China….
Defense Sec….
Tariff’s in General…..
Ukraine….
Spending Bill…..
The Fed…
Musk…..
Immigration….
Approval Polls….
Donald Trump in retreat is a fine sight.
Trump told reporters yesterday that the very high tariffs on Chinese goods he’d imposed with great fanfare two weeks ago will soon “come down substantially.” The hashtag “Trump chickened out” went viral on China’s internet, with more than 150 million views on the social media platform Weibo.
Trump also said yesterday that he had “no intention of firing” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. This newfound state of satisfaction came after weeks of non-stop criticism of Powell. Just the day before, Trump had called Powell a “major loser.” Last Thursday, Trump had said Powell’s “termination cannot come fast enough.”
The markets hadn’t liked the high tariffs or the threats against Powell. Sure enough, they’ve rallied, at least for now, in response to Trump’s U-turns.
And speaking of markets, I’d note that with Tesla’s stock price plummeting, Elon Musk tried to reassure investors by saying that his “time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly” starting next month.
So it was a day of Trumpist retreat.
And it was a useful reminder that Trump is not immune from pressure. The markets are the strongest form of pressure on Trump, as JVL argued the other day. But we’ve seen plenty of cases over the years of Trump backing off under political pressure too. Remember when he was pro-life? Or when he briefly backed background checks for gun purchases before being pressured to drop it? Or when he reluctantly agreed to leave troops in Syria? Or when public uproar led to halting the policy of separating migrant children from their parents?
On the one hand, it would be a mistake to make too much of these reversals. Trump’s commitment to autocracy at home and to dictators abroad isn’t going to change. Whatever tactical U-turns he pulls off, the fundamental danger of Trump and Trumpism remains.
Still, if Trump can be induced to occasionally interrupt his program of destruction, that’s a good thing….
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“The CEOs of three of the nation’s biggest retailers — Walmart, Target and Home Depot — privately warned him that his tariff and trade policy could disrupt supply chains, raise prices and empty shelves,” Axios reports.
Said one administration official: “The big box CEOs flat out told him the prices aren’t going up, they’re steady right now, but they will go up. And this wasn’t about food. But he was told that shelves will be empty.”
Another official said the CEOs told Trump disruptions could become noticeable in two weeks.
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“A trio of federal judges excoriated the Trump administration Tuesday over its immigration crackdown and threw up new legal roadblocks to the White House’s no-holds-barred approach,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
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“The idea that the government is wasteful and inefficient has been a long-held view by most Americans for decades, surveys have found. And Americans mostly support the concept of the Department of Government Efficiency, commonly referred to as DOGE,” the New York Times reports.
“But they generally are not pleased with many of the details, particularly the involvement of the billionaire businessman Elon Musk.”
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Hegseth shouldn’t do more interviews right now: Jennings
Republican strategist Scott Jennings has some advice for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth amid controversy over the firing of several top-level staffers and a second Signal chatwhere he reportedly shared military plans with family and his attorney: Avoid the media.
“If I were Secretary Hegseth, I wouldn’t do any more media interviews right now,” he said Tuesday during an appearance on CNN. “The best way to prove you can do the job is to do the job.”
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