Beautiful Tariffs? – GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s interview at the Economic Club of Chicago defending his tariff plan is reverberating through the business world and probably among remaining traditional Republicans who have not withdrawn their support of him – yet. When Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait tried to explain how inflationary Trump’s tariff plan would be, Trump called “tariff” the “most beautiful word in the dictionary.

“All you have to do is build your plant in the United States and you’ll have no tariffs,” he said. 

Trump said he wouldn’t allow Nippon Steel to purchase US Steel (a position roughly akin to President Biden’s) and stopped short of promising to break up Google, though he said; “Google is rigged just like our government is rigged.” 

As for TikTok, which he has flip-flopped on, most recently opposing kicking it out of the US, Trump said, “I think everything is a threat. Some time you have to fight through the threat.”

Trump declined to confirm The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward writing in his latest book, War, that Trump after leaving office phoned Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. But he asserted; “I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing.”

And Trump said he has the right to jawbone the Federal Reserve about its monetary policy, though he did not say whether he would force its chairman, Jerome Powell, to step down.

“I think it’s the greatest job in government,” Trump said, mockingly. “You show up to the office once a month and you say, ‘let’s say flip a coin’ and everybody talks about you like you’re a god.”

Is this some sort of self-inflicted October surprise? As pundits continue to discuss Trump’s strange MAGA Soul Train performance Monday night, the pertinent question seems to be; has the former president lost it, or is he simply letting loose with policy positions that are anything but traditionally conservative and Republican? 

Trump also told Mickelthwait that concerning deficits, interest rates and the dollar, “You’ve been wrong all your life about this stuff.”

Are we simply misreading his “beautiful mind”?

--TL

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TUESDAY 10/15/24

Harris’ Highlight Clip – Vice President Kamala Harris began hitting back at Donald J. Trump at her campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Monday with a 30-second video clip of the ex-president repeatedly kvetching about “the enemy within” (see “Trump on Fox Business,” this column below). 

“Please roll the clip,” Harris began (per NPR’s Morning Edition). 

As with Maria Bartiromo, Trump in his highlight reel suggests political opponents should be jailed or dealt with by police or military force violently.

“He is out for unchecked power,” Harris tells her crowd. “That’s what he’s looking for.”

From Pennsylvania -- identified by pundits in recent days as the swing state to end all swing states -- Harris’ appeal appears both desperate (how is this election so close?) and confident, as in; this should turn independent voters who likewise fear authoritarianism toward her.

Up next … Harris is scheduled to take questions from Charlamagne Tha God, host of The Breakfast Club at 5 pm Eastern/2 pm Pacific Tuesday, and make her first-ever appearance on Fox News at 6 pm Eastern/3 Pacific Wednesday on Special Report with Brett Baier. 

Let’s dance … Appearing with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in suburban Philadelphia Monday, Trump interrupted his rally when two people in the crowd needed medical attention. The ex-president turned the rally into a dance party, with Trump getting down and getting funky to his adopted theme song, The Village People’s YMCA. Upon hearing about the MAGA Soul Train, Harris said, “I hope he’s okay,” Newsweek reports. 

To the Garden … Donald J. Trump is so looking forward to his October 27 rally, nine days before the presidential election, scheduled for New York City’s Madison Square Garden. 

“I’m gonna fill the garden,” Trump has boasted to a confidant who passed the comment on anonymously to the anti-MAGA conservative outlet, The Bulwark. Home of the New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden seats nearly 20,000.

--TL

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MONDAY 10/14/24

Trump on Fox Business – Why, Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo wanted to know, is there not more talk about two recent assassination attempts on Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump? Bartiromo obviously was prompting the former president to comment on “liberal” media and how outlets like Fox News were making a big thing of it (much as conservative media makes a big thing about illegal southern border crossings).

“I don’t want to say ‘conspiracy theorists’ and all that, but you could ask that question.” Trump asserted that investigators – presumably the FBI, though he did not specify – has confiscated six phones in one of the two cases and have not unlocked any of them to investigate content.

“Maybe they don’t want to do it,” Trump said, live from the Fox Business studio Sunday. 

He also suggested that President Biden ought to act against Iran over its apparently ongoing attempt to assassinate Trump, saying that the current president should threaten that unless Trump is left alone, “We’re going to blow your whole damn country up – and they’ll stop it.”

Trump told Bartiromo the border issue is “bigger than inflation” (perhaps because the Consumer Price Index came down to 2.4% in September) and criticized the White House hurricane response, particularly in North Carolina and “parts of Georgia.” (He also praised Republican governors’ leadership in the response in those swing states.)

Chaos agents… Does Trump expect chaos on election day? Bartiromo asked.

“No, not from the side that votes for Trump. … The bigger problem is from people within.”

As is his modus operandi, Trump turned the tables on Democrats and never-MAGA Republicans who express worry over Trump’s anti-democratic tendencies. The ex-president did this table-turning by suggesting more authoritarian action.

“We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical-left lunatics,” Trump said. “And it should be really very easily handled, if necessary by National Guard and if really necessary by military. Because they can’t let that happen.”

Trump does not have to buy their support, but … The National Border Patrol Council, self-described as “the guardians of non-supervisory border patrol agents and support personnel assigned to the US Border Patrol” has endorsed Trump for president, the Arizona Republic reports, as the former president has “pledged to hire thousands of new agents” with a $10,000 signing bonus.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa