So, the Trade War goes on, and while in the larger scheme of things, it is probably more of a skirmish than a full scale war, Trump's rhetoric has been rather bellicose, without being terribly detailed. At this point, U.S. farmers have been targeted with retaliatory tariffs, which is a pretty calculated move by China, bringing the pain of the battle to Trump's supporters in particular. In an effort to mitigate that pain, and I guess show some solidarity, Trump is planning to invoke a "Great Depression-era program to help U.S. farmers weather the growing trade war." Some have already called this "welfare," and it's not very clear how effective such a program will be. There has been criticism of the plan to that effect already from Republican Senators. Trump's previous assertion that "Trade Wars are easy," looks like it's going to be tested.
One thing that I haven't seen reported is the specifics that Trump is trying to address, much less the position of adversaries on the matter. I have heard comments that China doesn't respect American Intellectual Property rights sufficiently, although again, just what Trump is trying to accomplish with his trade war has not been clarified very well. From what I can tell, he hasn't gotten a lot of support for his trade war position in general, but that doesn't seem to have deterred his enthusiasm for the prospect. I don't see how his plays out, but I rather suspect that it will get worse before it gets better. Trump does like to project a "strong man" image, and I think that is part of what is going on here, but in this case there isn't a lot of fiery tweet rhetoric, and the push back has been pretty muted. Until Fox and Friends start to consider his trade policies a bad idea (and it's difficult to do that, since the policy is so devoid of specifics), I expect he will keep pushing until something breaks. Me probably believes it will be China that caves in/breaks, but if it's not, the question is how much pain can they inflict, and how much is Trump, and his supporters, are willing to accept. It seems pretty clear that China has something of an understanding of the political calculus here, and if Trump supporters take the brunt of the pain, Trump himself is weakened politically in the longer term.
- Trump Charity lawsuit by New York Attorney General
- FBI investigation (it keeps being called a Russian Collusion investigation, but I'm pretty sure more to it than that at this point)
- North Korea
- The Space Force
- The Border Wall
- Alien Children Detention/family separation
- Presidential Pardons
- Civil War Monuments
- Muslim Travel Ban
- China Tariffs/Trade
- Canada-G7 Tariffs/Trade
- NAFTA
- Puerto Rico response
- Military Parade in Washington
- World Trade Organization
- Covfefe Syndrome
- NATO
- Russia/Putin relationship
Giuliani still there as Lawyer
John F. Kelly still there as Chief of Staff - 6-29-2018 Trump says "Things Happen."
Jeff Sessions still there as Attorney General
Sarah Huckabee Sanders still there as Press Secretary, rumors continue to be denied.
Mike Pompeo - Secretary of State
John Bolton - National Security Advisor
Marc Short - White House Legislative Affairs Director - no denial of plans regarding his departure prior to the 2018 midterms.
Kirstjen Nielsen - Homeland Security Secretary
Joe Hagin - White House deputy Chief of Staff is resigning.- reported June 19th
Scott Pruitt - EPA Director - Resigned 7-5-2018
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