By Michael Woyton
As he is wont to do, on Wednesday, President Donald J. Felon hyped a “major” trade deal with an amazing country, making it sound as if all the Ts were crossed and the Is dotted.
Then the “deal” was announced.
It was between the United States and the United Kingdom, but it was “more of a concept of a deal,” according to an analysis from CNN.
Subscribe to On Second Thought for free:
“If a trade deal is, like, Michelangelo’s David, this is more like a block of marble,” Allison Morrow wrote. “Or really it’s like a receipt from the marble guy that says we’ve placed an order for a block of marble.”
Ouch.
Basically, the deal was that the U.S. tax on British imports would go from 10 percent, which was announced April 2, all the way to … 10 percent. Talk about The Art of the Deal.
There are carve-outs, CNN said, on really expensive British cars, like Bentleys, Land Rovers, Rolls-Royces and Jaguars, and British plane parts can now come to the U.S. tariff-free.
Also, the tax on steel and aluminum is gone, there will be a tariff-free exports on beef and other agricultural products.
That’s it so far, with both countries offering limited details on the “deal,” BBC reports, adding it’s all still being worked out.
“But anyone hoping the White House will either significantly roll back its tariffs — or win major concessions abroad — seems bound for disappointment,” BBC’s Natalie Sherman said.
So maybe it’s better that the underwhelming overhyped trade “deal” was sidelined by a little bit of news Thursday morning when white smoke appeared above the Sistine Chapel.
Speaking of Michelangelo, BTW.
The Conclave — no, not the Ralph Fiennes movie — chose The New Pope — no, not the HBO series starring Jude Law and John Malkovich — Thursday morning Eastern Daylight Time.
And it’s an American from Chicago, Cardinal Robert Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV, USA Today reported.
While it’s too early to know what policies, if any, the new Bishop of Rome will carry over from the late Francis, we do know that Prevost has posted on the site formerly known as Twitter criticisms of the felon-in-chief and his V.P. Shady Vance.
“In three posts, then-Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago, was critical of Vance’s take on religion, shared an article critiquing Vance’s statements on deportation of migrants and retweeted criticism of Trump and President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele’s response to the deportation of El Salvadorian national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland,” USA Today reported.
Prevost also posted that Vance was wrong about Jesus asking people “to rank our love for others,” which was in response to Vance citing medieval-era Catholic teaching in order to justify the new immigration policy of the second Trump administration.
I think the proper response here is to say, “Ha ha,” as if I were of Nelson from The Simpsons.
— — — — —
I’m sure Fox News host Jeanine Pirro is pedal to the metal getting to Washington, D.C., now that she has been nominated to be the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
I wrote about Pirro during the first administration of the mayor of Mar-a-Lago in 2017 after she was accused of driving 199 mph in a 65 mph zone near the New York-Pennsylvania state line.
She was previously an assistant district attorney for Westchester County in New York, the first woman to be elected a Westchester County Court judge, as well as being elected three times as district attorney in Westchester.
Pirro also ran and lost against Hillary Clinton for U.S. Senate.
The last one to leave Fox News for the adjudicated rapist’s administration should please turn out the lights.
Find and follow me on BlueSky through this link.
Lead art: Screen grab from CNN.
Great post!
LikeLike
Thanks!——-Michael Woyton914-456-9332Sent from my iPad.
LikeLike