After the defeat of Poland by the German military on September 27, 1939 an prolonged 8 month period of relative inactivity on the European front which was appropriately named the phoney war or “Sitzkrieg.”
The grand declaration of “Liberation Day” on April 2, 2025 was supposed to be the implementation of a new United States trade policy to bring fairness in all economic transactions between nations doing business with America.
Instead, Mr. Bond Market sent a strong reminder to President Trump that if one puts their fingers over the fire, one might get burned. Ever since that time the entire trade negotiations conducted in the public eye at least has been nothing more than bluster at best, bluff in reality.
The propaganda campaign began with bold statements like this guy, who is actually under consideration to become Chairman of the Federal Reserve, claiming there were nations clamoring to negotiate with the United States:
"More than 50 countries have reached out to the president to begin a negotiation," says National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 6, 2025
"They're doing that because they understand that they bear a lot of the tariff." pic.twitter.com/3r19WKFqL2
So the big production on the White House lawn resulted in a massive market crash, credit scare, and clever comments like Secretary of Commerce Lutnick issued shortly thereafter:
Shortly thereafter the great “TACO” trade began on Wall Street as Trump Always Chickens Out became the mantra. But what happened to all the great demand for negotiations?
The propaganda insanity accelerated on April 11th when the patently false statement that President Xi of China called Trump to negotiate a deal hit the wires. The reality hit hard but no one cared.
First, the real fear of capital flight hit the markets. The Financial Times highlighted this in their story on the trade war from April 12th:
In the end, it resulted in Trump suspending the new tariffs for 90 days until yesterday. In the mean time this is all the world heard about “trade deals” summed up via news stories, Trump postings on Truth Social and via X:
As of July 10, 2025 at 12:00, there are zero official trade deals signed with the United States.
If there are so “many world leaders” and Trump is such a great negotiator, where are all the deals?
Meanwhile, one day after that posting from the President, China sent a warning shot across the bow(via Reuters):
China warns countries against striking trade deals with US at its expense
This lead to a counter announcement in the news which turned out to be just more bluster on April 21st as China warned the US (via CNBC):
India’s Modi and U.S. Vice President Vance optimistic on New Delhi-Washington trade deal
Reuters turns around and reports this story from the Trump administration on April 25th:
Unfortunately for Trump and the Wall Street Propaganda Brigade, this story was not true.
Three short weeks later, the insanity from President Trump himself continues with comments like this one:
I’m still looking online and at my globe for those 5 new countries that did not exist before this statement.
Just ten days later in order to prevent the US equity and bond markets from crashing further the following announcement splashed all over the news and hit Wall Street to save the day:
For people who actually wait to hear both sides of such a statement and have learned after the first go round with the Trump crowd, the reality hit pretty quick despite a massive market rally.
This did not matter nor did more nonsense which originated from the administration in the weeks that followed.
Ugh, no, he did not.
Then Trump started attacking American companies that could not afford to relocate all of their manufacturing to the US as Apple found out fast enough when this story broke via CNBC on May 15th.
May 17th it got worse:
Just six days later, after abandoning the China bluff, he opened up the European front:
That lasted a few days when this next proclamation hit the airwaves and social media via Truth Social:
As of that date, no nation has made an official trade deal or signed any long term treaty with the US.
On May 29th, the courts finally ruled on Trump’s use of IEEPA for many of these tariffs and his reaction was Ackmanish:
Naturally an appeals court stayed the order pending appeal so this rant was all for show to the 200 nations seeking trading agreements with the US.
Just one day later, another nation decided to call Trump’s bluffs:
This continued on and and on for weeks to follow.
US Treasury Secretary Bessent continued to make outlandish and somewhat extreme statements which did not help the situation with China in the least.
On the same day Lutnick followed up with this classic:
The absurdity just never seemed to end. Even White House economic advisor Hassent jumped back into the mix for the sole purpose of keeping the equity rally going.
In fact just two days later the President basically decided to rekindle his bizarre hatred of Canada, one of our largest trading partners, in this posting:
Does this look like a rational way to talk to our neighbors?
After the end of the July 4th holiday, the July 7th form letters were issues, horrible grammar and all, to nations and continued through the past few days. This after an “extension” to all nations to get their houses in order and submit to US demands by August 1st was issued by the President.
Yesterday it concluded with a massive 50% political retaliation tariff against the nation of Brazil, which just so happens to have a trade deficit with the United States, not a surplus. The entire list below just sums up the illogical selection of nations to receive increased tariffs based on a flawed math formula.
One of the nations hit with a sizeable tariff was Libya. It was tagged with a 30% tariff primarily due to its oil exports to the US. Why is this laughable as an example? It is in the midst of a major civil war where basically several GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) nations and the EU are at war with Russian and Egyptian backed former Libyan military.
So what’s the point if there is no actual functional government?
Why go to all of the trouble to document this giant cluster of stupidity is probably what my poor reader is asking by now. If one doesn’t pay attention to what has been happening over the past two years where mainstream and social media erases the statements of our leaders, one will simply assume it never happened.
This entire trade war has been executed about as incompetently as anyone could have had in their worst imagination. Unfortunately this means that trust is eroding even faster with our administration, American companies, and our government’s ability to fulfill its promises.
Hence, look for the Sitzkreig to continue. At least until someone gets active on his minor league social media website or drops an obscenity about one of our trading partners at the next White House press conference.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
