Paul Krugman: “The Canadian election demonstrates why Trumpist trade policy, and foreign policy in general, is doomed to catastrophic failure. Trump isn’t trying to drive tough substantive bargains. Mainly, he seems to want to indulge in narcissism, demanding that other nations humiliate themselves so he can put on a display of dominance. And America doesn’t have remotely enough leverage, even against Canada, to make such demands. You could say that Trump is a reverse Godfather, making offers other countries can’t accept.”

“Consider the state of negotiations — or, actually, non-negotiations, since talks appear to have broken down — with Japan, another country Trump appears to have thought he could bully. Japan does sell a lot to the United States and might have been willing to offer something to preserve its access to our market.”

“But reports indicate that Japanese representatives sent to Washington left without accomplishing anything because they found Trump’s people impossible to deal with.”

An Amazon spokesperson said the e-commerce giant was never considering adding import fees on all purchases to show the cost of President Trump’s new tariffs, dismissing a news report that prompted an attack from the White House, the Washington Post reports.

The White House bashed Amazon for reportedly planning on displaying how much President Trump’s tariffs added to the cost of an item, calling it an aggressive move by the e-commerce giant, The Hill reports.

Said press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon. Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest levels in 40 years?”

Ed Kilgore: “Trump had a basic choice to make in planning his second administration. He could have moved cautiously to consolidate his support, extend the public-opinion honeymoon any presidential-election winner invariably enjoys, register some early wins, and convince a skeptical and fearful country that Trump 2.0 would represent the sort of return to normalcy that Joe Biden once promised but could not provide. This approach might have sent the wounded Democrats into an extended wilderness and made MAGA Republicanism into the greatest political success story of the 21st century.”

“As we now know, Trump chose a very different approach that highlighted all his worst characteristics: a raft of extremist appointments rewarding loyalty rather than competence, a vast array of executive actions that stretched every known limit on presidential powers to the breaking point, an escalation in vituperative rhetoric and threats against anyone who dared to question him, a rapid reorientation of America’s international positioning to blow up alliances or any other restraint on aggressive assertion of unilateral American interests, and a trade war that spooked global and domestic markets and U.S. consumers alike.”

Jonathan Chait: “Judged against Roosevelt’s record, the first 100 days of the second Trump term would be deemed a miserable failure. The president has passed no major legislation, and his economic interventions have had the opposite effect of Roosevelt’s, injecting uncertainty into a healthy recovery and seeding an economic crisis.”

“Yet his presidency has still been consequential. In just a few months, Trump has smashed democratic norms, crippled the federal bureaucracy, and realigned America against its traditional friends. Because Trump’s goals are so historically aberrant, the traditional measure of presidential achievement is of hardly any use.”

“His Carter-esque record as legislator and economic steward stands in stark contrast to his Lenin-esque record in stamping out opposition. For the president’s ruling claque, the effect is a triumph. For nearly everybody else, it portends ruin.”

“President Donald Trump is disputing polls that show his approval rating in decline as he prepares to mark his first 100 days in office on Tuesday,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump called the surveys ‘FAKE’ in a social media post late Monday.”

He added: “We are doing GREAT, better than ever before.”

“Twice as many people said President Trump deserves a grade of F rather than an A for how he’s handled his first 100 days in office,” according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll.

“Forty-five percent said Trump deserves the failing mark, compared to 23% who would pass him with flying colors.”

“It’s understandable that partisans would have strongly polarized views of the president, but it’s also notable that half of independents said he deserves an F, and only a slim majority of Republicans would give him an A.”