Eighty-five days into Donald Trump’s second term, and it’s been like a quad espresso venti to the nation’s veins—no dozing Joe Biden shuffling through the White House here, folks! With a cabinet meeting straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster, Trump’s team reported on the progress to save us from open-border chaos, a drug epidemic fueled by China’s, and a debt crisis that has our nation on the ropes. The last administration was asleep at the wheel, but Trump is here to drive this train now and remind us what “America First” really looks like—and China’s not happy about it.
Let’s start with the border, where Trump’s turned the tide on a security nightmare. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reported a second month of record-low border crossings, rolling out a self-deportation program with a legal return path. This comes after Trump shut down Biden’s CBP One app on day one, which had 280,000 migrants logging in daily to waltz across our border. Now they remain in Mexico, and the Pentagon’s building walls, not bridges, to keep it that way.
But the real threat isn’t just at the border—it’s in our veins, courtesy of China’s strategic targeting of our military-age youth with illegal drugs. The cabinet meeting exposed the ugly truth: China’s been flooding us with fentanyl and synthetic opioids, identified as a primary source since the mid-2010s. They’re not just drug peddlers; they’re waging chemical warfare, aiming to cripple our next generation of fighters. Attorney General Pam Bondi is dropping bombshell arrests on drug dealing gangs, sex traffickers and terrorists under the Alien Enemies Act. Trump’s tariffs on China, now at a blistering 104%, are a direct hit to stop this poison at the source, even if the Guardian’s whining about “coercive” tactics. Cry me a river—China’s poisoning our kids.
Let’s talk about China’s grip on our debt. They’ve been buying up U.S. Treasury bonds for decades, holding $759 billion as of December 2024, making us a net debtor nation at their mercy. The cabinet meeting highlighted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s counterpunch: managing trade deals with 75+ countries, raking in $2 billion daily from tariffs, and shifting focus from Wall Street to Main Street. Elon Musk sniffed out $150 billion in government waste, while Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer uncovered $400 million in fraudulent unemployment payments—some to 25,000 “people” over 115 years old. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office warns our debt will hit 156% of GDP by 2055, but Trump’s not waiting for the ship to sink. China’s bond-buying days are numbered—America’s not your piggy bank anymore.
Then there’s the Panama Canal, where China’s been creeping in like a thief in the night. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced agreements to protect U.S. strategic influence of the canal with U.S. military presence, sending troops back to former bases to counter Chinese influence. U.S. military vessels will now pass through “First and Free.” Trump’s been vocal about taking it back since Panama exited China’s Belt and Road [bait and switch] Initiative, and Hegseth’s visit sealed the deal. China’s embassy can deny it all they want—saying they’ve never managed the canal—but their commercial ties through firms like Hutchison Ports PPC scream espionage. We’re not letting Beijing weaponize the back door to our nation.
And don’t get me started on the tariff war—China’s playing chess while we’re finally learning the board. They’ve slapped retaliatory tariffs on our exports, like steel, soybeans and pharmaceuticals, making life hell for Americans already battling 30% cost increases. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins noted tariffs will help, but China’s not stopping there—they’re flooding our markets with cheap imports, from smartphones to batteries, undercutting our producers with state-subsidized goods. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick revealed countries are lining up to negotiate after Trump’s tariff announcements, with the Gold Card program launching to lure investment. But China’s fighting back, refining vital metals like lithium and rare earths, and placing barriers on exports to the U.S.—a move they’ve already pulled with germanium and gallium for military tech. The BBC warns of a global spillover, but Trump’s 125% tariffs on Chinese goods (145% for some) are a middle finger to Beijing’s trade games. We finally have a President that bullishly stomps into negations rather than sheepishly avoiding them or falling asleep in them.
The cabinet meeting didn’t stop there. Consumer prices and energy costs are dropping, with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum unleashing American energy by opening oil leases in the Gulf of America and ending the war on coal. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin canceled $22 billion in grants, aiming to make cars affordable and approve new power plants. Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s withholding $8 billion from Harvard over campus anti-Semitism, while Transport Secretary Sean Duffy’s stripping “green” nonsense from infrastructure to focus on roads. HHS Secretary RFK Jr.’s reassessing fluoride, cleaning baby formula, and reducing animal testing with AI. And DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s pushing for paper ballots after finding voting machine vulnerabilities—oh, and she’s releasing RFK and MLK assassination docs. Transparency, anyone? It’s about time!
Trump’s not just governing—he’s saving us. He’s brought home hostages and detained Americans from Palestine and Russia, negotiating the end of wars, negotiating nuclear weapon bans in Iran, pulled out of the Paris climate scam, and told the WHO to shove it. All the EU can do is whine about 200% tariffs on their wine? Boo-hoo—America’s final has a President that will say awake in a meeting and stand up for America first.
In 85 days, Trump’s shown the world we’re not playing nice anymore. Open borders were a security threat, China’s drug war was a death sentence, their debt-buying was a chokehold, and their trade dominance was leaching our very liberties away. America’s back—Trump is in triage mode, stabilizing the country’s pulse as the world marvels at our will to live!
