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** OPINION
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** Trump’s tariff chaos rattles markets — and conservative media is split
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President Donald Trump, speaking at a cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday. (Pool via AP)

Donald Trump has been president for less than three months. In news cycle terms, it feels more like three years. That’s because this week feels like way longer than six days. And, mind you, it’s still Friday. Who knows what else will happen between now and Saturday?

The big news this week, of course, was the stock market bouncing up and down like a yo-yo as Trump imposed, then paused tariffs on other countries. Oh, except for China — where the tariffs jumped up even more. Anxiety over that caused the markets to take a dive again on Thursday.

So what are Americans making out of all of this?

Well, it depends on where they get their news and information. Conservative media, mostly, is portraying Trump as a brilliant negotiator and genius businessman. They see him as the master of the art of the deal.

Everyone else, and, yes, even a few in conservative media outlets, continue to watch an unstable stock market and rickety world economy and ask: “What is Trump doing? Does Trump even know what he is doing?”

Once again, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board continues to be among Trump’s biggest critics when it comes to the shifting tariff policies. On Wednesday night, after a truly topsy-turvy day, the Journal’s editorial board wrote, “Trump Blinks on Tariffs, Again, for Now.” ([link removed])

In it, the board said, “Who knows what Mr. Trump really intends, and it isn’t clear he even knows. He’s still fixated on erasing the U.S. trade deficit with nearly every individual nation, which makes no sense given the differences in economies. His 90-day pause means the tariffs could come back with a vengeance if he doesn’t like the concessions countries offer.”

It continues, “For businesses, this means more uncertainty, which means continuing delays in capital investment crucial for growth. Consumers will still feel pain because companies price inventory on replacement cost, not average cost, so tariffs are already hitting prices.”

The board went on to call Trump’s trade policies “reckless,” adding, “Never bet against America, it’s said, and normally global investors don’t want to. It’s a sign of the magnitude of Mr. Trump’s tariff mistake that he’s goading them into doing so. He needs a policy reversal, not a pause.”

This editorial, along with several others by The Wall Street Journal, is notable for two reasons. One, the Journal is owned by conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The second is the Journal's speciality is business and the economy.

Meanwhile, the editors of the National Review wrote ([link removed]) , “Now that the pause has come, the question is: Why? Remember, the administration’s stance isn’t that there are some things it would like to work on with other countries to improve the terms of trade for the U.S. Its stance is that the current status of global trade is a national emergency, justifying the usurpation of Congress’s tax and trade authority. That would suggest the drastic actions that the White House was just praising as positive and necessary should stay in effect.”

Meanwhile, Trump supporters are bending themselves into pretzels trying to either explain Trump’s policies or dismiss concerns. That’s something you rarely saw from them when Joe Biden was president.

The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell noted ([link removed]) , “MAGA content creators were close observers of the stock market during Biden’s term, casting every slide as an American crisis for which the president bore full blame. But after Trump’s tariffs sparked a market meltdown and whiplash return amid fears of an escalating trade war, some have scrambled to offer alternative explanations for the financial tumult, or to explain why such bloodletting is worth the cost.”

Harwell also reminds readers of all the MAGA influencers who blamed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for what they viewed as a lousy economy before last fall’s election. Now, they are now telling everyone to have patience under Trump. This doesn’t include all influencers. As I’ve mentioned in the newsletter several times in the past week, sports podcaster and digital media owner Dave Portnoy has been critical of Trump after supporting him before the election. Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has also questioned Trump and his tariffs.

“But,” Harwell wrote, “the big question is whether the influencers will have any impact on Americans’ minds. An Economist-YouGov poll ([link removed]) conducted Saturday through Tuesday found that Trump’s approval rating had dropped to 43 percent, a new low for his presidency, with respondents voicing anxiety over how tariffs could raise prices for the things they buy.”

For more of the details of what happened Wednesday, check out The Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum, Natalie Allison, Cat Zakrzewski and Theodoric Meyer with “The 18 hours that changed Trump’s mind on trade.” ([link removed])

Also, there’s this: The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin with “Market Chaos Brings Big Ratings to Television Business News.” ([link removed]) Grynbaum and Koblin reported that between April 2 and Monday, Fox Business’s audience was up 25% compared to the week before, and up 35% compared to a year ago. CNBC's average viewership from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern on Monday — the day Trump originally announced his tariffs — was up 75% compared to its average weekday audience since November.

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** Dominion vs. Newsmax
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Things aren’t looking great for Newsmax — the Trump-supporting, conservative cable station — in its legal fight against Dominion Voting Systems. Judge Eric M. Davis of the Delaware Superior Court said this week that Newsmax made defamatory statements about Dominion when it said the voting company rigged the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden.

The case now heads to trial, where it will be determined if Newsmax knowingly broadcast the false claims about Dominion. If it’s decided they did, the trial also will determine what Dominion would receive in damages.

In his ruling, Davis wrote Dominion had “clear and convincing evidence” that Newsmax made false claims that would “likely cause reasonable viewers to think significantly less favorably about Dominion than if the viewers knew the truth.”

Newsmax continues to defend itself, releasing a statement saying, “Newsmax covered both sides of the 2020 election dispute fairly. At no time did it defame Dominion. This case represents a serious threat to free speech and a free press and Newsmax will defend itself vigorously at trial.”

Now, if the case actually does go to trial, a jury will determine if Newsmax acted with “actual malice” — meaning it knew its claims about Dominion were untrue and aired them anyway or had a reckless disregard for the truth.

But it might not get to trial. Remember, in 2023 Dominion sued Fox News and Fox settled just as the trial was to get underway. Fox paid Dominion $787.5 million


** Media news, tidbits and interesting links for your weekend review …
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* Speaking of lawsuits, many had forgotten about this one. Reuters’ Jonathan Stempel with “Sarah Palin, New York Times to face off in defamation retrial.” ([link removed])
* The Atlantic’s Tom Bartlett with this eyebrow-raising story: “What RFK Jr. Told Grieving Texas Families About the Measles Vaccine.” ([link removed]) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new Health and Human Services secretary, went to Texas last weekend to meet with the families of two girls who died of measles. Kennedy recently said the MMR vaccines are “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles,” but he reportedly told Peter Hildebrand, whose 8-year-old daughter died, “You don’t know what’s in the vaccine anymore.” Check out Bartlett’s story for more.
* Writing for Poynter, James Okong’o with “Meta is failing to stop dangerous disinformation in the world’s most spoken languages.” ([link removed])
* Nieman Lab’s Hanaa' Tameez with “Gannett will stop publishing diversity information, citing Trump’s executive order.” ([link removed])
* The American Society of Magazine Editors announced the winners of the 60th annual National Magazine Awards. Here ([link removed]) is the list.
* John Bisognano, a veteran journalist of The Palm Beach Post, has been named the outlet’s executive editor. Bisognano has been the Post since 1997, holding a wide array of editing positions. Before coming to the Post, he worked at several papers, including The Boston Globe, Hartford Courant and Chicago Tribune. The Palm Beach Post has more ([link removed]) .
* Alex Cooper has been named the editor-in-chief of The Advocate, which covers LGBTQ+ news. Cooper has been with The Advocate since 2021. Cooper currently manages the digital newsroom and editorial strategy, and writes the email newsletter.
* Legendary sports broadcaster Brent Musburger has been named ([link removed]) the 2025 recipient of the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Which leads me to ask, “Wait, didn’t he already have this honor?” Musburger was the host of CBS’s “The NFL Today,” the groundbreaking pregame and highlights show, from 1975 to 1990. He went on to do other sports, including a long stint calling college football for ABC/ESPN. He then was the radio play-by-play voice of the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders from 2019 to 2021. Musburger will be honored at the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement in Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 1.
* As I mentioned last week, Pat McAfee — whose show appears on ESPN — amplified an unconfirmed sexual rumor about a female college student, who is threatening to sue McAfee. At a live event Wednesday night, McAfee appeared to address the situation. He talked about previously being sued by former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, and then seemed to talk about this other situation, saying, “I’m cool with Brett. Just like the current situation that is happening where I have a lot of people saying that I should be sued. I want to say this, I never ever want to be a part of anything negative in anybody’s life. I didn’t want to add any more negativity as it was taking place … we will try to figure that out and make some sort of silver lining in a very terrible situation. So, you can have that promise from me. It won’t be as impossible to be a fan of mine going forward.”
* Writing for Awful Announcing, Daniel Kaplan with “Bluesky says ‘sports is a top priority’ amidst massive growth spurt.” ([link removed])


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