Good morning! Welcome to MSNBC's Sunday Spotlight, where you can find a selection of the week's most important and interesting stories. President Donald Trump tried to take credit for partially fixing the economic damage he is causing with his tariffs. Meanwhile, the IRS will help immigration officials, Trump makes a promise to miners he can't keep and sports journalism once again got out over its skis. Plus, an actress is getting noticed for her smile. Don't forget to check out more top columns and videos from the week below. |
Economic arson: Trump took a victory lap this week after the stock market rebounded on news that he was pausing parts of his massive tariffs scheme. But that's a bit like an arsonist taking credit for putting out a fire he started. The president launched a trade war against nearly the entire planet, throwing global markets into disarray while offering contradictory reasoning for it. Then, after partially backing down, he tried to take credit for fixing the problem, writes Anthony L. Fisher. |
Tax attack: The IRS announced this week that it has struck a deal with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that will allow Homeland Security officials access to sensitive immigrant tax records. The deal, which ICE will presumably use to increase deportations, shatters the trust of undocumented immigrants, who paid $96.7 billion in federal, state and local taxes in 2022 alone. But the deal also exposes the falsity of the claim frequently put forward by Trump and his allies that undocumented immigrants aren't paying their fair share, writes Julio Ricardo Varela. |
Coal con: Trump gathered coal miners at the White House to make a promise that he failed to keep in his first term: to bring coal back. Trump won by some of his highest margins in Wyoming and West Virginia, the two largest coal-producing states, in all three of his campaigns. But despite his promises, there's no way that Trump can bring back the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost in coal mining over the last few decades, writes Paul Waldman. |
Vicious rumors: ESPN talk show host Pat McAfee helped spread a salacious and unsubstantiated rumor about an 18-year-old student at the University of Mississippi to his 2.8 million YouTube subscribers. As the story went viral, the student began receiving hateful messages on her phone and was involved in a "swatting" case at her mother's house, forcing her to move to emergency housing. The incident has raised important questions about journalistic standards across sports media, writes sports reporter Kavitha Davidson. |
The whole tooth: One of the standout stars of the third season of "The White Lotus," which ended last week, was the buckteeth of British actress Aimee Lou Wood. On social media, fans celebrated her "radical" and "inspiring" decision not to have dental surgery to correct her overbite. But for people who have suffered their own dental issues — and the bullying and shame that so often follows — it was a bittersweet moment, writes "Jawbreaker" author Christina Wyman. |
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Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to shut down a program that helps disabled and aging people stay in their homes and communities will almost certainly push more people into long-term care facilities. That devastating decision, framed as an "efficiency" exercise, could hurt some of America's most vulnerable. In a deeply personal piece, health care reporter Lindsay Lee Wallace shares her own mother's upsetting experience with poorly funded long-term care as she dealt with multiple sclerosis, including "all the times she must have called for help when I could not hear her." Read the column. — Ryan Teague Beckwith, MSNBC newsletter editor |
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