Who wants to visit an authoritarian America?

Trump tanks tourism.

Brynn Tannehill

One of the peculiarities of being an American is the widespread national conviction that America is the best at everything.

This is particularly true of Republicans and MAGA, self-identified “real Americans” who consider anyone criticizing the US to be a commie traitor.

Trump takes this a step further by declaring anything he touches to be the biggest, best thing ever. He is convinced he has made America great again, and that the whole world now respects and fears the United States accordingly.

This is, of course, complete nonsense.

Since Trump has returned to office, global approval of the United States has plummeted. This is seen as far back as polling data from early 2025, and it’s likely much worse now.

When Pew Research asked people across 36 countries this spring if they trusted various world leaders to do the right thing, Trump was trusted least — less than Putin, Xi Jinping, and Netanyahu. Gallup found that world opinion of the United States has fallen to its lowest point in 20 years.

Ouch. 

Desperate to appear strong, Trump shows pathetic weakness

Surprisingly, providing more evidence that he is crazy doesn't help Trump to regain public support

Paul Waldman

Remember “Sharpiegate,” a relatively inconsequential but uncommonly stupid episode from Trump’s first term?

The Sharpie is back.

In the surrealist performance hall that is the Oval Office, Trump grabbed his pen, took out a map of the Great Lakes, crossed out “Lake Ontario” and wrote in “Lake America,” part of a pointless new trade war he has started with Canada.

“Lake Ontario, that’s gone. Lake America,” he said. “So now we have a lake and now we have a Gulf because we have the Gulf of America and now we have Lake America.”

Stirring words.

Like so much of what Trump does, this was meant to be a show of strength. Yet it actually demonstrated just the opposite: Trump is weak and getting weaker.

He can instruct the federal government to change its maps, as he did with an executive order late last week, and will even find that many people will submit to his desires.

As of this writing, Google Maps has changed Lake Ontario to Lake America for those searching in the US, while Apple Maps has yet to do so — though since Apple Maps did change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Trump’s instruction, it may fall in line soon. (MapQuest loudly refused to make the change, in what may be a bid to inform people that it still exists.)

But if there are any voters in America who are impressed by Trump’s lacustrine nomenclature revisionism, they will surely be hard to find.

Instead, the “Lake America” inanity will be slotted alongside Trump’s ballroom, his quest to keep his name on the Kennedy Center, his helipad, and his Reflecting Pool faceplant. These are the things a failing, frustrated president does in a desperate bid to look strong, because he hasn’t been able to accomplish much of anything that might improve Americans’ lives.

Trump’s View of Everything in the World

Vassals, Mooches, and Thugs (oh my)

Robert Reich

Trump says he directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “substantially reduce” military drills with South Korea, citing his “very good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un” — whom he calls “unthreatening and respectful.”

Kim Jong Un is unthreatening and respectful? Hello?

Trump also says he’s miffed at South Korea for refusing to help the United States in its conflict against Iran — a conflict that was initiated entirely by Trump alone and is over 4,000 miles away from South Korea.

Wha?

Many are bewildered by how badly Trump treats America’s traditional allies and friends, like South Korea, and how nicely he treats traditional enemies and dictators, like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

But there’s no reason for bewilderment. All you need do is get into Trump’s transactional lizard brain to see that, for him, the world contains only three kinds of nations or people: vassals, mooches, and thugs.

Why are we at war with Canada?

Trump shitposts fail to win support for Canadian trade war

Liz Dye

Yes, Trump actually posted this.

The Premier of Ontario has an answer

Donald Trump spent the past week cozying up to North Korea and attacking Canada. Whatever claim the US had to be a beacon of free trade — not to mention moral leadership — has been demolished like the East Wing of the White House.

And so it was probably inevitable the president would dig the prototypical failed economic policy of the 20th century out of history’s dumpster and operationalize it against our closest ally.

Smoot-Hawley tariffs are back, baby! Sure, aggressive levies cutting off trade as a means of stimulating domestic industry never worked for those people. In fact, it effectively crashed the global economy and turned a recession into the Great Depression. But it may work for us!

It will not work for us. But it may make us so roundly despised that it galvanizes other countries to reimagine the world order so as to cut out the one, heretofore indispensable nation.

USMCA? Never heard of it!

Upon returning to office, Trump immediately took a Sharpie to “the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country, with the most advanced protections for workers ever developed” — also known as

 the USMCA, which he himself negotiated in 2018 as a replacement for NAFTA

"We don't need anything that Canada has, we don't need anything that Mexico has, but they need everything that we have,” he blustered in June. “We don't need their cars, we don't need their lumber, we don't need their energy, we don't need anything that they have."

This is self-evidently ridiculous.

Canada supplies roughly 80% of the potash American farmers use as fertilizer. Midwest refineries are built to run on heavy Canadian sour crude, and the pipeline infrastructure simply doesn't exist to swap in lighter, American-produced oil from places like Texas. 

Canadian hydropower fuels a significant share of the electricity supply in New York and New England. And the auto and auto parts trade between the two countries, already strained by Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, is about as integrated as two countries' economies get.

And yet Trump negotiated as if Canadians could never say no, even as he demanded crippling concessions and lobbed humiliating insults at our stalwart ally. Trade talks were at an impasse after 18 months of threats and taunts about annexing our northern neighbor. But in July the prospect of an additional 50 percent levy on a sprawling list of Canadian goods forced Canadians back to the negotiating table. And last week, with the major principles agreed, Trump congratulated both sides for striking “a very fair deal.”

"Our farmers are going to be thrilled; our manufacturers are going to be thrilled," he gushed. "And basically, we have no tariffs going into Canada anymore."

Instead talks collapsed Friday night, when Prime Minister Mark Carney announced he was suspending negotiations and recalling Canada’s negotiators to Ottawa.

By Saturday morning, the Trump administration had levied tariffs on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods — hockey sticks, building materials, beer, cheese. Carney promises dollar-for-dollar retaliation, hitting US steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp, paper, and electronics starting September 8.

Art of no deal

The New York Times and Washington Post confirm that the deal fell apart because the Trump administration attempted to extract a fresh round of concessions at the last minute.

After domestic companies aggressively lobbied Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the US backpedaled on reductions in steel and aluminum tariffs. Plus Lutnick insisted on excluding Ontario-built heavy trucks (the Ford F-350, F-450, and GM Silverado) in hopes of forcing carmakers to relocate production to the US.

And if you’ve got a problem, that crank Peter Navarro can make it worse.

“Navarro and Lutnick were both yelling at Greer saying: ‘What are you doing? This is stupid. You know, we’re not giving these things away,’” a source told the Post.

Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Canadians would never go for it, and he was right.

America’s last-minute demands included: dropping French language labeling and content requirements, an absolute non-starter for the country’s restive Québécois population; getting rid of “buy Canadian” government initiatives while leaving similar “buy American” measures in place; and restoring US-produced liquor to Canadian shelves. That last decision lies with each province, and Ontario Premier Doug Ford told Carney he wouldn’t go along with it.

Trump responded with a grotesque post comparing Ford to his dead brother, calling Carney “Governor,” and lying about Canada’s unemployment rate. (In reality, Canada has a higher labor force participation rate than the US.) 

The president is currently shitposting about changing the name of Lake Ontario, “in that we don’t expect to be doing much business with Ontario any longer.”

But what actually killed the deal was a demand that Canada subordinate its independent trade policy to the ever-changing whims of the United States — specifically, that Ottawa agree in advance to match tariffs imposed by Washington, even when it would override Canada’s existing trade agreements.

Per the New York Times:

The United States wanted Canada to apply US tariffs to other countries, particularly when it came to steel, now and in the future: If the United States changed policy and place higher tariffs on certain goods from a third country, Canada would need to do the same, even if it already had a trade agreement in place, a Canadian official said.

American negotiators characterize this as a measure to prevent Canada becoming a passthrough conduit for goods excluded by US tariffs. But no sovereign country could voluntarily surrender its trade policy, much less yoke itself to an erratic neighbor whose maniac leader imposes a new tariff scheme every week.

“Last spring, I warned that America is trying to break us so that they can own us. And I promised: ‘That will never, ever happen,’” Carney said Saturday. “We are keeping that promise. Canada is becoming stronger and less dependent on America. We are already giving ourselves more than they can take away.”

This echoes a major speech Carney gave in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, in which he exhorted middle powers to band together rather than rely on the United States to ensure their national and financial security.

“You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination,” he warned, adding that “hegemons cannot continually monetize their relationships. Allies will diversify to hedge against uncertainty.”

And Canada is putting its money where its mouth is. Only two nations imposed retaliatory tariffs in response to Trump’s two prior rounds of levies: Canada and China. In fact, that response is now being cited as justification for the latest tariffs.

As America reverts to naked suzerainty, Canada hopes to lead the international resistance movement — yet another reason the Trump administration was so insistent on blocking the country’s power to enter into its own international trade deals.

But a funny thing happens when a world leader actually puts in the effort to explain his policy choices. Carney’s approval rating is at 60 percent, and polls show that 76 percent of Canadians support his decision to walk away from trade talks with the US.

The fallout from these tariffs will absolutely hit Canadians harder than Americans, with potential job losses in the tens of thousands. But Canadians are gearing up for the fight, and a movement to boycott US-made goods is picking up steam. In contrast, Americans feel no patriotic support for Trump’s capricious levies. And as Politico points out, swing state voters really don’t like these tariffs. That may have an impact in November, with the midterms serving as a referendum on Trump’s handling of the economy.

Naturally Susan Collins is concerned. And with Trump’s tariffs about to increase costs for farmers, builders, and autoworkers, she’s got a reason to be — as do her fellow Republicans in Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Iowa. Because Canada’s leaders have done the work to ensure that their citizens are prepared to absorb the pain from this trade war.

Carney spent the past nine months making the case that Canada must fight back against the United States to ensure its survival. Trump spent that time posting AI slop and pretending that the US has nothing to lose. One of these men has a 30 percent approval rating 70 days before an election.

Looks like it’s time for Tariff Man to test his theories … again.

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Trump Unveils Sweeping New Tariffs Expected to Cost Americans $100 Billion a Year

Trump uses bogus claims to continue to impose a national sales tax on Americans

Jake Johnson

On July 23, Donald Trump  unveiled a new package of tariffs targeting 60 countries that account for over 99% of US imports, a move that—if upheld in court—would cost Americans an estimated $100 billion per year in the form of higher costs.

The duties, ranging from 10% to 12.5%, were announced as part of Trump's effort to maneuver around repeated court rulings against his sweeping tariffs, including by the conservative-dominated US Supreme Court. Jamieson Greer, the Trump administration’s top trade official, pointed to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to justify the new tariffs, introduced with the purported goal of penalizing countries “for their failure to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor.”

Observers questioned the administration’s pretext. “Magically, the US tariff probe on forced labor practices is done perfectly in time to replace the generalized but expiring Section 122 tariffs,” noted Bloomberg’s Josh Wingrove, referring to the legal authority Trump cited for earlier tariffs.

Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) acknowledged that “Section 301 is a law Congress passed,” but added, “What was passed in 1974 was authority to respond to specific unfair trade practices after investigation.”

“What is being done with it now is a tariff on 99% of American trade, set by Trump, with no expiration, no vote, and no ceiling,” said Levin. “If a delegation that broad is lawful, then the tariff power in Article I means very little. The Supreme Court struck down the last version of this policy in February. The response was to avoid Congress and find a different statute and rebuild substantially the same tariffs, effective the same minute the old ones lapsed.”

The list of countries targeted by the Section 301 tariffs includes Canada, Australia, Brazil, China, Mexico, Russia, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Between the start of his second administration and January 2026, Trump’s tariffs cost American families $1,700 each on average as importers passed burdens onto consumers in the form of higher prices. The tariffs have also hammered small businesses, increased hardship for farmers, and failed to arrest the decline of American manufacturing jobs.

Things that used to be fine

 

Soaring US beef prices likely to rise further thanks to trade tensions and disease outbreaks

Trump blunders lead to more expensive burgers

Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee and Charles Martinez

It’s summer grilling season, but for many Americans, surging prices mean beef is no longer what’s for dinner.

The cost of beef, having spiked since early 2025, is coming under even more pressure. The most recent is the screwworm outbreak that hit cattle in Mexico and has now spread to the United States, where the cattle herd has already fallen to levels not seen since the 1950s, due in part to drought.

Meanwhile, potential trade disruptions loom. Just before U.S. and Mexican trade negotiators began meeting on June 16-17, 2026, to discuss the long-standing deal binding North America, Donald Trump warned that Washington may not renew the agreement, which was negotiated during his first term, and instead potentially withdraw from it altogether.

As international trade and livestock economists, we have studied how North American trade has deeply integrated cattle and beef markets, influencing production, prices and the movement of animals and meat products across Canada, Mexico and the United States. 

And because beef is both a top agricultural import and export for the U.S., the industry is especially vulnerable to any disruptions to the existing trade deal. As one example, the cost of ground beef is up by more than 20% just since January 2025.

Current trade uncertainty, reflecting Trump’s more fragmented, bilateral approach to negotiations, couldn’t come at a worse moment for inflation-weary consumers. The growing turmoil in the North American beef market risks further tightening supplies and raising prices.

Trump and Musk’s DOGE “saved” $15 million by cutting a program to prevent the spread of screwworm that will now take $1 billion to fix

Make Musk pay

Stephen Prager for Common Dreams

When Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” took its chainsaw to the federal bureaucracy last year, it created bottlenecks that may have hampered the fight against the screwworm infestation currently menacing the southwest while making it much more expensive.

The annual US Department of Agriculture (USDA) spending to combat the flesh-eating insects only amounted to about $15 million per year. But along with about $382 million aimed at combating animal-borne illnesses around the globe, it was terminated in March 2025 as part of DOGE’s effort to root out what it described as government “waste.”

But now, with the pests bearing down on Texas and New Mexico, and at least 12 infections already identified in the US as of Tuesday, the Trump administration is spending at least $1 billion to fight the outbreak.

Last week, during a Senate hearing, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins attempted to shift blame for the screwworm outbreak onto the Biden administration, while portraying herself and President Donald Trump as proactive in response to reports last spring that the insects were rapidly climbing through Central America.

Rollins said she asked Trump for “$1 billion to build a significant facility” in Texas that would breed hundreds of millions of sterilized male screwworm flies, a method that had been used to keep them contained in South America for decades. “Without hesitation, a couple questions, he said, ‘go.’”

That facility is expected to release around 300 million sterile flies per week. But it is not expected to be fully operational until the end of 2027.

In addition to the $15 million cut to monitoring the spread of the bugs from Panama, the Houston Chronicle reported that DOGE paused plans for a facility in Mexico that the Biden administration had authorized in 2024 as part of a $165 million emergency package to fight screwworm.

TACO Don loses again

It's consistent with how other countries, organizations, and people have defeated him

Robert Reich

Last night, 90 minutes before Trump said he’d cause the death of a “whole civilization” if Iran didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian official said the shipping channel would be reopened for two weeks if the United States stopped bombing Iran. The U.S. has now stopped bombing Iran.

So we’re back to the status quo before Trump began his war. Only now, Iran can credibly threaten to close the strait if it doesn’t get what it wants from Trump — thereby causing havoc to the U.S. (and world) economies. Trump’s only remaining bargaining leverage is the threat of committing war crimes.

In other words, last night’s showdown was a clear victory for Iran and a clear defeat for Trump (although he’ll frame it as a victory).

The Iran fiasco is only the latest in a host of examples revealing how to defeat Trump.

In addition to Iran, similar strategies have been used by China, Russia, Canada, Mexico, and Greenland. Inside the United States, the people of Minneapolis have used them, as have Harvard University, comedian Jimmy Kimmel, writer E. Jean Carroll, and the law firms Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, Susman Godfrey, and WilmerHale.

What’s the strategy that connects them all?

All refused to cave to Trump, despite his superior military or economic power. Instead, they’ve engaged in a kind of jujitsu in which they use Trump’s power against him, while allowing Trump to save face by claiming he’s won. Consider:

Iran knew it was no match for the superior might of the U.S. (and Israel). So it used cheap drones and missiles to close the Strait of Hormuz and incapacitate other Gulf oil installations, thereby driving up the prices of oil and gas at the pump in the U.S., which has put growing political pressure on Trump, months before a midterm election. Hence, Trump has been forced stop his war.

China knew what to do when Trump imposed a giant tariff on Chinese exports to the U.S.: It put restrictions on seven types of heavy rare earth metals and magnets, crucial to U.S. defense and tech industries. Beijing continues to use these rare earth restrictions as tactical levers in ongoing negotiations over trade, rather than demand complete surrender by Trump on his trade policies.

Russia has leveraged its vast deposits of oil and natural gas with U.S. allies. It has also demonstrated its power to intrude into U.S. elections (the Mueller Report detailed a “sweeping and systematic” campaign by Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, primarily favoring Trump).

Canada and Mexico have won every tariff showdown with Trump by leveraging America’s substantial economic dependence on them for components and raw materials, but without crowing about their victories.

Greenland has leveraged public opinion globally and in the United States — overwhelmingly against an American invasion or occupation — to curb Trump’s ambitions there.

The citizens of Minneapolis and St. Paul have leveraged their asymmetric power against Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol agents by carefully organizing themselves into a force of nonviolent resistance to protect immigrants there. Their strategy showed itself to be especially effective, tragically, after Trump’s agents murdered Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and the public outcry forced the agents to leave the Twin Cities.

After Venezuela Assault, Trump and Rubio Warn Cuba, Mexico, and Colombia Could Be Next

We were warned that this is what a malignant narcissist would do

Jake Johnson

Donald Trump and top administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, characterized Saturday’s assault on Venezuela and abduction of the country’s president as a warning shot in the direction of Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and other Latin American nations.

During a Saturday press conference, Trump openly invoked the Monroe Doctrine—an assertion of US dominance of the Western Hemisphere—and said his campaign of aggression against Venezuela represented the “Donroe Doctrine” in action.

In his unwieldy remarks, Trump called out Colombian President Gustavo Petro by name, accusing him without evidence of “making cocaine and sending it to the United States.”

“So he does have to watch his ass,” the US president said of Petro, who condemned the Trump administration’s Saturday attack on Venezuela as “aggression against the sovereignty of Venezuela and Latin America.”

Petro responded defiantly to the possibility of the US targeting him, writing on social media that he is “not worried at all.”

In a Fox News appearance earlier Saturday, Trump also took aim at the United States’ southern neighbor, declaring ominously that “something’s going to have to be done with Mexico,” which also denounced the attack on Venezuela and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro.

“She is very frightened of the cartels,” Trump said of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. “So we have to do something.”

Rubio, for his part, focused on Cuba—a country whose government he has long sought to topple.

“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned, at least a little bit,” Rubio, who was born in Miami to Cuban immigrant parents, said during Saturday’s press conference.

That the Trump administration wasted no time threatening other nations as it pledged to control Venezuela indefinitely sparked grave warnings, with the leadership of Progressive International cautioning that “this armed attack on Venezuela is not an isolated event.”

“It is the next step in the United States’ campaign of regime change that stretches from Caracas to Havana—and an attack on the very principle of sovereign equality and the prospects for the Zone of Peace once established by the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States,” the coalition said in a statement. “This renewed declaration of impunity from Washington is a threat to all nations around the world.”

“Trump has clearly articulated the imperial logic of this intervention—to seize control over Venezuela’s natural resources and reassert US domination over the hemisphere,” said Progressive International. “The ‘Trump corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine—applied in recent hours with violent force over the skies of Caracas—is the single greatest threat to peace and prosperity that the Americas confront today.”

Run Venezuela? The Trump Regime Can’t Even Run the United States

Yet another distraction from our economic woes. Or is it about Epstein?

Richard Eskow in Common Dreams

Read it in the news:

“Economic Confidence Drops to 17-Month Low”
—Gallup, December 4, 2025

“Satisfaction with U.S. healthcare costs is the lowest Gallup has recorded … since 2001.”
—Gallup, December 15, 2025

“ACA credits expire, leading to sharp rise in health insurance premiums.”
—WANF TV Atlanta, January 1, 2026

“We’re going to run (Venezuela) until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.”
—Donald Trump, January 3, 2026

The commentary pretty much writes itself. As surely as night follow day, the Trump Administration was bound to do something to distract Americans from their well-founded economic fears—especially from a health cost crisis Trump’s party just made vastly worse. And all that Venezuelan oil looks mighty attractive from an oligarch’s perspective.

But “run Venezuela”? Shouldn’t they do a better job running this country first? Let’s start with healthcare. The Affordable Care Act is what programmers used to call a “kludge”; it’s a Rube Goldberg contraption whose goal is to mitigate the pain caused by America’s so-called healthcare “system.” America’s healthcare crisis can’t truly be fixed until the profit motive is removed.

Nevertheless, the ACA has provided at least some healthcare coverage to millions of people. That’s better than nothing—much better. The premium tax credits are a wealth transfer from the public to the private sector. But without them—and with no other system in place—millions of people will soon face disastrous monthly premium hikes. If they don’t pay them—and many won’t be able to afford it—they’ll face financial ruin if they become sick or injured.

We can recognize the flawed nature of the ACA and still see that these Republican cuts are inhumane and indefensible.

“We can’t afford it,” the Republicans argue. But that raises the obvious question: If not, then how can we afford to “run Venezuela”? Besides, they’ve got work to do right here.

Sure, the economy is doing pretty well—for the investor class. But even that limited success is hanging by a thread. It’s driven by an AI bubble that will almost certainly burst, wreaking economic havoc when it does. Meanwhile, millions of households are struggling with the cost of living (click on images to expand):

Visual Capitalist/Statista

More than 43 million Americans live in poverty, including one child in seven:

Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation

The housing shortage is causing widespread pain as homes become increasingly unaffordable for most workers:

The labor outlook is “cooling,” as the economists say. But even that doesn’t count the most critical element of the job market, which is the ability to find jobs that actually pay a living wage:

Young people are especially hard-hit:

“Energy affordability” is a growing crisis, too. The average American household paid $124 per month more on its utility bill in the first nine months of 2025 and rates are still rising, with no end in sight:

Oh, and the New START treaty will expire in a few weeks, leaving the world with no meaningful limits on the possibility of a new nuclear arms race:

Nuclear catastrophe? It’s not impossible. Doesn’t that warrant some attention from this country’s leaders?

You get the idea. With all these problems to solve, our leaders have decided the right thing to do is—invade Venezuela. That won’t be an easy ride. It’s a country of 28 million people and its terrain that includes jungles, deserts, and mountains.

With all these disasters at home, it’s a safe bet we’re not wanted in Venezuela for our management expertise. In fact, most Venezuelans don’t want us there at all:

Most Venezuelans think the US is only doing it “because of the oil”:

The question, translated: “Do you believe that a potential military invasion against Venezuela would aim to overthrow the president in order to seize the oil, or do you think it would be to combat drug trafficking?” The headline: “90% believe that an invasion would aim to overthrow Maduro because of the oil.”

To be fair, we are only doing it because of the oil. Mostly, anyway.

Most Americans don’t want us in Venezuela, either:

In fact, most Americans are sick of our government’s seemingly endless addiction to foreign military adventurism:

And yet, here we are.

This is a desperate resource grab by Trump and the other overseers of this dying economic system. It’s also an obvious and deliberate distraction from the many problems here in the United States. And we all know they’re doing it for their benefit, not ours.

Like the saying goes: it’s all about the grift. But at what price for the rest of us?

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Richard Eskow is a journalist who has written for a number of major publications. His weekly program, The Zero Hour, can be found on cable television, radio, Spotify, and podcast media.

Trump’s Draconian Border Policies Are Menacing the 2026 World Cup

Trump is banning travel from more than 30 countries 

Maybe this is why FIFA gave Trump his phony "peace prize"

By Nora Loreto

This article was originally published by Truthout

On Saturday, December 6, soccer fans around the world found out where their favorite teams will be playing in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Players and staff from 48 countries and territories will play 104 games across North America — and for the first time in history, Canada is hosting some of the games. Together, Toronto and Vancouver will host 13 matches.

In addition to the matches, 84 training sites and 178 practice fields will be spread across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Plus, tens of thousands of broadcasters from around the world will cover the games for their home countries.

Holding the games in three countries means that ease of crossing borders is a fundamental part of the World Cup going smoothly. Hundreds of thousands of players, staff, and fans will need to move across the U.S.-Mexico border and the Canada-U.S. border multiple times in order to attend the matches over the course of six weeks in June and July 2026. But already, months before the games begin, concerns are mounting over whether attendees will be able to enter the host countries at all.

Tariff tax you will pay on Friday

Clothes, cars, food tariffs supposedly going into effect on Friday when King Donald's national sales tax takes effect

If the measure of success is losing billions of dollars, than chalk one up for King Donald

Trump deals another blow to American automakers 

by Emily Singer, Daily Kos Staff

Donald Trump announced late on Tuesday that he and Japan reached a trade agreement, which will slap a 15% tariff on Japanese imports in exchange for Japan investing $550 billion in the U.S.

The so-called deal is another shit sandwich for Americans, especially U.S. car manufacturers. 

That's because Japanese cars imported into the U.S. will face a 15% tariff rate—lower than the 25% tariff American car companies currently face for imported auto parts. 

American automakers have already said Trump's tariffs have dealt a massive blow to their companies.

General Motors reported Tuesday that it lost $1 billion from April to June, attributing the losses to Trump's tariffs. And Stellantis, which manufactures American brands like Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge, said it lost a whopping $2.7 billion in the first half of 2025 because of Trump's tariffs.

That 15% rate is less than the shocking 25% tariff Trump had threatened against Japan if a deal wasn’t struck.

That’s why Japanese car stocks rose on Wednesday, with Toyota up about 13%.

“Toyota is up +8% on the news of a 15% tariff. Why? It's simple,” Spencer Hakimian, founder of the hedge fund Tolou Capital Management, wrote in a post on X. 

“Ford, GM, Tesla, and all the other American manufacturers are going to be paying 50% more for their steel, 50% more for their copper, 25% more for their Canadian production, 25% more for their Mexican production, and 55% on their Chinese production. Toyota only has to pay 15% more and they're done with all the shenanigans. Ford has to pay much more than that. A lot more in fact."

“We've given a Japanese car company an advantage over American car companies. All in hope of bringing auto jobs back to America,” he added.

The American Automotive Policy Council—which represents General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—said on Wednesday that the Japanese trade agreement is a "bad deal for U.S. industry and U.S. auto workers."

But Trump’s trade policy is not hurting just automakers.

Goldman Sachs on Tuesday said that U.S. economic growth will slow in 2025 because of Trump’s tariffs. The bank’s chief economist, Jan Hatzius, wrote in a memo to clients that the tariffs “will eat into real income, at a time when consumer spending trends already look shaky.” 

Nine of ten Americans reject RFK Jr.'s long-held stance on measles vaccine

One true thing RFK Jr. has said recently is don't take vaccine advice from him

Stephanie Soucheray, MA 

A new Annenberg Poll shows that 87% of Americans say the benefit of childhood measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination outweighs the risk, and 67% say they know that MMR vaccines don't cause autism.

2025 may see the highest measles case count in the United States since the disease was officially eliminated in 2000. With more than 1,000 cases identified, and many more likely unreported, the virus is taking hold in unvaccinated and under-vaccinated communities. The Annenberg Poll surveyed 1,653 US adults from April 15 to 28, 2025, on measles knowledge and attitudes toward vaccines.

Despite the number of current outbreaks (14) and illnesses (1,024 confirmed), only 6 in 10 of adults polled (58%) said there are more measles cases in the United States in 2025 than in the comparable period in 2024.

The poll picked up increased support for mandating MMR vaccine for public school entrance. Eighty percent of those polled said they supported requiring MMR vaccines for school entry, up from 73% in 2023. Only 18% of those polled said vaccines should be a matter of parental choice.

Tomato trade dispute between the US and Mexico is boiling over again – with 21% tariffs due in July

Trump launches new trade war over tomatoes

Andrew Muhammad, University of Tennessee and Luis Ribera, Texas A&M University

Although technically they’re a fruit, tomatoes are one of the most-consumed vegetables, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Among the fresh produce the nation buys from foreign countries, tomatoes often rank first or second, behind avocados.

This trade is now jeopardized because the Trump administration has revived a three-decade-old effort to limit imports.

As economists who study global trade issues affecting agricultural commodities and processed food products, we have assessed the benefits of imported tomatoes and other products on consumers and businesses. Fresh tomato imports ensure year-round availability for consumers, contribute significantly to the U.S. economy by generating billions in sales and supporting thousands of jobs, and promote competitive pricing that benefits both consumers and businesses.

New import restrictions could put all that at risk because domestic production cannot satisfy national demand. For tomatoes, like steel and other products, efforts to reverse trade imbalances can decrease consumer satisfaction and potentially destroy more jobs and economic activity than they create.