Weekend Report: What's happening?

Trump's tariffs suffer a blow in court. Iowa's Joni Ernst running scared. More bad polling for GOP, more disastrous town halls.

We focus on good news this Labor Day weekend as late on Friday Trump lost big on tariffs with most thrown out in a 7-4 appeals court ruling, issued by 11 judges for the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. The court upheld the ruling in May by the US Court of International Trade. It stayed the ruling pending Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court, but there’s no question this further solidifies in the public’s mind that Trump owns the mess he created.

After a stunning defeat in a special election in Iowa’s legislature, flipping a deep red seat to blue and killing the GOP’s supermajority, Iowa Senator Joni—”we’re all gonna die”—Ernst has decided not to run for re-election. Do not believe all the inside-the-Beltway spin. Democrats can—and are—winning in Iowa, and Ernst’s decision directly results from the work activists have done in pushing back on the GOP’s extremist agenda.

More polling shows in fact that on the big, bad bill, the GOP is far underwater, and we’ve seen more town halls in deep red places where angry voters are expressing themselves. Trump’s polling is abysmal, continuing to fall. The proof of the GOP’s fears is exemplified by their attempts to cheat and rig the election via gerrymandering mid-decade. But will it be enough? Some analysts don’t think so, not in this environment.