On Tuesday, which marked what felt like Day 1,000,000 of Donald Trump’s feud with the National Football League, the president asked a surprisingly pertinent question on Twitter: “Why is the NFL getting massive tax breaks while at the same time disrespecting our Anthem, Flag, and Country? Change tax law!” For Trump, it was just another day at the office, threatening to use the power of the federal government to sink his enemies. But for Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner who might be the one person on Earth more reviled than Trump, it was a moment that clearly sent shivers down his spine. While the league gave up its tax-exempt status in 2015—a largely symbolic move that allowed it to stop filing yearly tax forms disclosing the salaries of executives like Goodell—it continues to enjoy a plethora of other tax breaks, like the ones allowing teams to finance stadiums using billions in taxpayer dollars. Its owners also stand to benefit significantly from the call to slash the pass-through tax rate to 25 percent.

Although it seems wildly unlikely that Trump’s forthcoming tax-reform plan will actually crack down on the N.F.L.’s tax breaks, Goodell was not about to leave things to chance. Within hours, the commissioner put out a press release saying, “Like many of our fans, we believe that everyone should stand for the National Anthem. . . . We want to honor the flag and our country, and our fans expect that of us.” While claiming to “also care deeply” about players and “their opinions and concerns about critical social issues,” Goodell wrote that the N.F.L. “need[s] to move past this controversy” and has “worked to develop a plan” to do so that will presumably involve benching, fining, or, as the president of the United States has demanded, firing the “son of a bitch” exercising his right to protest. Said plan will be reviewed at the league’s meeting next week.

This is obviously a huge about-face from Goodell’s comment back in September that the president’s call to fire players taking a knee was “divisive” and “demonstrate[d] an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players.” It was also a departure from the clip the league aired September 24—currently pinned to Goodell’s Twitter timeline!—which called for “unity.” If you’re struggling to account for the change of heart, please try to understand that in the hearts and minds of N.F.L. officials, tax breaks —and the mere suggestion of taking them away— rank a lot higher than things like civil liberties (and degenerative brain disease).

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Trump claims Corker feud won’t hurt tax reform, teases secret changes that will make it “very, very popular”

As you may have heard, the Trump administration and the G.O.P. are attempting to overhaul the tax code, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in more than 30 years because it’s very, very difficult. Making it even harder is the fact that the president is unable to refrain from regularly engaging in petty squabbles, even when they threaten his agenda. The most recent example is his fight with Senator Bob Corker, which began with Trump claiming that Corker “begged” for his endorsement and decided not to run for re-election after failing to secure it, and ended, to date, with him mocking Corker for being short. Because the G.O.P.’s plan to pass a tax bill through reconciliation means it cannot afford to lose the support of more than two Republican senators, Trump’s Twitter tantrum wasn’t just ill-advised because it made him look like a deranged Real Housewife. It was also unwise because it raises the odds of him closing out 2018 with nary a legislative accomplishment. (The fact that Trump’s best Senate bud, Rand Paul, is also unlikely to support any bill that adds to the deficit makes the situation even more perilous.)