Plus: Trump’s insults. Harris’s price controls. Checking the Supreme Court.

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In today’s edition:

• Trump’s insults are getting old, but one has a kernel of truth
• Congress has power over the Supreme Court. Use it.
• Narrow-mindedness at the FDA hurts people with PTSD

Boring, yawning, sloppy, lazy!

One of the knock-on effects of Donald Trump’s political career has been the proliferation of knockoff red ball caps demanding that we “Make America [Something] Again.” By design, one must get close to determine the wearer’s priority: Great? Gay? Great Britain?

Matt Bai says to sidle up to Trump and peek at what his hat says. Someone seems to have swapped it out; Trump is making America boring.

As Matt writes, he would never have anticipated this from America’s consummate entertainer, but Trump’s act has suddenly become “oddly unprovocative.” His convention speech, his rambling live stream with Elon Musk? Total snoozefests.

This is because, Matt argues, “Trump forgot that even the most successful entertainers have to iterate; you always need a new direction or a new character, something that propels the audience forward, rather than daring them to channel-surf.”

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Instead, Trump has doubled (sextupled?) down on his old insults, despite many prominent Republicans’ advice that he halve them. Dana Milbank says he couldn’t even if he wanted to — they’re all he’s got.

Dana’s column is a safari of the former president’s wild gibes, from his increasingly tenuous name play (e.g., “Maggot Hagerman” for a certain New York Times reporter) to the yawn-worthy stable of “stupid,” “bumbling,” “incompetent,” “fat,” “sleepy,” “radical,” “cowardly.” Tim Walz is a “clown,” and Kamala Harris is a “comrade.”

Catherine Rampell isn’t going to excuse name-calling, but if the vice president doesn’t want to be labeled a communist, maybe she shouldn’t be proposing price controls.

That’s what Harris’s sloppy proposal to limit grocery stores’ price gouging amounts to, Catherine writes: “Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Far-off Washington bureaucrats would. The FTC would be able to tell, say, a Kroger in Ohio the acceptable price it can charge for milk.”

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This could easily lead to shortages, hoarding and black markets — and even higher prices. Keep in mind, too, that anticompetitive price-fixing by corporations is already illegal! “Harris’s economic advisers,” Catherine writes, “are either too confused or lazy to tell the difference.”

Somebody, please, make America sensible again.

Chaser: Trump is not........

© Washington Post