Susan Crawford Credit…Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

Elon Musk’s millions weren’t enough. Judge Susan Crawford, a liberal candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, overcame more than $25 million in spending by Musk to defeat her conservative opponent, Judge Brad Schimel, last night. Crawford’s win maintains the liberal majority on the court, which faces key decisions on abortion and labor rights in the coming months.

Elsewhere, two Trump-backed Republicans won special congressional elections in Florida, shoring up the party’s slim House majority. In both races, however, Democrats cut into Republican victory margins from November.

The elections suggest a once-demoralized Democratic base is animated again. Read takeaways.

Today is, in President Trump’s telling, “Liberation Day.” For decades, many countries have imposed higher trade barriers on the United States than America does on them. In a Rose Garden event, Trump plans to strike back with tariffs that he claims will be “reciprocal” — ones that merely counter the penalties of other nations.

The logic is intuitive: Why shouldn’t we impose tariffs on countries that have imposed tariffs on us? Europe’s tax on U.S. cars, for instance, has been four times as high as America’s tax on European vehicles. That doesn’t seem fair.

Past presidents asked the same question — and came to a different conclusion than Trump did. They saw such tariffs as self-harm. That’s because America would lose more in a global trade war than every major economy except Mexico, experts estimate.

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