Catherine Rampell offers 9 reasons President Trump’s new tariffs on Mexico are “deeply stupid.”
“Amid calls for impeachment, a persistently underwater approval rating, subpoenas for financial records and an ever-growing list of scandals, the strong economy is pretty much the only thing President Trump has going for him right now. It’s his best shot at reelection. And for some reason he seems keen on destroying it.”
“President Trump’s top trade adviser opposed the White House’s threat to impose escalating tariffs on Mexico, arguing that the plan could jeopardize a pending North American trade accord,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has argued that tariffs on Mexico further cloud prospects for ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the proposed successor to Nafta that is already facing significant hurdles in the Democrat-controlled House.”
CNBC: “The tariff was pushed by advisor Stephen Miller, an immigration hawk.”
“The surprise decision to announce the tariff plan came as Trump was ‘riled up’ by conservative radio commentary about the recent surge in border crossings.”
“A new policy proposed by the Trump administration would allow foods like spray cheese to be considered ‘staples’ for federal food stamps. Staple foods are important to the food stamps program… as regulations require SNAP retailers to stock a certain number of these food staples,” CBS News reports.
“Loosening the rules would allow more retailers like convenience stores to accept SNAP benefits, even if they don’t carry much in the way of fresh or healthy food.”
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Former Gov. John Kasich (R) said he has no interest in launching a doomed primary challenge to President Trump in 2020, The Hill reports.
Said Kasich: “There is no path right now for me, I don’t see a way to get there. Ninety percent of the Republican Party supports him. It may be a shrinking Republican Party but nevertheless.”
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has claimed he was once gay but “cured” himself of homosexuality in controversial remarks made during a trip to Japan, Rappler reports.
“President Trump on Thursday threatened to hit Mexico with new tariffs, escalating his immigration fight with America’s largest trading partner. And with that, he showed, once again, that he’s ready to employ trade as an all-purpose tool for his policy goals,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump is juggling multiple trade conflicts today, with allies and rivals alike. His demands, often first disclosed through Twitter, have caught trading partners off guard.”
“Of course, Mexico isn’t Mr. Trump’s only target. Far from it. In fact, what he’s taking on is broader than any particular country. He is challenging the post-World War II consensus that free trade enriches the world.”
“I am completely and utterly perplexed by those who argue that perjury and obstruction of justice are not high crimes and misdemeanors.”
— Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by NBC News, on February 12, 1999.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper described himself on CNN as an “extreme moderate” while arguing that special counsel Robert Mueller “laid the responsibility clearly at the doorstep of Congress.”
Said Hickenlooper: “I think we have to begin an impeachment inquiry. That doesn’t mean we’re going to impeach President Trump tomorrow, or maybe ever, but I think we do have an obligation to follow where the facts lead.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that President Trump actually wants to be impeached because he believes the Republican-controlled Senate would bail him out, ABC News reports.
Said Pelosi: “I think the president wants us to impeach him. He knows it’s not a good idea to be impeached, but the silver lining for him is then, he believes, that he would be exonerated by the United States Senate.”
She added: “And, there is a school of thought that says, ‘If the Senate acquits you, why bring charges against him in the private sector when he’s no longer president?’ So when we go through with our case, it’s got to be ironclad. Ironclad.”
Michael Bloomberg: “President Trump’s approach to trade policy had set new benchmarks of incoherence and irresponsibility even before his threat to impose escalating tariffs on imports from Mexico — but this latest maneuver takes the cake. The administration plans to harm businesses north and south of the border, and to impose additional new taxes on U.S. consumers, not to remedy a real or imagined trade grievance but to force Mexico to curb migration to the U.S.”
“This is a radical and disturbing development. The administration is invoking a law that allows it to impose emergency economic sanctions. It’s safe to say that Congress never envisaged that those powers would be used in a case like this.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said in a post that if elected president, she’ll push legislation to reverse the policy that a sitting president may not be charged with a crime.
Said Warren: “Congress should make it clear that presidents can be indicted for criminal activity, including obstruction of justice. And when I’m president, I’ll appoint justice department officials who will reverse flawed policies so no president is shielded from criminal accountability.”
Charlie Cook: “The age-old debate over whether it is better to nominate a candidate who can motivate the party base or one who reaches into the middle, appealing to independent and other swing voters, is presenting a choice of walking or chewing gum—you have to do both. Where these things come into conflict is that the issues that most motivate the base, whether within the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, are often ones that grate on the nonideological, or at least less ideology-driven, voters in the middle.”
“Trump has clearly picked the base-motivation model, effectively conceding the middle ground to Democrats—if they choose to take it.”
“After the spectacular collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to build a coalition threw Israel into an unprecedented do-over election, Israeli public attention on Thursday was glued to two politicians,” the New York Times reports.
“One was Mr. Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister for the last 10 years, but the other was not Benny Gantz, his main challenger in the election last month. Instead, the first day of the new election campaign was dominated by Mr. Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of a small ultranationalist party and former coalition partner who has become anathema to Mr. Netanyahu.”
“That divide, between the ultrareligious right and the secular right, has for the moment eclipsed the old left-right divide in Israel. It proved to be Mr. Netanyahu’s undoing on Wednesday, his deadline to form a governing coalition, and could be critical in the next election, scheduled for Sept. 17.”
The New York Times‘ Maggie Haberman told CNN that she doesn’t believe President Trump ever actually read the Mueller report and that seeing Robert Mueller discuss his findings on television “spooked him.”
Said Haberman: “When he hears Mueller say that on TV, again, him interpreting everything through the screen that is in front of him, I think that that had much more resonance than almost anything else that has happened.”
She added: “He saw Mueller in the box, and I think that that spooked him.”
She continued on Twitter: “It isn’t real to Trump unless there are tapes or photos. So Mueller speaking for the first time on the TV was significant.”
Judy Shelton, a senior U.S. official who is being vetted for a job on the board of the Federal Reserve, told the Financial Times that the the central bank wields undemocratic, Soviet-style powers over markets.
Said Shelton: “How can a dozen, slightly less than a dozen, people meeting eight times a year, decide what the cost of capital should be versus some kind of organically, market supply determined rate? The Fed is not omniscient. They don’t know what the right rate should be. How could anyone?”
She added: “If the success of capitalism depends on someone being smart enough to know what the rate should be on everything… we’re doomed. We might as well resurrect Gosplan.”
Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe hit out at Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Twitter after the GOP Senate Majority Leader revealed he would seek to fill any Supreme Court vacancy in 2020, the HuffPost reports.
Said Tribe: “Hypocrisy is McTurtle’s middle name. And his first and last name too. What a flagrant dickhead!”
“I am at the end of my career. Everyone dies and I am not, you know, I don’t believe in the Homeric idea that you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?”
— Attorney General William Barr, in a CBS News interview, on whether his reputation is being damaged working for President Trump.
Jonathan Swan: “As Trump announcements go, his planned tariffs on Mexican goods appeared more orchestrated than most with a tweet, a presidential statement from the press office and a background call with reporters.”
“But behind the scenes, it was an administration-wide scramble. As with many presidential ‘announcements,’ this once sprang from intense frustration and boiled over quickly with staff rushing to react. While the plan was hurried out the door to appease Trump, he has been privately talking about doing this for a while.”
“The White House has made a number of immigration demands of Mexico over the past several months, but Trump has not defined what they need to show him… The president’s next move may depend as much on his mood as anything else.”
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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