Trump’s Tariffs Whack Trump Voters

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china-working-class-voters-dc140dbc?mod=hp_opin_pos_1

Whatever happened to GOP concern for the working class?

President Trump won the Presidency a second time by promising working-class voters he’d lift their real incomes. Which makes it all the more puzzling that he’s so intent on imposing tariffs that will punish those same Americans.

Tariffs are taxes, and Mr. Trump’s latest tariffs are estimated to be about an annual $150 billion tax increase. Taxes are antigrowth. That’s the message investors are sending this week since Mr. Trump let his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico take effect. The President also raised his 10% tariff on China by another 10%. Canada and China retaliated, while Mexico is holding off until Sunday.

As Trump cozies up to Putin, Russia offers to mediate US-Iran nuclear talks

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-trump-cozies-up-to-putin-russia-reportedly-steps-in-to-mediate-us-iran-nuclear-talks/

The news is potentially deeply worrying for Israel, which has sought Trump’s support for a credible military threat against Iran aimed at pressuring it to abandon its nuclear ambitions, but may now be stymied by the US leader’s increasingly cozy relationship with Putin.

Moscow also hosted officials from the Hamas terror group following the October 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel and has expressed support for Iran’s Hezbollah proxy, forcefully condemning Israel for killing terror leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon in September. Russian President Vladimir Putin last year offered to mediate an end to the war in the Gaza between Israel and Hamas triggered by the Palestinian terror group’s attack.

Russia has further deepened its ties with the Islamic Republic since the start of the Ukraine war, and signed a strategic cooperation treaty with Iran in January. Though the previous Biden administration backed Ukraine, supplying it with weapons, Trump on Monday suspended military aid days after a stunning public clash between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump in the White House where the US president berated the visitor, accusing him of being a warmonger.

Can Trump End Russia-Ukraine War in 90 Days? His plan is to give Russia everything they want at Ukraine's expense!

 https://www.newsweek.com/can-trump-end-russia-ukraine-war-90-days-what-betting-odds-say-2039619

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly promised to end the war in Ukraine within "24 hours." While the self-imposed deadline came and went, the president has continued to call for a fast end to the war.

Trump, during a White House press conference on Monday: "The deal could be made very fast. It should not be that hard a deal to make. It could be made very fast. Now, maybe somebody doesn't want to make a deal. And if somebody doesn't want to make a deal, I think that person won't be around very long.

That person will not be listened to very long. Because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal. I believe certainly the people of Ukraine want to make a deal, they've suffered more any anyone else."

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, in an opinion article published by U.S. News & World Report on Monday: "The only way to get a real peace deal would be to convince Putin that he cannot conquer any more territory. That would entail the U.S. and our European partners giving Ukraine more weapons to create a stalemate on the battlefield. Trump, however, has signaled the opposite...

Trump and his team have not proposed in public a single concession that Putin should make to end this war. Not one. Yet we are already seeing signs of Putin's future demands: limits on the number of soldiers Ukraine can have in its army, a ban on Ukraine importing weapons and other constraints on Ukraine's sovereignty."

Trump Ally Turns on JD Vance Over Ukraine Remarks: 'Wrong, Wrong, Wrong!'

 https://www.newsweek.com/nigel-farage-jd-vance-response-ukraine-2039324

British MP Nigel Farage, an ally of President Donald Trump, has issued a surprise condemnation of Vice President JD Vance over comments which appeared to insult Britain's military service.

Farage, leader of the party Reform UK, responded to Vance's remarks on Fox News dismissing an offer for British and French troops to uphold a peace in Ukraine.

Vance disparaged any cessation of hostilities being overseen from "random countries that haven't fought a war in 30 or 40 years."

Farage said on Tuesday: "JD Vance is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong," adding that for 20 years, British troops had fought alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan in which the U.K. "stood by America.

Fox News in TOTAL PANIC as Trump CRASHES MARKETS

'Not an economist alive' who would defend Trump's tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China: Economist

Trump’s Old World Order

 https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trumps-brave-old-world-foreign-policy-ukraine-blow-up-china-russia-trade-allies-7e32b02a?mod=hp_opin_pos_6#cxrecs_s

Does he want deals with Russia and China to carve up the planet? He should tell Americans.

With his first weeks back in office, and especially after Friday’s Oval Office brawling with Ukraine’s president, it’s clear President Trump has designs for a new world order. Perhaps he could share this vision with the country when he addresses Congress on Tuesday.

The conventional view of Mr. Trump is that he’s above all transactional. He wants deals, at home and abroad, that he can sell as great successes. But the way his second term is unfolding, this may undersell his ambition. Mr. Trump’s strategy seems to be moving toward that of Tucker Carlson and JD Vance, who view America as in decline and no longer able to lead or defend the West.

Canada Bites Back With Multibillion-Dollar Trump Tariff Revenge

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/canada-bites-back-with-billion-dollar-trump-tariff-revenge-plot/

Canada is not taking Donald Trump’s tariffs on the country lightly.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau hit back with his own sweeping series of counter-tariffs on U.S.-made products after the Trump administration’s levies on Canadian imports went into effect just after midnight on Tuesday.

“Today, after a 30-day pause, the United States administration has decided to proceed with imposing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian exports and 10 per cent tariffs on Canadian energy. Let me be unequivocally clear—there is no justification for these actions,” Trudeau said in a statement before the tariffs came into force.

Trump Tariff War Sparks Retaliation From China, Canada, Mexico

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-tariffs-canada-mexico-china-stock-market-today-03-04-2025?mod=WSJ_home_mediumtopper_pos_1

Stocks continue slide; Dow declines 400 points

 President Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada took effect first thing Tuesday. Canada responded with plans to impose 25% tariffs on nearly $100 billion of U.S. imports, and Mexico's president said it would also retaliate, with a range of moves to be announced Sunday.

The U.S. also introduced an extra 10% tariff on Chinese imports overnight, adding to a levy imposed a month ago, and other existing duties. China swiftly announced retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods, and other measures against American companies. Beijing also filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization.

Investors were rattled: the Dow industrials and other indexes fell in morning trading Tuesday, while gold surged, Wall Street's "fear gauge" picked up, and global equities largely retreated. Stocks had slid Monday, after Trump confirmed tariffs would go ahead.

Republicans Say Americans Are Willing to Suffer Higher Prices for Trump

 https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-tariffs-higher-prices-inflation-2039190

The Reuters/Ipsos poll found 53 percent of Americans believe the economy is on the wrong track, up from 43 percent from its January 24 to 26 poll. Additionally, a memo from Trump's top pollster Tony Fabrizio and his partner, Bob Ward, this month said their polling found 59 percent of voters in 18 swing districts are concerned about their personal financial situation, including 61 percent of swing voters and 53 percent of President Donald Trump's voters.

A recent Gallup poll, which surveyed 1,004 Americans between February 3 and 16, showed Trump's approval rating on the economy at 42 percent, with 54 percent disapproving, amounting to a net approval rating of minus 12 points.

Gallup noted that Trump's rating is lower than any president's first term February reading in recent history, including those for Joe Biden (54 percent), Barack Obama (59 percent), George W. Bush (53 percent) and Bill Clinton (45 percent).

This may be a worrying sign for Trump, who vowed during his campaign that inflation would "vanish completely" when he returned to the White House.

New polling shows majority of Americans are not happy with Trump presidency

Trump’s regime is fated to collapse

 https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5171000-why-trumps-regime-is-fated-to-collapse/?tbref=hp

Disregard the social-science jargon and notice that Deutsch’s model nicely describes the Trump administration. The putatively omniscient and omnipotent president occupies the apex. Just below him are a score of fulsome yes-ministers too terrified to provide him with correct information or disagree with his views. Existing governmental institutions are being eviscerated by Elon Musk, leaving their remaining employees in exceedingly vulnerable, atomized positions that encourage buck-passing, kicking the can down the road and many other dysfunctional behaviors that merely compound the structural inability of the system to make decisions efficiently and effectively.

Just as Putin has been a disaster for Russia, so too Trump will be a disaster for America. Fortunately, although hyper-centralization may sound like a good idea for a man who believes he is ushering in a golden age, it doesn’t work. Unbeknownst to them, both Trump and Putin are fated to find permanent residence on the ash heap of history.

The other bit of good news is that, since both men are at the cores of the hyper-centralized systems they have constructed, those systems are unlikely to survive in their absence. There is hope for a restoration of democracy in America, and perhaps even in Russia.

Wall Street Journal on Trump foreign policy: Less ‘brave new world’ than ‘dangerous old one’

 https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5173239-trump-foreign-policy-criticism/?tbref=hp

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board went after President Trump on foreign policy on Sunday, saying it is “less brave new world than a reversion to a dangerous old one.”

The board highlighted recent actions such as Trump trying to “wash his hands” of Ukraine and threatening allies in Europe and North America with even higher tariffs than adversaries like China. 

“All of this would amount to an epochal return to the world of great power competition and balance of power that prevailed before World War II. It’s less a brave new world than a reversion to a dangerous old one,” the board wrote.

“He says he wants ‘peace,’ but is it peace with honor, or the peace of the grave for Ukraine and accommodation to Chinese domination in the Pacific? And why isn’t he increasing defense spending?” it added.

Canadian premier says he will cut off electricity exports to US ‘with a smile on my face’

 https://thehill.com/policy/international/5173914-ontario-premier-doug-ford-tariff-threat/?tbref=hp

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Monday he is prepared to cut off electricity exports to the U.S. if President Trump’s 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods go through.

“If they want to try to annihilate Ontario, I will do everything — including cut off their energy with a smile on my face,” Ford told reporters at a mining convention in downtown Toronto, the Toronto Sun reported.

Ford doubled down on his pledge to retaliate by matching tariffs, noting the U.S. is a major customer of Canada’s electricity.

“They rely on our energy. They need to feel the pain. They want to come at us hard, we’re going to come back twice as hard,” he said.