Trump Threatens Russia With Tariffs. He’s Totally Lost It Now

This is getting decidely strange. First of all, the way things are shaping up it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Elon Musk isn’t running the government, Stephen Miller is. Let that sink in. Miller is Donald Trump’s Martin Bormann. Here’s a description of what Martin Bormann did. You see if it matches up: “Bormann thus became head of the administrative machinery of the Nazi Party, and through intrigue, party infighting, and his shrewd manipulation of Hitler’s weaknesses and eccentricities, he became a shadowy but extremely powerful presence in the Third Reich. He controlled all acts of legislation and all party promotions and appointments, and he had a broad influence on domestic policy questions concerning internal security. He controlled the personal access of others to Hitler and drew up the Führer’s schedule and appointments calendar, insulating him from the independent counsel of his subordinates.”

This is why the transgender people got hit right out of the gate, and the migrants and DEI people were targeted as well. This is pure Miller orthodoxy. And it makes perfect sense. Trump is the front man for a lot of dangerous lunatics who are throwing their weight around and doing sua sponte social engineering. They’re just making it up on the fly and Trump is signing executive orders left and right, not knowing what’s in them. His only interest is money and whatever gets wrecked, gets wrecked.

Trump is, however, being pressured to deal with Ukraine. You remember Ukraine was going to be settled the first day with just a phone call. That didn’t happen. So Trump had to come up with something and he did. And it is a doozy.

First fact check: Russia did not lost 60 million people in WWII, although certainly it lost plenty. The entire death toll of WWII was between 48 million on the low end and 85 million on the high end. And that’s everybody. So where Trump gets this cockamamie stat, who knows?

Second fact check: If you go ask Mr. Google about what Russia imports to the United States, there are a number of items, but none of these are unobtainable elsewhere. Point being, there is some trade, yes, but Russia is not going to collapse without these commodities going to the U.S. and the U.S. can easily obtain these materials elsewhere.

• Petroleum: Refined petroleum is a major export from Russia to the United States. 
• Fertilizers: Nitrogenous fertilizers are a major export from Russia to the United States. 
• Precious metals: Platinum is a major export from Russia to the United States. 
• Iron and steel: Russia exports iron and steel to the United States. 
• Pearls, precious stones, and coins: Russia exports pearls, precious stones, and coins to the United States. 
• Inorganic chemicals: Russia exports inorganic chemicals to the United States. 
• Precious metal compounds: Russia exports precious metal compounds to the United States. 
• Isotopes: Russia exports isotopes to the United States. 
• Cereal and flour preparations: Russia exports cereal and flour preparations to the United States. 

I can’t wait until Robert Reich or Paul Krugman or somebody who is expert in economics weighs in on this. At first blush this is Trump rattling a saber with a dull blade and a handle that’s about to fall off.

Vladimir Putin is personally worth a lot more than $15 billion. That’s a pinch in his pocket and a drop in Russia’s bucket. But Trump — or whomever is pulling his strings — evidently is convinced that this is going to intimidate the Kremlin.

So far Trump is 0 for 2 with Russia. Trump has claimed on two occasions that he’s spoken with the Kremlin and the Kremlin says he has not. So we either believe an American president or we believe the Kremlin and of the two, clearly the Kremlin is the more credible figure.