Trump Demolished in Forbes

Its high time Americans called Trump by his real name—traitor, perhaps this country's worst traitor ever.

"I speak not of his attack on our allies, his appeasement of our adversaries, his assault on the press, his coddling of racists, his repulsive misogyny, his rampant corruption, his terrible cronyism, his brazen nepotism, his abuse of children, his obstruction of justice, his contempt for our justice system, or his war on the environment. I speak of his systematic destruction of our economy," analyst Laurence Kotlikoff wrote for Forbes.

Trump is hell bent on engineering a complete meltdown of US trade. This will do enormous and lasting damage to US economy, not to mention the international relations. According to the Business Round Table, more than one in five US jobs are directly supported by international trade. US exports and imports now total 30% of US GDP—roughly $6 trillion.  And international trade is the economy's primary source of growth, he said.

To quote the 2018 Economic Report of the president:

Traded goods and services have constituted a growing share of US gross domestic product over time. From 1970 to 2015, the US economy grew threefold, but the total value of goods and services traded internationally increased nearly eleven times in real terms. This increasing economic reliance on trade makes trade policy critical to the future economy.

Acting on Own Whim

Trump clearly hasn't read his own economic report, let alone digested its message. Instead, against the advice of his economic advisers, Trump decided to pull out of the Trans Pacific Partnership and is on course to destroy NAFTA, the North Atlantic Free Trade Association. This is a direct attack on Canada and Mexico, US' two largest export markets.

Trump levied $34 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports and will shortly add another $200 billion. His tariffs on steel and aluminum, predicated on a claim of national security, are aimed at, of all countries,

"Moreover, Canada imports more steel from our country than we import from Canada. If Canada were to stab us in the back in a time of military need for steel, we could always divert the steel we're shipping to Canada to our military industrial complex," he said.

Trump also levied $3.2 billion in tariffs on the European Union and is now threatening a 20% tariff on European cars. Japan, hit by Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, is threatening to impose over $400 million in tariffs on US products. Trump's response is to threaten high tariffs on Japanese car imports also based on national security.

Trump Is Initiating Risk

Trump's pretense for risking our economy—that the US has been pushed around for years in its trade deals by big bullies like Canada—is equally ridiculous. Yes, there are particular US exports that face high tariffs. But there are also particular foreign exports on which US imposes high tariffs. Just read this study by the Pew Research Center.

"The plain truth is that the US doesn't get pushed around in its trade deals. Nor do huge US corporations hand over their intellectual property for free—to China or anyone else. When our country or our companies give a quo in some arena, we and they extract a quid. Always have and always will."

"The real question is not whether we are the terrible victim of viciously unfair foreign trade. The real question is why this president is using unfair trade as a pretense for destroying our economy?

"Yes, I get that the stock market doesn't read things this way. But the stock market is completely right just up to the point that it's completely wrong. All it will take for the stock market to melt down is an announcement by China that it's cancelling its recent agreement to purchase $300 billion worth of aircraft from Boeing and buying from Airbus instead. All it will take is for an Elton John or a Christiano Ronaldo to start, by tweet, a boycott of US goods. All it will take is for the French foreign minister to leak his decision to cancel a summer vacation in Colorado. All it will take is a meeting of the G-6 (the G-7 less the US) to form a joint free-trade zone. All it will take is mass protests in front of every McDonalds in Germany with signs, "Americans go home." All it will take  ..."

This and more are coming. Trump is working full time to make it happen. Again, the real question is why. One answer is mental illness. It doesn't fit the facts. Another answer is stupidity. No one, not even Trump, is that stupid. The only answer is that he's trying to ruin our economy for the same reason he's trying to destroy NATO, alienate our allies, befriend our enemies, divide our country, undermine our democracy, and demean our values.

The reason is he's a traitor.

Trump a Public Enemy

"Being a traitor has nothing to do with intent. Many of our country's most infamous traitors betrayed our country with the best of intentions. Trump is betraying our country. The sooner we recognize that Trump is a public enemy, the sooner we'll remove him from office and the sooner we'll undo his economic, moral and geopolitical damage.

"And yes, there are sufficient economic grounds for impeachment and conviction independent of Russia gate. The accusation of high crimes and misdemeanors covers 'allegations of misconduct peculiar to officials, such as perjury of oath, abuse of authority, bribery, intimidation, misuse of assets, failure to supervise, dereliction of duty, unbecoming conduct, and refusal to obey a lawful order'." Trump is clearly abusing his authority and misusing our biggest asset—the US economy.