Two and a half weeks into the partial government has
given Americans yet another opportunity to assess the leadership skills, or
lack thereof, of its current President, Donald Trump. While I am not a psychologist and don’t claim
to be making a clinical diagnosis, Trump’s refusal to sign a budget that doesn’t
appropriate $5.7 billion for a wall on the US-Mexico border only further shows
his dangerously narcissistic tendencies.
Like many narcissists, Trump is manipulative. He has shown his character for taking
advantage of people’s weaknesses for his own benefit. For example, all during the presidential
campaign Trump insisted that not only would he build a wall, but that Mexico
would pay for it. Having Mexico pay for
the wall was never even a remote possibility.
But the claim won him cheers ad accolades from his supporters. Now that it is clear that Mexico will not be
paying for the wall, Trump is manipulating the ignorance of trade agreements
and how tariffs work among his supporters to make the claim that Mexico really
will be paying for the wall.
Trump argues that by scrapping NAFTA and concluding the United
States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), Mexico will be paying for the wall
through tariffs paid to the United States.
Let’s breakdown the inaccuracies of this claim. USMCA did not really scrap NAFTA. Rather, it built upon NAFTA structures to
adjust some of the agreed upon tariff rates.
In fact, trade agreements are not really a vehicle for a country to
raise revenue. Government typical enter
into trade agreements to try to open more markets for its exporters by having
their counterparts lower their tariffs. The
United States attempted to open more markets for US agricultural goods, for
example, by getting Canada and Mexico to lower their tariff rates.
At any rate, governments do not pay tariffs. Importers do.
Importers need to make a profit, so they typically pass the tariffs of
to the consumer in the form of higher prices.
Even where US tariffs increase, Mexico will not be footing the
bill. US consumers will.
Moreover, USMCA is not yet part of US law. To become US law, Congress will have to
act. Either 2/3 of the Senate must ratify
it as a treaty, or both Houses of Congress must approve implementing
legislation, just as they did for NAFTA.
Until Congress acts, the USMCA has no effect on US law.
However, many Americans lack the very specific knowledge
of how trade agreements and tariffs work.
Trump is manipulating that ignorance to make it appear as though he is
living up to his campaign promise.
Trump is attempting to
manipulate the racially-based fears of his supporters to support his refusal
to sign legislation to fund the Government unless he gets his wall. In defending his desire for a wall, Trump
cherry-picks cases where heinous crimes were committed by undocumented
aliens. In doing so, Trump creates the
impression that all undocumented aliens are violent criminals. This is consistent with his claims during the
campaign that Mexicans are rapists and murders.
He and his supporters ignore statistics showing aliens, including
undocumented aliens, commit fewer crimes than native born US citizens.
Trump has demonstrated a complete lack of empathy for
those adversely affected by the shutdown.
Indeed, through some of his public statements, Trump appears to be
saying that those suffering because of the shutdown are getting what they
deserve because of their lack of support for him. He has tried to change lexicon of the debate,
calling the shutdown a “strike” in closed door sessions with congressional
leaders, as if to shift the blame on the governmental employees. He has noted that most of the workers
furloughed or working without pay are Democrats, as if to say that they deserve
what they get for supporting the opposition party. He has shown little concern for the 800,000
who may be going without a paycheck. Moreover,
he has given no attention to the government contractors, who will not only be
going without a paycheck, but who, unlike government employees, will not
receive back pay.
This is another example of Trump’s manipulation of the
ignorance of his supporters. Many of his
supporters, who do not understand how government works, have been quick to
argue that since only non-essential employees are being furloughed, it shows
the government is too big and ought to be cut.
The fact is, Trump is using an immoral tactic essentially
to extort something he wants, but for which there is little support, for the
sake of creating his legacy. A government
shutdown is immoral because it adversely affects people who have no role to play
in the debate over the border wall.
Government employees risk falling behind in mortgage payments, utility
bills and other bills because of a lack of a paycheck. Some employees risk losing health insurance
for dependents.
Yet, it is being viewed as simply just another tactic to
get something out of Congress despite fierce resistance. The last government shutdown, for example, was
forced upon the United States by the Tea Party, who demanded the showdown over
funding the Affordable Care Act. Because
the Tea Party saw that as a successful demonstration of its power, it has
become just another arrow in the Republicans’ quiver.
It is particularly egregious where polls have shown that
a majority of Americans oppose the border wall.
In fact, Trump clearly made tough immigration enforcement a hallmark of
his message in the mid-term elections, which resulted in the Democrats taking
control of the House of Representatives.
Yet, while Republicans like to point out that elections have
consequences, they refuse to accept the consequences of losing the House, which
include a lack of political support for the wall.
Trump has ignored all of this, just so he can push for
the wall to have tangible proof of his legacy in American history. The shutdown is a very selfish use of an
immoral tactic for something that does not have strong public support.
Indeed, Trump’s mistake is that he has failed to learn
from history. There is strong and vocal
support for the wall among hard core Trump supporters. Trump has chosen to play to his base by
projecting an image of being tough on immigration enforcement. But, Trump engaged in the same tactic leading
up to the mid-terms. He used news
coverage of a large group of Central Americans traveling together through
Mexico in an attempt to apply for asylum in the United States to incite fear
among his supporters of the caravan. He
labeled Democrats as soft on immigration enforcement and supporters of open
borders. In the end, his party lost the
majority in the House, giving Democrats a power base upon which to oppose the
President. There is no reason to believe
that playing to his base will be any more successful here.
As usual, Trump has made this dispute about him. While he attempts to avoid responsibility
now, claiming Democrats won’t give him what he wants, he can’t escape that the
government shut-down has real world adverse consequences on people who have
nothing to do with immigration policy.
Because Trump is such a wild card, there is no way of telling whether he
will back down and attempt to paint it as a victory, or let the shut-down drag
on and continue to cause widespread pain.
One can only hope that Trump can overcome his stubborn streak, agree to
legislation to re-open the government, and continue to negotiate immigration
reform without holding the welfare of government employees hostage.
By: William J.
Kovatch, Jr.
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