Media noise, of every political persuasion, abounds with Trump’s second administration. Many Americans choose to listen to only news that aligns with their partisan views, which is living with narrow blinders on. It may feel safe and comfortable to only hear things that bolster your preconceived beliefs and views, but this also requires a lot of lying to yourself when it comes to politicians, because the truth is they all skirt the truth and most outright lie – a lot. If you believe your preferred political leader is the greatest and the other side’s is the worst, well, sorry you are living in a dream world.
Biden was obviously not altogether there, as even his supporters and liberal media now admit and his administration made many terrible decisions, but be prepared, because Trump and his loyal media sphere lie a lot too and Trump’s tariff plan explanations keep changing constantly.
Kitchen table issues quickly cut through to reality and this post isn’t a for or against Trump blog post, it’s about the reality of waging war – any kind of war and strategy.
I hate lying and Trump is like almost all other politicians – he lies a lot. Liberal media made it a point to parse and twist many things Trump said to portray it as lies as a daily part of their reporting during Trump’s first term and their exaggerations led to backlash and helped Trump’s 2024 campaign.
So, where does the rubber meet the road on Trump’s tariff plan. Trump insists that any trade deficit means that country is ripping us off and this is his belief. He initially launched his tariff plan as a trade war on April 2, 2025 with a Rose Garden ceremony touting American Liberation Day and a 10% tariff on all US imports – affecting trade with over 100 countries.
He has bobbed and weaved when the global stock market plunge occurred and many unanticipated negative reactions began to hit – so he paused his worldwide tariff attack.. He believed in a shock and awe type of overwhelming attack without anticipating that other countries do have and will play their own cards. He believes that America can unilaterally hold world trade hostage to his demands and that this is going to Make America Great Again. It’s a poorly planned strategy, that you don’t even need to understand all the intricacies of world trade to understand is flawed. It’s most obvious flaw is he has no contingency plans for negative responses or for how other countries might not just acquiesce to his hostage-taking gambit. He assumes that his bold threats will force all these other countries to grovel and accept his terms. His own top trade advisors tell varying stories about the tariff plan almost every day.
World trade is a complex system with so many variables that impact it and Trump hasn’t considered any of those complexities. He believes that he can strongarm the entire world trade system to operating on only America’s terms, without considering that by upending the entire world trade system, many countries may choose to start looking toward China and their BRICS alliance as a more stable and predictable trading partner than Trump’s ever-evolving tariff edicts.
Acting like America is a victim all the time is a very weak position, but Trump has sold his supporters on believing that America is a victim and can only be great with his big plans. It’s absurd, but most of his loyal supporters buy into this America victimhood story Trump peddles.
The realities of his one-man show trade war, which he started on April 2nd are starting to penetrate. On April 30th Trump made this cavalier comment about kids might have to make so with 2 dolls, instead of 30 and they might cost a few dollars more. CEOs of major companies have rushed to try to talk Trump down from this tariff cliff he’s put America on, where sky-high prices and shortages are looming and his April 30th comment seems to reflect his growing awareness, but he chose to believe in an overly simplistic, grandiose tariff strategy that was more like a hostile US takeover of the world trade system that overwhelmingly favors us already and we set-up. Instead of focusing on the unfair trade practices of China, he chose to target over 100 countries on April 2nd with his blanket 10% tariff idea. He wasted enormous political capital attacking our nearest trading partners, Mexico and Canada.
Are Americans ready to pay a couple dollars more on, not only dolls, but on necessities too? Are they prepared for widespread shortages? It’s unlikely this trade war will end before some of the unanticipated negative reactions hit US consumers. Just like during the pandemic small businesses will feel the pinch faster and be less likely to weather the storm. Poorer Americans have less of a budget cushion to weather economic hard times.
Rest assured though, the Trump family is as much about profiting off of Trump’s presidency as the Bidens, Obamas, and Clintons. Don Jr. announced the opening of an exclusive club, Executive Branch, in DC. He’s a co-founder and the membership fee is $500,000. The Trump family company also announced a luxury golf resort deal in Qatar. This is the truth.
Both sides of partisans look to paint the other side in the most negative manner and I am admittedly not a Trump fan, but I voted for Trump in 2024, hoping for Trump to close the border and to have better economic policy. I didn’t expect Trump to sell Putin talking points on Ukraine and repeatedly lie, blaming, Ukraine for starting the war. Russia invaded Ukraine, a sovereign country, that the US had signed an agreement to protect from Russian aggression. Trump has now pivoted back to sounding tougher on Putin, but his first instinct was to suck up to Putin. This matters, because he also talks about Xi as his friend, but China has a long-term strategy to take control of Taiwan and to replace America as the world economic leader.
Trump’s trade war might have just unintentionally handed China their strongest hand to convince other countries that doing business with them is more predictable and stable than dealing with Trump’s ever-changing tariffs based on his whims. Rest assured if Trump’s tariff plan backfires he will lie about it and blame other countries or some of his advisors. He only claims credit when he looks like a winner, otherwise he will throw other people or other countries under the bus.
If Trump scores some stunning win and America comes out of his trade war stronger and the big winner, I will admit my gloomy concerns were completely wrong. Good thing I don’t need to buy a lot of dolls for Christmas and I have been pretty much sticking to my pandemic preparedness habit… although I have been looking through my food and supplies and deciding what things I should stock up a bit more on.
Trump started this trade war and that is a fact that Trump and MAGA world will try to spin away quickly, if prices quickly rise and shortages abound, as a direct response to Trump’s 145% tariff attack on China. Trump has no contingency plans for how the US is supposed to deal with dramatic price increases or shortages – NONE.
His comment about make do with 2 dolls, instead of 30, and pay more is exactly how leftists, like Bernie Sanders, talk and it’s very close to the mindset of the neo-feudalist elites, who propose we will own nothing and be happy.
The bottom-line for most Americans is we will just have to muddle through whatever the fall-out from Trump’s trade war is. My prediction is his ill-conceived trade war will quickly begin to overshadow all the good policies he actually ran on. There won’t be any quick course correction that can mitigate many of the negative economic impacts already in motion.
I expect many loyal MAGA supporters to start repeating whatever diverting blame spin, which the White House and Trump pundit circle will churn out quickly. The truth is Trump started this trade war with a unilateral tariff attack on the rest of the world. It wasn’t targeted to only America’s adversaries – it was against our allies too. It was a one-man show effort to topple the world trade system and replace it with some new system and it’s based on simplistic slogans and Trump bragging – that’s it. He might collapse the world trade system, but he has no real strategy for a new world trade system or even a plan for how America is supposed to weather the present fall-out, which he should have anticipated. He thinks in grandiose big ideas based on mindless slogans, without any comprehension of the complexities.
That’s my doom and gloom take. People who love Trump will say all the reporting is hyped to cause Trump to fail and cause hysteria. People who hate Trump will say he’s Hitler. My take is he’s an extreme narcissist with the maturity level of a 12 year-old and he easily gets swayed by people who sell BIG dreams to him. I hoped he would be surrounded by adults this time around, but when a crackpot like Laura Loomer was granted a half-hour Oval Office meeting to hand him dirt to sink the NSA advisor, well, that was the wake-up call for me – the old Trump is the same as the new Trump. The more disciplined Trump is a mirage.
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