What good is he doing? Are you kidding me? Economically he has so far done nothing whatsoever for the miner, farmer, construction worker nor middle class guy, other than harming them. He increased the wealth gap that is all he has done so far. And wasted another trillion on a military America really does not need. Europe does not need a military to get its trade deals done and import and export from/to the world. And please don't come with then ridiculous argument that America is paying for Europe's defense. It is not. You are disillusioned, not the other side. You are kissing the arse of the guy who tells everyone what a great deal maker he is. Almost every deal he proposed in 2 years has fallen through so far. Want me to list all the deals he fucked up? Here a few starters for you: TPP, told Britain it can get lost and that it does not get a deal with the US, no progress on China at all so far, Muslim ban, dismantling of Obama Care, border wall, trickle down economics lies, no deal with Taiwan, no dela with Japan, no deal with Philippines (in fact US military got its ass handed and was told to leave),no infrastructure deal, .. .and the list goes on and on...
How aout we start with the fact that each day of government shut down costs around a billion in order for him to continue to hold everyone hostage to get his 2-3 billion for a wall that was never and will never be a wall but at best a fence and even that is total nonsense given the tunnels and other means to circumvent a fence. Smart politicians rightly ask for better technology to be utilized at the border rather than a useless fence. What Trump is doing is costing a nation a fortune just so he can appease his redneck fan base. Has nothing whatsoever to do with smart economic or security strategy.
Are there any objective criteria by which we can measure his success/failure that don't include a particular view on politics?
Sure, but not here in the economics forums. Please get back to the politics forums if you want to discuss Donald Trump. This is not the right place PS All deals he messed up are not originating from a partisan mindset but simply a recount of the truth and actual events. So, I am not sure what is political about it. Economics is not political, if you want to disagree with people on opinions and feelings and be among your fan base then I can only recommend to check out of economics and back into politics where you apparently feel very comfortable
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To summarize again, have you read a single word of the NAFTA or it's replacement USMCA? Have you ever read the actual text of any trade agreement? Have you ever run a U.S. company which engages in U.S. trade? Or did you form your opinion based on what you heard from friends and Fox/Breitbart/The Daily Caller? Trump has imposed tariffs on over $300B in goods (https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-do-we-have-tariffs-trump-asks-heres-a-list-1540416617) and that has resulted in counter tariffs that have had beneficial effects like, for example, the U.S. exporting no/zero/not a single one soybeans to China in November while in 2017 we sold over $12B in soybeans to China. That objective enough for you? You have any objective facts to share of your own, you've so far presented absolutely zero? Let's summarize here. You threw out an absurd statement that Trump is a free trade supporter against tariffs and that anyone who opposes him is simply responding to an anti-Trump meme, you know nothing about international trade and have zero experience in it, you accuse those of us who do have that experience and expertise of being morons who are just responding to memes, and then have the audacity to demand that we provide proof to you of the obvious when you provide none? Are you fucking kidding me!?
I'm well aware of these. I posted a video showing a reason why the tariffs are important, yet no one seems to have taken the bait. Very shallow thinking.
And that is the problem, noob. You are just here to bait people. When they don't take the hook you get all riled up and accuse people while you yourself don't provide any factual evidence nor do you want to consider any such. Several people made plenty of fact based points which you all chose to ignore. Why would anyone take you seriously going forward?