Tariffs, Twaddle, and Trump: A Deal Fit for a Dolt

Mr. Big Deal--who brands himself the ultimate dealmaker--is too dumb to know it's a done deal that he ends up with a raw deal every time

Trump Once Again Takes Pyrite and Calls it Gold

Once again, Donald Trump is bloviating and bellowing – not to illuminate, not to govern, but to declare yet another hollow victory in the name of the great American sucker.

Trump’s latest sham? A so-called trade deal with Japan, sold to all the cheering GOP rubes in red hats as “the largest trade deal ever made.” The magnitude of Trump’s triumph, according to Trump, is a 15% tariff on all goods imported into the U.S. from Japan.

It’s less than the 25% Trump had originally threatened, but more than the 2% tariff on Japanese imports before Trump took office in January. By the divine arithmetic of Trumpism, this counts as a win.

Unfortunately, in the reality-based world, tariffs are a tax on consumers. So, in plain English, Trump has raised taxes—a 650% increase, from 2% to 15%—not on the Japanese, but on Americans who import Japanese goods. All goods – electronics, vehicles, and parts.

This is not a blow against foreign treachery; it is a tax on U.S. citizens, enacted in the name of national pride and economic "genius." Meanwhile, Americans will pay more and Trump wants credit for this dunderheaded deal.

And if the people catch on they’re paying more and get pissed? He’ll just go back to his one true love—blaming the Black President. How perfectly TACO Trump.

And what has Trump received in return for this elegant act of economic masochism? A few vague promises of U.S. manufacturing market access in Japan and a phantom investment in the U.S of $550 billion—yes, billion—from Japan.

Like a sideshow barker swearing the bearded lady is a real beauty, Trump assures us this money will create “hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs.” To call this fantasy optimistic is to insult the word. It is more akin to voodoo economics dressed in gold leaf and shoved into a red hat.

University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers looked at this deal on MSNBC and laughed – not a laugh of joy. But the weary cackle of a man watching a toddler stick a fork in an electric socket.

“This is how you fool a president who doesn't understand economics into thinking he's done something,” Wolfers said.

---

WATCH OUR VIDEO ON THIS TRUMP TRAVESTY

Economist Justin Wolfers explains just how ridiculous Trump’s “deal” truly is

---

Trump seems to believe that forcing Americans to pay more for Japanese goods is a blow against Tokyo, and that the Japanese will suddenly yearn for American made goods simply because old man orange demands it.

For example, Trump claims this new trade deal will open up Japanese markets to American made automobiles. Trump fantasizes the Japanese are crying out for Ford F-150’s the size of small apartments. It is nonsense.

As Wolfers notes, the Japanese drive small cars because their streets are small, their fuel prices high, and their tastes in automobiles are not guided by NASCAR.

This is not a difficult equation. If American automakers want to boost their sales in Japan (there have been no Japanese tariffs on US automobiles for a decade now) -- Detroit will have to build what the Japanese actually want, not what Trump thinks they should want.

But this is the essential tragedy of Trump: a man so enamored with his own ignorance, truculence and bullsh*t that he confuses self-concocted illusion for actual accomplishment.

Trump builds nothing, understands less, and yet prances like a rooster atop his own pile of feathers.

In the meantime, the White House is providing no details or guidance on the alleged Japanese pledge. Experts note the $550 Billion Japanese investment in the U.S. would be less than Japan’s investment in the U.S. during the Biden years.

One imagines the Japanese government representatives toasting each other over sake, marveling at the ease with which they snookered a President who negotiates with the fervor of a poker player who thinks a full house means three queens and two McNuggets.

The Japanese know, as many Americans keep discovering, that Trump is—and has never been anything other than—a sleazy pitchman. A seller of snake oil mixed with a witch’s brew of fear, nationalism, and industrial strength nonsense.

Trump’s base, ever eager for a show, cannot distinguish between investment and hot air, economic growth and economic theater.

So, we are left with a U.S. President proclaiming a trade deal triumph and selling the nation the first actual border wall he’s ever actually built—it’s made of fun house mirrors and faces inward. This is a stunt, a grift, a public relations con played on the global stage.

To a world full of regular people, political and economic leaders, and even a Pope, all of whom seem dazed each new day that this is our reality. That the United States of America willfully chose to re-elect this cruel joke of a man as our President.

---

David Shuster is an Emmy award winning broadcast journalist who is best known for his work at NBC News and as an anchor MSNBC. He is a contributor to Blue Amp Substack and co-host of our weekly show (Thursdays, 2pm et, on Substack), “Amped Up w/ Cliff Schecter.”