☕️ TRIGGERING ☙ Thursday, February 20, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

Yesterday was a triggering massacre; Trump runs rings around TROs; Zelensky tries to out-troll the President; EU counter-summit 2.0 fails; NYC 15-min city falls; kingly rhetoric; big teases; more.

Good morning, C&C, it’s Thursday! Today’s mind-blowing roundup includes: Trump runs rings around the court orders and the New York Times doesn’t like it; Zelensky attacks Trump and finds out; EU’s second counter-summit lands flat and manages to forget inviting the one most important party; NYC’s 15-minute-city nightmare ends and Trump massively triggers progressives; Trump terrifies Deep State with announcement of Fort Knox audit; and Musk teases DOGE rebates— but does it signal something potentially Earth-shattering?

🌍 WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY 🌍

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Hahahaha! Behold, the most side-splitting headline since they had to figure out how to climb down from mandatory outdoor masking. Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story headlined, and I am not making this up, “Trump Team Finds Loophole to Defy Spirit of Court Orders Blocking Spending Freezes. The sub-headline explained, “Officials cite other legal authorities — not Mr. Trump’s court-blocked directives — to keep withholding foreign aid and domestic grant money.”

Speaking as a litigator, try as hard as you like, but it is literally impossible to “defy” the “spirit” of an order—because a court doesn’t issue a “spirit.” It issues orders. Not spirits. Parties aren’t required to hold séances asking spirits what the judge really meant. ‘Spirit of the Injunction, speak to us!’

The phrase “defying the spirit” is semantic skullduggery. It hints darkly at malfeasance without actually alleging any particular violation. It’s how journalists (or robed activists) smear someone even when they are following the rules. If a judge wanted to prohibit a specific action, they could —arguably, they are duty bound to— do so clearly. If they didn’t, but wished they had done, that’s on them.

The Times isn’t even accusing the Trump Team of malicious compliance. It should know the difference too, since the Times lovingly reported Biden’s childlike efforts to skirt the Supreme Court’s slamdown of his criminal student loan forgiveness programs. Oh, Biden’s lawyers are so creative! So brave! So persistent! But I guess when Democrats actually defy the express terms of orders, that’s okay. Just not spirits.

The Times’s knickers are twisted. It wasn’t supposed to be this way! Things were going so swimmingly. Last week, Judge Amir H. Ali —the country’s first Muslim-Canadian federal judge— ordered the Trump Administration’s foreign payments freeze to itself be frozen. In other words, get out your Ouija boards and reopen the money gates!

Biden appointed Judge Ali, 39, to the DC District Court last year based on his experience practicing as a civil rights activist lawyer. (He was confirmed 50-49.) In other words, Ali had never been a judge, not even a county judge, not even a traffic ticket magistrate. But now, he’s a brand-new federal court justice. Ta-da! And he is conjuring up restraining orders against the President of the United States faster than a drive-thru medium reading palms at an interstate travel plaza.

This week, after the payments gusher failed to resume gushing (it resumed only a flaccid trickle) as per the spirits of Judge Ali’s order, the plaintiffs complained in court they still hadn’t gotten their checks. The judge summoned the parties into court, and the Trump Team explained that they were complying, they were ignoring Trump’s instructions, as ordered, but they were still withholding payments under various other statutes, contractual and grant provisions, and other rules that have been around for a long time. The judge never ordered them to ignore other laws.

Young Judge Ali is discovering what a more seasoned benchholder might have foreseen: the vexing difficulty of micromanaging the federal bureaucracy. The bureaucrats know the byzantine laws and regulations and contract rules— and he doesn’t. So one simple order won’t resurrect USAID. He’ll need an entire team of Ghostbusters.

The New York Times needs a new Tarot deck.

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Well, you have to credit bravery to Ukraine’s Martial Law Administrator and Comedian-in-Chief Volodomyr Zelenskyy (two-y’s, never forget). He has declared a comedic war of words on our Nation’s top Mean Tweeter and the verbose Leader of the Free World, Donald Trump. The Wall Street Journal ran the story yesterday below the headline, “Trump Calls Zelensky Dictator in Escalating Row Over Ukraine Peace Talks.” I don’t want to fight about it, but “row” is a European term for “fracas.” Just saying.

The fued began when Zelenskyy accused President Trump of being a Russian disinformer. So Trump predictably escalated to 11, branding Ukraine’s unconstitutional president an incompetent dictator. “He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle,’” Trump posted to Truth Social yesterday. “A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”

The virtue-signaling world lost its mind.

Disgusting octogenarian Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) clutched at his pearls and declared it was “disgusting to see an American president turn against one of our friends and openly side with a thug like Vladimir Putin.”

Later, at an investor conference in Miami, Trump doubled down. “I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job,” the President said. “His country is shattered.” I hesitate to make predictions in these unpredictable times, but I’m going out on a limb and predicting Zelenskyy’s days as … well, whatever he is, are numbered.

The WSJ article then descended into predictable complaints about how Zelenskyy and the European countries have been “excluded” from negotiations with Russia. I do not understand these complaints. What on Earth is stopping them from picking up the phone and calling Putin themselves? They are literally on the same continent. Zelensky is right next door. Just go to Moscow, for Peter the Great’s sake.

Seriously, why are they whining so bitterly about Trump not “including” them, like flabby children sulking on the sidelines after getting passed over for the cool kids’ team? Poor babies, they weren’t invited? These people are supposedly leaders of important countries. They have diplomatic staff. They have embassies. They have armies. Their complaints reek of childlike dependency, tantrums, and weakness. Low-T.

🔥 Only Le Monde reported about French President Macron’s second counter-summit, in a story headlined, “Macron holds second day of emergency talks on Ukraine.. This time, the dainty espresso-sipper invited all the EU countries, many of whom —probably still resentful over not being invited to Monday’s useless counter-summit— phoned it in over zoom.

But one particular country wasn’t invited to this high-profile ‘emergency’ counter-summit on the Ukraine war. I’ll give you one guess—it rhymes with ‘Prussia.’ They completely miss the irony of whining about not being invited to summits when they first don’t invite most of the EU, and then exclude the one country with whom they wish to speak the most. Dumkopfs.

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Yesterday, our Troller-in-Chief struck again. The ghastly UK Guardian was aghast, running the breathless story under the headline, “Trump receives widespread backlash to social post calling himself ‘king’.” They fall for it every single time.

The real news, what actually happened, as opposed to what somebody said about it, was Trump’s newly confirmed Secretary of Transportation, sent an official letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul, pulling the plug on her much-despised, Orwellian “congestion pricing” program for New York City.

New York’s pricing program pretends to make citizens’ lives easier by making their lives harder. The plan, a “fifteen-minute-city” lover’s dream, requires a vast electronic surveillance system tracking the movements of millions 24x7. At “peak” traffic, drivers are automatically charged $9 per trip to and from Manhattan. (It was originally $15 per trip.) Nobody voted for it. You could say it was enacted through kingly fiat.

Biden’s DOT enthusiastically approved the program. But yesterday, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy revoked that approval.

To say the public widely despised the program is like saying the French resistance somewhat disfavored Hitler. Once again, Trump is making the Democrats argue for the hated 20% side of the argument. But that’s when he really piled on.

The official White House account fired off a celebratory tweet: “CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD. Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!” The post included a fake Time Magazine cover showing a smiling Trump wearing a crown. More massive triggering ensued.

To truly appreciate the transgressive humor, you have to remember where the whole “king” canard came from— the Democrats! They cranked up the “Trump as king” rhetoric last year, while the Supreme Court was defining the boundaries of Presidential immunity. When Trump invoked “THE KING!” he knew exactly what he was doing. See! See! We told you! He thinks he’s a king now!

Meanwhile, as the progressives’ court jesters lose their minds in performative outrage over unsent invitations, mean tweets, and his Highness’ royal references, Trump’s Swamp-draining troops storm the battlefield. The irony is Imperial hilarity.

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During press comments on Air Force One yesterday, Trump announced that DOGE will inspect the Nation’s gold reserves at Fort Knox.

CLIP: Trump announces Fort Knox gold inspection (0:29).

The President told reporters, "We hope everything is fine with Fort Knox. We're going to go into the fabled Fort Knox and make sure the gold is there. If the gold isn't there— we're going to be very upset."

Elon Musk suggested on Twitter/X that the inspection would be live-streamed. I’m not sure how that could work, given the national security implications. But it has people talking.

Trump’s proposal to audit the gold reserves is common sense, and we will see how the Democrats complain about this one. But I suspect a much bigger play might be in the works than just satisfying a crowd-favorite curiosity. Take a look at the next story.

🔥 Yesterday, Forbes ran a story headlined, “Musk Mulls Sending All Americans $5,000 Checks Using DOGE Savings.” It’s another “somebody said something” story. Elon responded positively to somebody else’s tweet proposing “DOGE Dividend” to give taxpayers a refund check of $5,000 funded by the DOGE savings. In other words, some of our money back.

The tweet’s bare suggestion triggered everyone. Progressive wailed about the national deficit (one of the few times it offends them). Conservatives complained about the national debt.

But … is there something there?

One of the most mysterious and least discussed executive orders that Trump signed during his first week in office created a “Sovereign Wealth Fund.” At the time, he suggested it might have something to do with TikTok. He said, “We’re going to have a sovereign wealth fund… and we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund,” referring to potential investments like TikTok.

The President also speculated the fund could be financed through tariffs and by monetizing un-named federal assets. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has mentioned general plans to “monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet for the American people.”

Readers have asked me what I make of the Sovereign Wealth Fund. I don’t know. It is fascinating. It reminds me of Alaska’s Permanent Fund (APF).

🔥 In 1976, Alaska amended its state constitution to create the APF, which receives 25% of all royalties from oil and mineral revenues. The funds are partially used for long-term state benefits. But part of it is rebated—directly—to eligible Alaskans every single year.

It’s basically a negative state income tax.

Alaskans don’t just “pay into” the system—they get a cut of the profits from their state’s resources. In this sense, Alaskans share in the state’s publicly-owned oil and mineral revenues, giving residents direct participation in benefits derived from the state’s natural resources.

The rebate varies depending on each year’s royalty revenue. In 2024, Alaskans got a rebate check of $1,403. In 2022, they got $3,284. The principal of the fund is earmarked for Alaskans. The interest is used for rebates and government spending, but only with specific legislative approval. The salutary effect is that Alaskans are arguably more invested in state government than citizens anywhere else, because they have a direct financial stake in its management.

🔥 What if Trump’s Sovereign Wealth Fund is a national version of Alaska’s APF?

Could federal assets, tariffs, and TikTok revenues create a perpetual fund that pays Americans directly? Could it function like a national dividend, giving citizens a stake in America’s wealth? Could it reduce individual tax burdens by directing federal revenues to be rebated instead of just spent?

The details remain murky. But President Trump is notorious for teasing big ideas before they drop. A Fort Knox audit. A Sovereign Wealth Fund. DOGE Savings. A potential dividend? I have no better idea where this is going than anyone else. But I strongly suspect it’s bigger than just a Fort Knox inventory check.

What if Trump moved our jointly-owned gold into the Sovereign Wealth Fund? What if revenues from federal assets were allocated to the SWF instead of just swelling useless agency spending and enhancing dark, off-books budgets? What if those funds were invested and professionally managed for profit and revenue? It could be head-spinningly huge.

What if President Trump is completely rethinking federal wealth management?

I don’t know. But I think, whatever it is, it’s going to be a titanically triggering hum-dinger. And they’ll never see it coming.

Have a tremendous Thursday! Coffee & Covid will return tomorrow morning with another stupifying and thought-provoking roundup. See y’all then.

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