The Negotiator

"Trade wars are good and easy to win," Tweeted President Donald Trump. That was today, yesterday he sent some of his advisors into a frenzy when Trump suddenly called an unscheduled T.V. table time gathering to suddenly announce he would be placing a 25% tariff on foreign steel and 10% on aluminum. The President could not announce any details because there are none. The work on this matter was still in the planning stage, with many of his advisors hoping to derail the action.

Trump may have gone to the Wharton School of Business, though I have not been able to find anyone who saw him there, he certainly didn't learn anything.

Mr. Trump has spent his adult life touting and tooting his superior negotiating skills and grandmastery of the deal but he has displayed none of it as President. His ignorance on most subjects would be amusing except for the fact that his every action effects the entire world.

His proud lack of knowledge is particularly prominent on the issue of trade, which is one of his favorite hobby horses. You'd think he might read a book on Trade or listen to one on audio. But I guess it's really not necessary when you're solely motivated by a private agenda, though charged with a public trust. Coincidentally enough Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was at that T.V. time meeting and strongly supports the tariffs. It is his department which will enforce the tariffs using a rarely implemented law labeling this matter a national security issue. Wilbur Ross made his fortune investing in distressed steel companies but I'm sure he's totally thinking of the public good.

If this is signed and implemented next week, as the President says it will, trade wars will begin. News of the tariffs caused a decline in the stock market yesterday and a massive backlash from Wall Street. But it is main street that had better brace itself because every citizen will feel the pain as prices increase on a very large number of products including cars, construction and even the much loved soda pop.

These tariffs will punish some of our closest allies and friends. Canada is the largest exporter of Steel to the U.S. and South Korea is number three. China exports relatively little Steel to the U.S. but advocates of the tariffs would have Americans believe otherwise. Our European allies responded to this news with a statement that it may be time to look at placing higher tariffs on Kentucky Bourbon and Wisconsin Cheese entering the E.U. market.

If Donald Trump were actually what he says he is, then he would know that trade wars destroy economies and alliances. They enrich a small number of people while the masses suffer and that includes unemployment. If Trump was actually acting in the best interest of the American people he would be targeting only those countries violating trade policies and simultaneously sitting at the negotiating table to cut great deals utilizing those superior skills he allegedly possesses.

"Trade wars are good and easy to win." No they aren't times two and we are sailing into big trouble.