by
Win
McNamee/Getty
Images)
President
Donald
Trump
wants
to
own
the
libs.
And
the
libs
fall
for
it
—
perhaps
because
it’s
so
hard
to
tell
the
difference
between
when
Trump’s
being
a
jerk
and
when
he
later
insists
that
he
was
just
joking.
I
don’t
want
to
own
the
MAGA
types.
No,
no,
no.
Let
me
devote
this
column
simply
to
asking
questions. I’m
not
answering
questions;
I’m
not
giving
any
reactions;
I’m
just
asking.
Let
me
ask
first: Was
Trump
correct
to
pardon
all
of
the
January
6
rioters,
including
the
one
who
had
been
convicted
of
seditious
conspiracy
and
sentenced
to
22
years
in
prison?
I’m
not
opining. I’m
not
telling
you
the
right
answer
to
this
question. I’m
just
asking.
Second: Was
Trump
correct
to
announce
massive
tariffs
on
“Liberation
Day”
—
April
2,
2025
—
only
then
to
suspend
the
planned
tariffs
because
of
the
massive
market
turmoil
they
created?
Or
maybe
he
should
have
thought
this
through
more
carefully?
Was
Trump
correct
to
have
the
U.S.
government
take
a
10%
interest
in
Intel,
or
should
he
have
left
the
free
market
alone?
So,
my
conservative
friends,
in
what
other
companies
should
the
government
take
a
stake?
Was
Trump
correct
to
invite
Vladimir
Putin
to
meet
on
American
soil,
and
have
American
troops
literally
lay
out
a
red
carpet
for
him,
to
gain
the
concessions
that
Putin
made
to
end
the
war
in
Ukraine?
Remind
me
again
what
those
concessions
were.
Was
Trump
correct
to
hire
Tom
Homan
as
the
“border
czar”
at
a
time
when
Homan
was
under
investigation
for
having
accepted
a
paper
bag
containing
$50,000
in
cash?
Was
Trump
correct
to
announce
that
the
government
was
imposing
a
$100,000
fee
on
employers
for
H-1B
visa
applications,
causing
confusion
and
prompting
immediate
changes
to
people’s
travel
plans,
and
clarify
on
the
next
day
that
the
fee
applied
only
to
new
applicants
in
the
2026
lottery
and
did
not
apply
to
current
H-1B
holders?
Or
maybe
he
should
have
thought
this
through
more
carefully
and
made
the
entire
announcement
at
once?
Was
Trump
correct
to
ignore
a
statute,
passed
in
2024,
that
required
ByteDance,
the
Chinese
parent
company
of
TikTok,
to
divest
its
interest
in
TikTok’s
U.S.
operations
by
January
19,
2025?
Or
don’t
we
care
about
those
pesky
little
things
called
“laws”?
Was
Trump
correct
to
conduct
multiple
lethal
military
strikes
on
boats
manned
by
Venezuelans
who
were
supposedly
smuggling
drugs
and
later
to
declare
that
the
U.S.
was
engaged
in
a
“non-international
armed
conflict”
with
drug
cartels,
thus
trying
to
justify
multiple
assassinations
after
the
fact?
Was
Trump
correct
to
impose
50%
tariffs
on
products
imported
from
Brazil
to
retaliate
for
Brazil’s
decision
to
prosecute
Jair
Bolsonaro
for
orchestrating
a
plan
to
overthrow
the
2022
election
in
Brazil
and
remain
in
power
by
force?
Is
Trump
correct
to
try
to
put
the
Federal
Reserve
Board
under
political
control?
Was
Trump
correct
to
say
that,
when
media
stories
about
him
are
negative,
those
stories
are
no
longer
free
speech
but
instead
interfering
with
an
election?
Aw,
c’mon
—
didn’t
you
go
to
law
school?
Is
Trump
correct
to
say
that
Jimmy
Kimmel’s
jokes
about
Trump
constitute
illegal
campaign
contributions
by
ABC
to
the
Democratic
National
Committee?
Really? Is
this
column
also
an
illegal
campaign
contribution
to
the
DNC?
What
the
heck
are
we
going
to
do
about
Fox
and
the
RNC?
Exactly
how
does
this
work?
Note
that
this
column
didn’t
say
anything
about
truly
controversial
issues. I’ve
said
nothing
about
whether
imposing
massive
tariffs
are
a
good
way
to
reduce
inflation,
or
whether
sending
the
U.S.
military
to
American
cities
makes
sense,
or
whether
we
should
criticize
the
process
by
which
undocumented
immigrants
are
being
thrown
out
of
the
country.
I
don’t
want
to
stir
things
up
here.
I’ve
just
picked
a
few
noncontroversial
issues
and
asked
some
questions.
I’ll
be
curious
to
hear
what
you
think.
Mark Herrmann spent
17
years
as
a
partner
at
a
leading
international
law
firm
and
later
oversaw
litigation,
compliance
and
employment
matters
at
a
large
international
company.
He
is
the
author
of The
Curmudgeon’s
Guide
to
Practicing
Law and Drug
and
Device
Product
Liability
Litigation
Strategy (affiliate
links).
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected].