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POLITICS

FITSNews Political Stock Index: 1/27/2025

Where should you invest your political capital this week?

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The first full week of Trump II: The Sequel is officially in the record books – and boy, was it ever one for the history books. Donald Trump’s first 100 hours in office made Franklin Roosevelt’s famous ‘100 days’ look like a study in dilly-dallying.

Trump shut down the southern border, closed federal DEI programs (and ordered DEI instructors to be fired), charted a path toward energy independence, shut off all foreign aid (except to Israel and Egypt), renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America (and reverted Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley), declassified the last federal documents on the JFK, MLK, and RFK assassinations and saw several of his key cabinet appointees confirmed and sworn in.

And that was just his warmup act…

Trump also announced more than $1.1 trillion in new capital investment for the American economy, with promises of more to come.

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As Trump rolled out more than 300 executive actions, Washington elites and their mainstream media mouthpieces were, all too predictably, howling in fury. But Trump isn’t concerned about them. He’s clearly focused on everyday Americans – the very people who made his comeback possible. And in the first week, they saw something astonishing: A politician actually doing what the voters asked him to do. As a result, Rasmussen’s daily presidential tracking poll had Trump surging with a 53% approval rating as of Friday (January 24, 2025).

As Trump moved with speed and fury, those in his wake were left furiously recalibrating their political positioning…

How are they faring?

That’s what we assess every Monday morning via the ‘FITSNews Political Stock Index,’ while every Tuesday morning we publish the ‘Palmetto Political Stock Index’ – which focuses on politicos from our home state of South Carolina, host of the quadrennial “First in the Nation” (for Democrats) and “First in the South” (for Republicans) presidential primaries.

Got a hot “stock tip” for these indices? Email Will (here) and/or Mark (here).

Where should you invest your national political capital this week? To the index…

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ELON MUSK

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STOCK: HOLDING

With all the problems confronting our country these days, nothing was more pressing (at least on social media) than this: Did billionaire Trump-backer Elon Musk make a highly controversial gesture at an inauguration event last week?   

It started when, in a burst of enthusiasm, the head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative thumped his chest and extended his right arm toward the audience by way of thanking them “from the bottom of his heart.” Then, amid cheers, Musk turned and repeated the same one-armed gesture for the other side of the auditorium.

Musk hadn’t even left the stage before the liberal establishment pounced. “That was a Nazi salute—and a very belligerent one, too,” a New York University professor screeched on X.

Except, it wasn’t. What the historically challenged Outrage Crowd didn’t realize was Musk gave a traditional Roman salute dating back two millennia. (The Nazi version that was required in Germany from 1933-45 skipped the chest-pounding part).

Musk defenders likewise rolled into action, including the Anti-Defamation League – the last group on earth to condone any type of pro-Nazi tribute.  

As for Musk himself, he’s shrugging off the whole thing like water rolling off a duck’s back.

“Frankly, (Democrats) need better attacks,” he posted on X. “The whole ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”

Maybe a tech billionaire with autistic symptoms giving a classical Ave (the formal name for the Roman Salute) wasn’t the best look. However, Musk is not the first celebrity to do so. Far from it.

Images showing an array of famous non-conservatives doing likewise, from Taylor Swift, Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren among them, flood the internet. (Try Googling it. We could fill an entire Index with spoof memes as well.) Yet when Musk does the exact same thing, it’s a Nazi tribute.  

While much is changing in Washington these days, the mainstream media’s hypocrtical double standard remains as securely entrenched as ever…

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 MARIANN BUDDE

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STOCK: FALLING

Few suspected something as benign as the inaugural prayer service would ever be the source of white-hot controversy. And yet, here we are.

It all started last Tuesday when the right reverend Mariann Budde, the Bishop of Washington, led this quadrennial ceremony at the National Cathedral. Usually, it’s a snoozer of a service intended to seek divine blessings for a newly installed president and vice president.

It started out that way this time around, too. Then Budde threw the traditional script out the window and decided to use her sermon to scold president Trump on a host of partisan issues.

“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President,” she softly implored. “I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.”

Budde replayed Democrats’ greatest hits in a rant more befitting a political convention, chiding Trump on housing equity and social justice, LGBTQ and transgender concerns, and illegal immigrants. 

The White House later accused Budde of “weaponizing the pulpit” and demanded an apology. She spent the rest of the week basking in the glow of liberal adoration while claiming the moral high ground in a string of MSM interviews.

There are two takeaways from the incident. First, it’s apparent most liberals still haven’t grasped the lesson Democrats learned at the ballot box on November 5, 2024.

Secondly, this news outlet has extensively reported the decline of Christianity in the U.S. over the last 25 years and its impact on the political landscape. It has also noted how many Americans, Gen Zers in particular, are turning their backs on religion en masse. When the pulpit becomes a place to spread partisan propaganda instead of ministering to spiritual needs, those wholesale defections become easier to understand.   

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GULF OF AMERICA

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STOCK: RISING

“What’s in a name?” the upstart crow William Shakespeare famously asked. Plenty, it turns out, when that name happens to involve a certain 160-million-acre body of water bordered by the U.S., Mexico, and Cuba.

President Trump is serious about rebranding what generations of us grew up calling the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” But before you start dabbing Wite-Out all over your maps, certain steps must be taken before the nomenclature switcheroo can take effect. And it involves one of the most obscure federal agencies of all.

“Let’s visit the United States Geological Survey headquarters, Dad!” nobody ever said on a family vacation to D.C. But this little-known bureaucratic backwater located in metro Washington’s outskirts just had a nuclear meltdown-scale hot potato tossed into its lap.

The Survey’s U.S. Board of Geographic Names is the repository of more than a million records related to place names in all 50 states, D.C., and even Antarctica. It decides which names appear on The National Map. (Yes, there really is one.) And Trump’s executive order to cross out “Mexico” and insert “America” mandates it to implement that change PDQ.

Not everyone is thrilled by the revision. One wag suggests that since the body of water borders the U.S. South, it should be renamed the Gulf of Dixie. Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum joked she would rename North America “Mexican America.”

That raises an interesting point. Mexico clearly isn’t on board with the new designation. And while information is never easily forthcoming from communist Cuba, there’s no indication Havana supports it, either. Meaning in the not-too-distant future, mariners may be left guessing just what body of water they’re sailing through.

At the moment, though, those referring to the Gulf of America by its new name clearly have the wind at their backs…

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GLOBALIST ELITES

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STOCK: FALLING

These are downer days at Davos. The picturesque Swiss Alpine surroundings weren’t enough to raise spirits at this year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting – where globalist elites from around the planet gather to rub elbows and swap schemes.

But in 2025, these globalist cheerleaders of a worldwide economy find themselves running up the white flag. In a rare admission of their uncomfortable new reality, the message being handed down from the white-capped is as follows: “We have lost to Trump.”

Recognizing the sea change that an America First focus will bring to the U.S. economy (thus impacting the global economy), the rest of the world has now been forced into a radical recalibration of its policies. And the elites dislike both having to do that and the new president who forced their hand. 

“We shouldn’t normalize Trump,” former Defense Department functionary/Harvard professor Graham Allison said. “Trump has done something no person in the world has ever done before. A dead man, a dead politician, has risen.”

While New Testament believers will disagree with that theological assessment, Allison’s political analysis is far more attuned to reality…

Trump’s incredible comeback has upset any number of apple carts, both at home and abroad. And just as the Democratic Party remains in disarray at the moment – unsure how to proceed against him from here – global elites suddenly find themselves in the same boat.

Make no mistake, though: Like Dr. Evil and Frau Farbissina, they’re up to something…

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ECONOMIC FUNDAMENTALS

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STOCK: HOLDING

The Left has spent most of the past week flailing against Trump’s muscular MAGA policies while the Right has worn out its lungs cheering them on. Lost amid all the harrumphing and rah-rahing? A cold, hard fact exacerbated by the recent blast of bitterly cold weather. Energy prices are so high of late the arrival of monthly utility bills are sending customers into shock. We’re hearing stories of home heating bills recently ranging from $500 to $900. That takes a serious bite out of a working family’s budget. But things go from bad to worse in other sectors.

Housing is rapidly becoming a precious commodity, on a par with platinum and gold. A young couple in the Columbia Midlands was stunned last week after being told the very average two-bedroom non-luxury apartment they’d just toured rents for over $1,500 a month.

Then there’s food and groceries, which cost 22% to 33% more (depending on whose analysis you use) than the day Joe Biden became president four years ago. Eggs are among the worst culprits of late, pushed 25% higher due to the ongoing avian flu outbreak.

All those problems may have intensified during Biden’s single term, though they’re largely the consequence of decades of overspending on both sides of the aisle.

Whoever is to blame, they are Trump’s problems now. Every new president gets a honeymoon period with the American public. But its duration depends on how people feel about the health of their wallets. Meaning Trump can only say, “I inherited a mess; it’s the other guy’s fault,” for only so long.

Democrats have a strategic opportunity to drive a wedge between Trump and his populist base by putting forth bread-and-butter proposals to help middle-class Americans. But making that work would require setting aside their relentless advocacy of sacred cow groups (transgenders, illegal aliens, climate Nazis, etc.)

Are they willing to do that in order to seize the moment?      

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BARACK OBAMA

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STOCK: HOLDING

Our index is an impartial analysis of the rising and falling fates of political figures, issues and events. It is not a place for tabloid fodder. But in this rare instance, the two overlap.

Tongues have been wagging for weeks about Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s marriage. It started earlier this month when the former first lady was conspicuously absent at former president Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington. Though sources in the Obamas’ orbit say she didn’t want to interrupt her Hawaii vacation to sit beside the incoming president, whispering suggested something sinister might be afoot.

The chatter intensified when she skipped last week’s presidential inauguration. (Obama was cheered upon entering a popular Washington eatery — table for one — the Saturday night before the inauguration.)

His solo appearance dumped gasoline on a fire that’s been smoldering since last summer when gossip purveyor InTouch Weekly ran an article headlined “The Truth About Jen & Barack.” The gist was that 55-year-old “Friends” alum (and former Mrs. Brad Pitt) Jennifer Aniston and the 63-year-old ex-prez are “just friends” themselves.

The matter was taken to the next level last week when Megyn Kelly discussed the rumor on air, saying “it would be a political bombshell.”

“There seems to be some momentum picking up in the rumor mill about their marriage.” She added, “Michelle Obama skipping the funeral of former US president Jimmy Carter raised eyebrows, and her absence from Trump’s inauguration only confirmed that something was going on between her and Barack.”

Maybe this is a big deal within the Democrat base – where both Obamas retain their rock star appeal eight years after leaving the White House. But it’s hardly an earth-shattering development for everyone else.

Anniston’s camp tried to get ahead of the situation over the weekend, with insiders offering a classic non-denial denial – claiming the actress was “utterly baffled” by the rumors.

So, are the Obamas still singing “I’ll Be There for You” to each other? Or is the one-time candidate who famously espoused “hope and change” contemplating a change of his own?

Stay tuned…

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WANNA SOUND OFF?

Got something you’d like to say in response to one of our articles? Or an issue you’d like to address proactively? We have an open microphone policy! Submit your letter to the editor (or guest column) via email HERE. Got a tip for a story? CLICK HERE. Got a technical question or a glitch to report? CLICK HERE.

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3 comments

RC January 27, 2025 at 11:44 am

“About one-third of Americans have a favorable view of Musk — a billionaire and the world’s richest person — which is down slightly from December.”

But sure, he’s “holding”. And the “globalist elites” are falling? I guess Willie missed the likes of Elon, Bezos, and Zuckerberg given prominent spots at Trump’s inauguration, not to mention the number of billionaires and the amount of total wealth in his cabinet.

“When the pulpit becomes a place to spread partisan propaganda instead of ministering to spiritual needs, those wholesale defections become easier to understand. ”

Spreading partisan propaganda is exactly what conservative preachers have done. Lifting up the least of us IS what Jesus taught. He’d be considered “woke” today.

Reply
Nanker Phelge January 27, 2025 at 3:55 pm

““Let me make one final plea, Mr. President,” she softly implored.”

followed by:

“Budde replayed Democrats’ greatest hits in a rant”

She spoke softly and it was also a rant. Can’t have it both ways, geniuses. There was no rant, she softly asked the president to show mercy, something real Christians should be in agreement with.

Still nothing at this blahg about Trump’s pump and dump crypto scam? How does that benefit “everyday Americans?”

How does releasing 1500 violent convicts benefit “everyday Americans?”

How does attempting to rename the Gulf of Mexico and Mt Denali benefit “everyday Americans?”

I could go on…

Reply
RC January 27, 2025 at 4:21 pm

How about this one – “Price of Eggs: RISING”

Reply

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