Politico: “Less than two weeks before the start of a landmark antitrust trial against tech giant Meta, the growing relationship between President Donald Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is stoking fears in Washington that the White House could pull the plug on the whole case.”
“The FTC rarely abandons an ongoing antitrust case, regardless of who’s in the White House. But a series of events over the past week has the Washington antitrust world buzzing about the fate of the case.”
“This is the biggest self-inflicted wound we’ve put on our economy in history… Until we have a reversal, I think we’re going to have a real problem.”
—Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, quoted by Politico.
Playbook: “There are chiefly two factions among Hill Republicans worried about Trump’s tariffs: those who think they’re bad policy, and those who think they’re bad politics. (There is overlap.)”
“In the former category, you can now count seven Senate Republicans who’ve signed on as cosponsors of the Trade Review Act, which would reassert Congress’ trade authority and let it weigh in on new tariffs.”
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Some people “inside the administration and close to President Trump appeared confused, and surprised, about Elon Musk’s decision to publicly go after Peter Navarro (and by extension, indicate his displeasure with the president’s decision),” Semafor reports.
James Surowiecki: “Investors discounted everything Trump has ever said about trade and tariffs. We’re all going to pay for that mistake.”
John Gruber: “There is no mechanism in the law for the president to issue any such extension. What he’s saying is what he said the last time: he’s instructing Attorney General Pam Bondi not to enforce the law, and pinky-swearing that U.S. companies that are breaking the law to keep TikTok available (Akamai, Oracle, Google, Apple) won’t be held responsible for it. It’s just a complete abdication of the rule of law.”
“Not a peep from Republican Tom Cotton, who, on the cusp of Trump taking office again, was crowing about the PAFACA Act coming into effect to shut TikTok down in the U.S.”
“The Republican Party embarked this week on a haphazard experiment in economic policymaking, wagering that the United States can weather a monumental tax increase in the form of broad tariffs on imported goods as long as Congress also cuts taxes on income,” the New York Times reports.
“It’s a mash-up that many investors, economists and even some G.O.P. lawmakers expect to be a failure.”
Said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a conservative economist: “I always think that with gambling, at least you have a chance of winning. This is worse than that. This is betting with the mafia. You’re going to lose.”
David Frum: “President Donald Trump’s high-tariff regime will impose higher prices and lower growth on Americans. It will have another effect that nobody in the administration seems to have considered at all: a tsunami of smuggling.”
“In a few days’ time, every desirable consumer good will be dramatically more expensive in the United States than on world markets. Flat-screen TVs, athletic shoes, video-game equipment, even household basics such as coffee, toilet paper, and soy sauce—all will soon cost 20, 25, 35 percent more than they cost on world markets.”
“Trump has just opened perhaps the greatest arbitrage opportunity in the history of world trade. His effort to repeat the Smoot-Hawley tariffs of the 1930s will also replicate the cross-border bootlegging of alcohol during Prohibition.”
“If there’s a mirror image opposite to Donald Trump’s second-term blitz, it’s Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose first 100 days in office is the model for presidents who want to get things done,” CNN reports.
“The only president to serve more than two terms, Roosevelt remade government, used his bully pulpit and realigned political coalitions, all things Trump sees himself doing.”
“Trump, working with Elon Musk, wants to re-define Americans’ relationship with government by firing federal workers, dismantling long-functioning agencies, and branding as much government spending as possible as wasteful. He’s also realigning global trade and reworking international alliances as quickly as possible.”
Jonathan Chait: “Once you’ve said you might negotiate, nobody is going to believe you when you change your mind and say you’ll never negotiate.”
“A trio of election results this week have Republicans confronting a new reality: not only are they facing political headwinds as the party in power but simultaneously grappling with a dramatic reversal in the partisan preferences of the country’s most reliable voters,” CNN reports.
“For years, Republicans were seen as the party that dominated lower profile elections outside presidential years, while Democratic voters were less consistent. But under President Donald Trump, Republicans worry their base has shifted to include low propensity voters who turn out for him but are not as motivated as Democrats to show up when he’s not on the ballot.”
Only three days after President Trump announced sweeping tariffs, including a 20 percent tariff on goods from the European Union, Elon Musk said that he hoped that Europe and the United States would move “to a zero-tariff situation, effectively creating a free-trade zone,” the New York Times reports.
Earlier, Musk had taken a very public swipe at Peter Navarro, one of Trump’s most ardently protectionist advisers when it comes to trade policy.
Financial Times: “This week, just before the tariff chaos, 63% of Americans had a negative view of the government’s economic policy, comfortably the highest figure since records began almost 50 years ago.”
“All-time records were also shattered for the share of people who expect the economy to further deteriorate over the next year. Just 25% of US adults said they expect their finances to look better in five years than today — lower even than at the nadir of the Great Recession.”
“That was always the plan. Part of the DOGE—we talked about this from the beginning—is we’re going to do 80% cuts, but 20% of those are going to have to be reinstalled, because we’ll make mistakes.”
— Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
“Tens of thousands of people crowded in front of the Washington Monument and in cities across the nation on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump and top adviser Elon Musk’s dismantling of federal agencies, imposition of sweeping tariffs and what demonstrators called the circumvention of due process,” the Washington Post reports.
“Organizers said at least 1,300 ‘Hands Off’ rallies were planned by more than 150 groups in all 50 states. Photos and videos on social media showed throngs gathered in public squares or marching through the streets from Boston to Los Angeles.”
Washington Post: “At an emergency hearing, Boasberg temporarily blocked the administration from deporting alleged gang members to El Salvador without due process. Trump and his allies soon began calling for the judge’s impeachment. Online influencers, Republican lawmakers and the White House spokeswoman joined the attacks, drawing warnings from constitutional scholars about the need to respect the independence of the legal system.”
“Boasberg’s next decision may be one of his most fraught: whether to begin proceedings to potentially hold Trump officials in contempt for defying one of his orders in the deportation case.”
“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed — and we will deserve it.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on X, in May 2016.
Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr. (R-PA), “who campaigned on prohibiting stock trading by members of Congress, has emerged as one of the most active stock traders in the freshman class,” the New York Times reports.
“Since he took office in January, Mr. Bresnahan has reported 264 stock trades. He has purchased up to $1.7 million in stock since taking office… and has sold up to $3.03 million.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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