skyscrapers near Sheikh Zayed Road, including 21st Century Tower, Chelsea Tower, and the Address Boulevard.

He formed Killa Design Architecture in 2015 in Dubai.  

• He beat 20 other firms to win the design competition for the Museum of the Future that year.  
• It opened in 2022.
• I was staying at the Jumeirah Emirates Tower (to the immediate right), and across the street was this fabulous looking ovalish artpiece.
• So we walked over (underground tunnel) to the Museum of the Future.

• 
  How do I rate this museum?

You ask, what was inside the museum?  Couldn't get tickets, for the place is sold out for the year.  Did not want to pay scalpers' prices, which is offered by the hotel.  I'll come the next time I'm back by booking advanced reservations, for there is a metro stop close by.

• Address Jumeirah Gate, 2018.

• Jumeirah Marsa Al Arab, just opened.

• The above is merely examples of what the firm is doing.  Read this for more.
• In 2021 Killa Design was named Architecture Firm of the Year by Construction Week.
• Upcoming projects include the Red Sea Development on Sheybarah Island, Saudi Arabia.

• SRG Tower with solar and wind power in the heart of Dubai.  Said to be designed for 500 MW of wind power.  However, my experience is that this is not a windy city, with perhaps some seasonal capability possible.

Here is a video almost an hour long featuring Shaun Killa.

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