Extra
Does Trump Know What He’s Doing?
Amid tariff chaos, Donald Trump assured us: “I know what the hell I’m doing.”
Many Americans are skeptical. Consumer confidence has fallen ( https://apnews.com/article/
Let’s consider our relationship to the world community:
1.Israel: After 90 days of Trump 2.0, the United States’ strongest ally is Israel. Of all world leaders, Trump gets along the best with Bibi Netanyahu. Take a second to consider that.
Trump and Netanyahu have formed a partnership where Israel gets to do what it wants in the Middle East. Israel is levelling the northern part of Gaza, creating a “buffer zone.” There’s been no formal announcement, but it appears that Israel intends to force all Palestinians out of Gaza.
There’s no more talk of a “two-state” solution. It appears that after Israel has levelled Gaza it will annex the West Bank. Bye-bye Palestinian state.
Within the US, Trump intends to suppress criticism of Israel. Any suggestion that Israel is not a humane regime is met with charges of “antisemitism.” Foreign students who criticize Israel are subject to deportation. Universities with anti-Israel protests have their federal grants revoked.
This week, Trump and Netanyahu turned their focus to Iran, worried it will obtain a nuclear weapon. Trump has threatened Iran with war unless they give up their nuclear weapons program.
2.North America: After 90 days of Trump, the US is isolated. We have no close allies other than Israel. It used to be that we could count on our neighbors: Canada and Mexico. However, tariff chaos has caused these relationships to sour. Trump’s threat to annex Canada – turn it into the 51st state – has angered Canadians who now regard us as a deranged neighbor.
3.Europe: Trump and J.D. Vance have been hostile to Europe, the EU, and NATO. Trump levied 25 percent tariffs on the EU before pausing them for 90 days.
Trump does not respect the EU. He insists on negotiating an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict without involving our European allies.
4. Russia: Initially it appeared that Trump intended to form a strong relationship with Russian premier Putin. However, the Ukraine-Russia negotiations have not gone as smoothly as Trump intended. Recently, Russia signaled they are forging a stronger relationship with China.
5. China: Trump invited Chinese premier Xi Jinping to his inauguration and boasted about their relationship. Since January 20th, Trump’s attituded towards China has soured. This past week he levied tariffs on Chinese imports that average more than 100 percent. China responded by slapping reciprocal tariffs on US imports. This will particularly affect our imports of food and natural gas. ( https://www.msn.com/en-us/
SUMMARY: “I know what the hell I’m doing” says Trump. However, former US treasury secretary Janet Yellen called Trump’s economic policies the “worst self-inflicted wound” an administration had ever imposed on a “well-functioning economy”. ( https://www.theguardian.com/
Trump doesn’t recognize the US economy is linked to our foreign policy. If other countries don’t like us, don’t trust us, they’re not going to visit the United States or buy our products. Donald Trump wants other countries to invest in the US: build factories here and pay for the privilege of doing business with us. But no one wants to do business with a jerk.
Since Trump became president on January 20th, he has managed to piss off all our allies – except for Israel. This has strained our traditional alliances: with our North American neighbors Canada and Mexico, with our European allies in NATO, and with Asian allies such as Australia, Japan, and South Korea. In less than ninety days, Trump has alienated these allies and burdened them with onerous tariffs.
Trump has blown up the world order, as wells as the US economy. Trump doesn’t know what he is doing.
