Allies’ bullying gives symbolic results – but betraying significant weakness.
Donald Trump likes to talk hard on trade. He is full of cunning when he threatens to possess the force against a friend and the enemy to return the American primacy he feels that other politicians are too weak to affirm. In 2018 Trump Twitter“If a country (US) loses a lot of billions of dollars to trade with virtually every country with which it leads business, trading wars are good and easy to win. An example when we decreased by $ 100 billion with a certain country, and they become cute, no longer Trade – we are easy to win! ” detach a Financial times Reporter, “Our tariff strategy will shoot at first and ask questions later.”
You do not need to be a psychologist to know that this type of hypermacho-maco is often compensatory, masking deep uncertainty about weakness. There is no reason to think that words will match the act, especially with a figure such as Trump, a characteristic way of aggressive hyperbola is invariably dishonest. Trump’s lie is an integral part of his policy and public person who is rooted not only as Huckster real estate but also as an entertainer. In addition to his career as a star of a realistic show, Trump has mastered the art of public demonstration over the years as The adaptation of the world wrestling for entertainmentWhere he was friends with the disgraced Impsario Vin McMahon (whose wife Linda McMahon, the nominee Trump, who is the Minister of the Ministry of Education).
Trump is a real policy, because professional struggle is a real sport: a parody that has a popular appeal because it offers pleasure over the top stories. Professional fighters often participate, as well as the heroes of the Homer epic, in long, rhetoric enthusiasm. They insult each other, give each other nicknames, fight, and then, as you may require a plot, suddenly goes from bitter enemies to the best friends. Professional struggle gave us a useful word “kayfabe” which is meriamic-webster determines Because “the silent agreement between professional fighters and their supporters pretend to openly resolves the event of struggle, history, characters, etc., true.”
So far, in the second term, Trump’s trade wars were pure scabies. They were noisy, attention and complete surprises of the stories, but they are only a little more related to reality than hostility between Hulk Hogan and Andre Giant.
To date, the main mark of Trump’s trade wars was that it mainly went after the countries considered close allies (Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Panama, Colombia), with a softer focus on the alleged geopolitical competitor in America (in particular, Strikes from 10 percent tariffs against 25 percent threaten from Canada and Mexico). Moreover, Trump’s overall attraction was in the Western Hemisphere, with the grand proclamation of the new “explicit fate” (the proposals of “Canada” as the 51st state and take over imperial control over Greenland from Denmark). Finally, in each of these hemispheres trading wars, Trump quickly got into the victory after a purely symbolic triumph, when his alleged antagonist simply made concessions to save faces aimed at giving Trump headlines.
In other words, Trump just struggles with false matches at the struggle, allowing him to defeat his chest, as well as to take a significant surprise where he again goes from friend to the enemy. It can be a great buzz, but it is little related to economic or geopolitical reality.
Current Issue
It is necessary to register in detail how fake wars were. Let’s take the countries one by one.
Mexico: Trump paused at the threatening tariffs after agreement with Mexico President Claus Sheinbaum, who said to send 10,000 troops to help secure the US/Mexico border if the US is working to stop the stream of weapons in Mexico. As Washington Post Catherine Rampel columnist notes“Anyone who reported that Mexico acknowledged that Trump did not admit anything to force him to detain the tariffs, did not make a homework. Trump may boast that he made Sheinbaum take his commitment on 10k troops on our border. Apparently he doesn’t I understood that there were already 15 ks in Mexico. ” Trump did not receive anything, while Sheinbaum has received a serious concession.
Canada: Again, Trump paused at the tariffs after the agreement with Justin Trudu, who promised $ 1.3 billion for border costs, as well as “new commitments” such as creating a border king. But again, Trudu agreed to what he had already announced earlier (the border plan for the first time swam in December). As a right log National review notices“” New obligations “either meaningless or not new.” Both with Mexico and with Canada, National review Complaints, Trump is a “cheap date”. Another outstanding Trump, convenient for Trump, the editorial page The Wall Street Journalcame to the same conclusion is marked The fact that Trump flashed in his tariff war and only won “minor concessions”.
The most unreality of the entire trade war can be seen in the fact that Trump and Vice -President Vnes made Fentanyl smuggling from Canada. According to Vens“Canada noticed a mass increase in Fentonil’s trade across its border.” Really like Aaron Reichlin-Melic from the US Immigration Council notes“Fentanyl’s total attacks on the US -Canadian border since October 2021: 69 pounds. Overall the 2023 financial year, two pounds of fentanyl were confiscated. The idea that Canada is the main center for Fentonil’s trade is a fantasy.” On the Mexican border, Most of the fentanyl It is forbidden to come from US citizens, returning it home. In other words, this is a problem of demand, not an offer. The threat of Canadian and Mexican smuggling of Canadian and Mexican Fentanyl is nothing but an unintention Kayfabe.
Gentlemen. Trumps such as outlets such as Washington Free Lighthouse advertised What they saw as the main victory of the administration: Panama stated that he would not continue belts and a road agreement with China. It happened after Trump threatened to take over the Panama Canal. But as a French foreign policy analyst Arno Bertrand notedThis framing does not understand the nature of the initiative on the belt and the road, which is not an official alliance, but simply copes with work on projects. Panama simply stated that there were already politicians since 2019, when President Panaman Laurentin Kortitsa dismissed major projects on the belt and road. Bertrand notes:
The only major project that is ongoing is the $ 1.3 billion bridge on the channel built by Chinese companies (and which Panama will not cancel because it is already going well). As Panama, there are no new BRI projects in Panama. So, it is the announcement that it refuses BRI is probably a mutually coordinated conversation between Washington and Panama to make it similar to the fact that the pressure we have reached something when it essentially does not change anything.
Colombia. Trump with Colombian President Gustava Petro on the treatment of departments was falsely represented by Trump and a proxy US press as a victory for the American leader. But as a careful analysis in Current affairs It shows that this is another case where Trump has taken a compromise that produces a face that makes a return to the older status. As Current affairs notes:
Trump wanted deportations to be accepted by military aircraft in the United States. Colombia refused to receive deported in this way. Trump has not successfully forced Colombia to accept its conditions. Instead, the US government took part in Peter’s demand to be allowed to determine how migrants came home.
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The template is clear. Trump turned the proverb of Theodore Roosevelt to talk quietly, but carried a large stick. Tariffs really allow Trump to speak loudly, but they are very small sticks (largely, because they scare Wall Rate, which creates an incentive for Trump to complete trading wars quickly). From time to time, Trump uses tariff threats to obtaining miserable or non -existent concessions that allow him to declare himself a winner.
This Kayfabe act is a way of an exciting Maga fans, and it also won the puddles with increasingly major media frames. But in the real sense, Trump’s tariff wars are not, as it states, proof that America is recovering after a global decline. Rather, they are a symptom of the empire, which is increasingly on the boom, retreating in the pleasure of fantasy to avoid reality.
Despite the fact that the exercises in the spectacle, Trump’s trade wars will have real consequences: they sow distrust of the allies. Even in a country integrated from the United States, as Canada, anti -Americanism increases, with the need to unleash with the US in economic and diplomatically perceived not only the left but also the central elites. In the US, the main effect of trade wars is distraction. Trump’s affiliation threats to the Panama Channel, Canada and Greenland create good headlines to hide true dangers such as Elon Musk Attack on integrity State payment systems. One of the most important tasks of Trump’s era is the ability to distinguish the ropes from the upheavals.
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