Just for the record, I want to remind everybody what Donald Trump said about the new USMCA trade deal with Canada and Mexico back when he signed it:
We have negotiated this new agreement based on the principle of fairness and reciprocity.... This is a terrific deal for all of us....This new deal will be the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country.... With this agreement, we are closing all of these terrible loopholes. They’re closed. They’re gone. They were a disaster.... We are requiring a large portion of every car to be made by high-wage workers, which will greatly reduce foreign outsourcing.... This deal will also impose new standards requiring at least 75 percent of every automobile to be made in North America.... This landmark agreement will send cash and jobs pouring into the United States.... We formed a great partnership with Mexico and with Canada.... It’s a fair deal for everybody.
Huh. I guess he no longer feels quite the same way.
Trump is an idiot.
The US, Canada, and Mexico are all running trade deficits. We are all on the same side.
No, everything -- business, family, diplomacy, the US government -- is always an epic battle royale where there has to be a loser who gets fired because that gets the ratings.
It's all just a big TV show to him. Unfortunately we're all trapped in the building with this fucking loon.
Correction:
It's all just a big TV show to him. Unfortunately we're all trapped in the building with this fucking loon, and his 75m fans and enablers who will fight the rest of us all the way as we try to escape this prison they’ve locked us in.
Never forget that Trump would just be a fat orange baby without his cult enabling him every day to rule over the rest of us.
Never forget that Trump would just be a fat orange baby without his cult enabling him every day to rule over the rest of us.
First time I heard I thought of the HS rebel who knew everything about everything and had a few loser-followers who would nod approvingly at everything he said. At a HS reunion when anyone asked about him the answer was unemployed, in jail or flipping burgers. What a difference daddy having $100M makes
I'm sure President Trump was misled by terrible advisors pressed upon him by the Deep State. And didn't Crazy Nancy insist on some changes before Congress approved the deal? I bet they're what's causing all the problems!
Don't misunderstand this. Trump doesn't care about trade deals. He just has to pretend to be the toughest guy on the planet. That's all this is. Remember the Ukraine shakedown over military aid? All he wanted was for them to announce an investigation into Hunter Biden. They didn't have to actually do anything. That's how this is going to turn out. Eventually, Mexico and Canada are going to announce they're going to do something or other. Trump will swagger around, preening to his supporters that he's the best negotiator ever. And there will be no follow-through. Nothing will happen because the Mexicans and Canadians know that actually doing something is not part of the deal.
I don’t doubt what you say about Trump just wanting to appear to be a tough negotiator, and caring not at all about actual results. But why do you think the Mexicans and Canadians know that “actually doing something is not part of the deal,” when - as you say yourself - apparently the Ukrainians didn’t know that they could just say there was an investigation and fail to follow through on it… and now they find themselves in endless war?
"and now they find themselves in endless war"
Don't worry about that! It's far from endless--Trump will ensure that the war ends on Day One, by using his
Art of the Deal skillsfealty towards Putin to force Ukraine tothe bargaining tablesurrender.Ukrainians may not have understood this then, but by now everyone knows who Donald Trump is. Expect some kind of announcement about "cracking down" on something or other. Politicians love cracking down on stuff.
Yeah- everyone now knows who Tubby is, and yet 50% of us still voted for him. Makes ya proud to be an American, eh?
There's a theory out there that says he can't yield an inch on the tariffs because he needs the revenue they bring in, in order to compensate for all the domestic tax cuts he's committed to. Some Canadians are extremely worried about this-- if it was just preening and horse-trading like last time they'd plan to go along this time too, but if it's central to his domestic tax plans then they're really going to be in deep shit.
I haven't seen this specific idea in domestic sources, but I have seen some fragmentary references to how tariffs are the key to re-shoring manufacturing and restoring the 1950s. I don't see how that makes any sense at all, given how fundamentally manufacturing processes and employment have changed since then, not to mention that it would require management and ownership to accept union empowerment and give up their own success in claiming corporate income over the past 75 years. To me it looks like a Ghost Dance cult, but apparently there are people who seriously argue for it.
Whatever the details are, there seems to be a chance that tariffs might really be a non-negotiable central plank in what this administration will want to do. It may be a straw in the wind that the incoming Treasury nominee has been quoted in ways that seem to justify tariffs.
So it may be that the idea they're just meant for show and a dominance display is the best case. Otherwise we'll be living under a mad emperor for real, is all I can say.
I think they're real for a different reason: straight up corruption.
If you can unilaterally declare tariffs, you can unilaterally declare exceptions for companies that are your friends. And who are the Donald's friends? Anyone who lines his pockets.
Smallteams is right: Trump wants tariffs because it will allow him to issue exemptions if corporations pay him “tips” directly to do so. (Thanks SCOTUS!)
…he can't yield an inch on the tariffs because he needs the revenue they bring in, in order to compensate for all the domestic tax cuts he's committed to
Whoever believes this hasn’t been paying attention. Ever since George Bush Sr lost re-election in 1992 - 32 fucking years ago! - Republicans have just cut taxes whenever they can, and not bothered to “compensate” for any of it through finding other revenue sources or cutting spending. They simply dump the tax cuts on the deficit and wait for Dems to clean up the resulting fiscal mess later.
Except the Republicans know there is no fiscal mess but Democrats will fall for their apocalyptic messaging and pull back on doing anything helpful for ordinary folks. The Republicans get a double win from fiscal doomerism: more money for rich people and less for everyone else.
Tax cuts will pay for themselves as the economy booms!
It would be a relief to think the Trump Cult et. al. were doing four-dimension chess on their thinking. But they're really just duh-uh-shiny!
Whoever believes this hasn’t been paying attention. Ever since George Bush Sr lost re-election in 1992 - 32 fucking years ago! - Republicans have just cut taxes whenever they can, and not bothered to “compensate”
"Starve the Beast" That's what conservatives have always wanted. Cut taxes till there's nothing left for SocSec or Medicare, because big donators don't need either.
Good point. The same can be said for deportations. Already various groups are lining up to beg for exceptions. The
graftgratuity opportunities are endless.Correct that this will not bring back manufacturing; it will just shift production from China to other low-wage countries. The way to increase manufacturing in a higher-wage economy is a) make high-margin products (based on fashion/uniqueness/proprietary technology; b) mechanize and/or automate production extensively to reduce labor cost fraction. Both approaches require levels of investment in brand development or R&D or production-technology implementation that exceeds what American MBAs have been taught to consider. Wage and environmental arbitrage is cheaper.
Tariffs in theory make domestic manufacturing more competitive == but only in the domestic market. Internationally, you are still competing against companies paying lower wages and/or costs of environmental compliance.
His signature on anything is worth exactly nothing.
And THAT, sir - is the correct answer.
Also, too:
- Trump saying "I'll do ........... is worthless
- Trump supporting anybody or anything is worthless
- Trump claiming he did.............is worthless
AND - since this lying POS has been and is going to be President - a guarantee of ................. from the USA is worthless.
and any gov statistics that might prove that correct answer, will themselves be worthless because Tubby 2.0 will make sure all those reporting agencies are his. They'll be no reports confirming an uncontrolled pandemic, deficit or hungry/homeless have nots. Everything's gonna be great, and all gov reports will verify it.
The fox isn't just guarding the hen house, he owns the whole friken farm!
Folks at WAPO, CNN or NYT might want to install very strong security doors. Stronger than they had at the capitol on Jan6
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MEOOOOOW...what do you expect from a CONVICTED FELON WHORE MONGER. PUTZ!!! KITTIES KNOW.
In my wildest dreams, i did NOT expect 50% to vote for him
In Trump's experience of business, the people buying his products are suckers. He, as the seller, is the super-smart business mogul who is playing the chumps (buyers).
I think this plays heavily into his thinking on trade. If the US is buying products from abroad, we must be the chumps and suckers. There is no win-win. Only winners and losers, and the guy doing the buying is the loser. This is why Trump has also felt so justified in stiffing his contractors. They were obviously trying to scam him - that's what ALL sellers do.
“In Trump's experience of business, the people buying his products are suckers.”
So very true. And now 75m+ suckers have bought Trump Presidency Forever(tm) as their latest gift to the rest of us. Merry Christmas, America.
I thought the Boomers would take the Greatest Generation's legacy and add equality, environment and education.
Silly me
Well, ya know, all the Felon's cabinet and other picks were "the best people!" -- until they weren't. Don't expect consistency. Don't expect him ("Him"?) to ever admit to having made a mistake.
Uzmucka (USMCA) was "the Best!!" ... until it wasn't. And watch -- it will be Joe Biden's fault.
The US has a long history of reneging on deals, including treaties with Native Americans long ago, the 1994 Agreed Framework to keep North Korea from developing nukes, and the 2015 nuke deal with Iran. We have not yet broken our commitments to Ukraine under the Budapest Agreement of 1994 ensuring our support for their giving up nukes, but we're about to see that happen.
The usual sequence is: a Democratic president negotiates a deal, a Republican president then breaks our commitment.
So reneging on USMCA could be a first. A president breaking an agreement that he signed himself.
I'm afraid he's just getting started.
Maybe "I signed it, so I'm entitled to break it."
Every statement and speech that he makes is so boring and repetitive.