The Friday Brief
March 14, 2025
Inside: Trump Is Bad At This Job. Chuck Schumer Caves on the CR. Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Elon. They Will Be Made To Care. The Town Hall Play. Champagne Tariffs (the horror). An AI That Can Say No. Substack Finds. Ads and Podcasts of the Week. Home Front.
The Big Picture
Trump Is Bad At This Job
Perhaps noting that Donald Trump isn’t actually good at being president seems redundant at this late stage.
Maybe it is. Maybe it feels like a superfluous reminder when you’re already reeling from the consequences of his economic incompetence this week over the ashes of your 401k.
But here we are, not by accident, but thanks to a 70-million plus American who decided to roll the dice on King Donald The Insufferable a second time.
Foolish? Absolutely. Reckless? Beyond question.
But none of it should shock you. Trump’s always been terrible at this work—and yes, being president is actually work. That tired cliché about it being the hardest job in the world is true, and it’s crushed far, far better men than him.
What Trump does well is chaos. He excels at oath-breaking, lying, and a performative self-aggrandizement in ways that, to borrow a phrase from the Trump-watching crowd, “no one’s ever seen before.”
