Rising casualties in Trump’s terrifying trade war
The President’s decision to bring in huge tariffs on foreign imports – a move his economic advisers bitterly fought against – has been met with fierce retaliation by world leaders.
Now farmers and factory workers are slowly learning Trump’s fanatical protectionism has left them painfully unprotected.
Of course, it is not what Trump promised his people. His decisions have left US-made products being shunned the world over, with people such as soybean producers from Brazil, Argentina, Canada all now experiencing golden times.
They can sell their wares to China after Beijing decided to impose a high tariff on US soybeans as payback for the tariffs they are now being forced to endure by the Trump administration.
This week, one of America’s most iconic brands, held up by Trump as the epitome of his “America First” ideology, announced it was being forced to move production abroad due to his tariffs.
Little more than a year ago, the President invited executives and union representatives from HarleyDavidson to the White House. There he vowed the motorcycle manufacturer would flourish under his economic stewardship. “Thank you, Harley-Davidson, for building things in America,” he said.
“And I think you’re going to even expand. I know your business is now doing very well and there’s a lot of spirit right now in the country that you weren’t having so much in the last number of months that you have right now.”
Harley-Davidson is the highestprofile casualty so far of Trump’s escalating trade wars.
His steel and aluminium tariffs had already raised the company’s input costs because those metals are among the primary raw materials it purchases. But worse still, the European Union has now “punched back” with retaliatory levies of its own, including an additional 25% tax on HarleyDavidson motorcycles shipped from the States. To avoid a devastating drop in sales, bosses say they are forced to move production to Thailand.
After learning of their decision, Trump took to his much loved Twitter to hit back. “Surprised that HarleyDavidson, of all companies, would be the first to wave the White Flag,” he moaned.
True to form he later went on the attack: “A Harley-Davidson should never be built in another country – never,” he blasted as he threatened to hit them with taxes “like never before”.
“Their employees and customers are already very angry at them. If they move, watch, it will be the beginning of the end – they surrendered, they quit.”
The truth is Americans are now learning the hard way, that everything Trump touches – unlike his name adorned on his hotels – does not turn to gold. His failing bully-boy trade policies are proof that the six times bankruptee has no understanding of how business works outside of the property world of overcharging dwellers.
Trump’s genius is building a brand, even a mythology, so more fool the American electorate who bought into hiring a condo salesman TV star to oversee their trade and economics. What is it they say? Fools and their money...
IN a bizarre, illuminating interview, troubled Johnny Depp admitted to spending “far more” than $30,000 a month on wine.
During a booze-fuelled, 72-hour chat with Rolling Stone magazine, the actor seemed keen to set the record straight about just how much cash he’d splashed on fine wine.
“It’s insulting to say that I spent $30,000 on wine. Because it was far more,” Depp said.
Allegedly the Pirates of the Caribbean star has managed to fritter away almost all of his £490 million fortune on sprawling mansions, works of art, private jets, his entourage, a couple of islands in the Bahamas and a messy divorce. Depp also admitted blowing a further $5 million to shoot the ashes of his close friend Hunter S. Thompson into the sky from a cannon.
The 10,000-word article, in which he surely hoped to prove he is the victim of bad management, reads like a suicide note to his drink and drugdominated career. Once he was the most magnificently cool Hollywood star, now aged 55, all he appears is drunk, broke and lonely.
More fool the American electorate who bought into hiring a condo salesman TV star