The EU actually executed some strategy. First they said they would love 0/0 tariffs, which sounds fair to pretty much anyone. And when that didn't fly they put on selective reciprocal 25% tariffs. What Trump did looks even more like a clown show.
They floated 0/0 tariffs before the reciprocal tariffs (and again after), and their tariffs this morning was in retaliation for the steel and aluminum tariffs, not for the reciprocal tariffs.
I am normally all in favor of metonymy, it's perfectly fine and well understood style.
In the case of Trump-as-Mad-King tariffs, it sure would be nice if the world didn't conflate America, the historical land of twisting other nation's arms to reduce tariffs, with Trump and his fake-emergency tariffs.
I can understand if you do, and if America has permanently lost a lot of good will by electing this buffoon for you, I can hardly argue with you.
But still. In my mind, these are Trump's tariffs, not America's.
And specifically the idea that Trump's tariffs are reciprocal, that is even more "Trump is just a liar" than something any honest American would argue.
Even if you call it “Trumps Tarrifs” that means we have a better than even chance of having to deal with this.
If you’ve never elected a buffoon like this it’s easy to believe it’ll never happen. If you’ve done it not once, but twice, it’s really hard to believe it won’t happen again.
Maybe I should write "an American" instead. As in, I assume the person I am responding to is an American and is calling it reciprocal tariffs to propagate the idea that it was reciprocation.
It's a smart strategy designed to exert maximum pressure on someone who is publicly saying they want to annex some of your territory (Greenland), and generally acting in an irrational manner.
