Everything he does on the world stage is disastrous, and the U.S. is reviled globally. How much longer will some idiots believe this "Art of the Deal" garbage? |
Donald Trump says China agreed to buy 200 jets from Boeing. He crowed about it on Fox News Thursday night. But funny thing: A spokesman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked specifically about the jet deal after Trump spoke, and he said nothing about any such agreement. Wanna take bets on whether it actually happened?
Three points here. First of all, we should stop quickly to note that it’s sad that it’s come to pass that we just automatically believe a foreign government—and China’s no less—over the president of the United States (sad about him, that is, not us). Second, let’s remember that Boeing is an American company in a deep and sustained crisis that was brought on by basic greed: As David Goldstein explained in Democracy journal in 2024, after its acquisition of McDonnell-Douglas in 1997, the historically proud engineering culture at Boeing was destroyed as the company became more anti-union and outsourced more of its production.
|
|
|
Housing insecurity in the nation’s richest cities is far worse than the government claims. Just ask the Goodmans.
|
The inspiration for Brian Goldstone’s 2026 Pulitzer Prize–winning book, There Is No Place for Us, can be traced back to this 2019 TNR feature about an Atlanta woman, Cokethia Goodman, whose family became homeless even as she worked full-time.
In the story of the Goodman family, the intimate, novelistic attention that distinguishes Goldstone’s work is on full display—as is an uncompromising indictment of the structural forces to blame for their suffering.
|
|
|
And third, assuming that Trump is lying or at least exaggerating, well, we’ve just learned again for the jillionth time that Mr. Art of the Deal is a total fraud. Let’s review.
|
| • |
|
Remember how, in his first term, Trump was going to bring North Korea to its knees? Remember how he consistently heaped praise on Kim Jong Un and his "beautiful vision for his country"? Well, it’s not a "beautiful country" to the people who live there, and meanwhile, its nuclear progress has been steady over the last decade—during most of which, of course, Mr. Art of the Deal has been the president of the United States. Experts think the nation has assembled about 50 warheads. |
| • |
|
Remember also that he was going to solve the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day back in office? In late March, a UN expert testified that the violence was "worse than ever." We—that is, most decent people—are heartened by Ukraine’s resilience and wowed by its innovative drone technology. But that "we" doesn’t include the president of the United States, who obviously is cheering for his pal Putin—over whom he has zero leverage. |
| • |
|
The 2025 tariff war on China totally backfired. China responded to Trump’s tariffs by limiting exports of rare-earth metals, and Trump backed down. Today, U.S. soybean exports to China are down (they peaked during Sleepy Joe’s "disastrous" presidency), as are auto exports. The first Chinese EVs are landing in Canada even as we speak. These are ultra-luxury cars that sell for $10,000 or even $20,000 less than their American equivalents. |
| • |
|
Speaking of Canada, why isn’t it the 51st state yet? And speaking of Northern annexation, why isn’t Greenland part of the United States yet? |
| • |
|
How’s that world-class Gaza resort coming along? |
| • |
|
U.S. relations with Europe are at an all-time low. And it isn’t because of anything Europe did. Last December, the Trump administration released a security strategy paper calling Europe a bigger threat to the United States than Russia or China because of its progressive social and immigration policies, which threatened the continent with "civilizational erasure." |
| • |
|
And finally, of course, there is Iran. The economic impact of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz will be felt for months ahead. The latest wrinkle? In India, where they apparently lap up Diet Coke, there’s a shortage of the beloved elixir because there’s an aluminum shortage (Diet Coke is sold only in cans there). The Middle East accounts for 98 percent of the global aluminum supply. Stock up on that Reynolds Wrap. Joking aside: There are and will be dozens of such shortages, some far more serious than Diet Coke. A UN official told AFP in Paris this week that up to 45 million people in the developing world could face hunger or even starvation because of the global fertilizer shortage. |
|
All the above adds up to this rather grim reality, contained in a survey conducted by the Alliance of Democracies Foundations and unveiled last week. The United States ranked 128th in how it is viewed by survey respondents across 85 countries. We netted out at -16. That’s behind Russia, Syria, and Myanmar, to name a few notables. But hey, we’re ahead of Iran! By a point.
Trump can fool himself, if he wants to, that Xi Jinping was talking about the Biden years when he referred to America’s decline and the suddenly famous "Thucydides Trap." But everyone knows the truth. He was talking about the United States in general, under both parties—a country that is by now pretty much owned lock, stock, and barrel by a handful of greedy Robber Barons whom the GOP worships and the Democrats haven’t had the stones to stop.
And he was talking about the United States under Trump specifically. Xi may be a ruthlessly immoral tyrant. But one thing he isn’t is dumb. He sees very clearly what the United States is doing to itself, having reelected a low-I.Q. kleptocrat, adjudicated sex offender, and psychologically damaged sociopath who spends the wee hours firing off batshit tweets and obsessing about a ballroom the way the Sun King did over Versailles. That man, not Joe Biden, is why China now tops the United States in global approval ratings.
The United States always led China in those kinds of polls because at the end of the day we could say well, at least we’re a democracy. The way things are going, we’re not even going to be able to say that soon. But hey, he’s a great dealmaker, right?
|
|
|
Taking another zany plan by the president seriously because he cannot possibly do so.
|
|
|
|
|
Last week’s quiz: "They left off WHO?!?" In "honor" of that instantly infamous New York Times list of the 30 greatest living songwriters, a quiz about … living American songwriters who were left off the list. Which, out of necessity, was largely limited to the eras with which I am familiar.
|
1. Many people were scandalized that the Times list excluded this ’60s pop hitmeister, even if he is responsible for the unfortunate lyric, "Between the parted pages and were pressed / In love’s hot, fevered iron / Like a striped pair of pants." And yes, "striped" was pronounced "stry-ped," two syllables.
|
A. Jimmy Webb
B. Jimmy Hebb
C. Burt Bacharach
D. Bobby Goldsboro
|
Answer: A, the great Jimmy Webb. That "MacArthur Park" lyric was execrable, but "Wichita Lineman" alone should have landed him on that list. Here’s Glen Campbell performing it on Ellen with his two sons and daughter in 2011. If this doesn’t bring a tear to the corner of your eye, you carry the mark of the devil upon you.
|
2. This acclaimed rock-pop-jazz composer and performer was strangely excluded. He might have said in response, "The things that pass for knowledge, I can’t understand."
|
A. Carlos Santana
B. Pat Metheny
C. Donald Fagen
D. John McLaughlin
|
Answer: C, Donald Fagen. "Reelin’ in the Years," which I quoted, is one of the 20 greatest songs of the last 50-odd years. If you don’t believe me, try playing the piano part. While singing those mind-blowing lyrics.
|
3. She knows she’s "got nothing to prove"; still, she might be justifiably tempted to run the jurists over in her car. (Oh—and it’s a fast one.)
|
A. Lauryn Hill
B. Tracy Chapman
C. Beyoncé
D. Rickie Lee Jones
|
Answer: B, Tracy Chapman. Oh, by the way: The guy who made the awesome illustration that adorns the cover of MY NEW NOVEL, WHICH YOU REALLY MUST BUY RIGHT NOW, is the same guy who directed the "Fast Car" video. Matt Mahurin. How effing cool am I?
|
4. Many were surprised at this repeat hitmaker’s exclusion. Then again, by his own definition, since he didn’t die young, he wasn’t "good."
|
A. Tom Waits
B. Billy Joel
C. David Byrne
D. John Fogerty
|
Answer: B, Bill Joel. Eh. I can take him or leave him. He was really interesting in his early days, with "Billy the Kid" and all that. Then he just started cranking out formulaic hits—I’ll do a Four Seasons song ("Uptown Girl"), I’ll do a doo-wop song ("For the Longest Time"). I get the homage part of it. But it was often only homage, no originality.
|
5. There’s no evidence that this singer-songwriter spent "hours of time on the telephone line" trying to convince voters to include him; but if he did, it was to no avail.
|
A. Dan Fogelberg
B. Glenn Frey
C. Don Henley
D. James Taylor
|
Answer: D, Sweet Baby James. And yes: "Fire and Rain," which I quote from, is one of those works of pure genius that if it were the only song he’d ever written, it would be his ticket into songwriter heaven. If you play guitar, slap that capo on the second fret and figure it out. You’ll see what I mean. And ponder the titular metaphor. Like I said, genius.
|
6. In what was to my mind the most obvious injustice of them all, this excluded artist known for his mocking and misanthropic lyrics might well have said this, if he had been included: "You all must be crazy to put your faith in me; that’s why I love mankind."
|
A. Brian Eno
B. Robert Fripp
C. Stephen Stills
D. Randy Newman
|
Answer: D, Randy Newman. I met him once. In a hotel in Denver. I introduced myself. He was a subscriber to The New York Review of Books, for which I was writing frequently at the time. He told me it was his honor to meet me!!! I should have had a heart attack and died right there and then.
|
This week’s quiz: "Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey." I drove mid-week from Washington (well, the Maryland burbs, where I live) to New York and back, which means I spent a lot of time in New Jersey; hence, this week’s quiz, on the Garden State.
|
1. Who were the original white settlers of the colony and state that became New Jersey, and what was the Indian tribe that originally inhabited the area?
|
A. English/Powhatan
B. Flemish/Susquehannock
C. Dutch/Lenape
D. Spanish/Delaware
|
2. A pivotal battle of the Revolutionary War followed Washington’s famous crossing of the Delaware and took place on December 26, 1776 in what town?
|
A. Camden
B. Trenton
C. Lambertville
D. Pennsauken
|
3. With regard to most of the rest stops on the New Jersey Turnpike, you probably know basically what the namesake did (Grover Cleveland, Thomas Edison, Woodrow Wilson, Joyce Kilmer). But what did Molly Pitcher do?
|
A. She relieved her fallen husband by swabbing and loading a cannon at the Battle of Monmouth
B. She disguised herself as a man and enlisted in the Battle of Weehawken
C. She nursed a staggering number of American soldiers in Passaic in 1781
D. She invented cotton candy
|
4. Rule number seven of this New Jersey competition read: "contestants must be of good health and of the white race."
|
A. The Rutgers-Princeton football game
B. The annual Jersey City Professional Bowlers’ Association tour stop
C. The 1963 PGA Championship held at the Hidden Creek Golf Club
D. The Miss America Pageant
|
5. What’s the name of the Asbury Park bar where Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band got their start?
|
A. The Underground Railroad
B. The Shore Thing
C. The Stone Pony
D. Madam Marie’s
|
6. In the 1978 "Miracle at the Meadowlands" (from the Philadelphia Eagles’ point of view), Joe Pisarcik was the Giants’ quarterback, and of course Herman Edwards was the Eagles’ defender who scooped up the infamous botched handoff and ran it into the endzone for an Eagles’ win. But who was the running back to whom Pisarcik was ill-advisedly trying to hand the ball?
|
A. Larry Csonka
B. Joe Morris
C. Doug Kotar
D. Ron Johnson
|
Yes, 6 is undoubtedly a part of Jersey history. Answers next week. Feedback to fightingwords@tnr.com. And BUY MY NOVEL! It’s good. Honestly.
—Michael Tomasky, editor
|
|
|
How the White House’s Freedom 250 program is desecrating our remembrance of the nation’s founding.
|
|
|
|
|
Update your personal preferences for _t.e.s.t_@example.com by clicking here.
Our mailing address is:
The New Republic, 1 Union Sq W Fl 6 , NY , New York, NY 10003-3303, United States
Do you want to stop receiving all emails from ?
Unsubscribe from this list. If you stopped getting TNR emails, update your profile to resume receiving them.
|
|
|
|
|
