I haven’t been posting too much as the whole tariff issue has been on the back-burner while a wide range of other crazy takes the center stage.

Oddly enough, even in the middle of everything, he’s posting about tariffs again tonight. We’re back baby!

Yes, you read that right. He’s adding a sizeable tariff to kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities. I did not see that coming. Is this even a big industry for imports?

But the kicker is that last bit, that somehow this is a matter of “National Security”. What does that even mean??

We actually got all the way to the most recent tariff deadline without a TACO. I’m shocked but the day is early yet. If the stock market reacts badly, there could be another delay.

But for the moment, I’m more focused on the continuing Trump lies that the other countries are paying all this money to the USA. Like a foreign government is just cutting them a cheque every month to pay for fees racked up by private business.

How has no one corrected him, that it’s the IMPORTERS (i.e American businesses and consumers) who pay the tariff. That’s how tariffs work. Other nations aren’t sending “billions of dollars” to the States. American’s are paying it.

Let’s see if today turns into a TACO Thursday.

And delays are already started!

Trump has decided to delay increasing tariffs on Mexico for another 90 days while a deal is hammered out.

Tariffs will remain at the current 25% instead of jumping to 30% tomorrow.

I genuinely don’t understand how these constant delays are not evident to Trump as bad business tactics. How can he keep talking about being such a great business “deal maker” when it’s a non-stop string of pauses, delays and postponements.

Well, tonight at midnight is supposed to be the latest in a long line of deadlines for trade deals. Trump did emphasize that August 1st is a hard deadline but we’ve all hear that before.

So there have been a handful of deals settled in the past week or so, most of them being one-sided capitulations to Trump’s bullying. Definitely no where near the 200 deals that were supposed to happen.

I wonder how many deals are going to be announced today that are just further delays. A deal to extend the deadline is still a deal, right? Ha.

A court case that has been examining whether Trump even has the presidential right to levy these tariffs in the first place is supposed to be decided today. Now that will throw a wrench into the situation, if it decides he can’t do this. National emergency, my ass.

Stock markets are completely unphased so far today. Likely because everyone expects a TACO and doesn’t even care anymore about his bluster and threats.

Still no news on a Canadian deal, though he was adding extra threats yesterday given our intention of recognizing a Palestinian state. Apparently that bodes poorly for getting a decent deal. Not like it was going in our favor to begin with.

Going be interesting by tomorrow.

Just announced: a deal has been sort of forged between Trump and the European Union. A framework of a deal, it looks like.

Full Story on CNN

I’m noticing a sad trend with all these great “deals”. They are always very one-sided. VERY. One party agrees to allow American products to be sold with ZERO tariffs and they agree to buy billions of American goods, and in exchange they get a slightly lower tariff for their own goods in the USA.

It’s not even a stick vs carrot approach, it’s a matter of choosing a big stick or a little stick. No carrots at all.

I think the word is “extortion”, and it’s going on daily on a global scale.

Its just disgusting that this has become the norm, and its going to effect the economy around the planet for a long time to come. Will Canada stand up this threat or cave in? I fear we will likely end up on the wrong side of a lop-sided deal as well.

August 1st is right around the corner. How many tariffs will be delayed due to lack of “deals”? Can’t wait to see how the TACO plays out.

Maybe not exactly a TACO issue but a trade development nonetheless.

Apparently Australia has agreed to allow American beef to be imported, after being banned for many years. Trump seems to think that this means they will be selling so much beef Down Under.

Does he think the government will be buying the beef? Does he understand how sales work? It’s the customers who buy beef, and just because American beef may be in the stores, there is no guarantee that Australians are going to buy it.

In fact, I foresee that it may not be the boon he is bragging about, considering how much (superior) Australian beef is already on their shelves.

I know I would never choose American meat over our local Canadian product. Partly on principle and partly because their products are sub-standard.

The August trade deadline is coming up! Can’t wait to see how much TACO takes place!

I know I do. There have been so many tariffs, delays, changes, counter-tariffs and tariffs threats, I can’t keep it all straight.

CNN has a great visual timeline of all the various states of the tariff trade war, right up to today’s latest tariff letters to Mexico and the EU.

Tariff Trade Timeline

It really illustrates the state of TACO trade since you can see just how many times Trump has threatened tariffs, only to back off soon after.

Now we have another month of delay until the latest deadline of August 1st. Of course, Trump swears this is a hard date and won’t be changed. Ha, we’ve heard that before.

I guess that’s not how you use TACO in a sentence, but you get my drift.

The Liberation Day tariffs were delayed for 90 days, and that delay ends on July 9th. He’s now sending out form letters to many countries giving them new tariff rates, but those won’t come into effect until August 1st.

So all the Liberation Day tariffs have been put on hold again via Executive Order until August 1st. Again, Trump has chickened out on following through with his tariff threats.

Will they be delayed again as more “deals” materialize in response to the extortion letters? Let’s wait and see.

Oh and on another front, he’s threatening additional tariffs on BRICS nations for no other reason than he doesn’t like BRICS. Perfectly reasonable, is it not?

TACO!