Hugh Cameron reports that “Union Workers Turn on Trump Tariffs: ‘Direct Attack on the Working Class’‘ at Newsweek,” and writes: “…The president’s trade policies, both the recent reciprocal tariffs and previous measures targeting metals and auto imports, have received support from many unions, which have praised them as necessary to amend global trade balances and increase the competitiveness of domestic industry…However, there is growing discontent among the sectors likely to feel the impacts of the drastic increase in import taxes and rising prices, with the logistics sector the latest to claim that the tariffs will wreak havoc on their industry and the economy at large…”We demand fair trade policies that put working class Americans first, protect jobs, and reduce taxes on the American people, not trade policies dictated by a president’s whims,” the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) said in a policy statement…While the ILWU said that decades of free trade agreements had “negatively impacted American workers,” it criticized Trump’s approach to addressing this as “haphazard and destructive,” while warning that the costs of food, energy and household goods would rise as a result…Similar warnings have been issued by associations representing the retail and home construction sectors, while the United Auto Workers union (UAW)—which had previously voice its support for “aggressive tariff action to protect American manufacturing jobs”—has recently offered a more critical view on Trump’s import duties…”We support some use of tariffs on auto manufacturing and similar industries. We do not support tariffs for political games about immigration or fentanyl,” UAW president Shawn Fain said in an address to members on April 10…Veronique de Rugy, a political economist at George Mason University, in response to the decline in trans-Pacific shipping, told Newsweek: “This kind of sharp drop means that a wide range of American industries—not just retail, but also manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, and wholesale sectors—will feel the consequences.”
New York Times opinion columnist Thomas B. Edsall probes “How Does a Stymied Autocrat Deal With Defeat?,” shares the results of several interviews and notes: “The window of opportunity that allowed President Trump to overwhelm his adversaries with an onslaught of executive orders dismantling core American institutions is closing…Public opinion has turned against him, the economy is faltering, the Supreme Court has ordered him to stand down, his tariffs have backfired, and such conservative mainstays as National Reviewand The Wall Street Journal are questioning his judgment…How does a stymied autocrat deal with defeat? As the opposition gains strength, frustrating the nation’s commander in chief, how will Trump respond?…It is unthinkable to imagine him graciously acknowledging defeat, changing direction and moving on.” Edsall quotes Steven Pinker, “a psychologist at Harvard who has been at the forefront of the university’s confrontation with the Trump administration,” who says that Bullies and street toughs “think well of themselves not in proportion to their accomplishments but out of a congenital sense of entitlement. When reality intrudes, as it inevitably will, they treat the bad news as a personal affront and its bearer, who is endangering their fragile reputation, as a malicious slanderer…And the trio of symptoms at narcissism’s core — grandiosity, need for admiration and lack of empathy — fits political tyrants to a T. It is most obvious in their vainglorious monuments, hagiographic iconography and obsequious mass rallies.”
Edsall adds, “There is still a larger question. If, in the face of adversity, Trump and his allies attempt to overturn democracy, what are their chances? I asked Herbert Kitschelt, a professor of international relations at Duke and the 2025 recipient of the prestigious Johan Skytte Prize in political science, that question, and he provided a nuanced reply by email: “No scientific, evidence-based investigation can currently provide a factually grounded prognosis” on “whether and how Trump and the Christian evangelical-nationalist-Southern wing of the Republican Party might break the democratic Constitution of the United States,” he wrote…Instead, Kitschelt argued, it is possible to “outline the forces that may impinge on whether this process will take place or not.”…A severe economic crisis, which Kitschelt believes is probable, given current trends, would sharply undermine Republican prospects in the 2026 congressional elections, which might prompt Trump and his allies to “realize that they cannot win a free and fair election and actually might face a defeat in the midterms severe enough to precipitate the impeachment of both president and vice president.”
In “Democrats are losing the most important fight in history,” Mark Sumner explains at Daily Kos: “The purpose of every protest, every call, every letter, every blog post, and every skeet being made in opposition to Donald Trump is the same: Show that what Trump is doing isn’t just wrong, it’s also unpopular. Because popularity, like it or not, is important…Establishing the popularity of a position is key to political power. Mass protests alone may not be enough to move the needle, but that needle nevermoves without mass protests. And the calls. And the letters. It takes it all…The good news is that, when it comes to Trump’s poll numbers, it’s all working. Despite a national news media that seems disinterested in calling out Trump’s goose-stepping all over the Constitution, they can’t hide the basic chaos and vindictiveness of this regime…Trump is underwater on the economy, on the war in Ukraine, and even on immigration. He is so immensely unpopular that he has broken the previous unpopularity record set by … Donald Trump…With their razor-thin advantage in the House, Republicans should be terrified. Phones should be ringing off the hook at lobbying firms as Republican reps seek to leverage their positions for fresh employment while they still can…polls still show that the Democratic Party is hugely underwater, and despite everything, less popular than the Republican Party on every key issue. Even as Americans are waking to the horror of what Trump is doing, they are not looking to Democrats for help…Trump is sinking, but the Democratic Party is sinking more than Trump. Republicans continue to enjoy an advantage in head-to-head polling…Trump is historically unpopular. He’s going to get more unpopular as prices rise, jobs decline, and people realize they’ve all been taken for a ride. We’re even seeing something this cycle that we didn’t see in 2018: A large number of Trump voters waking up to their mistake and looking for an alternative…Democrats better give them that alternative soon. Or someone will.”
