Trump is now chanting his current favorite mantra every day - tariffs, tariffs and more tariffs. The old mantra that he chanted during his first term - China, China and more China did not work, and a new mantra has to be invented to fool his supporters. Unfortunately, it worked as those foolish Trump supporters swallowed his lies - hook, line and sinker. Blame them not, as on hindsight, it was a Hobson's Choice, choosing between a rock and a hard place.
As with sanctions falling flat on its face, despite the Anglo-Saxons still flogging the dying sanction horse, trying to scrap the bottom of the barrel to dig for more sanctions against Russia, the new buzzword for Trump is tariffs, the word he already heaped praises to high heaven over its invention but do not understand how it is supposed to work.
Trump does not even know how tariffs work, thinking it is going to punish others, not USA consumers, unlike sanctions. Someone commented that USA citizens must pray harder to God for help since USA leaders are so ignorant of how polices are supposed to work. Trump is going to make China and others great again and, in the process gives de-dollarization a big help.
Meanwhile, Trump has a battle on his hands with his tariffs, when his voters are now realizing that they have been lied to about tariffs, which is now becoming a weapon for self-destruction. The voters were blindsided and took the wrong side of the bargain, the losing side.
But knowing Trump, he can get out of his lies by inventing another lie. Trump is a habitual liar, a compulsive liar as well under pressure. As an example, USA consumers were reported to have complained to Trump about his promise to lower egg prices, which instead of becoming cheaper is now more expensive. I almost fell off my chair laughing when I noted Trump's reply. Trump answered that anything that goes up in price is difficult to bring down. So simple an answer and are the voters convinced? Why did he made the promise earlier about cheaper egg prices when elected during his campaign, which he knows cannot come about just dependent on his whims and fancies to dictate. Already USA farmers livelihood is hanging by a thread, and cheaper eggs will be another rope down their necks.
Anonymous
Fun to count the tariffs being threatened by Trump against the whole world. It started with China, followed by Canada and Mexico, then against BRICS countries and any country dumping the US$, and now against the EU for not buying more USA oil and gas.
ReplyDeleteBy the way the EU is not on the de-dollarization bandwagon and cannot be justifiably targeted right. Therefore, using the excuse of not buying more oil and gas from the USA will now put the EU in the tariff net. Necessity is really the mother of invention.
What about those undeclared and unannounced tariffs coming up against colonies like Japan and South Korea, and allies like India? I am sure Trump will remember them fondly as he goes along and give them his blessing. No use praying to God for exemption, as such prayers will not be answered.
After the tariff regiment is completed globally, it will be interesting to see which is the country that will be most isolated. It will not be Russia or China, I am sure. Russia is immune to sanctions not to talk about tariffs. China is already prepared for what is coming. And both countries have friends and allies as well. Oh, there are attempts to split them with fabricated news of Xi angering Putin and vice versa, which Putin just came out to tell them that Russia and China relations are at a new high. Straight from the horses' mouth and not from propaganda bits and pieces.
By then, BRICS countries can do business among themselves, tariff free like what China is giving 98% exemption from tariffs for Afghanistan, to help the country pick itself up after the twenty long years of USA occupation and neglect. This is what are friends for and certainly not just for exploitation like what the Europeans are going through.