EU says it will hit back at Donald Trump with tariffs on Harley Davidsons, Bourbon whiskey, and Levi

[Concerned]

That's interesting, because Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was on MTP.  He hedged on whether there would be exemptions or if Trump would actually sign a tariff order this week.

Just another example of poor communications and messaging from this Administration.  It's almost as though the Administration's left hand is playing the children's game "CandyLand", the right hand is playing "Operation", and supporters of the Administration THINK they're playing 12-dimensional chess.

[INVAR]

Just another example of poor communications and messaging from this Administration.  It's almost as though the Administration's left hand is playing the children's game "CandyLand", the right hand is playing "Operation", and supporters of the Administration THINK they're playing 12-dimensional chess.

That is a pretty good surmising of what is possibly the truth.  I can easily imagine Trump making demands and his staff is saying to themselves once he leaves the room; "We can't effing do that!"  So they run around attempting to govern to the exclusion of whatever inane commands Trump makes, which is how we arrive at so much contradiction from the Executive branch on practically everything.

Trump probably wants to act like Napoleon, and his entire staff spends its time with magic erasers trying to get rid of all the crayon graffiti Trump marks on the walls.

[edpc]

Just another example of poor communications and messaging from this Administration.  It's almost as though the Administration's left hand is playing the children's game "CandyLand", the right hand is playing "Operation", and supporters of the Administration THINK they're playing 12-dimensional chess.

Here's the exchange in question.  Basically, nothing Trump ever says has any meaning.

https://view.yahoo.com/show/nbc-meet-the-press/clip/61071324/wilbur-ross-i-have-no-reason-to

They couldn't have picked a worse messenger, either.  Ross looks like Mr. Burns and barely opens his mouth wide enough to fit in a stick of gum when he delivers his mumbling equivocations.

[EasyAce]

Just another example of poor communications and messaging from this Administration.  It's almost as though the Administration's left hand is playing the children's game "CandyLand", the right hand is playing "Operation", and supporters of the Administration THINK they're playing 12-dimensional chess.

@Concerned
I thought the left hand was playing the Mouse Trap Game and the right hand was playing the Crazy Clock Game. With the mouse always escaping and
the poor sleeping sap turning out to be a corpse.

[corbe]

Reince Priebus on how Trump makes decisions

Erica Pandey 4 hours ago

"He puts rivals around him intellectually. You have people like Wilbur Ross ... and Gary Cohn. And he puts those two guys in front of him and says, 'OK, fight out tariffs in front of me.' And they fight it out, the media covers the fight, but ultimately the decision is made ... So the drama is there, but that is how the president makes decisions."

— Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on ABC's This Week

VIDEO at LINK Below

https://www.axios.com/reince-priebus-on-how-trump-makes-decisions-1520172544-c312ea12-ad10-4649-b363-0f7fb40d5371.html

[edpc]

Reince Priebus on how Trump makes decisions

Erica Pandey 4 hours ago

"He puts rivals around him intellectually. You have people like Wilbur Ross ... and Gary Cohn. And he puts those two guys in front of him and says, 'OK, fight out tariffs in front of me.' And they fight it out, the media covers the fight, but ultimately the decision is made ... So the drama is there, but that is how the president makes decisions."

— Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on ABC's This Week

VIDEO at LINK Below

https://www.axios.com/reince-priebus-on-how-trump-makes-decisions-1520172544-c312ea12-ad10-4649-b363-0f7fb40d5371.html

Trump is essentially 'Dave' from the movie Parenthood.  You have to 'dazzle' him.  The merits of your ideas are inconsequential.  I imagine his staff turnover has gone something like this:


! No longer available

[XenaLee]

The crypto-Economists of TBR spreading the doom and gloom of a non existing trade war should be ignored.  They are the Paul Krugmans of the site.

Non-existing... presently.  But make no mistake.  If Trump follows through on his comment about imposing tariffs on steel and other products, there WILL be trade wars.... and America will come out on the losing end of those wars.   Add to that the end result of that added tax on Americans, virtually negating the positive result of Trump's recent tax reform, and you have a lose-lose scenario. 

The question I have to ask is.... knowing all that, why would Trump even offer up the idea of tariffs?  Who was he trying to appease?  Why, the left (unions), of course.

[EasyAce]

The question I have to ask is.... knowing all that, why would Trump even offer up the idea of tariffs?  Who was he trying to appease?  Why, the left (unions), of course.

@XenaLee
You're half right. He seems also to be looking to appease his fellow crony capitalists. Just ask Whirlpool, the most immediate beneficiary of his imported washing machine
tariff. You can also ask Carl Icahn, an advisor until very recently, who very conveniently dumped millions in steel stock holdings in a Wisconsin steel company just days
before Donaldus Minimus's gum-beating about steel and aluminum tariffs caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to take a big dive largely involving steel-related or steel-
dependent companies. (The company in question, Manitowoc, saw its stock's value collapse twelve percent after Icahn's sell-off and the Dow dive.)

[XenaLee]

@XenaLee
You're half right. He seems also to be looking to appease his fellow crony capitalists. Just ask Whirlpool, the most immediate beneficiary of his imported washing machine
tariff. You can also ask Carl Icahn, an advisor until very recently, who very conveniently dumped millions in steel stock holdings in a Wisconsin steel company just days
before Donaldus Minimus's gum-beating about steel and aluminum tariffs caused the Dow Jones Industrial Average to take a big dive largely involving steel-related or steel-
dependent companies. (The company in question, Manitowoc, saw its stock's value collapse twelve percent after Icahn's sell-off and the Dow dive.)

Well..... I guess half-right is better than nothing...lol.

Bottom line, this latest comment of Trump's was a negative impact one.... and another step (or two) backwards to Conservatives that still supported him, despite that knife sticking out of their (collective) backs.  If Trump follows through on his tariff bent, it will negate the positive results of his tax reform.  Let's hope it's just more Donny hot air.

[Suppressed]

Here's the exchange in question.  Basically, nothing Trump ever says has any meaning.

https://view.yahoo.com/show/nbc-meet-the-press/clip/61071324/wilbur-ross-i-have-no-reason-to

They couldn't have picked a worse messenger, either.  Ross looks like Mr. Burns and barely opens his mouth wide enough to fit in a stick of gum when he delivers his mumbling equivocations.

It is f'in HILARIOUS!

[DB]

It is f'in HILARIOUS!

Par for the course...

 

[edpc]

It is f'in HILARIOUS!

You'd think having Navarro and Ross out there, doing the Sunday show blitz, they'd have their stories straight.  I guess that coffee cup known as Hope Hicks was more valuable than we thought.

[Suppressed]

Non-existing... presently.  But make no mistake.  If Trump follows through on his comment about imposing tariffs on steel and other products, there WILL be trade wars.... and America will come out on the losing end of those wars.   

The problem with having someone as stupid as Trump (and with his emotional issues) doing things is that he hears the word "win" and thinks it's a great idea.

The Allies "won" WWI, but that doesn't mean it was a great thing.  WWII was also a win by the Allies.  But the only reason we fought those was because we had to.  Even though they were "wins," they cost us enormously!

On the other hand, the last steel tariff we imposed cost us 200,000 jobs, and that was just for the year and a half it lasted, and it wasn't imposed in the belligerent way Trump is going about it.  That was without a trade war.

Just imagine the damage little Donnie's trade war will do.

@XenaLee