UPDATED:

We all saw it last week, Trump suddenly tweeting that he’s going to slap tariffs on all Mexican imports if Mexico doesn’t immediately stop illegal immigration into the US.  He tanked stocks from manufacturers to grocery distributors, probably after he leaked the announcement to his cronies so they could short those stocks to make a tidy sum.  Remember Carl Icahn dumping steel stocks just before Trump announced the steel tariffs?

Anyway, negotiators between the US and Mexico were supposedly in feverish negotiations to come to a border security deal, and yesterday, with great fanfare, Trump announced on the Twitter machine that he has cut a last minute deal with Mexico.

Then he announced that Mexico has committed to purchase large quantities of American produce:

All that is great, except for one thing.  The deal he breathlessly announced yesterday was negotiated with Mexico…wait for it…last March.  Some provisions in the agreement date back to December.  This negotiation has been completed for months.

So let’s recap – Trump creates a gigantic economic crisis by demanding Mexico do what it has already agreed to do.  He costs the US economy billions of dollars (probably creating a profit opportunity for his buds).  He ratchets up the rhetoric during the D-Day commemoration, even while sitting in the US cemetery in Normandy. He berates Mexico, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, and even Bette Midler (I still haven’t figured that one out).  Then, with great fanfare, he announces that he’s saved the day by forcing Mexico to agree to a deal that had already been done.

Folks, this is gaslighting in its purest form.  Lie and create a problem that doesn’t exist.  Then lie again, claiming to have fixed a problem that really wasn’t a problem in the first place.  Then take credit for fixing the problem that didn’t exist.

Jesus.

UPDATE:

Trump also lied about a new farm deal.  This morning, he tweeted, “MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS!”

Three Mexican officials say, nope, no farm deal was negotiated; in fact, Mexico has no agricultural conglomerate to even do that.  Another day, another lie.

Just like in the Robin Williams’ movie, Awakenings, comatose patients in the Senate came out of their Trumpist comas long enough to speak out against Trump’s latest power grab that would destroy hundreds of billions of dollars of economic growth for no good reason.  His idiotic tariff against Mexican imports over illegal immigration is one of Stephen Miller’s (Trump’s resident white supremacist) worst yet, so bad, in fact, that the comatose have risen to finally say no.  It will be interesting now if Trump is dumb enough to push it to a vote.

I’m popping popcorn and pulling a few beers out of the fridge for this one.

In a Commerce Department filing, General Motors said that if the new Trump tariffs take effect, the company will have to scale back operations and cut US jobs to survive. Whatever idiot is filling Trump’s orange head full of tariff bullshit needs to be run out of DC.  I’m not sure how much more “winning” we can stand.

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

No one, except for Trump and his billionaire Commerce Secretary, believe trade wars are a good idea.  For those in business, trade wars are often catastrophic.  Cue Harley Davidson, the largest US manufacturer of motorcycles, who just announced that THEY ARE MOVING MANUFACTURING OUT OF THE US due to Trump’s import tariffs on steel and Europe’s retaliatory tariffs against American motorcycles..  The tariffs are adding an additional cost of $2,200 PER MOTORCYCLE, or about $100 million per year.  This is why trade wars are stupid.

In general, companies are rational (when it comes to math, anyway).  If an outside force adds a cost, companies will look to immediately neutralize that cost.  The problem with motorcycles, as in other manufacturing, is that net margins are relatively thin.  Adding $2,200 in cost to a motorcycle puts the price of that motorcycle outside of the ability of many customers to buy, and Harley can’t afford to absorb.  Result?  Trump is accomplishing precisely the opposite of his stated goal of increasing manufacturing jobs in the US.  His stupidity is destroying jobs by the thousands.

And the invertebrates in Congress just lie there, doing nothing.

As we all are painfully aware, Trump wrecked the G7 summit by attacking our closest allies, and picked a fight with Canada over trade tariffs.  On top of all that?  Trump’s reasons to attack Canada is 100% based on lies.  Steve Rattner was on MoJoe this morning and talked about the idiocy of Trump’s tariffs.  Here are the facts:

We don’t have a trade deficit, we have a trade surplus with Canada. Also, Canada’s tariffs are the LOWEST in the developed world. Third, Canada’s tariff on dairy is a tiny piece of trade between the two countries. Lastly, since Trump put tariffs on Canadian lumber, price IN THE US have increased 27%.

You can watch it here.  It’s very informative, even with Joe S. interrupting Rattner every 15 seconds which is his most irritating habit.