Last edited Sat Apr 5, 2025, 01:05 AM - Edit history (1)
Everybody hates Trump. Most Republicans mortally fear Trump.
Rupert tolerates Trump because Trump has screwed the world mostly the way Rupert wants to see the world screwed. But there has been increasing tension in recent times.
Here's the thing. Republicans fear Trump because they think he can ruin them politically. But their world changed radically on Wednesday. All of a sudden, the calculus is completely different. They are all seeing that this is a 100-year political blunder -- and I mean that literally. It was almost exactly 95 years ago that Smoot-Hawley turned what might have been a 2-4-year bear market into The Great Depression lasting 2 decades.
Republicans might have gone to bed Wednesday night thinking "Hey, this could work out OK. I bet Thursday morning, every country leader will be on Trump's doorstep begging him to allow them to cut their tariffs on our goods. We could all be heroes. It could all work out OK." But instead, all the leading economies have given a big F-You to Trump, and the markets have collapsed.
And let's get real. Black Thursday -- the stock market crash of 1929 was actually only a loss of about 2%. The day started down 11%, but recovered to close at a 2% loss. Of course, it lost about 80% of its value over the next couple of years before FDR was elected, but "Black Thursday" was only 2%. This week, the market lost about 5% Thursday and 5% Friday -- a MUCH bigger loss than Black Thursday.
And it may not be over. This may just be the beginning because a) Trump says he doesn't give a shit -- he sticking with it, and b) the damage is already done. There is no way to put the toothpaste back into the tube. If Trump came out on Monday morning and said "I was just kidding -- there are no tariffs. Forget all that stuff", the market is still going to be screwed up, and trade relations will be damaged for a long time. We already have companies and countries saying they are halting all new investments in the US. That doesn't go away quickly -- probably not until Trump is long gone.
So Fox, Rafael Cruz and the rest of the MAGA people are
shitting their pants. They see the danger now. At best, this is getting a lot of people pissed off at the Republicans. At the worst, this could seriously mess up the economy for years leading to a tsunami election in 2026.
We have huge protests on Saturday. It will be a long weekend for Republicans. Next week will be a very interesting one.
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