Trumped

I have problems with the Obamabots and Clintonbots who say St Obama was the Greatest President the US has Ever Had, and St Hillary would have been better, while Trump is the absolute Worst President Ever. I also have problems with the Trumpeters who say Trump is one of the best presidents the US has ever had, and Obama was the worst. Both were terrible. Obama talked a good game about keeping the water safe, while allowing it to be full of lead. Trump says he's getting rid of all those job-killing regulations that stop mining companies from dumping their waste into the drinking water. Either way, the water in many US cities was unsafe. At least with Trump, he admits it?

It's hard to evaluate policies until one sees results. Trump threatened China with heavy tariffs and had banned the licensing of Android to one Chinese smart phone maker, putting them out of business. After talks, Trump unbanned the licensing of Android, and said no new tariffs on China. China had joined the WTO as an under-developed nation, allowed high tariffs so it could build up its industries. China no longer deserves those high tariffs and should play on a level field, and the Chinese agreed: they said they'd slash their tariffs and guarantee an increase of $hundreds of billions a year in US imports. A huge victory for Trump.

Then the New York Times screamed, 'Trump is giving valuable secrets to a Communist dictatorship and putting the US in danger.' I didn't think Trump read the New York Times, but the day after that article came out, he announced that he was banning the licensing of Android, which means only the US can make any smart phones (the New York Times wanted Trump to allow Android to be licensed to all the US allies: the UK, EU/ RoK, and Japan).

And Trump is putting heavy tariffs not just on China, but on the UK, EU, Canada, and Mexico. So China responded in kind. New, high tariffs on US imports. And the UK, EU, Canada and Mexico are also planning retaliation. Senators Smoot and Hawley are smiling.

And yet...

As I said, one cannot evaluate policies until one sees results. Will US manufacturing return to the days when more than half of Americans had good paying jobs in factories? Or will the US find itself back in the '30s? I'll wait before I say that Trump turned a major victory into a colossal mess. I have a guess now, but I've learned that it's always foolish to make any predictions with respect to the future (predictions about the past are OK, though).