April 22, 2017
THE TWO ARE NOT MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE:
The 'Buy American' Order: Cynical or Ignorant? (KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON, April 19, 2017, National Review)
But no one questions his ignorance, Angela Merkel reportedly had to explain the 'fundamentals' of EU trade to Trump 11 times (Business Insider, 4/22/17)Donald J. Trump is nothing if not a consummate entertainer, and the character he plays on television -- "Donald J. Trump" -- has appeared in all manner of entertainment: the game show he hosted for many years, pornographic films, the 2016 presidential campaign. Now he is taking on a strange new role: that of Debbie Wasserman Schultz.Trump, who is surrounded by people who fancy themselves "nationalists" (in the cause of what nation, it is not entirely clear), is wading deep into an ancient puddle of stupidity most recently explored by Barack Obama (remember his "nationalist" moment, which lasted for about a month in 2011?) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the woman who (accidentally) did more than anyone other than Kellyanne Conway and Hillary Rodham Clinton to put Trump in the White House. To call it "economic nationalism" would be too grand: It is merely a very narrow form of special-interest politics consisting of backdoor handouts to favored corporate interests.
President Trump did not understand that the US cannot negotiate a trade deal with Germany alone and must deal with the European Union as a bloc, a senior German official told The Times of London."Ten times Trump asked [German chancellor Angela Merkel] if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany. Every time she replied, 'You can't do a trade deal with Germany, only the EU,'" the official said.They continued: "On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, 'Oh, we'll do a deal with Europe then.'"
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 22, 2017 7:52 PM