FLASH
Shkruar nga Dana Milbank
Trump on Monday implemented the largest tariff hike since the 1930s, abruptly reversing an era of liberalized trade that has prevailed since the end of World War II.
With the modesty we've come to expect from him, President Donald Trump informed Congress Tuesday night that he had already embarked on "the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country." He told the assembled lawmakers that he had "accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations have accomplished in four or eight years."
Armed with a portfolio of fabricated statistics, Trump judged that “the first month of the presidency is the most successful in the history of the nation – and what makes it even more impressive is that you know who Number 2 is? George Washington.”
Republican lawmakers laughed, shouted and cheered.
But let's give credit where it's due: Trump has made history. In fact, it's not much of an exaggeration to say that, over the past five days, he has set the United States back 100 years.
Trump on Monday imposed the biggest tariff hike since the 1930s, abruptly reversing an era of liberalized trade that has prevailed since the end of World War II. He launched the trade war just three days after dealing an equally severe blow to the postwar security order that has preserved prosperity and freedom for 80 years. Trump’s ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, followed by the suspension of U.S. military aid to the beleaguered ally, has left allies shocked and Moscow elated. The Kremlin spokesman said Trump was “rapidly changing the entire configuration of foreign policy” in a way that “largely aligns with our vision.”
And our former friends? “The United States launched a trade war against Canada, its closest partner and ally, its closest friend,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
It only makes sense if you believe that Americans were better off 95 years ago than they are today.
We will likely have to relearn that lesson the hard way. The storm of executive orders that Trump has issued, while constitutionally alarming, can be undone by a future president. Elon Musk’s reckless sabotage of federal agencies and the federal workforce, while deeply damaging, can be repaired over time. But there is no easy solution to Trump’s destruction of the security and trade agreements that have kept us safe and free for generations.
“We’re certainly not in a postwar world anymore,” Douglas Irwin, an economist at Dartmouth College and a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, tells me. He calculates that Trump’s tariff hike is the largest since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 accelerated the country’s slide into the Great Depression. And Trump’s current tariffs, which Irwin calculates affect imports worth about 4.8 percent of gross domestic product, will have an even bigger impact on the economy than Smoot-Hawley, which affected imports worth 1.4 percent of GDP, and the McKinley administration’s tariffs, which also affected the value of imports in the 1890s (the prolonged depression).
Irwin says the current tariffs are “likely to be much more destructive” than those historical cases because the U.S. economy is now much more dependent on “intermediate goods” — meaning materials such as car parts. Trump has raised the average tariff on total imports to 10 percent, a level not seen since 1943, in Irwin’s analysis.
Late Tuesday, after stocks fell for a second day, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared to signal a retreat, saying the administration would “probably” announce on Wednesday that it would meet with Canada and Mexico “in some way.” However, even if Trump were to quickly abandon the trade war that has just begun, the effects would likely be long-lasting, because he has undermined the gradual liberalization of trade that has been underway since 1932.
Trump, by imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, has violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that he negotiated during his first term. “So going forward, what country would ever sign a trade deal with the United States knowing that we could find some kind of justification outside the agreement to raise tariffs?” Irwin asks. Instead, he expects a return to the “corruption” that existed before the 1930s.
Inevitably, retaliation has already begun. Canada is imposing 25 percent tariffs on $155 billion in American goods — and Ontario’s premier, vowing to “come back twice as hard” on the United States, is imposing a 25 percent tariff on electricity going to the United States, while threatening to turn off the lights entirely. China is imposing tariffs of up to 15 percent on American imports and banning some exports. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, calling Trump’s justification for the tariffs “insulting, defamatory and baseless,” said she would announce her country’s retaliatory plans this weekend.
Lëvizjet e Trump për të çmontuar arkitekturën tregtare të shekullit të kaluar janë edhe më destabilizuese, sepse ai po lëviz njëkohësisht për të rrëzuar aleancat që ruajtën sigurinë për pjesën më të madhe të asaj periudhe. Siç raportoi Francesca Ebel e The Post nga Moska, qeveria e Putinit e sheh poshtërimin e Zelenskit nga Trump si një "dhuratë të madhe" që çoi më tej ambiciet e Rusisë për të ndarë Perëndimin. Ish-presidenti rus Dmitry Medvedev e quajti atë një "shuplakë të duhur" të "derrit të pafytyrë" Zelensky. Udhëheqësi represiv i Hungarisë, Viktor Orban, gjithashtu festoi: "Faleminderit, zoti President!"
Dhe ndërsa Trump fajëson viktimën për pushtimin në shkallë të plotë të Ukrainës nga Rusia, Kina po bëhet më e guximshme në dëshirën e saj për të marrë Tajvanin.
Ndërsa autoritarët festojnë, mbrojtësit e lirisë qajnë. Lech Walesa, kampioni i njohur i demokracisë polake, iu bashkua ish të burgosurve të tjerë politikë në një letër drejtuar Trump ku shprehte “tmerrin dhe neverinë ” për trajtimin e presidentit amerikan ndaj Zelenskit, duke thënë se ata ishin “të tmerruar nga fakti që atmosfera në Zyrën Ovale gjatë kësaj bisede na kujtoi atë që kujtojmë mirë nga marrja në pyetje nga Shërbimi i Sigurimit dhe nga sallat e gjyqit në gjykatat komuniste”.
Udhëheqësit demokratë në të gjithë Evropën dhe në mbarë botën, folën në mbrojtje të Ukrainës. “Nuk duhet të ngatërrojmë kurrë agresorin dhe viktimën në këtë luftë të tmerrshme”, shkroi kancelari gjerman Friedrich Merz.
Tani, këta liderë demokratë duhet të mendojnë për të rindërtuar atë që Trump ka shkatërruar. “Sot,” shkroi nënpresidentja e Komisionit Evropian Kaja Kallas në ditën e tradhtisë së Ukrainës nga Trump, “u bë e qartë se bota e lirë ka nevojë për një lider të ri”.
Në Dhomën e Përfaqësuesve të martën mbrëma, kishte pak shenja se Shtetet e Bashkuara deri më tani kanë udhëhequr botën e lirë.
Republikanët, dikur partia e tregtisë së lirë, duartrokitën zotimet e Trump për të vendosur tarifa ndaj Kanadasë, Meksikës, Bashkimit Evropian, Kinës, Indisë, Brazilit dhe Koresë së Jugut.
"Ne jemi grabitur nga pothuajse çdo vend në Tokë dhe ne nuk do ta lejojmë që kjo të ndodhë më," tha ai. Sa i përket dhimbjes që po shkaktojnë tashmë politikat e tij tregtare, ai tha: “Do të ketë një shqetësim të vogël, por ne jemi në rregull me këtë. Nuk do të zgjasë shumë.”
Trump talked – repeatedly – about his election victory, the “radical left-wing lunatics” who prosecuted him, and his culture-war battles against transgender Americans and against “diversity, equality, and inclusion.” With taunts and absurd claims (more than 1 million people over 150 receive Social Security!), he incited Democrats, who responded with messages (“Fake,” “No Kings Here”) on signs and T-shirts. When Al Green, a 77-year-old Democratic lawmaker from Texas, waved his walking stick and shouted at Trump that he had “no mandate to cut Medicaid,” Republican leaders, who allowed their own party members to shout at him, called in the sergeant to eject him.
It took Trump nearly an hour to talk about trade. He didn’t get to Ukraine until nearly an hour and 20 minutes into his speech, and then it was to level the false claim that Ukraine had taken $350 billion from the United States, “like taking candy from a child,” while Europe spent only $100 billion on Ukraine — dramatically overstating the U.S. contribution and understating Europe’s.
“Do you want to keep him for another five years?” he said, looking at Democrats. “Pocahontas says yes,” Trump added, referring contemptuously to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts).
In this case, Vice President JD Vance was shocked - and the Republican side, once the home of proud internationalists, responded with jeers, cheers and applause.
And so the architecture of freedom and prosperity collapses: with a lie, a mockery, and a joke. /Adapted from "Pamphlet" by "Washington Post"
Lini një Përgjigje