In a country where social services are not an optional luxury but the scaffolding that keeps people from falling, who pays is not a trivia question.
It’s the whole story.
President Donald Trump’s latest pitch—eliminating the U.S. income tax and paying for it with what he calls “massive” tariff revenue—sounds simple enough for a MAGA rally or a social-media clip. But when you do the basic arithmetic, the idea stops being a plan and starts being a political performance.
By Sarah Fitzpatrick
Michael M. Santiago / Getty April 17, 2026
On Friday, April 10, as FBI Director Kash Patel was preparing to leave work for the weekend, he struggled to log into an internal computer system. He quickly became convinced that he had been locked out, and he panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House, according to nine people familiar with his outreach. Two of these people described his behavior as a “freak-out.”
By Yiannis Damellos
Trump turns toxic - and electorally dangerous- even for Marine Le Pen and her fascist MAGA cadres
Donald Trump has always understood one thing about European populism: it’s supposed to be transactional. For years, MAGA promised Europe’s far-right movements legitimacy, attention, and a kind of “permission structure” to say what they wanted to say at home—more aggressive borders, more hostility toward Brussels, more contempt for liberal constraints. But the transaction is now breaking down. And the break isn’t happening because Europe’s far right suddenly discovered morality or diplomacy. It’s happening because Trump’s conduct has become electorally and reputationally dangerous—even for ideological allies who once benefited from proximity to Washington.
