Beyond Trump’s trade deals, consolation for the little guy and other commentary

Business desk: Beyond Trump’s Trade Deals

“Dealmaker-In-Chief” Donald Trump has been “positively monomaniacal” about trade lately, marvels Freddy Gray at The Spectator.

His “real coup” is the “new framework arrangement with the European Union,” which is “not simply a major breakthrough in and of itself,” but also “a useful piece of leverage in the even bigger tariff struggle with China” — because it pulls “Europe more towards a western trading orbit and less towards the east.”

Trump then slammed India for “buying up Russian oil and gas,” and pivoted sharply by praising a new deal with Pakistan, “including an arrangement to invest in Pakistani oil.”

Meanwhile, his enthusiasm for Pakistan — “an extension of China’s empire” — may be part of a plan to “ring loud alarm bells” in Beijing.

From the right: Consolation for the Little Guy

“For all the political criticism they take, the federal courts keep delivering good outcomes more often than not,” cheers The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board.

In 2016, the Labor Department “imposed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines” on a fourth-generation farm, Sun Valley Orchards — first requesting penalties and then approving them itself, thus “serving as prosecutor, judge and jury.”

But an appeals court just ruled the proceedings “should properly be enforced in federal court” — the proper venues for federal agencies to impose fines.

Sun Valley has since gone out of business,” but at least its owners “have the consolation of a ruling that will vindicate the rights of other farmers and small businesses under the boot heel of the bureaucracy.”

Libertarian: Get Honest About Gov’t Spending

“What kind of government do Americans want seriously enough to pay for?” asks Veronique de Rugy at Reason.

“I suspect that most people aren’t willing to pay the taxes required to fund everything our current government does.”

Yet “all the benefits and subsidies that we’re unwilling to pay for” but keep going “will eventually have to be paid for in the future with higher taxes, inflation, or both” by our children and grandchildren.

“Growing the economy” can be “part of the solution,” but it won’t be enough, and “raising taxes on the rich will fall short too,” since higher tax rates “do not automatically translate to more tax revenue.”

“It’s long past time” we “ask what level of spending we truly want with the money we truly have.”

Liberal: Hey, Dems — End the #Resistance

“Nonstop Democratic fulminations in Trump’s second term have been notably unsuccessful in resuscitating the party’s toxic brand,” sighs the Liberal Patriot’s Ruy Teixeira.

Tellingly, “voters, despite their negative views of Trump’s performance on key issues, still prefer Republicans to Democrats.”

Also, “voters neither like nor trust” Dems, and thus don’t see them as “an obvious choice over their opponents.”

Yet “many Democratic politicians persist in reading — loudly — from the #Resistance script.”

Why? The “#Resistance trope is what advantages individual Democratic politicians within the party because it generates adulation from activists, media coverage, and gushers of donations.”

And taking back the House in 2026 will only “convince #Resistance aficionados that nothing really needs to change.” Hello, President JD Vance.

Health beat: Big Pharma Wins, Patients Lose

“In May, Dr. Vinay Prasad joined the Food & Drug Administration as the top regulator for vaccines,” yet he “apparently knew the games too well,” gripes Alex Berensen at his Substack: After last week’s attacks from Trump’s allies, Prasad resigned: “He was targeted because he posed a direct threat to Big Pharma profits.”

Just last month, he told Sarepta Therapeutics “it needed to halt shipments of its gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD.”

“Sarepta has never shown its drugs actually benefit patients.”

The company won the right to a drug trial in 2016; “nine years later, Sarepta still hasn’t completed those trials.”

Yet “that hasn’t stopped it from selling the drug — for up to $1.5 million per year.”

“Big Pharma scalped Prasad for his honesty.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board