The TACO trade isn’t a new restaurant. It stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” The acronym is Wall Street’s response to his on-again-off-again tariffs.
John Bolton thinks it also explains Putin’s response to the president’s threats of sanctions. “If you’re the Kremlin watching the TACO trade at work, you’re not going to be intimidated by Trump’s threats,” he told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins on Monday.
Putin isn’t worried about Congress taking action either. Sen. Dan Sullivan can make believe the bipartisan sanctions bill he cosponsored two months ago put “Putin on notice.” But the Russian dictator has watched him and his Republican colleagues bow to their master’s every wish for the past eight years.
The bill has garnered support from 80 cosponsors. But no other action has been taken. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) explained why.
“If the White House concludes that tougher sanctions are in order,” he said on Monday, “we’re here for it. We’ve got a bill ready to go that has an overwhelming bipartisan majority of senators on it.
But they don’t need Trump’s blessing to vote on the bill. Just as former President Joe Biden didn’t need them to pass one. He imposed sanctions himself a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine. And added more two years later.
The other difference is whereas Biden never trusted Putin, Trump has long bragged that their “very good relationship” would help him quickly bring the war to an end.
Three months ago when Trump berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in front of the entire world, he proclaimed the Russians “respect me.” Then referring to a U.S.-proposed 30-day cease fire, he added Putin “wants to make a deal.”
Two weeks later, Ukraine accepted the terms of the ceasefire. But Putin never did.
By the end April, Trump wondered if Putin “doesn’t want to stop the war” and was “just tapping me along.”
On May 8, he said if Putin wouldn’t sign and respect the ceasefire “the U.S. and its partners will impose further sanctions.”
Then he flipped back to trusting Putin. He supported his proposal for Russia and Ukraine to hold direct talks in Turkey. When Zelensky indicated he was willing to meet with Putin there, Trump mused about joining them.
After he decided not to go, he made excuses for Putin not attending. “Why would he go if I’m not going,” he said to reporters. Two days later he explained “nothing’s going to happen until Putin and I get together.”
The next day he talked about them meeting “as soon as we can set it up” and added “I think we’ll solve it.”
After a two-hour phone conservation on May 19 which Trump referred to as “excellent,” he announced “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War.”
Instead, on May 23, Russia commenced its biggest aerial attack of the war.
Trump said nothing for two days. Then acted surprised.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia,” he wrote in a long, whiny post, “but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!”
The Wall Street Journal editorial board knows Putin hasn’t changed. “Trump may be the only person in the world still surprised by how Mr. Putin is behaving,” they wrote.
Charlie Sykes went straight for the jugular. He called Trump’s rant “an astonishing confession of cluelessness.”
Congressional Republicans knew Putin was an ”increasingly isolated and dangerous” dictator “driven by historical grievances,” which is how Sullivan described him after he invaded Ukraine. Which means they weren’t clueless about Trump’s cluelessness. But they let Putin play him like a fiddle anyway.
They’ve taken the same approach to what the Wall Street Journal dubbed “the dumbest trade war in history.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade unanimously ruled the tariffs Trump imposed under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act exceeded his authority. They stated the obvious. “Congress should not have to enact new statutes to enforce the statutory constraints it has already enacted.”
On both issues, Sullivan and his republican colleagues have the power to prevent Trump from causing further harm to the nation’s interests. But to use it, they’ll have to stop acting like slaves to the whims of an ignorant narcissist.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.
