SHOW NOTES: Tariffs, Speeches, and More. Oh My!

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🚨Breaking. President Volodymyr Zelensky, on Twitter, signals he is ready for peace, admits his meeting at the White House did not go well, and is ready to sign the mineral rights deal with the United States.

I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace. None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same. Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this. Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.

Today. Donald Trump will address a Joint Session of Congress tonight. Technically, it is not the annual State of the Union, but it serves the same purpose. Democrats intend to disrupt the speech or otherwise protest by bringing in fired federal workers and cartons of eggs.

More here.

Tariffs. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not sure it was wise of Trump to impose tariffs. The economy is, objectively, still shakey. Prices are still high. And he’s implementing the one policy that is guaranteed to raise consumer prices. What’s notable is that this may be the first time Trump has generated concern from even MAGA. Trudeau responds. Ontario prepares to cut power to the United States. Mexico and China are responding too.

The Politics. Forget the economic impact of tariffs. The political reality is very simple. If the economy suffers for any reason at all, Democrats will point to Trump’s tariffs as the blame. Implementing tariffs is a major policy deviation from the status quo so it will be easy to blame tariffs as an economic disruptor whether or not the problem is tariff related. It is a dangerous political game.

Dumb. The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board weighs in on the tariffs.

Beware the Farmers. Ag state Republicans are not happy with the tariffs. Farmers are a big lobby and they will be hurt.

Quote of the day:

“The trouble with tariffs, to be succinct, is that they raise prices, slow economic growth, cut profits, increase unemployment, worsen inequality, diminish productivity and increase global tensions. Other than that, they’re fine.” — JPMorgan’s David Kelly.

The Republicans’ Problem: They are convinced Americans are willing to accept higher prices. I would not be so sure after the results of this last election.

The Democrats’ Problem: Last night, the Senate Democrats filibustered a Republican measure that would keep boys out of girls’ sports. The measure has deep approval from the American public. Democrats are defending the fringe. But it is not just the fringe. Democrats are also more stridently on the side of federal workers losing their jobs than they ever have been for the private sector. That is going to rub the working class the wrong way. The Democrats are simply out of touch with most Americans.

The Left’s Problem. They’re upset that Donald Trump is making life easier for ordinary Americans. By rolling back the Beneficial Owership Information Report, the Treasury Department is stopping small businesses and individuals from accidentally becoming felons. But the left, which is now all about regulation instead of innovation, is screaming about money laundering without any care for the actual impact of the legislation on individual Americans.

Video of the Day: The other Democrat problem is the cringy coordinated performative nature of their opposition. Source.

Have You Noticed This? Every time a fired federal employee goes on television to tell their sob story, they turn out to be a reliably progressive personality who does not like Donald Trump. It just reinforces that Trump is on to something. The American federal bureaucracy is hostile to him and would work to sabotage his agenda from the inside. These sob stories just remind conservatives that Trump is right to do this. Here is a good example from the other day about NOAA cuts. If you watch the clip, the fired climate scientist says “only” Donald Trump has tied funding to political conditions. However, a FEMA manager in the Biden Administration told federal workers to avoid helping anyone with a Trump sign in their yard.

This guy is clearly a progressive with a real political view and you can’t help but wonder how much he’d work to undermine the democratically elected President of the United States if he were left on the job.

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Where is Daniel Dale?

Bill Nye gets to go on CNN and scare everyone about climate change, but what he said is not factually true. So where is Daniel Dale to call Bill Nye out on his BS and why is he allowed to use his celebrity status to go unchallenged?

As actual Meteorologist Chris Martz documents, “Someone should inform Nye about the Clear Pond Fire in mid-April 1976 that seared 30,000 acres in Horry County, or the Gaston Fire in April 1966 that burned nearly 8,000, both of which were larger than the ongoing blaze.” Nye claims wildfires in North Carolina used to not be a thing, but there have always been wildfires in North Carolina. Likewise, hurricanes are not becoming more frequent. To say otherwise is simply false, but Bill Nye gets a pass to utter misinformation on a network that ran an apples and banana ad to claim it is committed to the truth.

Pausing Ukraine

This seems like a tactic to get Zelensky back to the table with the recognition he screwed up. But it is still a dangerous thing to do. It will drag European powers closer to doing stupid things that risk an expanded war that inevitably drags us in. Still, what is crazy to me, is that none of the Europeans have ever read The Art of the Deal to realize this is how Trump negotiates.

The US is holding up all pending military assistance until Trump determines Ukraine’s leaders demonstrate a good-faith commitment to peace, according to a senior Defense Department official, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. It will also review the aid to make sure it’s contributing to a solution to the conflict.

Source.

Shutdown

Don’t look now, but Democrats actually are willing to shutdown the government for the first time. I think this is an excellent idea. The American people can realize they function just fine without the constant nagging of the government. Republicans have until March 14, 2025, to come up with a plan to avoid a shutdown. The House GOP can only lose two votes, which complicates things. But it is possible to do. The Speaker wants to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, or September 30, 2025. Senators are going along with it. The plan would involve a continuation at present levels. No increase in spending might placate conservatives, but they still want real cuts.

An Early Warning Sign

Thomas Corry is a committed Trump partisan and conservative. He served in the first Trump Administration. He came into the second Trump Administration as the top spokesman for HHS. Two weeks after taking up the post, Corry has resigned.

As many people, myself included, feared, Secretary Kennedy appears to be letting his super progressive close confidant, Stefanie Spear, run HHS with him. Spear is Kennedy’s principal deputy chief of staff, close friend, and far-out progressive.

Don’t look now, but the measles outbreak has spread to nine states. Kennedy has offered a muted response from HHS on the issue and you can expect Democrats will use that. Kennedy is just making it too easy for his critics and, barely on the job, his first health crisis is upon him and the one conservative adult in the room abandoned him after being disgusted by the Kennedy/Spear response.

Trump officials and even some Kennedy allies have also privately voiced concerns about the influence of Spear, who has long served as Kennedy’s most trusted confidant. They have worried that her close relationship with Kennedy would grant her extraordinary control over the secretary’s priorities and allow her to freeze out other senior aides.

The two people familiar with the matter pointed to that dynamic as a central factor in Corry’s departure.

Corry was “the one adult in the room that I saw unfortunately,” said a third person familiar with the matter, an HHS employee, who was granted anonymity to describe the internal dynamics.

Source.

In Other News

• Trump EPA Refers Biden Green Grants to Inspector General, Citing 'Pattern of Political Favoritism' (Free Beacon)

• Planes receive mysterious false midair collision alerts near Reagan National Airport (CNN)

• Struggling With Errors, DOGE Deletes Billions More From List of Savings (NY Times)

• DOGE moves to cancel NOAA leases on key weather buildings (Axios)

• Solar Company That Received $3 Billion Biden Loan Warns It Might Go Bankrupt (Free Beacon)

• Columbia University Instructor Cancels Class for Anti-Israel Protest, Day After Radicals Storm Campus Building (Free Beacon)

• Ukraine Races to Salvage U.S. Alliance After Trump Halts Aid (NY Times)

• BlackRock drops DEI goals, citing US policy shift (Blaze Media)

• Bondi assures that ‘everything’s going to come out’ related to the Epstein files (Washington Examiner)

• Five Things to Watch in Trump’s Address to Congress (WSJ)