Donald Trump is up and he wants you to know that he’s got trade on his mind.
Somehow, he seems to think that the only voices that matter on trade are Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro. That’s a rather unfortunate situation because Wilbur is only awake about four or five hours a day and Peter’s “thoughts” on global trade have been lampooned for years (so, economists knew he was crazy well before Trump brought him on as an adviser).
Trump also doesn’t seem to care too much about the impact of his trade war on the broader U.S. economy or on the stock market. Clearly, whatever he manages to do to prop up the steel and aluminum industries will be overshadowed (bigly) by the downstream losses and higher costs to consumers. This is so painfully obvious that Trump’s supporters in the media and the blogosphere are basically just refusing to mention it because there’s no way to argue with it – well that, and because they’re short on graduate degrees and thus lack an academic leg to stand on when it comes to commenting, although that’s never stopped them from weighing in on politics.
Anyway, Trump is up early on Monday (although not nearly as early as he was up on Friday) and he wants to talk to you about Canada. And Mexico. And NAFTA. And farmers. And drugs. “Here’s Johnny”!….
We have large trade deficits with Mexico and Canada. NAFTA, which is under renegotiation right now, has been a bad deal for U.S.A. Massive relocation of companies & jobs. Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum will only come off if new & fair NAFTA agreement is signed. Also, Canada must..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2018
…treat our farmers much better. Highly restrictive. Mexico must do much more on stopping drugs from pouring into the U.S. They have not done what needs to be done. Millions of people addicted and dying.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2018
So there you go. The tariffs (which aren’t even official yet) will “only come off” (once they’ve been put on) if Canada stops mistreating American farmers.
And as for Mexico, well, just fuck Mexico, ok? Because the drugs are “pouring in” and people are “addicted and dying” which definitely has everything to do with El Chapo and nothing to do with Purdue Pharma, ok? “Believe me.”
The loonie and the peso got hit on this initially, but we’ll see how it shakes out.
All in all, “great” start to the week.
