On Monday, The New York Times uncovered the first clear evidence that top Trump campaign officials knowingly colluded with an agent of the Russian government to defeat Hillary Clinton. The Times reported that Donald Trump Jr., aware of the Russian effort to aid his father’s campaign, arranged a meeting in which Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya promised to dish dirt on Clinton. Donald Trump’s presidency has never been so imperiled. How will he react?
Watch his decision on steel.
Any day now, the Trump administration is due to announce the result of a Commerce Department investigation into whether steel imports threaten national security. If the answer is yes, the White House may impose a tariff of as much as 20 percent on foreign steel. European Union officials say they will respond by taking the U.S. to the World Trade Organization, which would likely authorize the EU to retaliate. Thus, The New York Times predicts, the tariff “could very well provoke a global trade war.” The Times even speculates that if the WTO rules against it, the Trump administration might pull the U.S. out of the organization, thus destabilizing the economic architecture of the post-war world.