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):

(NOTE: Relax! We the People may not have even thought of some of this stuff, but the Trump-Vance ‘A’ team is already on top of it.)

1. Former Israeli Hostage Revealed His Hamas Captors’ Behavior Changed ‘Immediately’ After Trump Was Elected

‘[The terrorists] were very scared of [Trump]. They wanted [What’s-Her-Name] to be elected,’ Omar Shem Tov told CNN’s Bianna Golodryga in an interview aired Wednesday.

Shem Tov explained:

[A]s soon as Donald Trump was elected, they understood he wants to bring the hostages back home. So immediately, the way they treated me changed.

Further:

More food, [they] treated me better. Stopped cursing me. Stopped spitting on me.

Golodryga asked Shem Tov if he thought the change in treatment was because the Hamas captors thought a deal would come soon.

He felt that was the case.

Fox News reported:

Shem Tov was among the approximately 250 hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023, and survived 505 days in captivity before being released in February as part of a temporary cease-fire agreement that Trump’s team helped negotiate.

2. Trump Said “No Tax on Social Security” IS Coming

President Trump announced on Truth Social that “No Tax on Social Security” is coming.

This is what he said:

Like the other two, TIPS AND OVERTIME, No Tax on Social Security is being done also, but in a different form, a large deduction after which many will have no tax to pay. Thank you!

This will make a lot of people very happy.

3. Trump: Iran Nuclear Deal ‘Fairly Close’, Tehran Warns About Threats

President Trump warned the United States could “blow up” nuclear laboratories in Iran, even with an agreement.

The Times of Israel reported Saturday Trump having said:

I think we have a chance of making a deal with Iran. They don’t want to be blown up. They would rather make a deal, and I think that could happen in the not-too-distant future.

Further:

I want [the nuclear agreement] very strong, where we can go in with inspectors, we can take whatever we want, we can blow up whatever we want, but nobody [is] getting killed.

And:

We can blow up a lab, but nobody is going to be in a lab, as opposed to everybody being in the lab and blowing it up.

An unnamed Iranian official told the Fars news agency such threats are “open hostility against Iran’s national interests.”

Further:

If the U.S. seeks a diplomatic solution, it must abandon the language of threats and sanctions.

Trump has often threatened to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities if diplomacy does not bring a solution to the continued dispute over the country’s nuclear program.

Iran also on Friday denied an Austrian intelligence global report that said Tehran’s “nuclear weapons development program is well advanced.”

It was reported Iran carried out secret nuclear activities with material that was not declared to the U.N. nuclear watchdog at three locations that have long been under international investigation.

Iran has continued to argue that it wants a nuclear program for civilian purposes, not for weaponry.

However, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is the world’s only country in the world that is enriching uranium up to 60%. The rate remains below the 90% threshold needed to make a nuclear weapon, but high above the 3.67% limit that was set in its 2015 agreement with world powers.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported Friday in April, Saudi Arabia’s 89-year-old King Salman bin Abdulaziz dispatched his son, Prince Khalid bin Salman, to Tehran to warn officials there to either take Trump’s offer to negotiate a nuclear agreement or risk war with Israel.

The prince, who served as the Saudi ambassador during Trump’s first term in office, reportedly warned the Iranian officials that the president does not have patience for lengthy negotiations.

4. Saving Taxpayer Money: Energy Dept Cancels $3.7B in ‘Green’ Grants

A billion dollars here, a billion dollars there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

The Trump administration has canceled $3.7 billion worth of grants for multiple climate-related infrastructure projects, the majority of which were approved in the Obiden lame duck period after he lost the 2024 election.

Secretary of Energy Chris Wright announced Friday the 24 projects failed to advance the energy needs of the American people, were not economically viable, and would not generate a positive return on investment of taxpayer dollars.

The department said:

[A]fter a thorough and individualized financial review of each award, it found nearly 70% of the awards (16 of the 24 projects) had been signed between election day on Nov. 5 and the [Obiden] last day in office on Jan. 20.

Examples of what went onto the chopping block:

The cuts include nearly $332 million pulled from a project at ExxonMobil’s Baytown, Texas, refinery complex, $500 million to Heidelberg Materials in Indiana and $375 million to Eastman Chemical Company in Longview, Texas.

Carbon capture, often referred to as carbon capture and storage (CCS), is a climate change mitigation technology designed to prevent carbon dioxide emissions from entering the atmosphere or from the pollution streams of facilities, including refineries and plants that burn coal and make ethanol, for storage underground.

DOGE is finding billions of dollars in wasteful spending, and the Democrats are losing their minds as they realize their gravy train and woke projects are coming to an end.

5. On Face the Nation, Scott Bessent Delivered a Lesson on the Economy, with Receipts

Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent painted an optimistic picture, and he brought the receipts to back it up.

The first segment of note is on inflation:

We should remember President Trump resumed office a little over four months ago. But prices on eggs are down and, more importantly, gasoline and diesel fuel prices are down; those are key indicators, as the price of every product and commodity sold anywhere in the country is impacted by fuel costs.

The interview continued with a cautionary note from the secretary on predictions:

To be accurate, there has been inflation, but the inflation rate has not only not increased, but it has dropped. And, the secretary is correct, inflation rates have been dropping steadily since President Trump resumed office.

Finally, on the federal budget deficit:

There are three ways out of the current debt crisis:

We can repudiate the debt, essentially a declaration of national bankruptcy, which would send the global economy into a tailspin. We can inflate our way out of it, again sending the global economy into a tailspin. Or, and this is the most favorable option, we can attempt to grow our way out of it.

This will, of course, require not only growing out of the annual budget deficits, but also devoting effort not only to stop borrowing, but to pay down the national debt.

God speed to the Trump-Vance team.