Today in Politics, Bulletin 121. 4/29/25

… A bizarre scene unfolded with Karoline Leavitt and Scott Bessent at the WH this morning when Leavitt was asked about a report in Punchbowl that Amazon was going to start showing the tariff amount on each item for sale on its website. Leavitt had a printout of the story in her hand when she entered the briefing, and angrily denounced Amazon: “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.”

… A short time later, Amazon issued a statement that the story was fake news: “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered listing import charges on certain products. This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”

… Amazon is a major sponsor of Punchbowl.

… So what happened here is either Jeff Bezos got an angry call from Trump with a lot of threats and backed down, or Punchbowl sponsored by Amazon got a major story wrong about Amazon.

… Later in the day, we got the answer. Trump got Bezos to back down: “Confirming reports - source familiar tells FOX that President Trump called Jeff Bezos this morning to complain about plans to display tariff impact on Amazon product prices.”

… Trump was asked about his phone call to Bezos: “He was terrific. He solved the problem very quickly."

… Fox host Dana Perino was in a bit of a panic after the press conference, before Amazon reversed course: "I thought one of the strongest takeaways was Amazon making a business decision that it was going to be transparent and show the cost of the tariff as an increase to any of the prices that are going up on its site. This 100 days is most important on the economy."

… Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was asked on CNBC why Leavitt would say that a company raising prices because of Trump’s tariffs was a hostile act: “I think it’s a hostile act if you go out of your way to try to make it seem like your price has changed when it's nonsense. A 10% tariff is not going to change virtually any price.”

… Lutnick also said that the tariffs are going to create new plants in the US where generations of families will work for life: "It's time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future. This is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here. We let the auto plants go overseas."

… CBS reported that UPS announced that it plans to reduce its workforce by 20,000 employees and close 73 facilities. The reduction of 20,000 employees represents 4% of the company's workforce. Amazon is UPS' largest partner.

… Liberal Party candidate Mark Carney won the PM election in Canada despite the fact that they trailed by 25 points in the polls when Trump took office. But Trump’s policies and rhetoric dramatically turned the tide for Carney against Trump-aligned conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. It was so bad that Poilievre even lost his seat in Parliament.

… A senior citizen Canadian voter was asked by CNN outside the polls who she voted for: “I think who I voted for would be the best to take care of Trump, because Trump is, I’m sorry to say, an asshole.”

… Canadian MP Charlie Angus to MeidasTouch: “Well, Donald Trump, I’m going to say this once—and I might never say it again—I want to thank you. I want to thank you for bringing Canada together. It took a malignant narcissistic slug like you to make us put aside all our differences—all our regional fights, all our concerns with one another—and realize we actually had to stand up for something better: standing up for the rule of law, for democracy, for decency.”

… Angus: “We know we’re on your border, and it freaks you out—because you and your incel gang are terrified of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Your DEI nightmare? Well, we are your DEI nightmare, Donald. Canada will always be a country of diversity. We will always be a country of equity. We will always be a country of inclusion. And we will defend the rule of law.”

… Carney’s victory speech: “Our old relationship with the US, our relationship based on steadily increasing integration is over. These are tragedies but it's also our new reality. We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons. We have to look out for ourselves and above all, we have to take care of each other.”

… “When I sit down with President Trump, it will be to discuss the future economic and security relationship between two sovereign nations and it will be with our full knowledge that we have many, many other options than the US. We will strengthen our relationship with reliable partners in Europe and Asia and elsewhere in the world and if the US doesn't want to play a pivotal in the world economy, we will lead, not the Americans.”

… Ivo Daalder, President of Council on Global Affairs, to Politico: “Because the guard rails were gone, because there was no one to guide him or steer him in the way that was in the first term, he came out of the blocks acting upon the perspective that he’s had about the world for the last 40 years. He went out and implemented it. In the process, he’s destroyed the most important commodity the US has had for the last 80 years, which is trust. Allies thought our values and interests mostly coincided and all of that’s gone.”

… Pete Hegseth posted on X: “This morning, I proudly ENDED the ‘Women, Peace & Security’ (WPS) program inside DOD. WPS is yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING. WPS is a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it. GOOD RIDDANCE WPS!”

… The Women, Peace and Security Act was signed into law by President Trump in 2017. Its sponsor in the Senate was Marco Rubio. Its sponsor in the House was Kristi Noem.

… Former Marine F-18 pilot Amy McGrath to Hegseth: “You are lying again. WPS was enacted by Trump during his first admin. It’s not divisive. It’s a small program for DOD but one based on real data, so it doesn’t fit your caveman style understanding of security. Troops don’t hate it. Most don’t even know it exists.”

… Trump had a big rally planned for quite a while in Michigan today to celebrate the Greatest First 100 Days Ever!, but public opinion has him as the lowest rated president after 100 days in nearly 80 years. So, in his final posts of the day last night at 11:43 PM, he posted this: “The Polls from the Fake News are, like the News itself, FAKE! We are doing GREAT, better than ever before.”

… Literally every single poll from every reputable polling outfit has pretty much the same results - 39-41% approval. Including Fox.

… Harry Enten on CNN: “For presidents 100 days into a presidency, Trump has the worst ever: a). Economic approval rating. b). Foreign affairs approval rating. c). Arguably the worst overall approval rating. If Trump's approval rating holds for 2026, the GOP can kiss the House and possibly Senate goodbye.”

… Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA): "In terms of the president's first 100 days, it's hard to find the honey in the rock and the water in the stone in 100 days. But having said that, I think President Trump has done some things right."

… Quite a ringing endorsement.

… GOP consultant Karl Rove on Trump’s first 100 days: “Well, he’s off to a good start only on one issue, and that is border security, where his approval rating is 11 points ahead of his overall approval rating. He gets reasonably good marks on immigration and handling of deportations, but even those he’s upside down on. But when it gets to the economy, he is in very bad shape.”

… Rove: “There’s some very deep-seated skepticism among ordinary Americans about the effect of the economy, the president’s economic policies, both in the short run and the long run. They just hoped that he would do better on inflation and jobs and economic growth. And then when he came in, just the sort of chaos and the inability of the admin to explain what they’re doing, I think has hurt them very much.”

… CNN: “Consumer confidence sank 7.9 points in April to a reading of 86, the Conference Board said in its latest survey released Tuesday. That’s the lowest level since May 2020 and a larger decline than economists had projected. The survey’s Expectations Index, which captures people’s outlook on the economy, plummeted 12.5 points this month to 54.4, the lowest level in 13 years.”

… Goldman Sachs is now projecting that the US will have the lowest economic growth and the highest inflation rate of any developed economy in 2025.

… Meanwhile, Transport Sec Sean Duffy and host Ainsley Earhardt were glazing Trump hard this morning on Fox, knowing he was likely watching: "The joy of this is to work with President Trump. To see how hard he works, the vision he has, how fearless he is. It gives us a lot of grace."

… Earhardt: "He is so good at communicating. It's such a gift. He knows about every sport. He knows about trade. He knows about the border. He's so equipped for this job, and I think he's having more fun this go round - he is gifted."

… Speaking of glazing, Glazemaster Supreme Lindsey Graham weighed in on Trump talking about wanting to be Pope/President: “I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope. This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility! The first Pope-US President combination has many upsides.”

… Trump’s propaganda network had Policy Director Stephen Miller on to discuss some of the greatest accomplishments of the first 100 days of the Trump admin:

Reminder that there is no Bulletin tomorrow because I do my podcast Uncovered, where we do a deep dive into the Top 10 stories of the week. I will post a link here tomorrow. Next Bulletin out on Thursday night. If you missed yesterday’s Bulletin, you can find it here.

… CBS’s Scott Macfarlane: “Big loss in court for Kari Lake. Judge Royce Lamberth orders administration to restore millions of dollars in funds to Radio Free Europe Judge: "When money has been appropriated by Congress, executive has no residual constitutional power to refuse to spend these appropriations"

… Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was asked on CNN how Trump could claim that he’s made 200 trade deals already when the WH hasn’t announced a single one yet: “Well, there is all kinds of countries that are showing up at the doorstep.”

… Q - Why do you think Trump is getting bad numbers on the economy? Burgum: