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Corruption and incompetence continue to exist. I don’t know about you, but this is exactly what I thought the results of another Trump presidency would look like. I didn’t expect him to get a 400-million-dollar plane that will look like a brothel from the chief financiers of Hamas, but I did know it would always be about Trump first and America last. Whether it is about his crypto scheme or his wanting to turn Gaza into a resort, it is all about Trump and never about America.  

Trump has now paused his 145 percent tariffs against China and has left just a 30 percent tariff in place. It is, of course, being spun as some sort of victory by Trump that we all should thank him for. I will ask this question: Is there ever a winner in a trade war? Negotiations need to be a win-win for everyone. The Republicans can paint this like a win if they want to, but through this whole process, it is the United States that has failed to look like anything but a bully on the world stage.  I still see inflation on the way, and I still see the income gap increasing. I see more troubles ahead for many of our small businesses that are dependent on raw materials they get overseas. Negotiating a trade deal used to be called a partnership because everyone benefited from the arrangement. Partnerships are supposed to make everyone stronger. No winner and no loser.

I don’t see manufacturing plants being built all over the place. If there were, we would be seeing Trump and all of these groundbreaking ceremonies everywhere. Most of the plans I have seen are from foreign companies like Hyundai and Honda, expanding existing plants and not building new plants as Trump claims. I would also add that these companies are foreign companies whose profits will not stay in this country. It will just mean a foreign company now owns and controls a piece of the economy. Is that what we want? More of corporate America owned by foreign interests? As far as China is concerned, do we want them to build plants here in America? They already have a huge footprint here. Smithfield Foods is already owned by the Chinese  WH Group – formerly Shuanghui International. Haier Group, a Chinese appliance maker, acquired GE Appliance in 2016. The manufacturing so far has remained in the United States, but its control has shifted overseas. Another one is Motorola, which helped launch the mobile phone revolution was bought by Lenovo, China’s largest PC maker. The deal handed the Chinese decades of innovation that had been rooted in the U.S. and helped fast-track them into the smartphone race. The Chinese also own the historic Waldorf Astoria, which was once the symbol of American luxury. If you search, you will see that there is Chinese money behind many American businesses, from Tesla to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I get so confused. How are we supposed to support American businesses when we don’t even know what is an American business? I watched a Jeep commercial, and they are trying to make it sound like it is a patriotic thing to own the Iconic American Jeep. If you look hard at Jeep, you will see that it has 10 plants in six different countries. Most but not all the Jeeps are assembled here, and many of the foreign plants make transmission and powertrain components. Jeep is part of Stellantis N.V., a multinational automaker headquartered in Hoofddorp, Netherlands. So, you buy a product that is supposedly made in America, but the profits from the sale go overseas. It is almost mind-boggling when it comes to trade and what is an import and what is an export, and who profits from it. What doesn’t confuse me is that tariffs are going to make things more expensive, but I also think that with America for sale, everything is going to be more expensive.

I feel with every foreign dollar that is invested in America, we lose a little bit of our country. With every foreign plant that is built here in America, we lose a little more control of our own economy. The best solution is to develop new businesses and new technologies, instead of chasing old businesses based on old technologies.  I have written that a green economy is the economy of the future, and I still feel that it is true. Being progressive in business will always lead to progress as a nation.

 

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