When Trump was asked about the trade war with China at the recent G7 Summit, he expressed that his only regret was that he didn’t raise tariffs higher. Apparently, he isn’t regretting it any longer.
Despite the documented damage being done to manufacturing, corporate investments, and job creation from his Jekyll and Hyde trade war with China, Trump celebrated the Labor Day weekend with another round of tariffaxes. And just to make sure everyone gets to share in the suffering that he and the GOP admits is real but dismiss as minimal and insignificant, this latest batch of tariffaxes are being applied to everyday consumer goods.
Included in the approximately $110 billion of imported products from China are 90 types of boots, slippers, leather shoes, and other footwear; more than 125 kinds of watches and clocks; color TV sets and video monitors; and hundreds of clothing items.
On top of these new tariffaxes on consumer goods, there will be an increase from 25% to 30% on another $250 billion in Chinese imports on October 1. There will also be new tariffs applied to cell phones, laptops, toys, shoes and clothes coming on December 15 that were exempted from this past weekend’s trade war moves.
In a letter last week, over 200 US footwear firms unsuccessfully appealed to the Tariff King to cancel new tariffs on consumer goods, saying in part:
“We are very concerned that this tariff action will create further economic uncertainty. An economic downturn will take away disposable income from U.S. consumers, even as they have to pay more for products.”
The inability of businesses impacted by the trade war to convince Trump to adjust his trade policies shouldn’t be all that surprising. If Trump has been successful at anything, it’s been his ability to blame everyone else for his failures — and his trade war failures are no exception.
Trump blames the Federal Reserve’s monetary policies, and even went so far as to call Chairman Jay Powell a “bigger enemy” to America than Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.
“Three more Central Banks cut rates.” Our problem is not China – We are stronger than ever, money is pouring into the U.S. while China is losing companies by the thousands to other countries, and their currency is under siege – Our problem is a Federal Reserve that is too…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2019
….terrible thing to watch, especially when things could be taken care of sooo easily. We will WIN anyway, but it would be much easier if the Fed understood, which they don’t, that we are competing against other countries, all of whom want to do well at our expense!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2019
….My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2019
Trump also blames one of his favorite targets whenever things go wrong, the “Fake News” media. Apparently, in the warped little world known as Trump’s “very good brain,” his policies are incapable of tanking an economy, but a free and open press are fully capable.
The Fake News Media is doing everything they can to crash the economy because they think that will be bad for me and my re-election. The problem they have is that the economy is way too strong and we will soon be winning big on Trade, and everyone knows that, including China!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 15, 2019
A few days before this latest round of tariffaxes, Trump appeared to respond to the letter he received from footwear companies in a tweet where he accused businesses hurt by his trade war of being “badly run and weak companies” who blamed “small Tariffs” for their struggles instead of “themselves” and their “bad management.”
If the Fed would cut, we would have one of the biggest Stock Market increases in a long time. Badly run and weak companies are smartly blaming these small Tariffs instead of themselves for bad management…and who can really blame them for doing that? Excuses!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2019
When he was president, conservatives rightly criticized Obama for the many times he passed the buck and blamed others for his policy failures. But alas, conservatism has been obliterated and no longer exists in the age of Trump; it’s been replaced with Trumpism and Trumpservatism.
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative.
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