We Are Still Doing The Wile E. Coyote Thing Where We’re Walking On Air And Holding Up A ‘Help Me’ Sign

The Economist – The world flatters the tariff king.

In hopes of dodging tariffs, countries are offering gifts to Donald Trump.

https://archive.ph/eu5jD#selection-1133.0-1144.0

COURTING THE tariff king is a tricky business. There are no rules, no obvious channels through which to reach him and no guarantee that anyone, apart from the man himself, can make a deal. Maros Sefcovic, the EU trade commissioner, spent hours talking with Jamieson Greer and Howard Lutnick, two of the president’s advisers, yet came away empty-handed. Neither has the authority to cut a deal. “We have offered to negotiate,” says an EU official, “but Greer and Lutnick don’t have a mandate yet. It’s all up to POTUS.”

Donald Trump has positioned himself as the sole gatekeeper of trade with America. Since he unveiled a sweeping set of tariffs on April 2nd, some 70 countries have contacted the White House, hoping to win relief. As Mr Trump’s tariffs were due to be implemented on April 9th, their efforts were intensifying. Although united by a common aim, they are employing a wide variety of strategies, ranging from gifts to threats. So far, few have had much luck.

Even if governments manage to win an audience, the terms of engagement keep shifting. Mr Trump has railed against everything from bilateral trade deficits and food-safety rules to value-added taxes, defence spending and tech regulation. Many of the accusations are entirely baseless. “We must ask: what era do those figures come from?” said Ishiba Shigeru, Japan’s prime minister, after Mr Trump claimed that Japan imposes a 700% tariff on American rice. Officials in South Korea were similarly stunned when he declared that their average tariff is four times higher than America’s. “It is based in fiction,” says Yeo Han-koo, a former South Korean trade minister. The two countries already have a free-trade agreement; tariffs on most American goods are close to zero. South Korea has tried to correct the record through official channels, to little avail.

Some governments have tried to take Mr Trump at his word. If his goal is reciprocity, why not remove tariffs entirely? “Europe is always ready for a good deal,” declared Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, as she proposed zero-for-zero tariffs on all industrial goods, including cars, chemicals and machinery. Taiwan has offered a broad package of zero duties, non-retaliation pledges and expanded investment in America, as it rushes to prepare the ground for talks. Vietnam’s leader has also proposed mutual tariff elimination.

The White House has not been impressed. Mr Trump declared the EU offer insufficient, and repeated his line that the bloc “was formed to really do damage to the United States in trade”, before veering into complaints about America’s unduly large contributions to NATO. Peter Navarro, Mr Trump’s trade adviser, dismissed Vietnam’s proposal, accusing the country of subsidising exports, re-routing Chinese goods and acting as a “colony” for Chinese manufacturers. Even if tariffs are eliminated, he argued, the trade deficit would still remain because of “all the non-tariff cheating that they do”.

A handful of countries have found a way through the chaos by appealing to Mr Trump directly. A recent phone call between Mr Ishiba, Japan’s prime minister, and America’s president appears to have paid off. Japan was promptly bumped to the front of the queue, and Mr Trump has indicated that he will be directly involved in the trade talks. Japanese officials are now assembling a package designed to appeal to America’s president. On the table is not just trade, but investment and military spending. Japan’s offer is likely to include more purchases of American liquefied natural gas, investment in an Alaskan pipeline Mr Trump favours, additional arms imports and looser restrictions on American farm goods and cars—most of which are already covered by a bilateral agreement Mr Trump signed during his first term. Mr Trump has since boasted of a similar suite of concessions from South Korea, following a call with Han Duck-soo, its acting president.

There is a deep weirdness to the whole affair. Even if some countries flatter their way to the front of the queue, it is unclear what, if anything, America stands to gain. The concessions on offer—cuts to tariffs that are already at or near zero, as well as other token gestures—will do little to shift trade flows or reduce deficits. Trade balances, after all, are driven by savings and investment patterns rather than by tariff rates. America’s high demand will continue to drive its trade deficits, regardless of any symbolic victories.

And while some governments come bearing gifts, others are preparing to strike back. On the day that Mr Trump unveiled his tariffs, Brazil’s congress passed a Reciprocity Tariff Bill, enabling it to suspend trade and investment concessions, as well as to revisit intellectual-property rules that could affect American firms. China has slapped a 34% tariff on all American imports and vowed to “fight to the end” in a trade war. And despite Mrs von der Leyen’s talk of a deal, the European Union has unveiled retaliatory measures that target cosmetics, orange juice, soyabeans and vehicles. This is merely its first volley. A second round is expected soon, in response to America’s additional 20% “reciprocal” tariff. All options are on the table, including the use of the bloc’s “anti-coercion instrument”—restrictions aimed squarely at American services, which have so far escaped any retaliation.

If all else fails, there is always reorientation. On April 7th Mrs von der Leyen suggested that the EU was already taking steps in this direction. The bloc, she said, would now “focus like a laser beam on the 83% of global trade that is beyond the US”. Although the EU still hopes to strike a deal with Mr Trump, Mr Sefcovic, the trade commissioner, has warned that it will not wait for ever. In trying to do a thousand different things at once, Mr Trump may end up doing one big thing: harming America. ■

American Greatness – Trump Wannabe Syndrome.

Democrats don’t hate Trump—they want to be him, mimicking his style but failing to connect with voters, exposing their desperation and lack of authenticity.

https://amgreatness.com/2025/03/29/trump-wannabe-syndrome/

By now, everyone and his brother is familiar with Trump Derangement Syndrome, that particular pathology that drives liberals and even many conservatives absolutely batty. Not only does Trump drive his opponents and detractors to fits of apoplexy, but he also compels them to make foolish statements and to embrace positions they would otherwise never even consider. During Trump’s first presidency, at the height of the COVID panic, the left openly and ardently dismissed a vaccine as partisan quackery. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, then running against Trump, openly warned that “his” vaccine was not to be trusted, that they would be hesitant to take it, and that they were sure the experts would not recommend it. As soon as they hit 270 electoral votes, however, that vaccine was suddenly the greatest thing in the history of ever, and you better take it…or else! And while there are good and just reasons to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, it is almost inarguable that the American Left’s obsession with the war, with Ukraine, and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a byproduct of its belief that Donald Trump is on Putin’s side and, therefore, they must do precisely the opposite. Whatever he likes, they hate. Whatever he supports, they oppose. Whatever he says, they say the opposite. And so it has been for roughly a decade now.

Lately, however, a new Trump-related syndrome has begun to manifest among his opponents, one that is equally potent, equally idiocy-inducing, and equally self-defeating. This new syndrome has been prevalent among Democrats for the last several months at least, but only recently has it clearly distinguished itself from all the Democrats’ other pathologies. The key moment in the diagnosis of this syndrome came just the other night, when Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D, TX) spoke at a banquet in Los Angeles and referred to her state’s Governor Greg Abbott as “Governor Hot Wheels.” Abbott, of course, is wheelchair-bound after a freak accident 41 years ago left him paralyzed. Crockett insisted that she meant no offense and adamantly refused to apologize.

In the several days since the incident, critics have pilloried the Congresswoman, who had already been in the news for her brash, combative, and tacky approach to dealing with the second Trump team. Some have said that she deserves to be censured. Others have chalked her stupidity up to the above-mentioned Trump Derangement Syndrome. Still others cheer her on and hope that she remains the face of the Democratic Party for a long time to come, laughing at how terribly her antics play with ordinary voters. All of these folks have valid cases, to some degree or another, yet all seem to have missed the larger point here. Jasmine Crockett isn’t acting like this because she’s mad at Trump or because he’s driven her crazy. She’s acting this way because she admires him, at last subconsciously, and she wants to be like him, to capture some of his winning lightning in Democrats’ losing bottle. This isn’t a case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. It’s a case of Trump Wannabe Syndrome (TWS™).

It isn’t just Crockett. Ever since Trump and Vance won last November, Democrats have been swearing, snarling, and trying to be as crude as possible. A few weeks back, in a premeditated publicity stunt, Arizona Senator (and former astronaut) Mark Kelly (D) filmed himself with his Tesla and whined about how he could no longer stand to drive the car. Once upon a time, he said, it felt like a “rocket” to him, but now he didn’t want it around because it was “built and designed by an a**hole,” meaning DOGE boss Elon Musk. “Wow,” he assumed we’d all say, “such tough talk from an otherwise staid and cautious guy. He must be really fed up!” No one actually cared, of course, but Kelly likely didn’t realize that. He’s a Democrat, after all, which is to say that he doesn’t have a whole lot of contact with actual rank-and-file voters.

Therein lies the rub for Democrats. They see Trump out there swearing and using vulgar vernacular and maybe, once in a while, even making fun of disabled people. And then they see him winning, winning big, and winning among their erstwhile constituencies. And they think to themselves, “I can do that too, you know! In fact, I can do it better than he does it!” So, they try. And they fail. And the voters cringe.

What the Democrats don’t understand is that Trump’s appeal has nothing to do with being crass. There is no doubt that he is crass sometimes, but that’s a function of his personality. It just flows from him, and while it may make the cocktail-party set wince a bit, it nevertheless fits him and seems perfectly natural.

Like all supremely successful politicians, Trump has a gift, an uncanny ability to connect with people in a way that transcends politics and ideology. Ronald Reagan had the gift. Bill Clinton had it too. Even Barack Obama, the Condescender-in-Chief, showed flashes of the gift on occasion. It’s worth noting that the gift is not something one can fake, learn, or imitate. You either have it or you don’t. Jasmine Crockett doesn’t have it. Mark Kelly doesn’t have it. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t have it. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer sure as heck don’t have it. And the more they try to fake it, the more grotesque and cringeworthy they appear.

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump represents something extraordinary in American politics. His connection to average voters, in spite of his vast fortune and privileged life, is as remarkable as it is inexplicable. His Democratic opponents have lost their ability to connect to average folks through policy and rhetoric, and they want desperately to recapture what they once had. Rather than put in the hard work of listening to voters and resisting special interest groups, however, they seek a quick fix. They seek what Donald Trump has. They don’t hate him. They want to be him when they grow up.