The Trump tariff grift abuses Americans and loyal allies while serving up corrupt bribery schemes to finagle industry exclusions.
It’s one thing for Trumpism to demonize “criminal” immigrants, attack “woke” federalism, banish drug, safety and consumer protections, make nice with Putin, even concoct this whopping lie – the world’s richest nation is the perpetual victim of a global trade theft conspiracy. What devious demagogues have scruples when gaining power? Trump donors pooh-poohed campaign noise, lies and propaganda as par for the course.
But blowing up the corporate US economy and jacking up basic manufacturing costs while slamming a roaring economy and gutting stock markets – that is beyond the pale. What savvy CEO believes the cosmic stupidity that tariff manipulations are universal cure-alls? That goes beyond Musk mayhem, stunning judicial Stop signs, appalling abortion bans and voter suppression. Undermining corporate vitals with isolationist trade blunders define America Alone, even America Kaput. Merely domestic Trump scams are trivial compared to the price for global landslides.
First off, an abrupt 20% market plunge – absent triggers like bank runs, major bankruptcies, energy boycotts, or disasters like war or Covid – thus needlessly removes trillions (with a T) from the richest stock portfolios. What a shocking reversal for the top 1%, stupidly “investing” in erratic Trump ego plays, to assure business perks and sustain profiteering? Impoverishing blue-collar Trump marks (“taxed” now for basics) is the natural fate of sorry marks. But sharply punishing know-it-all billionaires who want to control everything – now that’s a big-time, trust-busting betrayal. Mistreating greedy billionaires as suckered peasants violates the (corporate) art of the deal – though not for attentive, blackmailed fossil fuel producers.
The Trump tariff grift, ignited by a deranged transationalist in love with dynamite fuses, is like burning down the forest (and not for lumber) to “save the trees” – since they will magically grow back stronger. If the promised Trump tax giveaways depend on this most cockamamie of trade delusions, fat cats not only suffer huge stock losses today but jeopardize the real cash bribe next year – the low tax guarantee they paid for last year. If Trump incites an unforced recession – IMO to show his cajones, then corporate profits will be slammed, the worst way to “lower” taxes. Isn’t crony capitalism fun, at least when it implodes.
A two month prep for a four-year shitshow?
Since Trump hates to back off (without fresh, new “incentives”), lasting tariffs will expose just how wildly expensive will be this jolt of fake populism. Who doubts the current, toxic MAGA “leadership” brew – malice + incompetence + ignorance + bluster + self-righteous monomania – will crash and burn? The unknowns are when – and the enormity of the downsides – including how much damage accrues to the failing, people-battering GOP. As a destroyer of global trade and hard-won trust, Trump mayhem in eight weeks tops the devastation Covid took two years to achieve. “Liberation” day becomes nothing more than America’s (and the world’s) Demolition day – thanks to the Golfer-in-chief.
Here emerges the most dramatic, world-wide exposure of Trumpism, worsened as scared Rethugs demonstrate even less spine than Dems. Is this not a transparent replay of the comic/tragic fantasy world wherein “Everything Trump touches dies”? Defenders claim Trump is trying to fix systemic problems without anyone (certainly not DT) bothering to explain what are the huge, inherited problems to justify radical change. How about today’s controlled inflation? Low unemployment? High stock prices? Years of great GNP gains? Predictable production and supply chains? Low taxes (especially compared to Europe)? Low civil disorder? Fraud-free elections? A relatively independent judiciary? Peaceful transfers of power? High college access and loans? The sovereignty of the majority?
Nothing like squandering relative good times. Yes, there are seriously broken systems dying for reform: gross inequality of income and opportunity, shredded freedoms on free speech and abortion, unjust taxation, excess militarism, climate change, anti-democratic obstacles, and increasingly a police state. But nothing Trump does attempts true reforms, making bad things worse.
The dead end Trump death trip
For six decades, Trump has had two paramount goals: get as much attention as possible and prove he’s always right, indeed infallible, confirming every smarter authority figure is utterly wrong. His life has been a doomed, capricious attempt to show all those highfalutin experts (or blackballing, richer folks) are wrong, whether economists (corporate and academic), wall street analysts, major CEOs, trade professionals and political advisers. Only Trump knows better. By declaring war against his own citizens, the world, key allies, indeed, against reality, Trump tariffs are his highest risk bet ever: either he is totally right – or per experts totally wrong, thus forcing prompt reversals to offset what could be unspeakable outcomes.
We are past caring about all the whys, but these two dynamics started when Trump tried to prove himself to his highly judgmental father he was up to the task, a ‘stable genius” to make the Trump name famous – or infamous as he blunders on. If this criminal politician isn’t deranged, senile, obsessed, whatever, then he has a peculiar sense of humor, one that revels in wreckage to keep himself in the spotlight. Trump’s tragic destiny is to break whatever toys at hand. Finally, a career criminal’s dream come-true: he pushes every limit, oblivious to the mammoth damage, Trump’s perverse version of Disaster Capitalism. But he is an execution putz, now misusing tariff manipulations to create the illusion he is more powerful than Russia or China. Good luck on that.
Clearly, solving problems (like cutting prices) even vaguely related to campaign promises is irrelevant; making yourself a mock master of the universe is everything. Trump’s tombstone invites this summary: “DT lived to uncover all that he could break – and did.” What leader, sitting in the free world’s catbird seat, shoots himself and his country in the head? Without a clue how to link means and ends, this week’s tariff blunders are simply unforced, without context, and to economists like Paul Krugman “malignant stupidity.” Except tragically to a fantasist extortionist waiting for servile CEOs arriving with checkbooks.
It’s now Trump vs. economic reality – or bust
Either Trump rewrites international trade realities for two centuries, unlikely in the extreme, or he gets mortified by defying his own voters, malcontents in his own party, precedents, common sense, fairness, and how modern capitalism works. Making that suicidal bet fits exactly who Trump is – and the real tragedy is how he’s hornswaggled enough marks to believe he is infallible. No doubt, cynics among us posit that Trump the wannabe dictator-for-life wants to crash the economy, then use the inevitable disorder to justify martial law, the suspension of rules, even police-state oppression of growing “enemies of the state.” A reach IMO.
Ominously, MAGA Trump types succeed only if massive internal and external pressures, even elections, cannot impede anti-reality domination fantasies. The question, “Can one putz and enablers wreck the world” is now on the table – and the integrity of the entire west depends on finding ways to reject know-nothing Trumpism. The great worry is the inevitable unintended consequences even when correcting disasters.
Some good news: Trump’s ability to cover up the magnitude of his trade manipulations are visible to the world. His standard ploy – to distract with trolling nonsense (like a third term for an 86 year old!) looks weaker than ever, as ham-fisted as his economic assaults. Congress and CEOs must find a way to “buy off” Trump, perhaps a Nobel prize or a national Trump holiday. Money alone won’t do it. The longer the wreckage endures, the harder to repair the damage – and that leaves a scar of unknowable duration.
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