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EA on TVP World: Trump-Europe, Tariffs, and Ukraine

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Trump’s Chaos — Epstein, Australia-UK, Federal Reserve, and Tariffs

UPDATE, JULY 30:

In an interview with Courthouse News’s Cain Burdeau for an article on the Trump-EU framework, I expand my analysis:

It’s a bad framework, but it’s the best framework the EU can get in bad circumstances.

Trump operates an extortion racket. Sometimes when you deal with an extortion racket, you got to give some ground….The EU has played for time, it’s accepted that it has to take some damage economically.

Sometimes you have to pay a bit of protection money in the short term while you find your security elsewhere.

I explain how, in the longer term, that security may come through new economic relationships.

Companies are realigning because they know they might have to deal with the US being a damaging force economically.

You have to find partnerships elsewhere. That’s what the EU is going to be doing.

ORIGINAL ENTRY, JULY 28: I joined Times Radio’s Trump Report on Monday for a 27-minute deep dive into Donald Trump’s tariffs framework with the European Union and the ongoing scandal over Jeffrey Epstein.

I walk host Fergus Macphee through the details of what terms have been announced and what is under negotiation. I emphasize that the framework could still be undone by Trump’s temper, chaos, and propensity for extortion as well as his economic illiteracy.

Beyond the spin, this is not a victory for anyone. I’ll repeat what I have said for months: nobody wins in a tariff contest.

The first people who lose out on this are Americans not Europeans. Trump does not realize that tariffs are not “free money”. They are a tax — a tax on his constituents.

I explain why the EU agreed to a “lose-lose” framework despite the damage it causes to all parties, playing for time as they avoided Trump’s 30% tariffs threat.

  • Because those who will suffer most are Americans — importers, consumers, and manufacturers — the EU is calculating that the economic consequences may push the Trump Administration to ease the tariffs;
  • There is a positive silver living in security-related terms, with purchase of US military equipment and energy supplies, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine;
  • And the EU, like many countries and blocs, will be seeking realigned trade relationships and agreements with other parts of the world.

I also address the relationship between the framework and Trump’s problems over the late Jeffrey Epstein: any short-term claim of “victory” will quickly be overtaken by the ongoing demands of his supporters for the sex abuser’s files.