'Screw up royally': How 'ignorant' Trump has 'broken the cardinal rule in American politics'

14 April

U.S. President Donald Trump exits Air Force One as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S. April 13, 2025.

Although James Carville is a scathing critic of President Donald Trump, the veteran Democratic strategist acknowledges that he knows how to work a crowd and often uses "smoke and mirrors" to his political advantage.

But in an op-ed published by the New York Times on April 14, the 80-year-old Carville emphasizes that Trump's "smoke and mirrors" won't work if his tariffs cause prices to soar and send the U.S. economy into a painful recession.

"The problem is that smoke and mirrors only work until you screw up so hard that no act of lunacy can pull the American people's attention elsewhere," Carville argues. "And boy, did the president just screw up royally. In what will certainly be recorded as one of the most ignorant acts of political leadership in American history, the president of the United States has now willfully damaged the global economy with his tariff chaos."

Carville adds, "Not only was this an act of economic warfare, it has broken the cardinal rule in American politics: Never destabilize the economy. With it, the Trump Administration is causing enormous damage to itself — and there can be no more distraction from this naked truth. This is where the Democrats have an opening. "

Democrats, according to Carville, will need to avoid political "distractions" and stay laser-focused on the economy.

"In the coming weeks and months," Carville explains, "many Americans are going to experience pressure and pain with the tariffs on China and the remaining tariffs on an array of goods and countries. Prices could rise sharply, consumer spending may well dry up, and we are already seeing evidence of surging mortgage rates and a weakened bond market. The Trump Administration will not be competent enough to dig us out."

Carville continues, "The path to stabilizing and strengthening the country starts when Democrats can take back the economic narrative from the Republican Party and persuade the majority of Americans to close the book on the Trump chaos. This can only be done if we avoid the distractions — whether it's Mr. Trump's third-term talk or Democratic infighting on social issues — and instead focus on the economic foundations that matter to Americans most. My fellow Democrats, it's time we transform our party into a projector for the economic pain of the American people."

James Carville's full op-ed for the New York Times is available at this link (subscription required).

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