Trump has done many things that have generated a lot of headlines, staging raids on immigrants in a blaze of publicity whose purpose seems to be to cause humiliation and please his xenophobic followers. Then we have his widely publicized actions against any program that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), the pet target of right-wing ideologues who seek to bring back unquestioned acceptance of the dominance of white heterosexual males in all public life. Anything and everything that goes wrong is being blamed on DEI.
And we have his withdrawal of the US from the WHO and suspension of all aid programs that serve the needs of people in need. He probably would like to also withdraw from the UN (even though that body has often served to provide cover for US aggression around the world and shield it from the atrocities committed) but he may not want to risk them moving the headquarters from the US.
It is my belief that all these moves, extremely harmful as they are to so many people, are largely being used to generate a lot of controversy in order to cover the things that he really wants to do, though there is no question that Trump and his followers enjoy causing suffering to those whom he sees as not sufficiently loyal and subservient to him.
1. He wants to cut taxes on the wealthy. He does not give a damn about the deficit (Republicans only talk about the deficit when a Democrat is president) but after demonizing it, he needs to appear to do something. For him tariffs are the way to raise revenue. He has told Americans that these tariffs will be paid by the exporting countries, not them. This is a blatant lie but he does not care since his supporters will believe him, at least until the prices on goods increase. So tariffs will be used to claim that other countries are paying for the tax cuts. Trump has decided to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada and 10% on China but not on other countries, at least not yet. Why pick on two neighboring countries that are long time friends and allies for the highest tariffs and less for a country that is a competitor/enemy (depending on who is talking) and nothing at all on other countries? These three countries account for about 50% of US imports but surely we must be getting a lot of imports from the EU and Japan as well? Trump argues that this is retaliation for them not restricting immigrants crossing their borders into the US and, in the case of China, for their supply of fentanyl.
2. The second goal is the removal of as many government regulations as possible that restrict the ability of businesses and the wealthy to make even more money. This will be framed as helping business and improving efficiency even if the consequences are disastrous for communities and the environment.
3. This third is replacing career people, especially professionals, at every level of government and replacing them with loyalists. so that there will be no impediments to implementing this agenda The ‘buyouts’ the current people are being offered are really a threat, in that if they do not accept now, they will be fired later. But there is the danger that Trump cannot legally offer these buyouts and that the people who accept them will be stiffed, the same way that Elon Musk stiffed Twitter employees after he took over the company. His fingerprints are all over this move. Joseph Stalin would be envious at the level of purging of anyone independent from the ranks of government. Whether Trump will take the next step and create Gulags (perhaps in Guantanamo) to send dissidents remains to be seen but given the current trends, that cannot be ruled out.
When this results in government services being disrupted and preventable disasters occurring because of the lack of expertise and competent staff and institutional memory, DEI will be blamed again.
That Trump does not care about democracy and its rules and norms is (or should be) well-known. The only thing that is maybe surprising is the speed with which he is going about doing so. He and his loyalists are like the proverbial bull in the china shop, wrecking everything as they charge around, imposing half-baked plans that they then have to retract or rescind when they turn out to be unworkable or are ordered to by courts.
Now that spineless Republicans dominate Congress, they will not stop him. The US Supreme Court will bend over backwards to try and accommodate all his actions. The only brake on his actions will be the stock market, the only indicator he cares about.
QFT.
What I’ve been saying for months.
.1. The Culture War stuff is just a diversion.
As is the Cruelty Theater known as the ICE raids.
ICE doesn’t have the money, humanpower, or facilities to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants.
.2. The real goal is to make the ultra-rich oligarchies even richer. They will loot the USA any way they can and change the laws to divert even more of our GDP to themselves, i.e. lower taxes on the rich.
As always, just follow the money.
Trump keeps saying it is because Canada and Mexico are letting fentanyl into the USA.
This is a lie right up there with George Bush’s Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, which was used as a pretext for the US invasion. Those Weapons of Mass Destruction never existed and the US knew it.
Canada isn’t a significant source for US fentanyl.
Mexico is doing all it can to reduce the flow of drugs.
The US drug market is demand driven by US addicts.
And, we’ve seen drugs being smuggled in since the 1970s.
What has changed now that makes this a national emergency? Nothing. Drug overdoses are actually going down.
“For the first time since 2018, the United States has seen a decrease in drug overdose deaths. According to the CDC, the U.S. saw a 14.5% decrease in overdose deaths from June 2023 through June 2024.”
I suspect China got a break with 10% tariffs because we need their imports more. Plus with 1.4 billion people, they are much bigger market for the USA and we need that market more.
And, Mexico and Canada are smaller economies than Japan and the EU which makes them easier to bully.
4. Eliminate or intimidate sources of news and facts that criticize Trump
as per Robert Reich on Facebook
You’re forgetting one thing: what’s in it for him? Again, follow the money. He wants to get bribes from people and companies to exempt some products that are subject to tariffs. It probably won’t be public but it will happen. And the EU is next on the list of places getting tariffs.
Also, Trump doesn’t believe in win-win situations. He wants to be seen as a winner so he’ll create problems to create losers so he can declare himself as the winner when things get “solved” even if everyone loses (as is the case with the tariffs) as long as he can point to some made up win. He’s a vandal and an arsonist fireman.
#3
So when FTB gets shut down the next time …
Firing the inspector generals looks like it was also one of his big goals. Or more likely, the goal of someone smarter than him in his government who has more of an idea about how things actually work.
Inevitably someone will claim this is all Trump and his followers playing “4d chess” or otherwise being exceptionally clever while they transform the USA into Trumpistan. And you know what? I don’t even disagree with that. I’m perfectly capable of imagining Trump and his clown posse failing in quite a few dimensions at once.
Let’s have a musical interlude from someone who actually understands what is “great” about America:
Sorry wrong video X-D
I meant to post this one:
Why does that keep happening X-D
Okay, third time’s a charm, I meant to pos this one:
Deporting the immigrants will lead to rise in salaries. Since Trump inherited a full-employment economy from Biden, there is no loose workforce to fill the vacancies.
Also, the new tariffs will rise the price of steel and aluminium. And dropping the incentives of Green transition means US products won’t sell in Europe or Asia.
In other words, US car industry will be in trouble.
@Lassi Hippeläinen:
It’s just just steel and aluminum. Auto production is absolutely integrated across North America, and mostly has been since the original Canada-U.S. ‘Auto Pact’ of 1965. Magna International, the biggest automotive parts supplier in North America, is a Canadian company. And most of the big auto companies have long made use of the fact that cars can be pretty much shipped duty free across the border to spread out and specialize their production lines: instead of needing all cars to be sold in the U.S. actually made in the U.S., they could dedicate entire plants to producing specific models, and just have different models produced in different countries and shipped where needed later.
Anybody who understood the situation knew right from the start that the automotive industry in North America was going to be one of, if not the, biggest loser of a high-tariff situation. The U.S. won’t even have enough parts production unaffected to continue as ‘normal’, because we’ve all been living with an integrated system for sixty years. Heck, the original Auto Pact was signed specifically to deal with tariffs and a brewing trade war at the time.
Which bit of “dictator on day one” was unclear?
The surprising thing here is that you’ve got a “politician” (and those are VERY heavy quotes) who has been elected to office doing EXACTLY what he promised to do, on the timeline he promised to do it. And you’re complaining about it.
@10 Lassi Hippeläinen:
I don’t share your optimism about salaries rising. The oligarchs and other kleptocrats wont raise salaries by any significant amount. They’ve spent decades avoiding that and I doubt they’ll suddenly stop now.the original push for a $15 minimum wage was over a decade ago and we’re still stuck with literally half of that.