The utterly unnecessary trade war that was started by Donald Trump continues to escalate wildly as the targets of his wrath - mainly historical allies of the U.S. - attempt to deal with his incomprehensibly reckless and childish behavior. Trump's latest attack is on the European Union and their alcohol products, and was triggered by the E.U. having the gall to defend their markets from Trump's inbred hostility.
Click here to post this article on Twitter or Click here to post on Bluesky
From the inception of this economic battle, Trump has steadfastly clung to a justification that has no basis in reality. But despite that absence of any rational foundation, Trump knows that he can rely on his Ministry of Propaganda - aka Fox News - to run cover for him.
SEE THIS: Fox News Trump-Fluffer Insists that the Coming Trump Recession Has Nothing To Do With Trump
Trump's erstwhile Anti-Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, made yet another visit to Fox News to spin her web of lies for the network's cult viewers. She actually spends more time on Fox News than she does in the White Press Briefing room. And on this occasion she came prepared to unleash a particularly egregious falsehood concerning the Trump Tax (aka tariffs)...
"The president will continue to effectively utilize tariffs while again driving down the cost-of-living in this country. Both things can happen at the same time. Just look at president Trump's first term as an example. When he left office inflation was a low 1.4 percent."
There's a lot of wrong in that brief bit of babble. Let's begin with the fact that interests rates were low at the end of Trump's first term because the nation was still recovering from the catastrophic effects of the deadly COVID pandemic that Trump so horribly mismanaged. That is not a scenario that any sane person wants to repeat.
More to the point, Leavitt's claim that Trump can impose tariff's and drive down the cost-of-living at the same time is preposterous. Trump himself "has recently acknowledged that tariffs will cause a 'disturbance.' [and he] declined to predict that America would avoid a recession as a result of his trade policies." So Leavitt is straight-up contradicting her boss.
For the record, Trump's tariff policy is grossly incoherent. On one hand he says that "tariffs" is a "beautiful word" and that they will will raise billions of dollars and greatly improve the economy. On the other hand he says that he will remove the tariffs if his bullying tactics result in our trading partners reciprocating. So he is pledging to revoke the very thing that he said will make America wealthy and boost the economy. Also, he continues to lie that other countries pay the tariffs when, in fact, they are paid by U.S. importers who generally pass the costs on to American consumers.
Even Trump's argument that the tariffs will cause U.S. consumers to buy American is nonsense. First of all, if we buy American, we don't get the funds that Trump lies are generated by the tariffs. What's more, the reason so many products are imported is because they are made cheaper overseas. If we have to buy American, we will be paying more for those products. Unless American companies slash salaries and jobs in order to compete.
So with Trump's policies we're paying more if we buy domestic. But we'll also pay more if we buy imported. And as a bonus he's hurting American workers. It's a lose-lose-lose proposition for Americans across the board, and a recipe for economic turmoil. He appears to be determined to spark either a recession or inflation. Do you think that Trump cares? (You don't have to answer that).
RELATED STORIES:
