Rachel Maddow explains how Trump's entire tariff policy is based off a book by Peter Navarro in which he uses a fake, made-up "expert" to bolster his claims. That "expert's" name is Ron Vara, which is an anagram of Navarro. ..."It is hard to get your head around how much damage this one man can cause. I think it's even harder to get your head around simultaneously the fact that he can do damage of this magnitude with such a teeny, tiny, teeny, teeny, tiny amount of thought," Maddow said. "You think it would take like a grand plan and some big brains to figure out how to destroy the economy of the richest nation on earth, but that's not how it's working out. Turns out it doesn't take a big idea or a lot of big brains working together." read more
President Donald Trump has told his inner circle, including members of his Cabinet, that Elon Musk will be stepping back in the coming weeks from his current role as governing partner, ubiquitous cheerleader and Washington hatchet man. The president remains pleased with Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency initiative, but both men have decided in recent days that it will soon be time for Musk to return to his businesses and take on a supporting role, according to three Trump insiders who were granted anonymity to describe the evolving relationship.
To everyone's surprise, however, the new Trump Administration has made the filibuster almost beside the point. Instead of trying to bulldoze the Senate, Trump has simply driven around it. read more
Hillary Clinton: It's not the hypocrisy that bothers me; it's the stupidity. We're all shocked -- shocked! -- that President Trump and his team don't actually care about protecting classified information or federal record retention laws. But we knew that already. What's much worse is that top Trump administration officials put our troops in jeopardy by sharing military plans on a commercial messaging app and unwittingly invited a journalist into the chat. That's dangerous. And it's just dumb. read more
In what he called the "most consequential day of deregulation in American history," the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a series of actions Wednesday to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles. "We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America's Golden Age, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in an essay in The Wall Street Journal. read more
Republicans, remember: You asked for this. Given the choice between a dozen solid conservatives and one Clinton-supporting con artist and game-show host, you chose the con artist. You chose him freely. Nobody made you do it.