Yves here. Yours truly has been of the view that the most coherent explanation for Trump’s actions is that represent an extreme need to dominate, and other considerations are at best secondary. Notice how Trump has gone berserk over his inability to crush Ansar Allah, has had far too many counter-productive shows of pique with respect to Project Ukraine (due both to Zelensky, despite his weak position, refusing to come to heel, and having the Russian negotiators run rings around he team, albeit they all seem to be so full of themselves as to have not yet worked that out).
However, Trump playing chaos generator has heretofore been a central feature in his efforts to get the upper hand. So why has he been extreme (typical) and rigid (not) on the subject of tariffs, even with some oligarchs once in his camp now making forceful criticisms?
As much as depicting Trump as a wannabe dictator is a bit simplistic, his insatiable maw of desire to dominate others winds up looking not all that different if you blur your focus a bit. IMHO a dictator would want to make sure he wound up controlling things of value, as opposed to breaking them just for the fun of exercising that much power.
This post conveniently skips past the lack of any meaningful opposition by the feckless Democrats to Trump’s brazen moves. Why are they not filing suits or providing amicus briefs? Why so little use of their bully pulpits? Why are Sanders and AOC the only pols regularly out on the stump? Trump’s “dictatorship” is a function of cowardice and spinelessness among the putative elites.
Lawrence Wilkerson said that Colin Powell kept a quotation attributed to Thucydides on his desk: “Of all manifestations of power restraint impresses men most, partly because it is the form which power least often takes” Clearly a mode of operation not in Trump’s repertoire.
By Jake Johnson, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams
Analysts puzzling over the bizarre formula the Trump administration used to calculate its country-by-country tariff rates are wasting their time, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said in a response to the American president that has gone viral in recent days as global markets continue to nosedive.
“It’s not economic policy, it’s not trade policy,” Murphy (D-Conn.) said in remarks recorded after Trump announced the sweeping tariffs last week. “It’s a political weapon designed to collapse our democracy.”
While President Donald Trump’s universal tariffs on imports make no sense as an effort to rectify the failures of the status quo trade regime and bring back offshored U.S. jobs, they are comprehensible when viewed as “a tool to try to compel pledges of loyalty, this time from companies and industries in the United States,” Murphy argued.
“You have to understand that everything Donald Trump is doing is in service of staying in power forever—either him or his family or his handpicked successors,” the Democratic senator continued. “He’s trying to destroy our democracy.”
Murphy contended that the president designed the tariffs to be so widespread that corporations across private industry would have to come to the White House and “make an agreement with Trump in which he gives them tariff relief in exchange for a pledge of political loyalty.”
“What could that pledge look like?” Murphy continued. “Well, maybe they agree to champion his economic policy publicly. Maybe they agree to make contributions to his political campaign. Maybe they agree to police their employees to make sure that nobody that works for that company works for the political opposition.”
Politicoreported late last week that businesses across corporate America “fear Trump’s wrath” and are thus declining to criticize the president’s tariff policies even as they wreak havoc worldwide and threaten to spark a devastating recession.
“There is zero incentive for any company or brand to be remotely critical of this administration,” one unnamed public affairs operative told Politico. “It destroys your ability to work with the White House and advance your policies, period.”
“While the United States has plenty of real problems to deal with, Trump is ignoring them to manufacture the fake emergencies he needs to further enlarge and centralize his power.”
Murphy is hardly alone in seeing Trump’s tariffs as an instrument of power consolidation.
Robert Reich, the former U.S. labor secretary, wrote Monday that “we’re turning into a dictatorship” as Trump conjures “fake national emergencies” to jack up tariffs, deport people en masse without due process, gut efforts to combat the climate crisis, and dismantle large swaths of the federal government.
“As Trump declares emergency after emergency to justify his reign of terror, he’s simultaneously eliminating America’s capacity to respond to real emergencies,” Reich wrote. “Make no mistake about what’s really going on here. While the United States has plenty of real problems to deal with, Trump is ignoring them to manufacture the fake emergencies he needs to further enlarge and centralize his power.”
One analyst, Zack Beauchamp of Vox, argued the tariffs are more a symptom of the decline of U.S. democracy rather than a cause of it.
“Trump’s tariffs will, if fully implemented, be remembered as their own cautionary tale. While he campaigned on them, he wouldn’t have been able to implement the entire tariff package had he gone through the normal constitutionally prescribed procedure for raising taxes,” Beauchamp wrote. “The fact that America isn’t functioning like a normal democracy, with public deliberation and multiple checks on executive authority, is what allowed Trump to act on his idiosyncratic ideas in the manner of a Mao or Putin.”
“It’s still possible that Trump steps back from the brink,” he added. “But even if he does, and the worst outcome is avoided, the lesson should be clear: The long decay of America’s democratic system means that we are all living under an axe. And if this isn’t the moment it falls, there will surely be another.”
Any commercial insurance geeks out there – are attacks on Tesla cars, dealerships and charging stations categorized as acts of terrorism?
Trump is the figurehead for an ideology.
If fuhrer worship can be called an ideology, I suppose.
I suggest that rolling out Trump devastating “our democracy “ is dated. Democrats’ sale of “our democracy “ was shot down last Nov. Sadly democrats do not listen.
Trump is floundering and all the bombing and targeting Russians for uber nationalists is maddening but democrats need a new sound bite.
They need to point out these tariffs are not connected to industrial policy.
That said I can see a big time democrat rise in power in 2016.MAGA self destruction in real time.
Indeed. Yves’ take in the intro was very good – if the Democrats would get up on their hind legs more than once per century, this carnival barker wouldn’t look so “dictatorial”.
Trump isn’t trying to take over anything permanently – he’s putting on a show which consists of making those who opposed him eat [family blog]. Not really what you want in a POTUS, but after decades of politicians doing squat for the citizens of this country, here we are.
The ratchet nature of America’s democracy has been pointed out by multiple people over time. Democrats always wanted to do these things that Trump is doing, but they lacked the cojones, so in a sense Trump is their long awaited Messiah.
Team blue going with their only strategy, fundraising and the accompanying theater (see AOC, Sanders, Cory Booker). God forbid they should come up with a policy proposal or two, let alone a reasoned and understandable response to the tariffs, or the ongoing sacking of our institutions and the public advocacy they are supposed to provide.
We won’t be going back to the recently departed model of American Democracy either. We only move in one direction and that is forward. There will likely be no 2026 elections. If there are, it will be because they will be meaningless. What we will have is a perpetual “state of emergency” and rule by decree. Good times.
They got nothing because their mindset is permanently neoliberal. They don’t believe in political power without private sector corporate backing anymore. It’s beyond their scope to even imagine such a thing. So nothing will fundamentally change.
2016 or 2026 perhaps? If there are elections, if the democrats do anything. I’m sure most of us don’t get forget Schumer and the democrats budget vote for Trump! No it appears the usa is heading for an overt dictatorship.
“…This post conveniently skips past the lack of any meaningful opposition by the feckless Democrats to Trump’s brazen moves. Why are they not filing suits or providing amicus briefs? Why so little use of their bully pulpits? Why are Sanders and AOC the only pols regularly out on the stump? Trump’s “dictatorship” is a function of cowardice and spinelessness among the putative elites….”
IMHO, that is the “nitty gritty” right there. The crude answer is there is no meaningful choice: the Ds are complicit.
AOC and Sanders are the “sheepdogs” of the DNC. They pander to the disgruntled D faithful, then before the “election”, they tell us to hold our nose and “vote” for the corrupt, genocidal freak with a D after their name. “Vote blue, not matter who”. AOC and Sanders talk a good game but they, like their country-club buddies, the Rs, are bait and switch artists.
The political situation we are in right now is down to both the D/R uniparty duopoly and a boatload of institutional corruption, and has steadily got worse for many years.
Congress, as an institution, has given many constitutional powers to the exec, setting the stage for Mussolini Jr. to step up the consolidation of power.
Any meaningful opposition must be anti-war, anti-military expansion/expenditure, anti-genocide, and of course, anti-capitalist. . And that’s just going to never ever happen. Or maybe it would, but that’s going to take a generation or two, and we don’t have the time. The climate crisis – the real end-of-history. “Game over, man.”
On the complaint that the D’s are not ‘doing anything’ about DT…
They have no intention of fixing his power grab.
They want to be in command of the dictatorship next time.
I’d call it a slow moving putsch.
Murphy would be far far better off having senate hearings on how america came to be what it is today. a hollowed out poverty stricken country due to free trade.
first witness to call, bill clinton.
this would of course lay the blame where it belongs, and hang a huge weight around the necks of nancy we democrats are free traders to our core pelosi.
might cause a revolt amongst rank and file to clean house of the oligarchs that control the democratic party.
other wise if trump is even able to get some production back like he did in his first term, think medical supplies, Murphy will be ignored.
I assume “free traders” is synonymous with “robber barons”. Free traders and democracy was a marriage doomed from the start.
It’s why I find it strange that the Duran duo seem to have quite a bit of faith in the Donald, usually their analysis seems more reasonable
They are much better on geopolitics, and not so hot on the economics. I’ve found myself tuning out when they bring on econ people since they tend to be not the most astute. They’ve had David Sachs on repeatedly who seems to be one of their goto people, but he’s just your typical freemarketeer.
I did notice yesterday though that Mercouris was still cheerleading for Trump’s tariff imbroglio while Christoforou was sort of subtly asking “Are you sure about that?”
“I’ve found myself tuning out when they bring on econ people since they tend to be not the most astute. They’ve had David Sachs on repeatedly who seems to be one of their goto people, but he’s just your typical freemarketeer”
He much, much dumber and more fragile than the average.
That would be Jeffrey Sachs
I haven’t been able to listen to them for a while now, the Trumpophilia has been so strong. I thought I saw it coming in the months before the election, when they were credulously taken with Trump as a “Peacemaker,” but it’s made me lose a lot of respect for them.
The take-away: don’t trust anyone’s politics, not even your own.
I’ve wondered this too. One thought that I have had is that they believe a large portion of their viewers are Trump sympathetic and thus don’t want to offend them.
Mercouris comes off like a hard core fanboy.
I’ve noticed the same with Alex Christoforou being light on criticism of Trump and derogatory to countries under attack economically by him. Be interesting to see if The Duran’s opinions of him change as the repercussions of Trump’s decisions start hitting home. I wonder what they would say if, for example, Trump announced that he was freezing Chinese assets in the US and putting them in trust or some such – like happened with Russia’s $300 – until they played ball with his demands.
They had Jeffrey Sachs on this morning, who gave them a stern lecture on the Trump tariffs and their likely effects. No comfort to be derived for the Alexes. I couldn’t stop watching their facial expressions, which ranged from glum to glummer.
RACKET NEWS:
Timeline: A Recent History of Tariffs
A look at the tariffs imposed from 2002 – 2024, and the stances of Sens. Schumer and Cornyn
by Greg Collard
https://www.racket.news/p/timeline-a-recent-history-of-tariffs
It’s other knock-on effects that have me worried.
Trump is quite evidently a narcissistic psychopath whose pathology is being amplified by uppers and downers, surrounded by incompetent sycophants. But we must also remember that his predecessor was a non compos mentis zombie surrounded by war mongering sycophants. We are in the middle of 12 years of madness, compounded by a population explosion and an accelerating climate crisis.
The take-away for the average person, in particular for the 38 percent who didn’t participate in the 2024 election, is that we are all trapped on a rudderless ship, unable to navigate to any sort of safe harbor and without any lifeboats.
People are trying to rationalize Trump’s behavior, but it’s merely a coping mechanism. We are unmoored from rationality. I’m beginning to notice bizarre behavior among some marginalized members of the community. Rudeness, irritability, bad driving, email rants, etc. The panic of rats on a sinking ship. Not good.
Re David’s comment : Trump is quite evidently a narcissistic psychopath whose pathology is being amplified by uppers and downers, surrounded by incompetent sycophants.
Peter Navarro quoted in the following WashExaminer link: “I guarantee no recession,” Navarro told Ingraham. “Because when we pass the biggest, broadest tax cut in history within a matter of months, that’s going to be a great stimulus. There’s not going to be any inflation. ” (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/finance-and-economy/3373755/peter-navarro-promises-market-finding-bottom-no-recession/)
Famous last words? Could be. Navarro just pushing along the repub dream wherein the trickle down fairy brings good tidings.
Maybe as Yves notes above that Trump is playing chaos generator to obscure the debate over a new round of tax cuts for the wealthy and the Prez’s mouth/actions distracts. Of course where’s Senator Chucky?
So back in 2019 Forbes published this (https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianweller/2019/05/30/the-2017-tax-cuts-didnt-work-the-data-prove-it/):
The independent, non-partisan Congressional Research Service just released a report showing that the 2017 tax cuts for the richest Americans and corporations did not work. This confirms what anybody who has been looking at the data already knew. Investment did not boom and workers will not see the promised bump in pay. Instead, the federal government incurred massive deficits while wealth inequality increased to its highest level in three decades…The data leave no doubt that the supply-side tax cuts were wasteful”
Navarro’s remarks confirm my friend’s theory that the tariffs are just a Shock Doctrine stalking horse to justify massive tax cuts for Our Billionaire Overlords.
All that Trump really seems to care about is self-enrichment, along with Income and Estate Tax avoidance for himself, his heirs, and their cronies.
You’ve left off revenge. I would place it at the top of the list.
At least he appears to have sworn off hookers!
Lol! Thanks for a much needed laugh.
I’m not understanding “tax cuts for the richest Americans and corporations did not work.” What??? Of course they did. They lowered taxes for ‘the richest Americans and corporations” – what is not to understand? They worked. And further taxes will work for the same people in the same way PLUS regulations are going away too as another financial boost to corporations. Things are going well in the tax department. “… did not work” – thanks for the chuckle.
Ha ha, I’m sure David and mrsyk would agree tax cuts work from the perspective of billionaires but, obviously, they are talking about the narrative. How tax cuts, almost entirely for billionaires, are justified and sold to the average Joe. Just enough so they don’t go on strike!
Trump just imposed 104% tariffs on China because ego (she retaliated). Everything is moving so fast, I know I don’t know the details but one things stands out – has China used any of her Ace Cards like suspending drug exports? I did read she just restricted defense related minerals to the US. I’ve assumed in an all out trade war China could do very substantial damage to Trump as in creating very large shortages of what MAGA-ians buy and need. If China uses her Aces, will that bring Mr. EGO to eat crow?
I would expect China to move slowly and deliberately, to indicate they know their options but minimize the risk of a backlash. Not sure Trump is predictable enough to manage in that way, though.
Yves brought up an excellent point – while it is typical of him to stake out extreme positions, it is also typical of him to fold under pressure. Maybe the pressure just hasn’t built high enough yet, but it does seem out of character that he is digging in on the tariffs in this way.
“I did read [China] just restricted defense related minerals to the US.”
I’ve been wondering if retaliatory tariffs on U.S. made weapons are being imposed by any other nations.
It was big of Netanyahu to make a zero tariff offer to the U.S. given that our tax dollars are helping them pay for stuff they buy from us.
>”If China uses her Aces…”
Trump to Zelensky: “You don’t have the cards.”
China to Trump: Ditto
>>>Trump to Zelensky: “You don’t have the cards.”
China to Trump: Ditto
Lol! Thank you, Mildred!
Since Trump likes poker analogies he is the one playing a weak hand and relying on absolute bluff. Even no cards Zelensky gets to tweak Trump once off the White House property. Like all bad players Trump’s only real option is to turn over the board however it seems unlikely that the tariff move will stick. After all Walmart could ask their shoppers whether they like Walmart better or “Always High Prices” Trumpmart. Trump will then declare the Waltons to be traitors subject to deportation and un American but at this point Walmart is working class America in the way that GM once claimed to be. However bad an employer they may be, most of the precariat don’t work for them and know who their friends are.
It could also be this is the reason Trump is so obsessed with Israel since he knows he can throw his weight around and face little elite opposition. Indeed the two parties seem to be fighting over who is more devoted to that cause.
So the Dems may not rise up but the public and therefore some of the press very well may. And that will be the end of the ego trip.
from your keyboard to god’s ear, Carolinian, that is the most encouraging thing I have read in a while, given that you are generally not given to hyperbole.
from your keyboard to god’s ear
“It’s not economic policy, it’s not trade policy,” Murphy (D-Conn.) said in remarks recorded after Trump announced the sweeping tariffs last week. “It’s a political weapon designed to collapse our democracy.”
So, Senator Murphy, what initiative or legislative proposals should your party be looking at in order to contravine the enoumous inequalities in the economic system, the trade policy, the tax policy’s, the safety net policies…….. I mean your office should not be the place to proclaim the sky is falling and other noisy symbol clashing and drum beating, why I thought your office was to deliberate and put foward legislation with the intent to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity……… you know ….operating by the consent of the governed and mentioned in passing on some document or other that I think you swore to uphold, If my memory fails, forgive me… I think it was Article I Section 1
…… I know you have worked so hard raising tons of money so that your democratic PR camp can polish any terds you verbally drop every so often – so instead – maybe you can pay them to fix the rectal-crainial inversion syndrome you have…. and, not to pick on you alone, as it is quite apparent that most if not all of both parties are aflicted with this inversion syndrome…….. so once cured, may I suggest you get busy to legislate something in a vein that would actually be in the interests of the majority of your constituents …you know, stuff that actually might make a good project going forward, one that actualy changes the status quo instead of always coming up with more ways of polishing the massive enshitification financial engineering terd that has bestowed and, which has been diametricaly opposed to a perfect Union, opposed to an establish Justice, opposed to domestic Tranquility, opposed to promoting the general Welfare, and opposed to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
Just a thought
The guy on the link with his blue necktie. Why we never see anyone sporting some beutiful neckties? Justin Trudeau was only dearing with his socks, but nobody seems to be dearing enough to show offs with some beautiful or even flamboayant ties…
https://www.etsy.com/ca/market/belfast_bow_company?ref=lp_queries_external_top-1
Oh, were are the men of yesteryears…
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1589132840/costume-storico-del-1700-da-uomo-costume
As Machiavelli puts it, “Love endures by a bond which men, being scoundrels, may break whenever it serves their advantage to do so; but fear is supported by the dread of pain, which is ever present.” (Chapter 17)
Trump’s path to autocracy is being facilitated by a compliant Congress and a feckless opposition party. POTUS is in the catbird’s seat (L’etat, c’est moi.) and he knows it. Trump’s advisors have probably told him the US faces a fianacial crisis due to servicing the debt, The perfect storm, tie together DOGE, tariffs, and a reindustrialization to make the US a powerful state. The problems are that no one knows exactly how this will work and to maintain dominance takes money, which can be printed, borrowed, or stolen (all counterproductive). Trump and Biden both seem to lack the ability to consider options other tha a zero sum game – the US wins). The formula changes if China or Russia or Iran decides not to kow tow.
The stifling of free speech is palable. Almost all aspects of US society are intertwined at some level with the Federal Government. Speaking ill of the leader will become treasonous and punishment will follow.
As a further extension of Yves question of ‘where is the democratic party’, I would add where is Obama, where is Bill Clinton, where are all are the various civil rights groups? Surely, the defunding of whole section of the government are a concern for them?
Obama spoke up the other day to complain about the shake down of Big Law and the AP being excluded from press briefings.
Holder must have asked for a plug because Covington took a bullet or something.
>”…where is Obama…”
He has two residences, 8200 square feet in Washington DC worth $8 million and 7000 square feet on Martha’s Vineyard worth $12 million.
https://homeandtexture.com/where-does-obama-live/
If there is any justice in this world, he spends his time in these opulent settings fighting depression and suicidal thoughts, maybe drinking heavily, realizing what his betrayal of the American people from 2008-2016 has wrought.
Don’t forget their place in Hawaii.
He can wander around in his library in Illinois too, basking in his greatness…
https://www.obamalibrary.gov/#event-number-87
Also still has a house in Chicago?
One thing that is little talked about with regards to Trump, his acolytes, and his inchoate dictatorship is the opportunity it presents for some juicy insider stock market trades. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve already loaded up on call options (or puts)—depending on Trump’s whims—and if those options end up in-the-money they’ll make Nancy Pelosi look like a piker. (See for instance Elon Musk and his manipulations of Tesla’s stock price).
Several months ago I read a book about Trump called “Lucky Loser”, written by two New York Times journalists. No fan of his but I was attempting to understand the psychology of the man. It being the NYT I was alert for any signs of TDS, and maybe there were a few, but overall I thought the book was fair and factual.
According to it, Trump was not averse to feigning takeover bids for companies, exaggerating both his wealth and his access to credit. Given his wheeler-dealer reputation at the time, the stock of the company in question would predictably pop and he would promptly sell his shares, raking in some millions.
If past behavior is any predicter of the future, not only is the US headed for dictatorship, but that dictatorship will probably take a kleptocratic form.
They put Soros’ own right hand man, Bessent, into the secretary of the treasury. Just looking trough the internet tonight I have seen many, many memes from the cult about how the evil dems are controlled by Soros.
Bessent is a walking conflict of interest. He made his money playing macro and currency trades. This is probably the largest macro event in a least 15 years and he’s right at the center.
No one on either side is calling this BS out. Fears of being called antisemtic are now are now transitory, also? “You can’t talk about his past!” Why? Oh, because the senate said he was OK.
One big club and you ain’t in it.
here is a list of all the national emergencies in effect….one even dates to the Carter years.
Murphy had plenty of time in DC to rein-in presidential emergency powers—-Rand Paul would’ve helped him, lol
I’m in favor of unlimited presidential emergency powers—because I know that my party will win every election; and no faction of my party will never abuse that power. but the other guys? they’re LARPing 1935 Germans!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_emergencies_in_the_United_States
Republican have the majority in the present Congress and yet, here, criticism is essentially of the Dems, for not “standing up.”
Things arer not likely to change regardless of anything the Dems do or will do.
It will take a revolt from the Republican to stop Trump and his agenda.
And, how likely is that?
Republican revolt- Rotary Club Anarchists.
Not seeing it
The actual not standing up was on the budget vote in the u.s. senate where the minority leader sided with the majority that needed 60 votes to pass. That meant some democrats were needed to pass Trumps budget. Instead of pushing for negotiations etc, minority leader Schumer and a few more dems, voted with the Republicans (Trumps party), to pass the budget. Thus many who oppose Trump are not happy with that performance.
It will take more than a revolt by Republicans to stop Trump btw! General Strike at least or a total collapse of the usa economy etc. Later is more likely in a few more years.
Why would Trump just not “remove” Zelensky then? There have to be members of the Azov faction ready/willing to do this if the CIA wasn’t willing.
He wouldn’t want to give JD Vance’s contrarian owner any ideas
No, you have this wrong. Zelensky is the Azov’s best friend. Zelensky dragging out the war is precisely what they want. And it”s not as if any of the replacement candidates would be more tractable.
This is what happens when you try to do anything in the most fabulously corrupt sort of advanced country. You can’t make anything stick.