Has Trump been played by Ursula? From Simplicius at simplicius76.substack.com:
Trump made waves this week with his major economic subjugation of Europe on the announcement of his 15% tariffs, made before a stooped and servile Ursula von der Leyen. But as with everything which pours forth from the Trump administration’s victory fountain there are finer nuances worth a closer examination.
Hat tip to resident analyst William Schryver for alerting us to the recent piece by a fellow Substacker who devised a compelling argument for why Trump’s major ‘EU coup’ may have in fact been nothing more than another oversold goose egg:
3 days ago · 145 likes · Warwick Powell
Full disclosure: there are many ways to think about this, and many who disagree with this particular angle—but it’s worth a consideration nonetheless. The fact that we even have to argue whether such “massive boons” are having any restorative effect on the US, I suppose, is a bad sign in and of itself: constant trumpeting of astronomical figures—hundreds of billions saved by DOGE here! Another twelve-figure batch pocketed by tariffs there!—never quite directly translates into anything tangible. Of course, it’s all yet young and we must allow more time for such things to structurally percolate, but the years of hollow victory bells have exhausted all of us.
If we tell ourselves real hard that 1945-1973 is back that will make it so?
Sad trombone (honk, honk)