I’ve long said about this whole national nightmare, it’s not entirely, or even mostly, about Trump: it concerns his operatives and supporters. When Trump told the press at the G7 summit that, yes, he had second thoughts about the trade war with China, one could tell from the syntax and tone that he might have had passing regrets, even if he had quickly dismissed them.
That was not enough for his handlers, though:
‘But hours later, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a statement saying Mr. Trump was “greatly misinterpreted,” saying he only responded “in the affirmative — because he regrets not raising the tariffs higher .”’
Larry Kudlow, his sycophantic economic adviser, chimed in, when asked if the U.S. was escalating or de-escalating the trade dispute:
‘”Actually it’s neither, but he didn’t quite hear the question this morning, but his thought was if he had any second thoughts, and he said sometimes he does, he would have actually raised the tariff, not lower it ,” Kudlow said from France. “But there is no change.”’
And now this press hack, denying the obvious.
These are the people who will not only be willing to die in the rubble of Berlin, they will convince a mercurial, vacillating, and ideologically unschooled Trump that Armageddon is the fight he needs to wage in order to show toughness to his base.