mtutiger

Setting aside Bukele being an absolute ghoul, have to think that the fact that Van Hollen was able to meet with him and that Bukele allowed it says something about how this story is being internalized within the United States and that the narrative has been spinning out of control for the administration.

The whole DOGE thing and involvement of Musk was a curveball, but a lot of this really tied back to stuff he said on the campaign trail.... and even just taking myself back to fall of last year, it was notable how many times I was hearing things like "he won't do all that stuff, he's just campaigning" when it came to things like tariffs, Ukraine, etc. Well, he's doing these things and doing them faster than expected.... I genuinely do believe there is regret out there to some degree (and have seen it personally from a few people in my life), but what frustrates me is that none of it should have been surprising. He said he was going to do a lot of this stuff.

The Jewish Governor of the 5th largest state, and perhaps the most important swing state, experiences a firebombing in the Governor's Mansion... as Passover begins. Scanning the NYT and Washington Post website, this is somehow not the top story right now

Has Trump released a statement on the PA Governor's Mansion getting firebombed yet?

I keep going back to the fact that it is plainly evident at this point that you aren't getting anything out of this guy at this point. It's just a pointless exercise. It makes me question her judgment as a practitioner of politics. But I'm not a current constituent of hers so my mileage might be different from someone who is.

How long does China string him out here?

I know there's a tendency to downplay any bad news for Trump, but I think the damage the tariffs are doing to him politically is being undersold right now... in day-to-day life, it's a lot of what people are talking about, even to the point where car dealerships are running ads mentioning their "tariff free sales".... which gives me "cash for clunkers" vibes

1000%. Pritzker learned this lesson post-COVID, it's sort of mystifying why Gretch didn't.

Mission Accomplished lol

It's difficult because the job requires you to eat a lot of **** from time to time, but even with that, it's really hard to envision what positive or achievable tangible outcome comes from meeting with the guy currently imposing chaos on the state in the first place. Maybe it's the right thing to do, but man it was poorly executed in this case.

This is what was wild about yesterday... The tariffs went from 'catastrophically bad' to 'extremely bad', yet markets + media were acting like everything was going back to square one. Just bonkers ****

I just think a stronger response to Trump is the best way for a Governor to stand up for their states interest in this case.... there's no appeasing this guy, after all these years you'd think people would understand that.

I don't know that I agree totally with this, FWIW.

I will concede she was put in a really tough spot here.... getting put into that position in the Oval Office is the main issue I have, and from what I read, that was preventable. There's no getting around the fact that it was a blunder, and from the expression on her face, she knew it.

I think you just answered your own question.... focusing on the bolded is going to be far more effective to the cause than going through optical pandering exercises that both alienate your own base while are ineffective at turning any voters. I think you can provide substantive solutions to people's problems while pushing back on Donald Trump directly. And I reject this idea that the people actually pushing back on Trump in this moment are effectively yelling 'Trump is an idiot... if you listen to JB Pritzker or Tim Walz speak, there's a lot of actual substance about the practical policy consequences of the decisions he is making for instance.

Just to flesh out my thoughts a little more on my response to G2 above, Democratic voters themselves matter a lot in being a viable Presidential contender. And I reject the idea that the only way that a Democratic candidate can make themselves an appealing alternative, especially in a moment like this where Trump has seen his approval rating go underwater over the course of the first 80 days of his Presidency, is to sound equivocating and to put themselves in the position that she found herself today. At the very least, Whitmer is misreading the moment here quite a bit.... Tater and I approach politics from different places ideologically, but this moment is less about ideology and more about the willingness to push back and fight or run for cover. It's been clarifying to see how some prospective candidates have handled things (Pritzker, Walz, even Shapiro) have handled things versus other prospective candidates (Newsom, Whitmer) I'll leave the debate about whether it was helpful to Michiganders or not to people who actually live in Michigan, I don't have a dog in that right. But in regards to 2028, to the extent that she's running (she may not be), I don't know that having this sort of fundamental disconnect with the base of the party exudes strength as a candidate. As someone who will vote in the D primary in 2028, it makes me question her political instincts.

Amateur hour stuff

I think you can triangulate without doing... that

He truly believes the tariff ****

At about 8:00 AM Central, Bessent was out there talking about how it was "Main Street, not Wall Street's, turn" By 2:00 PM Central, his boss was out there heralding the big gains on Wall Street. You'll never consistency...