Weekend Report: What's going on?

Trump is plummeting on immigration. MAGA is fracturing over Epstein. More tariff threats a distraction?

The numbers this week from Gallup were stunning. Donald Trump is not only plummeting on his signature issue of immigration; his brutality has appeared to have brought public support for immigration to a record high. Republicans in Congress have got to be anxious, as farms and factories continue to be raided, and Trump himself doesn’t want to lose Congress, fearing investigations.

The Trump administration’s claim there are no Jeffrey Epstein client lists and its refusal to release more information has caused outrage in MAGA world. Now Dan Bongino, who pushed the Epstein conspiracy theories for years, claiming a Biden cover up, apparently may resign as deputy FBI director unless Attorney General Pam Bondi is fired. FBI director Kash Patel may go too. But all the critics seem fearful of pointing to the fact that it is Trump who has the power to release the information and is refusing to do so.

The Epstein saga is something Trump is desperately trying to distract from. And this week we suddenly saw a threat of 50% tariffs on Brazil—which the U.S. has a trade surplus with, so there’s no trade imbalance—based on his anger at the prosecution of his fellow insurrectionist, Jair Bolsonaro and not on economic issues. Then came more tariffs on Canada, and today, tariffs on the EU and Mexico. These tariff threats eat up media attention, even though Trump Always Chickens Out—TACO.