No Pope, Same Fed & Making America Safe Again - Top 3 Takeaways – May 8th, 2025 - Driven By Braman Motorcars
Takeaway #1: No Pope, Just Smoke
It took five votes to elect Pope Francis. It took four votes to elect Pope Benedict before him. At the 1978 papal conclave there were a total of eight votes needed to elect Pope John Paul II. For those reasons it should come as little surprise that the first go around for pope this time only produced black smoke. In fact, did you know that you have to go back to Pope Pius XII in 1939 to find the last pope elected on the first vote? In fact, did you know that it’s only three popes who are believed to have been elected on the first vote? Record keeping past a certain point was pretty secretive but Pope Innocent the XI in 1676 and Pope Clement XI in 1700 were the only other two who were documented be elected on a first vote. Four more votes (if needed) will take place today.
Takeaway #2: Same Fed, Different Day
The monthly FOMC meeting went exactly the way we thought it would go which is to say that President Trump didn’t get his way and interest rates have stayed the same. Citing “increased uncertainty” and “solid” expansion of the US economy – the Fed left interest rates in place. What the Fed noted about the economy was particularly telling. As I recently mentioned following the negative first quarter GDP report... It wasn’t that the real economy was negative, in fact it was strong, it was that the way the GDP is calculated is wonky which made the actual number look weak. The real economy remains strong, and its strength was cited by the Fed as a reason to leave rates alone for now. Like Trump I still think they’re behind the curve (again) but they did observe what I observed from the GDP report in noting the expectation that the second quarter GDP report would show a solid resumption of growth.
Takeaway #3: Making America Safe Again
We’ve seen in recent weeks that the Trump administration’s effort to Make America Safe Again is starting to fire on all cylinders. It was just a week ago that we learned the largest illegal immigration enforcement operation, not only in Florida’s history, but in ICE’s history, had taken place taking down a total of 1,120 illegal immigrants across our state. 63% of those arrested by ICE had prior criminal conviction, 378 had outstanding orders to be removed from the country by a judge (orders that were ignored by the Biden administration). Among those arrested were members of six designated foreign terrorist organizations. There were murders, drug traffickers and human sex traffickers taken down. At the time, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: This is a warning to all criminal illegal aliens: We’re coming for you. DHS, ICE, and our state partners will hunt you down, arrest, and deport you. That’s a promise. Yesterday’s big news, was about the largest one-week child sex sting operation in American history. Dubbed Operation Restore Justice, AG Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced 205 arrests that took place across five days rescuing 115 victims of child sex trafficking in the process. Two historic operations within two weeks by two of the Trump administration's top enforcement agencies illustrates that the administration is in the process of elevating its game in all phases. This is exactly what we need. Consider this. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, during the Biden administration there was a 192% increase in reported child sex trafficking. How does such a massive increase in such a short time take place? That figure reminded me of the numbers I brought you last year when discussing the increase in crimes committed by illegal immigrants under the Biden administration. Homicide, Manslaughter: 967%, Illegal Entry, Reentry: 697%, DUI: 685%, Illegal Weapons Possession, Transport, Trafficking: 627%, Burglary, Robbery, Larceny, Theft, Fraud: 604%, Assault, Battery, Domestic Violence: 602%. Again, how bat crap crazy insane do you have to be to do that to your country? As for the number pertaining to sexual offenses? That increase was 182%. That washes very similarly with the 192% increase we saw with child sex trafficking over the same time. Here’s what I found when digging into this dynamic yesterday... Approximately 80% of child sex trafficking victims in the United States are American children. That tells us two things. First, there’s a massive number of children being trafficked into the United States subjected to this kind of evil abuse, and second, there are a massive number of American children being abducted and trafficked by illegal immigrants. The most recent estimate for the number of children trafficked annually is 109,000. Based on what we know of victims' nationalities that means about 87,000 of them are American children with about 22,000 who were trafficked in from outside this country. So, what we’ve seen is that illegal immigrants have been responsible for a massive increase in sexual offenses over the past four years, including a massive increase in the sex trafficking of minors into this country, but also of the sex trafficking of American children too. And right on cue was word that from the DOJ that illegal immigrants were among those taken down as part of the historic operation announced yesterday. The Trump administration is currently working quickly to make America safe again, and nowhere is that more important than what’s being done to protect children. It’s encouraging to see that the DOJ has joined DHS in doing what needs to be done. We’ve been losing an average of 238 children per day to child sex trafficking in the United States. It’s an unconscionable thing, one of many, proliferated by the prior regime.