
A 13-year-old private Boeing aircraft that President Donald Trump toured on Saturday to check out new hardware and technology features, and highlight the aircraft maker's delay in delivering updated versions of the Air Force One presidential aircraft, takes off from Palm Beach International Airport, Feb 16, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP News / AP Photo / Ben Curtis, File)
How do you define victory in a trade war? Is it by someone agreeing to buy more? Or maybe by someone agreeing to charge less? It really comes down to that, right? It comes down to how much people give or get for doing business.
The Trump tariffs have attempted to do just that. The question is, for who? Who might have had information early enough to not just make millions on that knowledge, but billions?
For every winner, there’s also a loser. In this case, the loser is the middle class. Stocks were sold before they had a chance to rebound. Retirements held off until accounts had a chance to rebound, or at least, came close to rebounding. As Trump said, “maybe children will have two dolls instead of thirty dolls.” So parents and grandparents can skip on buying those dolls for Christmas. All because of one man’s ego and greed for both himself and his friends.
Now, how will we gauge if I’m wrong?
- If, by the end of the year, we have more money than the previous.
- If we flip over a product that used to say “made in China,” and it now says, “made in America.”
- If inflation and interest rates have both gone down.
Long term, there’s some things that will take generations to fix. Canadians now don’t see the U.S. Government as a friend. Mexicans feel the same, but worse. And Europeans just feel we’re stupid for electing him not once, but twice.
Speaking of greed, let’s visit about a $400 million gift to Trump. Qatar is a country that Trump once accused of promoting and supporting terrorism. Now, they want to gift him a plane.
It doesn’t matter what the Constitution says. It doesn’t matter that we don’t know how secure the jet would be. And it doesn’t matter that no one gives someone $400 million without expecting something in return. That really doesn’t matter in Donald Trump’s world, he only cares about what benefits him.
The question we owe to ourselves is to ask if it’s the right thing to do.
I think you know my opinion.
Good riding with you,
Joel
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