If You Break the China, You Own It

In TrumpWorld, if you wait a few days to write about his latest meltdown then there's a good chance that that will zip past you as the next one comes crashing in -- and then the next.  So, it's almost belated that I didn't write about Trump's crazed China comments on only this past Friday, three days ago.  But since it was the weekend, sometimes you have to take a breather.  Still, though, the words remain active and substantive. 

And all I can think when I read them is that they're from a person who once describes himself as a "very stable genius."  The only word there that doesn't apply is "very."

As a starting point, and one that continues to resonate, we had Trump tweet about China that the United States is "better off without them. The vast amounts of money made and stolen by China from the United States, year after year, for decades, will and must STOP. Our great American companies are hereby ordered to immediately start looking for an alternative to China".

By the way, for the record, here's a fun note to keep in mind -- if the U.S. economy was actually "better off without" China, then American corporations would have stopped doing business selling to China long ago.  And the tag "Made in China" would be a relic from the past.

As bizarre as the being "better off without them is, though, it's the last half of the tweet that goes flying off the rails.

The first reaction when reading it is -- just on general principal, who rationally thinks U.S. business is "better off" not trading with the largest country in the world??!

But more than that is the uncertainty if this was this an Official Order or just yammering?  Which is never a good place for a president to be.

Does this "order" mean -- corporate interests aside (which is where most media analyst landed) -- that no American should buy products made in China?  That would seem to be the clear intent.  Just imagine how that would disrupt the U.S. economy enough corporations could tool back up in new factories.

Imagine if any Democratic President made such an "order" to all U.S. companies that they should not only cut all ties with China...but do so "immediately."  Imagine if that president making such an order to American business was Barack Obama!

But the thing is, of course this "order" was just yammering.  There was absolutely nothing official about it, nor will there be.  Trump subsequently tried to point out that he has the right to declare such an economic "emergency", but he's not going to do so, it would devastate the U.S. economy.  And if he did declare an "emergency," it would be a bad news/worse news situation.  For the bad news, Not only does Trump have a terrible historic record trying to convince the courts that his "emergencies" are really emergencies, but there is pretty clearly no "emergency" here,.so he's likely to lose again -- if he tried.  But the worse news is if he won in court.  Because the damage to the economy and the fury from the business community would come crashing down on Trump and destroy even his dream of a second term.

In the end, this is just what Trump does, try to create a crisis so that the public will rally around him.  But they didn't in 2018 when he warned of an "invasion" by migrants, and they aren't going to here.  The only people who will rally around Trump on this are his far-right acolyte base, who have already rallied around him so tightly that there's nowhere else to rally.

Who knew the Pottery Barn Rule was so prescient?  If you break the China, you really do own it.

And none of this even touches on her other horrific tweet on Friday, one that I think is even worse.  After all, this one above was more idiotic than damaging, since nothing will come of it.  But he also tweeted --

"My only question is, who is our bigger enemy, Jay Powell or Chairman Xi?"

This is not normal. It is also absurd. For the record: keep in mind, too, that Jay Powell (the U.S. Fed Chairman) -- who is not an "enemy" in ANY way -- was appointed to his job by Trump!  And to compare his own appointment, the U.S. Fed Chairman, to the despotic dictator of China, is dangerous and sick.

Not to mention that it's Trump's own policies that resulted in the announcement the day before that the U.S. now has a trillion dollar deficit.
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As always -- this pathetic "order" to American business and the psychotic charge against his own Fed Chairman is not about Trump, because we know who he is. This is about Republicans in Congress who enable him, are silent about all this and are complicit.

Ultimately, every Republican in Congress should be asked if they agree with a U.S. president making such an "order" to American business.  And if they think the U.S. Fed. Chairman is an "enemy" to the country.

​They should be asked -- because this is about them.  Not the very stable genius.