A WORLD GONE MAD
A Progressive Liberal News Podcast
Veteran Television, and Radio Broadcaster Jeff Alan Wolf offers his Observations on the issues (many issues) of the week with a fearless liberal bent. His solid delivery, and dry common sense approach sets him apart from other liberals that populate Talk and Commentary Podcasts”
Jeff Does NOT Pull Punches.
He does NOT Make comments that are “SAFE”.
He tells the Truth.
(He Tells It As He Sees It)
He Is Very OPINIONATED!
He says the things Out Loud YOU’RE
already thinking.
Jeff is Unfiltered, Unspun, A little Unhinged, but offers a lot of Common Sense.
This Podcast could make you MAD.
This Podcast could make you SMILE.
Regardless, it WILL make you THINK!
A WORLD GONE MAD
Trump’s State Of The Union Lies! Let’s Play Truth? Or BS?
Join me for an eye-opening episode where I navigate the blustering claims made by Donald Trump during his recent State of the Union address. From pressing decisions that shape international relations to outrageous statements about the economy and military recruitment, I unpack the chaos and misinformation that feel all too pervasive in today's world.
I delve into Trump's assertions regarding foreign aid, where the Supreme Court recently ruled against the Trump administration's unprecedented attempts to freeze funding. This decision has significant implications not only for foreign relations but also for America's ethical standing on the global stage.
The episode doesn't stop there; I also tackle Trump's claims regarding the economic state, which he painted as disastrous under his predecessor—a narrative that doesn't hold up against factual scrutiny. Tackling immigration issues, I reveal the inaccuracies surrounding the military recruitment figures he touted, highlighting the patterns of misinformation that are too often taken at face value.
Engaging with our audience, I’ve introduced the 'Truth or Bullshit' game, encouraging listeners to question the rhetoric in political discourse actively. This episode is a clarion call for informed citizenry, reminding everyone that in a world clouded by misinformation, seeking the truth is not just preferable, it’s essential.
Don't forget to subscribe, share your thoughts, and help spread the word!
AWorldGoneMadPodcast@gmail.com
There is chaos in the world, can't you see? And we need to stand up and preserve our democracy. Well, this is a world gone mad.
Speaker 2:This is a world gone mad, and welcome back to another episode of A World Gone Mad, season 2, episode 72. I'm your host, jeff Allen Wolfe. I give my commentary on national and world news, plus politics. So let's not waste any time tonight. Here we go. This episode. There's going to be a lot I'm going to go over with you and I'm definitely going to give my take on last night's shit show from Donald and his State of the Union. But first a few news stories I need you to hear.
Speaker 2:The Supreme Court rejects Trump's request to keep billions in foreign aid frozen. A divided Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration's request to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid approved by Congress frozen. However, the court did not immediately say when the money must be released, allowing the White House to continue to dispute the issue in lower courts. The ruling was five to four. The order was unsigned, but four conservative justices dissented Samuel Alito, clarence Thomas, neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. That put five justices in the majority Chief Justice, john Roberts, amy Coney Barrett, elena Kagan, sonia Sotomayor and Katonji Brown Jackson. The majority noted that, given a court order deadline to spend the money last week had already passed. The lower court should clarify what obligations the government must fulfill to ensure compliance with the temporary restraining order. In a strongly worded dissent, alito wrote that he was stunned by the court's decision to permit the lower court judge to order the administration to unfreeze the foreign aid issue in this case. Now, the unsigned order does not actually require the Trump administration to immediately make up to $2 billion in foreign aid payments. It merely clears the way for the district court to compel those payments, presumably if it is more specific about the contracts that have to be honored. The fact that four justices nevertheless dissented vigorously from such a decision is a sign that the court is going to be divided. Perhaps along these exact lines in many of the more impactful Trump-related cases that are already on their way. That are already on their way.
Speaker 2:Trump threatens to stop funding for any colleges allowing illegal protests. You got to hear Trump's comments on this. This is out there. President Trump said Tuesday that he will seek to block the federal funding for colleges and universities that allow illegal protests on their campuses and universities that allow illegal protests on their campuses. All federal funding will stop for any college, school or university that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned and are permanently sent back to the country from which they came. The president wrote in a Truth Social Post, though he did not specify an enforcement mechanism Social Post, though he did not specify an enforcement mechanism. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. No masks. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Trump added. The president's post comes a day after multiple federal agencies announced they will be reviewing contracts and grants with Columbia University and deciding whether to continue them due to allegations of anti-Semitism on its campus.
Speaker 2:Trump has previously made similar statements about deporting foreign students who engage in protests. One thing I do is any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. Trump said. You know there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that they're going to behave, trump said at an event to donors. Sources told the Washington Post Now, if a college runs afoul of anti-discrimination laws like Title VI or Title IX, the government may ultimately deny the institution federal funding by taking it to federal court or via notice to Congress at an administrative hearing. It is not simply a discretionary decision that the president can make. President Trump also lacks the authority to expel individual students, who are entitled to due process on public college campuses and, almost universally, on private campuses as well.
Speaker 2:All right, wolfpack listeners, let's play a game. Come on down, everyone, all the Wolfpack listeners. It's time to play truth or bullshit. Look Donald Trump's State of the Union address last night. I'm not going to try to point out every single lie that he said, and that was one hour and 40 minutes the longest State of the Union address. This is going to be an extremely condensed version of his lies last night, because if I did every single one and fact-checked every single lie, I'd have a 17-hour podcast for you. So here we go, truth or bullshit on some of the lies that Donald spewed last night. Trump's falsehoods spanned a variety of topics, including the economy, climate, immigration and more, and in his speech, just under one hour and 40 minutes like I said, the longest State of the Union for a president. In his speech, trump also made a number of false claims about his predecessor, joe Biden.
Speaker 2:Here is a fact check of some of Trump's lies. Here is a fact check of some of Trump's lies Trump on the Department of Government Efficiency DOGE Savings. Trump claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency, the initiative led by Elon Musk, has found hundreds of billions of dollars in fraud. This figure, which is uncooperated, needs context as of the day of Trump's address to Congress. Dog claimed on its website that its work has saved an estimated $105 billion for taxpayers, but it hasn't provided evidence to corroborate a figure that high Bullshit.
Speaker 2:Next fact to check Trump did not inherit an economic catastrophe. Trump said among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration Joe Biden an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Okay, the facts Inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022 under President Joe Biden, but Trump did not inherit a disastrous economy by any measure. The unemployment rate ticked down to a low 4% in January. The monthly took office while the economy expanded a healthy 2.8% in 2024. Inflation-adjusted incomes have grown steadily since mid-2023. And inflation, while showing signs of stickiness in recent months and still elevated at 3% in January, is down from its 2022 peak. That fact Bullshit. More Trump bullshit on the economy.
Speaker 2:On Trump's tariffs Trump, promoting his tariffs on imported foreign products, claimed that we will take in trillions and trillions of dollars. And he added I did that with China. This is misleading at best. Tariffs are paid by US importers, not foreign exporters, and study after study, including one from the federal government's bipartisan US International Trade Commission, found that Americans bore almost the entire cost of Trump's first-term tariffs on Chinese products. It's easy to find specific examples of companies that passed along the cost of his tariffs to US consumers. That fact, bullshit, trump.
Speaker 2:On small business optimism. Trump said that small business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded A 41-point jump. This claim needs context. A 41-point jump. This claim needs context. If Trump was referring to the commonly cited NFIB Small Business Optimism Index. His spokespeople didn't respond to a previous CNN request to clarify. His claim about a 41-point increase appears to be a reference to one component of the index, the percentage of small business owners expecting the economy to improve, rather than the index as a whole. That measure did soar a net 41 percentage points from pre-election October to post-election November, and Trump didn't mention that. The total index then declined in January to a level that is still too high, but lower than it was under Trump in September 2020 and October 2020, less than five years ago. Bullshit, and here we go. Trump's comment last night on egg prices.
Speaker 2:Trump on Tuesday made the misleading claim that former President Joe Biden let the price of eggs get out of control. The avian flu has caused egg prices to rise because the United States Department of Agriculture requires the culling of entire flocks to stop the spread if the virus is detected. It's a practice that occurred during the Biden administration, but also one that is continuing under Trump, as the virus continues to infect flocks nationwide. When Biden took office, the average price of a carton of a dozen grade A eggs across US cities was $1.47, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics data statistics data, by January 2023, as Avian flu spread to flocks nationwide, a dozen eggs rose to $4.82 on average, a 228% increase. By the time Biden left office in January, a carton of eggs cost $4.95 on average, a 2.7% increase from a year prior. So, due to short supply, egg prices are projected to increase by 41.1% this year, according to the USDA's Food Outlook as of February 25th. So, because of Avian Flu, trump's comments in general bullshit.
Speaker 2:Trump on his efforts to fight climate change. Trump and the Green New Scam. Trump claimed that he terminated the Green New Scam. This claim is inaccurate in various ways. Biden didn't pass the original Green New Deal, a non-binding resolution introduced by progressive congressional Democrats in 2019. That was never turned into law. Trump hasn't yet terminated the major environmental law Biden did pass, which is what Trump might be referring to as the Green New Scam. Trump has previously claimed the policy cost $9 trillion. Now, biden signed a law in 2022, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, containing $430 billion in climate and clean energy spending and tax credits. Independent estimates later raised the cost of that law to over $1 trillion by 2032. But the IRA actually saved the government $240 billion because of its increased tax enforcement and prescription drug savings, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. And, importantly, the IRA's tax credits spurred companies to build new factories and solar and wind farms in the US, creating jobs with it. Trump and congressional Republicans haven't killed the law, although they are aiming to take parts of it out later this year. Trump has effectively killed other climate policies Biden imposed through executive order, but it will take an act of Congress to reverse the former president's signature climate bill.
Speaker 2:Donald bullshit, which brings us to the Paris Climate Agreement. Trump touted withdrawing a second time from the Paris Climate Agreement, claiming in his speech to Congress that the landmark climate deal was costing the US trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying. This claim is inaccurate. Biden pledged to pay $11.4 billion per year towards international climate financing. Upon taking office, however, the US contribution to global finance goals ended up being far lower because Congress appropriated far less money than Biden's goal. Biden's State Department announced it allocated $5.8 billion to international climate finance by 2022. Us climate finance contributions have never reached trillions of dollars. The United States wasn't the only laggard on its climate finance commitments. Other nations have struggled to meet a collective $100 billion climate financing goal meant to help countries vulnerable to sea level rise and droughts. China, the UK and the EU have all contributed. That goal was tripled to $300 billion annually by 2035 at the most recent United Nations climate conference, paris Agreement. Donald, your comments Bullshit.
Speaker 2:Donald talked about border crossings and migrants' illegal border crossings. Tuesday night, trump claimed that since taking office again, he has already achieved the lowest number of illegal border crossings ever recorded. That's false. He could have accurately said the number of Border Patrol apprehensions at the southern border in February, the first full month of his second term, is the lowest in many decades, at least if it's true that the number was 8,326, as he claimed on social media in early March. But official federal statistics show there were fewer border patrol encounters with migrants at the southwest border in various months of the early 1960s, as well as in various months of previous decades, and on migrants coming from mental institutions. Trump repeated his familiar claim Tuesday night about how other countries have supposedly released people from their mental institutions and insane asylums into the US as migrants. There's no evidence for the president's claim, which Trump's own presidential campaign was unable to corroborate. The campaign was unable to provide any evidence even for his narrower claim that South American countries in particular were emptying their mental health facilities to somehow dump patients upon the US. To somehow dump patients upon the US.
Speaker 2:Trump on former President Joe Biden weaponizing the Justice Department. Trump claimed that Biden used his office to viciously prosecute him. That's false. Trump's two federal indictments were brought by a special counsel, jack Smith. Smith was appointed in November 2022 by Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, but there is no proof that Biden was involved in the prosecution effort, much less that Biden personally ordered the indictments. Garland has said that he would resign if Biden ever asked him to act against Trump, but that he was sure that would never happen. For Trump's part, he has never provided any evidence that Biden was personally involved in the federal prosecutions. Those two cases were dropped by Smith after Trump was reelected. Those last three statements by Trump Bullshit, bullshit and more bullshit.
Speaker 2:Last night Trump talked about the inflation under Biden. Trump falsely claimed in his address to Congress that under the Biden administration America suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country. They're not sure. Trump could fairly say that the year-over-year US inflation rate hit a 40-year high in June 2022 when it was 9.1%. But that's not 48 years and this 9.1% rate was not close to the all-time record of 23.7% set in 1920. The rate in the last full month of the Biden administration, december 2024, was 2.9%. It was 3% in January 2025, a month partly under Biden, partly under Trump. Trump did qualify the claim with the word perhaps, and they're not sure, but there is no basis for the claim regardless, and those numbers are certain. The consumer price index dates go back to 1913. You notice how Trump uses the perhaps and not sure caveat to cover his ass. Inflation's rapid ascent, which began in early 2021, was the result of a confluence of factors, including effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, such as snarled supply chains. Geopolitical fallout, specifically Russia's invasion of Ukraine that triggered food and energy prices. Heightened consumer demand, boosted in part by fiscal stimulus from both the Trump and Biden administrations, also led to higher prices, as did the post-pandemic imbalance in the labor market.
Speaker 2:Are games labeling Bullshit? Let's talk about Donald Trump's statement about undocumented immigrants. Trump falsely claimed Tuesday that 21 million undocumented immigrants came into the US during Biden's tenure. Through December 2024, the last full month of Biden's presidency, the country had recorded under 11 million nationwide encounters with migrants during that administration, including millions who were rapidly expelled from the country. Even adding in so-called gotaways who evaded detection, estimated by House Republicans as being roughly 2.2 million. There's no way that that total is 21 million. We call this bullshit. Hey, wolfpack listeners, we hope you're enjoying our game Truth or Bullshit. Let's continue with more lies from Donald Trump.
Speaker 2:Military recruitment Trump claimed Tuesday that the US military is having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services and that the US Army had its single best recruiting results ever in the history of our services, and that the US Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years in January, adding that just a few months ago, the US couldn't recruit anywhere. This needs context. According to the Defense Department, military recruitment was already up over 10% in fiscal year 2024 compared with the year before, and the delayed entry program for the active duty military was up 10% in fiscal year 2025. The delayed entry program is a way for recruits to join the military but not ship out until a later date. And, looking specifically at the Army's recruitment, former Armour Secretary Christine Wormuth, who served until January 20th, told Fox News that the uptick started before Trump was elected and that the Army in fact started seeing increased numbers in February 2024. February 2024.
Speaker 2:Social Security benefits. In an extended claim, trump said 4.7 million people who are at least 100 years old are still listed in the Social Security Administration's database and that money is being paid to many of them. However, this claim needs context. The vast majority of these people do not have dates of death listed in Social Security's database, but that doesn't mean they are actually receiving monthly benefits. Public data from the Social Security Administration shows that about 89,000 people aged 99 or over were receiving Social Security benefits in December 2024. Not even close to the millions. Trump invoked. The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, leland Dudek, who was elevated to that post by the current Trump administration tried to set the record straight in a February statement. The reported data are people in our records with a social security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits. Dudik said Last two statements from Donald Trump double bullshit and we get to Trump's comment on aid to Ukraine.
Speaker 2:Trump repeated a regular false claim that the US has spent $350 billion, like taking candy from a baby, to support Ukraine's defense, while Europe has collectively provided just $100 billion in aid. This is not aid to Ukraine. Europe, the European Union plus individual European countries, had collectively committed far more total wartime military, financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine through December 2024, about $263 billion at current exchange rates than the US, who committed about $126 billion, not $350 billion. Europe has also allocated more military, financial and humanitarian aid about $140 billion than the US allocated, which was about $121 billion. The US did have a slim lead in one particular category military aid allocated, providing about $68 billion compared to about $66 billion from Europe. But even that was nowhere close to the giant gulf Trump described. It's possible to arrive at different totals using different counting methodologies, but there is no apparent basis for Trump's $350 billion figure. The US government inspector general overseeing the Ukraine response says on its website that the US has appropriated nearly $183 billion for the Ukraine response to December 2024, including about $83 billion actually dispersed, and that includes funding spent in the US or sent to countries other than Ukraine.
Speaker 2:Drum roll Bullshit. And finally, trump's reference to an EV mandate is inaccurate. Trump stated we ended the last administration's insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our autoworkers and companies from economic destruction. The facts there was no federal mandate to force the purchase of electric vehicles, as Trump has falsely claimed many times before. Biden had set up a non-binding goal that EVs make up half of new cars sold by 2030. Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office revoking that goal. Biden's policies tightened restrictions on pollution from gas-powered cars and trucks in an effort to encourage Americans to buy EVs and car companies to shift from gas-powered vehicles to electric cars. All right, johnny, tell everyone the Wolfpack listeners what they win by following along with truth or bullshit.
Speaker 1:Well, jeff, what they're going to win is four years of economic pain, stress and all rights removed from them as a citizen of the United States, with Donald Trump just being a figurehead and Elon Musk is in charge with Putin, not far behind.
Speaker 2:Thank you, johnny. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, wolfpack listeners, a little bit long this episode, but hopefully you found it informative. I have bullshit up to my neck from Donald's speech last night and of course I could have hit another three dozen or more lies that Trump said last night, probably a couple of the ones I forgot. Oh yeah, that's right, the millions of dollars spent on mice to make them transgender. I can't even say it without laughing. Trump claimed that the government was spending millions of dollars to make mice transgender. It was transgenic, which means pathologically compatible to humans, so they can test drugs and asthma medications. Trump, you're an idiot. All right, you know. After a while listening to Donald the Delusional One, your eyes just glaze over from the amount of bullshit that flows from his mouth.
Speaker 2:The big tent of Donald's circus was in town. Half the tent was filled with all the clowns, jugglers and bearded ladies. It's one thing that Donald is a habitual liar for all his life, but it's another thing when he gets enabled from his senators and congressmen and women also in the Senate and Congress, plus all the MAGA supporters who just buy into his tinfoil hat comments and theories. Don't forget, wolfpack listeners, if you enjoyed, if you found it informative. You can reach me if you'd like to wolfpacklistener at gmailcom or 833-399-9653, 24-7, toll-free voicemail box or if you're on Blue Sky, say hello, leave a comment. I'll be back again in two days with another episode of A World Gone Mad. I'm Jeff Allen Wolf sitting in a room talking to myself. Stay hopeful.
Speaker 1:There is chaos in the world can't, you see, and we need to stand up and preserve our democracy. This is a world gone mad. This is a world gone mad. This is a world gone mad, mad, mad, mad yeah.
