Principles First MN

1) US tariffs are now much higher than most countries' tariffs on US exports 2) US tariffs harm many US manufacturers via higher costs (for equipment/machinery/materials), foreign retaliation, & regulatory complexity - while ALSO raising prices for American families/consumers 3) US tariffs undermine trade/geopolitical alliances with close allies in Europe, Asia, LatAm - alliances that help us counter nonmarket threats like China 4) Prior to Trump's tariffs, the US has many OTHER tools - eg, AD/CVD - to protect manufacturers from "unfair" foreign imports, and these were/are widely used 5) There are MANY market-friendly policies - tax, trade, immigration, regulatory, etc - that would boost American manufacturers without all the costs/chaos/cronyism of tariffs. Republicans USED to understand all this. Time for them to relearn it.

Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said the free market is mispricing long-term bond yields. So he wants to use the superior judgment and power of central government planners to correct the mistakes of capitalism. Good thing we didn't elect a Democratic Socialist president.

Trump: "We're taking a lot of oil from Venezuela -- billions and billions of barrels of oil. To the victor belong the spoils."

It’s easy to forget that this kind of gracious rhetoric was once standard and expected for Presidents of both parties.

Habeas corpus is roughly 800 years old. It runs from Magna Carta in 1215 straight through to the U.S. Constitution. It says the state cannot cage a human being without answering to a court. It is not a footnote of Western civilization. It is the load-bearing wall of Western civilization. That Trump, Vance, and Miller even debated suspending it tells you something important about what the MAGA movement is. It is a movement at war with Western civilization itself.