The Week's Saturday Wrap
Trump’s short trade war, TikTok’s ultimatum, and the FBI’s revenge agent

 
controversy of the week

Tariffs: Does Trump know what he’s doing?

And so ends, for now, “the dumbest trade war in history,” said The Wall Street Journal in an editorial. Just 48 hours after announcing a plan to slap 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, “those notorious American adversaries,” President Trump this week declared the levies had been paused for 30 days. Why the change of heart? A cynic might point to the panicked sell-off of U.S. stocks in the hours before the tariffs were due to take effect. But Trump “claimed victory, as he always does,” and insisted his threats had persuaded Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to deploy 10,000 troops to the U.S. border to combat drug trafficking, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to appoint a “fentanyl czar” and strengthen border security. This was not a win for “the art of the deal,” said Fred Kaplan in Slate. The flow of fentanyl from Canada is minuscule—a mere 2 pounds of the drug was seized at the border in 2023—and the country’s $1 billion border plan was first announced in December. Mexico, meanwhile, periodically agrees to send troops to the border, 10,000 of them as recently as 2021. Yes, Trump’s new 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports appears to be holding. But his caving on the Mexico-Canada tariffs has left Trump and America “looking weaker.” 

When you understand that different tariffs have different purposes, Trump’s behavior “is not nearly as strange as it seems,” said Oren Cass in his Substack newsletter. The new 10 percent levy on China is a conventional “decoupling tariff,” part of a long-term effort to boost American manufacturing. The threatened tariffs against Canada and Mexico, by contrast, are “negotiating tariffs.” These can be very effective at extracting quick policy concessions at no economic cost—as we saw last week when the threat of a 25 percent tariff persuaded Colombia to accept military flights carrying deported migrants. But they also serve Trump’s larger goal: putting our allies on notice that America is no longer the world’s “benevolent hegemon,” but “a country that’s pursuing its own interests first.” 

How are economic threats against Canada and Mexico—our largest and second-largest trading partners, respectively—in America’s interest? asked William McGurn in The Wall Street Journal. The idea of bullying friendly nations may make emotional sense to the MAGA crowd, filled with “grievances, real and imagined” against our traditional allies. But tariffs are not paid by the target countries and are instead passed along to U.S. consumers and businesses. From a president who campaigned on a promise to bring down prices, Trump’s obsession with tariffs is hard to fathom. Nor will alienating our allies restore American greatness, said David Frum in The Atlantic. To hold off China and remain the world’s dominant power, we will need “more and better friends than ever before.” 

The only hope, said Jonathan V. Last in The Bulwark, is that our allies are starting to see through “Trump’s nonsense.” As long as “they help Trump save face and claim victory,” as Mexico and Canada did, it’s now apparent that his threats, more often than not, will not be implemented. And American voters seem happy with these phony showdowns. “It makes a certain kind of sense.” Addressing real problems—whether drug trafficking or unfair trade practices—is a complicated process that requires compromise from multiple stakeholders. But when the problems are “imaginary,” the president can just click his fingers and fix them. “Like magic. Which seems to be precisely what Americans want right now.”

 
 
VIEWPOINT

Silicon Valley villains

“Anyone concerned about democracy in America should also at long last recognize that Big Tech is the enemy and act accordingly. The social media companies have poisoned our politics with their addictive hate algorithms, done unforgivable harm to our kids’ mental health, and fueled a war against our democratic institutions—in which Elon Musk, the Cronus of the tech titans, is an active belligerent. Most Americans across party lines disapprove of the social media giants already— especially parents of kids. Any Democrat who can’t run a populist campaign against our Bond-villain tech overlords should have his politician’s license revoked.”

Tom Malinowski in The Bulwark

 
 
briefing

The battle over TikTok

Congress voted to ban the popular app. Why does President Trump want to save it?

Why is TikTok so controversial? 
The highly successful short-form video app is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company based in Beijing. That gives China’s Communist government the ability to access the personal data of TikTok’s 170 million U.S. users—about half the population. Researchers have documented that the TikTok algorithm promotes pro-China propaganda and suppresses posts about topics forbidden in China, such as the government’s abuse of the Uighur minority and Taiwan independence. Calling TikTok a national security threat, the House voted 360-58 and the Senate 79-18 last year to require ByteDance to sell the app to an American company or have it removed from app stores. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law last month, ruling that Congress had “well-supported national security concerns” about TikTok’s control by “a foreign adversary.” TikTok refused to sell and indicated it would shut down. But President Trump issued an executive order delaying the ban for 75 days while trying to persuade ByteDance to sell 50 percent of the U.S. app to Microsoft, Oracle, or another U.S. owner. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” Trump said. 

Why the warm spot? 
It developed recently. In 2020, Trump issued an executive order to ban TikTok, saying the app gives “the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information.” That order was blocked by a federal court. Last year, ByteDance investor Jeff Yass—whose share of the company is worth more than $20 billion—personally lobbied Trump to protect TikTok and became a major contributor, donating over $96 million to Republican campaigns and PACs. During the campaign, Trump allies effectively used the site to win over young voters, and Trump amassed more than 15 million followers. Now Trump says it would be wrong to deprive TikTok users of their favorite app. “We have to save it,” he said. 

Does China control TikTok? 
TikTok’s Singaporean CEO, Shou Zi Chew, insists the Chinese government does not control the app. But ByteDance is obligated by Chinese law to have an in-house Communist Party committee. The government also owns 1 percent of ByteDance’s main Chinese entity. BuzzFeed obtained leaked audio from internal TikTok meetings in 2022, revealing that China-based employees repeatedly accessed U.S. users’ data. “Everything is seen in China,” said one employee. ByteDance’s refusal to sell would suggest it values influence and data more than money. What data does TikTok collect? It collects users’ ages, locations, contacts, phone numbers, internet addresses, and the content of their private messages sent through the app. Some argue this is no different from the practices of other social media companies. “The system of personal data security across social media and other apps is so broken, TikTok scarcely matters,” said Ciaran Martin, former head of the U.K.’s cybersecurity agency. ByteDance insists that China is “unlikely” to demand access to its data. 

What about censorship? 
TikTok’s secret sauce lies in the algorithm that determines what populates each user’s feed, a never-ending video scroll called the “For You” page. That secret algorithm grants the company immense power over what people see. Two studies by Rutgers University found that the platform promotes positive views of China’s government and culture and suppresses negative content about China. In one research test, TikTok blocked a user who posted a video condemning China’s mass detention of Muslims. Studies also suggest TikTok impacts users’ political views and increases polarization. About 45 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds get most of their news from TikTok, and U.S. intelligence warned last year that China has used it to “actively exploit perceived U.S. societal divisions” and to foment negative views of America. 

How did the app get so popular? 
Usage surged when the pandemic stranded many people in their homes, growing from about 40 million monthly users in early 2020 to over 100 million by August that year. They’re mostly young: Only 10 percent of adults 65 and older reported using TikTok last year, compared with 62 percent of those under 30. Researchers at Baylor University also found TikTok’s endless video scroll was addictive for nearly 1 in 4 users, with many of them losing track of time. In October, attorneys general in 13 states and Washington, D.C., sued TikTok, arguing it violated consumer protection laws and exacerbated a teen mental health crisis by, among other things, using beauty filters that can lead viewers to develop body image issues. “They deployed a suite of manipulative features that exploited young people’s psychological vulnerabilities,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. 

Where does TikTok stand now? 
Trump’s extension gives ByteDance until April 5 to sell TikTok, worth an estimated $50 billion. It’s been absent from app stores since January, but still works for users who already had the app downloaded. It’s unclear that ByteDance will sell even half of TikTok, or that such a sale will be legal, since Congress has required a total sale to a U.S. firm. Meanwhile, TikTok influencers, whose livelihoods depend on the platform, remain in limbo. “I feel like I’m going through heartbreak,” said Alix Earle, a lifestyle influencer with over 7 million followers.

The impact on teen mental health 
Social media can help teens find community, but the negative effects are plentiful: loss of memory formation, conversational depth, analytical skills, and empathy, along with increased anxiety. An investigation by the attorneys general suing the company revealed TikTok was aware of the dangers it posed to young people but did nothing to minimize them. In the Baylor study, immersion in social media—whether TikTok or Instagram—was associated with increased mind wandering, depression, anxiety, addiction, and fear of missing out. Repeated exposure to unattainable body standards online can also trigger eating disorders. Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy even called for a warning label on social media platforms. “The social media algorithms are built to promote whatever you seem interested in,” said Linda Mayes of the Yale Child Study Center. “If a teen searches for any kind of mental health condition, such as depression or suicide, it’s going to feed them information about those things.”

 
 

Only in America

A New York judge has resigned after claiming that all defendants are guilty in a bid to get out of serving on a jury. After reporting for jury duty, Petersburgh Town Justice Richard T. Snyder said he couldn’t be impartial because he knows that “everybody” who appears in his court is guilty or else “they would not be in front of me.” Snyder was excused from jury duty but was placed under investigation by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct for his comments.

 
 
talking points

Patel: A vindictive ‘crackpot’ running the FBI?

If Kash Patel’s confirmation hearing last week proved anything, said former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade in Time, it’s that he “cannot be trusted” to run the FBI. When pressed by Democrats in a confrontational confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel, a former federal prosecutor and a fierce loyalist of President Trump’s, refused to say Trump lost the 2020 election. He also refused to say he would resign as FBI director if Trump directed him to engage in illegal conduct. Patel did state that under his leadership, there would be “no retributions” against Trump’s adversaries. But Patel’s “track record” is that of a MAGA fanatic who produced a song celebrating the Jan. 6 rioters, who wrote a book with an enemies list of more than 60 “Deep State” officials, and who vowed in 2023 to “find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media.” Nonetheless, with none of the 53 Republican senators likely to vote against him, Patel seems headed for confirmation. 

“That Patel is a Trump loyalist shouldn’t matter much,” said Andrew C. McCarthy in National Review. FBI directors are charged with executing the democratically elected president’s law enforcement priorities. Patel is qualified for the job: He’s worked as a public defender and as a staffer in the National Security Council during Trump’s first term. “The bureau stands at a turning point,” said Pat McMonigle in City Journal. After years of political prosecutions, “morale has cratered,” with just 41 percent of Americans approving of the bureau. The FBI must pivot toward crime fighting, and remain apolitical. Patel “could be exactly the kind of outsider that the FBI needs.” 

Patel is a vindictive “crackpot” who’s anything but apolitical, said David French in The New York Times. He has promoted a conspiracy theory that the FBI planned the Jan. 6 riots. He’s claimed the media “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” To show his “extreme devotion” to Trump, he even published a children’s book in which “King Donald” triumphs over evil plotters with the help of a wizard named “Kash.” With a 10-year term at the FBI, “Patel will have an enormous amount of unchecked power” to investigate and prosecute election officials, Justice Department and FBI officials who investigated Trump, and anyone he deems an enemy of his king. “Every Republican senator who votes for Patel is abdicating his or her constitutional responsibility.”

 
 

It wasn’t all bad

Josiah Jackson stopped to play a piano in the terminal during a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare airport in 2022. But he quickly realized the Kimball baby grand piano, next to a bar, was out of tune and gummed up from dried drinks. “It was absolutely the worst piano I have ever played,” said Jackson, who had been playing piano since he was 4 and had just started a piano-tuning business. Planning a trip to Guatemala late last year, Jackson, 21, realized he could fix the instrument during an eight-hour layover at O’Hare. He spent seven hours cleaning every hammer and key, finishing with just 45 minutes left to catch his flight, and left a sign above the piano: “No drinks near piano, please!”

 
 
people

Growing up Culkin

Kieran Culkin had a childhood of extremes, said Charlotte Edwardes in The Guardian. At home in New York City, he had to share a bedroom with his six siblings, including his older brother, Home Alone star Macaulay. But the Culkin kids—all of whom were pushed into acting by their father, Broadway actor Kit Culkin—would then go to work on Hollywood movies and take helicopter rides to Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch. 

Kit, whom Macaulay has described as a drunk and a bully, walked out on the family when Kieran was 12. His mother, Patricia Brentrup, was left to raise the children alone “on coupons,” says Kieran, 42. “She would get cheap liver at Key Food, two giant gallons of milk, all that.” Looking back, Kieran is in awe of how she managed. “If I wanted chocolate milk light, but my brother wanted more chocolate, and my sister wanted hardly any, she would make it those different ways.” 

Kieran is determined to do right by his own two children, ages 5 and 3. But he doesn’t think therapy would help make him a better father. “Us siblings, we’re already cooked. My godfather has this thing, he goes: ‘I will indulge anybody that wants to complain about their childhood. And you can blame your parents for everything until you’re 30, and then figure shit out.’ He’s oversimplifying it, but I like that.”

 
 

Saturday Wrap was written and edited by Theunis Bates, Bill Falk, Allan Kew, Bruno Maddox, Rebecca Nathanson, Emily Russell, and Hallie Stiller.

Image credits, from top: Getty Images; Getty Images; AP; Getty Images