U.S. Posts First Budget Surplus In Decades....

BREAKING: US governments shocks with a budget surplus in June, 1st in 9+ years and defying deficit expectations

🟢June 2025: $26 billion surplus
🔴June 2024: $71.5 billion deficit
🔴June 2023: $227.7 billion deficit
🔴June 2022: $88.81 billion deficit
🔴June 2021: $174.16…

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 11, 2025

Tariffs work folks (Per CNBC)... The U.S. government posted a surplus in June as tariffs gave an extra bump to a sharp increase in receipts, the Treasury Department said Friday.

With government red ink swelling throughout the year, last month saw a surplus of just over $27 billion, following a $316 billion deficit in May.

That brought the fiscal year-to-date deficit to $1.34 trillion, up 5% from a year ago. However, with calendar adjustment, the deficit actually edged lower by 1%. There are three months left in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.

A 13% increase in receipts from the same month a year ago helped bridge the gap, with outlays down 7%. For the year, receipts are up 7% while spending has risen 6%.

Now, to be clear, Trump during the first year of his first term, also posted a budget surplus; you have to go back to mid-2005 for the last sustained period of monthly budget surpluses.

China's Sweating...

....one way we know this: they went after Hollywood!

China announced it would curb imports of Hollywood films, opening a new front in its trade war with the US hours after President Donald Trump’s record tariffs took effect.

Authorities vowed on Thursday to “moderately reduce” the number of US movies allowed into the world’s second-largest economy — a step floated earlier this week as a possible retaliation measure by two influential Chinese bloggers. 

“The wrong action of the US government to abuse tariffs on China will inevitably further reduce the domestic audience’s favorability toward American films,” the China Film Administration said in a statement announcing the move. (HotAir via. Bloomberg News)

I'm sure Trump is shaking in his boots...from laughter, most likely.

If China thinks this is leverage over Trump they're even more deluded than once thought. Most of Hollywood hates Donald Trump and he's not losing sleep if they suffer over this as it would mean fewer resources to use against him down the road.

Its' also self-defeating on Beijing's part as Hollywood has long kissed their ass - I can think of four examples where Chinese authorities actively interfered in movie-making (the 2012 remake of Red Dawn, Top Gun: Maverick, The Departed, and 2012) because either the films made Beijing the villain and/or didn't show China in a positive light. (The Departed gets included here because Chinese customs don't allow for villainous characters to get away with crimes; in the movie its' based off, Infernal Affairs, the villain eventually gets arrested and in the original version, Matt Damon's character got away with everything. In the theatrical release, he got a bullet to the noggin from Mark Wahlberg's characters at the end of the film).

The only thing that would make this threat better - for the U.S. - is if Trump's DoJ opened investigations into whether Hollywood film studios colluded with China over access to the Chinese markets.

Trump & the "Organized Chaos" of the Recent Tariffs Row

This past week has been an ulcer-creating week for poli-sci junkies like myself.... For weeks, Trump stood firm on his tariffs and levies, which he characterizes as “a beautiful thing to behold.” He declared: “We have massive Financial Deficits with China, the European Union, and many others. The only way this problem can be cured is with TARIFFS, which are now bringing Tens of Billions of Dollars into the U.S.A. They are already in effect, and a beautiful thing to behold. The Surplus with these Countries has grown during the ‘Presidency’ of Sleepy Joe Biden. We are going to reverse it, and reverse it QUICKLY. Some day people will realize that Tariffs, for the United States of America, are a very beautiful thing!”

Trump’s biggest tariff target is, of course, Red China, our largest trading partner after Mexico and Canada. China’s communist leaders, who promised to “fight to the end” against the tariffs, slapped an additional 34% tax on all U.S. imports last Friday. In turn, Trump implemented 100%-plus tariffs on China, and the ChiComs then matched that tariff increase. Don’t underestimate China’s reckless economic resolve – remember that five years ago, China dropped the most devastating economic bomb ever detonated on the planet — the ChiCom Virus pandemic.

The China tit for tat notwithstanding, the National Economic Council director and Treasury secretary both report in the last 48 hours, that more than 50 nations have reached out to the White House to negotiate — and I suspect the number is substantially higher.

In other words, Trump’s tariffs are having the desired effect, except with China, though I think the administration has fully anticipated the ChiCom response. (Patriot Post, 9 April 2025)

I'm of two minds here....on the one hand, the "organized chaos" of the past week or so proved necessary; given America's position as the world's largest economy/consumer base, no country can long stand against us economically. (This was proven by the over-50 countries that've come crawling back to the U.S. for tariffs' relief.)

On the other hand, anyone who owned either stocks, bonds and/or crypto I guarantee either exacerbated or go an ulcer from this week's "organized chaos"...