Was Trump Right When He Took These Actions?

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 inhouse@abovethelaw.com.

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