Little Rock Many of us are amazed and disgusted with the relentless attack of the Trump administration over its first six months. The devastation would be a longer list than any of us have time to make. The whole enterprise seems grossly illegal. It also just seems completely crazy. Here’s the problem: crazy is working! At least, it’s working for now.
Take tariffs as one of the more bizarre front page examples. Trump has been a yo-yo, moving from up and down, back and forth, country to country. None of it makes sense. Most of it seems by whim. Sometimes it’s across the board, and other times it’s pure and simple retaliation for something Trump doesn’t like. Brazil’s legal system goes after a right-wing buddy of his, the former president, so wham-bang, 50% tariffs. Canada comes to an agreement with Trump. Whoops, they might recognize as a Palestinian state, boom, here comes a tariff threat. There were supposed to be hundreds of deals by a certain date. The date comes and goes; the date seems to simply be: whenever he feels like it.
Economists claim there will be recessions and disasters around the world, and that US consumers will feel the impacts soon. Yeah? It’s happening now? Still consumers are spending. At least some of them. Lower income families, once again like in the Big Bad Budget Bill, are taking the hit.
Once upon a time, wags on Wall Street, where for no good reason, stocks are still going wild, seemingly unhinged from the economy, used to joke about TACO – Trump Always Chickens Out. Not really, it turns out. Europe goes with a tariff. Japan is happy to get a 15% tariff. South Korean wants the same thing. Trump has become the master of high-low bargaining. Republicans are now arguing in the Senate. Tariffs have brought in $75 billion. Trump wants to prove he’s right and is talking about a rebate with the money, while they say, how about let’s pay off the debt. This is crazy on steroids.
Universities are threatened with wild, unsubstantiated claims, that are, you know, crazy. Now, they’re lining up to pay millions just to have crazy go away. Columbia $200 million. Harvard, maybe $500 million. TV stations and tech companies are signing checks for tens of millions to settle cases that were hardly an inch away from being frivolous. Trump just goes cha-ching…crazy is working its magic.
For all of those people who just nod and say this is crazy, it can’t keep going on like this, I’m sorry to say, we need a better response. Crazy is working. You can’t cure crazy, but maybe we should start thinking if there’s a way to meet crazy with crazy to stop this merry-go-round?