Simon Montlake

Boston

Senior Staff Writer at The Christian Science Monitor

Senior staff writer, The Christian Science Monitor. Learn-by-doing reporter, formerly in Indonesia, Thailand, China. Whiny Brit. Goofy Dad.

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Articles

Markets got a tariff pause. But damage to global confidence in US could last.

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

A belief in tariffs as an essential tool in economic statecraft has been a constant in President Donald Trump’s career. His recent unprecedented moves to impose sweeping import tariffs – starting at 10% and rising to 50% and more – sparked panic in global markets and rattled U.S. trading partners. On Wednesday, President Trump abruptly announced a 90-day pause during which all countries except China would pay only a 10% tariff, to allow for talks.
Is the anti-Trump ‘resistance’ starting to find its voice again?

2 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

For months, Democrats have watched aghast as President Donald Trump has unleashed his head-spinning, all-of-government brand of disruption. Boxed out of federal governing, Democratic voters have bewailed the impotence of their party’s leaders as the Republican administration has dismantled government agencies, claimed wartime powers to deport immigrants – and, last week, imposed an unprecedented level of tariffs that sparked a rout in global financial markets.
Some collateral damage with disruption? In Trump 2.0, that’s OK.

3 weeks ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

The unprecedented tariffs announced Wednesday by President Donald Trump mark a decisive break with decades of bipartisan support for free trade. Even some economists and aides who support the levies – which include a minimum 10% on imported goods, with some countries subject to much higher rates – concede that they will inflict short-term economic pain. Mr. Trump himself has all but endorsed that view, brushing aside concerns about higher car prices.
Debate over transgender rights grows more fraught in new Trump era

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

Transgender issues barely registered on voters’ lists of top policy priorities in 2024, according to polls. But as a front in America’s culture wars, the topic has become increasingly contentious.
US science funding was a bipartisan priority. Now it’s a target of federal cuts.

1 month ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

At universities, spring is a season of faculty hiring, Ph.D. acceptances, and postdoctoral appointments. But this year has become a season of turmoil and trepidation at institutions that rely on federal funding for science and technology research, as the Trump administration wages a highly publicized war on government waste that feels, to some in academia, like a war on publicly funded science.
In Musk, an unprecedented blend of political and financial power

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his first official meeting in Washington last week, he brought his foreign minister and security adviser. The U.S. official he was meeting with, Elon Musk, brought three of his children and the mother of two of them. At the end, the two men exchanged gifts; Mr. Modi distributed books to the children.
Farmers cast their votes for Trump. Now Musk’s cuts are hitting them.

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

It’s no exaggeration to say that America’s farmers helped put Donald Trump in the White House. Of the 444 counties classified as farm-dependent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), most of which are located west of the Mississippi and east of the Rockies, Mr. Trump won all but 11 last November.
Musk aims to slash deficits. Trump has put key solutions out of reach.

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

Empowered by President Trump to make government more efficient, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has targeted entire agencies for closure, seized control of payment systems, ousted career civil servants, and pressured employees to retire early. Even as questions swirl about whether his actions are legal, Mr. Musk’s lightning strike on the federal bureaucracy raises a fiscal puzzle: What do all these actions actually mean for the federal budget and the national debt?
2/6/25 National Security News and Commentary

2 months ago | myemail.constantcontact.com | Hal Brands |Simon Montlake |Karl Rove |Ivo Daalder

Quotes of the Day:“Constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong… With such a people you can do whatever you want.” – Hannah Arendt.
Trump is attacking DEI in government and beyond. What impact will it have?

2 months ago | csmonitor.com | Simon Montlake

As President Donald Trump wields his executive powers over the federal bureaucracy and private entities that do business with the government, one target in particular has been front and center: programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. During his first two weeks in office, Mr. Trump has issued several executive orders to stamp out DEI – which he and his allies describe as a harmful and pervasive ideology – both inside and outside the federal government.