March 1, 2018

It’s Just Another Day on “As the White House Turns”

Kevin Dietsch/CNP via ZUMA

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Another cunning plan bites the dust:

The planned announcement had been kept secret from many senior White House officials in an effort to prevent a huge backlash that could sway Trump at the last second.

This is all about trade policy. Apparently a small cabal within the White House was pushing Trump to announce new tariffs on steel and aluminum today, but kept it a secret from everyone else. When everyone else found out, the shit hit the fan and the announcement died a quick death.

What a way to run a White House. It’s like watching all the amateur schemers on Survivor. I thought John Kelly was supposed to clean up this kind of thing, but as near as I can tell he’s just decided to join one cabal or another for each of these little spats.

UPDATE: After telling the press that today’s announcement would be only about “general trade issues,” Trump decided to announce the new tariffs after all. I guess after getting his ear at the last second, someone else got his ear just a few milliseconds later. So tariffs it shall be.

What a circus.

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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