Dara Lind

and the, like, Russ Vogt and company massive deregulatory, there's absolutely nothing the federal government should be doing to support electric vehicles. And, like, it's weird for Trump, but it's very normal for politics. And it's going to be interesting to see how this, like, very traditional inter—

and the, like, Russ Vogt and company massive deregulatory, there's absolutely nothing the federal government should be doing to support electric vehicles. And, like, it's weird for Trump, but it's very normal for politics. And it's going to be interesting to see how this, like, very traditional inter—

factional divide plays out when the person making the decisions is still Donald Trump, a man who pretty famously doesn't really hold on to anything consistently enough to make it very predictable which way he's going to fall.

factional divide plays out when the person making the decisions is still Donald Trump, a man who pretty famously doesn't really hold on to anything consistently enough to make it very predictable which way he's going to fall.

I was wondering where the tariffs were.

I was wondering where the tariffs were.

One of the questions on tariffs has always been… Does Donald Trump really, really, really want to find a way to get to yes on tariffs? Or does Donald Trump love the ability to come into a negotiating room and say, if you don't give us everything we want, we'll tariff the hell out of you?

One of the questions on tariffs has always been… Does Donald Trump really, really, really want to find a way to get to yes on tariffs? Or does Donald Trump love the ability to come into a negotiating room and say, if you don't give us everything we want, we'll tariff the hell out of you?

Like, this is arguably the signature policy win of Trump's first term on immigration was getting Mexico to agree to accept large numbers of people saying, across the border who were waiting for asylum hearings in the United States, which he accomplished by threatening Mexico with really punitive tariffs for months and months and months.

Like, this is arguably the signature policy win of Trump's first term on immigration was getting Mexico to agree to accept large numbers of people saying, across the border who were waiting for asylum hearings in the United States, which he accomplished by threatening Mexico with really punitive tariffs for months and months and months.

So, like, I think that this is all consistent with we're using tariffs as a big stick. And now that Marco Rubio is actually secretary of state, he gets to play good cop and go in and tell Claudia Scheinbaum, here is the way that you can avoid these tariffs that the president really wants to put on you, but I have your back. But I'm actually not sure.

So, like, I think that this is all consistent with we're using tariffs as a big stick. And now that Marco Rubio is actually secretary of state, he gets to play good cop and go in and tell Claudia Scheinbaum, here is the way that you can avoid these tariffs that the president really wants to put on you, but I have your back. But I'm actually not sure.

There also really does seem to be a belief among Donald Trump himself and at least a professed belief among some conservative intellectuals that tariffs are affirmatively good for America. So if he ends up saying, oh, we've suspended all tariffs because we're taking the win with Canada and Mexico and China, does that leave a constituency unsatisfied?

There also really does seem to be a belief among Donald Trump himself and at least a professed belief among some conservative intellectuals that tariffs are affirmatively good for America. So if he ends up saying, oh, we've suspended all tariffs because we're taking the win with Canada and Mexico and China, does that leave a constituency unsatisfied?

Like the question of predictability is what like I cannot get my head around though because like in economics as it's understood and I didn't think this was particularly controversial. Like the fundamental insight of law and economics is that firms require predictability from the government in order to make internal decisions.

Like the question of predictability is what like I cannot get my head around though because like in economics as it's understood and I didn't think this was particularly controversial. Like the fundamental insight of law and economics is that firms require predictability from the government in order to make internal decisions.

Not knowing whether there are going to be tariffs on your products or whether you're going to have to – devote a tremendous amount of attention capital to flattering the president and having your CEO do that instead of a lot of other things your CEO could be doing. Like you can imagine that being a problem.

Not knowing whether there are going to be tariffs on your products or whether you're going to have to – devote a tremendous amount of attention capital to flattering the president and having your CEO do that instead of a lot of other things your CEO could be doing. Like you can imagine that being a problem.

It does seem to me that like at a certain level, there should that like the inability to know whether there are going to be these massive tariffs has to have some kind of knock on economic effect.

It does seem to me that like at a certain level, there should that like the inability to know whether there are going to be these massive tariffs has to have some kind of knock on economic effect.