FROM HERBERT HOOVER TO DONALD TRUMP - MASTERS OF THE TARIFF GAME!

The word on the street in Queens was, “Donny couldn’t organize a two car funeral.”

Anyone could be forgiven one bankruptcy, but six was stretching a point. The guy couldn’t even turn a buck on his casinos.

And now he’s gambling that universal tariffs will bring the world to its knees. He may well be right – but at what cost?

Herbert Hoover was the last president to play the great tariff game. He too was hoping to protect and encourage American industries, but instead he turned a recession into a raging depression.

President Trump had no recession to grapple with. Less than 4 months ago he was handed a first class economy by President Biden.

Now, I’m no ageist, but why have we elected the two oldest American presidents?

Mr. Biden’s family and advisers had for long obscured his age issues, before all was sadly revealed in the presidential debate.

This led to the reign of an even older President Trump whose cock-and-bull ideas are matched only by his megalomania.

Did you catch any of his recent televised cabinet meeting? It would have put Mussolini to shame.

There sat The Donald, head nodding in sated appreciation, while cabinet members took turns eulogizing his “awesome first-100 days.” 

The only irony is that most of these sycophants will receive their pink slips in the course of this administration. Loyalty flows but one way for the man from Queens.

Not one speaker had the courage - or common sense - to question Mr. Trump’s inane belief that tariffs can eventually replace income tax in funding the US Government.

But given that the Trump cabinet is stocked with doting sheep, are we lost?

Far from it, megalomania to the rescue! Mr. Trump does not believe in taking any blame for his actions. See how quickly he folded when stocks, bonds and the almighty dollar shuddered on “Liberation Day.” A 90-day postponement of excessive tariffs was hastily called.

And so the farce will continue, two steps forward, one step back like a drunken bridegroom adrift on the dance floor.

We, however, will be left to pick up the pieces. The trust destroyed by our president’s embarrassing behavior to friends and neighbors will not return automatically. Global economic slowdowns leave all sorts of scars.

Meanwhile, Canadians are boycotting US goods and forsaking their annual winter sojourns in the Sun Belt. Europeans too are steering clear of us – including the Irish. Soho boutiques, once awash with fashionable Chinese are feeling the pinch, and who’d want to be a foreign student, now that the Ugly American has been unleashed and is on the prowl for any hint of college dissent?

Stephen Miller’s “flooding the zone” strategy - government by executive order, attack dogs unleashed at all manner of “radical liberal” threats - is working for now. 

But judges are challenging many of these directives, and a constitutional crisis is on the way. 

Eventually the Supreme Court will have to choose between loyalty to Trump or the constitution.

It seemed for a moment that colleges and white shoe law firms were buckling under the bullyboy pressure, but Harvard and more principled lawyers have drawn lines in the sand against a presidency that Donald Trump has transformed into a weapon of grievance and revenge.

Americans will soon have to decide if due process is a bedrock of our constitutional democracy or are we willing to sacrifice it at the whim of a convicted felon?

One figure should not be forgotten - the national debt of over $36 Trillion. Most of the Trump Tax Cuts of 2017 will be up for renewal soon. The president is also proposing new fiscal enhancements, including no tax on tips or overtime. 

Over 10 years these gifts could cost $4.5 Trillion, less a hoped for $1.5 Trillion in cuts to current expenditures. The balance could add $3 Trillion to the National Debt.

A frightening thought, especially if interest rates should rise to counter expected inflation. What happened to the legion of principled Republican deficit hawks? Did Donald clip their scolding wings?

But ultimately President Trump’s fate may depend on more prosaic figures, like the price of eggs or the cost of a new car, as the 2026 midterms loom closer.

In the meantime, keep your tattoos covered. You too might qualify for an extended vacation down in the Trump Due Process Hostel in sunny El Salvador. 

LACE CURTAIN VERSUS SHANTY AT THE AMERICAN IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The divide between lace curtain and shanty had pretty much disappeared by the time I hit New York in the 1970’s. That being said, the clientele of the original Irish Pavilion on 57^th Street bore little resemblance to those of us who frequented the many Blarney Stones that dotted the city.

Free love, dime bags, and the general couldn’t-give-a-damn attitudes of the 1960’s had swept away many social barriers. Guys like me who dwelt in lowly tenements on the Lower East Side were welcomed to such temples of culture as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick up on toney Fifth Avenue. But never once did I think of approaching the lace curtain fortress of the American Irish  Historical Society across the avenue from the Met.

There was an air of “keep your distance” about this gilded age mansion. I occasionally wondered about it, for I was interested in Irish-American history, but like most others I gave this forbidding, and seemingly forbidden, ivory tower a pass.

Then some years back Brian McCabe became Chairman of the AIHS Executive Council and Sophie Colgan assumed management of events. These two dynamic New Yorkers took over the day-to-day administration of the building and threw the doors wide open. It was a new beginning and many of us organized or took part in events. It was then I came to appreciate the beauty and stateliness of the mansion.

But I was never able to discover how many valuable original documents are contained within the hallowed walls of 991 Fifth Avenue, though I did hear rumors of a vast collection of rare books among the “10,000 or so” volumes in the building. The AIHS has never been known for its specificity.

Despite their trojan work Brian and Sophie were eventually dismissed and in 2021 the building was put on sale for $52 million along with a proposal to transfer the archives to Cooperstown. Perhaps room for Irish-America’s heritage had been found within the Baseball Hall of Fame?

A general uproar ensued, the sale price was reduced, and eventually the building was taken off the market.

In 2022 New York Attorney General, Letita James intervened, and in 2023 a “permanent” board of directors was appointed, along with a new executive director, Dr. Elizabeth Stack.

Hallelujah! I knew Elizabeth from her sterling work as Executive Director of the Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany. She had transformed that organization and was a popular cultural figure throughout the Capital Region.

The AIHS appeared to be in safe hands and Elizabeth set to her task of reopening 991 Fifth Avenue with her customary transparency and vivacity. The Irish Rep resumed their wonderful immersive Yuletide production of James Joyce’s The Dead, many readings, lectures and exhibitions were held, and though cash flow – the bane of most non-profit establishments – was a problem, there was a general air of optimism about the future of the AIHS. What could go wrong?

Oh, something as simple as another dismissal notice, this time of Dr. Stack, along with the resignation of a sizeable portion of the “permanent” board. Then, to add a little farce - a Dickensian changing of locks. Talk about Bleak House!

So where do we stand? As ever with the opaque AIHS, who knows? There is talk of a lawsuit over an unpaid $3 million loan, and the necessity of selling the building so that the organization might be salvaged.

To my mind that would go against the spirit of Irish-America. With hard work, miracles can happen. Remember back in 2008 the rescue of St. Brigid’s Church on Avenue B from the wrecking ball?  That too seemed impossible until a sainted anonymous donor provided $20 million. 

Regardless, the road to recovery should begin with the immediate reinstatement of Dr. Stack. All who have met her – except, apparently, some “permanent” board members – have been impressed by her hard work, and devotion to the organization and the building. 

But if, in the end, the mansion must be sold, then so be it. Another building can be leased, or even bought, in a less pricey area of the city where the digitized archives, library, paintings and other treasures can be opened to the public.

Perhaps then the AIHS can finally fulfill its original mission, “to place permanently on record the story of the Irish in America” - be they shanty or lace curtain.