Ugh. Where to start? Let’s start with the 50% tariffs on Brazil.
Recall that Trump just won in court with his claim that there’s an emergency caused by trade imbalances and that that emergency justifies the president (in this case, himself) in imposing a revenue measure unilaterally, rather than going through Congress. In fact—I almost wrote “in actual fact”—the US has a trade surplus of several billion dollars with Brazil. So what’s the “emergency” these tariffs are addressing? The emergency is not the one he claimed when he went to court and won. This emergency is that Brazil is prosecuting someone that Trump doesn’t think should be prosecuted. MoA writes:
Trump claims that there is a 'very unfair trade relationship engineered by Brazil' which has led to 'unsustainable trade deficits against the United States'. But as the NY Timesnotes (archived) correctly:
For years, the United States has generally maintained a trade surplus with Brazil. The two countries had about $92 billion in trade together last year, with the United States enjoying a $7.4 billion surplus in the relationship. The top products traded are aircraft, oil, machinery and iron.
Brazil will of course have nothing of it:
A few hours later, Mr. Lula said that Brazil would reciprocate against the tariffs. “Brazil is a sovereign country with independent institutions that will not accept being abused by anyone,” he said in a statement.
He added that the case against Mr. Bolsonaro “is the sole responsibility of the Brazilian Judiciary.”
That Brazil will reciprocate is good for Airbus and bad for Boeing.
Does that seem like good foreign policy to you? Because it sure doesn’t to me. It doesn’t look like smart business, either. Outside of the total lack of respect for a major world country, what does this accomplish? Just as bad or worse, this looks kinda like Trump thinks it’s totally OK to game our own judicial system. Including lying.
Meanwhile, China has adopted a different approach in its relations with resource rich Brazil:
If the plan is to create a "Fortress America"/Monroe Doctrine economic bloc, someone should probably tell Trump that Brazil is in South America/on our team.
Because other than that, the most plausible explanation for this is that Brazil already went with China & Russia.
It's an implicit admission by Trump that they have lost the Western hemisphere: if you treat the largest other country in your own hemisphere like a hostile adversary, by definition it implies that you believe that the traditional "Monroe doctrine" US-led hemispheric order has already collapsed.
Trump has also announced another 50% tariff—this time on copper. There’s plenty of copper in the US, but … has he thought this through?
Will Schryver @imetatronink
18h
Factum: At the bare minimum, it takes at least a decade to advance a high-grade copper deposit from proven to producing.
China produces more copper than the US, and the three largest exporters of copper (Chile, DRC, and Peru) send most of their production to China.
The top exporters of copper to the US are Chile (37% of our imports), Mexico, and Canada. Chile dominates, but all three can probably quickly find other markets if the US screws around with them. MoA notes:
The U.S imports some 50% of the copper it needs. The tariffs will increase the profits of U.S. copper producers which will naturally increase their prices. They may help, over time, to develop new U.S. copper mines but products from those are decades away.
The increased price for copper will not only hit U.S. consumers but it will also increase the cost of industrial products, like transformers and motors, the U.S. is trying to export. The tariffs thus won't help with trade deficits.
COMEX #copper futures jumps to a 40% YTD gain after Trump called for a 50% tariff on imports. The premium paid for front month copper futures in New York now stands 25% above 3-month London benchmark, and with imports in the first six months equalling almost a full year of imports, the prospect of a further short-term price increase might not be achieved, given the overhang of supply.
…
How about cans? MoA cites this report:
Heritage canned‑food maker Del Monte Foods has filed for Chapter 11 protection, citing credit pressures and “stunning increases” in packaging costs, driven in large part by President Donald Trump’s decision in early June to double U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminium to a whopping 50 per cent….
Industry sources highlight that aluminium foil and can suppliers already faced a roughly 6% jump in material costs following the tariff increase, with projections of a 24% hike in can pricing by spring 2026. The Can Manufacturers Institute warned these tariffs distort domestic packaging supply and could push U.S. food prices higher.
Japan got a tariff letter, too, and the Japanese don’t sound amused.
Japan's first National Security Advisor Yachi Shotaro told Nikkei that Japanese people must change their mindset and move on from the asymmetric Japan-U.S. alliance toward a more autonomous state in which Japan can make its own decisions.
由仁アリン Arin Yuni @Arin_Yumi
BREAKING: Ishiba says that Japan "should make more efforts to become independent from the United States" in response to Trump tariffs
Remember when Trump said we’d get tired of “winning”? I’m developing an uneasy feeling.
OK, just when you think the Jewish Nationalist Lobby’s demands couldn’t disgrace America further:
Trita Parsi @tparsi
The man below is the founder of Al Qaeda in Syria. The US just took his organization off its terror list and lifted sanctions on him.
The woman below is the UN rapporteur on Israel and Palestine. The US is about to impose sanctions on her.
Let that sink in.
1:17 PM · Jul 9, 2025
Our closest ally—at least our closest ally that doesn’t have a treaty of alliance with us:
Megatron @Megatron_ron
BREAKING: Jewish settlers attack Taibeh, West Bank's only entirely Christian village - Vatican News.
Israelis set fire to St. George's Church and the Christian Cemetery.
John Mearsheimer’s closing comments to Judge Nap today—he’s referring to the Brazil tariffs, but I don’t doubt that he’s also thinking about Trump telling the Iranians there’d be no sneak attack during negotiations, and then …:
laws are of enormous importance for making a country function in a coherent and just way. It's the reason we have laws. It's why we talk about the rule of law. But what we have here is a lawless president. And this is terrible for the country at large. Forget the foreign policy issue per se. Forget the terrorists per se. This is just terrible what's going on where we have this character in the White House who just thinks he can lie, who thinks he can uh just pay no attention to the law, who thinks he can invent facts and so forth and so on. And we are paying a serious price for this.
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The Jewish destruction of the remaining Christian communities in the Middle East should wake up the Christian world to the threat posed by Jewish Zionism. We were told several years ago by, of all people, the recently deceased David Horowitz. He wrote Zionism was coming to destroy Christianity and these people are the most ruthless inhumane people who will wage total destruction.
"But what we have here is a lawless president. And this is terrible for the country at large. Forget the foreign policy issue per se. Forget the terrorists per se. This is just terrible what's going on where we have this character in the White House who just thinks he can lie, who thinks he can uh just pay no attention to the law, who thinks he can invent facts and so forth and so on. And we are paying a serious price for this."
This can also be said about Biden, Obama and most Republican and Democrat politicians. The press, too.
The Jewish destruction of the remaining Christian communities in the Middle East should wake up the Christian world to the threat posed by Jewish Zionism. We were told several years ago by, of all people, the recently deceased David Horowitz. He wrote Zionism was coming to destroy Christianity and these people are the most ruthless inhumane people who will wage total destruction.
"But what we have here is a lawless president. And this is terrible for the country at large. Forget the foreign policy issue per se. Forget the terrorists per se. This is just terrible what's going on where we have this character in the White House who just thinks he can lie, who thinks he can uh just pay no attention to the law, who thinks he can invent facts and so forth and so on. And we are paying a serious price for this."
This can also be said about Biden, Obama and most Republican and Democrat politicians. The press, too.