If you thought having a reported blackout drunk running the Department of Defense was beyond the pale, it’s probably because you never thought of a WWE wrestling announcer heading the Department of Commerce. In this brave new Trump world we have both. And it is a trifle unsettling. What really makes it so is that Howard Lutnick does not seem to grasp the very obvious fact that Trump will have to find a scapegoat for all the tariff chaos and guess what, Howard? Tag, you’re it. Then I wonder if this tune will change.
Does this remind anyone of the WWE wrestling? you could almost imagine Howard Cosell doing the play-by-play. What would Trump's stage name be?
— Hilliard MacBeth CIM FCSI® (@hmacbe) March 12, 2025
A stage name for the bestest, most orangeness, most perfect physical and mental speciman ever to walk the earth? Gee, let’s take a moment and contemplate that one:
- Orange Menace
- Tangerine Terror
- Butterball Felon
- Agent Orange
- Stable Genius
- Hamberder Hellion
Feel free to chime in. Some of these are from Twit/X, some are mine. And Lutnick wasn’t through. Oh, no. He knows that Fox News’ number one viewer will see him and he lays it on with a trowel.
“You’ve got the smartest, most intuitive guy driving tariff policy,” Lutnick said. “I am indeed helping him execute his policy. The economic team is one. We’re doing it together.”
Careful what admissions you make, Howard. They may come back to haunt you. Donald is going to need a fall guy before too much longer and you will find out the meaning of ETTD.
President Donald Trump is struggling to message a scattered economic agenda, but his Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, is taking the blame.
White House and administration officials, as well as Trump’s outside allies, are growing increasingly frustrated with Lutnick, privately complaining about the close proximity he has to the president and the counsel he is giving him on economic issues. It’s an exasperation compounded by recent television appearances, they say, that suggest a lack of understanding of even the basics about how tariffs and the economy work. He has also at multiple points over the last week gotten out in front of the president on announcements and contradicted his messaging.
Those factors, coupled with an abrasive personality, have left Lutnick with few friends in the administration — and a growing consensus within it that he could be forced to take the fall for the economic turmoil generated by the president’s unsteady tariff policies, according to five people close to the administration. The Dow slid nearly 500 points Tuesday after Trump announced and then walked back new tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, amid ongoing economic uncertainty — after closing 890 points down Monday.
Lutnick, one of the people close to the administration said, is “constantly auditioning for Trump’s approval.”
“He’s trying to be a mini-Trump. I don’t think he got the memo that only Trump gets to be Trump,” the person said. “It just reinforces that he doesn’t really know how to do the job.”
I’m pretty sure that what we see and hear in terms of photo ops, is what Lutnick thinks is “doing the job.” The plain fact of the matter is that these Pushmi Pullyou tariffs can’t go on forever. Canada has made that clear. And so something definitive is going to have to happen. And if it involves Canada making 1.3 million Americans pay 25% more for electricity, then that might be how it goes down. The real countries in the real world don’t want to play Trump’s stupid games, they aim to get on with life.
The blustering and posturing that both Trump and Lutnick do is only so good for so long. At some point you have to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. That’s where all this is going to fall apart.
Right now Trump and company is blaming Biden for everything but how long can that last? Another month? Two, maybe? Since Trump dropped many points in a recent CNN poll which has 56% of those polled unhappy with the way he’s handling the economy, maybe that reckoning will come sooner rather than later.
And when the reckoning comes, heads will roll. And it won’t be Donald’s head, it will be his underlings. And Lutnick is right there at the top of the food chain. Lotsa luck.
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I sometimes use “Mendacious Orange”.
To borrow a line from a recent TV ad, how about “Unnecessary Action (or Inaction) Hero? “
THE CORRUPTOR
I always liked bilirubin butt licker. Putin’s pussy. Or my fav. Dead Donnie