No, they won’t stand up to him — unless he drives us into a recession. “While Trump is pursuing some policies that many businesses oppose—particularly the moves to restrict immigration and raise trade barriers that are central to his insular nationalism—generally he has aligned with corporate preferences as unreservedly as any president since at least Ronald Reagan (if not Calvin Coolidge). For business, though, the price for those wins is accepting a president committed to publicly stoning companies and individual corporate leaders who cross him.” Read the whole thing.
Rural America might not stand with President Trump and the GOP if this keeps up. “The talking is over. Now we’re fighting a real trade war — and here on my farm in Iowa, I’m on the front line. The dispute between the United States and China poses a direct threat to my livelihood. Because of the new and emerging tariffs on both sides, the things I grow will sell for less and the things I buy will cost me more.”
And Trump’s lackeys stand there insisting everything is fine. “China stepped up its trade fight with the U.S., retaliating against proposed tariffs on Chinese goods by targeting high-value American exports, from airplanes to soybeans, in a tactic Beijing officials say is meant to secure a truce. Hours after the Trump administration unveiled plans to impose tariffs of 25% on Chinese products worth $50 billion, China’s State Council announced Wednesday that it would levy penalties of the same rate on U.S. goods of a similar value.”
How long can the White House stand this? “Pruitt Denies Involvement in Pay Raises in Tense Clash With Fox News’ Ed Henry: ‘My Staff Did’ It.” Pathetic.
I think the “no collusion” line won’t stand up. Paul Manafort should worry: “As 2016 campaign season neared, a Russian national who Special Counsel Robert Mueller now believes was working with the country’s intelligence services founded a consulting firm in Washington D.C. Begemot Ventures International was incorporated in February 2015, occupying an office on Constitution Avenue. Like other firms in the nation’s capital it offered services catering to the politically inclined. But unlike those other shops, Begemot had executives tied not just to an alleged Russian influence campaign, but also a controversial data firm that would later help elect President Donald Trump.”
The Republicans stand no chance if they lose the millennial generation. That’s happening before our eyes. “For decades, youth activism has been a force for major social and political change around the world. The Parkland, Fla., students’ nonviolent mass action is part of a rich history of youth-led movements that have dismantled racial segregation in the United States, rooted out corruption in Brazil and toppled dictatorships in Serbia, Tunisia and Gambia.”
You wonder if he can stand a major stock market readjustment. “President Donald Trump on Wednesday insisted the United States is ‘not in a trade war with China,’ even as the Chinese government moved to impose new tariffs on imports of U.S. soybeans, cars, aircraft and chemicals in retaliation for tariffs Trump slapped on China in late March.” If not a trade war, what is this?
