Canada's retaliatory tariffs kick in at midnight tonight.
I'm not going to claim economists have been fans of Trump's tariff games, but I do know that when lefties propose tariffs, but leftily, a swarm of economists hit the media to explain why it is the most damaging policy ever imagined.
Tom Friedman would have published 8 columns per day. His life's work threatened.
The response has been... muted.
I know that most journalists would defend this Haberman special as obviously highlighting the absurdity of Trump's obsession with his little building projects, but readers shouldn't need a decoder ring for this stuff.
As the war with Iran grinds on, Mr. Trump finds reprieve by focusing on the minutia of an endeavor much more within his grasp: renovating Washington with ornate projects.“He loves to build,” Mr. Lutnick said, shortly before an emergency hearing about Mr. Trump’s desire to rename the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in his own honor. Mr. Lutnick added: “This is what he enjoys. So late at night, 11 o’clock at night, he calls me and wants to talk about things he’s building, because it’s fun for him.”“If you sat with him, would you have a nice chat with him? No, you’d ask him about Iran, then you’d ask him about this, then you’d ask him about that,” he noted. “Everybody does that. And the one thing he likes to do during the week is construction.”
Writing it up as a piece about his charming eccentricities is a choice. There are other ways to write it.
Often IRL friends ask me why Trump's poll numbers aren't lower. I explain that absent economic catastrophe, it is unlikely any president gets any lower than where Trump is now.
But implicit in their question is the belief that if his approval is low enough, then Something must happen. 20% approval would trigger... something.
And it really won't.
This is a rhetorical question, of course, but given that the 45 year prime mission of the neocons was to conquer Iran, how did they screw it up this badly?
Trump's beliefs about the losses from trade probably aren't entirely an extension of his core business practice, but I suspect they are not unrelated.
I also suspect that going after the rich guy from TV with a series of ads from people he had stiffed over the years would have been effective.
Good journalism angle, too, if we had any journalists anymore.
Iran has grown more confident in its ability to attack targets in the Middle East and appears determined to continue the conflict for months to frustrate the United States, according to U.S. intelligence reports in recent weeks.Probably the goal of their war now is to change the name of Tehran to Trump City. Actually he will probably tell google to do that tomorrow.
President Donald Trump threatened on Friday to prevent the US from trading with many nations unless the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates.“LOWER THE RATE OR I’LL STOP TRADING WITH COUNTRIES WITH WHICH WE HAVE A DEFICIT, which the U.S. Supreme Court, in its ridiculous and very costly Tariff decision, strongly acknowledged ‘the President’ has an absolute right to do,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “IT’S BETTER THAN TARIFFS! The Fed Board, with its great new leader, must get smart - BE PATRIOTS for a change.”
One morning in June, three paralyzed military veterans in wheelchairs from rural Pennsylvania arrived at the office of Sen. John Fetterman for a long-awaited meeting to discuss legislation that would improve their care.
Fetterman’s staff greeted them with bad news: The Pennsylvania Democrat had to cancel. He’d told his staff he may have eaten something bad and wasn’t feeling well, according to people familiar with the matter.Less than an hour after his staffers met with the veterans in his place, Fetterman walked into his office, showing no signs of illness. He had an appointment he didn’t want to miss, he told staff: an interview on Fox News to discuss Israel and the war in Iran.
The hardworking evil ones to the most damage, but I do have extra contempt for people who too lazy to do the important jobs they asked for.
CHOP is the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia