4.4.25 Newsletter
Everybody gets a tariff, Meghan's brand launch, The Royal Appointment and more
Hello!
While I love talking about jam (excuse me, spread) as much as the next person, we’re going to mix things up and begin with politics.
PolitICKS
You Get a Tariff and You Get a Tariff
On Wednesday’s we wear pink (Trump) abuses his power by issuing an Executive Order declaring a national emergency in order to impose global tariffs (not on Russia obvi!) to strengthen the U.S. economy and bring manufacturing back to America.
Side note: Gayle King looks like the nervous, sweating, smiling emoji in this photoshoot for Jeff Bezos’ historic all-female space crew. You just know Oprah forced her into this shit.
Anyway, back to the ‘ick. I made a video about the tariffs, what Harley-Davidson can tell us about how this might go and a little act called the Smoot-Hawley Act.
Turns out that American Studies degree wasn’t such a bad idea after all!
So Long, Elon?
According to reports, Trump privately said that Musk’s time as President advisor might be coming to an end. My first terrifying thought was: What exactly did Musk extract from the U.S. government that has him all like, “Mission accomplished.”
The U.S. Government Doesn’t Believe in Due Process
Just your weekly reminder that there are Venezuelans who came to the U.S. seeking asylum currently sitting in a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador charged with NO CRIMES because there was NO DUE PROCESS.
Due process is a constitutional right in this country no matter your citizenship.
No one is arguing that violent criminals should stay in the country. The reason we have due process is so that we can insure the CORRECT people are being kidnapped deported…BACK TO THEIR HOME COUNTRY. Which isn’t El Salvador. Stories have come out of fathers with no criminal history, a makeup artist, people on their way to their scheduled asylum appointments intercepted and sent to a prison in El Salvador because ICE decided that their tattoos indicated they were a part of a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua.
One thing you can do if you’re feeling helpless: Get familiar with your House Rep. and Senators (save their numbers in your phone) and call daily to let them know you want them to stand up to Trump’s tariffs and give the unfairly imprisoned in El Salvador due process. Look up your reps. here.
Also, for excellent breaking news and independent journalism in Washington, check out . Aaron is doing incredible work—truly I don’t know when or if he sleeps.
Royal Corner
A Successful Launch for The Duchess of Sussex
Just as Trump was slapping down tariffs, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex was opening up her ‘As Ever’ online store filled with curated items featured on her hit Netflix show, With Love, Megan.
In under an hour everything was sold out.
The prices surprised people…as in they were lower than expected. Still, the British media and dizzy trolls have to find a way to frame this as a flop. Currently it’s, “She manufactured a sell out because of the limited numbers available.” Another fun one is how she “snubbed” the U.K. (but somehow not the rest of the world, which also can’t purchase the products?)
The ‘As Ever’ team, in partnership with Netflix, rolled out a product line they could deliver on. They didn’t stretch themselves too thin—they didn’t overpromise and under deliver. An international shipping operation is a much larger affair. Coupled with the drop was a NYT Cooking feature on Meghan.
The Brand of Meghan Sussex is becoming a well-oiled machine. The successful launch plus the feature in NYT demonstrates that she is not the underdog any more. The agility online (sending a note to a massive podcaster, doing a video with Gwyneth Paltrow) is fantastic to see. If I could offer one critique it’s this: at the time of publishing this piece I have see one PR package sent out to a journalist with a large IG following. This is a smart move. The journalist covered the Invictus Games and she’s clearly in with Sussex Comms. Again, not a bad thing.
What I think would be a mistake is not sending PR packages to Black female creators. Or, in the future, doing interviews with smaller, independent outlets. Part of Harry & Meghan’s complaint was the royal rota. Now that they have the freedom to pick and choose who they speak to, let’s shine a light on outlets led by women and marginalized people.
I don’t know at this point if we convinced ourselves that she was going to things wildly different from other lifestyle cultivators (trying not to use influencer!) or if that was something she specifically said herself.
The Royal Appointment
Subject Line: ‘Keep Buggering On’
Headline: A week of keeping calm and carrying on
I beg of you, find different language to describe the Royal Family. If I see one more “keep calm and carry on” or “extended olive branch” I will lose my mind.
At first I was like, “Oh, we’re talking about working Royals!” We do…briefly. And then there is a clunky, all too predictable pivot:
The motto seems to be “keep calm and carry on”. Or, as I wrote last week, the King’s newly shared Winston Churchill mantra of “keep buggering on”.
Over the pond, where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex remain in the headlines, there is a different level of keeping calm and carrying on.
GIRL WUT.
While Meghan is whipping up fresh desserts, The Royal Appointment is whipping up tired logical fallacies. Prince Harry is dealing with the Sentebale fallout and Meghan has the AUDACITY to “merrily crack on” with her product launch?
HaS thE cOuPLe eVeR BeEn MoRe DiVidED
The separation of the couple’s working activities has never seemed more jarring.
(That has to be an unintentional pun)
As I wrote earlier in the week, these two things are not related.
Finally, because we have to find a way to frame the weeks-long school breaks the Wales’ take instead of working as a positive:
Perhaps the most successful “keep calm and carry on” of all will turn out to be the Prince and Princess of Wales, who are ignoring each and every bit of it to spend the Easter holidays with their children.
What a wonderful luxury to have.
I can’t believe the same paper that regularly refers to Millennials and younger generations as “lazy” and “work-shy”, but have to defend this.
Pop Culture
Wanna Cry This Weekend and Not Because of the State of the World?
Check out The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.
This 1947 B&W movie starts spooky and then turns into a love story.
One hour and forty-four minutes fly by and it reminds you why you love cinema. It’s one of the most gorgeous films I have ever seen. Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison are en fuego together. It’s based on a novel by R.A. Dick, which, unsurprisingly, was actually a woman named Josephine Leslie. Truly, only a woman could have written this masterpiece.
Wanna Cry This Weekend and Not Because of the State of the World, But Because of Laughter?
Look up clips for a NY public access show that ran in the late 70’s - 80’s called Stairway to Stardom. You’re welcome.
Have a great weekend everyone! Don’t fight with trolls on the internet.
-Meredith
I can't think about H&M.
There's a madman in the White House. Their are madman following him.
We had a Mini Market Crash yesterday.
The Dow is plunging this morning.
China's retaliation of 34%tariffs on American good going into China.
Every normal measurement of the economic indicators I think may go out the window.
I'm not sure we can depend on 2 quarters of contraction equals recession...
We haven't had this amount if tariffs since 1909.
And certainly never this much increase overnight.
In 1929 that Stock Market high was approx (don't quote me) 483. It crashed to like 41.
He freaking cut jobs and remove FDIC protection from central banks....basically gutted the FDIC protections. The very protections for our banks. To protect our money.
We don't have a measurement for a true modern crash.
They aren't done with cutting our budget either. I do believe they will cut the human benefits side further, while ramping up the war machine and lining their pockets.
There are madmen in charge.
Can I share information I have just come across? Today, dozens of NOAA websites scheduled to shut down at midnight saturday (from Politcal e&enews.net) The sites, which included those related to climate change and weather research are set to go offline because of efforts by the trump administration to cut costs. I am sick at heart.