Fred Kaplan on why Trump's Iran speech was full of lies and fraught with danger. I have yet to see anyone, even the loyalest Trump defender, explain in any real detail why his position is wise. Those who try at all — and most don't — say things like it's bold or decisive. But bold and decisive are not always right. I could make boneheaded decisions in bold and decisive ways.
As Jonathan Chait notes, Trump's newest Obamacare move is pure sabotage. But as Jeremy Stahl reports, polls indicate that voters are hip to this strategy and will hold Trump — not the institution of Obamacare and not the Democrats who gave it to us — responsible.
Sarah Kliff goes into greater detail as to why Trump's actions will make health care worse and more expensive in this country. You get the feeling this kind of mad-man destruction worked to Trump's advantage once in a real estate deal and he's sure it will work in this situation?
Andrew Sullivan makes a key point; that Trump is not trying to enact policies that realistic conservative leaders would ever offer. Here's one paragraph…
These are not conservative reforms, thought-through, possible to implement, strategically planned. They are the unhinged fantasies of a 71-year-old Fox News viewer imagining he can reconstruct the late 1950s. They cannot actually be implemented, without huge damage. And so he resorts to executive sabotage — creating loopholes in the enforcement of Obamacare to undermine the entire system. Or he throws a temper tantrum because Obama's Iran Deal is actually working as promised, and attempting to undermine that as well. At this point, the agenda is so deranged and destructive almost every sane senior member of his cabinet is trying to rein it in.
Susan B. Glasser notes that Bob Corker isn't the only Republican who has problems with Donald Trump. The list is growing.
And as Paul Krugman notes, Puerto Rico doesn't have the only Americans who are suffering these days.