Thomas Sowell on Trump's Tariffs: "A Ruinous Decision" Sparking a "Worldwide Trade War"
Are Trump's Tariffs Really About Making World-Changing Deals?
Well I apparently pissed some people off by taking the same position I’ve had on tariffs for twenty plus years. They’re stupid, they don’t work, they’re only worthwhile to force a negotiation, otherwise they’re a tax on consumers and by the way, if you WANT to shift to a full-on tariff taxation system INSTEAD of an income based taxation system, I’m fine with that Jeffersonian fix (with some caveats) but again, that requires you to literally eliminate America’s income tax system. In Congress, the support for that is what, a total of twenty members across both sides of the House and Senate? So if you’re not getting rid of the income tax, and you are going to maintain these tariffs longterm and not as just a “let’s do a hundred different bilateral deals” situation, well, you seem to be setting yourself up for what one Republican political consultant described to me yesterday as “an obvious major fucking problem” for the midterms.
Or, ladies and gentlemen, let me turn it over to Thomas Sowell:
More followup reporting:
Mediaite: Ted Cruz Rejects Larry Kudlow’s Defense of Trump’s Tariffs
National Interest: Tariffs Are Bad, So Are Non-Tariff Barriers
Semafor: Trump’s Tariffs Threaten to Blot Out His Party’s Tax Cuts
Semafor: Emboldened Democrats Plot Ways to Hammer Trump on Tariffs
WSJ: Americans Rush to Buy TVs, Soy Sauce, Lululemon Workout Gear
NSC Firings Rock Washington
Several National Security Council staffers were fired this week, people familiar with the matter said, as right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alleged to President Trump that some members of his administration weren’t aligned with his priorities.
Four NSC aides were fired overnight, the people said. Two other NSC aides were let go on Sunday, others familiar with the matter said. The staffers worked on a series of portfolios, including intelligence, India, congressional affairs and the impact of technology security, the people said.
The exact reasons for the staffers’ ouster couldn’t immediately be determined.
Two people added that this was just the first round of firings. There will be at least 10 people ousted from the NSC by the end of the second round, the people said.
During a Wednesday meeting in the Oval Office, Loomer told the president that she had concerns about some of his staff, the people said.
Asked about Loomer on Thursday, Trump said, “She makes recommendations…and sometimes I listen to those recommendations.”
NSC spokesman Brian Hughes declined to comment. In a statement, Loomer declined to discuss her meeting with the president. “It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my findings, I will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will continue reiterating the importance of strong vetting, for the sake of protecting the President and our national security,” she said.
The firings are the first since members of Trump’s cabinet discussed sensitive information about a military operation in Yemen on a nongovernment messaging app, and mistakenly added a journalist. Democrats called for national security adviser Mike Waltz to resign over the incident, as he initiated the chat. Some senior Trump administration officials have also privately raised the prospect that Waltz should step down. Waltz, however, still has his job.
Two U.S. officials said there had long been an internal campaign to oust NSC officials deemed not sufficiently loyal to Trump’s agenda. Waltz has tried to protect his staff, the officials said, but no longer has strong standing with the president or senior White House officials.
More from WSJ: Trump Fires Director of National Security Agency. And here’s the Politico take on the NSC turf war:
The latest drama surrounding President DONALD TRUMP’s National Security Council is exposing fissures between different flanks of the MAGA foreign policy world, according to multiple Trump administration insiders and former Trump officials from his first term.
The tensions have been simmering in the White House for months between the Reaganite, “peace-through-strength” flank of the GOP and so-called restrainers who are more skeptical of existing U.S. alliance systems and military engagements.
It came to a head Thursday when several NSC officials were fired, a day after far-right activist LAURA LOOMER reportedly met with Trump at the White House to allege that some NSC staffers weren’t loyal to his agenda.
But even before that, national security adviser MIKE WALTZ, who many see as the embodiment of the new generation of avowedly pro-Trump Reaganites, had been grappling with battles over his personnel and staffing decisions with “restrainers” elsewhere in the White House, seven people familiar with the matter tell NatSec Daily.
The infighting between these two wings is making it difficult for the Trump administration to staff important NSC positions, which in turn undermines the administration’s ability to craft its national security policy
In multiple instances, Waltz has picked people for senior director positions at the NSC, only to have those picks blocked by the White House Presidential Personnel Office, or PPO, led by SERGIO GOR, a former staffer of Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.). As head of the PPO, Gor wields immense behind-the-scenes influence on vetting and approving roughly 4,000 appointees that could staff the Trump administration.
Three of Waltz’s picks for senior director for African affairs were rejected in a row, according to two of the people familiar with the matter, leaving a key NSC post unfilled for Trump’s crucial first months in office. Other early Waltz picks, including for senior NSC jobs overseeing strategic planning and nuclear weapons policies, were also blocked, these people said.
“From the get-go, there’s ideological fissures inside of the White House built in,” said one of the people familiar with the internal White House dynamics. “Sergio Gor is a Rand Paul guy. Mike Waltz is the opposite.”
“I think Susie Wiles could stop this if she wanted to,” the person added, referring to Trump’s chief of staff. This person said there are lists circulating with more names of officials that Gor and other Trump loyalists would like to see removed from the NSC. “I don’t think Trump knows or cares.”
These tensions have only escalated following revelations that Waltz accidentally added a journalist to a Signal group chat with Cabinet members on coordinating U.S. airstrikes on Yemen.
“It’s a war in there between Sergio’s and Waltz’s worldviews,” said one pro-Trump foreign policy expert in close contact with the White House.
A spokesperson for the NSC declined to comment on internal personnel matters.
The latest round of NSC firings drew backlash and anger from some Republican congressional aides and other pro-Trump Republican foreign policy experts who are in routine touch with the White House.
“This is going to have a chilling effect. Who’s going to want to put their name in the ring for an NSC job now? It’s so, so beyond the pale,” said the pro-Trump foreign policy expert. “The president’s entire national security policy is being totally, totally undermined by these outside influencers in these bizarre loyalty tests that aren’t actually measuring loyalty to the president,” the person added.
Has Trump Lost His Court Jester?
The Spectator: Kara Kennedy on Elon Musk
The most important man in the palace of King Donald Trump looks set to leave the court. According to several media outlets, the President has told both his inner circle and the wider cabinet that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his role in dismantling major parts of the federal government.
There were obvious difficulties and time constraints from the outset when Musk started running the new Department for Government Efficiency. A person can only serve as a “special government employee” for a period of 130 days each year – time that is dwindling fast, as we approach the 100-day mark of Trump’s second term. There are also strict rules around conflicts of interests, of which Musk risks having many given all his business operations. This was always going to be a time-limited role: not just because the rules say so, but because Musk has plenty else going on that, at some point, his shareholders might like him to return to.
But could there be another explanation? It would be far juicier to say there’s been a fallout or major rift in the court. But the evidence suggests another possibility. Musk, intentionally or not, has taken on the historical role of the “jester” in Trump’s court. It’s a sensational, attention-grabbing role. But it can only last for so long – especially when the king tires from someone else dominating the spotlight.
Musk has played plenty of roles for Trump so far: the fixer, the donor – and the sponge for public frustration and media abuse. With all eyes on DoGE the past few months, it’s Musk whose brand has (literally) been set on fire. The cuts, or rather axes, taken to public spending have been attributed to the world’s richest man and his team. Trump has seemingly been supportive, but at a notable arm’s length.
This has made Musk the center of attention at a time of significant, and nerve-wracking, change. That makes him a political celebrity. But it has also risked making him, in historic terms, “the fool” of the court.
“A remarkable thing happens in the experience of my fools: from them not only true things, but even sharp reproaches, will be listened to; so that a statement which, if it came from a wise man’s mouth, might be a capital offense, coming from a fool gives rise to incredible delight.” So said philosopher Desiderius Erasmus in his book In Praise of Folly. Dare I say, it applies now: Musk has been the one to speak truth to bureaucrats, say out loud how much the government is spending, take on the bold and outrageous position that most elected officials could never stomach. And for a while, he had special license from the President to break the rules, to mock everything and everybody (here’s looking at the UK Prime Minister).
In the gold-plated halls of Mar-a-Lago, where the chandeliers sparkle almost as brightly as the fake tan, Trump has clearly been enjoying Musk’s show: entertaining him in both the Oval Office and under the palm trees in Florida, escorting him and his family onto his helicopters and jets, showing Musk off to the press on a frequent basis. Musk has been no ordinary jester: he’s been given incredible power to rewrite the rules of government.
But he has still played the role in full: in just 74 days, Musk has caused international disputes on X, been revealed to have fathered more children, worn cheese hats, burnt millions on failed Wisconsin judicial campaigns, been put into a trance with silverware and fired the only guy with the key to the bathroom in Yosemite National Park. And let’s not forget the time he spent hours flogging Tesla cars on the front lawn of the palace. “The true art of the court jester,” whispered a royal watcher, “is making people laugh while picking their pockets.”
This was never sustainable. The fool has to exit stage left at some point. But what Musk will have achieved in the meantime will put many of the senior members of the court to shame.
More from The Spectator: Democrats Desperate for Elon Musk's Downfall
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Quote
“We do not truly see light, we only see slower things lit by it, so that for us light is on the edge — the last thing we know before things become too swift for us.”
— C.S. Lewis