As Donald Trump pauses his tariffs on Mecico and Canada's auto sectors, just one day after bringing them in, and then delays most other tariffs just a day later (insofar as they are covered by the CUSMA free trade agreement), even his MAGA followers must be realizing that the man has no idea what he is doing.
Trump is making random spur-of-the-moment decisions of huge import to both the US and other countries without any real plan or justification. He just does whatever he feels like when he gets up in the morning, in what has been labelled "government by chaos". Every day is "unprecedented" in some way or other, and it doesn't feel exhilerating or inspiring, it just feels exhausting and depressing.
If his goal is to keep Canada and Mexico off-balance (and that's a big "if"), then I suppose he has achieved that, although how that helps him or America, no-one is quite sure. But he is also keeping American industry off-balance too. Trump says, "There will be a little disturbance, but we are OK with that". Most CEOs are too scared to comment publicly, but those that have are most definitely NOT OK with all the uncertainty and chaos.
As Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury indicated with her handwritten sign that went viral after Trump's State of the Union speech, "This is NOT normal". Even Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is starting to look like a deer in the headlights as he tries to explain Trump's random decisions and equally random reversals.
Trump's Republican cronies must know all this. They must know that the talk about "fentanyl pouring over the border" from Canada is spurious, and not the actual reason for his tariffs (and is not even real). They must know that supposedly democratic countries can't just go around talking about annexing other countries and destroying their economies until they capitulate. They must know that you can't just abandon all your old allies and multilateral organizations, and suddenly support a country that had been an implacable enemy for decades. They must know that American industry and the stock exchanges are reacting with panic.
All this is not the behaviour of a sane, serious politician. But the Republicans, thus far at least, seem willing to go along with it, repeating his nonsensical arguments to the press day after day. It's almost like they are hypnotised somehow by Trump's certainty, by his star power. When a Democratic congressman had the temerity to protest at Trump's wild State of the Union speech the other day, MAGA Republicans merely rallied round, chanting "USA! USA!" like a football crowd, or a gang of kids. As though that was a valid response, as though a supposed show of vocal patriotism outweighed everything else.
It's all kind of disturbing and sad. You have to hope that some day soon they will wake up and shake themselves, mumbling, "Wha... Where am I? What has been going on?" Because this is like a fever dream, almost completely divorced from reality. Unfortunately, though, it's all too real. Make America Great Again? If they only realized what damage they are doing, and how long (if ever) it will take to fix.
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