What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[grumbler]

Goodbye, foreign professors in American universities. That's the visa I - and every other foreign academic - had.

Nitwit and the other Trump officials don't understand anything about current highly-skilled labor markets.  The fact that over 50% of American PhDs go to foreign-born students really does mean that you need H1B visas if you want to take advantage of the education you have offered them.

The program has become perverted by corrupt corporate practices, but reform would be better than effective abolishment.

[HVC]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOyPWgLkZVy

Is this your first dictator?

[Razgovory]

Sure, though at this point, it's safe to assume everything is for sale, and universities will likely sell out autonomy. I am just really worried for people I know who are just beginning their careers.

The elite American universities worldwide dominance relies on attracting scholars from around the world.

An American academic friend decided she couldn't really stay in the US any more due to the decline of rule of law and reactionary witch hunts.
She accepted a job in Abu Dhabi.

 

[Iormlund]

Goodbye, foreign professors in American universities. That's the visa I - and every other foreign academic - had.

Yes, I think I had all of two professors born in the United States when I was in graduate school; and it was unusual for me to have a class with more than 25% of native born students.  Everyone I talked to from other engineering disciplines had about the same story.  In addition in industry we rely on foreign born engineers because relatively few of the native born population has advanced degrees in engineering. 

So the administrations master plan is to rebuild the manufacturing base without experienced manufacturing engineers and skilled craftsmen.  We're going to train the next generation of manufacturing engineers without professors of manufacturing engineering; and all those new manufacturing engineers that we will need will be native born.  The foreign born engineers and skilled workers that we can bring in on other visas will be subject to arrest and deportation by ICE if their paperwork isn't 100% correct.

I mean, they already are. Look at what happened to the Korean dudes.

The only way to train STEM candidates will be to ship them to Europe and APAC. Who knows, some might even want to come back.

[Zanza]

There are between 500.000 and 750.000 H1B visa holders apparently. Estimated to be about 70% from India. The 24h deadline is impossible if you are just in India as the flight takes too long.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Speaking of things for sale, seems like Trump is going to sell out Taiwan to China, I assume for some personal stake in Tik Tok

what else is to be expected from a man who is the swamp

[The Minsky Moment]

So the administrations master plan is to rebuild the manufacturing base without experienced manufacturing engineers and skilled craftsmen. 

Our Commerce Secretary's industrial plan is to have native working hand screwing mobile phones, and making t-shirts and sweat stops.  We will have sufficient engineers for that purpose.  America will be made great again by transitioning to the economic model of Laos.

[The Minsky Moment]

The program has become perverted by corrupt corporate practices, but reform would be better than effective abolishment.

And like a lot the corruption and law breaking that happens with our immigration system, a key contributing cause is insufficient slots made available given the needs of our economy and the supply of potential workers.

Current administration policy is oriented to address both the supply and demand aspects.  Reduce supply by turning the US into a scary authoritarian hell hole.  Reduce demand by tanking the economy.  Problem solved!

[Sheilbh]

Yes, I think I had all of two professors born in the United States when I was in graduate school; and it was unusual for me to have a class with more than 25% of native born students.  Everyone I talked to from other engineering disciplines had about the same story.  In addition in industry we rely on foreign born engineers because relatively few of the native born population has advanced degrees in engineering. 

So the administrations master plan is to rebuild the manufacturing base without experienced manufacturing engineers and skilled craftsmen.  We're going to train the next generation of manufacturing engineers without professors of manufacturing engineering; and all those new manufacturing engineers that we will need will be native born.  The foreign born engineers and skilled workers that we can bring in on other visas will be subject to arrest and deportation by ICE if their paperwork isn't 100% correct.

This is all true.

But I think it also highlights the huge impact of previous administrations' policies and globalisation that it may have delivered good results at the level of companies and also for us all as consumers. But, as JR points out, leaves our economies with the manufacturing skill base of barely industrialised countries.

There's been a big story in the UK in the last few years over steel manufacturing and in particular Britain's last remaining blast furnace, which was bought by a Chinese company. It had to be nationalised by emergency legislation on a weekend session of parliament because it wasn't profitable but also there were real fears that the company was about to shut down the blast furnaces. I still don't really understand the details - but it's basically hugely expensive and quite dangerous to turn a blast furnace on once it's been shut down. Part of the reason for the nationalisation was that if it was shut down it would be too uneconomic to ever turn back on again. I mention because it seems to me that that is broadly what we've done in the West for the last 30-40 years with skilled workers. Largely, but not solely, building reliance on China instead. And now we're finding that it's going to be hugely expensive and possibly a little dangerous to try to turn that industry back on again - and perhaps it's not even possible.

[Tonitrus]

One of the reason I will be behind maintaining at least a foundation materials manufacturing is simply from a national security standpoint, even if grossly uneconomical.  If push comes to shove and WW3 happens between the West and Russia/China...and it somehow remains somewhat conventional...we won't be able to win with Japanese/Korean steel (they would lost almost instantly)...or materials manufacturing located in vulnerable places.  All of our innovation, AI/information technology will not be able to stop a gross imbalance in ships, guns, bullets and artillery shells...and we likely wouldn't have time to ramp it up from nothing.  And that makes the risk of going to the non-conventional/nuclear that much higher.

It may already be too late for that...and our best bet would be to work harder to keep push/shove from happening...but you cannot always help that.

[Tonitrus]

Not surprising.  And nothing will likely come from it...

https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/news/tom-homan-cash-contracts-trump-doj-investigation-rcna232568

Tom Homan was investigated for accepting $50,000 from undercover FBI agents. Trump's DOJ shut it down.
The FBI and Justice officials closed the investigation, which a Justice Department appointee had called a "deep state" probe in early 2025.

In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC.

[Syt]

https://apnews.com/article/pentagon-press-media-restrictions-nondisclosure-8420d3a80de20a39605c588d9990c582

Pentagon steps up media restrictions, now requiring approval before reporting even unclassified info

The Pentagon says it will require credentialed journalists at the military headquarters to sign a pledge to refrain from reporting information that has not been authorized for release — including unclassified information.

Journalists who don't abide by the policy risk losing credentials that provide access to the Pentagon, under a 17-page memo distributed Friday that steps up media restrictions imposed by the administration of President Donald Trump.

"Information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified," the directive states. The signature form includes an array of security requirements for credentialed media at the Pentagon.

Advocates for press freedoms denounced the non-disclosure requirement as an assault on independent journalism. The new Pentagon restrictions arrive as Trump expands threats, lawsuits and government pressure as he remakes the American media landscape.

"If the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is no longer getting independent reporting. It is getting only what officials want them to see," said National Press Club President Mike Balsamo, also national law enforcement editor at The Associated Press. "That should alarm every American."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News Channel personality, highlighted the restrictions in a social media post on X.

"The 'press' does not run the Pentagon — the people do. The press is no longer allowed to roam the halls of a secure facility," Hegseth said. "Wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home."

The Pentagon this year has evicted many news organizations while imposing a series of restrictions on the press that include banning reporters from entering wide swaths of the Pentagon without a government escort — areas where the press had access in past administrations as it covers the activities of the world's most powerful military.

The Pentagon was embarrassed early in Hegseth's tenure when the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently included in a group chat on the Signal messaging app where the Defense secretary discussed plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen. Trump's former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, took responsibility for Goldberg being included and was shifted to another job.

The Defense Department also was embarrassed by a leak to The New York Times that billionaire Elon Musk was to get a briefing on the U.S. military's plans in case a war broke out with China. That briefing never took place, on Trump's orders, and Hegseth suspended two Pentagon officials as part of an investigation into how that news got out.

On Saturday, the Society of Professional Journalists also objected to the Pentagon's move, calling it "alarming."

"This policy reeks of prior restraint — the most egregious violation of press freedom under the First Amendment — and is a dangerous step toward government censorship," it said in a statement Saturday. "Attempts to silence the press under the guise of "security" are part of a disturbing pattern of growing government hostility toward transparency and democratic norms."

And Matt Murray, executive editor of The Washington Post, said in the paper's columns Saturday that the new policy runs counter to what's good for the American public.

"The Constitution protects the right to report on the activities of democratically elected and appointed government officials," Murray said. "Any attempt to control messaging and curb access by the government is counter to the First Amendment and against the public interest."

And:

https://apnews.com/article/trump-ending-america-hunger-report-snap-cuts-750f90757f50ab2d8bc97dfca5a917dd

After cuts to food stamps, Trump administration ends government's annual report on hunger in America

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is ending the federal government's annual report on hunger in America, stating that it had become "overly politicized" and "rife with inaccuracies."

[...]

[Crazy_Ivan80]

There is no hunger in ba sing sei.
No poverty and dissent either.

[Syt]

From the halcyon days of 30 years ago:

"There's no need to embarrass our leaders by pointing out the flaws in our society that they're aware of and dealing with in their own way. Some people just enjoy finding fault with our leaders; they're anarchists, they're troublemakers, or simply just unpatriotic."

[crazy canuck]

It sounded so ridiculous then