Another misuse of the pardon power, this time for right-wing gadfly Dinesh D’Souza. “Trump’s innovation is to turn the pardon into an everyday tool of culture war, wedding the political messaging of Carter and Johnson to the individualist cronyism of Clinton. As with so many of Trump’s maneuvers, this is entirely within the legal bounds of his power but still largely outside the realm of propriety and precedent.”
Pardoning undeserving celebrities is a mistake. “Mr. Trump also said he was considering commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is in federal prison on corruption charges, and he indicated he was considering a pardon for lifestyle businesswoman Martha Stewart, who was convicted in 2004 of obstructing an investigation into her sale of stocks.”
President Trump chose to misdirect sanctions. Now we have a mess. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “called the Trump administration’s national security argument ‘inconceivable’ and called the tariffs ‘an affront to the Canadians who died’ alongside Americans in battle.” Good grief — he managed to anger Canadians.
A significant misstep. “It didn’t take long for the European Union, Canada, and Mexico to hit back at the US after the Trump administration announced the three key allies would soon be subject to steel and aluminum tariffs. The countries lambasted the US decision, calling the move a violation of trade rules and a breakdown of international cooperation.”
Another economic miscue. “The decision [to impose tariffs on allies] has implications for farmers in key Midwestern states who will see their exports crimped, consumers who are expected to pay more, workers who may see cost-cutting in export-heavy industries and global relations with crucial trading partners as the U.S. tries to exert pressure on China. ‘Today is a bad day for world trade,’ said EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who tried to persuade the Trump administration to permanently exempt the 28-nation EU from the new tariffs and begin trade negotiations instead.”
We can only hope voters will recognize their votes for Trump were miscast. “Moments like [Roseanne Barr’s firing] are likely to cause some of the women who voted for Trump because he was allegedly the lesser of two evils, to reevaluate how they define evil and to reevaluate whether they want to remain a part of a party which seems to have forgotten that when it comes to family values, all members of the family should be treated with love and respect, regardless of their race or gender.” We surely hope men would reevaluate as well.
More reason to mistrust pols. “The House Ethics Committee made public Thursday that Rep. David Schweikert, R-Arizona, and his chief of staff have been under investigation by the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics. . . . Schweikert’s chief of staff, Oliver Schwab, was spending lavishly on work trips and supplementing his income with a consulting firm that received $164,887 from Schweikert’s various campaign committees. Per federal law, senior congressional staffers cannot make more than $26,955 in outside income.” Schweikert is a Freedom Caucus member, by the way.