Today in Politics, Bulletin 61. 1/31/25

… Trump launched his global trade war today with an announcement that 25% tariffs will be imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico, and 10% tariffs on China beginning tomorrow.

… Trump promised much higher tariffs than this on China repeatedly during the campaign, but it appears Elon Musk was successful in negotiating those down for his largest business partner - the Chinese Communist Party.

… Trump held a brief press conference in the Oval Office to announce the tariffs tonight. He was asked why he was doing this since he promised Americans that he would lower prices: “Tariffs don’t cause inflation. Tariffs cause success. There could some temporary short term disruption. And people understand that.”

… The stock market, which was up before the tariffs were announced today, took a nosedive the minute the announcement was made. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt made the announcement at 1:00 PM. This is what happened. The Dow closed the day down 337.54.

… Canada PM Justin Trudeau: “No one — on either side of the border — wants to see American tariffs on Canadian goods. I met with our Canada-U.S. Council today. We’re working hard to prevent these tariffs, but if the United States moves ahead, Canada’s ready with a forceful and immediate response.”

… After Trudeau made this statement, Trump said there was nothing anyone could do at this point to stop the tariffs.

… US District Court Judge Jack McConnell issued a formal injunction today against the Trump Admin on a lawsuit brought by several states to prevent them from impounding funds. From the court’s order: “Defendants shall not pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate Defendants’ compliance with awards and obligations to provide federal financial assistance to the States, and Defendants shall not impede the States’ access to such awards and obligations.”

… The court’s findings: “The States have set forth facts showing that the Executive’s abrupt ‘pause’ in potentially trillions of dollars of federal funding will cause a ripple effect that would directly impact the States and other’s ability to provide and administer vital services and relief to their citizens. Thus, the federal grants to States and others that are impounded through the Executive’s pause in disbursement will cause irreparable harm. And it is more than monetary harm that is at stake here. As Justice Anthony Kennedy reminds us, ‘Liberty is always at stake when one or more of the branches seek to transgress the separation of powers.’”

… The judge also made it clear that the X post from Karoline Leavitt undercut the Trump Admin’s arguments in court: “Based on the Press Secretary’s unequivocal statement and the continued actions of Executive agencies, the Court finds that the policies in the OMB Directive that the States challenge here are still in full force and effect and thus the issues presented in the States’ TRO motion are not moot.”

… Stephen Miller continued the Trump narrative on Fox that DEI was somehow the reason for the airline crash: “It’s so preventable. As President Trump said today, over the past four years the FAA and air-traffic control under Joe Biden have been dedicated to a mission not of a public safety and not of safe aviation but of DEI.”

… Karoline Leavitt: “When you're flying with your loved ones, do you pray that your airplane lands safely and gets you to your destination or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color? I think we all know the answer.”

… Petey Doocy from Fox to Leavitt today: “If President Trump is telling us that air traffic control towers are staffed with unqualified people - DEI hires - then it’s not safe to fly now, is it?” I’m sure the airline industry is thrilled right now.

… Alina Habba: "We cannot have sloppy, lazy and inappropriate hires, because American people are going to suffer and die."

… Lara Trump, who was given the position of ‘co-Chair of the RNC’ despite having zero qualifications whatsoever, on Fox: “Hiring people for any other reason than competence and merit does a disservice to the public. We should never be hiring anyone for any job other than the best person for that job. That should be the number one reason.” Marrying Eric Trump seems to help qualify you also.

… But Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), whose committee has oversight over the FAA, told Politico that he disagrees with Trump’s statement that DEI was the cause of the crash between a commercial airplane and an Army helicopter: “I don’t think it had anything to do with this particular accident.” Graves is also a pilot.

… WaPo reported that Elon Musk called for Federal Aviation Administrator Mike Whitaker to resign right before Trump took office, which lead to his resignation on Trump’s first day. The FAA was about to fine Musk's company SpaceX $630,000 for violations related to its launches, and Musk threatened to sue the FAA for "regulatory overreach."

… Sen. Tim Kaine: "Trump let Musk force the resignation of the FAA Administrator. He disbanded an aviation safety committee within DHS. He's got an OMB Director who is pushing a hiring freeze and saying, 'I want to traumatize the federal workforce'. He's got an anti-safety agenda. I think that's why he went the race-baiting route."

… Sen. Chris Murphy: "What he’s saying is that the only people who are competent to run anything in this country are white men. Why did he come out so quickly to attack women and Black people for ruining the FAA? He did that because he’s very vulnerable. He has some big questions to answer because the FAA has been in chaos since he took over. Elon Musk, his co-president, forced out the FAA administrator - this could be a coverup."

… More Murphy: “This crash happened on Trump’s watch. After he deliberately threw the FAA into chaos by leaving the agency leaderless, firing the safety board, and bullying its employees to quit. The reason he’s casting blame everywhere else is that he knows what he did.”

… Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clark: “He will continue with the vilification and demonization. He will continue with this madness until our Republic is as white and as male as this administration can bend and break the law to make it. His slew of illegal, unconstitutional executive orders prove just this.”

… Even Newsmax’s WH Correspondent James Rosen seemed disgusted with Trump’s press conference. He asked Leavitt today: “This was an event that began yesterday with a moment of silence for the victims, then the president’s invocation of a loving God, then he uncorked that expletive to insult a former Cabinet officer (Buttigieg). Does the president regard his public profanity as effective communication or is it something he lapses into inadvertently out of frustration and later regrets?”

… A transgender soldier spoke out after she was falsely named on viral right-wing social media posts as the pilot of the helicopter involved in a crash with an airline. After her name and pic were posted all over X, she posted a video to prove she is very much alive. Jo Ellis: "Some craziness has happened on the internet and I'm being named as one of the pilots of the DC crash. Please report any accounts or posts you see. It's insulting to the victims and families of those lost and they deserve better than this BS from the bots and trolls of the internet."

… Ann Coulter was one of the right wing accounts spreading it. She captioned her post which falsely blamed Ellis: “Why is this only on Twitter?

… Adam Kinzinger responded to Coulter: “Because its not true, you bastard.”

… WaPo reports that David Lebryk, the highest-ranking career official at the Treasury Department, is resigning after Elon Musk’s demand that he gain access to sensitive payment systems that disperse trillions of dollars every year. Lebryk has served in non-political roles in the Treasury Department since 1989 and is considered a consummate nonpolitical civil servant. Musk has reportedly asked for access repeatedly to the system but Lebryk has refused.

… Former Treasury official Mike Gwin: “Truly a shocking move — Dave is a totally apolitical professional who’s been trusted by Treasury secretaries from both parties to maintain the critical financial plumbing of the U.S. govt. Moves like this undermine the bedrock that markets, businesses and taxpayers rely on.”

… Reuters reports that Musk has locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees. Senior career employees at the Office of Personnel Management have had their access revoked to some of the department's data systems.

… Eric Reinhart says that Trump-loving LA Times owner Pat Soon-Shiong changed the headline and the article he wrote which was critical of RFK Jr. Reinhart’s original headline was: ‘RFK Jr’s Wrecking Ball Won’t Fix Public Health’. Soon-Shiong changed it to: ‘Trump’s Healthcare Disruption Could Pay Off — If He Pushes Real Reform’.

… Reinhart also said the article was manipulated by cutting out key sections which made it misleading: “⁦Key lines were cut—lines that made very clear that RFK Jr is dangerously ignorant, has absolutely no business near HHS, and is effectively a mass murderer in waiting. This was my first time working with the LA Times, and I expect also my last.”

… Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy sent out a memo to give priority grant funding to parts of the country with higher marriage and birth rates than the national average. The memo states that DOT will give "preference" for grant funding to "communities with with marriage and birth rates higher than the national average.

… On anonymous DOT official told HuffPost: "Considering fertility rates when prioritizing federal grants? We obviously have no idea what the full impact of that will be. It’s absolutely creepy. It’s a little like the Chinese government. I don’t know where else I’ve seen a policy of ‘we need to incentivize baby-making."

… Punchbowl asked Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) what he thought of Tulsi Gabbard refusing to call Edward Snowden a traitor after he asked her repeatedly: “Kinda surprised. I thought that was gonna be an easy softball question.” They asked if her answer could be a problem for her confirmation prospects: “I think there are a lot of questions after it, yeah.”

… Sen. Josh Hawley was asked by Fox if he thought Tulsi Gabbard was in trouble: “I don't know. I have to tell you, I'm worried by what I hear from some of my Republican colleagues. I'm worried that her nomination may be in jeopardy.”

… Sen. Michael Bennet: "I think she is caught in this miasma of this confused social media chatter that, outside of any hearing where you're actually being tested on something maybe makes sense, or maybe feels like something you can get away with. The same thing with Bobby Kennedy's half-truths."

… As someone who has watched both of them for years on right-wing podcasts and media, I can say Bennet is totally on the money. They have been free to spout preposterous conspiracies and lies unchallenged for years to cultists, and this is the first time someone has ever put them under any scrutiny.

… CNN’s Manu Raju after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who is a physician, repeatedly tried and failed to get RFK Jr to say that vaccines don’t cause autism: “Cassidy could single-handedly derail the nomination by voting NO in committee. He hasn’t said how he would vote.”

… Sen. Raphael Warnock on RFK Jr: “Since they are attacking DEI, I want to know what qualifies Robert Kennedy to be the chief public health officer of the United States of America?”

… TN reporter Phil Williams says that federal prosecutors have just withdrawn from the criminal investigation of TN Rep. Andy Ogles, an unprecedented move that could signal plans by the Trump administration to drop the case against him. Ogles just introduced the bill in Congress to amend the Constitution to allow Trump to run for a 3rd term. Trump’s DOJ also dropped charges against former GOP Rep. Jeff Fortenberry yesterday.

… House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to Fox: “We understand that MAGA Republicans have a strategy. They want to flood the zone with outrage, but we can't chase every outrage. I'm a Yankee fan, and Aaron Judge is my favorite player. One of the reasons that he's a great hitter is that he does not swing at every pitch. He waits for the right one, and then he swings. We're not going to swing at every pitch. We're going to swing at the ones that matter.”

… I get what Jeffries is saying here - you can’t constantly call press conferences to address every single deranged Truth Social post, but the problem is that the Dem strategy of either ignoring his lies and outrages or responding to them late has been a losing formula. Dems have consistently allowed Republicans to set the narrative on nearly every issue for 4 years. It is time to respond more, go on offense more, and be vigilant at all times.

… So my baseball analogy is that we are constantly taking pitches and are always behind in the count, and you don’t get a lot of hits when you are always 0-2 after the first two pitches.

… Failed Trump-endorsed candidate for NC Gov and former Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson says he is dropping his lawsuit against CNN and is finished with politics for good: “I will not run next year, nor do I have plans to seek elected office in the future. Until we change the hearts and souls of those inside the political arena, it is unlikely the political process itself will undergo any meaningful change. The price we have paid in entering the political arena will never be recognized. There is no dollar amount high enough.”

… Robinson sued CNN after they published an expose showing that the “christian conservative” left messages on a trans porn website calling himself ‘Black Nazi’, said women shouldn’t be allowed to vote, and made numerous other controversial homophobic and misogynistic statements.

… IL Gov JB Pritzker signed order prohibiting J6 insurrectionists from ever obtaining state employment in Illinois: “I hereby direct CMS to apply the State Personnel Code and consider any participation in the January 6 insurrection as infamous and disgraceful conduct that is antithetical to the mission of the State.”

… Dan Rather just posted this: “Independent journalism is now the way forward. Sadly, we can no longer rely on legacy media to hold the powerful accountable.”

… CNN reports that Trump is firing dozens of FBI agents who worked on J6 cases. The FBI Agents Association issued a statement: “These outrageous actions are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI Agents. Dismissing potentially hundreds of Agents would severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure. During our meeting, he said that agents would be afforded