Za "Time" from New York
As Donald Trump's executive orders catch up with each other, customers at the Lidl on the corner of Park Avenue are rushing straight out the door to the egg section at the opposite end of the store. Even though they come from a nearby farm in Delaware, the twelve-packs of Class "A" are constantly increasing in price, so that they are often gone by the early hours of the morning. The president's words about a "detox period" and "short-term pain" added to the sense of insecurity that began to spread as citizens realized that his announcements about tariffs were not empty threats and that it was only a matter of days before higher prices for Mexican avocados or Canadian maple syrup hit the shelves. And without those ingredients, the breakfast omelet that many start the day with while anxiously watching the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq plummet on their mobile devices will be as barren and empty as egg shelves sometime around noon.
The November election of citizens began to shape their daily lives.
At the same time, stock market indices are not abstract numbers for American citizens, because many people invest their money, which they painstakingly save all their lives for the days when they can no longer work, in government bonds and stocks. Without them, a huge number of those born and working in New York would not be able to stay and live in their city. When you talk to them, you will see that almost all of them have a very clear calculation in front of them. If they do not have a pension plan at work, they can count on a monthly one social security a check for $1900, which, at best, could pay the rent for a studio apartment somewhere in the Bronx, Brownsville, or Staten Island. For everything else that they will need for life, they try to save during their working life.
For the life they envisioned, they need about half a million dollars, which brings an annual income of about $25000 through dividends, without reducing the principal. Of that, together with the monthly social security check, they can already live modestly - with the fact that they have currently lost about ten percent of what they invested, due to the fall of the stock market. A simple calculation says that those who have invested 100000 dollars, and at this moment have to sell securities due to, God forbid, treatment or some other need, will receive only 90000 for those purposes. That is why in the morning they anxiously look at the digital curves with the values of the Nasdaq, S&P 500 and Dow Jones, while preparing to spend another working day filled with meetings, carefully marked with various colors in the Google calendar. The feeling of success and fulfillment is proportional to the number of those meetings through Zum, which, by the way, in a short time completely decimated the owners of New York business premises where live meetings were held for years.
Although the president, in the voice of the announcer at the rodeo that is held every spring in Pylesgrove, a hundred miles from Manhattan towards Pennsylvania, repeated during the election campaign that "Trump's economic boom like no other has been seen before" will soon begin, now in a less euphoric and quieter tone he does not rule out the possibility of a slowdown in the economy. "There's a transition period because what we're doing is very big. We're bringing wealth back to America."
Instead of the cost of living going down and the economy stabilizing - which, to a large extent, contributed to his election victory - Trump is now asking citizens to accept higher prices of basic foods in exchange for a moment when, sometime in the future, all of America will be much stronger economically. Honestly, the egg shortage has nothing to do with those plans - it's the result of bird flu, which completely decimated farms even before the election.
US STANDARD
On the way to the president's big goal, of which there were no signs during the campaign, shoppers have begun spending significantly less than most had predicted in recent weeks, raising concerns that the country is sliding into recession. Consumption decreases in shops, restaurants, bars and gas stations, where, in addition to fuel, small items forgotten during larger purchases in supermarkets are usually bought.
The CEO of Dollar General says consumers only have money for basic necessities, while Walmart, the largest retail chain, expects profits to slow this year. Those who sell computers, telephones, televisions, electronics and white goods are the most worried, because the goods they trade are almost exclusively produced in China, Mexico, South Korea or Japan. It's the same with other products – other than food, wine, beer, cars and garden tools, it's hard to find anything that's made in America. The "US standard" label, the counterpart of the former YUS, can still only be seen today on public restrooms in Central Park or subway stations. At the same time, none of the serious experts think that Trump's cabinet really believes that the tariff war will reduce the trade deficit, fill the state coffers and bring back to America millions of jobs that were moved to China, India, Mexico, the Philippines or Vietnam. Everyone is aware that tariffs primarily serve as a kind of blackmail and to cause tremors in the world economy, so that then, in those new circumstances filled with fear and uncertainty, America would negotiate with every country that means something to it and conclude deals in its favor.
Economist Jillian Tet recently pointed out for the "New York Times" a major reset of the global trade, economic, financial, technological and military system, in order to ensure American supremacy in the years to come. She believes that the US is trying to achieve this by moving from the neoliberal to the "mercantilist way of thinking of the hegemonic power" and that "it all boils down to the question of who has the power." According to her, the reset strategy "involves threats, capricious and unpredictable abuse, tariffs and military force - as ways to gain advantage and achieve that goal."
TUE-A-EASY AGREEMENT
At that moment, the term "Mar-a-Lago agreement" enters the scene, a symbol for informal agreements with world statesmen at Donald Trump's private residence in Florida. Tet argues that America wants its currency to remain dominant, but at the same time devalue it to encourage exports and strengthen domestic production. This would require "multiple countries to come together and agree to weaken the dollar, and in return America would offer some sort of tariff relief, military protection, alliances and potentially many other measures, such as swapping American long-term debt for other forms of obligations."
"It's an extremely bold move," admits Tet, while liberal economist Yannis Varoufakis calls this strategy Trump's "impressive master plan," for which he will have to betray "his tribe of angry financiers" or "the working class that brought him to power."
For now, the workers are silent and watch what happens, because they have long been living in uncertainty from check to check that arrives on Fridays, but the unrest has entered the lives of those who work in the federal administration or big companies in cities like Washington, believing, just like the leaders of the Democratic Party they voted for, that everything was perfectly fine with the world they lived in. It is - but for those with college degrees and well-paying jobs. The gap between them and those with a high school diploma is no smaller than the racial divide that divides America. Statistics show that the less educated live shorter lives, that their children achieve noticeably worse results in school, and that they live without a partner more often. In contrast to New York, where there is no difference between midnight and noon during working hours, the streets of Washington are completely deserted and silent during the night. It's a clear sign that a significant number of this city's residents work nine to five, with solid wages, benefits and health insurance that covers most medical services, so there was little to worry about—until Trump's sledgehammer arrived in the form of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), tasked with cutting government spending.
UPS, TOO LATE
Along with the president's mantra that "bunches of left-wing, radical lunatics" work in federal services, such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID), mass layoffs began. Executive orders abolished a dozen federal agencies, and more than a hundred thousand federal administration workers lost their jobs. Everything is further complicated by their lawsuits, the decisions of federal judges, which in most cases invalidated the presidential decrees, and the appeal procedures that the Government conducts at higher instances. That created a complete legal mess, culminating when Immigration and Customs Enforcement extradited about 250 Venezuelans — alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang — to El Salvador, based on a presidential decision that invoked the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act. Federal Judge James Bowsberg immediately blocked this order, but the planes carrying the illegal immigrants did not return the passengers. Salvadoran President Najib Bukele, with whom their acceptance was agreed, accompanied all this with an ironic post on "X" - "oops, too late", which was also retweeted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
President Trump opened fire on Boseberg on the "Truth Social" network, calling for his impeachment, with the usual insults from his arsenal that the judge is "rotten" and "corrupt", although an investigation is still underway into whether the government refused to implement his decision. Confirming it would mean a direct conflict between the executive and judicial branches of government, which is why Tom Homan, the president's border security adviser, is calming passions by repeating that the Trump administration will not oppose any court decision. The entire case is currently before the appellate court, where the opposing parties boast that even "the Nazis during the Second World War had better treatment than the expelled Venezuelans".
Some legal experts are already openly saying that the country has stepped into a constitutional crisis, because there are more and more indications that the state administration is ignoring the decisions of the courts. Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, is more cautious, however, noting in an interview with NPR that the administration still officially claims to comply with court orders, but "behaves disingenuously, ignoring what the courts have ordered it to do." The limit has not yet been crossed after which it could be said that the entire system has collapsed, but it is more than obvious that the current president is mocking the judges and using his power to radically change America - politically, socially and culturally. By changing your country, you change the whole world.
photo: ap photoTRUMP HAS COME - NO EGGS: Great shortage in America
NEW WORLD
Not only are tariffs imposed on the closest partners, but everything is reduced to the principle of direct benefit. There are no more allies and friends, but only those who contribute or retaliate to what is set as a priority of the slogan "America first", which no longer excludes territorial claims. Ukraine is not a profitable business - the war costs too much and does not bring the desired results. Europe's security guarantees no longer pay off; it is better to find a way to provide for Brussels itself by buying American weapons, and to re-deliver energy through the Nord Stream – in which, perhaps, some American companies will have a share.
An entire order is collapsing, while the citizens only wanted a lower cost of living, respect for their needs and not to collide in Manhattan with groups of confused immigrants that someone drove and threw out on the street - not an institutional coup in their own country. Yes, and that they don't race in the morning with the others to the refrigerated case with eggs in Lidl, instead of paying more attention to those digital curves of the stock market indices on which it depends if they will be able to live peacefully until the end in the city where they were born.
