6 insane issues Donald Trump did within the final 24 hours – as he proclaims but extra tariffs
Donald Trump figured the almost universal tariffs weren’t causing quite enough chaos, so buried in the middle of a 2 hour speech, he announced he was slapping tariff on medicines after all
Another day, another dramatic dip in the stock market.
And this time it’s accompanied by turmoil in the bond markets, which I’m reliably informed is a very bad thing.
Meanwhile, Trump was giving a two hour speech when ten minutes would do.
He was sending his favourite familiar out to do his bidding again.
Oh, and he was announcing MORE TARIFFS. As if the ones he had already weren’t creating enough chaos.
Here’s just a selection of the wild and crazy things happening in Washington right now.
1. A judge slapped their ban on journalists down
A federal judge ordered the White House to stop blocking the Associated Press from Presidential events and Oval Office press conferences.
In a particularly petulant strop from the Trump administration, the news agency was banned after they refused to start calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
But yesterday US district judge Trevor N McFadden – a Trump appointee – said they had to let them back in, or they’d be in breach of the first amendment.
“Under the First Amendment, if the Government opens its doors to some journalists–be it to the Oval Office, the East Room, or elsewhere–it cannot then shut those doors to other journalists because of their viewpoints,” McFadden wrote. “The Constitution requires no less.”
The White House has yet to officially back down. And honestly, it’s unlikely that they will. In all likelihood they’ll ignore it and keep AP locked out, because there’s unlikely to be any serious consequences for doing so.
But we’ll see.
2. Stephen Miller had ANOTHER on-air meltdown
In what has become an almost daily occurrence, the dark lord’s favourite familiar took a break from eating bugs to absolutely lose his mind on Fox News.
Stephen “Renfield” Miller stood before cameras outside the White House and ranted about how Trump’s tariffs were going to “make America the manufacturing capital of the world “.
The stock market apparently disagrees. The Dow Jones lost 200 points while he was on air.
3. Trump was supposed to give a brief after dinner speech – it turned into a two hour rant
Not known for his brevity, the President outdid himself at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner, by outstaying his welcome by around an hour and a half.
During the speech he…
4. Announced tariffs on pharmaceuticals…
Pharma was the one big, important carve-out from the tariffs regime – presumably intended to deliver on his promise to make medicines cheaper for Americans.
Instead, he’s going to make them dramatically more expensive, and spark another wave of uncertainty in the markets. Great work.
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5. Claimed countries are calling him and “kissing my ass”
Today in things that absolutely did not happen… the President claimed foreign nations have been calling and calling, begging to do a deal to get rid of their tariffs.
You can normally tell a Trump anecdote is a lie, because he starts them with an impression of someone calling him “sir.”
If it were the case that world leaders were falling over to ingratiate themselves to him, it’s unclear why exactly no deals have, as yet, been done.
6. Bookmark this one for later
Trump on the midterms: “I really think we’re helped a lot by the tariffs situation. It’s great.”
He said the tariff regime is going to be “legendary, you watch” – before, helpfully, clarifying: “I mean legendary in a positive way”
