Last week, I joined Maddie Hale on The Trump Report. It was an Aussie interviewing a fellow Aussie on a British show about the American economy. Maybe that’s a statement about the state of globalization. Or Australians. Or America, I suppose.
We covered a lot of ground: 1.5% growth in GDP is far from the boom the president promised, but definitely healthier than doomers predicted. The “K-shaped economy” is very much still alive, despite the Treasury Secretary’s best efforts to declare it dead. And inflation may be slowing, but that’s not the same thing as prices going down — and the president’s claims otherwise were either dishonest or just plain ignorant.
We also spent a good while on Canada, our unfailingly polite neighbors who we’ve been horrifically rude to. In response, they’ve been quietly rewiring their economy around us — fewer American products in their shopping carts, fewer students in our universities, and fewer tourists crossing the bridge to Michigan. This kind of damage won’t show up in a quarterly GDP report, but it will play out over decades.
Maddie concluded our conversation by asking me to grade the administration’s economic policy. I hate failing students, truly. But if you want to know why this one earned an F — why it’s not even close, and not remotely ideological — give the episode a listen.
Lying, stupid, or both. I choose c.
If you look at Trump as a Russian asset, everything makes sense.
Remember this: https://time.com/5401645/putins-oligarchs/
Why would Trump focus on aluminum and steel tariffs that hurt more manufacturing jobs building things with imported metal than the few highly automated steel and aluminum plant jobs it saved or created?
First Trump admin bought defective armor plate for Army vehicles from a Russian owned manufacturer:
https://en.defence-ua.com/industries/cracks_run_through_armor_plates_in_jltvs_produced_at_a_russian_owned_us_plant-13820.html
Who could have seen that coming?
Deripaska was working on an aluminum smelter in Mitch McConnell’s home state: https://www.newsweek.com/company-russian-oligarch-millions-aluminum-plant-mitch-mcconnell-1397061
Which country has no tariffs? Russia
Who benefits from western interceptor arsenals being depleted so no one can buy them for Ukraine?
Who got their oil sanctions lifted?
Who is selling more oil (until Ukrainian drones improved and started blowing up Russian oil infrastructure) at a higher price?
Who interfered with the 2016 elections for Trump, hacked the Colonial Pipeline and is now free to do it on a larger scale with CISA and the FBI counterintelligence capabilities gutted?
https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/03/politics/patel-fbi-national-security-division-firings-iran
Who seeks to recruit former senior military and intel officials, and nothing makes them easier to recruit than a disrespectful firing?
Russia, Russia, Russia.
When Trump accuses opponents of something bad, link Hunter’s Burisma deal that is rounding error compared to Kushner’s billions, it’s because he is doing it himself or plans to. How many patriotic Americans has he accused of Treason?