WSJ Applauds Trump Scrapping ‘Shoot America In the Foot First’ China Tariffs

Being an old fart I grew up getting to enjoy those classic Saturday morning cartoons. The iconic Bugs Bunny stuff from the (for this) aptly named Looney Tunes included episodes with the character Yosemite Sam.

Ole Sam was a crazed ‘Rootin Tootin gun-slinging cowboy’ that blasted his twin six guns all over the place creating havoc.  He had a ridiculous look to him with the crazy hat and bright red insanely long mustache (think too long red ties) with a crazed look about him.

Sound like anyone we know? Anyway the bigly news is that as so many have been hoping Trump has started looking for a way out of the mess he’s caused with his insane China Tariffs  Trump of course is spinning it as a HUGE victory but once again Rupert Murdoch’s flagship publication is calling out Trump by telling the truth on him!

As this article from HuffPost tells us the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board highly approves of Trump’s efforts to back away from the China Front in his disastrous Trade Wars. All of the tariffs have created enormous problems of course but Trump chose to REALLY turn trade with China into the ‘mother of all showdowns’ with his 130% tariff on items imported from there.

China calmly said go screw yourself (after slathering on MORE orange paint to your stupid face) and the effects are already being felt. Ports are suddenly empty of container ships. Port workers and those from trucking companies are suddenly jobless, and store shelves are emptying out.

In addition prices as you know are rising on lots of things. If all that wasn’t bad enough things have been headed towards becoming far, far worse.  Trumpty loves him his tariffs. The current idiotic trade war he initiated with the rest of the world isn’t his first time trying to use tariffs as a weapon of what he believes is ‘necessary payback’ for every other country ‘ripping us off.’

That belief is no more fervent than with China as far as Trump’s concerned.  Unfortunately he’s got equally stupid people he too often listens to egging him on. Like some fight managers pushing a lightweight teenager into the ring with a heavyweight like Muhammed Ali in his prime shouting ‘Hit him! Deck him!’ However some are rooted in the real world and have been trying to get Trump to back down.

Then there’s Wall Street. The markets and big financial institutions, corporations, major retailers and the freaking Chamber of Commerce begging Trump to find a way out. And even prior to now the good ole Wall Street Journal, owned by his onetime most important cheerleader and major benefactor Rupert Murdoch. 

Trump has claimed he has “A very fine brain” but he’s an idiot and always has been. However, he’s been a dangerous one because he’s had power (and no more so while in the Oval Office) and as the saying goes ‘Doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.’

Worse he’s got zero interest in learning. However, even Trump can understand the Dow average. Even he has been able to see the swings of the market (as well as the S&P and Nasdaq) nose-diving at news tariffs are being implemented but recovering when it’s announced they’ve been put on hold.

That’s where we are with China right now. China returned Trumps tariffs with a bring it on attitude and everyone but Trump knew he’d dealt himself a losing hand.  Trump also has some comprehension of poll numbers and he can publicly scream FAKE NEWS all he wants he’s got numbers to look at he knows are accurate.

Those numbers tell him he and the GOP are in deep sh*t because HE dove into it and pulled his Party with him. He’s now even underwater on the economy!  Right now he’s in positive territory on only one issue – trans people’s participation in sports.  That’s a whole different topic I won’t get into here. What matters is that Trump barely got elected, and even at his high mark didn’t have great approval ratings both overall and on specific issues/policies. And with that one exception it’s ALL nosedived.

Trade and tariffs and how it’s hurting Americans (both at the individual and family level and small business to corporations) is the issue at  hand  however. This is the WSJ’s bread and butter. It’s always had a conservative lean. When Murdoch gained control there were fears he’d turn it into a newspaper version of Fox News Channel.

While there’s been some stuff along those lines for the most part the paper, at least at the editorial board level has maintained its gravitas. And boy have they been sticking to Trump’s idiocy in his second term in the WH. Wall Street itself is the financial nerve center of the world which gives the WSJ Editorial Board tons of influence.

They’ve been withering in their criticism of Trump’s tariffs all along. However they are now cheering about Trump seeking a way out. They started out with relatively (given what was to come) mild chiding of Trump’s claim of a ‘bigly win.’

They called it ‘more of a surrender than a victory.’ By itself that would be more than enough to get Trump worked up.  However the Editorial Board was just clearing it’s throat. There’s more than one ‘money quote’ that will have them reaching for the knockout shot and a straightjacket for Trumpty starting with:

“Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs—and by Mr. Trump’s own hand,” wrote the newspaper, whose board has been a fierce critic of Trump’s second-term trade policies, particularly his tariffs.

A “tragedy” of Trump’s “shoot-America-in-the-foot-first approach,” said the paper, “is that he’s hurt his chances of rallying a united front of countries against Beijing’s mercantilism.” “By targeting allies with tariffs, Mr. Trump has eroded trust in America’s economic and political reliability,” it lamented.

It’s that “Shoot-America-In-The-Foot-First” comment that jumped out at me, and I’ll bet Trumpty too! It’s what prompted me to again think of Trump as a real life and evil Yosemite Sam. (Anyone else remember Trumpty not knowing how to pronounce Yosemite? He said YO-Semite!) That’s plenty right there but the WSJ wasn’t done. They took Trump to task for his entire strategy as noted above, but couldn’t resist rubbing it in:

But the possible “silver lining,” said the Journal, is that markets have forced Trump “to back down from his fever dream that high tariff walls will usher in a new ‘golden age.’”

“The age didn’t last two months, and it was more leaden than golden,” it added.

For “Bling-Master” Trump who obsesses over gold even more than the fictional James Bond villain Goldfinger, who tricks out his home and even the Oval Office with ‘gold, gold, more gold and more gold after that.’ It’s a desperate attempt to convince people HE is ‘pure gold’ that crack of “More leaden than golden.” THAT is going to wound him worse than Stormy Daniels publicly calling him a (not even) ‘five minute man with a smaller than average dick!’

Well, any time I know Trumpty is suffering from serious butt-hurt I enjoy the hell out of it. We all need something given that even if this truce holds and the U.S. and China work out a face-saving deal for the long-term a lot of Americans are going to suffer because of the damage already done. Trump by god deserves to share in the suffering.