Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jorge Heine

“The president’s new hemispheric strategy revives interventionist logic while ignoring the region’s urgent need for infrastructure and economic diversification.” (12/09/25)

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/trump-corollory/

Source: The Dispatch
by Tad DeHaven

“The first Trump administration ushered in a new era of industrial policy, attempting to reshape the macroeconomic landscape through the use of tariffs. The Biden administration built upon its predecessor’s interventions, championing massive subsidies for the semiconductor and green energy industries. In his second term, Trump has raised the tariff ante and taken an alarming step further by directly inserting the federal government into the corporate boardroom. Over the past six months, the administration has unilaterally engineered a series of deals that give the federal government ownership stakes in a portfolio of private companies. It’s a seismic and disturbing development in federal policymaking — and it’s not done. Congressional Republicans, who would be foaming at the mouth were this occurring under a Democratic administration, have thus far chosen to sit on their hands.” (12/09/25)

https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-administration-equity-stakes-corporation-downsides/

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Julieta Clara

“I’m from Argentina, and when I hear New York’s new mayor speak about ‘democratic socialism’ as a path to ‘social justice,’ I feel like someone who has already watched the entire movie: the prequel, the sequel, the reboot, and even the director’s cut. Different actors, different scripts, different settings — but always the same finale.” (12/09/25)

https://fee.org/articles/democratic-socialism-yet-another-remake/

Source: Reason
by Jacob Sullum

“Multiple news outlets reported in September 2025 that the Justice Department was weighing a ban on gun possession by transgender people, on the theory that they are ‘mentally ill’ and therefore ‘unstable.’ That constitutionally dubious proposal provoked objections from gun rights groups that typically align with the Trump administration, including the National Rifle
Association (NRA). … the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit held that ‘nothing in our tradition allows disarmament simply because [someone] belongs to a category of people’ that ‘Congress has categorically deemed dangerous.’ Such a ban would be even more constitutionally questionable if it were imposed by bureaucratic fiat.” (for publication 01/26)

https://reason.com/2025/12/09/gun-groups-oppose-trans-firearm-ban/

Source: CounterPunch
by Dean Baker

“Trump first announced his massive tariffs on ‘Liberation Day,’ which was April 2. This was supposed to be the beginning of the United States rebuilding its manufacturing capacity. Since Liberation Day, the economy has lost 60,000 manufacturing jobs, factory construction is down at least 5 percent, and inflation has risen to 3.0 percent. It is also clear that businesses and consumers here have paid Trump’s tariffs, not foreigners as Trump seems to believe. Import prices have risen since Liberation Day. These are the price of the goods we import before Trump imposes his tariffs. If exporters are eating the tariffs, then the import price index should have fallen considerably. The data show this is not true. That is all pretty much textbook on what to expect from a set of ill-considered tariffs designed by a president who knows next to nothing about economics.” (12/09/25)

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/09/trump-gives-the-country-an-economics-lesson-on-tariffs/