Everything Is Going According to Plan

Gail Collins: OK, Bret, I know you can’t tell the future, but give me a prediction. Will President Trump’s tariffs go down as one of the 100 worst decisions in presidential history? 50? 10?

Bret Stephens: As an economic matter, possibly the worst presidential decision ever. Say what you will about Herbert Hoover, but he was an honorable public servant who didn’t have the benefit of hindsight when he signed the Smoot-Hawley tariff into law in 1930. As a foreign policy matter, it’s at least in the top five worst. It’ll be a few months before we see the full consequences in terms of reciprocal tariffs, broken alliances, destroyed trust and an America that has dethroned itself from global economic leadership. And don’t be surprised if it leads to war, as global economic upheavals often do.

Other than that, Gail, it was a great week. Like millions of other Americans, I barely noticed losing a big chunk of my net worth. Can’t wait for all the price increases to kick in.

Gail: Trying to think positive. I did pretty well in a Wordle competition with my siblings!

Bret: Yes, and the Caspar David Friedrich exhibit at the Met was a nice way to spend an hour wishing I lived in the 1820s instead of the 2020s.

Gail: What’s next? Elon Musk seems to have slunk away from the White House. Couldn’t conceive of that being bad news until Trump filled the conspiratorial niche by turning to Laura Loomer, an outside adviser who first came to our attention when she declared that 9/11 was an “inside job.”

Bret: I remember when it was considered a major political embarrassment that Nancy Reagan was consulting an astrologer and that these consultations might have shaped President Reagan’s schedule. How quaint. Laura Loomer dictating who gets to work on the National Security Council or run the National Security Agency is more in a class with Rasputin’s influence on the court of Nicholas II — sinister, pernicious, destructive and entirely revealing of the moral rot in the Oval Office.