by Leo Hohmann, Leo’s Newsletter:
President Donald Trump has asked the European Union to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on India and China as part of a joint effort to increase pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine, three officials familiar with the matter told the Financial Times of London.
According to the Times, the president made the “extraordinary demand” after dialing into a meeting between senior U.S. and E.U. officials gathered in Washington to discuss ways to heighten the economic cost of the war for Moscow.
One U.S. official told the Financial Times:
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“We’re ready to go, ready to go right now, but we’re only going to do this if our European partners step up with us.”
Wait a minute. I thought Trump was backing away from Europe. At least that’s what all the conservative pundits have been telling us. I think that’s all stagecraft. Trump is totally in bed with the European warmongers. As such, he thinks he can dictate the terms of a peace deal in a war that one side is clearly winning, and it isn’t the side he’s backing. Russia is winning. Ukraine is losing. That means Ukraine has to make the concessions, not Russia. Common sense. Historically this is how it works. Trump is fighting against history here.
A second U.S. official said Washington was prepared to “mirror” any tariffs on China and India imposed by the EU, potentially leading to a further increase in U.S. levies on imports from both countries.
Trump’s proposal comes amid his frustration at the difficulty in brokering a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine war, a war that Russia is clearly winning, an outcome the U.S. is trying to prevent from taking place. Let’s face it, Trump doesn’t want to admit defeat in a war that he’s helped continue for the last eight months. He could have ended it on day one of his presidency by simply cutting off the flow of money and arms while blaming the outbreak of the war on his predecessor, Joe Biden. But he chose to listen to the neocons in his inner circle and keep the war going. Now he’s frustrated because eight months later he owns this war, not Biden, and Russia won’t lay down its arms and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The U.S. official further explained to the Financial Times:
“The president came on this morning and his view is that the obvious approach here is, let’s all put on dramatic tariffs and keep the tariffs on until the Chinese agree to stop buying the oil. There really aren’t many other places that oil can go.”
Let’s be clear. When you consider the historical record of economic wars preceding kinetic wars, this is a dangerous, dare I say reckless, policy.
Trying to bully a nuclear power into accepting a peace deal with an enemy it is on the verge of defeating is a recipe for disaster. Any peace reached will not last long.
Trump is backing two of the world’s largest countries, China and Russia, with two of the most powerful militaries and nuclear arsenals, into a corner, potentially forcing them to resort to military means to get themselves out of the jam.
Whoever is advising President Trump to play this card lacks discernment and wisdom. Again, the word that keeps coming to mind is RECKLESS. But it may also be a sign of DESPERATION.
President Trump’s promise to end the Russia-Ukraine war on day one of his presidency has proved a huge frustration to him. He doesn’t like to fail.
But he can’t let his frustration lead him to gamble with U.S. national security. If China, now teamed up with India and Russia, decide to call Trump’s bluff and continue buying Russian oil, what’s the next step in the escalation? What cards does Trump have left to play? I think the neocons in Washington are setting him up, laying down a trap that ends in direct kinetic war with Russia. That’s a catastrophe in the making.
