This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

I'm your host, Greg Sargent.

Suddenly, President Donald Trump appears to be retreating or getting knocked back on his heels on multiple fronts.

Trump is reportedly considering slashing his tariffs on China to de-escalate his worsening trade war.

Elon Musk is stepping back from his Department of Government Efficiency, which remains a political catastrophe for Trump. Federal scientists are admitting the measles outbreak is worse than previously

acknowledged, and the leaks about Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth are

intensifying. All this comes as a new poll finds broad public opposition to Trump's abuses of

power. That's not supposed to be happening, according to a lot of savvy DC insiders who told us

voters don't care about this kind of thing at all. It turns out they do care.

Today we're talking about all this with democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg, who has been urging

his party to make Trump's weakness and his erratic retreats central to their message against him.

Simon, thanks for coming back on. Greg, it's always good to be with you, my friend.

So let's start with the tariffs.

Trump is now backing down from his threat to remove Fed Chair Jerome Powell after he figured

out that this was actually backfiring on him by spooking markets and investors more.

The CEOs for Walmart, Target, and Home Depot reportedly told Trump privately

that his tariffs were going to disrupt supply chains, leading to higher prices and empty shelves.

Trump himself is saying that the tariffs on China will come down substantially.

Simon, what do you make of all that?

Yeah, I mean, the tariffs are the greatest policy era, arguably,

in American history. And he's using these powers without congressional assent in this kind of

capricious and tyrannical way. And it's blowing up on him. It's slowing the economy down.

...