Quick Takes from the Past 24-48 Hours

The following is an installment of Trump-Vance team accomplishments (each article is linked for further info):

1. Core Consumer Prices Fall to Lowest Level in Four Years as Inflation Eases Under Trump

The inflation rate came in lower than economists had predicted, the latest figures show.

The news is another huge win for President Trump’s administration.

In response to the figures, Trading Economics reported:

The annual core consumer price inflation rate in the United States, which excludes items such as food and energy, eased to 3.1% in February 2025, from 3.3% in the prior month and below market expectations of 3.2%.

On Wednesday morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt celebrated the news, having stated:

Today’s CPI report shows inflation is declining, and the economy is moving in the right direction under President Trump.

Core consumer prices, which is the best measure of inflation, dropped to its lowest level in FOUR years.

This inflation report, much like last week’s jobs report, is far better than the media predicted and the so-called ‘experts’ expected.

2. USAID Orders Staff to Destroy All Documents—Law-Abiding Agencies Do Not Act This Way

This is the sort of thing you see during revolutions, a war being lost, or a consulate having to be evacuated.

Having an arm of the government do something like this really shows that the people running USAID think they lost a war to an enemy power and are destroying any incriminating evidence.

A senior official at USAID instructed a number of the agency’s remaining staff to convene at the agency’s now-former headquarters in Washington on Tuesday for an “all day” group effort to destroy documents stored there, many of which contain sensitive information.

The materials earmarked for destruction include contents of the agency’s “classified safes and personnel documents” at the Ronald Reagan Building, said an email sent by USAID’s acting executive director, Erica Carr, and obtained by POLITICO.

Why does USAID even have classified documents in sufficient numbers that they need to be burned en masse? This isn’t the State Department proper. It’s supposed to dispense international aid. Apart from information about local conditions, why is USAID maintaining what it claims are classified documents?

3. SecDef Hegseth Orders Pentagon Review of Standards Biden Loosened

‘High standards are what made the United States military the greatest fighting force on the planet,’ Hegseth wrote Wednesday in a memo to senior Pentagon leaders, field activity directors, and leaders of the combatant commands.

STRAC “Strategic, Tough, Ready Around the Clock” is back. Not only physical fitness but appearance factors into this—pressed uniforms, blocked caps, and shined brass; soldiers honed like razors, and standing tall with a pride of professionalism.

Hegseth stated:

The strength of our military is our unity and our shared purpose.

We are made stronger and more disciplined with high, uncompromising, and clear standards.

The review will also provide insight on why those standards changed and the impact of those changes.

We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force. Our adversaries are not growing weaker, and our tasks are not growing less challenging.

Under The Obiden Regime:

– [T]he Army relaxed grooming standards to allow women to wear earrings and have their hair highlighted and dyed while allowing men to wear nail polish, and

– The Air Force allowed male recruits to have up to 26% body fat, up from 20%, and women to have 36% body fat, up from the previous maximum of 28%.

I’m not saying if you violate grooming standards, you’re a criminal. The analogy is incomplete.

But if you violate the small stuff and you allow it to happen, it creates a culture where the big stuff, you’re not held accountable for.

4. Trump’s New Executive Order Puts States in Charge of Disaster Response, Streamlines FEMA Process

The order represents a significant shift in America’s disaster management philosophy. Rather than centralizing control in Washington, Trump’s order emphasizes that states, localities, and individual leadership should take primary responsibility for preparing for and responding to disasters like floods and fires.

The details of the order:

This Order restores state, local, and individual empowerment in disaster preparedness and response, and injects common sense into infrastructure prioritization and strategic investments through risk-informed decisions that make our infrastructure, communities, and economy more resilient to global and dynamic threats and hazards.

This executive order represents a return to traditional American values of federalism and local control. Throughout American history, communities have solved problems locally before seeking federal intervention.

The approach recognizes that state and local officials understand their communities’ unique needs better than federal bureaucrats in Washington. It empowers those closest to disasters to make critical decisions quickly.

By streamlining federal processes, the order removes barriers that have historically prevented efficient disaster response. Communities can now access necessary resources without navigating complex federal requirements.

5. Leftists Are Unable to Think Beyond a Week into the Future

At the moment the crime syndicate‘s poll numbers are in the toilet, they have no leadership that has not been discredited, their most vocal members are certifiably insane, and on every big 80/20 issue they are on the 20% side.

Repeatedly they adopt “strategies,” which amount to attempts to “change the narrative,” that collapse within a week.

The price of eggs, for example, at one point was their big cause.

It is true that egg prices spiked due to the mass culling of flocks to prevent the spread of bird flu. Of course, mass culling was not the right strategy, but it was the strategy which both the government and much of the industry settled on, and it caused massive shortages of eggs.

With shortages come price hikes. One follows the other.

The problem with focusing on egg prices was as obvious as the link between supply and demand. As prices rise, people move into the market to supply the demand. Even with the spread of bird flu it turns out that our agriculture industry knows how to breed chickens at scale, and after a few months, an egg turns into an egg layer.

When lots of new chickens start laying eggs, the supply of eggs rises, and the prices fall. Because eggs were expensive, every chicken is the one that laid golden eggs.

6. Major Prediction: There Won’t Be Another Democrat President

Some of the most interesting political insights now come from the least expected sources—individuals who are not afraid to buck the party line when reality contradicts the approved narrative.

The much-maligned Bill Maher recently shared a startling admission during a candid conversation with Kid Rock on his “Club Random” podcast.

From Breitbart:

‘He lost an election. Was every one a hit record? No. Does every one of my jokes land? No. You lose a few and it’s just a better story and it would make me breathe a lot easier because I’m not sure that this crowd is every going to give—I don’t know if we’ll ever see a Democrat president again because I just don’t think that they are of a mind that that can happen without it ruining the country, so they convince themselves they have to do it,’ he said.

Yes, you read that correctly. Bill Maher—the same man who spent years mocking conservatives on his HBO show—now doubts aloud if democrats will ever win the presidency again.

What makes Maher’s comment particularly noteworthy is not just the admission itself, but the reasoning behind it. He is acknowledging something conservatives have recognized for years:

[M]any Americans genuinely believe Democratic leadership would be detrimental to the nation’s well-being.

This isn’t just idle speculation from a comedian trying to generate controversy. Maher has been increasingly willing to criticize his own side, especially on issues where democrats have drifted problematically far from mainstream American values.