THE DUMBEST FUCKING TRADE WAR IN HISTORY

Timothy Snyder puts it well: “Trump’s tariffs (which are also likely illegal) are there to make us poor. Trump’s attacks on America’s closest friends, countries such as Canada and Denmark, are there to make enemies of countries where constitutionalism works and people are prosperous. As their country is destroyed, Americans must be denied the idea that anything else is possible.

“In the logic of destruction, there is no need to rebuild afterwards. In this chaos, the oligarchs will tell us that there is no choice but to have a strong man in charge. It can be a befuddled Trump signing ever larger pieces of paper for the cameras, or a conniving Vance who, unlike Trump, has always known the plot. Or someone else.

President Trump on Sunday defended his decision to impose sweeping tariffs on the United States’s top three trading partners, even as he acknowledged there may be “some pain” caused by the economic fallout.

Trump took to Truth Social on Sunday morning after he signed off on 25 percent tariffs on Canada, 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and 10 percent tariffs on China, which appear likely to set off a significant trade war. Trump hit back at critics and argued the decision was necessary because of “major” trade deficits with those countries.

“The ‘Tariff Lobby,’ headed by the Globalist, and always wrong, Wall Street Journal, is working hard to justify Countries like Canada, Mexico, China, and too many others to name, continue the decades long RIPOFF OF AMERICA, both with regard to TRADE, CRIME, AND POISONOUS DRUGS that are allowed to so freely flow into AMERICA,” Trump posted from his Mar-a-Lago estate. “THOSE DAYS ARE OVER!”

Trump argued if companies made their products in the United States, there would be no tariffs. Once again, the “most determined ignoramus I ever met” - in the words of former chief of staff John Kelly - demonstrates his complete failure to understand how the North American economy now works, as a result of the rules Maladministration I negotiated with Canada and Mexico when they tossed out NAFTA and instituted the US-Canada-Mexicotrade agreement in 2018. There is no “domestic production” of any industrial project; parts from all three countries are in all these products - most particularly cars. Slapping a tariff on auto production - which sees a car “cross the border” multiple times, will put new cars more out of reach of average Americans than they already are.

“This will be the Golden Age of America!” Trump continued. “Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not!). But we will make America great again, and it will all be worth the price that must be paid. We are a country that is now being run with common sense — and the results will be spectacular!!!”

Among the goods that will likely cost more are fruit, vegetables, cars, smartphones and, because of the Canadian tariffs, maple syrup. U.S. manufacturers and farmers - which depend on tightly knit North American supply chains - are also likely to suffer, economists have said. Remember the supply chain breakdown during the pandemic? This will be worse.

Trump in a subsequent post claimed the U.S. does not need any Canadian products and suggested Canada “should become our Cherished 51st State.”

Canadian officials have repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. could annex Canada.

The president on Saturday signed tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China that are set to go into effect on Tuesday. Canadian energy imports will only be tariffed at 10 percent. The orders Trump signed do not contain exceptions, and they include a clause that warns Trump may increase the tariffs if the target countries retaliate.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday night that Canada would impose 25 percent tariffs on more than $100 billion in U.S. goods. Trudeau’s likely successor, Pierre Poilievre, called Trump’s tariffs “unjust and unjustified” and called for a “dollar-for-dollar” response.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a post on the social platform X in Spanish that her team was working on a response that included measures to defend her country’s interests, though specific steps were not immediately clear.

China’s Ministry of Commerce said it would file a legal case against the United States at the World Trade Organization. In a statement, the ministry’s spokesperson vowed further “countermeasures” against the United States but did not specify what steps it would take.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said : “This is a self-inflicted wound to the American economy. I’d expect inflation over the next three or four months to be higher as a consequence, because the price level has to go up when you put a levy on goods that people are buying.”

Here are ways this insanity will harm the U.S. economy that you might not be aware of:

The most popular beer in America is Modelo Especial, brewed in Mexico. Impose a 25 percent tariff on Modelo and sales will slide. So, too, will exports of the American barley that goes into Mexican beer. Mexico buys three-quarters of U.S. barley exports, almost all for brewing. The last time Donnie Dimbulb got involved in a trade war, he inflicted so much damage on Iowa corn farmers that he had to bail them out, spending a couple billion that would have been unnecessary had they been able to maintain their export business; he had to jump on this because Iowa farmers almost uniformly vote Republican. The same is true about American barley farmers. He is inflicting direct harm on his own voters. Barley growers don’t care only about how much barley they sell. They care about the price at which they sell it. Prices in exporting sectors such as barley, and agriculture generally, will decline in proportion as prices in the importing sectors rise. The tariffs will be paid in the form of higher prices for imports and their substitutes, and lower profits and wages for everyone who works in export industries.

The greatest harm done by tariffs is concealed in a way that prevents the harm being seen directly. For example, the largest glassmaker in North America is Vitro, a Mexican company that operates plants in the U.S. and Canada, but it operational center is Monterrey, Mexico. Few US individuals buy big sheets of industrial glass; thus we do not see or care about the price. But what about the price of a new apartment? That depends on the cost of construction. Which depends on the price of the window systems that clad the apartment building. Which depends on the price of glass. Which Buford J. Bollix just raised by 25 percent. Figure an increase in 5% on the rent of a newly-constructed apartment, the prices of which are already approaching astronomical.

The White House occupier says he wants Canada and Mexico to clamp down on “illiegal” immigration and fentanyl. Perhaps, if Mexico agrees to crack down on “illegal border-crossing,” and both agree to take some action to crack down on fentanyl, he will lift the tariffs. These actions might be substantive, or they might be purely symbolic, like China’s concessions back in Maladministration I - which of course the Chinese government reneged on while Trump said nothing and continued to proclaim his actions led to success.

Should Mexico and Canada get the tariffs dropped by taking symbolic actions, it will seem to justify those who think Donnie Dimbulb is all bluster and smoke, that all he really is for other countries to bend their knee and “submit” to his power. This is clearly the best possible outcome for all concerned, as morally distasteful as it is.

But even that outcome leaves us in a worse position than we were. The uncertainty regarding the trustworthiness of Anerica generated by these events will be considerable. U.S. businesses - including many major manufactuers - that rely on imports from Canada, Mexico, and other U.S. allies will be unable to make long-term plans for sourcing. The businesses that rely on exports to the rest of he world will have to worry about future trade wars and future retaliations. The one thing business and finance dislike the most is uncertainty; it makes things difficult and increases costs. Becoming a country whose word is no longer its bond is a long term disaster.

Being part of Donnie’s alliance is already working to the discomfort of Elmo. Sales of Teslas in the EU are down since he promoted the AfD and gave support to other right wing populism; Poland is proposing that Tesla be banned from the EU because of Elmo’s Nazi enthusiasm. Tesla owners are getting rid of their cars because owning and driving them harms their image. The company that has the largest fleet of Teslas for business announced on Saturday that they are no longer going to use them and will get rid of those they have. Personally, bad news for Elmo is good news for everyone else, but this may spread to other American companies.

Cletus J. Bumfuck is sending our country, which was on firm financial footing, into instant economic calamity. He is destroying the security built over 80 years through mutual benefit; the word of the United States is now the word of Cletus Bumfuck, which has been proven bad in every deal he has ever made every time for the past 50 years. No one trusts him, and now no one trusts us - he was an aberration the first time, but coming back as he did this time informs the world there is something dangerous about this country.

Like individuals, a national reputation takes a long time to build, and it must be tended to daily. Loss of such trust comes fast and seldom returns. People and countries remember when they are harmed.

As a result, America currently has no real friends in the world anymore because we are an unreliable ally. That is not a good place to be. Over the past 500 years, every power that rose as a hegemon in the Atlantic trade and cultural community has finally made moves that made that country dangerous to all the others, and it has lost its power when the others combined against it. Spain, France, Germany, Britain, the Soviet Union - all have come and gone as the major power in the region. We have now become that threat. And there is an international coalition capable of replacing us.

Unfortunately, their victory will not make the world a better place, as ours did 80 years ago.

Sunday is just another day ending in “y” when it comes to the Traitor’s bullshit. I can’t take a day off or I’d never catch up with the lies. Your support as a paid subscriber makes it possible for me to keep at this. It’s only $7/month or $70/year. And it really helps.

Comments are for paid subscribers.