Trump Has Already Botched His Own Bad Tariff Plan

Donald Trump had a plan. It was not a good plan, or even a plausible one. But it was, at least, a coherent plan: By imposing large trade barriers on the entire world, he would create an incentive for American business to manufacture and grow all the goods the country previously imported. Whatever chance this plan had to succeed is already over. The key to making it work was to convince businesses that the new arrangement is durable. Nobody is going to invest in building new factories in the United…

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ICYMI: How DOGE’s Social Security Cuts Are Already Hurting Communities

WaPo: Employees describe hourslong wait times, delays in reviewing disability claims, and more WASHINGTON – In a damning exposé, The Washington Post today revealed that Elon Musk’s handpicked commissioner now running the Social Security Administration (SSA) has admitted he and his team have little grasp of the agency as they race to fire workers, slash funding, close offices, and pour over the confidential data of tens of millions of Americans. The piece outlines the devastating impacts already taking place at SSA offices, with employees describing hourslong wait times, disability hearings…

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Trump’s Second Term Might Have Already Peaked

Sign up for Trump’s Return, a newsletter featuring coverage of the second Trump presidency. Ever since Donald Trump emerged as a credible threat to return to the White House, the guardrails that seemed to restrain him in his first term—political, legal, psychic—have collapsed with astonishing speed. His nominees are sailing through their confirmation hearings, including some who are underqualified and ideologically extreme. Titans of business and media are throwing themselves at his feet as supplicants. He has obliterated long-standing norms, unashamedly soliciting payoffs from corporations with business before the government.…

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The ‘Mainstream Media’ Has Already Lost

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here. This October, in the closing days of the presidential election, the podcaster Joe Rogan said something extraordinary. He had just hosted Donald Trump for a three-hour conversation in his studio in Austin, Texas, and wanted to make clear that he had discussed a similar arrangement with Kamala Harris’s campaign. “They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour,” he…

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Chevron decision already leaving Congress, agencies puzzled

In a landmark decision that will greatly curtail the power of federal agencies, the Supreme Court recently overturned the longstanding doctrine that directs judges to give deference to agency interpretation of ambiguous statutory language. The new ruling means that courts will now only defer to agencies when laws explicitly state the agency can make its own interpretation. It also assigns our legislative branch the added responsibility of crafting even more judicious and well-considered legislation. Given its reputation for allowing disagreements to impede progress, the Chevron decision presents Congress with a…

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