Something is happening in America, not seen perhaps since the civil rights movement in the 1960s. A wave of protests has erupted across the states against the chaotic and senseless actions of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Trump himself chose to play golf at a tournament in Florida (and naturally won his round, probably with a bit of cheating, perhaps the only thing he’s genuinely an expert on) as stock markets around the world collapsed, precipitated by his insane tariffs. People are waking up. Many Americans rely on the stock markets for their pensions and the Dow Jones industrial average has dropped by nearly 15% since it peaked at over 45,000 points at the beginning of December.
These were scenes in Minneapolis yesterday:
In Salt Lake City, Utah:
And in Wisconsin:
Similar protests were held in dozens of other cities including Chicago and New York. A head of steam is starting to build up.
The Dow closed on Friday at 38,314. This might seem a theoretical loss but anyone buying an annuity at the moment is seeing a big fall in their future income. A lot of people have a lot of money invested in American businesses, particularly the high value tech stocks.
It was the worst week for US stocks and shares since Trump was last in office in 2020. This from what is supposed to be an experienced, self-made billionaire and business friendly Republican president. In truth he is showing why he was a serial bankrupt until bailed out with Russian money.
Companies like Nike and Apple who get their products made in Asia seem certain to suffer a real shock from Trump’s tariffs. I understand Nike has 155 plants in Vietnam from where products are exported to America, their main market, and now facing 46% tariffs. It is sheer insanity.
The BBC's economics editor Faisal Islam reports this morning in an in-depth article titled: Trump has turned his back on the foundation of US economic might - the fallout will be messy. Islam says "What occurred this week was not just the US starting a global trade war, or sparking a rout in stock markets. It was the world's hyper power firmly turning its back on the globalisation process it had championed, and from which it handsomely profited in recent decades."
I see the BBC also had a comment on Friday during its live-feed coverage of the crash, from a market analyst about the idea that tariffs will magically force companies to invest in America.
"One analyst [the BBC] spoke to said: if you want to pay $3,500 (£2,700) for an iPhone, build it in America. If you want to pay $1,000 (£770), build it in China. If you want to pay $400 (£310) for a pair of Nike sneakers, create them in America; $100 (£78), create them in Vietnam."
Are Americans willing to pay much higher prices? I doubt it very much.
The notion that you can strong-arm these global giants to shift manufacturing to where costs are far higher is ludicrous. If it was more efficient to make things in the US, they would already be doing it.
Even crazier is the idea that impoverished people in Vietnam or Madagascar could afford to buy American goods in order to bring trade into balance. Workers in the USA earn ten or twenty times the salary at least. It makes no sense.
The choice these companies face is to do as Trump wants, relocate manufacturing back home, and probably lose significant market share, or defy him and pay the tariffs hoping that the insanity won't persist for too long. At least that way they can retain market share in the rest of the world. Looking at the protests, I would be tempted to pay the tariffs, raise prices and show the increase as 'import taxes'.
He cannot keep the tariff policy for very long before the results feed through to increased prices, terrible poll numbers and more protests. They have no idea what they're doing.
Banning words
Quite apart from what's happening Armageddon-like on Wall Street, the Trump administration is taking America to a very odd place where certain words are not allowed to be use. I'm not talking here about swear words or offensive words but regular everyday words and phrases like "safe drinking water" for example.
Read this article from The New Republic about a leaked memo from the US Department of Agriculture’s Research Service division which reveals the agency has banned some key words from its vocabulary, including the words “climate” and “vulnerable.”
Others include “greenhouse gas emissions,” “methane emissions,” “sustainable construction,” “solar energy,” and “geothermal,” as well as “nuclear energy,” “diesel,” “affordable housing,” “prefabricated housing,” “runoff,” “microplastics,” “water pollution,” “soil pollution,” “groundwater pollution,” “sediment remediation,” “water collection,” “water treatment,” “rural water,” and “clean water,” among dozens more.
I defy anybody to explain why. It is just jaw-dropping. The US isn't just turning its back on the foundation of its wealth, it is also now rejecting scientific truth.
Australian floods
To understand just how much Trump has completely occupied the news agenda for the last few weeks, I wonder how many people are aware of the devastating floods that impacted Queensland in Australia at the end of March.
According to The Guardian an area equal to France and Germany combined or four times the size of the UK receive its annual rainfall in just four days! The result was absolutely devastating:
"Tiny, far-flung towns have been evacuated – in some, such as Adavale, every resident has departed. Others will remain cut off for weeks, despite the heavy rain having passed, as the deluge slowly makes way through flat and sodden country via slow moving rivers.
"Along with the loss of property and damage to homes, farmers were bracing for the slowly receding water to reveal the extent of agricultural devastation.
"The premier, David Crisafulli, told the Queensland parliament on Thursday afternoon that the number of livestock lost to flood water had gone past 150,000.
"I do believe that, sadly, that number will continue to rise in days ahead," Crisafulli said.
Yet barely a word in British newspapers and America is burying its head in the sand by banning words like "climate" and "greenhouse gas emissions."
We are in big trouble.
