This is a picture of a magnet that was being sold at Strand's Book Store in New York City a few years ago. No, I did not buy it, but I liked it and took a picture, which I am sharing here now.
Trump's artificial deadline for a trade deal with Canada expired at midnight. Now, tariffs of 35% are being imposed on some Canadian products.
MAGA cult members will claim that this is a victory for Trump. That he is "protecting" the United States from bad trade deal, basically claiming victimhood.
In fact, these are bad and unfair trade deals which Trump is trying to impose - without success - on other nations. Canada did not back down, either time. China has not backed down. Mexico has not backed down. Europe has not backed down.
You know who backed down?
Donald Trump earlier this year. He backed down after the markets took a nose dive, specifically as a result of Trump's declaring a trade war on pretty much the entire world.
Guess what happened yesterday, when the trade deal did not go through?
The markets crashed again.
Remember, Trump fixated almost exclusively on the positive numbers of the stock market as his own measure of the success of his presidency. So far, we are six months into this second Trump presidency. And despite his own predictable proclamations of wild success and huge victories, the actual deals simply are not there. It's all just bravado, much like his claims that he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. Much like his claims that he had orchestrated the end of the brief war between Pakistan and India, when both sides made clear that Trump had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Much like Trump's claims that Greenland and Canada (and the Panama Canal and Gaza) would soon be taken over by the United States.
King Con Don has always been a scam artist. He always promises the world, and then delivers big nothing burgers. He is the president of big, screaming headlines and bold promises, and then the fine print in tiny letters down at the bottom, the stuff that most people do not want to read, which effectively tell you it's your own fault for believing these obviously hyped up claims for the big fix, for the be all, end all.
After all, we have plenty of evidence from before he was president to show as proof of all of this. Declared bankruptcy six times. Bankrupted a casino, which is quite rare and difficult to do. And was time after time advocating one scam after another. Trump Steaks. Trump Water. Trump Vodka. Trump Magazine. Trump Airlines. Trump University.
Folks, it's never been clearer that this guy is never going to deliver what he promised. He never got the wall built, let alone got Mexico to pay for it. He never built that promised healthcare system, which would be affordable and would cover everyone. He said he would pay off the national debt in eight years, but added more than 25% to the national debt during his first term instead, and has so far added over $3 trillion to the national debt in just the first six months of his second term, pretty much to pay for still more tax breaks and incentives to the very wealthiest Americans. No quick end of war in Ukraine. The price of gas and groceries were not lowered.
Oh, and he did not release the Epstein Files like he promised.
So do you believe him when he still declares victory in all of these areas? When he tells you that gas is being sold at $1.99 in some places, do you not feel like your intelligence is being insulted? Show me where gas is going for $1.99 on the day that he declared it. I might take a trip specifically just to see it, frankly.
The more I see what Trump is doing, the more convinced I am that he is making a huge mistake not dissimilar to the one George W. Bush made by leading us into the Iraq conflict. Big, screaming headlines to advertise his case for action back then, too. He also insulted the world on the way to imposing his unjustifiable war in Iraq, as well, a war which the world was very set again. But he and his administration assumed - wrongly - that this would be an opportunity to flex America's miliary muscles. They claimed that the war would end quickly, decisively, in favor of the United States. Instead, we got ourselves involved in a quagmire, one which lasted almost two decades, and which compromised our integrity and abilities before the entire world. Far from showing off our strength and capabilities, we exposed our weaknesses, both moral and militarily. Turns out, we couldn't just march in there and will what we wanted to happen. Not in Iraq, and neither in Afghanistan, the two wars which we fought simultaneously, in our collective hubris.
Now, we have elected a man who waged an economic war on the rest of the world, all at once. He promised that we would be flexing our economic muscles, that this would make us strong, would made America great again.
Only it's not working. Time and again, other countries simply ignore Trump's line in the sand deadlines. Time and again, it was Trump who backed down once the markets began to react strongly and negatively as a result. It's about to happen yet again.
Also, those countries are beginning to form economic alliances and trade partnerships with one another, going around the United States. Far from showing off our power, Trump is showing the world the limitations of the economic power and influence of the United States, much like Bush's arrogance exposed the limitations of the American military.
Isn't it strange, when you think about it? The United States truly was the lading superpower that the world had ever seen in the immediate postwar years. No country had ever exerted the political, cultural, economic and military dominance that the United States enjoyed at the time. No nation had ever enjoyed a higher standard of living, or indeed served as an example to the world of some of what was possible. It was far from being a perfect country, because we sure had our share of problems back then. However, Americans collectively believed that they had something special, and took it seriously. Tried to live up to it, with a mixed bag of success.
The irony is that Americans are growing louder and prouder of this elite status that the nation once enjoyed at precisely the time it is losing it. Just as Reagan ushered in a new era of flag-waving nationalism, the living standards in the country began to stall, as much of the rest of the industrialized world began to catch up. Just as we were patting ourselves on the back for winning the Cold War and beating the big, bad Russians, they turned in anger to a dictator who has clearly manipulated the West in certain ways, in an effort to exact a measure of revenge. Just as we felt entitled to show off our military superiority and capabilities before the rest of the world, we once again fought wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as we had done in Vietnam decades earlier, which actually betrayed our limitations for the rest of the world to see. And just as we are turning to a man who is boasting that he will flex our economic muscles to an awe-struck world, we are watching him bungle and trip and back down, on the way now o showing the economic limitations of the United States, for all the world to see.
Still, too many Americans are basking in self-delusion. We cannot afford to keep going in this direction. We certainly cannot afford to turn to a man who is so clearly incompetent, and offers nothing more than the political equivalent of the same scams and gimmicks, the same smoke and mirrors, which defined his supposed genius as a businessman. We are learning the hard way that he cannot scam and con the world, or run the country like he did his businesses. He is bankrupting the nation, but we are not likely to get away with it as he did, simply by manipulating the system and declaring bankruptcy. There are consequences for these actions, and for his arrogance, to say nothing of the arrogance of those who put him in the Oval Office in the first place.
It's time for Americans to get over themselves and what they want to believe of themselves. It's time for tens of millions of former MAGA cult members to stop drinking the orange Kool Aid and see the man for the con artist he is and always has been. It's time for Americans, collectively, to pull back the curtain on this smoke and mirrors show, before the outside world does it for us. What will we see? It's actually quite predictable. A weak old man using whatever machinery he can to project a thunderous, booming voice and magical strength, all the while scared witless that the curtain is about to be pulled to expose the pathetic and weak old man currently at the controls.
FURIOUS Canada CHECKMATES Trump as TALKS FALL APART
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