Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

In the runup to the 2016 presidential election, one of the things Donald Trump repeatedly railed against was the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

It was awful. Horrendous. The worst-ever.

Also, NAFTA was signed by Crooked Hillary’s husband, so that may have had something to do with it.

Trump assured everyone that when he made it to the Oval Office he would create a better deal. A fantastic deal. A deal the likes of which no one ever, in the history of mankind, had ever witnessed.

He negotiated the USMCA, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

There was a clue in the name that has been overlooked.

The North American trade bloc was a wonder of the world, economically speaking. By facilitating the movement of goods across the borders, there were levels of availability and efficiency the likes of which no one ever, in the history of mankind, had ever witnessed.

Still, it was a bad, bad deal, Trump told us. He’d do better. Much, much better.

In the new deal Trump, the man who brought back a phrase from 1940, “America First,” insisted that the name of the treaty put the United States first. 

Forget “North America.” It is literally “America First.”

Suddenly there was a fracture in what had been somewhat seamless.

So here’s a question for all those who think Donald Trump is a businessman par excellence: If he is the Best Dealmaker of All Time, why is a deal he made and that went into effect in July 2020 a bad deal, at least so far as Donald Trump is concerned?

Trump is applying the tariffs to goods coming into the US from Canada and Mexico because of a trumped-up “national emergency.”

The claim is that there are fentanyl and illegal aliens pouring over the borders.

So the US is ignoring a trade agreement crafted under Donald Trump. It is simply applying 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico.

That’ll show ‘em!

According to Trump, this will also have the effect of bringing in all manner of revenues into the coffers of the government.

What he doesn’t say is that those revenues are going to come out of the pockets of Americans who buy everything from avocados to Chevy Silverado pickup trucks.

Americans will be First when it comes to paying for the breaking of the seamless trade between the three countries.

Remember when Trump claimed that he was going to lower prices for consumers, something that the criminal Biden organization was incapable of doing?

According to the Yale Budget Lab, (including the 10% increase in China tariffs) the prices of imported natural gas will increase 9.8% (did any one mention that it is winter in the US?), motor and vehicles and parts by 6.9% (analysis from Kelley Blue Book has it: “New-vehicle prices increased for the fourth straight month in December and, at $49,740, were near the all-time record set in December 2022” — yes, let’s increase that!), electricity by 4.7% (this might trouble Elon a bit), cereal grains by 4.2% (eggs are still increasing in price; now cereal). . .and on it goes.

According to the non-profit Tax Foundation, which was founded in 1937 by a group of corporate executives from the likes of General Motors and Standard Oil, so certainly not some sort of left-wing group, the consequences of the tariffs on Canada and Mexico amounts “to an average tax increase of more than $670 per US household in 2025.”

In addition to which, the tariffs will have the effect of reducing full-time employment of 286,000 US jobs because of the alleged “national emergency” that Canada and Mexico represent for the U.S.

Donald Trump is going to raise prices for Americans. His actions will increase inflation. Gas prices will go up. Food prices, up. Want to build a new garage? You might want to skip it because the wood will be more expensive, as will the car that goes in it. And on it goes.

This is a deal for the American people?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large.

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