'So much for Trump as genius': WSJ editorial drops the hammer on president's trade blunders

[DonViejo]

‘So much for Trump as genius’: Conservative WSJ editorial drops the hammer on president’s trade blunders

BRAD REED
01 JUN 2018 AT 06:30 ET

The conservative Wall Street Journal’s editorial page on Friday published a scathing editorial attacking President Donald Trump’s decision to slap key American allies with hefty tariffs on steel and aluminum.

“So much for Donald Trump as genius deal-maker,” the editorial begins. “We are supposed to believe his tariff threats are a clever negotiation strategy, but on Thursday he revealed he’s merely an old-fashioned protectionist.”

The editorial goes on to slam the president for hitting Canada, the European Union and Mexico with tariffs, as those countries are now announcing retaliatory tariffs of their own.

And in what might be a first for the Journal’s editorial page, the editors find themselves far more sympathetic toward a Liberal Canadian prime minister than toward a Republican American president.

“Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that he recently offered to visit the White House to close a Nafta deal,” the editors write. “But Vice President Mike Pence told him he’d have to accept a five-year Nafta sunset. Mr. Trudeau rightly said no Canadian leader would agree to such a self-defeating provision.”

more
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/06/much-trump-genius-conservative-wsj-editorial-drops-hammer-presidents-trade-blunders/

[Vogon_Glory]

1. The WSJ's Tears Are Years Late And Mega-Dollars Short

Their editorial staff beat the drums for Trump’s election. They own shares in this mess

[OldHippieChick]

2. I have no clue what a NAFTA sunset is, but do have to

wonder if this tariff is in partial retribution for Trudeau's failure to give in to blackmail.

[shanny]

4. I assume that the admin wants a revised deal that "sunsets" / goes away

after, in this case, 5 years. If I thought they were smart--which is hard to picture--I would think that this was a method of gradually weaning the US off of NAFTA without as much disruption as simply ending it.

[dalton99a]

3. Murdoch owns the WSJ and actively helped elect the shithole

Very actively