THE STATE OF AFFAIRS: President Trump imposed steep tariffs just after midnight on goods imported from China, Canada, and Mexico. China and Canada retaliated immediately.

    Trump has triggered a trade war with the country’s biggest trading partners claiming it’s to pressure them to stop the flowing of addictive drugs and migrants into the US. Stocks fell sharply yesterday in anticipation of the effects. European markets fell today. Hard hit were auto companies.

  The President said tariffs are “a very powerful weapon that politicians haven’t used because they were either dishonest, stupid, or paid off in some other form.”

  Famed investor Warren Buffett called tariffs “an act of war” and that the cost is just passed along to customers. “I mean, the tooth fairy doesn’t pay them,” he said.

  Trump’s tariffs are 25 percent on goods coming from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10 percent on imports from China. In response, China announced 15 percent tariffs on a long list of food goods and Canada imposed 25 percent tariffs on $30 billion worth of goods. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that the tariffs would extend to $125 billion worth of American goods in 21 days.

  President Trump speaks to Congress tonight and promised on his Truth Social feed that his speech “WILL BE BIG” and “I WILL TELL IT LIKE IT IS!”

  In the meantime he has also conducte foreign and domestic affairs via Truth Social. Following the statement by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky that a deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia “is still very, very far away,” Trump tapped out that, “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” and that, “It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing …”

  Following the disaster of last week’s meeting in the Oval Office, some politicians in the Trump circle have called for Zelensky to resign. Funny, they don’t say that about Vladimir Putin. Still, Zelensky is keeping it on the upbeat, saying, “I think our relationship (with the U.S.) will continue, because it’s more than an occasional relationship.” 

  On domestic matters, Trump weighed in on the growing  phenomenon of Republicans voters showing up at party meetings objecting to how the administration is tearing apart the federal government. Trump wrote that, “Paid ‘troublemakers’ are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings. It is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it’s not going to work for them!”

NAME DROPPNG: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has changed the name of a second military base back to the name of a Confederate General. Fort Benning in Georgia, first named after rebel Gen. Henry Benning, was changed to Ft. Moore in  2023 and now it’s Fort Benning again.

  Hegseth considers getting rid of the Confederate names to be part of “woke” culture, but current law does not allow naming bases after Confederates. So Hegseth has dug into the military archives and says Fort Benning is  “in honor of Corporal (CPL) Fred G. Benning, who served with extraordinary heroism during World War I with the United States Army.” 

  The defense secretary previously brought back the name Fort Bragg in North Carolina, originally named after Confederate General Braxton Bragg, but claims it is now in honor of Roland Bragg, a soldier from World War II.

THE SPORTING NEWS: You know the old joke: “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.” Now, the first punches have been thrown in the history of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Boston’s Jill Saunier duked it out with Ottawa’s Tereza Vanišová.

  Saunier said that after a few moments of tussling and two crosschecks, “I felt like the warranted next move was a hard right.” You could tell they were inexperienced … they didn’t drop their gloves.

THE OBIT PAGE: Laura Sessions Stepp, a Pulitzer-winning journalist who delved into teenage sex and “hookup” culture in schools and college campuses writing about  how adolescent girls and young women think about relationships, died last month in Springfield, Virginia. She was 73. Her husband, Carl Sessions Stepp, said the cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease.

  Sessions Stepp researched articles for the Washington Post and her 2007 book, “Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both” by going to parties, hanging out in dormitories and tagging along on trips to the mall. She shocked her readers writing about such things as oral sex in middle school, buddy sex, sexual scorecards, and sex considered separate from love among young people.

  She wrote, “I hope to encourage girls to think hard,” about “whether their sexual and romantic experiences are contributing to — or destroying — their sense of self-worth and strength.”

THE SPIN RACK: Israel once again blocked humanitarian aid and commercial goods going into Gaza to pressure Hamas militants to agree for a ceasefire extension. Israel claims there’s. enough aid good already in Gaza to last several months. — Pope Francis in a Rome hospital had two incidents of respiratory crisis yesterday. — A 40-year-old German man was detained after driving into a  lunch-hour crowd in the western city of Mannheim, killing an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man. Eleven others were injured, five seriously. —  Twenty-four-year-old Robert Crimo III pleaded guilty yesterday to the July 4^th, 2022 mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, in which  seven people were killed. He faces life in prison. 

BELOW THE FOLD:  Model and famous for no reason Julia Fox won the “Naked Dress” award at the Oscars Sunday night for her sheer outfit that had hair draped in strategic areas for a hint of modesty. The all time winner though is Bianca Censori, wife of rapper Kanye West, who shed her coat at the Grammys to be photographed in a rumor of a dress. 

-30-