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Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
The Tariff Storm Hits
From the The Morning Dispatch on The Dispatch Happy Friday! Our Dispawtch bracket has entered its championship round. Tesi currently commands a three-point lead over Gus, but you have until 8 p.m. ET tonight to either widen that lead or turn the tide. Cast your vote today! Russia is 'ready to contribute' additional military support to junta regimes in West Africa's Sahel region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced on Thursday. The Kremlin will provide weapons and training to a new joint force comprised of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger's ruling juntas, which together form the Alliance of Sahel States. Russia has sought to expand its influence in the Sahel after the juntas pushed away American and French security partners. The director of the Russian government's sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, announced on Thursday that he had participated in 'key meetings' in Washington, D.C., this week. Dmitriev arrived in D.C. on Tuesday, after the State Department reportedly temporarily lifted sanctions to allow the Kremlin envoy and his two aides to obtain visas. On Wednesday, he met with Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East who has been involved in Ukraine peace talks, at the White House. Dmitriev is the first Russian official to visit the White House since the first Trump administration. President Donald Trump fired six members of the National Security Council (NSC) after meeting with MAGA activist Laura Loomer in the Oval Office, multiple news organizations reported Thursday. Loomer reportedly provided a list of NSC staffers she believed should be ousted—alleging they were disloyal to the president—in a meeting with Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and others. The New York Times reported that National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, present for part of the meeting, 'briefly defended' some of the officials—who included the NSC's senior directors for intelligence, international organizations, and legislative affairs—but was unsuccessful in saving their jobs. On Thursday, the Pentagon's Office of Inspector General, an independent federal agency tasked with overseeing the Department of Defense (DOD), announced an investigation into the Trump administration's use of a commercial messaging app, Signal, to coordinate military strikes against the Houthis in Yemen last month. Steven Stebbins, the office's acting inspector general, said in a memo to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that he is investigating whether the use of Signal 'complied with DOD policies and procedures.' He added that the inquiry came at the request of GOP Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, along with other individual members of Congress. The Department of Education sent letters to state commissioners leading their respective K-12 education agencies on Thursday, ordering them to abide by current federal anti-discrimination laws or face losing federal funding. 'Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,' the Education Department's acting assistant secretary of civil rights, Craig Trainor, said in a press release. He added that some school districts, through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, 'flout or outright violate' federal anti-discrimination requirements. The Education Department distributed forms to state commissioners certifying compliance with those requirements, requiring them to be signed and returned within 10 days. One of the world's largest car manufacturers, Stellantis, confirmed Thursday that it was suspending production at two assembly plants in Mexico and Canada. The plants produce both gas-powered and electric vehicles, including for brands like Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge. The car manufacturer temporarily laid off more than 900 U.S.-based employees in Michigan and Indiana following the pause, which a Stellantis spokeswoman attributed to President Trump's 25 percent tariffs on cars and car parts. In Canada, about 4,500 Stellantis hourly workers were also temporarily dismissed. All three major stock indices were down at close Thursday, the first full day of trading following President Trump's announcement of a sweeping U.S. tariffs regime. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 3.98 percent, the NASDAQ plummeted 5.97 percent, and the S&P 500 was down 4.84 percent. The losses marked the worst single day for each index since 2020. Powerful storms and tornadoes ripping through the midwestern and southern United States killed at least seven people on Wednesday and Thursday—five in Tennessee, one in Indiana, and one in Missouri—and wrought destruction on buildings, vehicles, and local infrastructure. Extreme weather conditions are expected to persist going into today, with the National Weather Service issuing flood watches in parts of 12 U.S. states. Ahead of his sweeping tariffs rollout, President Donald Trump assured Americans that the short-term economic pain would be well worth the long-term gain. Time will tell whether his constituents—and the markets—agree, but early fallout from the administration's latest and most dramatic escalation in its global trade war hints at more than just a 'little disturbance.' Speaking from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Trump unveiled plans to impose tariffs on nearly all imports to the United States. 'This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history. It's our declaration of economic independence. For years, hardworking American citizens were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense,' he said. 'With today's action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before.' But Wall Street seemed to disagree. On Thursday, the U.S. stock market suffered its worst day since 2020, with all three major indices cratering in the wake of the announcement: The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 3.98 percent, the S&P 500 sank 4.84 percent, and the NASDAQ plummeted 5.97 percent. The long-awaited tariffs, declared in the name of a 'national economic emergency,' included 10 percent 'baseline' duties on most foreign goods, as well as higher, tailored tariffs targeting countries Trump accuses of 'cheating' the United States. Together with the president's previous rounds of levies, the expansive tariffs package will bring the U.S.'s effective tariff rate even higher than it was during the Great Depression. Economists are now warning the administration's dramatic break from the conservative movement's longtime embrace of free trade could isolate the U.S. economy and plunge the country into a recession. Trump's 10 percent flat duties are set to take effect on Sunday, while his higher tariffs—what the administration describes as 'reciprocal'—will go into place on April 9. But the latter levies don't actually correspond with the alleged offenders' restrictions on U.S. imports. Rather, the government calculated the rates by dividing the country in question's 2024 bilateral trade deficit by its exports to the United States, and then dividing the result by two. 'Reciprocal tariffs are calculated as the tariff rate necessary to balance bilateral trade deficits between the U.S. and each of our trading partners,' the U.S. Trade Representative said in a statement explaining the algorithm. The problem with this calculation, economists say, is that it relies on the false assumption that uneven bilateral trade balances are a reasonable proxy for foreign trade barriers. In reality, deficits are not always reflective of unfair trade practices or an unhealthy economic relationship. As Kevin Williamson wrote today in a piece for the site: Tariffs are not the only reason—or even the main reason—for imbalanced trade among nations. U.S. firms and consumers buy a lot of tropical fruit and low-cost goods from firms in poor countries where the people do not buy a lot of Boeing products or $300 selvedge jeans made in the United States on account of their being, you know, poor. At the same time, the metric failed to factor in the United States' own existing restrictions on buying foreign goods, from sugar quotas to the 1920 Merchant Marine Act. 'It simply assumes that the United States is some sort of free trade paradise that's being abused by foreign countries,' The Dispatch's own Scott Lincicome told TMD. 'Trump imposed hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes without any congressional authorization or public input, and he did so based on a methodology that is utterly detached from economic reality.' Using trade deficits for the formula has led to some 'bizarre outcomes,' he added. For example, even countries with free trade agreements with the United States—including Singapore, South Korea, and Australia—have been caught up in the tariff spree. As did countries with which the U.S. has a trade surplus. Meanwhile, a handful of countries—including Russia, Cuba, Belarus, and North Korea—were spared on the grounds that sanctions already prevent a meaningful trade relationship. For Trump, the sweeping tariffs—together with 25 percent duties on cars and car parts that took effect this week—are a way to usher in another 'golden age' of American manufacturing. According to the U.S. Trade Representative, more than 90,000 plants have closed and upwards of 6.6 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since 1997. By intentionally driving up the price of foreign goods, the administration hopes to encourage foreign companies to move their factories to the United States, spurring new job creation in a long-declining sector. But because the U.S. still relies heavily on foreign suppliers for intermediate goods like raw materials and car components, economists worry the tariffs will have the opposite effect. 'For this to be successful, you need to have long-term stability in the trade policy. I think what's problematic here is that we have recently seen that actual investment in the U.S. has declined,' Felix Tintelnot, an associate professor of economics at Duke University, told TMD. 'The cost of doing production in the U.S. just went up.' Experts also worry this latest move could expedite a looming recession. The U.S. dollar fell against most major currencies on Thursday—contrary to conventional wisdom that tariffs strengthen the value of the local currency—as investors seek out safe assets. 'In past waves of tariffs or tariff announcements by the administration, usually the U.S. dollar strengthened relative to other currencies. Now we are seeing the opposite: Capital is leaving the United States,' Tintelnot said. 'How can you plan your business operations in this way? It's really astonishing.' Already, an internal blame game has begun to play out among top U.S. officials. According to a Tuesday report by Politico, many people within the administration are preparing to point the finger at Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick—a main champion of the sweeping tariffs plan—should the fallout persist. Lutnick is 'a new voice at the table pushing crazy shit,' a person familiar with the situation told the outlet. 'I don't know anyone that isn't pissed off at him.' But for stalwart supporters of the protectionist trade policy, upending the global economy is the whole point. Through tariffs, they argue Washington should accept—and even embrace—the decline of the U.S.-led liberal world order. 'China is now rising as a pure competitor. The U.S. cannot be a unipolar hegemon like it was when the Cold War ended,' Oren Cass, the founder of the think tank American Compass, told Jon Stewart on a Monday episode of The Daily Show. 'We absolutely want a strong economic and security alliance. It's not going to be the whole world, because China's going to have its own sphere as well. But what we want to have within our sphere is a few things that, in the past, the U.S. didn't necessarily ask for. We're going to want balanced trade, where in the past we were happy to let the manufacturing go elsewhere.' But experts warn sweeping tariffs, far from shoring up the U.S.'s existing alliances, actually risk pushing longtime partners into China's orbit. On Monday, for example, Beijing announced plans to coordinate its response to the new American duties with South Korea and Japan. 'It's just a massive gift to America's adversaries,' Lincicome said. 'By isolating the United States economically, it makes us weaker—it makes our manufacturing industry weaker, it makes our economy weaker. But it also gives close trading partners more incentive to cozy up to the second biggest dog on the planet, and that's China, because they have no economic alternative.' Steve Hayes On the surface, it'd probably be hard to find a less sympathetic industry for tariff opponents to focus on than those in the wine importing business. Nobody's going to shed any tears for the rich guy with a French wine fetish whose $500 bottle might soon cost $600. But while it's true that fine wine collectors and those who sell to them can adjust to higher costs, many smaller companies that work in the wine business cannot. Economics April 3, 2025 Nick Catoggio Without meaningful representation, anyway. Policy April 4, 2025 Michael Warren His claim on Fox News about a survey that costs $1 billion doesn't hold up. Policy April 4, 2025 Kevin D. Williamson Trump's tariff plan is slapdash even by his standards Policy April 4, 2025 Stephen Gutowski The high court upheld a Biden-era ban on 'ghost guns.' Politics April 4, 2025 Charles Hilu But most Republicans seem to be in his corner. Writing for the New Atlantis, M. Anthony Mills argued that the Trump administration's efforts to gut the National Institutes of Health before the recent swearing in of its director, Jay Bhattacharya, may end up sinking the chances of serious reform. 'What we have seen these last two months is not an extreme version of past Republican efforts to rein in the federal bureaucracy; it is a challenge to the basic social contract underlying federal science,' he wrote. 'As in other domains of public policy, from trade to national security, the Trump administration has upended half a century or more of bipartisan consensus—in this case, regarding the federal government's role in supporting academic science.' As a well-credentialed outsider, Bhattacharya is well-positioned to productively challenge the status quo, Mills argued: 'But the extreme actions taken by the administration prior to his directorship have created an altogether different problem: a breach of trust with the scientific community, both inside the NIH and in the wider biomedical research enterprise, that may hamper efforts to implement enduring reforms, including those preferred by Trump's supporters.' CNN: NYC Mayor Eric Adams Says He Will Run for Reelection as an Independent NOTUS: Republicans in Congress Can Stop Trump's Tariffs—But They Don't Want To Republican Sen. Josh Hawley … blamed Congress for taking a backseat, but he told NOTUS he would want to use legislation to set tariff rates even higher. 'If Congress doesn't like it, they should ask themselves why they've given presidents, not this one, but presidents, this authority over 50 years,' Hawley said. 'It's like, 'Hello, wake up, smell the coffee; this is what Congress has done for 50 years.' Some of my colleagues suddenly just discovered it, it's like, 'Wait, he has this authority?' It's like, 'Yeah, you gave it to him.'' On Thursday, Bruce Springsteen announced plans to release seven 'lost' albums this June. The albums will include 74 unreleased songs recorded throughout the Boss' five-decade career, and frankly, we can't wait. How are the new tariffs shaping up to affect your daily life?
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Prepares to Step Up His Trade War
From the The Morning Dispatch on The Dispatch Happy Monday! After a busy weekend of games—including Auburn's memorable victory over Michigan State to advance to the Final Four—Chestbrockwell1967 and J. Fuqua are tied for first place in the TMD pool, followed by RedRaiderDad51, travbradburn, and romann233. We wish we had thought to pick the four No. 1 seeds to advance! Our Dispawtch bracket has also entered its own Final Four. Who will take home the inaugural championship: Tesi, Meeko, Gus, or Molly? Cast your vote for today! More than 1,700 people have died as a result of a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Burma on Friday, the country's ruling junta said Sunday. In Thailand, where the strong tremors caused the collapse of high-rise buildings, at least 18 people have died. The death tolls are expected to rise significantly as rescue teams continue to search the rubble in both countries. International aid groups arrived in Burma over the weekend in an effort to stave off a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, which in recent years has reeled from an ongoing civil war following the 2021 military coup. On Saturday, Burma's main armed opposition group declared a two-week ceasefire in an effort to ensure aid shipments to areas of the country under its control. Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in cities across Turkey on Saturday night to call for the release of jailed opposition leader Ekrem İmamoğlu, the chief political rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The ousted Istanbul mayor was arrested pending a trial on corruption charges earlier this month, days before being named the presidential nominee of the country's Republican People's Party last week. Turkish authorities have detained nearly 2,000 people—including several journalists—in the ongoing demonstrations, which began following İmamoğlu's initial arrest nearly two weeks ago. Police have also used pepper spray, water cannons, and tear gas in an effort to disperse the mass protests, while Erdoğan denounced the pro-democracy rallies as 'street terrorism.' The Israeli military carried out airstrikes on Hezbollah targets in southern Beirut on Friday, the country's first attack on the Lebanese capital since November. The operation came in response to Friday rocket fire on the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, one of the communities whose residents have begun to return home after being evacuated for more than a year. The Israeli airstrikes also targeted the Iranian-backed terrorist group's command centers, rocket launchers, and fighters in multiple locations across southern Lebanon. The resumption of cross-border attacks risks upending a November ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. The Taliban on Thursday released Faye Hall, an American woman who had been held in Afghanistan since February. Hall, who was arrested on charges of using a drone without authorization, is the fourth American to be freed from Afghanistan since January. The Taliban released George Glezmann, a Delta Air Lines mechanic, earlier this month after more than two years. On Wednesday, the U.S. lifted millions of dollars of bounties on three leaders of the Taliban's Haqqani network, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Vice President J.D. Vance visited Greenland on Friday amid President Donald Trump's push to annex the Danish territory. Vance focused on security and economic development during the trip, promising to 'respect [the] sovereignty' of the Arctic island should it pursue independence from Denmark. However, Trump appeared to contradict the vice president a day later, telling NBC News that the U.S. would 'get Greenland.' Meanwhile, on Sunday, Greenland Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen rejected the American president's remarks: 'Let me make this clear: The U.S. is not getting that. We don't belong to anyone else. We decide our own future.' Someone set fire to the entryway of the Republican Party headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday in what authorities believe was a deliberate act of arson. In addition to the fire, the words 'ICE = KKK' were spray-painted on the building. 'This horrific attack, fueled by hatred and intolerance, is a direct assault on our values, freedoms, and our right to political expression,' the New Mexico GOP said in a statement. The fire followed a series of recent arson incidents targeting Tesla vehicles from Kansas City, Missouri, to Toulouse, France. President Trump announced Friday that Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom—a prominent New York-based law firm—had agreed to provide more than $100 million in pro bono legal services in support of several Trump administration initiatives. The move, which Trump described as 'essentially a settlement,' allowed Skadden to sidestep the president's campaign of executive orders targeting five other top law firms so far. Also on Friday, two federal judges issued temporary restraining orders halting the implementation of parts of Trump's orders singling out the firms Jenner & Block and WilmerHale. Earlier this month, a federal judge temporarily barred Trump from executing parts of a separate order targeting the Perkins Coie law firm. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a memo to members of the department's leadership on Friday giving them until April 11 to submit proposals to 'realign' the size of the Pentagon's civilian workforce. Hegseth said the move, which reopened the deferred resignation program and offered early retirements to all 'eligible personnel,' aims to 'reduce duplicative efforts and reject excessive bureaucracy.' Last month, the Trump administration announced plans to cut the Pentagon's 950,000-employee civilian workforce by 5 to 8 percent. The Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, increased 2.5 percent year-over-year in February, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday—the same annual rate from one month earlier. After stripping out more volatile food and energy prices, core PCE increased at a 2.8 percent annual rate in February, exceeding economists' expectations. Consumer spending, meanwhile, grew 0.4 percent last month—a smaller-than-expected increase. In a December 2018 Twitter thread criticizing China for its unfair trade practices, President Donald Trump declared himself 'a Tariff Man.' But back then, the conventional wisdom was that this sort of tough talk was all bark and no bite. Trump implemented a series of tariffs during his first term, but the duties represented a significantly pared-back version of the trade war he had initially envisioned. Now, as the president promises to enact sweeping tariffs on a range of U.S. trade partners this week, gone are any assurances that Trump's threats are mostly bluster. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced plans to impose 25 percent duties on foreign cars and car parts, effective April 3 at 12:01 a.m. ET. He has also vowed to correct trade imbalances through so-called reciprocal tariffs on goods from multiple countries, dubbing April 2 'Liberation Day,' when Americans will be freed from the yoke of purportedly abusive foreign trade practices. Facing fewer political obstacles, armed with a more energized and ideologically aligned administration, and unconcerned with re-election (recent third-term talk notwithstanding), Trump's dream of revitalizing American manufacturing may be getting its first crash test (pun intended). And early indicators are not looking good, as American firms brace for the economic pain of Trump's levies and retaliatory measures from international trading partners. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.7 percent on Friday, its largest percentage decrease since March 10. The S&P 500 fell almost 2 percent, while the Nasdaq composite slid 2.7 percent. But neither the battered stock market nor souring consumer sentiment appears likely to knock Trump off course. Asked by NBC News' Kristen Welker on Sunday whether he's concerned about foreign automakers jacking up their prices in response to the duties, the president responded: 'I couldn't care less if they raise prices, because people are going to start buying American-made cars.' But foreign manufacturers aren't the only victims of the auto tariffs, which level a tax on imported car parts in addition to cars themselves. With very few exceptions, 'I don't really think that there's any car made in the United States that doesn't have at least some parts that come either from Mexico, Canada, Brazil, or South Korea,' Peter Simon, an economics professor at Northeastern University, told TMD. Nor is there a clean distinction between which parts are 'American' and which are not. Linamar, a Canadian firm that makes transmission modules for cars sold in the U.S., is a case in point: Steel scraps are sent from Canada to Pennsylvania—and then Ohio—to be made into a 'hub,' which then travels to Ontario, where it's combined with a gear-shifting component made in Illinois. The product is then housed in an aluminum module made in Canada and later put into a transmission in a factory in the Midwest. It then crosses the border twice more, once to be inserted into a car in a Canadian dealership and then again to be sold in the United States. The auto industry is full of such examples, with Audi and Mercedes-Benz plants in the Southeast deeply integrated with Mexican supply chains and the Detroit automotive industry enmeshed with Canada. '[Trump's tariff] is a measure that completely undermines the integration of the region's production chains, chains that have been formed over 30 years,' Rogelio Garza, the president of Mexico's auto-industry trade association, said Thursday. American automakers, on the other hand, have approached the duties with cautious optimism. 'U.S. Automakers are committed to President Trump's vision of increasing automotive production and jobs in the U.S.,' said Matt Blunt, the former Missouri governor who now serves as president of the American Automakers Policy Council, a trade association that represents Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. But 'it is critical that tariffs are implemented in a way that avoids raising prices for consumers and that preserves the competitiveness of the integrated North American automotive sector,' he cautioned. For automakers, the unpredictability of Trump's tariffs is arguably as disruptive as the tariffs themselves. Earlier this month, for example, the president announced a last-minute temporary exemption for cars and parts that comply with the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USCMA) trade agreement, a move applauded by American companies. The current executive order also leaves considerable wiggle room on that front, declaring that USMCA-compliant parts would remain exempt until the Secretary of Commerce creates a process for taxing their 'non-U.S. content.' No one is sure how long that process will take, nor what 'non-U.S. content' precisely means. And in the business world, uncertainty breeds hesitancy, meaning companies are pulling back from making investments. A survey of chief financial officers conducted by Duke University and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, released Wednesday, found that nearly a quarter of firms surveyed planned to cut back on hiring and investment in 2025 due to the administration's trade policy. 'Nobody is going to be willing to enter into a long-term agreement with another company or country, given the volatility of his daily decisions,' Simon said. Trump has often left open the possibility that tariffs are simply a negotiating tool. 'Maybe I'll give them a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done,' he said on Wednesday, in reference to his administration's attempts to convince China to sell ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. He also initially delayed some tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods in February, citing border security concessions made by the countries. Uncertainty abounds, though, as an even wider array of tariffs stands to be implemented on 'Liberation Day.' Trump has threatened 'sectoral tariffs' on products like computer chips, lumber, and copper, and also frequently promises 'reciprocal tariffs' on every foreign country that taxes U.S. exports. But what exactly those will look like remains deeply unclear. The befuddled reportedly count many of Trump's allies among their ranks: 'No one knows what the f**k is going on,' a 'White House ally' told Politico last week. Trump has been coy about the exact contours of his policies, telling reporters last week that his tariffs could be 'somewhat conservative' and neglecting to inform the public on which of the already-imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada (originally declared in February and eventually delayed until April 2) will actually go into effect. A White House official said last week that reciprocal tariffs were 'TBD.' Many countries are already preparing for the worst. European Union diplomats, for example, are reportedly expecting a flat, double-digit tariff on all goods to be implemented on April 2—on top of already-existing tariffs on steel and oil. Others are at least trying to project confidence: 'We've been through this three times; this would be the third,' Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday. And others are spitting mad: New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney declared Canada's old relationship with the U.S. 'over' on Friday, promising retaliatory tariffs that would hit the U.S. with 'maximum impact.' The EU has already announced that, if Trump's trade war continues, the bloc will implement coordinated punitive tariffs targeting the American economy. Canada also has a plan to target industries in relatively Republican states, such as Harley-Davidson in Wisconsin or bourbon in Kentucky. While you can never rule out a last-minute deal when it comes to Trump, the president and his allies appear fully committed to some kind of trade war, expecting significant gain to come of all the pain. On Saturday, Vice President J.D. Vance lashed out at a right-wing commentator who criticized Trump's trade policy on X, describing the conservative movement's embrace of free trade as 'brain-dead liberalism pretending to be conservatism.' The 'United States absorbs much of the producer surplus of the world,' Vance argued, producing a system that left the U.S. economy vulnerable to economic shocks. Autoworkers' unions also cheered Trump's moves. 'We are heartened by the significant measures they have announced today,' the United Autoworkers said in a statement on Wednesday, 'and we urge the administration to take similar action to protect and reshore the heavy truck sector.' But economists are more skeptical of the Trump administration's ability to deliver on its promises. 'Every president, the last 10 of them, promised to bring back manufacturing, and none of them were able to do it, with good reason,' Simon argued. The hypothetical benefits that would come from a mass reshoring of manufacturing are already being superseded by very real losses. As the auto industry prepares for more expensive input prices, it has scaled back expectations of production. Already, American steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs has laid off 1,200 workers in Minnesota and Michigan. The company has voiced support for tariffs as a way to undercut foreign competition, but its share price dropped nearly 10 percent over the past week. If the stock market's and economists' gloomy predictions are correct, consumers will soon be feeling the pain. Will anything, or anyone, make the president back off? His fellow Republicans seem disinclined to do so, even though Trump is issuing tariffs based on powers delegated to him by Congress, which it could revoke at will. On Saturday, Trump said that the U.S.'s new tariff regime was here to stay. 'Absolutely, they're permanent,' he said. Maybe the uncertainty won't last so long, after all. Timothy Sandefur During a career that lasted seven decades, Frank Lloyd Wright totally revolutionized architecture, spurning the Neo-Classicism that the upper classes had decreed to be official 'good taste' in the 1890s, and offering instead a style that was at once futuristic and welcoming. He became not only the greatest architect in American history, but the only one many Americans today can immediately name. Wright agreed with 17th-century English architect Sir Christopher Wren that a nation's values are reflected in its buildings, and that buildings can, in turn, shape the public's social and political attitudes. But where the monarchist Wren believed in using architecture to propagandize about tradition and authority, Wright aimed to do the opposite. Politics March 28, 2025 Jonah Goldberg The Unitary Theory of Donald Trump is that Trump isn't that hard to figure out. World Events March 30, 2025 Michael Reneau and Bill Drexel If Christian nationalism is about christianizing the nation, Hindu nationalism is more about nationalizing the Hindus. Policy March 31, 2025 Grayson Logue The Trump administration is ending input from experts that enhances the accuracy of federal statistics. Policy March 31, 2025 Carl Graham The nation's size makes implementation of such a missile defense system difficult and costly. Society & Culture March 29, 2025 Madeline Fry Schultz Traditional romance is back. But there's a twist. Politics March 29, 2025 Tim Brinkhof How comedians, podcasters, and internet trolls helped Donald Trump retake the White House. General March 30, 2025 James P. Sutton Our TMD reporter answers your questions. Podcast March 28, 2025 Sarah Isgur, Jonah Goldberg, Steve Hayes, and David French 'I reserve the right to be Jeff Goldberg.' Podcast March 29, 2025 Jonah Goldberg It will keep getting stupider. Podcast March 31, 2025 Jamie Weinstein Plus: The former ambassador's reaction to the Signal saga. On Sunday, several freed Israeli hostages, including Yarden Bibas—whose wife Shiri and two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, were murdered in Hamas captivity in November 2023—sat down for wide-ranging interviews with CBS News' Lesley Stahl on '60 Minutes.' During the conversations, the former abductees recounted the extreme physical and psychological abuse they endured at the hands of their terrorist captors. 'They were all murdered in cold blood, bare hands,' Bibas said of his family members. '[Hamas] used to tell me, 'Oh, doesn't matter. You'll get a new wife. Get new kids. Better wife. Better kids.' Another hostage, Israeli-American Keith Siegel, recalled living in tunnels with sparse food or water. 'The terrorists became very mean and very cruel and violent. Much more so. They were beating me and starving me,' he said. 'They would often eat in front of me and not offer any food. … I felt that I was completely dependent on the terrorists, that my life relied on them—whether they were going to give me food, bring me water, protect me from the mobs that would lynch me.' OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently shared a short story produced by artificial intelligence, claiming his company had trained 'a new model that is good at creative writing.' For The Drift Substack, Max Norman walked through the 1,200-word story with the eyes of a literary reviewer—and his appraisal was not generous. 'Altman wrote that the model 'got the vibe of metafiction so right.' But that's like saying that Trump Tower gets the vibe of Versailles so right. … The narrator declares itself to be 'a democracy of ghosts'—an evocative phrase, and one lifted straight from [Vladimir] Nabokov's Pnin. This fossil of human, and copyrighted, writing is perhaps the only interesting metafictional moment in the piece,' Norman wrote. 'For humans, imitation and originality often go hand in hand. Good writers match their mastery of language and form, learned in part by studying their predecessors, with a mastery of observation and feeling. The former without the latter can only yield cliché: prose unenlivened by uniquely real experience. As literature, this story is dead on arrival.' New York Times: Trump Says He's 'Not Joking' About Seeking a Third Term in Defiance of Constitution President Trump did not rule out seeking a third term in office on Sunday, telling NBC News that he was 'not joking' about the possibility and suggesting there were 'methods' to circumvent the two-term limit laid out in the Constitution. … On Sunday, after the release of the interview, the White House reiterated Mr. Trump's point that he was focused on his current term, and added that it was 'far too early to think about' the idea. 'Americans overwhelmingly approve and support President Trump and his America First policies,' Steven Cheung, the White House communications director, said in a statement. New York Times: California Governor Newsom Says the Democratic Brand Is 'Toxic' People: RFK Jr. Mercilessly Fat Shames West Virginia Governor at Live Joint Appearance Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared in West Virginia on Friday, March 28, to discuss the state's health initiatives—but also made a few rude remarks at Governor Patrick Morrisey's expense. … 'I said to Governor Morrisey the first time I saw him, I said, 'You look like you ate Governor Morrisey,'' Kennedy recalled. 'There was a lot of talk about getting healthy again, and I'm very happy that he's invited me to be his personal trainer,' he said before the crowd laughed. The first new Mumford & Sons album since 2018 was released on Friday—and it was worth the wait. Here's the lead single, 'Rushmere.' Do you think Donald Trump's tariff regime is here to stay?
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Protests Erupt As Turkish Opposition Leader Jailed
From the The Morning Dispatch on The Dispatch Happy Monday! The second round of voting in our inaugural Dispawtch bracket is live, and not a single cat advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. Get your votes in by 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday to have a say in which canines make it to the Elite Eight. Editor's Note: Penny seems totally unfazed by her early exit from the tournament and sends her congratulations to Adelaide on a well-earned victory, but Penny's humans are a little distraught. Israeli warplanes struck Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip overnight Saturday, killing Salah al-Bardawil, a senior member of the terrorist group's political bureau. The ongoing aerial attacks came as Israeli troops expanded ground operations aimed at destroying Hamas infrastructure and creating a buffer zone along the Israel-Gaza border. Meanwhile, six rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon on Saturday morning—the first such attack since December. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization, denied responsibility for the rocket fire, which threatened to upend a November ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Hours later, Israel carried out airstrikes on dozens of Hezbollah command centers and rocket launchers. Sudan's army seized the country's presidential palace on Friday, delivering the Sudanese Armed Forces an important political and military victory as it seeks to reclaim the entirety of Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The capital city has been at the center of fighting since the start of the war—which has left more than 28,000 people dead nationwide and displaced 11 million others—in April 2023. In January, the State Department determined that both sides of the conflict had committed war crimes. The Trump administration plans to revoke temporary legal status for more than 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, according to a Federal Register notice published Friday. The move, which follows President Donald Trump's January executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to 'terminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States,' will end the Biden administration's two-year parole program for immigrants who arrived by air and had American sponsors. The administration urged the immigrants to leave the country before the change takes effect on April 24. Columbia University on Friday agreed to the many demands made by the Trump administration after the White House withheld $400 million in federal grants and contracts, alleging that the university created a climate of antisemitism on campus. In a memo, the university's interim president, Dr. Katrina Armstrong, said that Columbia would hire a team of campus police officers with the power to arrest students, establish a committee dedicated to promoting free speech and academic freedom on campus, revise antidiscrimination policies and disciplinary processes, and require demonstrators to present Columbia ID when asked, among a slew of other policies. The Trump administration on Friday selected Boeing to lead the development of the F-47 fighter, the Air Force's next-generation air superiority and drone coordination jet, a major coup for the embattled aerospace company. Named after Trump, the 47th president, the fighter is expected to fight alongside autonomous aircraft made by Anduril Industries and General Atomics. The new projects are part of the Next Generation Air Dominance effort, meant to succeed Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor, which had been paused earlier this year due to cost concerns. More than 100 staffers in the Department of Homeland Security's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties were put on leave Friday, as the DHS announced plans to cut the office, along with the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman. Both offices are responsible for ensuring that the DHS complies with equal protection and civil rights laws. 'These reductions ensure taxpayer dollars support the Department's core mission: border security and immigration enforcement,' a DHS spokesperson said. Pope Francis was discharged from the Gemelli hospital in Rome on Sunday, the end of a stay that began on February 14 when he entered the hospital with double pneumonia. One of his physicians, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, told reporters that the pontiff experienced multiple life-threatening episodes while in the hospital, but has recovered from his pneumonia and will require at least two months of rest. He is expected to return to his duties as soon as possible, and gave a public blessing while leaving the hospital. Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in cities across Turkey on Sunday night, with many calling for an end to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's rule after more than two decades in power. The mass demonstrations, now approaching their sixth day, followed the arrest last week of the longtime Turkish leader's chief political rival: Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. Earlier in the day, some 15 million people supported İmamoğlu—the only candidate on the ballot—in the presidential primary of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). The party opened voting to non-CHP members, garnering a large turnout in a show of national solidarity with the embattled politician. Meanwhile on Sunday, Turkish authorities jailed İmamoğlu pending a trial and stripped him of his mayorship. The move—widely viewed as an attempt to preemptively bar the popular opposition leader from running in the country's presidential election, which must be held by May 2028—marked Turkey's latest and most dire departure from its democratic tradition. 'As a defender of democracy and believer in the power of the people, I trust that the truth will prevail,' İmamoğlu said during his first appearance in court on Saturday. 'I feel the strength of millions behind me and cannot even put into words the courage it gives me.' Nationwide protests began on Wednesday, hours after police first arrested İmamoğlu in his Istanbul home on charges of 'establishing and managing a criminal organization, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender.' A day earlier, Istanbul University had revoked his degree under apparent pressure from Ankara, threatening his presidential bid as, under the Turkish constitution, presidential candidates must have completed higher education. The ousted mayor has also faced accusations of aiding a terrorist group—charges he categorically denies. İmamoğlu rose to national prominence in 2019 after defeating Erdoğan's handpicked candidate for mayor of Istanbul. Ever since, he's faced dubious prosecution and threats of being banned from holding public office, including for 'insulting' election officials who voided his victory in the local election, thereby forcing another race that İmamoğlu won by an even larger margin. But he continues to garner nationwide support, earning the reputation—even outside of the CHP—of being an impressive orator and capable potential challenger to Erdoğan when the time comes for elections. 'He's got that sort of X factor, in terms of both rhetoric and presence,' Sinan Ciddi, a non-resident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who focuses on Turkish politics, told TMD. 'But also, just being mayor of Istanbul really elevates you to a national status.' Erdoğan himself held the coveted office from 1994 to 1998. The demonstrators now taking to the streets calling for İmamoğlu's release are a mixed bag. While some simply want the government to drop the charges against İmamoğlu to let the democratic process play out, others are demanding Erdoğan's ouster after more than two decades in power. While many are longtime CHP supporters, most are young people who see a broader assault on their rights unfolding. 'Erdoğan has been in power for more than 20 years, as prime minister and now as president,' Utku Barut, a master's student who attended a Sunday protest outside of Istanbul's city hall, told TMD. 'Young people who are voting right now were born in Erdoğan's regime. … They've only seen one political party ruling the country.' In Istanbul and other cities across the country, Turkish authorities sought to squash the protests before they ever began, blockading roads and shutting down metro stations. They also restricted access to various social media and messaging platforms, according to the NetBlocks tracker, forcing users to access the internet via a virtual private network. Several X accounts belonging to opposition organizers were also suspended, sparking accusations that the platform had booted the activists at the request of the Turkish government. Police used water cannons, pepper spray, and tear gas at the demonstrations in an effort to disburse the crowds, and some attendees even reported being shot with rubber bullets. Hundreds have been detained. Meanwhile, the government has largely suppressed coverage of the unrest, using its nearly unfettered control over Turkish media to prevent the protests from being broadcast live. For many people in Turkey, the events of the last week seem to mark a turning point. In recent years, elections have typically been regarded as free but not fair: The process itself is democratic, but Erdoğan, as Turkey's sole executive, can marshall the resources of the state to influence the outcome. By seeking to prevent the opposition from choosing its own nominee, the president has plunged the country into new, uncharted territory. 'This is the first time I know of that Turkey's government has said, 'I get to choose who runs against me, not the people,'' Ciddi said. 'It's very difficult to describe Turkey now, even under the most simple definition, as a democracy.' 'There's increasing worry that this is a Navalny moment,' he added, referring to Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader whose 2021 arrest led to mass protests and who later died in an Arctic penal colony. And as the relatively muted response from the international community thus far has demonstrated, civil disobedience may be the only force holding the Turkish president to account. Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump have long had good personal chemistry, with the Turkish leader welcoming the return of his 'friend' to Washington after the November election. Trump is reportedly considering selling Turkey F-35 fighter jets, reversing its exclusion from the program in July 2019 over its acquisition of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system. Erdoğan is also eyeing a White House visit next month. Responding to a question about İmamoğlu's arrest during a Wednesday press briefing, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce encouraged Turkey to 'respect human rights' but added: 'We're not going to comment on … the internal decision-making of another country … except to remind them that we expect them to behave in a manner that respects the rights of all of its citizens.' European countries, meanwhile, are looking to Ankara—a prospective European Union member—as a partner in their efforts to bolster the continent's collective defense. Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO, behind only the United States. 'It's a NATO member, an aspiring European Union member, and a treaty ally of the United States, so we should be worried,' Ciddi said. 'Turkey is headed toward a very, very dark place.' Tal Fortgang Only about 10 percent of American Jews are Orthodox, generally defined by adherence to traditional Jewish law, such as Sabbath and kosher observance. Fewer still are Orthodox and interested in receiving a secular higher education. These Modern Orthodox—distinguished by traditional observance combined with full participation in American life—have long maintained a disproportionate presence at elite universities relative to their population size. … Yet these students feel the weight of recent campus controversies most acutely, as they are both 'visibly' Jewish—often identifiable by their dress—and near-unanimously ardent Zionists. Politics March 21, 2025 Nick Catoggio How much judicial deference is owed to an untrustworthy president? Economics March 21, 2025 Jonah Goldberg People need mobility—and freedom—to pursue happiness. Religion March 23, 2025 Michael Reneau and Paul D. Miller Plus: A century of Flannery O'Connor. Society & Culture March 22, 2025 Samuel Kronen The hit show 'Severance' shows the limits of dissociation. Society & Culture March 22, 2025 Jessica Hooten Wilson The Southern writer has a depth that's hard to find today. Politics March 24, 2025 Charles Hilu The speaker will soon have a (slightly) larger GOP majority for the next legislative battle. Podcast March 22, 2025 Jonah Goldberg Intellectual earworms, stand-up comedy, and chinchilla farms. Podcast March 24, 2025 Jamie Weinstein Autopsies and resolutions. Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack and the ensuing war laid bare major intra-Democratic Party divisions over U.S. support for Israel. But those fissures are increasingly evident on the American right, too, as antisemitic conspiracy theories take hold in populist circles, argued New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. 'More so than in the Democratic Party, most Republican elites remain staunchly pro-Israel. But on what you might call the alienated right—younger, conspiracy-curious, anti-institutional and very online—there is a vogue for arguments about malign Jewish influences on Western politics, ranging from World War II revisionism to narratives casting Jeffrey Epstein as a cat's paw for the Mossad,' he wrote. 'There's just no way for mainstream Zionist Republicanism and the anti-Jewish faction on the alienated right to get along. … Those parts of the alienated right that are most comfortable deploying antisemitic tropes also believe earnestly not just in some general theory of Jewish power but in a specific theory of Israel's power, Israel's malign influence, Israeli leaders and institutions and spies as conspiratorial and destructive forces in American life.' It's been 18 months since devastating fires in Maui destroyed more than 2,000 homes. But only 6 have been rebuilt. In City Journal, Alex Hu examined the web of regulations, laws, and local government failures that have made the island's efforts to rebuild so lethargic. 'The political divide has only grown wider since the fires. Aside from activists seeking Internet fame by provoking viral confrontations at public meetings, radical councilmembers have called their pro-building colleagues names like 'colonizer,' openly questioned what would happen if they defied Hawaii state law promoting homebuilding, and advocated for secession from the United States. A general spirit of conspiracy and bad faith pervades the island's politics,' he wrote. 'These local dynamics discouraged Governor [Josh] Green from taking aggressive action. Suspicious residents interpreted his initial promises to rebuild Lahaina quickly as a plot to redevelop the historic town to profit 'outside' developers. He backed off in response. Even Mayor [Richard] Bissen has avoided taking strong actions or asking for strong state assistance for fear of looking like an outsider dictating terms to West Maui.' NBC News: Putin Said He Prayed for 'His Friend' Donald Trump After 2024 Assassination Attempt, U.S. Envoy [Steve Witkoff] Says Witkoff said some people might question if he should have met with the Russian president because they see Putin as 'a bad guy.' But he said: 'I don't regard Putin as a bad guy.' A real estate tycoon and friend of the president who has become a top diplomatic envoy for Trump, Wiktoff said he appreciated Putin being open to meeting with him and communicating in a 'straightforward' way. 'I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me,' he said, adding that 'it was gracious of him to accept me, to see me.' Bloomberg: Secret Biden Deal Allowed Chevron to Pay Venezuela Millions The Biden administration secretly permitted Chevron Corp. to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the Venezuelan government despite a license that explicitly prohibited such disbursements, according to people familiar with the matter. The supplement to a November 2022 sanctions waiver allowed Chevron to remain in compliance with US law while paying the regime of President Nicolás Maduro taxes and oil royalties, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information. Axios: Seniors Won't Complain if They Miss a Social Security Check, Lutnick Says 'Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who's 94, she wouldn't call and complain,' Lutnick—a billionaire former Wall Street CEO—told the billionaire 'All In' podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya. 'She just wouldn't. She'd think something got messed up, and she'll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.' The second season of Severance, the popular dystopian thriller starring Adam Scott of Parks and Recreation fame, came to a close last week on yet another cliffhanger. But don't despair: Apple TV+ announced Friday that a third season is on the way. And thankfully, executive producer Ben Stiller said it won't take another three years to make it. Did you watch the Severance season finale?
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20-03-2025
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
From the G-File on The Dispatch Hey, I just participated in a panel at the University of Pennsylvania on conservatism and the future of the GOP. Nothing got settled, but I made some friendships on my journey. Anyway, I bring this up because I am now parked at the Biden Welcome Center in Delaware. This is the one named after Joe. The one dedicated to Hunter is a glass coffee table in a hotel suite, with rolled-up $100 bills and a pharmacopeia of intoxicants and antibiotics. 'Put down your purses and check out the Biden Welcome Center.' The real point being, I only have so much time to write this. There's a staff at the office I can't keep waiting, and there are quadrupeds at home that have very high expectations for me. (And speaking of which, I have been told by my editors to remind you all that the first round of Dispawtch bracket voting—official voting, not the pick 'em bracket—kicked off today at 5 p.m. ET.) I'm often told that I never have anything good to say about Trump. That's often true. The point of this observation is almost always to dismiss or diminish the negative things I say about Trump. I mean, it's not like the people who say it are starving for fawning or friendly coverage of Trump. There's plenty of that out there. Indeed, there are several TV networks and countless websites and podcasts dedicated to exactly that. No, what they want to do is argue that my valid criticisms are invalidated by the fact that I have 'Trump Derangement Syndrome.' As a matter of logic, this is basically a shoot-the-messenger fallacy. I have numerous problems with this argument, starting with the fact that I don't think I have it. I certainly haven't gone full Jen Rubin. But beyond that, a lot of the people who use the phrase 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' have a very narrow definition of the term. It's definitely true that Trump makes people crazy. But the quality of that craziness is not distributed entirely on the anti-Trump side. Sure, I listen to a lot of self-styled 'resistance' types and can understand why people think those types have lost their minds. But if (some of) the 'resistance' folks are nuts, so are many members of the 'counter-resistance.' I mean, knock yourself out mocking the MSNBC crowd, but if you can't acknowledge that, say, Peter Navarro or Rudy Giuliani is bonkers, then you have the pro-Trump version of TDS. 'Orange Man bad' thinking can be deranged (though there are plenty of solid arguments that the Orange Man is, in fact, bad). But 'Orange Man Good' is often just as delusional. Still, I will throw you a bone. I'll do it Spaghetti Western Style—i.e. I'll give you the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I'll do it while squinting against the dramatic lighting. It is unambiguously good that Donald Trump is bombing the stuffing out of the Houthis. Smashing pirates, brigands, and terrorists is, at a very fundamental level, what the government is there for. Indeed, were it not for the need to crush the Barbary Pirates, we wouldn't have a constitution in the first place. The Articles of Confederation were inadequate to the task of building and funding a competent navy. That was one of the main reasons the Founders convened to set up a new form of government. Regardless, it was outrageous that Joe Biden tolerated Houthi aggression throughout his presidency. And it is good and necessary that Trump is opening a can of whup-ass on them. Last night Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Laura Ingraham, one of his appointees to the Kennedy Center Board and a Fox host. Here's an excerpt: 'You're tougher with Canada than you are with our biggest adversaries. Why?' asked Ingraham. 'Only because it's meant to be our 51st state, and I mean that,' Trump said. 'Okay, but we need their territory. They have territorial advantage. We're not going to let them get close to China, right?' pressed the Fox host. 'Look, I deal with every country—directly or indirectly. One of the nastiest countries to deal with is Canada.' This is very bad. I take a backseat to very few people in having fun at Canada's expense. But Canada is an ally. The longest unarmed border in the world is our border with Canada. They are military and strategic allies. Starting with FDR and ending with Trump's revised trade agreement in his first term, the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, Canada has organized its economy to be harmonized with the United States. The Trump administration has been pretending that Canada has been 'ripping us off.' But it has been abiding by the very trade agreement Trump bragged about replacing NAFTA with. The logical upshot of this is that Trump wrote a trade treaty that screwed America. (In case it matters to you, we have a very beneficial and preferential relationship with Canada when it comes to oil. We get more oil from Canada—at a discounted price, without fear of disruption—than the next five foreign sources combined. We get 15 times more oil from them than from Saudi Arabia. Now Canadians, in response to Trump's tariff threats, are trying to figure out how to muck up that arrangement and sell more oil elsewhere, which would be bad for us.) The administration has floated all sorts of arguments—some with a little merit, I guess—and some totally contrived to justify our bullying of our peaceful neighbor and ally. Should Canada spend more on defense? Sure. Should it do more to stop the negligible amount of fentanyl coming across the border? Maybe, sure. Reform its banking laws for more favorable treatment of American banks? I guess. But who really cares? I mean, it's a weird form of populism that says it should be a huge priority for another nation to boost the profits of our banks. But the point is that all of this stuff was pretextual garbage. Trump in his own words says that the real reason he's making these arguments (the better word would be 'claims') is that he wants to annex the whole of the country. Now, I'm actually all in favor of annexing Canada (and Greenland), if Canada wants to be annexed (ditto Greenland). But they don't, and will never, ever, want that. And what really bothers me about the way Trump talks about Canada is that it is remarkably similar to the way Putin talks about Ukraine. It's not a real country. It shouldn't exist. Canadians are really just Americans who, through an accident of history, got a country that doesn't really work and shouldn't really be a country. No, I don't think Trump is going to authorize the creation of 'little green men' as a military pretext to launch an invasion. But the main reason I don't think he'll do that is because he won't be able to pull it off. That's why this talk is merely bad. Now, let's talk, briefly, about the ugly. I'll stick with that word instead of 'evil,' but evil might turn out to be the better word. The Trump administration has objectively sided with Russia in the Russia-Ukraine war. The list of preemptive concessions to Russia is so staggeringly long I can't even cut-and-paste Jim Geraghty's excellent compilation without making this a 3,000-word 'news'letter. The significance of these concessions is multifaceted. But the relevant point here is just that the concessions prove Trump is not an honest broker between the two sides. He is coming to Russia's aid despite the fact the United States staked its honor and its word in support of Ukraine. That is dishonorable. It is unwise. You can argue that Biden and Congress—with ample Republican support—should not have put our credibility on Ukraine's side. You can argue that we shouldn't have rallied our allies to do likewise. I disagree profoundly. But the fact is we did. But Trump feels no obligation to maintain our honor or integrity on the world stage. But I've said all this before. The new ugliness, and perhaps the new profound evil if reports turn out to be true, is that we've decided to become accomplices to Russia's tactic of stealing and brainwashing Ukrainian children. The U.S. State Department, ostensibly under the leadership of Marco Rubio, has ceased funding a project that tracks these abducted children. I think that's appalling. But, again, that's not the really ugly thing. Members of Congress have 'reason to believe' that the DOGE crew that halted the funding didn't stop there. They're worried that the administration actually deleted the files relating to the approximately 30,000 abducted children. Think about that. Imagine if the U.S. were helping track Hamas' Israeli hostages, and then just decided to delete the files. Imagine how you would feel if you were the parents of one of those children. You're free to make the argument that spending money tracking stolen children was a waste of taxpayer resources. I'd disagree. But what on earth is the argument for effectively burning the records? Maybe some cold-hearted, stoney-eyed realist could make the case that we should have dangled this 'card' to Putin as an inducement to make concessions. I think that would be a moral horror. But okay. We screwed a lot of people at Yalta in the name of realism, too. But why do it for free? Now, we don't know yet whether the files have been deleted. Maybe they weren't. Maybe they were deleted by accident (which would be quite the indictment of the administration's competence). But if they were deleted on purpose, that would be an ugliness so vile and so profoundly ugly that one would need a better command of language to fully capture its evil.
