Senior administration officials have privately confessed that it’s anyone’s guess what President Donald Trump will eventually decide to do on trade, Politico reported Thursday evening.
That fickleness has led to private infighting between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro– a feud that spilled out into public view this week.
Just a few days after Mnuchin declared the trade war with China was “on hold,” the Trump administration announced it would impose trade levies against China and Navarro made critical comments to NPR about Mnuchin. He called Mnuchin’s “on hold” remark an “unfortunate sound bite.” People within the administration considered Navarro’s public rebuke of Mnuchin a fireable offense, but one senior administration official told Politico that they didn’t think Trump would act on it.
The feud between the two officials — combined with Trump’s lack of patience over what he thinks are incessant negotiations on a variety of trade issues — has led to the creation of a trade policy “that’s nearly impossible for anyone to understand or predict,” in Politico’s words.
“(Trump’s) fed up with feeling like the negotiating partners aren’t ever going to give in to his demands,” a former administration official told Politico. “He’s tired of waiting to do big things on trade.”
Read Politico’s full story here.
It must be hard to work for President Fuckwit, what with his lashing out over both his impotence and constipation. The dread of knowing the day will come when the shit will splatter all over you must be horrible.
These fuckers deserve every minute of it. We don’t.
" it’s anyone’s guess what President Donald Trump will eventually decide to do on trade"
The markets just love them some uncertainty don’t they?
Strap in 401K holders recession take 2 could be around the corner .The Mango Moron is determined to undo everything Obama , including the prosperity
Nothing to say to this. When your opening gambit is to damage the relationship, it leaves you no place to go. All your opposite numbers can do is snap their briefcases closed, suggest you get in touch if you change your mind, and walk out.
It’s not “uncertainty”–it’s greedy corrupt cowards trying to figure out how to get in front of whichever way the Great Orange Psycho decides to irrationally lash out.
Well, I am sure that Paul Ryan and the repug Congress will do something about it, as evidenced by Ryan’s strong statements about the tariffs on the EU, Canada, Mexico, etc.
OT, but I have seen healthier looking corpses than Wilbur Ross in that picture. Watching out for all that money hidden in foreign banks must be hard work.