Trump just announced a trade deal with the U.K.  Last month Trump said he had done 200 trade deals, later clarifying that they were in the works.  My view is he couldn’t care less about the nature of these trade agreements.  He’s just as happy as a pig in shit to be making and announcing “deals!”  That’s the end goal, doing deals — for a real estate wanna-be-mogul who wrote “The Art of the Deal.  I’m sure Trump would like these deals to yield the GDP increases and boom that his charlatan economist advisor Peter Navarro promises but that is very unlikely and doesn’t really matter to Trump.  He’s already back-pedaling on his promise to give the US “the best economy, ever” and is now talking of sacrifice and belt-tightening.  To me, this self-aggrandizing narcissistic immature little boy mentality is just happy to grab a lot of attention and praise making deal after deal!

It’s not that tariffs are anathema in a sensible world.  The neoliberal doctrine of “free” trade has made the playing field more uneven, not helped the poor or working class, but has been a boon to the wealthy, especially the billionaires.  The U.S. and Europe grew rich historically not from free trade but from protectionism and plunder.  Sensible global trade policy should be about helping workers around the world to live better and to protect the environment!