Trump announces a 100% tariff on movies made abroad.

@FreddieUK I am not sure that's his motive.

I think he genuinely imagines he is helping US industries, but does not understand them and thinks commerce is only about making objects from battleships to baseball-caps.

He is a property speculator not an industrialist, and seems not to understand that the world works in a very different way from in the 1950s and 60s era of US businesses being not only major exporters, but also rapacious buyers (sometimes to destroy) any other country's industries they could get their hands on.

The USA has lost that lead partly but not solely because US firms found it more economical to contract manufacturing overseas, plus many foreign companies have large holdings in the USA, and I wonder if Trump thinks he he can reverse this.

@ArishMell I'm sure you're right that he doesn't really mean to do this, but with so many people warning him about the consequences, he's got no excuses for continuing in the same direction. This willful ignorance amounts to the same thing as wilfully destroying industries.

@FreddieUK I think he's painted himself into a corner. He still has a large following who believe he is delivering what he promised, irrespective of the consequences both within their land and overseas; and understandably, does not want to alienate them.

I am sure there are plenty of very competent, experienced, wise senior Republican supporters, politicians and business-analysts, and independant experts, willing to help him; but he does not seem to want advice against what he believes and what he told his voters.They might even now be very wary of telling him, though some politicians, officials and senior judges do have the courage to challenge him openly.

So he can't back down or change his policies in any but small "adjustments", and the paint will take another three and a half years to dry. After that? I doubt even the most experienced, neutral political analysts within America could do more than speculate!

(Oh - where was the paint made?)

@ArishMell A lot of his 'base'/cult are of a religious persuasion that condemns the arts (incl. Hollywood) as the work of the Devil, so they won't be impacted. Only when the supply and selling chains of their own business/farms are impacted will they realise that they've done to others what they didn't want to do to themselves. Whether they will then be able to admit to making a mistake or will still be blaming others will be interesting to see.

@ArishMell did you say he painted himself in to a corner . or sitting in a corner sniffing paint.. do you think he will last 4 years..

@markinkansas Well, painted himself there - so trapped.

I can't say if he will last the full term. I don't know what means your country's political system has for parties to replace leaders in mid-Presidency.

@ArishMell J D Vance 🤯

@FreddieUK Hmmm.

I am not convinced he'd be any better, both for the USA and for other countries. His potted biography reveals him as a former Marine, lawyer, venture-capitalist and author; with a BA from the University of Ohio.

He describes himself as a "postliberal right", whatever he means by that rather Orwellian phrase; and as a fervent Catholic is anti- same-sex marriages, abortion, gun-control and childlessness.

No, I don't understand what he means by that fourth point, but I assume he does know some couples choose to have few or no children.

@ArishMell I'm sure he wouldn't be better, but I was responding to your question about who would replace Trump if something happened (however) so that he was no longer President. The Vice-President is what would happen. The US is stuck until '28 with this shower and their ill-informed craziness, unless a miraculous revelation to them to change their ways occurs (doubtful), the SCOTUS exercises some checks (possible), or Congress and the Senate actually perform their Constitutional duties of scrutinising the President and his Executive Order-mania (not before the next elections).

@FreddieUK Even if James Vance took over I suspect Trump's basic policies would continue. I think the Supreme Court has tried to stand up to Trump's orders on legal grounds, but not very successfully.