The Network State

As the world continues to digest Donald Trump's haphazard announcement of wide-ranging tariffs that threaten to upend the global economy, reshape capital markets, and decimate individual retirement accounts, one vulnerability is becoming clear: the MAGA coalition is not united, and contains exploitable fault lines.

Voices as diverse as Mike Pence and Elon Musk have expressed concerns about the tariffs, their scope, and their potential effects. Pundit Ben Shapiro said the tariffs were imposed “unilaterally” by Trump, and “probably unconstitutional.” Pence described them as “the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history,” and Musk criticized White House advisor Peter Navarro, the architect of the tariffs, saying “he ain't built shit.” This is hardly a united front, and creates opportunities for Democrats to identify and exploit differences between factions.

After years of vague hand-waving and generalized opposition to Joe Biden, it's clear there is no one actual single strategy being followed by Republicans. Partisans who imagined they were all on the same page are realizing they were suffering from a shared hallucination. As futures markets nervously await signals about what's coming next, here's some of what else we're tracking as this unfolds.