The trade war is “on hold” so that’s good
by digby
Steve Mnuchin said this morning that they are “putting the trade war on hold” which is surprising because Trump assured us that the US could win trade wars “easily” so it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t just press on and win.
No mention of the fact that the “hold” seems to be precipitated by a bribe to the Trump Organization. But that’s ok. Full blown corruption is totally accepted now.
Meanwhile, here’s the head of Trump’s National Economic Council on This Week this morning:
“The president has tweeted about Amazon a lot,” Stephanopoulos said. “Is it appropriate for the president to be singling out companies like this?”
Kudlow responded, “Well, look. I’m not — that not in my lane, OK. I can’t really comment specifically. I haven’t looked at that.”
Stephanopoulos pressed, “Well, it comes under the National Economic Council, doesn’t it?”
Kudlow said, “Well, I suppose so, but again I haven’t been involved in that discussion. Look, the president is a man of many opinions. I think you know that. I think we all know that. It’s up to him. He may be carrying this ball. I can’t comment directly on it.”
Stephanopoulos asked about previous claims by Trump that the U.S. Postal Service is losing billions of dollars to Amazon.
“That simply isn’t true,” Stephanopoulos said to Kudlow. “Isn’t it your responsibility to advise him of the facts?”
“If he asked me directly, it would be,” Kudlow responded. “A lot of people looked at these numbers, and there are many different opinions about the validity of many different numbers, George.”
The economic council director continued, “I have not been deeply involved in Amazon. The president may feel, look, he may feel that there’s some unfairness going on here.”
Stephanopoulos said many people are concerned that Trump may be targeting Amazon because of Bezos’ owning The Washington Post.
“That is what a lot of people are concerned about here … Amazon has not cost the postal service any money. And in fact, the president is targeting them because Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post even though that has nothing to do with Amazon. That’s what they say is inappropriate.”
Kudlow said, “To be honest with you, I have seen numbers. You can probably do this on both sides. A lot of the numbers, by the way, have not been made available. We’ll see.”
Yeah, this administration’s an economic powerhouse. Not to worry though. When they fuck it all up, as they assuredly will, the Democrats will come in and dutifully do all the dirty work and clean up the mess after which the Republicans will take the credit. That’s how this works.
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