John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO CBC NEWS (AND TAKEN DOWN BY EDITORS)
“Trudeau says threatened U.S. auto tariffs based on flimsy logic
“Trump has threatened tariffs of up to 25 per cent on all cars imported into U.S.”
I think this is revealing about Trudeau.
Trudeau is welcome to say the logic of Trump's threatened tariffs is 'flimsy" or to use any other pejorative he chooses.
But, in fact, as with so many actions and statements of Trump's, the words have nothing to do with logic.
Trump operates from the gut.
And his gut is full of the kind of stuff you would hear muttered at NASCAR meets, gun shows, in Denny's Restaurants, and in trailer parks. He definitely embraces the "I want it all, and I want it now," common street philosophy of many Americans.
Those are Trump's people, his political base, and truly his own native sympathies, "native" being a very fitting word because Trump's personality is heavily colored by a kind of American Nativism.
He's a strange man, a rich hillbilly who lives on top of a skyscraper in Manhattan, goes to some fancy clubs, never drinking anything, and likes McDonald's hamburgers in bed while watching three television sets. No reading, no listening to experts, and no respect for the opinion of others.
You really do not talk logic to or about a man like this, and I think Trudeau should know better, but he apparently does not.
Trudeau's observations wouldn't make it past the first line of Oval Office staff. Trump would never hear them. But if somehow, he did, they wouldn't even make an impression. He would regard them as "snowflake" prattle.
Is this all indicative of our strategy in the NAFTA negotiations? I fear it is.
So, we have a very truly reckless force at work in Washington and I'm afraid a somewhat ineffectual one in Ottawa.
I truly doubt NAFTA, at least with any substance to it, has a future. If it does, it will be a result of pure luck or accident.
