Another week closes with another surprise. Today, it is the imposition of tariffs of 35 percent on all Canadian imports, effective August 1. It is unclear what prompted Trump to take this action now.
Trump announced the new tariffs in a letter sent to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who responded by indicating he will continue to work for the interests of Canadian workers and businesses.
Today, Trump appears to be traveling to Texas but was also scheduled to attend a soccer match in New Jersey before arriving at his golf club for the weekend. (Trump’s official schedule of events, as published by Roll Call, appeared to have contradictions in it as of this writing.)
Trump’s week included a discussion of the redecoration of the Cabinet Room in the White House, including asking his Cabinet for their views on how best to add gold to the room’s ceiling, a humiliation of Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who lost a grandfather clock to Trump, an apparent conflict between Secretary of Defense Hegseth and Trump over transferring weapons to Ukraine, and the launch of criminal investigations against former FBI director Jim Comey and former CIA Director Brennan.
The President appears both angry and “distracted.” A less charitable term could be used.
Any hope that once the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law, Trump would slow down, attend a few sporting events, work on the Garden of Heroes, solicit a few more nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize, and engage in similarly relatively harmless activities has been dashed. Trump is back to tariffs, retribution, ham-fisted foreign policy, and more. It is surreal, very surreal.
Two news events stood out this week. The Supreme Court lifted a stay that prevented Trump from moving forward on mass firings at federal agencies. Earlier this week, I posted an excerpt from Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent on Substack. It is worth reading.
The second news event is the bizarre threat to raise tariffs on Brazilian imports to 50 percent if the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro is not terminated. Trump calls the charges against Bolsonaro a “Witch Hunt.”
Why does Trump care so much about Bolsonaro? My theory: As Trump continues his efforts to rewrite U.S. history to recast the January 6, 2021, insurrection as a harmless expression of protest against election fraud, he sees the prosecution of Bolsonaro for similar crimes in Brazil as a problem. More simply put: Lunatics across the globe launched unjustified legal prosecutions to destroy some of the world’s most loved and inspirational leaders.
Trump has already weighed in against pending criminal actions against Netanyahu.
Trump is due for a vacation.
Trump has been president for almost six months. He is due for a vacation. I suggest a long one—maybe an entire month.
Insight of the week.
I sense that America’s crisis of democracy is worsening. Trump is getting bolder, crueler, and more unhinged. Earlier this week, I woke in the middle of the week, thinking about Trump. I thought, “The truth will set us free.” By this I mean that some of the things going on—things like the mystery of the Jeffrey Epstein client list that once was on Pam Bondi’s desk for review and has not disappeared—may prompt Trump supporters to realize that they are being lied to and, yes, that they are stupid not to see that Trump is causing permanent harm to America.
Next week I am flying to Europe—I will be gone for two weeks, and Dean’s Issues & Insights will be on hiatus. Just as I was reviewing my travel plans, I noticed that Trump had named Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to serve as Interim Administrator of NASA.
America needs a full-time Secretary of Transportation to keep flying safe. Blaming former President Biden and former Transportation Secretary Buttigieg for chaos at the FAA and crashing Boeings can only go on for so long until people recognize those lies.
Thank you, and wish me well.
I appreciate your reading Friday Insights today. Wish me well. I will be encountering many Europeans on my travels and hope they understand that not all Americans are like our President.
Paul Krugman reminds us this morning that Jerome Powell's term is up next year. Look forward to interest-rate manipulations for Trump and Co's fun and profit. Self-preservation is essential. Safe travels.
I hope Trump skips the trip to Texas where the most he will do is throw rolls of paper towels to grieving people who have lost family members to the flood. Better he should just go ahead and play golf.
DOGE, Trump and the members of the Supreme Court who cleared the way for Trump to fire as many federal workers as he would like are responsible for the fact that the people who forecast the weather and issue warnings weren't there when they were needed. Meanwhile, Trump is spending time at cabinet meetings discussing how to gild the ceiling of the cabinet room.
Federal workers do, or at least used to do, important things. As Joni Mitchell once sang, "you don't know what you've got till it's gone." I hope your trip to Europe is safe and offers some respite from the chaos here.