President Donald Trump's attempts to renegotiate America's trade deals have become a "self-destructive tariff folly," according to the Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board.

In a new op-ed published on Sunday, the editorial board argued that reports of a $10 billion bailout for America's soybean farmers reveal that Trump's tariff policy is not working as the president says it is. Trump's tariff policy towards China has caused the country to stop buying American soybeans. The move significantly disrupted America's soybean industry because China was one of America's largest soybean customers.

"You knew it was coming," the editors wrote. "As President Trump’s tariffs damage farmers and businesses across the U.S., the victims are besieging the Administration for relief. The long lines at the Commerce and Agriculture departments are the latest proof of self-destructive tariff folly."

Trump has repeatedly said his tariff policy would generate a windfall of revenue for the federal government. The editors pushed back on that claim.

"The looming bailout is a refutation of the claim that tariffs are cost-free," the editorial continued. "They aren’t if, like soybean growers, you are the target of retaliation. Mr. Trump likes to say that tariffs are a windfall for the Treasury, but not if much of that revenue is going back out the door in subsidies to offset the tariff harm."

"The farm fiasco underscores another truth about tariffs, which is that they expand what Mr. Trump used to call 'the swamp,'" it added. "Industries and individual companies hit by tariffs are flocking to Washington to lobby for relief. The Beltway bandits on K Street have never had it so good."

Read the entire op-ed by clicking here.

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal said Sunday that the government shutdown that began last week and could be used as President Donald Trump’s latest reason for mass firings of federal workers is “Project 2025 in action” and condemned the Republican Party’s push to “inflict the most pain on Americans” that they can.

Jayapal (D-WA) spoke to MSNBC as the shutdown entered its fifth day, emphasizing that while the White House is threatening to fire federal workers en masse due to legislators’ failure to reach a deal on a spending package to keep the government open, the Trump administration has already overseen the dismissal of more than 100,000 public servants.

“They have actually already fired at least 150,000 federal workers,” said Jayapal. “They’ve already slashed agencies across the board and [Office of Management and Budget director] Russ Vought does want to use the shutdown to inflict more pain on the American people, instead of addressing the healthcare crisis that we have—both from the Big Bad Betrayal Bill and from the upcoming crisis we have around the Affordable Care Act subsidies.”

Jayapal’s comments came as Kevin Hassett, the National Economic Council director, told CNN that whether or not Trump takes advantage of what he has called an “unprecedented opportunity” to make more cuts to agencies is contingent on whether Democrats agree to the GOP spending proposal—which would keep the government funded for the time being but would allow for the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies and the Medicaid cuts that were part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The expiration of the subsidies could raise health insurance premiums by an average of 75% for millions of Americans, according to a KFF analysis.

Hassett expressed hope that the Democrats will be “reasonable once they get back into town on Monday.”

“And if they are, then I think there’s no reason for those layoffs,” he said.

On Saturday, unions representing public employees filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to block the administration from moving forward with the mass firings, with Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), placing the blame for the shutdown squarely with the GOP.

“These threatened mass firings are the latest attack on working people by an administration abusing its power to push through its extreme Project 2025 agenda,” said Saunders. “We’re facing a healthcare crisis with millions of Americans about to see their health insurance payments skyrocket, and instead of working across the aisle to solve it, the administration is threatening to use its orchestrated shutdown as an excuse to fire federal workers who perform critical services that Americans rely on. The threatened mass firings are unlawful. Public service work is vital to our communities, and we will do everything in our power to defend it.”

AFSCME and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) requested the temporary restraining order days after filing a lawsuit against Vought and other administration officials over the mass firing threat.

Norm Eisen, executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, which is helping to represent the unions, noted that Congress mandates “strict limits for personnel matters during a shutdown.”

“Donald Trump’s and his administration’s rampant lawlessness continues, and so must the effort to hold him accountable,” said Eisen. “The administration’s latest outrage against the Constitution and human decency is abusing the government shutdown to put in motion the firing of government workers. But Trump and his team have no such legal authority.”

“The federal courts have served as a bulwark against prior illegalities, and we look forward to a hearing here,” he added.
Democrats in Illinois last week accused the president of also using the shutdown to threaten congressionally approved funding for infrastructure projects in Chicago.

”Donald Trump and Russ Vought of Project 2025 are using this shutdown to inflict as much pain as they can,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) Saturday. “They’re withholding federal money that has already been approved by Congress to target and punish American communities. This is illegal.”

A pair of analysts on Sunday chided House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) attempts to justify the government shutdown during the morning news shows.

Johnson joined CBS's Margaret Brennan on CBS' "Face The Nation" on Sunday to discuss the ongoing government shutdown. During the interview, Johnson repeated a claim that Democrats are trying to provide free health care for illegal immigrants in the continuing resolution to fund the government. He also told people to "go see it for yourself" and provided the alleged page and section of the bill's language he was referencing.

Sam Stein and Will Saletan of The Bulwark noted on a new episode of the "Bulwark Takes" podcast that Johnson's claims are a "flat-out lie."

"This is Johnson's standard spin, and he always says, 'If you go to page 57 of the Democrats' CR, you'll find this thing blah blah blah,'" Saletan said. "It's like a Let's Lawyer game, right? nd the point is you're never supposed to actually go read it because if you go read it, you'll find out...there is nothing in there about Democrats demanding anything for illegal aliens."

"Did you actually read it?" Stein asked.

"Of course, I read it," Saletan added. "What there is, just so people know this, it's a paragraph that says we want to repeal a bunch of Republican cuts to health care. And, okay, so what's in the Republican cuts to healthcare? Some tiny fraction of them have to do with enforcement mechanisms to make sure that people who are here illegally can't get health care."

"It's only about the enforcement mechanisms," Saletan continued. "It's already totally illegal."

"So the by undoing the one big beautiful bill, Democrats are taking away the Medicaid cuts that Trump put in place, but they're also taking away the need for a rural hospital bailout fund," he added. "But of course, Johnson doesn't want to elaborate on it. It's just they're harming rural hospitals. It's a nice sleight of hand, right?"