SHADE WAR
Donald Trump’s disastrous tariff plan directly impacted folks in the What A Day universe — or what I call, the real, real America.
- You know things ain’t good when China starts trolling the United States online with dank memes. Well, that’s where we are: Stuck in the middle of the world’s dumbest trade war. Beijing boosted its import tariff on American goods to 125 percent, matching President Donald Trump’s tax on Chinese products. Trump backed off his heaviest tariffs on European countries and almost everyone else, but significant damage has been done. Average people have become collateral damage — including many of you, What A Day readers, who wrote in to share your experiences. Here’s what you had to say.
- Meredith told us that a cost spike in the construction industry threw the future of projects she’s working on into uncertainty. That includes one $70 million development in higher education that’s been in the works for over two years. “My budgets are carefully set and accounted for with appropriate contingency for unforeseen conditions, inflation and the like. What they don’t have is another 5 or 10 or whatever percent to absorb tariff costs,” she wrote. Tariffs on hardware for doors, furniture and audio-visual equipment will be hit hard.
- Angela and her husband, who own a drive-thru coffee shop in Florida, emptied their savings to jumpstart the shop in 2021. They’ve also mortgaged their cars and home. In the last week, they saw suppliers raise prices up to 25 percent. The tariffs, combined with the state raising the minimum wage, is putting them in a dire situation. “What kind of tweet do we need to sponsor for the White House to decrease the interest rates for small businesses?” Angela wrote. “It seems that everything is stacking against us more and more.”
James has been working on a board game with his family for years, and they’re finally ready to start production in China… which, all of a sudden… well, y’know.
- Finding a new factory so late in the game-making process would be difficult, he said. “We can only wait and hope the tariffs go down so we can import the games and still have our business model intact,” James wrote.
- Many have suffered losses in the stock market downturn — but Rusty’s were pretty serious. “I lost $100,000 in 3 days,” he wrote. “I’m lucky I can sort of afford it, but it still sucks.” You’re not alone! Major businesses took a hit, too. One eye-popping example: Apple airlifted 600 tons of iPhones from India in an attempt to avoid Trump’s tariffs. That couldn’t have been cheap!
Oh btw, egg prices have spiked to a record high, again. Well, you know what they say: You gotta break a few eggs to make an idiotic, unforced recession… or, uh, what’s that saying again?
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NEWS NEWS NEWS
A Louisiana judge ruled Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Khalil eligible for deportation, despite being arrested for no reason other than leading campus protests supporting Palestinian rights. That doesn’t mean he’ll be deported: Mahmoud’s lawyers filed a lawsuit in New Jersey that could block his deportation if they win. Fingers crossed!
The State Department has ordered employees to report instances of “anti-Christian bias” among their colleagues. An administration-wide task force will collect information “involving anti-religious bias during the last presidential administration,” Politico reports, citing an internal State Department message. Well, that’s incredibly disturbing. Whoo, what a week, guys. Sheesh.
The Trump administration plans to eliminate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s research arm and close all of its weather and climate labs, CNN reports. Who needs to track the weather anyways! I like getting soaked.
Donald Trump lined up deals with five more big law firms, in which each agreed to offer a combined total of $600 million worth of pro bono legal support to his favored causes, the New York Times reports. It’s the latest in a string of deals Trump has made with law firms, who are more willing to bow down to the president than oppose his radical agenda.
The U.S. government has already spent $154 billion more this year than it did last year. That’s notable, because Elon Musk claims DOGE is on track to cut $150 billion in government spending (which is, by the way, a big retreat from his initial $1 trillion estimate). So… DOGE MIGHT be on track to ALMOST cancel out Trump’s big spending? Geniuses at work!
The Trump administration is planning to install federal oversight over Columbia University, as it escalated pressure on the school following funding cuts. That would allow a judge to require that Columbia comply with Trump’s orders and totally upend the traditional ways that the government normally handles civil rights issues on campus.
The Social Security Administration is shifting its public affairs department to… X. Yes, the platform formerly known as Twitter, owned by Elon Musk. As Crooked digital producer Hayley Jones deadpanned in our company Slack chat, “grandparents are famously glued to twitter.”
The Trump administration is citing the dire wolf “de-extinction” news this week as an excuse to cut protections for endangered animals. “If we’re going to be in anguish about losing a species, now we have an opportunity to bring them back,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum reportedly told employees this week. “Pick your favorite species and call up Colossal,” he added, referring to the company that brought back the wolf. If it were that easy, I’m sure we’d see Trump assemble a team of T-Rexes on the White House South Lawn.
The Defense Department fired the commander of its Greenland base because he criticized Vice President JD Vance after his visit to the island. Vance’s views on taking over the territory “are not reflective” of the base’s views, she told employees in an email.
This headline in the New York Times really sums up our trying times: “Maya Angelou Is Out but ‘Mein Kampf’ Stays at the Naval Academy Library.” Welp, they aren’t even hiding it anymore.
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