Trumps Clown Car

To former President Trump, tariffs are "the greatest thing ever invented."

Why it matters: Trump has touted tariffs as a miraculous cure to just about every domestic and international strain, from war to child care to high grocery prices. But Trump also consistently claims tariffs are paid by countries exporting to the U.S., which isn't actually how they work.

State of play: Trump has vowed to implement massive, sweeping tariffs - while Vice President Kamala Harris has pointed to warnings from economists that they would reawaken inflation.

Still, as Trump likes to point out, President Biden did keep his China tariffs in place, and Harris hasn't said she'd lift them.

The big picture: Trump is right that tariffs can raise revenue for the governments imposing them.

But he's wrong when he claims they only punish manufacturers abroad. They can also hurt U.S. companies and consumers. ... Read more

U.S. Farmers Lost Billions to Trump-Era Retaliatory Tariffs

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that if reelected, he would impose new tariffs on China reaching 60 percent of the goods' value. After Trump's tariffs aimed at China in early 2018, retaliation from the country and other nations affected hit the U.S. economy and especially agricultural producers hard. A report from the USDA shows that between mid-2018 and the end of 2019, more than $27 billion, thereof $25.7 billion tied to China, had to be compensated with government payments to farmers. Tariff rates never exceeded 30 percent of goods value in that time period and were as low as 7.5 percent for some products, so an even higher and uniform tariff rate of 60 percent would be sure to send another shock wave through the U.S. business and farming communities.

Back then, the Trump Administration addressed concerns earmarking federal aid worth $28 billion for farmers. Under current President Joe Biden, relief payments continued to rise. Yet, farmer advocates pointed out that the subsidies were going to large farms predominantly, leaving smaller producers out in the rain. ... Read more

Behind the Curtain: The worst of 2016 and 2020 unite

Good, long article. This is the conclusion:

Not to be downers, but end with this thought experiment: How confident are you that the election results will be seen as valid, unpolluted by fake news and free of political violence?

If you're like most Americans, you're bracing for the worst.

67% expressed anxiety about the election in a recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll. 60% cited "political violence" as the election outcome they're most anxious about. ... Read more

Trump says if he loses to Harris, "Jewish people would have a lot to do" with it

Trump received a warm reception at the "Fighting Antisemitism in America" event, but he was accused outside of the summit of "dangerous antisemitism" for saying "if I don't win this election," then "the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss."

Trump spoke at two events in D.C. Thursday ahead of the first anniversary of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel that sparked a war in Gaza that's killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and 1,600 Israelis.

He pointed to having a Jewish daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren as he sought to court the Jewish vote.

State of play: "If I don't win this election - and Jewish people would have a lot to do with that, 60% are voting for the enemy - Israel will cease to exist in two years," Trump said at the Israeli-American Council event.

"If I do win, Israel will be safe and secure, and we'll stop the toxic poison of antisemitism." ... Read more

Donal Trump's Project2025

"Eradicate climate change references"; only talk to conservative media; don't leave a paper trail for watchdogs to discover. In a series of never-before-published videos, Project 2025 details how a second Trump administration would operate.

Project 2025, the controversial playbook and policy agenda for a right-wing presidential administration, has lost its director and faced scathing criticism from both Democratic groups and former President Donald Trump. But Project 2025's plan to train an army of political appointees who could battle against the so-called deep state government bureaucracy on behalf of a future Trump administration remains on track.

One centerpiece of that program is dozens of never-before-published videos created for Project 2025's Presidential Administration Academy. The vast majority of these videos - 23 in all, totaling more than 14 hours of content - were provided to ProPublica and Documented by a person who had access to them. ... Read more

Behind the Curtain: Trump's big, unfixable, glaring glitch
Axios | Jim VandeHei,Mike Allen | 09/12/24

Here's what troubles former President Trump's advisers most: He knew that with precision and preparation, Vice President Harris would bait him on things like crowd size, and buck discussion about her power today and liberalism in the past.

He knew exactly how to try to turn each moment against her.

Why it matters: But he blew it badly ... repeatedly ... predictably. He simply cannot help himself, Trump insiders begrudgingly admit.

No practice, pleas or sage advice keep Trump from being Trump.

It's a feature - not a correctable bug. ... ... ... Read more

Trump takes the bait: Takeaways from Harris' big night
Axios | Zachary Basu | 09/11/24

Over and over at last night's presidential debate, Kamala Harris set traps surgically designed to provoke, rattle and enrage Donald Trump.

And over and over, Trump stepped right into them.

Why it matters: With just eight weeks until the election, Harris delivered for Democrats on the biggest possible stage - the type of national stage that ended President Biden's political career less than three months ago.

She did so by being "exquisitely prepared," as former Trump debate coach Chris Christie described her, and by exploiting her opponent's well-documented triggers.

The result was a firehouse of angry rants and bizarre claims by Trump - including a baseless conspiracy theory about immigrants eating pet cats and dogs - that will fuel headlines and Democratic ads for weeks. ... ... ... Read more

Trump denies any link to Project 2025 under pressure from Harris
Axios | Erin Doherty | 09/11/24

Vice President Harris tied former President Trump to Project 2025 early in their contentious presidential debate, claiming he is preparing to unleash a dangerous agenda.

Why it matters: Trump has tried to distance himself from the conservative playbook in recent weeks, as Democrats repeatedly try to link him to it.

Project 2025, which proposes a dramatic expansion of executive branch power, is not an official Trump campaign platform, but it was created by several of the former president's allies.

In addition to giving the president unprecedented control over the federal bureaucracy, it calls for hardline positions on issues like abortion. ... Read more

Tuesday night's presidential debate offers voters their first-ever opportunity to watch Kamala Harris and Donald Trump take questions on the same stage about the ins and outs of their policy pronouncements - from the GOP nominee's vows of mass deportations and newfound embrace of legalized pot to the Democratic hopeful's calls to crack down on high housing costs and price-gouging.

So here is POLITICO's primer on some of the policy questions that ABC News' David Muir and Linsey Davis may want to ask Harris and Trump - and how they might push the candidates beyond their easy talking points:
Taxes
Energy
Ukraine
Israel and Gaza
Education
Trade
Food and agriculture
Housing
Health care
Artificial intelligence
TikTok
Antitrust and corporate power
Industrial policy
Labor policies
Africa and Latin America
Great article ... Read more

The challenge is getting the former president to stick to the script.

Tuesday's debate may be former President Donald Trump's best chance to regain his footing in the presidential race.

But it's an opportunity some Republicans fear he could blow - particularly if Trump gets personal with Vice President Kamala Harris. Prominent GOP officials and his own advisers have urged Trump for weeks to keep the focus on critiquing her policy record, but the former president continues to signal that he's not interested in backing down from personal attacks.

"I assume she’ll come in very, very aggressive, and she will try to bait him, getting very angry, and she'll be personal and try to demean him," said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. ... Read more

Trump's debate playbook: Call the rules 'rigged' and undermine the moderators

Donald Trump is laying the foundation for a "rigged" debate on ABC News before he squares off with Kamala Harris.

In interviews, fundraising appeals, rallies, and posts on social media, the former president has repeatedly blasted the host network and accused its top talent of being biased against him. He's even accused the network, without evidence, of providing the questions in advance to the Harris campaign.

"ABC is the worst network in terms of fairness," Trump said during a Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity recently. "They're very nasty, and I think a lot of people are going to be watching to see how nasty and how unfair they are."

"Do you think ABC will give Kamala every question beforehand? We already know her liberal media cronies would do ANYTHING to keep her from getting embarrassed the same way Biden was!" Trump said in a fundraising appeal. "I'm coming into this at a disadvantage - taking on Crooked Kamala AND the Fake News - but with you in my ear, I'm NOT SCARED OF ANYTHING!"" ... Read more

NEW YORK - Donald Trump came within feet of one of his most prominent accusers, the writer E. Jean Carroll, in a Manhattan courtroom Friday as the two attended oral arguments in the former president’s appeal of last year's $5 million jury verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

A panel of three federal judges from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals appeared skeptical of Trump’s bid to overturn the May 2023 verdict that found he sexually abused Carroll in the dressing room of luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in the the mid-1990s and years later called her claim a "hoax."

... "I'm disappointed in my legal talent, I'll be honest with you," Trump said.

Trump is also appealing the $83.3 million verdict from a second Carroll trial in which he was found liable for defaming her while he was president about the same mid-1990s sexual assault. ... Read more

Describing conditions as "fraught with complexities", a New York judge on Friday delayed Donald Trump's sentencing on charges stemming from hush money paid to an adult film star until 26 November.

Trump, the Republican nominee for president, had asked Justice Juan Merchan to push back his sentencing date until after the US election. Trump had previously been scheduled to be sentenced on 18 September, less than two months before election day.

Trump's lawyers in August argued there would not be enough time before the sentencing for the defense to potentially appeal Merchan's forthcoming ruling on Trump's request to overturn the conviction due to the US supreme court’s landmark decision on presidential immunity. ... Read more