Donald Trump still doesn’t know what a tariff is
“If you put 25 percent tariffs on me, I have to react with tariffs.” It sounds like Donald Trump who threatened to fuel a bunch of trade wars – even though he lost the last round – but these are actually the words of Marcelo Ebrard, the economy minister of Mexico. Ebrard has made clear why Donald Trump can’t simply implement the sizable tariffs he’s threatening without any significant pushback to the US economy.
Despite the vow of MAGA and his strongman appearance, Mexico, like much of the rest of the world, has prepared for a potential Donald Trump return, and a lot of the nonsense he got away with last time is probably going to go much more poorly for him on the world stage than it did in the first go-around. While he once had the element of surprise, he’s now going to be little more than an international embarrassment every time he talks.
Tariffs, which he claims is his favorite word, are already having an impact on the economy before he’s taken office – as manufacturers have announced price increases in order to keep up with the cost. Rather than projecting strength, Trump is showing the opposite – appearing weaker than ever before while other countries are stepping up against him. His trade wars may even be over before they start. This is what we need to keep hammering on from here until the next election – Donald Trump is weak, not strong – and he shows it every day in his embarrassing miscalculations.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making