It’s long been established as a given at this point that the president considers himself to be an appropriate final authority on a whole host of issues. He’s not exactly prone to hearing out critics and taking their statements into consideration.
In that light, he has pressed on with his economic aggression towards China, taking up the task of holding the nation accountable for their supposed economic misdeeds in the face of failures on other fronts, like immigration policy. The president had to resort to sending the National Guard to our border with Mexico after a continued failure to get a border wall up.
On Monday, the president took to Twitter to again attempt to defend his economic aggression, pointing out an apparent disparity in the way we and the Chinese treat each other.
He wrote:
‘When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE – going on for years!’
No matter how many times the president indicates his belief otherwise, angry social media pronouncements about what’s “STUPID” and what’s not are never going to be an appropriate substitute for nuanced, levelheaded foreign policy.
Among his other recent comments about the burgeoning trade war between the U.S. and China, the president took to Twitter on Sunday to turn the whole situation into a question of whether or not he and the Chinese leader are friends, although that’s hardly what it’s about here.
Check out Twitter’s response to the president’s latest ranting below.
Featured Image via MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images
