Poor Nikki Haley has become another victim of out-of-control government spending. First there was Tom Price, whose private jet habit, among other things, cost him his job as H.H.S. secretary. Scott Pruitt was ousted as E.P.A. administrator over luxe, non-government-approved hotels stays, and four-figure fountain pens, and that $43,000 phone booth he had built in his office. Ben Carson survived the uproar over his $31,000 dining set at Housing and Urban Development, but only because everyone quickly forgot that Ben Carson exists.

Today, it’s Haley’s turn in the barrel. The New York Times reports that the State Department spent more than $50,000 last year buying “customized and mechanized curtains” for the windows in her official residence on First Avenue—a 6,000-square-foot penthouse that costs $58,000 a month—across from the U.N. That the purchase happened as former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was freezing hiring, pushing out senior diplomats, eliminating projects, and proposing budget cuts of up to 31 percent isn’t the best look! “How can you, on the one hand, tell diplomats that basic needs cannot be met and, on the other hand, spend more than $50,000 on a customized curtain system for the ambassador to the U.N.?” Brett Bruen, a White House official in the Obama administration, wondered aloud to the Times.

To be fair, plans for the fancy new curtain system were apparently made during the Obama administration in 2016. Haley “had no say in the purchase,” her spokesperson told the Times. Also, she’s working with a skeletal staff that would barely have time to set out drinks and appetizers while Haley is entertaining, let alone draw the blinds. “All she’s got is a part-time maid,” said Patrick Kennedy, the top management official at the State Department during the Obama years, “and the ability to open and close the curtains quickly is important.”

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U.S. trade talks with China are off to a productive start

And by productive we mean potentially derailed by President Tariffs, who apparently told aides on Thursday to move forward with another $200 billion in levies on Chinese goods, in addition to threatening a third round of tariffs on another $267 billion worth of imports. And while Trump appears under the impression that he has Chinese officials right where he wants them, others aren’t so sure!