“The Deep State and Swamp had determined Trump was to be destroyed, decimated and defeated. They used everything in their dirty arsenal to kill him off: lawfare with criminal and civil allegations, financial attacks, political attacks and worse. But they failed. They failed because of Trump’s indomitable spirit. They failed because the American people had a different idea than the Swamp. Make no mistake about it — Trump’s stunning victory is one of the greatest comebacks of all time. His win — a win for the people — has created a swell of enthusiasm like never before. It’s Trump’s time — and he’s honored to take the reins of our great nation.” Those are quotes from an email from right-leaning Newsmax to MHProNews on 1.15.2025. Some of those claims and related will be considered in this report with analysis. Both left-leaning MSN and right-leaning WND have featured the former and future President Donald J. Trump announcement about what he’s dubbed the “External Revenue Service.” Small business optimism has reportedly risen to a 6-year high, as a report in Part I details. But an array of challenges, not only from Democrats but also some of it from within the Republican Party (a.k.a.: Grand Old Party or GOP) faces Team Trump as the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings this week on his various nominees are illustrating. The facts, evidence, and analysis (FEA) follow.
The Newsmax item quoted below is a pitch for their magazine. That noted, their bullets are what they are.
We go inside Trump’s world and speak to the president and his most trusted advisers and friends.
We discover Trump’s real plan to make America great again.
He’s ready to go — and he’s rolled up his sleeves to make good on his promises to get America back on its feet:
- End the border madness. Watch for Day One of the new administration. Trump is set to sign executive orders that will secure the border almost immediately. These orders will shock the liberal establishment, but the public will love them.
- Laser-focused on the economy. Turbocharging the economy begins with unfettered energy production. American energy. Satisfy global demand and Americans will feel the relief — sharply lowering costs at home.
- A hammer approach to China trade. Key to restoring America’s economy is to end the stranglehold China has on our economy. Right now Main Street America is awash with cheap Chinese goods — with very little reciprocity. They simply refuse to buy American goods. Well, that ends as soon as Trump becomes president. He is planning 4 major initiatives to stop China – including hitting Beijing with stinging tariffs that could soar to 60%!
- The death of DEI. Trump wants to destroy woke. He sees wokeism as an enemy as real as China or Russia. The woke agenda is trying to destroy America. Now, Trump will destroy it first. He’s even tasked his top gun aide Stephen Miller to lead the charge. We have the details in “The Second Shining.” DAY ONE: expect the CIA, FBI and Defense to end DEI programs and focus on their job: keeping Americans safe!
- Make America profitable again. Trump will be ready on day one to slash government waste. The United States groans under skyrocketing debt that stands at $30 trillion — that’s trillion with a “T.” In the 1980s that figure was only $3 trillion. What a difference Democrats make. He’s promised to do away with overzealous waste programs and reenergize the economy with tax cuts that could create 597,000 new jobs.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have packed their bags. They’re leaving.
But as Newsmax explains…thousands of their operatives continue to infest, nest and leach in the federal government, Congress and other corridors of power.
Trump believes personnel is policy – and he has a massive plan to uproot and remake the federal bureaucracy. It’s all in “The Second Shining.”
More on some of those topics further below.
Part I are insights from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) on their latest small business survey. That will be relevant to many in MHVille and millions of others who own or work for a smaller business.
Part II – focuses on the former and future President Trump announcement on the ‘External Revenue Service.’
Part III – claims and evidence that Biden in his exit is taking steps to ‘subvert’ the incoming Trump Administration via the federal bureaucracy.
Part IV – 3 GOP Senators reaction to indicators that many federal bureaucrats intend to work against the Trump Administration.
Part V – Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
Part I – Per the media release from the NFIB to MHProNews is the following.
January 14, 2025
Main Street uncertainty declines further as owners feel more confident following November’s election results
- The net percent of owners expecting the economy to improve rose 16 points from November to a net 52% (seasonally adjusted), the highest since the fourth quarter of 1983.
- The percent of small business owners believing it is a good time to expand their business rose six points to 20%, seasonally adjusted. This is the highest reading since February 2020.
- The net percent of owners expecting higher real sales volumes rose eight points to a net 22% (seasonally adjusted), the highest reading since January 2020.
- A net 6% (seasonally adjusted) of owners plan inventory investment in the coming months, up five points from November and the highest reading since December 2021.
- Seasonally adjusted, a net 29% reported raising compensation, down three points from November and the lowest reading since March 2021.
- A net 1% of owners reported paying a higher rate on their most recent loan, down four points from November and the lowest reading since September 2021.
- Twenty percent of owners reported that inflation was their single most important problem in operating their business (higher input and labor costs), unchanged from November and leading labor quality as the top issue by one point.
As reported in NFIB’s monthly jobs report, a seasonally adjusted 35% of all small business owners reported job openings they could not fill in December, down one point from November. Of the 55% of owners hiring or trying to hire in December, 89% reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill.
Fifty-six percent of owners reported capital outlays in the last six months, up two points from November. Of those making expenditures, 37% reported spending on new equipment, 24% acquired vehicles, and 16% improved or expanded facilities. Eleven percent spent money on new fixtures and furniture and 7% acquired new buildings or land for expansion. Twenty-seven percent (seasonally adjusted) plan capital outlays in the next six months, down one point from November’s highest reading since January 2022.
A net negative 13% of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reported higher nominal sales in the past three months, unchanged from November. The net percent of owners expecting higher real sales volumes rose eight points to a net 22% (seasonally adjusted), the highest reading since January 2020.
The net percent of owners reporting inventory gains rose seven points to a net 0%, seasonally adjusted. Not seasonally adjusted, 13% reported increases in stocks and 14% reported reductions.
A net negative 1% (seasonally adjusted) of owners viewed current inventory stocks as “too low” in December, up one point from November. A net 6% (seasonally adjusted) of owners plan inventory investment in the coming months, up five points from November and the highest reading since December 2021.
The net percent of owners raising average selling prices was unchanged from November at a net 24% seasonally adjusted. Twenty percent of owners reported that inflation was their single most important problem in operating their business, unchanged from November and leading labor quality as the top issue by one point. Unadjusted, 11% reported lower average selling prices and 31% reported higher average prices.
Price hikes were the most frequent in the finance (56% higher, 15% lower), retail 38% higher, 6% lower), construction (30% higher, 9% lower), and transportation (30% higher, 9% lower) sectors. Seasonally adjusted, a net 28% plan price hikes in December.
Seasonally adjusted, a net 29% reported raising compensation, down three points from November and the lowest reading since March 2021. A seasonally adjusted net 24% plan to raise compensation in the next three months, down four points from November.
The percent of small business owners reporting labor quality as the single most important problem for business was unchanged from November at 19%. Labor costs reported as the single most important problem for business owners was also unchanged from November at 11%, only two points below the highest reading of 13% reached in December 2021.
The frequency of reports of positive profit trends was a net negative 26% (seasonally adjusted), unchanged from November. Among owners reporting lower profits, 35% blamed weaker sales, 13% cited usual seasonal change, 12% blamed the rise in the cost of materials, and 11% cited labor costs. For owners reporting higher profits, 51% credited sales volumes, 22% cited usual seasonal change, and 7% cited higher selling prices.
Two percent of owners reported that all their borrowing needs were not satisfied. Twenty-four percent reported all credit needs met and 65% said they were not interested in a loan. A net 4% reported their last loan was harder to get than in previous attempts. Four percent of owners reported that financing was their top business problem in December, down one point from November.
The NFIB Research Center has collected Small Business Economic Trends data with quarterly surveys since the fourth quarter of 1973 and monthly surveys since 1986. Survey respondents are randomly drawn from NFIB’s membership. The report is released on the second Tuesday of each month. This survey was conducted in December 2024.
—
MHProNews Notes: Some of the items that follow are linked from the NFIB above and are placed below for reader’s convenience and improved understanding. There are more graphs, illustrations, and data in their download, linked below.
- NFIB-Jobs-Report-December-2024-1-SmallBusinessJobOpeningLaborCost-MHProNews
- Small Business Economic Trends
Part II – From the WND News Center to MHProNews is the following.
WND
Move over Internal Revenue Service: Trump creates brand-new taxing agency
Says those who ‘make money off of us’ finally will start paying
By Bob Unruh | January 14, 2025
President-elect Donald Trump, to be inaugurated and take office on Monday, has announced a new “External Revenue Service” that he says will start making those “who make money off of us” pay into the revenue stream for the nation.
“For far too long, we have relied on taxing our Great People using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Through soft and pathetically weak Trade agreements, the American Economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the World, while taxing ourselves,” he wrote on his Truth Social website.
“It is time for that to change. I am today announcing that I will create the EXTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE to collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources. We will begin charging those that make money off of us with Trade, and they will start paying, FINALLY, their fair share. January 20, 2025, will be the birth date of the External Revenue Service. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The Hill reported Trump had pledged during the 2024 campaign to create taxes of 10% to 20% on foreign goods, with rates of up to 60% for Chinese goods.
In his statement, he specifically mentioned tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, too.”
In fact, those tariffs could appear beginning Monday, when he takes office.
The report said collecting tariffs now is the responsibility of Customs and Border Protection, within the Department of Homeland Security.
“Under the current system, CBP collects tariffs from U.S.-based importers of foreign goods subject to import taxes. The importer — not the foreign country or company from which the product was exported — must pay the tax to CBP,” the report said.
“In his first term in office, Trump imposed tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum, including from Canada and Mexico, and compelled both countries to renegotiate the North American free trade agreement with terms meant to boost U.S. manufacturing and improve compliance with labor laws.”
According to the Gateway Pundit, Trump has discussed relacing the revenue from the income taxes paid by Americans, but it was unclear if the announcement directly would affect the Internal Revenue Service, which does that collection.
However, that agency already is scheduled for an audit, under Trump, according to Elon Musk, who is working with Trump’s plans for a Department of Government Efficiency.
Part III From the Daily Signal to MHProNews is the following on Biden Exit Steps to ‘Subvert’ the Incoming Trump Administration
News
How Biden Tried to ‘Trump-Proof’ Government With Federal Telework
House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., in a hearing on June 3, 2024. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images)
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee released a report Wednesday morning ahead of a hearing titled, “The Stay-at-Home Federal Workforce: Another Biden-Harris Legacy.”
“Biden-Harris administration officials worked with federal labor union allies not only to lock in high telework levels, but to undermine the ability of the incoming Trump administration to unlock them, and to manage its own workforce,” the report says.
President-elect Donald Trump has called for reform on several fronts for federal employees.
While the federal government initially allowed telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration kept the policies in place well after the emergency measures expired.
“The Biden-Harris administration not only failed to bring federal employees back to the office, it made it difficult for the incoming administration to do so, as part of a broader effort to ‘Trump-proof’ the federal government,” the report later adds.
The committee found that of all 438 federal agencies and sub-agencies, only the Veterans Benefits Administration monitored the effects of telework on the performance of employees.
The congressional report cites data from a July 2023 Government Accountability Office report that found 17 of 24 federal agency headquarter spaces in the Washington, D.C., area used about 25% or less of the capacity of the headquarters buildings. Some agencies used as little as 9% of their headquarter space.
“The federal government pays roughly $7 billion annually to lease and maintain office space for federal agencies,” the House report says. “In other words, the federal government is wasting billions in taxpayer dollars to pay for underutilized office space.”
It also notes that as offices were vacant, taxpayers were still spending $3.3 billion on new office furniture.
The report says that Social Security Administration employees are a notable failure.
“Nearly all of the 58,875 SSA employees are telework eligible, and those eligible employees have spent only 46.9 percent of their time in the office,” the report says. “This failure to show up runs parallel to failures at SSA in accomplishing its mission. SSA is charged with administering the Social Security retirement, survivors, and disability insurance programs.”
The report notes that while the SSA spent $1.6 trillion in fiscal year 2024, the agency’s disability determination processing times on average “have increased since fiscal year 2020.”
“Processing times have not returned to pre-pandemic levels,” the report adds.
—
Fred Lucas is chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal. He is the author of “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections.”
Part IV From the Daily Signal to MHProNews is the following on planned opposition by federal bureaucrats to Trump 2.0
News
3 Republican Senators Respond to Poll Showing Nearly Half of DC Federal Bureaucrats Aim to Oppose Trump
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference with fellow Republican senators at the U.S. Capitol on May 9, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images)
Republican senators highlighted a growing deep state opposition to President-elect Donald Trump, citing a revealing new poll on the federal bureaucracy and urging Trump to be vigilant as he enters office next week.
The poll, which the firm RMG Research released Monday, revealed that 42% of what the survey calls “federal government managers”—federal employees who live in the National Capitol Region around Washington and earn at least $75,000 annually—plan to politically oppose the incoming administration.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of the federal government managers who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in November said they would ignore a lawful order from Trump if they considered it to be bad policy. Only 17% of the Harris voters in the federal bureaucracy said they would follow Trump’s order.
“Bureaucracy is the real threat to democracy,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement Wednesday. Ernst leads the Senate DOGE Caucus, an effort to help the DOGE, or Department of Government Efficiency, a nongovernmental panel led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and aimed at rooting out waste and abuse in the federal government. Conservatives often warn that insulating federal bureaucrats from Congress and the president weaken the voters’ ability to have a say in their government.
“The bureaucrat class has forgotten that their job is to serve the American people, and I am happy to help remind them,” Ernst added. “As the Senate DOGE Caucus Chair, I am rooting out the rot in Washington. Federal employees are paid by taxpayers to work for taxpayers. They can either do their job or find another.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noted other efforts bureaucrats are taking to tie the incoming president’s hands.
“Entrenched bureaucrats are already subverting President Trump’s agenda and working to box in the incoming administration and Republican Congress, including and especially on foreign policy,” Cruz told The Daily Signal. “President Trump and administration officials are going to have to focus immediately on ensuring such bureaucrats are fired.”
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., condemned the deep state effort as “shameful” and endorsed some policies to combat it.
“This polling data is shameful—civil servants must serve our nation, not their political party,” she told The Daily Signal. “The administrative state is a huge problem that demands serious reforms.”
Reining in the Bureaucracy
Britt named a few pieces of legislation she supports to rein in the bureaucracy, such as the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act and changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has a complicated funding scheme to insulate it from Congress’ authority.
“I’m committed to restoring power to the American people and ending unelected bureaucrats’ red tape regime,” she said. “That’s why I proudly support measures like the REINS Act and efforts to make the CFPB subject to the congressional appropriations process.” (Britt, Cruz, and Ernst co-sponsored the REINS Act in 2023.)
“I am confident that the nominees and appointees President Trump has selected will help get the federal government back to doing the work of the American people rather than the entrenched bureaucracy,” Britt added. “I look forward to getting President Trump’s cabinet confirmed quickly and working with his administration to advance the ‘America First’ agenda.”
The poll also found that Republicans who work in Washington federal offices are more likely to support Trump. Republican federal government managers proved more likely to say (74%) a bureaucrat should be fired for refusing a presidential order, while only 23% of Democratic managers agreed.
RMG Research surveyed 500 federal government managers between Dec. 9 and Dec. 23. The margin of error for this poll is plus or minus 4.4%.
—
Tyler O’Neil is managing editor of The Daily Signal and the author of two books: “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” and “The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.”
Part V – Was Timing of Biden-era SEC Suit vs. Elon Musk Meant to Sow Division Between Musk and Trump?
Part VI Additional Information with More MHProNews Analysis and Commentary
1) MHProNews has noted several times in recent years, and increasingly in 2024, that the federal government does not work as advertised. President Woodrow Wilson’s (D) vision for a ‘progressive’ government with technocrats (a.k.a. ‘experts’) running much of the show has demonstrably failed to achieve its stated goals by various agencies time after time. After over 100 years of increasing spending and experiments, growing debts and deficits, and an array of harms to much (but not all) of the population, at some point one might think that more voters (some already get this) will wake up and realize that the system is not only broken, but it literally never worked as advertised by Wilson-era progressives.
Make America Wealthy Again! pic.twitter.com/STjMoQsIOt
— JScott Memes (@JScottHolt47) January 1, 2025
As some items on MHProNews will reflect, years before Trump began talking about ending the income tax and replacing it with tariffs, this publication published reports on various problems with the personal income tax and has for years. We are not Johnny come lately on this topic.
2) The above doesn’t mean that every federal employee is corrupt or agenda driven. But it does mean that many apparently are. Note that while Trump disavowed Project 2025, saying he wasn’t involved in that research, several parts of that document are apparently similar to what Trump Agenda 47 proposed. As the two tweet (X post) below reflects from pro-Democrat perspectives indicate, several Democratic governors are vowing to fight Trump’s agenda.
Luckily, certain states have badass Democratic governors who are ready to fight Trump’s fascist takeover of America: JB Pritzker, Gavin Newsom, Josh Stein, Gretchen Whitmer, etc. 🙌🙏💪👏👊👇 pic.twitter.com/ywMUt1e4rw
— Bill Madden (@maddenifico) November 8, 2024
🇺🇸 OFFICIALS ‘TRUMP-PROOFING’ STATES BEFORE HE EVEN TAKES OFFICE
California’s been actively “Trump-proofing” itself, with state officials preparing legal defenses and new policies to block Trump’s anticipated federal actions.
New York is rolling out its Empire State Freedom… pic.twitter.com/xI8Hu2fxEa
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 10, 2024
🔥🚨DEVELOPING: It’s the perfect time to remind every one of Trump’s official plan to eradicate the deep state. It’s about to get ugly in a beautiful way.
Project 2025 isn’t coming but agenda Agenda47 is, which is the official plan “To Dismantle the Deep State and Return Power… pic.twitter.com/s6a6qtAdVY
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) November 6, 2024
Since then… Trump has come out with Agenda 47 which he promises will be a “quantum leap” in the American standard of living. Flying cars, energy, Significant tech advancements, baby booms and incentives. All kinds of stuff. Keep reading. pic.twitter.com/ztSxpaysHk
— Invisidon (@biffdon) January 3, 2025
Trump Statement Agenda 47: Dismantling the Deep State & Reclaiming Democracy
• Reissue 2020 EO restoring the president’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats
• Clean out corrupt actors in NAT SEC & intelligence apparatus.
• Weaponized Departments & agencies will be… pic.twitter.com/WQRTJFixhg
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) December 5, 2023
Please see Trump/Vance Agenda 47 #6 & 14. pic.twitter.com/uWTnLvTvHY
— Rachel (@RachelHBP) January 8, 2025
3) With respect to HUD, the lack of affordable housing, and the manufactured home industry, consider the following. As yesterday‘s introductory and other more detailed reports reveal, NAHB officials have stated that conventional builders can’t solve the affordable housing crisis without subsidies. HUD has been described as a conduit for private interests to get federal funding. The Iron Triangle, the Revolving Door, Regulatory Capture, these are all troubling realities that will face all Trump appointees. Organizations like the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) has literally claimed to be ‘partners’ with HUD, even though they duplicitously claim that they want the federal government to robustly enforce laws that have languished for decades.
4) While all posts are published precisely because this publication believes that the subject is significant and relevant, the post linked below may be one of the more important for understanding what has been occurring in small steps over the course of decades. As liberties slip, as the power of some (not all) corporate and oligarch-billionaires grows, our nation is sliding toward a neo-feudalism.
5) The first step to problem solving is to understand that a problem exists. It is unlikely at best to solve problems that are misunderstood. MHProNews invests the time and effort to provide the details in a manner that should make the issues clearer for those who invest the time to grasp the details. Superficiality doesn’t pay.
6) MHProNews recently ran a report on the Smear. This week, the Smear is on full display as Senate hearings take place. One sad part of this pattern is because smear tactics are so routinely used, when an actual problem exists will enough people recognize it for what it is instead of being merely one more smear?
7) It could be that a year or two from now the tremendous corruption that has occurred under Biden Harris will be better known and understood.
8) So, Trump 2.0 has its work cut out for it. There are BIG promises that have been made. There is nothing that is directly connected to manufactured housing, but there may be hints and clues based on other Trump remarks. Per the following Q&A with Copilot.
Can you find any evidence that former and future President Trump or J.D. Vance mentioned manufactured housing specifically during the 2024 campaign?
I couldn’t find any specific mentions of manufactured housing by former President Trump or J.D. Vance during the 2024 campaign. However, both have discussed housing policies and the broader issue of affordable housing. For example, Trump has emphasized reducing regulatory hurdles to building new homes, while Vance has highlighted the high cost of housing as a significant threat to the American dream.
If you have any other questions or need more information, feel free to ask!
9) Eric Scott Turner will be facing his Senate confirmation hearing this week. Expect Trump 2.0 to be as active as possible to keep their adversaries on their heels, if possible. Further expect MHProNews to keep readers advised of the seen and unseen that impacts our industry, and as much as our constraints make possible, to the American Republic. Stay tuned.
Again, our thanks to free email subscribers and all readers like you, as well as our tipsters/sources, sponsors and God for making and keeping us the runaway number one source for authentic “News through the lens of manufactured homes and factory-built housing” © where “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (Affordable housing, manufactured homes, reports, fact-checks, analysis, and commentary. Third-party images or content are provided under fair use guidelines for media.) See Related Reports, further below. Text/image boxes often are hot-linked to other reports that can be access by clicking on them.)
By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
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