Trump today announced 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum, which appear to be in effect already due to poorly written news stories. It appears, though, that these will take effect on Monday if Trump does not change his mind, as he did with Mexico and Canada, tariffs which were admittedly only postponed.
In an unusual move, the union representing workers at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which among other things protects people who take out car loans, have filed a lawsuit demanding that work at the agency be resumed. The agency was set up by, and by law is controlled by, Congress rather than the executive branch, which has shut it down.
Also today, his vice president, J.D. Vance, claimed that any federal judge blocking Trump’s actions was doing so illegally. This includes the efforts by 18-22 year old unvetted youths, who work directly for Elon Musk, moving data from the Treasury, OPM (federal Human Resources), GSA, and Department of Education onto their own computers and rewriting the software used by the government to pay bills. According to reports from tech magazines including Wired, Musk has fed individual student data into uncontrolled AI systems, in violation of FERPA, and has been shutting down federal web sites. Judges have issued orders blocking these actions, but it appears that the White House does not believe the judiciary has any control over the president or anyone theoretically authorized by the president. Guards turned away USAID staff people who showed up for work though a court order theoretically reopened the agency, whose funding was already approved by Congress.
Finally, Trump said he was serious about Canada becoming a state (though it is exceedingly large) during the Super Bowl pre-show, which may lead Canadians to boycott American cars, including Stellantis vehicles, as they have been boycotting other American-made products in recent weeks since Trump started venting on the subject.
David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest, most comprehensive Mopar site in 1994 as he pursued a career in organizational research and change. After a chemo-induced break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales.
David Zatz has around 30 years of experience in covering Chrysler/Mopar news and history, and most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the Chrysler marque.
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