White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was quick to downplay assertions Friday that basically no one under the sun was prepared for Donald Trump's Thursday night announcement threatening billions of dollars’ worth of new tariffs on America's third-largest trading partner, Mexico.
"The President didn’t blindside his own party," Sanders insisted Friday morning, "anyone who’s surprised by this has been living under a rock.”
We take that to mean that anyone who hasn't noticed Trump is an impulsive, petulant manchild capable of flying off the handle at any given moment has been living under a rock.
Naturally, Trump's hasty and potentially disastrous announcement came not-so-subtly on the heels of Robert Mueller dropping a bomb into Trump's conservative media safe space on Wednesday, rejuvenating impeachment talk in Washington. By Thursday morning, Trump had promised a "dramatic” announcement about the border (jingles keys for nativist base). Then Trump rolled out the drama for all to see via tweet, at 7:30 PM ET—something done by no president, ever. Not for a signature policy announcement. Unless you're sullying your pants over a certain I-word.
After all that pristine planning by Trump and his crackerjack team of aides, stocks plummeted immediately Friday morning, GOP lawmakers balked, and internal administration squabbling started spilling out into the mediasphere.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. trade envoy Robert Lighthizer reportedly did not favor taking such rash action against one of the nation's most consequential trading partners. Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley woke up from his Trump-induced stupor to blast the policy as “a misuse of presidential tariff authority and contrary to congressional intent.” Grassley, whose Iowa constituents have already been pummeled by Trump's trade war with China, said the announcement could "jeopardize" Trump's new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) agreement (i.e., NAFTA by another name), which still hasn’t passed through Congress.
Even up-for-reelection-next-year Mitch McConnell dared to question Trump's new tariffs, saying they deserve "serious examination." Apparently, Trump's bedwetting over impeachment didn't meet that threshold. Another 2020 reelect hopeful, Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, hopped off the Trump train long enough to warn that the "livelihoods of Iowa farmers and producers are at stake." Sorry, Joni: Trump's all yours, as are all the policies he’s enacted that have been hosing your constituents.
If only Republicans had known Trump was an impetuous, self-obsessed person who doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything other than himself. If only there had been some sign, any sign, that he might tank the Republican Party, the U.S. economy, and indeed the entire planet to save himself. If only someone could have seen it coming. Just as Sanders said, clearly they've been living under a rock.
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