TRUMP MIGHT KEEP TRYING TO "GET TOUGH" WITH TARIFFS -- BUT NOT WITH TROOPS

I went to Free Republic and Breitbart to find out how President Trump's proposed tariffs on Mexico are going over with the right-wing rank-and-file. I didn't expect much criticism of Trump and I didn't find much -- but I thought the reaction might be along the lines of "These are the sacrifices we need to make to show the bastards we mean business." Instead, the commenters seem to assume that what Trump is doing will cause pain only for the other guys, not for us, and it would be great to inflict even more pain, none of which could possibly have any bad repercussions for us. Here are few typical comments:

Put the tariff money into electrifying the Wall or doubling its height and depth.

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Put a tariff on the illegal alien roaches too, watch how fast the Dems send them back, after they vote Dem of course

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I’d love to see him implement my immigration plan....

1. Stop all foreign aid to Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala. Stop the money, you have their attention. Nothing gets a politicians attention quicker than money, or absence of it..

2. Stop all tourist traffic into Mexico on a temporary basis, in the interest of public safety, Americans are in danger south of the border. Stop all border traffic entirely if necessary.

3. Put the military at the border, shoulder to shoulder, from Laredo to the Pacific shore.

4. Impose a 30% fee on all monetary wire transfers to anywhere south of Texas.

5. Tell Mexico to stop illegal immigration AND shut down the drug cartels and we’ll talk about getting their foreign aid back. Oh, and by the way, pay for the wall.

I give it 6 months and you won’t be able to get a mouse across the border without papers. Mexico will probably build the wall for us...

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Put a bounty on illegals, $100.00 a head, to repatriate them back to their country of origin.

If they come back again, put them on a plane and fly them to the most southern part of South America. It worked in the 1950's like a charm.

Bill Clinton said it: “When people are insecure, they’d rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who’s weak and right.” That may not be universally true, but it's obviously true of right-wingers. They like police brutality because they think the alternative is lawlessness. A decade and a half ago, the backed a stupid war in Iraq because it seemed preferable to sanctions, inspections, and vigilance.

Trump understands that show sof strength play well with his base. So does that mean we should expect him to start a war, especially as the 2020 election approaches?

Maybe not. Remember the top story in America 24 hours ago: that Trump aides had ordered the U.S.S. John S. McCain to make itself scarce during the president's visit to Japan. What does that tell you about Trump?

I think it tells you that Trump will always be reluctant to start a shooting war -- not because he wisely believes that military force should be a last resort for American foreign policy, but because he can't bear to be upstaged by anyone who's shown bravery in combat.

Trump wants to be the tough guy, so he'll keep trying to build the wall and he'll keep imposing tariffs -- tariffs are part of business, and even though Trump doesn't understand how they work, he's perceived, for some reason, as the toughest guy in the business world.

But if he starts a war, he may be afraid that he won't be perceived as the toughest guy. The dead and wounded will seem tougher. They'll upstage him. Nothing pains Trump more than being upstaged.

Trump might overcome this -- it's also easy to imagine him plunging us into a suicidally absurd military conflict. But this might be how he really thinks. If so, he'll continue to be strong and wrong on trade and immigration, while shying away from war because other people will seem like the tough guys.