I admit, I watched Trump’s press conference at the G6 plus one. The liquor helped. It was bloody awful. How on earth did we elect this abuser to power? Trump acted like a deranged idiot.
Republicans love posturing about how manly they are, which they seem to translate into “aggressive, selfish, and indifferent.” (Real Republican men are homophobes terrified of their sexuality. And women. And women’s sexuality. But I digress.)
Trump is their natural king: scared of women, so he’s dismissive and manipulative. His money is his only power. If Trump wasn’t rich, I wonder if he’d be an Incel Captain. Or would that be ‘Grand Monk’? I’m sure they have ranks, but I shouldn’t give anyone new ideas.
All right. The annual G7. Yeah. Trump arrived late so that he could leave early. I’m sure that makes sense somehow. Trump had his first solo press conference in over a year. He managed to open the speech almost nicely by flatly reciting his words from someone else’s script. Good enough so far, but then things started a downhill tilt. Trump began rattling on about how he was all about the trade, but even though the G7 was mostly about free trade, Trump managed to sound disappointed. Maybe he meant something else?
Then Trump made this sharp right turn. (All the quotes are from the White House transcript.):
…And from the standpoint of trade and jobs and being fair to companies, we are really, I think, committed. I think [the nations of the G7] are starting to be committed to a much more fair trade situation for the United States, because it has been treated very, very unfairly.
Didn’t see that coming. So unfair for Trump! Sad! Then Trump began fishing for outrage, starting with his favorite hits:
And I don’t blame other leaders for that. I blame our past leaders. There was no reason that this should have happened. Last year, they lost eight-hundred — we as a nation, over the years — but the latest number is $817 billion on trade. That’s ridiculous and it’s unacceptable. And everybody was told that.
I don’t have a clue where Trump got that number. The Census report is here. In 2017 we had a deficit of goods of $807 billion in goods, which is close, but we had a $255B surplus in services, with a net trade deficit of $552B. Maybe Trump only likes the big, bad numbers?
So I don’t blame them; I blame our leaders.
(I’m guessing that Trump wasn’t blaming himself.)
In fact, I congratulate the leaders of other countries for so crazily being able to make these trade deals that were so good for their country and so bad for the United States. But those days are over.
Trump went on to brag about North Korea for a while, reminding everyone how important he was, and how nice they were to him. Presumably, so much nicer than the G7 nations.
After a few more self-stroking paragraphs, Trump finished and opened the floor to questions. The first question was a variation on “How does being so important make you feel inside?” Everyone pretended it wasn’t a plant.
Then on to trade.
Q Mr. President, you said that this was a positive meeting, but from the outside, it seemed quite contentious. Did you get any indication from your interlocutors that they were going to make any concessions to you? And I believe that you raised the idea of a tariff-free G7. Is that —
THE PRESIDENT: I did. Oh, I did. That’s the way it should be. No tariffs, no barriers. That’s the way it should be.
Q How did it go down?
(Trump began making stuff up.)
THE PRESIDENT: And no subsidies. I even said no tariffs. In other words, let’s say Canada — where we have tremendous tariffs — the United States pays tremendous tariffs on dairy. As an example, 270 percent. Nobody knows that. We pay nothing. We don’t want to pay anything. Why should we pay?
Nobody knows about the tremendous tariffs because there are none like that between the G7 nations. It’s a lie, just something Trump made up. Trump openly bragged that he lied to Trudeau about a totally fake Canadian trade imbalance. Is Trump back to believing his lies?
[As an aside, I call Trump a liar frequently because he lies a lot. Now, it’s possible Trump really believes this crap. If he does, then no, it’s not exactly a lie. Technically, that’s closer to insanity. I’m going with ‘lie’ as a nicer option than ‘deranged’.]Right. So, “…Why should we pay?” Trump went on:
We have to — ultimately, that’s what you want. You want a tariff-free, you want no barriers, and you want no subsidies, because you have some cases where countries are subsidizing industries, and that’s not fair. So you go tariff-free, you go barrier-free, you go subsidy-free. That’s the way you learned at the Wharton School of Finance.
(Ya worked that in real subtle-like, Donny.)
I mean, that would be the ultimate thing. Now, whether or not that works — but I did suggest it, and people were — I guess, they got to go back to the drawing and check it out, right?
Wait, what? Trump calls for no trade barriers several times in answer to why Trump is launching substantial new trade barriers, all while suggesting he’s the only one lowering barriers?
What?
But we can’t have — an example — where we’re paying — the United States is paying 270 percent. Just can’t have it. And when they send things into us, you don’t have that. I will say, it was not contentious. What was strong was the language that this cannot go on. But the relationships are very good, whether it be President Macron or with Justin. We had — Justin did a really good job. I think the relationships were outstanding.
Good thing there wasn’t arguing. But the G7 nations don’There are no tariffs like that anywhere in the G7. They can’t stop something they’re not doing. Anyway, Larry Kudrow lied for a bit, then Trump was back, looking more cranky than ever.
And it’s very unfair to our farmers. Our farmers are, essentially — whether it’s through a barrier, non-monetary barrier, or whether it’s through very high tariffs that make it impossible — and this is all over the world. This isn’t just G7. I mean, we have India, where some of the tariffs are 100 percent. A hundred percent. And we charge nothing. We can’t do that. And so we are talking to many countries. We’re talking to all countries. And it’s going to stop. Or we’ll stop trading with them. And that’s a very profitable answer, if we have to do it.
It sounds like Trump is stretching to find things that he can rail against. Maybe Trump forgets which nations were in the G7. Perhaps he just didn’t care.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. Another question on trade. You just said that you think that the tariffs are actually going to come down, but it does appear that these various countries are moving forward with retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. Did you get any concessions or any agreements with any of these countries not to move forward with those tariffs? And are you willing to not move forward with —
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if they retaliate, they’re making a mistake. Because, you see, we have a tremendous trade imbalance. So when we try and bring our piece up a little bit so that it’s not so bad, and then they go up — right — the difference is they do so much more business with us than we do with them that we can’t lose that. You understand. We can’t lose it.
And as an example, with one country we have $375 billion in trade deficits.
That’s the deficit with China in 2017, according to the Census Bureau. That’s a complicated issue that Trump oversimplifies. More importantly, China is not one of the G7 nations. It’s hard to know how his ire at China applies with a new trade war with the G7 nations.
We can’t lose. You could make the case that they lost years ago. But when you’re down $375 billion, you can’t lose.
You always lose trade wars. Trade wars are like that: everyone loses massive wealth before we stop. Nobody ‘wins’ that idiocy.
And we have to bring them up.
So there’s very bad spirit. When we have a big trade imbalance and we want to bring it up to balance — just balance — and they keep raising it so that you never catch, that’s not a good thing to do.
Bad spirit and balance sheets. No, that’s not close to how international trade works.
And we have very, very strong measures that take care of that, because we do so much. The numbers are so astronomically against them in terms of anything, as per your question. We win that war a thousand times out of a thousand.
That’s just word salad, but you can see Trump is spinning himself up, puffing himself up for aggression.
In the next question, Trump took a side trip into how unfair NAFTA was (without any specific details). Then another reporter asked a trade war question.
Q How persuasive did you find the Europeans and Canadians when they made the case to you that you shouldn’t use national security as a justification for tariffs?
THE PRESIDENT: They virtually didn’t even make that case.
Maybe because it’s all a lie? Canada and Mexico aren’t likely to invade the U.S., after all. It’s not like they’re corrupting our elections or launching nuclear missiles at us.
I mean, my case is the fact that it is national security; it’s our balance sheet; it’s our strength. It’s absolutely national security. And, you know, if you look at our — just take a look at our balance sheet. We’re going to have a very strong balance sheet very soon because of what we’re doing.
Strength, power, and the purity of our bodily fluids. Balance sheets.
Look, money is money. Nice, but it’s not security.
We have the strongest economy that we’ve ever had in the United States — in the history of the United States. We have the best unemployment numbers. Black unemployment, the lowest in history. Hispanic unemployment, the lowest in history. I don’t mean the lowest in the last 10 years or 20 years. The lowest in the history of this country. Black unemployment is doing the best it’s ever done. Hispanic doing the best. Women are now up to 21 years. Soon it’s going to be the best ever in its history — in the country’s history.
So we’re doing OK? Money isn’t security, but if it were, we’re secure, right?
We have to have deals that are fair, and we have to have deals that are economic. Otherwise, that does, in fact, affect our military. Okay?
Apparently, no, we’re never secure.
Q How do you make that case for autos?
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, it’s very easy. It’s economic. It’s the balance sheet. To have a great military, you need a great balance sheet.
Yeah… no. A nation isn’t a private business. A nation as big as the U.S. works differently than a corner grocery in elementary but essential ways. We don’t, for example, turn a profit or run a loss. It’s macroeconomics, not microeconomics, something Trump didn’t seem to understand.
Managing the economy is one of Trump’s primary duties. He brags about it all the time. Trump is supposed to know this stuff, and where he doesn’t, he’s supposed to use experts who do know this stuff.
But this is Trump. I’m leaning toward that ‘deranged’ option.
In the next question, a CNN reporter challenged Trump a little. About time. Most questioners rolled over without a whimper. The CNN guy asked if Trump was changing our international relationships. It’s an obvious question since he everyone knows that’s what he’s doing. Any prep would have included his answer to such an obvious question.
Trump, of course, was caught unawares, which left him personally offended. Trump lashed out. How dare he! Trump immediately called the reporter a liar and calling CNN as an organization, all liars. Then Trump began lying like a rug:
I would say that the level of relationship is a 10. We have a great relationship. Angela and Emmanuel and Justin. I would say the relationship is a 10. And I don’t blame them. I blame — as I said, I blame our past leaders for allowing this to happen. There was no reason this should happen. There’s no reason that we should have big trade deficits with virtually every country in the world. I’m going long beyond the G7. There’s no reason for this. It’s the fault of the people that preceded me. And I’m not just saying President Obama. I’m going back a long way. You can go back 50 years, frankly. It just got worse and worse and worse.
So… no, it’s not a 10. Shortly afterward, Trump stormed out early, rage-Tweeted insults to foreign leaders. No, this has nothing to do with anyone other than Trump. No, we don’t have big trade deficits with everyone. No, it’s not terrible because of Obama and all prior presidents, because it’s not terrible at all. Trump was making it all up.
It all may be Trumpland fantasy, but there’s a theme. Everything Trump made up was either a fake reason the world was cheating us (all lies) or fake ways the world is unfair to us (all lies). “As an example, the European Union is brutal to the United States.” (Nope, another lie.) Trump pivoted to how great America could be under Trump, and how we would force every other nation to bow before us (highly unlikely).
Now Trump was on a roll. Time for fantasyland to go wholesale:
I asked a top person in China, how did it get so bad? He looked at me, he said, ‘Nobody ever talked to us.’ They were missing in action, our leaders.
Anyone think that’s true and not just Trump self-stroking?
When Trudeau mildly said that Canada would do what they could, but he wasn’t just rolling over, Trump wound himself into a snit of outrage at the backstabbing, traitorous Canadians. Really! Swear to god! The Canadians.
Not that Canada is automatically benign or soft in any way. They’re our most reliable ally. We have a positive trade balance with Canada, and we both earn tons of money from it. They support us to a fabulous degree. Personally, Trudeau was impossibly accommodating to Trump, playing along as much as he could without becoming another stooge. Trudeau was so easy on Trump that it hurt him politically
Not good enough for Trump, who not only insulted our ally, he insulted their Prime Minister personally, all for stating the obvious truth.
I kind of get it. Trump is focused on North Korea. He’s terrified he’ll look weak. To puff himself up, Trump is deliberately crashing about, knocking over the scenery as he blusters and insults our allies. Trump thinks empty aggression makes him look mighty and decisive.
But Trump is weak and gullible and easily manipulated. He’s also incompetent and indifferent to the truth. What Trump thinks is a demonstration of power is just him acting like a jerk-off fool. He can’t see it, but everyone else can tell the difference.
I’m sure the North Korean summit will go fine. The South Korean President – who is doing all the heavy diplomatic lifting – can probably pull it off on his own. Assuming Trump doesn’t blow everything up there, too.
