Trump’s first presidency was filled with bold claims and non-nuanced takes that drew in people who thought the same way. Many people thought the same way, as the public found out before he stepped into office in 2017.
Some older and civically engaged voters knew that he couldn’t follow through on many of his promises, but he wasn’t speaking to those people, and he won the votes of those who, despite having bigger ideas, lacked understanding of the political process. Now, it’s happening again.
In 2020, the USA, Mexico, and Canada created the USMCA, a trade agreement regulating the trade of lumber, car parts, dairy, and more between the three countries. With Trump’s newest attack on the American economy starting with increased tariffs for Mexico and Canada, consumers were in shambles, rushing to prepare themselves for how this would affect the economy, only for Trump to rescind the tariff a few days later.
First, it was Mexico, with President Trump and Mexican President Sheinbaum agreeing that items specified under the USMCA from Mexico wouldn’t be included in the tariffs. Then, a few minutes later, goods from Canada were also exempt from the tariff. This quick switch between causing panic and eliminating said panic-worthy thing alerts today’s voters that something isn’t right.
If we look at what was initially taxed and untaxed, the goods were also initially named in the USMCA created in 2020. Was this a publicity stunt to call attention to what Trump already signed off on? If so, that calls into question Sheinbaum and Trudeau’s validity, as well as if their retaliatory tariffs indicate that they didn’t know he was going to go back on a plan he initially established. Suppose they fell victim to his scare tactic, which shows that their business decisions are simply reactions to his baseless decrees and shows that the residents of each country are at the beck and call of our leaders’ emotional states. That sounds like an abusive relationship and implies that the only way to be free is to ignore and separate oneself from the abusive dynamic, which, in this case, is the relationship between the three major governments and the relationship between the governments and the people they govern.
