Commentary by Jerry Lanson

Donald Trump often can twist, shred and shed the truth as readily as Harry Houdini twisted and shed padlocked chains.

Throughout his life he’s used lies and deflection to wriggle out from under political pressure and legal charges, large and small, just as Houdini mesmerized audiences with his skill at wriggling out of shackles.

In his act, Trump has profited from disengaged and alienated voters alike, often distracting them by accusing those investigating him with precisely the same kinds of misconduct he’s alleged to have committed.

And for most of his life, through two impeachments, through a lost election he still insists he won, and through investigations and indictments surrounding the January 6, 2020 riots at the US capitol, these maneuvers have worked.

But now, as he passes the six-month mark of a second presidency that has turned this country and its values upside down, Trump’s lies seem to be growing so extreme and his behavior so erratic that even some ardent MAGA supporters are beginning to question him.

For two weeks, Trump has tried relentlessly, even desperately, to turn the page on Jeffrey Epstein, the financier and former friend who hung himself in jail awaiting trial on charges of trafficking teen-age girls for sex. The president’s about-face has shocked Trump supporters who for years have drunk at the trough of rightwing conspiracy theorists who have told them the “Deep State” suppressed evidence of Epstein’s ties to rich and famous Democrats.

The Trump Administration just weeks ago was promising to reveal Epstein’s secrets once and for all. Then, abruptly on July 10, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Epstein case was closed, that there was nothing more to be said about it. The investigation, she said, had turned up nothing worth releasing, a line Trump repeated multiple times in the days that followed, as he’s strained to change the subject. He’s tried many things.

•Over the weekend, for example, he sent out a scree of social media posts that The Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel called “alarming, even by his [Trump’s] standards.” Among his 33 Sunday posts was an AI generated video of former President Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and video snippets of wild scenes such as a woman catching a charging cobra with her bare hands.

•On Tuesday, two weeks after signing legislation that will slash 10 million people from Medicaid roles in the next decade, he vowed he would reduce drug prices to a tenth or less of their current costs, Mediate reported in an article reposted on Politicalwire.com. This would be lower than the cost of manufacturing them.

•And at a Tuesday reception with Congressmen, Trump reportedly claimed that the Epstein scandal, which he called a “made up hoax,” had led to a remarkable boost in his polling numbers, giving him “the best numbers I’ve ever had,” Mediate reported.

For all his bravado, however, the master at mendacity seems to be struggling in his effort to shed the story. Trump’s real poll numbers appear to be declining at a steady and possibly an accelerating pace. And, as Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson raced to get out of town for summer recess to quell growing Congressional dissent about Epstein, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight Wednesday cast an 8-2 bipartisan vote to subpoena the Department of Justice for its files on Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation, the AP reported.

Trump’s biggest gambit to change the narrative could well come following the Thursday-Friday meeting between Justice Department officials and convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in Tallahassee, Florida, ostensibly to hear “new evidence,” the New York Post reports. It most assuredly won’t be about the president.

But just what this all means remains really murky. Epstein died six years ago, his death in jail ruled a suicide. Though The Wall Street Journal Wednesday reported that Bondi’s Justice Department had informed Trump that his name appeared “multiple times” in the Epstein investigation file, that news does not explain why Trump has labored so persistently and awkwardly to shut the story down. He’s long been known to be Epstein’s former friend and associate.

What is clear is that Trump’s polling numbers are falling.

Most remarkable have been two polls released this week reporting a seismic shift in young voters’ perceptions. Prior to the election, Trump was making significant inroads with this group.

Now a recent YouGov poll shows Trump’s net approval among Gen Z voters has dropped from roughly even to -40 percentage points, according to a tweet reposted on Politicalwire.

A CBS News poll that appeared on the site Tuesday showed an even bigger drop in support among voters between 18 and 29. It said that while Trump had a 10% favorable rating among these voters in February, the same age group now disapproves of him 72% to 28% – well over two to one.

Polls of all voters show increasing disenchantment with Trump’s performance on all issues, including those that fueled his campaign, such as immigration and inflation. His aggregate poll numbers are now lower than at any point in his second term.

Still, it is too early to know whether Trump will once again wriggle out of his problems.

In fact, it’s not entirely possible to rule out that the media and political frenzy over Epstein wasn’t hatched as one more diversion from the real pain Trump and his henchmen have inflicted with cuts in Medicaid, education, and science and health research, and with his administration’s vicious crackdown on immigrants.

Groups actively resisting the administration, such as Indivisible, are urging supporters to be ever-vigilant of Trump’s growing disregard of the Constitution and the rule of law. They’re encouraging members to reach out to neighbors and acquaintances to expand their ranks and grow their peaceful protests. 

Their concern is well-founded. A cornered Donald Trump often gets wilder. In the past week alone, he’s called for criminal investigations of Obama and his administration; of Schiff, who led the first impeachment hearing; of former FBI Director Jim Comey and of others.

Trump’s rapidly growing ICE army continues to spread chaos through workplaces, farms and immigrant communities, typically hauling in those with no criminal record. A headline in the Boston Globe Magazine this week reads, “’I want daddy.’ As ICE detains parents, children are left behind.”

Ultimately, however, the fate of Trump’s presidency may not lie with the resistance but with Trump’s success or failure in either deflecting attention from the Jeffrey Epstein files or making those files stick to someone else.

Though six years have passed since Epstein died in prison, something about the case, for whatever reason, clearly makes Trump uncomfortable. And that’s led the news media, Democrats and growing numbers of Republicans to talk about little else.

This column first appeared on Lanson’s Substack, From the Grassroots.

_____
FRIDAY 7/25/25

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

One of the things that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves is what even the Trump Administration knows tariffs do: Raise the cost of goods in the country importing them.

So, simply, the price of goods being imported into the US are more expensive for those who are buying them.

Most things that we buy have some intermediary. It’s not like its farm-to-table (you picked it; you cooked it).

You may buy something from General Motors. You may buy something through Amazon.

In both cases, if they are sourcing something from another country (e.g., GM builds trucks in Canada and Mexico, both of which have 25% tariffs; Kindles aren’t made in Seattle, but in places including China, which has a 30% tariff), then their invoice is increased. 

What’s more (actually less) is that the value of the US dollar has been declining consistently since “Liberation Day” in April. There is a measure known as the “US Dollar Index,” which compares the value of the dollar against a basket of currencies. A higher number is better.

So here’s how it is going:

--March: 104.21

--April: 99.47

--May: 99.33

--June: 96.88

--July (so far): 97.48

Down, down, down.

This means that when paying for those imported goods, it costs more dollars today than it did in March.

There is an argument that a weaker dollar is more advantageous for exporters from the US. 

But here’s the thing: US exports haven’t exactly been struggling.

That is, in 2014 the value of US exports was $1.62 trillion. Ten years later, 2024, the number was up to $2.064 trillion.

That’s a 27% increase.

The Administration has consistently argued that the countries of origin are the ones who pay the tariffs.

Which is patently untrue.

To use a hackneyed example: It is just like Mexico was going to pay for the Wall.

It was easy for Trump supporters to believe that fabrication because unless they lived in the neighborhood of the Wall, they really didn’t have a sense of what was or wasn’t being built. (As things turned out, not much of the Wall was new construction. And

Mexico didn’t pay for it.)

More importantly, the Wall claim didn’t have a visible impact on the supporters’ buying power.

Tariffs are different.

There is a 50% tariff on coffee beans from Brazil. The US imports as much as 50% of its coffee from Brazil — because the US isn’t conducive to growing coffee, not because the Brazilian people are “ripping us off!”

Just wait until people start seeing that putting Folgers in their cup is going to get a lot more expensive. And the wait won’t be long.

The Administration — from President Trump to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — have been saying that there is an expectation that US corporations will absorb tariff-associated costs.

Which means that there is an expectation that US corporations will essentially underwrite the tax that tariffs are on the consuming public.

Let’s go back to the coffee example. Walmart, which sells a whole lot of groceries to a whole lot of Americans, has a profit margin on groceries of less than 3%.

What the Administration is saying is that Walmart needs to reduce that margin even further in order to absorb the tariff costs.

Back in May during the Walmart earnings call, CEO Doug McMillon, who quite evidently understands how businesses operate, said, "We will strive to keep our prices as low as possible. However, due to the significant scale of the tariffs . . . we cannot absorb all the pressure given the reality of slim retail margins . . . the elevated tariffs will lead to increased prices.”

It can’t be put any simpler than that.

How much is that jar of coffee going to cost?

What is the alternative to importing coffee? The US mainland isn’t conducive to the crop. This is just how the world works, despite what the Administration would like us to believe.

And while on the subject of buying things at places at Walmart, as kids across the country right now know — and are not particularly happy to know it — this is “Back to School” season.

When I was young my mom took me to a department store and bought me some new shoes and clothes to wear for the forthcoming school year. And all of my classmates, to a greater or lesser degree, evidently had the same experience. 

Here’s this from the latest (July 23) research from The Yale Budget Lab:

“The 2025 tariffs disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, with consumers facing 40% higher shoe prices and 36% higher apparel prices in the short-run. Shoes and apparel prices stay 19% and 17% higher in the long-run respectively.”

Moms across the country are going to have more than a slight surprise when they go “Back to School” shopping.

There is no way that everyday Americans are going to escape the higher prices that the tariffs are putting on the goods that they buy every day.

While bringing back manufacturing to the US is a laudable goal, have you heard any articulation from anyone in the administration how they are going to facilitate this?

If they were serious about bringing back manufacturing there would be a Moon Shot-like series of programs that would help fund the development of industries that will be viable in the years ahead. Instead, all they seem to be doing is trashing green energy technology (does anyone really think that coal is the future of energy?) and eliminating tax incentives and regulations that make it more likely that car companies will not build electric vehicles — which will mean that the US will pretty much be an island of old automotive technology compared to the rest of the world — with the exception of Cuba.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____
FRIDAY 7/25/25

What are your thoughts on whether the House Oversight Committee subpoena of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime companion and sex trafficking accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell? Should the Justice Department turn over files from the grand jury that convicted Epstein?

As reported in our center column news aggregate, House Speaker Mike Johnson has blocked any such subpoenas from happening earlier than September, if at all. 

Meanwhile, The Hustings continues to welcome civil comments on all current political issues, including our debate earlier this week between left-column contributing pundit Jerry Lanson on “Our Emerging Police State” and right-column contributing pundit Rich Corbett on “Lessons from Kent State.” 

Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read those commentaries surrounding analysis on the subject in our center column.

Then email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line, irrespective of your position on a specific issue, so that we may post your comments in the proper column.  –Editors

_____
TUESDAY 7/22/25

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

First, some background from the Office of the United States Trade Representative’s website, which will probably be taken down once someone sees the presentation of facts.

This is a bit long, but stick with it for the sake of context to what we’ll get to:

“Canada has consistently been one of the top two trading partners for the United States. The two countries share a long history of supply chain integration, including especially in the automotive and textile industries and the energy sector. Most recently, in 2024, Canada was the top destination for US exports and the third-largest source of US imports. Canada exported over three-quarters of its goods to the United States and imported almost half of its goods from the United States.

“The United States’ leading exports to Canada are vehicles, machinery, and energy products, together with over $30 billion in agricultural products, including bakery goods, cereals and pasta, fresh vegetables and fruit, and ethanol. Canada’s leading exports to the United States are energy products and vehicles, together with over $40 billion in agricultural products, including baked goods, cereals and pasta, vegetable oils, beef and beef products, processed fruit and vegetables, and fresh vegetables.”

Canada Trade Summary

“US total goods trade with Canada was an estimated $762.1 billion in 2024. US goods exports to Canada in 2024 were $349.4 billion, down 1.4 percent ($5.0 billion) from 2023. US goods imports from Canada in 2024 totaled $412.7 billion, down 1.4 percent ($5.9 billion) from 2023. The US goods trade deficit with Canada was $63.3 billion in 2024, a 1.4 percent decrease ($926.9 million) over 2023.”

Let’s highlight a few of those observations:

• “a long history of supply chain integration”
• “top destination for US exports”
• “imported almost half its goods from the United States”
• “US goods trade deficit with Canada . . . in 2024, a 1.4 percent decrease ($926.9 million) over 2023”

And this is a country that the Trump Administration has essentially gone to economic war with.

What did Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick say about Canada on CBS News’ Face the Nation on July 20 to host Margaret Brennan?

“Canada is not open to us.”

Huh? Seems to be quite a disconnect between the Office of the United States Trade Representative and Lutnick.

Prior to making that clearly absurd remark Lutnick said:

“The President said look, unless you stop this fentanyl and close the border, we're just going to keep tariffs on the other 25% and that's what he has on.”

The 25% in question are the goods not covered under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Donald Trump negotiated during his first term. It was full MAGA when the previous agreement, NAFTA, was eliminated. 

And perhaps as an indication of the economic inconsistency being exhibited by the Trump Administration:

Lutnick: “Oh, I think the President is absolutely going to renegotiate USMCA, but that’s a year from today.”

In other words, the agreement — which Trump described as “historic, groundbreaking” when he signed it — exists only until he decides it doesn’t. 

Now the whole fentanyl thing is a dodge. From 2022 to 2024 US Customs and Border Protection seized 59 pounds on the Canadian border.

What doesn’t get any attention is the fact that in 2023 to 2024, Canadian border authorities seized 43 pounds of fentanyl being smuggled out of the US.

Statistically that means that if in 2023 and 2024 each year had 21.5 pounds being smuggled out of the US into Canada and we add a year to make it even with the number of years the 59 pounds were seized going south, then there would be 64.5 pounds coming out of the US.

And Canada is the problem?

The whole illegal immigrant issue with Canada is absurd given how small the numbers are. If we take into account that the border between the two countries (5,525 miles) is the longest border in the world and the fact that, yes, illegal immigrants actually come out of the US to Canada, the administration should be ashamed of even talking about Canada in that context.

Let’s wind back to the opening of the interview on Face the Nation:

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, you heard in our polling some of the perceptions of the economy; 61% of Americans believe the administration is putting too much focus on tariffs, 70% say the administration is not doing enough to lower prices, and 60% oppose new tariffs on imported goods. This is a centerpiece to your policy plan. How do you reverse public opposition?

SEC. LUTNICK: They're going to love the deals that President Trump and I are doing. I mean, they're just going to love them. You know, the president figured out the right answer, and sent letters to these countries, said this is going to fix the trade deficit. This will go a long way to fixing the trade deficit, and that's gotten these countries to the table and they're going to open their markets or they're going to pay the tariff. And if they open their markets, the opportunity for Americans to export, to grow the business, farmers, ranchers, fishermen, this is going to be -- the next two weeks, are going to be weeks for the record books. President Trump is going to deliver for the American people.

Well, let’s turn to another source, this the Department of Commerce (yes, the department Lutnick heads), to learn about tariffs.

In a GovFacts explainer titled “What Are Tariffs and How Do They Work?” it says:

“The process in the United States is straightforward. When a ship full of foreign goods arrives at an American port, US Customs and Border Protection collects the tariff. The company importing the goods pays the tax, typically within 10 days of the goods clearing customs.”

OK. That’s pretty straightforward (if we ignore the bit about “The company importing the goods pays the tax” because the Trump Administration wants us to think the country exporting the goods pays the tax).

But then there’s the next paragraph:

“The most immediate effect of a tariff is simple: it makes imported products more expensive for Americans to buy. This basic function drives all the complex economic and political consequences that follow.”

That bears repeating in Trump-style font:

“IT MAKES IMPORTED PRODUCTS MORE EXPENSIVE FOR AMERICANS TO BUY.”

What exactly is it that President Trump is going to deliver to the American people?

Somehow they’re probably not going to “love” those higher prices on everything from coffee to cars, from computers to pharmaceuticals.

Secretary Lutnick was followed on Face the Nation by Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT).

Himes said: “So what you just saw was a master class by a huckster and a con man.

Given the facts, he’s probably not wrong.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____
TUESDAY 7/22/25

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

From health care to higher education, scientific research to social policy, the Trump Administration in six short months has propelled this country sharply backwards.

Looking forward, however, the heart of the fight to preserve our democracy will rest on all our ability to expose and reject the increasingly lawless reach of the administration in enforcing its ever-harsher immigration “policies.” That fight will demand determined, unrelenting and united action. After June’s successful No Kings protests, the fight continued Thursday with nationwide rallies named after the “Good Trouble” stirred throughout his lifetime by former Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis.

Donald Trump’s Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) already has proven itself to be ruthless, both in the sweep of its arrests and its tactics. And it is gearing up to be much worse.

Already, ICE agents across the country are arresting far more completely law-abiding individuals than criminals. ICE agents are plucking them from streets, rounding them up at their workplaces, pulling them from immigration courthouses and even from their cars. They do so without warrants and without identifying themselves. With the blessing of an ideologically hard-right Supreme Court super-majority, the agency already has begun deporting some immigrants to distant countries known for torture. ICE also has arrested citizens, sometimes by mistake, sometimes because they allegedly get in the way. And it regularly separates parents from their children, many of whom were born in the United States.

The scale of these actions is about to explode. 

•A New York Times article titled, “ICE Set to Vastly Expand its Reach ...” noted that the budget of ICE will more than triple to $28 billion a year under the new GOP-driven budget law, making it “the highest funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.”

•The agency is set to hire as many as 10,000 new agents across the country. “You’re going to see immigration enforcement on a level you’ve never seen before,” Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told the NYT.

•The acting director of ICE, in an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post, wrote that ICE may deport thousands of undocumented immigrants to countries other than their country of origin, doing so in as little as six hours after taking them into detention.

•In a separate article, the WaPo on Monday reported that ICE, according to its own internal memo, intends to deny all immigrants who arrived undocumented in the United States the right to a bond hearing. This means that some could remain behind bars for months or years as they fight deportation. The new Republican budget law provides funds for to more than double the number of prison beds for immigrants. 

•Nearly three-quarters of immigrants being detained – 72 percent – have not been convicted of any crime whatsoever Fortune reports. This figure, based on ICE’s own internal documents, continues to grow. 

•The brazenness of ICE operations also continues to escalate. In my hometown of Falmouth, Massachusetts, agents, some masked, took a man away in handcuffs at around 9 a.m. on Friday, July 11, in front of a highly popular and busy coffee shop. They were filmed disregarding requests that they identify themselves. When they took the man away, they left his car running on the street, according to witnesses. Falmouth police said they were not notified in advance.

In San Diego, a 71-year-old U.S. citizen was detained for 8 hours by ICE after she was handcuffed by agents at a federal immigration courthouse she had visited to observe ICE operations, ABC Local 7 News reported. ICE said Barbara Stone pushed an agent, but no charges were filed against her. Her phone was confiscated.

Such horrifying incidents continue to grow in number. The good news is that Americans are noticing. Their views on immigration and on Trump’s policies are now changing rapidly as some activists take specific action to document and slow ICE’s assault on American communities.

A study last week by the venerable Gallup polling organization found that a record-high 79% of Americans now say that immigration “is a good thing” for the country. Furthermore, the poll, taken June 2-26 and based on interviews with more than 1,400 people nationwide, found that only 35% approved of Trump’s immigration policies while 62% disapproved. That’s a remarkable shift from both the weeks before the election and the start of Trump’s term, when slight majorities favored his crackdown on immigrant “criminals.” The Gallup poll showed by far the biggest gap between approval and disapproval since Trump’s term began.

People are speaking out, too – on local government boards, in letters to newspapers, in protests around the country, in telephone calls to their election representatives and at gatherings.

On Tuesday, for example, The Boston Globe ran three letters critical of the ICE’s immigration actions.One ranunder the headline, “We will not be bystanders to ICE’s thuggery.” It started, “A counterforce has begun in communities of faith.”

That counterforce also has led to the formation of community organizations to support and inform immigrants. The newly formed Falmouth Immigrant Resource Coalition hands out cards and brochures in multiple languages to inform immigrants of their rights, prepare families should a loved one be detained, and connect them with longstanding immigrant organizations that can help with legal advice, counseling and more.

Still other organizations are springing up to bear witness to ICE arrests and record them on video. This may become particularly vital as the agency tries to deport immigrants rapidly to countries serving as offshore concentration camps.

Countering an increasingly aggressive, shadowy and well-financed federal agency is taxing and can seem scary. But it also is urgent. Speaking out for the rights of all matters. It takes a bit of courage. But with that courage comes renewed energy and hope.

Stay peaceful. But stand up and be counted by attending rallies like Good Trouble and No Kings.

Lanson’s column first appeared in his Substack, From the Grassroots.

_____
MONDAY 7/21/25

Commentary by Rich Corbett

In his compelling 2024 work Kent State: An American Tragedy, historian Brian VanDeMark revisits one of the darkest chapters of modern American history — the deadly clash between student protesters and National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970. What began as demonstrations against the Vietnam War spiraled into chaos, culminating in the deaths of four students. VanDeMark’s narrative captures both the recklessness of those in the crowd and the grave cost of state force when the line between protest and violence becomes dangerously blurred.

More than half a century later, we’re watching similarly combustible forces simmer in today’s streets. But this time, the hostility is increasingly directed not at a war overseas — but at the very institutions tasked with enforcing the law at home.

Under the Trump administration, federal immigration officers with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) were repeatedly vilified — not for misconduct, but for doing their jobs. Protesters have blocked courthouses, swarmed detention centers, and, in increasingly frequent cases, hurled rocks, bottles, and threats at agents. These are not peaceful protests; they are violent confrontations dressed in the language of social justice.

And yet, as tensions escalate, where is the national outcry? Where is the media scrutiny or the principled calls for de-escalation from elected officials?

Instead, we hear words from Democratic leaders — some in Congress, others behind microphones at rallies—openly invoking “blood in the streets” as a necessary means of resisting perceived injustice. Whether metaphor or malice, such rhetoric is beyond irresponsible. It is the spark that ignites tragedy.

The tragedy at Kent State was not inevitable — but it was predictable, given the rising intensity of demonstrations and the breakdown of order. VanDeMark’s book reminds us that when law enforcement is put into impossible situations — surrounded, demonized, and physically attacked — disaster becomes more likely than not.

President Trump, for all his polarizing traits, took a firm stance in defending law enforcement and securing the border. His administration backed ICE agents with resources, political support, and moral clarity. In a time when mobs chant to abolish ICE, when officers are ambushed, and when cities offer sanctuary to lawbreakers, that stance is not merely defensible — it is essential.

Let Kent State serve as a warning, not a blueprint. America cannot afford to see blood spilled again because we allowed protests to morph into riots, or because political leaders saw chaos as a means to an end.

Words matter. So do the rules of law and order. If we are to preserve this republic, we must reject the violent fringe and support those sworn to protect us — even when their job is unpopular.

Corbett writes about myriad subjects at My Desultory Blog.

_____
MONDAY 7/21/25

One of our contributing pundits of the left comments on Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s column on the right, “Economic Issues or Recalcitrance?” Scroll down this column to find out how you, too, can join the discussion.

No Surprise – Quite the roundup. In other words, a shit show. No surprises there but tell me how a graduate of Penn can fake economics like this. Something in the water at the White House no doubt. – Kate McLeod

•••

How to Comment

Democrats have had to do little more than watch as MAGA splits from President Trump on the issue of release of the Epstein Files. Conservatives who want Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi to release the client list she said five months ago she had on her desk for review believe it will at least reveal connections to Democratic elite and at most prove the conspiracy theory of a global elite sex trafficking.

In last year’s presidential race Trump also promoted the theory that Epstein did not commit suicide while in federal custody but instead was killed by the “deep state.”

Photos of Epstein hanging out with former President Bill Clinton often pop up, but on the left side of social media, so too do photos of Epstein with Trump, from when the future president was a real estate developer.

If you’re on the right side of the political divide, do you think Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi should release everything she has on Epstein? If she refuses to do so, should she step down or be fired?

If you’re on the left side of the political divide, what are your thoughts about the fallout from this apparent split between Trump and the MAGA faithful? 

Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line, irrespective of your position on a specific issue, so that we may post your comments in the proper column.  –Editors

_____
WEDNESDAY 7/16/25

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Kevin Hassett is the White House National Economic Council Director.

That is a fairly impressive title.

Hassett has a PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, so presumably he knows considerably more than the average person about the subject, which is a good thing given that the purpose of the NEC is to provide advice to the president about economic policy matters, both domestic and international.

Hassett was a guest on ABC New’s This Week on July 13. He was interviewed by Jonathan Karl.

And right off the bat it became clear that Hassett must have missed some history classes.

Karl asked about the president’s announcement of a flurry of tariffs on August 1.

Hassett answered, in part, “the thing about President Trump, if you go back and look at his history, that he became one of the most successful, if not the most successful, businessman in the 20^th century.”

Let’s see. . .

Warren Buffett. Bill Gates. Sam Walton. Andrew Carnegie. John D. Rockefeller.

Donald Trump?

Then there’s this:

Hassett said that when he is talking to negotiators from other countries, “what I am trying to get — the message we’re all trying to get across is this is about America getting itself ready for the golden age by getting our house in order, by getting our tariff and trade policy and tax policy exactly where it needs to be for a golden age.”

There has long been a debate about whether economics is more of an art than a science.

Listening to Hassett it sounds as though it is neither but some sort of fanciful fiction: “a golden age.” 

We will all ride bejeweled unicorns on streets paved with crystals while wearing red ballcaps. . . .

Karl questioned Hassett about the announced 50% tariffs on Brazil. Karl noted:

“Brazil had a $6.8 billion surplus last year. In fact, the US hasn't had a trade deficit with Brazil since 2007. I mean, almost two decades. So why, why, why are we putting a punishing 50% tariff on Brazil?”

Hassett responded: 

“Well, bottom line is the president has been very frustrated with negotiations with Brazil and also with the actions of Brazil. In the end, though, you know, we're trying to put America first. I think that a lot of people, when I'm talking to negotiators from other country is at some point they'll say, ‘What did we do wrong?’”

So let’s see: The president is frustrated, so even though there has been a trade surplus with Brazil (i.e., they buy more of our stuff than we do of theirs), he is going to stick it to them. By offending our customer, doesn’t that put America in a secondary place?

Does Hassett (or the president) know that even though Brazil is, along with America, in the Western Hemisphere, China is Brazil’s largest trading partner? Do they know that the B and C in the organization established to provide an alternative to Western-dominated economic institutions BRICS are Brazil and China? Does the US really want to push Brazil further into that space?

And the whole “when I’m talking to negotiators from [an]other country is at some point they’ll say, ‘What did we do wrong?’” is nothing short of pathetic: What seems to be lost is that the US is buying things from other countries because we want those things — those other countries aren’t doing anything “wrong” — although the way Trump is applying tariffs will make some of them realize that trading with the US may fit into that category.

Finally, the 50% copper tariffs.

Why?

Hassett: “The bottom line is that if there is a time of war, then we need to have the metals that we need to produce American weapons, and copper is a key component in many American weapon sets. And so, as we look forward to the threats that America faces, the president decided that we have plenty of copper in the US, but not enough copper production.”

Presently the US produces more than half the copper it needs. Presumably if there were a war of the magnitude that required more copper it would be diverted from applications like electric vehicles. Oh, wait, the elimination of the tax breaks for EVs in the budget bill is taking care of that. 

Of the sources of imports, 31% come from Canada, which used to be a good thing before that country apparently starting doing something wrong. 

What Hassett doesn’t mention is that transforming copper ore into copper is something with all manner of nasty things associated with it like arsenic, lead, mercury, radioactive materials, slag piles. . . .

Not the sort of stuff you’d associate with a “golden age.”Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____
WEDNESDAY 7/16/25

New York City’s Democrats have nominated socialist Zohran Mamdani as its mayoral candidate. He will face incumbent Eric Adams, the Democrat-turned-independent and ally to President Trump, Republican Curtis Sliwa and potentially former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the November election.

This list of opponents raises the question; Is New York City ready for a socialist mayor? And what are the implications for the national Democratic Party and its upcoming midterm candidates, as well as its 2028 presidential candidate? We discuss these questions in our latest Substack here.

Following is commentary by our resident Manhattan contributing pundit. To submit your own COMMENT email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Ready for a Non-Criminal – I am so ready for a non-criminal to run our fabulous city. Someone who actually works for all the people and not just the moneyed. Those who value money over the working people who make this city run, make me gag. The other night I was walking to the theater on E. 59^th, a location I rarely visit and I hyper-noticed these gigantic retail spaces selling tiny luxury “designer purses” – for how much, $2,000 or thereabouts – and it struck me; What a total waste of space, energy, money. –Kate McLeod

_____________________________________________

More Comment on Tax and Spending Bill

Cruelty -- This bill is big, alright, but it is far from beautiful for most Americans. There is so much cruelty in it, it makes me want to sit down and cry. The cruelty starts with the cuts to Medicaid of course, but it also includes an enormous amount of money to recruit and train ICE agents, Trump’s version of the Geheimrat Staats Polizei -- Gestapo -- so he can roust anybody, anywhere, anytime. No other president has ever, ever thought we needed a secret police organization of this size and scope. That, coupled with his stated intention to deport American citizens tells me all I need to know about the Republican MAGA Party. The Republic is finished. –Jim McCraw

•••

Agree? Disagree? – Voice your opinion in these very columns by emailing your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line so we can post them in the appropriate column.

_____
FRIDAY 7/11/25

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

If you wanted to — or didn’t want to, put your fingers in your ears and go “nah-nah-nah” to block out the information — hear a clear statement of why Team Trump is not in the least bit serious when it comes to tariff announcements, just consider the 50% tariffs that are to go into effect August 1 on Brazil.

Trump, according to The Washington Post, sent a letter to Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that says, in part: “The way that Brazil has treated former President Bols naro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace. This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”

The middle school grammar aside, here’s the question: If the point of the tariffs is to Make America Great Again by making it more cost-effective to produce in the US rather than import the goods, then is the announcement of 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods a prime example of why that isn’t the case?

Trump has a problem with the treatment of Bolsonaro, someone he evidently likes, so he is going to “punish” Brazilian producers by applying the 50% tariff (even though it is ultimately the American consumer who is going to pay the tab).

And we don’t need to point out that the US isn’t exactly environmentally apt for growing coffee outside of, say, Kona.

But that doesn’t matter: Up the price from the beans from Brazil! They are bad, very, very bad, plenty of people say so, when it comes to Bolsonaro.

Who cares if US companies pay more for products that have been found to be more cost-effective to import than produce (even if they can be produced in the US)?

The whole approach to tariffs that has been exhibited by Team Trump is something that shows this is more a matter of whim than studied policy.

Where do the numbers come from?

It was shown on “Liberation Day” that the initial list had absurd numbers because of the silly approach to calculation (take the US trade deficit with a country, divide it by the amount of US imports, divide that by two and round up). And if the US had a trade surplus with a country, there was a 10% tariff simply to be able to sell goods in the US.

Indeed, the US does have a trade surplus with Brazil. The US Trade Representative’s office says we sold $7.4 billion more than Brazil sold to us in 2024, The Wall Street Journal reports.

None of this takes simple supply-and-demand into account, however.

There are 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum. Hey, let’s apply 50% to copper, too! Perhaps Stephen Miran and Peter Navarro can take out a copy of the Periodic Table of the Elements and find more things to apply tariffs to.

Although credit must be given to the first Trump Administration for “Operation Warp Speed” and the creation of COVID vaccines, perhaps no one currently in the White House realizes that Pfizer worked with BioNTech to develop the vaccine based on mRNA technology from BioNTech. And BioNTech is a German company.

So now Trump throws out a number — 200% -- that is the potential tariff on pharmaceuticals.

And take into account that the 2026 budget is going to cut about 40% of the funding for the National Institutes of Health — and about 90% of the monies spent by the NIH is for basic research and early-stage drug discovery and development.

What are the odds there will be another pandemic within the next five years?

Consider this from Yonatan Grad, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health:

“Is there another pandemic coming? Yes. When? Which pathogen? How severe will it be? No one can say for sure. But the big demographic changes that are coming, due to climate change as well as economic and other factors, will alter the landscape and create new risks, both for new pathogens to emerge and for known pathogens to re-emerge.”

Yes, he’s from Harvard (grrrr!). And the mention of climate change may raise red flags for some people, but whether it is real or not (it is), people are migrating from places where there is too little rain or too much rain, for example, and may be bringing with them new or old pathogens into places near you.

(The Environmental Protection Agency budget is being cut by 50%, because apparently the environment doesn’t need a whole lot of protection.)

Going back to the language quoted from the WaPo in the letter: This whole approach is not predicated on any planned policy, just personal petulance.

Is this the way statesmen are supposed to behave?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____
FRIDAY 7/11/25