Benn Steil

Director of International Economics, CFR. Award-winning author, THE WORLD THAT WASN'T, THE MARSHALL PLAN, & THE BATTLE OF BRETTON WOODS. Next HC of NYJ.

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This is so insanely corrupt, I can’t even believe it.

More than half the donors to Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom just won over $50 billion in new federal contracts in six months.

And here’s the part that should make your blood boil.

Sixteen of these 27 donors were facing federal enforcement actions, antitrust reviews, labor cases, securities charges. Many of those cases have been quietly dropped or scaled back since Trump took office. You write a check, your legal problems disappear. That’s not a coincidence.

The White House won’t even release the full donor list. They’re hiding it on purpose, because daylight is the one thing pay-to-play can’t survive. A federal judge already ruled ballroom construction has to stop until Congress authorizes it.

Government is supposed to serve the people, not auction itself off to the highest bidder. When access goes to whoever pays the most, working families always end up paying the price.

We either end the corruption, or the corruption will end us.

https://t.co/4MGFzSseFl

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

America at 250: The Marshall Plan, With Benn Steil | The President’s Inbox https://t.co/Va2OhRq9BV via @YouTube

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

A major new @CFR_org survey of historians ranked the Marshall Plan as the greatest foreign policy decision in American history.

I discuss the plan with @JamesMLindsay: https://t.co/PrjZnkYl9R

And be sure to read the book!:
https://t.co/btHq90GN0X

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

Iran war opens ‘golden window’ for China’s renminbi https://t.co/N2xD2LjIWg via @ft

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

Funniest thing I've seen in ages!

[chaotic memes @memechaotic]

This is what the internet was made for 😂

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

@5on_it Certainly his free throws can't get worse.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

False. Trump's own OMB published a report calculating that all potentially-erroneous individuals payments totaled $186 billion in 2025. Even if all were verified to be erroneous, its 10% of the budget deficit.

They are selling a silly fantasy of painlessly balancing the budget.

[Daniel Di Martino @DanielDiMartino]

Abolishing private property in 2 easy steps

Step 1 - Rent control: Rent is lower than costs and taxes so you can't do maintenance.

Step 2 - Seizure: You don't have the money to do maintenance and the state uses it as an excuse to take your property.

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

We've already won, analytically.

[Sam Stein @samstein]

The war will be over soon

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

Owners of New York real estate are the new kulak class.

[Brecca Stoll @breccastoll]

NOW: Mamdani says his admin will transfer ownership from bad landlords to non-profits.

“For buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards.

Stewards that include community land trusts, non-profits, or even the tenants themselves.”

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

How did "the Biden FBI" accomplish this feat while Trump was president?

[Council on Foreign Relations @CFR_org]

“U.S. trade policy is likely to remain more discretionary, more bilateral, and more closely tied to broader strategic and economic objectives than in the pre-Trump era. The European Union, China, and other major trading nations are likely to mirror this shift,” writes expert @BennSteil: https://t.co/qdvUry6nnu

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

Within one 24 hour period, Trump:

- got out of a $100 million IRS fine
- secured "immunity" from all future tax investigations for his family and friends
- created a $1.8 billion slush fund for lawbreaking supporters
- was reported for likely insider trading worth nearly $1 billion

All of the obvious things to say about this are true. It's bad. Nobody even tries to defend it. The closest thing to a defense you get is something about how "but Democrats suck" and "woke was also bad," which is not a defense, but rather a kind of moral blank check made out to the administration to give them the right to do anything.

But what I'm most curious about is whether this sort of lurid corruption creates a countermovement that successfully returns government to rule of law or whether it's establishing a norm of executive imperialism that every future administration will use to achieve its ends, which can always be justified by the moral blank check of "the other side is worse, so let us do whatever we want."

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

A future pro-trade administration should look to recreate a GATT among legitimate market-based economies - that is, excluding China.

My contribution to @CFR_org 's "Future of American Strategy" initiative . . .

https://t.co/XhrWm4Pq0W

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

Like Musk, it seems he needs to be incentivized.

[Tim Carney @TPCarney]

Trump buys Boeing and Nvidia stock and then helps the companies do business with foreign governments.

https://t.co/r6pzli9Lhe

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

@travelingisrae1 Great Danes?

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

The level of open corruption here is beyond anything I had imagined possible in the United States.

Donald Trump and sons to be ‘forever’ exempt from tax audits https://t.co/9RegjPUbNL via @ft

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

If you have to ask you can't afford it.

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

Pollock's "Number 7A, 1948" just sold at auction for a record $181 million.

Explain what this painting means and why it is good.

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

Strait falsehoods from Peter Navarro . . .

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Peter Navarro claims on CNBC to zero pushback that "the American Navy essentially control the Strait of Hormuz, where oil flows not just to China but Asia"

[Benn Steil @BennSteil]

Stop Big Almond now!

[Nick Gillespie @nickgillespie]

Over at Substack, @JoshEakle asks: "It's 2026, and I have yet to see an anti-almond farm protest."