Irrefutable Proof That Trump Is a Moron
This is not name calling — it is fact-checking
We can no longer allow even the most generous among us to refer to Donald J. Trump as a genius — not after we know what Rachel Maddow reported the other day.
It is bad enough that Trump has repeatedly told the nation that tariffs would be paid by other countries, thus exhibiting his failure to understand basic economics. And it’s equally upsetting to hear his ignorance parroted by practically every member of his cabinet, staff and the Republican Party.
But the most recent information that has come to light regarding the Trump administration’s abject failure to effectively wage a trade war is so absurd as to be fitting only for a Monty Python skit.
Trump declares trade war on island populated by penguins
If you saw the chart Trump proudly displayed on “liberation day” while announcing plans to wage a trade war on countries who’ve taken advantage of the United States, you may have noticed a few names you are not familiar with. That’s because three of the countries listed are islands that are not populated by people.
In one case the only inhabitants of note are penguins. In another case, the island is known only for its volcano. In a third case the island is inhabited by people, but only a fairly small group: the U.S. Military. As you have doubtlessly deduced, neither penguins, volcanos nor the U.S. Military have levied tariffs against the United States.
Turns out, the White House staff who put this stellar presentation together did so with the help of Chat GPT and no one thought to check the results before they printed them out and handed them to the president — who likewise didn’t notice that the figures were all wrong and some of the countries he was planning to levy “reciprocal” tariffs against not only didn’t enforce tariffs on our goods, they didn’t export anything to the United States.
(Click on the link below it to play it.)
Maddow exposes Trump’s tariff snafu. From MSNBC, on YouTube.
We were warned that Trump was stupid
Years ago, I was naive enough to believe that when Trump’s former Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson called Trump a “fucking moron” we could all agree that if someone who worked closely with Trump (and was also a one-time advocate for Trump) had reached that conclusion, the rest of us would take his word for it. I was wrong. Instead, Tillerson was fired and it was as if his words were never spoken.
Since then, there have been countless examples of Trump’s idiocy, none of which seem to have moved the pundits or mainstream media, almost all of whom can’t stop trying to create some kind of false equivalency between Trump and Democratic politicians.
But now, I think we can safely say, the jig is up for the psychopathic, lying, utterly ignorant man who currently occupies the Oval. There is no doubt anymore, so giving the benefit of the doubt, well, that’s just silly.
But Trump does understand one thing: he knows how to use others to his advantage. Enter, Peter Navarro.
The justification for Trump’s tariff war
Remember Peter Navarro? He’s the one who publicly advocated for the “Green Bay Sweep,” a strategy developed by Steve Bannon to overturn the 2020 election.
You may recall seeing Navarro on an episode of The Beat with Ari Melber, where Navarro described, step-by-step, the process he was advocating to overthrow the 2020 election. When Melber correctly pointed out that Navarro was describing a coup, Navarro, who doesn’t appear to know what a coup is, had the audacity to say, “No, that’s not true.”
Like Trump, Navarro managed to escape justice for his election tampering — though he did go to jail for his refusal to testify before Congress. Unfortunately, Navarro learned nothing from his short stint in the slammer. When he returned to political life, he did so just in time to team up with Trump to create the most pathetic and desperate economic plan this country has ever seen.
As fascinating as it is ridiculous
The sheer audacity of their plan is mind-blowing. The essence of this plot is simple: Donald Trump needed a way to bully, manipulate and eventually control everybody who ever looked down on him — which includes lots of people (for obvious reasons).
So, he called upon Peter Navarro to assist him in coming up with a plan to push for tariffs in the guise of protecting American business. It was a stupid plan but even Trump needs to pretend he gets his brain farts from somewhere other than his own ass, so Trump had to find someone who could add a veneer of legitimacy to the tariff wars he wanted to wage.
Why Navarro? Because Peter Navarro wrote a handful of books in which he regularly quoted an economics expert by the name of Ron Vara. Trump, never one to question the validity of anything, no matter how absurd, as long as it a) comes from a loyal subject, and b) confirms his own limited thinking, ravenously gobbled up Ron Vara’s expertise as if it were a cheeseburger with fries.
Vara thinks tariffs are terrific, therefore Vara was able to provide Trump with the credibility he needed to convince his team and his followers that tariffs on everybody is the way to economic prosperity.
However, Ron Vara doesn’t actually exist. He is a non-existent person created by Navarro using an anagram of his own name. Cute, huh? It’s the kind of sneaky move a serial killer might use to both hide and advertise his identity simultaneously. But in this case, instead of discreetly murdering an individual here and there, Navarro was working with his favorite politician to destroy the economy of entire nation.
You might ask why Navarro felt the need to use a fake persona to validate his work. Navarro graduated from Harvard with a PhD in economics. You would think that would be enough to give his plan the credibility Trump so desired. But even with those lofty credentials, nobody ever listened to Peter Navarro because he’s also pretty stupid. If you don’t believe me, just listen to him speak. He is is yet another white man with a history of “failing up.”
Does Navarro even understand Trump’s real agenda?
My guess is that Navarro believes his (Ron Vara’s) theories about tariffs. He probably thinks he’s doing a good thing by helping Trump.
I’m sure some of Trump’s acolytes also sincerely believe that if we make imported goods so expensive no one wants to buy what foreigners produce, then America will make everything here and we’ll all be better off. However, they are likely forgetting a few small details like how we manufacture things that require natural resources we don’t have in America — not to mention how long the complete redevelopment of our manufacturing landscape might take. But that’s not all they are missing.
The most important question they should to be asking is what Trump himself is getting from this tariff war, because contrary to what Trump says, he isn’t doing this to bring manufacturing back to America. Trump knows that will never happen quickly enough to benefit him personally— and if there is one thing we should all know about Donald J. Trump by now, it is that he doesn’t do anything that doesn’t benefit him, personally.
Trump wants to “own” everybody
Marc Elias said it best. Elias, founder of Democracy Docket and the one attorney who has single-handedly done more than anyone else to fight Trump’s lawless regime is blunt in his assessment of Trump’s motivation.
Elias believes Trump’s tariffs were enacted so that Trump can “selectively” lift them — but only after billionaires show up to kiss the ring at Mar-a-Lago — only after they humiliate themselves by bowing down to Trump and offering him bounty.
(Click on the link below it to play it.)
Marc Elias interviewed by Brian Tyler Cohen, on YouTube.
It’s not about making America great — though Trump’s cult followers may mistakenly believe that it is. It’s only about making Trump great — and for Trump that means making everybody else pay.
It’s already started. A few weeks ago the DOJ began threatening a law firm and before you know it, the firm sent executives to the White House to offer Trump $40 million in legal services in exchange for letting the “investigation” go.
A week later, another firm offered $100 million in a similar arrangement. This is extortion, and this is just the beginning.
Stupid and vengeful is a bad combination
Trump’s plan might succeed in the short term. He might find a few more people ready to beg for his favor. But Trump is forgetting one thing about this already great country: we won’t all sell our souls for riches or for protection from his lawless schemes.
While the people Trump surrounds himself with may have already sold their souls, some of us have self respect — you know, that thing Trump is trying to buy with his bullying and his posturing.
What Trump is too ignorant to realize is that self-respect can’t be bought.
When the dust settles on Trump’s doomed plan for dominance, he will not have gained self-respect or the respect of anyone else— only the disdain of the entire world, who will finally see what a weak and pathetic man he is.