I’ve been battling sleepless nights, fatigue and work-life balance all week as my personal life adjusts to our new reality of having a 10-year-old, a wide open toddler and a newborn daughter. I apologize for my lack of energy in keeping the site updated. This is my third time going through this.
I’m sure everyone has been following the rollercoaster with Trump’s tariffs and trade war with China with trillions of dollars in value in financial markets vanishing one day, only to reappear the next day, only to vanish again the following day, and so on. This version of the American economy that was constructed by Bill Clinton and congressional Republicans in the 1990s is like the Hawk Tuah memecoin.
Yesterday, Trump paused most of his tariffs while doubling down on China and keeping the global 10% tariff. I think he doubled down again on China this morning. Even with this retreat to focusing squarely on China, which everyone agrees is our biggest problem, Trump has imposed the largest tariff since Smoot Hawley in the 1930s. The end of Chimerica is going to cause a lot of disruption in our lives.
The Chinese run their country for the benefit of the Chinese people. America is run for the benefit of big business. It is big business in America who wish for China to be run for the benefit of big business. And a war has started by American big business to get China to change its ways. Donald Trump is the servant of big business interests.
I read Trump’s books obsessively during the 2016 campaign. Through them I found what he really cared about. He didn’t care about abortion, race, guns, gays, big gov, the federal reserve, or many of the other issues most Americans get animated about. He was ferociously fixated on trade deficits, defense pacts, globalism, jobs, and a comprehensive noninterventionist, isolationist, protectionist disdain for other nations as either smart adversaries taking advantage of our stupidity or ingrate parasite fake allies. I loved it! Even his hatred for illegal immigrants is not race-based, but out of a perception that other countries are dumping their human waste on us and making us pay for it. He really does like braindrain because he sees it as getting over on other countries to rob them of their best most educated and talented people, whatever color they are. This is where he really stands and why he does what he does, policy-wise.
I’ve never believed tariffs should have been imposed on so many countries, just the main offenders. What industrial advantage does Australia hold over America, for example?
China has been sucking you (and us) dry for decades. Trump’s measures are long overdue.
One could argue the pros and cons of such measures, but at the end of the day, you either want industrial sovereignty and security, or you don’t.
Trump screwed up. 25 years of Chimercia can’t be unwound at the snap of his fingers. He should have stuck to bullying individual countries for minor but useful concessions – a factory here, increased purchases of US goods there. Now he’s likely to get nothing. The trade deficit may even increase as Chinese goods are routed through Vietnam and Mexico whereas US exports may be harder to ‘launder’.
The only silver lining is that Bessent got him to walk it back before economic disruption crucified the GOP.
Read: It’s been rough out there for Trump copers, so I’m keeping my head down.
‘Donald Trump Pauses Most Tariffs, ‘
Because the treasury bond market took a dive and his advisors told him to back off.