The Morning Briefing: The Great Trump Tariff Tizzy of 2025 Has Gotten Quiet

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Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Cadbrumum had been doing some innovative things with Hostess snack cake-inspired weavings for itinerant aestheticians.

When President Donald Trump rolled out his tariff plan last April, the shrieks of dismay were coming from both sides of the political aisle. Everyone on social media was a newly minted international trade expert and preaching economic gloom. Even people who had voted for Trump were getting in on the panic. I found that truly bizarre, because he had vigorously campaigned on tariffs, providing a historical basis for his plans.

At the time, I wrote on more than one occasion that I wasn't getting bent out of shape about the tariffs because, again, it was something he campaigned on and I voted for. Despite having a gargantuan ego and being rather known for my arrogance, I readily admitted that the self-made billionaire president might know more about how to generate revenue than I did.

Trump was very open on the campaign trail about how the tariff situation would play out. He said it would be difficult at first, but that the long-term rewards would far outweigh the short-term pains. For a couple of days there, it seemed as if only a handful of people remembered that.

When President Trump announced the tariffs in the Rose Garden, he called it Liberation Day. Most people acted more like the apocalypse was upon us. That was three-and-a-half months ago. The sky hasn't fallen, the economy hasn't collapsed, and it would appear that Donald Trump still knows a thing or two about negotiating deals.

This is from Catherine:

Revenues from Donald Trump’s tariffs have hit record highs as of the start of this month, as the president announced more tariffs, especially on hostile countries.
Tariff revenues reached a record level of $113 billion, representing a significant financial boost and hitting a new high for this year, Fox Business reported. Democrats, who prefer taxing Americans to tariffing foreigners, have bewailed the tariffs nonstop, but Trump’s optimism about the revenues seems to be justified so far. We need fewer taxes on Americans and more tariffs on belligerent nations that hate the USA. And companies that dislike the tariffs should bring operations back to America.
A June 30 press release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) previously boasted that the majority of the tariff revenues collected this year are due to Trump‘s tariffs, with which he is leveling the international trade playing field and penalizing hostile countries.

Again, I was out of my depth about the whole tariff thing, but 14 weeks seems like a pretty quick turnaround time for the pain to start going away. The people who were the loudest about doubting Trump back in April are probably even more surprised than I am. I can't be sure, because they're not talking much about tariffs anymore.

In fact, if you're wondering why the mainstream media is suddenly obsessed with the Epstein garbage, it's a safe bet that this has something to do with it.

Some are willing to admit that they may have been a little hasty in criticizing Trump and the tariff approach. My RedState colleague Katie Jerkovich writes that Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone has had quite the turnaround, going so far as to say that Trump could be remembered as "one of our best presidents ever." This is after railing about Trump getting bad advice when he announced the tariff plan.

Catherine mentioned that the president is using tariffs to penalize hostile countries. He recently hit Russia with a whopper of a 100% tariff threat if the country doesn't agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine within 50 days. My friend Stephen Green writes that it's put a burr under Putin and Co.'s saddle.

This ultimatum, like everything else tariff-related, is not something that I'm going to try and second second-guess. As I have written many times, Trump seems to have thought things out well in advance for his second go at the presidency. He's methodical, not whimsical, and he's good at his job.

Everybody with me now: This is what we voted for.

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