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Trump's Secret Identity
[Townhall] ...Trump himself insists that his agenda isn’t ramped-up protectionism. Amidst all his ballyhoo about the greatness of ‐ the sheer wonderfulness of ‐ tariffs, we have occasionally received hints at a very different agenda. Beneath Trump’s pompous, know-nothing protectionist stance ‐ which we have all heared in his decades-long talk-show blather as well as his campaign’s talking points and bizarre Twitter contributions ‐ there has been this dog-whistle to the economists: that what he really wants is free trade.And this week President Trump lowered the frequency of his transmission for anyone to hear, from ultrasonic whistle to clear clarion call. As Sasse was decrying the China tariffs and the proposed compensatory subsidies to agriculture, Trump stated that he was pushing the EU to drop all trade barriers and subsidies. And then, on Wednesday, he and the EU’s appointed top banana, Jean-Claude Juncker, publicly declared just that. ...We free traders expect free trade to be promoted honestly and coherently. It’s our style. It’s not Trump’s. ...The "irony" here is this: because multilateral free trade is better for everyone in all countries ‐ well, everyone but politicians and the rent-seeking special interest groups that push for special advantages (which somehow also benefit politicians and the political class rather than consumers and producers at large) ‐ Trump’s nationalism is in truth a mere Trojan Horse. America could get by just fine with unilateral free trade . . . but the whole world would benefit from multilateral free trade. Not just America. For all I know, Trump’s status as a secret free trader could even be a secret from himself. It certainly was a secret kept from me. Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2018-07-29 |
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