Posted on 07/12/2018 3:26:50 AM PDT by yoe
Critics of Donald Trump claim there is no rhyme or reason to his foreign policy. But if there is a consistency, it might be called reciprocity.
Trump tries to force other countries to treat the United States as it treats them. In “don’t tread on me” style, he also warns enemies that any aggressive act will be replied to in kind.
Trump approaches NAFTA in the same reductionist way. The 24-year-old treaty was supposed to stabilize, if not equalize, all trade, immigration, and commerce between the three supposed North American allies.
[snip]
It never quite happened that way. Unequal tariffs remained. Both Canada and Mexico have substantial trade surpluses with the United States. In Mexico’s case, it enjoys a $71 billion surplus, the largest of U.S. trading partners with the exception of China.
Canada never honored its NATO security commitment. It spends only 1 percent of its GDP on defense, rightly assuming that the U.S. will continue to underwrite its security.
(Excerpt) Read more at amgreatness.com ...
What I love about President Trump is how he tosses these bombs, one after the other, then watches the left melt down over and over. It’s going to wear them out. He purposely announces his Supreme Court nominee the night before he heads off to kick butt at NATO summit, then as the left is just getting warmed up with that meltdown, he’s off to meet with Putin. So much for kids at the border. That was 3 crises’ ago lol.
Victor Davis Hanson - the only sane person left at National Review. Sad.
I heard Trump say where’s the reciprocity yesterday. I said YES Go Trump Go!
The article itself, is as reductionist as it paints President Trump as being, while being convincing as to the necessity of his course. At the end, as so many of these articles do, the writer has an apparent need to posture in moral superiority both jarring and patently false.
I question how anyone that makes effete decency a measuring stick can ever accomplish anything or even presumed to judge other men. POTUS is taking the fight to the various forces that have hollowed out America, as he must, in the posture of someone who has the might & right to enforce better behavior. The number of people who are made uncomfortable by a man who acts with conviction, strength and demands fairness, calling out the evil he sees, really tells me how far the rot has destroyed our Nation and it's self proclaimed "elete".
You're correct. I find it quite annoying that in every one of his articles about Trump, Hanson feels the need to take a swipe at his character -- usually while agreeing completely with his policy decisions. It is somewhat cowardly of Hanson to keep doing this. Be a man, Hanson, and state the truth: Trump is absolutely right in his policy.
But what if the tariff brings in tremendous amount of new federal revenue? What if income taxes are lowered in response to this? History tell us income tax rate reductions conversely INCREASE federal revenue. So what if that income tax cut leads to a balanced budget? Maybe the tariff will become permanent! I hope so!
Great one-sentence summary of what's going on!
Andy McCarthy on the legal stuff
That is a good point, why isn’t the NATO Secretary General enforcing these NATO commitments?
If he is not, he should be fired.
Bookmark
VDH delivers again - best article I’ve read in some time.
Thanks for the post.
“Hanson feels the need to take a swipe at his character”
I didn’t take it that way - especially when he qualified his “crude” comment with the following:
...it seems impossible to imagine that globalist John McCain, internationalist Barack Obama or gentlemanly Mitt Romney would ever have called Europe, NATO, Mexico, and Canada to account, “
NATO’s only job is to drag the US into conflicts we would otherwise have no interest in.
I think Hanson may have been torn, preferring gentlemanly but recognizing the need for aggressive bluntness.
I take exception to the word crude and it’s implications if blunt & forthright is meant. Calling a spade a spade is not crude in my book nor is saying you didn’t live up to your agreement and I have been pulling your weight.
No worries. Hillary is not strong in my book, none of the Left are strong because they have no principles and sway with the wind. Loud, nasty, aggressive but not strong.
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