President Trump says the remainder of the world is dishonest the USA. He says he’s charging tariffs on imports from different nations and the most important tariffs will likely be on the worst cheaters.
Which nation tops Trump’s dishonest chart? Nicely, it seems to be the tiny, landlocked southern African kingdom of Lesotho.
In 2023, Lesotho exported about $228 million value of products and companies to the USA and imported simply $7.33 million value from the USA. To rectify this imbalance, which the Trump administration regards as an insupportable abuse of the American folks, the president is imposing a 50 % tax on future imports from Lesotho — the very best price on any nation.
It’s a determination that illustrates the stupidity and cruelty of Trump’s new commerce coverage even by comparability with its said objective.
Lesotho is among the poorest nations on Earth. Its 2.3 million residents spend a median of solely $3 on American items and companies every year not as a result of they’re attempting to cheat the USA however as a result of they’ve little or no cash.
And what of the stuff that People purchase from Lesotho? Diamonds high the record. We may enhance our commerce steadiness with Lesotho by buying fewer diamonds, however we are able to’t mine our personal. There aren’t any industrial diamond mines on this nation.
Lesotho is an excessive instance, in fact. However it’s a useful one all the identical. It underscores that the president is mendacity to the American folks.
Trump stated repeatedly on Wednesday that the tariffs are “reciprocal,” however that’s not true. The tariff charges introduced by the Trump administration aren’t associated to the tariff charges charged by different nations. They had been calculated utilizing a infantile components based mostly on commerce imbalances.
The White Home later stated imbalances are a measure of all of the ways in which different nations cheat the USA. However as Lesotho illustrates, imbalances are a nasty measuring stick. Different nations have interaction in unfair commerce practices. So can we. As an alternative of doing the work to establish and goal these issues, the Trump administration has determined to carpet-bomb the worldwide financial system.
The president — with apologies to F. Scott Fitzgerald — is a careless individual, smashing up issues and creatures and leaving others, finally, to scrub up the mess that he has made.
