Stopping Trump's Sabotage

Simon Rosenberg

Morning all. Underneath the daily bluster and bullshit; the lipsticking of MAGA, MAHA, originalism, “peace” talks and Project 2025; the breathless drama of the rise and fall of Courtiers like Musk, Hegseth and more idiots to come; the unceasing and unprecedented cowardice of John Thune and Mike Johnson; the ongoing fight with the Courts and emergence of a true American Gulag; underneath all the bread and circuses and the shock and the awe, is a hard, cold reality we cannot for one moment ignore - Trump is traitorously doing extraordinary, lasting harm to America - on purpose, by design - and we must use every tool in democracy’s tool box to stop him.

In recent weeks, as Trump’s terrible and clearly unconstitutional tariffs wreck the American and global economies, the financial world has emerged as a powerful and perhaps unexpected player in our opposition movement. I now sharing the opening few graphs of the most read political newsletter in Washington, Politico’s Playbook. Today’s edition is called Trump Gets A Downgrade, and it is a sign of how Trump is now playing inside the Capital (spoiler alert - not fucking good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!):

NUMBERS GAME: The International Monetary Fund will officially downgrade global growth forecasts this morning in response to the swirling trade war and severe market turbulence triggered by Donald Trump’s on-off tariffs. The IMF’s weeklong spring conference in Washington will dominate headlines at 9 a.m. with the unveiling of its first World Economic Outlook since Trump returned to power. It won’t make pretty reading for the White House.

A Golden Age for America: Back on January 17 — about a million political years ago — the IMF was merrily forecasting global growth of 3.3 percent for both 2025 and 2026. Per Reuters, it even raised its annual growth forecast for the United States at that time to 2.7 percent, citing “robust labor markets and accelerating investment.” At that stage, the only cloud on this gloriously sunny horizon was an oblique warning to world leaders that any “intensification of protectionist policies” would damage trade and investment and rock global markets. Whatever could they have meant?