Maybe the drug Adderall should have its name changed to “Addle-all” because something is addling what few synapses Donald Trump has left. He seems to think that the more he insults people the better off he will be, when the fact is, he’s shrinking whatever coalition he might have had before. Politics is about getting the stragglers outside into the tent, motivating the undecided. Trump has never gotten that. He’s a charismatic cult leader and his “theory” of winning in 2024 appears to be to go full-on MAGA — which is having the effect of alienating people, but you can’t tell him that.
His latest late night screed was against Shawn Fain, the United Automobile Workers president. Trump believes he knows how to run the automotive industry better than Fain. Fain is the “dope” referred to in the headline. Fain has been getting under Trump’s skin lately by saying things like, “he cycled through White House staff like toilet paper.” That is true enough. Fain also called Trump a “scab.”So Trump took out his phone and proceeded to alienate one of the biggest labor leaders in the country. Very smart.
Maybe Trump has forgotten his bozo trade war but nobody else has.
“Our operations (in China) are joint ventures with local companies that overwhelmingly produce vehicles for the domestic Chinese market,” the company [General Motors] said in a statement. “We do repatriate the equity income we earn in China back to the United States, where it is subject to tax.”
Other U.S. automakers have been expanding investments in China hoping to maintain or expand business in the world’s largest car market – an increasingly difficult challenge as that country’s own domestic manufacturers grow.
Tesla opened its first foreign plant – and only its second assembly line anywhere – late last year in China. With the Beijing government pushing for a shift to electric vehicles to address the country’s endemic air pollution, Tesla expects that market to become one of its most important going forward.
Industry analysts say President Donald Trump’s trade policies to date have backfired, sending auto jobs to China instead of saving them for Americans.
Tit-for-tat tariffs on American-made vehicles have made them increasingly non-competitive, forcing manufacturers like GM, Ford, BMW and Mercedes-Benz to turn to local Chinese sourcing. That reduces their exports to what is now the world’s largest automotive market, according to Joe Langley, the associate director of automotive research for IHS Markit.
At the same time, duties on Chinese-made auto goods have increased production costs for U.S. car buyers.
“Vehicles previously exported from (the U.S.) to China are now being relocated there,” said Langley, during a meeting of the Detroit Automotive Press Association.
Maybe someday Trump will figure out how tariffs work, but don’t hold your breath.
Meanwhile, it’s the beginning of an intense week for Trump. He’s waiting for the sledge hammer that Judge Arthur Engoron will bring down on Wednesday. And while he’s waiting, gas prices down, the Dow set a new record above 38,000, and a great (not good—great) GDP report came out this week. Topping it off, like the cherry on a sundae, consumer confidence is up more over the last two months than during any two-month period since 1991.
It’s going to be so much fun watching Trump explode like some big orange Hindenberg.
The Trumpen, er Hindenburg…
And in the old black & white version that became famous there was the radio guy with his “Oh the humanity!” lament. Now it would be “Oh, what tragedy every MAGA isn’t aboard!”
When the door sign says pull to open…he pushes. Then he rages against the workers who made it.
“You don’t get me, I’m part of the union
Until the day I die, until the day I die…..”