The Washington Post is running a story that says the NAFTA re-negotiation that Trump insisted on broke down because Mike Pence, who was the one negotiating for the White House, insisted that any new treaty contained a five-year sunset clause. Mexico and Canada took the position that the sunset clause was a non-starter because it left business in the dark about planning for trade rules in the future.
Why in the world would the Trumpettes have insisted on a sunset clause? That makes no sense.
See also Trump’s Tariffs Threaten National Security and Trump has officially put more tariffs on U.S. allies than on China. Of course he has. Canada should hustle and offer Ivanka some trademarks, already!
Despite all the rhetoric, Republicans as a group really do not understand business nor are they very good at business decisions. They are True Believers of the faith of the Free Market and Unfettered Capitalism, which ideologies have failed miserably every time they have been tried.
FM/UC has always led to boom and bust cycles and the accumulation of "wealth" in the hands of the few, and collapses as the end product (wealth concentration) is approached, when there is no longer any consumer class to bolster the pyramid scheme.
The Chinese trademark deal for Ivanka, Trump's inexplicable deal for ZTE explains his backwards trade policy with respect to China. If they're just hot for sanctions as policy, sanctioning our ally trade partners when there is more justification for sanctioning China, just doesn’t make sense. But he won't do it because he's getting something from them.
Its really not a question of opinion here. Its not a partisan issue. It is a fact: Trump is clearly using the government to enrich himself and his family. Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell need to be held accountable for allowing congress to let this pass.
And I don't need to say it here but if this was the Clinton administration we're talking about it, they'd be all over it. The Times would bring back Whitewater part deux.
I agree with Trudeau that it is an affront to Canada to implement tarriffs under the guise of Canada being a threat to our national security. It blows my mind even thinking about what an ignorant bag of shit Trump is. And as time goes on my understanding of why Trump chose Pense to be his running mate becomes so much clearer. You couldn't pick a better invertebrate sycophant than that ghoul. There's a big big difference between meekness and boot licking. Pense is radiant in his countenance as a servile bootlicker. He would make the perfect doorman for a funeral parlor…just dripping with his usual abundant sincerity.
I agree with CSM. It makes perfect sense if Trump is just trying to hustle foreign countries to pay homage through his international businesses. Watch for Trump to continually create a situation which hurts a foreign entity – country or business group – and Trump reverses the policy after he (surprise, surprises) gets a huge investment, gift, copyright, etc.
"He would make the perfect doorman for a funeral parlor…just dripping with his usual abundant sincerity"
Swami, you got that right on the money, brilliant! Just watch him stare at the back of tRumps comb over, the upward tilting smirk on his face is devoid of human emotion, he is as you say a invertebrate sycophant. In much of the bobble-head world they like to paint Pence as a "serious conservative". Those folks either forget or ignore that Pence was once just a right wing am radio windbag dunce, a less successful but no less ignorant version of Rush!
Putin is calling his stooge on the carpet — a summit is being arranged. Is tRump going to be shown the pee-pee tape and then instructed to lift sanctions?
Yup
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/390360-white-house-planning-for-potential-trump-putin-summit-report
Jon Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, is claiming this has been in-the-works for months.
Riiiiiiiiiiight…
This administration is the chimpy/cheney gang of criminals on steroids. Nothing but corrupt scandals at a dizzying pace. No one is held accountable for any one of them, because of their wack-a-mole of crimes.
If you have had enough of tRump, be sure to than chimpy/cheney.