[guest post by Dana]

If Bill Clinton could challenge the meaning of “is,” then surely it behooves us to challenge the meaning of “liberation,” since it’s being used to rally the American people. yet I’m certainly not seeing it:

President Trump on Wednesday announced a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports from all foreign countries, as well as higher tariff rates for dozens of nations that the White House deemed the “worst offenders” when it came to trade barriers.

The 10 percent tariff will go into effect on Friday. About 60 countries facing a higher reciprocal tariff will see those rates go into effect on April 9 at 12:01 a.m. Trump also announced a 25 percent tariff on all foreign-made automobiles that will take effect at 12:01 a.m. April 3.

. . .

“***This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in America’s history,” Trump said. “It’s our declaration of economic independence.”

Claiming he could have gone with a higher amount on countries with reciprocal tariffs (China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, India, South Korea, Thailand, Switzerland, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia and the European Union), Trump said he didn’t want to create too much of a hardship. The formula for these countries “will be calculated by combining the rate of tariffs and non-monetary barriers like currency manipulation, then divided in half.”

Re China:

Karoline Leavitt. . .confirms that the 34 percent tariff on China is ON TOP of the previous 20 percent. So that means the rate on China will be *54* percent when these tariffs take effect.

The White House has published an explainer about why Trump believes the tariffs are a good thing for America.

I can’t even. . .

Off the top of his head, read it and weep:

Trump’s reciprocal tariffs:

1) Impose hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes on Americans without public/congressional input

2) Are based on secret calculations that have little, if any, connection to actual foreign trade barriers

3) Ignore all US tariff/non-tariff barriers, which in some cases are quite high

4) Are justified by a “national emergency” that reflects a total misunderstanding of how trade deficits work

5) Disregard US trade agreement commitments, including ones made by Trump himself

6) Will make us all poorer, and likely do real & lasting harm to the US economy (incl in manufacturing)

7) Embolden our adversaries around the world

Higher taxes, more trade wars, unilateral tax hikes, etc. I ask you, liberate us from what?

P.S. Isn’t is just a bit on the nose that Russia is not on the White House list, while Ukraine is:

FULL LIST: Liberation Day pic.twitter.com/ZBiRuJBCAr

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 2, 2025

(*** – Let’s just bookmark this for later. . .)

-Dana

[guest post by Dana]

This *should* be surprising, and in a normal administration it would be. But normal is not what we currently have:

National security adviser Mike Waltz’s team regularly set up chats on Signal to coordinate official work on issues including Ukraine, China, Gaza, Middle East policy, Africa and Europe, according to four people who have been personally added to Signal chats.

Two of the people said they were in or have direct knowledge of at least 20 such chats. All four said they saw instances of sensitive information being discussed.

. . .

“Waltz built the entire NSC communications process on Signal,” said one of the people. All four were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the private chats.

. . .

“It was commonplace to stand up chats on any given national security topic,” said one of the people involved in the chats, adding that the groups often included Cabinet members and high- level staff.

The report makes clear that Signal is an “approved method of communicating. . .it is one of a host of approved methods for unclassified material with the understanding that a user must preserve the record[.]”

As you know, Trump called Signalgate a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” and in fact, came out and said that he didn’t know anything about Signal, and suggested if might be a “defective platform”.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the Signal threads discussed “brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine, and military operations.

There is also the issue of Waltz and his staff using Gmail for government communications:

A senior Waltz aide used Gmail “for highly technical conversations with colleagues at other government agencies involving sensitive military positions and powerful weapons systems relating to an ongoing conflict,” The Washington Post wrote.

The Post said it reviewed the emails. “While the NSC official used his Gmail account, his interagency colleagues used government-issued accounts, headers from the email correspondence show,” the report said.

Waltz himself “had less sensitive, but potentially exploitable information sent to his Gmail, such as his schedule and other work documents, said officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe what they viewed as problematic handling of information,” the report said. “The officials said Waltz would sometimes copy and paste from his schedule into Signal to coordinate meetings and discussions.”

Eight days ago, Mike Waltz said he took “full responsibility” for Signalgate, as he “built the group”. Does Waltz survive this latest revelation?

Raskin: Would it be problem for it to be standard practice to conduct sensitive foreign policy on a signal chat group… It just came out that Waltz’s team set up 20 signal group chats for crises across the world… I’m sure this will raise the question on whether or not he should… pic.twitter.com/oSNH0FyzgD

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025

—Dana