I think the biggest myth perpetuated on this country is that Donald Trump understands anything about business.
–Gov. Tim Walz
Since Trump’s announcement on Wednesday of import tariffs on a host of countries, markets inside America and elsewhere have unsurprisingly tumbled. The response from practically every sane person worldwide has been condemnation and outrage.
While my own country, South Africa, copped a 30% trade tariff, others who struggle economically like Reunion (73%), Lesotho (50%), Laos (48%), Myanmar (44%), Madagascar (47%), Vietnam (46%), and Cambodia (49%) were punished with ridiculously high tariffs. Meanwhile, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which is barely populated, attracted another 50% tariff while Heard and McDonald Islands, inhabited by penguins only, were bizarrely slapped with a 10% tariff.
While mostly conservative governments use tariffs to stymie free trade, they are widely acknowledged as self-defeating and harmful. Given that Trump is heading a barely competent right-wing government, it comes as no surprise that he would pull a batshit-crazy stunt like this, but what in the world was he trying to achieve by slapping tariffs on the poor penguins? Sabotage their lucrative trade in penguin guano to the US?
Theories as to why Trump is purposefully destroying the economy range from conspiracist to confused. Some people are saying that there’s a conspiracy led by Trump of rich assholes to deflate stock prices so that they snap them up at lower prices and further enrich themselves when the tarris are lifted. Others are saying that Trump is just boosting his rotten ego by asserting and insinuating his immense power over other world leaders.
Yet, more are saying that he’s a malignant narcissist who really doesn’t know any better. Then there’s the offering by someone I know who claims it’s yet another ruse to divert attention away from Israel’s latest egregious war crime. However, I don’t think that still works unless my confidence in moderately intelligent people’s incredulity is severely misplaced.
Or maybe it’s a scary combination of all of these.
There’s no doubt that Trump is a seasoned grifter. This could very well be the swindle of the ages. That’s if he gets away with it, but he does have a nasty record of getting away with it. It doesn’t help that the citizenry, steeped in a culture of celebrity and dollar worship, is so susceptible to his wiles.
It also doesn’t help that Trump, with the minimum of baiting, cajoling and threatening, regularly attracts a horde of fawning sycophants, who take up permanent residence on his ample butt cheeks, just waiting for an opportunity to crawl all the way up to whisper in his ears. However, their sycophancy is far from being frowned upon and finds favor with many Americans. Philospher, Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam wrote in his 1509 work “In Praise of Folley” that:
The less talent they have, the more pride, vanity, and arrogance they have. All these fools, however, find other fools to applaud them.
Neither Trump nor anyone in his circle of ill-repute seem to care the slightest about the effects these tariffs will have on ordinary people in America and worldwide. I have only seen that level of callousness in Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing cabinet. Is it any wonder, then, that these same people are ardent supporters of Israel and its genocidal campaign in Gaza?
Currently, Trump’s cabinet, which is made up of hand-picked praise singers, is desperately trying to spin the fallout from the tariff announcement. The Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick (who is being appropriately nicknamed Nutlick), is calling the tariffs a necessary surgery that requires healing. He’s asking Americans to accept the pain and hardship coming their way.
On another front in this tariff war, right-wing media such as Fox News are valiantly spreading the pro-Trump, pro-tariff propaganda. Fortunately, they’re being roundly mocked and laughed at. At the same time, Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, who could make Cold War Soviet propagandists blush, is trying to fend off journalists with a mixture of evasiveness, bluster, and outright lies.
While many good people in America fight daily to revive good governance, the corrupt two-party electoral system and the entrenched influence of money in politics remain an unbreachable barrier. Trump did not invent the system, which is sustained by Republicans and Democrats alike. He merely made the best use of it.
American politicians love to bandy the word “terrorism” around with comical impunity. It’s only fair that the rest of the world reciprocated by calling this conspicuous bullying through the levying of tariffs what it really is: economic terrorism.
lenny unencumbered 