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Donald Trump's genius has been marketing: himself, his property, his political movement. But when it comes to his tariff impact, the owner either loses a step or faces the challenge of he hasn't figured out how to rotate.
"Someone said, 'Oh, the shelves will be open," the president said Wednesday. "Well, maybe the kids will have two dolls, not 30 dolls, maybe two dolls will cost more." Americans won't "not have to do their best," he said.
The president had previously asked Americans to sacrifice for the national interest. “In a battle and a battle, every man in the United States (every man, woman and child) is in action and will have the honor to keep it in action in this war. In this war, it is at home, in our daily lives and in our daily tasks.” “Of course, this requires not only the abandonment of luxury goods, but also the comfort of many other creatures. Every faithful American knows his personal responsibility.”
Thirty years later, the two presidents asked citizens to give up something. Gerald Ford pleaded in 1974: "To save scarce fuel in the energy crisis, less driving force, less heat." Voters rebounded and supported Jimmy Carter, who told the country in 1977: "All of us must learn to waste less energy. We can save half the gas shortage by just keeping the thermostat, for example, 65 degrees during the day and 55 degrees at night." The speech became a symbol of Carter's shiftless president, and he also served for one term, whether fair or not. No wonder George W. Bush encourages Americans to spend and spend after 9/11.
Trump seems unable to decide whether he asks Americans to sacrifice. On the one hand, he acknowledged that the tariff would be the exact cost, and he set the fee as a necessary fee for China. On the other hand, he also claimed that Americans don’t have to do their best. It's a very easy to laugh at, and no one laughs at it as effectively as Rupert Murdoch New York Posttitled "Barbie Dolls," runs Trump's doll quote on the front page of yesterday.
The president is a particularly flawed messenger at this moment, as he is unlikely to suffer from the pain of rising, which is the benefit of being the kind of guy who spends a lot of time in his literally gilded mansion. I have written before about Trump’s calls to sustain populism and the rhetorical agility against elite railroads, even if he is one of them. Some of Trump's advisers lack the ability to convince ordinary Americans. Howard Lutnik, Business Secretary (Forbes Estimated net worth: $3.2 billion) defended this week that the United States needs to manufacture onshore. "It's time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future," he told CNBC. "This is a new model for you to work on these plants for the rest of your life, where your children work here, and your grandchildren work here." These voices Exactly Like yesterday’s job, there are only unsecured pensions and strong unions, which make them sustainable and desirable.
To his credit, he also wants his children to follow him in the same job, which is why his two sons in their 20s now lead the investment bank he left behind, Cantor Fitzgerald, to join the government. He is the same Trump aide who insists that his mother-in-law (his son-in-law is once again worth hundreds of millions of dollars), and his concerns about social security closures being shut down will not be missed one.
But even Trump’s anti-popular skills are unlikely to work well here, as Trump promises to be different on the campaign trail. He promised to end inflation, free Americans from in vitro fertilization and cut taxes. Instead, retail prices for basic staple foods such as eggs continue to rise. These tariffs represent the largest tax increase in recent U.S. history, and Trump has now warned a Strait Christmas. He proposed tariffs to pay for everything, such as child care, and pretended that Chinese rather than American consumers would pay the tariffs. It's a good idea for Americans to reduce cheap imported plastic goods, but from Trump, it's a bait and a conversion.
Trump appears to be causing a fully voluntary economic slowdown and demanding voters be the brunt of it, but he has no indication that he is suffering like Bill Clinton. His sliding approval of the economy shows that Americans are beginning to doubt why this happened.
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Stephanie Bai contributed to the newsletter.
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