"Unglued"

As we noted in the post below, Very Stable Genius Donald "Rump" Trump is unraveling in front of the entire world.  This dangerous cancer on America's body politic poses a more clear and present danger than ever before, due to events unfolding around him that he's essentially powerless to control.

NBC News details how a recent, crucial decision was made on a whim:

According to two officials, Trump's decision to launch a potential trade war was born out of anger at other simmering issues and the result of a broken internal process that has failed to deliver him consensus views that represent the best advice of his team. 

On Wednesday evening, the president became "unglued," in the words of one official familiar with the president's state of mind. 

A trifecta of events had set him off in a way that two officials said they had not seen before: Hope Hicks' testimony to lawmakers investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 election, conduct by his embattled attorney general and the treatment of his son-in-law by his chief of staff. 

Trump, the two officials said, was angry and gunning for a fight, and he chose a trade war, spurred on by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Peter Navarro, the White House director for trade — and against longstanding advice from his economic chair Gary Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.

It doesn't take a very stable genius to see that someone with this rash, infantile temperament has no business in the Oval Office, making life and death decisions based on whims, or on what might save his rotten neck.

We're reminded that this isn't the first time (nor will it be the last) that Rump's dangerous impetuousness has led to dubious, to say the least, actions:

Things Trump has announced without full due dilligence:

-Travel ban
-Transgender military ban
-National emergency on opioids
-Trade warhttps://t.co/lVae4tiGNZ

— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) March 2, 2018

His risible "all things to all people" performance in the recent bipartisan gun control meeting showed how unmoored this tumor is. He's been "playing government" (to use John Kelly's description of Javanka), but the consequences we're seeing are very real.

"So Much Losing"

Very Stable Genius and school shooting action hero Donald "Rump" Trump surprised his own economic advisors, Rethuglican party leaders, and Wall Street yesterday when, in what was supposed to be a photo-op "listening session," he told steel and aluminum company executives that he'd levy a 25% tariff on imported steel and 10% tariff on imported aluminum. The market responded with a loss of 420 points on Thursday (and opened 250 points down this morning). Allies like Canada, Germany and South Korea are assessing what countermeasures to take in the event Rump follows through on his threat. It's Canada, not China, that's the greatest exporter of steel and aluminum to the U.S.

As we've seen recently, Rump often sides with the last person to bend his ear (see NRA below, for example), but despite the backlash, he was doubling down this morning in a nonsensical tweet that "trade wars are good, and easy to win." We suppose that excludes consumers of steel and aluminum products like the auto and construction industries, and ultimately the American consumer themselves, who will see prices jacked up as a result of the tariffs. Ultimately, while some steel and aluminum industry jobs would be saved initially, the long-term effects would produce many times more job losses in other sectors.

Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska had a good rejoinder to Rump's move:

“Kooky 18th century protectionism will jack up prices on American families -- and will prompt retaliation from other countries,” he wrote in a statement. “Make no mistake: If the President goes through with this, it will kill American jobs -- that’s what every trade war ultimately does. So much losing.”

While action needs to be taken over violations of trade agreements, tariffs are not the answer. Better trade agreements, with credible international enforcement, are.