Donald Trump famously wrote one of the best selling business books of all time, "The Art of the Deal," and yet critics still doubt his negotiation skills at every turn. The latest example is Trump's threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which were set to take effect this week following an order Trump signed at the White House on Friday. That led to a weekend of media pundits and Democrats complaining about the impact the tariffs would have on the economy, warning about an all-out trade war between the North American countries, and even predicting the tariffs would raise the cost of Super Bowl parties.
The only problem with all of this hysteria is the tariffs didn't happen. Both Mexico and Canada reached separate agreements with Trump on Monday that put the tariffs on hold for at least 30 days. The deals each came hours before the midnight deadline for the tariffs to take effect.
The art of the deal wins again. But foreign leaders and, more surprisingly, American media and politicians, still don't seem to get it. John Carney, Breitbart News economics editor, explained on the Alex Marlow Show that everyone should know by now that Trump means business when it comes to negotiations. "He's not bluffing," said Carney. "Somebody said what if they call his bluff? I pointed out you can call somebody's hand, but if they're not bluffing you didn't call their bluff, you just lost the bet. And that's what seems to have happened here...they may have thought that Donald Trump was bluffing."
Even now, Trump still is not taking tariffs off the table, just delaying them for 30 days for further negotiations with these countries. So far, the strategy is working. "People will test you," said Carney. "We use to call this the bazooka theory...people said if you carry around a bazooka, you'll never have to fire it because everybody will be so afraid of the bazooka. Eventually, you've got to fire the bazooka...you've got to show them that it's loaded."
"And Donald Trump is showing them that the bazooka is loaded."
Photo: Getty Images North America