F**king Mondays: The Art of Capitulation, Habeas Disappearus, Woke Extremism, and Making S**t Up

Trump commandeered one of the greatest negotiations in political history. Or did he?

Welcome to another edition of F**king Mondays! In the roundup today:

The Art of Capitulation

If you go on X today, ‘#Artofthedeal’ is trending and MAGA is loudly crowing about Trump’s new trade deal with China. His fans are convinced their hero has commandeered one of the greatest negotiations in political history:

Here’s the outline of the deal per the NYTimes:

In a joint statement released earlier in the day, the United States and China said they would suspend their respective tariffs for 90 days and continue negotiations they started this weekend. Under the agreement, the U.S. would reduce the tariff on Chinese imports to 30 percent from its current 145 percent, while China would lower its import duty on American goods to 10 percent from 125 percent.

While markets have responded positively, it is important to zoom out to slightly longer timeline (which is increasingly difficult in the chaos of Trump-era politics). Trump started a trade war no one wanted, tanked the market, then hit pause and claimed victory when markets began to recover—still below where they were before he started.

This is a tactic my 7 year-old has refined over the years: Create an almighty mess, partially clean it up, then demand an ice cream/treat as a reward for his “hard work”.

It’s great confidence has come back to the market and a big relief to small businesses reliant on Chinese manufacturing to stay alive, but let’s not give Trump credit for partially cleaning up a mess he is 100% responsible for.

Habeas Disappearus

If your government starts kidnapping suspected “aliens” off the street, deports them without trial, pledges to build giant detention camps, and then threatens to suspend habeas corpus, maybe it is time to start panicking?

From NBC News:

Legal experts and Democrats expressed growing alarm over the weekend that Trump administration officials are openly discussing unilaterally suspending habeas corpus — a bedrock American legal right — without the approval of Congress.

The writ of habeas corpus, which dates back centuries, grants anyone detained in the U.S. the right to see a judge, challenge the government’s evidence against them and present a defense.

But White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller downplayed its significance on Friday, suggesting that the administration could move to suspend it unilaterally. "That's an option we're actively looking at," Miller told reporters at the White House.

This isn’t just Stephen Miller talking either — according to NBC, Trump has “been personally involved in discussions with the administration about potentially suspending habeas corpus”, alluding to the issue late last month.

“There are ways to mitigate it and there’s some very strong ways,” Trump said. “There’s one way that’s been used by three very highly respected presidents, but we hope we don’t have to go that route.”

In other words, we’ll go down that route if Democrats and the courts continue trying to stop us breaking the law.

I’ve spoken about these issues with pro-Trump friends, and the general consensus is that Trump is “doing what needs to be done”. While regrettable that the Constitution is being violated, they believe illegal immigration is so completely out of control that only a strongman like Trump can fix it. So they are content to look the other way while Trump gets on with it.

This is of course exactly how fascism starts. And make no mistake, it is starting here. If Trump isn’t forcefully confronted on his attempts to dismantle the Constitution, there is no telling how far he will go.

A warning to the left

Yascha Mounk has an excellent piece warning the left not to reflexively re-embrace identity politics in response to Trumpism. He writes:

“The extremism of the Trump administration is now in danger of making left-leaning institutions and organizations as reactive as they were during his first term. While Joe Biden was in office, it was possible, with care and circumspection, to criticize wokeness, DEI or the more extreme forms of trans ideology from a left-of-center perspective. Now, any such dissent is once again starting to be perceived as ‘running interference for Trump.’ The reversion to the culture which prevailed from 2016 through 2020 is only in its beginning stages, and it may never be fully completed—but once you become attuned to its possibility, the signs are everywhere.”

Among the signs, Mounk points to a speech by Tim Walz, who declared “You’re damn right we’re proud of these [DEI] policies,” the emergence of AOC as a top contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination, and the rhetoric used by powerful philanthropic foundations committed to opposing Trump. These groups, Mounk observes, increasingly frame their mission in terms of mobilizing the “historically marginalized,” fighting for “equity,” and listening to the “global majority.” According to Mounk, these people still “view the world through the lens of equity, social justice and intersectionality”.

---

Help support The Banter. Get 50% off a Banter Membership today:

---

Anecdotally, I agree with Mounk’s assessment. I’ve seen similar dynamics play out in Democratic circles, where some still claim Kamala Harris lost in 2024 because she was a black woman. This narrative simply doesn’t hold up to scrutiny—Trump actually improved his vote share among most minority groups and women in 2020, undermining the idea that identity alone explains political outcomes.

More sober Democratic analysts understand that Harris lost because most Americans — including women and minorities — do not view their country through the lens of “equity, social justice and intersectionality”. These are niche academic concepts that resonate primarily within activist and elite progressive circles. Harris had spent years aligning herself with this brand of identity politics, and although she attempted a pivot ahead of the election, the political damage was already done.

Fighting right wing extremism with more left wing extremism then is a strategy doomed to fail. As Mounk concludes:

Every victory for one of these ideological currents immediately strengthens those who fight for the other. The way out of this dangerous spiral is not to pick one side as the lesser evil and shut up about its dangers; it is, calmly and consistently, to resist both.

Amen to that.

Just make shit up

A quick reality check:

1. Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) directing drugmakers to lower the prices of medicines in line with what other countries pay. There is no verified legislative effort currently in place to cut drug prices by 59%. While great in principle, this will almost certainly fail — like the multiple times he tried to reduce costs without Congressional approval.

2. Gasoline prices are up, energy prices are up and continuing to rise, groceries prices are also up.

3. Inflation is down, but still at 2.4% — which the last time I looked is definitely not “NO INFLATION”.

So other than that, Trump is 100% correct.

Every membership helps keep The Banter alive and independent. We’re building a community of smart, fearless readers who won’t back down from the truth. Join today for 50% off: