Original Publish Date » April 12 , 2025
Last Updated » 2 weeks

Americans voted for this

  • Perhaps the most damning commentary about the US electorate and media is that Trump never even tried to conceal his malicious intentions and deranged policy positions. Despite some revisionist history from pundits and Trump voters with serious regrets, his second term is largely what his campaign promised. He was consistently fixated on personal grievance and revenge, with no serious solutions for the country’s problems, many of which were of his own making. That’s hardly the blueprint for an American Golden Age.
    Almost exactly a year ago, Trump gave an extensive interview with Time Magazine that served as a detailed confession of his plot to ruin the country. The interview was conducted in April, months before he’d receive the Republican presidential nomination for a third time. His general election campaign was even more radical and divisive: He offered a dirty ashtray’s view of the future, with migrant fear-mongering, transphobic attacks, and outright threats against his enemies. (Public Notice)

America Falters

  • The EU, Britain and other rule-of-law capitalist democracies now have the balance of advantage. But they need to recognise it and work together to capitalise on the opportunity, rather than each sue for the most advantageous deal possible in their limited “national interest”.
    This is a moment when the national interest is best pursued by hanging together. The situation remains dangerous.
    The democracies must find a common front over the next 90 days as an exercise in damage limitation, and then go beyond that to fashion a new trade order from the ruins of the old – but necessarily without the US. Equally, they must have their eyes wide open about China. While it must be engaged with, it is not a benevolent power. Rather, it is the lynchpin of what author Anne Applebaum has called “Autocracy Inc”, a network of countries including Russia whose aim is to undermine rule-of-law democratic societies, human rights and political pluralism. (Will Hutton / The Guardian)

Investors dump US government bonds as faith in America falters

  • Treasury bonds are essentially IOUs from the US government, and they’re how DC pays its bills despite collecting less in revenue than it spends. Investors normally rush to them at any whiff of economic chaos – but now they are selling them, as not even the lure of higher interest payments on the bonds is luring buyers. The freak development has experts saying big banks, funds, and traders are losing faith in America as a stable, predictable place to store their money. (France 24)

The global financial order has changed

  • The last ten days have thrown into doubt the role of the United States at the core of the global economic and financial system.
    The big picture: After generations in which the U.S. dollar and its government securities have been the world’s bedrock safe haven assets, global investors woke up this week to the possibility that they are not particularly safe, and not at all a haven.
  • People will write books about April 2025 the way they have about July 1944, August 1971 or September 2008.

‘I don’t trust America.’ Trump’s tariffs, detentions take a toll on LA tourism (LA Times)

Tourists detained by ICE say they were treated like ‘the worst criminal’ (USA Today)

Comrade Trump

How the G.O.P. Fell in Love With Putin’s Russia

  • It’s almost impossible to overstate the magnitude of this pivot, as Sasha Havlicek, the chief executive of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a nonpartisan think tank that analyzes global extremism and disinformation, points out. “If, in fact, we are witnessing a total ideological shift of America away from its post-World War II role as guarantor of the international order and an alignment with Putin and other authoritarian nationalists against the old allies that constituted the liberal world order,” she says, “there couldn’t be anything more dramatic than that.” (NY Times)

Trump’s Tariff War

Trump’s administration exempted smartphones, computers, and other electronics from Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” tariffs (import taxes) (Bloomberg / NPR / TechCrunch)

Trump’s unrealistic push for US-Made iPhones faces reality test

USA vs The World

The bully with no friends, now scrambling for allies in its trade war with China

  • “After three months of insulting, tariffing and even threatening to annex some of its best allies, the Trump administration suddenly needs some help.”
  • “The US President has now escalated a full-on trade clash with China that he doesn’t seem to know how to win. So the administration is rushing to work out how to build leverage against Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is in no mood to cede to Trump’s bullying.” (CNN)

US, EU, German business chambers in China brace for ‘long-lasting’ trade war

  • Foreign business chambers in China say that companies from their respective countries are worried in the face of mounting uncertainties from the intensifying trade war with the US, fearing that this could be just the beginning. (SCMP)

How China will ensure the trade war hurts the US

  • China on Friday increased its tariffs to 125% in response to Trump’s 145% levies. But it has many more levers it can pull. (Axios)

Trump’s Trade War Unleashes Global Uncertainty

Horrible Administration

Trump administration overrode Social Security staff to list immigrants as dead

  • This account of how the Trump administration pushed Social Security to wrongly declare thousands of living immigrants dead is based on interviews with 15 people, including current and former Social Security officials, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, as well as more than two dozen pages of records obtained by The Washington Post. (WaPo)

Trump officials are talking internally about denaturalizing American citizens — and shipping some to the El Salvador

  • Trump personally directed at least one lawyer working in his administration to look into deporting American citizens via denaturalization processes, telling aides that it is a “good idea” for certain cases (Rolling Stone)

Shooting themselves in both feets

That new charge on your bill? Call it a ‘This Tariff Isn’t Our Fault’ Fee

  • An extra fee is showing up on more shopping bills lately, and it carries a not-so-subtle message: These tariffs weren’t our idea. From bathroom-fixture makers to toy shops, companies are starting to tack tariff surcharges onto invoices as a separate line item. Some are a $5 flat fee, while others represent as much as 40% of the subtotal. The tactic is a way to pass on at least some tariff costs to consumers—especially on Chinese-made goods, with levies totalling 145% since January—while passing the buck to President Trump. (WSJ)

Obeying in Advance

Five more large US law firms reach deals with Trump

  • Under threat of Trump level retribution, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, A&O Shearman, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft shamefully agreed to do free legal work for the protection racket that occupies the White House. The five law firms reached deals – announced on Friday – to provide a total of US$600 million in free legal services. (NYT)
  • Note: If they can’t stand up from themselves, what makes you think they would do the right thing for their clients.