Trump’s economically inexplicable moves on tariffs make sense when they are viewed as part of our throughline that watches Trump continue to seize power for himself. As Sen. Chris Murphy astutely explains, Trump’s tariffs — probably the biggest global development of the week, which has already caused calamity in the markets — made no sense as a matter of economics; rather, they are yet another “tool to collapse our democracy.” As with Trump’s efforts to make law firms, universities, government contractors, and others adopt his views, Tariffs give Trump the unilateral power to punish and reward businesses as he sees fit.
Murphy points out that these tariffs are a “means to compel loyalty from every business that will need to petition Trump for relief.”
Contrarian
Not so much to compel loyalty, although that is a factor, but to exert power over them; make them bow to their master.
He concludes, “The tariffs are DESIGNED to create economic hardship. Why? So that Trump has a straight face rationale for releasing them, business by business or industry by industry."
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Trump continues to follow the “playbook for democratically elected leaders who want to stay in power forever.”
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Trump’s appetite for dominance continues to drive the ongoing evisceration of the federal government and the essential services it provides. This week saw devastating cuts at all the national health agencies. They threaten public health and risk squandering the work of this generation of scientists, dismissing hard-won expertise and damaging the quality of healthcare and scientific research, while preventing young people from embarking on their careers.
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To make matters worse, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., acknowledged Thursday that they are making mistakes, “At DOGE, we talked about this from the beginning...we're going to do 80 percent cuts, but 20 percent of those are going to have to be reinstalled, because we'll make mistakes." The uncertainty and the chaos are a feature, not a bug.
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On Monday, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the main source of federal funding for public libraries, put its entire staff on leave. Libraries serve as the centers of communities. They foster education and a love of learning, they provide internet access to people who cannot otherwise have access, and they are hubs for community engagement. Great civilizations cherish libraries as centerpieces of their culture, going back to the great library of Alexandria—and history tells us that destruction of these houses of books marks the decline of civilizations.
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Despite the last two months of brutal headwinds, Americans have shown they are not demoralized; rather, we have witnessed a rejuvenation of democratic spirit and righteous fight. The election results in the Wisconsin judicial race were staggering. The favored choice of Trump and Elon Musk, Brad Schimel, resoundingly lost to Susan Crawford, in an election that featured the highest turnout for any Wisconsin Supreme Court race in history. Ten counties that voted for Trump in 2024 voted for Crawford.
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We also saw perseverance personified this week in Sen. Cory Booker’s historic filibuster.
Yeah, yeah, MAGA, we know. It wasn't a filibuster technically. It was just a speech.
It wasn’t just Booker’s endurance that impressed—after all, Sen. Ted Cruz previously led a 21-hour filibuster during which he started reading the Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham. Instead, Booker spent those 25 hours outlining the dangers Trump and his allies have wrought.
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Amidst his soaring and inspiring rhetoric, perhaps the most important moment was a humble admission. “I confess that I have been imperfect,” Booker said. “I confess that I’ve been inadequate to the moment. I confess that the Democratic Party has made terrible mistakes that gave a lane to this demagogue. I confess we all must look in the mirror and say, ‘We will do better.’”
