THE AMERICAN POSEIDON ADVENTURE

The Trump administration’s latest tariff policy appears to be little more than a pretext, a spurious rationale extracted from an obscure provision of trade law. The administration now claims that tariffs are justified because dozens of foreign economies have failed to prohibit imports produced with forced labor. Under this extraordinary theory, countries as different as Sweden, Canada and Cambodia are placed in essentially the same category and punished with tariffs. No serious person believes that the forced-labor policies of Sweden and Cambodia are equivalent. The administration has simply discovered a questionable legal label for an economic policy Trump wants to impose. Clearly, it is a hastily constructed replacement for earlier tariffs that encountered legal difficulties.

This is a defining characteristic of the Trump presidency: decide what the president wants, order the government to create a justification and then publish that justification as though it were established fact.

The debacle involving the Reflecting Pool provides is a perfect example. Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was arrested and charged with felony destruction of government property after the administration claimed vandals had damaged the pool’s newly installed surface. President Trump publicly stated that accusation. The government threatened Hearn with years in prison and the destruction of his reputation.

Then the facts/reality emerged.

The Justice Department moved to dismiss the case after receiving information indicating that the damage had resulted from a defective and hurried installation, not vandalism. Investigators found widespread deterioration, including in areas inaccessible to the public. The renovation had been rushed in preparation for Trump’s 250th-anniversary celebration. Nevertheless, Trump continued to insist the damage was caused by vandals. Then he publicly criticized his own U.S. attorney for dropping the prosecution; the right thing to do.

That should trouble every American, regardless of political affiliation. A president should not demand that a citizen be prosecuted merely because the president has publicly declared him guilty. Evidence, due process and the presumption of innocence cannot be discarded to protect a fragile ego. Hearn could have lost his freedom and seen his life permanently damaged because the president was willing to lie rather than accept the findings of his own government.

Haven’t we have seen this pattern before?

Trump continues to describe the 2020 election as fraudulent despite recounts, audits, court decisions and statements from members of his own administration confirming its legitimacy. He has attempted to recast January 6 even though Americans watched rioters assault police officers, break windows, invade the Capitol and disrupt the constitutional certification of an election.

Were our eyes deceiving us?

Trump asks Americans to believe that what they saw was not what happened, that established facts are merely partisan inventions and that reality itself should bend to his sordid demands.

Jon Stewart in the Daily Show (see attached clip below about the ‘snowflake’) recently captured something insightful about this president. Trump surrounds himself with sycophants who laugh when he expects laughter, applaud when he expects applause, jump when he says jump, who praise even his most trivial observations. Such performances affirm the president inside a Cabinet meeting, but they cannot conceal economic reality from factory owners, workers or consumers.

Trump promised that tariffs would create a great American manufacturing renaissance. The truth is the opposite. Industry data show that private manufacturing-construction spending and jobs have been falling since Trump took office. Tariffs raise costs for American companies that use imported materials. Companies have postponed investments, reduced hiring, raised prices and lost business to foreign competitors. The immediate results have been higher costs, fewer jobs and less investment, without any guarantee that domestic production will ever materialize.

Meanwhile, a fundamental boundary between presidential authority and ‘self-dealing’ is being violated. Trump Media has reportedly begun offering financial institutions and trading firms access to a premium data service costing as much as $100,000 per month. The service promises rapid access to Truth Social posts, including posts by the president that may announce policies capable of moving financial markets.

That arrangement raises an obvious question: Why would a bank or trading firm pay $1.2 million a year for faster access to the president’s social-media statements? The answer is not that bankers are eager to enjoy Trump’s prose. It is that presidential announcements about tariffs, wars, sanctions, companies and government policy can cause markets to rise or fall within seconds. Earlier access, even seconds, can be enormously valuable to sophisticated traders. Senators have already called for regulatory scrutiny of the service.

A president should not be able to monetize privileged access to his own market-moving pronouncements through a company in which he retains a substantial financial interest. Public policy belongs to the American people. It is not proprietary information for presidential personal profit, to be packaged and sold to those capable of paying $100,000 a month

While Americans worry about a war, food, housing, health insurance, hospital closures, the cost of medicine, Trump remains preoccupied with monuments, ballrooms, aircraft, golf courses, marble columns, placing his name on public institutions and prosecuting opponents. Government is no longer a public trust but as an extension of the president’s personality, grievances and financial interests.

The Reflecting Pool is more than a failed construction project. It is emblematic of Trump’s administration itself. A project was rushed to satisfy the president’s desire for a spectacle. The installation failed. Rather than admit the mistake and hold the responsible contractors accountable, officials searched for someone else to blame. A citizen was arrested. A felony prosecution was initiated. When the government’s own evidence demolished the accusation, Trump continued to insist that his version must be true. First came the whim. Then came the expense. Then came the failure. Finally came the lies and the scapegoat. Sound familiar?

The same sequence can be seen in the tariff policy: begin with a desired outcome, search for a convenient legal justification, direct the government to declare that justification true and force American businesses and consumers to absorb the losses.

This is not simply a disagreement over policy. Presidents have always made mistakes, pursued unsuccessful programs and defended questionable decisions. What is different, and dangerous, is the attempt to transform one man’s assertions into official reality, even when the facts contradict him. A democratic government cannot function when facts are disposable, prosecutions become instruments of presidential power, assaults on citizens’ rights, and when early access to public policy is converted into a private subscription service for presidential profit. The president is not entitled to his own facts. He is not entitled to use the Justice Department to vindicate his personal declarations. And he is not entitled to turn the presidency and our government into a mechanism simply to enrich himself, family, and friends.

The Reflecting Pool was intended to mirror some of America’s greatest monuments. Today, it reflects something else: an administration in which truth is submerged beneath ego, public responsibility is displaced by personal advantage and ordinary citizens rights are ambushed.

The only remedy is a vote to replace those who have supported Trump and his mob.

VOTE!!!

RESIST!!! & EDUCATE!!!