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#74 | Posted by shrimptacodan at 2025-02-05 02:49 PM
TOLD YOU WHAT THIS WAS.
a tool
Iran has just made an "overture".
Iran has made many "overtures" before, during and after Trump-1 - "deny, delay, deflect" is their game, too.
BTW, here's Iran's latest "overture" over Trump shutting down USAID - Tehran, 2025-02-04:
Iran has rare praise for Donald Trump. Trump's cuts to U.S. foreign aid funding could stop the opposition in Iran.
Re "tool" - everybody knows it's a "tool" that only impresses and makes the "Apprentice" cult followers drool and makes Trump feel like he is a "great dealmaker," but except for show and ill will, delivers nothing of substance that couldn't be done with plain conversation with trade partners. But then, there wouldn't be a show, and no claiming "wins"... and what's the fun in that for Trump?
Maslow's Law: "When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" - he only knows "this one weird trick" that is not needed with friendly small/weaker countries that rely on and value trade with the US, and doesn't work with stronger countries (like Canada, Mexico, China, EU-10 etc.) who can use counter-tariffs that will hurt US economy/employment, and could specifically target weaker industries, as we've just seen.
Tariffs should only be used in cases of product dumping (selling below their cost), but unfortunately has evolved to be used for protectionism (which didn't work), and now as an "invitation to [some] negotiation" - that's just stupid, and really invites trading partners to diversify their sales channels to depend less on unpredictable trade with US - that only hurts the US in the long run.
Not that Trump cares about the US or the "long run" - he "won" so many "great deals" that ended up in bankruptcies or shuttered businesses that he couldn't find contractors who would work with him and most banks wouldn't lend him money, so he had to launder money from Putin's cronies, before and even after "Apprentice" made him look like "successful businessman."
Here is what Murdoch's WSJ editorial says about the "tool" Trump and his "deals" - "... even though both countries agreed to do things they were already doing" :
|------- Trump 'blinked' before his tariffs could cause real damage
If the North American leaders need to cheer about a minor deal so they all claim victory, that's better for everyone. The need is especially important for Mr. Trump given how much he has boasted that his tariffs are a fool-proof diplomatic weapon against friend or foe. Mr. Trump can't afford to look like the guy who lost. [Claudia] Sheinbaum in particular seems to recognize this, and so far she's playing her Trump cards with skill.
None of this means the tariffs are some genius power play, as the Trump media chorus is boasting. The 25% border tax could return in a month if Mr. Trump is in the wrong mood, or if he doesn't like something the foreign leaders have said or done. It also isn't clear what Mr. Trump really wants his tariffs to achieve. Are they about reducing the flow of fentanyl, or is his real goal to rewrite the North American trade deal he signed in his first term? If it's the latter, there's more political volatility ahead.
Mr. Trump's weekend tariff broadside against a pair of neighbors has opened a new era of economic policy uncertainty that won't calm down until the President does. As we warned many times before Election Day, this is the biggest economic risk of Donald Trump's second term.
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He may look like a "hero" and "genius" to his unquestioning adulating followers, but to the rest he looks to be a tool.
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