Thursday, May 31, 2018

On tariffs, Trump dismisses Walker

Trump showed Walker today the realities of power and the limitations of groveling by further ignoring Walker's supplication for relief from Trump's surprise, super-protectionist moves. 

Also dismissed were Walker's ineffective calls and tweets, exposing again "the bigness gap" in Trump's favor which the Washington Post said had kicked Walker's presidential aspirations to the curb.

Walker isn't the first Badger State pol to learn that sucking up to Trump comes with risks. Google "Reince Priebus fired at airport." Or "Paul Ryan quits in frustration" for more insights.

Will Wisconsin Republicans - - from elected officials to rural voters - - ever get the message?

What Trump did today was extend steel and aluminum tariffs to our Canadian, Mexican and EU 'partner nations' he'd earlier said he might exempt from his first tariff announcement.

Because, you know, trade wars are easy to win.

Those nations will retaliate with their own punishing import duties on American products, and that's likely to damage WI farm, dairy and major manufacturers and exporters like already-troubled Harley-Davidson.

In fact, Harley-Davidson is specifically on the EU's retaliatory list.

So Walker gets no cookie for having endorsed Trump for President at the 2016 Republican National Convention, tolerated Trump's misogyny, bigotry and irrationalities, and just the other day saying that he'd be glad to campaign with Trump later this year.

While Walker will never complain out loud that his already-hefty campaign trail baggage just got heavier, there is a silver lining for Team Walker: making up a Wisconsin itinerary for a Trump visit is now a lot simpler.

His staff can rule out photo ops at dairy farms, cheese factories, ginseng growers, Harley-Davidson facilities, metal fabricators, nut processors, beer canners, berry growers, wood product shippers, and others, etc.

In other words, any place without a Foxconn sign.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Manufacturers in various sectors are already seeing big price hikes and a tightening supply. As an example a semi-trailer manufacturer spoke about the Trump tariffs being partly responsible for price hikes and rationing by their suppliers. This is in the publication "Transport Topics" May 21st, 2018 edition