It’s the same old song and dance. Trump is launching a trade war for no real good reason, threatening the economic well being of all involved.
Trump is an idiot. That much is certain. Every day, he works hard to prove to the world that he’s a complete idiot while adversaries like Russia and China sit back and laugh at the chaos that invariably unfolds. In this case, Trump is desperately trying to start a trade war which jacks the cost of everything up and sends inflation through the stratosphere.
The thing is, this time around, we have the benefit of hindsight. The last time Trump threatened his friendly trading partners for no good reason, he was being relatively straight with his intentions. He wants to use economic force to annex Canada and use tariffs to help pay for the war on his own people.
The mainstream media, for their part, tried to apply logic and reason to a man who has neither and argue that he wasn’t really serious about all of this. They argued that it’s a negotiating tactic that is simply another manifestation of him being “bombastic”. They kept returning to border security between Canada and the US and kept arguing that if Canada just appeases Trump (???) on border security, the trade war would never materialize. Of course, as I pointed out at the time, border security is little more than a red herring. He’s dumb enough to really think that he can either absorb Canada or extract huge amounts of wealth from tariffs.
Another thing the mainstream media kept saying on the lead up to when the official orders come down is that since it’s not written down, then it’s not official. Therefore, there is no reason to panic at this point and the mainstream media defaulted back to this being a “negotiating tactic” to beef up border security… for reasons that are beyond me. Well, the day finally came for the orders to come down and, well, they did. Trump, at the time, was explicitly asked if Canada can do anything to sidestep these tariffs. Trump directly said “no”. A journalist pressed Trump and asked if Trump was looking for any concessions from Canada and Trump directly said that he isn’t looking for concessions.
That exchange marked the moment that the mainstream media saw their little theories go splat. I even witnessed one journalist start to panic on the air, wondering if the existential threats were really happening (they were). In response to all of this, I sent and open letter to the Prime Minister and my provincial Premier, arguing that Canada needs to strengthen ties with other international trade partners because we are dealing with a bully. Whenever the bully punches us, we need to find ways of hitting back.
So, I was happy that at least the politicians seemingly understood the spirit of the messages I was trying to convey. In response, they threatened trade retaliation, even going so far as to directly target Elon Musk in the process through his companies of Starlink and Tesla. The tactic worked and Trump finally backed off, delaying the tariffs for 30 days. What’s more, some, including Trudeau, started talking to other world leaders and openly telling the public that they are working to strengthen trade ties with other nations and being less reliant on the US. These moves were music to my ears because this is precisely the action I was hoping to see in response to this insanity.
Some were thinking that we do have 30 days to work with to reinforce our economic position, but as it turns out, we didn’t even have that much time to work with. Today, I learned that Trump is launching a separate trade war on the entire world, targeting steel and aluminum. This along with separate threats. From the CBC:
U.S. President Donald Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico — a move that prompted sharp criticism from some provincial premiers.
“Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25 per cent tariff,” he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. When asked about aluminum, he responded, “aluminum, too” will be subject to the trade penalties.
Trump also reaffirmed that he would announce “reciprocal tariffs” — “probably Tuesday or Wednesday” — meaning that the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on U.S. goods.
“If they are charging us 130 per cent and we’re charging them nothing, it’s not going to stay that way,” he told reporters.
Now, the logical response here is to threaten to hit back if he dares to even try. European lawmakers, at the very least, were proposing to do exactly that. From the Guardian:
Europe will not hesitate to retaliate if Donald Trump imposes any new tariffs, the European Commission and EU national leaders have said, after the US president announced another escalation of his aggressive trade policy at the weekend.
Trump said he would announce on Monday 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports that would affect “everybody”, adding that reciprocal tariffs on all countries that tax imports from the US would follow on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The European Commission said on Monday it would respond to protect EU interests, but had not so far received any official notification of additional US tariffs on EU goods and would not react to “broad announcements” without details or written clarification.
To me, this is generally the response you need to have. Basically, a “if you hit us, we will hit you back” response. The baffling part in all of this is that Canadian mainstream media seems to be trying to default to the previous position of trying to apply logic and reason to Trump’s position (again, he has neither). There are some who are already suggesting that maybe this is a negotiating tactic and that maybe he’s not really that serious with this latest threat (he is). It’s bizarre because even Prime Minister Trudeau and other political leaders are agreeing that Trump is serious with these threats at this point, yet for some reason, the mainstream media is struggling to see this even after the previous back and forth between Canada/Mexico and the US. I don’t know why because they already have the benefit of analyzing the events of the previous threats.
I mean, seriously, look at what Trump is threatening to do. He is threatening a trade war with the entire freaking planet right now. Just try and tell me there is any kind of logic or reason behind that. The simple fact is Trump is an idiot and he has fewer checks and balances on this go around. He’s going to be doing crazy stupid things like this. For crying out loud, this is the same idiot that is trying to use an executive order to abolish the Department of Education. This is not a logical person we are dealing with here.
All Trump is doing is seeing what he can get away. That’s it. Threatening countermeasures, at this point, is the most effective strategy others have here. I mean, if it worked before, why wouldn’t it work now? Yes, there is the prospect that Trump might decide to escalate things further. I get why the fear. The problem is, the alternative is to roll over and do nothing. That would be far worse because it would signal to Trump that he got away with it and he’ll start looking for what he can get away with next. That is generally worse. In this case, the strategy to employ is if the bully is trying to hit you, you threaten to hit back. If the rest of the world stands up and say, “We’re not going to tolerate this bullshit”, then that increases the chances of Trump, once again, backing down. That’s why I am applauding the European officials here because as far as I’m concerned, they have the right idea for this situation.
