DONNIE JOHNSTON: Illegal Tariffs

"I’m waiting for the $5,000 check Trump promised a year ago and the $1,500 check (or was it $2,000) that he promised later. Now I’m waiting to be reimbursed for the money I spent on illegal tariffs."

By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Donald Trump received another punch to the ego last week and, as usual, he is not taking it well.

Still angry from his international debasing in Davos back in January, the president, during an already controversial governors’ meeting, learned that the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, had ruled that his multitude of tariffs were unconstitutional and illegal.

There are reports that Trump initially responded by throwing a ketchup bottle. Then he degraded the six justices that voted against him and praised the three who dissented. Typical.

Then, Sunday night, Trump threatened more tariffs and warned America’s trading partners that they faced grave consequence if they did not follow through with earlier deals made as he held their hands to the economic fire.

In other words, no one knows where we are on this tariff issue, a point the European Union made explicitly in response to Trump’s tweet.

If the Supreme Court decision is upheld, and there is not higher legal voice in the land other than Trump and his cronies, the government must pay back the tariff dollars collected. After all, the court has said that money was taken illegally.

So, do we give it back to those other countries Trump is trying to punish? Of course not. They didn’t pay it. We did. And suddenly he admits that.

So, how does the government figure out that I paid $1,000 in illegal tariffs and refund my money?

The short answer is that they don’t. If anyone gets it, it will be the companies that added those tariffs to the price of consumer goods. And if you are sucker enough to think they will refund it to the consumer or ever lower the prices they raised because of the tariffs, well, you probably voted for Trump.

The consumer won’t see a penny of that $130 billion (now well down from the figure the president had earlier announced the government had taken in). Companies might not either because many economists feel the federal treasury cannot pay it.

The Stock Market noted Trump’s Sunday night boast that tariffs would continue no matter what the Supreme Court said and fell dramatically on Monday. That Dow 50,000 that Pam Bondi so arrogantly referred to during congressional hearings has faded into the sunset.

Yes, it may well return, but some day Trump will likely tweet something that destroys the market more significantly and for longer duration. It is bound to happen.

Which brings up another question: how much longer will people like Bondi hang in there with an arrogant president who is losing his power and, according to some, his sanity? Can’t they see what happened to men like Rudy Giuliani, who stuck with Trump (first term) to the end and wound up being disbarred in New York and Washington, DC?

Someone always takes the fall for Trump, who slithers away unharmed. Who will take the fall for him this time? I would be willing to venture that someone will. Temporary power is a harsh price to pay for a ruined reputation.

As I watched the final ceremonies of the Olympics Sunday night, I couldn’t help wondering if Trump and his far-right evangelical following weren’t having a teetotal fit.

All that singing was in other languages! How dare they? It was Bad Bunny all over again. There were Americans there and those closing ceremonies were being shown on American television.

Those songs should have been sung in American! That’s what the boys down at the barber shop were saying Monday morning and I’m sure our president was just as upset. Who knows what those singers were talking about in those foreign tongues! It was like Bad Bunny at the Tower of Babel.

That’s the way America thinks today.

Okay. I’m waiting for the $5,000 check Trump promised a year ago and the $1,500 check (or was it $2,000) that he promised later.

Now I’m waiting to be reimbursed for the money I spent on illegal tariffs.

But I’m not holding my breath on any of the above.

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