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Yahoo, like every other leftist “news” site, has picked a deceiving headline. If you just glanced at the headline, you’d think Trump is about to invade the EU.

But here Trump means “foe” as just an economic competitor, something that is far down in the article.

While the President is clearly talking about economics, he is hitting upon something very rarely mentioned in foreign policy or foreign trade talk. That is, even your most loyal foreign ally will put their own interests above yours. It would be suicidal to do otherwise.

Concurrently, America *could be* viewed as an economic "foe" by the EU, Russia, China, Canada, Lichtenstein, Lesotho, Antarctica et al. Perhaps that wasn't the case in the recent past. Certainly the economics of free trade were embraced by Reagan and others because of the belief that America can - and has - innovated and produced more than any other country on earth, and we could grow our way out of any temporal "hole" caused by free trade. Indeed, last time I did the math, Americans make up about 4% of the global population yet we intake about 18% of global energy output and a comparable proportion of capital stock to crank out over 25% of global GDP. We punch above our weight EVERY DAY.

Alas, for a variety of reasons, that "hole" has grown, engulfing Americans of ALL colors, shapes, and sizes. There is no -ism in this economic sinkhole, except for statism.

Trump rarely thinks without speaking, so perhaps that is his message..,.foreign nations, big and small, need to re-evaluate their economic expectations formed by prior American administrations. This doesn't necessarily mean America will become an autarky or that we will give the cold shoulder to Taiwan or South Korea or Poland. But let us recall those famous words:

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

[ Yahoo, like every other leftist “news” site, has picked a deceiving headline. ]

It’s what they do at Yahoo every day of the week.