Donald Trump had a bad week. The tariffs he announced Wednesday were met with almost universal derision, and they sparked a massive stock-market sell-off that is still continuing. His chosen candidate for the swing-seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court got soundly defeated, despite Elon putting more than $20 million in to the race. The protests planned for Saturday turned out to be massive, with millions of Americans turning out to express their opposition to his unconstitutional seizures of power. Courts continued to rule against his administration, and there were even glimmers of opposition from Republican members of Congress.
In short, if you have opposed Trump all along, you probably feel more energized and emboldened than you did a week ago. Conversely, if you have been going along with Trump out of fear or a desire to join the winning team, you are more likely to be having doubts and wondering if you should moderate your support.
None of that means Trump is about to fall or even become ineffectual. But the optimistic scenario I laid out six weeks ago is still intact. It is by no means inevitable and may not even be the most likely path into the future. But the first steps are being taken.
The specifics of each of this week’s major developments will be in the weekly summary, which I’ll try to get out by noon EST. But the featured post “Is this a turning point?” will be a short piece putting events into the larger frame of a democracy-survives scenario. It should be out shortly.
The Weekly Sift 