Burning down the house

Your humble correspondent appeared on the Fox News Channel this morning and gave the President due credit for the outstanding economic results of his tax and regulatory reforms. This prompted a gracious phone call from Mr. Trump in which the President sounded very stable but unfortunately also still very focused on eliminating trade deficits with America’s trading partners.

Such deficits often correlate with a thriving economy like the one we have now. We are buying stuff we need or want from other countries and if it’s more than they choose to buy from us, they use the difference to invest in America.

[...]

But the President sees a problem and even if he wraps up negotiations with our friends in North America and Europe, the trade uncertainty won’t necessarily end. It seems that he is still bothered by the terms of U.S. trade with Japan. Mr. Trump described his good relations with the Japanese leadership but then added: “Of course that will end as soon as I tell them how much they have to pay.”

  WSJ

Jesus Christ on a bicycle.

This columnist noted that Mr. Trump’s tax and regulatory reforms have largely solved the competitiveness problem with the U.S. economy and that if he resolved the trade fights with our friends and simply focused on combatting Chinese intellectual property theft, he could rally a large global coalition to demand a solution.

Good luck, Huck. This president runs on personal animosity and praise. He has never ever been a good negotiator or deal maker. He's the author of many failed business ventures. His only concern is his personal welfare and ego. He's not going to suddenly start making decisions based on logic or what's good for the country.

Today the latest National Federation of Independent Business jobs report shows a small-business sector so healthy that it’s biggest problem is finding workers to fill all of the available positions. [...] This suggests that America could use more immigrants and here’s hoping that can be the subject of another phone call.

Ibid.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.