The conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal bashed what they describe as President Donald Trump's latest "Hail Mary" to voters in a new editorial published on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Trump floated the idea of sending $2,000 tariff rebate checks to most Americans. He made the announcement at a time when the Supreme Court is considering whether the president has the authority to impose tariffs without Congress's approval, and reports indicate that Trump's lawyers are having a hard time defending the policy in court.
Trump also said that people who don't agree with his tariff policies are "fools."
The Wall Street Journal's editorial board argued that Trump's idea was awash in "contradictions."
"President Trump has a big tariff problem: His border taxes are raising prices on tariffed goods, they’re unpopular with voters, and the Supreme Court might rule that his 'emergency' tariffs are illegal," the editorial reads. "His latest response: Promise voters a $2,000 tariff rebate."
"Mr. Trump is essentially promising to repay Americans $2,000 of the border taxes they’re paying in higher prices," they wrote. "But if tariffs are a free economic lunch, and their benefits abound, why offer a rebate? Shouldn’t voters be thrilled about tariffs even without a rebate?"
"Mr. Trump is trying to exploit the fact that the tariff impact is dispersed across the economy so consumers have a hard time sorting out how much those taxes contribute to which higher prices," they added. "They do know, however, that they’re paying more than they used to. This is why the election exit polls last week showed people broadly disapprove of Mr. Trump’s handling of inflation and the economy."
The editors also offered Trump some advice for the future.
"Mr. Trump is trying to dull the public’s tariff pain with direct payments that he can take credit for," the editorial reads. "This is a new version of the age-old income redistribution game of taxing people too much but then trying to appease them with tax credits or one-time cash payments. Democrats do this all the time with child tax credits and other favors to special-interest groups."
On ”Morning Joe,” MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough kicked off the pile-on over Trump’s folly after co-host Willie Geist reported that a Ipsos/Washington Post poll showed only 28 percent of those polled supported the construction of the oversized edifice.
“Never saw that coming,” Scarborough joked. “Can I ask you a question, Willie? Who is that 28 percent?” which made both of them laugh.
“I love it," Geist joked as Scarborough continued, “Are these MAGA people that are like, having trouble, like, like paying their car loans and, you know, paying their health care costs and they're going, ‘Oh, I love the idea of the president deciding in the middle of this crisis and government shutdown to tear down half of the White House and put up a Marie Antoinette Memorial Ballroom.’”
“Who are those 28 percent?” he continued.
“People who ride or die with Donald Trump?” Geist replied before reporting, “Independents, by the way, are overwhelmingly against the ballroom; 61 percent of them.”
That caused the off-screen Scarborough to snort and blurt, “Oh my god!”
“Not a huge surprise there, but just now we see it in the numbers,” Geist observed.
Donald Trump’s niece, the clinical psychologist and bestselling author Mary Trump, sees “similarities” between the 79-year-old president’s increasingly erratic behavior, which has stoked questions about his physical and mental health, and that of his father, the New York property magnate Fred Trump, who suffered from Alzheimer’s before dying in 1999 at the age of 93.
"I think the most important thing to know about Donald's health is that this is a person who has had very serious, severe psychiatric disorders that have gone undiagnosed and they have worsened because they've never been treated," Mary Trump said. "So much of what we're seeing is the result of those undiagnosed, untreated psychiatric disorders. On top of that … there are clearly some physical health issues, and often it seems that … it's not just that he's forgetting things. He doesn't seem to be oriented to space and time or place and time.
"And I'm not a neuropsychologist or neurologist of any kind. I used to do neuropsychological testing, but that aside, I think the best frame of reference is, as you said, my experience with my grandfather and I do see similarities again. That occasional confusion, ‘where am I, who's around me,’ the forgetting of people who were right in front of him.
"And that was one very interesting experience with my grandfather. The least important people in his life were the people he forgot first. So you could sort of gauge your importance to him by how quickly he forgot you or how long it took for him to forget you.
“He ended up forgetting my grandmother. He never forgot Donald. So that was always fascinating to me, and he’d been married for over 60 years.”
Mary Trump was speaking to the Court of History podcast, hosted by the Clinton aide turned Lincoln biographer Sidney Blumenthal and the Princeton historian Sean Wilentz.
An author herself, Mary Trump has published three books since her uncle became president: "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man" (2020), "The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal" (2021), and "Who Could Ever Love You: A Family Memoir" (2024). All achieved bestseller status.
Continuing to ponder her uncle and his father — her grandfather — Mary Trump said: “I think that there are a few differences."
“My grandfather was a sociopath. He was a born sociopath. He was not made one. And Donald’s psychology is much more complex, and a lot of what we're seeing now isn't new. It's actually just previous conditions that are worsening and just becoming more obvious to people who haven't been paying attention.
“So I think that sort of complicates our sense of, ‘Is this the psychiatric disorders? Is this some kind of dementia? Does he have Alzheimer's?' Is it some physical ailment that is having an impact on his memory, etc, and we don't know, and I think it's likely we never will.
“I sort of believe that we're at the point it doesn't matter. We know it's very, very bad. It's only going to get worse, as everything does with him, whether it's his outrageous cruelty, incompetence, vindictiveness.
“What I say about Donald, and I think this is true whether we're talking about his psychological, emotional, physical health or his behavior, there's no such thing as worst. He will always get worse.”
Trump is the oldest man ever to take the presidential oath — in succession to the previous record holder, Joe Biden. As Biden was plagued by questions over his fitness for office, before withdrawing from last year’s election, so Trump’s rambling public pronouncements and erratic behavior stoked questions even before he recently exhibited signs of physical deterioration and spent a rare week out of public view.
The White House vehemently denies that anything is wrong with Trump, and he reappeared this week to dismiss social media speculation that he might be dead or dying.
In one appearance, Trump angrily dismissed questions about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal even as victims of the late financier and sex offender, a longtime Trump friend, spoke on Capitol Hill.
Mary Trump told the Court of History: “He's always been an angry person, or maybe I should put it this way: he's always been somebody who uses threats and performative rage to get his way.
“So how do you distinguish between what is performative and what is a sincere reaction to his inability to control the narrative, which is clearly what we're seeing, certainly in regards to the Epstein files most prominently right now?”
The United States, Mary Trump added, is “at a particularly dangerous inflection point” regarding the president’s health.
“Because the more he understands who he is, what's happening to him, the more scared he gets, and the more cruel he's going to become, the more desperate he's going to become.
“As with anybody, people who start having dementia, Alzheimer's, there are moments of insight. They recognize what's going on, and it's actually one of the cruelest things about that disease ….
“Like my grandfather, for example, he was fine. Once he stopped remembering who people were, and he thought that he was still running the world, he was fine. But it's those early-on moments of insight into what's happening to you, that really have a negative impact. And this is starting to happen to Donald with increasing frequency, and it is freaking him out.”
Asked if she saw signs of anger and lashing out, as exhibited by her grandfather, in her uncle, Mary Trump said: “It's so hard to say because Donald has always been paranoid and vindictive and angry.
“… There are looks of confusion on his face at times, which are very reminiscent of when we would be out in public with my grandfather, for example … and he would get this startled like a deer in the headlights look. Like, 'Where am I? Who are these people? I don't want to be here.’"
Donald Trump has a plan for a "triumphal arch" that will be named after him, and the president's niece is not happy.
According to the New York Times in an article called "What to Know About Trump’s Plan for a Triumphal Arch in Washington," President Trump "has proposed construction of an arch in the style of the Arc de Triomphe in Washington in the lead-up to the nation’s 250th anniversary."
His niece, trained psychologist Mary Trump, had something to say about it in a video on Substack.
"Are we still shocked? Really? Are we still shocked that a man as despicable and craven and greedy and grifty and destructive as Donald Trump would be all of the things he is? Are we still shocked that he would have the audacity and the complete lack of self-awareness to announce that he is ordering a triumphal arch to be built and placed at the entrance of the Memorial Bridge that leads from Arlington National Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the founding of this country?" she asked. "No, no--in honor of him. Are we shocked that he calls it the 'Arc de Trump?' That makes me want to die of shame, quite frankly. Although, potential bright side—someday, if we survive, we might be able to repurpose it, so that’ll be fun."
Mary Trump goes on to argue that, because we know what her uncle will do, it is best to focus on those around him instead.
"We have to shift our focus. Donald is going to keep getting away with anything he can get away with. This is his MO from time immemorial. Push the envelope; see how far he can continue to push the envelope. If he gets away with it, push it further," she said. "Instead, we have to turn our attention to the people who are allowing all of this to happen. We can be deeply, deeply embarrassed that Donald stood in front of the world with his tiny arches and claimed that the arch was being built for him and named after him right and will be placed right near Arlington National Cemetery."
Mary Trump further asked, "Who is allowing all of this to happen?"
She also tied in the government shutdown to help make her point.
"Because who can be bothered with the fact that people have been furloughed and aren’t getting their paychecks? who can be bothered that essential workers are being expected to show up to work without pay. Who can be bothered? Donald has a White House to destroy and a ballroom to build and a triumphal arch to put up. He’s busy," she said.
NBC's Ryan Nobles weighed in Thursday on MSNBC over Senate Democrats' last-ditch move to walk out of the Judiciary Committee hearing to advance the nomination of Emil Bove, the massively controversial Trump Justice Department official up for an appellate court nomination, despite whistleblower allegations that he strategized on how to defy court orders blocking Trump's immigration policies.
The ploy is unlikely to stop him from being confirmed in the end, Nobles said, despite widespread opposition to Bove from respected legal experts around the country — but it's designed to make things as painful and politically costly for Republicans as possible.
"I'm not quite sure I've ever seen anything quite like what happened in the Judiciary Committee today," anchor Katy Tur said. "Am I wrong? Is this normal practice?"
"It's certainly not normal practice, Katy," said Nobles. "I'm not saying it's unprecedented, but it is certainly out of the norm to see an entire panel of a hearing break apart, because one side of the aisle decides to walk out en masse in protest."
Democrats' move here, he continued, "is really the only tool they have in their toolbox" given GOP control of the Senate, "and that's to try and grind the gears of this process down as slow as possible. And there's enough votes here for Emil Bove to win confirmation, ultimately, on the Senate floor and to get out of this committee. But what Democrats would like to do is try and put as much out there about this nominee so that perhaps, if there is a Republican that's worried or concerned about the nomination, that they would think twice before voting [for Bove]."
"What Democrats would argue here, Katy, is that this is a lifetime appointment, there should be as much vetting of this candidate as possible; we should hear from everyone who has insight into his work at the Department of Justice and in other places before they cast this vote," Nobles added. "And that's one of the reasons, among the things they're asking for more than anything, is the opportunity for this whistleblower to come forward and testify about their experience with Bove at the DOJ."
President Donald Trump's niece called him out Thursday for invoking religion to justify his bombing campaign in Iran over the weekend.
"In his own way, he understands that mouthing platitudes about the Bible, a book he has never read, is enough to convince people who are already predisposed to be convinced, that he shares their beliefs and is God’s messenger—if an imperfect vessel for the message," Mary Trump wrote on her Substack.
In his speech following the bombing of three nuclear facilities in Iran, Trump said, "I want to just thank everybody, and in particular, God."
"I want to just say we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel. And God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you," Trump said in the speech.
To Mary Trump, the speech was another example of her uncle using religion to justify an immoral act. During his first administration, Trump had peaceful protesters forcefully removed from Lafayette Park so he could take an awkward photo of himself holding a Bible in front of St. John's Episcopal Church. Mary Trump noted that her uncle was holding the Bible upside down in the photo.
"Donald and his allies use religion to justify everything they do, no matter how diabolical," Mary Trump wrote. "It is cynical, it is hypocritical, and quite frankly, it is a grotesque exploitation of the sincere faith of millions of Americans."
Donald Trump is "still no doubt stinging" from a derogatory nickname that has been used to ridicule him, according to the president's own family member.
Trump's niece, trained psychologist Mary Trump, on Sunday published a piece on Substack entitled, "The Worst Person at the Worst Time," in which she argues that her uncle's latest move amounts to launching a completely "unilateral, unprovoked, and illegal war."
"As a country, we are at war and the man who led us into this war is a corrupt, degraded, ignorant know-nothing who acted illegally to plunge us into a potentially catastrophic situation without the consent of Congress because, despite the fact that he is president of the United States of America and arguably the most recognized figure on the planet, he wasn’t getting enough attention," she said. "It is long past time that we stop imputing some deeper or reasonable motives to Donald Trump."
She added, "Despite being depraved and cruel, much like his cohort Benjamin Netanyahu, he is driven by the most primitive impulses that center almost solely around protecting his fragile ego from humiliation (about which he has a pathological terror) and himself from the reality that he is a complete fraud."
Elaborating, Mary Trump turns her attention to the recent acronym that went viral for mocking Trump's purported tendency to "chicken out," especially as it relates to trade disputes. The "TACO" name was used by investors looking to bet on tariff outcomes, and Trump lashed out when he was confronted about it.
"Donald is still no doubt stinging from the acronym recently coined to mock his inability to follow through on anything—TACO: Trump Always Chickens Out. In the wake of Israeli strikes against Iran, Donald spent a few days saber-rattling only to back off (chicken out, if you will) in the wake of searing criticism by some of the most reliably sycophantic members of his cult—e.g. Rep. Marjorie Green (R-GA), Alex Jones, and Steve Bannon)," Mary Trump wrote. "He announced at a bizarre press conference that his decision to address the ostensibly urgent crisis regarding Iran would be put off for two weeks."
She continued:
"Only two days later, he ordered the attack on Iran. His allies would have us believe that Donald, a brilliant strategist, was faking us out. Sure. An infinitely more plausible explanation is that, on the one hand, he hates being challenged or contradicted, especially from those who almost always fall in line; therefore, he felt the need to double-down on his threats by carrying them out. On the other hand, Donald is a desperate black hole of need—by changing the narrative, he could make sure the spotlight turned back on him."
President Donald Trump told Walmart executives that they must be the ones responsible for the tariffs on foreign goods coming into the United States, reports revealed Monday. Now, Trump is being compared to the former Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, who was accused of ignoring the suffering of her people.
Lucy Caldwell, the campaign manager for former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh's (IL) presidential campaign, joined with "The Weeknight" hosts as Alecia Menendez walked through the report.
"Let them eat tariffs," Menendez quipped, a take off of the rumored quote from the queen, "let them eat cake."
"Let them eat tariffs," echoed Caldwell. "Like his own Marie Antoinette moment, isn't it?"
But it was Symone Sanders Townsend who questioned where Republicans were landing on the fact that Trump was twisting the arms of corporations to do what he demanded.
"Are Republicans not concerned that you have the president of the United States trying to tell companies what to do? The CEOs — like it feels a little communist-esque to me," she said.
Caldwell agreed.
"It's a little — kind of — it's a bit kind of command and control. It's not so free enterprise," she said. "It's, yeah, it is a bit of socialism. It's interesting. I was thinking about his attitude toward the Walmart CEO and his attitude towards CEOs in general and industry, and I was thinking today about how we've had such a shift in our economy."
She noted that, unlike in the early 1900s, industry titans in the U.S. don't manufacture items anymore. The big CEOs in the U.S. today are owners of digital companies and social media.
"We don't eat cans of Instagram soup, right? We don't lay our head down on Facebook pillows, or we don't drive OpenAI cars, right?" said Caldwell. "And ultimately, we all still have to feed our families. We have to supply the things that make our home run, make our businesses run. And so really, I think Trump is putting himself where he's up against the wall in just ignoring the very fact that, look, there is supply and demand, right? Demand for food — for affordable groceries at Walmart is not going down. And the let them eat tariffs — that is not going to work. And it's going to show up electorally a lot sooner than he thinks."
Trump campaigned on raising tariffs, promising his voters that the costs would be passed onto countries like China. He imposed a 10% tariff on Canada and Mexico and ultimately imposed 145% tariff on China. Trump caved on the tariffs for China, however, and agreed to drop them to 80%, which "seems right." Ultimately, the tariffs on China dropped to 30%, as CBS News reported last week.
