So wonderful to watch J.J. Spaun win the U.S. Open. He and his beautiful family help me believe in this country again.

If you think trade is boring or obscure, think again. This is going to be the issue on which American democracy lives or dies. My latest: foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/28/t...

“The worst trade adviser any modern U.S. president has had.” Thanks to Ana Swanson for including my comments in her comprehensive profile of Peter Navarro. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/20/b...

Some news for US home builders: “The U.S. is set to more than double the duty it charges on softwood lumber imports from Canada, with the planned new rate set at 34.45 per cent, up from the previous 14.54 per cent.” www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Are tariffs bad for growth? Yes, say five decades of data from 150 countries pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

reality check -- Japanese negotiators in DC to try to get exemption from Trump tariffs and can't even get a meeting. Oh well. That is how allies get treated these days. asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trad...

@budgetlab.bsky.social: Trump’s auto tariffs will cause vehicle prices to rise by 13.5% on average, the equivalent of an additional $6,400 to the price of an average new 2024 car. budgetlab.yale.edu/research/fis...

“The world needs more grown-ups. We need more adults dude” — p 1 from The Wisdom of Mike Myers.

This Revolution of Destroyers Demands New Names via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...

Outrageous!

“Border-first approaches may be increasingly popular—and politically appealing—but they are certain to fail, and to hurt many innocent people in the process,” write @edwardalden.bsky.social and Laurie Trautman.

In a recent executive order, President Trump cited that immigration at the southern border threatens public health. @edwardalden.bsky.social uses the COVID pandemic as a case study on the limitations of border closings for preventing disease transmission. [Feb. 2025]

But of course we’ll just close our borders and everything will be fine, right?

Sure, but done the way they are being done by Trump, tariffs are going to hurt far more manufacturing workers than they will help.

When it comes to threats from abroad, politicians must stop promising quick fixes through border closures—and start investing in the infrastructure needed to actually mitigate these dangers, argue @edwardalden.bsky.social and Laurie Trautman.

Thank you Colleen! And coming out on the eve of yet another ill-conceived “travel ban.”

“These policies were ostensibly directed outward, targeting foreigners. But as is often the case with border controls, they inflicted damage internally too, infringing on citizens' rights.” reason.com/2025/02/18/w...

So pleased to see this excerpt from my new book with Laurie Trautman running in @thetyee.ca. I grew up in Vancouver, ai this is where my own journey with cross-border living began. thetyee.ca/Culture/2025...

Was pleased to join Washington International Trade Association for a panel yesterday with USTR alums Wendy Cutler and Stephen Vaughn, as well as @edwardalden.bsky.social and Arancha González (former foreign minister of Spain). We got into the future of WTO and more. www.wita.org/events/2025-...

Like I said: This is a betrayal of America’s identity as a nation that offers a haven for refugees — including my own family when we fled the Soviet Union in 1976. wapo.st/40XERMF

Our region is a model for how two nations can work together to advance shared interests. It's at risk with recent wall- building measures at the border. Check out Dr. Trautman and @edwardalden.bsky.social alden.bsky.social's most recent Op-Ed in the @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social to learn more.

The U.S.-Canada relationship is a special one — and one that has defined much of my own life. We need to fight for it! Thanks to Laurie Trautman for co-authoring this piece with me on what we can do here in Washington state. www.seattletimes.com/opinion/u-s-...

JUST IN: A federal judge in Washington says she's concerned that the White House is still implementing the spending freeze that she and a Rhode Island judge have ordered temporarily halted. Judge AliKhan is inclined to issue a restraining order.

Hey look, Biden got Mexico to deploy 10,000 troops to the border at the beginning of his presidency. And he didn’t threaten a trade war to do it. It’s so damn sad how Trump plays with & deceives his followers.

Reminder - shuttering USAID may cause millions of people to die throughout the developing world in the next few weeks. Whatever else he thinks he’s doing madman Musk may about to become a mass murderer. open.substack.com/pub/simonwdc...

Thanks to Think Global Health @cfr.org for publishing this. The big takeaway from our new book on the Covid travel restrictions ia that borders are at best a limited tool for stopping diseases. Instead of learning that lesson, the US is doubling down. www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/pand...

The tariffs that President Trump has announced against 3 of the United States’ biggest trading partners—Canada, China, and Mexico—look poised to shatter the era of a rules-based order with global economic ramifications, writes trade expert @edwardalden.bsky.social.

This is a must read on the guardrails (as weak as they are) against Trump’s tariff craziness.

Why stop at academics? There are so many of us in so many professions who would be thrilled to be poached!

600,000 Venezuelans with TPS just got a little less safe—Trump is revoking Mayorkas’ last-second extension of TPS, restoring previous expiration dates in April and September. Now Noem has to make a decision on extension or termination for about half that population by Feb 1 instead of spring 2026.

If you are 1) a federal civil servant/contractor ordered not to release scheduled data or reports, or 2) an academic who has lost access to government data in the past week ...please get in touch. I'm happy to keep our conversations confidential. crampell[@]washpost[dot]com

Really looking forward to this!

2/23 at 7:30 PM | Journalist @edwardalden.bsky.social and researcher Laurie Trautman critically assess the shock of the globally sweeping 2020 border closures during the pandemic, as well as the implications for international migration. https://buff.ly/40wleuY

Thanks!

Trump claims he will fix a broken border. Don’t believe a word of it. His actions will make the border more dangerous and more chaotic, with enormous human consequences. My latest in Foreign Policy: foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/23/t...

This opinion piece from @cafreeland.bsky.social has everything but the obvious campaign slogan. “Keep Canada a Free Land: Vote for Chrystia.” www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

I really worry about how uncontrolled this may get. In Trump 1 the tariffs came in the context of renegotiating NAFTA, which offered a way out. This time it looks like escalation piled on escalation.

Orange juice from Florida. Whiskey from Tennessee. Peanut butter from Kentucky. If Trump imposes a 25% tariff on Canada, Canada has plans to retaliate -- and just like last time, the retaliation would focus on goods made in Republican or swing states. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/w...

I love riding the bus and I really love this @cascadiadaily.com piece by @charlottealden.bsky.social and Sophia about balancing ridership versus coverage transit models.

Domestic political shifts in the Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. will make it harder to find consensus, write Shannon O'Neil and Julia Huesa.

“It’s much more than a book about the pandemic. It’s a book about human nature, about how we respond to crisis, and about the choices we face in shaping the future.” Thanks to SamPamBooks for their extremely thoughtful and thorough review of our new book. m.youtube.com/watch?v=KEl0...

Cascadia Daily News in Bellingham, Washington is hiring four positions. ➡️ Visual Journalist ➡️ Audience Engagement Editor ➡️ Health Care and Public Health Reporter ➡️ Advertising Sales and Production Coordinator Learn more and apply at cascadiadaily.com/jobs.

This is a defining moment for Canada’s political leadership, perhaps the biggest crisis the country has ever faced. The early signs are not encouraging. @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/Opinion/2025...

Pleased to see POLITICO include our new book excerpt in Foreign Policy as one of their “great weekend reads.” Check it out! www.politico.com/newsletters/...

In our new book, we argue that those who were separated by the long Covid border closures that began five years ago need to keep speaking up and telling their stories. Otherwise the same will happen again. This is a gift link to the excerpt in Foreign Policy: foreignpolicy.com/2025/01/10/c...

Thanks to ⁦‪Foreign Policy for running these excerpts from our new book, focusing on protecting the rights of those who live across borders. For DC friends who want to learn more, we will be at Politics & Prose (the Wharf) at 7 pm this evening. Thanks to @mariateresakumar for joining us

To me the real question is what will constrain Trump this time around? He couldn’t be too crazy the first time because he wanted to be re-elected. But now?

Out today: 'When the World Closed Its Doors," a new book by @edwardalden.bsky.social and Laurie Trautman, details the most sweeping government border closures in human history during the COVID-19 pandemic and the implications for the future of global mobility. Learn more and buy: on.cfr.org/4094Lv4