Trump has again engaged in a massive self-own, but sadly it will likely fade from the news if not before this day is over then sometime tomorrow. He does after all keep spraying a fire hose of toxic excrement from his mouth and tiny thumbs. Still, it’s worth noting Trump got off on a tangent about trade deals and tariffs. He brought up a trade deal that he simply couldn’t believe the U.S. was part of. The fun part is he questioned WHO had signed the thing on our country’s behalf? Uh, Donnie Boy it was YOU!
An article in HuffPost explains how Trumpty, with his “very fine brain” managed to accidentally insult himself. It’s not like it’s the first time he’s tripped over his too long necktie nor will it be the last. Still, giving how tariffs and trade have and will continue to be in the news, and his particular ire with Canada and Mexico this is worth noting. Let’s backtrack a bit. The trade deal in question was the United States, Mexico and Canada trade deal. The one Trump at the time crowed ‘fixed’ the completely ‘horrible’ NAFTA that he’d made such a BFD about on the campaign trail. According to Trump the USMCA (I’ll get to that) fixed it all, and was a bigly, huge, great and awesome ‘win’ for the United States.
Trump’s new ‘deal’ didn’t actually change all that much. It was more a matter of tweaking and/or updating various parts of NAFTA to reflect changes since the original NAFTA was enacted. Trumpty however does nothing that isn’t bigger and BETTER than anything that’s ever been done before so he made a big freaking deal out of his dealmaking ‘skill.’ Mostly he simply rebranded NAFTA and in what I take as a personal insult stole the name (acronym) and reputation of my Marine Corps with the new name. Instead of USMC (United States Marine Corps) Trump ‘created’ the United States, Mexico and Canada Agreement. USMCA! Get it? It made me want to puke and frankly still does.
However, it was Trump’s baby and he touted the hell out of it. Back in 2020 when he made the deal Trump sang a very different tune than he’s singing now:
Trump praised the USMCA in 2020 as the “best agreement we’ve ever made” and lauded it for replacing the “nightmare” North American Free Trade Agreement ratified under former President Bill Clinton, calling it the “worst trade deal ever made.”
He criticized NAFTA repeatedly during his 2016 presidential campaign against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, blaming her at the time for her husband’s actions.
He was soooooo proud. But that was then and now it’s a whole new set of circumstances. Trump has decided despite all history teaches us that tariffs are a great thing. He’s also now thinking of himself as a King and in fact much more. His delusions of grandeur now are at Master of the Universe level and those damned Canadians and Mexicans are refusing to bow down to him. He will come up with ANY line of bullsh!t on the spot and has resorted to trashing a trade deal he was once so proud of. Better still he’s trashing the ‘idiot’ who signed it! Again, as the linked article tells us Trump said the impacts of the USMCA will be dealt with in a good way for us via his 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico. While at the same time unknowingly(?) criticizing himself.
President Donald Trump is outraged that Americans are footing an unfair financial burden, citing a 2020 trade deal called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that he signed.
The president claimed during a White House press conference Monday that the impacts of the USMCA will be alleviated with a 25% tariff on all Canadian and Mexican goods starting next week, and unwittingly criticized himself after rebuking America’s neighbors.
“I mean, who can blame them if they made these great deals with the United States, took advantage of the United States on manufacturing?” Trump said Monday. “On just about anything, every aspect you can imagine, they took advantage.”
He continued, “I look at some of these agreements, I’d read them at night, and I’d say, ‘Who would ever sign a thing like this?’ So the tariffs will go forward, yes, and we’re gonna make up a lot of territory. All we want is reciprocal. We want reciprocity.”
It’s even money whether Trump has forgotten HE is the one who negotiated and signed the USMCA, or if he’s counting on everyone else to have forgotten that fact. Or at least overlook it. Let’s face it. Trump has good reason to believe the fact HE is the one who cut the USMCA deal will get overlooked by major news outlets. One would think a journalist present during his remarks would have asked a simple question, such as ‘Sir, didn’t YOU negotiate and sign this trade deal you’re criticizing?’ My apologies if you’re eating lunch as you read this and had to clean what you spit out off your computer. The idea of the current crop of ‘reporters’ that now get access to the President asking such a question is laughable. So it seems is Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill or in the pundit class making a BFD out of this.
As noted, I found out about this via a blog. It seems it will be up to those of us who run and write for progressive political blogs to get this and other stories out there. Then for our readers to help spread it around. I get that Democrats in the country, regular voters are discouraged. And tuned out. However we HAVE to help each other re-engage. In the process sometimes we can provide sharp tools to use in discussions with Trump fans, be they family members, co-workers, friends etc. This is an EASY one to hit them with. When they talk about trade and how Trump will “fix” things hit them with THIS. That Trump is trashing both a trade deal and the person who signed it and that HE was the one who negotiated and signed it! Less than four years ago!
Sometimes Trump makes it really easy so by grab we ought to run with it when he does.
*************** Please Note This Message From Ursula***************
Friends, we are struggling to make ends meet. It’s not just us, it’s industry wide. There are star hosts being bumped on MSNBC as we speak. (Joy Reid and Alex Wagner) So if you can afford a small donation or a monthly subscription, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Ursula
You make a valid point. Real news now doesn’t come from so called ‘mainstream media’ but from trusted blogs. Trusted because they’ve proved they are tellers of truths and not handmaidens of despotism. Blogs like this one.