At 9.37 a.m. Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!!! DJT". Less than four hours later, Trump announced a 90-day pause on nearly all his tariffs. Stocks soared on the news, closing up 9.5% by the end of trading. The market, measured by the S&P 500, gained back about $4 trillion, or 70%, of the value it had lost over the previous four trading days. Insider trading by another name? I'd love to know what share trading went on inside the Trump camp during the last few days!
Now here's the sinister part of all this tariff whiplash: Trump imposed the tariffs as an emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, which gives him the power to bypass Congress for an emergency "originating outside the United States". The "emergency" that allowed him to up-end the global trading system and end eighty years of US-led stability is merely the existence of trade deficits, which his executive order says indicates "a lack of reciprocity in our bilateral trade relationships, disparate tariff rates and non-tariff barriers, and US trading partners' economic policies that suppress domestic wages and consumption". If that's an emergency, anything is.
The Emergency Act gives the US president extraordinary powers. If he declares a national emergency, it gives him control over communications and information, including seizure or control of communications infrastructure, radio, wire services, and probably the internet itself. He could also control transportation and infrastructure for national defence purposes and tap into funds set aside for disaster relief or military construction. He could restrict civil liberties, such as movement or gatherings and call up the national guard or military reserves, and use the military within America in support roles. It seems only a matter of time before Trump uses a crisis and the National Emergencies Act to bring about a revolution in the United States.
Leading up to his third election, Trump told Americans repeatedly what he was going to do, but he always did it in a way that seemed too theatrical to be real, or scary. It's usually said that Trump's grandiose pronouncements should be taken seriously, but not literally, that it's just the extravagant rhetoric of a showman who can't help himself. But what if he should be taken literally?
