Times Opinion is using today’s newsletter to stay on top of President Trump’s moves, putting a spotlight on areas that Americans can’t afford to turn away from. The point of Trump’s pain: On Friday my colleague Matthew Rose previewed here the consequences of Trump’s decision to sharply increase tariffs across the board: higher prices, higher unemployment, perhaps a recession or worse. As a stock market sell-off continued through the day, I kept wondering why these tariffs were happening in the first place. One of the major factors behind Trump’s election was inflation, which made Americans unhappy, even though the economy under Joe Biden was strong. As my colleague David Wallace-Wells writes, many tech and business leaders shifted toward Trump in part because he promised an economic boom. Because of this, it was hard to believe that Trump would follow through on his peculiar campaign promise to institute broad tariffs. What’s the upside to Trump’s gamble? Some of the justifications are mutually exclusive. Does he hope to raise revenue? Is he trying to get other countries to lower their tariff and nontariff barriers to trade? Or does he want to bring manufacturing back to America? Or does he simply have a 19th-century mercantilist’s aversion to bilateral trade imbalances? For Jason Furman, an economist who advised the Obama White House, it all comes down to the fact that Trump has two consistent beliefs when it comes to tariffs — and both are wrong.
A link for levity: I had no idea that caterpillars could want to defend their turf, but apparently there is a species that does. Read “The Very Territorial Caterpillar.” Slight return: I don’t want to lose track of the new work Opinion has published on issues we highlighted in past newsletters. Four of my colleagues discussed the authoritarian direction that Trump is taking America. Three experts on violence in Venezuela wrote about how Trump’s immigration policies will not help stop the criminal organization Tren de Aragua. Lawrence H. Summers, a former president of Harvard, urged universities to stand up to Trump. The historian Jill Lepore wrote about Elon Musk’s animating belief in technocracy. Kristen Soltis Anderson, a pollster, wrote about the growing anger among Democratic voters and how it threatens Trump’s political prospects. What else I’m reading to understand the world today: “Mark Carney’s Values Could Remake Canada — So What Are They?” by Yuan Yi Zhu for The Hub, “Jacques Ellul on Propaganda” by Robin McKenna, “Why China Is Winning the Chip War Against the U.S.” in Sinofication, “Regime Change in the West?” by Perry Anderson in The London Review of Books and “The Open Society and the Friends It Needs (Part 2)” by Brink Lindsey. Games Here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle and Spelling Bee. If you’re in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com. If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times.
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