FITSNews Political Stock Index: 2/24/2025

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It was another week with more ups than downs for U.S. president Donald Trump, whose second term in office has been an absolute double-barrel blasting of the Washington, D.C. swamp.

“In the last four weeks, our administration has accomplished more than most administrations do in four years,” Trump told a meeting of GOP governors. “A few hundred more weeks like this, and we’re going to be in great shape.”

Trump’s mojo was working for the most part last week. His new FBI director Kash Patel won Senate confirmation – another win for the administration – and Trump scored points with his base during a testy exchange with Maine’s governor, who doggedly clings to the belief that boys should be allowed to compete in girls’ sports.

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Still, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. The Republican-led Senate didn’t deliver the tax cut extension Trump wanted in its spending plan, consumer confidence tumbled and a new COVID scare is looming on the horizon.

Overall, Trump remains in a strong position heading into the second month of his administration… although the headwinds we’ve written about previously remain worth watching (especially with a new coronavirus threat looming).

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 national political capital this week? To the index…

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COVID SCARE

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STOCK: RISING

Here we go again. At least, it’s increasingly looking that way. 

Rewind the tape to the closing days of 2019. Just as Donald Trump was gearing up to run for reelection, the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. The trail of its origins leading to a hush-hush government-run lab in Wuhan, China was so obvious even the bumbling Inspector Clouseau could have tracked it.

This despite the wave of denials from disgraced Dr. Anthony Fauci and his followers.

Fast forward to February 2025. Just as Trump is getting settled in for his second presidency, here comes a fresh wave of fears about a new variety of coronavirus. And the worries are emanating from — guess where? — the notorious Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

The prospect of a fresh pandemic rattled Wall Street, with the Dow closing down nearly 750 points last Friday. (Except for many Big Pharma companies, unsurprisingly.)

But should the awful-awful happen again, don’t expect a replay of 2020. Many Americans are vowing (to borrow a line from The Who’s hit song), “we won’t get fooled again.” It’s now known the people who urged us to “follow the science” last time around were making it up as they went along.

Forget the masks (which, it turned out, offered no protection). Forget staying six feet away from other people (because “social distancing” was a social flop). How many churches would obey mandatory orders to suspend worship services next time? And how many mom-and-pop businesses would put the “closed” sign in their window and watch as their big chain retail rivals rack up record profits?

It’s possible a new version of the infection may be heading here. And if it is, it’s equally possible it will be greeted by a totally different public response when it arrives. 

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EPSTEIN’S PLAYMATES

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STOCK: FALLING

Blood pressure and heart rates may be elevated for a slew of rich and famous men in the United States and Europe right now – and with good reason.

That’s because newly installed U.S. attorney general Pam Bondi said last week than an FBI report containing the client list of disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is “sitting on my desk.”

Bondi said Friday afternoon she’s still going through the potentially explosive document, though she hadn’t seen any bombshell revelations in it yet. She’s following up on Trump’s executive order to flush a warehouse’s worth of confidential information into the public domain – part of a larger push to restore faith in the federal government.  

While we don’t know yet just who may be named in the dossier, this much is certain: Bondi serves in an administration that doesn’t let the grass grow under its feet. Should something eyebrow-raising turn up, look for her to act sooner rather than later.       

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FEDERAL SECRETS TRANSPARENCY

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STOCK: RISING

Speaking of hush-hush government documents… a special U.S. House task force is set to reveal “federal secrets” on several other controversial incidents. This task force has a Palmetto State flavor, as Lowcountry congresswoman Nancy Mace was one of seven GOP House members tapped to the House Oversight Committee subgroup.

Four members of the D.C. Freedom Caucus will serve with her.

Officially dubbed the Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets, the group will pore over reams of government paperwork. They will review documents covered under Trump’s executive order declassifying documents related to the JFK, RFK and MLK assassinations, Epstein’s client list, September 11, the origins of COVID-19, UFOs, and more.

Task Force head honcho Anna Paulina Lina (R-Florida) pledges to “give the American people the truth they deserve.”

“Our mission is simple: to ensure these documents are released swiftly and in their entirety,” she said. 

“Given Mace’s love of the media spotlight, any juice secrets she comes across likely won’t stay ‘secret’ for long,” one source told us.

In this case, though, isn’t that the point of the panel?

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MITCH McCONNELL

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STOCK: SUSPENDED

The National Nursing Home (better known as the U.S. Senate) will have one less octogenarian resident soon.

After more than four decades on Capitol Hill, Mitch McConnell is hanging up his spurs. The 83-year-old former majority leader – given to moments of freezing mid-sentence and staring blankly into the distance – says he won’t seek reelection in 2026.

Now that he no longer has to worry about appeasing the folks back home, McConnell is letting his inner #NeverTrumper run wild. He recently sided with Democrats on multiple key votes – rejecting Trump appointees Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (although he did surprise Senate colleagues by voting to confirm Patel). 

Conservatives privately say the senior senator from Kentucky’s political disability is more damning than his physical impairments. The blunt truth is McConnell is a relic from an older Republican Party, from a time when the GOP blindly obeyed the “to get along, go along” mantra that wound up furthering Democratic goals while ignoring its own.

For better or worse, the Republican Party is now the Party of Trump. And Mitch McConnell is about as welcome in it as a wet dog at a wedding.    

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RAND PAUL

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STOCK: RISING

The news was substantially cheerier for McConnell’s fellow Kentuckian, Republican senator Rand Paul. Though hailing from the same state (or rather the same commonwealth) – and belonging to the same party – there’s little else about these two politicians that matches.

Paul gave us a reminder of that last week by holding his ground during a grueling, nearly 10-hour overnight vote-a-thon over a budget resolution. Paul demonstrated his commitment to financial discipline by pushing for a spending cut. In the end, though, nearly thirty “Republican” senators voted against the amendment.

Among them? South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott. 

Though both Palmetto State senators have followed the Trump party line by loyally supporting his Cabinet-level nominees – even the controversial ones – they broke ranks with him on federal spending. That could prove especially problematic for Graham in the event a credible primary opponent emerges against him in the coming months.  

For now, though, it’s yet another reminder that Paul remains one of the only Republicans in our nation’s capital who consistently lives up to the stated limited government principles of his party.

For far too many other “Republicans,” it’s just a talking point to get them elected…

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U.S.-CANADA FRIENDSHIP

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STOCK: FALLING

Oh, Canada! The bad blood between two of the world’s longest-running BFFs is growing worse with each passing week. And leave it to a hockey game to reveal just how deep the rift is.

That sport has a way of becoming a focal point for international tensions. Remember 1980’s “Miracle on Ice,” when Team USA edged out the favored USSR for the Winter Olympics gold medal? Coming as it did during a particularly frosty period between the two super powers, that game was every bit as much about national pride as it was about putting the puck inside the goal.  

Fast forward 45 years to a week ago, when the U.S. and Canada squared off in Montreal with pride on the line. Canucks booed loudly when The Star Spangled Banner was played. That was a love note compared to what happened once the contest began. The match turned into a brawl so quickly that the penalty box was almost immediately filled.

The United States won that battle… but ultimately lost to Team Canada 3-2 in a thrilling overtime final five days later.

“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau sneered on X.

For those of you who are recent transplants from the North, South Carolinians rarely give a hoot about a game once described as “watching one bunch of Yankees whoop up on another bunch of Yankees with sticks.” But this particular match carried deeper significance, especially on the far side of the 49th parallel.

Canada has long been described as “a nation in search of an identity.” It doesn’t want to be identified with England, it really doesn’t want to be identified with France, and it sure as hell doesn’t want to be identified with us down here in the good old U.S.A.

Most Americans shrug off talk about making Canada the 51st state as just another case of “Trump being Trump” – and don’t give it a second thought. But folks in Our Lady of the Snow are taking it very seriously. That, along with the possibility of a looming trade war over tariffs with its major business partner, has the Maple Leaf people hopping mad. And that, in turn, could carry significant political consequences.

The major resurgence in Canadian self-pride that’s now in full swing coincides with the upcoming parliamentary election later this year. The liberal party is worn out after defending woke gadfly Trudeau for over a decade. But just when conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre seemed poised for a genuine shot at the premiership, along comes Trump’s ranting about bending the Great White North to his will. 

Liberals are scheduled to pick a successor to Trudeau on March 9, 2025. If they field the right candidate with the right message, could this new wave of Canadian patriotism give the left a new lease on control in Ottawa? And what could that mean to the Arctic chill that has frosted relations with the U.S.?

Stay tuned.

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