China has decided to halt critical earth metal exports as the trade war intensifies. These critical raw materials include minerals and magnets which could have an adverse effect on automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies, military contractors and others around the world. This could be a real pressure point and create significant issues for the United States. It is also fascinating, and you may recall I mentioned several months ago the fact that there was a large, rare-earth metals find in Canada, and they may not be so excited about sharing with us access to these metals given Mr. Trump’s propensities.
Reports are surfacing that Canadians are selling properties in Florida and Arizona, which have long been the winter haven of our Canadian neighbors. We also note that are Congresswoman Ms. Stefanik has fully supported Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canada, while other Republicans, including Claudia Tenney, who is a strong Trump supporter is concerned about the Canadian tariffs impact on her constituents and threats about making Canada the 51st state, or maybe the 52nd state, after Greenland. Ms. Stefanik, on the other hand, voices no concern for her constituents.
President Trump continues to play golf at a phenomenal pace and its costing taxpayers incredible sums of money. You may recall that he continually criticized President Obama about playing golf, but Mr. Obama was playing at the single a-rate, a baseball reference, while Mr. Trump is at, or exceeds the major league baseball rate. Mr. Trump sees no hypocrisy. The wonderful world of delusion...
The DEI issue has taken on enormous significance with the trashing of the Tuskegee Airman and Jackie Robinson, removing books from the Naval Academy, firing high ranking DOD officers, all of whom I would note have been minorities, attacking universities, ordering that all levels of government and private enterprise cease DEI efforts. My initial thought was that Republicans normally are strongly opposed to government direction are now doing exactly that. There are likely private enterprises that believe some form of DEI is appropriate because of the environment in which they operate, the makeup of their customer base, etc. What is troublesome is that Mr. Trump’s attack on DEI is really an attempt to change history by failing to provide information regarding various factual occurrences in our country’s history, particularly slavery, which he would now like to strip from American conciseness and treat it as if it had never occurred. Sound familiar? You might look back to WWII.
The Wall Street Journal published two articles in the last several weeks, the first of which asserted that Mr. Trump’s tariffs are as bad as Bidenomics and that the tariffs are essentially a 6 trillion-dollar tax, I mentioned this last week as well, because the number is so phenomenal. These are fairly aggressive attacks by the Wall Street Journal against someone they usually support, although that does not seem to be as evident as in his first term.
Back to Ms. Stefanik. It is important to note, I think, that she has sought no exceptions for us, meaning her constituents, nor does it appear that she will go to bat in any way with regard to the Canadian-U.S. issues that face her District. I wonder why.
DOGE started off with a claim of two trillion dollars in savings, which was then reduced to one trillion, then down to 500 billion and now down to 150 billion. Looks like Mr. Musk is not as good at efficiency as he claims, or the issues associated with servicing the American public are far more complex than he and Mr. Trump understood.
Now let’s talk about jobs for a minute. Deloitte and The Manufacturing Institute indicated in a study that of the 3.8 million jobs that they believe would be created through 2033, only half would be filled because there would not be competent applicants. This was followed by a poll which indicated that although 80% of Americans think manufacturing back is a good idea, only 25% want to work in a factory. So where are the workers going to come from if, in fact, Mr. Trump’s gamble is correct?
As of today, futures are again down and the dollar is down, and the decline in the dollar may be more important actually, than the short-term gyrations of the stock market.
In terms of things Mr. Trump promised – egg prices are still soaring, the Ukraine War continues to go on with a threat of abandonment of the Ukraine by the U.S., deportations are in effect, static although border crossings have dramatically declined. And of course, inflation is moving all over the place. There are some declines in some areas, in other areas there are increases, and of course interest rates have stayed where they are because Mr. Powell is actually making thoughtful decisions in contrast to Mr. Trump.
Bill Owens is a former member of Congress representing the New York 21st, a partner in Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, Kelleher and Trombley in Plattsburgh, NY and a Strategic Advisor at Dentons to Washington, DC.
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