President Donald Trump is at it again, trying this Friday to conduct some semblance of foreign policy via Twitter, and in the process yet again threatening an ally of the United States. This time, his target was France, who recently announced decisions to impose taxes on American technology companies including Amazon and Google. Trump insisted that unspecified retaliatory action against France would soon be coming, insisting that the only one who has a right to tax American technology companies is his administration. In other words, Trump has explicitly resorted to the “it’s ok if I do it but not if you do it!!!” argument, and along those lines he’s conducting foreign policy as if moves from other countries are personal insults to his ego.
He shared on Twitter:
‘France just put a digital tax on our great American technology companies. If anybody taxes them, it should be their home Country, the USA. We will announce a substantial reciprocal action on Macron’s foolishness shortly. I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!’
The funny thing about that last part is that Trump supposedly doesn’t even drink alcohol, making this assertion seemingly one on a long list of similar ones that the president has thrown out without any regard for reality, even that of his own behavior. Although he’s not some kind of master three dimensional chess player like some pundits might suggest, his reference to wine could indicate a tariff on French wine coming down the pipe, although that’s just a guess at this point. Still, you might want to stock up — it’s not like you couldn’t put it to good use thanks to all the time Trump still has in office.
Ironically, Trump’s suggestion that it would be ok if he taxed Amazon, Google, and others, but it’s unacceptable for other jurisdictions to do so isn’t just a head-scratching rhetorical choice. He has in the past explicitly gone after these big tech companies, alleging without evidence that they’re biased against conservatives and so on and so forth. Now he’s acting like their defender or something — indicating how much of the president’s behavior really revolves around his ego, since that’s what drove him turning on a dime here.
Check out Twitter’s response…
Featured Image via screenshot
