Originally published at: Trump’s Trade Agreements Could Hurt Everyone - TPM – Talking Points Memo
A prevailing narrative has emerged about recent U.S. trade agreements: other countries are bending under the heavy hand of an all-powerful Trump. Axios framed an agreement reached with Japan as evidence of U.S. omnipotence in global trade. Reuters reported a 660% bump month to month in Chinese exports of rare earth minerals to the U.S.…
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Why do Donald Trump and the billionaires who fund him, hate America.
I ask this because it is evident that they are working hard to end the American hegemony. We were the world’s last superpower but Trump is doing all he can to end our superpower status.
Trump acts like he is carrying out the obsolete strategic game plan of Vlad Putin. Trump is a Putin fan so that might explain Trump but how does it explain the tech bros who seem to want the same shit.
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““Until we see a full text of things it’s going to be hard to know what exactly was agreed to,” she said of the EU deal.”
There is no text. There are no details. There is no solid agreement with any of these countries.
It’s all smoke and mirrors.
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Trump doesn’t understand economics, so any of the recent tariff “deals” should only be regarded as political theater. Trump is praised for a radical reordering of the global economy, but the psychology of the moment is more like the final erratic behavior of individuals and firms just before going bankrupt.
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I wonder if there will be at least one, maybe more, multinational corporations that will have to hire more accountants? I mean they might have an American company in their portfolio, that gets parts from another of the corporation’s companies that manufactures in another country, which the American company assembles. Or even assembles in a third country at that.
And for the love of God can someone please explain to me why anyone in manufacturing would listen to a guy whose only experiences are in real estate and hotels?
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The American people will soon tire of these deals if they lead to higher prices or fewer consumer options as foreign suppliers seek different markets.
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The trade deals in question aren’t actually deals at all. Instead, Manak said, they’re proposals or announcements — “sort of a framework for future discussions.”
“Until we see a full text of things it’s going to be hard to know what exactly was agreed to,” she said of the EU deal.
Is the Trump team working off the back of an envelope, or is it a handshake that all agreements are based on?
The MSM is shameful. Is any of this in writing is all I want to know. Of course, it’s all bullshit (and I don’t really care about tariffs), but is any of this greatest-ever agreement on paper?
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Speaking of hurting everyone, a reporter finally asked Trump today about the underaged girls Trump had working in the “spa” at Mar-a-lago that Epstein poached from him. Trump just blathered some jibberish about what what a great spa he had and how it’s all out there and well-documented. But of course, they didn’t ask the obvious question: WHY did Trump have underaged girls working in his spa???
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No envelope— it’s all in his head!
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And he takes everything personally (as he has said proudly).
How’s randy doin?
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In other news, the chocolate ration has been increased to 24 grams! All hail Big Brother!
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Trump is a supremely flawed human being. He is supremely stupid. He is supremely arrogant. He is supremely infantile. His instincts are supremely f_cked up. He possesses no redeeming value.
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Ok, how about you, darcy?
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What Trump has been doing with tariff rates is flatly illegal. There is no justification, as the statutes provide, that gives him the power to jerk tariffs around the way he’s been doing. Why doesn’t anybody in the infotainment media comment on this, or better yet, headline it? Why do government agencies, not yet comandeered by the maganuts, go ahead and enforce these rates?
For that matter, most of Trump’s executive actions are flatly illegal, if not unconstitutional. That’s actually the story. Yet everyone gasps and rushes to comply.
That isn’t the way to stop or even slow down a dictator.
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The infotainment media has been absolutely pathetic on handling the greatest threat to the United States in its entire history. Even worse than the judiciary.
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Better yet, they should have asked the very obvious follow-up: Given that he has admitted he knew Epstien had a predilection for young girls. did Trump know what Epstein intended with the underaged girls who worked for Trump?
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Double-plus good, Citizen Epicurus!
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In other words, concepts of deals.
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Krugman wrote that he could’ve made a better deal for the US by simply doing nothing, by leaving in place the trade agreements we had before Putin’s Cock-holster started all this bullshit – and bullshit is exactly what it is.
#ETTD, you know.
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