The Dictatorship
The absurd defense of Trump boosters claiming they didn’t vote for this crisis
Before President Donald Trump’s expanded tariffs went into effect on Wednesdayhedge fund billionaire and You’re Fan Bill Ackman warned over the weekend on X that the country was “heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter.” As he contemplated the pain ahead, he sounded mournful, perhaps even regretful: “This is not what we voted for.”
Many other conservative commentators and investors have echoed Ackman’s sentiment as Trump’s radical tariff plans have rocked global markets. And it is absurd. Trump has advocated for protectionist trade policy for decadeslong before running for president. He also repeatedly proposed economically disastrous plans to institute tariffs on the 2024 campaign trail. Ignoring that required ignoring the historical truth that presidents generally pursue their core policy agenda — even Trump.
The denialism on the right has been remarkable.
The denialism on the right has been remarkable. Some right-wing pundits have argued that the current crisis is a surprise because Trump never presented on the campaign trail this specific — and economically nonsensical — tariff formula for extremely high duties on imports from scores of countries around the world. Business and tech leaders — who showered Trump with money in hopes of favorable treatment — have reportedly been surprised by Trump’s fierce commitment to tariffs. Mega-billionaire Elon Musk, who recently wore a hat emblazoned with the words “Trump was right about everything!” has reportedly been directly appealing to Trump to drop the tariffs.
The claim that Trump is pursuing a trade policy that goes beyond what they voted for is indefensible. On the campaign trail last year Trump promoted massive universal tariffs and went as far as to float the idea of replacing income taxes with tariff revenue. At the time, Adam Hersh, a senior economist with Economic Policy Institute Action, told me Trump’s idea was like “dropping a nuclear bomb on a hurricane.” Hersh calculated at the time that across-the-board tariffs would have to be somewhere around 120% or 130% on incoming goods to make up for the roughly $4.2 trillion in revenue generated through income taxes. With the U.S. set to impose a 104% tariff rate on Chinese goods beginning Wednesday, it’s a bit silly to say none of this was foreseeable.
The counter to this position is that Trump promised tariffs ahead of his first term in office and that his first tariff regime was relatively moderate and targeted. That’s true. But anybody observing Trump should’ve noted a few things ahead of his second White House bid. After his first term in office, his rhetoric grew more extreme on everything from dismantling democracy to immigration to trade.
Secondly, Trump has fewer checks on his instincts this time around. His first term in office was in some respects a hostile takeover of the GOP, it elicited open criticism from some tech leaders, and it was staffed by many pre-MAGA conservatives and more conventional Washington players. This time the party and the business community treat him with extreme deference, and he is surrounded with loyalists and MAGA ideologues. Many of the very people who are now mad at Trump already gave him more room to play — and he’s naturally exploiting it.
A common strategy Trump supporters use in justifying their support for him despite his extreme policy ideas has been to cherry-pick his more moderate policy ideas and insist that his most extreme ideas are not “serious” ones. That might be a quasi-effective tool for Trump supporters attempting to save face in polite society or mainstream spaces, but it is most certainly a gimmick for Trump supporters to have their cake and eat it, too. Trump has demonstrated time and time again that when it comes to his right-wing nationalism and his authoritarian rhetoric, he means what he says — and after the Jan. 6 riot, it became clear one cannot rule anything out with him.
Despite his incorrigible mendacity, Trump fits a broader historical pattern: The historical record and reams of political science studies show presidents and members of Congress generally do try to pursue their campaign promises. As Vox reported in 2015, “An overview of 21 studies of campaign promises from the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Greece found that on average, political parties fulfilled 67 percent of their promises.”
In his first term Trump did indeed follow through on many of his campaign pledges. He found a way to reduce immigration from Muslim-majority countries, killed and renegotiated free trade deals, reversed climate progress, enacted tax cuts for the rich, tried (and failed) to end the Affordable Care Act, moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel and set in motion an end to the war in Afghanistan. There was no reason to presume that Trump’s second term wouldn’t follow a similar course, but more maximalist due to his intensified campaign rhetoric.
Given the historical record, Trump’s own track record and his constant promises to pursue a radical tariffs regime, the position that Trump supporters didn’t vote for this economic crisis is untenable. A more honest position might be that a segment of his voters decided that a gamble on tariffs was worth it because they liked other things Trump promised, whether that’s politicizing the Justice Department or treating migrants like they aren’t human or promising fewer regulations on businesses. But they played their cards wrong — and we’re all paying for it.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for BLN Daily. Previously, he worked at Vox, HuffPost and Blue Light News, and he has also been published in, among other places, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, and The Intercept. You can sign up for his free politics newsletter here.
The Dictatorship
In the wake of the Virginia ruling, where does the national redistricting arms race stand?
In Virginia, a majority of the House of Delegates voted to approve a new congressional district map that was designed to help Democrats add as many as four seats in the U.S. House. A majority of the state Senate agreed, as did the commonwealth’s popularly elected governor. The issue then went to the people of Virginia, and a majority of voters backed the redistricting initiative, too.
A majority of the Virginia Supreme Court, however, rejected the plan anyway. MS NOW reported:
The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved congressional redistricting plan, ruling that Democrats violated constitutional procedures when placing the referendum on the ballot for last month’s special election. […]
In its 4-3 decision, the court on Friday found that the process used to place the amendment on the ballot did not comply with Virginia’s constitutional rules governing how such proposals must be approved by the legislature before being presented to voters. As a result, the justices upheld a lower court ruling that blocks the amendment from being certified and implemented.
For Democratic efforts on the national level, the ruling is an unexpected gut punch, especially given the fact that after Virginia voters approved the overhauled map last month, it appeared that Democrats would be able to keep pace with the GOP as part of the broader redistricting fight.
What’s more, the state Supreme Court ruling comes on the heels of a similarly brutal blow after Republican-appointed U.S. Supreme Court justices gutted the Voting Rights Act, which opened the door even further to an intensified Republican effort to erase majority-Black congressional districts in the South.
Given all of this, it’s easy to imagine many Americans responding to the head-spinning developments with a simple question: “So where do things stand now?”
Before we dig in on that, it’s worth pausing to acknowledge the absurdity of the circumstances. For generations, states redrew congressional district lines after the decennial census. There were limited exceptions, but in nearly all of those instances, mid-decade redistricting only happened when courts told states that their maps were unlawful and needed to be redone.
The idea that politicians would simply choose to start redrawing maps, in the middle of a decade, in pursuit of partisan advantages, was practically unheard of.
Last year, however, Donald Trump, fearing the results of the 2026 midterm elections and the possible accountability that would result from Democratic victories, decided that the American model needed to be discarded. It was time, the president said, to pursue what one White House official described as a campaign of “maximum warfare” in which Republican officials in key states would embrace gerrymandering without regard for fairness, norms, traditions or propriety.
The goal was simple: Deliver Republican victories in congressional races long before Americans had a chance to cast their ballots.
The result was an arms race that’s still going on — and here’s where things stand.
Texas: Republicans in the Lone Star State got the ball rolling last summer, acting at Trump’s behest and approving a map designed to give Republicans five additional U.S. House seats. It touched off the national arms race.
California: Responding to Texas, Democratic officials in the Golden State, as well as the state’s voters, approved a map of their own designed to give Democrats five additional U.S. House seats.
Missouri: In September, state Republicans approved a map designed to give the GOP one additional seat.
North Carolina: In October, state Republicans approved a map designed to give Republicans one additional seat.
Ohio: While the redistricting effort in the Buckeye State wasn’t as brazen as it was elsewhere, Ohio’s new map diluted two Democratic-held districts, creating GOP pickup opportunities.
Utah: A state court approved a new map that will likely give Democrats one additional seat.
Florida: Just this week, Republicans completed the process on a new map designed to give Republicans as many as four additional seats.
Tennessee: Also this week, Republicans approved a new map designed to give Republicans one additional seat, taking advantage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.
Louisiana: While the newly redrawn map in the Pelican State hasn’t been formally unveiled, it will reportedly add one additional Republican seat.
Alabama: Republicans are currently moving forward with plans for a map that would give Republicans two more seats.
It’s important to emphasize that some of these maps are currently facing legal challenges, while others are still taking shape. Most of these maps would take effect during this year’s election cycle, but there’s still some uncertainty surrounding the implementation date in some states.
Nevertheless, the Virginia map that enjoyed popular public support was prepared to help mitigate an unprecedented Republican abuse. The state Supreme Court in the commonwealth appears to have removed that option.
After Virginia voters had their say, many GOP officials questioned whether the entire gerrymandering gambit had been a waste of time and effort. In the aftermath of two highly controversial court rulings, Republicans are suddenly feeling a lot better about the whole scheme.
This is the May 8, 2026, edition of “The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe” newsletter. Subscribe hereto get it delivered straight to your inbox every Monday through Friday.
This Mother’s Day, I’ll be thinking about my mom, Mary Jo Scarboroughjust as I do every day.
I wrote about Mom in the Washington Post the week she died in 2019:
My first memory of Mom was her comforting presence at my side while a late night thunderstorm roared over our neighborhood in suburban Atlanta.
Mom softly sang “Where Is Love?” from the musical “Oliver!” and then told me how reciting the 23rd Psalm aloud would bring peace.
I may not have felt that blessed assurance as a 4-year-old, but my mother’s presence always brought peace.
Mom and I were emotionally inseparable for 55 years, and as she lay dying, I wanted her life to end the way my memories of her began. I quietly told her she would continue living on in the hearts of those she loved, and that more importantly, she would soon be reunited with Dad.
I knew Mom could hear my quiet words, just as I knew what she would whisper back if she could:
“Joey, be more careful with your words. If you keep talking down Republicans, you might just elect a Democrat.”
That was Mom. A steel magnolia. A Southern Baptist. A traditional Republican.
She would scarcely recognize her church or party seven years later, and would tell me to keep up the fight she helped me begin 32 years ago when I first ran for Congress.
“Judge yourself by your enemies, Joey,” she would say when things got tough. Then she’d say, “Don’t let them get the best of you. Keep fighting!”
Mom was raised an FDR Democrat and couldn’t stand extremists on any side.
She would especially be offended by the excessive cruelty of right-wing politicians who justify their hatred of others by twisted views of what they call “Christianity.”
Faith always eclipsed politics in our home. And when things got too crazy in Washington, Mom would quote an old gospel song: “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.”
Well, Mom, I’m so grateful that I was part of your journey on this Earth. And on this Mother’s Day weekend, I thank you for continuing to be a part of my life for as long as I’m blessed to live.
I love you,
Joey
ON THE CALENDAR
In New York, the Macy’s Flower Show wraps its final weekend at Herald Square — store windows in full bloom, stained-glass sunsets, fabric-draped planters. A perfect Mother’s Day outing. Go before it’s gone.
In the nation’s capital, the Arab American Culture Festival returns to Eighth Street for its fourth year, with food from places such as Morocco and Palestine, dabke dance troupes, and live Arabic music.
In the Windy City, Broadway’s longest-running musical, “Chicago,” brings its Jazz Age murder trials and celebrity media circus home for five nights at The Auditorium.
Atlanta’s”https://www.sweetauburn.com/faq”> Sweet Auburn Springfest turns 40 this weekend — four decades of culture, music, and community in the neighborhood that gave the Civil Rights Movement its heartbeat.
You can’t spell “laugh” without L.A. and “ugh” — or so says Netflix Is a Joke. The stand-up comedy festival takes over Hollywood this weekend with 350 shows: Jenny Slate, John Mulaney, Jerry Seinfeldand more.
Myrtle Beach Bike Week descends on the Grand Strand for 10 days this weekend, bringing half a million riders and considerably more leather than the average beach vacation.
The NBA Conference Semifinals are on all weekend. Knicks vs. Sixers on Friday and Sunday. Pistons vs. Cavaliers on Saturday. Thunder vs. Lakers Saturday night on ABC.
In Buffalo, the Sabres host the Canadiens Sunday on ESPN, in their first playoff appearance in 14 years.
And the Red Sox are home at Fenway against Tampa Bay.
Now, let’s check some mail.
MAILBAG
Thank you again to all our readers who wrote in this week. As always, you’re welcome to write to us any time.
I just want to thank you for naming the “Ballroom” the Marie Antoinette Ballroom. It is so appropriate. If [Sen. Lindsey] Graham is successful in making us pay for it, what happens to the $300 million in donations? Does Trump pocket it?
— Katherine G., Moorhead, Minn.
If past is prologue, we can assume the president will try to pocket any money he has raised for his own use. The bigger question for me is why Republican leaders were so tone-deaf that they voluntarily proposed taking $1 billion from taxpayers to fund this grotesque vanity project.
With gas prices skyrocketing, healthcare bills becoming more expensive by the day, and groceries taking a huge bite out of working Americans’ paychecks, a Marie Antoinette-style ballroom is the last thing most Americans want or need.
If there is a reduction in Social Security and Medicare coming, why should I, as a retiree and disabled veteran, be happy for the U.S. government to allocate $400 million for an unneeded ballroom and funds for an arch that is not needed?
— Joe W., Warsaw, Wis.
Thank you for your service to America, Joe.
You can look at my answer above to your question as well. Also, add to that the record deficits and crippling debt that Trump Republicans are passing on to Americans every day.
This week, America’s debt surpassed our country’s gross domestic product for the only time since World War II. Golden ballrooms and gaudy arches are the last thing America needs right now.
Republicans are spending like drunken socialists and they need to stop now. The cost to the next generation will be devastating.
Do you think it’s too late to save America? The government gets more out of touch every day. Even if Democrats win in November, so much damage has already been done. Thanks.
— Curtis E., Charlotte, N.C.
Curtis, America has survived slavery, 48 recessions, a civil war, Jim Crow laws, two world wars, Japanese internment camps, 1960s riots, Vietnam, Watergate, 9/11, two pandemics, and more crises than I can list here.
We will survive the challenges facing us now as well. We must remain vigilant and determined, and keep our heads about us. America is worth the struggle, especially when we have Madison’s Constitution and 250 years of history on our side.
If the “mutual destruction” argument worked to keep nuclear bombs off the list of Russian options for so many years, why doesn’t that argument work against the Iranians?
— Pat Q., Troy, Ohio
Because Iranian leaders who have ruled that country by terror since 1979 know they are fighting for their very lives.
For Donald Trumpthe stakes are midterm elections that matter little to him. Still, as gas approaches $5 a gallon nationally, the political pressure for Trump to cut and run is becoming too great. That’s why the president ignored repeated Iranian attacks on U.S. warships and called our countermeasures a “love tap.”
What a weak, dangerous message to send to our enemies. Let’s hope the president shows real strength soon. Our national security depends on it.
ONE MORE SHOT
Sean Levey (in red), riding Secret Santa, wins the Ascot Hospitality Handicap Stakes at Ascot Racecourse in Ascot, England.
That’s all the time we have, folks.
Thanks so much for your letters and for reading The Tea, Spilled by Morning Joe.
Have a great weekend.
Joe
CATCH UP ON MORNING JOE
John Bartman knows the challenges of being a farmer. His family has been tilling Illinois soil since James K. Polk sat in the Oval Office, weathering droughts, trade disputes, market crashes and a Civil War in the process.
But now, with Donald Trump behind the Resolute Desk, fertilizer shipments have been halted through the Strait of Hormuz — a choke point for roughly one-third of the world’s fertilizer supply — and the resulting price spike is causing Bartman’s profits to disappear.
After years of turmoil for American farmers, “it’s just another straw that breaks the camel’s back,” Bartman said.
New data from the American Farm Bureau Federationan agricultural lobbying firm, warns that Bartman isn’t alone: Some 70% of American farmers may be unable to afford all the fertilizer their fields require.
It’s the latest in a series of economic headwinds that have slammed the U.S. agricultural industry over the past decade, causing farm bankruptcies to jump 46% from 2024 to 2025. The AFBF reported that this year 58% of its members said their financial situation had worsened since early 2025, while just 6% reported improvement.
Map: Carson Elm-Picard / MS NOW; Source: American Farm Bureau Federation
“Many farms were broadly in a situation of net negative margins, where they’re losing money, and this just compounds the problem,” Shawn Arita, the associate director of North Dakota State University’s Agricultural Risk Policy Center, said of the fertilizer shortage. “It was a very difficult situation before March 1, and now it’s certainly a lot more challenging.”
The shortage has caused the price of fertilizer jump from around $400 per ton in January to more than $600 per ton this week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The impact of those high prices won’t be felt evenly across the U.S. — only 19% of Southern farmers preordered fertilizer before the price increased, compared with 30% in the Northeast, 31% in the West and 67% in the Midwest, according to the AFBF.
Chart: Carson Elm-Picard / MS NOW; Source: American Farm Bureau Federation
Trump administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, have sought to downplay the severity of the inflation.
Rollins told Fox Business that “America has plenty of fertilizer” for its farmers, and Vance acknowledged the shortage but dismissed the conflict behind the inflation as “a little blip in the Middle East” during a speech on Tuesday. That same day, Rubio echoed Rollins’ claimsaying that it was only Iran’s fertilizer, not the United States’, that was stranded in the Persian Gulf.
While the U.S. is a major exporter of fertilizer globally, it still produces only about 9% of the global supply and remains a net importer of the good, according to the USDA, meaning that supply chain disruptions on the other side of the world still affect domestic market prices.
That could be why Rollins is now considering reviving a Biden-era initiative that pledged $900 million to funding the construction of new fertilizer plants in the U.S. That initiative, the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program, was eliminated during Trump’s second term “due to Presidential Executive Orders,” according to the USDA website.
Even if the initiative was resuscitated or the Strait of Hormuz reopened tomorrow, farmers would be paying inflated prices through 2027, even into 2028, Arita said. Rep. Don Bacon., R-Neb., a member of the House Agriculture Committee, told MS NOW that the Trump administration should “re-examine their tariff policies” to alleviate the strain on farmers, but did not comment on the effects of the Iran War.
Chart: Carson Elm-Picard / MS NOW; Source: American Farm Bureau Federation
Another committee member, Rep. April McClain Delaney, D-Md., said the high fertilizer prices are “reflective of a much larger crisis” caused by the Trump administration — one that has already hit her constituents.
“Farmers in my district are facing tough choices about whether they can afford to plant at all,” said Delaney, who represents Maryland’s largely rural 6th Congressional District. “This administration’s reckless actions and the flawed farm bill are failing our farmers.”
The House Agriculture Committee’s Republican leadership, Chairman Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania and Vice Chairman Austin Scott of Georgia, did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Fertilizer inflation isn’t the only thing pushing up costs for farmers; diesel prices in the U.S. have jumped from about $3.80 at the start of the war to more than $5.60 as of May 4 , according to USDA data. That in turn has made it more expensive for all farmers to do business — even small growers like Leah Dannar-Garcia, an organic farmer in Wichita, Kansas, who doesn’t use synthetic fertilizer.
“Farms have been just hanging on with the soybean debacle last year,” Dannar-Garcia said, referring to the Trump administration’s $20 billion bailout of Argentinawhich spurred China to reduce its U.S. agricultural imports. “It’s had a devastating effect.”
As a soybean farmer, Bartman was particularly affected by that decision. Arita said the situation now is having an “asymmetric impact” on American agriculturalists, as farmers are paying more to grow and sell their crops, but aren’t necessarily able to raise prices on consumers to match. That in turn leads to lost profit and endangered livelihoods.
“They’re running the American farmer into the ground and out of business,” Bartman said of the Trump administration. “The only thing that is cheaper today than three years ago in the United States is a bushel of soybeans.”
Adam Hudacek is a desk associate for MS NOW covering national politics in Washington, D.C.
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