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Globe and Mail
4 days ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
Brace yourself for the rest of Trump 2
The night that Donald Trump won the election for the first time I was in New York. I had parked myself in a bar where young Republicans were gathering to watch the results come in. My assignment was to talk to them after Mr. Trump had lost and write something about the future of the Republican Party after his failure. A look at the post-Trump GOP, in other words. As the evening wore on and state after state went Trump, it became clear that I was never going to do that story. Instead I ended up writing about the reaction of a jittery world to the fact that a real estate mogul and former reality-TV star was poised to become the 45th president of the world's most powerful nation. It seemed incredible that such a person could obtain such power. It seemed doubly incredible when, eight years later, Americans handed him the keys to the White House again. They could be forgiven for electing him once. The American political system had become stagnant and money-driven. Many Americans wanted someone to go in and break some furniture. Mr. Trump seemed just the man. Trump administration could use military action against some drug cartels, Rubio says All the rage: How the UFC became America's most important (and misunderstood) political powerhouse But twice? After everything they had seen in Trump 1? Yes, incredible. Yet it happened, and the world is only beginning to count the cost. We have seen half a year of Trump 2 now (though it seems much longer) and it has been uglier than even his bitterest rivals warned. The U.S. foreign aid program slashed, putting the health and very survival of countless needy people in jeopardy. America's finest universities attacked because they refused to kiss the ring. Immigrants scooped up and dispatched to dank overseas jails. Efforts to fight climate change trashed. The head of the central bank slurred for the crime of trying to control inflation. We are only just into August and already this month the rogue President has fired the respected head of a respected statistics agency for issuing a jobs report he didn't like and imposed punishing new tariffs on some of his country's closest friends, raising the average U.S. tariff rate to the highest level since the Great Depression. Meanwhile, the rogue Health Secretary he appointed has cancelled half a billion dollars worth of contracts and grants for developing the kind of vaccines that helped beat back COVID-19. Far worse is to come. Some countries have managed to strike tariff deals with Mr. Trump. Others, like Canada, are trying. Whatever the result, he is overturning a system of trade and exchange that has fuelled the growth of economies around the world for decades, helping to lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. The United States built that system and profited immensely from it. Now he wants to destroy it, taking an axe to the goose that laid the golden egg. Meanwhile, just for the hell of it, he is undermining his country's fiscal standing to such an extent that it threatens the stability of the American dollar and puts the whole world's financial system at risk. His Big Beautiful Bill will add trillions to the U.S. debt. Then there is the little matter of the future of democracy. America's standing as the citadel of freedom is eroding every day that this man is in office. He refused to accept the outcome of the 2020 election and was found to have helped foment a violent rebellion. He is going after judges that question him and journalists that scrutinize him and civil servants that simply annoy him (like that job-stats official). He is wielding the already-immense executive power of the presidency with the abandon of a tinpot dictator. He is using the office of the presidency to enrich himself. I hate to paint such a dark picture. I am a lifelong admirer of the United States, which for its failings has done far more good than ill. Its sheer dynamism still astonishes, even in the Trump era. Despite all the damage he has done, much is going right in the world. As I wrote earlier this year, global prosperity, health and education have advanced by huge leaps in the past few decades – a fact we often forget amid all the turmoil. There is no reason they should not continue to advance. We know the formula: science, trade, democracy, sound finances. Unfortunately, Donald Trump is an enemy of all of them. I still think the U.S. will right itself somehow, but no one should underestimate the havoc he can cause in the meantime. I didn't see what was coming when I sat in that New York bar in 2016. Perhaps none of us did. Now we know. We should brace ourselves and, in every way possible, resist.
News.com.au
03-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Jon Bon Jovi dragged into dispute over $65 million mansion
Jon Bon Jovi has been dragged into a property dispute after he reportedly refused to sell his $US43 million ($A65 million) mansion to a mysterious buyer who's snapping up properties in the sought-after area. According to the Wall Street Journal, an anonymous buyer has 'been quietly assembling one of the most valuable private estates' in Palm Beach — which sits mere minutes from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. So far, the unnamed buyer has forked out $US250 million ($A380 million) on four separate homes in the Florida enclave in recent months. The estate is said to include a $US178 million ($A271 million) piece of prime oceanfront land that was initially put on the market by cosmetics mogul William Lauder — who is heir to the Estée Lauder fortune — in 2023 for $US200 million ($A304 million), as well as two separate homes that sit across the street from that plot. Sources told the Journal the unidentified real estate mogul is far from done with the spending spree. The buyer is said to already have their sights set on another investment property: a Mediterranean-style mansion that sits alongside their newly acquired waterfront land. The home is owned by the 'Livin' on a Prayer' singer. The acquisition of the rocker's dwelling would provide the buyer with one of the most sizeable waterfront properties in Palm Beach — made all the more impressive by the addition of the two properties that sit directly behind it. Yet, the apparent real estate scheme has reportedly hit a major snag with Bon Jovi, who is said to have 'resisted overtures to sell his property'. Property records seen by Realtor indicate the seven-bedroom, 12-bathroom home was last purchased in July 2020 for $US43 million ($A65 million) via an LLC — of which Bon Jovi's longtime business manager Charles Sussman was listed as the manager. The home had originally been listed for $US44.9 million ($A68.3 million) in January of that year and was described as a 'stunning direct oceanfront estate' complete with a workout room, a temperature-controlled wine cellar, private in-home elevators, and two oceanfront loggias, as well as a separate pool cabana. Bon Jovi's home sits directly to the left of the Lauder land that was reportedly purchased in February of this year in an off-market deal. Sources told the Journal the buyer paid close to the reduced asking price of $US178 million ($A271 million) for the plot. The land was originally purchased by Lauder in two separate deals. The first acre was bought up in 2020 for $US25.4 million ($A38.6 million), one year before the businessman added the second 1.8-acre property for an undisclosed sum. Initially, the two plots had been home to two separate oceanfront mansions, which Lauder demolished to make space for his own enormous dwelling. However, he shelved those plans and opted to put the vacant land on the market. In addition to that expansive plot, the anonymous buyer is said to have also picked up two dwellings that sit directly behind it, although neither dwelling ever came on the market. Property records show that one of those homes was owned by Thomas Harvey and his wife, Cathleen Black, who bought the dwelling for $US4.2 million ($A6.3 million) in 2018. Though Realtor estimates the home is now worth around double that, the Journal reports that the buyer paid a staggering $US18 million ($A27 million) for it. Mr Harvey told the outlet in an email that the person made an 'unsolicited offer' on his house — while adding that he does not know their identity. Days later, the dwelling next door to Mr Harvey's property was also sold, this time for $US30 million ($A45 million), according to the Palm Beach Daily News, having previously been registered to a trust. That home, which was also purchased in an off-market deal, had last traded hands for $US5.3 million ($A8.07 million) in 2017 and was last linked to an LLC. Both properties, per the Palm Beach Daily News, were most recently purchased via LLCs that are registered in Delaware: Creekshore LLC and Mango Leaf LLC. According to The Real Deal, discussions about the potential purchase of Bon Jovi's home are still ongoing, despite the singer's reluctance to part ways with his property. The buyer is also said to have begun conversations about buying the home that sits on the other side of the Lauder land. That home is currently owned by casino mogul William M. Rickman Jr., who purchased it in 2016 for $US13.1 million ($A19.9 million). Built in 1935, the property boasts six bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, as well as water frontage. Though the identity of the buyer has not yet been confirmed, sources have claimed to the Real Deal the person believed to be behind these multimillion-dollar deals is Microsoft mogul Charles Simonyi, who spent years working alongside Bill Gates. Gates' name was also thrown into the mix of potential buyers, along with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, suggesting the deals all have strong ties to the computer company. All three men boast incredibly impressive property portfolios, and each owns at least one dwelling in the popular Seattle enclave of Hunts Point, Washington State which is widely considered to be something of a haven for billionaire tech moguls.
