FITSNews Political Stock Index: 2/17/2025

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The headline of the news release issued by the White House on Friday put it this way: “Wins Come All Day Under President Trump.” While a president’s press office is never shy about tooting its own horn, Donald Trump is undeniably on a roll of late.

From bringing home American schoolteacher Marc Fogel – jailed in Russia since 2021 – to shuttering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Elizabeth Warren’s love child) to getting more than 75,000 federal workers to turn in their notice (a 3.75% cut of the federal workforce), he was busy on all fronts.

Throw in a hero’s welcome at the Daytona International Speedway on Sunday afternoon

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President @realDonaldTrump leads the field out of the pits in "The Beast" at the 2025 Daytona 500. pic.twitter.com/m1GOWOVCEv

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) February 16, 2025

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Trump’s initial success is largely due to something commentator Scott Jennings calls the 80-20 principle.

“This is Trump’s superpower,” Jennings said. “He finds a bunch of 80-20 issues, gets on the 80 side (things that 80% of Americans support, like keeping boys out of girls’ sports), and everybody who’s reflexively against him then jumps on the 20. And now the Democratic Party has like a 31% approval rating. This is why.”

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As fast as things change, though… they change again. Which is the whole point of our index.

Every Monday, we track the rising and falling fortunes of national politicos via the ‘FITSNews Political Stock Index.’ Every Tuesday, we publish the ‘Palmetto Political Stock Index’ – which looks at 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 either of these indices? Email Will Folks (here) and/or Mark Powell (here).

Where should you invest your political capital this week? Let’s roll…

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INFLATION

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STOCK: RISING

“Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again.”

That was Donald Trump at a campaign event last August.

We’re nearing day thirty, and inflation is going back up – albeit the latest data was from the final month of his predecessor Joe Biden‘s tenure. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported last week that consumer prices rose 3% in January, worse than the expected 2.9%.

In addition to blaming Biden for the price hikes, the administration began soft-pedaling expectations. Consider what vice president J.D. Vance recently told CBS News.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” he said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time.”

But “a little bit of time is” exactly what the Trump administration doesn’t have – nor was it what was promised. The financial pain caused by inflation is real – and Americans have a notoriously low pain threshold when their wallet is hurting. Considering Trump’s frantic activity on multiple other fronts, it’s only natural voters expect to see progress in the economic arena.

Democrats are already pouncing…

“What’s Trump doing about grocery and food prices?’ is their new mantra. And while it’s a question they neglected to ask during the four years when Biden’s economic pain was being unleashed, it demands an answer.

Inflation helped Trump win reelection last November. Voters remembered how prices were during his first administration and compared them to the gouging they got under Biden. That prompted a majority to give Trump another shot at fixing the economy.

Americans aren’t nostalgic when it comes to their bottom line. Every new president gets a honeymoon with the public, and Trump is enjoying his right now. However, because he held the job once before, the duration of this honeymoon may be shorter than usual. And hell hath no fury like a voter whose buying power is scorned.

Need a refresher on the most fundamental of political truths?

“The economy, stupid.”  

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ELON’S “ALL MY CHILDREN”

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STOCK: HOLDING

Seriously, has the richest man in the world never considered a contraception investment? Or perhaps he’s shorting that market?

Either way, the 53-year-old billionaire reportedly became a daddy yet again for the 13th time (easily eclipsing our founding editor Will Folks’ eight offspring). At least that’s what 26-year-old MAGA influencer Ashley St. Clair told the world on social media late last week. She claims to have had a baby five months ago.

“And the father is Elon Musk,” she added.

No confirmation yet from the DOGE chief, who is rapidly becoming the MAGA figure liberals love hating as much as (or even more than) Trump himself.

The bombshell announcement (nobody had previously heard about Musk and St. Clair being an item) came on the heels of another Musk issue making headlines.

In one of the most bizarre Oval Office moments since William Taft first waddled into the room in 1909, Musk seemed to think last Tuesday was “Take Your Kid to Work Day.” He showed up not only wearing a red MAGA cap (a huge no-no in that historic setting) but also with his 4-year-old son X in tow.

It was supposed to be another of Trump’s DOGE showcase updates for the White House press corps. Instead, the veteran showman was upstaged by the toddler. First, the tot was on his dad’s shoulders. Bored with that, he scampered over to the famous Resolute Desk and sidled up next to the prez. Whereupon he stole the show by picking his nose and allegedly telling Trump, “you’re not the president,” “you need to go away,” and “shut up.”

Reactions ranged from charmed to horrified. One person who wasn’t amused was X’s mom and Musk’s ex-GF, who goes by the mono name Grimes.

“He (the child) should not be in public like this,” she said.

An entertainment axiom says never star with children or animals. Given his dad’s boss’ famous dislike of sharing the spotlight, it’s a safe bet “Lil X” won’t be coming back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a return engagement anytime soon.

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TRUMP APPOINTEES

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STOCK: RISING

“When you’re hot, you’re hot,” Jerry Reed’s 1971 hit song famously said. That also sums up Trump’s success in getting his appointees confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

After defense secretary Pete Hegseth barely squeaked by late last month, Democrats set their sights on two other controversial nominees they viewed as “gettable” – former Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for National Intelligence Director and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health and Human Services secretary.

They failed again… on both counts.

That means to date, not a single Trump designee has failed to be confirmed.

Failing to derail Gabbard and Kennedy was especially galling for the minority party. Gabbard had been a Democrat prior to switching to Republican last year, while Kennedy – whose family name has been synonymous with “Democrat” for nearly a century – bolted the party of his birth and became an independent in 2023.

Worth noting: In both high-profile votes, former majority leader Mitch McConnell sided with Democrats in rejecting the nominees.

“Senility — or sour grapes?” one Capitol Hill insider mused to us.

Attorney General Pam Bondi had smoother sailing with her 54-46 confirmation, with Democrat John Fetterman of Pennsylvania crossed party lines to vote with the GOP on her nomination.

Trump is heading into his second term with the team he wants at his side. All have displayed intense devotion to him – a far cry from his first term, which saw his cabinet appointees change loyalties like Hollywood movie stars change spouses. However Trump II ultimately plays out, it clearly won’t be a rerun.

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HEGSETH & FORT BRAGG

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STOCK: HOLDING

Newly installed defense secretary Pete Hegseth tried to be too clever by half. And it bit him on the posterior.

As this index previously noted, he used the names “Fort Bragg and Fort Hood” on his first day of work at the Pentagon. Both names fell victim to the woke-driven push to erase all traces of Confederate heritage from the U.S. military. If any general from the past had so much as expressed a fondness for southern fried chicken, that was enough to justify stripping his name in an effort to make him (in Stalinist terminology) a “non-person.”

So, when word came last week that Hegseth had signed an order restoring “Fort Bragg” to the sprawling 251 square mile military installation just up the road in North Carolina, many conservatives were happy.

Until they read the fine print…

Hegseth hadn’t restored the name of Confederate general Braxton Bragg, but rather, claimed it now honored obscure World War II hero Roland Bragg from (of all places) Sabbatus, Maine.

That had many history-loving Americans (with a good many of them reliable Republican voters) seeing red.

“This is exactly the same kind bullshit that liberals pull,” one irate GOP activist in South Carolina fumed to us. “Don’t piss on our leg and tell us it’s raining. That’s like saying you’re renaming the Lincoln Memorial in honor of Evelyn Lincoln, John F. Kennedy’s secretary, instead of the 16th president.”

Be it Braxton or Roland, liberals hate reverting to “Bragg” either way. A big chunk of folks in the other camp are likewise unhappy with Hegseth now, too. That’s a precarious place for a guy whose Senate confirmation was made possible only by vice president Vance’s tie-breaking vote.

For those who take issue with the Confederate part of Fort Bragg’s split personality, it’s worth noting the War Department’s 1919 order designating it “Camp Bragg” cited Braxton’s record as a U.S. army captain in the Mexican War, not his service to the confederacy.     

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PLASTIC STRAWS

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STOCK: RISING

Fast food junkies can relax. Uncle Sam won’t be coming for your plastic straws after all.

Among the blizzard of executive orders Trump has signed lately was an about-face scrapping another misguided Biden policy. Announced last July, the previous administration would have phased out sturdy straws in favor of those made from compostable and recyclable products. Or, paper.

“We’re going back to plastic straws,” Trump said last week. “(Paper straws) don’t work. They break. They don’t last very long, like a matter of minutes, sometimes a matter of seconds. It’s a ridiculous situation.”

With that, he scrubbed a requirement mandating only the paper version in federal buildings, U.S. embassies, and other government properties where people feel the urge to sip a drink starting in 2027, with total elimination by 2037.

Liberals have been waging an environmental jihad against plastic bags and straws for over a decade. What’s interesting is how the latter began.

In 2011, then-9-year-old Milo Cress wanted to know how many plastic straws Americans used every day. He checked with straw manufacturers and somehow came up with a staggering 500,000 figure. That led him to create the Be Straw-Free campaign. The MSM legacy media, which was already aggressively rooting for every environmentalist scheme that came along, took the half-a-million straw stat and ran with it.  

Other, more seasoned researchers (who had presumably finished the fifth grade) found the kid’s conclusions highly questionable. But it was too late. The 500,000 straws daily figure was out there, and it was accepted as the gospel truth. Ergo, plastic straws were bad for the planet and had to go.

It’s strange that the same people who chant “follow the science” are ok with conclusions based on Fuzzy Math.

“And a little child shall lead them,” indeed.

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