Yesterday Donald Trump announced a stunning array of new tariffs leveled against nearly every country in the world (excepting a few on, supposedly on the excuse that tariffs had already been levied earlier). The stock market plummeted, the world shuddered, decades of friendly relationships with other countries took a huge blow. Trump smiled the smile of the powerful and thought to himself, “Now I am the most powerful man in the entire world. The world is dependent on my kingly indulgence. Because I am all-powerful, leaders of all these countries will come to me individually, hat in hand, asking for mercy for their country’s economy. I will sit on my throne and mete out exceptions case-by-case in exchange for subservience. Divide and conquer! Like I told Zelenskyy about his Ukraine, other countries don’t have the cards.”
Trump’s speech on tariffs announced what he called “Liberation Day.” It was liberation in one sense only: it was the crowning outrageous declaration (of many) by Trump and his whisperers and enablers that they are establishing Donald Trump as the new king of the United States, a man “liberated” from the safeguards put in place by the U.S. Constitution against just such an event, safeguards put in place after fighting the Revolutionary War against just such unfettered kingly power.
But Trump is not a king. He is a president with the instincts of a mob boss. He and his enablers paint anyone who objects as the “other” while they threaten and intimidate (electorally and physically) any within the MAGA party in Congress who would even hint that his actions should be limited.
Trump’s unilateral declaration of these tariffs is dependent on the subservience and fawning of the Republican members of Congress. A crack in that subservience appeared yesterday in the U.S. Senate when four Republican Senators, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and Susan Collins, voted with Democrats against Trump’s legal justification for tariffs against Canada. Without getting too far into the weeds, Trump unilaterally claims the power to levy these insane tariffs on a flimsy legal justification. Using a ridiculous stretch of the intent of a 1974 law he claims his unilateral power to declare tariffs without Congressional approval by declaring bogus “national emergencies” around fentanyl and immigration. The Republican majority in U.S. House of Representatives is extremely thin, and they have just managed to legislatively insulate themselves from having to go on record with a vote against Trump (and Mike Johnson controls what comes to the floor), but… With sufficient uproar from constituents focused on Republican Congress people the tide could turn. There is scant hope that eastern Washington’s freshman U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-CD-5) possesses the backbone—but he is a politician above all else—and politicians eventually respond to sufficient pressure…
So, (1) Express your outrage to your Congresspeople. Go to 5Calls.org, enter your zip code and scroll for the number and names of the people who claim to represent you. Express to your Republican members that they need to take back congressional control of tariff policy. If Congressional Republican remain supine they are complicit with the disaster that is befalling us.
And (2) on Saturday show up at your local Hands Off protest. Click here and scroll down for your local peaceful protest. Read this Newsweek article for some national perspective. If you live in or around Spokane:
Who’s a Conservative?
The present, nominally federal administration of Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Elon Musk and company has moved so far to the right that I now realize that I am a whole-hearted conservative, a person of distinctly conservative values. Let me explain:
We are not powerless. The people of the South Korean democracy recently peacefully rose up and thwarted a president dictator-wannabe’s declaration of martial law. We can, in our masses, declare the Trump, Vance, Musk regime illegitimate.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. I highly recommend reading one, several, or all of the following Substack posts from this morning for details and perspective: Heather Cox Richardson’s April 2, 2025 (Wednesday), Robert Hubbell’s Trump ignites global tariff war, Paul Krugman’s Will Malignant Stupidity Kill the World Economy?, and Robert Reich’s 10 rules for dealing with Trump’s demands for capitulation.
Trump’s mob boss mentality is underlined by a Substack commenter whom I don’t know at all named Diane Blank:
Trump’s hour long press event in the White House Rose Garden in April 2, 2025 was described by himself as “Liberation Day.” The tariff taxes will liberate Trump from the constraints of the rule of law and will gradually liberate the American people, as well as our friends abroad, from our money.
The tariff taxes that Trump imposes have nothing to do with coherent economic policy. The tariffs tax creates a personal treasury of bargaining chips that he will dispense one by one to keep the MAGA rank-and-file loyal and to impress world autocrats with the extent of his power.
Trump is a mob boss. He will receive selected loyal Republicans who have power and influence. He will hear their pleas, ruminate about what he might be able to do for them, and explain through veiled threats what they can do to in return for his benevolence. This is known in the trade as a protection racket. The only “constituents” who figure into any of this reside at the top of the economic food chain.
The American People must organize and resist.