🔗 They’re Not Tariffs, They’re Sanctions - The American Prospect:

Trump believes that every relationship is zero-sum and transactional. There are no win-win arrangements with allies. They have to suffer for us to win. And if a deal is made, it must be made from a position of strength. From Trump’s perspective, he just gained leverage on every country in the world, even the ones only inhabited by penguins.

The problem with this “logic” is that America is not indispensable and other countries have just as much ability to retaliate, forcing the whole world into recession and making it very clear who started it.

I think this interpretation is basically right, at least in terms of the likely outcome of this whole fiasco.

I do not think there is some grand plan here, and I’d bet good money that Trump himself actually thinks tariffs will generate revenue for the US. Even so, it’s a lunk-headed attempt at a power move, one that will most likely blow up in his face.

And all the rest of us our going to the ones paying for it.