Tag: republicans
Republicans Sing Praise Of Trump Tariffs As Economy Spirals

Republicans Sing Praise Of Trump Tariffs As Economy Spirals

Republicans celebrated after President Donald Trump's half-baked "pause" on his "Liberation Day" tariffs led the stock market to rise, calling Trump a “genius” and his trade war debacle the “art of the deal.”

But those same Republicans had egg on their faces not even a day later, when the market once again plunged after investors realized that Trump's 90-day "pause" wasn't a pause at all, but rather a 10 percent tariff on nearly every country, as well as an insane 145 percent tariff on China.

"I think America needs to recognize we're in a remarkable moment. We have an actual genius of an entrepreneur and one that loves our country," GOP Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah wrote on X on Wednesday.

Owens did not amend his comment when the market tumbled not even 24 hours later, reflecting Trump’s chaotic tariff policy that amounts to a $4,000 tax hike on every U.S. household.

Not to be upstaged by Owens, GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas—who once ridiculously claimed that Trump was the picture of health—posted on X that Trump is the “UNDISPUTED MASTER of the art of the deal!"

"The days of America being taken advantage of by China and other nations are OVER! The Trump era is all about POWER and WINNING!" he wrote.

According to the GOP, it’s considered “winning” when the stock market collapses just one day later.

Meanwhile, GOP Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona agreed "100%" with a batshit-crazy X post from creepy White House adviser Stephen Miller.

"You have been watching the greatest economic master strategy from an American President in history,” Miller wrote.

And GOP Rep. Mike Lawler of New York posted a graphic on Wednesday declaring that the “stock market posts third biggest gain in post-WWII history."

Too bad that gain was nearly erased one day later. Not to mention, the temporary gain didn't even make up what was lost after Trump’s “Liberation Day” anyway.

Similarly, GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York wanted in on the action of praising Dear Leader, scrounging up one of Trump’s X posts from 2014.

"Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully or write poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks,” he wrote.

Also paying homage to Trump’s The Art of the Deal, GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida posted a meme calling the short-lived stock market boost the "art of the deal."

Meanwhile, other GOP lawmakers have tried to criticize the few Republicans who have stood against Trump’s tariffs.

"See? Trust the President. He understands trade and economics and NEGOTIATIONS better than his critics give him credit for. The critiques from certain Senate Republicans were premature, to say the least," Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas wrote on X.

The Republicans who have actually been right are those like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who have said that tariffs are bad because they are a tax on consumers and will lead us to economic calamity.

“Tariffs raise the prices of goods and services. Even those who obstinately deny that basic fact will soon realize that the tariffs are a tax on the American people, whether while paying for groceries or looking at their investment portfolio,” Paul wrote in National Review op-ed.

You know things are bad when Democrats agree with Rand Paul.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Does 'Hands Off' Mean Americans Have Started To Pay Attention?

Does 'Hands Off' Mean Americans Have Started To Pay Attention?

I’m not optimistic enough to call it the death of indifference, but recent events prove there may be signs of life in the democratic republic Americans call exceptional but too often take for granted.

Last weekend’s “Hands Off!” rallies have come and gone. And while it’s not known if they signal the start of a lasting movement, it’s hard to discount the crowds that gathered in big cities and small towns across the country, with protesters in countries such as Austria, Mexico, Canada and the Netherlands joining in solidarity.

While more than 100,000 protesters showed up in Washington, D.C., according to organizers, and close to that number in Boston, the hundreds in smaller cities such as Rock Hill, S.C., were just as impressive, considering how red and Republican that state reliably has been in recent elections.

Having lived in Arizona for a few years, I know the pride the people place in being unique individuals, and how much they hate anyone telling them what to do or how to live. So, I expected the state to have a particularly good showing. And it did.

According to Elon Musk, not a popular figure in weekend rallies, they, along with the rest, were paid “puppets.

All of them?

In my current swing-state home of North Carolina, I saw signs to match every cause in a Charlotte protest that despite humid, 88-degree weather drew thousands: “Protect Our Votes,” “No Kings” and “How can I be expected to send silly little emails during a hostile takeover by FASCIST NAZI OLIGARCHS,” which pretty much captured the sentiment of the day.

It’s true the city is a blue splotch in a purplish-red state, but thousands showed up and were plenty fed up.

That attitude extends to the state’s attorney general, Jeff Jackson, a Democrat, who is joining state officials across the country to sue the Trump administration over the federal government’s decision to cut more than $11 billion in health care funding.

That’s money states use to fund things like mental health services, addiction treatment and tracking the spread of infectious diseases, particularly bad timing when Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is providing uncertain leadership and confusing messages during a measles outbreak.

Did some of Saturday’s discontented perhaps choose to sit it out last November or vote for Donald Trump because the Democratic brand had become “toxic”? Possibly. But it was golf-playing, tariff-imposing Donald Trump and his sidekick, the job-killing, chainsaw-waving Elon Musk and his DOGE boys put in the hot seat by a wide cross section of Americans.

About that “toxic” label: Chief among those sharing that message and not providing much pushback to podcast guests Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon and those following their election-denying, race-baiting lead has been California Gov. Gavin Newsom, whose political instincts seem to have abandoned him.

In Newsom’s quest for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, something he hasn’t owned up to, at least not yet, he is surrendering when the party base, according to polls, wants fighters, like Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Booker’s recent attention-grabbing Senate speech was denigrated by Republicans as a stunt. Well, sure it was. But as he stood and talked about issues like health care and read letters from concerned voters, it was also a sign of life and resistance — with the added bonus of taking down the Senate’s former reigning champion talker, South Carolina’s Strom Thurmond, whose segregationist stand held the record for far too long.

As Trump’s disapproval numbers are rising almost as fast as the stock market is sinking, it’s clear that at least some Trump voters who may not be big fans of tariffs and the resulting high prices now declare that this is not what they voted for.

But wasn’t it candidate Trump who talked more about retribution than anything he would do to help voters’ lives? As president, as expected, it has taken him little time to return to the chaos of his first term, with guardrails off and loyalists in.

It’s all about the vengeance, even against Harriet Tubman, whose role as the most famous “conductor” on the Underground Railroad was downplayed on a recently changed National Park Service webpage. Apparently, the abolitionist and American hero’s prominence helping enslaved men, women and children escape bondage and travel north into freedom fit some twisted definition of DEI.

But the pushback that greeted the news, mostly from citizens who respect the truth and believe Americans can handle it, forced a restoration of respect for an icon.

Like many, I expected the Trump administration’s moves on immigration, the economy, national security, diversity programs — the list goes on; he had telegraphed each and every one. But the quickness of execution, the sometimes gleeful, sometimes fearful compliance by those who know better and the resignation of opponents who seemed to lack the energy or the will — that was surprising.

Maybe his actions finally came too close to home. But isn’t that often what it takes?

Americans are paying attention, and remembering that the only thing that stops a bully is someone, or a lot of people, standing up.

Reprinted with permission from Roll Call.

Leonard Leo

Right-Wing Group Linked To Koch And Leo Sues Trump Over Tariffs

President Donald Trump's tariff announcement last week has not only rattled financial markets, but even a group of far-right billionaires who have a history of supporting Republican causes.

The Guardian reported that a far-right group funded by multibillionaire Charles Koch and the Federalist Society's Leonard Leo is now suing to stop Trump's new trade duties on China from taking effect. The New Civil Liberties Alliance argued that Trump's invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify his unilateral imposition of new tariffs is illegal, and that the courts should intervene based on precedent that requires Congress weigh in on certain policy-related matters.

“This statute authorizes specific emergency actions like imposing sanctions or freezing assets to protect the United States from foreign threats,” the organization stated. “It does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. In its nearly 50-year history, no other president – including President Trump in his first term – has ever tried to use the IEEPA to impose tariffs.”

"His attempt to use the IEEPA this way not only violates the law as written, but it also invites application of the supreme court’s major questions doctrine, which tells courts not to discern policies of ‘vast economic and political significance’ in a law without explicit congressional authorization," the statement continued.

Mark Chenoweth, who is president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, said that by filing the lawsuit in a Pensacola, Florida court, the judge would have to abide by the aforementioned precedent, or else it would ultimately "transfer core legislative power." And Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — who recently voted with Democrats to limit Trump's tariff powers on Canada — opined that his colleagues in the Senate Republican Conference are also likely very uneasy about the president's latest new import taxes,

“They all see the stock market, and they’re all worried about it,” Paul said. “But they are putting on a stiff upper lip to try to act as if nothing’s happening and hoping it goes away.”

The lawsuit also signals an escalation from the various arms of the Koch political machine. His Americans for Prosperity organization threw its weight behind former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, only for her to bow out and eventually endorse Trump after Trump won the Super Tuesday primaries.

After this article appeared, a spokesperson for Stand Together contacted The National Memo with the following statement: "Stand Together, a nonprofit funded in part by Charles Koch that has supported NCLA is not involved in this case."


Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Susan Crawford

Wisconsin Voters Deliver Powerful Rebuke To Musk And Trump In Judicial Race

Winning by ten points in Wisconsin’s special Supreme Court election, Judge Susan Crawford delivered a stunning rebuke to President Donald Trump and his centibillionaire sidekick Elon Musk, both of whom endorsed and supported her right-wing opponent Brad Schimel.

The decisive Wisconsin defeat was taken as a stark warning for next year’s Congressional midterm elections, with Musk himself bemoaning the prospect of a Democratic Congress. "Losing this judge race has good chance of causing Republicans to lose control of the House. If they lose control of the House, there will be non-stop impeachment hearings, there will be non-stop hearings and subpoenas, they're going to do everything to stop the [Trump] agenda,” he told Fox News before the results came in.

Crawford exulted in her victory speech that she had beaten “the world’s richest man,” plutocratic mastermind of Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its chaotic, deeply unpopular crusade to wreck federal agencies. Athough he spent an estimated $25 million against her, turning the Wisconsin race into the most expensive judicial election in American history, she defeated him and Schimel by 55-45 percent.

The Tesla boss’s humiliation was underscored by a campaign trip to the Badger State two days before the election, when he handed out million-dollar checks and donned a “cheesehead” hat. Just hours before voters went to the polls, his auto company’s board asked him to step down as its chief executive.

While Republicans attributed the Wisconsin outcome to Democratic intensity and lower propensity to vote among the Trump base, the results also pointed to potential disenchantment among voters who went Republican last fall. High turnout in Democratic strongholds like Dane County and Milwaukee drove the liberal surge – but Crawford also appears to have flipped a few major counties that backed Trump in 2024

With over 95 percent of the vote counted, the Democratic-backed judge won Kenosha, Racine, Outagamie and Sauk counties, all of which went Republican last year. Her margin in Kenosha County, one of the state’s largest, was roughly five percent.

Trump himself tried to brush off Schimel’s defeat. On Truth Social he emphasized instead that Wisconsin voters approved an amendment to the Wisconsin state constitution requiring voters to display photo identification before casting a ballot. The state already requires voter ID by law, but the constitutional change will protect the law from being changed.

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