Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris wanted the suspension; Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chair Sam Graves reminded him how ferociously he’d opposed the same idea when the Biden administration had sought one in 2022.
asserted
administration → want → 2022
This went over poorly.
asserted
This → go → ?
Harris started shouting and banging the desk: “This is fucking war!”
asserted
This → start → desk
Then he and his allies stormed out of the room.
asserted
he → storm → room
Later, one of them took to Twitter to call Graves an “Establishment elitist” who was “fighting hard” to bring “the swamp” back.
asserted
who → take → swamp
Here come those midterms!
asserted
midterms → come → ?
Congress Just Gave Trump a Bigger Tariff Hammer.
asserted
Congress → give → Hammer
The House of Representatives is getting out of Dodge early today, Speaker Mike Johnson’s last small favor to Donald Trump of the year—and perhaps of his speakership.2
asserted
House → get → speakership.2
But on their way out the door yesterday, the House passed one last piece of major legislation: a strong new sanctions bill on Russia that was the baby of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.
asserted
that → pass → Graham
It’s an unambiguously pro-Ukraine piece of legislation that will punish Russia hard for its war of aggression.
asserted
that → ’ → aggression
Last year, when Trump and JD Vance were delivering their infamous Oval Office sandbagging of Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump was routinely parroting talking points Vladimir Putin was whispering in his ear, it would have seemed absurdly Pollyannaish to think the administration would eventually back such a pro-Ukrainian package.
asserted
administration → deliver → package
The bill doesn’t just place mandatory sanctions on Russia’s leadership and energy and defense industries.
asserted
bill → place → leadership
It also grants Trump sweeping new powers to indulge in his favorite hobby: tariffing the shit out of international trade.
asserted
It → grant → trade
When Trump signs the bill, he will acquire the discretionary authority to place tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries that are top importers of Russian energy.
asserted
that → sign → energy
If you want to know how Trump was wheedled into backing unambiguously pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia legislation, these shiny new tariff powers surely have a lot to do with it.
asserted
powers → want → it
Now, you could make the argument that this is a useful geostrategic tool—that choking off Russia’s war economy is a worthy aim and any tariffs Trump might deploy to that end are at least partially to the good.
uncertain
Trump → make → good
But for starters, as Catherine Rampell noted last month, the bill “doesn’t force Trump to use his existing sanction powers” because of the mile-wide exceptions—and it doesn’t give him any new sanctions powers, either.
asserted
it → note → powers
Moreover, the tariffs-as-sanctions logic completely ignores the way Trump has actually deployed his tariff powers so far.
asserted
Trump → ignore → powers
Over and over, the president has taken tariff authorities that are supposedly narrow in scope and used them to wage his personal Maximum Trade War around the world.
asserted
that → take → world
Ever since the Supreme Court slapped down his “liberation day” tariffs, ruling that he couldn’t simply place any tariff on any country for any reason, he’s been trying to recreate his sweeping protectionist trade regime piecemeal, using any tariff authority he can reach.
asserted
he → slap → authority
Many of these have been obviously pretextual: In July, with one temporary authority expiring, Trump grabbed another, imposing tariffs on 60 countries supposedly due to forced-labor concerns.
asserted
Trump → expire → concerns
For years now, Trump has been exploiting a simple fact: The lawmakers who created our various tariff authorities over the last century never dreamed that a tariff-crazed president would try to stitch them into a patchwork quilt heavy enough to smother global trade.
asserted
president → exploit → trade
Today’s Congress has no such excuse; they’ve seen Trump’s tariff crusade.
asserted
they → have → crusade
The fact that they just handed him yet another suite of broad tariff powers is nothing short of insane.
asserted
they → hand → powers
To their credit, many House Democrats realized all this.
asserted
Democrats → realize → this
While Senate Democrats backed the sanctions bill en masse, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spearheaded his party’s opposition in the lower chamber, arguing that the good end of Russia sanctions did not outweigh the perils of the bill’s tariff provisions.
asserted
end → back → provisions
Even some Republicans were getting antsy about them as the vote approached: CNN reported yesterday that more than a dozen GOP House members were lobbying at the eleventh hour to strip the tariff provisions from the bill.
asserted
members → get → bill
Now, look: I’m not saying this was an easy call.
asserted
this → look → ?
I can at least see how some lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, weighed up the tradeoffs and decided that placing a few more arrows in Trump’s tariff quiver was worth it to get him onside on Ukraine.
asserted
him → see → Ukraine
That’s probably why some Democrats voted for it—the bill won 86 votes in the Senate and 262 in the House.
asserted
bill → ’ → House
But I can’t help recoiling from how ludicrous it all is.
asserted
it → help → ?
Didn’t we all just live through 2025?
asserted
we → live → 2025
Don’t we all remember Liberation Day?
asserted
we → remember → Day
Haven’t we seen how eager Trump is to throttle the U.S. economy while chasing fantasies of “trillions of dollars coming into our country” in hallucinated foreign investment?
asserted
trillions → see → investment
It’s like Trump’s recent appetite for real war has led us to forget how insatiable his appetite is for trade war.
asserted
appetite → ’ → war
I’d long since resigned myself to the fact that Congress wasn’t going to bring Trump’s tariff powers to heel.
asserted
Congress → resign → heel
But even I didn’t think they would actually gear up—on a bipartisan basis!—to give him even more.
asserted
they → think → more
The numbers don’t tell the whole story, argues MARK HERTLING.
asserted
HERTLING → tell → story
Here’s Who Trump Should Blame for the Rate Hike…
asserted
Trump → ’ → Hike
He promised lower prices and lower interest rates.
asserted
He → promise → prices
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
