Rumours of globalism's death have been greatly exaggerated
My position on Trump and MAGA has been incredibly nuanced, considering the temptations I have had to develop full-blown Trump Derangement Syndrome. I honestly believe there is a core of ideas in MAGA that are, whether you agree with them or not, entirely respectable.
Tariffs can be bad sometimes and good sometimes. For example China's shipbuilding capacity is now around 200 times that of the United States. Tariffs should have been used for several decades past to ensure that such a strategic disparity never developed.
Likewise, US tariffs on Japanese semiconductors in the 1980s and 90s just moved that vital industry from a relatively easy-to-defend island to an extremely difficult-to-defend island -- and one that we have already all admitted is an integral part of China anyway.
The main distinction I make is between "Good MAGA" (i.e. sensible autarkic impulses and justifiable geopolitical disengagement) vs. "Bad MAGA," namely the clown show, slop politics, and increasingly unhinged mood swings and brittle whims of an aging sociopath and toxic narcissist already in the antechamber of death.
The problem, however, is that even though discerning individuals may be able to tell the two apart, the rest of the World will not.
The shitshow of "Bad MAGA," typified by the extreme, chaotic, and economically destructive way that the tariffs have been introduced, will stick to the more respectable core ideas of MAGA and make them just as toxic as Trump's increasingly corrupt and repellent behaviour and the cluster of sycophantic reptiles around him.
Make no mistake, what Trump is doing now and the way he is doing it will implode and, as I have predicted, he won't even be a one-term president this time. And when the wheels come off Trump's shambolic revolution, there will be a "correction," a counter-revolution, that will see America return in one form or another to its former pattern of globalism.
Trump's legacy will include higher military spending in Europe (at least until Putin collapses), the collapse of Euro-Populists associated with Trump, a bolstering of the EU project, the increasing isolation of Israel, which has foolishly used Trump's corruptibility and transitory power to engage in genocide (with a small "g"), and a messy situation in East Asia (which could get very bad very quickly).
But his main legacy will be to toxify sensible MAGA ideas and strengthen belief, whether justified or unjustified, in the tenets of a globalist system.
____________________
Colin Liddell is the Chief Editor of Neokrat and the author of Interviews & Obituaries, a collection of encounters with the dead and the famous. Support his work by buying his book here (USA), here (UK), and here (Australia), or by taking out a paid subscription on his Substack.
Follow on Twitter and Bluesky
Follow on Twitter and Bluesky
This administration is just painfully dumb and an outright embarassement to right-wingers ! I agree that there's an "Enlightened MAGA" and a "Redneck MAGA". The latter's in charge now. Trump came to power on the back of his economic success in 2016-2020, but he wasn't solely responsible for that success, his republican party minders played a big role. During his first administration, Trump was surrounded by career republicans who tamed and controlled him. Moreover, he inherited an economy that was recovering from the lows of the early 2010s and full of optimism for the future. But after losing the 2020 election he burnt those bridges, and without those guardrails in place, and with a fiercely loyal but incompetent and ideologically motivated gang of hawks around him, Trump has free reign to do what he likes. If that were limited to deportations of illegals and attacks against the far left like banning LGBT flags at schools and removing DEI quotas from federal departments, he would likely have gotten away with it.
ReplyDeleteBut instead, Trump is questioning Canada's and Greenland's sovereignty, launching a trade war, threatening military action against Denmark (one of the USA's closest allies and intelligence partners), humiliating Zelensky and repeating Putin's talking points on Ukraine, being overall a lenient doormat with Russia and siding with them in the UN, threatening Europe directly, shit talking America's closest allies, unilaterally withdrawing from trade agreements, threatening to withdraw military support for Europe, threatening to withdraw military services to existing paid-for military systems, discussing state secrets in unsecure group chats, confusing the VAT with tariffs, putting tariffs on an uninhabited island, but none on Russia, crashing the stock market, making millions of americans unemployed, reigniting inflation fears and potentially causing the first recession in America since 2008.
Imagine if Biden did any of this ? I know this is supposed to be part of a larger plan meaning to reconfigure trade and reindustrialize the US, but given how poor the execution is, I have doubts it will work out as intended. Never been as glad to be european, but this american clownshow is going to have consequences on the european Right as well. I mean, everyone who isn't a Russian bot, or a mindless drone is looking at this mess and saying "well, I still don't want mass migration or wokism, but if that's the cost, then maybe I'll rather vote liberal instead of conservative, or anyone competent that understands global supply chains and values democracy, freedom and the rule of law“. Yeah, thanks MAGAtards. Enjoy your cheap eggs!
Trump is an old man in a hurry. Not an edifying sight.
DeleteTrump has realized that tarrifs are powerful tools that can be used to tweak the mechanisms of global economy to one's advantage when handled skillfully. So of course he threw the entire toolbox into the works.
ReplyDeleteI agree that tariffs CAN BE powerful tools if used skilfully and sparingly. Trump is making a pig's ear of it, torching US credibility, destabilising the US and global economies, and with nothing "positive" to show for it besides corrupt insider trading gains.
DeleteThat's what I mean, he bungled it completely.
DeleteAlso, it's a big mistake -- probably his main one -- to fuck with the Chinese. To do that you need serious preparation, solid allies, and a long-term commitment. Even then it'd be difficult.
Delete