Getting back to my hypothesis that Trump is dumb as a bag of hammers, let’s look at something he said yesterday —
During a press briefing in the Oval Office, Trump downplayed concerns over job security sparked by a significant drop in cargo volumes as a result of his sweeping tariff policy and ongoing trade negotiations with China.
One reporter said that traffic at U.S. ports “has really slowed, and now thousands of dockworkers and truck drivers are worried about their jobs,” before being interrupted by the president.
“That means we lose less money, you know? When I see that, that means we lose less money,” Trump replied. He claimed that China had been making “over a trillion, 1.1 trillion, in my opinion.”
“And frankly if we didn’t do business, we would have been better off,” Trump continued. “So, when you say it slowed down, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.
Probably most of this is Trump refusing to acknowledge that his policies are hurting people. But what he’s actually saying here is that trade is bad. He’s saying the U.S. would be better off economically if we closed our borders to imports, according to Trump. We should just sell stuff to other countries, not buy stuff. Maybe he doesn’t really believe it, but he’s sure as bleep dumb enough to say it. I guess he thinks that if all the dockworkers lose their jobs they can get those factory jobs “screwing in little screws” all day long, like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick talked about recently.
Lutnick is another specimen that belongs in the Overprivileged Twit Museum.
Update: I missed this earlier. Steve Benen wrote on the Maddow Blog,
As the week got underway, NBC News aired Donald Trump’s latest appearance on “Meet the Press,” during which the president shared some odd claims about trade policy. “We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China,” he said. “Now we’re essentially not doing business with China. Therefore, we’re saving hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Of course, by that reasoning, if I stopped doing business with my local grocery stores, I could boast about all of the money I’m saving, which would be great except for the related fact that I wouldn’t have any food.
A couple of days later, Trump again said that he didn’t care about the collapse of economic activity between the U.S. and China. “You know, we lost a trillion dollars to China on trade … and by not trading, we’re losing nothing,” the Republican claimed. “So, we’re saving a trillion dollars. That’s a lot.”
So if we all stopped buying stuff we’d save a lot of money. However, I’m not sure how that’s going to increase federal revenue. The General Services Administration does buy some electronics and other technical stuff from China, but I doubt that such purchases add up to a trillion dollars.
In other news — retired Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter has died.
Trump has fired the Librarian of Congress for being an obstacle to President Trump’s agenda. I’m struggling to understand what the Librarian of Congress could possibly do that interferes with anyone’s agenda.
Update: Another perspective —
He seems intent on just doing the toadie patronage stuff everywhere. Chaos is important to divert attention from all the financial thefts he and his gang are doing or planning.
Per Wikipedia:
Fair use is a big one, otherwise you wouldn't be able to make backup copies of your CD collection. I can also imagine Trump having a compliant Librarian revoking copyright for any artist that complained about him using their music, deregistering them and copyrighting anything having to do with himself as well.
Anyone who deals in facts is an impediment to the trump agenda.
So let's see: if I own a store, and I stop spending the money I spend every month to buy products to put on the shelves to sell, I am actually saving money. Until I go out of business for not having anything to sell.
Its incredible that an American president would say something this stupid. And this is a president whose main selling point for many voters was he's a "businessman." Which should explain to people why he went bankrupt six times.
The reality is the American people voted to have this man as president, again, and have him sit next to world leaders saying stupid stuff like this.
My take: Trump is a bully. It's a baked-in character trait. Trump thinks other presidents were too weak and timid to intimidate other countries. Is this depiction an exaggeration? Trump actually said countries are "kissing my ass" to make trade deals. IMO. Trump still expects countries to make deals to avoid his ire. ("Who wants to be my best friend? My pants are down.") Trump still expects that when some start to make deals, the rest of the world leaders will pucker up.
Why should they now? If US prices spike and shelves are empty, all the pressure is gonna be on Trump to return to the previous (pre-tariff) position. If Trump is too stupid and too stubborn, we were one vote shy in the Senate from pulling Trump's authority to do tariffs. Let double-digit inflation kick in and shift the anger to the GOP Senators to fix this mess now, they may pull the rug out from under him.
Regarding Trump's recent comments… he's become fond of, "I don't know", like when asked if he has to uphold the US Constitution. He's also only taking orders from his, "really smart lawyers" so he's not responsible as long as they advise Trump that the USSC did not say what they said or they pretend the court meant the opposite of a written order. Oh, and Trump suggested he'd lower China tariffs to 85% – maybe – but Bessent would have to decide. SO Trump is in charge of everything, responsible for nothing. One other recent comment that girls can get by with two dolls and five pencils instead of thirty dolls and hundreds of pencils, aside from the absurdity, suggests Trump expects a bleak menu of toy choices for Christmas. (That's gonna hit parents hard to not be able to grant their kids wishes.)
Last thought: in Trump's first administration, he wasn't entirely surrounded with yes-men. There was some consideration given to experience and qualifications. Many of those people didn't last but they did hold Trump back on some of his more idiotic suggestions. This time around, Trump wants loyalists. Nobody is holding Trump back and the limiting factor is reality. Trump thinks he's running a reality show and he can shape perception. It's not going well and promises to get worse.
This is a guy who thinks "you're fired" is entertainment. It's his dopamine, so he's going to fire everybody that he can.
Meanwhile, we're all mentally self-deporting to any other world than his.
"So if we all stopped buying stuff we’d save a lot of money"
I don't take one thing this imbecile says seriously, he's a liar, he's an idiot, his words are nothing more than meaningless word salad. China will have these tariffs down to where they started a couple months ago eventually they have all the cards diaper don has nothing.
So how many words can you think of for the thing that you push a baby around in? Fearless Leader drew a balk and had to resort to the thing. I did baby buggy, bassinet, perambulator and baby carriage, off the top of my head, and that is not even half of the possible synonyms and like words one can use for that thing. Pram and stroller would do too without going to the rarely used ones like carry-cot. No matter what you call it we make none in the USA. This is how it came up, as these devices along with others are subject to higher costs with tariffs which are a tax and tend to increase costs. This too seems to be a notion that is rejected by the leader's brain, along with any noun or word combination other than thing you push a baby around in.
Washington Week focused on what world leaders were up against given the leader's mental state. His voiced responses to Iran were analyzed across a few days and different interviews with a lack of any semblance of stability of notions. All one can conclude after listening is that the United States position on Iran varies day to day and lacks stability. How is any country prepared to or even capable of negotiating with positions that are to say the least ephemeral. What are your chances of late that you get the "did I say that?" line just days later.
I had a boss with Betty Ford's Disease (it seemed by all signs) that behaved with a similar line on more than a few occasions. You cannot believe how hard that makes your life and your job when the sea is never calm. Mental chaos creates quite a wake. Add a dash miscommunication and a few outright lies for extra turbulence and buckle up.
Trump isn't entirely wrong about the relationship between the rise of Chinese industry and the stagnation of US working-class standard of living, but both his analytical framework ("China stole our jobs") and proposed solution (Tariffs) are dangerously wrong.
Wall Street lent China a few $Trillion to build factories as a way to (1) kill off US Unions and thereby (2) undermine Democrats' funding base (and (3) make lotsa money, too). Their plan worked magnificently.
As thousands of small factories in the US went out of business, hundreds of small cities lost their economic base. Laid-off workers took jobs at lower pay, while rent and other costs rose. Less 'disposable income' led to collapse of local family-owned retailers, which were largely replaced by big chains like Walmart and then Dollar Stores… selling cheap junk Made in China.
The first step to fixing the core problem – Wall Street – would be to tax the rich, but that's now politically impossible.
Rebuilding US Industry is more complicated. Tariffs *could* be a useful tool, but only if they are carefully targeted at specific industrial sectors and supported by massive Federal investment in research and infrastructure. Sadly, Trump and the GOP are (1) ripping up Biden's efforts to repair and update US Infrastructure and (2) scaring scientists away from US Universities; and Trump's Tariffs have been targeted at countries, not specific industries, so the major effect will be to leave all those Dollar Stores with empty shelves…
Well said.
We got an interesting potential game-changer in a Temporary Restraining Order that puts the brakes on the downsizing and dismantling of 14 government agencies.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/09/nx-s1-5393777/trump-rifs-court-mass-layoff-doge
The case was brought but the AFL-CIO but it doesn't point at the violation of the union contract as the basis. The argument (sustained, for now) os that what the government is doing is fundamentally unconstitutional because it lacks the participation of Congress. Congress made these agencies – Congress can change these agencies – POTUS can request the changes he'd like – but absent authorization by Congress in a bill passed by both champers, the president is outside the boundaries of the US Constitution when he pulls the plug.
There's some discussion about just what the government is doing and at whose direction – the judge wants more information from the government during the 14-day "temporary" order. I gather there's a schedule of hearings before a final order.
The order (from Friday) is pretty clear on the Constitutional issues. Obviously, it will be appealed to the USSC regardless after it goes to the appellate court (likely to affirm.) It might be early July (my guess entirely) when the USSC gets it. Related: Kristi Noem testified yesterday to Congress that Garcia will NOT be returned to the US. And she lied her ass off when she then said DHS is in compliance with the USSC order. My opinion is that the USSC will have the contempt case over Mr. Garcia in front of them before oral arguments over the other case.
IF… and that's a big word… if the Administration has declared they are above the USSC on the Garcia case, will the Court grant Trump authority to nullify Congress on legislation? IMO, the USSC leans in the direction of giving Trump more power to reshape the the federal government without going to Congress than (I think) the framers intended. But if Trump declares he has veto power over USSC decisions, will they clip Trump's wings on this case?
This is the core of Project 2025. Can Trump make entire agencies disappear by wiggling his nose? Maybe not, if he recently declared that he's doing it to the robert's court.
Hypothetically, this dovetails (in terms of the schedule) with the administration needing a CR to keep the government open – if the budget bill is coming apart at the seams. It's gonna be a long hot summer.