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If anyone knows how to put a bow on the first 100 days of an administration, it is definitely Team Trump 2.0. There have been some big moves, and one very large win, for President Trump this week.
Let’s have a look, shall we?
This was something that was anticipated months ago, but got blown up in the Oval Office brouhaha between Volodymyr Zelensky, Donald Trump, and J.D. Vance. However, it does seem like some personal fences have been mended, as we all saw last weekend when President Trump and President Zelensky had a tête-à-tête while in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral. Another thing that helped bring this moment about? Trump is definitely souring, at least publicly, on Putin and his intentions. This is a good thing, because at this point, Ukraine has been at the negotiating table and Russia has not been. Their positions regarding a ceasefire are absolute non-starters for Ukraine (including the demand that the Crimea now be formally annexed as sovereign Russian territory). Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the rare earth minerals deal was done and signed last Wednesday afternoon.
The agreement will establish the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund to help accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
“This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term,” Bessent said in a statement. “President Trump envisioned this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine. And, to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
The U.S. is seeking access to more than 20 raw materials considered strategically critical to its interests, including some non-minerals such as oil and natural gas. Among them are Ukraine’s deposits of titanium, which is used for making aircraft wings and other aerospace manufacturing, and uranium, which is used for nuclear power, medical equipment and weapons.
Ukraine also has lithium, graphite and manganese, which are used in electric vehicle batteries.
If the United States is going to cut off China from snapping up mineral rights around the world, then signing this deal was a big win for both sides. The United States gets access, and Ukraine gets a tacit security guarantee thanks to the United States’ investment in the rare earth minerals. And Ukraine is clearly pleased that the deal has been signed.
Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko posted on X that the fund would be managed 50/50 and that future military aid from Washington could be considered a contribution.
“Together with the United States, we will create a fund that will attract Western investments to our country,” Svyrydenko said. “We will manage this fund jointly with the United States. Neither party will have a majority vote, reflecting an equal partnership between Ukraine and the United States.”
She further said the United States “will help attract additional investment and technology” to drum up more business for the fund, which will be supported by the US International Finance Cooperation, or “DFC.”
“DFC will help us attract investments and technologies from funds and companies in both the US and the EU and other countries that support our fight against the Russian enemy,” Svyrydenko said.
“The Fund will then invest in mineral and oil and gas projects, as well as related infrastructure or processing. The specific investment projects to which the funds will be directed will be determined jointly by Ukraine and the United States.”
You know who wasn’t happy about this deal? Russia.
“Trump has finally pressured the Kyiv regime to pay for US aid with mineral resources,” Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Telegram.
“Now, the country that is about to disappear will have to use its national wealth to pay for military supplies.”
Russia is upset because this deal all but guarantees that Ukraine will not “disappear” and be absorbed into Russia again. The ball is officially back in Russia’s court, and they were counting on Zelensky making Trump just irritated enough to keep this deal from happening. Now, Trump’s irritation will be focused on Russian actions… which they definitely did not want.
It was a wild week for now-former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. The rumors were rampant on Thursday that he was about to be fired by Trump – the media was salivating over the prospect. Laura Loomer, who for some inexplicable reason has managed to ingratiate herself with Trump and other administration officials, was taking credit for his firing. All for naught, as the media was forced to rewrite the stories once President Trump announced that Mike Waltz was getting a new job.
WALTZ going to New York to be ambassador to the UN. pic.twitter.com/xjHNjYRYYm
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 1, 2025
Axios claimed that Waltz was out because he wasn’t playing nice with others, not just because of “Signalgate.” Vice President Vance, however, framed Waltz’s new job as a “promotion.”
“I think you could make a good argument that it’s a promotion,” Vance said in an exclusive interview on “Special Report” from the Nucor Steel Berkeley plant in South Carolina. “We brought Mike on to do some serious reforms at the National Security Council. He has done that.”
The former Ohio senator said the White House believes Waltz will better serve the administration as UN ambassador, a Senate-confirmed position.
Vance told Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier that Waltz’s ousting was not a result of “Signalgate,” which he called a “nothingburger.” He argued the former Florida congressman is simply being moved to another administration position because Trump believes Waltz would do a “better job in a different role.”
There’s no doubt that being named United Nations ambassador is a plum job (except, you know, having to deal with the wretched hive of scum and villany that is Mos Eisley the UN), and Waltz will likely be an able ambassador. But I don’t envy him having to sit through a Senate confirmation (which he did not have to do in order to be National Security Advisor) where the Democrats are most definitely going to grandstand loudly about “Signalgate.”
President Trump is good and fed up with Harvard University. The institution should be cowering in shame after the report on anti-Semitism on their campus was released, but no. They are currently suing the Trump administration because their federal funding was frozen, claiming that this violates their First Amendment rights. Apparently, no one in the Harvard administration has ever had to pay for a wedding, because as everyone who has ever accepted money for a wedding knows, “those who pay, get a say.” If Harvard wants federal dollars, then the federal government reserves the right to tell them what to do. Perhaps the Harvard Law Review should take another look at Bob Jones University v. United States for a little insight into what could happen to them. Speaking of the Bob Jones University case, President Trump is now threatening Harvard’s tax-exempt status on top of everything else.
We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status. It’s what they deserve!
From Donald Trump Truth Social 05/02/25 08:25 AM
— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) May 2, 2025
Also getting cut off? NPR and PBS.
President Trump signed an executive order late Thursday terminating federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
NPR and PBS, which have long been targeted for cuts by conservatives, both receive partial funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which the president argued is unnecessary in the current media environment.
“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” Trump wrote in the order.
“The CPB Board shall cease direct funding to NPR and PBS, consistent with my Administration’s policy to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage,” he added. “The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”
Trump further directed the CPB to end indirect funding to NPR and PBS, including by “ensuring that licensees and permittees of public radio and television stations, as well as any other recipients of CPB funds, do not use Federal funds for NPR and PBS.”
The CPB is set to receive $535 million in congressionally appropriated funds annually to distribute to public broadcasters in 2025 and 2026.
PBS and its member stations receive about 15% of their revenues from the CPB, while NPR stations get 10% of their funds from the corporation, according to NPR.
NPR itself only receives 1% directly from the CPB.
The days of claiming that cutting off funds to PBS would “kill Big Bird” are long over, as the show no longer even does its first run on PBS. NPR has cooked its own goose over the years, notably by claiming the Hunter Biden laptop story wasn’t a story, so they wouldn’t cover it, and by suspending veteran reporter Uri Berliner, who had dared point out their biases (Berliner later resigned).
PBS President and CEO Paula Kerger called it a “blatantly unlawful Executive Order, issued in the middle of the night.”
“CPB is not a federal executive agency subject to the President’s authority,” the corporation wrote in a statement issued Friday morning. “Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government.”
The CPB noted that the statute Congress passed to create it “expressly forbade ‘any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting, or over [CPB] or any of its grantees or contractors.”
NPR vowed to fight back in a statement released Friday by Heather Walls, its senior vice president of communications.
“We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public,” NPR said in the statement. “The President’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air programming that meets the needs of their communities.”
It said the executive order jeopardizes the national airing of NPR newscasts, and programs like Morning Edition and Tiny Desk Radio.
So, raise some money, PBS and NPR. You do that all the time by soliciting donations. At least the people who donate are doing it willingly. Also, President Trump is not seeking editorial control. He’s looking to take the taxpayer money out of it.
I'm confused by the NPR CEO's statement. I reread the First Amendment and didn't find any language about a permanent public subsidy for NPR. And I remember last year, when she insisted that the First Amendment was "the number one challenge" to controlling the narrative. pic.twitter.com/r5P4FQfEVe
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) May 3, 2025
Honestly, Trump should not be doing this by executive order – he should be sending recission requests to Congress and forcing them to take up-or-down votes on clawing back federal funding. In fact, a lot of the DOGE findings should be compiled and sent to Congress for recission votes. It would make the reductions permanent in this current budget, and force Congress to actually take a hand in saving the American people some money.
The news under Trump 2.0 is always flowing. What will the next 100 days bring us?
Featured image: President Donald Trump, official White House portrait by Daniel Torok via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and modified, public domain
kelly_3406 says: Whenever they tell you that it’s a promotion, it’s not. This move banishes Waltz to New York, far from internal discussions with Trump, Vance, and importantly, Hegseth. A “promotion” keeps the left from claiming that it has taken a scalp from the Trump Administration.
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