For MAGAts, it's Schrodinger's tariff threats all the way down

4 months ago 9

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Yeah, I know, talking about tariffs, tariff threats and tariff retaliation can get tedious.

But the threats are real. And the US president doesn't care about the destruction of world trade (google "Smoot Hawley Great Depression" if you want a clue) — and the MAGAts don't care about anything much beyond "owning the libs" and all the 4d chess their hero is allegedly playing.

Except it's neither chess nor 4d. MAGAts are now touting the "concrete behavioural changes" the tariff threats allegedly caused in Canada and Mexico. Except, as Phil Magness patiently explains, much of what was "achieved" was either already in motion or could easily have been accomplished through less aggressive means.

Trump boasts his tariff threat brought 10,000 Mexican soldiers to the border. Yet in 2023 he claims that his threat of a wall brought 23,000 soldiers to the border (since dispersed). So "Trump got a significantly worse deal today than he claims he got 5 years ago without any tariffs. Does that mean he got stomped?"

And Canada had already announced in December last year its plans to "strengthen border security* and [its] immigration system." "So Trump's big negotiating 'win'... ...is to get Canada to do what it already announced it was doing back in December. And his 'win' with Mexico is to get them to commit 1/3rd of the troops he previously got them to commit with no tariffs in 2019. 4D chess, everybody!"

As one person wryly commented, "It's the art of claiming credit for the deal."

So how d'ya reckon MAGAts will cope with the revelation of the Great Tariff Negotiator getting played by Justin Trudeau, no less — convincing Justin to "concede" to a plan he'd already announced last year? Magness looks ahead:

Prediction: most of the Tariff Fundamentalists who are touting tariffs as a "negotiating tactic" today will resume their calls for tariffs as an economic protection strategy a few days from now. A few days later they will call it a revenue source. Then a negotiating tactic again.

As another commenter observed, for MAGAts it's Schrodinger's tariff threats all the way down.

Oh, by the way. Whoever disagrees with Trump and the MAGAts on any of this is "an anti-American conspirator" and also "controlled by China."

If words like "imbecile" and "unhinged" occur to you about now, you're not alone.

* * * *

* NB: Note that the border security is ostensibly to arrest to the terrible threat of fentanyl pouring across the Canadian border. Yet:

The amount of fentanyl that comes across the border from Canada is negligible. In 2024, DEA stats that just 43lbs were intercepted at the entire northern border, which is just 0.2% of total fentanyl seizures entering the US in that period.
So even if you think fentanyl is a problem justifying some sort of policy response, it's a complete waste of resources to focus them on the US-Canada border. It's also likely that the increased border enforcement there will create other bureaucratic hassles and inconveniences for routine border crossings, as most police-heavy drug enforcement efforts do.

Like almost everything with Trump, he just makes stuff up. Except "instead of the Big Lie, it is the Little Lie. Thousands upon thousands of them. They keep everyone off kilter trying to rebut them."

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