America Last: Nukes, Tariffs, and Gold-Plated Grift

While Trump guts nuclear safety to fund his vanity jet and alienates allies from Canada to Taiwan, the world moves on and America gets left behind.

Good morning! If you’re waking up in the United States this morning wondering why Times Square looks emptier than usual, it’s not just the heat, it’s that international tourism has collapsed. The U.S. is projected to lose $12.5 billion this year from declining foreign visitor spending. That includes 2 million fewer tourists in New York City alone, $4 billion lost from hotels, restaurants, and shops. From Germany (-28%) to the UK and South Korea (-15% each), fewer people are coming. Why? Take your pick: Trump’s insult diplomacy, retaliatory tariffs, a looming $250 “visa integrity” fee, or the general sense that America now feels less like a travel destination and more like a live-action Homeland Security simulation.

But don’t worry, Trump’s working hard. Specifically, he’s stealing nearly $1 billion from the Air Force’s nuclear missile modernization budget, a fund explicitly meant to shore up crumbling Cold War–era silos housing live Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, in order to renovate a luxury aircraft from Qatar that he plans to use as Air Force One and later claim as a showpiece for his imaginary “presidential library.” The scoop, uncovered by New York Times national security reporters David Sanger and Eric Schmitt, details how $934 million was quietly transferred from the Pentagon’s ICBM program into a classified aircraft project. Multiple Air Force officials have now privately confirmed what the paperwork tried to obscure: the money is going toward refurbishing a jet Trump personally selected, complete with gold finishes, personalized interiors, and reportedly, accommodations he intends to continue using post-presidency as a mobile monument to himself. And meanwhile, the real-life nuclear silos in Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming are leaking, crumbling, and overdue for urgent structural overhaul, according to the Air Force’s own internal review. Priorities!

While radioactive infrastructure is left to rot, Trump’s cronies are being rewarded with lifetime judicial appointments. Emil Bove, Trump’s personal fixer and former law partner of DOJ #2 Todd Blanche, is set to take a seat on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Despite two whistleblowers accusing Bove of instructing DOJ lawyers to lie to federal judges during illegal deportation ops, Senate Republicans are ramming his confirmation through like it’s a clearance sale on fascism.

And abroad? Allies are reacting exactly as you’d expect. Toxic trade wars, unpredictable tweets, and Trump’s toddler-level diplomacy have turned the U.S. into a diplomatic outcast. South Korea and Japan are slow-walking deals. Foreign media ridicule Trump as a cartoonish huckster. In Korea, nightly news broadcasts explain, with actual charts, how Trump’s tariffs hurt American consumers, mock his trade team’s buffoonery, and highlight local protests against U.S. food imports. They even compare American beef to mad cow risk. And let’s be honest: if a country takes food safety more seriously than we take judicial ethics, it’s probably time to admit we’re losing the plot.

Canada has officially had it. From former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to current Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney to British Columbia’s NDP Premier David Eby, there’s an unprecedented consensus across political lines: Donald Trump has rendered the United States an unreliable, even hostile partner, and Canada is moving on. Harper, once the most pro-American leader in Canadian history, told a packed conference in Saskatoon that he now advises the federal government to reduce dependence on the U.S., diversify trade, and build independent defense capacity. Prime Minister Carney echoed the sentiment, saying flatly that he won’t sign any deal with the U.S. unless it benefits Canada, and mocked Trump’s transactional chaos: “We’re not going to do stupid deals.” Instead, Canada is expanding ties with Mexico, Europe, and Asia, effectively treating Trump’s America like a fading empire to bypass. Trump’s response? He told reporters, “Canada could be one where they just pay tariffs. Not really a negotiation.” Then there’s his ambassador, Pete Hoekstra, who dismisses trade retaliation as “nasty” and insists that Trump’s repeated suggestions that Canada become the 51st state are somehow a “term of endearment.” You can’t make this up. What’s clearer than ever is that Canada is done being polite about it. From diplomatic snubs to boycott-driven economic pushback, including a tourism pullout and pressure campaigns on energy and timber exports, Canada is putting elbows up.

But perhaps the most glaring symbol of America’s retreat from global leadership is this: Trump has reportedly blocked Taiwan’s president from visiting the U.S. this summer. No joint session speech. No state dinner. Not even a public handshake. The visit had been quietly negotiated for months as a gesture of solidarity amid rising regional tensions with China. But Trump, ever obsessed with transactional optics and Xi Jinping’s “respect,” pulled the plug. For the first time in decades, a U.S. administration has flatly rejected a democratic ally’s request for high-level engagement at a moment when Taiwan faces escalating threats from Beijing.

So while American tourists find themselves stranded in airports gutted by FAA staff cuts, foreign tourists stay away, federal judges become Trump’s private militia, and the President uses Pentagon funds to upgrade his airborne phallic symbol, democracy’s friends are left knocking on the door with no answer.

We’re not just isolating ourselves economically. We’re telling the world, loud and clear, that the United States under Donald Trump is no longer a serious country.

And before we go, a warm thank you to everyone who sent kind wishes for Marz, my 140-pound (it turns out) mastiff and round-the-clock bodyguard against fascism and squirrels and UPS delivery persons. He tolerated his vet visit with his usual stoic grumbling, and while he wasn’t thrilled about the thermometer situation, he emerged with his dignity mostly intact. He’ll be undergoing minor surgery in a couple of weeks to repair an issue with one of his eyes, and the vet assures us he’ll be back to chasing shadows and guarding democracy in no time. Your support means the world, Marz sends tail wags and side-eye in equal measure.