When Trump was campaigning in 2016, he went into many communities that most Republicans did not court. Some of these communities were facing challenges. Those challenges had persisted for years with elected officials making promises to help. The help never arrived. He asked for the vote of the people in those communities with the pitch, “What do you have to lose?” He has applied that philosophy to some public policies and the resistance to the status quo has been like driving a car into a wall.
In Trump’s first term, there was hysteria about a proposal he made about tariffs. Trump was attempting to find a method to stop the hollowing out of many jobs in middle America due to trade with China. Since Kissinger and then Nixon went to China the accepted theory was if we opened up China’s society, they would become civilized. It had not worked for 30 years when Bill Clinton proposed they should join the World Trade Organization (WTO). That finally happened on December 11, 2001.
This turned out to be a huge mistake. The WTO is an international organization that guides trade between nations. The problem is the organization enabled China, but as it often seems to be reality, the Chinese manipulated and distorted the standards for their own benefit. The leadership of the organization has never managed to twist the arms of the Chinese to bring them into line.
The hallmark of current trade policy is that tariffs are poison. Tariffs, we are told, stifle free trade and the economic policy of America, particularly Republican’s, has been based on free trade. This is despite the fact that virtually every trading partner we have has considerably higher tariff rates on our products than we do on theirs. That was until Trump overthrew the apple cart. Republicans railed against this proposal and because it came from Trump, of course, the Democrats did.
When reading the thoughts of contrarians I was looking for their proposals to deal with the lawless Chinese on trade. Not one from the economically knowledgeable crowd made a proposal. When personally confronted by friends and colleagues I asked what their solution is to rein in the criminal Chinese. Overwhelmingly, the answer from all sources was we need to negotiate better. Yeah, right.
The result during the first Trump term was inflation was extremely low. It was at 1.4% when Biden took over with his economic wrecking ball. The tariffs were maintained by the Biden team because they liked the revenue. We survived.
Trump has once again stepped into it. He has thrown out an idea which shocked the world. Let’s move the Palestinians out of Gaza and have the Americans supervise the rebuilding of the place. The proposal had just about everyone throwing up their arms talking about how the plan was unworkable. My answer to them is what is your solution?
I proposed a solution a while back. I looked at it and stated the two-state solution was downright stupid. The Bush Administration had made a proposal to have a dedicated transit way through Israel between Gaza and the West Bank. This was the proposed method to unite the two land masses into one country.
I suggested a three-state solution. The land masses where the so-called Palestinian people live have distinctly different governments and have an ever growing distance between the populations. My proposal was Gaza and the West Bank should be two separate countries. That was about fifteen years ago and matters only got worse particularly after the Gazans having their own country for 18 years decided their best plan was to attack Israel, kill 1,200 non-combatant people in Israel on October 7, 2023, and take hostage 251 people.
Trump proposed a novel idea and all hell breaks loose. You see, the administrative state thinks that the only way to present an idea is to put it through the committee meat grinder then discuss it to death, water it down and end up doing nothing. That is not Trump’s style. He prefers to challenge people with out-of-the-box concepts and have them react publicly.
The power structure immediately reacted negatively because they had not had a chance to trivialize the idea and stomp it into the ground. What do you mean not consulting us?
There are stumbling blocks to his idea. My sources say 70 to 80% of Gaza is rubble. The people live in tents or under sheets. The biggest challenge is where to move them. The Arab world talks big about protecting the “Palestinian people” but don’t want any part of them. Jordan and Egypt could have their leadership toppled if they took them in even if they were put in the Sinai desert. You don’t see Qatar stepping up even though they are happy to play power broker while harboring Hamas’ leadership and their stolen millions (billions) of dollars. Most of the rest of the Arab world remains a mess – Syria, Yemen, Iran, Lebanon and Iraq.
The way to rebuild Gaza is to clear it out, demolish the remaining tunnel structure, (an estimated 30% of the original amount, and then rebuild the electric grid, the water supply, the educational system, and the housing/commercial areas. Make it livable for humans. Humans who are not educated to destroy their neighbors.
Eighty percent of Gazans support Hamas. The status quo cannot stand. The Palestinian Authority is dysfunctional and run by an octogenarian. The Gazans have had multiple chances to have their own operation and have either turned down the offer or blown it to bits.
As the United Arab Emirates ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, stated the Trump position is “difficult.” He continued, “We’re all in a solution-seeking business, we just don’t know where it’s going to land yet. I don’t see an alternative to what’s being proposed. I really don’t.”
As Trump has said, “What do you have to lose.”
